Printingwatch.com allows printers to market their services for free. Buyers can compare prices and place orders without having to register.

Sajid Hussain, chief executive of the online business, said more than 300 companies from Australia, the US, the UK and Canada had signed up since the service was launched on 1 January.

The 11 Australian firms are 1Print, Australian Trade Printers, Dark Horse Print & Design, Digital Print Australia, Half Price Printing, Martin Print, Pixo Print, PrintaPromo, Printomatic, Red Print and Saltprint.

"The goal of Printingwatch.com is simple – to make it easy for consumers to compare multiple print providers through a single platform," Hussain told ProPrint.

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"[It also makes] it easy for the printing companies, especially small printing companies, to advertise their services for free to a larger audience by… placing their products, service description and feeding prices into our search engine, which will gain them exposure that is not possible by simply putting up a website."

Hussain said Australian traffic for the new service was currently "not very high" but would increase as word spread.

Printingwatch.com has set a target of registering more than 300 Australian printers this year, he added.

Hussain told ProPrint that Printingwatch.com would be most valuable for printers that didn't have websites or whose websites didn't allow online ordering.

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