Compared with the publishing through traditional press, POD publishing offers the following features:

   Acceptance of material
   Knocking on publishers' doors is the first step by an author wanting to be published, and this action is not usually a pleasant one. Traditional publishers are well-known for their reluctance to publish beginning authors; they want to avoid the risk of stocking a possibly nonsalable title. Moreover, the screening process (reading, content analysis, editing quality check, and evaluation of market potential) can last months. A publisher can repeatedly return the material to its author along with suggestions for changes and revisions, which can extend the screening period to over a year. If the material is finally accepted, the author is offered a contract on the publisher's terms, which the author must accept unconditionally.
   In contrast, the POD publisher will publish any author regardless of his or her background and experience, as long as the proposed material meets standard editorial requirements (see the section titled Author guidelines). Of course, this happens because there is no risk of investing in nonsalable stock, a feature of one-book-at-a-time printing. The screening period is reduced to 1 to 2 weeks on average, and the title goes into production once the finished files are received.

   Costs
   Most traditional publishers carry titles by beginning authors or unknown authors, no matter the quality of the title, only on condition that the authors participate in the production and advertising costs. The author's share of these costs is lower that the publisher's, but still may discourage authors who cannot afford even this amount. For a first print of 1000 copies of a medium-sized book, the author is typically asked to participate with an investment of 2000 to 8000 euros. Such participation is also requested for further print runs, depending on earlier sales, but it can be waived if a title sells very well. 
   For a book published using POD, the author pays the publisher a one-time setup fee for a title as well as a digital catalog fee (see the section titled Fees and compensation). On average, these combined fees can total between 190 and 390 euros (in INFAROM's fee schedule), depending on the technical aspects of the book. In an on-demand printing system, printing costs are paid automatically through the order payment feature of the network. Any other author's expenses are optional and relate only to the marketing the author is willing to perform to grow book sales.
   The POD publisher also has an advantage with respect to costs because there are no big inventories and thus no need to offset warehousing overhead costs.

   Author compensation
   The advantages of POD publishing also exist here. While a traditional publisher gives beginning authors a compensation amounting to between 0 and 9% of the list price, INFAROM pays its authors 65% of the net profit resulting from a book’s sales and retains 35% as the publisher's commission. See the section titled Fees and compensation for a detailed calculation of author compensation. Here is a comparative example:
   For a title with a US$20 list price, having a print cost of US$4, Ingram's discount is 55% x US$20 = US$11, and the publisher’s net profit is US$20 - US$11 - US$4 = US$5. From this amount, 65%, or US$3.25, goes to the author and the remaining US$1.75 goes to the publisher.
   Such a book published through a traditional publisher offering a hypothetical 10% author compensation would generate a mere US$2 in profit for the author. 
   In the POD system, author compensation is higher than publisher's profit.

   Author's name
   Because the POD system takes full advantage of the Internet as a mean of transmission of editorial information, the author's name has greater exposure than a traditional publishing house can offer, regardless of the current sales of a respective title. The only exceptions are the titles published by powerful publishing houses, which may invest huge amounts in advertising a title and its author (dozens and hundreds of thousands dollars). But this does not happen for beginning authors, who now have POD publishing at their disposal to help make their names.

   Print quality
  POD printing technology ensures a high quality finished product—paper, print, cover, and binding. In fact, the quality is superior to most traditional offset printing.

    The disadvantages of POD publishing are the following:
   – The unit price is a bit higher than with traditional printing due to the high-tech machines that print books one at a time. When the printing company lies in another country, this price is higher due to international transport fees.
   – POD encourages publishing as many titles as possible. A POD publisher can publish far more titles annually than a traditional one. This growth benefits final customers and stimulates competition, but distributors' catalogues become more and more crowded with all the new titles; thus, additional marketing is necessary for the publisher and an author to bring a specific title to the attention of the audience and the retailers.
   – Academic POD titles do not receive the same recognition in the scientific community as those published traditionally through well-established specialized publishers, which are given higher prestige.
   These disadvantages have the greatest effect on the last distribution level (the retail level), but can be counteracted by effective marketing. In addition, the expansion in POD publishing is causing authors to migrate from traditional to POD publishing, including well-known authors, and this migration will in the end eliminate these disadvantages.