Printing Choice > Infographics > Battle of the Business Cards

Battle of the Business Cards

There are a ton of online printing companies out there, offering varying deals on business card printing. How do you choose between them all?

  1. by Igor

    Nice overview! As someone who’s ordered from three of those vendors (moo, vistaprint and psprint), I’d like to point out that moo allows you to order 50 different backed cards in a single order, without charging more, a reason why I, as a photog, prefer them.

  2. by Titus-Armand

    brilliance

  3. by PromoGeorge

    Did the online vendors give you card weight choices, print density, etc? Such a big difference in printing for the exact same order! Great infographic!

  4. by Anonymous

    A couple of them do have different card thickness options, but the price goes up. Moo lets you pick between matte laminate and recycled paper (15pt I believe). PSPrint is 14pt or 13pt recycled. Printrunner is the same as PSPrint. Overnightprints is 15pt only. Vistaprint is 80lb cardstock (thinner), and I haven’t seen an upgrade option to go thicker.

  5. by Anonymous

    why thank you :)

  6. by Mitchell

    Have you had any experience with NextDayFlyers and business cards? I’ve used them and just wonder where they would fall in this comparison.

  7. by notnobody

    Thanks for doing this.

  8. by Samantha

    I get my business cards from PrintingHQ.com. They are only $25 for 1000 and ship within 3-5 business days. You should give them a try also.

  9. by James Buckley

    Darn, no comparison to uprinting (my current fav), maybe round 2?

  10. by Cheezbox

    How about some closeups of the actual prints? That’s what most people care about I assume.

  11. by Tastethepain

    For the price comparison is that per 250? Or was OvernightPrints $8.81 for 25 cards?

  12. by Anonymous

    I’ll try them out and stick them in the price finder machine

  13. by Anonymous

    There will definitely be a round 2, and Uprinting will be in it. They’re in the PrintingChoice price search already though: http://www.printingchoice.com/pricesearch/

  14. by Anonymous

    This comparison was for the minimum order you could get. You can compare apples to apples as far as quantity and turnaround here: http://www.printingchoice.com/pricesearch/

  15. by Jedd

    Moo’s cards were oversize (wrong size) but you still rated them number one? That seems a little off. That’s a major mistake that would cause the job to be rejected if it were for a paying client.

  16. by 4g Studios

    how can you rate a company that sent cards in the wrong size as #1 quality? doesn’t make sense. nobody wants cards that don’t fit!

  17. by 4g Studios

    how can you rate a company that sent cards in the wrong size as #1 quality? doesn’t make sense. nobody wants cards that don’t fit!

  18. by Liron Tocker

    They are not the wrong size, they are European card format. Moo is a London-based company.

  19. by CallMeJobs

    Agree with you that the Vistaprint sales process is ridiculous! And quality just isn’t there.

    Thanks for this article. Very helpful to compare!

  20. by Katiek

    I recommend using PrintPlace.com! They have great quality, great options and tremendous customer service! Once we ordered VistaPrint and as you’re picture shows above, it wasn’t even a normal size card! That photo made me laugh. Luckily they also have good CS and they refunded our money.

  21. by Asp24

    your analysis seems a little skewed. you show price of 8.81 for overnight prints, yet that is the price for just 25 business cards. Vistaprint’s price is listed at 25.00, but that is for 250 cards. also i just went to the Vistaprint site, and their standing offer for upgraded premium business cards all inclusive including shipping is now $10 for 250. much better than overnight prints or the rest for that matter…

  22. by Tristan Cuschieri

    Great comparison. I’m in the market for business cards, and wasn’t sure which company to order from until now. Thank you for taking the time to put this together for us.

  23. by eds

    I’m confused by your first picture under Quality. I just ordered cards from Moo, and they’re more square than normal cards–that is, SHORTER in the long dimension. Your picture shows the opposite. How did you do that?

  24. by Fumihiro CHIBA

    Battle of the Business Cards

  25. by Fumihiro CHIBA

    Battle of the Business Cards

  26. by Test

    You should really update the price comparison to be price per card – right now it’s very misleading

  27. by imperialdrive

    I’ve performed a similar test, just on my own for personal cards over the years… Gotprint.com was the best, but they also happened to be local and I got to see their setup in person, amazing. (Burbank, CA) GLTA!
    ps. Stay away from Vistaprint, nothing but problems (I was tempted by their foil cards, hideous)

  28. by Business Card Printing

    Check out Mondo Print! http://www.MondoPrint.com/products/BusinessCards

  29. by Anonymous

    I wanted to test the price per minimum order. Most people aren’t going to use 250 business cards. But a couple of other people have asked for price/card, so maybe I’ll add on to the chart. I would say “misleading” is a little strong if you read the whole thing, but I appreciate the feedback.

  30. by Anonymous

    Where are you shipping to? Unless you’re clicking on some coupon of theirs that includes shipping, $10 for 250 cards is way off. Look at their premium business card page http://www.vistaprint.com/business-cards.aspx?xnav=LeftItem&xnid=BusinessCards_PremiumBusinessCards&dng=102144 and you’ll see 250 premium cards is $19.99, plus $4.99 if you want to use your own design. And that’s if you only want one-sided prints.

    Vista does have some decent “free” business card offers, but after shipping and upgrades they’re not quite as free. Check out http://www.printingchoice.com/the-true-cost-of-free-business-cards/

  31. by Anonymous

    They’re European size cards. The image hasn’t been tampered with, so the dimensions you see are the dimensions of the actual card.

  32. by Anonymous

    I haven’t tried their business cards. Their flyers were pretty good. I’m planning on adding NextDay and others, like GotPrint to the site and future comparison posts.

  33. by Anonymous

    I’m just saying, I ordered from all of them, and those were the cards that came out the best. They’re not the wrong size, they’re European size — Moo is an English company.

  34. by ChefMongoose

    I liked that there was a price per minimum order, and don’t find it misleading at all; but I would also have appreciated a price per card. Still. this is excellent, thank you. :)

  35. by Jen

    Thank you for doing this, I’ve always wanted to compare different printing companies. I’ve used Uprinitng in the past. I have a sample kit from PSPrint and I’ve had cards done at Kinkos for an emergency and I was beyond not satisfied! I overspent and they were NOT a good quality. I need to reorder business cards now and I’m thinking of Moo or Overnight Prints.

  36. by Chris Grande

    i just ordered from Moo – online process was fine as you mentioned…I am waiting to see how the cards come out!

  37. by Yaytime

    Agree. If cards don’t fit in a rolodex or business card holder sleeves I toss them.

  38. by PeaKing

    This is FANTASTIC! Thank you! I wish I would have seen this a year ago…it would have saved me much pain.

  39. by Steve

    this is excellent. thanks for sharing!

  40. by broofa

    Awesome write up. I’ve used VistaPrint on a number of occasions purely for price reasons. You’re take on them is bang on – poor quality, cheap price, painfully long delivery cycle, and, yeah, the checkout process is excruciating.

  41. by Cowboy Coder

    50 cents a card is ridiculous. Take it to your local printer and he will do better than any of these jokers in every single metric.

  42. by Anonymous

    4by6.com is by far the best site to get cards printed from – go for the Satin rounded corner and prepare to be amazed.

  43. by Statistical Correction

    The price comparison is misleading unless you do it as cost per card. Otherwise it’s meaningless. Like if I list the cost of restaurants and I order steak at one and a hotdog at the other.

  44. by sachxn

    Thats amazing…I was about to order new ones for a new property business…glad i took a llok at your post…thanks for review

  45. by Jeremy Webb

    Great idea! I hope someone does this for the UK market. I currently use http://www.surfprint.co.uk/ but the choice is bewildering. Certainly the decision should not be on price alone! The quality and service matters a LOT. That little card represents your business when you are not there!

  46. by Fiona

    Plus they give you Business cards for “free” and charge you a lot for shipping! So ultimately your cards are not free any more.

  47. by Martha

    Who says they don’t fit? Moo’s size of the business card is 3.3inches x 2.17inches, while US standard is 2×3.5. trust me – they fit just fine

  48. by Tanya

    Vista is awful. They suck you in with all these specials, but you’re really paying so much in shipping that it’s not even worth it. And yes, the checkout process is EXCRUCIATING. Vista also has international sizes and their biz cards come out a little smaller.

  49. by Trey

    According to your figures, and assuming the pricing is for the same amount of cards, Overnight Prints is cheaper (and much better quality, as well as faster) than Vistaprint. So wouldn’t the cheap option go to O.P. as well?

    Thanks for doing this. Good to know. I’ve actually used Overnight Prints a number of times and they work out pretty well, and I like that rounded corners are a nominal upcharge. I have noticed a bit of color creep where a screened pure gray (I double checked it) came out a bit orange (present in another part of the card).

  50. by Huckleberry

    So another statistic to look at is the over all cost per card:

    Visatprint = $24.25/250 cards = $0.097 per card
    Moo = $25.49/50 cards = $0.5098 per card
    PSPrint = $26.32/100 cards = $0.2632 per card
    PrintRunner = $26.32/250 = $0.10528 per card
    OvernightPrints = $8.81/25 cards = $0.3524 per card

    it’s interesting to see that the Moo cost 50 cents per card and Vistaprint only a penny.

  51. by Huckleberry

    I doubt a local printer can do better price wise

  52. by Huckleberry

    um what?

    Visatprint = $24.25/250 cards = $0.097 per card
    OvernightPrints = $8.81/25 cards = $0.3524 per card

    OP is 35 times greater than VP

  53. by Trey

    I see. It wasn’t clear (to me) that the lowest/varying amounts were ordered. Makes sense now that I look back.

  54. by Sam Brentnall

    The main thing that you have missed out here is that with Moo, you can print up to 50 different images for the same price as 1. As a photographer, this is massive incentive!

  55. by Anonymous

    U totally forgot GOTprint.com

    100 cards min
    very good quality, upgrade to offset for awesome color or paper.
    Price: $11.60 + shipping
    Delivery: overnight or 7 days.

    1- moo
    2- gotprint
    3-overnightprints
    4-psprint

    neveeer use vistaprint, i mean eeewww

  56. by Huckleberry

    But this is a discussion of business cards, not photography prints.

  57. by sikkweb

    great to see some actual printouts from the varying companies. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this!

  58. by Acritchell

    you should try inkchaser next time. I would like to see how they compare to the rest next time.

  59. by Jamie

    I personally love an off sized business card, one that MOST people will not throw away because it is different. Using a graphic designer or digital artist for your business cards ( WHICH IS HOW PEOPLE REMEMBER YOU and YOUR BRAND) is by far the best choice. While you are paying for the service of the design, their print costs can be very competitive. There are also TONS of templates out there that are fun and edgy that you can print at a number of places that cater to photographers……

  60. by Design Business Cards

    Try AllBusinessCards.com for a comparison in your next quote. We’d love to see the comparison with our competitors.

  61. by Gilly

    Ditto this — I’ve been using NextDayFlyers a lot, and their matte business cards in particular are really nice.

  62. by Daniel Vernon

    Have you not tried printing.com? DM me on twitter, and I will send you some samples, or can take an order from you, would love too see the comparison then.

  63. by Daniel

    Dude good work! Thanks for the information

  64. by Jonathan

    I am pretty pleased with http://www.clubflyers.com and they have great pricing!

  65. by Reply2me

    very well done!!

  66. by Jon

    +1 on GotPrint. I like that they can do rounded corners. Even with rounded corners which adds a couple days I get cards in about 7 days.

  67. by nudawn creative

    What is everyone’s take on minicards?

  68. by Fresh Business Cards

    Wow !!! great article ! It seems that the printrunner is the best choice

  69. by Bobotron

    I got some nice cards done at VistaPrint. But I think i upgraded to offset, and the nicer matte stock.

    Nothing compares to getting cards printed offset spot colors if you are wanting to match vivid PMS colors. I don’t think any of these big online shops offer that. Or if they do, be sure to compare price to your local print shop with a 2-color offset press. Quality and Quantity are big factors in how nice you want the final product to look.

  70. by Bobotron

    Prices should have been calculated with the same number of cards across the board. Its not fair to compare a 250 run to a 25 run. Almost all the cost of printing is in the setup. Not the minuscule amount of ink and paper used.

  71. by Chris Milas

    Try http://www.printprintprint.biz – we offer BETTER rates from above, BETTER quality than above, and you’ll receive your cards anywhere in the country faster than all of the above.

  72. by baculum

    If you want great customer service choose PsPrint

  73. by Anonymous

    Check out the Moo mini cards – they will fit in your rolodex or sleeves designed for standard US cards.

  74. by Anonymous

    Check out the Moo mini cards – they will fit in your rolodex or sleeves designed for standard US cards.

  75. by The Present Group

    Great post, thank you. However, there is still one more important comparison factor that I would look for: Cost Per Card.

    Here’s the breakdown (after shipping, and rounded to nearest cent):
    Vista: .10
    Moo: .51
    PSPrint: .26
    Print Runner: .13
    Overnight: .17

    So it’s not surprising that Vista is the worst quality. Overnight still seems like the best value/quality, especially if they give price breaks for larger orders than 25!

  76. by Website design

    The price per card changes pretty dramatically depending on the size of the order. Different run sizes may have different results.

  77. by Cowboy Coder

    OMG, you really are going to assert a local printer can’t beat 50 cents per business card? Have you ever had business cards made? Do they even allow you to order things from inside the institute from the insane?

    Here’s a clue. Standard order is a box of 1000 cards. Full color print is $20, which is 2 cents a card. Less fancy can be had for $10 a box, 1 cent a card.

    50 cents a card is pure unadulterated mental illness. And thinking that is normal is nuts too! Asserting it in agreement is even crazier!

  78. by The Baldchemist

    We’ve used Moo and they’re great. Vista is a pain. But the very best is LTAB in Linköping Sweden. Highly recommended.

  79. by The Baldchemist

    You can’t really make that comparison. Its like transport. You can either ride your bike or you can drive a Mercedes. But Moo is the best after LTAB

  80. by Josh

    This proves my comments on other posts about vista being a kind of cheap quality. I have tried other sites including PS and Over but I also found a semi new website and was wondering if printingchoice or if any user had any reviews on it. http://www.onspotprinting.com

  81. by Heavymetalprincess

     I love http://www.gotprint.com!!!

  82. by Anonymous

    Thanks for the comparison, this is actually helpful for those looking for printing companies that offer good quality business cards for a reasonable price. I guess this review should at least open up the eyes of those existing printing companies and for those who are interested to start a print business. Consumers nowadays are very smart in choosing where to get their printing jobs done, so these companies should try harder to be competitive.

  83. by Anonymous

    Business card is more flexible for business processing, Tops of the company provide to virtual types of the business card to use better ways for business processing.

  84. by bpo services

    Comparison beforehand is a good thing. Thanks for bringing this stuff for customer’s choice.

  85. by Serious Ok

    Thanks for doing the research and for sharing this with us.  I ordered a small amount of cards from ONP, but will probably be ordering my next batch from Moo or from a local company (U-printing).  

  86. by Price-Per-Card

    250 24.25 VistaPrint 0.097

    50 25.49 Moo 0.5098

    100 26.32 PSPrint 0.2632

    250 33.41 PrintRunner 0.13364

    25 8.81 OvernightPrints 0.3524

  87. by David Bennett

    That’s intresting information you have there and very useful indeed to compare and contrsat, it would have been great if you also compared with Betterprint who offer similar service with fast UK delivery.

  88. by Haim10010

    try http://www.myfastprint.com excellent quality and price

  89. by Will

    Check out Bluegrass Print. An awesome printing company with high-quality and low-prices at: http://www.BluegrassPrint.com

  90. by vistaprint promo code

    Vistaprint offer the best and cheap business card if your budget is tight. Overnight delivery also the best if you want best quality and don’t care to spend little bit more money on cards.

  91. by Chris

    rolodex?  You must be close to retirement?

  92. by FrameWorks

    Used to be a big fan of PSPrint. Today, tried ordering 2000 new business cards to match my previous ones. Rounded corner option used to be something like $10 extra per 1000 cards, now it is an extra $280 for 2000 cards! The excuse was that they had to “custom die cut” each one… Decided to forgo the rounded corners this time, but found at checkout they insisted on charging tax, which they never did before.
     While talking to customer service she mentioned that PSPrint had been bought out by another company, and many changes were in progress…
     Used to love this company, and have used them for postcards, greeting cards, posters, for my gallery/frame shop, but will have to find another printer…

  93. by ✔ OtherDesigns

    I wish we were part of this research. Faster than all of the above, and printing on 16 PT!

  94. by Anonymous

    Plastic Cards
    Plastic Business Cards
    Scratch Cards

    Its business card which makes your business unique

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