Ava AbbottVistaprint is an online retail platform for custom printed products and marketing services for small businesses. The company was founded in 1995 in France but relocated to Venlo, Netherlands, where it is headquartered. It offers business cards, banners, printing for signs, invitations, and other custom printing services for small businesses. Vistaprint went public in September 2005 and has expanded into several countries.
In Q2 2020, Vistaprint’s PrintBrothers that operates in German-speaking countries saw a 9% increase in quarterly revenues to $127 million and its operating income rose 41% to $16.5 million.
Vistaprint’s overall operating profits rose 36% to $132 million, thanks to the contribution made by each group. It is now the largest online printing service provider in the world. [1]
Vistaprint’s success is also attributed to its printing process. The self-service platform simplifies the ordering process. Customer places their orders on the website and Vistaprint fulfills them through its automated printing facilities spread across the world.
Vistaprint’s printing process delivers quick turnarounds and charges only $20 for 500 standard business cards. In 2020, the company expanded into design services and acquired freelance design marketplace 99designs.
The acquisition connects 99designs’ designers with the 20 million small businesses on Vistaprint’s platform. Connecting small businesses with freelance designers increases Vistaprint’s edge over its top competitors like Moo. [2]
Here is an in-depth analysis of top Vistaprint’s competitors and alternatives:
1. Moo
Year founded: 2006
Headquarter: London, UK
MOO is a design, technology, and manufacturing company that helps businesses create, share, or promote their brand, products, and services. The platform served over a million businesses from more than 200 countries from 2018 to 2020.
Moo offers next-day delivery, but its product range is limited to small-scale items, such as business cards, menus, and flyers. Its entry-level pricing is $19.99 for just 50 standard size cards, while Vistaprint’s minimum order is $15 for 100 cards.
In 2020, Moo and Vistaprint introduced a face mask printing service. Moo dominates this sector and offers brandable masks built from sheets of cotton paper that are 100% recyclable. Moo is Vistaprint’s top competitor. [3]
2. GotPrint
Year founded: 2001
Headquarter: Burbank, California
GotPrint is an online printing service that deals in custom-printed business cards, foam boards, mugs, t-shirts, greeting cards, banners, brochures, calendars, catalogs, flyers, and other products.
The main competitive advantage for GotPrint is its pricing. Its card-printing service starts at $7.63 for 100 cards, which is less than 2 cents per card.
On the other hand, Vistaprint charges $15 for 100 cards and costs 4 cents per card. But it has a slower production speed and its template selection is not as professional as Vistaprint’s. Price is a big factor for most SMBs, which makes GotPrint a worthy competitor for Vistaprint. [4]
3. Zazzle
Year founded: 2005
Headquarter: Redwood City, California
Zazzle is an online print and gift shop that caters to businesses and individuals. It offers business cards, flyers, stickers, rubber stamps, binders, and personal items like printed mugs and T-shirts.
In 2020, Zazzle exploited the demand for personalized puzzles and saw a 4,000% increase in sales in this sector. The shift turned around its sales from a 50% drop at the start of 2020 to 50% higher than 2019 by the end of 2020.
Zazzle also offers the best business card printing service with a quick turnaround time of about two days. The main drawback of using Zazzle is its pricing. It is expensive than Vistaprint but its wide selection of products makes it Vistaprint’s top competitor. [5]
4. PsPrint
Year founded: 1990
Headquarter: Shoreview, Minnesota
PsPrint is an online printing and service firm owned by Deluxe Corporation. The platform serves more than 500,000 small business marketers and graphic designers. Users can upload their design and select paper type, size, and quantity to get a quote and turnaround time instantly.
Businesses with complex printing requirements can leverage PsPrint’s state-of-the-art online capabilities and experienced print professionals and color specialists. The platform offers access to a deep pool of professional copywriters for hire.
Businesses can spend $200 to $1,000 to hire professional flyer and brochure copywriting services on PsPrint. Its standard pricing is also higher than average and starts at $26.57 for 50 cards or approximately $0.53 per card. [6]
5. UPrinting
Year founded: 1997
Headquarter: Los Angeles, CA
UPrinting is a platform for customizing and printing professional quality business cards, posters, brochures, postcards, stickers, flyers, and many more. The downside of using UPrinting is a slower turnaround time of 1-2 weeks and higher pricing that starts at $8.49 for 25 cards ($0.33 per card).
The platform also helps athletes, racers, and other professionals to build their brand using custom-printed merchandise. UPrinting recently partnered with Valerie Thompson, the fastest female motorcycle racer in the world.
The racer uses UPrinting to connect with her fans and build her brand through customized merchandise. [7]
6. Snapfish
Year founded: 1999
Headquarter: San Francisco, California
Snapfish is one of the oldest photo printing services and had a huge customer base long before Vistaprint and digital photography took off. It offers small and large photo prints, business and personal cards, calendars, and personalized photo gifts like mugs, pillows, phone cases, and more.
Users can upload their photos quickly via Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, Flickr, or their PCs. Its per-print pricing starts at $0.09 or 9 cents for a 4-by-6-inch print. For holiday cards, Snapfish offers 1,846 designs starting at just $1 for a flat 5-by-7 card. Customers can pick up their orders at CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart, which gives it an edge over Vistaprint. [8]
7. Shutterfly Inc.
Year founded: 1999
Headquarter: Redwood City, California
Shutterfly Inc. is a digital retailer and manufacturing platform for photography and personalized products. Its Consumer division helps customers create custom photo gifts, wedding invitations, stationery, and other custom-printed products.
Shutterfly also offers a subscription service called GrooveBook that prints and mails photos to customers every month. In Nov 2020, Shutterfly acquired 60 new high-performance HP Indigo Digital Presses to increase its productivity and the quality of printed products in its facilities in Minnesota, South Carolina, Arizona, and Texas. Shutterfly’s premium offerings and new presses give it an edge over Vistaprint. [9]
8. Overnight Prints
Year founded: 2003
Headquarter: Las Vegas, Nevada
Overnight Prints is an online printing service that specializes in rush orders. The company’s web-to-print process is specially designed for next-day delivery of custom business cards, postcards, brochures, booklets, and many more.
In Nov 2020, Overnight Prints expanded its line of print marketing materials with custom printed t-shirts. The new service allows event planners, schools, and businesses to design and customize t-shirts with their logo, name, or slogan. Overnight Prints also offers premium business cards at $4.89 for 25 cards ($0.20/card). [10]
9. CafePress
CafePress is an eCommerce-based platform that allows users to create and sell personalized items and apparel. It is one of the earliest companies in the personalized products space and has adopted modern technology stack over the years to maintain its competitive edge.
CafePress prints t-shirts, cards, calendars, mugs, tote bags, and other products for marketing purposes and personal use. Its products are developed by third-party content creators on the platform and sold across the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
In September 2020, CafePress was acquired by California-based PlanetArt. The acquisition gives CafePress’ competitive advantage over Vistaprint. [11]
10. Elite Flyers
Year founded: 2004
Headquarter: Miami, Florida
Elite Flyers offers online printing services for businesses and specialized in large volume orders. Its all-in-one printing service includes business cards, posters, presentation materials, restaurant menus, signage, magnets, and more.
Businesses can order up to 25,000 business cards to enjoy bulk discounts and a quick turnaround time of 3-5 days. But most of its cards require a minimum quantity of 1,000 cards per order, which locks out businesses looking for 50 or 100 business cards.
Elite Flyers charges $35 for 1,000 standard cards, which is cheaper than Vistaprint. It is the top Vistaprint competitor for large orders. [12]
11. Staples
Year founded: 1986
Headquarter: Framingham, MA
Staples is a retailer that focuses on office supplies, including print and marketing services. The main advantage for Staples over Vistaprint is its extensive market presence. Staples has over 1000 stores and a robust eCommerce platform, which gives the company a wider reach than most other Vistaprint competitors.
In 2020, Staples offered free printing services for students across the US to support study-from-home efforts and help ease the burden on families. Staples charges $9.99 for 250 business cards making it one of the cheapest alternatives to Vistaprint. [13]
12. Jukebox Print
Year founded: 2006
Headquarter: Vancouver, Canada
Jukebox is an e-commerce vendor of custom products for the office. It offers magnets, rubber stamps, and custom-printed products like business cards and letterpress. The main competitive advantage for Jukebox over Vistaprint is its wide variety of materials.
Customers can choose from 28-pt. mega thick, bamboo, cork, and wooden for their business cards. It also offers more than 30 varieties of business cards with minimalist and colorful designs. But, its turnaround time and template variety don’t quite match up with Vistaprint. [14]
13. Minted
Year founded: 2007
Headquarter: San Francisco, California
Minted in an online printing service that started as a crowdsourcing platform for independent and freelance artists to share their designs. The platform enticed graphic designers and artists from all 50 US states and over 100 countries globally.
Event planners can collaborate with a dedicated designer on the platform by paying $100. Minted’s pricing for standard invites is around $2 per invitation card and up to $10 for customized invites with metallic foil details.
Families can make a special keepsake of favorite photos with Minted’s Heart Snapshot Mix for $38 or Snap Tote for $30. When it comes to capturing sentimental moments, Minted is Vistaprint’s top competitor. [15]
14. Mixbook
Year founded: 2006
Headquarter: Redwood City, California
Mixbook offers high-quality online printing services geared towards the holiday season, events, and celebrations. The platform has a huge array of customizable templates, top-notch printing service, and reasonable prices.
Its standard shipping time is 3-10 days and offers more than 370 extra features for customizing templates as well as app support. In 2020, Mixbook emerged as one of the go-to platforms for holiday cards that cost US$0.69 per photo card.
Mixbook also has a 50% off introductory offer, which can entice some customers from Vistaprint. [16]
15. Printfection
Year founded: 2004
Headquarter: Denver, Colorado
Printfection is an end-to-end brand loyalty management platform. It is one of the biggest sources of promotional products used by event managers as giveaways to entice attendees to their booths during trade shows and conferences.
The shift from in-person events to virtual conferences in 2020 prompted the company to introduce Printfection’s Giveaway. Marketing and event professionals can use this functionality to reward attendees by sending custom-printed gifts and merchandise to the homes of attendees as a reward for specific behavior or actions. [17]
References & more information
- Bylund, A. (2020, Jan 30). Here’s How Cimpress Impressed the Market in Q2 2020. The Motley Fool
- Ha, A. (2020, Oct 5). Printing giant Vistaprint acquires 99designs. Tech Crunch
- PR Newswire (2020, Sep 1). MOO Releases Designable and Recyclable Face Masks Made in America. AP News
- Muchmore, M. (2020, June 26). GotPrint Review. PC Mag
- Graham, J. (2020, Dec 23). Coronavirus pivot: Personalized puzzles, on-demand products based on Zoom jokes make Zazzle sales sizzle. USA TODAY
- Online Printing (2020, Jan 32). Brochure and flyer marketing on a budget. PsPrint Blog
- Hermoso, R. (2020, Dec 30). Valerie Thompson Racing. UPrinting Blog
- Muchmore, M. & Jill Duffy (2020, Dec 16). Snapfish. PC Mag
- HP Inc. (2020, Nov 12). HP and Shutterfly Announces Record HP Indigo Digital Press Rollout to Accelerate Personalized Gift and Photo Printing Markets. Globe Newswire
- Overnight Editorial (2020, Nov 24). Overnight Prints adds Custom Printed T-Shirts in Time for the Holidays. Overnight Prints Blog
- Mann, D. (2020, Sep 2). Louisville-based CafePress again acquired. The Business Journals
- Crazy Egg (2021, Jan 5). Best Business Card Printing Services. The Daily Egg
- Forbes, B. (2020, Mar. 18). Staples steps up to help students in midst of COVID-19 changes. WYMT
- McOmie, A. (2020, Nov 3). Best online printing services in 2021. Tech Radar
- Minted (2020, Oct 30). 2020 holiday gifts can be heartfelt, personalized, and easy with Minted. CNN
- Edwards, L. (2020, Dec 15). The best holiday cards 2020. Tech Radar
- Printfection Editorial (2020, April 4). Swag Management Platform Printfection Sees Pivot to Virtual Event Giveaways. Exhibitor
- Featured image by NordWood Themes
Kevin Johnson
Brianna Parker
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