Print Peppermint vs Moo vs Vistaprint: What's the Difference?

As an online printer, we get lots of questions. Should my business card be matte or glossy? I want a business card, but I don't have a design — what do I do? But, by far, the most common question that we get is this, What's the difference between Print Peppermint and Moo/Vistaprint? The answer to the first question is "it depends." The answer to the second question is "we'll gladly help you design one!" The answer to the last question is going to take an entire blog post to address. Both of them are huge players in the printing industry. Vistaprint is like the Walmart of print while Moo is like H&M — hip on the outside but cheap on the inside. But, being more popular doesn't make them better, so let's dive in and talk about it. Here's Peppermint Print vs Moo & Vistaprint: What's the Difference?

Quality

We have always been driven by quality. It's the vision that pushes us to create more vivid and compelling prints, and it drives our creative team to craft superb and unique customer content. So, we think it's a natural place to start this post. We have better quality prints than Moo or Vistaprint. There! We said it! Don't take our word for it; we'll prove it.

Offset vs. Digital Printing

See, Moo and Vistaprint use digital printing. Sure it's cheap and easy-to-do, but it strips some of the vibrancy from colors and makes the text a little less crisp than it should be. We, on the other hand, use offset printing — which is kind of a pain. Basically, offset printing requires that you use some plates (aluminum) to press an image onto a rubber mat, then you roll that print onto a piece of paper. Why three steps? Because it provides crisp, accurate colors and highlights fine details. That's not the only thing that we do differently. We use 500 line per inch (LPI) staccato screening, which means that our prints have superb detail and an extended color gamut. Which, in precise terms, means that our prints look amazing.

Environmentally Friendly

Quality is a degree of excellence — something that sets your product apart from your competitors. For us, that's not only our visual quality of print but also our ethical standards. We only use partially recycled paper which is ethically sourced. We also stick with chemical-free ink. Sure, it's more of a pain to use, but it looks better, and it's better for the environment — which is crucial to us as a printing company. Paper production has a massive impact on our environment; we wanted to find a way to continue on with our creative vision while trying to minimize our own environmental impact.

Personalization

Our mission statement is layered. If quality is the foundation of everything we do, personalization is one of our most critical supporting pillars. How can you provide a quality service without being personal? Can you say that you are a company focused on quality without approaching each customer as a unique experience? We certainly don't think so!

Proofs

Moo and Vistaprint automate their entire proofing process. Forget that! We have the Print Peppermint Support Team. We hand-check every single file, and, if we think that there is a design problem or any other issues, we'll reach out to you just to make sure that it's what you wanted. Or, if it's a file issue or obvious problem, we'll jump on it and fix it for you. We don't just push your content through so that we can collect your money as fast as possible; we want to build a relationship with you. We know that you care about the content that you're handing over to us — we have to care about it even more.

Options

Vistaprint and Moo both have a few options; we'll give them that, but they aren't anywhere close to providing our level of options. We're talking colored-edge, spot UV, plastic, foil, die cut, embossed, letterpress, silk, black — you name it, we have it. Do you want a foil business card? Great! Ok, so, quick question. Do you want that uncoated, on 32-point black, suede, plastic, cold, metallic, or raised? We don't skimp on the options. Why do we think that we need to so many options? Because we know that options matter when it comes to expression. Being able to create a business card that reflects that business's culture is crucial. We understand that.

Templates

Do we have templates? Yup. Do we have a team of expert designers that will craft you a handmade design following your creative direction? You better believe it. Whether you have the design, you want to create the design, you want someone else to create the design, or you need some passionate experts to piece together all of those scraps of ideas you have in your head — we got you! Vistaprint and Moo push templates hard because it's cheaper, faster, and easier than doing custom work. We won't force you to get a handmade design, nor will we tell you that you should be using templates. It's your vision!

Price

We know what you're thinking. A company with offset printing machines using 500 LPI staccato screening that has an insane amount of customization, offers handmade designs, prints on partially recycled paper using chemical-free inks, and has an awesome name like Print Peppermint, you must be expensive. Guess what? Not true! It may seem that way at first, and companies like Moo and Vistaprint may give off the impression that they're cheaper overall, but let's break it down.

Bundled Experience

Let's say that you're a business who wants a ton of prints. With Moo, you'll have to pay a hefty subscription fee to have an account manager that will oversee some details with you. What if, instead of that, we worked with you one-on-one to cater to your every need for... free... Plus, if an order is large enough (multiple employees), we like to throw in our creative design services for free. Oh, and we'll go ahead and ship some hard-copy prototypes to the executives for approval for free as well. We wouldn't want you printing a hundred prints before you got to see the end product in action — that's not our style. When you add all of that together, our overall pricing is much better than Moo.

The Caveat

Ok! You got us! Vistaprint is a little cheaper than we are. We admit it. But, honestly, you get what you pay for. We are a specialty boutique that offers a creative experience. We print high-quality work, we design high-quality work, and we ship you high-quality work. We're sure that there are cheaper options out there. But, we're confident that there aren't any cheaper options that offer the same things that we do. So, if Print Peppermint offers the kind of service that you're looking for, consider us for your next printing project. If not, you do you. Different strokes for different folks. We just want you to choose the type (sorry) of printing company that's right for you.