Overview
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![Vistaprint]()
Print Quality, Advanced Design ToolsVistaprint
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![PSPrint]()
Custom Shapes, Print QualityPSPrint
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![EliteFlyers Business Cards]()
Large Orders, Quick TurnaroundEliteFlyers Business Cards
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![MOO Business Cards]()
Best for Best for Modern Designs, Quality CardstockMOO Business Cards
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![Staples Print & Marketing Services]()
Same-Day PickupStaples Print & Marketing Services
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![GotPrint]()
Low Price, Shape ChoicesGotPrint
You Can Trust Our Reviews
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
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![Vistaprint]()
Print Quality, Advanced Design ToolsVistaprint
Pros & Cons
Bottom Line:
Bottom Line:
Vistaprint is the best online business card printing service we've tested, thanks to its combination of excellent print quality, good design tools, and reasonable prices. The company also prints promotional products like mugs, posters, and even tablecloths.Specs & Configurations
Cheapest Shipping $4.99 Offers Recycled Paper Pro Design Services QR Code Generator Starting Price for 100 Cards $15 Learn More Vistaprint Review -
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![PSPrint]()
Custom Shapes, Print QualityPSPrint
Pros & Cons
Bottom Line:
Bottom Line:
PSPrint delivers quality business cards at a low cost, with good design tools. It's one of the best online business card printing services we've tested.Specs & Configurations
Cheapest Shipping $0 Offers Recycled Paper Pro Design Services Starting Price for 100 Cards $12 Learn More PSPrint Review Review -
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![EliteFlyers Business Cards]()
Large Orders, Quick TurnaroundEliteFlyers Business Cards
Pros & Cons
Bottom Line:
Bottom Line:
EliteFlyers offers a wide selection of business card stocks and textures, quality printing results, powerful online card design tools, and timely delivery turnaround.Specs & Configurations
Cheapest Shipping $7.75 Offers Recycled Paper Pro Design Services QR Code Generator Starting Price for 100 Cards $20 Learn More EliteFlyers Business Cards Review -
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![MOO Business Cards]()
Best for Best for Modern Designs, Quality CardstockMOO Business Cards
Pros & Cons
Bottom Line:
Bottom Line:
MOO is one of the slickest-looking card printing services around, with top design templates, high-end options, and premium packaging. But its online editor is more rigid than competitors' and its prices are significantly higher.Specs & Configurations
Cheapest Shipping $5.50 Different Designs in One Order Offers Recycled Paper QR Code Generator Starting Price for 100 Cards $39.98 Learn More MOO Review -
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![Staples Print & Marketing Services]()
Same-Day PickupStaples Print & Marketing Services
Pros & Cons
Bottom Line:
Bottom Line:
If you need your cards today, Staples is a good option, with excellent online design tools and printing quality.Specs & Configurations
Cheapest Shipping $0 Same-Day Pickup Starting Price for 100 Cards $9.99 Learn More Staples Print & Marketing Services Review -
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![GotPrint]()
Low Price, Shape ChoicesGotPrint
Pros & Cons
Bottom Line:
Bottom Line:
GotPrint gets you business cards cheaper than just about anyone and has a decent design interface, but its entry level offering is of lower quality than the competition's.Specs & Configurations
Cheapest Shipping $5.16 Different Designs in One Order Offers Recycled Paper Pro Design Services QR Code Generator Same-Day Pickup Starting Price for 100 Cards $7.63 Learn More GotPrint Review -
Compare Specs
Our Pick | |||||||||
Rating |
4.0 Excellent |
4.0 Excellent |
3.5 Good |
3.5 Good |
3.5 Good |
3.0 Average |
4.0 Excellent |
4.0 Excellent |
3.5 Good |
Best For | Print Quality, Advanced Design Tools | Custom Shapes, Print Quality | Large Orders, Quick Turnaround | Best for Best for Modern Designs, Quality Cardstock | Same-Day Pickup | Low Price, Shape Choices | Print Quality, Advanced Design Tools | Custom Shapes, Print Quality | Large Orders, Quick Turnaround |
Starting Price for 100 Cards | $15 | $12 | $20 | $39.98 | $9.99 | $7.63 | $15 | $12 | $20 |
Same-Day Pickup | |||||||||
QR Code Generator | |||||||||
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Offers Recycled Paper | |||||||||
Different Designs in One Order | |||||||||
Cheapest Shipping | $4.99 | $0 | $7.75 | $5.50 | $0 | $5.16 | $4.99 | $0 | $7.75 |
Buying Guide: The Best Online Business Card Printing Services
DIY Business Cards
You can now easily meet business contacts online through LinkedIn or Twitter, or just by plain old email, and that's all well and good. But when you actually meet a potential client, customer, or colleague in person, you'll want to be able to hand them a business card. That card will be a tangible and lasting representation of you once the meeting is over, so you'll want to carefully consider how it looks and feels. The online business card printers here let you create good-looking business cards yourself. They can even help you design your cards and choose the cardstock quality the fits your needs.
How to Get Started
The services included here all offer design templates for a multitude of card types and uses. If you run an auto mechanic shop, you probably want a different card style from a restaurateur or lawyer. The better services here organize their templates by both industry and style. The latter choice often includes options like classic, modern, and bold.
You usually start designing your card with a template and customize what it includes based on the information you need to convey. Maybe you don't need to show a street address, or maybe you need to include social accounts. Most services let you add or remove text boxes to taste. I especially appreciate it when the web interface includes guidelines to help with lining up text boxes or images, as EliteFlyers' designer does.
All the designers let you upload your own images for printing, and some let you upload the whole card design as an image file, usually as a PDF. Many businesses will want a logo on their cards, and services may let you design one, choose one from available clipart, or offer professional designers for the purpose. As we found while testing photo printing services, color reproduction varies among the vendors, but Vistaprint and MOO are particularly excellent in this regard. We like when the service offers QR code generation to take your contacts right to your email or webpage. MOO offers an expensive NFC option which does basically the same thing.
Options and Pricing
Several factors affect the price of your business card order. Of course, the amount you order plays a role, but even more important is your choice of paper or cardstock. For example, if you buy the most basic level cards from GotPrint or PSPrint, you could pay less than $9. For this, you can get barebones cards with mediocre printing on thin, low-end cardstock. While such cards may be passable under some circumstances, if your image is important, you may want to pay more for better paper.
As you move up to heaver card stock, expect to pay significantly more. Two measures determine the density and thickness of paper. You may see indications in units of lb. or pt. The first, of course, stands for pounds, but the way it's calculated is a bit tricky. This number is different for what's called text and what's called cover. The latter is what we're concerned with for business cards, and it's a measure of how many pounds 500 sheets of 20 inches by 26 inches weighs. Points, or Pts. is more straightforward, it's just the thickness in .001 inch units.
Card quality, however, is about more than just weight and thickness. You also pay for textures. Linen, gloss, matte, and soft-touch are common choices. Some services also offer natural, recycled paper, which has a character all its own.
Recommended by Our Editors
Another option is color and two-sided printing. Of course, you'll pay more if you add either. MOO offers an interesting choice with regard to card-back printing. The company can alternate among five different designs or images on the back for a single order. MOO is also more expensive than the other services.
We tested each service with both an entry-level and premium card order. In general, the old saw that you get what you pay for holds true. All of our premium test orders were of fine quality, though there were definitely differences among the services in terms of paper, printing, color reproduction, and so on.
Shipping and Packaging
How fast you want your cards affects the price as well. In some cases, you pay over $40 for next day shipping. If speed is important to you, then Staples may be your best option: If you submit your order before 2 p.m., you can pick it up at your local branch and save any shipping fee.
If you do choose to have the cards shipped, the services' packaging options vary in quality. MOO gets the prize for the best packaging. A high-end order came as what looked like a special gift, complete with a box with a magnetic closure. Even the lower-end order came in an attractive reusable slipcase box. The other card printers all sent orders in reasonably protected packaging, with the higher-end card orders from each coming with better packaging.
Print Quality
All the services we tested delivered acceptable print quality. If you just need something to convey your contact information, the entry-level cards from most of these services will do the trick. The exception was GotPrint's lowest-price cards, which seemed flimsy with not quite high enough print quality. But even GotPrint offers higher-priced options that looked good. Moving up to higher-quality paper stock, two-sided printing, special textures and shapes can really make you (and your card) stand out.
All the services in this roundup can get at the very least a decent card; if you're willing to pay more, all can deliver something impressive. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, however, so make sure to click through to the full reviews to get the details so that you can get the business cards that suit your image and your budget.
Note, too, that there are many more online business card printing services out there, and we'll be adding to the roundup over time. Don't hesitate to weigh in in the comment section below to tout your favorite business card website or detail a bad experience you had with one of the companies.