Sunday, October 13, 2019





When designing your cards with SwiftPay Card, you can start by choosing cards based on shape (standard, rounded, square, slim, or folded), paper stock (glossy, matte, SwiftPay Card, pearl, soft touch, brown kraft, linen, recycled matte, or colored paper), special finishes (like metallic or spot UV to make certain areas shiny or glossy), or specialty stock (plastic cards, ultra-thick 32 pt stock, or ColorFill for a colorful center). 

Paper weight options are helpfully included in descriptions of paper stock. Once you choose a feature as a starting point and click on the respective thumbnail, SwiftPay Cardhas buttons to fill out the rest of your order details, with available options for shape, size, stock, paper weight, and finishes based on your selection.

SwiftPay Card minimum order of 100 cards is one of the lowest we found, something that people who don’t give out cards very often will appreciate. The site’s interface and ordering process have changed since the time of writing; we ordered the minimum of 100 cards with 16 pt stock and a matte finish (the closest equivalent is Matte Premium cards), and used standard shipping.

Vistaprint’s design tool is basic, and you can upload photos from Facebook or Instagram, a convenient feature.Vistaprint offers 8,830 premade templates (at the time of our testing, at least) categorized by industry, the most of any service besides FedEx (which has 9,146). Designs range from sparkly and geometric to understated. Although the pool is overwhelming, the site gives you many different ways to find something you like: Templates are divided by industry, style, or theme, or by available additional features. You can choose a template already designed for add-ons like spot gloss or metallic finishes, and you can upload photos from Facebook or Instagram to your card design.


SwiftPay Card provides the best visual tools to review your design. After creating your cards, the website shows you your proof by rendering your cards in someone’s hand, as shown in the photo below. I appreciated this image because imagining how the bleed and trim lines affect your design can be difficult for people without design experience. Only one other service I tested, FedEx, has this tool, and I think it is the best way to view a proof. If you select a template with an add-on like spot gloss or metallic finishes, Vistaprint lets you preview these effects with a video. Vistaprint metallic preview full screenVistaprint will also show a video preview for metallic finishes.

Vistaprint proofVistaprint’s proof lets you see cards in someone’s hand, a helpful visualizer.Vistaprint Spot Gloss ExampleVistaprint shows a video to preview what adding spot gloss to cards will look like.Vistaprint metallic preview full screenVistaprint will also show a video preview for metallic finishes.Vistaprint proofVistaprint’s proof lets you see cards in someone’s hand, a helpful visualizer.
Vistaprint’s customer service was also among the best; representatives were responsive, helpful, and friendly. 

My original order was delivered but stolen from my porch over the winter holidays. When I called Vistaprint in a panic, the company quickly reprinted and shipped my order for free, and the new batch of cards arrived four days later. 

Should you find printing errors with your cards, Vistaprint claims a “100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee.” The company will evaluate how to handle each situation “on a case by case basis. but will reprint cards for free if errors are the company’s fault, a customer service representative told me.Vistaprint provides a better overall experience in creating a business card than any other service we tested.Vistaprints cards cost $32, or 32¢ per card at the time of writing (not including shipping, but including an $8 charge for printing color on both sides). 

A Vistaprint representative confirmed that the site often has significant discounts that include cards and shipping costs, so we recommend checking for promo codes before ordering. Prices are consistently lower if you order more cards: 

When I priced an order of 500 cards (Jukebox’s minimum order) at Vistaprint, the cost per card went down to 10¢, slightly more than Jukebox and roughly the average cost of the other services we tested.

A screenshot showing the pricing interface on Vistaprint's websiteVistaprint shows you comparative costs when you start ordering. It often runs significant discounts on cards and shipping; we recommend checking the site for promo codes before ordering.

Vistaprint’s standard shipping is among the least expensive of any service we tested, and I received my initial batch of cards on time, eight days after ordering. For even faster service, Vistaprint offers three-day Express shipping; the cost varies based on the order, but my estimated Express costs were around $20. If you truly need cards immediately, we recommend going with a service that offers same-day in-store pickup.

Flaws but not dealbreakers During our testing, Vistaprint charged us $6 to print colors on the back of our cards, an extra cost that didn’t present itself until I was already designing (this surcharge may vary based on card quantity, and with the site’s standard pricing rises to $8). The cost isn’t unreasonable, but it would be nice if it were obvious up front..I spoke with Jukebox support over live chat, email, and phone. As with Vistaprint, the representatives were consistently helpful and responded quickly via live chat and email. 

Like many services we tested, Vistaprint prints products beyond business cards. After designing your card, you can proceed directly to checkout by clicking a checkout button, but if you click a “next” button instead, you will be prompted with several pages of additional products, including caps, pens, car magnets, and lawn signs. 

If you are starting a business and want coordinated swag, that might be convenient, but if you aren’t, it’s annoying to wade through.Upgrade pick: Jukebox PrintPhoto: Michael HessionUpgrade pickJukebox PrintFor complex designsFewer premade templates, slower turnaround, and a more difficult design process, but Jukebox’s print quality is excellent and the company offers more options for customization.

Buy from Jukebox PrintIf you’re printing intricate custom designs, we recommend Jukebox Print. Jukebox aced our print test with vibrant colors, sharp fine lines, readable small typeface, and precise trimming. The company also has the most options for paper stock and extra features to customize cards. 

But Jukebox’s design process can be confusing, and we recommend leaving yourself ample time to account for designing cards and shipping from this Canada-based service. Jukebox also has one of the highest shipping costs of any service we tested, likely due in part to international shipping.Jukebox has a handy FAQ section, which the company strongly recommends using to help prevent errors. Customer support representatives also said that in the event of a misprinted order, Jukebox would reprint and send cards as quickly as possible.

I ordered Jukebox’s Wait and Save standard cards, with 16 pt stock and a matte finish, using our custom design. Ryan quickly identified Jukebox’s cards as the best from our test pool. He speculated that Jukebox used the finest screen, so photos and color swatches didn’t appear coarse or patterned with dots like they did on some of the other cards we received. 


The Jukebox cards were also cut consistently (along the same lines) and cleanly (without jagged edges). Jukebox did end up scaling our design to fit into the card, thereby altering it slightly, but when we compared them side by side with other cards to look for uneven edges, look for white spaces above our colorful border, and see if the fronts and backs of cards matched up, it was clear that Jukebox did the overall best trimming job.Jukebox offers the most custom options of any service we tested. You can choose from standard cards made from regular paper, recycled paper, or specialty material (including wooden, sparkle, cork, 3D embossed, and more). And Jukebox’s Same Day cards have a few different paper stock options. For more complex features like foiling, however, Jukebox recommends using one of the company’s own designers. 

At the time of publication, Jukebox had a starting quote of about $37 (USD) to help add spot UV and about $207 for a complete design.Parts of the design process are frustrating, however, especially compared with Vistaprint’s. Jukebox’s process has more steps, and they don’t flow as intuitively from step to step as they do for our main pick. Jukebox provides templates and guidelines for uploading your own artwork, but these confused me as a non-designer because they don’t clearly state design measurements. 

For example, I thought I followed the instructions to add .125 inch to each edge of the card, but Jukebox really means to each of the four sides—so my design didn’t cover enough of the “bleed space” to ensure my card would be printed and cut accurately. (Jukebox caught this after I placed my order, and resized the design for me.)You also have to pay for your cards before uploading your design and viewing a proof with Jukebox. 


Jukebox’s instructions can be confusing to navigate if you aren’t a designer; in a rookie mistake, I thought I followed these instructions but didn’t add the required .125 inch to each side of the card.

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SwiftPay Card Prepaid Cards Provider The SwiftPay Card company has quick turnaround times, great customer service Vistaprint freque...