Recently, I endorsed MPix.com, an online photo printer. As a small business owner (I also do a lot of professional printing for the graphic design-related job I do when I’m not doing photography) I’m always on the lookout for a good general collateral printer that can do things like postcards, stationary, flyers, brochures, etc.

I just tried a new printer, Zoo Printing Trade and thought that I’d provide a comparison of it against other online printers I’ve used.

I didn’t include any more high-end local printers. I’ve found that in most cases local printers have higher prices, but much better customer service (it’s always nice to have a local person that you can work with, receive support from, yell at when something goes wrong, etc.). As with most things, you pay more, but you get more.

The Comparison

The three online printers we’ll take a look at are: Zoo Printing, Print Pelican and PrintingForLess.com. (One thing to note - I signed up for a trade account from Zoo Printing and received slightly lower pricing as a result of that.)

Criteria	Zoo Printing	Print Pelican	Printing For Less
Price
Quality
Speed
Printing Options
Service
Website
Overall

Choices

Printing for Less (www.printingforless.com)

Printing for Less provided the best customer service of all three sites. I sent several questions via e-mail (and one that was unrelated to my order) and they were answered very quickly and politely. Their delivery speed was average - they did, however, have the highest prices in the comparison printers.

Print Pelican (www.printpelican.com)

Print Pelican had the second best price and the best set of options (they have a better selection of brochures, printing much longer brochures and a few other products the other two didn’t have), yet they still finished in third place overall. I rated them so poorly because their customer service responses were slow and, in some cases, a little rude. Also, their time to delivery was very long. In some cases, I had to follow up several days past the time they were supposed to ship and they still weren’t done (they did end up expediting things at that point - but they were still way behind their already lower-end delivery times).

Zoo Printing (www.zooprinting.com)

Zoo Printing has prices that blow the others away. That, their solid selection and great web site (it has a feature that allows you to automatically track your printing through the different stages at the press) make them a great choice. The one area that they suffer is their customer service. I sent a few e-mails and didn’t even receive a reply. I haven’t tried the support line - but in the future, if I had a problem, I would definately go that route instead of the e-mail.

My Choice

Amazingly low prices, a reasonable selection and a solid web site make Zoo Printing Trade my favorite option. But, watch out for their poor customer service. If it’s important to you, you may want to consider Printing for Less.

Criteria

• Price: Almost always one of the top factors - how attractive are the overall prices? All three choices provided similarly priced shipping. Check out the in-depth comparison here. It details specific prices from all three companies on some standard printing projects. (You won’t believe how much lower Zoo Printing is!)
• Quality: Are there any quality problems? I gave all four options 4 stars in this area - all delivered a product that fully met my expectations. Printing, trimming, etc. were all perfect.
• Speed: How fast is the product at your door from the day you ordered? See the in-depth comparison for more specifics on quoted turn times.
• Options: How many different printing products are available to choose from?
• Support/Customer Service: How responsive was their customer service? How quickly were e-mails answered? How complete/helpful were the answers?