Note: This is not Vistaprint's real tagline, but it should be.

1. Free Products Cost More Than You Might Think

Anything of value will not be free. Period. Everything is an investment, and it is the return on that investment that makes something worth buying. You can get free business cards with a VistaPrint logo on the back, making you look like an ignorant chump, or you can spend $20 on something that will actually begin brand your company positively.

Don’t get me wrong, it is also the fault of the person placing the order, but by offering “free” products and services like they do, Vistaprint is showing the true value that their products have, which is basically nonexistent.

A quality business card will cost more than $20, but if you have a budget where you are even considering free business cards, then that is most likely the price range you have to work with.

2. Design Wizards Are Worse Than Design Witches

Many online printers have step by step design systems to help those without design experience. I would never recommend that anyone without professional design training or experience use them, but again, it all comes down to saving a quick buck.

The least they can do is offer better fonts than Arial, Times New Roman, Tahoma, and Georgia (all very suitable web fonts) as well as many overused typefaces like Bank Gothic, Impact, Copperplate Gothic, and worst of all, Comic Sans.

Notice my Design Witch above is using the widely overused Halloween typeface, Chiller.

There are situations when using some of the fonts they offer is appropriate, but 95% of the time there is a much better alternative.
The one positive thing I can say is that I didn’t see Papyrus anywhere, at least not in the business card templates.

3. 5-Minute, $20 Logo Design

A logo is not a font, icon, and preset color palette slapped together. Your logo defines your company. It can portray your whole purpose and set the mood of your brand in mere seconds.

Combining a few mediocre elements will not give you a lasting and recognizable logo. If anything, you will end up picking the same icon as another business, only further degrading the perception of your company.

A great logo will combine different elements in way that displays gestalt, which is a fancy way of saying that the overall design is greater than just the sum of its parts. There is a synergy between each separate element that continually enforce the meaning and purpose of the others.

I made this "custom" and "quality" logo in 5 minutes using Vistaprint's own automated logo design service. A company that would even allow something like this to be created and sold as a custom logo should be absolutely ashamed.

4. Websites “Custom” Built To Fail

There are a good amount of companies toting pre-designed website templates, and to be honest, some of them can look quite good. My main problem with the websites that Vistaprint offers is that they look like the one I built with AOL Press on my first laptop in 1999.

The graphics are lame, the layout is bad, and the typography is atrocious. On top of that, they use their own logo as the favicon! Way to go, another way to corrupt your customers branding efforts.

Do yourself a favor, if anyone ever offers you a “custom” website through Vistaprint, pay them, but only to leave you alone.

5. Print "Quality"

Here is a riddle for you. What is almost as bad as Vistaprint’s free business cards? Their paid business cards! Premium business cards do not cost $19.99. On top of that, you are always able to get 80% off by using coupon codes found on countless other websites. If you are paying $19.99 for their products, you are being ripped off plain and simple.

I would go so far as to say they are not worth the $3.99 sale price either. The print quality is horrendous and the card stock is bottom of the barrel when it comes to quality. There is more to paper than just how thick it is, but that doesn’t seem to matter to them.

A low quality business card reflects upon you as a person. Would you rather hand in a resume printed on a high quality laser printer or one that has passed through a black and white fax machine five times? Because that is the equivalent of the print quality they offer.

6. Industry Leader Leading People Astray

One of the worst things about Vistaprint doesn’t necessarily have to do with the company itself. If you search Google for “online printing”, Vistaprint shows up on the front page, if not number one out of thousands of online printers.

This is not only a problem with Vistaprint or the people that use their services. We as design professionals have a responsibility to educate the public on the effects that design and branding have on our businesses. The fact that Vistaprint is so successful in a creative industry is unfortunate.

There are a lot of options available, all of which provide a different value at a different price. Vistaprint, however, is in a league of their own. They actually get paid to produce products that can damage your reputation.

Even More Reasons

There are plenty more reasons that I won't get into, because you can find them on many other "Vistaprint sucks" related blog posts like the ones below:

Vistaprint Business Cards Aren’t Free, Hidden “Rewards” Fees

VISTA PRINT SUCKS!!!:DON’T BUY FROM THEM!

Vistaprint sucks