Smartpress Comparison and Review

• Easy to upload design
• Standard shipping time of 1-4 business days (Market Standard is one week)
• Faster shipping options available: Next Day, 2-Day, 3-Day

Cons:

• Provider does not offer lawn signs

Conclusion:

Smartpress offers high-priced paper marketing materials and signs and banners, and they do not offer promotional materials or stationery. They offer a range of paper marketing materials and signs and banners. Smartpress only lets you upload and print a design you’ve already created and does not offer a design tool to help you create your design. We found it very easy to upload a design with Smartpress. Smartpress offers a mailing service for some of their products (i.e. they will print, address, and mail the products for you).

We found their customer support to be high quality. Smartpress has a standard shipping time of 1-4 days, which is much faster than our Market Standard shipping time of one week.

Design and Printing

Smartpress meets our Market Standard by allowing you to easily upload an existing design and have it printed. Smartpress prefers you to upload your files in PDF format. Smartpress does not offer pre-designed templates. They also do not offer a design tool you can use to create your own designs.

Smartpress offers digital printing, which differs from offset printing. Offset printing is a process in which a plate makes an inked impression on a rubber-blanketed cylinder, which in turn transfers it to the paper. Offset printing offers higher image quality, is more cost effective when ordering large quantities, and is better for larger prints. Digital printing is a process in which the data and images are printed directly from the computer onto paper. It has shorter turnaround time, is more cost effective when ordering small quantities, and is better for customized printing.

Banners

You can order banners through Smartpress in quantities ranging from 1-1,000, which meets our Market Standard minimum order size of one item. One banner costs $47.35, which is cheaper than our Market Standard of $60. As you order larger quantities, your price per banner gets significantly cheaper. Vertical and horizontal layouts are both available, and the different banner size options include 2’ x 4’, 2’ x 6’, 2’ x 8’, 3’ x 5’, 3’ x 6’, 3’ x 8’, 4’ x 6’, and 4’ x 8’. They offer many different finish material options for their banners, including smooth vinyl, matte vinyl, canvas, photo poster paper, and fabric. They do not offer banner hangers, and banner stands are only available with retractable banners.

Lawn Signs

Smartpress does not offer lawn signs at this time.

Posters

You can order posters through Smartpress in quantities ranging from 1-10,000, which meets our Market Standard minimum order size of one item. One poster costs $57.44. As you order larger quantities, your price per poster gets significantly cheaper. Vertical and horizontal layouts are both available, and the different poster size options include 11” x 17”, 12” x 18”, 13” x 19”, 18” x 24”, 19” x 27”, 24” x 36”, and 26” x 39”. Smartpress uses luster photographic paper for their posters.

Shipping

The standard shipping time is 1-4 days for banners and posters, which beats our Market Standard of one week. Standard shipping costs vary with location, but we were quoted $10.03 for one banner, and $9.25 for one poster.

Proofs & Samples

Smartpress offers PDF and hardcopy proofs, so you can see what your order will look like before you order. They also offer free paper samples (a pack of paper options that are mailed to you and from which you can choose), which meets our Market Standard.

Additional Signs

In addition to banners and posters, Smartpress offers window decals.

Customer Support

Smartpress offers phone support Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST. There was no wait time when we called their customer support, and we found their customer support to be high quality overall. Smartpress meets our Market Standard by offering a money-back guarantee.