Where should you get your stickers printed?

Because boy howdy, let me tell you, not all sticker printers are created equal. Some of them are great, some of them are meh. That sounds like common sense, but the variation between companies knocked my socks off. You kind of expect to have the same experience with each company — they’re all printing stickers, how different can it be? VERY. And then some other factors come into play that you never would have considered beforehand (I know I didn’t), that will color your experience even further. It’s been wild!

Buckle in!

This is a story of The Perfectly Fine, the Never Again, and the Super Great.

The Adequate: Custom Stickers

Custom Stickers!

This company was recommended on so many sites, and all the research said they were good and inexpensive. I was so excited to try them. And so bummed out at the result.

Everyone said it had such good quality and I looked at my stickers and said out loud. “Is the quality in the room with us now?” Now, don’t get me wrong, they’re fine. They’re perfectly okay stickers. But there are a few things I didn’t end up liking, and I’m super nit-picky so it ended up not being my favorite. That being said, they are fine for the great price, and I have no problem recommending them.

One great thing is that they do not have an MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity), which means you can try out ten stickers or even just one sticker to see if you like it. This is something I love because I don’t want to have fifty of a sticker that ultimately doesn’t sell. So the fact that I could get ten 3” stickers for $11 was pretty cool. It gets cheaper if you order more which is pretty normal for sticker printers, but $11 is not as huge a commitment as $50, and when you’re just starting that’s important.

The first issue that came up was the size, but maybe I was spoiled by the other places I ordered. When I ordered 3” stickers elsewhere, the design apps/proofs ended up having the smallest part that turned into three inches, and the rest sized up to proportion, even if that ended up being a little bit bigger than three inches. However, with Custom Stickers it was the opposite. The three inches were applied to the largest part of the design and it was super disappointing. I ended up with a lot of small stickers that I didn’t feel like I could sell at all

As a hyper-perfectionist, I also was not super excited about the color quality or the cut on the stickers themselves. The colors feel kind of muted compared to the image I submitted.

You can see here that what should be a solid color is kind of splotchy and it’s a little blurry. I was kind of worried that maybe I sent the wrong kind of image file, or my settings were off in Procreate, but I double-checked and this image is 600 DPI, so there’s no reason for any real blurring to happen. It was just disappointing.

And the cuts are just a little sloppy. This is just me nitpicking, but I remember opening the package and just feeling bummed out. It’s not so bad as to not recommend them, but it was just not up to the standard I wanted to meet.

I think they’re a good company and if you’re looking for decent, inexpensive stickers this is definitely the place for you. (Also, a bonus, I don’t think I’ve ever had a nicer customer service experience, but it only came about because of a mistake they made on their end)

The Never Again: Sticker Mule

Not giving a link, I’m that mad about it. You can look them up if you want.

I was worried about writing a negative review because it can be kind of scary calling out a company that has bad practices when you are just a teeny tiny content creator. It’s a real bummer because I thought they weren’t so bad when I was first printing stickers, and they have lots of various sales that offset their expensive pricing — if you had asked me a few months ago, I would have definitely recommended them but I just can’t anymore. I really regret not doing my research beforehand. I’m going to list out some of the issues that have occurred with Sticker Mule, and let you be the judge.

Here are the various controversies… which is a wild idea. Why does a sticker company have controversies?

Intellectual Property Concerns.

The terms and conditions from SM boil down to them owning your design after you upload. That’s not cool for obvious reasons. It’s most likely to cover their butts if they use your design in advertisements, but it still feels a little crummy. Why not contact you if they want to use one of your designs and work out a contract then? There is no such stipulations in Sticker App’s T&C, for example. The legal language is a little intense and covers practically any use of your design that they want, and I don’t like that. Yuck.

Employees not being properly paid, resulting in lawsuits.

There are at least two lawsuits from employees and former employees regarding unfair pay and overtime not being compensated. Super yikes.

The MMIW Shirt Controversy (read more about it here)

This is the most egregious of the issues in my book. Someone was using SM to print some t-shirts advocating for the ‘Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’ cause. It’s a terrible situation; Indigenous women in the US and Canada are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than any other ethnicity. It’s a huge issue and there are lots of compounding factors like jurisdiction on residential land, that make it even more fraught. Women are missing and dying. It’s a big problem. So what did SM do? They sent back a proof of the shirt a few hours later that said, ‘Liberal Moron’ God, I wish I was joking.

It’s so stupid on so many levels. It’s insulting, disgusting, and racist, but it’s also just. So. Stupid. Women, of any race, dying is a bad thing. Murder is a bad thing. The idea that not wanting women to be murdered is a ‘liberal moron’ value implies that conservatives believe it’s good that women are getting murdered (and maybe these people do think that which is sad). But I know plenty of conservative, Republican, right-leaning people who would, quite rationally, say that murder is bad. The people behind SM who did this stupid stunt are just awful.

The decision to do this (and stand behind it when called out), is just frustratingly bad. It’s not about the issue in question anymore, it’s just MAGA brain-rot that boils down to; “Let’s piss the liberals off.” Some people live their lives through that lens instead of having any critical thinking skills or morals, and it’s mostly just sad.

(Anyway, click here to read more about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women issue and possibly donate to this cause if you are able).

The General Political Leanings of the Owner

If you couldn’t figure out after the ‘Liberal Moron’ debacle, the owner is a Trump-supporting anti-vax guy. Yuck. I wish I could be neutral about this, but it’s unacceptable to me. This company’s politics do not align with mine on any conceivable level, and I can’t in good conscience support or recommend them. At the end of the day, I doubt they’ll feel the loss terribly; I’m the most beginner of sticker makers and I don’t think I spent more than $50-75 with them before I found out about their politics and bad terms of service. But I can sleep at night with a clear conscience, so that feels nice.

The Super Great: StickerApp!

Sticker App, Sticker App, Sticker App Yay!

The degree to which I love this company is kind of intense, and I am usually not a super intense person. I don’t think I’ll be using any other company to print stickers unless I need something extremely specific that StickerApp doesn’t provide.

• The quality: A+!
• The customer service: A+!
• The shipping is free!
• The occasional sales: Not too shabby!
• The material variety: Extensive!
• The interesting custom add-ons: All super interesting; I haven’t tried some of them yet, but I am obsessed, and going to do the ‘back paper’ printing on my next order of stickers.

This company has met and exceeded every expectation I have for printed stickers. It is wild to me because going into this world, I imagined myself being kind of neutral about where I ended up printing things, but using StickerApp has blown my mind. It is pretty much the best part of the whole process.

The company is actually from Sweden! A million-bajillion miles away from my little California mountain town, and I was worried about shipping all that way, but all their shipping is free! They use FedEx and eat the cost of shipping on their end to the benefit of their customer. It’s a small thing, but it is a great perk in the long run. I’m always trying to save where I can, and this makes a difference.

I initially looked into StickerApp because I was looking for an easy way to print my Watermelon Steven Sticker Sheets (and eventually other sticker sheets, but I haven’t gotten to designing any yet), and they were consistently recommended.

The process for the sticker sheet was easy because they use an online proof-maker to get your stickers set up exactly how you’d like them. I am not super tech-savvy, especially with things like file formats and higher-end art editors (the irony is not lost on me as someone trying to literally sell artwork, but I’m a simple gal hanging on with just Procreate and a dream), so their drag-and-drop proof-maker was a dream. They also leave a place for notes for the printers to make sure you get your stickers just right. I have not had a single issue with their system, and being able to leave a note if I’m worried about something makes my anxious little heart beat a little more calmly.

Since then I have been using StickerApp for all my stickers, including getting re-prints of ones I have gotten from other companies and have run out of, or wanted to replace. I’m planning on eventually expanding my little Etsy shop into different products (post-cards maybe? washi tape?), that StickerApp does not print, but if they started working on those products, I would immediately go back to them, because I just love them so much.

Other Great Companies to Check Out!

Here are a few other sticker makers who are generally well-regarded that I just haven’t had a chance to use yet. They come highly recommended by various other sticker makers I’m in touch with.

• https://stickerninja.com/ — This company is super employee-rights forward and even has a four-day workweek.
• https://www.stickeryeti.com/usa_en/ — Another good company to check out.
• https://www.rainbowsymphony.com/ — This company makes rainbow/‘sun catcher’ stickers which I’m looking to get into.

---

That’s the long and the short of it. My experience with these three major sticker makers has taught me a lot just about the whole process. I hope this might have helped you learn a little bit about these sticker makers, and I hope you’re ready to take the plunge into making your own stickers, either to sell or just for fun! It’s been such a great adventure these last few months, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.