Discover which mockup tool reigns supreme for POD businesses: Vexels or Placeit? Make an informed choice for 2024!
If you’re on the hunt for a genuine and in-depth comparison between Vexels and Placeit, you’ve hit the jackpot! Focused solely on the needs of Print on Demand businesses, this article has got you covered.
As a seasoned veteran in the print on demand industry for half a decade, I’ve been hands-on with both platforms and know the ins and outs like the back of my hand.
So, buckle up as we delve into the nitty gritty of features, tools, licensing, and pricing for both Vexels and Placeit, ultimately letting you make an informed decision.
Vexels is a beautiful design stock library service exclusively catering to Print on Demand sellers.
In the initial days Vexels started only as a “Premium design stock library”. However, seeing the demand and opportunity in the print on demand space, Vexels was fast to pivot itself to serve Print on Demand Businesses Owners for almost anything.
It offers
All of the Vexels offering are tailored to help Print on Demand sellers. You may consider it as a design fulfillment service provider for your POD business.
What makes Vexels different from other design stock libraries out there?
Placeit is an online design tools to serve individuals for creating marketing and branding assets for their business.
It offers
Placeit also offers easy customization to edit and modify their templates to generate your own version of the ready to use template design.
Placeit online tools include
Both Vexels and placeit are browser based tools. There is a contrasting difference between their interface and user experience.
The first time when you land on the vexels home page, you may be confused between their Design and Merch offering. It took me a while to understand what vexel offers. To make it easy for you. Vexels has two products
Design : You get access to design stock library
Merch : You get access to design stock library + commercial license to print and sell the designs
Navigating is easy with well structured menus on the top bar. The service follows a full width design layout. With so many categories, tools and offerings, you’ll need some time to get acquainted with the UI.
The online tools (T-shirt maker, Mockup Generator), is very tidy and gives you an experience of working on a standalone software program rather than on a browser based online tool. You can see for it below in the image.
When you first land on the Placeits home page it is pretty cool and straightforward.
With a well structured top menu bar and big search bar you may find it very easy to use.
However, once you create an account (free or paid). You will be greeted with yet another navigation menu on the left side bar.
It is supposed to ease your navigation by providing well defined categories and tags.
Personally I find it a bit confusing and annoying. You may differ from my opinion here.
If you sign up for a free account, placeit will use its every page as a medium to pitch you to convert for their paid plan. ( This is very annoying for me).
The online tools (mockup generator, design maker) etc are less intuitive than vexels.
It has a very small preview area (working area) with tools options on both sidebars.
Plus as stated earlier it pitches you to get on their paid plan on this page as well.
We’ll take a look at the following tool comparison
Vexels Mockups Generator has a big preview window at the center of the screen. The toolset is neatly arranged on the left side bar.
Whereas placeit’s mockup generator is less intuitive and gives a feel you are working on a webpage. It has a very small preview window as compared to vexels.
Once you upload a design on vexels mockup generator, you can hover your cursor on the design and make adjustments like moving, rotation and scaling up and down the designs.
Vexels offer real time editing, your cursor movement and editing is responsive like you are working on an editing software.
Whereas with placeit’s mockup generator, it’s cumbersome to make similar adjustments.
The editing is not realtime. Take a look at the demonstration below
Editing in Vexels
Editing in Placeit
Vexels offers photo filters to be applied on the mockup too.(Though no extra points for this feature)
Overall Vexel’s mockup generator is better in terms of user interface and editing capabilities.
However placeit beats down vexels with the sheer amount & quality of mockup templates it offers.
| Vexels Mockup Generator | Placeit Mockup Generator | |
| Mockup Template Quality | Mockups from Vexels are decent, It has fair share of Studio style, flat lay style and Lifestyle style Mockup templates | Mockups from Placeit are the best on the internet. You’ll find Lifestyle mockups from all niches. The quality is top notch. |
| Mockup Template Quantity | Quantity of Mockup templates available in Vexels is fairly small but growing. | Biggest mockup template library on the internet. You’ll find Lifestyle mockups from all niches. The quality is top notch. |
| Mockup Generator Editing | Generating Mockup is easy and straightforward. You select the template, upload your design. Your design appears on the preview window. You can use your mouse cursor and tools on the side bar for editing | Generating Mockup is straightforward, but editing or making adjustments is not as simple as Vexels. The editing is not realtime and smooth as Vexels. |
| Exporting Mockups | Once you create your mockup. Click on the download button, it asks for the size preset you wish to download(large, medium, small ). Select the preset, it is immediately downloaded on your computer. | Once you create your mockup. Click on the download button. The download is not immediate. It takes some time to process. Placeit will send you an email with the download link. If you create 50 mockups, they’ll send you 50 emails :(. |
| Video Mockups | Sorry No Video Mockups | It has a decent amount of Video Mockups. Editing and generating a video mockup is as simple as still image mockup. |
| PSD Mockup Templates | Vexels give you the option to download the PSD source files for some of its mockup templates. This gives you an additional control to edit and adjust the mockups in photoshop or other editing programs. | You only get a final image as mockup. No option for source file. |
| Group Mockups | Limited amount of mockups, where there are multiple people, viz family mockups, couple mockups | Good amount of mockups in groups, Couples, Family, Kids, Gang, you’ll find mockups of all categories and groups. |
| Bulk/Batch Mockups | It does not have a feature to generate mockups in bulk or batch. You may wanna check bulkmockup.com for this feature | Though, it has the option to preview your design in different mockups templates in one go. It does not have a feature to download mockups in bulk or batch. You may wanna check bulkmockup.com for this feature. |
| Vexels T-Shirt Maker | Placeit Design Tool | |
| User Interface and Ease of Use | Vexels beats Placeit hands down because of its editor-like interface. | Placeit Design tool is exactly the same tool used to edit its mockup template. Making small minute adjustments is difficult. |
| Layers | Vexels offers layers features. Which you can use to add multiple element on the design and play with its placement | Placeit does not have a discreet layer feature. Though you can have multiple elements on it template, it certainly lacks layers which makes editing tougher. |
| Download | When you download the design it includes a) The design you created in transparent png format b) Design in svg format (vector) c) Design on the template d) License that gives you permission to print and sell | The download includes only high resolution png file. |
| Clipart & Stock Collection | Vexels has large quantity premium quality clipart, illustration, patterns at your disposal to use. They have done a decent job to organize them properly. | Placeits has a collection of only clipart and icons and. very limited amount of illustration and patterns. Plus owing to their small preview window for editing its template, navigating and selecting the assets is a nightmare. |
| Typography | Vexels provides Text Shapes and Text Badges, which makes typographical designs for t-shirt very simple to make. | No such feature available with Placeit. |
With placeit your creativity is limited due to its templated approach. All designs are made from templates and you can’t do much about it.
If you are a beginner, you’ll find placeit designs a good starting ground to start your print on demand journey. You’ll not have any work to do around, just select the design template and modify it and then download.
However if you are not a designer, but want to bring your design idea to life, you can do it with the help of vexles, their collection of design elements are unmatched. All their designs are created by an in-house team of artists and designers plus all of their designs are optimized for merch/print on demand business.
Both the services have a different approach to their logo maker tools.
PlaceIts’ approach
Step 1>Select a category
Step 2>Browse a template you like.
Step 3>Once you select a template, it takes you to the editor, where you edit the template with your logo and name.
In a nutshell, placeits logo maker is nothing different from its design maker, you start from a readymade logo template you like and edit it to meet your requirements.
Vexels approach (Guided approach)
Step1> Vexels ask for your brand name and its category,
Step 2> It then populates a list of suggestion with different logo types :-
Icon, typography etc
Step 3>Once you select the templates, it takes you to the editor (similar to the t-shirt maker editor) where you have the control to edit all aspects of the designs from color, adding new text shapes etc.
Vexels has done a pretty good job on taking a guided approach. You first enter your brand name, it then populates some basic logo design with your brand name, choose the one that you like and then edit the little nitty gritty details.
At the end they both use their editor, vexels editor being far better than placeit will give a good solution.
Vexel offers two different products, Design and Merch
Both of the products have a three tier pricing model.
Check out their most popular plans right here!
FAQ
What is the difference between Vexels’s Design and Merch subscription plan ?
Merch subscriptions allow you to use all of Designs, Graphic Resources, and Tools of the Vexels service for Merch purposes, i.e. you have exclusive license to print and sell any artwork/asset you create.
Whereas Vexels Design subscription is all of vexels tools minus the license to print and sell. But it still allows you to use the assets you create on commercial projects.
Does Vexels offer a free plan ?
What do you get in Vexels free plan ?
Yes, Vexels offer a free plan. In the free plan you can use all of the Vexels tools, but some features will be limited. Like you can generate mockups using their mockup generator, but if you download it will have vexels watermark. You’ll have access to only a limited amount of design assets that have been marked free.
Even if you don’t have a subscription, you may purchase a Single lifetime design license from vexel at $39.
Placeit has recently changed its pricing from $14.95/month to $3.95/month ($23.69/year).
With just under $4 a month, there’s no reason left not to subscribe to placeit with the tools and features it has to offer.
Yes, Placeit has a free plan too. You’ll get a good amount of mockup templates in the free plan, plus there will be no watermark on the free mockup you download.
All of placeit free features can be accessed from this link https://placeit.net/free-templates
You may also purchase a Single Mockup license for $7 only.
With each download you get following license certificate,
The license allows you to use the asset you download from vexels platform to sell upto 1000 copies of the physical merchandise while your subscription is still active.
There’s nuance in the finer print.
As soon as you stop your vexels subscription you lose your license to sell for all the previous designs you had downloaded from the platform during your subscription period.
This is annoying that vexels forces you to keep your subscription active, even if you have stopped using their services.
There are two workaround to beat Vexels Licensing nuance
1> Purchase a single design license for all of your designs that are selling for $39 each
2> Alternatively you can also purchase a lifetime licensing for a one-time payment of $693 and you’ll have the license to sell for lifetime.
How does Vexels license work for its free plan ?
Assets downloaded via vexels free plan allows you to use the assets until you give due accreditation.You are not allowed to print and sell them in merchandise.
Placeit License allows you to Placeit License what you can do
Placeit License doesn’t allow you to
Placeit License doesn’t allow you to
Unlike Vexels, You’ll hold license even if you cancel your subscription.
Vexels has an active phone number that you can call to get a quick support or submit a support request form on their site.
Vexels support number is +1 650 452 6034
Vexels don’t offer any community forum where fellow merchenpreuers can have a healthy discussion, but their blog content is quite helpful and they provide real insights to industry news tips and tricks.
With their subscription, you also get access to their monthly merch digest, which is a member exclusive newsletter that provides immense value on new design trends, niches, new opportunities, interviews from successful merch entrepreneurs. This makes it a completely delightful experience.
Placeit has a live chat feature for support as well as they ask you to submit a form to get support on their website.
Placeit’s blog features content from all category from T-shirt Business to Gaming Steam,
They aren’t specific to Print on demand.
Placeit has been evolving and building new features, month on month. and currently have both IOS and Android app.
They encourage their users to offer suggestion and request features
https://placeit.uservoice.com/
| Vexels | Placeit | |
| Mockup Quality | Very limited quantity and quality of mockups. | Far better than vexels. |
| Design Quality | Far better than placeit | Creativity in Designs are limited due to its templated approach |
| Ease of use | Interface is much cleaner and smoother | Interface is overwhelming with too many menu items and categories, plus the editing isn’t realtime that you would expect. |
| Videos | No videos at all | Video mockups and video ads, good to have for the social media, instagram reels |
| Download Limit | Monthly download limit | No download limit |
| Pricing | Priced reasonable at $29/month. It’s a good investment if you are serious about your business. | Very affordable at just $3.95/month. There is no reason left to not subscribe to placeit. |
| Licensing | Gives you full right to download and sell the design on your merch business. Your license will lapse as soon as you stop your subscription. | Gives you full right to download and sell the design on your merch business. |
| Support | Support is available via phone call and contact form | Support is available via live chat and contact form |
Depending upon what stage you are with your print on demand journey/business, you may decide to subscribe to both, either one or none of the tools.
Subscribe to Vexles for their superior Quality of designs and easy to use design maker.
Getting a vexels subscription will give you the power to create awesome designs from scratch without any design skills. Their design maker and resources are very handy and exclusively made and optimized for print on demand businesses.
Along With Vexels also subscribe to Placeit’s free versions.
Placeits free version offers a decent collection of mockups and templates, which will have you covered.
Pay for Placeit’s paid subscriptions only if you sell via your own website (woocommerce or shopify). Placeit’s will proof to be an excellent resource for creating social media marketing assets, lifestyle mockups and video mockups.
