What is Vexels?
Vexels vs Placeit: Which is better for your print on demand business? I’ll give you my take but first let’s take a look at each one. According to their website, Vexels is focused on developing the perfect digital design experience for creatives, sellers, and innovating companies. When you go to the Vexels website you can see right away that they have a ton of graphic designs that you can use for anything from t-shirts to mugs to tote bags.
Vexels offers high quality designs in different formats like png, svg, and jpg. They also offer product mock-ups so you can create a mock-up for your product once you download one of their designs. The Vexels website is separated into two sections: one for merch users and one for design users.
Which side you would use would depend on what you plan to use the designs for. If you’re looking for Vector illustrations and design templates for commercial use you would be on the design side. If you’re looking for completed designs that you can use on print on demand platforms or on your own website, the merch side might be for you.
Vexels Price
Vexels has two different types of pricing plans. One is for merch users and one is for design users. For both plans, the cost, whether on a monthly or annual plan, is based in part on the number of downloads you would use per month. For example, a starter plan for designers is currently $9.99 per month. The starter plan for those wanting ready-made designs on the merch side is $29 per month. Read all the way to the end to find out how you can get a great discount on one of these plans.
High Quality Graphics
The quality of the graphics on Vexels is pretty amazing. The pre-made designs are high quality and can help you compete with the best graphic designers on any print-on-demand platform. If you have no experience designing t-shirts yourself and need high-quality graphics for your products, Vexels is a great option.
Designs are categorized to make it easy to find the type of design you’re looking for based on your niche or audience. There is also a category for the hottest designs which tracks what is trending at the time, as well as a selection of the latest merch designs, which feature their newest designs. Vexels also organizes its designs by niche so you don’t have to scroll through tens of thousands of designs to find what you’re looking for. You can easily find high quality graphics by looking for your particular niche.
Graphics by Niche
The fact that Vexels organizes their graphics by niche is helpful because it helps you when searching for something specific, but if you are just starting out with print-on-demand and you do not have a niche already, their categories can help you find a niche as well. For example, some of the niches featured on Vexels are culture, tennis, music instruments, and astrology, just to name a few.
Design File Types
When downloading a particular complete merch design you can look at the information provided to find out what file types are available. Design elements will often let you know whether or not the pattern is tileable, editable, scalable, and whether the pdf file is included. Most designs give you the option to print or open as jpg, png, or vector files. This gives you the option to either print with or without the background or to edit the layers in software that allows you to edit vector files like Photopea or Affinity Designer.
KDP Interior Template
One of the great features of Vexels is the fact that they offer KDP interior templates. There are hundreds of KDP interior templates that you can use for journals, guestbooks, planners, and more. If you sell low content books on Amazon KDP or are interested in starting this type of business and need pre-made KDP Interiors, Vexels may be a great option for you.
The interiors are offered in different formats and sizes so you would want to take a look at each to determine which template may be ready as-is vs one that may need to be resized for your particular KDP book.
KDP Cover Templates
In addition to the KDP Interiors, there are also many KDP cover templates for you to choose from as well. If you are already selling on Amazon KDP you know how important it is to have a professional, well-designed book cover. The selections Vexels offers make it very easy to find a KDP cover template for your book. With just a little customization you can make a lot of their KDP cover template options work for you.
Vexels Design Request
If you don’t find a design that you can use in your business you can make a design request on Vexels. All you have to do is request your design on their design request page and allow 24 hours for it to be received and processed. After that, your design will usually take between four to five business days to be completed. Once the designs are completed they will be emailed to you for you to download.
Be aware though, that the designs they create for you may not be exclusive to you. Once that design is sent to you that design will likely be published in their library for others to download. If you want a design exclusive to you, you may need to contact a designer or Design Studio on a platform like 99 Designs or Fiverr.
Vexels Logo Maker
The Vexels logo maker makes it extremely easy to customize a logo for your business. All you have to do is put in the name of your business and the industry, and Vexels will give you several options. If you want to further customize the logo you can by changing the color, font, or graphics. Before paying someone else to create your logo, try making one yourself!
T Shirt Mockup Generator
Vexel’s mock-up generator is for more than just t-shirts! Vexels offers a mock-up generator that you can use to make product mock-ups of t-shirts, sweatshirts, long-sleeve shirts, computers, phones, and more. You can change the color of the product, and color or type of background. Once you upload your design to the mock-up generator you can then download it and use it to market your products. This mock-up generator makes your products look professional and you can upload that mock-up to software like Canva to add text if you choose.
Vexels Terms Of Use
Vexel’s merch plan allows designs to be used for print on demand products. Tthese designs can be used on digital products if the design is changed enough to be distinguishable from the original design. If you want to be able to use the designs without having to change them substantially, you would want to check out the merch plan.
Placeit
According to their website, Placeit teams marry design and technology to create high-quality branding and marketing tools so anyone from individuals to large companies can create amazing visual assets for their brand regardless of technical or artistic skills.
Placeit offers high quality graphics and designs for apparel, promotional products, and gaming, the option to create videos that you can use for marketing, as well as a great selection of mockups. Placeit’s options in terms of graphics for t-shirts and other print on demand products are great for anyone looking for ready-made designs to start or grow their print on demand or merch business.
They don’t just offer designs and templates for t-shirts and clothing. Placeit also offers templates for flyers, and business cards, but also posters and templates for gaming like Discord themes and Twitch templates. They even offer design templates for YouTube creators and podcasters. Placeit really has templates for almost everything so if you are not a designer at heart you have a jump-start, and all you have to do is customize great templates for your particular brand.
Is Placeit Free?
While Placeit is not a free tool there is a free plan available. Your access is somewhat limited but it’s a great way to take a look at the website to determine whether or not a paid plan is for you, even if it’s just for a month or two to download what you need.
For everything that you get with Placeit their subscription is reasonable when you compare it to a lot of other websites. For $14.95 a month or $89.69 for an entire year you have access to unlimited mockups, designs, videos, and logos.
Quality Graphics
Like Vexels, the quality of Placeit’s designs is great. They are definitely a great start for the non-designer and the options and variety they offer make it easy to either find something in your niche or something that’s easily customizable for your niche. Their designs are categorized so you can simply scroll down their list of niches to find something that can work for you.
Once you find a design that you think can work for you, you can change the colors in the design, add other graphic elements, add text, or change the fonts. You really can either use the designs the way they are or change them into entirely different designs. This flexibility makes Placeit designs an easy way to find and offer high-quality graphics to your customers.
Once you find the design you like or you are finished customizing one you can download it as a high-resolution PNG file. The file will not have a background and you will be able to add it directly to your product. Easy peasy.
T Shirt Mockup Generator
The way I primarily use Placeit is for the t shirt mock up generator. There are hundreds if not thousands of options available. You can choose what type of item you need a mock-up ranging from t-shirts to cell phones to beach towels and everything in between. But one of the things that I find special about Placeit is the fact that you can use the T-shirt mock-up generator to find the type of user that best fits your product or niche.
For example, if you are offering a product targeting men in their sixties, you can search Placeit to find a model that fits your demographic. You can find models that are in an environment that suits your product.
For example, if you are selling T-shirts featuring a holiday like July 4th, you can choose a model who is sitting outside at a July 4th celebration, making your product stand out even more. This type of customization makes your products look even more professional and it makes your mock-ups look that much more realistic.
Once you have completed your mock-up you can download it to your computer and upload it wherever you want to sell your product. If you want to add a text overlay to your mock-up, you can upload it into a software program like Canva the further customize it.
Free Mockups
The good news is that even with the free plan, there are mock-ups that you can use. The selection of free mockups is much smaller, but if you need a simple free mockup Placeit is a good place to look to see if they have something that meets your needs.
Placeit Logo Maker
The Placeit logo maker is extremely easy to use. All you have to do is put in your business type and the business name and Placeit will offer lots of logos for you to choose from. If you want to change some of the elements of the logo you can do that. You can change the graphic in it, the colors, the text, or font. This can be great if you need a logo for yourself or if you make logos as a part of your business.
Video Maker with Music
The Placeit video maker is a great tool if you need to create videos or marketing for any other purpose. You can choose from a selection of audio clips and video clips. You can change the colors, text, font, and graphics which are automated.
Platforms like Etsy support videos and their product listings and I’ve used these videos myself to promote products in my Etsy shop. You can also create visual pins for Pinterest using their video maker as well as other posts for social media platforms. You can decide how long you want your video to be and how many frames you want to include so that your video is as long or as short as you want it to be.
Placeit Terms Of Use
Good news. You can use the designs in Placeit as-is for print on demand. Once you subscribe to Placeit you can use their designs for your t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, or whatever it is you sell. You cannot sell their digital files or give your customers the ability to further customize these designs.
Which Should I Choose?
As someone who uses both of these programs, it’s difficult to choose a winner. The truth is, it really depends on how you plan to use each platform. If you are someone who is very new to print on demand and you need ready-made designs the Vexels merch plan may be for you. If you know that you plan to use mock-ups for all of your products, Placeit might be for you just because they have such an extensive selection of mockups.
If you want great designs but you want to be able to further customize them or you are someone who also needs templates and interiors for Amazon KDP, I would suggest Vexels. Honestly, if you are someone who sells low content books, Vexels is worth the subscription.
Both programs offer somewhat of a trial to try everything out. Placeit offers a free plan with limited access and Vexels offers a trial that allows you a limited number of downloads. I would suggest trying out each to see which one fits your needs. If you do decide to subscribe to Vexels, I have good news for you! Use promo code LisaMichele for a 20% discount.
What tool do you use for designs and mockups? Let me know in the comments below!