Business cards have a long and illustrious history: from the ornate "visiting cards" of the 17th century to the simple 1980s designs that drove Patrick Bateman mad with envy. They remain a staple for executives across the globe, so where's the best place to get them from? And who's the best choice for cheap business cards?
There are dozens of UK websites that promise the cheapest prices and quickest delivery, but they can't all be right. To test their claims, I trawled the web to find the lowest price for 100 standard, all-colour business cards. I then narrowed down the shortlist to eight contenders with consistently high user reviews.
Cheap business cards: caveats apply
However, before I reveal the results, there are a few extra details. First, note that all of the websites listed in the table below include the very useful ability to either upload your own design (from, for example, Canva) or customise a ready-made template.
Second, in the material column, "gsm" stands for grams per square metre – basically, the heavier the business card, the better quality it is. Personal preferences will vary, but I'd suggest going for 350gsm silk cards as they're more substantial and just feel nicer between your fingers.
Third, the prices are for the most economical, everyday business cards (ideal for handing out at conferences or after meetings) – not embossed, gold-leaf monsters. So, without further ado, here are the results...
| Website | Single-sided | Double-sided | Material (gsm) | Delivery |
| Vistaprint | £10.79 | £16.79 | Paper (300) | £4.79 |
| Instantprint | £5 | £14 | Silk (350) | £4.99 |
| BananaPrint | £4.95 | £7.95 | Silk (350) | £4.95 |
| MOO | N/A | £26.38 | Paper (350) | £10.20 |
| Solopress | £9 | £9 | Silk (400) | Free |
| HelloPrint | £10.14 | £16.14 | Silk (400) | Free |
| 123Print | £8.99 | £13.99 | Paper (340) | £1.99 |
| myprint247 | £5.95 | £8.95 | Silk (350) | £3.95 |
Best cheap business cards
It was a close-run race, but my pick of the cheap business card printers is BananaPrint, which is based in Leicestershire (weirdly, the company is located in the same office as myPrint247, but has lower prices). Not only are BananaPrint's rates very reasonable, but it has received glowing reviews on Trustpilot.
Part of that might be down to it offering 50 free (yes, free) business cards, with the only downside being a small BananaPrint logo printed on the reverse. That said, we'd always recommend splashing out for the real thing.
So what's the catch? Well, as the company refreshingly notes on its homepage, there isn't one: "Don't feel over suspicious by asking this, it's the most common question we get asked," it explains.
"You see we restrict what we pay to advertise on search engines. For example, some engines for certain printing keywords would charge us up to £4 every time our ad is clicked, obviously this has to be taken into account and ends up with customers footing the bill."
In other words, Google's loss is your gain.
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