Displate is a marketplace that sells metal posters. It is one of the most popular metal poster marketplaces, but it’s also quite expensive.
Artists can upload their photos to be sold on metal prints, using a print on demand business model, with a 50% commission going to them.
While that means you can get access to a wide variety of options, it also means that, as a customer, you’re relying on the artist to upload a high-resolution image for the result to come out well.
Sometimes, you might be disappointed with the end product once it arrives at your doorstep due to the artist not uploading a high-resolution image file.
If you are searching for an alternative to Displate, whether you’re looking for cheaper options or a different selection, read on. Today, I will be showing you the seven best Displate alternatives for buying metal prints online.
Let’s get into it.
Quick Summary
Some of the best alternatives to Displate for interesting art include:
- Allposters.com
- Metal Plate Pictures
- Artbeat Studios
If you are interested in creating your own custom prints by uploading your family photos or your own artwork, here are some excellent alternatives to Displate:
- Metal Plate Pictures
- Artbeat Studios
- MetalPrints.com
- EZ Prints
- Poster Jack
- Mpix
Before buying from any of these companies, check which mounting options are available. Various wall mounting hardware and tabletop stands are available from these companies.
For print on demand dropshipping, I recommend the Artbeat Studios dropshipping program. It allows you to start a metal poster business without investing in stock upfront.
Artbeat Studios will ship the product directly to your customer.
The Best Displate Alternatives
1. AllPosters.com
AllPosters.com is an excellent source of metal prints and my favorite alternative to Displate for finding unique artwork. It’s pretty affordable; as of this publication, 12 × 19 posters are going for just $19 a piece.
16 × 12 posters, on the other hand, typically go for just $29 a piece. Of course, pricing is subject to change, so do check back on the site for updated pricing information.
They’re great for your bedroom, bar, or coffee shop. It also sells a variety of other posters, not just metal posters, so you can get all of your posters in one place.
The metal posters come in several shapes, including portrait, square, landscape, and panoramic. They also come in various colors, including brown, gray, neutral, and green.
You can filter by size, color, shape, and style.
Whether you want metal posters of nature, historical events, comics, modern art, or anything else, Allposters.com has a wide selection that is bound to delight all metal print lovers.
AllPosters.com is based out of Berkeley, California, and has been in operation since 1998. Standard delivery to the contiguous United States usually takes between 4–8 days from the time of purchase, although expedited and overnight delivery is available as well.
Shipping is available to the rest of the United States and Canada as well, but not to international destinations.
Allposters.com offers a return policy with a period of 45 days, and if the product is defective or damaged, it will even cover return shipping costs.
2. Metal Plate Pictures
Next up, we have Metal Plate Pictures, another great alternative to Displate if you’re looking for some outstanding metal prints. Although it is based in the United Kingdom, it ships to the United States and many other global destinations.
In fact, it ships to over 50 countries!
Displate allows you to create custom prints, but you must be a Displate Club member. You need to buy at least one medium-sized print and complete your order to join the Displate Club.
Metal Plate Pictures, on the other hand, allows anyone to create a customized metal print. You don’t need to be a member or even register for an account to start.
It’s a pretty simple and straightforward process. You will need to select a poster size and then upload a picture to print on the metal poster.
That can be a family photo, a picture you took on vacation, or something you drew yourself.
It’s really easy to do. Just go to this page to get started.
Of course, you can also buy ready-made prints. I really liked the selection at Metal Plate Pictures.
It has abstract art, anime, cyberpunk, floral art, fantasy, sci-fi, landscape, Norse mythology, and many other categories.
Categories are also divided into additional subcategories. For example, the space sub-categories include space colonization, space exploration, space nebula, and more.
Another cool thing about Metal Plate Pictures is that it provides a free mounting system with every metal poster. The mounting system is easy to use; you just stick the magnet on your wall, and you can then attach the metal plate to the magnet.
The poster can always be switched for another metal poster; the magnet mounting system offers flexibility.
If you are in the UK, you can enjoy free shipping. If you are in the US, unfortunately, free shipping is not available.
The good news, though, is that you will only be charged the actual courier fees and not any additional fees. Courier fees from the UK to the US can vary, but as for shipping times, you can expect your delivery within 21 days.
The company offers a return period of 28 days, which starts from when you receive the shipment. You can get a refund for items still in pristine condition, but you are responsible for return shipping.
3. MetalPrints.com
If you’re searching for a high-quality alternative to Displate for creating custom metal posters, check out MetalPrints. You can upload your artwork on high-quality, coated aluminum posters in sizes up to 48 × 96.
It uses a dye sublimation process, and the posters are designed to be weatherproof, UV, and scratch resistant.
They come in many styles. You can get posters that stand out from the wall, with frames, or with creative edges and shapes.
There are six finishes you can choose from, including:
- Satin
- Mid gloss
- High gloss
- Sheer gloss
- Textured
- Sheer satin
Another reason you might want to choose MetalPrints.com is that it also sells tabletop metal prints, in addition to wall-mounted posters, which themselves come with various hanging styles.
There are bamboo stands, metal easel stands, and even curved metal prints. For wall prints, hardware is included for hanging as well.
Standard shipping takes up to five business days, but two-day and next-day shipping are available to US destinations as well. However, that doesn’t include production times, which take between two and seven days, depending on the print in question.
It’s worth it, though, for the quality.
Cleaning the prints is easy, since no ink is present on the surface of the posters due to the dye sublimation process. You can use a standard glass cleaning solution without damaging the print.
Since MetalPrints.com sells custom prints, it can’t accommodate returns as a general policy (Displate doesn’t either for custom prints), although if your item arrived damaged, MetalPrints says it can work out a solution.
4. Posterjack
Posterjack’s HD metal prints are a great alternative to Displate prints. It also sells silver and white-base metal prints.
Posters come in many sizes, including small ones (such as 8 × 8) and large ones (such as 24 × 36). There are various shapes available, including square, rectangle, and panorama.
The HD metal prints from Posterjack are printed with dye sublimation, using high-quality Epson inks on a glossy metal panel. Posterjack claims its prints will last for over 100 years.
Your poster will come packed in bubble wrap and a protective box.
Posterjack has a Float Mount Hanging System, a unique hanging system which makes your metal posters appear to float half an inch off the wall.
If you want to buy a poster as a gift for a friend, there are various gift options available.
Posterjack has a flat shipping rate of just $9.99, and orders over $150 qualify for free shipping.
5. EZ Prints
If you’re looking for an alternative to Displate for buying custom prints, and you don’t want to join the Displate Club, you can use EZ Prints.
I love the styles available from EZ Prints. For example, the six photo collage metal print allows you to create a metal print that contains a collage of six family photos.
It comes in two print styles, flat and curved, and in various sizes, with a glossy finish. Other prints may have different options for styles, sizes, and finishes, so check each one before ordering!
There are also four photo collage metal prints, framed prints, curved tabletop prints, and more.
All you need to do is select which print you want, choose a size and style, and upload your photo. EZ Prints will do the rest, using a dye sublimation process to print your photos on the metal poster.
In addition to metal posters, EZ Prints offers other products, such as mugs. There are many ways to preserve your family photos and memories!
Processing time is generally two to four business days, after which shipping takes eight to 10 business days with economy shipping and five to seven business days with standard shipping.
Two-day shipping and overnight shipping are available as well.
EZ Prints doesn’t have a clear return policy, but it does advise contacting customer care if you wish to return a product.
6. Mpix
Mpix is another excellent alternative to Displate for custom metal prints, without needing to join some sort of club or membership. The metal prints from Mpix start at just $24.99, so they are incredibly affordable (pricing subject to change).
The posters are made of aluminum and come in either a matte or glossy finish. The printing process takes place in Kansas, and once the print is ready, mounting hardware is added to the metal plate so you can easily hang it on your wall.
You can get a wall mounting frame that makes it appear as if the poster is floating away from the wall. If you prefer a tabletop metal print, you can get a wooden display stand or a metal easel.
Mpix uses dye sublimation, allowing the colors to shine through.
Displate doesn’t offer refunds for custom prints. While Mpix doesn’t either, it does offer reprinting within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with the quality of your print, and the low quality was not due to a mistake on your part (such as a poor resolution image you uploaded), you can get it reprinted within 30 days.
Shipping starts from just $4.99 for economy shipping (see updated shipping rates here).
Expedited shipping takes just one or two days, and you can require a signature upon delivery if you are worried it might get stolen from your front porch.
7. Artbeat Studios
Artbeat Studios is yet another great alternative to Displate for custom prints. You can also choose artwork from its gallery, so you’re not limited to uploading your own custom pictures!
The Artbeat Studios art gallery is full of amazing artwork depicting beaches, nature, cities, abstract art, and a lot more.
The prints come in several styles and finishes, including white gloss, white matte, outdoor HD metal, silver gloss, textured matte, and more.
They also come in a variety of wall mount options. The silver aluminum mount is made of high-quality materials and appears to float away from the wall, and it comes in either a standard inset or an optional flush.
There are also various frames you can choose from, including float black, float white, box natural, box gold, and others!
Artbeat Studios uses ChromaLuxe aluminum sheets for its metal prints, which have been shown to be fade resistant for over 65 years. It uses Epson Surecolor printers with Epson inks to print the artwork onto the metal posters via a heat infusion process, ensuring high quality.
One thing that I like about Artbeat Studios is that it allows you to select a custom size, unlike Displate and many others, which only have preselected sizes to choose from.
You can pick a size ranging from 4 × 6 to 40 × 60, at no extra cost, and Artbeat Studios will cut your poster to exactly the size you selected. That’s because it cuts its posters in-house and doesn’t buy them pre-cut.
Unlike Displate, Artbeat Studios does offer a refund on custom prints. If there were errors, you can get a full refund in store credits, which you can apply to future orders, or a reprint of your existing order.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Artbeat Studios supports dropshipping! You can create a custom print order and have it shipped directly to your dropshipping customers.
That means that you can use Artbeat Studios as your dropshipping supplier. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
Conclusion
Whether you’re interested in custom metal plates to preserve your family photos or original artwork, there are plenty of alternatives to Displate.
Many of them offer affordable shipping and excellent return policies. They use high-quality materials and various framing options.
Artbeat Studios even offers a dropshipping option, so you can sell metal posters without any stock and dropship directly to your customers.
Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.