Bumblejax Vs Canvas Champ Acrylic Prints
Why Choose Bumblejax Over Canvas Champ For Your Acrylic Prints?
The popularity of acrylic prints has exploded in recent years so many companies who don't specialize in them have gotten in to the game to capitalize due to the ease of printing directly to acrylic with very little skilled labor. Canvas Champ is one of those companies that as you can tell by the name specialized in just canvas and has branched out into many products including acrylic. Canvas Champ is popular due to the very low prices they offer on all their products including acrylic prints. How do they offer extremely low prices? Three reasons - the cheaper direct to acrylic printing process, producing them in India with cheap labor and focused on volume of prints.
Here at Bumblejax we're on the opposite end of the spectrum creating gallery quality prints using the superior face mounted method. We specialize in creating top quality acrylic prints and were one of the first to do so in the US over 10 years ago. Our materials are all sourced in the US and the prints are produced in house at our shop in Seattle. We are 100% focused on quality over quantity and our pricing reflects that. Every single print must meet our strict quality standards even if that means redoing it a few times.
The big difference between direct to acrylic prints and face mounted acrylic prints is beyond the scope of this article. So we highly recommend checking out our detailed acrylic buy guide so that you know what you're paying for. You absolutely get what you pay for in this industry. In a nutshell, you can expect better color accuracy, vibrancy and far better longevity for you acrylic face mounted prints.
If you're solely concerned about price alone then Canvas Champ might be a good option but be absolutely sure to read ALL the reviews including those from the BBB. There are definitely quality and support concerns. Read on for in depth details on the differences between Bumblejax and Canvas Champ which will help you make a more informed decision. The table below provides a quick overview of the differences and what follows is a deep dive into those differences.  At the end of the day, the best way to decide which option is better for you is to place a small order with each and see which experience you like the best (we hope it's us!). We do have a nice first order discount for all customers and periodic sales as well for our newsletter subscribers.
| Company | Bumblejax | Canvas Champ |
| BBB Rating | A+ | Suspended Due To Complaints |
| Custom Sizes? | Yes, in 1/4" increments | Yes, in 1" increments. |
| Max Size | 96x48" | 48x48" |
| Options? | Many | NO |
| Superior Face Mount Method? | NO | |
| Quality Backer? | NO | |
| Edge Finish | YES (diamond polished) | ? |
| Framing Option? | NO | NO |
| Fast Wire Hanging? | YES | NO |
| Made In House? | ? | |
| Made In USA? | NO (India) | |
| Production Time | 4-8 business days | ? |
| Rush Orders? | Yes (15-25% extra) | NO |
| Drop Ship/White Label | ||
| Image Optimization | Included In Price | Yes, for extra price. |
| Color Profiles Accepted | sRGB, Adobe 1998, ProPhoto | Likely only sRGB |
| Intelligent Order Configuration? | NO | |
| Photo Storage | ? | |
| Prompt & Expert Support | NO | |
| Live Chat? | ||
| Product Price | $$$ | $ (lowest price guarantee) |
| 1st Order Discount? | 20% or 50% (resellers) | Various Promos |
| Guest Ordering | NO | |
| Loyalty Discounting | NO | |
| Shipping Price | 10% of product price * | Free Over $69 |
| Reviews | 4.9/5 (2000+) | 2.5/5 |
Custom Sizes. We can do any custom size in 1/4" increments all the way up to a massive 96x48" in the 1/8" and 1/4" acrylic.  Canvas Champ also provides custom sizes but the max size is 48x48" and there are no 1/4" increments only 1" increments. They also indicate that there might be up to a full inch variation from the size you ordered. Our sizes will be nearly exact. You'll get what you pay for.
Custom Options. Since we're a smaller print lab we can work directly with the customer and our suppliers to come up with custom solutions. We have everything from our acrylic designer series product with colored acrylic backing to the Trulife premium acrylic to thick 1/2" acrylic (1" blocks too!) as well as stand off bolt hanging and anti-glare acrylic. You can see more details on all our custom acrylic options here. Canvas Champ doesn't offer any customizing in the configuration of the acrylic print other than in the hanging option.
- Thickness:Â Bumblejax (1/8", 1/4", 1/2" and 1" blocks), Canvas Champ (1/8" and 1" blocks)
- Acrylic Type: Bumblejax (standard, Trulife, anti-glare), Canvas Champ (standard only)
- Edge Finish: Bumblejax (routed/sanded or diamond polished), Canvas Champ (not specified)
- Hanging: Bumblejax (wire, cleat, standoff bolts), Canvas Champ (cleat or stand off bolts)
Superior Face Mount Method. We use a process similar to the European diasec method (called face mounting) where your photo is printed to professional photo paper and adhered to the acrylic using an optically clear adhesive which provides the greatest vibrancy, color accuracy, and permanence. You look through the acrylic at your photo which is backed by dibond for protection and rigidity.  Acrylic has unique properties in that light refracts within the acrylic instead of simply passing through as it does with glass. That gives it its amazing vibrancy. Canvas Champ uses a direct to acrylic printing method which yields inferior results for various reasons. We recommend heading over to our detailed acrylic buyers guide to educate yourself on all the different ways acrylic prints are made so you know what you're paying for .
Quality Backer. A dibond backing material adhered to the print using a pH neutral adhesive protects the print and keeps the acrylic rigid over time since it can have a tendency to bow particularly at larger sizes. Canvas Champ doesn't back their acrylic print with any additional substrate.
Edge Finish. We provide you the option of two acrylic edge finishes. Included in the price is a routed/sanded edge that is more opaque. As an upgrade we offer diamond polished edges for a 100% smooth and clear see through edge. This is recommended on our 1/4" acrylic, and required on our 1/2" and 1" acrylic for a beautiful 3D effect. It's not really necessary on the thinner 1/8" acrylic since you don't have a prominent edge.
Canvas Champ offers no information on how their edges are finished, but if we were to guess it's probably a CNC machine routed and possibly polished edge since this process is far less labor intensive than running the edges by hand through a diamond polishing machine.
Framing Option? We get asked about traditional framing from time to time, but unfortunately offer no framing solutions at this time. We're focused 100% on frameless, floating photo mounts. Canvas Champ does do framing but it looks like that isn't an option for their acrylic prints.
Fast Wire Hanging.  Unique to Bumblejax, we offer a quick, no tools required hanging system and even include the hook for you. A few seconds and you're done. This option is for sizes 40x30" and below. For larger sizes we do have to use a french cleat hang system for greater stability on the wall. Canvas Champ provides either a french cleat or stand off bolts for hanging.
Made In-House? Bumblejax produces everything in-house right down to the cutting of the acrylic which provides for better quality control and the ability to offer more custom solutions and sizes. It's difficult to say whether Canvas Champ controls their print making operation or if they outsource. You might try calling them to see if they will answer that for you.
Made In USA? We produce all of our work in our shop in Seattle, WA by skilled craftsmen that have been with us for years. Canvas Champ produces their prints in India. Â
Production Time. Our production times for face mounted acrylic prints are on the fast end of the industry for a specialty photo lab. Our production time is generally 4-8 business days depending on the size, quantity and type of prints ordered. Our production times are also just about guaranteed and if a customer needs us to push it out a day or two faster we almost always accommodate them at no extra charge particularly if they are a repeat customer.
Some of our competitors are closer to 10 business days and sometimes even longer during busy times. While there is no information at Canvas Champ regarding production times we believe they are around the same amount of time (4-8 business days) so fairly quick on their turnaround. However, there are many complaints online about long delays during Christmas so keep that in mind if ordering a gift for the holidays. The shipping times could be an issue if you're on a tight deadline since they are coming from India. International shipments can be delayed for various reasons including customs issues.
Rush Orders.  We are the only company in the industry (as far we know) offering an affordable rush charge of 15-25% which gets your print out in 2-3 business days. Typically if rush charges are offered at all (it's very rare for acrylic prints) the rush price ranges between 50-100%. We also have expedited shipping options to speed it up on that end as well. Many of our customers have critical deadlines whether that be for a photography show, a birthday, Christmas, etc so we understand the need for flexible options for rushing orders out. Canvas Champ does not offer any kind of rush production but appear to offer expedited shipping.
Drop Shipping/Rebranding.  We both offer drop shipping by simply adding your separate shipping address at checkout. Our shipments never include branding by default. We can also go the extra mile for you and add in a note, a COA, add a label to the back of the print, blind drop ship (shipping label shows as package coming from you, etc. at no extra charge. Just give us a shout. It appears Canvas Champ also has the option to remove any branding/invoicing at checkout which is a nice option. It's unlikely they would add anything custom to the box and you likely wouldn't want to send those items to India anyway.
Image Optimization.  One area where we really stand out from the crowd is our pre-print process (see more details on our free photo optimization service here). We take the time to manually review every order that comes in and make improvements that would obviously help based on our years of experience. This is not a "push button one size fits all" auto improvement that many companies call "optimizing". Unique adjustments are made if necessary to every file that comes in whether it be sharpening, denoising, lightening, etc. If we see something out of place or notice lens flares we'll even contact you to discuss. Canvas Champ does appear to have some options at checkout for improving your image (ie lighten, enhance color, remove red eye) but there is additional cost for each one. Â
Intelligent Order Configuration?  We've been building and refining our customer upload and order configuration system for nearly a decade now. With automatic detection of photo quality and size ratio along with the ability to order any custom size, it's one of the best and easiest to use in the industry... as long as you're not using an Internet Explorer browser (in which case it may or may not work!) It has been tested thoroughly in FireFox, Chrome and Safari and mobile optimized as well.
Canvas Champ has a fairly standard order configuration process that you'll likely see at other sites as well including Shutterfly. We did a few tests and couldn't get the add to cart function to work or the Room View feature which is a nice touch to see how big your print will look. We cleared all cache and cookies and tried various browsers but could not get it to work. Perhaps you'll have more luck!
Below are the file types and size accepted for an online order.
Bumblejax: JPG and TIFF files accepted up to 100MB for online orders (larger files accepted through FTP)
Canvas Champ: Only JPG files 25MB and less accepted for online orders (larger files accepted through FTP)
Place Order As Guest?  We work really hard to make our entire process is as painless and streamlined as possible so allowing our customers to just place an order without having to create an account (you can create one later if you want right from the order success page) provides a quick checkout experience. That said we do recommend creating an account so that all your photos are saved to your account along with your order history and addresses. Canvas Champ does require you to create an account, but at least it's part of the ordering process and so doesn't slow down the ordering process.
Prompt & Expert Support?  If you want to place an order with us you'll receive fast support from experts who know print inside and out and can review your photo with you in real time over live chat or phone (email if you prefer). Our support agents have been with us since day 1. We'll even make small edits and adjustments at no charge to make sure your photo print is the best it can be. For large orders, you will almost always work with the same person throughout for continuity.
Canvas Champ does offer both Live Chat and Phone support. As is the case with most larger companies the support agents aren't likely to be experts in print let alone their own products. There are quite a few complaints in their reviews about customer support, but it looks like they do respond to complaints online which is important and at least shows the company cares. If this is a company you're interested in contact them via phone and live chat and ask a few production questions to get a sense of how you'll be taken care if something goes wrong.
Product Price. The big and only advantage of Canvas Champ is price and in fact they have a lowest price guarantee.  If you find an acrylic print cheaper elsewhere they'll match it and discount another 10%. If you're on a tight budget and want an entry level acrylic print consider ordering a small size to see if it's good enough for you. If you have the budget for something that will hold up a lot longer and be made to gallery quality specifications then our product is a good fit for you, but comes at a significantly higher price. We do have a generous first order discount (sign up at pop up form in lower left), a few sales throughout the year and loyalty/reseller discounting to help out on the price.
Shipping Price. We charge 10% of the product price and it jumps up quickly from there. We don't do free shipping per se like some photo companies, but with our loyalty discounting most repeat customers have at least free shipping. We spend a lot of time carefully packaging every order, insure the package and send out an immediate replacement if something goes wrong. You don't even need to send the print back to us. It should be noted that we bulletproof our packages and shipping damage is extremely rare.
Canvas Champ appears to always have some kind of big promo in place including free shipping over a certain amount. At the time of this writing you get free shipping if you place an order over $69.
Reviews. This is a big one and should be one of the most important factors when deciding on a print lab to create your prints. We have been really focused on customer feedback for a long time time and many of our product and website improvements have come as a result of customer feedback. It also provides a great way for others to get a sense of how we do business. We're proud of our nearly 5 star rating across over 2000 reviews (Ekomi, Facebook, Google, Trustpilot and Yelp) from customers who have placed an order with us. It's tops in the industry and we're planning to stay there 🙂 You can see all our reviews here.
The reviews of Canvas Champ are extremely mixed so you'll want to check out reviews from the past couple months on several review sites not just one. It's important to keep in mind that typically reviews coming from the website itself can be manipulated and even reviews at 3rd parties can be manipulated as well. Again, another reason to look at all review sites including the BBB (The Canvas Champ BBB accreditation was recently suspended).  The most reliable are Trustpilot (CC rating of 2.3/5), Reseller Ratings, Consumer Affairs, Sitejabber (CC rating of 1.4/5), Yelp (CC rating of 2.5/5) and social media reviews at Facebook (CC rating of 2.9/5) and Google. Most of the reviews of Canvas Champ are with Shopper Approved with a 4.7/5 rating across more than 100K reviews. That doesn't really jive with the feedback on every other site so due your diligence if placing a large order. An average of around 2.5/5 across all the most legitimate review sites is very low.
Hopefully, this report has provided you with the necessary details to understand the differences between us and Canvas Champ and make an informed decision. As mentioned before considering ordering a small print from each company and see which you like best and factor in cost. We hope to have the opportunity to make you an acrylic print one day! We do have a satisfaction guarantee so if for some reason you're not happy we'll make it right for you. That's our promise.
We will say that if you're a photographer or artist reselling your work it's probably best to steer clear of mass produced products from large companies (especially when it's produced outside the USA) for a variety of reasons. With every print you sell your reputation is on the line so while the prints might be more money upfront, in the long run it will be far cheaper. Our reseller customers sleep well at night knowing that when they place an order with us it will be delivered on time, ship damage free (99.5% of the time) and produced with exceptional quality and consistency. If anything goes wrong it's immediately taken care of for you.
Note: If you're a customer or representative of Canvas Champ and feel any information in this article isn't accurate please contact us right away and we'll make an update.
PS. Be sure to check out our first order discount promos at the bottom left of the page.
