Is Mapiful Worth It? Ultimate Mapiful Review
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When decorating, I always get stuck between wanting my space to have a Pinterest worthy feel, and wanting it to reflect my family and who we are.
So when Mapiful reached out to see if I was interested in receiving one of their custom map wall prints, I was totally down to try them out.
If you too are looking for a great way to add your story and personality to your space without sacrificing style, this review will help you decide if Mapiful is worth it to you!
- What is Mapiful?
- Classic Mapiful: Custom City Map Prints
- Star Mapiful: Custom Star Map Prints
- Zodiac Mapiful: Zodiac Sign Prints
- Text Art Mapiful: Custom Text Art Prints
- Mapiful Sizes & Prices
- The Process
- My Review:
- Is Mapiful Worth it?
- Mapiful Coupons/ How to Get a Discount
- 6 Mapiful alternatives
- Conclusion:
What is Mapiful?
Mapiful is a printed poster company that allows you to create your own custom poster wall prints that are modern and stylish.
With Mapiful, you can create a custom poster of your hometown, where you met your spouse, or even your kid’s places of birth. All within a few minutes with only a few clicks.
4 Mapiful Custom Maps:
Currently mapiful offers four different custom poster options:
Classic Mapiful: Custom City Map Prints
The map poster that started it all! The Classic Mapiful is the customizable map of any place in the world. Big or small.
With Mapiful’s technology, all you have to do is type in a place, country, city, or state, and you can zoom out, zoom in, and reposition it as much as possible to accurately depict your special place.
Star Mapiful: Custom Star Map Prints
This map is actually what originally caught my eye and put Mapiful on my radar.
The Star Mapiful is a custom star map poster depicting the stars alignment on a specific date from a specific location.
“These sentimental prints let you see the alignment of the stars and constellations from any given location on any given date.”
-Mapiful
Simply input the place, date, and time of your special memory and Mapiful will generate a poster of what the night sky would have looked like right then.
Zodiac Mapiful: Zodiac Sign Prints
The Zodiac Mapiful is a printed poster of your zodiac sign based on your birth date.
Simply input your birthday, your sign, and choose to display the name of your symbol, birthstone, planet, or element based on your sign.
Text Art Mapiful: Custom Text Art Prints
Finally, the Text Art Mapiful is a custom text art print that turns your own photos and words into a piece of art.
Upload your own picture then add in a phrase, name, or quote up to 100 characters that will be repeated to make up your photo.
This is such a sentimental and unique way to display memories.
For example you could create a Text Art Mapiful using a photo of you and your spouse made up of your favorite lyric to the song you danced to at your wedding. Or a photo of a loved one made up of a quote or phrase you remember them saying.
Mapiful Sizes & Prices
All Mapiful Posters are available in 6 sizes:
- 30x40cm – $39
- 50x70cm – $59
- 70x100cm – $79
- 11x17in – $39
- 18x24in – $59
- 24x36in – $79
*Prices are current as of 8/4/2020
All the posters are available in portrait format while the classic Mapiful is the only one that is currently available in both portrait and landscape orientations.
The Process
After selecting the type of Mapiful you want to create and inputting your information (plus adjusted and zoomed in/out for the Classic Mapiful street map), the process to finish customizing and finishing your order is really simple and quick.
There are 4 steps:
- Input the info needed to create your map (city, date, zodiac sign, or custom image/phrase depending on the type of poster.)
- Choose a style. There are 6 styles to choose from for the zodiac and text art posters, 7 options for the star map, and 11 preset style options and a customize option that allows you to mix and match specific colors and styles to create a look all your own!
- Customize all the text on your poster. So instead of your map displaying your hometown’s name, for example, you can make it say “home sweet home” if you want. All the text on every poster is 100% customizable to say whatever you want.
- Choose your size (and orientation for the Classic street map).
From there you simply add your order to your cart and checkout like usual.
My Review:
What I Ordered:
- Classic Mapiful of Lexington, Kentucky
- Added ‘KY’ to the text section instead of just Lexington
- Modern Style
- Portrait orientation
- Size 18”x24”
I ordered the Classic street map Mapiful poster of Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington was where my husband did law school, I started my blog, and my double rainbow baby boy was born. So Lexington means alot to me and my family.
Now that we moved back to Las Vegas, I was excited to get a piece in my home that gives an ode to the time spent and memories made there.
The Process and Ease of Ordering
I felt like the process of customizing my poster and getting things just the way I wanted them was super simple. And I was impressed with the amount of detail that could be achieved when zooming in or out with the street maps.
I was able to position the town and zoom in enough that you could still see the whole town but with enough detail that we could pinpoint the street and spot our condo was on.
I’d definitely score Mapiful an A in the customization, looks, ease of use, and detail sectors.
How Long it Took to Get to Me & Packaging
I ordered my poster on July 7th and received it 9 days later on the 16th after choosing free ground shipping at checkout. I thought that wasn’t too bad to go from order, to being printed, to shipped and at my front door in 9 days considering it was free shipping.
It came in a long triangle box (think: big Toblerone bar box) all rolled up, not bent or folded which was nice.
However, I’d say the one downfall of the packaging is that it made the poster really wrinkly. It was rolled just loosely enough to create waves on the poster which was pretty disappointing considering I have no Idea how to unwrinkle it.
Once I put it in a frame it wasn’t as noticeable and I assume it will relax with time but if I was planning to use one of those magnetic poster hangers, It would look pretty bad until the wrinkles relaxed.
Total I’d give Shipping and Packaging a solid B grade.
I feel like the 9 days total including 2 weekend days is pretty standard shipping and usually custom made items take a longer time to ship so the fact that my poster came in a standard shipping time was pretty impressive.
However, if you’re going to be spending $40-$80 for a poster, you might expect a little extra luxury and a poster that doesn’t come with ripples or waves in it. Especially because it didn’t come with any instructions on how to best flatten it back out. Not horrible, but still a little disappointing.
So all together Mapiful gets a B in the Shipping and Packaging sectors.
How’s The Quality?
After inspecting my poster, it seems pretty standard to be honest. It’s definitely printed well but not any crazy nice paper or anything.
All the details were easily seen and there weren’t any faded spots or pixelated lines which I was happy with. But if you were expecting a little heavier paper or nicer feel considering their $40-$80 price points, you’ll be a little disappointed.
But the quality overall is good quality. I was very happy with my poster but the little bit of luxury you might expect with these higher prices is missing. Good poster though? Absolutely.
Quality overall rating, I give it an A because these are good quality posters.
You just have to know that what you’re really paying for is the customobility of the prints, not necessarily the print itself.
Is Mapiful Worth it?
Overall, I love my poster and would definitely order more!
In fact, my husband just got a job in New Jersey so we’ll be moving soon which means I might need to add a Las Vegas poster to the mix to help tell our story. Or I may need to get a Star Map of all my kid’s birth dates.
I really loved my poster and I feel like it is a great way to upgrade the style and look of your home while also telling a story and letting your space reflect who you are.
The prices are a bit high for just a poster in general, but the fact that they are so customizable and look so good makes me feel like at least having one good Mapiful in everyhome is worth it.
Again, I just love the idea of not compromising style for sentiment. And Mapiful helps me to create a cohesive and stylish home the way I want while allowing me to tell my family’s personal story too.
So yes, Mapiful is totally worth it!
Mapiful Coupons/ How to Get a Discount
Right now (8/7/2020) Mapiful is having a sale where you get 50% your second print. But for a discount code that works all the time, just use code HELLO5 for 5% off your first order.
If you’re looking for a bigger discount, be sure to follow Mapiful on social media and sign up for their newsletter to know when their deals are happening.
6 Mapiful alternatives
Finally, if you love the idea of Mapiful but just want something a little different, here are 6 Mapiful alternatives that offer similar products.
Craft & Oak – Design your own custom map print, make your own star map or create your own map wall art with Craft & Oak.
Graphomap – Create and order personalized map posters of any place in the world. Plus they plant one tree for every map sold.
TiltMaps – Create beautiful map posters for places and memories.
Strellas – Create a unique custom star map poster that shows the exact alignment of the stars, constellations and planets at an exact place and time that you choose.
Pangea Maps – Combining modern surveying techniques with traditional cartography we create beautifully crafted contour maps of your favourite waterscapes.
Under Lucky Stars – Beautiful star maps of the happiest moments of your life.
Conclusion:
For me, I still Choose Mapiful over all these alternatives. I just feel like it has the best style and ease of use and everything is priced about the same anyway.
I truly do love my Lexington street map poster and definitely think Mapiful is worth checking out to help make your space Pinterest worthy and still tell your story.
Start Designing your own Mapiful here.