Direct Printing vs Stickers: What's Best for Your Takeaway?

Stickers are the quickest way to brand packaging, but they come with hidden costs: staff time to apply them, crooked placement in a rush, and labels that peel in steam or grease. Direct printing puts your logo onto the packaging itself, so every box looks finished and identical, with no extra work during service.

The case for stickers

Stickers suit very small or one-off runs — a special event, a limited-edition flavour, or a trial where you want to test a design before committing. There's no minimum order, and you can change the design from print run to print run. If you're sending out fewer than a couple of hundred orders a month, the time saving from stickers is minimal and the cost difference is small.

The case for direct printing

If you send out more than a few hundred orders a month, direct printing usually looks better and saves time. The logo is part of the packaging, not stuck on afterwards. There's no peeling in heat, no bubbling in steam, and no staff member applying them in the middle of a rush. Every box looks the same every time.

Direct printing also opens up the whole surface of the packaging. A sticker can cover a few square centimetres. Direct printing can cover the entire bowl, box or bag — edge to edge, in full colour, including the lid.

What about sleeves?

Sleeves fit around a cup or container without any adhesive. They look cleaner than stickers and can be produced in smaller quantities. The downsides: a sleeve adds cost and weight, takes time to apply, and slips off some containers. They also can't be used on irregular shapes like flat-bottomed bags.

How to decide

A good rule of thumb: if branding is a long-term part of how you present your food, direct printing is almost always worth it once your volumes are large enough. Most of our customers order from a single case — 250 to 1,000 units depending on the product — which gives them a realistic trial at a low cost.