INPRNT, Redbubble, FAA, Displate, Fiverr — Which One Was Best in the End? [Overseas Side-Job Journal, Vol. 20]

[Updated November 2026] After this article was published, the opening of my Zazzle shop was completed. The story of the opening is in “Vol. 23”, and how to register products is in “Vol. 24” (in Japanese). The episode in which my FAA account was temporarily closed and later restored is told in “Vol. 27.”

Hello, I’m morirancru.

So far in this “Overseas Side-Job Journal” series, I have written battle-by-battle accounts of registering and publishing my work on overseas platforms, one by one: INPRNT, Redbubble, FAA (Fine Art America), Displate , and Fiverr.

This time, I’d like to stop for a moment and compare all five of them together — how they actually felt to use.

This is by no means a “recommended ranking.”

These are my personal impressions at this point in time, after actually creating accounts, uploading works, running into errors, and watching the responses come in.

One note: this article doesn’t deal with sales figures.

Money matters are covered in the “Side Business and Money Reality” series, so this time I’ll focus purely on

“ease of use,” “the effort of registering and posting,” and “response.”

Previous: My Displate Battle, Part 2 (identity verification and my first upload)

Previous: My Displate Battle (Part 2)

Comparing All Five Side by Side

Now, let me look back at each one.

INPRNT: An Artwork Review Is Required — I Actually Failed Once

INPRNT doesn’t let just anyone register works right away;

you have to pass an artwork review.

Actually, I failed my first review.

There was no detailed explanation of the reason — just a notice saying I “did not meet the standards.”

Honestly, it got me quite down.

So I took another look at my portfolio, thinking

“Which works are the most *me*?”

“Which works do I want people to see?”

and carefully re-selected the works to show. I worked through this while consulting AI, too.

And on my second application, I passed.

Once I was through the review, the uploading itself was comparatively smooth among the five.

But there were a few stumbling points.

One was Procreate’s color profile.

With a normal JPEG there were color problems, and I had to change the setting to sRGB before exporting.

I also ran into an error rejecting my files for being too small.

Tags are English only; Japanese can’t be used.

On the other hand, it has relatively few social features, so the fun of following the reactions after publishing — follows, favorites, and so on — isn’t very strong.

Also, INPRNT has no feature at all for checking views or impressions.

On other platforms, you can open a dashboard and check

“how many people saw it.”

On INPRNT, you can’t see those numbers.

Not knowing any reaction until something sells is, honestly, a little lonely.

But there is an interesting system.

Artists who pass the review can then become reviewers of new applicants’ works themselves.

You go from being “the one who is looked at” to also being “the one who looks.”

Actually seeing the quality of works arriving from all over the world was a fresh and fascinating experience.

Overall, rather than simply lining up large numbers of works, I get the impression that it values the quality and the world of each piece.

Redbubble: Glitches, but the Fastest Response

Redbubble is a platform I’ve put comparatively a lot of effort into registering works on, having somehow been granted Premium status.

However, I ran into a glitch several times: all of my tags would disappear right after saving.

Reopening the edit screen and saving again usually fixed it, but at first I was baffled, because I had no idea what was causing it.

Even so, the first “Favorite” among the five platforms came on Redbubble.

That honestly made me happy.

But the growth after that has been a bit of a struggle.

Compared with INPRNT, the barrier is lower, and as an entry point for beginners starting to sell their work overseas, I think it’s quite approachable.

On the other hand, looking across Redbubble as a whole, I get the impression that there are more highly designed, pop-style works than realistic works like mine.

Maybe that’s why my numbers aren’t growing…

Or maybe not, who knows (lol).

FAA: One of the World’s Largest Art Marketplaces — and Its Visitor Count Is Growing Steadily

FAA (Fine Art America) is said to be one of the world’s largest art marketplaces.

So for me, it’s no exaggeration to say it’s currently the platform I’m putting the most effort into.

The reason is that the number of visitors is growing steadily.

What’s more, every week an email arrives with a weekly ranking: “which of your works was viewed from which countries, and by how many people.” This is quite motivating.

Someone, somewhere overseas, is looking at works I drew here in Japan.

Being able to confirm that in numbers is genuinely delightful.

At registration time I stumbled over the login again and again and struggled badly.

But once it becomes usable, uploading works is quite simple.

What I found especially convenient was that tags can be registered in bulk.

On some other platforms, each tag has to be entered one by one.

In that respect, FAA makes the work of increasing your number of works comparatively smooth.

It’s also relatively flexible about image size: images that ran into file-size problems on other platforms could be registered here.

Without worrying about the extra things, you can concentrate on just “increasing your works.”

That’s another reason I rate FAA highly.

Displate: The Toughest Opponent — But I’m Curious About Its Fit with Japanese Culture

Displate was, without question, the one I struggled with most among the five.

It has strict image requirements — a minimum resolution of 2900 × 4060 px and a 1.4:1 ratio — and my first uploads were rejected again and again for the wrong size or low resolution.

There was a lot of trouble around the account, too.

I accidentally created two accounts — completely my own mistake — and at first, surrounded by English, I didn’t really understand what was going on… (lol).

After much trial and error, in the end I had to create a new artist account from scratch.

On top of that, a work that had been published once became “Deactivated” for reasons I never learned.

Honestly, I thought, “Is it really this hard…?”

Actually, I nearly gave up halfway through (lol).

But Displate has a category called “Japan Aesthetic.”

For someone like me, who creates works on the theme of Japanese culture, this is a point of real interest.

At this point, there still isn’t enough data.

So I can’t go so far as to say, “Japanese culture works will sell!”

But there’s a possibility that it pairs well with Japanese culture motifs.

I’d like to test that a little more.

It takes effort, but it’s a platform where I’d like to increase my works a bit more and watch the response.

Fiverr: A Completely Different Game from the Other Four

Fiverr is a rather special presence among the five compared this time.

INPRNT, Redbubble, FAA, and Displate are basically the type where you line up your works and wait for someone to find them.

Fiverr, on the other hand, is a system where you offer a service (a “gig”) — “I can draw pictures like this” — and wait for direct commissions.

In other words, it’s like an overseas version of Coconala, Japan’s skill marketplace.

I think the barrier to basic registration is on the low side.

But there are many input fields, such as the profile settings, and honestly that part was a pain.

Here, too, I cleared them one by one with the help of AI translation.

However, impressions and clicks are still low at this point.

Even so, I think it’s too early to conclude from this alone that “Fiverr doesn’t work.”

In the first place, Fiverr is fought differently.

Rather than just placing works and waiting, you periodically need to improve things like:

• Gig title
• Thumbnail
• Description
• Pricing
• Search measures
• Track record
• Reviews

In other words, Fiverr is,

less “a place to exhibit works,” and more “a place to go and win work,” I think.

My Impressions So Far

After actually using them this far, my impressions at this point sum up like this.

The story of my challenge to a new market (Europe) is here

So, Where Do I Put My Energy?

So — which one was best in the end?

Honestly, at this stage, I don’t intend to settle on just one.

Overseas platforms each have different systems and different user bases.

So for now,

I’ll keep running all of them in parallel, and gradually shift my energy toward the ones that respond well.

That’s my thinking.

At this point, I intend to increase my exposure especially on FAA and Redbubble.

And for Displate, I’d like to add more works and see how far works on Japanese culture themes can get a response.

For Fiverr, I need to improve the gig itself, not just add works.

That said, this doesn’t mean

“FAA and Redbubble are absolutely superior.”

It simply means that, right now, they’re the two that feel like a good fit for my works.

Continued: Four months on Fiverr, zero orders — and what I noticed, is here

Conclusion

A few months ago, I started from

“Let’s just try selling my work overseas.”

When I actually registered, some were easy, and some were tougher than I expected.

But using all five taught me something.

“The best platform” is different for every person.

For someone like me, who takes Japanese culture and Taisho Roman as themes, the answer may be different again.

Still, in terms of sales, I haven’t achieved sufficient results yet.

The article where I published all of my latest blog revenue is here (in Japanese)

Even so, I’m at the stage of gradually finding out which places fit my works.

For now, with FAA and Redbubble as the axis, I’ll add Japanese-culture works to Displate, and on Fiverr I’ll improve the gig itself.

In that shape, I’ll keep going a little longer.

Will the day come when I can say, “In the end, this one was the best”?

I’d like to keep reporting on that, too, in this Overseas Side-Job Journal.

Thank you for reading this far.

Also read: “My FAA Account Suddenly Showed as ‘Closed’!?”

Also read: “FAA Visitors Pass 1,000 — and Sales Are Still ¥0”