Gel Press vs Gelli Arts, which gel printing plate is actually worth buying first

For a first gel plate, buy the Gel Press 8x10 and put the savings toward paint: when these listings were checked at Jerry's Artarama, the Gel Press was $22.49 against $29.69 for the Gelli Arts plate of the same size, a gap of roughly $7 on a purchase that ought to cost under thirty dollars in total. The two brands make plates of near-identical size and purpose, and the reviewers who have used both at length disagree about which one ages better. That disagreement is the whole argument, and it resolves in favour of the cheaper plate.

The case for spending the extra $7 rests on a single long-term claim: that Gelli Arts plates keep releasing prints cleanly after years of use while Gel Press plates stop. It is a serious claim from a credible source, and it is flatly contradicted by a side-by-side review that scored the Gel Press 10 out of 10 and the Gelli Arts 7 out of 10, partly for stickiness after repeated use. When the published evidence points both ways, the sensible move is to stop paying a premium for certainty nobody is selling.

Gel Press describes its plates as a mineral oil-based synthetic gel rather than real gelatin, which is why they sit at room temperature indefinitely, and claims on its educational blog that they are tear-resistant, self-healing against minor scratches and good for thousands of prints. The product page puts the 8x10 at a $25.99 list price and says it is built to withstand multiple uses without deterioration or loss of shape. Marketing claims, all of them, and worth exactly what marketing claims are worth.

The independent signal is better. The hands-on comparison at The Amazing Bees rated the Gel Press 8x10 a 10 out of 10 against the Gelli Arts plate's 7, citing gel consistency, durability and a surface that stayed smooth through repeated use. It also noted the practical detail most buyers discover too late: the Gel Press can be stored flat or stacked, while the Gelli Arts plate is meant to be kept upright. Against that, a six-year gel printer on the 2Peas Refugees forum reports the opposite arc, saying Gel Press plates eventually stop releasing prints as cleanly, though the same user grants that Gel Press wipes clean more easily with baby wipes and that both brands pick up paint equally well when new.

This is the plate for anyone buying a first 8x10, and particularly for anyone who expects to add a 5x7 or a 4-inch round later, since Gel Press sells a 5x7 at $16.99, an 8x10 plus 5x7 bundle at $39.99, and round plates from $12.99.

The Gelli Arts 8x10 lists at $32.99, is made in the USA, and is formulated non-toxic, latex-free, silicone-free and free of animal by-products. Jerry's had it at $29.69 when checked. On the maker's own site it was on backorder, available to pre-order with a two business day processing window once restocked, which is not a durability problem but is a real one for anyone hoping to print this weekend.

What the premium buys, according to the only long-term account available, is the back half of the plate's life. The 2Peas user's verdict is unambiguous: Gelli Arts stands the test of time against Gel Press, and the Gelli plate has the better squish factor, the give in the surface that decides how much paint transfers under light hand pressure. The Amazing Bees review disagrees on both counts, finding the opaque white Gelli surface slightly bumpy and reporting that it grew sticky with repeated use. Stickiness is a nuisance rather than a fault; a plate that grabs paper is a plate that tears thin prints.

This is the plate for someone who has already burned through a gel plate, knows exactly what they want from the squish, and would rather pay $7 more than test the question again.

Three things separate these plates, and price is only the first. The second is storage, which sounds trivial until the plate deforms. A February 2026 post at Comfortable Shoes Studio catalogues how commercial packaging fails: clamshells carry mould lines that press deformities into the gel, collapse over time and leave bubbles on the printing surface, and very old ones shatter when opened. The author rates the Gelli Arts tins top notch and expensive, and recommends a 9x12 cardboard mailer with two rolls of tape as spacers so the plate's sides never touch the box. A plate that can be laid flat and stacked is easier to protect with that fix than one that wants to stand up.

The third is what the money does instead. At $10.99 for the Gel Press 4-inch brayer against $21.99 for the Speedball Deluxe Soft Rubber Brayer quoted by Hop-A-Long Studio, the $7 saved on the plate covers most of a roller. Paint is the other sink: Liquitex BASICS 24-color at $38.99, Amsterdam 24-color at $44.99, Pebeo 30-color at $54.33. Sea sponges run $9.99, and household objects, takeout containers, bubble wrap, pencil erasers, cling film, cost nothing.

The strongest objection deserves stating in full. If the 2Peas account is right, a Gel Press plate that stops releasing cleanly after a few years is replaced sooner, and a $7 saving evaporates the first time a $22.49 plate is bought twice. That is a coherent argument and it may turn out to be true. It does not change the recommendation, for two reasons. The published evidence contradicts itself, so the premium buys a coin flip rather than insurance. And the failure modes that actually kill beginners' plates are not gel fatigue: Hop-A-Long Studio notes that sharp tools cause permanent damage that shows up in every subsequent print, which is a technique problem no price tier prevents.

Someone who owns no brayer, no acrylics and no stencils is not choosing between two plates, they are assembling a kit at retail prices. The boxed alternatives are cheaper than that. The Faccito Gel Printing Plate Kit on Amazon bundles both an 8x10 and a 5x7 plate with a brayer, paint and tools in one box; comparable kits from BuzzBright, Fuyoooo, DINGSEN and JAOJAO pair a plate with a roller, stencils, paints and card stock. Speedball's own kit takes a different line, using a smaller 5x5 plate with four water-soluble block printing inks, an ink retarder and a 4-inch soft rubber brayer. Gelli Arts runs its own DIY kit range from $9.99 to $43.99, with collage sets from $19.99, image transfer printable packs at $15.99 to $26.99 and a Holiday Card and Ornament Kit at $43.99, all built around a reusable plate and step-by-step instructions.

One caution applies to the third-party boxes: plate composition varies, some listings say gelatin plate and others a standard synthetic gel, and no independent durability testing of those plates appears in any source consulted here. A kit is a cheap way to find out whether gel printing sticks as a habit. It is not a way to buy a plate that will outlive the hobby.

The smaller sizes have a narrower case. A 5x7 at $16.99 or a 4-inch round at $12.99 makes sense for anyone printing only greeting cards, tags and journal pages, where an 8x10 mostly gets masked off anyway. For everything else the 8x10 is the size both makers push as the beginner standard, and they are right to.

Buy the Gel Press 8x10. At $22.49 at Jerry's or $25.99 from the maker it is the cheaper plate, it scored higher in the only published side-by-side comparison available, it stores flat, and the saving covers a $10.99 brayer. Anyone who already owns a Gel Press plate that has gone dull on release has a reason to try the Gelli Arts 8x10 at $29.69 and see whether the 2Peas verdict holds; nobody buying a first plate has that reason yet.

Anyone who owns nothing at all should buy a boxed kit instead, with the caveat that the plate inside it is an unknown quantity. The right sequence is a cheap kit to learn whether the habit takes, then a single Gel Press 8x10 and a decent brayer once it has.

One afternoon, one plate, a handful of leaves and copy paper. Hop-A-Long Studio notes that standard copy paper is fine for basic gel prints and that no special paper is needed to start, which makes the first twenty pulls free to ruin.

A dozen cards from one evening costs roughly the paint and the paper, which is the real reason gel printing is the cheapest door into printmaking: the plate is the only thing bought once.