Adobe Express vs. Placeit

Why the Right Tool Makes All the Difference

The custom pillow market has never been more accessible. With dozens of online tools now offering some version of a design-and-print workflow, the challenge is no longer finding a tool — it is finding the right one. The wrong choice costs you time, produces mediocre results, and leaves you wishing you had looked harder before committing.

This guide puts two widely used online pillow design platforms through a rigorous head-to-head evaluation: Adobe Express and Placeit by Envato. We assess both tools across eight meaningful categories using a five-star rating system.

1. Template Library and Design Variety

Adobe Express

Adobe Express offers over a thousand templates that work beautifully for pillow design. Styles range from clean Scandinavian minimalism and bold maximalist patterns to hand-lettered quotes, botanical watercolors, and geometric art. Every element of every template is fully editable.

Placeit by Envato

Placeit's primary strength is lifestyle mockups: photorealistic images of pillows in styled room settings onto which a user can overlay their own artwork or text. It is not built to create original artwork from scratch — users arrive with a design and use Placeit to see how it looks on a product.

3. Image and Asset Library

Adobe Express

Adobe Express integrates directly with Adobe Stock, one of the largest and most respected stock libraries in the world. Users have access to millions of photographs, vector illustrations, icons, and design elements without leaving the platform.

Placeit by Envato

Placeit draws on Envato's broader content ecosystem, but access to premium assets requires an Envato Elements subscription — a separate product. The in-platform asset library is limited, focused on mockup photography rather than design assets.

5. Branding and Consistency Tools

Adobe Express

Adobe Express includes a full Brand Kit that allows users to save brand colors, typography choices, and logo assets in a centralized hub. Every time a new design is opened, brand assets are immediately accessible from the panel.

Placeit by Envato

Placeit does not have a Brand Kit or any equivalent branding system. Each session within the tool is isolated. There is no mechanism for saving a color palette, storing a preferred font pairing, or recalling logo assets across sessions.

7. Platform Independence and Export

Adobe Express

Adobe Express exports finished artwork in PNG, JPG, PDF, and SVG formats at print-ready resolutions. Designs belong to the user entirely, and there is no obligation to use any particular printer or fulfillment service.

Placeit by Envato

Placeit exports mockup images in PNG and JPG formats. These are useful for product listings but are not the same as exportable design files. The actual design layers are not accessible outside the platform.