With the exponential rise in the popularity of Mod Podge over the last few years due to its low price point and excellent levels of versatility, we have noticed more and more people reaching out about popular Mod Podge alternatives. The most commonly requested comparison that we see people asking for is a Tacky Glue vs Mod Podge article.
As we have noticed more and more people reaching out asking for the comparison, we have decided to publish this dedicated article on the two. Our hope is that we will be able to help any of our readers who are considering using either Mod Podge or Tacky Glue in their arts and crafts choose the correct product for their needs.
Both Mod Podge and Tacky Glue are great products and offer some solid levels of versatility for general arts and crafts. Due to this, many of our readers will be able to add either option to their collection and have the product meet their needs. We will be going over the specialist situations later in the article on where each product tends to over take the other though.
Is Tacky Glue Or Mod Podge Better?
Due to both Mod Podge and Tacky Glue being based around a PVA glue formula with various additives the base properties of each product are very similar to each other. This is why the base purposes of using Mod Podge or Tacky Glue are essentially the same based around use with paper, wood, and non-washable fabrics with both products offering very similar performance on both.
As you may expect, it is the various additives that have been added to each product that makes the difference between the two and why we feel that Mod Podge takes the lead for most people over Tacky Glue. This is due to Mod Podge being considerably better at the more niche uses in art and crafts that some of our readers may need from the glue based products.
For example, Mod Podge is much better when used as a paint sealant, to seal and protect rock art, or for uses with fickle surfaces. For these more niche use cases, Mod Podge starts to leave Tacky Glue for dust even though they are vary close to each other with similar levels of performance for simply use with paper and wood.
Whats The Difference Between Mod Podge And Tacky Glue?
When it comes to the differences in the actual glue formula between Mod Podge and Tacky Glue, there really is not much information available due to glue companies wanting to keep their specific formulas as secret as possible to keep their advantage over their competition. Thankfully, due to the nature of the arts and crafts community being based around producing artwork to show, there are plenty of images where either Mod Podge or Tacky Glue has been used that we can check to compare their performance.
As we touched on earlier in the article, when it comes to things such as sealing paint-based artwork or sealing rock art in, Mod Podge pulls away from Tacky Glue and clearly takes the lead. This is why Mod Podge is our primary glue recommendation to our readers as it has the same advantages over the rest of its alternatives too.
Although we don’t know the exact chemical or ratio used in Mod Podge, the Mod Podge team have confirmed that there is a sealant in their glue that helps to score it those bonus points over the competition. This is the main difference and reason that Mod Podge has and why it is dominating the arts and crafts space with no real competition at the time of writing.
The Advantages Of Mod Podge!
The addition of a decent sealing agent into Mod Podge really does help to push it to that level of being as close to a one size fits all glue option for arts and crafts that we have at the time of writing. This allows you to purchase a single glue product and be able to use it for a huge range of different tasks helping to keep the costs as low as possible for beginners as well as anyone on a budget.
Although some competing glue brands have tried to add a sealant to their own PVA glue based formula, they either get the ratio wrong or the sealing agent is low quality. This is why they always loose to Mod Podge when used for anything other than the simple glueing or paper, wood or non-washable fabrics.
As Mod Podge tends to perform just as well at these same tasks there is little to no reason at all to use anything else. The competition holds its own for basic glueing but once you get to the more niche use cases, Mod Podge shows why it is so popular while its price tag is almost always the same and sometimes lower than that of other glue options.
The Advantages Of Tacky Glue!
Although Tacky Glue is a great glue product that has managed to earn itself a solid reputation amongst the arts and crafts community, we feel that has minimal advantages over Mod Podge. Both Tacky Glue and Mod Podge perform the standard role of an arts and crafts glue well filling the basic use cases with ease.
It is when you look for advantaged or specialist use cases that Mod Podge offers in vast quantities that you realise that Tacky Glue is rather limited. If you are exclusively only ever going to be working with paper, wood, non-washable fabrics, and to some extend various types of cardboard then Tacky Glue can work but outside of that it offers little to nothing over the other products on the market.
We just want to be clear, Tacky Glue is a great product and a large number of our readers and people from the wider arts and crafts community should be able to get everything that they require out of it. It is the ideal product for anyone who will only be sticking with basic arts and crafts but with Mod Podge being a very similar price, we would always recommend you take that option.
Can You Use Tacky Glue Instead Of Mod Podge?
There is some cross over in the use cases when it comes to Tacky Glue and Mod Podge where you are able to use Tacky Glue instead of using Mod Podge. If you are only looking to glue paper, wood, non-washable fabrics, and some types of card then Tacky Glue and Mod Podge offer very simile levels of performance.
We would estimate that around half of our readers only ever use their glue for this type of arts and crafts allowing a large chunk of our readers to use Tacky Glue in place of Mod Podge. These standard use cases are why Tacky Glue has such a great reputation amongst the arts and crafts community.
If you are looking to use your PVA style glue for other use cases such as for use to seal rock arts or some types of paint-based artwork then you have to use a specialist product or Mod Podge. As we have covered throughout the article, the Mod Podge alternatives on the market are not able to keep up in these areas.
Conclusion
That brings our ultimate Tacky Glue vs Mod Podge comparison to an end. As you can probably see throughout the whole article, in our opinion, Mod Podge is the better option as it offers everything Tacky Glue offers and more. The additional versatility of using Mod Podge just offers too much at a very similar price point for us to recommend any other products over it to our readers and the excellent reputation of Mod Podge in the community suggests that most people agree with us too.
