We report the successful epitaxial growth and comprehensive study of structural and superconducting properties of (Nd,Eu,Gd)Ba₂Cu₃O_7−δ films with a thickness of up to 1.2 μm prepared by on-axis pulsed laser deposition on SrTiO₃ (STO) single crystals as well as on ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) and rolling-assisted biaxially textured substrate (RABiTS)-based metal templates. X-ray diffraction demonstrates the epitaxial quality of the grown films on both single crystalline substrates and metal-based templates. In addition, no significant changes in surface morphology were found with increasing thickness for films on all types of substrates. On all substrates, a T _c value of about 89 K was observed, however, significant inhomogeneities indicating small superconducting volume were found for all films on STO. In general, the best transport characteristics over a wide range of magnetic fields and temperatures were observed for thicker films on IBAD-MgO and RABiTS templates, respectively. The J _c values at 77 K for the films on IBAD-MgO templates are comparable to YBCO films, but inferior in the low temperature region and high magnetic fields, whereas the films on RABiTS and especially on STO showed much lower J _c over the entire temperature and magnetic field range. A maximum pinning force of about 7 GN·m⁻³ at 65 K was found for the 900 nm thick films on IBAD-MgO template. In addition, the pinning mechanism seems to depend on both temperature and type of substrate. In general, no correlation between local microstructure and transport characteristics was revealed for NEG films on both metal templates.