Best Digital Printing

Snapfish wins overall

Almost all digital photo printing websites offer the same basic options: online storage, editing tools, printing services, photo gifts and photo sharing. Photo sharing is an especially helpful feature, because users can upload photos and invite friends and family to view them online. This saves you from e-mailing large batches of image files. Anyone can then order just the digital photo prints they want, as well as photo gifts like mugs, coasters, magnets or entire photo albums.

We find the most consistently good reviews for Snapfish (*Est. 9 cents per print), with recommendations from nine review sites including Lifehacker.com, Information Week, PCMag.com and BusinessWeek. Owned by Hewlett-Packard (HP) since 2005, Snapfish has a "110 percent guarantee." If you're not happy with your photos, Snapfish will give you a refund or let you reorder for free, and it also gives you a 10 percent credit on a future order. In several reviews, Snapfish also receives great scores for fast turnaround, and Lifehacker.com says the company frequently offers free or reduced shipping deals. Additionally, Snapfish offers free unlimited storage, editing software and photo sharing, as well as a pickup option at Walgreens, Meijer, Walmart and other stores. When using the pickup option, you'll pay store-specific, not Snapfish, prices. Digital photo prints are available from Snapfish in matte or glossy finish in eight sizes: wallet, 4-by-6-inch, 5-by-7-inch, 8-by-10-inch, 11-by-14-inch, 12-by-18-inch, 16-by-20-inch and 20-by-30-inch.

StarReviews.com praises Snapfish's features, especially its extensive array of photo-management options and detailed help section. Editing tools, such as a cropping tool, red-eye removal, rotation and auto-contrast, help you fix and enhance your photos, although the editors note that the photo-editing tools aren't compatible with Mac computers. Despite this, in a 2006 review, Ben Long of Macworld says Snapfish "stood out from the pack" and rates it best overall. Reviewers also praise the variety of photo gifts and novelty items offered, including photo-adorned boxer shorts (*Est. $20), neckties (*Est. $30) and tote bags (*Est. $25). More mundane photo mugs, photo magnets and calendars are also available.

Snapfish earns 27 percent of more than 4,300 reader votes at Lifehacker.com, where author Jason Fitzpatrick calls Snapfish "the most generous of the photo printing sites" for offering 50 free 4-by-6-inch prints to first-time customers as well as some of the lowest pricing on online photo prints. At TopTenReviews.com, Snapfish is the top pick among 16 online photo printing services, earning excellent scores for ease of ordering, service and site features and technical support.

Print quality is rated as very good. We did find a few recent complaints about customer service and print quality on Epinions.com, where more than 275 consumers contribute to an average rating of 3 stars out of 5.

Shutterfly scores for its photo gifts

Reviews for Shutterfly (*Est. 15 cents per print) vary among experts and consumers, but the site remains one of the most popular, even though its per-print charges are on the higher end of the industry. To offset this, Shutterfly offers a prepaid plan that drops prices as low as 9 cents per print, and the first 50 prints (4-by-6-inch size) are free for new customers. Shutterfly allows users to pick up photos at Target, Walgreen's or CVS -- in as little as an hour -- rather than waiting for home delivery, although store prices apply to online photo prints picked up in-store. Shutterfly also offers large-format digital photo prints (11-by-14-inch, 16-by-20-inch and 20-by-30-inch), which are available only in matte finish.

Shutterfly has received mixed reviews for print quality over the years. In a 2006 review for PCMag.com, Tony Hoffman says Shutterfly produces "consistently good prints," noting that the color is not oversaturated and the digital photo prints contain good detail. In another older review conducted by Ulrich Boser for Slate.com, Shutterfly comes out on top. Boser tests six online digital printing services by ordering a printed album from each. He is impressed by Shutterfly's image quality, stating that the photos are "almost National Geographic quality: bright, clear, and crisp." Reviewers at TopTenReviews.com, however, finds some flaws in print quality. In a review in Information Week, writer Don Reisinger finds Shutterfly's overall print quality in the middle of the pack, but for customers looking for "all the bells and whistles," he says, "Shutterfly is the place to be." Reisinger says he's overwhelmed by all the options.

Jason Fitzpatrick, in a review for Lifehacker.com, is impressed with Shutterfly's easy to use website, saying it has "the most polished and organized sharing system of the sites featured here today." Older reviews in BusinessWeek and Slate.com, as well as Real Simple magazine, also praise Shutterfly's simple-to-use photo upload and sharing system, as well as the ordering process. In their 2007 review, The Wall Street Journal calls Shutterfly "the simplest site" to use.

Shutterfly has an average rating of 3.5 stars out of 5 on Epinions.com, based on feedback from nearly 160 users. Most reviews are positive, but like Snapfish, there are several recent complaints about poor print quality and customer service issues. One reviewer says that the prepaid plan doesn't pay off, because shipping charges are very high and free shipping promotions don't apply to prepaid plans. This reviewer ended up paying 14 cents per print after adding shipping charges, nearly the same cost per print for non-prepaid orders. Reviewers on PhotographyReview.com say Shutterfly is great until there's a problem; although the company offers 24/7 telephone support, many reviewers say it's difficult to get issues resolved.

Despite some issues with customer service, Shutterfly has several advantages. In addition to a simple photo sharing and ordering interface, users say they appreciate Shutterfly's free and unlimited online storage. Easy-to-use editing software includes cropping and centering tools, red-eye removal and automatic color and sharpness enhancers. In an evaluation of 14 websites offering printed photo books conducted by the Good Housekeeping, Shutterfly performed at or near the top in nearly every test conducted, although the article doesn't describe testing in detail.

TopTenReviews.com says in their review that Shutterfly offers "one of the most impressive photo stores on the Internet." PCMag.com and DigitalPhotos101.com also praise Shutterfly for their photo cards and hardbound photo books. Shutterfly offers hundreds of gift choices, with unusual options like wall decals, playing cards, puzzles and CentreStage books. The latter option enables you to incorporate your child's picture into a variety of available storybooks, including those featuring popular characters like SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer and members of Sesame Street. In addition, there are more than 500 free photo borders to choose from. Shutterfly also allows users to create free personalized and secure web pages (formerly called Shutterfly Share) to share photos with friends and family, who can then order digital photo prints or other projects from the shared images.

Wal-Mart has the most convenient delivery options

Although reviewers say that Snapfish is the best all-around online photo printing service and Shutterfly offers the most options, experts say the most convenient service is the Walmart Photo Center (*Est. 9 cents and up per print). Accessible through Walmart.com, this popular service allows you to pick up digital photo prints at any Walmart location. Nearly all consumers and experts mention the low prices and convenience of the three delivery options, including in-store pick-up, a one-hour option and a site-to-store service that eliminates all shipping and handling charges and provides photos in three to five days. One reviewer on OlegKikin.com notes that when she needed to get pictures to her sister, located four hours away, she was able to send them to her sister's local Walmart store for pickup.

Reviewers like Walmart's online interface, with several commenting on the easy upload process and user-friendly features. Information Week's Don Reisinger says Walmart's service offers the kind of flexibility that "puts it at the top of the list," and he says that although the uploading process is simple, it's not as quick as Shutterfly. Easy-to-use features include editing tools, free unlimited storage of photos and photo sharing. Users and experts alike are also pleased with the photo gift options, which include Picture Me books (*Est. $17), 10-page storybooks customized with a child's photo.

Print quality for Walmart, however, scores mixed reviews. Don Reisinger says that Walmart's photo quality is comparable to the best he tested, but some older reviews complain about mediocre photo quality. For example, Ben Long, in a 2005 review for Macworld, says Walmart offers fast delivery, but poor photo quality. In an older 2006 review on PCWorld.com, Walmart Photo Center lands at the bottom of the pack in terms of image quality, with oversaturated blacks, overexposure and lack of sharpness.

This may indicate a positive shift in quality at Walmart Photo Center over the past few years. Other online photo printing services are mentioned by some reviewers as good choices. Burt Helm, writing in a 2005 review at Business Week, likes dotPhoto.com (*Est. 9 cents per print). He says that if your top priority is sharing photos with family and friends, dotPhoto.com has the best photo-sharing features. He says its photo quality is also very good -- a close second to Snapfish's digital photo prints. Tony Hoffman is also pleased with the quality of online photo prints from dotPhoto.com in his 2006 review for PCMag.com, stating that dotPhoto.com "did well in capturing natural color, brightness, and contrast." In addition, he notes that gift items are also available through dotPhoto.com. Real Simple magazine praises dotPhoto.com's photo-sharing capabilities, including the ability to set a photo slideshow to music, but they call the print-ordering process "a bit clunky," because the print size must be selected separately for each photograph after it's placed in the shopping cart.

Geared towards professional photographers, Mpix (*Est. 29 cents per print) is a favorably rated digital photo printing service. In his 2005 review for Macworld, Ben Long rates Mpix as a close second to Snapfish in image quality. Mpix is the highest-rated digital photo printing service on OlegKikin.com, a professional photographer's site that allows users to post reviews for 125 digital printing services. Nearly 15 users review Mpix, giving it an average rating of 4.46 stars, out of a possible 5. Most reviewers say they are pleased with customer service and the prints are of excellent quality. There are a few complaints about turnaround time, however, and the cost per print is the highest we found. Mpix earns 14 percent of the more than 4,300 votes on a Lifehacker.com poll, landing it in third place after Snapfish and Shutterfly. Author Jason Fitzpatrick says Mpix offers "a diverse portfolio of additional services like mounting on standouts and canvas printing." In a 2006 review for PCMag.com, Tony Hoffman reports that out of the 13 services he tested, he rarely selected an Mpix image as one of the top few and says the "high price seems unjustified for the average consumer not interested in Mpix's high-end processing options."

AdoramaPix.com (*Est. 22 cents per print) offers a larger variety of papers than others, including lustre, matte, glossy, silk and metallic surfaces on Kodak Royal and Endura papers, and Ilford black-and-white paper. The professional papers cost more: 24 cents to 29 cents per 4-by-6-inch photo, but one unusual feature at Adorama is that every image is personally reviewed by a technician. If you live in New York City, you can pick up your digital photo prints at the Adorama store in Manhattan, making it a viable alternative to Walmart, which has no locations there.

SmugMug (*Est. 19 cents per print) is a family-owned and operated business that launched in 2002. The biggest difference between SmugMug and other online digital printing services is that SmugMug charges a fee (*Est. $40 to $150 per year) for unlimited photo storage. In return, their site is not populated by ads, and they offer privacy controls such as password-protected galleries and the ability to block downloads of your images. A review on ReadWriteWeb.com that focuses on the social photo-sharing aspects of different services says that although SmugMug has an annual fee, you get what you pay for with a quality selection of theme templates, ease of use and a rich set of features. TopTenReviews.com says SmugMug offers great service and high quality digital photo prints, although the ordering and sharing processes can be confusing. Nearly all the reviews we read comment positively on the quality of service.

Two other services offer some of the lowest prices per print: Winkflash (*Est. 8 cents per print) and York Photo (*Est. 8 cents per print), although we found little professional coverage of these online digital photo printing services. York Photo is ranked fifth in a comparison review at TopTenReviews.com, which says York Photo is inexpensive and easy to use, but lacks technical support and site features. Editors say the average user would have few complaints about print quality. Winkflash earns the ninth-place spot in the same review. The editors say Winkflash offers good customer support, but mediocre image quality and a lack of site features common to top contenders lands this site near the bottom of the pack. . At Photo.net, Winkflash is criticized for its usability issues and incorrect orders.

Finally, Kodak Gallery (*Est. 12 cents per print) does fairly well in reviews, but it is not really a standout in any area. Kodak Gallery's in-store pickup option is mentioned as a positive feature, with same-day pickup at selected Target and CVS locations, although store prices (not Kodak's) apply to these prints. Most reviews are mixed, however, among consumers and experts. TopTenReviews.com says Kodak Gallery is easy to use and offers an array of features, although print quality is average. One standout feature is its downloadable photo-organizing software, which allows users to organize photos without being online. Editors at DigitalPhotos101.com note that Kodak Gallery's cropping feature automatically preserves the aspect ratio of your images and also point out that this site allows you to download your images in the same resolution that you uploaded them in.

A 2009 review at Photo-Print-Reviews.com notes that Kodak's quality and prices leave "room for improvement." A 2007 review in The Wall Street Journal calls Kodak's editing features "a bit clumsy." Ulrich Boser, in a 2006 review of printed photo books for Slate.com, says Kodak is "worth your money but a little bland." On the other hand, an article at Information Week notes that the quality of Kodak's photos puts it "towards the front of the pack." Real Simple magazine also says Kodak Gallery produces consistently high print quality and excellent color, but it says that online photo albums are "pretty basic."

There are literally dozens of services that offer online photo printing. OlegKikin.com lists 125 different online digital photo printing services. Only a few of these services are discussed in comparative reviews, but information is available from individual vendor websites.