In today’s digital age, while we capture countless memories on our smartphones and cameras, the tangible joy of holding a physical photograph remains unparalleled. This is where a reliable Photo Printing Service becomes invaluable, transforming your digital images into cherished prints. With a plethora of online options available, choosing the right photo printing service can feel overwhelming. This review dives deep into several popular services, assessing their print quality, ease of use, shipping, and overall value to help you find the best photo printing service for your needs.
Mpix stands out as a widely recognized photo printing service, boasting a user-friendly app that simplifies ordering prints directly from your smartphone. Despite its popularity and convenience, our tests revealed some critical drawbacks. Panelists consistently ranked Mpix’s photo prints as their least preferred due to a significant issue: the service’s inability to print smartphone photos without forced cropping.
A close-up of the edge of a rolled-up print from Snapfish showing damage from transport, highlighting issues with photo print packaging and shipping damage.
For photographers who meticulously compose their shots, this mandatory cropping can be a deal-breaker when selecting a photo printing service. In contrast, services like EZprints and RitzPix offer smartphone-friendly print sizes with a 4:3 aspect ratio, perfectly accommodating standard smartphone photos. Furthermore, Printique and Nations Photo Lab provide the flexibility to print images uncropped, regardless of aspect ratio mismatches. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, Mpix lacked both of these crucial options for seamless smartphone photo printing service.
Bay Photo presents itself as another option for photo printing service, offering small print sizes tailored for smartphone photos and commendable sturdy packaging. However, our testing revealed a middling print output quality. In blind print comparisons, participants rarely selected Bay Photo as their top or bottom choice, generally positioning it as a satisfactory but not exceptional second-tier photo printing service.
When it comes to budget-friendly options, Snapfish emerges as one of the most affordable photo printing services. Yet, this low cost comes at a noticeable compromise in quality. Both 8×10 and 4×6 prints from Snapfish exhibited harsh contrast, resulting in a loss of detail in shadows and highlights. Portrait photos displayed unflattering orangish skin tones. Packaging also proved to be a significant concern. Smaller prints were shipped in flimsy cardboard envelopes lacking adequate padding, leaving them vulnerable to damage during transit. While the 11×14 print was shipped in a tube, the absence of internal padding led to bent edges due to impact with the tube’s end caps, demonstrating subpar packaging from this photo printing service.
A detailed view of corner damage on a RitzPix photo print against a green backdrop, illustrating poor packaging and potential damage from photo printing services.
RitzPix also encountered packaging-related issues, with an 11×14 print arriving damaged. Despite charging a hefty $14.95 for shipping – more than double the average of other photo printing services we tested – RitzPix opted for inadequate packaging. The print was shipped in a flat envelope with thin backing boards, only marginally larger than the print itself. Consequently, the print sustained corner damage when the package was crushed during shipping. Simply using a larger envelope or a box, as employed by several other photo printing services, could have easily prevented this damage.
Similar to Snapfish, EZprints stood out for its disappointingly poor print quality among the tested photo printing services. Every print exhibited a hazy, washed-out appearance, as if veiled. These prints were the least sharp of the group, and areas of consistent tone showed a mottled texture, indicating significant quality issues with this photo printing service.
Shutterfly, while being the second most expensive photo printing service in our tests, delivered only average print quality. The primary complaint with Shutterfly was its packaging. Small prints arrived in a thin, flat envelope, and the 11×14 print came rolled in a tube. This resulted in curled prints that necessitate flattening before display, a common issue with tube-shipped prints from photo printing services. While uncurling prints is possible, it carries the risk of creases or ripple marks. A safer, albeit slower, method involves flattening the prints under weight for a day or two.
A curled large photo print from tube shipping on a table, demonstrating the packaging issues of some photo printing services.
Zazzle, another photo printing service, offers photo prints but presents a user interface geared towards single-order jobs and provides limited paper choices. Ordering prints from Zazzle involves a cumbersome process of dragging each image individually onto a print-size template on its own order page. This tedious approach makes Zazzle impractical for ordering even a small batch of separate prints, hindering efficient photo printing service experience.
Coffee table books flattening a photo print, illustrating a method to fix curled prints from photo printing services.
Winkflash faces a stream of overwhelmingly negative customer reviews. Beyond numerous reports of customers losing access to their hosted photos due to ownership changes, many users have cited difficulties contacting customer service. Winkflash exclusively offers customer support via a web form, lacking phone or email contact options. These significant issues led to an easy dismissal of Winkflash as a viable photo printing service.
FreePrints operates on a unique model, offering up to 1,000 free 4×6 prints annually, requiring customers only to cover shipping costs. However, the service’s website provides minimal information, suggesting that all interactions and ordering must occur through a phone app. The lack of online information about the company, print quality, and the ordering process raises concerns. As the saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is,” prompting caution regarding FreePrints as a reliable photo printing service.
Amazon Prints offers 4×6 prints at 17¢ each, a price increase from its previous competitive rate of 9¢, which once matched budget rivals like Snapfish. Amazon Prime members who utilize Prime Photos for image storage can conveniently order prints directly from their stored photos. Amazon’s ordering process is straightforward. Print quality, however, was average, falling in the middle of the tested photo printing services. Skin tones tended towards orange, and packaging, consisting of a flat mailer with thin cardboard, was subpar, resulting in corner damage to one print.
Walmart provides a 4×5.3-inch print size option, accommodating smartphone 4:3 aspect ratio images without cropping. However, its overall selection of print sizes is considerably less comprehensive compared to top-rated photo printing services.
Conclusion: Choosing Your Ideal Photo Printing Service
Selecting the best photo printing service ultimately depends on your individual priorities. If uncropped smartphone prints are essential, services like RitzPix, EZprints, Printique, Nations Photo Lab, and Walmart are worth considering. For budget-conscious consumers, Snapfish and Amazon Prints offer lower prices, but be mindful of potential compromises in print quality and packaging. Services like Mpix and Shutterfly, while popular, presented issues in our tests regarding cropping or packaging. EZprints and Winkflash exhibited significant quality or customer service concerns. Carefully weigh print quality, packaging reliability, user experience, and pricing to make an informed decision and choose the photo printing service that best meets your needs for preserving your precious memories.
