Navigating the realm of online photo printing can be overwhelming, with numerous services vying for your attention. Mpix, a popular choice known for its user-friendly smartphone app, unfortunately didn’t impress our expert panel. Their prints were ranked as the least favorite, and the service’s inability to print smartphone photos without cropping was a significant drawback. This forced cropping can be a deal-breaker for photographers who meticulously compose their shots.
For those prioritizing uncropped smartphone prints, services like EZprints and RitzPix offer a 4:3 aspect ratio print size, perfectly suited to smartphone photos. Printique and Nations Photo Lab go a step further by providing an uncropped printing option regardless of the image’s aspect ratio. Regrettably, Mpix currently lacks both of these customer-friendly options.
A close-up of the edge of a rolled-up print from Snapfish showing damage from shipping, highlighting issues with inadequate packaging.
While Bay Photo boasts small print sizes optimized for smartphone photos and robust packaging, their print quality in our tests was merely average. Participants in blind tests consistently ranked Bay Photo prints as a reasonable second choice, but rarely as a top or bottom pick. This indicates a decent but not exceptional performance in overall print quality compared to competitors in the Best Online Printing Services landscape.
Snapfish distinguishes itself with the lowest prices among the services tested, yet this affordability comes at a cost in print quality. Both 8-by-10 and 4-by-6 prints exhibited harsh contrast, resulting in lost detail in shadows and highlights. Portrait photos displayed noticeably orange skin tones, further detracting from the overall print quality. Packaging was also subpar, with smaller prints arriving in flimsy cardboard envelopes lacking padding. An 11-by-14 print, though shipped in a tube, lacked internal padding, leading to bent edges during transit, as depicted below.
Damaged corner of a RitzPix photo print against a green backdrop, illustrating shipping damage due to insufficient packaging.
RitzPix also encountered packaging issues, resulting in damaged prints upon arrival. Their 11-by-14 print was shipped in a flat envelope with thin backing boards, similar to those found in inexpensive photo frames. The envelope’s tight fit for the 11-by-14 photo meant that when the package was crushed, the print’s corner was damaged. This damage, easily preventable with a larger envelope or a box, was particularly disappointing given RitzPix’s high $14.95 shipping fee, more than double the average of other services we evaluated for best online printing services.
EZprints, similar to Snapfish, delivered prints of notably poor quality. A consistent hazy, washed-out appearance veiled every print, rendering them the least sharp among those tested. Areas of solid color also exhibited an undesirable mottled texture. These consistent quality issues position EZprints lower in rankings for best online printing services.
Shutterfly, despite being the second most expensive service in our evaluation, offered only average print quality. The primary concern with Shutterfly was its packaging. Small prints were shipped in thin, flat envelopes, while the 11-by-14 print arrived curled in a tube, necessitating flattening before display. While uncurling prints is possible, as shown below, it adds an extra step for the user.
A curled photo print from Shutterfly, shipped in a tube, demonstrating the inconvenience of tube packaging for photo prints.
Zazzle provides photo printing services, but its interface is geared towards individual, single-item orders and offers limited paper choices. Selecting print sizes involves a cumbersome drag-and-drop process for each image on its order page. This tedious approach makes Zazzle unsuitable for even small batches of prints, hindering its usability as a top choice for best online printing services for bulk orders.
Photo print being flattened under heavy books, showing a method to correct curling caused by tube shipping in online photo printing.
Winkflash is plagued by consistently negative customer reviews, raising serious concerns about its reliability. Beyond reports of customers losing access to stored photos due to ownership changes, numerous users have reported difficulties contacting customer service. Customer support is exclusively available through a web form, lacking phone or email options. These critical issues make Winkflash an easily dismissible option when considering best online printing services.
FreePrints entices users with the promise of up to 1,000 free 4-by-6 prints annually, requiring only payment for shipping. However, the service’s website offers minimal information about the company, print quality, or ordering procedures, relying heavily on a phone app-centric approach. This lack of transparency and the “too good to be true” offer raise skepticism about FreePrints as a dependable service for high-quality photo printing.
Amazon Prints offers 4-by-6 prints at a competitive price of 17¢ each, though it previously matched lower-cost rivals like Snapfish at 9¢. Amazon Prime members who utilize Prime Photos for storage can conveniently order prints directly from their stored images. The ordering process is straightforward, and print quality is mid-range – acceptable but not outstanding, with skin tones tending towards orange. Photos arrived within six business days. Packaging, however, was disappointing, consisting of a thin flat mailer with minimal cardboard support, resulting in corner damage to one print. This packaging issue impacts Amazon Prints’ standing among best online printing services.
Walmart provides a 4-by-5.3-inch print option, accommodating smartphone 4:3 aspect ratio images without cropping. However, their overall selection of print sizes is less comprehensive than leading services in the online printing market. While convenient for some smartphone users, Walmart’s limited size options restrict its versatility compared to top-tier best online printing services with wider offerings.
