Advancements in camera phone technology have made it easier than ever to capture, and store, photos, with modern handsets capable of holding hundreds, if not thousands, of high-resolution snaps. But what about when you want to get all those wonderful mementoes printed? Getting them developed at your local photo store is still an option, of course, but it can be time-consuming and expensive, especially when you take fuel costs into consideration. That’s where online photo printing services come in handy. Simple to use and available across multiple digital platforms, they enable you to upload your pictures (from either a cell phone or a more traditional camera), customise your shots using a suite of advanced editing features, and select from a range of print sizes. Once you’re happy with your handiwork, you simply make your payment and, in no time at all, your beautiful images will arrive at your door ready to be displayed on the wall or mantelpiece. As with many physical photo stores, you can also choose to have your pictures made into gifts, from photo books to fridge magnets. To help you choose the best photo printing online services for your needs, we’ve put together this handy guide, nominating our top choices in a range of categories, from best photo printing for color to best budget photo printing. Your memories are sacred, so give them the treatment they deserve… If you want to make some more advanced edits to your photos before getting them printed, check out our guide to the best photo editing software (opens in new tab). Prefer to develop your shots at home? Our list of the best photo printers (opens in new tab) will help you to invest wisely.
1. Walgreens: Best photo printing online overall
We’re all familiar with Walgreens, and for us they offer the best service overall for photo printing. Not only are the prints excellent clarity and color accuracy, but there are a wide variety of gifting options, including canvas prints, blankets, and even photo books. You can get your photos printed quickly and to a high standard, and the Walgreens app makes it even easier to do this task. We like that you can store an unlimited number of images in the app, and that you can grab images from Instagram and Facebook to print. And, while most will prefer to use separate image editors like Lightroom to enhance their pictures, there are basic options in the Walgreens app to adjust the pictures before you order prints. Walgreens offers a variety of delivery options, from standard to overnight shipping, and you can even get international shipping if you need it. If you are in a hurry, photo books, prints and a few select photo gifts can be ordered for same-day, in-store pickup. Our only real criticisms of Walgreens is that not all stores offer the same variety of photo gifts, so some options will be unavailable to pick-up. We also noticed that the quality between matte and gloss prints varied a little, with the matte prints a little sharper than the gloss ones. Overall, though, this is the place we’d go to get our photos printed.
2. Snapfish: Best budget photo printing
Snapfish is one of the biggest international players in photo printing, and that means it offers a fantastic variety of print options and gifts, often for excellent prices. It was cheaper for most types of printing than the other services we tested, even if the quality of the printing was merely average. It’s by no means poor, but we found that services like Walgreens give slightly better clarity and color reproduction. One massive advantage of Snapfish is the huge range of occasions and holidays it covers with its photo gifts. We noticed that they had several that we didn’t see on most other printing sites, including Diwali, Zwanzaa, and the Chinese New Year. You’ll also find designs and stickers from the most common holiday themes like Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, Halloween and Valentine’s Day to spice up your pictures. Snapfish has basic photo editing tools like crop, color correction, and brightness and contrast adjustments. In fact, the web-based software is designed to automatically remove redeye, color correct and rotate any images that need editing when you upload them. The mobile app allows you to add images to your library on the go or order prints at your convenience. It’s worth noting that if you were a York Photo customer, they are now part of Snapfish.
3. Shutterfly: Best for color
Shutterfly’s photo prints had amazing color accuracy, although we’d say their overall clarity was merely average next to the likes of Snapfish and Walgreens. This runs across basic prints and all the gifts that Shutterfly offers. Photo gifts, including tote bags, plates, phone cases and even Christmas stockings, are available. What’s more, this service not only delivers, but also allows you to pick up images from your local Target, which can be a lifesaver when you’re short on time. That’s good, as there is no overnight option for shipping. The site is incredibly easy to use and offers tutorials if you want to design something new, which is great if you struggle with things like photo books. Shutterfly’s app allows you to upload and order your favorite images on the go, and you can upload from social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google Photo, Flickr and Smugmug. You can even create a Share Site to collect images from family and friends for your projects. The simple editor allows basic edits to your images before ordering, but it isn’t the best we’ve seen. In terms of price, we’d say that Shutterfly is middle of the road - not the cheapest, nor the most expensive.
4. Walmart Photo: Best for photo gifts
Walmart Photo Center is a great place to get prints, and the service is extremely fast and reliable. While the print quality on the images isn’t as sharp as Walgreens, and the color not as vivid as you see on Shutterfly, we love the sheer variety of gifts and printing options available at Walmart. Plus, many of these gifts can be ordered, printed, and collected within 24-hours if you’re willing to pick up from one of the many Walmart stores across the country. If you’re stuck for a last-minute gift idea… this is a great option. You can get regular printed gifts like large prints, photobooks, calendars and canvas prints. However, Walmart Photo also sells customizable mugs, pillows, blankets, necklaces, phone cases, puzzles, tote bags, cards, plates and more, all at low prices. There is also a decent selection of holiday themes that you can add to your photos for festive occasions, although it can’t match Snapfish for the range of options here. Depending on the availability at your store, you can order and pickup your photo gifts within 24 hours or less, a great idea if you need a thoughtful gift made quickly. The Walmart Photo prints site is straight forward and easy to use, and you can store as many photos as you want on your Walmart Photo account. Even better, the mobile app lets you do this from any location, with ease.
5. Artifact Uprising: Superb quality prints
What sets Artifact Uprising apart is the quality of its prints. You get gorgeous glossy photos, or a limited range of classic gifts, printed on excellent paper with great color reproduction and clarity. The trade-off, however, is that you do tend to pay much more than standard services like Walgreens and Walmart. However, we think that if you need something high-quality, like wedding photos, then it’s worth the investment. You will often find promo codes for Artifact Uprising, but they’re never as deep as the ones on other sites. The limited range of photo gifts is also slightly hampered by the fact that there is limited personal customization offered, and some of the templates for the photo books and cards feel very rigid. You won’t get the same range of gifts for the various holidays here as you do with other sites. So, expensive, but high quality. If you want any of the classic photo services, and you’d rather pay to get something special, this is a great place to shop. But other providers do better at the basics.
How we testing photo printing services
We tested these services simply by using them. We went through the process of choosing, uploading and editing photos, to see how easy the whole procedure was and how well the tools worked. We then took note of how long it took for the photos to arrive and evaluated how well the colours had been reproduced when we received our final prints.
How Much Do Photo Printing Services Cost?
If there’s one thing we learned from our years of testing and research, it’s that there is no consistently inexpensive service. Let us tell you what we mean: you can find a 4 x 6 print for as little as $0.09 on one website but then find that the same service has one of the priciest options for 5 x 7 prints. Similarly, a company might sell the most expensive 4 x 6 prints and yet charge the least for a canvas print, so you shouldn’t assume that your favorite service for ordering photo gifts is the most economical service for ordering prints and vice versa. Remember that you can find really good promos and discounts for prints and photo gifts near holidays, but you will want to give the company plenty of time to print your order if you purchase at these busy times; rush jobs near holidays will cost you extra. To help you further, we’ve broken down the average costs of the most commonly purchased prints and photo gifts based on the companies we compared: 4 x 6 Prints – We found that the least expensive companies only charged $0.09 per print while the most expensive company charged $0.29. This doesn’t include the cost of shipping or taxes. 5 x 7 Prints – Individual prints ranged from $0.58 to $2.49. The most common price range being around $0.75 cents before tax and shipping. 8 x 10 Prints – We found the least expensive option was $1.59 per print, while the most expensive was $4.99. The average price was between $3 and $4 per print before tax and shipping was factored in. 11 x 14 Prints – The least expensive choice was $3.85 per print while the most expensive was $10.99. The most common price was about $8 before tax and shipping. 11 x 14 Wrapped Canvas Prints – The least expensive canvas print was only $29.99 while the most expensive was $89.99. The average price for a 11 x 14 canvas was between $30 to $60 before tax and shipping. 8.5 x 11 Photo Book – The least expensive price for a single 20-page hardback was $24.99, while the most expensive option was $70.00. Companies most frequently offered these books between $30 and $35. Keep in mind that prices will vary depending on the embellishments, number of pages and cover options you choose. Many companies offer large quantity discounts for photo books, but the discount will depend on the number of books you order. We recommend Mixbook (opens in new tab) as our best overall pick for photo books. 8 x 11 Calendar – The least expensive calendar option we found only cost $17.47 while the most expensive cost $34.99. Typically, companies sold 8 x 11 calendars for about $20 before shipping and taxes were factored in. Some companies will offer discounts if you order a large number of calendars at once. The discount will depend on how many calendars you purchase and the company you purchase through.
How fast can you get photo prints?
When you need to get prints of your favorite photos fast, picking up at a brick and mortar store is the way to go. Most companies will allow you to print at Walgreens Photo, CVS Photo and Walmart Photo. In our testing, Walgreens had the best print quality out of these three. Shutterfly had the second best print quality in our testing, and this service lets you pick up prints at your local Target. If you order directly at a physical Walgreens, CVS or Walmart, you’ll likely be able to have photos in hand within one hour of ordering them, whereas you’ll have to wait at least two days for processing and shipping if you order prints for delivery from an online store. Admittedly, two days isn’t very long to wait unless you’re in a time crunch and need your photos fast. Be aware that some sizes and print finishes are only available for mail order.
