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Top photo printing sites


The Best Online Photo Printing Services for 2022

There's a big difference between a digital photo and a printed photograph. The latter is a physical object, rather than just an image file displayed on a screen. Sure, you can hold your phone up to someone's face to show them snapshots of your baby niece, but that's no way to proudly display or physically share a favorite shot. Online photo printers like Mpix, Nations Photo Lab, Shutterfly, and Snapfish exist because people still want their pictures printed.

The services included here can produce high-quality prints and memorabilia from your digital photos, whether that's in the form of wallet-size snapshots or wall-size photo canvases. And some, like CVS Photo, can get your shots in your hand within an hour.

Below are the top photo printing services we tested, followed by some helpful ideas of the factors you should consider when choosing the right service to give your digital keepsakes physical form.

Nations Photo Lab

Best Print Quality Overall

4. 5 Outstanding

Why We Picked It

Nations Photo Lab has been delivering high-quality prints since 2005, when three professional photographers couldn't find a lab with the quality, pricing, and turnaround times they required. Now the service serves both pros and amateurs, and it delivered the best quality prints in terms of sharpness and color accuracy in our test orders. Shipped photos arrive in the sturdiest packaging of any services tested, too.

Who It’s For

This photo printing service is for both professionals and picky consumers who don't mind paying just a little more for better quality than you get with budget-minded services. It's also a good option if you're looking for photo greeting cards, wall art, and gifts.

PROS

  • Excellent print quality
  • Protective delivery packaging
  • TIFF file support
  • Good selection of photo gifts

CONS

  • Comparatively expensive
  • Web interface isn't the slickest

Sold By List Price Price
Nations Photo Lab 40% off with Code: 40PCMAG 40% off with Code: 40PCMAG See It (Opens in a new window)

Read Our Nations Photo Lab Review

CVS Photo

Best for Convenient Local Printing

4. 0 Excellent

Why We Picked It

CVS produced the sharpest photo prints among one-hour local pickup services we tested (Walgreens and Walmart were the others). You pay more for that convenience, but when you need it CVS's excellent printing equipment and paper are up to the task.

Who It’s For

Anyone in a rush. If you're looking for the absolute top quality, you'll want to order photos from a high-end service like Nations Photo Lab or Mpix, but for the fastest turnaround, CVS is a good option.

PROS

  • One-hour local pickup
  • Great print sharpness
  • No prepayment necessary; pay on pickup
  • Good ordering interface

CONS

  • Oversaturated colors in test prints
  • Relatively expensive

Mpix

Best for Quality Prints and Paper

4.0 Excellent

Why We Picked It

Mpix is one of the more expensive mail-order photo printing services we tested. It delivers fine prints in some of the strongest packaging of any service, and its giclée(Opens in a new window) and metallic paper and are truly impressive, almost giving your shots a 3D look. The service also uses long-lasting Kodak photo paper.

Who It’s For

Because Mpix costs more than the budget players in our roundup (like Snapfish and Walmart Photo) and offers more high-end options, it will appeal to professionals and serious amateur photographers.

PROS

  • Clear interface and options
  • High-end packaging
  • Good print quality
  • Online gallery sharing
  • Film processing

CONS

  • Glossy prints cost more
  • Prices on the high end
  • No TIFF or PNG support

Sold By List Price Price
Mpix 25% off First Order 25% off First Order See It (Opens in a new window)

Read Our Mpix Review

Snapfish

Best for Low-Cost Prints

4.0 Excellent

Why We Picked It

Value. Despite its market-beating price of just 9 cents per 4-by-6-inch print, Snapfish delivers pleasing print quality and sharpness. The packaging it arrives in can't match that used by more expensive services like Nations Photo Lab, but it's good enough and you'll be paying a quarter of the price. Snapfish also offers some useful photo editing tools and online gallery sharing.

Who It’s For

Snapfish is good for those who want prints but don't want to spend much money. For example, a set of 50 photos would cost just a mere $4.50 plus shipping from Snapfish. That same order would cost $18 from Mpix.

PROS

  • Low prices
  • Excellent image quality
  • Well-designed, fast, modern web interface
  • Solid editing tools
  • Tons of print surface options, including mugs, blankets, and much more
  • Online gallery sharing

CONS

  • Average shipment packaging
  • Lacks TIFF and high-megapixel file support

Printique

Best for Sturdy Packaging

3. 5 Good

Why We Picked It

Printique comes from Adorama, a name long trusted by professional photographers. The company delivers photo prints on a good choice of papers and in the sturdiest shipping material of any service we tested. The site also has one of the clearest, most capable interfaces for assembling and organizing your order.

Who It’s For

Pros who use Adorama will be comfortable with this service, and anyone who needs to be absolutely sure the photos will arrive unharmed should consider it. Pricing is on the high end, but the ordering interface is tops.

PROS

  • Superior website usability and features
  • Good print quality
  • Letterbox cropping and border options
  • Highly protective packaging for shipping
  • TIFF and large files supported

CONS

  • Prints not as sharp as from some competitors
  • Few printed gift options

Shutterfly

Best for Photo-Printed Gifts

3. 5 Good

Why We Picked It

Shutterfly is probably the most recognized name in online photo printing services. It produces perfectly acceptable prints that you order in a well-designed interface. It's not quite as cheap as Snapfish, but it offers the most choice of gifts products emblazoned with your photos—shower curtain, beach bag, or sweatshirt blanket anyone?

Who It’s For

Shutterfly is suitable for those who want low-cost prints, photo books, or any of a huge selection of products with their pictures printed on them.

PROS

  • Sharp print images
  • Good delivery packaging
  • Intuitive web interface with online gallery sharing
  • Vast selection of photo-printed gift options

CONS

  • Expensive for larger print sizes
  • Weak online photo editing
  • High shipping prices

Walgreens Photo

Best for Speed

3.5 Good

Why We Picked It

Our test one-hour photo order from Walgreens Photo was ready the fastest of any similar service we tested, in just nine minutes. It's two cents cheaper per 4-by-6 print than our local-pickup Editors' Choice pick, CVS. The Walgreens Photo site lets you grab photos from your social networks, do a little editing, and share galleries with friends.

Who It’s For

Walgreens Photo is for those who need pictures printed pronto! Especially if you're not near a branch of our local pickup Editors' Choice service, CVS.

PROS

  • Fast printing
  • Basic online image editing
  • Grabs photos from social networks for printing
  • Online album sharing

CONS

  • Prints not as sharp as competitors’
  • Expensive

Walmart Photo

Best for Low-Cost Enlargements

3.5 Good

Why We Picked It

Walmart offers 5-by-7-inch and 8-by-10 prints at a lower price than any competitor we tested. It's by far the cheapest local-pickup option, too, at just 12 cents per 4-by-6 print. Walmart Photo also delivers decent print quality in acceptably protective packaging and uses a well-designed ordering interface.

Who It’s For

Those looking for a bargain on larger prints or on photos they can pick up locally on the same day should consider Walmart. Walmart Plus members will also want to use it since they get free shipping.

PROS

  • Affordable
  • Decent web interface
  • Fast service with same-day local pickup option
  • Smartphone ordering app

CONS

  • Average image quality
  • Doesn’t accept HEIC or TIFF image files
  • Adequate but not great packaging for shipments

Buying Guide: The Best Online Photo Printing Services for 2022

Where Can You Get Cheap Photo Prints?

You don't have to break the bank to get printed photos. For 15 cents or less per photo, you can have 4-by-6-inch prints from several services here. Snapfish has the lowest price at just 9 cents.

Of the photo printing services we tested, the most expensive mail-order service, Mpix at 36 cents for a mailed 4-by-6 print. Nations Photo Labs' and Printique's charge 32 cents, but they provide excellent image and paper quality. In the middle is Shutterfly at 18 cents for a 4-by-6. Local pickup options usually cost more. CVS Photo costs 39 cents for 4-by-6s for local pickup, and Walgreens charges 37 cents for the same, though Walmart Photo charges only 12 cents—the same price as for mailed prints.

Even if you want enlargements at popular sizes, such as 5-by-7 and 8-by-10, you don't have to spend a lot. Snapfish again has the best price at 69 cents for a 5-by-7 print. Printique charges $2.65 for an 8-by-10 print, and most other services charge a still-reasonable $2.99–$3.99 for that size.

For wall art prints, you'll pay more, but prices still aren't exorbitant. All the services in this roundup sell 16-by-20 prints for about $20, and most charge closer to $15.

One thing worth keeping in mind is that most of the services included here offer special discount pricing from time to time. The See It links above often lead to some unexpected bargains and offers.

What's the Best Photo Printing Service for Gifts and Greeting Cards?

Why stop at ordinary photo prints, when you can have your pictures grace mugs, playing cards, and even pillows? The services here offer a remarkable assortment of objects that you can personalize. All offer greeting cards, calendars, and photo books (more on this below). Most also offer phone cases, blankets, and coffee mugs.

(Credit: PCMag)

Holiday cards mean so much more when they include a photo or photos of your family, and most of the services here can produce them for you at reasonable rates. Most online photo printing services offer 5-by-7 flat cards, which cost in the range from about 50 cents (from Walmart) to about $3 from the higher end services. A few offer traditional folding cards for a bit more. You'll pay less per card with a larger order volume. Premium options like foil printing, special cutout shapes, and linen card stock can be had at premium prices.

Shutterfly offers the largest selection of photo gifts, with flowerpots, blankets, cell phone cases, pillows, shower curtains, and even food bowls for your pets. CVS can sell you a necktie featuring your picture or multiple copies of one shot. I'm still waiting for someone to offer photo-embellished rugs and lampshades. A couple of fun options that many do offer are puzzles and magnets. Walmart will sell you a teddy bear wearing a T-shirt sporting your photo. Some of the latest photo gifts I've seen are capes for kids, drawstring backpacks, tea towels, pot holders, bottle openers, tote bags, pet food containers, and of course face masks.

Where Can You Get Large Canvas Prints?

Two services included here, CanvasChamp and CanvasPop, don't even print standard small photos, but instead offer only large wall art (as well as magnets and pillows). CanvasPop offers 12-by-16 canvas prints wrapped on a 3/4-inch frame for $90. The company also offers retouching and restoration services. CanvasChamp offers prints up to 54 by 54 inches and is more budget-oriented than CanvasPop, with prices starting at just $4.25 for a 5-by-7 or 8-by-8-inch canvas, but the quality doesn't match that of CanvasPop.

(Credit: PCMag)

Those two services aren't the only ones that can turn your photos into large wall art. Nations Photo Lab's canvas offerings start at $56.35 for an 8-by-10 stretched on a 3/4-inch frame; Snapfish canvases start at $39.99 for 8-by-8s, and Printique surprisingly undercuts that at $29.99 for an 8-by-8. But canvas prices can jump up very high with larger sizes: at CanvasPop, you'll pay $566 for a 72-by-40, but that's a lot of canvas.

Where Can You Get Mounted Prints?

Most of the photo printing services here offer a choice of hard backings for larger prints, and they'll also frame your picture. Mounting options for Shutterfly include printing on card stock, which starts at $3.99 for a 5-by-7.

Card stock isn't as suitable for wall hanging as other options, such as styrene, standouts, gator board, and metal prints (more on this last type of print below). Gator board is stronger than standard foam plastic and it's easy to hang on the wall because it's impregnated with wood fibers. All these types of backing are available from many of the online photo printing services included here.

Mpix offers a CollageWall option that lets you group related shots with a matching background. These start at $79.99 for a 2-by-1-foot array consisting of five photos; that can go up over $1,000 for 10-by-3-foot wall display with dozens of component photos. Other services, including Printique, offer similar décor solutions.

Where Can You Get Metal Prints, Wood Prints, and Framing?

Metal prints are an elegant, more permanent option offered by several services. With this process, your photo is printed directly onto a metallic surface for more vivid colors and contrast. Mpix can print to paper using a similar effect, with its Metallic Print option. In actual printing on metal, Nations Photo Lab charges $18.40 for a 4-by-6-inch metal print, and $32.20 for an 8-by-10, for example. Its largest metal option is a substantial 24 by 36 inches, which lists for $264.50.

A stylish twist from Snapfish is its maple wood mounting. This option starts at $129.99 for an 16-by-20 print. The option comes with mounting holes in the back, and the printing process allows the wood grain to show through your image for a rustic look.

Framing adds the ultimate wall-art touch to your large photo prints. It also adds cost. A framed 3.5-by-5 from Mpix costs $26. For matting, you pay an additional $10. Printique charges $102 for framed and matted prints at the 8-by-10 size, while Snapfish starts at $40.49 for that size.

What Is the Easiest Site to Make Photo Books?

Almost all the services included here can print books featuring your photos. For special events such as weddings, graduations, and vacations, nothing serves as a better reminder than a professionally printed photo book. The entry-level price for a book is Shutterfly's $19.98 for a 8-by-8-inch hardcover. Printique and Snapfish also charge $19.99 for an 8-by-8 book, while Mpix charges that for a 5-by-5 book. Nations Photo Lab only makes hardcover books, which start at $33. 35 for 5-by-7-inch books. Mpix offers hardcover books with sewn bindings, called Premium hardcover books starting at $39.99 for a 20-page 5-by-5-inch book and Economy hardcover books starting at $19.99.

As you can imagine, prices go way up with book dimensions and more premium materials. For example, a 20-page 8-by-12 book with Deep Matte stock costs $129.99 from Mpix, and each extra page costs and additional $4.

(Credit: PCMag)

Shutterfly has a service that curates your photos and designs a book for if you feel you're not up to the task yourself. The site has one of the best design tools, with three options: Make My Book; Custom Path, which lets you personalize every page; and Simple Path, which instantly lays out your photos.

If you're comfortable with photo editing software, Adobe's Lightroom Classic offers excellent photo book design tools and let you send your project directly to a professional printer. Lightroom uses the book-only Blurb service. Google Photos includes an easy photo book creator and lets you order softcovers and hardcovers. A 7-inch square softcover is just $14.99 with 49 cents per extra picture over 20 (that includes the front and back). Google Photos can even auto-create suggested photo books based on your trips and occasions.

What are the Best Services for Editing, Ordering, and Sharing Photos?

If you're going to be ordering photos online, it helps if the service has a friendly, navigable website. For example, most services, like Snapfish, let you simply check off all the sizes you want on a single page grid. Others make you select a size for printing before choosing the images you want, and then start over again if you want more sizes.

(Credit: PCMag)

Snapfish and other services offer basic photo-editing tools, letting you brighten or darken an underexposed or overexposed shot, for example. Several services automatically apply color correction. Mpix offers retouching for $8 for one head in a photo and can remove braces or whiten teeth for the same price.

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Online Sharing

A few services let you share your images online. Mpix, Printique, and Shutterfly are particularly strong in this area. Shutterfly even lets you create online mini-websites for your photos. Snapfish and Walgreens Photo let you share online galleries that can be viewed as full-window slideshows. Amazon Photos is particularly strong at online photo sharing and galleries, with unlimited free storage for Prime subscribers (though it delivered poor quality results in our tests for printed photos and thus isn't listed among the best services here). Nations Photo Lab doesn't get involved in online gallery sharing.

Film Processing

This may seem a passé topic, but there's a contingent of photographers who still prefer to shoot on film. I recently needed film processing for one of those disposable underwater cameras for a vacation that involved snorkeling. Companies here that still process film include Mpix and some CVS and Walgreens locations. For a film-only service with more options including black-and-white film, check out The Darkroom(Opens in a new window) or Bushwick Community Darkroom(Opens in a new window). These services can include digital scans of your photos, which lets you edit and share them on your PC, but prints usually cost extra.

Which Photo Printing Service Has the Best App?

The most popular camera these days is one that's always with you—your phone. Smartphones have come a long way in terms of image quality, with some capturing images with 20 megapixels of resolution or higher. With most photos now being taken by phones, it only makes sense for a photo printing service to offer a mobile app to get the images straight from your phone to the print service.

Shutterfly's app adds the ability to order photo gifts, while Snapfish and Walgreens Photo's apps can import photos from social networks, perform some editing, and let you share photos with friends. Nations Photo Labs has a mobile app that lets you order prints not only from the phone but from any of your social accounts.

Which Photo Printing Service is the Fastest?

If you want your pictures pronto, CVS Photo or Walgreens Photo or Walmart Photo are the way to go. Target Photo no longer lets you pick up prints at its store locations.

If you decide you can wait a few days or you want special options not available with local pickup, such as matte finish, mail order is provided by all the services tested. None of them takes an inordinate amount of time. The additional shipping costs for our order of 22 photos ranged from $5 to $10, although the reason for the difference was stark—packaging. Packaging matters. Target Photo and RitzPix (which scored too low to be included in the list of the best photo printing services) pack photos in a soft flimsy envelope compared with the carefully protected Mpix order that arrived in a strong cardboard box with clear plastic envelopes for photo size sets.

(Credit: Michael Muchmore)

If you want faster delivery, most services offer second-day and overnight delivery, but keep in mind that the products still have to be produced, so "overnight" doesn't necessarily mean your photos will arrive the day after you order them, even if you pay $15 for overnight shipping. Still, it could mean your pictures arrive a few days faster than if you selected standard shipping.

Which Photo Printing Service Has the Best Quality?

For us, print quality is the most important factor when ordering prints. How accurately do the photos reflect the images you shot? Most of the prints I received, especially at the smaller 4-by-6-inch size, revealed acceptable image quality, but there are noticeable differences in lighting and saturation. You can see the differences in the detail-rich city scene below.

(Credit: Michael Muchmore)

Paper is another consideration. Most services use Fuji Crystal archive, but the higher-end services like Printique, Mpix, and Nations Photo Lab use truly professional-quality Kodak Endura paper, which is thicker and rated to last longer.

Please don't hesitate to share your experiences with photo printing services in the comments below. To learn more about improving your photos, check out our collections of Quick Tips to Fix Your Bad Photos, Beyond-Basic Photography Tips, and The Best Photo Editing Software. And if you're set on printing your own pictures, our list of the best photo printers is a good place to start.

10 Best Online Photo Printing Services of 2022

Written by Jackson Ruckar and Sarah Kovac

Updated October 13, 2022

There’s something about holding a photo in your hands that digital photos can't match. That we can purchase a tangible image to photo paper or into a greeting card to remind us of a special time might be one of the most meaningful developments of this age of technological advancement.

But it matters which photo service you choose. After months of research, and multiple photo product orders from 10 different online printing services, we found that not all photo services are going to deliver the same quality of products.

In the end, Shutterfly is the service that we would entrust to create top quality photo prints. Not only does it offer a gigantic variety of photo print options and gifts, but the quality was also superb across all of our tests.

Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

Shutterfly offers a huge variety of print and gift options.


Best Overall

Shutterfly

Across the board, Shutterfly sent back the top-quality photo prints. They were brighter, lighter prints, which meant tiny details were visible, even in the small wallet-size images. Those details were lost in all the other services’ prints we tested.

Great quality was the uniting thread across all the Shutterfly products we ordered: wallets, 4x6s, 8x10s, a photo book, and a 20x30 poster, with a number of paper options. The poster was also packaged really well and arrived in perfect shape.

But of course, the Shutterfly product lineup is much more extensive than just prints and photo books. It offers a huge variety of customizable holiday cards, invitations, calendars, canvas prints, home decor, and even specialty items for kids and pets. That’s right, you can finally order your dog that custom T-shirt.

And if you’re looking for a great photo book, you can design your own from its many styles and sizes, or from $29.99 there's a “Make My Book” service. Make My Book allows you to hire a Shutterfly designer to take your photos and turn them into a beautiful book within three business days. You receive the final design, add any finishing touches, and pay for the book only if you decide to order the finished product.

We were impressed with Shutterfly. It delivers awesome prints and photo products, and it has a great website and app. But if you’re willing to sacrifice a little (not much) quality and a lot of photo product options, you can save money with our budget pick: Amazon Prints.

Pros

  • Quality prints

  • Variety of options

  • App

Cons

  • Pricey

Buy now at Shutterfly

Credit: Reviewed / Sarah Kovac

The Amazon Prints offerings are pretty basic, but the photo quality is respectable and the price is reasonable.

Best Value

Amazon Photo

The Amazon Prints offerings are pretty basic, but the photo quality is respectable, the price is reasonable, and prints can be mailed to you for free.

The Amazon Photos app can automatically back up photos from your phone or tablet’s camera roll for easy ordering later (and a little peace of mind that your memories are stored in the cloud). Amazon also provides unlimited photo storage space for free with a Prime membership.

Since Amazon Prints doesn’t offer wallet-size images, we couldn't compare the quality of these smaller photos to that of the other services. But if you’re looking for standard sizes and good-looking prints at a decent price, Amazon is a good choice. It also offers a basic selection of other services including photo books, invitations, enlargements, holiday cards, calendars, and announcements.

If you’re looking for more options when it comes to photo products, our top pick, Shutterfly, is a better bet.

Pros

  • Quality prints

  • Photo storage

  • App

Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

We judged each photo for its quality in comparison to the original and for consistency from one photo to the next.

What You Should Know About Online Photo Printing Services

1. (Print) size matters. A lot.

Our testing showed very clearly that the same image with the same photo service can yield drastically different print results from one size to the next. If you are only interested in printing 4x6s and 5x7s, probably just about any photo service can get you decent prints. But once you start moving toward less common print sizes like 18x24s or wallet-size images, print quality can suffer.

2. It’s tough to get a good black and white photo print.

The services we tested were pretty hit and miss in producing high-quality black and white prints. And the ones that didn’t turn out great lost a lot of detail if the print was too dark or too light. Luckily, we did that research for you.

3. This is not a category where “you get what you pay for.”

So often, saving money means receiving a lower-quality product. In our testing, we found this is not the case with photo printing services. Some of our most affordable services sent us back the highest quality photos.

4. Original image quality matters.

If your image is not great to start with, expect your reprints to be just as bad or worse. Even the best photo service can’t make up for a bad image.

5. There are different sites for different needs.

Some photo printing websites are way too complex for those of us who aren’t professional photographers. As we were testing, it was easy to tell that some of these services are intended for professional photographers, while some are designed for the consumer just looking for a cute Christmas present or birth announcement. Our Best Overall winner, Shutterfly, is easy to use and offers enough variety for the shopping needs of the average consumer while delivering high-quality prints that professionals would appreciate.

Ordering Holiday and Greeting Cards

If you are shopping print services to order custom holiday cards or announcements, all of the services we tested can accommodate your order. They all offer similar photo card templates, and you can pretty much design the exact same card at any of these websites. However, there are a couple of things to consider when ordering your photo cards.

Most of these services require a minimum order of 20 to 25 cards. So, if your list of recipients is on the small side, use a service that doesn’t have minimum ordering requirements. Of the 10 services we tested, only Walmart Photo, Nations Photo Lab, AdoramaPix/Printique, and RitzPix don’t have minimum order requirements for photo cards and invitations.

On a related note, most services advertise their custom cards with an “as low as…” price. That price assumes that you will be ordering a huge quantity of cards. The likelihood is that your actual price per card will be considerably higher than the one they advertise. Unless you’re ordering 3,000 cards. But who does that?

Many of the test prints we received back from these services really struggled with print quality when it came to small format black and white photos. Black and white holiday photos can look super classy, but if you pick the wrong photo service, your black and white holiday cards may look washed out or too dark to see details. Our top pick, Shutterfly, handled small black and white prints really well. Most of the others we would not recommend for black and white photo cards.

Other Online Photo Printing Services We Tested

Credit: Walmart

Walmart Photo

Walmart is known for its product variety and reasonable prices, so it's no surprise that Walmart's photo service offers both of those things. Many of the photo products are available for pick up the same day or one hour, and all orders over $25 receive free shipping. Walmart photo offers metallic easels, wall tapestries, Christmas cards, plates, jewelry, invitations, phone cases—you get it. It's a decent variety.

We were happy with the prints we received. As with most of the other services, the wallets were a bit darker than necessary, but not to the extent that the average buyer would notice. Via the Services menu in the Walmart app, select Photo Prints and you can import photos from your camera roll, Facebook, or Instagram to order prints for pickup or home delivery.

To order from one of their many other photo gift options, like wall art, photo books, blankets, mugs, you'll need to go to the Walmart website and place your order there.

Overall, our experience with Walmart photo was a good one. The only hiccup we encountered was that 4x6 photos can only be picked up in-store—not shipped to your home.

Pros

  • Variety of options

  • Same-day pickup

  • App

Cons

  • Minor color errors

Buy now at Walmart

Credit: Snapfish

Snapfish

The prints that we ordered from Snapfish were decent, but nothing to get excited about. The larger prints turned out well, but the wallets suffered darker shadows, and the color was a little off on one of our color portrait photos (it contained a lot of green grass, but the brown dog ended up looking a little green as well).

The quality issues weren’t something that would probably be noticeable to the untrained eye, but the price was more than that of comparable services. If you’re okay with getting good-but-not-crazy-good photo quality, you might as well save a few bucks and look at Walmart Photo or Amazon Prints. And if you plan to order a photo book, we suggest avoiding Snapfish. Print lines were visible, and while we liked the feel and flexibility of their photo book, Shutterfly’s photo book print quality was far superior.

It is worth noting, however, that Snapfish does offer a huge array of photo products (holiday cards, birth announcements, photo books, invitations, etc.) and the ability to import photos from Facebook, Google Photos, Instagram, Flickr, and mobile devices. So, you do get a few bells and whistles for the extra money.

Buy now at Snapfish

Credit: CVS

CVS Photo

Our CVS Photo prints arrived in packaging that was not confidence-inspiring (just a paper envelope with the cardboard back), but thankfully the images inside were not damaged. The quality of the photos was good, but as was common with almost all of these services, the wallets were quite a bit darker and lost detail. We also noticed that the 8x10s were cut poorly.

The CVS app allows for same-day photo prints and cards and it can import photos from your device, Facebook, or your CVS account. The website offers many more photo product options and import services. It can pull in your images from Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Flickr, and the variety of photo products is just about as robust as most of the other photo services. You can order photo books, calendars, wall art, holiday cards, birth announcements, wedding invitations, and much more.

As with Snapfish, we felt that CVS’s photo service was just “meh” for the money. We recommend going with Amazon prints if you’re on a budget, or pay a little more for the superior print quality of Shutterfly.

Pros

  • Variety of options

  • Same-day pickup

  • App

Buy now at CVS

Credit: Walgreens

Walgreens Photo

Our experience with Walgreens Photo was almost identical to that of CVS. Walgreens Photo offers a nice variety of photo products from photo cubes to potholders to iPad sleeves. They even have a large selection of customizable Christmas ornaments. Many of their products are available for same-day pickup at your local Walgreens.

Walgreens Photo is built into the regular Walgreens app, and it allows you to order any of their products eligible for same-day pickup. To order a product from the rest of the catalog, you'll need to go to the Walgreens website and order there. It offers custom cards of all kinds, photo ornaments, drinkware, passports, and photo books to name a few.

Both the website and app are pleasant to use, and though Walgreens "cannot guarantee the permanence of images stored on Walgreens.com," there is no limit to the number of pictures you can upload, and you don't have to make a purchase to keep your photos stored there.

The prints we received in our Walgreens order were solid. There were no serious issues. They did, however, arrive in a thin paper envelope with no padding—it's not hard to imagine pictures getting a little roughed up during transit. However, ours arrived in fine shape.

Pros

  • Variety of options

  • Same-day pickup

  • App

Buy now at Walgreens Photo

Credit: Nations Photo Lab

Nations Photo Lab

Nations Photo Lab offers middle-of-the-road pricing with the good print quality and an interesting selection of photo products. While there is no app, the Nations website is pleasant enough to use. It doesn't offer photo uploads from sources other than your hard drive, so don't expect to import your Facebook photos or Instagram pictures, but the desktop upload process is easy and the site offers a variety of paper types, mounting options, and photo cropping options.

The print quality of the wallets we ordered was fine, however, we had mixed feelings about their precut, pop-out design. (Jackson hated it, Sarah loved it.)

A couple of the prints turned out darker than we would have liked, but for most of the photos, we didn’t have any complaints. All around, Nations Photo Lab is a solid photo service, with good print quality, a variety of products to choose from, and mat/frame/display options for your special images. We just wish it had an app.

Products offered include prints with mounting and frames, photo greeting cards, holiday cards, announcements, invitations, photo albums and books, bracelets, ornaments, and much more.

Pros

  • Quality prints

  • Variety of options

Credit: AdoramaPix

AdoramaPix (Rebranded as Printique)

Editor's note: After our testing, Adorama rebranded itself to become Printique. We have not yet tested the service under the new branding.

Of the 10 services we tested, AdoramaPix, now rebranded as Printique, had by far the most secure packaging. To the extent that it almost felt like overkill. Surprisingly, the extra secure packaging did not result in a higher cost. In fact, AdoramaPix was one of the most affordable services we tested.

Unfortunately, all of the prints we received were darker than the original images. This was true in every size print we ordered, not just the wallets as with other services. AdoramaPix has an app, but all it allows you to do is upload photos to your AdoramaPix gallery.

The website, however, is loaded with functionality and allows you to upload photos from services like Facebook, Google photos, and Instagram among others. It offers some unique choices in photo products, including photo albums with metal covers, wood prints, and leather-bound photo books (insert Anchorman joke here). And of course, it also offers the standard options: photo books, custom cards, calendars, wall décor, etc.

Pros

  • Safe packaging

  • Affordable

  • App

Cons

  • Low quality prints

  • App is limited

Credit: RitzPix

RitzPix

When we were ordering our prints from the RitzPix website, we ran into a few hiccups during the upload process. Some of our images took several tries to load. Unfortunately, we ran into a similar issue (with different photos) using the RitzPix app. The app was also a bit confusing to navigate, and we didn't find it to be terribly intuitive.

By the time they arrived at our door, our RitzPix photos were a little beat up. They were shipped in a paper envelope, and many of the corners were bent. The condition of the photos aside, the quality of the prints wasn't anything to get excited about. The smaller the print, the darker the image got. By the time we got to wallets, the color was pretty off, as were the shadows.

This wasn't a bad service for our larger images, but we wouldn't recommend them for anything smaller than an 8x10.

Print quality aside, RitxPix offers a good selection of prints, banners, calendars, clothing, photo books and journals, custom cards, and stationery.

Pros

  • Variety of options

  • App

Credit: Mpix

Mpix

Our Mpix photos arrived very securely packaged—the photos were covered with plastic and the box contained padding to keep it safe during transit. But despite the above-and-beyond packaging, the prints we received were much darker than the originals. This was most obvious in the wallet-size images, which lost a lot of detail.

The quality didn't suffer as much on the images that were taken with a DSLR camera, so while professional photographers might be able to get away with using MPix for their larger prints, the other services we tested would be more likely to yield appropriately bright prints. MPix’s site and app offer lots of ways to upload your photos from different services like Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, Dropbox, and more.

Mpix offers a good variety of customizable photo products, like birth announcements, several kinds of photo books, holiday cards, metal collages, photo ornaments, and keepsake boxes.

Finding your way around the site and app is simple and intuitive, but that’s not worth much since the print quality was lacking.

Pros

  • Safe packaging

  • Variety of options

  • App

Cons

  • Low quality prints

How We Tested Online Printing Services

The Tester

Hi, I’m Sarah Kovac. After many, many years of spending way too much money and emotional energy trying to find my loved ones the perfect gift, I’ve come to the conclusion that photo gifts are really the only surefire way of getting somebody a present that will be extra special.

I have three kids, and I know that if I’m drawing a blank on a gift for the grandparents, there are few presents that will bring them more joy than seeing the smiling faces of their kids and grandkids—be they on a coffee mug, a blanket, or a framed print for the office.

Over the years, I have reviewed hundreds of products, websites, and even software. I’ve been trained in design, and I have a deep appreciation for intuitive layouts that give me a lot of options without overwhelming me.

While I can speak to the typical user’s experience with these online photo service sites, I am not a professional photographer with deep understanding of makes a perfect quality print. Luckily,, Jackson Ruckar, formerly our head photographer at Reviewed, was available to lend his professional critique of the photos we received from each of these services.

When Ruckar first picked up a camera 15 years ago he became an addict. Since then he has worked as a photojournalist for the U.S. Army, various magazines, and now USA Today. When reviewing photo-printing services, he focused on color accuracy and print defects.

The Tests

We selected 10 of the most popular online printing services and ordered a variety of products from each: 8x10s, 4x6s, and wallets. Two of the photos we used were taken on an iPhone SE, two were taken on an iPhone X, and two were taken by our professional photographer on a DSLR camera. One photo from each camera was in black and white, and one was full color so that we could see how each service handled both color and grayscale.

Without consulting each other, Jackson and I judged each photo for its quality in comparison to the original, and for consistency from one photo to the next (we ordered duplicates in order to compare them to each other).

I spent time on each service’s website and app (if applicable) on both iOS and Android to judge ease of use and see what special features each service might offer. After these considerations, we narrowed our picks down to the top five performers in reprint quality and ease of use.

From those services, we ordered 20x30 enlargements and photo books to get an idea of how well they handled these special orders.

When we took into consideration the quality of the original prints, the quality of the special orders, the ease of use and special features of each service, and of course the price, we found that Shutterfly is the best service to use.

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Meet the testers

Jackson Ruckar

Photographer / Producer

@JacksonRuckar

As a photojournalist, Jackson has had stints working with bands, the military, and professional baseball teams before landing with Reviewed. com's camera team. Outside of Reviewed.com, he can be found looking for the next game to relieve his "Gamer ADD" or growing his beard.

See all of Jackson Ruckar's reviews

Sarah Kovac

Editor, Accessibility

@sarahkovac

Sarah Kovac is an award-winning author and accessibility editor for Reviewed. Previously, she worked with a multitude of outlets such as Wirecutter, TIME, PCMag, Prevention, The Atlantic, Reviews.com, CNN, GOOD, Upworthy, Mom.me, and SheKnows.

See all of Sarah Kovac's reviews

Checking our work.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.

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Top 10 Most Affordable Digital Photo Printing Sites Online

Nobody seems to print photos anymore. Instead, we toss them on social media and call it a day. Who needs printed photos that take up drawer space when you have unlimited online photo storage? Plus, online photo galleries are just more convenient.

But some paintings are so beautiful or valuable that it makes sense to print them. Perhaps you want to carry them in your wallet or print out the perfect shot you took to hang on your mantelpiece.

Where can I get these prints? These days, you can just hop online and use one of the many photo printing services available that will print and send your photos directly to you. Here are some of the best online photo printing services.

Shutterfly can turn your digital photos into photo books, postcards, stationery, posters, mugs, puzzles, mouse pads, pillows and more. Seriously, the choices here are insane. In any case, you will find what fits.

In terms of price, this is pretty good. Thank you cards start at $1.39, photo books start at $12.99, and canvas prints start at $69.99. For what you're getting, these costs are quite affordable, especially when you consider how personalized and customized they'll be. Shutterfly ships to over 100 countries worldwide.

As of this writing, Shutterfly is offering 50 free prints and unlimited photo storage for new customers who sign up. In addition, they periodically run campaigns that can save up to 50 percent on your order. Follow these deals and you will walk away a winner.

FreePrints is unique compared to other services on this list. This interface interacts directly with the photos on your mobile device using an app. It is available for both Android and iOS. Very comfortable and worth checking out.

How does it work? Whenever you take a photo, you can order free 4×6 prints of it through FreePrints. In addition, the app can also print photos on your Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or Picasa accounts for free. There is no subscription fee, but you pay for shipping that starts from 1.9$9 but never exceeds $9.99.

Each photo is limited to one free print. Also, you can only order free prints of up to 85 photos per month and 1000 photos per year. If you want to print in a format other than 4×6, the ones you will need to purchase are those.

York Photo offers photo books, calendars, postcards, stationery, posters and panels, and many gift ideas for photo printing: clothes, mugs, bags, pillows, home decor, etc.

One 4×6 print starting at $0.09, posters from $7.99, photo cards from $14.99 for a pack of 20, photo books from $9.99 USA for 4×6 prints and everything else at a reasonable price. York Photo has some of the best print quality of any online service.

All orders over $20 get free shipping, which is nice as the shipping cost isn't cheap and can otherwise drive up the cost of the order.

It's worth noting that photo printing services at most Walgreens are not only good for pharmacies and FMCG products. In addition to photo printing, you can order photo books, premium postcards, calendars, posters, canvas prints, decor and much more.

Prices are reasonable but not the cheapest. While photo books start at $24.99 and thank you cards from $1.99, a small canvas print can be purchased for as little as $29$.99 And the best part? Most prints are eligible for same day pickup, which is fantastic if you have a Walgreens nearby.

Snapfish , a division of HP (Hewlett-Packard), is a highly affordable online print service with more than 90 million users. It offers not only digital printing, but also a community where users can post and share their photos. It even has an online photo editing tool.

Photobooks start at $11.99, regular postcards start at $0.58, premium postcards start at $0. 99, and canvas prints start at $32.99. In addition, they offer "photo gifts" such as blankets, pillows, stationery, posters, and more.

What sets Snapfish apart is that it also specializes in Print-at-Home products. You can download these postcards, calendars, etc. and print them yourself if you like. It's almost the exact opposite of an online printing service, but I've included a mention just in case you like it.

Like Walgreens, you can go to just about any standard CVS and find photo printing inside of you. Just like Walgreens, if you don't live in the middle of nowhere, there's a good chance you have a CVS nearby.

This makes CVS a great choice for photo printing as you can order same day pickup: print online, drop in, pick up. Or have it delivered to your doorstep if you prefer.

Regular photo prints start at just $0.33 each, thank you cards are available for just $0.75 each and canvas prints start at 29.99 dollars. The photo quality of the CVS is also quite good, so it's a good balance between quality and price.

It's no surprise that Walmart's photo printing service is the most affordable of them all. With permanent photos starting at $0.09, thank you cards starting at $0.28, and canvas prints starting at $19.96, Walmart is taking the competition out of the water.

Although this price reduction comes with a slight reduction in overall print quality, it is still sufficient for most applications. You will only notice a difference in quality if you have an eye for photography, or if you are printing something massive like a poster.

AdoramaPix is an affiliate of Adorama, a renowned company that operates as a camera shop and educational resource for learning photography. AdoramaPix is ​​an optional service for high quality digital photo printing.

They use top-notch printers and state-of-the-art software to maximize print quality while keeping their prices competitive. For example, photo cards cost from 2.9$5 for one, but can be made cheaper by buying in bulk for only $0. 99 for a pack of 100.

The downside to this is that AdoramaPix doesn't have a large selection of products available. Apart from photo books, calendars, postcards, and various types of prints, there is nothing else, but if that's all you need, AdoramaPix is ​​a great service.

You probably know that FedEx - is nothing but a shipping company for packages and items you buy online, but you probably didn't know that FedEx provides several other services under its own name , including the digital Print & Ship service you can use. online.

Plain posters start at $7.25, photo posters start at $27.99, and canvas prints start at $79.99. Fedex also offers postcards, calendars and even passport photos. Although a bit more expensive than its competitors, we don't really say much. Also, you need to pay for shipping if your order is less than $100.

If you can snag one of Winkflash's regular deals, you can get prints for even less than Walmart's. We've seen photo prints for as little as $0.08, thank you cards as low as $0.36, and canvas prints for as little as $9.dollars.

Note that the drop in quality compared to the best online photo printing services is noticeably worse for Winkflash than for Walmart. So bad that you should avoid using the service? Not really. But be sure to reserve Winkflash for everyday, personal printing, not gifts or semi-professional work.

Get your photos printed online and delivered

I'm a big fan of digital photography, but I can't deny that physical photographs held in the hand feel more personal. That being said, you might want to take a look at the best digital photo frames the best digital photo frames the best digital photo frames if all that printing is too much of a hassle.

Image Credits: Maigi / Shutterstock

28 free photo stocks and photo search sites

Updated January 2022. We have added 16 more sites.

A good photograph or beautiful image is an important part of any article or material. We present you a selection of Internet resources where you can download images of any size and photos in high quality for free.

Contents:

  • A selection of photo stocks and photo search sites
  • Instructions for using photo

Freedigitalphotos.net

Freedigitalphotos.net

The site has a large selection of free images and photos. They can be used to design materials on websites, in advertising materials, newspapers. Photos are presented in good quality, and the navigation system on the site will simplify the search for the desired image.

Website.

Google image search

Google Image Search

When you search for images on Google, you can customize your search conditions to find images that you can use for free. When searching through images, you need to open the "Search Tools" tab, and then select the one that suits you in the usage rights.

Search the Google Image Database.

Morguefile.

com morgueFile

An archive of free high resolution photos that are also suitable for printing. The resource has long been popular and even served as the reason for the appearance in the publishing business of the term "morgueFile", denoting the files found on this site.

Website.

Stock.XCHNG

Stock.XCHNG

This resource has over 395,000 free images in its gallery. You can search for high-quality photos by various parameters or categories. The site also has a collection of tutorials on working with images and photos.

Website.

Free Range Stock

Free Range Stock

Once you have registered on this platform for free, you can use the images for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. All photos here are the work of professional photographers. They get paid when users click on banner ads next to their photos.

Website.

The Open Photo Project

The Open Photo Project

A free photo-sharing resource created in 1998. Searching the site is very easy, and all photos on the site are licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Website.

Stockvault.net

Stockvault.net

At the moment, more than 40 thousand images are available on the site:

  • photos,
  • textures,
  • backgrounds,
  • logo templates.

All images are free and available for download. They may only be used for non-commercial purposes.

Website.

New Old Stock

New Old Stock

Site with vintage photos from public archives. Photos on this resource are free from all copyrights and do not require copyright.

Website.

Picjumbo

Picjumbo

Totally free photos for commercial and non-commercial use. New photos appear on the site every day.

Website.

IM Free

IM Free

Thematic collections of free images. Since all images are grouped by topic, it is very convenient to find the most suitable one. All images may be used for commercial purposes.

Website.

Image*after

Image*After

A large online collection of free images and photographs that can also be used for any purpose. A distinctive feature of the resource is an online editor with which you can edit photos before downloading.

Website.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons search.

Creative Commons allows artists to share their work with a wide audience while retaining their copyright. There are 16 available licenses to choose from, each giving different rights to image users. When searching, you can select the type of license and sites that will be searched.

Website.

Mockup World

Mockup World.

This site features a variety of design layouts. There are thematic sections: books, fashion, food, signs. They can be downloaded for free as layered PSD files. Then in the photo editor you can add additional visual elements. Particular attention is paid to animated layouts on the site.

For more information on how layouts can be used, see the FAQ section. When using layouts for commercial purposes, the creators of the project are advised to double-check its license.

Website.

Designspiration

Designspiration.

Here you will find images that are suitable for sharing on social networks, including Instagram. There are documentaries, illustrations, posters, drawings, magazine covers. To start working with the resource, you need to register. The copyright policy can be found at the link.

Website.

GraphicsFuel

GraphicsFuel.

On the resource you will find free images. There are 24 categories in total: logos, graphics, icons, layouts, templates, PSD files, and more. There is also a design blog here.

Website.

Baubauhaus

Baubauhaus.

There are many posters and illustrations here that can diversify the social media feed. There are also collections of graphics, typography, posters, black-and-white photographs.

Website.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock.

A large photobank that works by subscription. Here you can find photos or vector images. There are 30 categories in total. Among them: science, education, vintage, art, technology, nature, holidays.

Website.

Freepik

Also a large bank of photos and vector images. You can download several photos per day for free. With a premium account, you have unlimited access to even more shots.

Freepik.

Site.

Gratiso Photography

Free collection of stock images. Their slogan is "Really unique, usually funny, always free photos." New pictures are added every week.

Gratisography.

Site.

Refe Photos

If high resolution is not important for you, then this service will help you find good photos taken on your mobile phone. Everything is free for any purpose of use. You can also subscribe to updates.

Refe Photos.

Site.

Pixabay

Free and largest (more than 2.5 million files) photo search service, supports Russian. In addition to photos, it contains video and audio files.

Pixabay.

Site.

Picjumbo

Free photos for any purpose of use. Lots of categories. By subscription, you can receive collections of new photos to your mail weekly.

Picjumbo.

Site.

Unsplash

Another large stock of free images. Every ten days you can receive a free selection of high-resolution photos to your e-mail. You can also directly send these photos to Dropbox.

Unpslash.

Site.

500px

A popular resource for photographers and designers. Allows you to use site materials based on Creative Commons 3.0.

500px.

Site.

Flickr

One of the best picture and photo sites. Lots of images (several billions of pictures, 200 subcategories) available for free use.

Flickr.

Site.

Vecteezy

A quick way to find the right images for your blog or website. Photos are available for both commercial and personal use.

The site has many subcategories, the largest of which are:

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