In today’s digital age, our smartphones are constantly capturing precious moments. But while these memories live on our devices, there’s something special about holding a physical photograph. If you’re looking to transform your digital snapshots into tangible prints, you might be wondering Where To Print Photos online. The internet is awash with photo printing services, each promising the best quality and value. However, the reality can vary significantly. This review dives into several popular online photo printing services, comparing their print quality, pricing, packaging, and user experience to help you make an informed decision.
Evaluating Top Photo Printing Services
We put various online photo printing services to the test, sending the same set of images to each and evaluating the results. Here’s a breakdown of our findings:
Mpix: Popular but Falls Short on Cropping
Mpix is a well-known name in photo printing, offering a convenient app for ordering prints directly from your smartphone. Despite its popularity, our testing panel ranked Mpix photos as their least favorite. A major drawback we encountered was Mpix’s inability to print smartphone photos without forced cropping. For photographers who pay close attention to composition, this automatic cropping can be a significant issue, potentially cutting out important parts of your image. While Mpix is easily accessible, its cropping limitations and lower print quality in our tests make it less ideal for preserving your photos as you intended.
Services like EZprints and RitzPix address this smartphone photo issue by offering 4:3 aspect ratio print sizes. Printique and Nations Photo Lab go a step further, providing the option to print your images uncropped, regardless of aspect ratio mismatches. Unfortunately, Mpix currently lacks both of these options, limiting its appeal for smartphone photographers seeking true-to-source prints.
Bay Photo: Sturdy Packaging, Mediocre Prints
Bay Photo stands out with its small print sizes optimized for smartphone photos and robust packaging. However, the print quality in our tests was only average. In blind comparisons, participants often placed Bay Photo prints as a reasonable second choice, but rarely as a top pick. While Bay Photo offers reliable packaging, the middling print quality might not justify choosing it over services with superior output.
Snapfish: Budget-Friendly Prices, Disappointing Quality and Packaging
If price is your primary concern, Snapfish boasts some of the lowest prices in the market. However, this affordability comes at a cost. Our 8×10 and 4×6 prints from Snapfish exhibited harsh contrast, resulting in a loss of detail in shadows and highlights. Portrait photos displayed noticeably orange skin tones, which was unflattering. Packaging was also a significant letdown. Smaller prints arrived in flimsy cardboard envelopes with no padding, offering minimal protection during transit. While the 11×14 print was shipped in a tube, the lack of internal padding led to damage during shipping, as shown below.
Damaged edge of a rolled-up photo print from Snapfish due to inadequate packaging.
Snapfish’s protective tube for the 11×14 print lacked internal padding, leading to crease damage on the top edge from the end cap during shipment. Photo: Amadou Diallo.
RitzPix: Damaged Prints and High Shipping Costs
RitzPix also struggled with packaging issues, resulting in damaged prints. Our 11×14 print arrived in a flat envelope with thin backing boards, an insufficient protection for larger prints. The envelope’s tight fit for the 11×14 photo meant that when the package was crushed in transit, the print’s corner was damaged. This damage could have been easily avoided with a larger envelope or a box, a standard practice among other services. Adding to the disappointment, RitzPix charged a hefty $14.95 for shipping, more than double the average of other services we tested. The combination of damaged prints and high shipping costs makes RitzPix a less attractive option, despite potentially better print quality than Snapfish.
Damaged corner of a RitzPix photo print against a green backdrop, showing shipping damage.
This 11×14 print from RitzPix suffered corner damage because of a too-small shipping envelope crushed during transit. Photo: Amadou Diallo.
EZprints: Washed-Out and Unsharp Prints
Similar to Snapfish, EZprints was among the services with notably poor print quality. Every print from EZprints had a hazy, washed-out appearance, lacking vibrancy and clarity. They were the least sharp photos in our test group, and areas of consistent color tone appeared mottled. The consistently low print quality makes EZprints a service to avoid if print fidelity is important to you.
Shutterfly: Average Quality, Curled Prints Due to Tubing
Shutterfly was the second most expensive service in our evaluation, yet the print quality was only average. The main issue we encountered with Shutterfly was packaging. Smaller prints were shipped in a thin flat envelope, and the 11×14 print arrived in a tube. While tubes offer good protection against bending, they result in curled prints that require flattening before display. Although there are methods to uncurl prints, as shown below, it adds an extra step and potential risk of damage. For the price, Shutterfly’s average print quality and inconvenient curled prints from tube packaging are underwhelming.
A large, curled photo print from Shutterfly, shipped in a tube, resting on a table.
Shipping prints in tubes, while protective, results in significant curl that requires flattening before display. Photo: Amadou Diallo.
Zazzle: Tedious Ordering Process, Limited Options
Zazzle offers photo printing, but its user interface is geared towards single-item orders and lacks paper options for standard photo prints. Choosing a print size involves dragging each image individually onto a print-size template on its own order page. This process is excessively time-consuming, making Zazzle impractical for ordering multiple prints. The cumbersome ordering process and limited choices make Zazzle unsuitable for bulk photo printing or users seeking streamlined experiences.
Coffee table books flattening a photo print, demonstrating a method to uncurl prints from tube packaging.
Flattening curled prints is safest when sandwiched between cardboard sheets under weight, like heavy books, for 24-48 hours. Photo: Amadou Diallo.
Winkflash: Negative Reviews and Poor Customer Support
Winkflash has garnered a significant number of negative reviews, raising concerns about its reliability. Numerous customers have reported losing access to their photos hosted on Winkflash servers due to ownership changes. Furthermore, users have consistently complained about difficulties contacting customer service, which is only available through a web form, lacking phone or email support. These significant customer service and reliability issues make Winkflash an easy service to dismiss for photo printing needs.
FreePrints: Too Good to Be True?
FreePrints entices users with the promise of up to 1,000 free 4×6 prints per year, requiring only payment for shipping. However, the service provides minimal information on its single-page website, suggesting that all interactions and ordering are app-based. The lack of transparency about the company, print quality, and ordering process online, coupled with the “too good to be true” free print offer, raises skepticism. It’s wise to approach FreePrints with caution and consider the adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”
Amazon Prints: Convenient for Prime Members, Mid-Range Quality
Amazon Prints offers convenience, particularly for Amazon Prime members who already utilize Prime Photos for storage. The ordering process is straightforward, and 4×6 prints are priced competitively, although they were once even cheaper. Print quality falls in the middle range – not the best, with slightly orange skin tones, but not the worst either. Photos arrived within six business days. However, the packaging, a flat mailer with thin cardboard, was underwhelming and resulted in corner damage to one print, similar to Snapfish and RitzPix. While convenient, Amazon Prints’ mid-tier quality and subpar packaging are worth considering.
Walmart: Smartphone-Friendly Size, Limited Selection
Walmart offers a 4×5.3-inch print size, accommodating smartphone 4:3 aspect ratio images without cropping, a plus for mobile photographers. However, Walmart’s overall selection of print sizes is less comprehensive than many other online services, particularly those specializing in photo printing. While Walmart provides a convenient option for uncropped smartphone prints, its limited size variety might not meet all printing needs.
Conclusion: Choosing the Right Place to Print Your Photos
Deciding where to print photos online depends on your priorities. If you value budget above all else and are willing to risk quality and potential damage, services like Snapfish might be tempting. However, for those seeking better print quality, accurate colors, and reliable packaging, exploring alternatives beyond the services highlighted with significant drawbacks is recommended. Consider what aspects are most important to you – print fidelity, price, convenience, or specific features like uncropped smartphone prints – and weigh these factors against the performance of each service to make the best choice for preserving your photographic memories.
