Top-Rated Photo Printing Service Providers in 2021

Shutterfly is a photo media storage site that offers printing for photos uploaded on their platform. Aside from standard photo prints, they also print on an assortment of items such as kitchen accessories, trinkets, and drinkware.

Shutterfly’s website is fairly intuitive and easy to navigate. The Art Prints feature lets you customize layouts to add simple and straightforward artistic touches using the built-in templates. While those templates are pretty good, those who wish for more customization might find the limiting. The print output quality is decent. The colors are vibrant but can be just a little oversaturated for the real nitpicking eye.

You can choose to have prints delivered straight to your door or picked up at one of their partner stores. For production and delivery, the economy option which is the slowest takes 6–10 business days, while rush service which is the fastest with 1–2 business days. If you want to get in touch, their web-based customer support has a nifty chat feature.

If you’re looking for a photo printing option that has a wide variety of products and an easy to navigate website, Shutterfly can deliver. Their assortment of printable objects also makes them a great choice for gift items and corporate giveaways.

Zazzle is an online photo printing company that specializes in printing on items for personal use and commercial publishing. Their printing service includes products that many other companies don’t offer, such as skateboards, cornhole sets, face masks, and even golf balls.

What sets Zazzle apart from the competition is the platform’s emphasis on highly personalized printing services and customization. Their web interface has a wide variety of templates for the product of your choice. But if you want more editing freedom, their tools can deliver. You can go as far as adding and manipulating layers of texts, emojis, shapes, and other photos into your design. If you don’t want to do these tweaks yourself, Zazzle can connect you to its pool of designers that you can collaborate with for an agreed price.

As for print quality, the output on professional photo paper is good. Saturation is balanced, and there is also fidelity in detail. But nothing really makes it stand out from other printing services in terms of print quality alone. Photos are packaged in a thin cardboard box for delivery.

If you’re looking to print highly personalized photos for personal or business use, Zazzle has got you covered.

Walgreens offers the most convenient way to print and pick up your photos. They print on an assortment of objects such as drinkware, pillowcases, and face masks. Business prints meanwhile include cards and passport photos.

Their web interface meanwhile has simple and intuitive functionalities. Editing is limited to cropping and rotating, quick color enhancements, and filters. They’re also supported by a mobile app that lets you order prints on the go.

What makes Walgreens stand out is convenience. Receiving your prints takes just a couple of minutes which makes the company’s turnaround time the fastest on this list. With nearly 9,280 branches across the US, there’s always a convenient pickup option wherever you are. You also only pay upon pickup.

Walgreens’ print quality is decent, but to the really discerning eyes, some colors can appear flat. This is not an issue for most customers though, since not many people really obsess over such details.

Compared to other online photo printing services, Walgreens’ pricing may be quite steep. What makes their services worth it is the ultimate convenience in turnaround time and accessibility of their stores that the competition can’t offer.

Walgreens may not be the greatest photo printing option for photographers who demand superior color fidelity. But for most customers who just want good photos received moments after ordering and don’t mind paying a little extra for fast turnaround, this top-rated photo printing is an excellent choice.

Smugmug is a subscription-based, photo hosting, and sharing website that caters mainly to photographers. For a subscription fee, you’ll get unlimited cloud storage and access to their online features. You can also make money with your photos through their platform.

Unlike the rest of the online photo printing service providers on this list, Smugmug’s photo printing options are only a side feature. Aside from paper prints and wall art, there aren’t many products they offer except for a few keepsakes.

Being a photography-oriented website, their interface is very beautiful and easy to use. Smugmug’s tweaking tools are limited to cropping, rotating, and adding watermarks. You’ll have to use a desktop publishing application if you’ll do heavy edits which is really what photographers do. If you’re planning to print postcards or photo books, you’ll be redirected to their partner services like Blurb and Mixbook. Printing photos from Smugmug is handled by partner service providers, hence, each partner may differ in output, rate, and turnaround times.

The lack of editing tools on their platform and the very limited variety of products mean you should view Smugmug for what they are and what they are not. If you have photos that you want to print on one of their available products, Smugmug can surely cater to those needs. If you’re a photo enthusiast and are looking for great photography to print for your wall art, Smugmug’s photo gallery will be worth looking into.

If you’re after printing images on a budget, Amazon Print gives some of the best photo printing deals online. Aside from the standard printing services, they also offer a good range of products like blankets, mugs, photo books, and medallions, which are great for gifts or corporate giveaways.

All images are retrieved only from Amazon Photos as Amazon Print does not support other sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Amazon Print also has no editing and retouching tools so the uploaded photos must be the final product.

As for print quality, Amazon Print delivers decent images with balanced saturation. Nothing is noticeably incredible, though. Photos are packaged in plain paper envelopes which is justifiable considering they have to keep costs low.

Shipping is free with Amazon Prime but takes about 14 days. For extra fees, you can get your prints for as fast as 4 to 7 days.

Amazon Print is a great choice for customers on a budget. The image quality is fine for most customers. Despite the limitations of their web interface and packaging, the low cost of their services makes them a good value for money.

Mpix is a cloud-based photo printing service that caters to more demanding customers. Their standard e-surface paper is a high-end material that optimizes and enhances photo quality. For an extra fee, you can also get a glossy finish. Mpix claims that photos printed on this special paper have a 100-year archival value when displayed, and another 100 years if kept in a dark room.

One of their specialties is the Giclee Photo Prints. This option produces even more detailed colors, enhanced vibrance, and higher fidelity. For film users, Mpix has contact printing that supports film development which is a rare service for most printing companies.

Aside from the option to import images from the likes of DropBox and OneDrive, Mpix also lets you connect to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. They also have a mobile app that supports print on demand online photo services that let you instantly upload, adjust, and print photos straight from your phone.

Standard shipping takes 4 to 8 business days. There’s an option for rush delivery which takes about 1 to 4 business days.

Mpix is a great choice for customers looking for top-notch quality images with superb archival value, and have the budget to pay for it. Their film negative developing services are also a great plus for photographers using film cameras.

Snapfish’s professional photo printing offers a vast selection of products that are suitable for nearly every type of need. Aside from photographic paper, you can also have your images printed on things like mugs, magnets, coasters, trinkets, glass, acrylic, metal, canvas, playing cards, face masks, and everything that can receive ink.

The print quality is decent. There’s nothing to complain about, but also nothing spectacular to praise. The web interface is very straightforward. The platform supports gallery sharing and has onboard editing tools that let you tweak your images beyond just cropping and resizing.

Snapfish’s pricing is very competitive and is the cheapest online service for photo printing on this list. They can deliver your prints via mail order, although they push for store pickups. Orders are ready the same day for stores with in-house printing. Their packaging is just a simple cardboard envelope with no special branding.

Snapfish is the best value photo printing company that offers a wide variety of print outputs with good quality. If you’re on a tight budget, Snapfish is worth checking out.

Canvas Pop has a streamlined service that specializes in canvas prints. The company uses only high-quality, acid-free, and additive-free canvases guaranteed to have an archival value of 100 years.

Their online interface is pretty straightforward as it only features the basics to have your photos printed. For uploading images, Canvas Pop lets you import from social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.

Customizations are generally limited to picking sizes, edges, and filters. If you need touch-ups, enhancements, and makeovers, you can ask the staff to do them for you through the platform for an extra fee.

The image quality is excellent, with vibrant colors and balanced saturation. Aside from image quality, Canvas Pop also excels in customer support. The team behind the company is made up of artists and photographers who work closely with customers. They also have a chat service on their website.

Standard shipping takes about 10–14 business days, while rush shipping takes up to 6 days. This does not include the 1–3 days it takes for your orders to be reviewed by Canvas staff.

If you’re looking for a photo printing company that specializes in canvas printing, Canvas Pop is worth checking out. They have good customer service, excellent print quality, and products that last a very long time.

Printique is another high-end online photo printing service. They use digital type C print technologies to produce high-fidelity and maximum-clarity photos, making them one the best professional photo printing services you can find online. Their product line is slim, with a limited selection of printable items aside from paper.

Their web interface is highly intuitive, while the platform’s features include the option to print the file name, date, and custom texts on the back of each photo which is smart for organizing physical copies. There’s also a letterbox option if you want to make sure all details on the edges are kept.

Print results are excellent which is expected from a high-end service. If you want more perks like free rush processing and free white label shipping, you can register as a pro user for a monthly membership fee.

A store pickup option is available but only in their Manhattan and Brooklyn shops. Otherwise, you’ll have to resort to shipping which takes about a week and is pretty pricey compared to the competition.

For those willing to splurge on top quality prints, this photo printer is worth checking out.

Nations Photo Lab offers great a photographic printing service for various purposes. They also have a wide array of print solutions for other personal and home needs like photo books and wall art. Corporate photo gifts and souvenirs such as key chains, mousepads, and luggage tags are also available.

Their services are focused on making prints and offer no digital image storing and sharing features. Their online platform also has no photo editing and customization tools, so uploaded photos are considered final products. The absence of customization, however, is offset by their excellent print quality. Print outputs are well balanced with high color fidelity. Saturation is just right with no out-of-place strong or weak shades.

This photo printer is based in Maryland so shipping is the fastest on the East Coast – only 1–2 days. Out by the West Coast and non-continental US states, shipping takes 4–6 days. The company currently has no partner stores that offer pickup options.

Nations Photo Lab’s streamlined service caters to those who just need excellent prints with no need for further tweaking. The lack of social and customization tools on their website is well compensated by the top quality print output which is the primary edge of this company.

Canvas Champ is one of the popular photo printing websites that specialize in producing large canvas prints for wall-mounted images.

Their web interface gives you a 3D simulation of your uploaded photos, giving you an idea of how it will look like when displayed. If you pay extra, you can apply some enhancements and slight finishing touches.

The overall quality of the printed product is good. The colors are vibrant, but under an intentionally scrutinizing eye, the dark areas tend to lose detail. Still, the rest of the photo is well balanced and aptly saturated.

Canvas Champ has a 24/7 live person call center for all customer concerns. Products also have a 99-year warranty. They will even give you a full refund if you’re not happy with your product upon receipt. Their pricing is very competitive as they are the cheapest one on this list for canvas printing. Standard shipping takes 6 to 8 business days, while priority shipping is 3–5 business days.

If you’re looking for the cheapest canvas printing service, Canvas Champ is one of the lowest, if not the lowest one you can find online. Their customer service and guarantee on quality are also excellent features that most printing services don’t offer.

Walmart Photo Center produces great quality prints at very affordable prices. Aside from the usual papers, cards, and canvases to print on, they have a good lineup of other printable objects like blankets, mugs, etc.

Walmart Photo Center’s web interface has a very minimalistic design. The limitations in tweaking options are offset by easy, straightforward navigation. For mobile, Walmart’s shopping app can also be used to upload photos and functions very similarly to the web interface. A toll-free hotline number is available for customer support.

Walmart Photo delivers decent images. The colors are well saturated and maintain a good amount of fidelity. The photos are packaged with card envelopes which, however, may not be the best medium to protect paper prints. Prints are available for same-day store pickup, but if you want to have your prints delivered to your doorstep, shipping takes about 3 to 5 business days.

If you’re looking for photo printing with great print quality, mobile app support, and competitive pricing, Walmart Photo Center is worth checking out.