Shutterfly vs. Mixbook: Reviewing 2 of the Best Photo Books

Meghan is an artist and writer based out of Boston, MA. With an interest in everything from instant film to experimental videography, her work has been featured internationally in a variety of photographic exhibitions and publications. You can connect with Meghan on Instagram.

After conducting more than 80 hours of research and testing (which included creating 17 photo books and consulting with a master printer on the results), we recommend Mixbook as the best online photo-book service.

We live in a digital world, overflowing with images and screens. By stepping back and creating a tangible photo book, you’ll be able to reconnect with your images, as well as with those moments in time. And sharing memories with family and friends will be so much easier.

If you want to print multiple copies of a photo book to give as gifts (or for projects that aren’t meant to be keepsakes), this service delivers good-enough books at an affordable price.

Creating photo albums is fun with Mixbook, which gathers images from your computer, social media profiles, online photo-storage accounts, and even your smartphone. In our testing, it offered the best book-building experience of the bunch, as well as some of the best themed layouts. Our finished album looked vibrant, with accurate colors, and it had a high-quality feel in the hand.

Budget pick

Walmart Photo

Affordable photo books for gifts or small projects

If you want to print multiple copies of a photo book to give as gifts (or for projects that aren’t meant to be keepsakes), this service delivers good-enough books at an affordable price.

Buying Options

Walmart

At half the cost of our top pick, Walmart Photo offers great value if you’re looking to create basic photo books or to keep costs down because you’re making multiple copies. With some of the best photo-editing tools available, this site makes it easy to design and customize an album. But our photos looked dull and muted, the cover wasn’t as well made as our top pick’s, and the pages were thinner. So be aware that cutting costs here also equates to a compromise in quality.