Digital Home Thoughts: Shootout at the Printing Corral: Online Photo Processing Reviewed Head to Head

Kevin's Take
I'm a Mozilla Firefox user. Because of that, I had one major gripe with Shutterfly. It does not support Mozilla as a browser. You can use Mozilla but there are some issues with it. Shutterfly does spell these out upfront (unlike most sites). But the prints from Shutterfly were so great that I'll look past this and use IE if I need a feature that doesn't work in Mozilla.

Beth's Take
I'm the one who really likes matte finish. I was disappointed when Snapfish was the only service that offered it in 4x6 prints, and then thrilled when Shutterfly started to offer it. Just icing on the cake for me.

I'm also enjoying playing with gift ideas. It's fun to see the wide range of possibilities using one of the online services opens up. Snapfish is the standout when it comes to variety of gifts. They have a dozen different items, from notepaper and stickers to baseballs and coasters. Shutterfly carries all of the expected gifts, like photo greeting cards, calendars, and memory books, but nothing too extraordinary. Ofoto is nothing short of a total disappointment. They only offer notecards, calendars, and greeting cards. They will have custom hardcover albums coming soon, starting at the bargain price of $29.99 for 20 pages. The equivalent softcover "Snap Book" from Shutterfly or "Flip Book" from Snapfish come in $9.99 USD and $10.96 USD, respectively.

Prices
As far as pricing, the three services are fairly similar. A 4x6 print will cost anywhere from $0.18 USD to $0.29 USD, not including shipping. Snapfish and Shutterfly both offer options to pre-pay for your prints at a lower price. All of the services regularly offer sales and specials, so you should be able to find a good deal at any given time.

It's a real treat to be able to order enlargements right from the computer, without having to fiddle with negatives. A 5x7 print is a nice deal, at only about a dollar each from each site, and an 8x10 is about $4.00 USD. Ordering enlargements from the online services is so convenient that we may start ordering them regularly. A 2 megapixel camera can produce an 8x10 with no problem, so even a casual digital user will be able to move his or her photography to a new level.

One silly option all of the services offer is wallet prints. These are just four smaller images printed on a single 5x7 sheet. A regular 5x7 is priced at $0.99 USD. However, the wallet prints are $1.79 USD. It's the exact same sheet of paper! Anyone with some decent photo editing software can copy and paste an image three times and create their own wallet prints.

Shipping adds between $0.05 USD and $0.20 USD per print, more for enlargements. Not surprisingly, the more your order, the better the price on shipping. The pricing schedules discourage small orders. If you only need a handful of prints, you're better off paying a premium at a local shop. The sites will run specials for free shipping if your spend over a certain amount, so keep an eye out for those to really stretch your photofinishing dollar.

Conclusion
When it comes right down to it, you just want good photos. The photo quality of Snapfish and Shutterfly was comparable, but the email response from Snapfish about the border and notch left a bad taste in our mouths. Ofoto is not up to par with the other two services. Our pictures were unsatisfactory and therefore we cannot recommend them. Take a look at the bells and whistles from Snapfish and Shutterfly and you can be sure one of them will fit your needs. Our favorite: Shutterfly. We liked it so much that we just placed a $20 USD order.

Kevin and Beth Remhof write "tag team" reviews where they share their thoughts as a couple on technology in the digital media realm. They live in Ohio, USA and have two wonderful kids. They are avid rollercoaster fans and are members of the American Coaster Enthusiasts. Kevin is also a reviewer for Pocket PC Thoughts.