How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Mixbook is the closest all round replacement, with a stronger editor and softcover books from about 15 dollars before the constant promotions.
- Snapfish undercuts almost everyone on price, while Printique and Mpix serve photographers who care about colour accuracy more than templates.
- Chatbooks turns a camera roll or Instagram feed into small recurring books with almost no design work, from about 8 dollars a book.
- Artifact Uprising is the premium pick for paper and finish, and Blurb serves people publishing books for sale, not just for the coffee table.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Mixbook | Design control and book quality | $14.99 per book | No |
 Snapfish | Lowest prices and constant deals | $10 per book | No |
 Chatbooks | Automatic small books from your phone | $8 per book | No |
 Artifact Uprising | Premium paper and minimalist design | See website | No |
 Printique | Colour accuracy for camera photos | See website | No |
 Blurb | Self published and professional books | $25 per book | No |
 Mpix | Photographer grade prints and books | $45 per book | No |
 Nations Photo Lab | Value prints and books from a real lab | $19 per book | No |
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The best Shutterfly alternatives
Starting price$14.99 per book
Free planNo
What we like- Mixbook is the replacement most Shutterfly users settle on. Softcover books start at 14.99 dollars and a standard 20 page hardcover lands around 38 dollars before promotions, and the editor gives full drag and drop control over layouts, backgrounds and text, plus an Auto Create mode that drafts a book from your uploads when you are in a hurry. Print quality is a step up in consistency, templates cover weddings, travel, baby books and yearbooks, and collaborators can be invited into a project, which suits family books built by three siblings in three states.
Watch out for- List prices sit above Snapfish, and you still play the promotion game to get the real price. The Mixbook logo appears on finished products, pages are added in two page spreads only, and some reviewers find colours print slightly saturated. There is no same day pickup option, so a forgotten anniversary needs rush shipping money.
Starting price$10 per book
Free planNo
What we like- Snapfish is the budget answer, owned by the same parent family as Shutterfly's printing heritage and aimed squarely at price. Photo books start around 10 dollars with deals, prints are among the cheapest per unit in the category, and the catalogue covers books, cards, calendars, mugs and wall art. Its Mail for Me card service will stamp and post your cards for you, which in December is worth more than another template. For school photos, team gifts and bulk holiday cards, the unit economics beat everyone else here.
Watch out for- You trade finish for price. Reviewers consistently rate Snapfish print quality as adequate rather than good, pages feel thinner, and the editor is basic with fewer layout options than Mixbook. Colour can drift between orders, which matters if you are printing the same book for four grandparents and want them to match. Spend the savings on one test book before a bulk order.
Starting price$8 per book
Free planNo
What we like- Chatbooks deletes the design step. Connect a camera roll or an Instagram account and it fills small softcover books for you, at roughly 8 to 15 dollars a book, or on a monthly subscription plan that keeps a series going as you take photos. The books are small, square and made to accumulate on a shelf: a year of a child's life becomes twelve little volumes with no weekend lost to layout work. For parents, this automatic rhythm is the entire product, and it is the one thing Shutterfly's project based editor does not try to be.
Watch out for- The books are small and the paper is ordinary, so this is not where wedding albums live. Design control is minimal by design: you can swap and caption photos, not art direct spreads. Print quality is rated adequate in comparisons. If you want one beautiful large book for a milestone, Mixbook or Artifact Uprising serve you better, and Chatbooks works best as the always on record beside them.
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- Artifact Uprising sells restraint: thick matte papers, recycled materials, linen and fabric covers, and templates that leave white space alone. Its lay flat albums and hardcover books are the ones photographers hand to clients and couples keep for decades, and the card range uses real foil and heavy stock sold in sets. Prices range widely by format, from small prints and softcovers to albums at several hundred dollars, and current pricing varies enough by product line that we list see website rather than a misleading entry figure.
Watch out for- This is the expensive end of the category, and the minimalist template library frustrates people who want themed designs for every holiday. The editor is simpler than Mixbook's, deliberately. Shipping is not the fastest, and there are no budget books here: if the job is forty cheap copies for a reunion, Snapfish does it for a fifth of the money.
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- Printique is the printing arm of Adorama, the camera retailer, and it behaves like a lab that happens to have a website. Reviewers put its print quality at the top of this category, with accurate colour and sharp output that suits photos taken on real cameras, plus metal, acrylic and fine art print options beyond books. A standard 8 by 8 hardcover typically lands around 50 to 55 dollars before promotions, and lay flat albums run higher. Photographers printing portfolios or client work start here.
Watch out for- You pay lab prices and get a lab's template count: fewer designs than Mixbook, and an editor that assumes you brought finished photos rather than a phone library to organise. Entry pricing varies by format and promotion, so see the website for your exact book. Casual users printing phone snapshots will not see enough difference to justify the premium over Mixbook.
Starting price$25 per book
Free planNo
What we like- Blurb is a publishing platform that also prints photo books. Its BookWright software and Adobe InDesign plug in give page level control no web editor here matches, books can be listed for sale through Blurb's bookstore and Amazon channels, and trade book formats bring unit costs down for print runs. Books start around 25 dollars for typical photo book formats in current comparisons. Cookbooks, portfolios, family histories and small press projects live here, with ISBN and distribution options the consumer services do not offer.
Watch out for- The learning curve is the steepest in this list, and the tooling assumes you think in pages, bleeds and margins. For a quick holiday book it is heavy machinery, and per unit prices for a single premium photo book are not its strength. Customer service is geared to publishers with order histories rather than one off gift buyers.
Starting price$45 per book
Free planNo
What we like- Mpix is the consumer facing lab from Miller's Professional Imaging, the lab many US wedding and portrait photographers use, and it shows in the paper, colour correction options and packaging. Photo books start around 45 dollars in current comparison tables, prints are its home ground, and turnaround is fast for a lab of this grade. If your photos came off a real camera and you have been disappointed by drugstore grade output, Mpix is the corrective.
Watch out for- The editor is simple and template light, since the lab expects finished files. Prices for books sit well above Mixbook once premium papers are chosen, and the product range is narrower than Shutterfly's gift catalogue: fewer novelty items, more serious prints. Phone only shooters can get most of this quality from Printique at similar money, so compare both.
Starting price$19 per book
Free planNo
What we like- Nations Photo Lab splits the difference between the labs and the consumer sites: professional paper and colour, consumer friendly ordering, and books from about 19 dollars in current comparisons. It is a working US lab, prints are its strength, and reviewers rate its book quality well above Snapfish at prices far below Printique's premium tiers. Album and book options include lay flat binding, and frequent sales apply to an already fair list price.
Watch out for- The design editor is competent rather than delightful, and the template library is smaller than Mixbook's. The brand is less known to gift buyers, so recipients get a lab box rather than a famous name. International shipping is limited compared with the global consumer brands, which matters for books being sent to family abroad.
How we chose
We compared these services on the jobs Shutterfly does: photo books, prints, cards and gifts, then split them by what they do better, whether that is price, print quality, automation or publishing. Every service here prints and ships to US customers today and publishes its product range and pricing openly. We excluded print on demand platforms aimed at sellers rather than families, and we excluded Shutterfly itself. Because promotions change weekly in this category, prices are labelled as starting points and ranges, and any figure we could not pin to a current source became see website.
How to choose the right photo printing service
Match the service to the book's job. A wedding album or a portfolio that must last decades belongs at Printique, Mpix or Artifact Uprising, where paper and colour justify the bill. A year of family life belongs at Chatbooks, where the book makes itself. Forty reunion copies belong at Snapfish, where unit price is the whole argument. A book you intend to sell belongs at Blurb, full stop.
Then run the only test that counts: order the same small book from your top two. Use your hardest photos, one dark indoor shot, one bright beach shot, one face you know well. Judge skin tones, shadow detail and paper feel when the boxes arrive, because screens lie about print and one 15 dollar test beats fifty reviews. Finally, back up the originals somewhere that is not a printing site: these companies are printers, not archives, and accounts and product lines close in this industry like anywhere else.
Frequently asked questions
Which Shutterfly alternative has the best print quality?
Printique and Mpix lead on colour accuracy and paper in current comparisons, with Artifact Uprising close behind on premium formats. Mixbook is the best quality among the mainstream editor led services. The gap shows most in skin tones and dark photos, and least in bright outdoor snapshots, where even Snapfish looks fine.
Which is the cheapest way to print a photo book?
Snapfish, when a promotion is running, which is most of the time, with books from about 10 dollars. Chatbooks is cheaper per book for its small format, from about 8 dollars, but you are buying a different object. Always compare the cart total with shipping for the exact size and page count, because the cheapest headline has a habit of adding the most at checkout.
Can any of these print a book today?
Not like a drugstore can. These are mail order services: production takes days and shipping adds more, with rush options at Mixbook and others for a fee. If the book is needed tonight, a local store's same day service is the fallback, accepting the quality trade. For anything with a date attached, order two weeks ahead and let the deadline pressure go.
Do these services print from Instagram and Facebook?
Chatbooks builds books straight from Instagram and camera rolls, and most services here import from Google Photos, Facebook and cloud storage during upload. Resolution is the catch: social platforms compress photos, so a full page print from a downloaded Instagram image can look soft. For the big pages, upload the original file from your phone or camera, and let the small pages take the social copies.
What happens to my photos if a printing company closes?
You should assume projects and stored photos go away, because in past closures that is what happened across this industry. Keep your originals in your own storage, and for a book you care about, save the exported files or a spare printed copy. A printing account is a convenience, not a backup, and treating it as one is the most common way families lose a year of photos.
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Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.