Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
Best Print Quality
Nations Photo Lab
- Excellent print quality
- Protective delivery packaging
- TIFF file support
- Good selection of photo gifts
- Comparatively expensive
- Web interface isn’t the slickest
Nations Photo Lab has been delivering high-quality prints since 2005, when three professional photographers couldn’t find a lab with the quality, pricing, and turnaround times they needed. The company now serves both pros and amateurs, and it delivered the best quality prints in terms of sharpness and color accuracy in our tests. Shipped photos arrive in among the sturdiest packaging of the services I tried.
This photo printing service is for professionals and picky consumers who don’t mind paying just a little more for better quality. It’s also a good option if you’re looking for photo greeting cards, gifts, and wall art.
Lowest Price for 4-by-6 Print
36 cents
Largest Print
30 by 45
Learn More
Nations Photo Lab Review
Fastest Printing
Walgreens Photo
- Fast printing
- Sharp image quality
- Basic online image editing
- Can upload photos from social networks
- Online album sharing
Our test one-hour photo order from Walgreens Photo was ready the fastest of any similar service we tested; it took just nine minutes. It charges slightly less per 4-by-6 print than CVS Photos, too. The Walgreens Photo site lets you grab photos from your social networks, do a little editing, and share galleries with friends.
Walgreens Photo is for those who need prints pronto. Of course, if you don’t have a Walgreens nearby, look to CVS or Walmart.
Lowest Price for 4-by-6 Print
39 cents
Largest Print
24 by 36
Learn More
Walgreens Photo Review
Best for Low-Cost Enlargements
Walmart Photo
- Inexpensive
- Fast service with same-day local pickup option
- Clear web interface
- Smartphone ordering app
- Doesn’t accept HEIC or TIFF image files
Walmart offers 5-by-7 and 8-by-10 prints at a lower price than any competitor we tested. It’s by far the cheapest for local pickup, too, at just 14 cents per 4-by-6 print. It delivers decent print quality in acceptably protective packaging and uses a well-designed ordering interface.
If you are looking for a bargain on larger prints or photos you can pick up locally on the same day, consider Walmart. Walmart Plus members should also use it since they get free shipping.
Lowest Price for 4-by-6 Print
14 cents
Largest Print
24 by 36
Learn More
Walmart Photo Review
Best Paper Selection
Mpix
- Clear interface and options
- Good print quality
- Online gallery sharing
- Film processing
- Glossy prints cost more
- Prices on the high end
- No TIFF or HEIC support on the desktop
Mpix is one of the more expensive mail-order photo printing services we tested. It delivers fine prints in some of the strongest packaging of any service, and its giclée and metallic paper are truly impressive, almost giving your shots a 3D look. The service also uses long-lasting Kodak photo paper.
Because Mpix costs more than the budget players and offers more high-end options, it’s best for professionals and serious amateur photographers.
Lowest Price for 4-by-6 Print
36 cents
Largest Print
20 by 24
Best for Free Prime Shipping
Amazon Prints
- Inexpensive
- Quick delivery that’s free for Prime subscribers
- Better print image quality than some competing low-cost photo printing services
- Unintuitive interface
- Doesn’t import photos from social networks
- Doesn’t accept high-megapixel photos
Amazon Prints produces superior image quality compared with other low-priced photo printers. It also lets you order a broad selection of gifts that feature your photos.
If you want the lowest prices for enlargements, Amazon Prints is for you. It’s a no-brainer for Amazon Prime subscribers, who pay nothing for fast shipping. Non-subscribers pay just $4 for ground shipping on orders under $15.
Lowest Price for 4-by-6 Print
17 cents
Largest Print
20 by 30
Learn More
Amazon Prints Review
Most Convenient
CVS Photo
- One-hour local pickup
- No prepayment required; pay on pickup
- Good ordering interface
- Oversaturated colors and streaking in some test prints
- Expensive
CVS produced sharp prints in testing, though the quality isn’t as consistent as what you get from Walgreens Photo for one-hour local pickup.
Use CVS if you need photos in a hurry and live near a CVS. Just keep in mind that other services might get you better prints.
Lowest Price for 4-by-6 Print
42 cents
Largest Print
24 by 36
Learn More
CVS Photo Review
- Superior website usability and features
- Highly protective packaging for shipping
- Letterbox cropping and border options
- TIFF and large files supported
- Less sharp prints than those of most competitors
- Few printed gift options
Printique comes from Adorama, a name many professional photographers trust. The company delivers photo prints on a good choice of paper and in very sturdy packaging. The site also has one of the clearest, most capable interfaces for assembling and organizing your order.
Pros who use Adorama should be comfortable with this service, and anyone who needs to be absolutely sure their photos arrive unharmed should consider it. Pricing is on the high end, but the ordering interface is tops.
Lowest Price for 4-by-6 Print
32 cents
Largest Print
40 by 60
Learn More
Printique Review
Best for Low-Cost Prints
Snapfish
- Inexpensive
- Well-designed, fast, modern web interface
- Lots of print surface options, including blankets, mugs, and more
- Online gallery sharing
- Only fair image quality
- Average shipment packaging
- Lacks TIFF and high-megapixel file support
The well-known Snapfish is very affordable for 4-by-6-inch prints. And if you use the mobile app, prints at that size are free (except for shipping). Snapfish offers a wide selection of gifts and decor items to print your photos on, and the web and mobile interfaces are capable.
For any shutterbug who simply wants low-cost prints, Snapfish is worth considering. If quality is important, however, you should look elsewhere.
Lowest Price for 4-by-6 Print
10 cents
Largest Print
20 by 30
Learn More
Snapfish Review
Buying Guide: The Best Online Photo Printing Services for 2024
Which Photo Printing Service Has the Best Quality?
Print quality is the most important factor to consider before you submit an order. How accurately do the prints reflect the images you took? Most of the prints we received during testing, especially at the smaller 4-by-6-inch size, have acceptable image quality, but there are noticeable differences in lighting and saturation.
Nations Photo Lab and Mpix deliver the best quality in terms of color, paper stock, and sharpness. You can see a clear difference with 8-by-10 blowups. Take a look at the detail-rich city scene below as an example.
(Credit: PCMag)
And here’s a 4-by-6 portrait comparing the services:
(Credit: PCMag/Justin Pietropaoli)
Paper stock is another consideration. Many services use Fuji Crystal archive, which is perfectly good. But higher-end services like Nations Photo Lab, Mpix, and Printique use professional-quality Kodak Endura paper, which is thicker and lasts longer.
Where Can You Get Cheap Photo Prints?
You don’t have to break the bank to print your photos. For 4-by-6-inch prints, the lowest prices are from Snapfish (10 cents), Walmart (14 cents), and Amazon Prints (17 cents). If you use Shutterfly’s or Snapfish’s mobile apps, you can get 4-by-6-inch prints for free and pay only for shipping (though shipping charges aren’t cheap). Shutterfly caps this offer at 250 photos per order, while Snapfish sets a limit of 100 per month.
Of the photo printing services we tested, the most expensive mail-order photos cost 36 cents for a 4-by-6 print—that’s from Nations Photo Labs and Mpix (plus shipping). You get better paper quality for that higher price. Local one-hour pickup options usually cost more. CVS Photo charges 42 cents apiece for 4-by-6s for local pickup, and Walgreens charges 39 cents for the same, though Walmart Photo charges just 14 cents, the same price as mailed prints.
Even if you want enlargements in popular sizes, such as 5-by-7 and 8-by-10, you don’t have to spend a lot. Amazon Prints and Snapfish charge only 79 cents for a 5-by-7 print. Amazon Prints charges just $2.09 for an 8-by-10 print, and most other services charge between $2.99 and $3.99 for that size.
Wall art prints cost more, but prices still aren’t exorbitant. All the services above sell 16-by-20 prints for about $20, and some charge closer to $15.
One thing to keep in mind is that most photo printers offer special discount pricing from time to time, especially around the holidays.
What’s the Best Photo Printing Service for Gifts and Greeting Cards?
Why stop at ordinary photo prints when you can put your pictures on mugs, playing cards, and even pillows? The best online photo printing services sell an assortment of objects that you can personalize with photos. All offer calendars, greeting cards, and photo books. Most also sell blankets, coffee mugs, and phone cases.
(Credit: Walmart/PCMag)
Holiday greeting cards mean so much more when they include a photo of your family. Most of the services here can produce them at reasonable rates. You can usually get 5-by-7 flat cards in the range of about 50 cents apiece (from Walmart) to around $3 from a high-end service. A few photo printers sell folded cards for a bit more. Typically, you pay less per card with a larger order volume. Premium options like foil printing, linen card stock, and special cutout shapes are available at a premium.
Shutterfly has the largest selection of photo gifts, with blankets, flowerpots, pet food bowls, phone cases, pillows, and even shower curtains. Walmart Photo will sell you a necktie with your picture on it or multiple copies of one shot. I’m still waiting for someone to offer photo-embellished rugs and lampshades. Puzzles and magnets are also popular options.
Where Can You Get Large Canvas Prints?
Nations Photo Lab sells canvas prints starting at $73.50 for an 8-by-10 stretched on a 3/4-inch frame; Snapfish canvases start at $39.99 for 8-by-8s; and Printique surprisingly undercuts that at $29.99 for an 8-by-8.
However, other companies specialize in just large canvas prints. Two we like are CanvasChamp and CanvasPop. CanvasPop has 12-by-16 canvas prints wrapped on a 3/4-inch frame for $109. The company also offers retouching and restoration services. CanvasChamp sells prints up to 54-by-54 inches and is more budget-oriented. Prices start at $55.57 (usually heavily discounted) for an 8-by-8-inch canvas wrapped on a 1/2-inch frame, but the print quality doesn’t match that of CanvasPop.
A canvas print created by CanvasPop (Credit: PCMag)
Where Can You Get Mounted Prints?
Most of the photo printing services here offer a choice of hard backings for larger prints. They can also frame your picture if you’re willing to pay more.
If you intend to hang a photo on the wall, look at prints on gator board, metal (more on this in the next section), or styrene standouts. Mounting options from Nations Photo Lab include black styrene and gator board, which start at $4.35 and $6.34 for a 5-by-7, respectively. Gator board is stronger than standard foam plastic, and it’s easy to hang on the wall because it contains wood fibers. All these types of backing are available from many of the online photo printing services here.
Mpix offers a CollageWall option that lets you group related shots with a matching background. These start at $79.99 for a 2-by-1-foot array consisting of five photos; that price can go over $1,000 for a 10-by-3-foot wall display with dozens of component photos. Printique sells similar decor.
Framing adds the ultimate wall art touch to your large photos. It also adds cost. A framed 4-by-6 from Mpix costs $35.50. Printique charges $91.48 for framed and matted prints at the 5-by-7 size, while Snapfish starts at $69.99 for that size.
Metal prints are an elegant and more permanent option than paper photos. With this option, services print your photo directly onto a metallic surface for more vivid colors and contrast. Prices go up considerably, however. For example, Nations Photo Lab charges $18.40 for a 4-by-6-inch metal print and $35.50 for an 8-by-10. Mpix has an option to print to paper using an effect called Metallic Print, so you can get a similar look at a lower price.
Some photo printing services now also offer wood mounting, a warm, homey choice. Walmart has both Rustic and Natural wood options, which start at $31.96 for an 8-by-8. The prints come with mounting holes in the back, and the printing process allows the wood grain to show through your image.
How to Use Photo Printing Services to Make Photo Books
Almost all the best photo printing services can make professionally printed books with your photos. Photo books are popular for special occasions, such as graduations and milestone anniversaries.
At the low end of the price spectrum, Walmart charges just $10.96 for a 5-by-7 softcover book of 20 pages, while Mpix charges $29.99 for a 5-by-5 book. Nations Photo Lab makes lightweight softcover Buzz Books with 40 photos for $19, while its hardcover books start at $41.75 for 5-by-7-inch books with 24 pages. Mpix sells Premium hardcover books with sewn bindings starting at $44.99 for a 20-page 5-by-5-inch book and Classic hardcover books starting at $29.99.
Nations Photo Lab provides clear book designing options (Credit: Nations Photo Lab/PCMag)
As you can imagine, prices go way up if you select larger book dimensions, premium materials, and more pages. For example, a 20-page 12-by-12 book with Deep Matte stock costs $127.99 from Mpix, and each extra page costs an additional $4.50.
Shutterfly has a free service that curates your photos and designs a book for you if you feel you’re not up to the task. The site has one of the best design tools, with three options: Custom Path (which lets you personalize every page), Make My Book, and Simple Path (which instantly lays out your photos).
If you’re comfortable with photo editing software, Adobe’s Lightroom Classic offers excellent photo book design tools and lets you send your project directly to a professional printer. Lightroom uses the book-only Blurb service. Another photo-book-only option is the well-designed Mixbook service. Google Photos includes an easy photo book creator and lets you order softcovers and hardcovers. A 7-inch square softcover is just $14.99 with 49 cents per extra page (up to 140 pages). Google Photos can even auto-create suggested photo books based on your trips and occasions.
Recommended by Our Editors
What to Expect When Editing, Ordering, and Sharing Photos
When you order photos online, you want a friendly and navigable website. For example, most photo printing services let you simply check off all the sizes you want on a single-page grid. Others make you select a size for printing before choosing the images you want and then start over again if you want more sizes.
Walmart Photo lets you add multiple print sizes for each photo or for all at once (Credit: Walmart/PCMag)
Some online photo printers offer basic photo-editing tools so you can brighten or darken an underexposed or overexposed shot, for example. Several services automatically apply color correction. Mpix offers retouching for $8 for one head in a photo and can remove braces or whiten teeth for the same price.
Online Sharing
A few photo printing services let you share your images online. Amazon, Mpix, Printique, and Shutterfly are particularly strong in this area. Shutterfly even lets you create online mini-websites for your photos. Snapfish and Walgreens Photo allow you to share online galleries that recipients can view as full-window slideshows. Amazon Photos provides unlimited free online storage for Prime subscribers.
Film Processing
This may seem a passé topic, but there’s a contingent of photographers who still prefer to shoot on film. I recently needed film processing for a disposable underwater camera that I used while snorkeling. Mpix and some CVS and Walgreens locations still process film.
For a film-only service with more options, including black-and-white film, check out Bushwick Community Darkroom, The Darkroom, or United Film Lab. These organizations can create digital copies of your photos, so you can edit and share them more easily, but getting prints costs extra.
How to Order Print Photos From a Mobile App
The most popular camera these days is one that’s always with you—your phone. Smartphones have come a long way in terms of image quality, with some (like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra) reaching a lofty 200 megapixels of resolution. Most people use their phones to take photos these days, so it only makes sense for photo printing services to offer mobile apps that let you order prints directly.
Shutterfly’s app gets you free prints for the price of shipping only and adds the ability to order photo gifts, while the Snapfish and Walgreens Photo apps can import photos from social networks, perform some editing, and let you share photos with friends. Nations Photo Labs has a mobile app that lets you order prints not only from the phone but from any of your social accounts.
How Does the Packaging of Photo Printing Services Compare?
If you’re not in a rush to get your photos, ordering them by mail (rather than for local pickup) gives you the widest range of options for print finishes and other details like paper stock. It usually doesn’t take an inordinate amount of time to get your prints. The shipping cost for our order of 22 photos ranged from $4 to $10, although the reason for the price difference was stark—packaging. Our orders from Nations Photo Lab and Printique arrived in strong cardboard boxes, which gives the best protection.
Clockwise from top left: Walmart Photo, CVS Photo, Walgreens Photo, Mpix, Printique, Nations Photo Lab, EZPrints, Amazon Prints, Shutterfly, and Snapfish (Credit: PCMag)
If you want faster delivery, most of the best photo printing services offer second-day and overnight delivery—but that’s dependent on the day they print your photos. So “overnight” doesn’t necessarily mean your photos arrive the day after you pay for them, regardless of how much you pay. Still, it could mean your pictures arrive a few days faster than if you select standard shipping.
If you want your pictures pronto, Walgreens Photo is the service we recommend, though CVS Photo and Walmart are also options. Target Photo no longer lets you pick up prints at its store locations; Target now sends you to EZPrints, which we don’t recommend due to poor quality.
Get More From Your Photos
To learn more about improving your photos, check out our collections of quick tips to fix bad photos, beyond-basic photography tips, and the best photo editing software. And if you’re set on printing pictures by yourself, our list of the best photo printers is a good place to start.
