shutterfly soft cover photo book reviews

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Shutterfly photo book review: Great photos, not-so-great editor

Founded in 1999, Shutterfly has been in the online photo printing business the longest among all its DIY photo book competitors. It’s very popular, with millions of customers ordering photo books, prints, cards, and other photo products every year.

When it comes to photo books, Shutterfly offers a sometimes frustrating web editor for creating the book, but somewhat makes up for this with a nice selection of creative features. The photos came out looking good, but we received a book with some trim issues that sliced into text placed near the edge of a page.

Shutterfly has three options for creating your photo book: Make My Book, Custom Path, and Simple Path. The Make My Book service is where Shutterfly’s designers create your book for you. Custom Path has you make your book and arrange your photos. And Simple Path is where you make the book but the photos are automatically arranged for you.

The books come in six sizes (all measured in inches): 8×8 (starting at $19.99), 8×11 (starting at $24.99), 11×8 (starting at $24.99), 10×10 (starting at $29.99), 12×12 (starting at $69.99), and the new 11×14 (starting at $74.99). Various styles are available for additional costs, including hard or soft covers in leather and other materials, matte, glossy, and layflat pages, and more.

In our review, we made a Custom Path book with a matte hardcover and standard pages in the newest and largest 11×14 size. The book came to $102.37 excluding shipping. Our theme: a yearbook of PCWorld’s “ The Full Nerd ” YouTube show.

Editor’s note: This review is part of our  best photo book roundup . Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them

Creating the book

Shutterfly’s app was at times disorienting and cumbersome. But after playing with the photo book builder for 15 to 30 minutes or so, you should hopefully have the hang of it.

You can import images from your computer or social media platforms like Instagram. Yet once the images upload, you have to scroll through them via a tiny view space on the bottom that is far from user-friendly.

The same small scroll space also lets you view the pages, which makes re-ordering them equally annoying. Instead, hit the Arrange tab to more easily review and move pages around.

Shutterfly’s Arrange tab is a much more pleasant way to order photos compared to the tiny scroll space you can see on the bottom of this image.

You can choose from more than 200 templates, including themes like Sesame Street and Star Wars. Templates generate a range of different page layouts into which you can drop photos inside frames.

But to get a most customized experience, you shouldn’t rely on themes and instead use the Layouts tab. Here you can apply layouts for pages that contain as little as one image or more than five and even create two-page spreads. If you want even more control, you can hit the Add photo area button to choose and size areas where you place photos. Though most of the time the Layouts tab should do just fine for placing photos and text.

You’ll find a wide range of layouts for placing your photos. Here’s an example of a three photo layout we used.

Speaking of text, Shutterfly’s editor was terrible at handling it. Font selection was limited, special characters like em dashes weren’t supported, and waiting for the font style to update felt like it took forever. There was also no easy way to copy the style from one text box to another.

If you want to make any major adjustments to your photo, just double-click on it to bring up an editing window. Here you can add eight different effects, or “filters,” to your photos to enhance or diminish the colors. You can also correct red-eye, rotate the photo, and resize it.

Shutterfly warns you right away when it thinks a photo’s resolution is too low. It does this with an exclamation point, which basically means you need to choose a new photo or resize it so it’s smaller.

There’s also a huge range of clip art you can put in the book under the Embellishments section. Finding clip art is easy thanks to the search bar—just type in what you’re looking for to bring up stickers.

Shutterfly’s editor has all the necessary features to get the job done. Unfortunately, it’s slow and has a dated design and interface. We can’t recommend enough for Shutterfly to upgrade its editor.

The final printed product

Shutterfly includes 6 to 10 business day economy shipping on all orders of $39 and more if you use the code “SHIP39” at checkout. Looking for something faster? You can even order 2 business day rush shipping for an additional cost. The price for faster shipping varies depending on the size of the book. ( See all of Shutterfly’s shipping options here. )

The photo book came in a branded, bright orange cardboard packaging that protected the book in transit. Like other photo books, it was wrapped in cellophane. But you can also choose to have your photo book sent in a gift box.

The first thing we noticed with Shutterfly’s photo book is that it had no problem printing the same images we used for other photo books on its much larger 11×14-inch surface. It even was able to make two-page spreads out of a few. Other services warned us that the resolution of these photos was too low to print appropriately, but Shutterfly appeared to handle them quite well.

Unlike some photo book services, Shutterfly was able to print the same images on a larger surface while preserving quality.

Photos were good quality, clear, and bright across all the glossy pages. Colors also came out well and we didn’t notice any weird color shifts. Overall, the photo quality was superior to Picaboo and PrestoPhotos while on par with AdoramaPix and Mixbook.

The pages were fairly thin, though, because we didn’t order the premium lay flat option. The front and back cover was also thinner than the other books we reviewed. And the blank white paper pages at the front and back of the book were somewhat flimsy and seem prone to tearing. The white pages don’t share the same paper stock as the photo pages, and create a rather jarring disconnect for the book as a whole.

Probably the worst thing about Shutterfly’s book is that some text was trimmed off the page. We didn’t receive any warnings about the trimming risk in the editor, and by all accounts the text was correctly placed in the margins. This should be a major concern if you’re working with text. The good news: You can request a refund or new book via  Shutterfly’s customer service  for situations like this.

As you can see in the lower left corner, the “I” in “Installing” is missing. This shouldn’t have happened because the text was never flagged in the web editor, and was placed within the printable area. The caption at the top was trimmed as well.

Another frustration is the white barcode in the bottom right of the outer and inner back cover. Shutterfly did charge us to remove its logo, but there was no option to get rid of this barcode. None of the four other services we reviewed print a barcode on the back. It just looks tacky.

In a statement to PCWorld, a Shutterfly spokesperson said, “The barcode enables our manufacturing facilities to track our customers’ projects through the process to shipping.” Makes sense, but other photo bookmakers have evidently found a way around this.

Bottom line

We ordered Shutterfly’s largest available 11×14 photo book for $74.99, paid $9.99 to remove the logo on the back page, and paid $15.99 for the matte finish, totaling $102.37 with free economy shipping. Of course, we went with a very large size and there are definitely cheaper options out there for as low as $24.99 for an 11×8 book without customizations.

Still, we find Shutterfly pretty pricey considering we didn’t even get the premium lay flat options or additional customizations. AdoramaPix makes a much thicker, sturdier 10×12.5 book with silk lay flat pages for $75.99 including shipping.

But if want a huge 11×14 photo book, Shutterfly is the way to go. No other services capable of printing high-quality photos on a photo book of this size are out there—yet.

Editor’s note:  Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.

Shutterfly’s web editor needs updating, but its core service gets the job done with a decent quality photo book, bright photos, and a ton of different options and styles to choose from.

One mom tried 5 digital photo book services: Here's how they compared

Remember photo albums -- books with clear plastic pockets that held your favorite photos to keep track of memories and memorialize a year of your life?

We don’t do that much anymore. When was the last time you even printed a picture?

But the joy of thumbing through a memory book of photos is still a thing, so services have sprung up online to turn your digital photos into bound books. While some have been around for decades, other newcomers have also come along. Prices and formats vary wildly, so how should you choose the right service for your images?

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"Good Morning America" asked mom Sheila Madrigal from Morgan Hill, California, to order photo books from 5 different services: Snapfish, Shutterfly, Mixbook, Amazon and Costco. She used the same 60 photos in all five books and tried to get the size and layouts of the books as similar as possible. The photos were taken with both her iPhone and DSLR camera.

After the books were created, ordered and arrived at Madrigal's house, we took them to Sam Hoffman of San Francisco’s Lightsource, a fine art print lab. While they don’t make print books at Lightsource, Hoffman evaluated the quality of the books.

Best Image Quality: Costco & Shutterfly

The primary factors Sam evaluated were contrast, warm skin tones, shadow detail, and saturation.

One of Madrigal’s photos showed her family in a field of yellow flowers, her husband Israel is tossing their daughter in the air. Both the Shutterfly and Costco books impressed him with how they handled the image.

In the Costco and Shutterfly books, the field had a rich golden color and skin tones were warm.

“I see the darkness of the blues. The separation of darkness and lighter colors,” said Hoffman.

He used that photo to judge two bottom performers in the image quality category, Snapfish and Amazon.

“There is a greyness in the flesh tones [Snapfish] and this one is the least vibrant of them all [Amazon],” he said.

Best Binding: Shutterfly

According to Hoffman, all the books used semi-matte paper, but the production from each company varied. In some books there was no cover page while others had sophisticated stamped paper in the cover and back page positions. Another difference was the binding. Some had a simple stitched binding that was visible between the pages, while others had stitched and glued binding that looked more sophisticated. Shutterfly’s book had a luxe cover page made of stamped paper, stitched and glued binding, as well as a back cover that was in a different color and design.

Ease of Creation: Snapfish

We let Sheila, who created the books, weigh in on this category. She said the Snapfish tool took her 20 minutes from start to finish to create the book. Uploads were fast, layout was simple and the user interface was intuitive. She ranked Mixbook, Shutterfly and Amazon slightly below Snapfish, but still easy to use.

She gave the Costco the lowest ranking in this category, complaining that the upload of her images took twice as long as some other sites. She said that when she used the Costco tool, it arbitrarily populated her book with the pictures she uploaded, but she had a specific order in mind and had to go back through the tool removing all the pictures then adding them back into the layout where she wanted them.

There was one more problem from the Costco book: it cut her baby's picture in half!

The online tool showed a picture of her three kids fitting on the page but when the printed book was inspected, the baby was only half visible. Sam explained that the image was placed too far into the center of the page, an area printers call the “gutter,” and the baby’s face was obscured. Sheila said it did not look like that in the online tool. Costco declined ABC News' request for comment.

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Least expensive: Amazon

The most expensive book was from Mixbook at $47.63. Shutterfly came in at $40.72 , Costco and Snapfish were a penny apart at $32.68 and $32.67, and Amazon had the least expensive book at $27.24.

One thing to consider with pricing is that many of these services offer outrageous deals on photobooks with special seasonal codes, sometimes 50 to 60% off.

Here’s a pro tip: keep a file of your favorite photos on your desktop, copy them in there as you take them each month, and when you see a killer deal come up, you’ll be able to create the book and nab a great keepsake at a fraction of the price.

Overall top pick: Shutterfly

Ranking ease of creation, image quality, price and the overall feel of the book’s production, Hoffman liked Shutterfly the best.

Our mom Sheila also liked Shutterfly the best, and resolved to make a memory book every year from now on.

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Shutterfly Photo Books review

With great prices, shutterfly is the place to go for cheaper photo gifts and great service..

Top Ten Reviews Verdict

Shutterfly's online photo editor is easy to navigate, and with the multitude of options and add-ons available, just about anyone can create a professional-looking photo book at a good price.

Well priced photo books

Loads to choose from

Frequent discounts

Photo clarity is less good

Why you can trust Top Ten Reviews Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Have you ever taken your latest partner home to meet your parents, and suddenly the photo albums are out and everyone but you is laughing over that picture of you in the bath? Well, Shutterfly is the photo book website that allows you to take every photo where you look your best and compile them into one embarrassment free collection of your best shots. Maybe give that as a gift to your parents this year, and suggest they get rid of the embarrassing old one. A wide range of templates, for any occasion, gives you the creative freedom to make a great photo book without breaking the bank. Here is why Shutterfly is the top value pick among our best photo book selections. 

Shutterfly: Pricing

Shutterfly is below average when it comes to pricing. An 8 x 8 hardcover photo book with 20 pages costs $29.98 ($19.98 for softcover). This service does charge for standard shipping and tax so expect the price to go up a bit more, however Shutterfly still boasts some of the cheapest photo book services out there. It does $1.69 per page to add to a standard 25-page product, and this is one of the more expensive charges we’ve seen, however with constant codes and discounts the basic price is always lower than you’d expect. Mixbook offers comparable prices, and the discount codes are fairly frequent there too.

Shutterfly: Quality & Services

The book we got back from Shutterfly was very nice, especially in terms of photo reproduction, though there were a few flaws. The cover printed beautifully, true to color and without any graininess or blurriness. Some of the page images turned out a bit blurry, however. The page thickness was impressive, and this book tended to stay open on its own. The high-quality flyleaves added a layer of protection and a more finished look. The cover was also very sturdy and should age well.

Shutterfly offers 48 templates, with six page sizes, two cover options, and three layflat possibilities. The templates include a designer collection that features beautiful designs from Sarah Hawkins, as well as Potts Design, and Floats Paperie. Maybe you want something more fun for the family, well then, the Disney Family Adventures template is a perfect choice.

Shutterfly offers a simple four step process for you to get the perfect photo album put together. You start by choosing your templates, maybe simply white, or bold and bright? Whatever your preference you’ll find loads to choose from. Next you move on to the Storyboard page, where you can drag and drop you pictures for Shutterfly to automatically sort, they’ll choose the perfect layout that matches the number of photos you’ve uploaded. Now you’ve got all your pages together it’s off to the edit stage. This is probably the most fun part of making any photo book.

You can easily change the theme and background of your project or add text boxes, images, embellishments and extra pages. You can even edit the photos with features that can reduce red eye, rotate an image, and change or enhance the colors in a picture. The photo editor also identifies low-resolution images, giving you the chance to either resize or remove the picture.

Your project is stored online while you work on it, so you can save, share or add photos to your photo book at any time. You can also share your photo book at any point by adding it to your Shutterfly share site, or by just emailing it to friends and family.

Your last creation stage lets you check and rearrange every page. From the front cover, to the back, and everything in between, you have complete control over which photo goes where.

Shutterfly: Book options

Shutterfly offers several different sizing and cover options for its books, although there aren't as many here as at Printique . Six sizes are available: 8 x 8, 8 x 11, 11 x 8, 10 x 10, 12 x 12 and 11 x 14 inches. These are among the most common sizing options for photo books. Shutterfly also provides hard and softcovers to it’s photobooks, either made of a durable gloss laminate, or an easy-to-flip cardstock, respectively.

The latest addition to the Shutterfly catalogue is the 6 x 6 instant books. A quick and easy way to create a mini photo book, just as customizable as its larger counterparts, but cheaper. At $19.98 for a 20 page book this option gives you the option to upload from computer, mobile device, and social media. Perfectly accessible from the Shutterfly app, available on Android and IOS, you can design your own instant book on the go.

The interface is organized and everything is clearly labeled. If you don’t know what a button does, hovering over it with your mouse reveals an explanation. You can upload photos directly to the  editor from your computer, Facebook, Instagram and several other sources. The one thing that could improve the interface would be an automatic shuffle feature that would help you decide the best arrangements for photos on a page; as it is, you have to move each photo individually to experiment with a new arrangement.

When you are ready to order your book, the site provides a preview that displays the book in high resolution so you know what it will look like when it prints. If you find any errors, you can easily return to editing mode and fix the book. Shutterfly automatically prints their logo inside the book on the last page. You can pay between $6 and $9 to remove it if you don’t want any branding.

Shutterfly: Support and user reviews

Shutterfly provides support for all of its services. You'll find a telephone number, email address and live chat feature to contact technical support for any problems that come up while making your photo book. However, the operating hours for the phone are limited, so if you need to contact support in off hours, email and live chat are the best options. The company also provides a searchable FAQs database, so you can explore topics and find answers to your questions. Additionally, there is a user forum where you can exchange ideas and solutions.

There are several different shipping methods, but be aware that with processing time, the expedited shipping option still takes almost a week. If you want the most economic option, allow for two weeks of processing and shipping to ensure you get your order in time.

Shutterfly averages a rating of 3/5 on TrustPilot, with most customers raising concerns over slow shipping times with one return user calling his experience “quite disheartening”, and “painful”. However, 67% of reviews fell into the five-star category “Customer Service helped me to create a photobook that came out beautiful. I would highly recommend if technology is not your thing.”

Should you use Shutterfly?

As one of the pioneers in the photo books landscape, Shutterfly still holds a strong presence in the industry because the service combines usability and quality. The online photo editor is appealing to both experts and beginners with its range of features and its easy-to-use interface, and Shutterfly has a wide variety of features to help you create good quality books for any occasion. Regular discount codes make it a very inexpensive option too, and it's only pipped by Mixbook as our top service because of a slightly lower print quality.

Bobby is a freelance contributor to Top Ten Reviews, and has tested all manner of products in his time as a freelance writer. He currently works as a freelance SEO consultant, but is also an accomplished writer. Bobby has handled all kinds of software reviews, and his bylines cover a broad range of subjects on Top Ten Reviews.

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Most Popular

Why You Will Love Shutterfly Photo Books

• Updated: Mar 6, 2024
• Published: Apr 2, 2013

Over the course of last year, I documented my memories by creating custom Digital Scrapbooking Pages – which I then printed at Shutterfly. Today I’m sharing my finished and printed Photo Book!

Many of you wanted to see how the final album looked, so here are the pictures. A finished photo book is a joy. Honestly just making sure that all the photos are printed and ready to be seen and cherished feels good. 🙂

To make the cover special, I designed my album cover digitally in Photoshop using these template pages . These have been a long favorite of mine, and I thought they would look pretty as an album cover.

I put my book together using Shutterfly’s Custom path. It is simple and intuitive and quick to use. Then I selected a matte finish, hardbound option and finished my order. Shutterfly will print my photos on matte paper, trim and bind them into a book for me and it will be delivered via mail!

My Yearly Photo Book

I uploaded all of my images at 300 dpi resolution.

I ordered a 12 by 12 inch hardcover Photobook with a glossy cover

I absolutely love the 12 by 12 inch size. Here is how the front cover of my Yearly Photo Book.

And here is the back cover, which is my absolute favorite part of this album

Shutterfly Photo Book Review:

I was a little nervous though about how my templates would print and look IRL now. Thankfully they all printed well.

The paper quality of the Shutterfly Photo Book is great, and not too glossy. The photos in this Photo book are all sharp and printed wonderfully.

The pages do now lay flat though.

The hardcover is super strong! This book is really thin, just about 0.5 inches wide, which is great and makes it really compact to store.

One of my pages didn’t print properly and had a white speck on it. Dab in the center of a face. I emailed Shutterfly about it and they were sweet enough to send me a whole new book!

Overall, I was very impressed by the quality and speediness of arrival of my Shutterfly Photo Book.

Since we now have 2 copies of the same book, I’m keeping one to preserve and one for the girls to read and enjoy (and possibly crumple the pages in excitement)!

(she loves reading this Shutterfly Photo book- because it has pictures of people she knows!! Love her messy hair)

how many pages can a shutterfly book have?

How many pages can a shutterfly book have? The default number of pages is 20 but you can add more pages, but the photo book price will increase. The more pages you add the chunkier you book will be, so I would try not to go above 40 to 50 pages.

My favorite go to size is the 12 by 12 inches size. I prefer this size as the photos are large and dramatic. The 8.5 by 11 inch size is also a good option.

Hi I’m Smitha! I live in Minnesota with my husband and two daughters. You’ll always find me painting florals in my sketchbook. And I love the sheer joy of making something with just my hands! But my bigger love is capturing it all on camera Read more .

Thanks for stopping by today! If you learnt something from this tutorial, do share this post with a friend or on social media! Tag me @smithakatti #smithakatti I’d love to see what you create!

INSTAGRAM ,  TWITTER ,  BLOGLOVIN ,  FACEBOOK ,  PINTEREST , YOUTUBE

Your book turned out great! I also love how thin and easy to store the digital printed books are.

Your 2012 book is awesome, love the cover & the back 🙂 ! These quote cards are great. Thanks for the freebie.

Love your book! In a few years you won’t be concerned about longevity. My girls are older (11 and 14) and they are always looking through last year’s book. I think the mini album idea is great – can’t wait to see what you do 🙂 Thanks for the freebie as well.

You are a very talented lady, and I really appreciate all the freebies you give us. Thank you.

Your 2012 album turned out great!.. looking forward to your take on the mini album..

thank you for all the beautiful printables and for making it so easy to download them 🙂

Lovely quotes on your free downloadables! Thank you for sharing these =D

How many pages were in your book? I’m trying to determine the thickness of the book I am making before I order it.

I used the basic 20 pages for this book and did not add any extra pages at all.

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Shutterfly Review

Photo Book Girl Tip! Remember you can stack Shutterfly coupon codes, just keep entering all the ones you can find and the savings multiply! Shutterfly , based in Redwood City, California, is one of the more well-known photo book publishers and has been around since 1999. In addition to photo books, which Shutterfly started offering in the Summer of 2004, Shutterfly prints other personalized products such as cards and stationery, prints, posters, calendars, puzzles and mugs. Shutterfly's book making software is online and works with both Mac and PC. You upload your photos to individual albums to build your book. There are 5 different sizes offered, in landscape and square orientation. You cannot create your own layouts within the program, but instead can choose from the approximately 270 layouts offered, or you can create your own layouts outside the program. UPDATE: 7/30/11 - Shutterfly now offers layout customization called Custom Path. Digital scrapbookers will find a separate section with information on how to upload pre-created jpeg pages. Check out my detailed Shutterfly Review . Unique Features/Tips

• Storyboard function: Similar to an autofill, but with a little more control, you can use this tool to drag and drop photos to the Storyboard to select which photos you want to appear on a particular page. The program will automatically place those photos into an appropriate layout.
• Shutterfly automatically prints page numbers. They are not removable. Page numbers do not automatically appear as of most recent update. (If you upload your own layouts as full page bleeds from an external program, page numbers will not print.)
• Don't forget to turn off Shutterfly's auto-correction (VividPics) if you've already adjusted your photos with outside photo editing software or have a calibrated monitor.
• Easy to use software and uncluttered workspace makes it good for newbies.
• Shutterfly allows you to change sizes, covers and styles after your project is already underway without having to start over (although some tweaking may be necessary)
• If you like a lot of themes, backgrounds and clip art, Shutterfly has many options (some require an additional fee, but there's are plenty of attractive free themes and embellishments as well.)
• Update 3/6/13 : Matte covers are now available (in addition to the original glossy).
• Update 8/25/13 : 10 x 10 and 11 x 14 sized books have been added.

Go to my full Shutterfly softcover photo book review . Go to my full Shutterfly hardcover photo book review .

Click HERE to go to Shutterfly's site!

Don't forget to check the main Photobook Deals page for all of today's deals! Bookmark that page or fan me on Facebook and you won't miss out on the latest coupon codes! Save money with the latest Shutterfly coupons and deals .

Shutterfly Reviews from the Blog

Mar 21, 2019: (UPDATED) Photo Book Girl's Top Mother's Day and Father's Day 2019 Deals and Gift Ideas Dec 2, 2018: Deck the Halls with Your Own Photos - Best Custom Photo Ornaments for the Holidays Nov 13, 2018: Photo Book Girl's Annual Holiday Photo Card Guide Best Deals & Tips 2018 May 1, 2018: Photo Book Girl's Mother's Day and Father's Day Gift Guide 2018 Aug 21, 2017: Q&A: MyPublisher is Closed - Where Should I Print My Photo Books? A Comparison of MyPublisher and Shutterfly Jun 20, 2017: PBG Reader Alert: TinyPrints Moving to Shutterfly June 27, 2017 Feb 15, 2017: MyPublisher Closing Down - Your Questions Answered and a Farewell Giveaway Feb 26, 2014: The Ultimate Lay Flat Photo Book Comparison Guide - A Book for Every Budget (Updated 2017) Sep 12, 2013: Make Your Own Personalized ABC Book Aug 29, 2013: How Should I Backup My Photos? Photo Sharing Sites - Part II Jul 9, 2013: Shutterfly Deals of the Day For July 2013 Apr 25, 2013: Shutterfly Giveaway Winner Announced Plus More Shutterfly Deals Apr 14, 2013: Shutterfly Giveaway for PhotoBookGirl Readers - $100 Value! (International) ENDED Feb 5, 2013: Shutterfly Lay Flat Photo Book Review 2013 - Valentine's Baby Photo Book Gift Dec 4, 2012: Shutterfly Holiday Card Review 2012 Apr 1, 2012: Shutterfly Photo Book Review 2012 Custom Path Update Jul 12, 2010: My Shutterfly Photo Book Review - Hardcover 8x8 Jun 30, 2010: My Shutterfly Softcover Photo Book Review

Quick Specs for Shutterfly New to photo books? Learn the lingo

Shutterfly Photo Books

Thinking about designing a photobook on Shutterfly? You can view a detailed chart of every Shutterfly photo book, including sizes and pricing. See the full list of Shutterfly photo books .

Leave a comment with your own review of Shutterfly

Shutterfly review: Good but not great

Shutterfly has great software and above-average print quality, but it doesn’t rise to the same level as mixbook.

Tom's Guide Verdict

Shutterfly is an easy to use and reliable service that does a lot of things right. In particular, the paper quality was great overall, and it did a decent job with its photo printing, particularly for its books and its cards. On the other hand, the quality of its calendar was just fair. Mixbook remains the best photo book service overall for its higher quality and better software, but if you want a relatively stress-free experience in creating solid if not spectacular products from a seasoned brand, Shutterfly is the one for you.

Superior paper quality for books, cards, and envelopes

User-friendly software

Easy to share online projects with others

Massive selection of stickers/clipart

Mediocre calendar quality

Slow to load images for projects

Flimsy book binding

Most expensive cards (but often discounted if you buy more)

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

• Print quality

Photo book rating: ★ ★★ ☆ ☆ Photo card rating: ★★★★★ Photo calendar rating: ★★★☆☆

Shutterfly is a venerable name in custom photo printing with its services going back more than two decades to, essentially, the dawn of digital photography. This heritage shows with its vast array of photo product offerings and design features including numerous pre-built templates for photo books , photo calendars , and cards.

Shutterfly is a service we often recommend to friends and family simply because of its reliability and useability. When you’ve been around as long as Shutterfly has, you’ve worked out most of the kinks of producing and delivering photo products to customers. The company is also generous with special pricing offers, with many of its products deeply discounted, particularly for returning customers.

We just wish Shutterfly’s overall quality was a bit better, particularly for its calendars. While the paper and print quality was good overall, the bindings for its books are flimsy and we worry how they will last over time. And while its cards were among our favorites, the calendars were mediocre at best. Read the rest of our Shutterfly review to find out whether a long track record of customer satisfaction is enough to make this your printing choice.

• Best photo books
• Best photo calendars
• Best photo cards

Shutterfly review: Prices

Shutterfly photo books An 8 x 8-inch hardcover book starts at $37.48 for 20 pages (Lay flat versions start at $57.48.) Standard hardcover books go up to 11 x 14-inches for $104.99. A softcover book ranges from $24.98 (8 x 8-inch) to $33.73 (10 x 10-inch). Deluxe layflat books start at $144.98 for an 8 x 8-inch with a leather cover.

Shutterfly calendars An 8 x 11-inch, 12-month centerfold wall calendar starts at $34.99, or $44.99 for a 12 x 12-inch. A traditional “flip-over” desktop calendar costs $29.98 as does an easel calendar, which consists of twelve 5 x 7-inch monthly cards and a small wooden easel.

Shutterfly photo cards Shutterfly offers so many different card types and styles with frequently discounted prices, it can be overwhelming. The good news is you’re bound to find some good deals, particularly if you’re ordering a lot of cards. For instance, 5 x 7 holiday cards start at 98 cents each for 200 or more of the cheapest design and go up to $4.52 for 30 or fewer premium cards with gold foil text. Wedding cards range from $1.09 to $5.33. These are the list prices, though, which you may never pay. Every card we looked at had all its list prices crossed out and replaced with a discount. The holiday cards, for example, started at 74 cents and went up to $2.85 at time of order.

Shutterfly review: Software

Shutterfly has the richest and most diverse assortment of photo book templates of the services we tested. There are 265 templates broken down into 31 categories including Professional, Wedding, Birthday, Travel, Recipe and many more. If you can think of a theme, they probably have it too. It can be overwhelming to pick one, but we recommend picking a template that catches your eye and just trying it out. (You can always start over if it doesn’t suit you.)  Or you can create your own from scratch, which is what we did.

After you’ve made your selection, Shutterfly displays the backgrounds and embellishments (such as clip art or frames) you can use while customizing each one. If you create your own book from scratch, as we did in order to produce similar products across all the services we evaluated, you can access the full arsenal of customization tools Shutterfly has to offer.

Honed, we assume, by years of feedback from users, Shutterfly’s editing workspace is extremely well-organized and easy to use. There’s a two-page spread preview in the middle with thumbnails of the photos in the project at the bottom, and menus on the left featuring access to page-layout options, page backgrounds, and "Embellishments" such as stickers/clipart or frames. There’s a flowchart at the top of the screen to show you where you are in the overall process. It allows you to jump back or ahead to any step, such as selecting a style, laying out images on a storyboard, or selecting options including cover and page type and finish.

We thought Shutterfly offered a good compromise between providing full control over a project and not overloading you with too much information. If you get stuck while making a product, just click the question mark icon in the lower left to bring up the help overlay. You can then click on different parts of the screen to get popup descriptions of what they do. The only downside is we found the software somewhat slow to use; in particular, there was a noticeable lag of a few seconds before images displayed in a layout.

There’s a vast assortment of backgrounds to choose from (4,751 options), which you select by cover or interior pages, Occasions (Pets, Sumer, etc.), Style, Day (Aloha Hawaii, Best Mom Ever), and other criteria. A similar interface lets you select from Shutterfly’s collection of 30,000 stickers, 5,786 ribbons that run across the page or photo, and 637 straight-frame types. Shutterfly offers about 100 text fonts and a small range of font and color options. 

While you can’t fully edit photos you have imported into Shutterfly (as you can with Mixbook ), you can apply one of six filters, as well as rotate images or remove redeye. You can also choose to have the photos automatically color corrected by Shutterfly’s internal algorithm.

If you’re moving between projects like we were, you’ll be pleased that the interface for Shutterfly’s calendar design is nearly identical to the one for its books. The same options are offered for editing photos (applying filters), adding backgrounds, stickers/clipart, ribbons, and frames, or configuring text. You can fully configure any text element on the calendar grids: individual month names, year, day names, grid numbers. However, you can only change the grid style itself by selecting a different style template for the whole project.

Shutterfly’s design software for cards is very similar to what’s offered for its other products aside from one confounding omission: There is no undo button. If you want to go back and make changes to a card, you’ll have to manually deconstruct your mistakes or just start over, which can be frustrating.

Meanwhile, the options abound with over 700 card templates for a myriad of occasions including Christmas (and Navidad), New Years, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Thanksgiving, Easter, Eid, Diwali, Birthday, Graduation, and newborn baby, as well as a range of wedding offerings (save the date, invites, bridal shower, etc.). There are thank you cards, thinking of you cards and special collections including affirmations from Ted Lasso and snark from The Onion. Once you choose a card type, say, Holiday Cards, you can filter the options by 15 criteria, including photo orientation, number of photos, price, trim options, and metal foil or glitter color.

You can share your designs for photo books, calendars, or card projects with others online, allowing them to view, like, order, and make customizable copies of your creations. If you ever get stuck, the site does provide live 24/7 chat support though we found it less comprehensive than what’s offered from Mixbook, which has the best live support of the services we tested.

Shutterfly review: Print quality

Shutterfly photo books Despite its robust and intuitive software, the resulting photo books were a mixed bag. While the page quality was the best of all the photo books we reviewed, the color was just ok, with some pale skin tones in portraits getting washed out while darker skin appeared oversaturated with a loss of detail.

The default glossy hardcover was quite eye-catching though, and the color of our waterfall shot looked natural with ample detail. But the shiny cover surface is prone to glare. Inside, the pages have a good weight and the smooth matte finish produced minimal reflection.

Some brighter images, however, appeared slightly washed out in print. We also weren’t so keen on the binding, which felt flimsy, and cut off the edges of the images in the center crease.

Overall, though, we were pleased with our Shutterfly book if not as thrilled as we were with the end results from Printique and Mixbook , which produced the best books of the bunch. Without the weight of those expectations, however, most users will likely be fine with their books from Shutterfly, particularly the pain-free experience in making them.

Shutterfly calendars Shutterfly’s calendar is a step backward, however. It finished second to last of the services we tested, with mediocre color, washed out highlights, and an overall flat and faded look. The detail and sharpness in our cover and calendar page images was not bad considering some of the exposure issues. For instance, it was easy to read the text of the newspapers and magazine covers in a portrait of a newsstand man we shot in Florence, Italy, which we used for the month of July. (And if only we understood Italian better, we could figure out what they say!)

The top metal ring binding of our wall-hanging calendar felt rickety and cheap, and we were concerned how it would hold up over the course of the year. On the hand, the actual monthly date grids looked sharp and were easy to read. The smooth matte surface of the grid pages was also easy to write on, with little to no bleeding for ink or magic marker.

So while there’s nothing that special about Shutterfly’s calendar, it’s highly functional and we think most folks will find a practical use for their creations if they won’t be blown away by its quality. This all, however, is a vast improvement over the previous time we reviewed Shutterfly calendar and named it by far the worst of all the services we tested then. Maybe Shutterfly took our criticisms to heart?

Shutterfly photo cards Shutterfly’s photo cards and envelopes were top notch. For comparison’s sake, we ordered a basic two-sided holiday card to test the various services this time around, and Shutterfly nailed it. The family portrait on the cover of our card was crisp, clear and inviting if a little bit too yellow in the skin tones for our taste. That’s a nit-pick though. The rear of the card, which featured a photo we took of a Tuscan vineyard at sunset, looked fabulous. The text was easy to read and the Signature Smooth Cardstock, which was the least expensive option, was thick and felt professional. Our only gripe is the intrusive Shutterfly logo on the back.

In previous years of reviewing Shutterfly, our reviewer ordered a more expensive, decked-out holiday card, with metal foil and premium envelopes, which took top honors for overall quality, placing first for paper and text quality, color, and sharpness. So, whether you plan to spend a little or a lot, Shutterfly’s cards are winners. The company’s envelopes also were the best of all the services we tested. Even the basic, entry-level envelopes were simple, elegant, and classy.

Shutterfly review: Verdict

Shutterfly finished solidly in the middle of the pack in our testing of the best photo books . On the one hand, we appreciated the company’s clear and reliable software, which was not only simple to use, it offered a vast array of templates and tools for customizing your photo products. Image quality, however, was inconsistent. While our photo books looked decent, the binding was flimsy and image exposure levels were all over the map. 

Meanwhile, Shutterfly’s calendars, while improved from our review last year, still didn’t stand out, finishing second to last in our testing this time around. Photo cards, on the other hand, are clearly Shutterfly’s forte. They finished in first place. So, while Shutterfly does a lot of things right, there are enough misses to fall short of the top tier of Printique and Mixbook .

More from Tom's Guide

• Best photo editing software
• Best digital photo frames
• Best photo storage and sharing sites  

Dan Havlik has worked in the photo industry for over decades and is currently editor-in chief of Wild Eye ( www.wildeyemagazine.com ), a new magazine devoted to the celebration of nature, wildlife, and underwater photography. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Outdoor Photographer and Shutterbug magazines. He has been an editor and writer for a variety of other publications and websites including Photo District News (PDN), Rangefinder, Wired, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Consumer Reports, Maxim, Men’s Journal, Imaging Resource, and LAPTOP. Dan is also an avid runner with three marathons under his belt and has written fitness reviews, including guides to the best running shoes and GPS watches, for Business Insider.

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