This is the most expensive post I've ever written. Over the last year, I've been asked dozens of times to do a comparison of the online photo printing labs to see who has the best print quality. I surveyed the members of our group on Facebook and found the 11 most popular online photo print labs and ordered the same 5 prints from each lab (which cost me over $250!).
Then, we performed a blind test to find the best print quality, price for the five photos of various sizes, and even called many of their customer support numbers.
UPDATE: After publishing this post, MANY MANY MANY of our listeners pointed out two things that need clarification: (1) I personally interviewed the owners of Pro DPI and they said amateur photographers ARE allowed to register and order from their lab. The requirement of “professional photographers only” when registering on their site is not accurate. The intent of that warning is to remind users that this lab is only for photographers and not consumers. Amateur photographers CAN use Pro DPI.
(2) A few users mentioned that the prices we quoted in our test are not the same prices they are seeing when ordering from the companies. This is because shipping charges will vary depending on where you live. We could only test the cost that we were charged by the companies to ship to our studio.
Below, you'll find the results. After the graphic representation, I list each of the online print labs and some notes about my experience in ordering from them. Although several of these labs offer affiliate programs where I could earn money by endorsing them, I have chosen not to accept ANY affiliate offers from these labs so that this test can remain impartial and unbiased.
Pro DPI
Pro DPI was the overall winner of the test. This was especially surprising to me because they had THE CHEAPEST prices of all of the 11 labs we tested, and because I had never even heard of this company before polling our readers to determine which labs we should test.
Contrary to what their website says when attempting to create an account and order the first time, AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE ALLOWED to order from Pro DPI. We confirmed this in speaking with the owners of the company.
Pros: Pro DPI was the overall winner of the test. They had the best print quality, being selected first place in 3 of the 5 tests. That is significant because the top 4 or 5 prints from each test were often very alike, but the prints from Pro DPI stood out. Our order of 1 5×7, 4 8x10s, and a 11×14 cost only $12 including shipping.
Cons: The biggest drawback to Pro DPI is their website. The information is not laid out in a logical fashion, so it takes a while to navigate the site and do what you need to do. For example, it took me over 10 minutes to find the pricing for their prints, because they made it a PDF and put the information under the “Downloads” section of the site instead of in the navigation bar, where they should really put it because their prices are terrific.
The shipping speed for Pro DPI was worthy of 4 stars. We received the prints faster than most of the prints, but some companies shipped the prints faster.
Nations Photo Lab
Pros: The print quality from Nations photo lab is excellent. We were particularly impressed with the amount of detail in the prints, which were 3rd best overall in terms of print quality. Also, we like that they offer both a web-based ordering system or a traditional ROES system. That way, it is simple to order quick prints without firing up the ROES software. The prices at Nations were quite good. The order of 5 prints cost $15.51, which is only $3.51 more than the price leader.
Last, their customer support is top-notch. When I called in with a contrived customer support question, there was no robotic “press 1 if… press 2 if…” A real human being answered the phone immediately and was friendly.
Cons: We didn't run into any significant drawbacks to Nations Photo lab. The print quality was good but not quite as good as Pro DPI, the prices were good but not as good as Pro DPI, and the customer service was excellent. There was no significant drawback that put them in second place, it was more for the fact that pricing and print quality were slightly better at Pro DPI.
WHCC
Pros: Pricing from WHCC was excellent. Our order cost $12.55, which is only 55 cents more than the price leader. The main reason to choose WHCC is not for the price, though. It's about the lollipop. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lollipop (which my kids enjoyed) and a hand-signed thank you card in the box. It's about the little things 🙂
Cons: Our main concern with WHCC was the print quality. Customer service made me wait about 2 minutes on the phone before I got to talk to someone. The ordering process was reasonably fluid, but I had a difficult time changing my address.
Miller's
Pros: Miller's positions themselves at the high end of the market, so you get a few nice bonuses by choosing Miller's. They were the fastest shipping of all of the print labs, and their packaging was beautiful enough to impress clients when they receive their prints. Print quality was quite good, coming in at 2nd overall, and frankly there was little difference between the top 3 or 4 labs in each test.
Cons: The biggest drawback to using Miller's is the price–our order cost $19.60. Also, I had to wait 10 minutes for customer service to pick up the phone. While the customer service rep was not rude, I didn't find her to be overly friendly either.
Last, you have to APPLY for an account in order to make your first order, which made me feel like I was in a Blockbuster Video store in 1995. Little things like that annoy me, because it's such a waste of my time (this was also true of one or two of the other labs).
Bay Photo
Pros: Bay photo came in at 3rd place overall in the print quality test. Their black and white photo particularly stood out from the crowd.
Cons: The pricing of Bay Photo was not as good as the competition, costing $19.44 for the prints that I ordered.
MPIX
Pros: Print quality was quite good, and MPIX narrowly defeated Nations Photo for the title of Best Black and White Print. MPIX is a the consumer-oriented division of Miller's (mentioned above).
Cons: The biggest drawback to MPIX is the price–our order cost $23.16, which is almost double what our order cost at Pro DPI.
Adorama PIX
Pros: The ordering system is easy to use. I was anxious to test out Adorama Pix, because they are the lab that I most frequently used before the test. But now that the test is complete… I'm switching to Pro DPI.
Cons: Adorama PIX performed at a mediocre level on virtually every test. Their prints were never in the bottom of the pack, but they weren't even close to the quality of the top-performing labs.
EZ Prints
Pros: Ordering prints was easy and fast.
Cons: The cost was $17.58, which is about average for all of the labs involved in the test. Print quality was sub-par.
Walmart
Note that we ordered our prints from Walmart online and had them shipped to us. This was not an order from a local Walmart.
Pros: Pick up in store or have them shipped.
Cons: Print quality was dramatically worse than many of the labs. Our order cost $16.96, which was surprisingly $4.96 more expensive than the cheapest lab.
Snapfish
Pros: Ordering was fast and easy.
Cons: Friends don't let friends order from Snapfish. I had always thought that Snapfish and Shutterfly were the cheapest places to order prints, but I was surprised that they were two of the most expensive companies. Our order at Snapfish cost $20.74. The print quality from Snapfish was shockingly bad when compared to the other labs. Also, they shipped some of the prints in a tube, which made them curl up (not exactly presentable for a client).
Shutterfly
Pros: Ordering was fast and easy.
Cons: Much like my review of Snapfish, Shutterfly performed very poorly in our testing. Our order cost $27.08, which is more than double the price of the lab with the best print quality–Pro DPI. Frankly, there wasn't anything to like about these prints when compared to the other brands. It was a disaster.
Methodology in Performing the Test
Our labs were selected by the members of our group. We did a poll and asked which online photo print lab they used most often. This meant that we were testing high-end labs like Miller's, as well as labs that are generally not considered professional. While it may not seem fair to compare a consumer print lab to a professional lab, we found out from the test that the consumer labs like Snapfish and Shutterfly were two of the most expensive labs! So testing the most popular labs instead of only the “pro” labs turned out to be quite interesting.
When ordering prints from the companies, we did what we could to use the same brands of paper between all of the companies, the same finishes, etc. We ordered 5 prints from the labs. The prints were in a variety of sizes from 5×7 to 11×14. Some of the photos were portraits, some landscape, some black and white, etc. We also viewed the prints under controlled lighting conditions, and both Dustin and I each judged the prints according to two criteria: (1) What print looks the best? and (2) What print is most like the photo we ordered from our color-managed screen?
When all the prints were in, we wrote the name of the print lab on the back of each print and spread out the prints, face up, on a table. We then carefully looked at each photo (without knowing what company it was from) and ranked the photos from best to worst. This way, we were entirely impartial.
On a side note, I also brought the photos home from the studio and had my wife look at the photos. Her results in selecting the winning photos was nearly identical to the results that Dustin and I got. The confirmation of a non-photographer helped me to know that we were judging the prints on things that really make a difference and not overly-technical things that only photographers care about.
Tests of online print labs have been done before. Smugmug performed a test a few years ago, but their test was of the print quality for color-corrected prints. Most photographers do not use color correction because we like to be able to control all colors, exposure, and contrast ourselves. A good print lab will produce a print that is exactly the same as the file the photographer sends in. That way, I won't get surprised with how the lab chooses to change my work. Also, that test did not include the popular labs which are commonly used by photographers, but who do not market to higher end photographers, such as Snapfish, Walmart, and Shutterfly.
Disclaimer: While we put a significant effort into making this test accurate and impartial, we are frail human beings. A few of the labs didn't have the option to allow for non color-corrected prints or we couldn't find that option, etc. When posting information about the companies, we did not include all information about each company–only what stuck out to us. For example, we complained about Miller's requiring an application, but this was also true of some of the others. Our results may not be typical of all users, but we hope that this test at least provides some insight as you choose a photo printer that works for you.
Thank you so much for taking the time and the expense to provide this information. I have literally 100s of digital pictures I need to print to catch up on my scrapbooking and have been trying to research the best place to go. You may have saved me a lot of time and heartache of prints I was not happy with!! God Bless!!
Thanks for the info…I have used EZ Print and was NOT impressed, Walmart was better than EZ Print.
ProDPI doesn’t seem to be available to the Amateur general public anymore.
I have been a faithful ProDPI supporter since I met the owners in 2011 at the PhotoPlus/WPPI Expo in NYC at Javits. ProDPI is an amazing company with high standards, phenomenal customer service, an awareness and priority towards the environment and maintaining affordable prices for all photographers (amateur and pro). Everyone should get on the ProDPI bandwagon FAST!
Pro Dpi puts candy in their boxes too! 😀
Thanks for taking the time to do this test and deliver these results. It is most appreciated.
Pat
i really like iprintfromhome.com – good quality prints and a small, mom & pop kind of shop. i haven’t tried most of these though, except adorama, and i have had some quality control issues with them. to be fair, they always correct their mistakes, but it is somewhat annoying how regularly i’ve gotten messed up orders. looking forward to trying out some of these, thanks for doing the comparison!
Good article – has given me an idea of who I might try next time. One question … the color matching/color cast issue is something that plagues us all (color profiles, sRGB or Adobe RGB etc. etc.) So the only one I have used was Mpix – and they had a free option to color correct your prints – presumably just eye-balling and correcting to realistic skin tones. This is not something you’d always want of course (if one was being artistic) but I wondered if the others offered the same – and whether you think it is useful. I would imagine for most people, having that final human correction would be preferable than getting green skin back.
Thank you so much for taking the time (& money) to do this. Very much appreciated 🙂
PRO DPI! What I usually hear from my friends when it comes to their photo printing. Thanks for this aricle, I shall definitely share this! 😀
I do use Pro Dpi when I need photos done. When I was up in Colorado I had the pleasure of going and touring their place of business and I do have to say I was amazed at how the transferred your picture to metal that was totally awesome. I love Pro Dpi
Really enjoyed this review. I have used Shutterfly and have been unhappy with the results. The shipping costs for the better rated companies are high to ship to Canada. Do you know what the top rated companies in Canada are?
Thanks
While I can appreciate this comparison by the author, I suggest each reader do their own test as I find the results vary by personal preference. The top 5 on this list will all send sample prints for free when signing on so there is nothing to lose but a little time. I did such a test myself recently. On Friday 11/22 after hours, I requested and account and placed orders online from these companies. I also ordered from Simply Color Labs. It was my expectation that none of the labs would process my order until Monday 11/25. The one lab I still have not received sample prints from is….PRODPI! They are scheduled for delivery on 12/2. All other lab sample prints were received within 1-4 business days. Who impressed me the most so far? WHCC. They almost immediately emailed me to let me know my images weren’t properly cropped to the request 8×10 size and lacked an embedded color profile, giving me a chance to re-upload. They also had next day turn around for me. The blacks (on my black/white images or those with black backdrops) next to the other prints were the truest and deepest. Skin tones for Caucasian and African Americans were perfect (not too orange, red, magenta, or pale). All the other lab images (except Simply Color) in comparison seemed to lack some contrast and/or color. Millers and WHCC also sent complimentary paper samples which I find to be a bonus when helping my clients choose paper types. Millers also had nice packaging and sent both color corrected and non color corrected samples back. I liked the WHCC Metallic paper, but preferred Simply Color’s metallic even more. Although overall Simply Color’s vivid prints were…too vivid/strong in color for my taste. BayPhoto was the at the very bottom of my list although they have a variety of product options. I will add another post after I receive my prints from PRODPI.
You write about ProDPI: “The requirement of “professional photographers only” when registering on their site is not accurate.”
But they write: “Please note, ProDPI only services professional photographic businesses and studios. If you are an end-user, please contact your photographer and order prints and services through them. New accounts are checked for proof of legitimate business by reviewing websites, company information, and/or reseller permit status. We reserve the right to cancel any accounts if criteria are not met.”
I finally have results in from 5 pro labs: WHCC, PRODPI, Millers, SimplyColor, and BayPhoto. I have a photo of one of my samples in the link below. I will share which photo came from where upon request. Please be kind if commenting. This client in the photo deserves respect just as each of you do.
http://www.lisayvette.com/test
I use Shutterfly and MyPublisher for Photobooks.
Would you consider doing this test again with MPIX, Shutterfly, Blurb, MyPublisher, etc. for PHOTO BOOKS.
I don’t print that many prints anymore. I prefer photobooks.
Thanks in advance. 😉 PUH-LEASE!!!!
Hey Jim,
This was a good review and I tried out a different lab because of it. However, my experience wasn’t what you had. I’ve used MPix in the past and think they provide great prints. I especially like that my prints arrive flat & not rolled. So I tried Nations Photo Lab based on their good quality & prices. The prices were indeed good but I received a botched print job. I had a non-standard print size (24×13) so I called to find out how to submit it–check. What I got was my print with 2.25″ cropped off both sides. Yikes! Useless print. Called back and walked thru the order with the rep & was told I should have submitted it differently than what I was first told. That’s confusing. Asked for a refund on the botched job but no dice. They didn’t even offer to reprint it. So I’m sticking with Mpix and cannot recommend Nations to anyone.
Thanks so much for doing this. Really nice information – not just the article, but everyone’s comments. Getting ready to order samples from several labs, and really appreciate the resource.
With that being said, I think this is all (unfortunately) very misleading as for the pricing on ProDPI, and I think I solved the riddle.
From their PDF: “For orders under $12.00, totals will be rounded up to equal
$12.00”
Others stated that you get 5 free 8×10’s – so it seems as though they DID NOT charge for the 8×10’s and rounded the order total up to $12. I do not believe that they are in fact the cheapest, as I’m comparing their prices (all sizes, not just smaller sizes) to others.
Thanks so much for this review! I did a mini-review myself a year ago and chose Adoramapix over Snapfish, Shutterfly and some other place I can’t remember. Until this post, I’ve been unable to find an unbiased review of print services that focused on actual image quality instead of just cost and variety of books and gift items you can make with your photos. What a great resource your website is!
Thanks for the lab comparison, someone asked me the same question yesterday.
As a full time professional between 1998 and 2010 doing many events (weddings, bar mitzvahs, fundraising parties, conventions, etc. in D.C. as well as documentation work for schools, theater companies, etc. I used Millers except for the few times I used Dodge in D.C. I found they were so good that I stopped double checking orders and had them drop ship directly to my clients. I was giving them adjusted files, but always paid the extra for them to double check color balance.
This month, if my order is uploaded by 4 or 5 p.m. Eastern time, the orders are here in Watertown, MA the next afternoon. I have had to wait to get a rep, but they’ve always been patient with the stupidest question. Their software is very good.
Thanks,
Sheppard Ferguson http://www.sheppardferguson Author of “Exposed in Boston” — a photographer gets in trouble.