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.
Jim, Thank you for posting this, I found it very helpful. I hope you get all you invested into it in the success of the blog. I checked out ProDPI’s website and it is indeed difficult to navigate. It doesn’t matter if you are a professional photographer or an amateur, it is not intuitive. Any chance you could convince them to revamp their website? I am not sure I could use them for that reason alone.
I would also be interested to hear how Costco stacks up against the other websites.
Followup from September. A canvas costs more than prints. Some people buy oil paintings too. The price difference between Nations and Bay is small. As noted by article Bay Photo has better print quality than Nations. Customer service is hard to rate because you need a major problem at both places. I do not think Nation’s customer service is above average.
Did you calibrate your computer to each of the print companies printers? If not, each of us could get different results then you.
How do you do this ?
Monitor calibration is done through a hardware/software combination, such as a Spyder4Pro (Amazon link – http://www.amazon.com/Datacolor-Spyder4Pro-S4P100-Colorimeter-Calibration/dp/B006TF37H8/ref=pd_cp_e_0). It steps you through setting up your monitor to get accurate brightness and colors.
Whoops, read that wrong. Some printing companies provide their color profile for you to download and load into LR/PS so the colors match your monitor (if calibrated) and what will actually print.
Thank you so much for this review. I appreciate the fact that you kept it 100% impartial.
I’ve been with Bay Photo for years, and after reading this decided to test out ProDPI.
Although Bay Photo is actually cheaper on the really small prints (4X6, and 5X7) anything 8X10 or larger is quite a bit cheaper at Pro-DPI…..and when I got my test prints back, my experience was the same as yours…..the print quality indeed was better than i was used to receiving from Bay Photos….so I made the switch and every order I’ve received since then has been exceptional.
I’m a very happy camper and probably never would have tried it if I hadn’t seen this article…so again…thank you.
I do agree with one of the previous posters that said it would have been nice to have seen Costco prints included in the mix.
I’ve occasionally used them when something came up where I needed the prints NOW, and couldn’t wait for shipping from a big lab.
They are quite a bit cheaper than any of the others listed here…and in my experience with them (not as scientific as what you did here) the quality has been quite a bit better than Walmart or Walgreens…but not quite on par with Bay Photo or ProDPI.
Thank you for the reviews. Subscribed!
I signed up for Pro DPI, then found out they use ROES as their only uploading method. Since I’m on neither Windows nor Mac, this is a non-starter for me. It’s why I no longer use Bay (I actually can get Bay ROES to work, but the interface is SO clunky).
I should have added: I’ve been happy with what I’ve received from MPIX.
Does anyone know what percentage of photos are printed in High Quality vs regular low quality?
Thanks a lot!
Pro DPI’s website was horrible to navigate through, so I’ll be going with Nations for that reason.
We’ve been working hard on http://www.prodpi.com and listening to everyone’s feedback. We’re happy to say that we just relaunched our site with special attention paid to our navigation and user experience. Give it a look! If you are still experiencing any problems, please let us know!
i use snapfish and get 4x6s for anywhere from 1 cent to 9 cents top. when i checked the prices for ProDPI, their 4×6 prints were 69 cents each. How did you get that they are cheaper? I would love to use them because snapfish quality is not great, but i can’t at that price. thanks for any help.
oh, it looks like they have a linen/pebble texture, for 9 cents. i will try them if i can figure the rest out.:)
I don’t understand how Pro DPI got the best price either. I have used Mpix and you can get 4×6 prints from them and their quality is outstanding. I just went and signed up with Pro DPI because of this article saying it was the best quality and best price but I didn’t see any product on there that was less than Mpix. Would love to know how they came up with Pro DPI having the best price.
Pricing for 4×6 wasn’t compared in this article. Per the article “We ordered 5 prints from the labs. The prints were in a variety of sizes from 5×7 to 11×14”
Pro DPI had the best price for the sizes they tested.
I just got my first order back from Snapfish and I’m really disappointed. I got my first 55 4×6 prints for free and just had to pay shipping. So they did come out to under $.10 each. They cropped and over saturated most prints. Even though they were cheap I now have to order my prinys again. Pro DPI is my next stop.
Bay Photo has excellent quality products, however they are on the expensive side.
I would like an updated Print quality and Price test. I’m currently in a Photography Portfolio Class at the Technical College that I attend and I’m looking for a lab to print a photo book of my portfolio photos.
Thanks,
David Hastings
[email protected]
@David Hastings – What’s wrong with the test right in front of you? I don’t see anything that looks outdated here.
I’ve used Whcc and I’ve had excellent customer service. My prints all look good…by I haven’t compared them to dpi. I never was disappointed tho.
I use both ProDPI and WHCC for my prints and have not found their ordering system to be difficult. They both have a ROES system. I use ProDPI more often than WHCC.
I think after you take in their cost for shipping Snapfish and shutter fly gets pretty expensive. I use Nations and their shipping is $7 until your order hits 50 or more than its free. The last time I used Snapfish it’s was nearly $20 just to ship I think
I got worried you guys were a bunch of accomplices to shady business practices. I tried PRODPI. They force you to add credit card info when you register and then they want you to download and install a program. Their actual software is clunky and can’t even read .tiffs. Pathetic. How is this advanced? You, improvephotography, are not being honest with this review since you don’t really seem to have any comments on the details of what this site is like.
The challenge I’m finding trying to use the ProDPI website (having only used low-end consumer printing services), is what choices are normal, “down the fairway” options. Any chance you could provide the details of the options you chose for your print test?
Thanks for such a helpful guide!!!
While I have not worked with your top choice, I have had multiple orders with the following labs, and have briefly summarized my experiences:
WHCC – Possibly my favorite lab. Customer service has always been excellent whenever I have called. Quality has always been satisfactory, but I tend to order more specialty products from them rather than traditional prints. Prices are good on sale, but otherwise in the range of normal.
Bay Photo – Their print quality has been top notch, but their customer service could use improvement. I have had orders that did not meet published schedules, and it took a few calls to get them to respond to the delays. I am not sure if it was a one-time fluke, but the staff seemed indifferent to my need to get a product delivered in a timely manner. Prices are also good on sale, and like WHCC, otherwise in the range of normal. I wanted them to be my preferred lab, but poor customer service quickly took them out of the running except for special projects.
Adoramapix – I normally use them for “cheap and cheerful” 11×14’s when absolute quality and a tight delivery schedule are not issues. They lost a key order, and customer service was mixed about it, but they did make good on shipping the replacement prints overnight at no charge to me. And, they did print a lay-flat book that turned out way better than expected, both in book and print quality. It is a bit hit or miss, but they are still my favorite lab for volume printing where quality is a bit less critical.
MPIX – I have had some images printed through Zenfolio, and found their packaging of large photos to be problematic. I ordered a number of 20×30 images, and in all of the orders, the corners took damage. IMHO, it was related to how they package the photos, but they were really not interested in even discussing the issue. I have not had damaged corner issues on prints ordered from WHCC or Bay Photo, so my use of MPIX will be limited to less critical work in small sizes, and usually ordered when Zenfolio is running a sale.
Miller’s – As the parent lab to MPIX, they seem to offer much better customer service. I ordered a number of custom books for drop shipping, and it turned out there was a bug in their layout software. They were great in getting replacement books shipped ASAP, but it did take a while for them to correct the bug, so future orders were again impacted. The books looked amazing, and the packaging was quite nice. I would use them again, but I have not found their prices to be on the lower end of the range.
EZPrints – They are (were?) SmugMug’s house lab, and all customer service for my orders was handled by SmugMug. The quality was acceptable, but I would probably not use them for any color critical work, as their output was in the same range is MPIX and possibly Adoramapix on a good day.
I realize that lab quality changes, and will continue to change, so finding the “best” lab is a bit of an elusive target, especially since everybody’s needs can be quite different as well. But, I tend to go to WHCC first to see if they have what I want, and then work my way down through the list from there depending on the project and budget.
–Ken
How is Pro DPI cheaper? And 8×12 on on Kodak Endura luster at Nations cost $1.90, Pro DPI Fuji chrystal luster cost $3.80.
I don’t get the WHCC concern about print quality, and then talking about wait time on the phone. What about the print quality?
Also, in your testing, did you have some sort of photo selection that demonstrated the gamut from the types of printing machines they may have used?
I use a new company called Photo Albums Direct photoalbumsdirect.com. The printing is excellent, great prices on prints and albums, plus they have free shipping!