Comparative Shopper

Comparing three photo printing companies - Mpix, Shutterfly & Walgreens

Ok, so just in case there are any crazy comparative shoppers out there like me, I just wanted to share my latest observation on photo printing services from THREE different companies.

Originally, I was just going to buy my prints from Walgreens because they're right down the street from me. I intended to just do their one-hour photo and be done with it. However, they don't offer matte in one hour so I ended up ordering my prints online...which was dumb..If you're going to buy online, why on earth choose Walgreens (unless they're offering some kind of crazy discount)?

So, I quickly regretted that decision. Not only was it not my first photo printing choice, but it was spendy too. Then, I received two emails in my inbox offering discounted print orders from two different companies (Mpix & Shutterfly) so I decided to be a little reckless and purchase the same prints from all 3 companies as an experiment - to see who was the most affordable, who offered the best print quality and who offered the fastest shipping. See my highly scientific experiment results below...

Photo printing service
Mpix
Shutterfly
ddd
Walgreens

Photo Quality
Disappointing
Too saturated (I may have
forgotten to turn off auto-correct)
Pretty darn good actually

Price (for 5x7")
$1.09
$.99

$1.99 (ugh)

Shipping
4 bus. days
5 bus. days

5 bus. days

Surprisingly, in the end, Walgreens had the best ("truest") print quality. They were also the most expensive (at least for 5x7s), but they often have great 4x6 print deals.

I know we're in the social media sharing and photobook era so most of us don't even bother with photo prints these days, but just in case you have a photo project or just a nice picture you want to frame, hopefully, my comparative research will be of some benefit to you. :) Maybe next time I'll try Snapfish, Walmart and ...?