Shutterfly vs. Mixbook: Comparing 2 Great Photo Books

Several months ago, we compared the biggest and best printers available for on-demand photo books.

And although there are plenty of excellent options out there with different advantages and disadvantages, two, in particular, stand out from the pack.

On one end of the spectrum stands Mixbook, an impressive newcomer. Recently, the on-demand bookbinders have made waves among photographers for the quality of their products. On the other end is Shutterfly, an early undisputed giant with a more mainstream following.

book spreads

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Mixbook vs. Shutterfly

For those new to the world of photo books, both are incredibly appealing options to collaborate with.

In most ways, the two companies are neck and neck with one another. They offer similar prices and products, making it hard to determine the differences between the services.

However, our goal at PhotoWorkout is to clear things up for our readers so that they may make the decisions best for them. So, today we’ll be dissecting the two front runners, comparing Mixbook vs. Shutterfly piece by piece.

Related Post: Mixbook Photo Book vs. Blurb

MIXBOOK OVERVIEW

In short, here was my final verdict on their books:

Going into the review, I had high expectations of Mixbook based on what others had to say. The online press did not disappoint. From the moment I went on the website to the minute I finished flipping through my book, it was hard for me to find faults. That’s not to say that the Mixbook photo book is perfect. While it is affordable, it’s not the cheapest option around. The internal editor could always offer additional tools and capabilities. More sizing and binding options certainly couldn’t hurt things. However, to gripe on these points feels a lot like nitpicking.

Mixbook isn’t without its flaws, but it has garnered positive attention across the photo community for good reason. They offer a professional-looking final product well within most artists’ budgets. But does it hold up when examined head to head with a long-time industry leader?

SHUTTERFLY OVERVIEW

Shutterfly Photo-books
Shutterfly offers three ways to make your photo book: Shutterfly designers make it for you (Make My Book Service), Custom Path (Personalize every page), and Simple Path (Pictures are arranged for you on the fly).

Shutterfly has been printing since 1999. It is a flagship printer shipping products in formats and on a variety of mediums. In the past, we have done several reviews about them, e.g.:

With years of experience under their belts, they have a few advantages that other smaller competitors can’t compete with.

Related Post: Walgreens Photo Book Review

Offering seven different sizes and a variety of available materials, they have one of the most extensive photo book lines on the market. What’s more, Shutterfly is able to churn out finished products within three business days. Pricing starts as low as $16 per book (although add-ons can quickly increase the base cost). Make sure to check ongoing promotions for steep discounts of up to 50%.

The site isn’t perfect – in particular, UI is a bit clumsy and cluttered at times. But thanks to the company’s resources, they’re able to offer solutions to get around some of their shortcomings.

For instance, Shutterfly offers a “Make my Book” service, in which trained professionals will design an album using whatever content you choose. Of course, if you want to keep the design work in your own hands, there are also simply drag-and-drop templates that the site has to offer.

A few weeks ago, I decided to print a mock-up for a personal photo project to see for myself if Shutterfly photo books lived up to their reputation.

Shutterfly Test Print - my personal experience.
My personal photo project: Hunting for Truffles

There were a few minor differences between my Shutterfly product and my previous Mixbook order, but in most matters the two were comparable.

The matte finishes looked almost identical, as did the materials used to bind the cover. As far as print quality goes, I was impressed by the rich tonality and contrast Shutterfly’s finished project provided. Despite being a much larger corporation, Shutterfly adds just as much TLC into its books as Mixbook.

shutterfly binding


Before trying out Shutterfly, I assumed that their business revolved around making almost scrapbook-esque family albums and instant prints. Shutterfly can, in fact, accomplish those tasks. However, they also prove to be a viable contender for fine artists looking for higher-quality products.

Head-to-Head Comparison

So which service is best for you? Here’s our take based on a few of the categories that matter most to potential buyers.

Pricing

Our choice: Mixbook

On the surface, Shutterfly seems to be the more affordable print service. After all, the company loves to tote around the fact that they offer photo books under $20. Furthermore, they frequently have sales going on that may take a nice chunk of change out of your final fee. However, there are some added fees that will likely catch you off-guard at checkout.

As with most sites, Shutterfly has a number of add-ons that can be applied to an order to enhance the final product. Unlike most websites, however, Shutterfly customers will almost certainly have to tack on add-ons, as base books are pretty bare bones. For instance, each book order only includes 20 pages – beyond that, customers must buy by the page. Larger volumes charge over $2 to add just one page to a volume. Combined with a $10 fee to remove Shutterfly logos as well as shipping and tax fees, it’s easy to see how many users wind up spending more than they intend on even simple book projects.

That being said, Mixbook’s prices aren’t far off Shutterfly’s. In fact, their base prices are almost identical (although Mixbook’s larger photo books are slightly less expensive). However, we’re giving Mixbook the edge in this round because they’re a little bit more straightforward with pricing than their competitor.

Print Quality & Binding

Our choice: Tie (Both Mixbook and Shutterfly do an excellent job)

Shutterfly’s prints were absolutely beautiful, far surpassing my expectations. The tones were rich, and the paper complimented my black and white images especially well.

Unfortunately, there was one minor print error that I ran into (the edge of one of my images bled off the top side of the page whereas my other shots had a white border all the way around). However, despite the misprint, I was happy enough that I would use their services again.

I was also pleased with what I received from Mixbook. They did an excellent job with color management, and my end product looked exactly as it did on my online preview. My one little gripe, in retrospect, is that I think the printers may have added a little bit of extra sharpening between my submission and the print.

Honestly, it was too difficult to choose a winner in this category simply because they both do an excellent job. Their few weaknesses balance one another out, making it hard to identify a clear-cut winner.

I was a little bit more impressed with Shutterfly’s prints as a whole. However, I liked Mixbook’s standard binding a bit more. While Shutterfly’s pages need to be held down to stay in place, Mixbook’s default bind lays much flatter.

shutterfly mixbook compare
Shutterfly vs Mixbook – I prefer the flat binder by Mixbook.

Options & Support

Our choice: Shutterfly

In this field, Mixbook, unfortunately, doesn’t stand a chance. The small company employs under 100 individuals. Shutterfly, on the other hand, has a workforce of nearly 2,000 employees.

For first-time users, Shutterfly is an easy choice because they simply have more resources to guide customers through the bookmaking process.

In fact, Shutterfly has a “Make my Photo Book” Service in which you can forward photographs and the folks behind the scenes will design the perfect book for you. They also offer a variety of presets and templates that are easy enough for beginners to use, but still, offer some control over the finished product.

That’s not to say that Mixbook is especially difficult to use or that their staff is in any way unhelpful. They too have templates and social media shortcuts that can make the process of building a photo book easier. But, because they are a smaller company, they can’t go above and beyond the way Shutterfly can.

The Verdict

Both services have earned their spots at the top of the food chain and provide comparable quality. If you’re not computer/design savvy and don’t want to go through the arduous process, Shutterfly may be the right option for you.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you have a large project and want to cut prices where you can, Mixbook may be able to cut prices without cutting quality.

In short, the printer you choose depends on where your priorities lie. Our final verdict is this: it’s difficult to go wrong with either of these heavy hitters.

About the Author
meghan boilard author

Meghan is an artist and writer based out of Boston, MA. With an interest in everything from instant film to experimental videography, her work has been featured internationally in a variety of photographic exhibitions and publications. You can connect with Meghan on Instagram.

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18 thoughts on “Shutterfly vs. Mixbook: Comparing 2 Great Photo Books”

  1. I did a Shutterfly book a few years ago and struggled with trying to go outside the pre-formatted boundaries with a custom book. Support helped me with non-intuitive work-arounds. My daughter gave me a Mixbook photo book of our family vacation to Japan together which I thought was great. For a gift today on Valentine’s day, I made a photo book for a friend. I went with Shutterfly’s “Create Your Own” option, partially because they keep your projects if you order every 18 months. The new flexibility was pretty easy. I was also swayed by the support issue in this review. A book was delivered on time, but it was not mine! Someone else’s nice Jewish wedding. Support over the weekend said a new book would be rushed to me today, but the site says that it is still being created and expected by 19th. The mature organization with support certainly fell short this time. I’ll certainly try Mixbook next time.

  2. Unless you want to stick with the offered layouts without variation Shutterfly is just this side of hell. No visible grid to aid alignment from page to page, no “undo” action available, no “copy format” or “copy layout” to use on another page so you have to recreate it again on each page. Two solid days for something I could have done in photoshop in a few hours.

    My order of 8 photo books all arrived with a white border on the right edge of the cover, something not shown on any view I had. The chat representative said it was my fault but they could generously reprint them (with an error I can’t fix because I can’t see it), paying just tax and shipping – $100!

    It got resolved when a manager called me the next day (upon my request) – she acknowledged it was a printer error. Fortunately, I allowed plenty of time before they were needed – new ones arrive next week.

    I will never use them again.

    1. Andrew Connolly

      There is an undo action, but yes, otherwise correct. I find Shutterfly’s *custom* editor clunky and error prone.

      And I also get printing errors where backgrounds don’t cover the entire printed area. They have always reprinted but I would much rather they just get it right first time

    1. I checked with Shutterfly, they said you can have up to 111 pages in a book. When I checked with Mixbook, they said you could put up to 399 pages in a book. 99 pages in the flat page books.

  3. There’s actually one BIG difference skipped out here.
    Mixbook doesnt allow the thick pages TOGETHER with a hard leather cover. You can get a thick soft cover that allows you to even put a photo there, but Shutterfly allows the thick pages and ALSO the beautiful leather cover that Mixbook won’t offer.

    For some people working on wedding album, that can make a huge difference.

  4. Verónica Irvine

    You CANNOT DOWNLOAD YOUR PHOTOS back to your desktop from Mixbook. So if you quickly want to get your picture back for another project you’re out of luck. Also made me wonder what they do with MY photos.

    You CAN DOWLOAD the photos back from SHUTTERFLY.

    1. That is not true. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD YOUR PHOTOS BACK TO YOUR DESKTOP FROM MIXBOOK! It’s easy. The photos are stored safely in Mixbook just as other photo processors.

  5. I am not tech savvy, I had never created a photo book before, and I knew nothing about the various companies who offer such services. Our 50th anniversary was coming up, and I wanted a photo book that commemorated these 50 years. It was an all-consuming project, yet with Mixbook’s immense help, I completed this 121-page project and gave each of our children a book. I was thrilled at the quality of the book and the clarity of many old photos. Thanks Mixbook for answering my many questions and for providing the services you do. This senior citizen could never have finished such a project without your patience and helping hands!

    1. Katherine,
      This was very helpful as I’m doing a “My Mommy and Daddy” book for my Son’s first baby which has also turned into an all-consuming project! I’ve never created a photo book before either, and since I’m scanning some old pre-digital photos I was worried about the clarity. I hope I’m as pleased as you with the finished project. Thanks from another senior citizen!

  6. I’ve been using Mixbook for several years and have never been disappointed. My last project I decided to choose their metallic paper. When I received the book, I found the paper did not work as well as the standard gloss for some pics. My fault but when asked in follow up (they almost always do ask) I mentioned it and said I was not complaining because it was my choice. They absolutely insisted on reprinting it on regular paper for me. I told them no need but they insisted. That is customer service from a smaller company.

  7. Vicki
    Did you get an answer to your question? I am doing research to find a photo book company that take my photos in Apple Photos ?
    Mb

  8. I had two questions which were not answered. Which service is easier to use if all your photos are in Apple Photos? Which book allows for full paragraphs of text (I have family stories to include with my photos).
    Vicki

    1. Mixbook will allow you to put in full paragraphs. I have done it with a couple of projects i have done. I made family books for my parents with stories of their life.

      1. Shutterfly also allows you to write full paragraphs. I have used it for years. One of my books was family stories with pages of text and few pictures.

  9. There were two differences I noted 7 years back which made me a returning Mixbook customer. It was much easier to use special characters in Mixbook. I think it was the lowercase u with an accent mark (for Spanish) which would not work in Shutterfly. But what kept me at Mixbook was the increased options for editing elements on the page. I enjoy the process, and I have more control at Mixbook.