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Shutterfly Review

Saturday, March 22nd

2025 Photo Book Company Reviews

Shutterfly Review 2 Star Rating

Shutterfly

2 Star Rating
  • Prices starting at $19.99 to $25.37
  • 101 different themes available
  • Satisfaction guarantee

Shutterfly, a renowned photo printing company, has been in the industry since 1999, catering to customers' personalized photo needs. Alongside photo books, Shutterfly offers an array of products including cards, stationery, prints, gifts, calendars, wall art, decor, and wedding products, all of which can be customized with photos to add a personal touch to every item, and all their services are covered by a 100% Happiness Guarantee.

101 themes available

There are 101 different pre-made themes to choose from at Shutterfly with a wide variety of styles ranging from celebrations and kids to travel and weddings. Shutterfly offers photo books in six different sizes, ranging from 7"x9" to 12"x12". Once a size is selected, customers can explore a plethora of beautiful photo book themes. These themes cover various celebrations, activities, and special events, ensuring a perfect fit for any photo book project. The user-friendly design functions on Shutterfly's platform provide ample creative freedom, and the vast array of layout choices for each page guarantees that each book created on the website will be entirely unique, reflecting the creator's personal style.

Unlimited photo storage

Creating a photo book at Shutterfly comes with a couple of neat features. First, Shutterfly offers a complimentary 24-hour Designer Service where their designers will create your photo book for you at no cost. You have the option to keep it as it is or make customizations according to your preferences. Plus, Shutterfly offers unlimited photo storage, so you can make sure that all your pics and happy memories are where you need them to be. And, if that's not cool enough, Shutterfly also offers a mobile app so you can upload photos and design on the go.

Two starting prices

At the time of this review, the photo books here all ranged in price from $19.99 to $25.37, which is fairly competitive. On top of that, the company was offering a 40% off coupon. The final cost of a photo book depends on factors such as size, theme, book type, and page options. Adding pages beyond the standard amount that comes with the book incurs an additional cost of $1.00 or more. Fortunately, if you decide to go with the 24-hour design process the actual design work is free. You'll only have to pay the cost of the book once it's finished.

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Delivery between 4-13 days

Within three business days, the photo book is ready for preview, and customers can decide whether to add any finishing touches or make changes before making a purchase. Shipping runs anywhere from 1-10 business days depending on the shipping option you choose and the item you're buying. The final shipping cost is applied during checkout. So, within just 4 days at the fastest shipping time, you could have a brand new photo book in your hands.

Reputation has fallen significantly

In terms of reputation, Shutterfly has fallen pretty significantly. Previously the company held an "A-” rating from the Better Business Bureau; however, recently that rating has fallen to a disappointing "D-” rating. Further, there are numerous complaints filed with the BBB and similar negative reviews from verified third-party review sites. Across four different review sites, the average star rating for Shutterfly is just 1.7 stars out of 5, which is much lower than the scores used to be across the board. Customers complain about quality in almost every review and others consistently mention the poor customer service at Shutterfly. Overall, it appears that the company hasn't been putting its best foot forward in recent years.

No satisfied customers

Given its low rating and the lack of customer service and high quality across customer reviews, Shutterfly really doesn't stand out from the pack. While its photo book themes are okay, there are fewer of them than at other top-rated companies, and there aren't any noteworthy features that make up for the poor ratings. Despite having a satisfaction guarantee, the company clearly isn't providing that satisfaction for most of its customers. For this reason, Shutterfly unfortunately receives one of the lowest ratings among photo book options on our list.

Where is the Best Place to Get Photo Books Out There Today?

Photo books are a fantastic way to keep our special memories in a tangible, beautiful format instead of just storing pictures on computers or in boxes. They are perfect for different occasions, like giving them as anniversary gifts, thoughtful birthday presents, or even creating yearly projects to decorate coffee tables, making it easy to look back on good times.

For example, weddings and engagements have become extra special with the rise of personalized photo books. Couples use their wedding or engagement photos to create these books, allowing guests to sign and leave heartfelt messages during the wedding reception. This makes photo books an important part of people's lives as they become a way to treasure precious moments, experiences, and important events.

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Photo Book Company FAQ

Photo Books are available year-round, ranging in celebration type, shapes and sizes. Photobooks can be used for any life event, keeping the memory within wedding albums, yearbooks, travel adventures, and more. A lot of companies allow the customer to pick a style and size to best fit for the occasion. When it comes to the type of cover, many companies have softcover, image-wrap hardcover, debossed hardcover, flush mount, or deluxe hardcover, to name a few.
Depending on the size, and type, the number of photos can range from 50 to 800 per photo book. On average a typical photobook has about 20 pages that are customizable. Each page can contain several photos and if you run out of pages, most companies will add a page for an additional cost.
Photo books range in value of $15.99 to $39.99 depending on the company, size, material, style, and number of pages. Some companies offer discounts upon first purchase and include monthly free promos. Cover styles can include softcover, hardcover, and leather. Paper type options can range from the base type of semi-gloss finish to premium matte lay flat.
Photo books come in all shapes and sizes. Standard photo books normally start at 8.5-inch x 8.5-inch and can get larger or smaller. The maximum size available is 12-inch x 12-inch. The minimum size offered is 5.5-inch x 4-inch. Some companies do offer layout size options as well.
Delivery can take anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks depending on the what you order. Bulk deliveries may take longer than the normal to receive. Shipping costs vary on the specific service and size of the package.
Most companies have you start out with picking either a theme/style of photobook, whether it is modern, simple, birthday, wedding, you name it they will have it. Then you select the size of the photobook and the type of cover and paper within. Finally, the fun begins, insert photos. For some people it may be easier to have the photos already downloaded on your device before you upload them to the photobook
Customization can differ per company. Customization can include size, style, type, format, color, font, quality, page style, and number of pages. Some companies offer bulk bundles of photo books (like yearbooks for schools).
Depending on the company, if you are not satisfied with your purchase you can return your product with a full refund. Most companies offer a customer satisfaction guarantee and excellent customer service options. Make sure to check the site has a customer satisfaction guarantee before purchasing.
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Continued from above...

In the past, making a photo book was a lot of work. It involved printing loads of photos, getting binders, stickers, fancy paper, and special tools for adding cool borders. Hours were spent carefully gluing the pages together and writing descriptions for each picture. Although some people enjoyed this scrapbooking process, it took a lot of time and resulted in big, bulky books that took up a lot of space.

Thankfully, in today's digital age, photo books are easier to make than ever. Many people opt to create photo books online due to their convenience and endless creative possibilities. With just a few clicks, you can capture family vacations, document special events, or preserve moments with loved ones. The ability to create photo books online has led to a significant rise in the number of people who now choose to immortalize their cherished moments in these beautifully designed keepsakes.

What's really fantastic about online photo books is how flexible and customizable they are. They can be super simple with just photos laid out neatly, or they can be like fancy scrapbooks with fun borders, stickers, and our own text. For example, if you're making a photo book about your beach vacation, some websites even offer special themes that let you add seashell stickers, "sandy" texture pages, and frames with palm trees to match the beachy pictures.

That's pretty awesome, right? So, no matter what style you like or what you want to remember, creating a photo book gives you the freedom to be as creative and personal as you want.

If you're looking for a fresh new way to collect your photographs, or you just have some memories that need to be shared, don't worry. There are so many places to get photo books these days that it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, we've done the research to help you find the photo service that caters to your unique needs and crafts a photo book made just for you.

To help you get started we've put together some tips to point you in the right direction:

  • Cost: Compare the photo book cost with other competitors. Check if you pay per page or for the entire book, regardless of its size. You may also want to see if there are extra costs for delivery, or if that's included in the price of the photo book.
  • Customization: Depending on what you need your photo book for, you may want to look for various size options and choose between softcover and hardcover books. Ensure there are ample choices for fonts, colors, borders, stickers, themes, and photo arrangements.
  • Features: To make sure that you have the best experience creating your photo book, you may want to prioritize user-friendly websites that offer easy navigation and straightforward tools for creating your photo book. Avoid platforms that may cause confusion and frustration during the creation process.
  • Customer feedback: Ultimately, customers like you are some of the best people to check in with when making your decision. They, like you, have a clear idea of their preferences and have made photo books with these companies before. So make sure you check out customer feedback and BBB ratings to ensure that photo service is the one that meets customers' needs.

To help you find the best spot to get a photo book today, Top Consumer Reviews has assessed and ranked different photo services to put together a beautiful collection of your favorite memories. Whether you're seeking a wedding photo book or something to track memories for your little ones, there are options out there for everything (even the DIYers who want to be more hands-on). We hope this takes out the stress of photo book creation and helps you get back to organizing the memories most important to you!

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