Ease of Use - Ordering Process:  

The step-by-step ordering process at Snapfish is quite simple. We feel just about anyone, computer novice or pro, will be able to upload and order pictures easily.

During the ordering process, we like that Snapfish suggested we change our print size to “trueDigital” size to better suit our digital photos. Typically, digital images are more square than traditional film and do not fit on photo paper without cropping. Snapfish suggested we change to a 4 x 5.3 print size to minimize the need for cropping.

Quality of Prints:  

To test for quality, we sent the same digital photos to all of the online photo developers we reviewed. No one company performed perfectly, but Snapfish was about as close as you can get. Picture quality varied depending on the type of photograph, even within the same company. None of the companies we evaluated received a perfect quality score.

The photos printed from Snapfish were well developed and the average user would probably have few complaints.

• Sunset: Our sunset photograph came out clear; however, the models in the picture seemed just a tad dark. We would have liked Snapfish to brighten up the photo just a little bit. The colors in the sunset and on the water came out well. Click here to see a comparison.

• Black and White: Comparatively, our black and white photo came out with the most variation from all of the companies. The black and white photo returned from Snapfish was clean but a little light. It seemed there may have been a little too much yellow used during developing. Click here to see a comparison.

• Aerial: Our picture of the London skyline was taken on a cloudy day. Snapfish was able to clean up most of the shot and make the buildings look clean and crisp. However, we did notice there may be more yellow in this print than some of our other services. Click here to see a comparison.

Note: To check quality, we took each set of prints received from the online photo developer and laid them down side-by-side for comparison.

Pricing:  

Snapfish’s 4x6 and trueDigital prices are almost the best in the business and they are constantly keeping competitive. Additionally, their prices are reasonable across the board from standard prints to large poster-size images. They also offer volume discounts on 5x7-inch prints for quantities of 50, 100 and 250, and pre-pay discounts on 4x6 and 5x7-inch prints of 250 or more.

However, we were disappointed to find that Snapfish charges $.25 to download your first high-resolution image and $.05 for each additional one. Many other services offer this feature for free. Additionally, Snapfish charges $9.49 to burn a custom CD of your first 50 photos and an additional $10.00 for each additional 150 images. They did not offer a less expensive option to just send an index CD with your order.

Service and Site Features:  

Snapfish is the only service we evaluated that included video upload as well as digital photographs. They also have an easy-to-use photo uploader application that allows you to upload your photos to their site in bulk. This application is required if you are going to upload video. Video support is a subscription-based service costing $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year.

You can also upload photos taken with a cell phone through your phone’s email.

The Snapfish PictureMover is a free software program that will detect when your camera or memory card is inserted into your computer and will automatically upload all your images directly to Snapfish. It will also send copies to your computer. PictureMover does not include any editing functions and is not compatible with Mac.

Snapfish includes free webware editing tools that allow you to make some minor adjustments to your pictures like remove red eye, rotate, add boarders and change tint. You can also add captions that will be printed on the back side of your prints.

Through this service, you also receive free online album sharing and group room hosting. Sharing allows you to post pictures online to "share" with family and friends. Album sharing permits those you grant access to order prints of your posted photos directly from Snapfish. Through sharing, you can also send one of your pictures to a cell phone. (This service is not available with Verizon Wireless). Group rooms are similar to sharing, but they allow for multiple users to post albums and leave messages. 

Snapfish has a comprehensive selection of photo-based gifts. Perhaps not the largest selection we evaluated, it was definitely one of the most practical, offering cards, calendars, mugs, apparel, stationary and more.

At an additional cost, you can choose to have your images sent to a local Walgreens, Meijer, Staples or a photo kiosk, where you can pick them up yourself.  Pricing is subject to local prices, not Snapfish prices.

In order for your account to remain active, you have to purchase something from Snapfish at least once a year. Otherwise, your account and photos will be deleted.

Shipping Costs/ Turnaround Time:  

Snapfish tied with several other services for the best shipping price. To ship four 4x6-inch prints, Snapfish service charges $.99. However, for every group of five photos you order, your shipping cost increases by about $.49. For example, an order of 20 prints would cost $1.97 in shipping.

In our case, we ordered less than five prints making our shipping $.99. The actual cost to ship those prints was $.97 leaving only $.02 left for Snapfish’s packaging and handling.

Our prints arrived in 4 days, well within Snapfish’s standard delivery and comparative to the rest of the evaluated services. The prints were sent in a standard paper photo folder with a piece of cardboard reinforcement and shipped in a lightweight paper envelope. Although our photographs arrived without incident, we would have liked Snapfish to have more heavy-duty packaging.

On a previous occasion, our prints were lost in the mail. After contacting Snapfish on the phone, our prints were reprinted and shipped UPS 2-day shipping at no cost to us.

Snapfish is a well-known and respected photo printing service. We like the simple interface, additional features like mobile upload and in-store pickup, and we were happy with the way our prints turned out. Additionally, shipping is reasonable. However, we would like to see Snapfish offer hi-res photos for free, ship in more durable packaging and maybe lower the cost of a photo CD.