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Want to relive your travel, reminisce about a special occasion or celebrate a loved one? Personalized gifts are a unique way to showcase life’s favorite moments on items for yourself or others.
With Shutterfly, you can create everything from custom phone cases to pillows, pint glasses, pots, photo blankets, puzzles, paperweights, plates and more. The ideas are only limited by your imagination.
Article Overview
- About Shutterfly
- Key Features
- Pricing
- Customer Reviews
- Our Firsthand Experience
- Bringing Memories To Life (Video)
Shutterfly
Pros
- Good Housekeeping’s Seal of Approval as best website for photo books
- Printed in the U.S.
- Good customer service including phone, email and live chat support
- Free unlimited photo storage
- Import photos from Instagram, Facebook or other photo services
- Reasonably priced for the quality
- Variety of stylish, modern templates
- “Photo Story” iPad app and Shutterfly app
- 100% money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied
Cons
- Shipping prices are expensive (even for smaller items)
- Reports of shipping not arriving on time, even with guaranteed delivery date
Shutterfly Photo Book Review
A major player in the photo printing world since 1999, Shutterfly is based in Redwood City, California with ten offices throughout the U.S.
Shutterfly is one of our top-rated photo books but they print much more than just photo books (and photo prints). You name it, and you can probably put a picture on it. Everything from Christmas cards and invitations to calendars and canvas prints (check out our canvas printing reviews) plus many more!
Shutterfly Inc. is the parent company that also owns Tiny Prints, Wedding Paper Divas, BorrowLenses and Groovebook.
Key Features
- Free unlimited photo storage with folders to organize into albums
- Shutterfly app lets you create products on the go and upload photos from your phone
- Offers a variety of templates and customization options
- Make my Book service has a designer create a book for you (turn around 2-3 days)
- Large selection of statement gifts
- 3D proof of product to see 360-degree preview of product before purchasing
- Competitive pricing on wide-range of home goods and gifts
- Import photos from Instagram, Facebook or other photo services
- Bulk photo books, yearbooks and other discounts available for larger orders
- Design studio to get styling ideas, tips, downloads, trends and more
- Refer a friend and get a reward
Shutterfly Prices
Shutterfly’s prices range depending on the product but Shutterfly photo book prices start at around $15. Click here to see all options.
Shutterfly Coupons
What Do Customers Think Of Shutterfly?
Positive Shutterfly Reviews
I have used Shutterfly on three occasions. When I ran into difficult, I was able to speak with a customer service representative to resolve the issues. I wish the cost for one book were low. Even with 50% off, I paid more than expected, but overall I feel it is a great value. I have and will continue to use and recommend to others.- Aurelia, Trustpilot 7/27/2017
I like the quality and flexibility of Shutterfly. I also like their layflat page option and square format. I create a lot of my own designs in Photoshop. They also have good customer service – when things go wrong, they’ve sent me reprints at their expense. – Lisa, PhotobookGirl Comment 3/1/2017
Negative Shutterfly Reviews
Shutterfly constantly offers fantastic savings and deals on their products, but the real gimmick is their shipping costs. You’re more than compensating for their deals by paying for their padded shipping rates. Their products aren’t anything special – standard stuff any printing corporation offers. – Danielle, Yelp 3/25/2017
The site is not very responsive or intuitive. When we went to check out the site gave us an error message with no explanation. Talked to Customer Service Rep., very rude. Shutterfly ended up charging my account 6 times for the same order. – Marc, Sitejabber 7/23/17
My Personal Experience With Shutterfly
I’ve personally used Shutterfly since 2010 to order prints and photo books. I created my wedding photo album using one of their wedding templates and have made anniversary books every year since (see photo above for my latest creations). I’ve also used them to create a couple of birthday photo books and a calendar to give as gifts.
While I don’t have experience with their other custom products or home goods, I will say that I’ve not been disappointed one bit with their quality or speed in producing and shipping. My orders arrived as scheduled (if not ahead of time) and I haven’t experienced any issues using their online design tool or photo albums. The quality isn’t over the top, but for the price, you definitely get a good-quality product.
Shutterfly Make My Book Service
Shutterfly let me try out the Make my Book service in exchange for an honest review. For the most part, they did a decent job and I was impressed with how they were able to group together photos by event without knowing any context or captions. However, they completely missed the mark with the cover and put a photo of my husband saying “Happy Father’s Day” even though I said it was an anniversary gift in the instructions and clearly all the photos were of my husband and I (not a sibling or my father).
You do get the option to say what layouts you prefer and how many embellishments are okay, but it would have been nice to tell them color preferences too since the dark purple and greens they used are not our style at all.
Overall though it did save me a bit of time from having to lay out the initial design and now I just need to tweak and fill in some of the blank spots. The book was lost in transit and thus didn’t make it in time for my anniversary. However, they re-printed the book for free, did free expedited shipping and refunded the expedited shipping costs for the inconvenience (which was greatly appreciated, especially given it was UPS’ fault not theirs).
Shutterfly Helps Bring Memories To Life
Watch this two-minute video to see how Shutterfly, Inc. helps millions of customers share life’s joy through their custom printed products.
Need Some Help Creating Custom Gifts?
Smartphones can take some great photos, but if you’re looking to step your photography game up a notch take a look at these DSLR cameras. You can start snapping photos in minutes and create some customized gifts or items for your home with Shutterfly. If you need some inspiration, check out these 12 photo album ideas for Shutterfly books.
What will you make with Shutterfly?
I recently ordered a book from Shutterfly as a gift, it didn’t arrive but it was due to it being lost in transit and they refunded me the shipping and reprinted for free (with free expedited shipping). So while I couldn’t give as a gift in time for my partner, I explained what happened and they were understanding and I appreciate Shutterfly’s quick response!