Ordering Cheap Digital Prints Online

Ordering cheap digital prints on the Internet is catching on, but choosing who will develop your digital photos is a maze of promotions and print wars.

Today, you can find print costs ranging from 9 cents to 19 cents per print. To get the lowest prices, in most cases you have to subscribe to a pre-paid print plan for 100, 250, or 500 prints.

This is huge savings especially when you consider that digital photography makes it so darn easy to take hundreds and hundreds of photos.

Pricing Comparison

Here's a quick comparison of print prices between some major online and retail store photofinishers:

Mail Delivery (price does not include shipping/handling)

	No Plan	With Plan or Membership
Shutterfly	19 cents	12 cents (500 print plan)
Kodak Gallery	15 cents	10 cents (Gallery Premiere Print Plan)
Snapfish	9 cents	8 cents (250 print plan)
Walgreens	12 cents	n/a
Wal-Mart	9 cents	n/a
Photoworks	19 cents	9 cents (1000 print plan)

 

In-Store Pickup (order online but pick-up in a retail store)

	No Plan	With Plan or Membership
Walgreens	15-19 cents	n/a
Wal-Mart	15-19 cents	n/a
Target	20 cents	n/a
Costco	17 cents	n/a
CVS Pharmacy	15-19 cents	n/a
Ritz Camera	18 cents	n/a

 

Free Prints

All photo printing sites offer free prints for trying out their service. Take advantage...we did!

Not only did it help us do the research for this site, but we ended up with dozens of free holiday photos to boot.

The top four photo printing services we tried, like and use over and over again are Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery, Photoworks, and Snapfish. In each case our order was processed literally the next day and we got emails advising that our pictures were in the mail. (Try all these services and you getting a whopping 90+ free photo prints!)

Other ways to order prints online is to use a familiar retail outlet like Wal-Mart or Walgreens.

Other factors to consider are shipping costs, in-person pickup options, print quality, and custom photo special effects.

For example, we recommend online photo finishing that lets you remove red eye, crop photos, print with or without borders, and add smudge, watercolor, or special effects to photos for a fun look.

A Quick Look at Who's Who

Shutterfly
Shutterfly is the biggest online photo service center and has an easy-to-use web site for uploading and ordering photos. Their pricing is as follows: $0.12 to $0.15 per print if you go for a prepaid plan. Otherwise, you pay $0.19 each. Note that some Shutterfly print plans include free stuff, like one free Photo Book (a $29.95 option). Shutterfly prints can also be delivered to your nearest Target for pickup.

Snapfish
Snapfish is owned by HP (Hewlett Packard) and is a large online photofinisher with tons of options for customization, gifts, and so on. Snapfish offers the really low price of 9 cents per print. Snapfish prints can also be delivered to your nearest Walgreens for pickup.

Kodak Gallery  
Kodak Gallery is a well known company offering prints, photo gifts and photo books at value prices. Koday Gallery pricing is as follows: $0.10 per print with annual membership fee or $.15 each. Koday prints can also be picked up a various retailers around the country, like CVS Pharmacy and Target.

Photoworks
Seattle-based Photoworks started out life as Seattle Film Works developing rolls of film sent in by mail (and they still do). Now they offer prints and a wide range of carefully designed photo products. Photoworks pricing is as follows: $0.19 per print but volume discounts of $0.15, $0.12 and $0.09 depending on the number of prints you order.

Big Retail Chains with Online Photo Services

Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has a Digital Photo Center that gives you the option of in-store pickup or mail delivery. Wal-Mart pricing is as follows: $0.15 per print for in-store pickup, $0.9 each for mail delivery (plus shipping and handling).

Walgreens
Walgreens is another big chain at which you can order prints online and then pick them up or have them delivered by mail. Walgreens pricing is as follows: $0.15 per print for in-store pickup, $0.12 each for mail delivery (plus shipping and handling).