Online Photo Services: A Quick Guide

With so many options when it comes to how to develop and store you photos, you would be stupid not to shop around to get the best bargain for your buck. Sure, you can just go through your local grocery store to get your prints, but what is twenty-first century about that?

Sanpfish
This is one of the better known online services. Many people I know use Snapfish to share and order prints. This is one of the easiest programs to use, but they are all similar. Snapfish offers the ability to store photos in rooms for free, and you can even add friends that are able to view and order prints from your room. Snapfish offers unlimited storage through an account. There are also many other services offered. Account members can create custom photo books, mugs, calendars, cards and much more. Prices for Sanpfish services range from as low as $0.09 for prints to $100 for specialty gifts. Snapfish offers the option to prepay for prints to lock in a lower price, and you can even pick prints up in stores such as Walgreens and Staples to avoid the shipping charge.

Shutterfly
This service is very similar to snapfish. You can store unlimited photos online, share with friends, order specialty gifts and edit photos online. Shutterfly prints are more than Snapfish, the lowest for a simple print is $0.15 and with a pre-paid plan you can save a whole nickel. Shutterfly offers in store pickup in Target, so for all of those addicted to Target, a few more pennies a print just gives us the opportunity to set foot in the store. As with most other programs, Shutterfly is very simple to use and the website is very helpful, and plus you can create custom sites for sharing your photos.

WebShots
One of the fewer known providers, at least to me, is WebShots. The coolest thing about this site is that it appears to be a host for many armature photographers. You can browse through millions of shots! Once familiarizing myself with the site, it is fairly simple to use. As with other photo services, you can order prints and specialty products. Photos start at around $0.09. WebShots has two types of accounts. With a free account the features are limited as are the number of photo downloads you can do each day. But with a paid membership, you get unlimited downloads, no ads and you can store up to 5,000 photos for only $29.88 per year.

MyFamily
For those just interested in sharing photos securely on-line, this is the site for you. You do pay a membership fee, but you are able to safely share photos with all your family. Each member is able to add content to the family site, and the content is backed-up and active until you decide to remove it! The page is password protected and you can invite as many people to it as you want. Plus there is unlimited storage space! This is a great online photo service for families that are miles apart, and you can even blog to each other to keep everyone updated. Users rate this site as very easy to use. The membership is $29.95 per site, per year.

Smugmug
This is one of the most versatile sites I have seen in terms of products. You can order everything from prints to puzzles to ceramic tiles to playing cards. If you are looking for a truly unique gift, look here first. The prices are a little steeper for prints, but I think that the specialty products are moderately priced for what you are getting. This is also a great site for professional photographers because of the ability to sell your work.

Wal Mart
This is probably the most accessible site and store for many users to use. As with the others, you can order prints and specialty items and store photo albums to print from. You can share these albums as there is no limit to how much you can store. This may be the most convenient option for most because of the convenience of Wal Mart locations and even if there is not one near you, on average Wal Mart pricing is generally lower than competitors. To pick up print in an hour at a store, the rates begin at $0.15.

There are so many options when it comes to choosing how to store and print you photos, that it is best to see what option will work for you. If you are looking to share with family, a subscription may be the best bet because of the savings you will gain from not having to print out so many duplicates. If you are looking for the cheapest way to get your prints off your camera, compare shipping rates or in-store pick-up rates for each service to see where your money saver will be.