Shutterfly is one of the best photo card sites for those who want a sentimental or personalized touch when giving gifts. It offers a long list of products to help you create keepsakes, including photo cards.
There’s no denying it, Shutterfly is one of the more expensive card sites we looked at. We tested 5x7, folded cards with three photos and no added extras on each of our tests, and Shutterfly charged $2.79 for a single card, $41.85 for 15 cards and $273 for 100 cards.
Most sites offer a bulk saving on large orders - the best of which was 40% off on orders of 100 cards from Zazzle, but Shutterfly only gave a discount of 10% on cards for this large order. However, a saving grace of Shutterfly’s pricing is the affordable shipping, which for our bulk order only came to $10.95. What’s more, we didn’t see tax added on top of the advertised prices which makes Shutterfly slightly more affordable than it initially looks.
Shutterfly offered a 50% discount on all cards at the time of our testing, but we didn’t include any temporary offers in our pricing tests so this wasn’t reflected in the results. A 50% saving is one of the better discounts we saw, although it is pretty common for photo cards to have big promotions and coupon codes, so we wouldn’t expect you to pay full price for these cards most of the time.
Shutterfly Photo Cards review: Quality and services
- Attractive designs
- Good quality paper
- Not the best quality pearl finish we've seen
Shutterfly makes it easy to create photo cards and gives you the creative freedom to personalize your work. We were especially impressed by Shutterfly's selection of holiday photo cards and the excellent photo reproduction. Even though this photo card service lacks a few features and tools that other services provide, it can help you create beautiful picture cards that you, your family and friends will love.
This custom photo card service has many features that make the designing-and-ordering process smooth. While you design your card, the photo-quality feature monitors the resolution of your photo. If the resolution is too high or too low for the card, the photo editor notifies you. This prevents your photo from appearing blurry or pixelated in print.
You can also search for cards by characteristics such as orientation, size and price range. Orders include envelopes, and there is no minimum order requirement.
We ordered a couple of photo cards from Shutterfly, and both had good photo reproduction and an attractive design. We opted for a card on signature cardstock and another on pearl-shimmer cardstock. The paper had a nice thickness, for both the photo card and the envelope, and the photos were bright and clear. The pearl shimmer made the photos slightly darker and blurry, but you’d notice only if you compared the photos side by side.
Shutterfly Photo Cards review: Product options and creation
- Limited holiday coverage
- Stylish design
- Free address printing on envelopes
Shutterfly doesn't cover as many holidays as some other photo card services, missing out on holidays such as Kwanzaa and Rosh Hashana. However, for the holidays this service does cover, there is a wide selection of attractive designs. The Christmas photo cards are definitely a highlight of this service, making Shutterfly an ideal choice for creating a photo card for the end of the year. You can also choose from a long list of cards with different announcements.
Shutterfly offers plenty of stylish cards to keep friends and family in the loop when you're celebrating events like a graduation, birth, wedding or move. You can also order invitations for most special occasions, such as bridal or baby showers. Even if you aren't celebrating anything in particular, you can order stationery from Shutterfly to create thank-you photo cards, address labels and personalized stamps.
This service offers a wide range of font, color and alignment choices for the text of the card; you can customize the text, but it’s fixed in place. In contrast, other photo card sites allow you to move and add text anywhere you like. You can edit your photos in minor ways by cropping, rotating or applying filters.Overall, other sites such as Mixbook give you far more design and customizable options, but if you find a template you like on Shutterfly this might not bother you.
Shutterfly had a great selection of envelopes in addition to the free, plain white one included. There was an impressive choice of custom designs with cute festive images such as snowflakes and sprigs of holly. There’s also free printed addressing for recipient and return addresses, which is rare for a photo card service. However, this was only available on white envelopes, so you’d have to skip the gold, silver or red options to make the most of this feature. Still, what Shutterfly lacks in custom card design it makes up for in envelope variety, ensuring your card has a special touch before it’s even been opened.
One of Shutterfly's standout features is its delivery service. You can have the company stuff, stamp and mail all of your photo cards for you, so all you have to worry about is the design process. This is a nice feature that not all of the services we reviewed offered. You also get unlimited photo storage in the Shutterfly cloud. Shutterfly also keeps your address list on file, so you can easily use it for future photo cards.
Shutterfly Photo Cards review: Support and customer service
- Live chat and call options
- FAQ page
You can start a chat with Shutterfly customer service by using the tab at the bottom of the site, and there's also a phone number you can call.
Shutterfly has an FAQ page and you can also find it on social media, so there's plenty of resources if you need help or have any enquiries.
Should you order Shutterfly Photo Cards?
We liked the standout features offered by Shutterfly such has free address envelopes and a great search bar, but it was the most expensive site we reviewed, lacking discounts on bulk orders. For a special, one-off card though, this is a high-quality option worth checking out.
