Zoltán G.
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Verified by
Sander D.
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Last updated:
September 7, 2024
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(0)
So you decided that you want to create a photo book for yourself and you think it doesn’t make much difference which photo book service you use? We understand you may not want to do hours of research to find a suitable photo book company, but it’s worth taking a good look at different top photo book builders to discover the one that best matches your requirements and your budget.
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Mixbook Photo Books
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Shutterfly Photo Books
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Printique Photo Books
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Blurb Photo Books
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Brand/logo
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Visit brand site
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Read review
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Rating
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# designs
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700+
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283
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88
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21
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# pages
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10-399 pages
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20-111 pages
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10-100 pages
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20-440 pages
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Autofill
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Layout personalization
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Collaboration
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Online storage
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Album sharing
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Social media import
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To prevent you from running into a lemon, we have prepared this nice comparison chart for you. This way you can easily compare the best photo book builders next to each other and decide which solution will be the best for you.
The following guide helps you in the decision making process by revealing the most common features of photo book builders – like photo adjustment options, captions, layouts, backgrounds, stickers etc. – and how can you further customize your photo books. You will also find information about how the prices are calculated and how you can save money on your purchases. And we also give recommendations on how you can compare each company and the respective services by reading our reviews, comparison articles, and the comparison chart we’ve already talked about.
Photo book builders (online and downloadable software) and apps are typically completely free of charge and you can create as many photo books as you want. But that doesn’t mean there are no slight differences between different editors.
We know that the prices and the quality of the products are also important, but to truly learn what a photo book builder is capable of, start your examination by looking at its features. This way you can find out whether your photo book builder is capable of the adjustments and customizations you want to make. If you are thinking of switching to downloadable software to avoid a lack of features, then don’t: sometimes the traditional desktop software works faster and is better for certain functionalities, but all in all they have just the same features as their online counterparts.
As for the aforementioned apps: true photo book builder applications are very scarce and not only are they limited compared to the desktop builders, but usually they are available for iOS devices only.
Like we mentioned before, the biggest deciding point in choosing the best photo book editor is its features. However, whether they are primitive or they have an easily understandable interface, the biggest similarity between photo book builders is their ease of use. Furthermore, most editors are foolproof, meaning that they have built-in features like spell-checkers, low resolution warnings, virtual assistants and safety zones preventing you from making easily avoidable mistakes. Also, you can usually import your photos from your computer, social media pages and store them on the photo book company’s own servers for later use or to share them with others.
Differences pop up when you start to further personalize your books. Most photo book builders only allow you to make slight modifications to the photos (cropping, resizing, swapping etc.), while downloadable software and online editors like Mixbook or RitzPix use more advanced built-in or complementary services for these purposes. Layout personalization is also interpreted differently by the companies: some of them give you complete freedom and let you add extra elements, while others only allow you to change the preset layouts within your book. The rarest feature is collaboration, or in other words, allowing others to work on your photo books.
The variety of designs is the feature photo book companies are the most generous in. Unless you deliberately want to create a book from scratch – or you have no other choice to begin with – you can choose from tens if not hundreds of themes. The same can be said for layouts: there are photo or text only layouts and the mix thereof, but most companies allow you to add extra elements like photo holders, text boxes, stickers, change the background and so on. Furthermore, sometimes you can change the theme retroactively which, in rather rare cases, can be done with covers, shapes, sizes and paper types as well.
Speaking of the latter, there are plenty of customization options here as well. You can have soft, hard, linen, leather or even metallic covers in sizes ranging from extra tiny to super large with regular, matte, glossy or layflat pages. However, this variety is also the biggest issue of each editor, as the cover-size-shape-paper type pairing is always limited in some way. Usually these limitations are restricted to soft cover books and/or certain sizes, but, as always, they depend on the “mercy” of the photo book company.
The prices you see on photo book sites are all base prices (shipping excluded), for which you get the thinnest photo book with the selected cover and size. Thankfully, you have the option to upgrade your photo book in various ways (unless you are limited in the way seen above), but at the cost of raising the final price tag.
For instance, adding extra pages to the minimum amount (usually 20) is always an extra, but these (pairs of) pages are far from expensive – unless you choose the popular layflat pages or upgrade to genuine photo paper. As for sizes and covers, pricing follows a logical pattern: the larger your book is and/or the better the quality of the cover, the bigger the price becomes.
And we haven’t talked about extras like slipcases, gift boxes, engraving, foil stamping etc; they all have to be paid for as well.
Do you consider the prices of photo books too high? Don’t worry, because photo book companies offer plenty of “Get Out of Jail Cards” (coupons and discounts), whether you are a newcomer or have been using the companies’ services for quite some time. Most of the discounts and coupon codes are temporary and they are advertized on the photo book site, via newsletters or can be found here at Best Reviews.
Usually you are entitled to create your first products (not necessarily photo books) for free/a reduced price for a limited time. You can invite your friends to get extra coupons and receive bulk order discounts, should you ask for more copies of the same product. Furthermore, you can enjoy the benefits of free shipping from time to time and apply the refund policy for a new copy or a full refund should your order arrive damaged due to unforeseen circumstances.
Now that you know what to expect when you start looking for the ideal photo book builder, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice. Trust us, your newfound knowledge and our devotion to helping you with your decision makes finding the best photo book builder much easier than you expected.
The best way to start selecting the ideal photo book builder is by reading our thorough reviews to get an overall impression and learn more about their respective features, pricing and coupons offers. You also have our very detailed comparison chart of the top photo book services comprising of all the most important features of each editor next to each other. You can read separate comparison articles as well where you can learn about the pros and cons of two different photo book builders and decide which solution would be better for you.
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