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Pricing
Basic Membership:	FREE
Pro Package:	$99.99 – 199.99
4x6 Prints:	N/A

Feature Data

[#General#]

Shutterfly is highly recommended for personal use and for causal or inexperienced users. It is one of the most popular sites among private users and seems to devote itself to pleasantry and ease of use.

It does not push ads or even its own products in your face and it does not spread itself too thin with extraneous features. Consequently, their site is focused, easy to use and professional.

The functions of Shutterfly are similar to Club Photo, Photomax and Snapfish in that they have a great gift center, fun navigation and sharing, good organization and an overall user-friendly site. In addition to being great for personal use, their Pro membership gives you just what you need for displaying your products and making a profit.Great organization and useful sharing, storing and editing features make Shutterfly perfect for beginners and also for busy pros who need an easy-to-use site. The Shutterfly Studio desktop software makes it all even easier. Edit and upload from the easy browsing window.

If you are a digital imaging rookie, you may want to check out the glossary for descriptions of general features found on photo and video sites, and for some insight into basic industry terms.

[#Unique#]

Adding to the overall sense of peace is the virtual lack of advertising. A couple banners show up on the login page, but nowhere else, allowing you to stay focused on your project.

A major benefit of storing on Shutterfly is their account policy: they claim that they never delete photos, even if there is no activity on the account.

Shutterfly Collections is Shutterfly’s new service that provides personal homepages for free members. Previously, only those with paid professional membership had this feature. Collections can be password protected. Not the easiest to use, but it is new and Shutterfly is constantly improving itself. Guests can leave comments and order prints and gifts.

[#Membership#]

Personal accounts are free and give unlimited storage and sharing, and desktop software for editing and organizing. Upgrade to a pro account and you get only a limited amount of storage, but a personal URL for your galleries and the ability to set your own print prices so you can make the profit you desire, your logo and/or back-printing on customers’ orders, performance reports, automatic bank deposits and full customer support.

Galleries can be linked to an existing site or you can create a new one. Pro account pricing starts at $99.99 for one (1) GB of storage to $199.99 for 10 GB of storage.

[#Drawbacks#]

• Desktop application does not show what is uploaded already. You have to log into your site to see this which makes organization a little difficult.

• No image hosting

[#Uploading#]

Uploading is fast and can be done in large batches. They recommend uploading files under 10 MB each, but there is no enforced limit.

Upload Speed*


Very Fast
Fast
Average
Slow

*Under upload speed, modem is a T1 modem.

[#Storage#]

This is one of the few photo sites that you want to stay on, bringing calm and relaxation rather than frustration. Organization is easy and options for sorting, moving and naming photos and albums are always present.

[#Products#]

Shutterfly uses heavy card stock for greeting cards and photo books and archive-quality paper for prints. Their products are elegant and classy and they have received recognition for their high quality. A few unique gifts are the children’s story books and recipe books that use your photos, hardcover photo books, canvas paintings and their hardcover publication The Shutterfly Guide to Great Photos. With a Pro account, Shutterfly keeps 15% commission on all orders from your customers, but they handle everything from shipping and billing to customer service. Plus, they give you monthly reports and automatic deposits to your bank account.

[#Prints#]

VividPics is an enhancement service that automatically adjusts print development aspects to their optimum levels. Excellent quality prints as long as they are in the appropriate resolution. Unlike many sites, Shutterfly lets you add captions and borders in tons of styles and colors to your prints. The creation of these items is very simple. Save 20% – 30% by purchasing print packages.

[#Sharing#]

Sharing is done by invite only. A link is sent via email to the guest from which he/she can view the photos and order prints and gifts. Pro users can invite their customers to view their site.
Shutterfly has just released the option for personal URLs for private members’ as well.

[#Privacy#]

Personal accounts are password-protected. When sharing photos, only the photo or album you wish to share is shown to your guest. Pro accounts get added security for illegal copying with watermarked images in your galleries and gallery-specific password protection.

[#SiteNavigation#]

The overall online experience of Shutterfly is relaxed and pleasant. Pastel colors and bubbly graphics add to the fun, friendly atmosphere. Clear buttons and menus make navigation simple and the desktop software is fairly easy to use. The functions you need for storing, sharing, ordering, uploading, etc. are available when you need them and hidden when you do not.