Nearly everything is easily accessible through your phone — especially photos. So, there’s a certain charm to having a physical keepsake of your favorite moments. One of my favorite ways to commemorate special memories is by creating a photo book; I’ve made ones filled with pictures of my wedding, honeymoon, graduation and even my dog in her puppy days. Plus, it’s a great way to share those memories with your loved ones and take a step back in time.
If you’re looking to get started on your own photo book (or planning on gifting one for the holidays), NBC Select staffers put nearly a dozen online services to the test to narrow down which ones are the best to use — whether that means they’re the easiest to put together, the most customizable or, simply, the ones that turn out the most visually appealing.
How we tested the best photo books
Eight NBC Select staffers tested nearly a dozen photo book services, keeping each of the following factors in mind during the testing process:
- Process: Each tester considered the overall process while making their photo book. We noted whether it was simple (for example, photos were easy to select and automatically formatted photos you chose), or more challenging (like having a hard time changing fonts and adding photos to each page). Although many photo book services had their own individual challenges, having a less intuitive process did not automatically penalize a service (especially if the final product was worth it).
- Personalizations: Some services may allow you to add text or stickers to certain pages. We considered how easily they could personalize their books and the different personalization options available.
- Shipping time: How long a book took to arrive was a big factor we considered during our testing period. We kept in mind the length and complexity of our photo books (for example, a 50-page book may take more time to arrive than one with 20 pages), any selected customizations (like text and designs on each page) and the material of the pages and cover (including standard pages versus layflat, meaning the seam does not interfere with the image).
- Image quality: Once we received our respective photo books, one of the most important aspects we noted was how the printed images looked. Were they vibrant and clear, or slightly blurry?
- Paper quality: Most photo books let you choose the paper finish, and many offer semi-gloss (which has a sheen), matte or lustre (has less glare and some texture). We considered whether the paper felt strong and durable, or if they would easily rip or fade.
- Cover quality: When inspecting the cover, we kept in mind the following: Is the cover thick and durable, or does it feel flimsy and cheap? Is the book’s binding flexible and can it adequately hold the pages together without tearing?
- Final product: We answered a few general questions when we received our books: Was it exactly what we ordered? Are there any printing mistakes (even minor ones) in the final product?
- Price: Photo books can get very expensive, very quickly. We kept in mind how much each one cost and whether it was a good value for what we got. We also considered the price of adding more pages, personalizations or additional text, as well as the price of more upgraded features (like a leather cover or thicker paper with a sheen).
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Best photo books of 2025
Best overall
Artifact Uprising is a favorite among our NBC Select staffers, and not just for photo books — we’ve used the site to make scrapbooks, photo prints, holiday cards and even ornaments. I used Artifact Uprising’s Modern Signature Layflat to create my wedding album, and I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of stress I felt when creating it; I get easily overwhelmed when it comes to organizing photos (especially when there’s 500+ like there was for my wedding), so I appreciated how straightforward the process was. I chose the Modern Signature Layflat album, which provided me with multiple photo formats and several ways to upload my pictures, including from my Google Photos or my smartphone.
The books are on the minimalist side, so they look elegant, clean and chic (however, if you prefer text and graphics within the pages, this service might not be for you). You can choose from several cover colors, cover designs, foil colors, end sheet colors and more. NBC Select reporter Zoe Malin likes that there’s a bunch of themes to choose from (like wedding, travel and family) that’ll customize the cover, plus there’s options to create different types of photo books, like a coffee table book, a scrapbook album and a board book (Malin opted for the Everyday Photo Book to keep it simple). She also loves the option for white-space borders around the photos, which made the pages look more elegant, she says.
One of the things that made the process so easy was that you had the option to scan a QR code with your phone, which takes you to a portal to upload all the photos you want for your album,” says Malin. “They almost immediately show up in your account on your computer — no airdropping, emailing or texting yourself things, or making folders on your computer.”
Keep in mind the more pages you add, the pricier it gets (and this service is on the more expensive side compared to others on this list). Each page has a $4-$8 additional charge, depending on the size of your book. So, if you’re like me and using it to organize your hundreds of wedding photos, you may end up having to shell out a few hundred dollars.
You can manually input your photos to each page while choosing from several layouts or you can have the site automatically add photos to each page in chronological order. There’s also an option to work with an expert designer on the Artifact Uprising team that’ll build your photo book for you (though there’s a $99 design fee, plus a $100 deposit).
Best paper quality
Mixbook’s standout features are the paper quality and layout options, according to NBC Select editorial projects manager Rebecca Rodriguez. “When I received my honeymoon photo book, I was so happy with how it turned out. I was worried that the image quality would look worse in the physical book, but they came out clear and just like the preview,” she says. “When I showed the book to my husband, he thought he was skipping pages of the book because they felt so thick. This makes me feel like I can flip through it over and over again without worrying that I’m gonna rip them,” she says.
Mixbook offers several layout recommendations, which Rodriguez says were easy to select and made creating the book a lot less overwhelming (though they are more on the minimalist side). You can upload photos from your computer, social media accounts, online photo accounts (like Google Photos) and your smartphone.
Most customizable
Shutterfly is a great option if you want a photo book with lots of customizations: You can add text, stickers, colors and more to your pages. NBC Select associate SEO reporter Ashley Morris says she easily personalized texts and added a few graphics to several pages. It’s also one of the quickest services we tested: “I got the book designed, printed and in my hands within a week,” says Morris. “After submitting my photos and a few design preferences (for example, the material for the pages and cover, and design embellishments), I got an email within 24 hours that had a link to a mock-up of my photo book. After making a few small changes, I approved the design and it was off to print.”
You can upload photos from your computer or your smartphone, which was a huge plus for our testers. “I was nervous because I started the process on my computer but had all the photos on my phone, and I didn’t want to go through the headache of downloading all my pictures onto my computer. I was super excited when it gave me the option to scan a QR code to choose photos from my phone’s library,” says NBC Select associate social media editor Caitlin Cusack.
For all of our testers, everything turned exactly as it looked in the mock-up, and none of the pictures looked too pixellated or blurry. “Everytime I flip through it I get a little emotional, because it’s the first time I’ve seen printed photos of myself, my mom and my grandma in my adult years — she passed away a few years ago and this photo book is an incredible way to preserve her memory,” says Morris.
Most time-saving
“I tend to get decision paralysis while making photobooks — deciding which pictures, backgrounds, stickers and captions to put on each page overwhelms me and I always second-guess my design choices. Printique’s Easy Books are extremely simple,” says Malin. You’ll have to decide the book’s size, cover style and page layout, plus what photos you want to include. “I uploaded my photos and Printique automatically placed them on different pages, but I could rearrange them, zoom in or out and change their orientation if I wanted to,” says Malin, who says it gave her just enough personalization to make the book look how she wanted, but not so much that she was obsessing over tiny details.
The quality of Printique’s images and the elegant look of the classic hard cover book is what sold NBC Select editorial operations associate Jem Alabi. “The book looks like a professional coffee table book — it’s giving Sofia Coppola Archive,” she says. You can upload all of the pictures you want, and the site will automatically format them for you, which you can then edit. “I had about 120 photographs and the site did a good job with matching the vibes and dates. Ultimately, I had a story I wanted to tell visually, so I opted to place each picture manually,” says Alabi.
However, if you choose to showcase only one picture on a page, it takes up an entire spread without a border around it, which may be a downside for some. “I don’t love that look, and it only really works with specific horizontal photos,” says Malin. “To get the white space around your photos, you had to put multiple pictures on a page, which I didn’t always want to do. So I’d like a little more flexibility here.”
Best value
If you want a basic photo book that won’t break the bank, Vistaprint is one of the best and most straightforward options available. “It was very easy to use as it had a Smart Assistant process that asked for 25 or so pictures and it did the rest — Vistaprint didn’t care if it was horizontal or vertical, it simply adjusted to fit the book you wanted to make,” says NBC Select video producer Josh Rios. It has some customizable features, including background colors, over a dozen layout options, frames and even stickers. The book itself is relatively sturdy (though not as durable as the other options on this list) with very high quality paper, he says.
Best cover options
We love Papier’s cards, stationery, notebooks and planners, but this was our first time trying out the brand’s photo books — and we weren’t disappointed. The sheer amount of cover options were enough to satisfy even the pickiest designer; there are dozens of colors, patterns and texts to choose from based on the theme of your book. NBC Select commerce editor Cory Fernandez chose the striped softcover photo book since it fit his travel theme.
“Uploading the photos from my phone was so easy and fast. All I had to do was scan a QR code and my photos were uploaded in a few minutes,” says Fernandez. “It was also easy to reorganize my photos so they were in the order I wanted them in.” The price is also a big plus: “My book was less than $30, which I think is a great value, especially given the quality,” says Fernandez. However, shipping time for Fernandez’s book ended up being well over a week.
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Why trust NBC Select?
I’m an updates editor at NBC Select who has been testing and reviewing products for over five years. For this story, eight NBC Select staffers (including myself) tested nearly a dozen photo book services to narrow down the six best ones to buy. Each tester considered the quality of the pages and images, the process for making the photo book, the price and the shipping time.
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