Appeal & Flexibility:  

Shutterfly is designed to work for the casual photographer and the professional.

The free account lets casual users do most of the things that are common in any image hosting service. Unfortunately, Shutterfly has very basic editing options and very few ways to personalize your images, unlike image hosting sites such as Piczo or SeeHere.

The paid Pro Gallery account, on the other hand, lets those who want to sell their images create a professional gallery, set prices and track sales. The site works as a built-in print lab where you can get images at wholesale pricing.

Ease in Uploading:  

Shutterfly’s uploading system may lack any high-tech bells and whistles, but it gets the job done. You simply open the file you want to upload photos from, drag your mouse over the photos you want to select and press the “OK” button. Simple.

One unique uploading feature that Shutterfly has is the ability to hide the uploading window while you work on other albums. There’s no need to wait until your photos upload to do something else. Plus, Shutterfly alerts you when your download is done.

Multimedia Features:  

Shutterfly allows you to upload both video and photos and then turn them into a blog, website, digital scrapbook, slideshow and more. You can email your images to your family and friends using the site’s simple-to-use tools. Unlike Photobucket, though, you are not able to automatically post images to social media sites.

Prints and Additional Product Options:  

Shutterfly has a large print and gift online store. This isn’t surprising, but the special features they offer are.

This image hosting service lets you add personal information to the back of each photo for free when you are ordering your prints. This negates the need to ink in the pertinent information once the prints arrive. You can also add a personalized note if you are sending the prints as a gift.

Ease of Use:  

Shutterfly isn’t as streamlined as other image hosting services such as Picasa. The layout is a bit cluttered, making it hard to find what you need. Once you find the option you want, though, it is very easy to use the site thanks to large buttons and bold instructions.

Help & Support:  

Shutterfly’s help and support section is basic, but adequate. There’s not many ways to get stumped on this site, so its basic customer support contacts and general new customer information should be enough to help any user.

If you need a creative help for your photo book or website, the Shutterfly Gallery shows you examples of other user’s work. You can submit your own projects to inspire others, as well.

Shutterfly is a solid online picture hosting site for those who don’t need a lot of extras, but love fast image hosting. Photobucket, Picasa and Piczo might be a better online image hosting option if you'd like more features.