When it comes to decorating your home with something meaningful, few options are as affordable and easy as custom wall art made from photo tiles. They make creating your own unique gallery wall a breeze and stick to walls with small adhesive pads without the need for a hammer and nails.
There are countless websites offering photo tiles — we've compared three of the more popular ones: Mixtiles vs. Shutterfly vs. Mixpix.
We ordered the same three photos from each service:
Price: Of the three sites, Mixtiles' cost lands squarely in the middle. Each 8-by-8-inch tile is $11. Mixtiles offers discounts for "bundles." Our total was $33.
Ordering process: Ordering from Mixtiles is straightforward and intuitive. There are import options from Facebook, Instagram, and Google Drive, but if you don't want to share your socials, you can just upload photos.
There are no filter or edit tools on Mixtiles other than resizing and cropping. Users need to make sure they like their photos exactly as they are before uploading.
Framing options: There are five different options:
Classic— Black frame, white mat
Bold — Black frame only
Ever — White frame, white mat (the style we ordered)
Clean — White frame only
Edge — No frame
Each tile comes with adhesive pre-installed.
Shipping: Shipping is free (including worldwide shipping) and the company promises your items will arrive within a week. Ours arrived in five days.
Packaging: Mixtiles' packaging beat the competitors. The box was just big enough to hold its contents (yay for no wasteful packaging!) and was sturdy and well-sealed.
Product quality: Mixtiles and Shutterfly nearly tied for us here. We give the slight edge to Shutterfly. But, given the price of the two services, we still think Mixtiles is a better bang for your buck.
Variety of products offered: Mixtiles offers just 8-by-8-inch tiles, but five framing options. The company also has a Mixtiles Art Collection offering work "by the best artists in the world."
What we love:
The adhesive can be restuck "a few dozen times."
If the prints won't stick on your walls, you can get a refund.
What we don't love:
You're required to provide an email to order anything.
You will get a lot of spam.
Our verdict: Spamming our inbox aside, we were impressed with Mixtiles and think it offers the best value for what you pay. Free, quick shipping is a nice perk, the price is reasonable, and the different framing styles give you some control over how the finished product looks. Completely satisfied.
Price: Shutterfly is the most expensive option. When we placed our order, each 8-by-8 inch tile was $12.99 — anything bigger and the price goes up. Our total was $55.62 (tax and shipping included) — more than $20 what we paid at Mixtiles.
Ordering process: Each photo had to be uploaded separately, and the process was more cumbersome and confusing than the other services. So much so that it wasn't until our shipment arrived that we realized we'd ordered two framed tiles and one tile as a metal print.
You can upload photos directly, but there are also options for a Shutterfly account, Lifetouch, Art Library, Google Photos, Facebook, and Instagram. Once chosen, Shutterfly offers ways to crop, rotate, add text, and apply filters to photos.
Framing options: Shutterfly offers three framing options:
A metal tile — the print will cover the entirety of the tile
Framed — no mat, the frame is about 1/2-inch thick, and comes in black, white, and brown
Canvas — includes a satin finish and wrapped edge
Shutterfly's frames come with adhesive backing pre-installed.
Shipping: Shutterfly was the fastest when it came to shipping, with our order arriving within three to four days. However, given that we paid nearly $16 for shipping and Mixtiles offers free shipping, there's really not much of a value-add.
Packaging: The Shutterfly boxes were sturdy and well-packed to avoid product damage. Our only complaint is that the boxes are too big for the product. We would also have loved to receive our shipment in one box rather than two to avoid waste.
Product quality: We found Shutterfly's photo quality to be slightly better than Mixtiles. The photos looked closer to what we uploaded and seemed to take into account qualities like skin tone, contrast, and other features better.
Variety of products offered: This is where Shutterfly outshines its competitors. Whereas Mixtiles and Mixpix offer one tile size, Shutterfly offers seven. As previously mentioned, it also offers photos printed on metal and lots of different ways to print and frame tiles. You can also order via the Art Library integration, which includes categories like nature photography, abstract art, animals, and more.
What we love:
More sizing/styling options.
What we don't love:
No free shipping.
A complicated ordering process.
Our verdict: If you don't want a matchy-matchy gallery wall, Shutterfly is the way to go.
Price: Each tile cost $5.33 but there are features you're losing for that price. Our total was $23.89 (including shipping and tax).
Ordering process: While there are no options to connect social media accounts, uploading photos to Mixpix is easy and offers the ability to size, crop, etc.
Framing options: None — each tile is printed on 1/4-inch "lightfoam material" and hung using magnets.
Shipping: For orders of 12 tiles or fewer, shipping is $7.90. It's free on orders of 12 or more tiles. Of the three orders, Mixpix arrived last, taking seven days.
Packaging: Mixpix's box was crunched and half-open. The tiles were wrapped in a layer of padded plastic sheeting and taped inside an oversized box.
Product quality: While the Mixpix photo quality wasn't horrible, the tiles were much darker than the others, with more magenta.
Variety of products offered: Nothing but 8-by-8-inch photo tiles here, and you must use your own image files.
What we love:
The tiles are made in the U.S.
No post-order spamming of our email inbox.
What we don't love:
The Magnofix hanging system is complicated. Why not just add an adhesive strip?
Our verdict: If your budget is limited, Mixpix is your best choice.
Photo credit: Cheapism
Photo credit: Cheapism
Photo credit: Cheapism
Photo credit: Cheapism
Photo credit: Cheapism
Photo credit: Cheapism
