Shutterfly vs Mixbook vs Chatbooks: which one fits you

• Shutterfly — photo books with AI Auto-Fill for layouts, Magic Writer caption suggestions and a free human Designer Service, plus cards, calendars and many photo gifts.

• Mixbook — design depth (templates, typography, papers and finishes) and, since June 2026, Story Mode: an AI that drafts a whole book from your photos and a short description. It also sells cards, calendars and home decor.

• Chatbooks — subscription books. You add photos as you go, and each book can print automatically once it is full.

Shutterfly. Auto-Fill arranges your uploaded photos into layouts across the book, up to 111 pages, and you choose whether it uses all, most or your best photos. Magic Writer suggests captions. Shutterfly’s guides suggest removing duplicates and blurry photos yourself before you start.

Mixbook. Story Mode works from your photos plus a description of the occasion. Mixbook says it filters duplicates and near-identical shots, puts the strongest moments first, orders the photos into a story, and builds a designed draft with suggested captions.

Chatbooks. Its website and help center describe no AI feature. You choose the photos and add any captions yourself.

Shutterfly offers a free Designer Service: you upload your photos and notes, and a designer builds the book within 24 hours for you to review, edit or order as it is.

If you would rather not design anything yourself and do not want an AI draft either, that is the option to look at first.

This is where Chatbooks is different. In a Monthbook subscription you add photos from your camera roll, Google Photos or a Chatbooks GroupChat. With Autoship turned on, each book goes to print by itself 7 days after it reaches 30 pages.

Baby’s First Year is a separate subscription that covers a baby’s first 12 months, and Chatbooks titles those books automatically.

One change to know about: Instagram is no longer an automatic photo source for Chatbooks Series subscriptions, because Meta discontinued the API it relied on.

Chatbooks Classic Books come in 6x6", 8x8" and 10x10" (10x10" is hardcover only) and go up to 366 pages. Monthbooks come in 5x7", 6x6" and 8x8", in softcover or hardcover. There is also a 10x10" Luxury Layflat hardcover.

Shutterfly’s Auto-Fill builds books of up to 111 pages. For the current sizes and page limits of Shutterfly and Mixbook books, check their own size guides.

• You want cards and gifts in the same order, or a person to design the book: Shutterfly.

• Design quality, paper and finishes matter most, or you want an AI draft from a short description: Mixbook.

• You want books to keep arriving with little effort, for example for the kids or a baby’s first year: Chatbooks.

Sustain is for one specific album built from a large, unsorted library. You upload everything, and the AI scores every photo, removes near-duplicates, groups photos by face and scene, designs the pages, and writes chapter titles and captions. It makes photo albums and books only, and it has no human design service.

How Sustain compares with each of them →