Shutterfly makes the best photo calendars, with more ways to personalize your design, add important dates, and choose a calendar that fits your space. Artifact Uprising also offers custom photo calendars, but Shutterfly gives you more calendar formats and more control over both the photos and planning details. Here’s how Shutterfly and Artifact Uprising calendars compare.
Shutterfly vs. Artifact Uprising Calendars at a Glance
| Feature | Shutterfly | Artifact Uprising |
|---|---|---|
| Wall calendars | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple wall calendar sizes | Yes | No |
| Desk calendars | Yes | Yes |
| Easel calendars | Yes | Yes |
| Calendar magnets | Yes | No |
| Calendar mouse pads | Yes | No |
| Monthly planners | Yes | No |
| Start any month | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple photo layouts | Yes | Yes |
| Add custom text throughout your design | Yes | Limited |
| Custom backgrounds and stickers | Yes | No |
| Add events to printed calendar dates | Yes | No |
| Add photos to individual calendar dates | Yes | No |
| Save events for future calendars | Yes | No |
| Calendar refill packs | No | Yes |
| Bulk ordering | Yes | Yes |
More Calendar Styles for Every Space

One of the biggest differences between Shutterfly and Artifact Uprising is the number of calendar formats available. Artifact Uprising offers three calendar styles: a modern wall calendar, a wood clipboard-style photo calendar, and a brass easel calendar. Some designs also feature premium materials such as reclaimed wood, brass hardware, and refillable calendar pages.
Shutterfly offers a much larger calendar collection, including wall calendars in multiple sizes, desk calendars, easel calendars, calendar magnets, calendar mouse pads, and monthly planners. That means you’re not limited to a handful of wall and tabletop options. You can choose a format based on where the calendar will be displayed, how it will be used, and the amount of planning space you need throughout the year.
Start Your Calendar Any Month
There is no need to wait until January to make a photo calendar. Both Shutterfly and Artifact Uprising allow you to choose a starting month and create a full year of calendar pages. Artifact Uprising lists this option for its wood clipboard and brass easel calendars.
A flexible start month makes a personalized calendar useful at any point in the year. It can begin with a birthday, anniversary, new school year, move, or other milestone instead of following a standard January-to-December schedule.
Customize More Than Your Photos

Shutterfly gives you far more ways to personalize your full calendar. With more than 100 wall calendar templates, there are designs for different styles, seasons, celebrations, and stories. Each month can have its own look, with flexible layouts that make room for one standout photo, a full-page image, or a collage of favorite moments.
The personalization continues throughout the design. Photos can be cropped, rotated, enhanced, and finished with filters or borders. Custom text boxes, fonts, colors, solid and patterned backgrounds, uploaded backgrounds, stickers, phrases, shapes, and embellishments bring even more personality to every page.
Artifact Uprising’s customization is more limited. Its wall calendar comes in six designs with several photo layouts, and select templates include a designated space for a short caption, list of occasions, or monthly motto. Those details stay within the fields provided by the template, so there is less freedom to change the full look of each page or add text and design elements wherever you want them.
Shutterfly also helps you see how the entire calendar is coming together. You can preview all 12 months at once or review each month individually, while built-in checks flag low-resolution photos, empty photo spaces, and spelling mistakes before the calendar goes to print.
Add Important Dates Before Your Calendar Is Printed

A photo calendar should help with the plans you need to remember, not just give you a place to write them down later. Shutterfly wall calendars let you add birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, appointments, and other events directly to individual dates before printing. Events can also be saved and reused, so recurring dates do not have to be entered again when you create next year’s calendar.
Photos can be added to individual date squares too, turning birthdays and other special occasions into visual reminders. Optional Shutterfly planning stickers provide another way to mark appointments, travel, celebrations, and everyday plans after the calendar arrives.
Artifact Uprising’s customization is much more limited in this area. Its modern wall calendar provides space beneath each date for handwritten notes, along with a designated text field above the calendar grid for monthly highlights or a list of occasions. Photos, birthdays, appointments, and other details cannot be placed directly inside individual date squares before printing.
Shutterfly creates a calendar that arrives with important people, plans, and occasions already built into the year, rather than leaving those personal details to be written in later.
Why Wirecutter Chose Shutterfly
When Wirecutter tested popular photo calendar services, it selected the Shutterfly wall calendar as its top pick, noting that it came out on top by nearly every metric. The review highlighted vivid photo printing, flexible customization, and a calendar design that balances large photo displays with space for everyday planning.
Wirecutter also recognized the range of ways customers can personalize a Shutterfly calendar, from choosing photo layouts and backgrounds to adding text and important dates. Those options help each calendar showcase meaningful photos while remaining useful throughout the year.
Why Shutterfly Makes the Best Photo Calendars

Artifact Uprising creates thoughtfully designed calendars with premium materials, distinctive display hardware, and reusable elements. Shutterfly goes further by giving customers more ways to personalize both the look of a calendar and the dates inside it.
Shutterfly offers more photo calendar formats, multiple wall calendar sizes, deeper design customization, photos on individual dates, saved event lists, optional planning stickers, and built-in project checks. Together, these features make Shutterfly photo calendars as useful for remembering plans as they are for displaying favorite photos.
For a photo calendar that brings together personalization, organization, and a format that fits your space, Shutterfly is the best choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Shutterfly or Artifact Uprising better for photo calendars?
Shutterfly is the better choice for customers who want more calendar formats and more ways to personalize the design and dates. In addition to wall, desk, and easel calendars, Shutterfly offers monthly planners, calendar magnets, and calendar mouse pads. Shutterfly wall calendars also let you add events and photos directly to individual dates, save event lists, and customize layouts, text, backgrounds, and stickers.
Does Shutterfly offer more calendar styles than Artifact Uprising?
Yes. Shutterfly offers wall calendars in multiple sizes, desk calendars, easel calendars, monthly planners, calendar magnets, and calendar mouse pads. Artifact Uprising offers a modern wall calendar, a wood clipboard-style calendar, and a brass easel calendar.
Can Artifact Uprising calendars start on any month?
Artifact Uprising allows customers to select a starting month for its wood clipboard and brass easel calendars. Shutterfly also lets customers begin wall, desk, and easel calendars on the month they choose.
Can I add birthdays and events to an Artifact Uprising calendar?
Artifact Uprising’s modern wall calendar includes editable text options for monthly highlights and space for handwritten notes, but its current product information does not describe adding events to individual date squares before printing. Shutterfly wall calendars let you add birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, appointments, and other events directly to calendar dates and save event lists for future calendars.
Does Artifact Uprising offer calendar refills?
Yes. Artifact Uprising offers refill packs with 12 new monthly sheets for its wood clipboard and brass easel calendars, allowing customers to reuse the original display hardware.
Which photo calendar is best for gifts?
Shutterfly photo calendars are a great choice for personalized gifts because they are available in several formats and can be personalized with photos, text, layouts, and important dates. Wall calendars work well for shared spaces, while desk and easel calendars offer compact options for a workspace, shelf, or side table.
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