Little Artists, Big Decisions: Artkive vs. Mixbook
- May 5, 2025
- 8 min read
Your kid hands you a watercolor, still a little wet, and it's genuinely one of the best things you've ever seen. You put it on the fridge. You mean to do something with it. A month later, there are fourteen more.
If you've been thinking about turning your child's artwork into a memory book, you've probably come across two names: Artkive and Mixbook.
Both let you transform kids' art into a keepsake book. But the experience is very different. The Artkive Box is a done-for-you service with a professional photography team handling everything. Mixbook is a DIY platform where you design the book yourself.
This guide covers pricing, features, and real parent reviews for both — so you can choose what actually fits your life.
Exploring Mixbook: A Fully Customizable Art Book Experience
If you love full creative control, Mixbook is worth a look. It's a DIY photo book platform where you upload photos of your child's artwork, arrange the pages, and design the whole book yourself.
No kit required. Scan or photograph the artwork at home, then use Mixbook's editor to build the book at your own pace. It's a hands-on option for parents who enjoy the design process and want to keep costs down.
What Mixbook Does Well
A beginner-friendly editor. Mixbook features auto-layout, drag-and-drop tools, and switchable themes. If you're comfortable using a basic app or social media, you can handle it.
Quick turnaround. Because you're doing the prep work, printing and shipping is the only wait. Submit your design, and the book typically arrives within one to two weeks. That's great for last-minute gifts.
A range of formats and products. Mixbook offers softcover, hardcover, and lay-flat books in several sizes. You can also use the same files to make cards, single prints, or calendars.
Digital backups included. Uploaded photos are stored in the Mixbook app, so you can reorder or keep editing later. The company calls it "tons of safe storage," though a specific limit isn't published.
Full creative customization. Arrange multiple drawings per page, add captions, mix in family photos, choose themes, and add stickers or text. Pre-designed templates for kids' artwork are available, along with an auto-create option that lays out your photos for you. This makes Mixbook one of the more flexible options for personalized books for kids.
Potential Drawbacks of Mixbook
It takes real time. Scanning and photographing artwork is more involved than it sounds. Flattening curled papers, finding good lighting, editing photos — it adds up. Designing the layout also takes time, especially with a large collection. Mixbook is easy, but it isn't effortless.
At-home photography has limits. Without professional equipment, quality varies. Poor lighting or a camera that doesn't capture texture well can leave the printed book looking flat compared to the originals.
It isn't built specifically for kids' art. Mixbook is a general photo book platform. You won't find age labels, grade sorting, or prompts to add context to each piece. You're the curator, the designer, and the storyteller.
The originals stay with you. Once you photograph everything, you still have the physical artwork to deal with. There's no service option to take it off your hands.
Occasional tech friction. Some users report slow uploads, lag with large photo batches, and minor formatting adjustments when switching templates mid-project. Generally manageable, but worth knowing before you start uploading a year's worth of drawings.
Mixbook Pricing
A 20-page 8.5x8.5-inch softcover starts at $19.99. The same size in hardcover runs about $24.99. Larger formats (10x10 or 11x8.5 inches) and premium lay-flat books start at $59.99 and up. Additional pages are about $0.99 each after the first 20.
What Parents Say About Mixbook
Parents who've used Mixbook for a kids' art book generally enjoy the process. Most highlight the intuitive tools and quality of the final print. The auto-save feature is a plus — you can work in short sessions over days or weeks. Color reproduction gets frequent praise.
On the other side, some users report occasional website crashes with large photo batches, minor color differences between screen and print, and slight cropping inconsistencies. These aren't unique to Mixbook — they're common to most print-on-demand platforms.
The bottom line: if you put in the effort, Mixbook delivers. The quality of the children's art book reflects the care you put into it.
Inside the Artkive Box: A Done-for-You Kids' Memory Book
If a polished memory book is the goal, but designing one yourself isn't in the cards, the Artkive Box is built for you.
Here's how it works. Order the box, and it arrives prepaid and ready to fill. Pack in your child's artwork — drawings, paintings, 3D pieces, report cards, medals, whatever matters — and ship it back. A team of professional photographers and editors takes over from there. They photograph each piece of artwork individually, build a clean hardcover layout, and send you a digital proof to review before anything prints.
You can rearrange pages and add captions in the proof. After that, the work is done.
What the Artkive Box Offers
Hands-off from start to finish. You pack the box and send it. The team handles professional photography, editing, and layout. The finished book uses a clean white background so your child's artwork takes center stage. Colored backgrounds are available for an additional fee if you prefer a more styled look.
Professional photography — the difference is visible. Glitter, 3D sculptures, metallic ribbons, rough-edged collages — professional equipment captures what a phone camera misses. Every piece of artwork comes through clearly and color-accurately. Texture, dimension, shine: it's all there.
Your originals, handled with care. Sending the artwork in makes it easier to let go of physical pieces you've been holding onto. Everything is preserved in high resolution, so the memories stay even when the paper doesn't.
An online gallery included. Every order includes 90-days of free access to a digital gallery of your images. You can download files, share them, and reorder books from it. Long-term storage is available as a paid add-on.
More than books. The Artkive Box isn't just for hardcover books. Framed Mosaics are available in two sizes: 14x14 inches (9 pieces) and 26x26 inches (25 pieces). They turn your child's work into something that actually hangs on a wall.
Built for kids, specifically. The service labels artwork by age and grade, so the book shows your child's growth the way parents actually experience it. It's one of the details a purpose-built children's art book service handles that a general photo book platform doesn't. Here's how one parent described it after years of using the service:
"My kids absolutely love their book! We started Artkive when they were very young and have been doing it every year since. They both love going through the old books every year and seeing how much they've progressed. I really love Artkive's 'Be your child's first publisher' concept. It makes them feel really adult and special." — Dora Kotwal
If you also want to preserve family photos with the same done-for-you ease, Photokive offers a similar white-glove service built specifically for photo collections.
How the Artkive Box Differs
Higher Investment. It's a premium service. What you're paying for is professional photography, expert editing, and a team that handles every step. For parents who've been meaning to do this for years, the done-for-you model is often what actually gets it done.
Processing takes time. Average turnaround is 6 to 9 weeks from when you order to when your book arrives. If you need something quickly, Mixbook is the better fit.
Artkive Box Pricing
Books start at $75 for a 25-piece 11x8.5-inch hardcover (roughly $3 per piece of artwork). Additional pieces run $2 to $3 each, with the per-piece cost decreasing after 50. Three months of digital gallery access is included with every order.
What Parents Say About the Artkive Box
Parents consistently highlight two things in Artkive reviews: the quality of the finished book, and the relief of finally having it done. Most describe the process as simpler than they expected. Here's one parent who's ordered multiple times:
"I had such a wonderful experience creating my second Artkive Book. The process was incredibly simple and well thought out. What I love most is the final product. The book is beautifully done and truly feels like a memory capsule of special school moments, art, and classwork. The entire experience was seamless, and the finished book is something to be treasured." — Lisa Burnett
The most common criticism is price and processing time. Both come up in nearly every honest review. And most parents say the finished book made both worth it.
DIY or Done-for-You: Which Is Right for Your Family?
Both Mixbook and the Artkive Box produce something worth having. The question is how you want to get there.
Mixbook is the right call if you enjoy the design process, want a fast turnaround, and are comfortable putting in the time to photograph and arrange everything yourself. The price is lower, and the creative control is real.
The Artkive Box is the right call if you want professional results without the legwork, or if this project has been sitting on your to-do list for a while. The higher price reflects what you're not doing: photographing, editing, formatting, and designing.
If you're also weighing other done-for-you services, our comparison of Artkive vs. Plum Print covers how those two stack up. Whatever you choose, the artwork gets preserved. That's the part that matters.
And if you're a parent who saves everything — birthday cards, holiday notes, little letters from your kids — Cardkive does for greeting cards what Artkive does for artwork. Same done-for-you approach, built for a different kind of keepsake."
Ready to turn your child’s artwork into a kid’s art book with professional polish?!
Frequently Asked Questions: Artkive vs. Mixbook
What is the Artkive Box and how does it work?
Order the Artkive Box online, and it arrives prepaid and ready to fill. Pack in your child's artwork and ship it back. A team of professional photographers and editors takes over from there — they photograph each piece, build a hardcover layout, and send you a digital proof to review before anything prints.
How long does the Artkive Box take?
Average processing time is 6 to 9 weeks from when you order to when your book arrives. If you need something sooner, Mixbook is the faster option. Books typically arrive within one to two weeks of submitting your design.
Does Artkive return the original artwork?
By default, Artkive recycles originals after photographing them. If you want your artwork returned, you can request it for an additional fee. Most parents find that having a high-resolution digital gallery and a printed book makes it easier to let the physical pieces go.
Is Artkive more expensive than Mixbook?
Yes. Artkive starts at $75 for a 25-piece hardcover book. Mixbook softcovers start at $19.99. The price difference reflects what Artkive provides: professional photography, expert editing, and a fully managed process. Mixbook's lower price comes with the trade-off of doing all the photography and design work yourself.
Can Mixbook be used for kids' artwork specifically?
Yes. Mixbook offers templates designed for art books, and the editor lets you caption pieces, mix in photos of your child, and arrange layouts that suit artwork well. The main limitation is that Mixbook isn't purpose-built for kids' art. You won't get age and grade labeling, and you'll need to handle your own photography.
What's the difference between a memory book and a photo book?
A photo book is built around photographs. A memory book — like the ones Artkive creates — is built around your child's story. It combines artwork, school projects, mementos, and milestones in a curated layout that shows growth over time. The result feels more like a published keepsake than a standard photo album.
