Preserving children’s artwork has long been a challenge for parents, especially as piles of papers, paintings, and projects grow over time. Two standout services—Artkive and Plum Print—offer solutions that turn artwork into beautiful keepsake books and products, each with unique features. In this article, we’ll compare these services in terms of ease of use, pricing, product options, and customer satisfaction based on user reviews to help you choose the best fit for your family.
Why Use Artkive?
Artkive is the leader in creating keepsake books and framed prints from children’s artwork. Founded in 2012, Artkive offers a streamlined process, emphasizing ease and high-quality results. Artkive handles everything from start to finish—state-of-the-art photography, high-end image processing, and careful designing of the final product. Artkive reviews from real users highlight the comprehensive service, excellent quality, and customer support.
Key Features
Ease of Use: Artkive’s process is simple. You receive a box to fill with your child’s artwork, which is then sent back to Artkive for processing.
Digital Storage: Because Artkive began as an app, it’s the only one that lets you maintain your children’s art in an online gallery with unlimited storage and kid art specific labeling. You can reorder books you’ve bought in the past and create unique gift books for family members from your stored artwork.
Product Options: Artkive offers both books and framed mosaics. You can select from different sizes and customize your keepsake with age/grade labels and captions using their book builder tool.
Pricing: Pricing starts at $75 for a 25-page 11”x8.5” hardcover book, and the price is per additional art piece.
Artkive Reviews Summary
Artkive reviews often mention the high quality of the final products and how easy the service is to use, particularly for busy parents. The biggest drawbacks some users mention are the price and the wait time, as each book is custom-made and requires several weeks to complete during busy seasons. However, users often feel that the quality and emotional value make it worth the cost.
Why Use Plum Print?
Plum Print focuses on transforming children’s artwork into books, with additional options for products like pillows, canvas prints. Like Artkive, Plum Print offers a convenient, hands-off process where parents send in their child’s artwork. Plum Print reviews from real users highlight the fast process and hand-designed layouts.
Key Features
Ease of Use: Similar to Artkive, you receive a shipping kit from Plum Print and send your child’s artwork for them to process and digitize.
Product Options: Plum Print’s unique offering lies in the variety of products available. In addition to books, they offer custom pillows, prints, and even framed art.
Pricing: Plum Print’s pricing starts at around $188 for a 25-page 10”x8” hardcover book, and additional products like pillows or prints are priced individually. Note that this includes a $49.99 initial deposit, while Artkive’s $39 box is not included in the $75 Artkive book price.
Customization: While Plum Print does not allow you to make changes to your book proof yourself like Artkive, with Plum Print you can request 4 minor changes or pay $20 for each 5-10 changes you want to make.
Plum Print Reviews Summary
Plum Print reviews frequently praise the range of products and customization options. Users enjoy the variety and the uniqueness of items like pillows, which can be a nice addition to a book. However, some reviews mention occasional inconsistencies in quality, especially for larger orders or less traditional products. Overall, customers are pleased with the experience but recommend checking out samples or smaller orders first if you’re new to the service.
Conclusion for Plum Print vs. Artkive
Each service has its strengths depending on your family’s needs. Artkive is ideal for parents looking for a top-quality, hands-off experience and beautiful, lasting products at a reasonable price. Plum Print is a little faster than Artkive and offers a bit more product types, perfect for those interested in unique keepsakes beyond books.
Considering that Plum Print is much more expensive than Artkive, savvy customers might use their savings to pay for rush processing if timing is a concern and create other keepsakes from their digitized gallery using other online services.