Photokive vs. iMemories: Which Photo Digitizing Service is Best for Your Family?
- Rodnesha Green
- Aug 2
- 12 min read
Digitizing old family photos has become essential for preserving memories and sharing them with future generations. Many people are looking for the right solution to restore old photos, but not everyone is interested in scanning old photos themselves. Photokive and iMemories are two popular box options, but which offers the better photo digitizing service for your needs?
In this Photokive vs. iMemories comparison, we’ll introduce each brand and examine their competitive features. We'll cover ease of use, album handling, digital storage, add-ons and pricing for each.. By the end, you’ll learn how these respective service work and which offers the optimal solution for how to digitize photos. Let’s dive in!
Exploring iMemories: A Tried-And-True Photo Digitizing Service
Founded in 2004, iMemories is an established digitization company that has served over one million customers. They're an all-in-one service that can accommodate multiple media types including VHS tapes, film reels, slides, photos and more. If you're seeking a service that can handle mixed media, this is a great option. However, for this comparison we'll be looking specifically at how they manage digitizing photos and albums.
iMemories provides a SafeShip Kit and return label to pack your originals for shipment. Upon receipt, technicians scan each picture at high resolution and even offer optional AI enhancement to improve image quality. This is enhancement is for a small fee per item, but it means your faded prints can potentially look better than the originals. Every order includes free downloads of the scanned images from a secure site and is free to access for 30 days.
Key Features of iMemories’ Photo Digitization:
SafeShip Kit for Easy Shipping: Each order includes a crush-proof box and packing materials to protect your prints and albums. iMemories aims to make the process simple, stating there's “No sorting or labeling necessary!” iMemories will barcode and track each item as it moves through the digitization process.
High-Resolution Scanning: Photos are scanned at a resolution of 300 DPI or higher for good clarity and optional print enlargement. For an add-on fee, A.I. enhancements can be applied to scans, improving sharpness and color.
Accepts Photo Albums: If your pictures are still mounted in albums, iMemories can digitize them. But, their process involves removing each photo from the album to scan it individually. Their team will carefully take out the photos, scan them, and then return each print to its original place. However, iMemories does advise customers to remove photos from albums themselves before sending, for optimal quality and faster processing.
Multiple Viewing & Storage Options: Along with your free digital download, you can opt to add a USB drive or DVDs for an extra fee. Through the iMemories Cloud app, your photos can be viewed, streamed, and shared to any corresponding app-based device. Cloud storage is secure and unlimited, but only free for a limited time. Continued hosting of your files requires a subscription (currently $7.99/month or $49.99/year).
Fast Turnaround: iMemories prides itself on quick service often completing photo digitization orders in just a few weeks. In many cases, customers start seeing images in their account within 1–2 weeks of iMemories receiving their box. This is significantly faster than some competitors. Keep in mind that if you ship a very large order it could take a bit longer, so be advised.
A Few Considerations to Note with iMemories
While iMemories offers convenience and a solid track record, there are some potential drawbacks, in regard to digitizing photos and albums:
Album Disassembly Required: As mentioned, iMemories does not have specialized “album scanning” methods that keep your books intact. For older albums with sticky pages or fragile paper, peeling out photos can be tedious and risky. We'll later see how Photokive's album-focused approach forfeits the need for photo removal.
Pricey Per-Image for Large Volume: iMemories’ pricing structure for photos is regularly $0.99 per photo regardless of quantity. They often run 50% off promotions (bringing it to $0.49 each), even still this can become pricey if you have thousands of pictures. Users with very large photo archives might find iMemories' price per photo a bit costly.
Cloud Subscription for Ongoing Access: iMemories gives you 30 days of free cloud access to your digitized files. After that you must subscribe for continued storage and streaming (about $5.99–$7.99 per month). While convenient, this is an ongoing cost that you’ll need to consider if you want your files permanently hosted online.
Generalist vs. Specialist Service: Because the iMemories workflow is standardized to handle various types of media together, there's less personalization for photo-specific needs. If you send multiple albums, you’ll likely get a large batch of image files in return. At best, they'll be grouped by the order they were scanned. Users looking for a more curated or album-oriented digital output might find this aspect lacking.
iMemories Pricing for Photo Digitization
Having been in business for two decades, iMemories has garnered lots of customer feedback. iMemories reviews are somewhat mixed, but they provide useful insight into the service’s strengths and weaknesses.
Photographs - $0.99 per scanned image They frequently offer a 50% discount, which lowers the cost to $0.49 per photo.
SafeShip Kit - $29.99 However, iMemories often provides the kit for free when running certain promotions (you just pay the inbound shipping rate).
Extended Cloud Storage - $7.99 per month or $49.99 per year Unlimited storage/streaming of your digitized photos beyond the initial 30 days free.
Add-On Physical Media 8GB USB drive starts at $39.99 (on sale for $19.99) DVDs start at $19.99 per disc (on sale for $9.99). Costs are determined by photo count (e.g. a DVD holds roughly 500 images).
What Customers Have to Say (iMemories Reviews)
Having been in business for two decades, iMemories has accumulated a lot of customer feedback. Reviews are somewhat mixed, but they provide useful insight into the service’s strengths and weaknesses.
"When I received the final product, I was amazed at the quality... the photos appeared as if they were taken yesterday."
On the positive side, many customers report being happy with the quality and speed of iMemories’ service. Numerous reviewers praise the quick turnaround and the joy of seeing old memories in digital form. Others have highlighted that even with large orders, the process felt “professional and timely”.
For photo scanning specifically, customers often express relief at having decades-old pictures preserved and accessible on modern devices. Being able to easily share a whole album’s worth of photos via the cloud is a feature many found worthwhile. It's been especially enjoyable for tech-savvy families who like to display family slideshows on their Smart TVs and tablets.
Some iMemories reviews denote a few pain points. The most frequent complaints involve cost and the cloud access. A number of customers felt caught off guard that after paying for digitization, they had to pay extra to continue accessing their files via the app. Another customer who spent over $500 on a large conversion order lamented: “I cannot download and save my content myself… I am unable to access it any longer unless I pay [monthly or annually].” These reviews indicate that iMemories might not have made clear that image downloads are available free the first 30 days..
For photo-only projects, paying per photo can add up, and some users felt the value didn’t scale for bigger orders. Additionally, when the SafeShip kit isn’t free, people have grumbled about the ~$30 shipping charge, especially if their order was small.
For many, iMemories does “get the job done” when it comes to digitizing photos – but is it the best way to preserve your priceless photo albums? To answer that, let’s look at how Photokive takes a different approach.
Photokive - Premium Digitizing for Priceless Family Albums
Photokive is a newer player in the photo digitization space, but it comes with a strong pedigree. It’s operated by The Kive Company, the same family-run business behind Artkive (a well-known service that turns children’s artwork into keepsake books) and Cards by Artkive (which preserves greeting cards). Photokive is their latest offering - a dedicated photo digitizing service for prints, scrapbooks, and albums.
Photokive builds on The Kive Company's years of expertise in safeguarding mementos where they have preserved memories for over 500,000 families since 2012. Unlike iMemories, Photokive consciously focuses solely on photos and albums. This concentration allows them to provide a white-glove service tailored to handling delicate prints and bound albums.
Like most services, Photokive will send out a crush-proof shipping box that includes a protective sleeve, prepaid return label, and an instruction guide. The key difference with Photokive is that there’s no need to remove photos from albums or scrapbooks at all. You can send your entire photo album as-is and their team will digitize each photo without having to remove them from the album. This is possible because Photokive uses a photography-based process.
Their photography team uses high-resolution cameras to capture images directly from the album's pages. If a photo is visually compromised or stuck, their experts will carefully remove it for separate scanning. Once scanned, they will place the photo back in its original location, preserving the integrity of your albums.
Photokive’s team does the meticulous work and keeps you updated throughout the process. Let’s break down some of Photokive’s standout features:
Key Features of Photokive's Photo Digitization:
Consistently High Image Quality: Photokive digitizes each photo using high-resolution equipment that captures images at 300 DPI or higher. Color correction, color balancing, and dust/scratch removal are included at no extra cost, This is part of their standard workflow to ensure your digital images look as good as (or better than) the originals.
No Need to Pull Apart Albums: Photokive’s process was specifically designed so that you do not have to remove photos from your albums - a huge contrast to iMemories and many others. For anyone who has tried to pry pictures out of an old sticky “magnetic” album, this service is a godsend. Photokive’s album-friendly approach truly sets it apart as the best way to digitize photos in albums that you want to keep intact.
Customer Care Concierge: The Photokive Team understands the anxiety many families feel when shipping-off irreplaceable heirlooms. To mitigate this, Photokive will assign clients a dedicated Photokive Concierge who will communicate with you directly. This person checks in with updates at key points and is available to answer any questions regarding your order. This level of interactive support is a stark contrast to the generic status trackers of some larger companies.
Free Extended Cloud Storage: Upon completion, login credentials will be provided to access a private gallery where you can download all images to your personal devices. With Photokive, this includes 90 days of FREE cloud storage with every order (compared to only 30 days with iMemories). This gives families plenty of time to retrieve files and share them with family. Should you want to maintain cloud access beyond 90 days, Photokive offers a paid annual plan for around $18 per year.
Organized Digital Gallery: The Photokive box includes labels to indicate how you want your images organized. You can apply these label to different albums, or sets of loose photos, with descriptive titles like "Gigi and Papa's Wedding”. The Photokive team will then use those labels to create separate folders in your online gallery. For those who like a more organized digital collection, and not just a data dump, this is hugely beneficial.
Optional Photo Book Creation: Because of The Kive Company's roots, Photokive can easily turn your newly digitized images into a museum-quality memory book. Many Photokive customers utilize this feature to create gift books for siblings or other family members. You can add-on this signature 100 page coffee-table book for $99. The ability to create a tangible keepsake directly from the digitization process is a unique bonus Photokive provides.
The Photokive Guarantee: Based on the founders recent experience with the 2025 California wildfires they created a pledge. "If a natural disaster ever destroys your home and your original photo albums, Photokive will reprint all your digitized photos into new photo books at no cost." This guarantee is included with every order, offering immense peace of mind to those in disaster-prone areas. This level of compassionate assurance is a premium that sets Photokive apart in the industry.
A Few Things to Consider with Photokive
No service is perfect or right for everyone, so here are a couple of considerations regarding Photokive:
Photos Focused – No Mixed Media: Photokive specializes in photo and album preservation. While this intentional focus makes Photokive exceptional at archiving images, it is something to consider if you are looking to digitize non-photo media.
Premium Add-Ons Add Up: Photokive’s base price is quite reasonable when compare to its competitors. Even more so for first-time customers who 50% off. But, the premium options do add up. A physical USB backup is $19.99. The custom printed photo books are about $100 each. Extended cloud storage after 90 days is $18/year. While none of these are mandatory, if you wish to take advantage of one or all of them, you'll need to plan your budget accordingly.
The Turnaround Time: Photokive’s meticulous process does take about 6–8 weeks. The turnaround time is a product of Photokive's white-glove handling and album care. While this is faster than many digitizing box services (e.g. LegacyBox's average turnaround being 10-12 weeks), it is slower than the aforementioned iMemories’ timeline. If you have a an urgent need or upcoming event, Photokive might not be the best fit unless you arrange an expedited rush.
Photokive Pricing for Photo Digitization
Photokive offers four packages based on the number of photos that you need digitized (loose prints or in albums) . They are also offering 50% off for first-time customers.
Photokive's 4 Digitizer Packages:
Snapshot (up to 100 photos) – $59 for first-timers (regularly $118.00)
Portfolio (up to 250 photos) – $139.99 for first-timers (regularly $279.98)
Gallery (up to 500 photos) – $259.99 for first-timers (regularly $519.98)
Archive (up to 1,000 photos) – $489.99 for first-timers (regularly $979.98)
Included in each package:
a crush-proof shipping kit
a pre-paid return label
digitization and editing of all photos
a secure online gallery with optional folder organization
90 days of free cloud storage
the return of your original items.
Additional USB storage - $19.99
Extended Cloud service - $18/yr.
If you exceed the photo count in your package, Photokive simply charges a per-photo rate for extra pieces. The regular rate is $1.18 per additional photo, but with the 50% off it comes to $0.59 for each photo beyond the package limit. They will invoice any overage after digitizing your items so you only pay for what was actually scanned.
“A Strong Start!” – Photokive Reviews in Summary
Because Photokive is a newer service, public reviews are still building. However, the company’s reputation is bolstered by many years of positive Artkive reviews. Early feedback from Photokive users closely echoes these sentiments by praising the service's attention to detail, direct customer care, and quality output.
“I sent my albums and Photokive did the rest. With their team guiding me, I never worried my photos were in the wrong hands. The experience felt super professional and deeply personal ."
New Photokive customers have been especially thrilled that they didn’t have to take apart their fragile albums – this is repeatedly mentioned as a huge relief and a deciding factor for choosing Photokive over competitors. People who were anxious about handling old photo books themselves found Photokive’s process “so easy” since they could send albums intact and get them back unchanged
There’s also resounding appreciation for the image quality of the scans. Since Photokive captures images at high resolution with professional oversight, users report that the digital photos look excellent – clear and color-corrected without the inconsistencies or crooked scans some have seen from other automated bulk scanning services.
Additionally, the option to receive a beautifully printed photo book of the digitized images has been a hit! Early users proudly shared photos of the hardcover books they ordered, expressing how wonderful it is to have a “modern keepsake” that sprouted from their old memories.
Photokive vs iMemories: Which Photo Digitizing Service Comes Out on Top?
Both iMemories and Photokive share the same noble goal - to help you digitize your old family photos so that can last forever. Choosing between them depends on your specific needs and priorities, but when it comes to digitizing photos – especially entire albums – there are clear differences in the experience and value each provides.
iMemories is an established, convenient option if you have a variety of media to digitize. They have a long track record, and their process is efficient for mixed media. iMemories might be the better fit if speed is your top priority their turnaround can be as fast as a couple of weeks. However, for those who only want to scan photos and albums, iMemories’ broad approach starts to show some shortcomings.
You’ll be paying per photo, which can become pricey for large collections. You’ll need to deal with albums being unbound and photo extractions, and unless you continue a subscription, you won’t get the prolonged cloud hosting that some might desire. Essentially, iMemories is a great generalist, but not a specialist in handling photo albums with extra care or providing tailored outputs for them.
Photokive, on the other hand, has a clear edge when it comes to preserving photo prints and albums. The entire service is designed to treat your photos like the priceless treasures they are. You get personalized care, from how the items are processed to how the digital files are delivered. Photokive handles it all expertly and safely.
Their album-centric approach means you’re not only preserving the images, but also the story that your album told – with organization of your digital copies reflecting its original grouping and sequence. All the “heavy lifting” is done for you, which provides tremendous value. And if you chose, you could immediately turn those digitized photos into a great photo book gift!
From a cost perspective, the per-photo rate is similar or even lower (with discounts) compared to iMemories, but Photokive’s service is more inclusive with expert handling, professional photography, premium photo enhancements, and concierge support.
In the end, the best service for you is the one that gives you peace of mind and fits your specific needs. Both Photokive and iMemories will ultimately ensure your memories are digitized and safe from loss, which is far better than leaving those old photos to fade or risk disaster.
The final takeaway is this: Taking the step to digitize your old photos is immensely worthwhile, no matter which service you choose. It guarantees that decades from now, your family’s stories – the birthdays, weddings, vacations, and everyday moments captured on film – will still be there, vividly viewable and easily shareable in your digital archives.
And with Photokive’s premium service, you can undertake this project with confidence, knowing your photos are in the best hands.
