You’ve got a piece you love and a decision to make: haul it down to the local frame shop, or handle the whole thing online? Both can give you a beautiful custom frame, but they get you there very differently, and the right pick depends on your art, your timeline, and your budget. Here’s an honest look at how local framing and online framing actually compare, so you can choose with confidence.
Cost: What You’ll Pay Each Way
For the same size, materials, and quality, online framing is usually meaningfully less expensive than a local frame shop, though the difference can vary by project. The reason comes down to overhead and buying power. A brick-and-mortar framer carries the cost of a storefront, on-site labor, and lower-volume material purchasing, and those costs land in your quote. An online framer buys frame moulding, matboard, and acrylic at scale and can pass that efficiency along.
Transparency is the other real difference. Online, you build your frame in our 3D Frame Designer and watch the price update with every choice, so you always know what you’re paying for. Local shops typically work up a written quote, which makes it harder to tell how a wider mat or an upgraded cover changes the total. Neither approach is dishonest, but one lets you experiment with the price in real time, and the other doesn’t. If you want a deeper breakdown of what drives custom framing prices, our guide to what online custom frames cost walks through every variable.
Turnaround Time: How Fast You’ll Have It
Online framing is often faster than a local shop, even once you factor in shipping. Many local framers quote two to three weeks for a custom job because pieces are batched and worked in sequence, and larger orders can stretch longer. Here at Frame It Easy, we craft each frame to order within 2-3 business days, then ship from our Connecticut facility, with delivery typically adding one to five business days depending on where you live.
Of course, seasonality is a dependent here. The busy holiday months can add more lead time, so do plan ahead if timing is a factor.
That said, a local shop wins in one timing scenario: if you need it today and you’re willing to pay a rush fee, walking in and picking up in person is something shipping can’t beat. For nearly everything else, the online timeline is comparable or quicker, without the two trips to the shop.
Selection and Customization: How Many Choices You Get
Online framing generally offers more everyday options, while a specialty local shop may reach higher on rare, high-end finishes. On frame styles, both give you solid wood and metal profiles in a range of colors. Where a great local framer can pull ahead is the truly bespoke end: hand-finished closed-corner mouldings or gold leaf, for example, usually at a premium price and a longer wait.
Matting is where online really pulls ahead. A typical local shop stocks a few dozen mat colors on hand. We offer the most matboard colors of anyone in the framing industry, plus metallics, patterns, and conservation-grade museum matting. Our Smart Color Matching tool suggests shades pulled right from your artwork, allows you to pick a color directly from your uploaded art, and even lets you enter the color code you may already have in mind. You can also frame to exact sizes: we cut to 1/16 of an inch, with art from 1.5″ x 1.5″ up to 42″ x 62″, so your piece drives the frame instead of the other way around.
Is Online Framing as Good as a Local Framing Shop?
Yes, a reputable online framer matches or exceeds local-shop quality, as long as you choose one that uses premium materials and custom-fits every piece. The old assumption that online means mass-produced doesn’t hold up for made-to-order framing. Every one of our frames is custom-cut from raw materials using North American hardwood, rigid aluminum, and acrylic covers that ship safely without the shatter risk of glass.
We’ll be straight about the one genuine tradeoff: a local framer can put hands on a fragile original, an oversized canvas, or an odd three-dimensional object and make judgment calls in person. If your piece is delicate, unusually shaped, or irreplaceable and you want someone to physically assess it, that in-person expertise has real value. For photos, prints, posters, diplomas, art on paper, and the vast majority of what people frame, online delivers the same finished quality with far less hassle.
Service and Support: Who Helps You Decide
Local shops win on face-to-face guidance; online wins on repeatable, on-demand convenience. There’s genuine value in standing at a counter while someone holds mat corners against your art and talks you through options, especially if you’re framing something sentimental and want reassurance before you commit. That human, in-person touch is the local framer’s strongest card.
Online trades the counter for tools that do similar work on your schedule, like a live 3D preview, matboard color-matching tech, and sample swatches you can order before you buy. And if you frame regularly, online pulls ahead on the practical stuff, with account perks like saved designs, reorderable past purchases, and saved payment options. It comes down to whether you need that extra bit of in-person handholding or self-serve flexibility more for this particular piece. But rest assured, we guide our framers every step of the way, giving you confidence to custom frame online, regardless of any design experience.
For Designers & Businesses
Ordering Frames in Bulk? Here’s Why an Online Partner Wins
If you’re framing for clients or ordering in volume (not a one-off piece for your own wall), an online framing partner solves problems a local shop usually can’t. For an interior design project, an office, or a hospitality space, three things matter most, and they’re exactly where online framing is built to deliver:
- Consistency across many pieces. Need 50 frames at identical specs for a hotel or a multi-room install? Made-to-order production repeats the same spec exactly every time. Our complete guide to bulk picture frame orders covers how to plan a large run.
- One timeline, one invoice. Printing, matting, framing, and fulfillment happen under one roof, so you’re not coordinating a separate printer and framer against one client deadline. You can even ship to multiple addresses from a single order.
- Pricing that protects your margin. Business and Reseller accounts get trade pricing, volume discounts, and free white-label service, so frames arrive with your branding, not ours. See the details on our wholesale and bulk page.
If you’ve hesitated to move client framing online, the case is strong: comparable or better quality and pricing that leaves room for your markup. Our Business Account offerings are built to make framing one less thing you have to manage on a project.
Full-Service Framing and Fulfillment: We now offer value-added services such as bulk image uploading, branded inserts, custom box labeling, art installation, mat attachment, and specialized hanging hardware for our business account holders. These options are available by request and reviewed on an individual basis. Reach out to our Business Framing Team to learn more.
How to Choose the Right Option for Your Project
Choose a local framer when your piece is fragile, oversized, three-dimensional, or so irreplaceable that in-person handling brings you peace of mind, or when you truly need it in hand the same day. Choose online framing when you want to print and frame your art at the same time, transparent pricing, and faster turnaround for most projects. For the everyday reality of framing photos, prints, posters, and art on paper, online gives you expert-level results without the trips, the wait, or the premium. (And if you’re ordering for clients or in bulk, see the section above.)
Shop Our Colorful Picture Frames
Frequently Asked Questions
Is online framing as good as my local frame shop?
Yes, for most projects, a quality online framer matches or beats local-shop results because made-to-order frames are custom-cut from premium materials, not mass-produced. The main exception is fragile, oversized, or unusual pieces that benefit from in-person handling, where a local framer’s hands-on assessment adds real value.
Is online framing cheaper than a local framer?
Usually, yes. Online framers carry less overhead and buy materials at scale, so the same size and spec typically costs meaningfully less than a storefront framer. Online pricing also tends to be transparent and shown upfront as you build, rather than quoted after the fact.
How long does online framing take compared to local?
Online framing is often faster overall. Local custom jobs commonly run two to three weeks, while an online frame is made in a few business days plus shipping time. The one case where local wins is same-day pickup with a rush order.
Can I frame a valuable original online?
Yes. Look for conservation-grade options like UV-blocking acrylic and acid-neutral, museum-quality matting, which protect originals and limited editions from fading and damage. Our guide to acrylic versus glass covers explains which level of protection fits your piece.
Will a local framer let me bring my own frame or materials?
Usually not. Most local shops supply every component themselves for quality control and liability reasons. Online framing is designed around you uploading or installing the art and us handling the rest, which keeps the process simple and the fit exact. We even help you with measuring your art!
See It Before You Commit
So where do I start?
The best way to settle the local-versus-online question is to see your own art in a frame first. Try it in our 3D Frame Designer, where you can preview styles, mat colors, and sizes with live pricing at every step, then decide what feels right for your piece. Custom framing should be easy, and this is where it starts.
Start by choosing something you have been meaning to frame. We guide you every step of the way, giving you the confidence to properly frame your frameables! It’s that easy!
