The Best Yearbook Companies for the Modern Schools

For over 100 years, yearbooks have been a tradition in schools across America. Students wait eagerly to flip through pages, sign each other's books, and relive the highlights of the school year. But as technology evolves, so have the ways students capture and revisit their memories.

We live in a world where students document their lives on their phones, not on printed pages. They capture videos at prom, record speeches at graduation, and scroll through photos instantly. Yet, most yearbook companies are still delivering a product designed for the world of 1925—not 2025.

The yearbook industry is undergoing a quiet revolution. Schools now have more options than ever before: traditional print, hybrid models, and for the first time, a fully digital yearbook experience built for how students actually live. In this guide, we'll break down the leading yearbook companies, where the industry is headed, and why one company—YearBoxx—is redefining what a yearbook can be.

The Only True Digital Yearbook: YearBoxx

While dozens of companies throw around the term "digital yearbook," very few actually deliver on the promise. The vast majority of "digital" products on the market are little more than PDFs, flipbooks, or basic online versions of their print products.

YearBoxx is different.

YearBoxx isn't built on top of a print book. It isn't a PDF. It's not a flipbook pretending to be digital.

It's a fully digital-first platform designed from the ground up to be mobile-native, interactive, and fully student-focused.

For the first time, schools can give students a yearbook that truly reflects how they experience memories today: through their phones, through video, through social interaction.

What Makes YearBoxx Different

• Built for Mobile: Students can access their yearbook anytime, anywhere—from their phone, tablet, or laptop. No more clunky PDF pages crammed onto a small screen.
• Unlimited Content: YearBoxx removes the physical limitations of printed pages. Schools can upload unlimited photos, unlimited video content, and even update the yearbook after it's published. Late-season sports? Spring graduation? Senior trips? They can all be added in real time.
• Full Video Integration: This is where YearBoxx truly separates from every other provider. Students don't just see photos—they can watch graduation speeches, hear performances, rewatch sports highlights, and experience the emotion of their year one more time.
• Student Personalization (My Page): Every student has their own private space within the yearbook, where they can upload personal photos, record video messages, and build a permanent digital time capsule of their school years.
• Video Signatures: YearBoxx allows students to leave digital signatures for their friends—complete with personal video messages—adding an emotional, interactive element that printed signatures never could.
• No Contracts: Unlike most providers, schools can implement YearBoxx without being locked into long-term contracts or bundled print agreements.
• No Deadlines: Because YearBoxx is fully digital, there are no print production schedules. Schools can update the yearbook at any point—even after the school year has ended.
• Simple Pricing: YearBoxx is offered at just $6.99 per student. Schools aren't locked into costly print minimums or complicated package pricing.

Why Other "Digital" Yearbooks Fall Short

If you search "digital yearbook" today, you'll find yearbook companies advertising solutions. But dig a little deeper, and you'll realize most of these products aren't truly digital yearbooks at all.

PDFs Disguised as Digital

The majority of so-called digital yearbooks are simply PDFs of the printed book. These files were never designed for mobile screens, making them frustrating to navigate. Students have to zoom, pinch, and scroll around oversized 8.5x11 layouts on a phone. It's clunky, slow, and completely disconnected from how today's students engage with content.

Flipbooks: Animated PDFs

Some companies attempt to dress up their PDFs as "flipbooks." These add an animated page-turning effect but offer no real interactivity. Videos can't be embedded, content isn't searchable, and the experience still feels like flipping through a printed book—just on a screen.

Legacy Companies Bolting on Half-Solutions

Even the largest, most established yearbook companies have recognized they need some kind of digital offering. But their solutions are still anchored in print-first thinking.

For example:

• Jostens' ReplayIt and Yearbook+ programs were designed to give students limited digital access—but have been plagued with complexity, poor adoption, and in some cases, complete shutdowns. ReplayIt no longer appears to be supported, and Yearbook+ offered students the ability to upload a few photos with highly restricted storage and short-term access.
• Herff Jones, Balfour, and Walsworth similarly offer small digital extensions to their print products—like QR codes that link to external content—but still require full print contracts that cost schools thousands of dollars annually.

The Bottom Line:

Most "digital yearbooks" aren't actually digital. They're simply repackaged versions of print products with minimal online functionality.

YearBoxx is the only platform that delivers a fully interactive, mobile-first, video-driven, and scalable digital yearbook, without requiring any print contract.

The Best Print Yearbook Companies (Legacy Providers)

While the future is clearly trending digital, many schools still choose to maintain printed yearbooks for a variety of reasons—tradition, parent expectations, or long-standing contracts.

If your school is committed to print, here are the major players still leading the print-first market:

Jostens

• One of the oldest and most widely recognized names in the yearbook industry.
• Specializes in full-service print production with highly customized design and support.
• Very limited success in offering digital solutions.
• Long contracts, high costs, and rigid deadlines still dominate their model.
• Recent failed attempts at digital products highlight their struggle to modernize.

Herff Jones

• Another legacy provider with over a century in the business.
• Known for high-quality printing and dedicated sales reps.
• Limited real digital offerings beyond minor online features.
• Long lead times (often 6+ weeks from submission to delivery).

Balfour

• Similar to Jostens and Herff Jones in both product and pricing.
• Highly entrenched in certain school districts due to longstanding relationships.
• Print-first model with minor digital add-ons.

Walsworth

• Offers solid print yearbook products with strong customer service.
• Like the other legacy companies, they have not successfully adapted to a fully digital experience.
• Still highly dependent on outside sales reps and long-term contract renewals.

The More Nimble Print Yearbook Companies (Newer Players)

While the legacy providers dominate much of the historical market, a new wave of smaller, more flexible companies has emerged in the past decade. These companies typically target smaller schools, private schools, and organizations looking for more flexibility with deadlines, minimum orders, and price points.

Entourage Yearbooks

Entourage has become the largest of the newer generation of yearbook providers, serving nearly 10,000 schools. Unlike the legacy providers, Entourage offers slightly more flexibility in print deadlines and order quantities. Many schools turn to Entourage because they can submit yearbooks closer to the end of the school year, with turnarounds typically in the 2–3 week range compared to the legacy companies' 6+ week timelines.

However, while Entourage may market digital features, they are still fundamentally a print-first company. Their entire business model is centered around selling printed yearbooks, with any digital components acting only as small extensions or upsells attached to print contracts.

As digital yearbooks gain traction, Entourage is one of the companies most likely to attempt to replicate models like YearBoxx in the future, but doing so will force them into the same problem all print-first companies face: cannibalizing their core business.

YearbookLife

YearbookLife has positioned itself as a more affordable print alternative, especially for smaller schools with tighter budgets. They offer relatively flexible ordering, smaller minimums, and slightly quicker turnaround times compared to legacy companies.

Like others in this space, YearbookLife has made gestures toward digital offerings, but these are still tied directly to print orders and lack true digital-first experiences. As of today, they do not offer a standalone digital platform like YearBoxx.

Memory Book Company

Popular with elementary and middle schools, Memory Book focuses heavily on simplified design software and affordable print pricing for schools producing smaller yearbooks. They appeal to volunteer-led yearbook committees with user-friendly creation tools and support.

Again, digital offerings are minimal. Their strength remains in simplified print production rather than innovation in fully digital yearbooks.

Picaboo Yearbooks

Picaboo operates a print-on-demand model with no minimum orders, making them popular for very small schools, homeschool groups, or niche programs. Parents can order books individually, and schools aren't locked into large print runs.

Picaboo also allows for some customization, but it still lacks full digital yearbook functionality and primarily operates as a print-based platform with some online ordering capabilities.

Mixam Yearbooks

Mixam is one of the more budget-friendly options for schools strictly looking for print yearbooks. They offer highly competitive pricing for short-run print jobs and serve schools that need simple, no-frills print yearbooks without large commitments.

Mixam does not offer any meaningful digital yearbook product.

YearBoxx vs. Everyone Else

When you step back and look at the entire landscape, one truth becomes clear:

The yearbook industry isn't competing on innovation—they're competing on how slowly they can lose their print business.

Legacy companies are still protecting decades-old business models that rely on expensive print contracts, long production cycles, and inflexible pricing. Newer companies have done a better job of modernizing their sales processes, but are still fundamentally print-first operations.

YearBoxx stands alone because it's not fighting to preserve a dying print model.

• No print orders required.
• No long contracts.
• No reps pushing upsells.
• No production deadlines.
• No clunky software or confusing apps.

Instead, YearBoxx offers exactly what today's students, parents, and schools actually want:

• Unlimited video integration for graduation, prom, sports, and more.
• Mobile-first platform designed for how students engage with content today.
• Unlimited photo uploads with no page limits.
• Personalized student pages that grow with each school year.
• Video signatures that feel like real connections, not ink scribbles.
• Real-time updates, even after the school year is over.
• Simple pricing: $6.99 per student. That's it.

The Future of Yearbooks Is Finally Here

For decades, yearbooks have been trapped in the same expensive, outdated system. But times have changed—students have changed—and the way we preserve memories needs to catch up.

YearBoxx isn't here to replace tradition. It's here to give schools a better option.

For schools that want to maintain a printed book, YearBoxx can exist alongside your print contract. But for schools ready to offer something modern, affordable, and built for how students actually live, YearBoxx finally makes true digital yearbooks a reality.