When it comes to digitizing your old photos, home movies, and film reels, it’s important to make sure you choose a conversion service that will take good care of your precious memories and deliver the best possible result.

While Capture offers a state-of-the-art tracking and security system to keep your memories safe throughout the whole process, there are plenty of other options that you might want to consider. One of the most popular digitization services in 2024 is iMemories. That’s why we put together this guide to iMemories reviews so you could make the best decision for your analog media. .

In this review, we'll cover everything current customers are saying about iMemories —from their services and costs to how they compare with competitors. Read through to learn if iMemories is the right choice for preserving your family's history.

Jump to:

• Overview of iMemories
• Customer Reviews of iMemories
• What People Love
• What Raises Red Flags
• Key Considerations for Selecting a Conversion Service
• iMemories vs. Competitors
• iMemories Pricing: How Much Will It Cost?
• Final Verdict on iMemories

Overview of iMemories

Opening their doors in Scottsdale, Arizona back in 2005, iMemories has grown into a trusted name in preserving memories. They specialize converting old VHS tapes to digital, scanning photos into digital images, and turning old film reels into digital videos. What’s fascinating is that in all these years digitizing millions of keepsakes , they’ve never lost or damaged a single memory.

iMemories’ passion for memory safekeeping shows in how carefully they treat every piece of family history. Whether it's your parents' wedding video on an old Betamax tape, your child's first steps on VHS, or those precious family photos from decades ago - they know exactly how to preserve it all.

Here are all the formats they work with:

• Family Videos
  • Betamax and VHS tapes
  • VHS-C
  • 8mm, Hi8, and Digital 8
  • MiniDV and MicroMini
  • DVDs and MiniDVDs
• Photos and Films
  • 8mm and Super 8 film reels
  • 16mm films
  • Print photos of every size
  • Old negatives and slides
  • Photo albums and collections

When you're ready to send your memories, iMemories provides their SafeShip Kit - a specially designed package with crush-proof boxes, waterproof bags, and shock-resistant cushioning. Everything ships safely to their facility through FedEx.

After conversion, you can get your memories back in several formats. Choose from DVDs, USB drives, or Blu-ray discs. iMemories also offers a cloud service and app that lets you access your memories instantly from any device.

Customer Reviews of iMemories

Reading reviews matters when you're trusting someone with your family memories. While iMemories shows higher ratings than competitors like LegacyBox, the reviews tell an interesting story.

Review Platforms Ratings

Trustpilot Rates iMemories 4.5/5 (565 Reviews)

Most people who use iMemories come away impressed. Positive reviews mention their ability to handle ancient tapes - including one customer who got their 23-year-old mini cassette converted to crystal-clear digital format. But dig deeper, and you'll spot concerns about pricing and storage fees.

SiteJabber Shows 4.74/5 (13,056 Reviews)

The biggest review collection, and mostly glowing. People can't stop talking about the secure shipping kit and quality of the digital copies. Though even happy customers mention feeling the pinch in their wallet. One reviewer said: "Service was seamless! Product is amazing!" but added a note about unexpected costs.

Amazon Gives 2/5

Now this gets interesting. Multiple customers report missing footage from their conversions. One review mentioned losing a full 10-minute clip from their tape. Others talk about quality issues and slow turnaround times.

BBB Score: 4.72/5 (300+ Reviews)

Strong rating, but read those comments carefully. Many customers didn't realize they'd need to keep paying to access their memories after digitization.

What People Love

The shipping kit gets major props - waterproof bags, solid box, clear instructions. Customer service responds quickly, and the service can handle seriously damaged media. When it works, the cloud storage makes sharing memories super easy.

What Raises Red Flags

• Pricing shocks a lot of people even with discount coupons
• Some videos come back missing sections
• That 2-week turnaround? Many waited 6+ weeks
• Unexpected storage fees after digitization
• Quality varies widely with older media

Real talk? Most customers end up satisfied, but those storage fees catch people off guard. Many say they wish they'd known about all the costs upfront. And if time matters to you, the wait might test your patience - multiple customers waited over a month and a half for their memories.

Some tech-savvy users even suggest digitizing your own memories. The services work, but between the price tag and access fees, DIY might save you some cash.

Key Considerations for Selecting a Conversion Service

When choosing a digitization service to preserve your memories, you’ll want to take several factors into account:

• Turnaround time: Don't just look at advertised processing times. Go through customer reviews to learn about actual wait times for getting your digitized memories back. Sor.
• Repair and restoration: Your old videos might need cleaning or repairs. The best services handle sticky tapes, moldy films, and faded photographs..
• Pricing structure: Watch for hidden costs like storage fees, minimum order requirements, and extra charges for certain video formats or photo sizes.
• Satisfaction guarantee: What happens if your VHS transfer looks grainy? Or if those precious home movies come back blurry? Know their policy on redoing unsatisfactory conversions.
• Security measures: These are irreplaceable family memories. Look for secure shipping materials, tracking systems, and careful handling of original media.
• Company experience: How long have they been handling analog-to-digital conversions? Do they understand different videotape formats and photo types?
• Digital format options: Will you get thumb drives, DVDs, or cloud storage? Some services charge extra for certain formats or make you subscribe to access your memories.

iMemories vs. Competitors

It’s a good idea to examine iMemories vs. Legacybox vs Capture vs. ScanCafe and other competitors. You can check out our comparison chart for a direct comparison of all the most popular digitization services but keep reading to learn specifically about iMemories vs other brands.

Experience & Services: Competitive

iMemories services are very comprehensive, so unless you have a very rare media format, they can probably digitize it for you (however, they don’t digitize audio cassettes). They also offer 18 years of experience, which is more than most competitors other than Capture that offers 23 years of expertise.

Processing Speed: Competitive

When it comes to turnaround time, iMemories is significantly better than LegacyBox and even beats ScanCafe, especially if you pay for app access to see your digital format memories in as little as 1-2 weeks. Looking at iMemories vs Capture you’ll see that both services offer similar turnaround times.

Cost: costly negative scanning

Additionally, when you examine any iMemories review and comparison you’ll see that their pricing is generally around the industry average, but their photo and 35mm negative scanning service costs 99 cents per photo, which is quite a bit higher than most of their competitors other than LegacyBox.

Memory Protection: lack of

One of the most important factors when choosing a service to turn your camcorder memories, film reels, photos slides and prints, and other precious memories into digital is whether the company does everything possible to protect your memories during the transfer process.

iMemories offers only the bare minimum with tracking and order status updates, while competitors like LegacyBox and ScanCafe, and Capture offer barcode tracking, video monitoring, and other security services.

Cloud Access & Guarantees: lack of

When it comes to accessing your digitized memories, iMemories limits you to their proprietary app. Unlike Capture, which has an exclusive partnership with Google for seamless sharing and storage, iMemories keeps your memories locked within their own platform.

Their satisfaction guarantee also raises concerns. While competitors clearly spell out their quality promises, iMemories remains vague about what happens if you're unhappy with the results—an important consideration when trusting someone with irreplaceable family memories..

iMemories Pricing: How Much Will It Cost?

iMemories' basic pricing starts at $29.99 per videotape and $29.99 for every 50 feet of film reel. For photos, they charge 99 cents each. While they frequently offer a "SAVE50" discount cutting these prices in half, their costs often run higher than competitors, especially for larger collections.

Digital Storage Costs

Storage options add significant costs to your order. Their USB drive copies start at $39.99 (8GB), DVDs cost $19.99 each, and their cloud storage requires a $7.99 monthly subscription (or $49.99 yearly).

For comparison, Capture charges just $14.99 for USB drives and $6.99 for DVDs, while providing free Google Photos integration instead of a paid cloud service. This difference becomes substantial when ordering multiple copies to share with family members.

Photo and Film Pricing Comparison

The pricing gap widens with photos and film reels. While iMemories charges 99 cents per photo with no bulk discounts, Capture starts at 59 cents and drops to 50 cents after the first 50 photos.

Film reel conversion shows similar differences. iMemories charges $29.99 for every 50 feet, while Capture offers 100 feet for the same price and reduces rates for larger quantities.

How Other Services Compare

Looking at other competitors, ScanCafe offers lower rates but processes orders in India, while LegacyBox charges significantly more with prices like $299.98 for just 10 items.

While iMemories matches industry standards for videotape conversion, their storage options and photo scanning costs make them a more expensive choice for preserving family memories, especially for larger collections..

Final Verdict on iMemories

As you can see from the iMemories pricing and reviews we’ve covered, the popular digitization service has a lot to offer. They have their own app that speeds up access to your memories and makes it easier to share with family members over email or social media. They also have lots of experience and offer a wide variety of services.

However, some issues like high pricing, slower than normal turnaround time, inadequate digitization, and tons of additional charges for app access, USB copies, and even their SAFESHIP KIT should raise some concerns.

Pros

• Handles most common types of old tapes, films, and photos
• Digital copies typically ready in 2-3 weeks
• Returns your original memories at no extra cost
• Free digital downloads with every order
• Includes modern features like smart TV streaming
• SafeShip kit helps protect fragile media during shipping
• Clear communication about order status

Cons

• Pricey photo scanning at 99 cents per photo
• Cloud storage requires monthly subscription ($7.99) or yearly fee ($49.99)
• Higher costs for USB drives ($39.99+) and DVDs ($19.99) than competitors
• Won't digitize audio cassettes or reels
• Multiple reviews report missing video sections
• Actual wait times often exceed 6+ weeks despite 2-week promise
• Quality inconsistency, especially with audio and older media
• Unclear satisfaction guarantee policy
• Some customers report unexpected fees and charges
• Locked into their app for cloud access - no Google Photos integration

If you are worried about the iMemories reviews you’ve seen and want an alternative, click here to check out how Capture stacks up against the competition.