I'm seeing more and more pros post that they're using one of the discount store printing services. Since they edit their images before sending/taking them for printing they don't need the services of a professional working on their shots prior to printing.
To a large extent the discount places are using the same machines as the professional labs. Fuji Frontiers seem to be preferred to Noritsus. I haven't seen much about the Agfa machines.
The prints you get from any of these are 'real' prints.
I've seen one post from a pro who said that the higher priced custom lab used heavier stock paper. He felt that it was worth paying more so that he could hand the customer a print that felt more substantial. Of course, once mounted there should be no real difference.
BTW, film and digital prints go through the exact same machine. These days your film is scanned into a digital form and fed to the printer as a digital input.