Zenfolio vs Smugmug vs Photoshelter vs .....

ArtAlt · Apr 24, 2015

I want to choose a web host for posting and sharing photographs, that facilitates sharing with public and friends and family but ALSO facilitates sharing with paying clients. Charging for prints or images via the site may come much later, if at all, but certainly not near term.

I've read many reviews and don't see a clear answer among Zenfolio, Smugmug or Photoshelter. Also the reviews are not all current, which makes it further complicated.

Have any of you experienced one or more of these sites? What's are your observations? What's your recommendation?

I do notice that Photoshelter charges a lot more than the others and is the only one without unlimited storage of jpeg ....

Am open to other suggestions as well.

(I am posting to this group because there is no obvious other place to post this AND full frame Nikon users are operating at extremely high and/or professional levels).

Thank you.

Art

M Lammerse · Jul 27, 2016

Hi ArtAlt,

I've been checking many services the past 3 years which really gives me a long term secure option for media sharing with familiy and friends, but more importantly clients.

For friends and family I use: flickr.
For clients I use Amazons' unlimited cloud solutions.

I have now about 3TB shared on Amazon and till so far not any kind of complains by means of client access. As a backup I can give clients access to my NAS, but till so far not needed.

Michel

ArtAlt said:
I want to choose a web host for posting and sharing photographs, that facilitates sharing with public and friends and family but ALSO facilitates sharing with paying clients. Charging for prints or images via the site may come much later, if at all, but certainly not near term.

I've read many reviews and don't see a clear answer among Zenfolio, Smugmug or Photoshelter. Also the reviews are not all current, which makes it further complicated.

Have any of you experienced one or more of these sites? What's are your observations? What's your recommendation?

I do notice that Photoshelter charges a lot more than the others and is the only one without unlimited storage of jpeg ....

Am open to other suggestions as well.

(I am posting to this group because there is no obvious other place to post this AND full frame Nikon users are operating at extremely high and/or professional levels).

Thank you.

Art

--
- Light is everything -
http://www.fotopropaganda.com
http://www.fotopropaganda.com/blog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9240992@N05

ArtAlt · Jul 27, 2016

M Lammerse said:
Hi ArtAlt,

I've been checking many services the past 3 years which really gives me a long term secure option for media sharing with familiy and friends, but more importantly clients.

For friends and family I use: flickr.
For clients I use Amazons' unlimited cloud solutions.

I have now about 3TB shared on Amazon and till so far not any kind of complains by means of client access. As a backup I can give clients access to my NAS, but till so far not needed.

Michel

M Lammerse said:

....
- Light is everything -
http://www.fotopropaganda.com
http://www.fotopropaganda.com/blog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9240992@N05

Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea. I had not considered Amazon, but now that you mention it, I think that many other services use Amazon as their backbone!

tomnorth · Jul 29, 2016

I've used Zenfolio for several years and have been extremely happy with the service. They've made many enhancements over the years. The only experience I've had with Smugmug is uploading photos to another photographer's website there as part of a team that was photographing for our daughter's swim team. I found the Smugmug interface to be clunky, but that was a few years ago, so I'm not sure if they've improved on that.

If you're a Lightroom user, there is a great Zenfolio plug-in that allows you to upload to Zenfolio directly from LR.

John Swenson · Aug 1, 2016

Smugmug is awesome. I've had two accounts there since 2005. No complaints in all that time. What more needs to be said? Go for it and don't look back.

--
My landscape and nature photography site

Loading…

swensonphoto.smugmug.com

ArtAlt · Aug 2, 2016

John Swenson said:
Smugmug is awesome. I've had two accounts there since 2005. No complaints in all that time. What more needs to be said? Go for it and don't look back.

--
My landscape and nature photography site
http://swensonphoto.smugmug.com

Seems like a tough call, Zenfolio vs Smugmug. I did not find a clear choice when I researched it. There were two considerations that led me to Smugmug:

1. Comments on forums were consistent that Smugmug retained higher resolution displaying on high resolution screens.

2. Comparisons at the time (a year ago?) were that the Smugmug mobile app was more modern and usable than the Zenfolio version.

It struck me like Canon vs Nikon in that it depends on your priorities and when in their product cycle you happen to catch it.

I have found the Smugmug interface to be clunky but their email support is very responsive and helpful to get me over speed bumps.

I have had horrible SEO results with Smugmug, but I've heard that Zenfolio is no better.

Another alternative is to build a website using Squarespace or Wix, and then use a separate delivery website like Shootproof or Pixieset. I began to use Shootproof and found it head and shoulders above Smugmug for client delivery, just extremely well designed, but alas they present photographs on screen rather soft, unsharp. That said, if you want your proofs presented soft on screen to prevent copying, that's a fine choice. I interacted with them a lot on this problem and they never expressed any commitment to fixing it. Heck it was hard to get them to admit to the problem (eventually they did).

My biggest worry right now is SEO. I get far better SEO from 500px, a site that I created once and rarely visit. Smugmug is adamant, by contrast, that they refuse to do SEO. Weird.

--
Art Altman
https://www.artmaltman.photography
--

de2000 · Aug 2, 2016

ArtAlt said:
Seems like a tough call, Zenfolio vs Smugmug. I did not find a clear choice when I researched it. There were two considerations that led me to Smugmug:

1. Comments on forums were consistent that Smugmug retained higher resolution displaying on high resolution screens.

Zenfolio gives you a max limit resolution (for pirate prevention) and then resizes the photo to the size of the browser on your screen. They use Lanczos algorithm for resizing. It's very well done, as you can see from my website.

ArtAlt said:
2. Comparisons at the time (a year ago?) were that the Smugmug mobile app was more modern and usable than the Zenfolio version.

Have not used the mobile app for a while now, but it was ok when I use it. Got updates all the time.

ArtAlt said:
It struck me like Canon vs Nikon in that it depends on your priorities and when in their product cycle you happen to catch it.

Unfortunately, yes.

ArtAlt said:
I have found the Smugmug interface to be clunky but their email support is very responsive and helpful to get me over speed bumps.

As I mentioned that Zenfolio has a user forum assisted by their admins. They have actually taken my feature requests and implemented them on the website. This is for the site owner interface. As far as website templates, there are quite a bit available, and they can still be further customized.

ArtAlt said:
I have had horrible SEO results with Smugmug, but I've heard that Zenfolio is no better.

Sorry, don't know what is "SEO".

ArtAlt said:
Another alternative is to build a website using Squarespace or Wix, and then use a separate delivery website like Shootproof or Pixieset. I began to use Shootproof and found it head and shoulders above Smugmug for client delivery, just extremely well designed, but alas they present photographs on screen rather soft, unsharp. That said, if you want your proofs presented soft on screen to prevent copying, that's a fine choice. I interacted with them a lot on this problem and they never expressed any commitment to fixing it. Heck it was hard to get them to admit to the problem (eventually they did).

Zenfolio offers client log in where they can browse and order stuff from you or from Zenfolio's vendors.

ArtAlt said:
My biggest worry right now is SEO. I get far better SEO from 500px, a site that I created once and rarely visit. Smugmug is adamant, by contrast, that they refuse to do SEO. Weird.

chuxter · Aug 2, 2016

de2000 said:
Sorry, don't know what is "SEO".

Search Engine Optimization. Google it to get details.

Gavinw · Aug 2, 2016

I've been using Photoshelter for a few years. They offer unlimited storage with the Pro level account as well as SEO. Obviously the keywording of the photos is very important. Additionally they have a network of printers so customers can purchase prints from your website and very little is required of you other than setting up the initial pricing profiles. You can also use custom URLs and there are multiple website layouts you can use.

chuxter · Aug 2, 2016

Gavinw said:
I've been using Photoshelter for a few years. They offer unlimited storage with the Pro level account as well as SEO. Obviously the keywording of the photos is very important. Additionally they have a network of printers so customers can purchase prints from your website and very little is required of you other than setting up the initial pricing profiles. You can also use custom URLs and there are multiple website layouts you can use.

Why did you reply to my explanation of what SEO meant?

ArtAlt · Aug 3, 2016

chuxter said:
Gavinw said:

I've been using Photoshelter for a few years. They offer unlimited storage with the Pro level account as well as SEO. Obviously the keywording of the photos is very important. Additionally they have a network of printers so customers can purchase prints from your website and very little is required of you other than setting up the initial pricing profiles. You can also use custom URLs and there are multiple website layouts you can use.

Click to expand...

Why did you reply to my explanation of what SEO meant?

de2000 · Aug 3, 2016

Thanks. Yes, Zenfolio has it. I just didn't know the acronym.

It has a section for that. And also it has Visitor Tracking capability via Google Analytics (which I use) and StatCounter.

de2000 · Aug 3, 2016

Here is their webpage on this:

Loading…

www.zenfolio.com

chuxter · Aug 3, 2016

ArtAlt said:
chuxter said:

Gavinw said:

I've been using Photoshelter for a few years. They offer unlimited storage with the Pro level account as well as SEO. Obviously the keywording of the photos is very important. Additionally they have a network of printers so customers can purchase prints from your website and very little is required of you other than setting up the initial pricing profiles. You can also use custom URLs and there are multiple website layouts you can use.

Click to expand...

Why did you reply to my explanation of what SEO meant?

Click to expand...

KayeForte · Nov 18, 2016

chuxter said:
ArtAlt said:

chuxter said:

Gavinw said:

I've been using Photoshelter for a few years. They offer unlimited storage with the Pro level account as well as SEO. Obviously the keywording of the photos is very important. Additionally they have a network of printers so customers can purchase prints from your website and very little is required of you other than setting up the initial pricing profiles. You can also use custom URLs and there are multiple website layouts you can use.

Click to expand...

Why did you reply to my explanation of what SEO meant?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

thebostonartist · Mar 8, 2017

Without going into it detail by detail, I have had both Zenfolio and Smugmug. Frankly, I disliked Zenfolio VERY much. Smugmug is the best I can find that has a Lightroom published service, which for me, is a deal breaker. You'd be shocked how many of these bozos don't even have the presence of mind to develop a simple Lightroom plugin.

otasam · Apr 14, 2017

Camerabird said:
I used www.Pixelrights.com they are the best priced, the easiest to design yourself and have this amazing image protection (it's the most secure image format in the world), so your work is protected online (no one can drag and drop, copy and paste) and wherever you share your image when it's clicked it always comes back to you and your site, so you don't lose the IP and the sale.

Also if you don't have time then they can build it for you at no extra cost. So if you're conscious of costs have a look, they are doing a free trial and also a 50% off until end of July if that helps anyone.

Also if you are looking at revenue generation (to offset the cost of your website) they have an online global directory where you can register your business and be found by agencies. Pretty cool. And they do lots of marketing support to help you (help get you speaking opportunities, guest blogs, etc). What I'm trying to say is for the money you get a lot back and more photographers are moving over to them now so there is even more development to support us.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Camerabird ... for sharing about Pixelrights. You are definitely right about their image protection (Smartframe); seems awesome as that's what us content creators need!!!

Julian Vrieslander · Apr 14, 2017

Camerabird said:
I used www.Pixelrights.com they are the best priced, the easiest to design yourself and have this amazing image protection (it's the most secure image format in the world), so your work is protected online (no one can drag and drop, copy and paste)

I looked at one of the sample galleries on their website. It took me only about two minutes to figure out how to copy full screen images, intact, without watermark.

So, no, their protection is not totally secure against copying. I don't know of any site that is.

The sample galleries do look nice. But image loading seemed a bit slow.

VolodymyrCZ · Apr 15, 2017

I went with Smugmug, couldn't be happier

Both backend and frontend are well thought out. Mobile application is great as well.

Best regards,

Vlad

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