What Image Size I Should Use To Upload To Photoshelter?

I've been using various forms of portfolio website for my photography since I caught the bug over ten years agone. Initially, I experimented with having a elementary portfolio site built by a web designer friend. I quickly got frustrated with having to rely on someone else to update my site or portfolio, though. Fortunately, I discovered WordPress and its ability to operate as a web log and a powerful portfolio site consummate with galleries and east-commerce.

My cocky-hosted WordPress website served me well as my chief site for a while, merely when I discovered PhotoShelter, I realised what I was missing out on. The power to upload total-resolution images to a portfolio website that doubles every bit a backup annal was a no-brainer for me. Instead of replacing my main site, I used my PhotoShelter and WordPress sites together, which has a number of advantages, including the ability to maintain this web log.

PhotoShelter is only 1 of a number of companies offering website and portfolio services for photographers. Although they have their similarities, they vary in terms of features and cost. This comparison will assist you decide which of the biggest 3 is best for your needs: PhotoShelter, SmugMug, or Zenfolio.

PhotoShelter

PhotoShelter is based in New York, United states of america, and has over 80,000 photographers using the service. They offer three levels of membership – Bones, Standard, and Pro.

There are nine portfolio templates to choose from. Depending on your membership level, due east-commerce can be gear up via one of many print vendors, cocky-fulfilled printing, or stock licensing. PhotoShelter as well offers huge value to photographers in the form of market place enquiry, interviews, and free photography business guides.

SmugMug

SmugMug is a family unit-owned business concern based in California. Their membership options are very like – Basic, Ability, Portfolio, and Business concern.

There are over 20 customizable templates available to choose from. SmugMug'due south e-commerce options depend on your membership level, offering print sales with few options right through to fully customizable pricing schedules, branded packaging, coupons, and a choice of impress labs. The service also boasts 24/seven client support via their 'SmugMug Heroes'.

Zenfolio

Zenfolio started with four friends with a dearest for photography and a background in tech. The service offers three plans – Starter, Pro, and Advanced.

Zenfolio serves over 100,000 photographers beyond the world in every genre from weddings, events, portraiture, family, babies, and pets to senior portraits, school & sports, landscape, travel, wildlife, and more.

PhotoShelter vs SmugMug vs Zenfolio: Comparison

Pricing (USD$)

PhotoShelter – Basic: $12.99/month, Standard $29.99/month, Pro $49.99/calendar month.
SmugMug – Basic $seven/month, Power $11/month, Portfolio $27/month, Pro $41.99/calendar month.
Zenfolio – Starter $7/calendar month , Pro $28/month , Advanced $42/month.

Selling/Eastward-Commerce

Photoshelter – Custom print and digital sales profiles, worldwide print vendor network, allows self-fulfilled press, image licensing available.
SmugMug – Custom impress and digital sales profiles for Portfolio and Pro but, iv print vendors in Us and U.k., does non allow cocky-fulfilled printing, epitome licensing available.
Zenfolio – Custom print and digital sales profiles for Pro and Advanced only, nine impress vendors in North America, UK, and Australia, allows self-fulfilled printing, image licensing available.

Website Templates

Photoshelter – 9 customizable, responsive, mobile-friendly templates.
SmugMug – 21+ customizable, responsive, mobile-friendly templates.
Zenfolio – xiii customizable, responsive, mobile-friendly templates.

Photo Storage

PhotoShelter – Bones: 4GB, Standard: 100GB, Pro: Unlimited. Support for JPG and TIFF files. No support for video files.
SmugMug – Unlimited storage. Photograph files limited to 150MB. Video files limited to 3GB/20min. JPEG, GIF, PNG, and HEIC files supported.
Zenfolio – Unlimited storage. Photo files express to 36MB for Starter and 64MB for Pro and Avant-garde plans. JPEG, TIFF, GIF, and PNG file types supported. Video files limited to 2GB/20min.

Uploading Files

PhotoShelter – Upload from spider web, desktop, FTP, Lightroom, Photograph Mechanic.
SmugMug – Upload from web, mobile app, desktop, Lightroom, Luminar, Aperture, Dropbox, Flickr, and more than.
Zenfolio – Upload from web, Windows desktop, mobile app, Lightroom, Photograph Mechanic.

Mobile App

PhotoShelter – Browse, search, share, and download images. Deliver to clients and upload from mobile.
SmugMug – Brandish and share portfolio, manage galleries, upload images, view offline.
Zenfolio – Display and share portfolio, upload images, deliver digital downloads.

Sales Commission

PhotoShelter – Basic 10%, Standard 9%, Pro eight% of total auction.
SmugMug – 15% of profit on sale.
Zenfolio – 9.9% of full sale.

Digital File Delivery/Download

Photoshelter – Simple to share file or gallery download link directly to electronic mail with password selection. Can choose visibility, prototype size/format, and duration.
SmugMug – Gallery download available as .null file. Link only valid for two weeks. No option to choose private images or size/format. Original paradigm files only.
Zenfolio – Galleries and files can be viewed and downloaded via mobile app. File sizes can be enabled or disabled as needed.

Client Back up

Photoshelter – Mon-Fri 9am-7pm EST email and phone support.
SmugMug – 24/7 email support. No phone back up.
Zenfolio – 24/seven electronic mail back up, Pro and Advanced plans: live chat, Advanced plan: phone support Mon-Thurs 10am-3pm PT.

My Experience

I used PhotoShelter for my archiving, portfolio, impress sales, and commitment of files for a few years. I was pretty happy with the service for the nigh function, just always felt it fell brusque in a few areas. My frustrations were:

Limited data storage. I used a Standard membership, which allowed 100GB of storage. With the larger megapixel count of modernistic cameras and a growing portfolio, I don't want to take to think virtually how much of my storage limit I've used.

PhotoShelter allows the utilise of custom domain names which can be used with self-hosted domains or subdomains (portfolio.yourdomain.com instead of yourdomain.photoshelter.com for instance). This is a great selection for those who use their own domain for their web log, etc. My issue is that PhotoShelter only uses a custom domain for your front page instead of your whole archive.

PhotoShelter makes a lot of noise near their search engine optimization (SEO), but I experienced very footling benefit from it. In that location are many things that contribute to search rankings, but given the age of my site, and the endeavour I put into SEO, my search traffic was disappointing.

PhotoShelter vs SmugMug

I decided to make the most of SmugMug's free 14-day trial and see how it compared to PhotoShelter. I went with a Portfolio plan, which is the closest option to PhotoShelter'due south Standard programme. This is what I liked:

It's cheaper. $27 per month instead of $thirty.
There are a lot more templates to choose from, and they are far more customizable.
I can use my custom domain and my entire SmugMug site volition utilise that domain.
Unlimited storage.
Improve SEO. After having both portfolio sites running simultaneously for a few months, SmugMug won the search engine boxing by a mile.

What could be improved and would make the decision a no-brainer:

Self-fulfilled printing supported by SmugMug and streamlined through the same shopping cart. This is a big ane for me as I am a New Zealand-based landscape photographer, and almost of my customers are here in NZ. I sell large prints, and SmugMug's print labs are all based in the US and UK, pregnant shipping large prints is exorbitantly expensive. Self-fulfilled print sales would enable me to use my local print lab and offering free aircraft in NZ.

SmugMug vs Zenfolio

I'm at present in the procedure of testing out Zenfolio to see how the service compares in the real world. So far I'm impressed, simply I desire to requite information technology a few months to know for sure whether it'southward worth moving my whole portfolio over from SmugMug. It'south a lot of hassle, merely could be worth it for cocky-fulfilled printing alone.

I can't assistance but Zenfolio they must be doing something right with over 100 thousand photographers using the service. Time will tell.

The Verdict

The truth is, the needs of photographers vary as much as our jobs, and therefore what 1 photographer needs from their website is going to differ significantly from the next. This postal service serves only to compare the options and illustrate my own experience. My intention is to help guide photographers to brand the decision that is best for them by giving them a side-by-side comparison of PhotoShelter, SmugMug, and Zenfolio.

Whether you are a current or past user of one of these services and thinking about jumping ship, or have never used either of them and y'all're thinking virtually joining up, my advice is to make the well-nigh of the free trials that all iii companies offer. Effort 1 or try them all and see what works for you. I would be surprised if ane of their membership levels doesn't serve your needs.

If y'all've found this article useful, I would be super grateful if you'd consider using the links beneath. Information technology helps to keep this site running. Cheers.

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