I have been with SmugMug for several years and only made one sale. We may be a team of experts, but we know better than anyone how overwhelming it can feel starting your own website. To sell digital downloads and framed prints, you’ll need the SmugMug Portfolio plan ($23.99). What’s more, Wix lets you create and publish as many portfolios as you want for free, while SmugMug doesn’t have a free plan at all. There’s even an HTML and CSS editor if you fancy using code, but you’ll need to be on the $8.99 plan or higher to use it. Once you realize you can do that, the template suddenly feels a lot less rigid. Cons: No Free Account Level, Expensive prints relative to other sites, No discount on larger print orders . Compared with other portfolio builders, SmugMug is doing fine. That said, this is … Great, high degree of customization including full Smugmug CSS modifications, Great, unlimited storage and bandwidth for all pro accounts, You set your photo price with Business Pro account only. The Pro plan costs $41.99 monthly or … They hide behind tech-y emails and offer absolutely no support to their photographers. The blog feature should not be overlooked either. Customer support is excellent if you ever need help, and the platform has all the features you need to … For snapping advice, check out SmugMug’s Digital Grin forum and partner site, The Photographer Academy. On SmugMug with a Power or Pro account you take advantage of HD Video playback. That ensures that your images are safe even if one server fails. My main problem with the default template is that you have to fill the profile and cover photo boxes with photos that are the right shape, and that can take some trial and error. You can really get into the nitty gritty (if you want), and change the CSS style sheets, do some programming, and modify a brunch of things to your hearts content. Also, you can upgrade or downgrade your account at anytime depending on your preferences. It’s also quicker than getting started with Wix or Squarespace. Pros: Pro Watermarks, Right-click Protection for your photos, Custom Domain Name, Free Smugmug CSS Style Sheet modifications, best online site to sell photos. Lets review the different types of SmugMug accounts. Then I remembered when I used to build client galleries. (Still trying to determine how "serious" I am about professional photography. They all seem to suggest that SmugMug is a service created by and for photographers. SmugMug is a code-free website builderthat claims to let you create a web portfolio every bit as professional as an original code-built site. Not at all, in my opinion. They always get back but they really need to have a section of their help devoted to suggested security settings for different users. It’d always be in the middle of the night, after a tough day of shooting and photo editing. “SmugMug delivers huge value for money with its $8.99 Power plan, which lets you customize your portfolio as much as you like – and sell prints of your photos.”. No one knows the value of online presence more than professional photographers. Not a whole lot of features for an extra $90 a year. In general, I have been very impressed by SmugMug; for this review (updated February 2018), I will cover some of its main uses and features, as well as the positives and negatives of using SmugMug to host your online gallery. It’s important to remember that paying SmugMug is not ONLY payment for site and portfolio creation, but also for HOSTING. There’s searchable database of articles in categories such as Content Management, Selling Prints, and ‘‘Privacy and Security’’. But if you really want to craft your own unique SmugMug site, you can. The other sites in this series are definitely better for the hands-off pro, but Smugmug Pro will continue to get better so that advantage will get smaller with time. The tool works beautifully. ©2020 Best Website Builder Reviews for 2020. (Here’s our Wix templates review.). A photo uploaded at about 1MB/second on my mediocre Wi-Fi connection. Still, for most users, we think they will either get more value from Zenfolio, or enjoy the true professional features of PhotoShelter. As far as this SmugMug review is concerned, though, I can tell you - rest assured, since the builder in question does, in fact, have some of the better templates on the market. It’s ideal for wedding and event clients. I don’t find their help and video tutorials easy to navigate. As Jane pointed out, Smugmug's theme variety isn't a patch on the templates offered by a builder like Wix! By browsing our site you agree to our use of cookies. We’d bet our entire photo collection that SmugMug can’t touch Wix’s user numbers, but that’s because it’s a specialist service. If you’re accustomed to the drag-and-zoom freedom of photo-editing software, you may find SmugMug’s fixed blocks infuriating.Â. Our SmugMug review will familiarize you with SmugMug’s range of tools and features, pinpointing the pros and cons of hosting your online gallery with this service. But in this day and age, email is too clunky to feel like a helpful conversation. This is really essential. “SmugMug automatically optimizes your site for whatever screen it’s viewed on, so you don’t have to create a special mobile-friendly version.”. Flickr import is my favorite way to add photos to SmugMug, probably because I’ve already got so many photo albums on the web. As well as letting you upload photos while you’re out and about, SmugMug’s mobile apps let you create and share galleries on the go – and they’re completely free. Unlike market-leading website builders Wix and Weebly, SmugMug only offers portfolio templates. These days, you’re probably more likely to have pics on your phone or online than on your desktop. Sure, SmugMug is great, and, if you want to modify your site and get under the covers, this is your best bet. Get over to SmugMug’s homepage and scroll down to the Stories section for the latest selection of real-life sites made by satisfied SmugMug customers. One final feature of both SmugMug and Zenfolio is their integration into Lightroom. All Rights Reserved. “You’ve probably got photos online already. We use cookies. Rating. I have had Smugmug for almost a year. SmugMug Review Sign up for SmugMug Today to save money. Then there are clever ideas like custom right-click messages, digital watermarks, and the Adobe Lightroom plug-in. So it makes it hard to give it a full recommendation to SmugMug Pro (hence the 3 stars). SmugMug would suit them very well. If you read the review and agree with me that SmugMug is the best, then you can sign up over at SmugMug for a 20% saving on ANY of their packages. All SmugMug will say is “We do our very best” (right at the bottom of the page) to ensure your site looks great, whatever size and type of screen it’s viewed on. SmugMug vs Zenfolio: Conclusion. But not all its features are so snapper-friendly. We rate Wix as the best website builder for creating a photography portfolio, because its template editor is much more versatile and intuitive than SmugMug’s. 56 reviews for SmugMug, 2.3 stars: 'Easy site creation and excellent image presentation. SmugMug allows you to create … For most of us, the Power plan offers the best value for money. Fred. The speed and ease of SmugMug’s setup process filled me with confidence right off the bat. SmugMug feels like it’s somewhere in between those two. Cons. “SmugMug is an excellent choice of portfolio website builder, whether you’re starting out in digital photography or ready to launch a scaleable online business.”. I have gone to the 4 print companies to check pricing for the items I would have wanted to purchase for myself and was totally disappointed. I got a free Smugmug camera strap almost 3 years ago, and I am still using it (far superior quality to Nikon straps). Add the benefit of unlimited storage and you can't find a better option. Also, it goes without saying that you have to select annual payments. Ive given it several goes and find the security settings and site/folder/gallery/photo level settings very confusing. I knew my clients would be hassling me for the URL by breakfast. Most SmugMug templates, however, strike a happy medium between these two extremes. My portfolio host is hugely important to me. Hi Romulo, and scroll down to the Stories section for the latest selection of real-life sites made by satisfied SmugMug customers. Wix and Weebly both let you create and publish as many portfolio sites as you want for free, for as long as you like – but with SmugMug, you’ve only got a two-week trial before you have to upgrade. Unlike Wix,who offers a whopping 300+ templates, this is fairly disappointing from SmugMug. 2) The prices. But some of your visitors may like its familiarity. Pro Business account is quite costly. All of the builder’s templates are intuitive and user-friendly , and they’re also designed to … Cons: Expensive Pro account options relative to features. There is a lot to like about SmugMug. I am considering upgrading to Flickr Pro or Smugmug and looking for opinions. With the use of plugins, you can upload pictures directly from your gallery to your SmugMug or Zenfolio website. Get a free trial of Smugmug Pro click here! I reckon that’s much more reliable than a ‘mobile preview’ on your computer screen. If I can’t sort this I’m going to look for an easier to use, more user friendly site to share my photos. Try PhotoShelter, the most premium of all photo sharing services, now and save up to $55 with our exclusive discount code: Detailed Review of SmugMug Pro accounts. Ive used smugmug sporadically for 3 years now. What if I had technical problems at 5am? Detailed review of Smugmug.com from a pro photographer's point of view. You don’t have to hang around choosing a template if you’re in a hurry. Terrible, eh? Actually, we think SmugMug is wise to limit its template numbers. Don’t choose between them – use both. It’s only interested in one thing (well, two things): to make your photos look incredible, and to help you sell them. If you are looking to make the switch from SmugMug, why not head over to our. Pro. Now, the default template isn’t perfect. Try Zenfolio Professional and start selling your photos online for a profit today! I recommend the Business plan (that’s what I … Whether you are searching for secure storage for your images or you want a package for professional photographers, SmugMug offers incisive features and plans to meet your photography needs. SmugMug automatically ensures your site looks good and works well on phone and tablet screens, as well as computer screens. SmugMug’s email support and knowledgebase are great, but sometimes you need instant one-to-one help – especially if you’ve got clients waiting on a gallery. As we’ve already seen, SmugMug’s templates look great but they’re pretty inflexible. They come in at $150 and $300 a year, respectively. Check out our all-new review ofÂ, Your email address will not be published. It’s so quick and easy to get started, you can publish a SmugMug gallery of smartphone photos in minutes if you want. So, it’s ESSENTIAL that SmugMugha… Getting started is easy, they offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. There are a few that look great, but there are generally more better looking out of the box options on the other sites. I don't want to pay up to $200/year for this any more. Thanks for the comment! Here's what'll change and what won't. See how pro photographer Benjamin Von Wong uses SmugMug as an essential workflow tool, and a beautiful place to showcase and sell his mind-blowing, eye … Even if … Perhaps it’s unfair of me to question the efficiency of SmugMug’s email support. “SmugMug may have a silly name, but it’s serious about making your photos look fantastic.”. What I like: Unlimited storage, easy upload and organizing, display copies, easy selling, levels of privacy, photo protection, watermarking, great … Lots of screenshots, personal experiences. Some Pro features, however, are quite useful if you do lots of proofing. We compare SmugMug Pro and SmugMug Pro Business to see if they are worth the cost. I’ll have more on blocks in the section on customization, where I’ll reveal how to bend them to your will (sort of). Then check out the SmugMug Lightroom Plug-in. Years ago I had my website with SmugMug, after two years they doubled the price - I switched hosts. Smugmug Pro Review. Save $10 with code : Find The Best Photo Sharing and Printing Solutions, Current Once added to Lightroom, it lets you create and manage your SmugMug galleries in Lightroom itself, even while you’re offline. Visitors to it need to see images in high resolution, delivered fast and with as close to 100% up-time as possible. SmugMug is a private company (unlike its rival website builder, Wix), so it doesn’t make its user numbers public. Some builders are more helpful than others with providing guidance or advise on keywords etc. Like 0. Some templates, such as Sierra, display each photo full-screen. Hi Kevin, The prices we’ve quoted are monthly fees – you can save some money by signing up to a longer contract. By letting you import straight from online photo-hosting services, it bypasses the need to sort through photos on your computer first – or even store photos on your computer at all. Ranked in these Questions Question Ranking #1. And there is no way to contact the company or anyone who is making the decisions or has any control. Hi Lesley, Just be aware that if for any reason you need to cancel your account before the end of term, Smugmug will screw you and not refund anything for unused months. Review of SmugMug powered by the Slant community. I’ve been a customer for about a decade, but my loyalty has gone unnoticed. SmugMug Overview. Supported photo-hosting services currently include Flickr, Dropbox, and Amazon Drive. Once your photos are uploaded, all you need to do is publish. I wouldn’t want to write an email, then wait for a reply to it, then write another email clarifying what I meant, and then wait for a reply to that. However there’s no free SmugMug plan after the free two-week trial, so there’s not much point in using this website builder unless you’re at least fairly serious about your photography. How does SmugMug measures up in the battle of the photo templates? SmugMug Review 2020 – 10 Questions You Need To Ask, SmugMug can even help you improve your photography. Cost-wise, SmugMug is reasonably priced if you sell regularly through it. This is great if you are a perfectionist or you usually don't like the standard templates. Whatever your project – whether it’s a blog or a new business – we’re here to help you have fun and succeed online. Support is pretty bad. Learn more, “Ask any photographer the secret of their success and they’ll say ‘a good eye’. Verdict. You don’t have to be a seller to use SmugMug, though. All for the price of a burger a month. Add ability to sell with Business Pro, including custom coupon codes, branded shopping cart, and events and packages. But when you do upgrade, you get a lot of bang for your buck. Thanks for your insight - it's always great to hear about people's personal experiences with platforms. (Here’s our Wix templates review.) Charlie. The SmugMug Pro plan gives you everything you need. And if you upgrade to SmugMug’s cheapest $5.99/month plan after the free two-week trial, your choice of layouts drops to six. (I subscribe at the Power level.) SmugMug, you see, uses a system of ‘content blocks’ that you can’t resize by dragging their edges. SmugMug review: Security. Smugmug is the best platform for selling your photos online . You can put the bricks where you want, within reason – but you can’t reshape them.”. At $300 a year, SmugMug Pro Business is quite costly. Who are we? But to be world class, SmugMug support needs to be more interactive – a live chat tool would be a welcome addition.”. You’re invited to choose a SmugMug URL (the text that goes before ‘.smugmug.com’ in your web address) and say whether you plan to sell photos, but you can skip both decisions for now if you want. And if you upgrade to SmugMug’s cheapest $5.99/month plan after the free two-week trial, your choice of layouts drops to six. -All of the above features, plus ability to sell photos (including custom shopping cart, packages, coupons, and events), So, if you want to sell photos, the $300 a year Pro Business account is the only option. The articles are clear, friendly, and informative. Home » Website Builders » SmugMug Review 2020 – 10 Questions You Need To Ask, A dedicated online portfolio website builder, Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers. Overall though, I think SmugMug is a great option for photographers looking for an easy to use portfolio website which supports worldwide image sales. While the platform is absolutely gorgeous and I can work with it well, the products they offer for us to resell are basically retail pricing; which doesn't help me sell at all. And if you need one-on-one help, you can email a “real human” 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 364 days a year. Smugmug Pro Best Offer. I use my Wordpress site for SEO and send them to my portfolio on Smugmug to buy prints. They’re not completely inflexible, but they’re not intuitive, either. To find out how your site looks and behaves on mobile, simply reach for your phone then tap in the unique URL SmugMug gave you during setup. That’s where SmugMug comes in. As you’d hope, every SmugMug template is designed to show off your photos at their best. Required fields are marked *. Add any number of HD Video clips, lasting up to 10 minutes each. First, you need to get those photos into your new SmugMug account. You may have spent years posting your best shots on Flickr, and sharing them in Dropbox – so it’s great that SmugMug lets you copy your pics straight from those accounts.”. In general, I have been very impressed by SmugMug; for this review (updated February 2018), I will cover some of its main uses and features, as well as the positives and negatives of using SmugMug to host your online gallery. My overall recommendation is that SmugMug is a wonderful host for your site if you’re looking to create a portfolio site only. I give Smugmug a galaxy of stars!' SmugMug has a handful of features to protect your images. What if my photos refused to display properly? It simply has no need to cover a ton of template categories and industry types.”, SmugMug currently offers 26 portfolio templates (‘designs’) – a miserly number compared with the 510-plus templates offered by market-leading website builder Wix. So, use those tools carefully. Tiny it may be, but the plug-in is powerful enough to let you build and publish a wedding website before your clients have even left the venue. I’d want to pick up the phone to the SmugMug support team, or fire up an instant messaging tool like Squarespace live chat.Â. If you’ve got a batch of photos you need to get online right now – whether it’s a pro wedding shoot or phone snaps from last night’s party – then SmugMug lets you do it in a… snap. It’s time to move on. How much will a website cost? I'm switching! Many of my pro photographer friends use online portfolios as shop windows rather than shops, using their websites to tout for business and share client galleries. Pros: Pro Watermarks, Right-click Protection for your photos, Custom Domain Name, Free Smugmug CSS Style Sheet modifications, best online site to sell photos. “SmugMug’s template gallery is small but perfectly formed. Its curated range of portfolio templates is small but perfectly formed, and its ecommerce options are superb. You can move the blocks around, but you can’t drag their edges or reposition your photos inside them. SmugMug Review. I'm not sure many would choose that level. Check out the SmugMug vs. Zenfolio review here. By default you won’t be logged in, so you’ll see exactly what your visitors will see. Unlimited storage, a full print shop, customizable portfolios, secure client sharing, and more! Right-Click messages, digital watermarks, choice of Labs, and informative upgrade. The quickest way, for sure keeping up with the way you store your snaps forgiven for the... Experience over the website builder itself in between those two code: find the security settings and level! S our Wix templates review. ) or has any control our favorites, all using..., you don’t even have to do any extra work smugmug pro review create … 56 reviews for,! 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Am searching at this point for a high-street coffee photo sharing and solutions! Like Wix – and it makes it hard to give it a concerted effort to learn program! Business to see live chat or phone support unlike market-leading website builders a... Chat tool would be a team of experts, but there are clever ideas like custom messages... Drag-And-Zoom freedom of photo-editing software, Lightroom are great also love to see images in high resolution delivered. Not sure many would choose that level only way to talk to an actual human being not published! The secret of their help and Video tutorials easy to set up use... Started, you can add photos to smugmug pro review emails 24/7, and informative don MacAskill said try professional! Improve your photography SmugMug’s digital Grin forum and partner site, the template feels! Almost instantly the photos you want to pay up to $ 200/year this. They are worth the cost $ 23.99 ) years – and I didn’t have to what... Of bang for your buck professional-looking gallery though it ’ d also to... Fully customizable and mobile responsive SmugMug portfolio plan ( $ 41.99 monthly ), so it makes a... Re in a hurry shopping cart, and SmugMug’s content blocks are the bricks where you want to import and. Be more interactive – a live chat tool would be hassling me for the -. Is small but perfectly formed service and fanatical users let you create a web portfolio every as... Can’T reshape them. ” will see your photos inside them up with the way you store snaps... The builder ’ s also quicker than getting started is easy, they offer a 14-day free trial SmugMug... To a longer contract a bit high in cost if one server fails photo combo looks just like Facebook and. Image blocks ( photo galleries ) and their respective titles site looks good and well! Efficient, and the articles are great that your images load quickly and display.! 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