Photographers use online galleries for a few common jobs. We’ll compare them across these four areas.
- Delivery: Share photos with clients in an online gallery.
- Proofing: Let clients review and choose the photos they want.
- Sales: Sell photos and print products directly through the gallery.
- Discovery: Help people find the photos that are most relevant to them.
Comparing the options
| Platform | Delivery | Proofing | Sales | Discovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honcho | Client gallery + live delivery | No proofing | Digital sales | Face recognition + people browsing + descriptive search |
| Pixieset | Client gallery | Multiple favorite lists + notes + selection limits | Print + digital sales; lab fulfillment | No discovery features |
| Pic-Time | Client gallery | Favorites + selections + comments | Print + digital sales; lab fulfillment + sales automation | Face recognition + people browsing + descriptive search |
| ShootProof | Client gallery | Favorites + custom labels | Print + digital sales; lab fulfillment | EXIF search |
| CloudSpot | Client gallery | Multiple favorite lists | Print + digital sales; lab fulfillment + view prints on your wall with AR | No discovery features |
| SmugMug | Client gallery | Favorites | Print + digital sales; lab fulfillment | Keyword search |
| picdrop | Presentation Mode for delivery; Collaboration Mode for proofing | Selections + comments + annotations | No sales | No discovery features |
| Zenfolio | Client gallery | Favorites + comments | Print + digital sales; lab fulfillment | Face recognition + keyword search |
| Lightfolio | Client gallery | Multiple favorite lists + comments | Print + digital sales; lab fulfillment | Keyword search |
| Zno | Client gallery | Favorites + comments | Print + digital sales; lab fulfillment | Face recognition |
Some terms used in the table:
- Live delivery: Upload and share photos as they’re taken, in real time.
- Favorites: Let clients freely mark photos they like.
- Selections: Photographer-created requests asking clients to choose photos for a specific purpose, such as retouching.
- Custom labels: Photographer-created labels clients can use to mark photos for specific purposes.
- Annotations: Let clients point to specific areas of an image when giving feedback.
- Lab fulfillment: Print orders are sent directly to a professional print lab for production and delivery.
- Sales automation: Automated sales campaigns triggered by events such as gallery launch, expiration, or an abandoned cart.
- Face recognition: Finds photos containing a particular person based on their face.
- People browsing: Lets visitors browse detected people in the gallery and view photos of each person.
- Descriptive search: Lets visitors search for what appears in a photo using natural descriptions such as “people dancing” or “giving a speech.”
- Keyword search: Searches keywords, tags, captions, or other text attached to the photos.
Honcho
Honcho is built for better photo discovery. It helps visitors find the photos they care about by:
- Uploading a selfie to find images they appear in
- Browsing the people who appear in the gallery
- Describing what they’re looking for in words, such as “people laughing together”
This is especially useful for large galleries with lots of people, such as weddings, corporate events, conferences, sports events, and races.
Honcho also lets you upload and share photos as you shoot. Visitors can get their photos instantly, so your photography goes beyond documentation and adds to the event experience.
Starting price: $20/month for 100 GB.
Pixieset
Pixieset brings client galleries into a broader photography business platform. Alongside gallery delivery, proofing, and sales, it also offers website and studio management products.
This makes it especially useful if you prefer to keep more of your photography business within one ecosystem.
Starting price: $10/month for 10 GB.
Pic-Time
Pic-Time is a good fit for photographers who want their galleries to generate additional sales after delivery. Its sales automations can run promotions around events such as gallery launch, abandoned carts, expiration, and anniversaries.
It also offers client-facing photo discovery, helping visitors find people and other relevant photos in larger galleries.
Starting price: $8/month for 20 GB.
ShootProof
With ShootProof, most gallery, sales, and business tools are included from the start. Its paid plans are differentiated mainly by storage, rather than putting major features behind higher tiers.
This makes it useful if you want a predictable all-in-one setup that can grow with the amount of work you deliver.
Starting price: $9.99/month for 20 GB of photo and video storage.
CloudSpot
CloudSpot brings the gallery and other parts of the client relationship together in one branded portal. Clients can access their photos alongside contracts, invoices, questionnaires, and other project details without jumping between separate systems.
It also supports gallery delivery, proofing, and sales, while broader studio-management tools are available on higher plans.
Starting price: $7/month for 15 GB and up to 15 galleries.
SmugMug
SmugMug is built to be a long-term home for your photography, rather than just somewhere to deliver individual shoots. Every plan includes unlimited full-resolution JPEG storage, so you can keep a large photo library online.
That same library powers your client galleries and photography website, with higher plans adding photo sales and proofing.
Starting price: $25/month for unlimited JPEG storage.
picdrop
picdrop is built around detailed client proofing. Instead of only letting clients favorite photos, it supports color-coded decisions, likes and voting, comments, and annotations directly on the image.
This makes it especially useful for shoots that involve approvals or multiple reviewers. Client selections can be carried back into editing tools such as Lightroom and Capture One, helping connect the review process with post-production.
Starting price: €14.99/month for 500 GB.
Zenfolio
Zenfolio is particularly useful for photographers who handle high-volume work such as schools, sports, leagues, and events. Its volume workflow uses QR codes to automatically sort photos into each subject’s gallery, making large shoots easier to organize and deliver at scale.
It also includes the more standard gallery, website, proofing, and sales tools, so the same platform can support both regular client work and volume photography.
Starting price: $9/month for 15 GB.
Lightfolio
Lightfolio is a more affordable option for photographers who still want most of the features expected from a modern client gallery. Its paid plans cover delivery, proofing, online sales, unlimited galleries, and other core gallery features.
Its entry plan is a good example of that value, offering 30 GB of storage for $11/month. Website and studio management tools can also be added separately if you need them.
Starting price: $11/month for 30 GB.
Zno
Zno offers a broad photography ecosystem at relatively accessible prices. Alongside its client gallery, it offers separate tools for websites, studio management, album design, instant photo delivery, and AI-assisted post-production.
These are separate products that can be purchased individually, with some also available as part of a bundle. This makes Zno a practical option if you want access to a wider set of photography tools without paying premium prices.
Starting price: $8/month for 15 GB.
Frequently asked questions
An all-in-one platform can be useful if you want your galleries, website, and business tools under one provider. It can simplify your setup and keep more of your workflow connected.
A standalone gallery platform may be better if you prefer to choose the best tool for each part of your workflow instead of keeping everything in one ecosystem.
Photo search features, such as face recognition or descriptive search, are most useful for large galleries with lots of people. They help visitors find the photos they want without scrolling through the entire gallery.
For smaller galleries, such as family or product shoots, they are less important.
Live delivery is most useful when getting photos during the event adds to the experience, or when people want to view or buy photos immediately. This is especially relevant for corporate events, brand activations, sports, and races.
Different types of photography need different gallery features. Wedding and portrait photographers may care more about presentation, proofing, and print sales. Commercial photographers may need stronger review and approval tools. Sports and event photographers may benefit more from photo search and live delivery, while school and volume photographers may need tools for sorting and delivering photos at scale.
