Compare SmugMug vs. PhotoShelter

The cream of the crop professional photo sharing services compared head-to-head

Bookmark and Share Smugmug vs. Photoshelter. THE top photo sharing services for photo professionals and amateurs who take their craft seriously, hands down. Both services allow you to create a personal brand with your own logo, add a custom domain name, sell your photos online, and include a mix of templates and customization options, as well as very active communities of like-minded photographers. But which one comes out on top? Read our review below to find out!

Smugmug - Sell your photos online - Free for 14 Days!

Try Smugmug Pro Free for 14 days! Customize your headers, add your logo, sell pictures, make a profit!

PSReviews20
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PhotoShelter - Sell your photos online - Only $99

Try PhotoShelter, the most premium of all photo sharing services, now and save up to $55 with our exclusive discount code:

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Shutterfly - Sell your photos online - Only $99
Try Zenfolio Professional and start selling your photos online for a profit today! Save $10 with code :
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Product

Smugmug

PhotoShelter

Full Review


Go to SmugMug Detailed Review >>


Go to PhotoShelter Detailed Review >>

Overall Rating

4 Stars


Smugmug Pro - Free!

Save 20% on Any New SmugMug Account with this code:
PSReviews20

5 Stars


Try PhotoShelter Professional

Save 10%, up to $55, off a new account with this coupon code:
10PS1108

Sell Photos to make a profit?
Yes, you keep 85% of the Profit above SmugMug's minimum prices
Yes, you keep 90-93% of the profit (that's a low transaction fee of only 8-10%)
Customizable Galleries?
Yes, fully customizable galleries from many styles pre-made, and the ability to import your own CSS style sheets and change just about anything you want.

Yes, nine great looking template layouts, all with a very professional look and feel. Or, completely customize the layout of both the homepage and gallery pages with your own CSS.

Replace Site logo with your own?
Yes, including custom headers and footers.

Yes, add your own logo, and customize header and footer.

SEO Features
Some SEO features, you can modify page title and footer info if you know how.
Yes, great SEO features show you exactly where and what to do to rank well in search engines. Includes a great guide on how to optimize your account for SEO, plus an SEO tool to check your site against known benchmarks.
Social features
Yes, very good social features. Easy integration with facebook, twitter, and many other social bookmarking sites like reddit and digg. Users can comment on your photos, and send links to friends. RSS feeds available. Create cool custom badges and slideshows for sharing.

Yes, the best array of features PSR has ever seen! Easily publish your photos on 280+ social networking and bookmarking sites of your choice. RSS feeds and embedded slideshows, as well as an embeddable search box for external sites that is really cool.

Disk Space, Max Size of Photo Upload

Unlimited Storage and bandwidth.

Photo size up to 50 megabytes .

Storage and bandwidth depend on account type, from 10-100 Gig storage and 5-50 Gig bandwidth a month.

File Types

JPEG, GIF, PNG

(RAW, TIFF, PSD with SmugVault at extra cost)

Any photo file type, including RAW and PSD, is allowable
Sell Photo Books and other gifts?
Yes, wide selection. Two photo fulfillment labs to choose from.
Yes, wide Selection.
Add Videos?
Yes, up to 20 minutes in HD quality (up to 3 GB)
No
Sell Digital Downloads?
Yes, multiple sizes with different license terms available.
Yes, multiple sizes with different license terms available.
Customize Domain Name?
Yes
Yes
Watermarks and copyright protection

Yes, but you must supply a PNG watermark before uploading photos to a gallery. Can only watermark pictures as you upload, cannot change or add them after the fact - kinda a bummer and one of our only complaints with SmugMug.

Right click protect your photos to prevent visitors from saving a copy.

Yes, very nice watermark manager with ability to add text or photo watermarks.

Right click protect your photos to prevent visitors from saving a copy.

Geotagging capabilities
Automatically accesses Geotag info, or manually geotag your photos to see them on a map.
None
Keywords and Search
Add keywords to any photos. Search box only searches photos on your site so you can sell more. Smart galleries can automatically upload keyword tagged photos to galleries.
Yes, keyword tag your photos and search from your homepage, gallery pages, or even an external site of your choice.
Privacy
Can password protect galleries or just hide them so you need the link in order to view.
Can password protect galleries or hide them.

4x6 | 8x10 | Postcard

Wholesale Prices

4x6 - $.19 to $.38 based on finish. Color correction included free.

8x10 - $1.99+

Postcard - $12.95 per 20

4x6 - $.19 for value prints (no color correction), .29 for normal prints

8x10 - $1.99+

Postcard - $5.40 per 12

Cost (per year)

$150/yearly Pro Account

Save 20% on Any New SmugMug Account with this code:
PSReviews20


$9.99/mo Basic (10G storage)

$29.99/mo Standard (60G storage)

$49.99/mo Professional (1TB - 1000G storage)

10% discount for PhotoSharingReviews Readers!

Save 10%, up to $55, off a new account with our EXCLUSIVE coupon code:
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Give 'em a spin!

Best Offer - Try Smugmug


Smugmug Professional Account Review

Smugmug Professional Account is $149.95 and includes all the features you need to setup and customize your own photo website. You can set your own print prices and make 85% of the markup. You can even sell digital downloads in three sizes with personal or commercial use licenses. SmugMug will take the order, pay the credit card processing fee, and ship prints right to your customer. Easy for you to upload and arrange. Easy for your admirers to navigate and buy prints. Upload 100s of photos with a few click. Bulk caption, bulk move, and bulk delete. The best part is that you can really make the site look like your own. Even replace SmugMug's logo, header, footer, and color scheme with your own. Automatically apply custom watermarks to your photos, and protect your photos so nobody can “right click” save them. You can also add IPTC keywords to your photos before uploading to SmugMug, and our search engine will return results matching those keywords. It's a way for you to embed hidden search terms in your photos.

Likes:

Free Trial, Completely customizable interface, create an entire site with Smugmug's tools. Great photo management tools, including many bulk upload options with some just for the mac. Backprint photos with your website and photo ID for easy reorders. No disk space or bandwidth limits.

Dislikes:

Some options are a bit complex to setup, because there are so many choices. No different price levels for pro accounts.

Give Smugmug Pro a spin: Get Your Free Smugmug Trial Now!

Find SmugMug Coupons: Click Here For Coupons!

Photo Shelter Professional Account Review

PhotoShelter is a bit of a different animal when it comes to photo sharing and photo selling services: Forget about free options, and there really is no "basic" option. Even the PhotoShelter basic account, by all definitions, is designed with the professional in mind. Costing only a bit less than SmugMug's Pro account, its not cheap at about $10 a month. The question is, does PhotoShelter's advanced features make it worth the extra investment? Well, for one thing, 65,000+ photographers have decided yes, and signed up for accounts. In PSR's opinion, we would say it depends. PhotoShelter isn't for everyone, and for showing off your latest vacation pictures or sharing photos with friends, it is definitely overkill. But if you are a serious photographer, and you want to display your work and network with other serious photographers (pro and otherwise), this is THE premier place to do so. PhotoShelter is unique in that they have built an organization around helping photographers get noticed, get ranked in Google and other search engines, and find wither paying customers or paying photography gigs. If that is your goal, then there simply is no better and no better photo sharing site at which to do so.

Likes:

Now with a FREE Trial! Fantastic, elegant themes appropriate for professionals. Full customization options including CSS modification, logo addition, custom domain names, etc. If you want to customize it, there is a way in PhotoShelter. Extremely helpful SEO tools and social bookmarking tools make getting the word out about your photos as easy as possible. Integration with your blog or other photo site made simple. Community of expert photographers at your fingertips.

Dislikes:

Price is highest of the bunch. Limits on bandwidth and storage by account level. No Video.

Give it a spin: Get PhotoShelter's Best Offer

Get your PhotoShelter account for 10% off the list price with this code:

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