Smugmug Price Increase

[fauxtog]

I received an email a couple days ago that smugmug is increasing the price of my plan from $55 to $75 a year as of June 1. I have 954 photos on the site which I started back in 2005 at $29.00 per year. I'm over the constant price increases every couple of years lately, so I'm considering downloading all of my photos to my external drive and cancelling my account. It's just not worth it to me anymore to just host my photos there, I barely even share the link with anyone. I mostly used it to embed photos on a another photography site, so all my links will be broken, but I really don't care anymore. Additionally, I received a message from Flicker that I was in violation of the free tier so I downloaded all my stuff from there too. I'm not a cheapskate, but this is getting ridiculous for what I use it for.

I'm really torn because I like having a showcase for my stuff, but I don't want to deal with constant price increases.

Breakdown of increases over the years:
2005 $29.95
2017 $40
2019 $47.88
2021 $55
2022 $75

If you have a smugmug account, non pro, are you ok with the increase?

 

[mollyc]

i have thousands of photos on my site going back to 2005. i switched from zenfolio a few years ago and found sm’s pricing to be better. i will stick with them but i also use it as a front facing website that is public and i don’t want to rebuild it all.

i use the power level option; my price goes to $110 but i find value in that. my kids access my site for their photos all the time.

 

[mollyc]

how do you find out how many photos you have hosted?

 

[kenoh]

I received an email a couple days ago that smugmug is increasing the price of my plan from $55 to $75 a year as of June 1. I have 954 photos on the site which I started back in 2005 at $29.00 per year. I'm over the constant price increases every couple of years lately, so I'm considering downloading all of my photos to my external drive and cancelling my account. It's just not worth it to me anymore to just host my photos there, I barely even share the link with anyone. I mostly used it to embed photos on a another photography site, so all my links will be broken, but I really don't care anymore. Additionally, I received a message from Flicker that I was in violation of the free tier so I downloaded all my stuff from there too. I'm not a cheapskate, but this is getting ridiculous for what I use it for.

I'm really torn because I like having a showcase for my stuff, but I don't want to deal with constant price increases.

Breakdown of increases over the years:
2005 $29.95
2017 $40
2019 $47.88
2021 $55
2022 $75

If you have a smugmug account, non pro, are you ok with the increase?

Everything is getting expensive now. As someone who doesnt profit from my images, then paying for Smugmug is not something I want to do.

As a note, Amazon Prime gives you unlimited image storage and Flickr (owned by smugmug) has a free option to hold 1000 images.

 

[mollyc]

oh never mind i found it. i have over 26,000 photos.

 

[Hughmac]

That’s quite a price rise, especially for an amateur like me.
I moved from Flickr because of the silly praise system they have, but what alternatives are there to SmugMug for storage and showcasing?

Cheers

Hugh

 

[fauxtog]

how do you find out how many photos you have hosted?

the count is on the front page when I log in

 

[fauxtog]

That’s quite a price rise, especially for an amateur like me.
I moved from Flickr because of the silly praise system they have, but what alternatives are there to SmugMug for storage and showcasing?

Cheers

Hugh

exactly, not many options

 

[fauxtog]

Everything is getting expensive now. As someone who doesnt profit from my images, then paying for Smugmug is not something I want to do.

As a note, Amazon Prime gives you unlimited image storage and Flickr (owned by smugmug) has a free option to hold 1000 images.

I have amazon prime and didn't even realize that, but they keep increasing prices too, so I might let that go as well. Plus who know how long "unlimited" will last. I only had 254 photos on flicker and they said I was over the limit I hadn't put any photos on there since 2006.

 

[mollyc]

there is zenfolio but i think they are more expensive. pixieset has a free option but i’ve never used them and for paid accounts i don’t think there is any savings.

are you looking for storage, or portfolio sharing, or hosting??

 

[fauxtog]

Portfolio sharing

 

[mollyc]

Portfolio sharing

Pixieset might work for you; there is a maximum of 1,000 images for the free tier, but if you are swapping in and out of different portfolios and not specifically hosting, it might be okay.

https://pixieset.com/pricing/

The paid tier is more than what you will pay for SmugMug. And SmugMug is a lot more robust.

But I know a lot of people who portfolio prep for different organizations and use Pixieset. I think the gallery caps at 100 images for the free tier, though.

 

[Hughmac]

As I am already paying for Amazon Prime I’m giving Photos a go now, although it’ll probably take all night to upload everything.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[ericgtr12]

i have thousands of photos on my site going back to 2005. i switched from zenfolio a few years ago and found sm’s pricing to be better. i will stick with them but i also use it as a front facing website that is public and i don’t want to rebuild it all.

i use the power level option; my price goes to $110 but i find value in that. my kids access my site for their photos all the time.

Pro here and it's worth it to me, granted I understand the concern with price increases the way the economy is going right now. I use it as my only source for digital and print sales.

 

[Clix Pix]

I switched from Smugmug to Zenfolio quite a few years ago now and have been happy with Zenfolio. I am not a pro photographer and don't sell my images or put them into portfolios for anyone's assessment, so it works well for me as a means of providing a gallery for friends and family to look at and in some cases download images of particular interest to them, etc. I also use it as an additional way of archiving favored images, too, and/or specific projects such as my POTD and POTW ones from the past.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

A few years past there was PhotoBucket, where one could store photos free of charge. Sometime later they started charging around $40.00 per year, and about a year or two later they doubled the price. That's when I switched to SmugMug. The initial cost was perhaps $46.00 per year, and it seems that the price will be nearly double this year.

I am not in the business of photo storing, but in my view companies such as SmugMug and others could have different photo storage prices based on photo size. For example, my images at SmugMug are used only for posting online, and are very small in size, from 200kb to perhaps 600kb in size. While they may look good on a computer screen, not so good when printed. I never store my photos in original size offsite, but in hard drives at home. The photos I post online aren't for sale, but for showing.

 

[stillcrazyman]

When I had SmugMug - I seem to recall paying more than $70 per year. Lots of features I didn’t need.

I eventually left them. I mostly use Apple Photos and cloud storage. Just for sharing and posting. I don’t sell my images.

I have thought of going back to Flickr just for posting images here and one other site. That’s about all I do any more. Flickr was easy to use and their Pro level is still less than other hosting sites.

 

[kave]

I use smugmug for photo sharing to forums, Smugmug are increasingly making it more diffiicult and introducing more pointless features. I am contemplating moving to Dropbox only since I use Dropbox anyway.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

I am fairly happy with the free version of DropBox.

Pros:
•Lets me give a link to a single photo or an entire folder.
•Anyone with the link can view.
•Black background makes for nice slide presentations.
•Does not provide general access to every member of DropBox.

I access DropBox only through my web browser and use it entirely as a sharing vehicle. Since my images are reduced in size, and number compared to my total, I am in no danger of exceeding my limit.

Cons:
•Not a reliable way to embed a photo on sites such as this. I can if I choose, provide a link but embedding the image is iffy at best.
•Sometimes DropBox will throw up a splash screen, trying to con visitors to a link, into signing on with DropBox, so I have to add a warning about that when I share links.
•For various reasons I do not recommend installing or using the desktop app. YMMV

 

[Hughmac]

As I am already paying for Amazon Prime I’m giving Photos a go now, although it’ll probably take all night to upload everything.

Cheers

Hugh

24 hours later, and still 160 photos to upload out of 1200 or so total that I thought I’d save
It’s not like I have a super slow connection, not fibre but still at least 10mps - just a heads up for those who want to upload their stuff to Amazon Photos

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Hughmac]

As discussed in the POTD May thread, the sharing button on Amazon Photos is for sending to friends and family, as anyone can download the photos once shared.

I would not use it for showcasing any of your work on a public forum.

Therefore I will likely stick with SmugMug and pay the extra premium at renewal time.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[fauxtog]

I have Amazon prime too, but I don't really need storage. Basically just wanted a portfolio to share with friends and family and not be priced gouged every year. I liked being able to order prints from my Smugmug gallery as well, very nice prints.

 

[Hughmac]

I’ve just had a look, and my SmugMug account is due for renewal in 23-05-15, and by then it will be $90 plus sales tax.
I must have renewed for 2 years last time because of some discount offered.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[mollyc]

I have Amazon prime too, but I don't really need storage. Basically just wanted a portfolio to share with friends and family and not be priced gouged every year. I liked being able to order prints from my Smugmug gallery as well, very nice prints.

I mean, everything is more expensive now. SM's rates are comparable, if not cheaper, than the relevant competitors.

Have you looked at the free version of Flickr? Or even two years of Flickr Pro is $66/year, so maybe that would work for you.

I don't think it's honest or genuine to compare today's prices to that of 2005. That's 17 years ago!

 

[mollyc]

Zenfolio is having a half off sale through the end of the month. 15GB storage for $36.