Smugmug worth it for a non-pro?

[BeauJangles]

Right now I have a personal domain that I host a few things on, including my photos which are organized loosely into simpleviewer galleries. I don't put too many pictures online and, when I do, I put them up for family and friends. I have little to no interest in actually selling my work (or sharing it on a site like flickr).

I've been thinking about registering a new domain for my work and putting up a more sophisticated gallery system. Simpleviewer is fine, but it might be nice to have something with database control. While I was thinking about that, I got to thinking that maybe just going to smugmug would be better.

What I like about Smugmug is that the basic plan is relatively inexpensive and they offer unlimited storage. I know that it's mostly aimed at people with aspirations to sell, so I was wondering what you guys thought.

 

[corkyg]

I have used Smugmug for years. They are very flexible and allow the user to design and easily maintain photo albums. I am certainly not a pro, but I have taken on the task of maintaining photo albums for my college class that can be linked to our class website. Smugmug makes this very easy. Selling is not part of my scenario or life.

 

[idiotekniQues]

only the pro version is really for those wanting to sell, as the other tiers do not allow you to set the price of your photos. so unless you go pro, you can't make money from people ordering directly from your smugmug site.

personally i find smugmug to be awesome. i've had smugmug for about 5 years now. their customer service is tip top. i remember my first customer service inquiry. it was answered in like 4 minutes by the COO or something. if you go to their forums www.digitalgrin.com you will see active participation by the crew there.

when you visit my domain name, it doesn't redirect but smugmug runs from underneath my domain name. this works with GoDaddy. last i checked that feature is on power user but not the basic account. the other feature i wanted on power user was right-click protect.

www.simplyathos.com is where smugmug lives for me.

if you sign up, send me a PM. if you are referred by a smugmug person you save 5 bucks and the existing smugmugger saves 10 off of their renewal. so i'd give you my email if you wanted to do that.

 

[robertk2012]

You can also find discount codes for 20-30% if you look around.

They seem to be experiencing some growing pains over the past couple of months so keep that in mind.

 

[randomlinh]

I don't think smugmug is entirely geared to having to sell. $40/yr for their basic account is pretty reasonable IMO. An alternative to look at is zenfolio. I'm not a fan of the layout choices, but for a while, their preloading algorithm or whatever seemed a whole lot faster than smugmug.

flickr can be used to share with friends and family too, $25/yr unlimited is a damn good deal. You can do guest links on a per set basis. But yeah, navigation is not geared toward traditional sharing, very much more a social site. They have by far the best slideshow IMO.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Smugmug is definitely worth it. Been using them for... uhhh... 7 years now? Unlimited storage is awesome. Speeds are great. And automatically provides multiple resizes for each photo for easy viewing. The back end is also very easy to use and lots of settings for managing your galleries.

 

[ViviTheMage]

http://www.retailmenot.com/view/smugmug.com

20% off code right on the top there.

 

[randomlinh]

The back end is also very easy to use and lots of settings for managing your galleries.

heh, that depends on how much customizing you want to do. And they allow for a great deal if you dig deep into it, but it can be quite frustrating to use/test when designing a layout. They have the easy customizer now, which helps a lot for some of the advanced basic stuff.

However, this point is all moot if you don't need to do that, heh.

 

[bwanaaa]

i use shutterfly and am wondering what could be better about smugmug. Anyone here make the switch?

 

[randomlinh]

i use shutterfly and am wondering what could be better about smugmug. Anyone here make the switch?

I'd say if you're happy with them, don't bother changing. If there's a feature you feel you're missing, or curious, check out their feature list: http://smugmug.com/photos/photo-sharing-features/

I personally just like the clean layout of smugmug. While I love flickr for sharing with the world, it's not very friendly for sharing albums with families. And now that smugmug supports the the same image in multiple galleries, it's even better (though, this particular feature probably isn't a wide-scale demand for the general public).

 

[idiotekniQues]

ive used them all - i just find smugmug to be the most pleasing aesthetically - as said above it is just clean and professional looking. also the feature set is quite robust. you can do so many things with just the power user account. and those guys personify good customer service.

i wonder how the OP feels about smugmug so far.

 

[BeauJangles]

ive used them all - i just find smugmug to be the most pleasing aesthetically - as said above it is just clean and professional looking. also the feature set is quite robust. you can do so many things with just the power user account. and those guys personify good customer service.

i wonder how the OP feels about smugmug so far.

I was JUST about to update this thread!

After playing around with the free trial, I decided Smugmug was freaking awesome. With the plugin that allows you to upload straight out of Lightroom, I was seriously impressed. I bought the most basic package and, while it might be nice to have slightly more customization, the themes I can choose from look fantastic. I love not worrying about disk space and I find the organization system really easy to use. Smugmug has made it easy for my mom, step-father, girlfriend, and friends to look at photos. [edit: I'd also like to say that the Smugmug is a million times nicer and easier to use than Gallery2 or any of those other free gallery systems. Those things suck.]

I couldn't be happier and their support forum over at Dgrin.com is top-notch.

A+++

Thanks for the recommendation guys.

 

[angry hampster]

Zenfolio just opened up a ton of options as far as customization goes. It's worth the look. I have a pro account with them for my proofing.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Uhhh... Smugmug and Zenfolio make Flikr and the rest look like the stone age....

 

[randomlinh]

Uhhh... Smugmug and Zenfolio make Flikr and the rest look like the stone age....

eh, I don't think either can touch the community base flickr has. And that's it's strong point (and possibly it's only point, but it's a big one for some). Smugmug and Zenfolio are much less social networking and more traditional photo hosting/sharing.

 

[idiotekniQues]

I was JUST about to update this thread!

After playing around with the free trial, I decided Smugmug was freaking awesome. With the plugin that allows you to upload straight out of Lightroom, I was seriously impressed. I bought the most basic package and, while it might be nice to have slightly more customization, the themes I can choose from look fantastic. I love not worrying about disk space and I find the organization system really easy to use. Smugmug has made it easy for my mom, step-father, girlfriend, and friends to look at photos. [edit: I'd also like to say that the Smugmug is a million times nicer and easier to use than Gallery2 or any of those other free gallery systems. Those things suck.]

I couldn't be happier and their support forum over at Dgrin.com is top-notch.

A+++

Thanks for the recommendation guys.

good to hear.

i pretty much felt the same way when I signed up.

if anybody else is going to sign up, please PM me, we each save some bucks.