Hello all

For the past two weeks I have had trial Zenfolio and Smugmug accounts. I'm ready to buy and I prefer the layout of this place compred to the other. Smugmug has features that I wish were here like shipping to the UK, comments and google maps integration - but I still prefer the simplicity and layout of Zenfolio.

Here's the one thing though that I am finding hard to ignore - Smugmug offer 50% off if you use the name of various other photo storage sites (such as flickr).

In the current economic climate, 50% off is a great offer on a pro account. I've found various Zenfolio offer codes offering $5 but to be honest, I can hardly get a coffee for that here in the UK.

So, I want to sign up, but I also want a decent offer code - does anyone have one?

Many many thanks :) 

 a smug pro account is $150/year... ok you get half off the 1st year, so you are at $75.00.  ZF is $100/year, a $5.00 off coupon gets you $95.  Only  $20 more the first year than smug, for a much nicer interface, cleaner presentation of your photos.  and with the ZF coupon code, YOU get your OWN coupon code, so if you sign 1 person up, they get $5.00 off and you get $5.00 credit on your account...  you sign up 5 people (get them to use your code) they all get $5.00 off and YOU get $25 in credits.  The potential for savings is here.  If you do nothing, next year smug is 150, zf is still 100.  so your 20 more you paid this year?    :)

Features?  yeah smug has been around longer.. ZF is a new and quickly growing company... new features are planned, forums are active with suggestions, ZF has added development staff to implement their features more quickly... it's all coming.   To me, the MOST important part is how my photos are displayed.  With ZF, I get the best, cleanest display of my photos, hands down.  To me, the choice is clear.  and I'm receiving no compensation for my opinion here.  it is truly how I feel.   :)   but you have to make a decision about your business and your photos that is best for you.   good luck!

I strongly support Kevin's point of view. Although Smug offers nice things, ZF is the most elegant offer insofar and a very pleasing solution to use.

Yvan

A more practical dollars and cents (and somewhat obvious) example:

If you plan on having a site for more than one year.

SM: $225 (year 1 - $75 + year 2 - $150)

ZF: $200 (year 1 - $100 + year 2 - $100).

I guess the question you need to ask yourself, if it really only comes down to price, is how long do you plan to keep  your site.

 OK, this is probably a lame comment ... but ... Smugmug is a really stupid name and one that I wouldn't want representing my work.  Zenfolio, while a bit bizarre, has a nice elegance to it.

 And don't get me started about their web icon (whatever it's called!).

 Lame but true. 

 Thanks for your replies everyone, I think I'm convinced!

Just to add to the smug-bashing, they wont pay out by paypal. Trying to cash a US cheque in the UK appears to be more trouble than it's worth. 

 But then again, Zen wont ship prints to the UK so it's still a far from perfect solution for me. 

I can also tell you that for photos as small as 8" x 12", Smugmug's fulfillment ships them rolled and in a tube.  It gave me fits!  Zenfolio's fulfillment (Mpix) ships those same photos flat, so they're ready to frame immediately.

rolled in a tube!?!  Is that normal?  that would torq me off!

Yeah, I was pretty irritated by it; irritated enough to switch to zenfolio the second I heard they were using Mpix.

Kevin Thompson:

rolled in a tube!?!  Is that normal?  that would torq me off!

ezPrints, at least when I ordered from them through daPrints, would ship 8x12 flat but anything bigger in a tube.  So I always assumed that was normal.  (It never occurred to me to mind.)   

Which service is SmugMug using?  

But to the broader thread, I just don't like browsing through sMg's gallery system/presentation at ALL.   If someone tells me to investigate someone's work over there, it's like pulling teeth to get me to actually go do it.  So I figure that's a sign of where I want to be, you know?  

 I use my smugmug for my photos to just have and I use my zenfolio/mpix for printing.. I will eventually combine them to the mpix/zenfolio for sure but the smugmug is fun to use..

I had Smugmug for years, switched to Zenfolio & havent looked back. I did recently start my Smugmug account up again, but only use them for high def videos since we dont have that feature here at Zen (yet).

Dont get me wrong, Smug is a great company with great people, but their user interface is a mess IMO. Stuff is scattered all over the place & they're in serious need of a UI overhaul, as their stuff is looking pretty dated. And its been that way for years & still not much has changed as far as that goes. They do have nice features though, but of course they have been around way longer than Zen has. We have many features they dont as well & not every one of Smug's features are as useful compared to ours pound for pound IMO.

Zen feels way more modern, is easier to navigate, cleaner looking with better looking themes, cheaper, etc. Im a huge website snob (seriously, huge!) & I honestly cant find too many things I'd change about Zen's UI. There are some features I'd like to see get implemented a little quicker, but wouldn't we all.

 I'm in the same boat as I am currently looking at both to compare. I like the control panel of ZF better. I like the themes better but that is not an issue for me as I'm decent with CSS so with the way SM let's you customize the site I can actually make it nicerthan ZF.

 There are two things and each service does one well while the other not that great. ZF has a much better lab as a partner and they offer more products (if you think your customers will buy them) as well as they over them shipped non-branded which is really imporant to me, however the ordering/checkout process is horrible. With SM their ordering/checkout is great by comparison but the lab offering is not as extensive. They are working on addint another lab to the mix and I hope they do it before my trials expire as that would be what I base my decision on. It is important for me that my customers can order with ease. The way I look at it more and more is what good does it make having a 1000 different products that are hard to order over 500 that are easy to order but I would love to be able to offer some of the things Mpix does :)

I just trialed Smugmug and they have a lot of features and customization, but the organization is very primitive and time consuming.  They don't have the concept of heirarchical folders at all and there's no equivalent to a collection.

 Also, I thought it was very easy to accidentally create an ugly gallery at Smugmug if you combine elements that don't work together.  At Zen my galleries always look good no matter how negligent I am .  One attraction was their video feature, but since they don't have a time counter and don't let you shuffle instantly through the video, it wasn't useful to me--I'm sticking with Youtube for now for video (I'd like high-def, but can live without it at the moment.)

One other killer feature at Zenfolio is the check out cart.  They give you little pictures of your merchandise.  I love that.

Bart

 Does anyone like/dislike Pictage.com and why? I am not sure if I want to stay with them.  I found out after pricing items they have hidden cost for things like book binding which is outrageously high in cost and adds to the total price of the photo books and thank goodness I didn't find out after telling my clients, I just dont understand why pricing is so all over the place with them... upseting.. any opinions are greatly appreciated... thanks.