If you're looking for the best cloud photo storage, you've probably found SmugMug (opens in a new tab). The platform has long been the top choice for those looking for the best ways to save photos and videos, and not just because the site is particularly easy to use. Look, SmugMug has a particularly tempting offer: unlimited cloud storage for photos and videos.
But don't confuse SmugMug with another cloud storage service. As the name suggests, everything here is focused on photographers and photography, including RAW file management through SmugMug Source. All of this isn't so different, in fact, from Flickr, the popular photo venue that SmugMug acquired in XNUMX.
For those who use it professionally, you will find basic photo editing tools, a site author, and a virtual trading platform.
SmugMug is available on the web, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android to organize and manage photos on the go.
But what does one of the best photo saving and sharing sites offer today's professional and avid photographers?
- SmugMug Website Builder subscription options:
- Twelve month plan: €3.99 per month (total cost €47.88) (opens in a new tab)
thirty second review
SmugMug's online photo storage service is simple to use, capable for beginners, yet impressively rich in features. We found the platform, which offers unlimited, full-resolution cloud storage for photos and videos, ideal for anyone looking to safely store photos online. Mas is ideal for professional and creative photographers.
With powerful site design features and e-commerce tools, SmugMug has simplified the way photographers can reach new audiences, showcase their work, and sell their photos.
Those may be more features than blind enthusiasts need, obviously. Thus, the 4 different subscription plans provide a flexible way to select the best cloud photo storage option for you.
SmugMug: Pricing
- 4 subscription plans, no free storage plan
SmugMug doesn't offer any free cloud storage options, though it does offer users a XNUMX-day free trial (and no credit card required).
To take advantage of SmugMug's photo storage and sharing, you'll need to purchase a subscription. The service runs 4 monthly subscription plans, each of which builds on what is included in the preceding tier.
Basic (€XNUMX / month) is for casual users looking for unlimited cloud storage. Power (€XNUMX per month) is for those who want to start showing off their photos online. Portfolio ($XNUMX per month) is going to be the best option for anyone looking to start selling their photos. Pro (€XNUMX/month) is developed for those taking their photography business to the next level.
If you prefer, subscriptions can be prepaid annually, which includes a discount of around thirty% depending on the chosen plan.
SmugMug: Getting Started
- Smart and very elegant interface simple to use
SmugMug's interface is fluid and very elegant. Precisely as expected from a creative platform built for those who pay attention to detail. Navigation is fluid and simple: everything is where it should be and works as expected, and most actions can be accomplished by dragging and dropping or by pressing the toggle switches.
This simplicity makes the platform too nice for new users. It only takes a few seconds to start uploading and editing images. Some of the more oblique options even include a "What's this?" button, which directs you to the SmugMug Help Center for detailed details, so you can take full advantage of each feature.
If we have a (small indeed) protest, we would have liked to see a right click showing file downloads and other quick actions, like in Google Photos.
Despite this simple, even careless interface, SmugMug reveals its powerful nature once it's time to start creating new galleries.
SmugMug: Create Galleries
- Extensive control over galleries and images.
Photos uploaded to SmugMug are saved in galleries; At first glance, they're folders that help you keep track of your images (and if you don't care about organizing the photos, you can put any in the default gallery). But it is worth using them whenever possible. We found this causes image management and layout of your photo site to go faster later on.
Every time you hit the upload button, SmugMug lets you upload images to a new gallery, an existing gallery, or upload an entire folder. When selecting a new gallery, a full settings popup appears.
Take your time here, because it's not just where you'll set the look of the gallery. You'll also find options to configure gallery access, image visibility and privacy, and social and sharing tools. All of these settings can be saved as default presets.
Professional and corporate photographers will find auxiliary settings here. If you plan to share, display, and sell your photos, go to the Purchases area to set purchasing options.
If you want extra protection, SmugMug also gives you full control over what users can see and do in your gallery. Everything is handled through simple dropdown menus and toggle switches. Thus, you can easily limit image display sizes and prevent other users from saving your work by disabling the right-click context menu.
The ability to create and add custom watermarks to photos is particularly effective. An efficient tool that lets you quickly put basic text or an image on your media, with controls for size, font, and dimming. Image-based watermarks can be downloaded separately or pulled from their SmugMug library. In use, it's all basic, but it's all very welcome.
- Good third-party cloud storage support and powerful engagement metrics for top subscribers
Uploading your photos to SmugMug is quick and simple. We especially liked the support for a range of external cloud storage services. With support for Dropbox, Lightroom, Google Photos, Flickr, and Amazon Photos, it's simple to import images into your online library.
While this covers some of the more popular cloud photo storage providers, we'd love to see more integrations added. In practice, we've found that connecting and uploading to third-party storage services is somewhat fast, although it's naturally faster to upload files from your computer.
Once your images have been uploaded and added to a gallery, you can open them in the viewer. This space has certain options, such as contrasting the comments and uploading the image. You can also click View Gallery Entry.
And that's one of SmugMug's great extras. In addition to this statistics and Analytics support, Porfolio and Pro subscribers can access engagement metrics for each of their galleries. Here you can see which photos get the most views and downloads, and which galleries are most popular with visitors.
SmugMug: Photo Editing
- Only essential editing tools
When it comes to photo editing, don't expect anything on the scale of Adobe Photoshop (or even the best Photoshop alternatives). SmugMug's crude offering includes all the basic tools, but there are few full editing capabilities.
So you can crop and rotate your images, add captions and captions. You can add existing watermarks, and if you haven't created one yet, SmugMug will take you directly to the simple watermark creation screen.
Elsewhere, color effects let you fine-tune the look of your photo. However, they are essentially just filters, with no granular control over the effects.
Furthermore, it is essential to take into consideration that the application of any change will overwrite the original file.
SmugMug: share, display and sell
- Easy to create a professional e-commerce or portfolio site
SmugMug is more than just an online image hosting place. In slow motion in your library, go ahead and click +Create. This is how you create new galleries, folders, and best of all, a fully customizable site author to showcase your art.
This is best suited for professional photographers looking to build or grow their online presence and following. Even basic subscribers can create their own photo booth, though professional-style design and customization tools are included in the basic package.
This is a no-code setup, so you don't need to be a professional developer or designer to take full advantage of the tools here. Start by choosing a layout and theme that matches your style. We thought the themes were a bit basic, but there were enough to make up for them, and you can alter them after choosing them for convenient customization.
Once you're happy with the look, you can start dragging and dropping areas of content into position on the page. This makes it very simple to put images, text and videos in one place with a custom domain name. In fact, you can customize just about everything to make the site work for you, right down to the spacing between images. The results have a true professional polish.
For photographers looking to make money with their work, SmugMug also has an amazing list of eCommerce selling tools that complement the site builder. You can easily set your costs (or use a list of suggested costs provided by the venue) and create coupons. On the admin side, SmugMug lets you manage finances and branding options for photo orders.
Manage RAW files with SmugMug Source
Support for the SmugMug file type is standard. The images must be in JPG, GIF, PNG, HEIC format. Meanwhile, the supported video files include H.264, MOV, AVI and most of the MPEG formats. Keep in mind, however, that frame rates are only preserved for thirty fps images.
RAW files are also supported. And this is a huge drawback for photographers and companies who choose the best cloud photo storage. RAW files are uncompressed images that have all...