Pixieset
Is Pixieset a good client gallery for photographers? Writing this review, I’ve discovered all unique capabilities of its integration with Lightroom, advantages and disadvantages of this platform and answered the main question ‒ will Pixieset let you create amazing online client photo galleries.
Pixieset alternatives:
Platforms: Online
Price: FREE or $40/month
VERDICT: Pixieset is an online platform for delivering photos to your clients. This is a place where you can show your previous works to potential clients by posting photos in a separate gallery, which, by the way, can be customized according to clients’ needs. Also, you can use this platform as a way to download or purchase something.
Feature of this app is a plugin, which enables you to tightly work with Lightroom. The work is done in the following way: after editing photos in Lightroom, you can move pictures directly to Pixieset gallery in one mouse click, which is quite convenient, isn't it?
In Pixieset, you may create galleries for each shot and adjust them according to your client’s needs. What makes Pixieset really great is the integrated store, letting my clients purchase prints straight from the gallery. It lets me earn hundreds of dollars every day.
As soon as your photo collection is uploaded to the online photo gallery, you will get some settings: watermarks, photo arrangement in the album and presentation. You will get full control over the style of both computer and mobile design, exchange options, shopping features and much more.
What I like is the choice of the client photo gallery design. Pixieset offers many different options for ready-made or manual settings. Honestly, I can spend countless hours, just setting up and checking various settings, watching how my images look in each type of gallery, and still can’t decide on the right one.
The control level over all the tools is really impressive. The clients image gallery settings are updated after you click the “Save” button, therefore, fast and seamless tracking of every change affects the finished gallery. Customizable interface and full control are only some features that Pixieset offers. Before delivering photos to clients, you can also set the expiration date of galleries and the number of images that viewers can upload.
Every client photo gallery, which you will create in the future, is called the “Gallery”. In each collection, you can customize several sets. You still get full control, starting from the duration of a particular gallery and ending with the location of the album.
With the help of built-in support tools, you can achieve a clear, sharp and professional look of your collection with a few mouse clicks.
While creating a new photography client collection, you give it a name and set a shooting date. After the basic setup, you can go to a more detailed setting of various parameters. For each album, you can set the layout, privacy options, and upload settings for sharing files.
The latter two functions can be useful for those working in pairs. By setting a password or simply adding a friend, only you two will have access to the free photo album.
As for me, these are very nice features that, by the way, I haven’t seen before in alternative programs. This gives you flexibility with each client, depending on his/her needs.
The main section of Pixieset app is a store where you regulate all the settings for your sales and trading. Besides, this is the place, where all the orders for printouts and downloads are made, tracked and configured.
Full control and clear organization make managing the section even more impressive than you could ever imagine. In the store, you will find sections for orders, products, taxes, delivery, Pixieset coupon, etc. In the upper right corner, you can find the “Getting Started” section, which describes the installation process in detail.
The products section is the first you should customize, because this is where you create the parameters for the products your customers can purchase. There are default items on the list, but they are just a starting point for creating your own elements. For each of the available items, you can specify the size and material, as well as the ordering procedure. You can set the autopilot tax section. This allows Pixieset to calculate local taxes for you.
Photographers cannot pay bills if they do not get profit from the sale of printed and digital images. Pixieset online photo gallery website seems to understand this importance, offering a simple procedure to your clients on how to purchase prints and images directly from your site.
Pixieset interacts directly with some publications such as White House Custom Color, ProDPI, Miller and MPIX. After you have selected your print service provider, you get the opportunity to go to their regular price list or set your own Pixieset pricing method, which is fully customizable.
This is a good feature if you find that you sell more prints of a certain size than others. You can also customize the amount of sales tax (if any), as well as delivery and payment options.
When customers make a purchase from the Pixieset site, the funds will be credited directly to your bank account within 3 days. A good feature that helps you control the cash flow, without the necessity to worry about collecting payments or checks.
What is really nice about this app is that you can get unlimited functionality, completely free of charge, with 3GB of Cloud storage. If you are not satisfied with the available space, you can expand it by choosing one of the currently available plans:
Pixieset has a stylish design and many useful features. For example, you can simply and easily create galleries, upload images in a matter of seconds and manage your collections. All this positively affects the work in this app – from creating a new price list of products to linking analytics with PayPal or Google.
Your clients won’t be able to appreciate these features, but they will definitely make your life easier, especially if you have to do it every day.
However, you won’t be able to use Pixieset for mass marketing, as there are no e-mails about the sales sent to clients. They seem to have the opportunity to do this, since you can save e-mails from registrations in galleries and send automatic e-mails after the expiration date of the gallery, but not concerning sales. For any photographer, who wants to make more money on prints this is rather annoying.
Despite these flaws, I believe that Pixieset is the best photo sharing site with clients online. But with some new competitors, such as Pic-time, Pixieset developers will have to start working on expanding sales opportunities for photographers in order to save their client base. Your clients will definitely like their online photo gallery.