Zenfolio vs new Smugmug vs custom Wordpress site

LongLensPhotography

LongLensPhotography

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LongLensPhotography
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I thought I would never post this, but there we go

To me Zenfolio seems to have gone a little mouldy (or simply out of date), stuck in Web 1.0 mode. The problem is everything is totally limited to the exact few layouts they intended to give us. There is no way to customise beyond that apart from getting another website, develop or pay for expensive theme and whole new hosting package. I rely on their gallery feature, integrated sales and printing but their home page and custom pages fail me completely. This is still the case after todays refresh - they simply added a couple full screen themes (to make it easier for photo thieves? slower to load? Or what? I don't get it). I wish they were more like wordpress for example - drag and drop, mix and match as you like. The problem is I can spot every site built on Zenfolio and that is not great.

And the worst part - all slideshows are still 100% flash. Own a mac with wide gamut display? Or simply a slower PC? Didn't bother calibrating your PC? You probably block all flash animations (95% annoying ads) if you have some clue.
I personally don't care, but my customers to be do or they simply see wrong colours and exit or build up unreal expectation for the product (super vivid tinted colors when they are not). I am pretty much going to look into custom SEPARATE website to integrate with Zenfolio gallery, but that brings me close to £200 pa if I follow the easier option.

At this stage I'd like to ask SmugMug users how much they can do with their sites, and what do they like or wish something was different.
 
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I like Zenfolio to a point where it's easy to get a site up and running. But like you say, it is rather a bit outdated.
With Smugmug I found that I had to change a lot of things to make it look like a website rather than just a gallery. But it is pretty good, I've seen some fantastic websites made on SmugMug.
 
Must admit I'm very happy with Zenfolio, they certainly could change a few simple things that would make it a lot better but on the whole I think they're pretty good.

Just this week they've released more templates and customisation options too

Simon
 
theurbanclown said:
Any reason you can't have a Wordpress site, which has a 'buy' page in the nav bar linking to your existing zenfolio setup.
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This is what I will have to do. I can't say I am over the moon having to pay for a second website doing the same job (templates + hosting can get expensive)

simonkit said:
Must admit I'm very happy with Zenfolio, they certainly could change a few simple things that would make it a lot better but on the whole I think they're pretty good.

Just this week they've released more templates and customisation options too

Simon
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My post came right after I got a little taster of "new" templates. I honestly I cannot see the point of any of them. But on the other hand I would like my gallery thumbnails page to look like the new flickr or 500px stream (mosaic, large thumbails, no borders) and I can't. Largest size is 200px tops and I think this kills a few sales.
And lets face it, custom pages can have very little custom elements, no CSS, nothing.
And finally, HTML5 slideshows is really a must (and they sort of have them, but you have to trick your browser to report iPad agent). I must have emailed them about this over 10 times now.
 
Have you tried using Tables in either the blog pages or in custom pages. You can set up a grid and drop images into the grid at whatever size you like subject to the page width and the image size.
 
daugirdas said:
This is what I will have to do. I can't say I am over the moon having to pay for a second website doing the same job (templates + hosting can get expensive)



My post came right after I got a little taster of "new" templates. I honestly I cannot see the point of any of them. But on the other hand I would like my gallery thumbnails page to look like the new flickr or 500px stream (mosaic, large thumbails, no borders) and I can't. Largest size is 200px tops and I think this kills a few sales.
And lets face it, custom pages can have very little custom elements, no CSS, nothing.
And finally, HTML5 slideshows is really a must (and they sort of have them, but you have to trick your browser to report iPad agent). I must have emailed them about this over 10 times now.
Click to expand...



Not really. A decent template is £20. Hosting can be picked up for £25 a year.

It's exceptionally good value seeing as the results are in a different league to the results of Zenfolio and Smugmug.
 
theurbanclown said:
Not really. A decent template is £20. Hosting can be picked up for £25 a year.

It's exceptionally good value seeing as the results are in a different league to the results of Zenfolio and Smugmug.
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where would you look for good templates? I have seen three figure prices plus so far for anything wedding related
 
I have Photocrati for WordPress and this has some fantastic built in themes that can be customized. Quite expensive but is flexible.
 
What would be a good "£25 / year" host?

I started playing with awardspace - cost me like £2 for first year, but not getting much joy so far. WP install on test free address http://drfoto.atwebpages.com/ was 3.4.2 and that doesn't want to update to 3.6, and has many other issues. I will have to try manual 3.6 install, if it works properly. They give 50MB mysql and unlimited disk space; not so sure about speed. Is that good enough?
And for some reason they are struggling to attach my own domain. I have changed DNS last night to no avail. I suppose I can always transfer domain when I get ready.

Re themes - I have not made my mind yet on design. I just know I need to feature both wedding and landscape work to the clients.

P.S. Do I keep zenfolio all intact at the same address to make sure I don't lose any little SEO I have? The idea is to have home pages at drphoto.co.uk
 
Could I ask for some theme suggestions please?

This is how I think it should look like, but feel free to suggest improvements or changes.

My%2520Notes%2520-%2520Page%25201.png


What I want is some easy switch or slide over between landscapes and weddings, entirely HTML5 (not a trace of flash!), and a few blog posts at the bottom: the first paragraph, an image and a link to the rest should be great.
The theme should be very customisable (for later), and work well with iPads

P.s. Sorry for a messy iPad drawing, should have used my mac!
 
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I think you might mean not flash but jquery. WOW slider seems ideal, and easy to use to put a slideshow on your page.
 
Photodiva said:
WOW slider seems ideal, and easy to use to put a slideshow on your page.
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Would be, if it wasn't commercial with hefty annual rate just for a slider! Akismet just went out too for the same reason. It makes Zenfolio look very cheap in comparison, with all the selling tools and unlimited hosting, etc. Just shame about ageing design.

I will have to make do with Slideshow plugin. It seems to do the basic job right, and luckily none of the fancy distracting stuff.

Themes suggestions would be great. I would love to create my own, but that won't happen in the next week :(
 
Anyone know the UK pricing of Smugmug?
 
I use zenfolio, but purely for my gallery page. I have never looked at their templates for home pages and the like. The rest of my site is custom built, the reason being I didn't want it to look like a stock template, which I assumed zenfolio, wordpress and any other template based service would.
 
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