not really a comparison, just listed the price changes throughout the years. I know everything is more expensive, its just not worth it to me anymore.
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Smugmug Price Increase
- Thread starter fauxtog
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If you need just storage. There are cloud services that offer a one time payment for a fixed storage, eg, 150GB, 1TB, 5TB
Years back, many, before all this fancy cloud storage - I used Amazon AWS via a 3rd party front-end solution. It was interesting.
Years back, many, before all this fancy cloud storage - I used Amazon AWS via a 3rd party front-end solution. It was interesting.
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The problem I am having with SmugMug is that the plans are too broad. I would prefer a basic and cheap plan with minimum features, one that I could "build" with optional features. For example, my images are a under 600kb in size. I don't sell, just share them online. I don't need a fancy and expensive plan with shopping carts and download options. These images are used only for posting online or sharing. Nothing else.
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I'm not a user but looked at their plans and didn't see one that was worth the cost to me. Their price increases amount to 5.5% per year for the past 17 years. Not out of the ordinary but as you say, is the subscription worth it for the cost?
26,000 photos! Wow...but irrespective of the number, like the 950 of the OP, the question not asked is why not dump the 3rd party sites in general with their issues and host it yourself? In addition to price, do you really want them looking over your shoulder and the security issues involved?
While there is the initial equipment cost, why not a NAS. I splurged on a Synology DS920+ with two bays filled with 8GB drives and two empty for expansion. Then load various Synology developed apps. Hyper Backup backs up all my files in addition to photos from all computers. But more to the point, Synology Photos is photo storage remote access and sharing, much like iCloud, Smugmugg, Pixieset, Dropbox, but no monthly/annual fee or quantity limits. I am in the process of setting Photos up...with shared folders to family and even looking at it as a photo delivery system for business with a shared folder for clients. I have a lot of photos though so it takes time.
A lot of Youtube Synology Photos setup videos will give you an idea what it can do, but keep it to recent (1 year) as there were major changes and the current single app combines two prior apps.
I do have a NAS. But I use SM to host a website and create galleries to share with my family and friends. It works for me, and I like the redundancy of having jpeg images off site.
If you could store 16bit HEIF files on an online site then I could see the benefit of claiming having the images hosted online being a legitimate backup, but an 8 bit jpeg than some algorithm has gotten it's paws all over to store in it's system. maybe who knows - my guess the money saved could of gone into extra drives. To the OP have you looked into a Wix free site or Wordpress?
Reading through this thread though it really reads more of people trying to justify not doing some basic housekeeping. Anything over a year does not need to be accessible online imHo
How do you know you're not "that" uncle? "oh yeh we clicked on that link with 255 images from billy's party" or " yes you really captured your trip to Yellowstone with those 3403 images - remind me did you see any bears" (cause there was no way in he!! I was clicking to page 2)
Reading through this thread though it really reads more of people trying to justify not doing some basic housekeeping. Anything over a year does not need to be accessible online imHo
How do you know you're not "that" uncle? "oh yeh we clicked on that link with 255 images from billy's party" or " yes you really captured your trip to Yellowstone with those 3403 images - remind me did you see any bears" (cause there was no way in he!! I was clicking to page 2)
Thanks Molly, it's account settings, stats, uploads for me but that's great. I only really use the desktop and I've been a bit remiss in updating it recently!
I'm not sure I understand your question. How else do you share photos if they aren't public?
Photography is a visual medium, and as such has to be seen by others. There are rare photographers who shoot only for themselves and never publish, but most of us want our work to be seen by others in some capacity. The internet makes quick work of that job.
Many photographers shoot professionally, so they have to put out public portfolios in order to be hired. Many others wish to have gallery showings, which are typically also public, but a much smaller section to be shared. Others like to blog and tell stories about their images.
Not all images are "private" only. I shoot nature images, I have nothing to hide, no NSFW imagery or anything scandalous that I would care if seen publicly. And if I did have images like that, they wouldn't be hosted publicly. The only real risk of having images in the public is someone else taking credit for the work, but even that doesn't happen very often in the grand scheme of things.
I just logged in and got a message that my card was expired and so I updated it and noticed it said my next charge would be $75. I think I bought into SmugMug at $40 (basic) about 10 years ago. But saw that last year was 55 and I received no notice about a 40% increase. That’s pretty steep.
Same concerns. Sadly, I think I've decided to cancel. Just way too expensive now.
Any tips for downloading everything in folders?
Here's my payment history. Seems like they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Any tips for downloading everything in folders?
Here's my payment history. Seems like they are shooting themselves in the foot.
| SUBSCRIPTION DATE | AMOUNT | RECEIPT |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-07-18 | $79.05 | RECEIPT |
| 2021-07-12 | $57.97 | RECEIPT |
| 2020-07-11 | $50.47 | RECEIPT |
| 2019-07-12 | $47.88 | RECEIPT |
| 2018-07-12 | $40.00 | RECEIPT |
| 2017-07-12 | $40.00 | RECEIPT |
| 2016-07-11 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2015-07-12 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2014-07-12 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2013-07-12 | $31.57 | RECEIPT |
| 2012-07-12 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2011-07-13 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2010-07-12 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2009-07-12 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2008-07-11 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2007-07-12 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2006-07-12 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2005-07-12 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2005-01-12 | $9.95 | RECEIPT |
| 2003-07-11 | $29.95 | RECEIPT |
Perhaps things have changed since Smug bought Flickr, but when that happened I believe they allowed Flickr users to have up to 999 photos at no cost. My memory may be faulty or did you violate some other rule?
definitely cancel if it doesn’t provide value you. but it’s unrealistic to think prices wouldn’t increase over the course of 20 years.
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I'm up for renewal and startled by the price increase also.. I did a 3-year plan last time and was oblivious to all the changes (price increases, removal of Basic plan, etc). When I first started it was $50/60 bucks a year, now it's $110. Isn't storage space supposed to get cheaper? Anyway, I'm curious about other host alternatives. Can anyone show me what Amazon Prime hosting site looks like? I just take pictures for fun and like to share it, ad-free, black background, ability to title and caption some photos
prime photos is definitely the way to go if you already have prime. I mostly just use it as a backup as they accept full raw, unlimited.
Thanks for the reminder. I have about 10 days left on a free trial of Prime, and at $100+/Year (CDN) it will be cancelled before the end of next week. Besides I really don't like the Bozo whose vault my money would be lining.
Overall I find Prime to be a mess, and more often than not if something does interest me, it usually turns out there is an extra charge.
As with @AlaskaMoose I don't sell or buy, just share some small images on line. Typically less than 2MB. DropBox works well for me as once you go to full screen it displays on a black background and lets the viewer easily scroll forwards or backwards through whatever folder(s) I choose to share with them. And it's free up to 2GB. After that it's as costly as the rest. Just avoid downloading the app. It's not required and can really confuse things.
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