Pictage.com or not

Hi everyone,

 

I have been using Pictage.com for about a year and have had a few issues with

them. My clients feel it is not user friendly and they have had difficulty

releasing their images. While I want to offer my clients online proofs I feel

the $99 a month may not be worth the benefit.

 

Are there others photographers out there that have used Pictage in the past but

switched to another platform. I have looked at Smugmug but feel it has a

consumer, not a professional look. If you have switched to Smugmug, do you

feel it was a wise choice?

 

Thanks.

 

Tim

I am currently using Pictage and once my event has expired I will be dropping them. I am

looking in to going to PickPic.com for the cart and whcc.com for prints. I have looked at

smugmug a little, but it doesn't look flexible enough for me, but that may just be me. I

want to be able to have complete control over the site and what the client sees. I don't

want my clients seeing anything other than my brand and name.

 

PickPic may sound a little expensive at first, but after that initial payment, you are not

paying anyone else again other than the overhead of products. Unlike pictage, where you

are paying them $99 a month and 15% commission on your sales.

 

Hope that helps,

Travis

You should keep your eyes on ProWedding Digilab. They're an Atlanta based outfit that is in the process of reprogramming and refinements to their user interface. I'd say that very soon, they will offer a product that will beat Pictage at their game for half what Pictage costs a year. Their print prices (to photographers) will be far better than what Pictage charges, too.

I was using Pictage two years ago and simply wasn't happy with their interface. It was not

as user friendly as I would have liked and several clients felt compelled to let me know

they did not enjoy their online proofing experience.

 

I left Pictage to use www.collages.net and have not looked back since. The interface is far

more customizable, their version of the pro plan is significantly less expensive that

Pictage and it looks very professional.

 

At the time I joined their only drawback is that they did not fulfill the orders for your

clients leaving you with the responsibility of ordering your own prints, shipping, etc.

That has since changed, they offer the option of fulfilling the order with either their lab or

the lab of your choice within the network of labs.

 

I get far more reprint orders now and could not be more pleased.

You can easily customize any Smugmug site. It takes a little time but when it's done it can look pretty nice. Definitely worth it!

I expressed interest in them (got their free mailer) and before the dvd set even arrived, they'd already emailed me a few times, and called me twice.

This was a pretty huge turn off for me.

 

I don't like being hard sold(/spammed) to.

Thanks everyone. You have all shown me some great sites. Looks like Pictage won't be getting my $99 a month.

I had a horrible experience with Pictage. Overcharged for things and had to fight for reimbursement even though they admitted charging me wrong. Site was not user friendly for me or my clients. Great idea but horrible execution.

Tim, I was with pictage for almost 2 years and had problem after problem - bad prints, spam,

no customer service, high fees, misbillings. I dropped them at the end of 07 and now use

digilabs - www.digilabs.net. It is working out very well for me and would recommend them to

anyone who doesn't specifically need to use pictage's willowbook outfit (which is just about

anyone...)

used digilabs, then switched to PickPic and whcc.com for printing.

I use Collages.net They kick pictage butt.Burrell Print it online is also nice and inexpensive.

The only area where Pictage has improved (that I've seen) is the client side of their user interface. Early this year, they changed to a new design which is FAR superior to the way it used to be. However, if a client is using Norton and popup blockers, they won't be able to see things correctly, which requires a call to tech support to figure out (you'd think Pictage would know to have clear directions on their site to help novice users with this).

 

They've sent me at least 3 short surveys in the last 6 months asking how they can improve things and whether I'd recommend them to other photographers (if not, why not). I've sent them detailed descriptions of why I would not, and I haven't really seen any major improvements (but haven't had major problems recently either). Their customer service is sadly lacking and photographer prices are too high for every product offering.

 

I use Meridian Pro for studio fulfillment work, which is very affordable and works very nicely.

Tim - I went with pictage for nearly two years and regret every dollar I spent with them.

 

customer service is slow and very confused. interface is annoying to use. they spam my customers with stupid emails.

 

smugmug can have a pretty good look if you take the time to customize it.

 

YES, smugmug is worth it. switching to smugmug was one of the best decisions I made that year!

 

check out my work at www.conraderb.com ->your wedding -> click on any photo and you can see how it looks.

You guys are great!