Smug Mug or Flickr?

JayClark79 · Sep 26, 2009

Who uses what and why?

bcshort · Sep 26, 2009

I'm a flickr user myself.

One of the big draws for me to flickr is the large community & groups. It also has a free, and a pro option for a reasonable price. Knowing what I do now, the free version would probably see me fine.

Smugmug is more geared toward professional photographers and boasts tight integration with existing websites, and some decent ecommerce features. I have actually been toying for a quite a while with joining SmugMug.

Unfortunately the big turn off for me is Smugmug's cost. I'd want the pro account, and with the exchange rates as they are, I cannot justify paying close to $200 per year for the service without recieving any return on investment (sales).

What are you trying to achieve? If you just want to get your photos out there to show the world, flickr may be the better option. If you plan to sell any of your work though, you probably need to look at smugmug or other sites to achieve this.

JayClark79 · Sep 26, 2009

Flickr is much cheaper and I already have a pro account there... but like you said I guess smugmug is more for selling... even though their basic level is only alittle more then flickr but it does give you the option to sell...

I also like flickr for the groups just wish they had the option to sell

I was also wondering if flickr lowers the resolution where smugmug says they do not.

bcshort · Sep 26, 2009

I get the impression you are looking for a form of ecommerce? If so, you may wish to look at Redbubble. The do not have the same social community base as flickr or smugmug, but they are very well geared for ecommerce. I quite like the commission structure they provide (ie: theres a base price, and you specify your markup percentage).

Nice range of print options too.

However their Product Quality is as yet untested on my part. I have currently got one of my prints on order with them to see what it looks like. ETA is around 2 weeks on that. If it's any good, I'll stay with them, if not, then I wont

mooimeisie · Sep 26, 2009

Both. Flickr for fun and Smugmug for business. With the 50% coupon's on the web for Smugmug the cost for the first year isn't too bad. The real plus to Smugmug is being able to have your own domain name, which I think is a little more professional for business.

bcshort · Sep 26, 2009

I did forget to mention as well that smugmug can do some real tight integration with your existing website, from what I have heard too

Samanax · Sep 26, 2009

I use Flickr because it's the first photo hosting site I was introduced to. I stayed with Flickr because I'm strickly a hobbyiest and don't sell my photos. And I like the groups.

But my friends who do sell their photos use SmugMug and they all seem very happy with the service.

JayClark79 · Sep 26, 2009

Not that I feel i could sell any of my photos as of yet since im a newb... but we live over an hour from alot of family members and they'd like to maybe get some pictures of our son when they want... i will also be shooting a friends maternity shots for fun and since she lives over an hour away that smugmug could be a way of not only seeing them but also picking out any she might want... on flickr she could only see them and not order them im thinking.

Bitter Jeweler · Sep 26, 2009

You can select friends and family to have the ability to order prints from Flickr. I believe they can even go to Target to pic them up. That I have noticed, Flickr doesn't let you set prices to make money, so if you already have a Flickr Pro account, your family can order prints. You have to enable it.

JayClark79 · Sep 26, 2009

thanks for the tip bitter!

wet · Sep 26, 2009

I recently signed up to SmugMug because I get very good review from folks from this forum. Same idea, I want to put my pictures on the website for my family & friends to pick which pictures they would like to print.
The cost of their prints price is very reasonable & print quality is awesome. I checked the cost on Target, they uses the Kodak kiosk which will print good pictures but prices wise, is a more expensive for for 5"x7" (Target is ~$1.50 & SmuugMug is 0.75~). Both places, prices are comparable for 4"x6". I didn't do research for other prints size. Quality wise (for matte, glossy & glossy B&W), I test printed at both location, IMHO, SmugMug is really awesome if Target is good.
However you do have to pay annual fees for SmugMug.
I am not a pro but I do takes wedding/kid/family portrait pictures for the past years & I am really tired of having to burn DVDs & send them to my clients.
What made me switch to SmugMug is there is limit of 500M per month when downloading pictures to flickr (free account). This month, I accidentally downloaded high resolution files & quickly hit the limit. Was a chores for me to budget the downloading capacity per month for the past few months until I finally subscribed to SmugMug. Again, this is just my opinion.

jonny_pixel · Sep 28, 2009

If you are looking for the site to sell your photos, check out Fotki: Share and Print Your Photos | Fotki.com

Pro account is only $30 per year. That's for unlimited photo storage and photo selling.
They have the lowest photo print prices as well.

Foques · Sep 28, 2009

smug all the way.
Yeah, its pricier then Flickr, but boy does it work well.
I love it.

thenikonguy · Sep 28, 2009

with the coupon code Yahoo a smugmug pro account is only 75 bucks.. use the Yahoo code, an ANY smugmug service, be it pro or basic is 50% off for the first year.. REALLY good deal if you ask me..

I LOVE smug mug, I use it for all my clients.. in fact, just today I had 300 4x6's arrive in the mail from smug mug.. beautiful photos.. smug mug always does a great job on my prints.. and, if they do mess something up (never happened to me) they will fix it for free