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Author Topic: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?  (Read 6900 times)

Colorado David

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Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« on: May 24, 2014, 12:26:19 am »

And why?  Thanks.

john beardsworth

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2014, 04:05:03 am »

You might want to describe your needs and help people give you an appropriate answer. Both are good services.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2014, 08:33:05 am »

I gave up on Photoshelter as it doesn't seem to have a stable, working solution for posting in forums like this. Their support was useless, kept asking me for more info, in spite of several emails with detail explanations and screen shots. Certain links remain dead months after I warned them. Basically, if I wanted to post here, in this forum, an image hosted there, it offered a limited functionality (compared to, say, Flickr), and it would work only the first time. Next time I would visit my post, there would be a message "this image not available" or similar. It seems to me they are disproportionally better in promoting themselves than in making it actually work.

Colorado David

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2014, 09:09:36 am »

Thank you Slobodan.  That is exactly the kind of response I'm seeking; a quick impression of how the sites work for users.

dseelig

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2014, 10:45:14 pm »

HI Never dealt with Zen but Ihave a photo shelter account. I never used email but phone support is great. Always helpful.
David
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rgs

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2014, 04:38:07 pm »

If you are looking for an online ordering site, look into ShootProof. Just a simple subscription based on the number of files to be hosted (the smallest one is free) along with credit card and lab fees with orders. No commissions!! Integrates nicely with your own site and customers navigate it easily. Both my Myrsphoto site and my Singular Image site integrate with ShootProof.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2014, 04:39:48 pm by rgs »
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fotagf8

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2014, 08:46:41 pm »

I have both a photoshelter and zenfolio account.  I use photoshelter for sales--at least that is where i am headed with it--and zenfolio to display my photos. 

Photoshelter  Pluses:  I like the web interface better than zenfolio
                                I linked my tumblr blog to my photoshelter account so the blog also shows up on my photoshelter site.
                                 My impression is that photoshelter's print fulfillment quality is better, but that is only an impression.
                                 I called tech support multiple times when building my site.  They were always responsive.  On the other hand and the reason I made so many calls: The online help system is abysmal. I never understand why companies don't do a better job with the help system.  It reduces the need for people answering the phone.

                    Cons:  Photoshelter does not currently make it obvious enough that the photos are for sale--you have to click an icon that is not obvious a sales link.  They have received complaints from others about that and I am told by people who answer the phone that in the next few weeks they are going to role out improvements that highlight purchase opportunities.

Zenfolio.  The best thing Zenfolio has is an app that you can put on your iPad.  You can download all your photos that are online to your iPad (it is an automated process once you install the app) and show the galleries and slideshows without an internet connection.  Very helpful for showing your portfolio.  Photoshelter has nothing like this.  You need to connect to the internet

Zenfolio also displays or makes available EXIF (or whatever the initials are for your camera metadata).  Photoshelter keeps track of it, but doesn't display it to site visitors.  I have had a number of my visitors to Photoshelter ask about the EXIF data.
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Codger

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2014, 02:02:44 pm »

Last autumn I determined I needed a better, more flexible site and spent six weeks corresponding with owners of sites I admired.  It was easy to conclude that Zenfolio and Photoshelter would be in the mix, but I was surprised when my final choice was Smugmug.  There are lots of good sites in their client list and the design options displayed among them was the clincher for me.  I'm glad I made the choice: their support to me has been first rate: patient, clear, effective.  Your needs with your buyers may be different than mine, so you may end up somewhere else, but for what I do, I'm satisfied --  for now.  Maybe in a couple of years I'll be ready for an update, but I'll still consider them a serious contender.   [ larryjohnsonphotography.com ]
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2014, 04:03:44 pm »

While I don't consider myself a professional, I have had the need to sell photos for charity events and have found Zenfolio to be very good for this purpose. Getting the site set up was a bit frustrating initially, but once you understand it, it is quite easy to use. Here are the features I like for selling:

- multiple price lists, customize-able and select-able by gallery (folder)
- multiple printer fulfillment options as well as a good selection of mugs, shirts and other items
- sign in option with email capture
- site activity notification in real time or by summary
- comprehensive activity reports and customer tracking details
- coupon / discount code generation

The more I use the advanced features of Zenfolio, the better I like the site. It is well thought out and far more sophisticated than I realized when I signed up. 
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benchdog

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2014, 10:38:40 pm »

I recently made Photoshelter my choice to host my website because I wanted a solution that was simple for me to use, good documentation, good support, feature pack and a site that will showcase my work.

I was able to build my site with no calls to support. I did have a couple questions about features I would like to see, one of them was about the shopping cart which now has been rolled out on a couple of the templates and another call about a bug I found.  They reached out to me to set up one on one training for an hour and I still have one 1/2 hour session coming. They shared several good tips on design and organization of my site and suggested a couple good changes. They are a bit pricey but I find most things worth having are a bit pricey.

What I don't like is the self-fulfillment and shipping eCommerce way to much work to setup but the majority of their users don't self-fulfill or ship, I do.

I highly recommend, hopefully this helps
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SecondFocus

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2014, 08:21:33 pm »

I have been using PhotoShelter pretty close to when they started in business. It is my off-site storage for archived, indexed images. It is my method for controlled delivery and storage of images for clients. It is my display for images made available by request. I use it over and over every week. Just yesterday I made images available to three different clients using galleries and download in PhotoShelter. I can track if they checked in and looked at them, what they downloaded and who logged in. I also use PhotoShelter for all of my license sales.

In all of these years, I have never had a failure of any kind with them. And I have never had anything but prompt and compete support by e-mail or telephone.
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JohnBrew

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2014, 08:48:56 pm »

I've been a Zenfolio client for over five years now and am quite pleased.

Deardorff

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #12 on: July 04, 2014, 10:25:11 am »

Zenfolio has NO phone support at all. Issues that should take 5 minutes on the phone with some walking you through a glitch take an hour and more, sometimes over two or three days of emailing back and forth.

Got where clients would try to order and the site would not let them. Zenfolio never got that figured out.
Nice layouts but not really too user friendly - especially when one isn't that good with computers to begin with.

Finally got so bad I removed all from the account and am letting it lapse when the time runs out.
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douglevy

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Re: Photoshelter or Zenfolio?
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2014, 11:31:43 am »

I use both. Zenfolio for jpeg archival and print sales and photoshelter for my non wedding site. I have almost 80k images and 500gb online with them, and I've found zen's customer service to be lacking (no phone support, slow e-mail support) and Photoshelter's twitter and email support nearly immediate. Zen's great for selling and makes it super easy, but I didn't love the slightly campy looking design options. For my non wedding work (http://www.douglaslevy.com) I find Photoshelter to be perfect. I just needed a portfolio solution that worked on all platforms (mobile, tablets) to show off my images with a quick setup, good seo and an easy backend. Image delivery via e-mail links to clients is a bonus.

-Doug
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