Another website question.Prophoto4, zenfolio, smumug or ...?Which shall I choose?

Hi everyone,

I am here in the UK and I really want a website. I like the idea of prohoto4 and their templates. You can customize it quite a lot and very often they come as layered psd files so there is a lot of room to play. For prophoto I would need a domain+hosting=goDaddy​.
Do I need my own domain and hosting with zenfolio or smumug?
Why would you choose zenfolio/smugmug over prophoto4?
And last but not least how long did it take you to set up your own website?

Thanks for replies

I don't have any knowledge of prohoto4 but going by what you mentioned:

I have had both Sumgmug and Zenfolio -
I use Zenfolio currently, but only for the gallery portion and I do use the partnership they have with Mpix for prints for my customers. My main page is something I created and host on a separate domain, but one would never know the difference, as I made the gallery pages in Zenfilio to match my theme on my separate main page.

No, you do not have to have a separate domain for either Sumgmug or Zenfolio and they too have templates that you can use to create a main page as well as make matching galleries. You can have a separate domain name and point that to your Zenfolio (again no one would know the difference) or as I have, point your gallery links from your main page to the Zen galleries themselves.

If you were to just use the Zenfolio templates and not have a separate main page and domain, depending on how picky you are with your own work, have it done in a matter of minutes. When I first did the trial, I had it set up in just a few minutes. This of course, not including the photo upload times.

See Joey Ricard Photography

I like Smugmug myself, but I have never used the other sites you mentioned. I matched a Wordpress install with my Smugmug account.

My Site

ProPhoto is basically a wordpress template+plugin that allows you to customize your site as little or as much as you want. If you want the 100% flexibility, then this is the way to go.

I've personally not used either SmugMug or Zenfolio but looking at their features, it does look like both services allow you to customize your site (depending on the service package) but not allow you to bring your own design. Although, it looks like SmugMug allows you to hire one of their approved designers if you want to have a completely unique look.

I tried both Zenfolio and Smugmug (they both offer free trial periods), and chose to stay with Zenfolio. I have no programming capabilities, and it was a lot easier for me to get a site I liked with Zenfolio than with Smugmug. Basic customization is very easy. It took me no more than an hour to set up a satisfactory structure, using one of the Zenfolio templates but putting in my own custom headings and pages. It's a very intuitive process, even for computer illiterates like me. I've also been pleased with their customer service - very quick and thorough.

aIpha wrote in post #13472293
I've personally not used either SmugMug or Zenfolio but looking at their features, it does look like both services allow you to customize your site (depending on the service package) but not allow you to bring your own design. Although, it looks like SmugMug allows you to hire one of their approved designers if you want to have a completely unique look.

Smugmug lets you customize the site all you want and if you have the knowledge there is no need to hire anyone. I customized almost everything on mattmcguire.com myself.

mmcguire wrote in post #13475459
Smugmug lets you customize the site all you want and if you have the knowledge there is no need to hire anyone. I customized almost everything on mattmcguire.com myself.

Your site is setup a little different. You have your TLD hosted at WiredTree running wordpress then you have a subdomain pointed to SmugMug to take advantage of their photo gallery. Or at least that is what it looks like.

SmugMug's site does say this:

I just wasn't sure why designs needed to be "approved" by SmugMug to be used with their service.

aIpha wrote in post #13477864
Your site is setup a little different. You have your TLD hosted at WiredTree running wordpress then you have a subdomain pointed to SmugMug to take advantage of their photo gallery. Or at least that is what it looks like.

SmugMug's site does say this:

I just wasn't sure why designs needed to be "approved" by SmugMug to be used with their service.

You don't have to. A 'Smugmug-Approved Designer' knows how to customize a Smugmug site, for a price. Your basically hiring a web designer that specializes on Smugmug sites.

Hikin Mike wrote in post #13477957
You don't have to. A 'Smugmug-Approved Designer' knows how to customize a Smugmug site, for a price. Your basically hiring a web designer that specializes on Smugmug sites.

Ah I gotcha. So the designer must understand SmugMug's framework. Sort of like designers that specialize in designing sites for wordpress. Makes sense.

aIpha wrote in post #13477986
Ah I gotcha. So the designer must understand SmugMug's framework. Sort of like designers that specialize in designing sites for wordpress. Makes sense.

Yep. I believe an approved designer can modify a few things (like removing the stock footer) that a regular user can't.

Hikin Mike wrote in post #13478006
Yep. I believe an approved designer can modify a few things (like removing the stock footer) that a regular user can't.

Any regular user can do anything a smugmug approved designer can. I removed the stock footer on mine.

All you need is a knowledge of CSS+ and you can do pretty much anything you want to. The approved designers are just a list of people smugmug trust, who cahrge you a premium to do it (think they were charging $400-500 for a custom site last time I looked). It's easy to go that route, tell them what you want and wait a week with no work, but nothing you can't figure out yourself.

I got my site about 90% of the way done just following simple tutorials on dgrinn.com, then the rest was a feq ebooks and google searches.

Marlfox wrote in post #13478029
Any regular user can do anything a smugmug approved designer can. I removed the stock footer on mine.

All you need is a knowledge of CSS+ and you can do pretty much anything you want to. The approved designers are just a list of people smugmug trust, who cahrge you a premium to do it (think they were charging $400-500 for a custom site last time I looked). It's easy to go that route, tell them what you want and wait a week with no work, but nothing you can't figure out yourself.

I got my site about 90% of the way done just following simple tutorials on dgrinn.com, then the rest was a feq ebooks and google searches.

I thought that was against the "rules". I don't have it on my SM site because it was grandfathered in.

EDIT: Read this: http://www.dgrin.com/s​howthread.php?t=58528

Hikin Mike wrote in post #13478060
I thought that was against the "rules". I don't have it on my SM site because it was grandfathered in.

EDIT: Read this: http://www.dgrin.com/s​howthread.php?t=58528

I stand corrected....never read that before.

*runs off to delete some code*

Check out 22slides. I made my site with it.
www.22slides.com

I was going to recommend 22slides.com as well. I recently set up a Zenfolio account, a week ago but must say I am not impressed. I went with the premium and to be honest its just not for me. I have designed my own site before / not foto related. I find Zenfolio a little primitive in terms ofhow the feature set works. I will ask for a refund and go with 22slides.com. It just has a very simple and minimalistic apoproach but comes off more refined for some reason. Its probably just me tho. Also 22 slides cost a wee bit more.