Hosted Client Gallery

I'm wondering what people typically use for hosting media (gallery software) after a shoot.

I've recently developed a new web application and am looking for beta testers as well as info on what is in the market.

Feel free to post comments and/or questions.

Joshua

There's got to be at least two dozen different solutions, paid and free. Some host and print for you, some just host, some take orders. I use eos template, which is fine, but a bit clunky. I'd rather use this one.

What will yours do better than what others do?

I like free JAlbum.net - It will build excellent galleries & now has free hosting, too. A few skins incorporate shopping cart features & some of those aren't free. It even has a very active user forum.
http://jalbum.net/host​ing/

Purplenova now allows JAlbum and Picasa photo album hosting directly from the desktop. Take a look at www.mypurplenova.net

PhotosGuy,
We're planning on offering a hosted and managed gallery portal. The application is more geared toward sharing photography sessions with the intended users only. It offers some decent branding abilities, storage of originals, custom water marks on upload, multiple administrators, yourowndomain.com (or 3rd level off ours), unlimited clients and that's just to name a few.

I'm on here to find out what photographers in the industry are actually using and also to see if I can grab a few beta testers to provide feedback on the service.

We've built a significant amount of functionality but need some info from our target audience to determine the road map for future releases.

You're unlikely to get beta testers unless you can tell us what's different about your solution. Is it better? Is it cheaper? Everything you've named is standard.

Tim,
You're absolutely right but at the same time the product is not in it's final stage. We would like to drive our development road map with people in our target audience. We do offer most standard features and we do want people test the service. What we really want is for users to give us feedback on how we can make this better than other services out there.

Obviously there is no charge to beta test our service but rather we are offering a small incentive. A free 12 month subscription will be given to each participating beta tester.

Ultimately what I'm asking is to try out our service and tell us what you think would make it better than the current options.

Joshua N. Vautour

With all due respect, orbitshare, what you are in fact asking is for people to develop your software for you. The onus, as the developer of this software, is on you to research the competition, their software functionality, why people choose that software, etc. A beta tester normally reports bugs or minor alterations they feel should be made to enhance the usability of the software, not come up with completely new functions that should be available. The developers innovate, the testers, well, they test! Im not being harsh or flippant but I personally wouldnt try out software that could potentionally have bugs that may make my life difficult, especially if im using it for business purposes UNLESS it does something so completely unique that its worth the risk. It'll be difficult getting beta testers for the software if indeed your target audience are those who would be using it as it is intended; on a semi-professional to professional level. You need funtionality to sell it even at the beta stage. Like I said, no offence intended at all its just how I see it from my point of view.

EDIT: Just to clarify, im not saying there would be any bugs but itll be difficult to persuade people to try out something new when the functionality is equivalent to something already tried and tested.

conkeroo,
I can understand where you're coming from and appreciate you point. We are not just another smugmug or flickr, we do have some distinguising features. I just don't want to cross the line and come off as selling this service on my posts.
A major feature that differinciates us from the competition is that we're not just a web gallery site, but instead we let you become one as well. We provide an administrative intervace to manage you clients and their photos rather than just sharing an album in your personal gallery. This service is completely geared toward a professional photographer and not suited for someone looking to host their portfolio. Through our service you can actually extend the hosted gallery into a full service photo gallery to the client (IE they can use your branded service instead of Flickr).

We also boast a few other unique features but this is our greatest distinguishing feature.

orbitshare,
Take myself for example, im looking to sell prints online but I dont like the current options available. Would your software suit that? And is there GUI customisation?

conkeroo,
It depends if you're looking to take orders or actually fulfill them too. Our next release (Scheduled for next month) will have a shopping cart that can be turned on / off through your admin interface but it only offers basic shopping cart support. The photo printing is on our roadmap but currently not associated with a release. The scheduled release will be determined by client demand.

We do currently offer a few GUI customizations through the admin panel and also allow custom CSS. The layout is clean and simple making it quick and easy to impliment new designs.


Joshua