Smugmug Vs Flickr
As you grow from entry level photographer to hobbyist and above (amateur, professional etc), you will start to ask yourself one simple question. “What is the best way to manage and share my pictures?”.
There are plenty of photo sharing services available (go ahead and google “photo sharing services”), but for the sake of clarity I’ll limit to two services I use. They are namely Flickr and Smugmug.
Disclaimer: At the end of the day the choice is based on the individual needs and likes, hence this article is from my humble opinion. I hope it helps some individuals to make a suitable choice for their needs.
| Smugmug (Pro) | Flickr (Pro) | |
| Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Custom Domain | Yes | No |
| Custom Watermark | Yes | No |
| Restrict viewing of pictures beyond a certain size | Yes | No – it is all or nothing proposition. If public can view the pic, then they can view it in all sizes |
| Organization | Albums and Categories | Picture Sets |
| Printing | Yes – you can specify your own markup | Yes – but you don’t get to make profit |
| Community | Yes | Yes – but flickr has better community support to review and comment on your pictures |
| Password Protected albums | Yes | No |
| Custom homepage | Yes | No |
| Price | 150 per year | 25 per year |
Basically you get what you pay for, Smugmug is expensive but it is also empowers you to create your own portfolio with your desired look and feel. There are plenty of templates available at your disposal.
Update: as one of the readers pointed out, there are other tiers of pricing available with smugmug with unlimited uploads feature. But this comparison is between each service’s top tier offerings.
The customer support personnel for smugmug is excellent, the response is lighting quick. I had a very positive experience so far. I use smugmug to showcase my photography portfolio.
I use Flickr mostly as a discussion tool to have my friends and friends from different photography forum to critic and comment on certain pics.
To sign up for smugmug click here
To sign up for flickr click here
Click here for my Smugmug portfolio
Click here for my flickr page