We often find many photographers who use WordPress to power their main websites, coupled with a 3rd party service like SmugMug, Zenfolio or PhotoShelter.
We, at Photocrati / NextGEN Gallery, feel that this is really due to poor education and potential some product scarastity from the WordPress community specific for photographers. Because with proper education and the right tools, photographers could do just about everything they do with the 3rd party services on their own WordPress website.
You don't need a 3rd party service, you need a WordPress solution
You need a solution coupled with the education to make sure you understand just how simple things can be.
You need a plugin that is designed for you, photographers with easy and powerful photo management, proofing and ecommerce. You need lab integration (guess what, we're working on that part!). Everything you need, as a photographer, exists at the moment. Except lab integration (for now).
But you also need the reliability from a hosting company. Servers that can deliver your site and photos at a fast speed with minimal or no downtime. I recently wrote about this on my blog. Learn about the NextGEN Gallery recommended hosts.
Squarespace vs WordPress
One thing we have heard in the past and present is how much Squarespace is easier. When you really think about that comment, you really need to look at the two platforms side-by-side. Yes Squarespace is easy and it's familiar and it has beautiful designs.
So is WordPress.
If you look at the Site Editor of Squarespace you might notice how similar it looks to the WordPress customizer, which is being adopted by more and more themes.
Themes like Divi and X are bridging the gap between the unfriendly and the friendly. The uncommon and the common.
Plugins like Aesop Story are adding similar storytelling layouts to any theme you choose, including the Photocrati Theme.
Front end editing is also coming to WordPress and already available through plugins.
You could even say WordPress is more flexible and powerful with plugins like Gravity Forms and APIs like the REST API all opening the doors to new and amazing things.
It's the open source licensing and developing and the ability to do nearly anything with a WordPress website that makes it so much more popular than Squarespace and other solutions.
But WordPress does come with maintenance, but that's where education and purchasing the right products come into play.
WordPress powers 25% of the Internet
That's a lot of websites!
In fact, NextGEN Gallery is helping to power 1.3 million websites.
And yet, so many photographers continue to mix website platforms, and to pay for hosting on top of additional fees and commissions.
At Photocrati / NextGEN Gallery we want to convince you that it's not necessary. We want to do this through education from us and our partners and customers.
That's why the rest of this article will contain comments from those who are as passionate about this concept as we are.
Full Control with WordPress
When explaining why to use NextGEN Pro and WordPress instead of SmugMug or SquareSpace I put it like this.
Do you want to have full control over the image you display online, with full access to everything and where you get to pick which printing company prints your photos. Or do you want someone else to control this for you?
With NextGEN Pro and WordPress you get to build a better relationship with your customer because they make contact with you about the prints they are ordering. Then you get to pick the best company to print them so you can build a better relationship with the printing company also.
And with WordPress you get the easiest to use and strongest SEO solution on the market with by far the best gallery software on any platform. I cannot recommend this enough.
Jake McCluskey, Shutter Click Adventures
On Your Terms
As a former long time SmugMug customer, who was quite happy with SmugMug for a long time, moving NextGEN Pro for my online galleries really was a “no-brainer.”
For years I was a happy SmugMug customer but there were always a couple limitations, that while not deal breakers for me, were things that I wished could have been better. The first was the real lack of support for self fulfillment for print orders and the other was that there was no graceful way to integrate my galleries under the same domain as my blog / primary website, I had to use two different domains and at best my site always seemed as though it was sort of “hacked” together.
NextGEN Pro solved both of these issues for me. The e-commerce functionality allows me to have 100% control over self fulfillment of my print orders, and while I might still use the same professional labs that I had integrated with SmugMug, I am not limited to those labs, nor am I limited to the products and print options that were integrated with my SmugMug account.
More importantly though, all of my galleries are now hosted on the same site, using the same domain as the rest of my online presence. It gives my site a cohesive look that simply wasn’t possible with my SmugMug account. When visitors click on an image from a blog post to see a larger version, they stay on my site instead of being directed to a different site that hosts the images.
Andy Hutchinson
17 Jun 2018Mostly agree with what you’re saying, but I think you overlook one fundamental reason that people use Zenfolio and SmugMug. It’s because they want to hand over the print fulfillment process to a third party entirely. They do not want to build a relationship with the printer, they want more time to be taking photographs and earning money. That’s certainly why I have a Zenfolio account and a WordPress website. Love your plugin though and keep on keeping on.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
18 Jun 2018Good thing our automated print fulfilment is almost complete 🙂
Eli Barry
27 Jun 2018This is exactly what I been searching for. I have recently received requests for prints from people on IG, so I was looking for a way to make my website fully automated, so someone can find a picture they like, click on it, pick a size, purchase, and have it automatically printed and sent to them without me having to do anything regarding the sale. How long would you estimate until this function is ready? Also, if I already have the complete lifetime package, will this be an added feature I have to pay separately for or is it fully included? Thanks!
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
28 Jun 2018It’s been a long project, due to the complexity of ensuring print lab integration can work in any environment that hosts a WordPress site. But we’re almost there. We don’t have an ETA as we never know what other curves will be thrown in our development road. We’re hoping real soon! For those with Lifetime, you don’t have to do anything. 🙂
Mahbub Khan
9 Jul 2018Been looking into using Photocrati having left Zenfolio. The print lab integration is a deal breaker for me so I’ll be watching with interest as to how this develops and to when it goes live.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
16 Jul 2018It’s coming along nicely!
Daniel Rodriguez
22 Jul 2018Any kind of waiting list that we can sign up to when print lab fulfillment is built in?
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
23 Jul 2018If you’re already a customer then you’ll know as soon as it drops. Otherwise, you can sign up for our newsletter here. https://www.imagely.com/subscribe/
Mandy Roberson
12 Oct 2018Is there an update on the print fulfillment? That’s the final piece necessary for a major client project we have in the works.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
15 Oct 2018We’re hoping to have a beta ready by November if all goes well.
Eric Pearson
13 Dec 2018Is there an update if your plugin is link with a photo lab. I believe you were trying to work with WHCC, is this true. I think nextgen is what I am looking for to sell my photography prints POD. I need this feature, or will have to find another avenue to sell.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
13 Dec 2018We are aiming for early 2019 to launch lab integration. It’s complete and we’re just in the final polishing stages.
Phil Morris
10 Jan 2019Hey Scott,
Just wanted to ask how the testing is going and if you have a date for the lab integration. .
Cheers,
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
10 Jan 2019Testing is going well. We’re just putting the final touches on it and our goal is to have it out for everyone February or no later than March. Keep your fingers crossed!
Edward Bacon
2 Jul 2019Has print lab integration been released yet?
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
3 Jul 2019Not yet, but we’re so close. We just finished the final internal beta testing stage and following the 7/4 holiday our plan is to offer a beta to customers and if all goes smooth, release in August. Fingers crossed!