Last Updated: August 14th, 2020
After using both Pic-Time and Pixieset to host online galleries for our photography clients, we’ve become really knowledgeable about the pros and cons of each. For this post, we’re going to put the two head-to-head in a showdown to help you decide which is right for you.
Please know – this post is not sponsored in any way. We are simply relaying our personal and professional experiences using these online galleries.
We are established portrait and wedding photographers, and use digital galleries to provide images for our paying clients – so this is a HUGELY important thing in our book. If you’ve landed at this page, you probably think it’s pretty important, too!
If you want more comprehensive looks at each online gallery platform, check out our Pixieset review and Pic-Time review for more.
Pic-Time vs. Pixieset – A Showdown
We want to preface this entire “showdown” by saying this: in very simple terms, both Pic-Time and Pixieset are solid online gallery services. We do not have anything overwhelmingly negative to say about either of them. While we will be choosing sides as we go through our list of essential features & things to consider, you’ll most likely love whichever you choose. We’re not just saying this to avoid stirring up trouble, but rather want to make it clear because our experiences with both have been positive on the whole.
Let’s begin!
Ease of Use
Both Pixieset and Pic-Time have easy to use systems to put together online galleries, promote print sales, and enable client engagement with their galleries through social share buttons, downloads, etc.
In practice, they are both very similar in many ways. Menus make sense and are easy to navigate as the photographer having to put things together on the backend.
Pic-Time does have a few minor hiccups that make things a little more difficult (but only slightly).
The 1st area is around uploads of files – which actually requires the download of a software that will have to run in the background on your computer when uploading images in bulk. As covered in our review, this is easily forgivable when you realize that this Pic-Time uploader extension allows for quicker uploads, the ability to load multiple folders of images into the Pic-Time gallery at once, and can even run in the background when your browser is closed. Still, this is a little confusing for first timers when compared to Pixieset’s more streamlined offering.
The 2nd challenge area is in how Pic-Time coupons and free product offerings work. On the surface, it’s very easy to use if you want to send out coupons in bulk to clients (and their gallery guests). Putting together a free product coupon, which is something we commonly need to do because some of our wedding packages include a free photo album, requires a little more effort to make sure you’re clicking the right sequence of buttons. We’ve stressed out a number of times because it felt unclear if we were doing exactly what we wanted (or mistakenly sending out a free product coupon to a bunch of people). While we never actually did that and have grown used to the system, it’s still worth noting.
Winner: Pixieset
Client Galleries
The “bread and butter” of both Pic-Time and Pixieset is their online galleries – and neither of them disappoint.
The actual interface that our clients will be interacting with is very similar on the whole. Both include a featured image at the top and can be customized to display images in different grids and arrangements.
In our experience using both platforms to provide galleries to clients, we never received any complaints. Our clients have actually expressed loving both at different points in our photography career.
With this said – Pic-Time wins out over Pixieset in this department only because of the storefront included in the online gallery. While this is technically another feature area, it’s hard to ignore as both platforms have the storefronts built right into the galleries.
Winner: Pic-Time
Storage Capabilities
Pic-Time and Pixieset both offer plans that range from a small amount of storage to unlimited storage.
At the time we moved over to Pic-Time, we had actually gone with them because they were the only one to offer an unlimited storage plan – however, since then, Pixieset upgraded their Advanced plan to no longer have capped storage.
As successful photographers hosting A LOT of online galleries for our clients, we love that we never run out of storage. This was a problem for us as we took on more-and-more clients, and had to update our plans a few times because of this.
The best thing about this is it allows you to not only store images for your clients to access, but the online galleries also serve as a cloud backup of your JPEG image files. We often go into our older galleries to download photos to share on Instagram and other places around the net.
With that said – you shouldn’t view any online gallery as the only source for backing up files. Even if you’ve delivered a gallery already, it’s always good to have a good backup hard drive with the original image files just in case.
Winner: Tie
Online Store
Pic-Time’s storefront:
Pixieset’s Storefront:
Pixieset offers a very streamlined view of the available products. A client can easily order prints, canvases, and similar physical products from their gallery.
Unfortunately, Pixieset makes it very difficult to offer albums – something that we consider really essential as wedding photographers. The only way to do this is by setting up self-fulfillment for these orders, and integrating albums with a lot of options (like colors, sizing, etc.) is difficult to do. While Pixieset’s store is serviceable and okay for print sales, it is really lacking in showcasing what the products look like and in providing an easy solution for albums.
Our main reason for moving off of Pixieset to Pic-Time was the storefront. Where Pixieset is lacking, Pic-Time really excels.
The Pic-Time store is integrated cleanly in the online gallery. Similar to Pixieset, you can offer a wide range of physical products such as prints, canvases, etc. The best feature is the ability for clients to create their own photo albums in the built in designer. Hands down, this has really benefited our photography business by saving us a lot of time. Literally – hours of our lives was given back by this simple tool.
If your business focus is to start moving more prints & albums, Pic-Time is definitely the way to go.
Winner: Pic-Time
Pricing
Pic-Time pricing and Pixieset pricing are very similar, but Pic-Time is the more affordable option.
You can view both of their pricing structures in the images below:
Pixieset Pricing:
Pic-Time Pricing:
Let it be known – paying a lower price for something doesn’t necessarily make it better. There are plenty of photography business services we spend a little more on for a better service. But, being realistic, we like to save money when it makes sense. For us, Pic-Time offers a little more value (thanks heavily to it’s storefront) and costs less per month.
For those of you who just want to check out both galleries, Pic-Time also offers a better free service – allowing you 20GB of storage vs. Pixieset’s free plan which only includes 3GB of storage.
For reference – in 2017 we started out using Pixieset’s free plan and upgraded to their Pro plan as our business needs grew (ie: we had more clients and galleries to host!). In 2019, we switched to Pic-Time, first starting with a Free plan to get a feel for things, then purchasing their Advanced plan to keep up with our client needs.
Winner: Pic-Time
Customer Service
We have had to use customer service through both Pic-Time and Pixieset to help address questions and small concerns (such as product shipping errors). In our experience, the customer service for each was very effective – responding in a very timely fashion to resolve our problems.
As we’ve seen in other sections up to this point, Pic-Time also wins in this department for a seemingly small difference – Pic-Time offers support through a live IM chat (in addition to email and a FAQ). This means problems that need to be addressed with Pic-Time are handled much quicker (we took up a problem with them and had a resolution in about 15 minutes). Pixieset only has a FAQ and email support – which, again, was very prompt to respond, but will never be that quick.
Winner: Pic-Time
Client Experience
At the end of the day, we are all about the client experience.
No online gallery is worth it if clients find it hard to use or are complaining.
The good news in this Pixieset vs. Pic-Time comparison post is: both are great in this department. The amount of positive feedback we’ve heard from clients has been really excellent!
After really reviewing the features available for clients to use and interact with their galleries, we have to say Pixieset is a little better in this department. There are 2 main reasons for this:
1). Pixieset allows clients to create Favorite Image Lists.
The one feature we were sad to let go of when we moved away from Pixieset was the ability for our clients to make their own Favorite’s Lists. While Pic-Time users can mark images as favorites and sort to see them, Pixieset allows clients to make multiple lists. In reality, we saw a few clients lists look something like this:
- Favorite Images
- Photos to Print
- Pics for Mom & Dad
- Photos for Touchups
- Pics to Send to College Friends
Thinking of it from the clients POV – if they’re looking at a wedding gallery of 800 photos, having the ability to quickly sort pictures for easy reference later (or to send out to friends & family) is really great.
2). Pixieset offers a Mobile Gallery App.
Pixieset also has a Mobile App that makes the online gallery more accessible on phones & tablets. The interface is pretty great here.
With this said, it should be noted, clients and photographers alike can still view image galleries on their mobile devices through their regular internet browser. It’s not as sleek as the app, but it’s still more than serviceable.
Winner: Pixieset
Overall Impression
Pic-Time and Pixieset offer similar services. It’s in the details that you will find which online gallery is right for you.
For us, we moved over to Pic-Time because we needed a better storefront. Having to produce 15-20 wedding photo albums for our clients ourselves is extremely tedious and time consuming. With Pic-Time, the built in photo album creator allows our clients to have control over this process, and gives us our lives back. Given most other features of Pic-Time are at least comparable to the quality Pixieset has to offer, and yet it’s still cheaper – it’s a no brainer for us that Pic-Time is the clear winner here.
Overall Winner: Pic-Time