SmugMug vs GalleryLink (2026): An Honest Comparison for Client Galleries
SmugMug vs GalleryLink compared feature by feature: storage, client delivery, favourites, print sales, websites, video and apps, with SmugMug's 2026 plans ($20 to $37 a month billed yearly), GalleryLink's ($5 a month or $50 a year), yearly costs by the way you work, and when each is the better choice.
Short answer
SmugMug is the better choice if you want unlimited storage for your whole archive, a full portfolio website and print sales, from $20 a month billed yearly ($240 a year). GalleryLink is the better choice if your main job is delivering client galleries, especially from Google Drive: Pro is $5 a month or $50 a year for unlimited galleries, with favourites, passwords and your own studio page. Prices as of October 2026.
SmugMug and GalleryLink both put a photographer's work in front of clients, but they start from opposite ends. SmugMug wants to be the permanent home for every photo you have ever taken, with a website and a print store on top. GalleryLink is built for one job: getting a finished shoot to a client quickly, in a gallery that looks like you, usually straight from the Google Drive folder you already deliver from.
Which one is right depends far more on what you do after a shoot than on any single feature. This comparison goes through both honestly, including where SmugMug is the better choice. Prices are from each company's own pricing page, as of October 2026.
- The short answer
- At a glance
- What SmugMug is built for
- What SmugMug costs in 2026
- What GalleryLink is built for
- What GalleryLink costs in 2026
- Feature by feature
- What a year costs, by the way you work
- When SmugMug is the better choice
- When GalleryLink is the better choice
- Moving from SmugMug without losing anything
The short answer
Choose SmugMug if you want one place to store your entire archive with no storage limit, a full portfolio website, and print and download sales with lab fulfilment. It starts at $20 a month billed yearly ($240 a year), and selling starts on Portfolio at $23.50 a month. Choose GalleryLink if your main job is delivering galleries to clients, especially if your edited photos already go to Google Drive: Pro is $5 a month or $50 a year for unlimited galleries, and Drive-linked galleries don't count against any storage at all.
At a glance
| SmugMug | GalleryLink | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Storing everything, a portfolio site, selling prints | Delivering client galleries fast |
| Cheapest paid plan | $20/mo billed yearly ($240/yr) | $5/mo, or $50/yr |
| Free option | 14-day trial, no free plan | Build a gallery free; share it free for 24 hours |
| Storage | Unlimited photos on every plan; RAW is an add-on | Drive-linked galleries use your Google storage (no limit from us); 10 GB of uploads on Pro, 250 GB on Studio |
| Where photos live | Uploaded to SmugMug | Your Google Drive folder, or uploaded to GalleryLink |
| Print and download sales | Yes, from Portfolio ($23.50/mo) | No |
| Client favourites | Pro plan ($37/mo) | Pro ($5/mo): favourites and album selection |
| Password-protected galleries | Yes | Yes (Pro) |
| Website | Portfolio website with templates | Studio page at yourname.gallerylink.live or your own domain (Pro) |
| Lightroom plugin, desktop uploader, mobile apps | Yes | No (galleries can be added to a phone's home screen) |
What SmugMug is built for
SmugMug has hosted photographers' work for two decades, and its long-term users stay for good reasons. Its features page groups what it does into five promises, and they describe the product well:
- Unlimited photo storage. Every plan stores unlimited full-resolution photos, with organising tools and a library view. RAW files can be stored too, as an add-on: up to 1 TB for $10 a month, then $6 a month per extra terabyte.
- Client galleries. Private galleries, photo selection and favouriting, a client dashboard, and a print satisfaction guarantee.
- Selling. Prints, downloads and gifts, with full-service order fulfilment, profit margins you set, and on Pro, multiple price lists, coupons and packages.
- Apps and workflow. Automatic uploads from Mac and Windows, Lightroom and Luminar plugins, iOS and Android apps, and imports from Flickr and Dropbox.
- Privacy and security. Personal watermarks, right-click protection, password-protected galleries and visibility settings.
If you shoot a lot, sell prints, and want one service that holds your whole career, that combination is hard to beat. You never think about storage again.
What SmugMug costs in 2026
From SmugMug's plans page, as of October 2026. All three self-serve plans are priced per month and billed annually, and each comes with a 14-day free trial. There is no free plan.
| Plan | Price | Per year | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | $20/mo, billed annually | $240 | Unlimited storage, client galleries and digital delivery |
| Portfolio | $23.50/mo, billed annually | $282 | Print and download sales with fulfilment, website templates |
| Pro | $37/mo, billed annually | $444 | Multiple price lists, coupons, packages, client favouriting, download limits |
| Enterprise | On request | On request | For studios and institutions |
Two things to know. SmugMug's terms describe a commission on sales through its selling programme; independent reviews put it at 15% of your markup, so check the current figure in your account before pricing. And per SmugMug's video guidelines, each video can be up to 20 minutes and 3 GB.
What GalleryLink is built for
GalleryLink does less, on purpose. It assumes you already have your edited photos somewhere, usually a Google Drive folder you were about to share with the client, and turns that folder into a gallery your client actually enjoys opening. Paste the folder link, choose a look, and send. Subfolders become sections, and when you add or replace photos in Drive, the gallery updates within about a minute.
- No second copy of your photos. A Drive-linked gallery reads the folder you already have, so it uses none of our storage and there's no upload step. If you prefer, you can upload directly instead.
- Delivery tools clients use. Favourites and album selection, ZIP downloads, password protection, gallery stats (views, downloads and unique visitors), an optional email before downloads, and a closing date for the gallery.
- A gallery that looks like you. Every theme and layout on Pro, plus custom styles you describe in words or design from a reference image, your own colours and fonts, and no GalleryLink branding.
- A studio page. Pro includes a studio website at yourname.gallerylink.live, or on your own domain, with an inquiry form, plus a link-in-bio page.
- Events. A guest photo wall and a live slideshow for the venue screen.
What GalleryLink costs in 2026
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, no card | Build one gallery and share it free for 24 hours (with a small "Made with GalleryLink" badge) |
| Pro | $5/mo, or $50/yr | Unlimited galleries, unlimited Drive-linked galleries, 10 GB of uploads, studio page and custom domain, passwords, favourites, stats, every theme, no branding |
| Studio | $15/mo, or $150/yr | Everything in Pro, plus 250 GB of uploads, ZIP downloads for uploaded galleries, print-ready PDF export, watermarks on previews, one-click Drive-to-hosted import and video hosting |
There are no sales commissions because there are no sales: GalleryLink doesn't sell prints. Client views and downloads are unlimited on every plan.
Feature by feature
Storage
SmugMug wins outright if you want to keep everything in one place. Unlimited photos on every plan is a genuine advantage, and RAW storage is available as an add-on. GalleryLink takes a different view: if your photos already sit in Google Drive, storing them again is the cost you're trying to avoid. Drive-linked galleries have no storage cap from us. Uploads are capped by plan (10 GB on Pro, 250 GB on Studio), with up to 2 GB per file on Pro and 5 GB on Studio.
Delivering to clients
Both do private, password-protected galleries well. The differences are in setup and price. On SmugMug, you upload the shoot and arrange it into a gallery. On GalleryLink, you paste a Drive folder link and the gallery exists. Client favouriting is on SmugMug's Pro plan at $37 a month; on GalleryLink it is part of Pro at $5 a month, along with album selection and a Client picks page that lists what each client chose.
Selling prints and downloads
This is SmugMug's biggest advantage, and GalleryLink doesn't compete with it. SmugMug sells prints, downloads and gifts with fulfilment handled for you, from the Portfolio plan. If print sales are a meaningful part of your income, that alone can justify SmugMug.
Your website
SmugMug's portfolio sites are fuller, with templates built for showing a large body of work. GalleryLink's studio page is lighter: your galleries, services, testimonials, an inquiry form and links, at a gallerylink.live address or your own domain. It suits a photographer who wants a clean, quick page rather than a large portfolio.
Protecting your photos
SmugMug offers watermarks, right-click protection, passwords and visibility controls. GalleryLink has passwords on Pro, download controls on every gallery, and watermarks on previews of uploaded galleries on Studio.
Video
SmugMug accepts videos up to 20 minutes and 3 GB each. GalleryLink plays videos from a Drive folder in the gallery, and Studio hosts uploaded videos up to 5 GB per file with streaming playback.
Workflow and apps
SmugMug is ahead here: Lightroom and Luminar plugins, automatic desktop uploads and native mobile apps. GalleryLink's workflow is whatever already puts your photos in Drive (including Lightroom exports to a synced folder), and galleries can be added to a phone's home screen like an app, but there are no plugins or native apps.
What a year costs, by the way you work
| How you work | SmugMug | GalleryLink |
|---|---|---|
| Deliver 20 to 50 galleries a year from Google Drive, no print sales | Direct: $240 | Pro: $50 |
| Deliver, with clients choosing favourites for albums | Pro (favouriting): $444 | Pro: $50 |
| Host a few hundred GB of uploads, no Drive | Direct: $240 | Studio: $150 (250 GB) |
| Sell prints and downloads | Portfolio: $282, plus SmugMug's commission | Not offered |
| Store a lifetime archive in one place | Direct: $240 (RAW extra) | Not designed for this |
When SmugMug is the better choice
- You sell prints, downloads or gifts, and want fulfilment handled.
- You want one permanent home for your whole archive, with no storage decisions, ever.
- You rely on a Lightroom plugin or automatic desktop uploads.
- You want a full portfolio website as much as client galleries.
When GalleryLink is the better choice
- Your edited photos already go to Google Drive, and you'd rather not upload every shoot twice.
- Delivery is the job: you want a beautiful gallery in front of the client within minutes of finishing the edit.
- You want favourites, album selection, passwords and stats without paying $444 a year.
- You'd like to try it on a real client before paying anything.
Some photographers use both: SmugMug for the archive and the store, and GalleryLink for quick client delivery from Drive. At $50 a year, the second tool costs less than two months of SmugMug's entry plan.
Moving from SmugMug without losing anything
- Keep your own copy of everything. Download your galleries (and RAW files, if you stored them) before your plan ends.
- Finish open orders. Let print orders complete and note any download purchases clients may still need.
- Move the galleries clients still open. Put each shoot in a Google Drive folder and link it in GalleryLink, or upload it. Subfolders become sections automatically.
- Send clients the new links, and point your website or bio link at your new studio page.
If you'd like to see how a GalleryLink gallery looks with your own photos, you can build one free, with no card, and share it with a client for 24 hours before deciding.