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Free Client Gallery for Photographers: What Each Free Plan Actually Costs
Every free tier charges somewhere. One takes a cut of your sales, one shrinks your storage, one caps what a client can download, one counts your galleries. Here is where each platform puts the price, from its own published pages, and when a free plan elsewhere is the better pick than ours.
Updated September 2026
A free client gallery is never free in the same way twice. Each platform moves the cost to a different place. It might be a commission on print orders. It might be a storage allowance that drops after a few months. It might be a download size cap, a gallery count, or a feature held back for the paid plan.
So the useful question is not which one costs nothing. It is where each one charges, and whether your business ever goes there. A photographer who never sells prints does not care about a 15% commission. A photographer who delivers full-resolution files cares a great deal about a download cap.
This page sets out the free tiers of Pixieset, Pic-Time, CloudSpot and clientgallery.io using only what each company publishes on its own pricing page or help centre, read on 15 September 2026. Where a figure is not published, the table says so. It does not guess.
The free tiers side by side
Four free plans, six rows. Pic-Time prices are in US dollars as it publishes them. CloudSpot shows a dollar sign with no currency code.
| Free plan | Pixieset | Pic-Time | CloudSpot | clientgallery.io |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 0 $; the Free Plan "does not expire" | US$0, no credit card required | $0 | 0 $ |
| Galleries | Not stated in its help centre | No count stated on the pages read | 3 active galleries | 1 gallery |
| Storage | Not stated in its help centre | 10 GB of photos (about 3,000) and 1 GB of video, reduced to 3 GB later (see below) | 5 GB, JPEG only | 5 GB of proofs |
| Commission on sales | 15% of the order subtotal, before discounts, coupons, taxes or shipping | 15%, always collected, applied to your markup | 15% on store orders | None; there is no store |
| Download limits | Not stated in the articles read | Downloading your own media from a gallery is "not available on Free plans" | 2048px on the longest edge; direct download links expire after 7 days | Clients download proofs; the full-resolution ZIP handoff is paid only |
| Expiry and deletion | Collections do not expire unless you set Auto-Expiry | Galleries marked for deletion after 60 days of inactivity, deleted 7 days later | No default expiry; you set one by hand | No expiry setting; a gallery stays until you delete it |
Two platforms are missing on purpose. Zenfolio lists no free plan on its pricing page, only a free trial, and its Terms state that files posted to a trial account are permanently deleted if you do not continue. ShootProof is left out of the table. It states that it never takes a commission on your sales, which is worth knowing if sales are the point, but its plan limits are best read directly on its own plans page.
Commission: the price you pay only when you sell
Three of the four free plans charge the same headline rate, 15%. What that 15% is taken from differs, and the base matters more than the rate.
| Platform | Free rate | Charged on | On a 500 $ order (arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pixieset | 15% | Order subtotal before discounts, coupons, taxes or shipping | 75 $, even if you discounted the order |
| Pic-Time | 15% | Your markup only, and always collected on Free | Depends on your lab cost; on 200 $ of markup, 30 $ |
| CloudSpot | 15% | Store orders; the base is not stated in the articles read | Not computable from what is published |
| clientgallery.io | None | Nothing; there is no store to take a cut from | 0 $, and also no store to sell through |
Read the last row honestly. A zero commission is only a saving if you would otherwise sell. If you sell prints, a free plan with a store and a 15% cut earns you money that a gallery with no store never will. Pixieset also publishes card processing fees charged on top of its commission. Pic-Time states it covers card processing fees when it collects the payment. The fine print on Pixieset's version, including the coupon case, is worked through in the Pixieset free plan commission guide.
Storage that shrinks, and galleries that get deleted
Pic-Time. The free plan starts at 10 GB of photo storage and drops to 3 GB. When it drops is published two ways on the same pricing page: the desktop table says "after 3 months" and the mobile view says "after 6 Months". Pic-Time's help centre, in an article dated 11 June 2026, gives 3 months and counts the 30-day trial inside them, from the account creation date. A separate rule covers quiet accounts. Free-plan galleries are marked for deletion after 60 days of inactivity and deleted 7 days later if nothing happens. Logging in at least once every 60 days prevents it.
CloudSpot. The free plan is 5 GB and three active galleries, JPEG only. The gallery count is the tighter limit for most studios. CloudSpot also states that if you cancel a paid plan with more than 5 GB stored, its system removes all data from the account. That matters if you ever plan to step down to Free.
Pixieset. Its help centre does not publish a storage figure for any Client Gallery plan, so none is given here. What it does publish is the good part: the Free Plan does not expire, and collections stay online unless you set Auto-Expiry yourself.
clientgallery.io. The free account holds one gallery and 5 GB of proofs. There is no expiry setting on a gallery, so it stays online until you delete it. How long galleries stay up across the whole category is covered in how long client galleries stay online.
Download limits: the part your client notices
Storage and commission are your problem. Download limits are your client's problem, and they are the ones that generate emails.
CloudSpot's free plan limits image downloads to 2048px on the longest edge, which it describes as social media size. Direct download links expire after 7 days. That works for a client who wants to post photos. It does not work for a client who wants to print a large canvas.
Pic-Time's limit points the other way. Its help centre states that downloading gallery media from the Photos & Media tab "is not available on Free plans". That is the photographer's own route to getting files back out, so on a free Pic-Time account, keep your originals somewhere else.
On a free clientgallery.io account, clients can download the proofs one image at a time or the whole gallery in one click, if you leave downloads switched on. Proofs are sized for fast viewing and choosing, not for printing. The full-resolution ZIP handoff is the one feature held back for the paid plan.
What the clientgallery.io free account gives, and where it stops
The free account is a real, working free online proofing gallery for one client at a time. Everything below is what the product enforces in code, not a list from a welcome email.
| What | Free account | Paid, 10 $/month or 100 $/year |
|---|---|---|
| Galleries | 1 | No cap and no per-gallery fee |
| Proof storage | 5 GB | 250 GB fair-use ceiling; 1,000 photos per gallery |
| Full-resolution delivery | Not included | One ZIP per gallery, live 3 days per handoff, re-uploadable; 100 GB of standing ZIPs |
| Client picks, password, your branding and subdomain, face search | Included | Included |
| Commission, store, expiry | No commission, no store, no expiry | No commission, no store, no expiry |
Clients star or love photos and send their picks back. You can put a password on the gallery. Face search is off by default and switched on per gallery. There is no platform branding on the pages your client sees.
Where it stops is plain. The second gallery needs the paid plan. So does handing over full-resolution files. There is one plan, so there is no ladder of tiers to climb after that. This is delivery and proofing, not archival: master files belong on your own drives. If you are weighing the paid plan against the cheapest paid tiers elsewhere, the cheapest Pixieset alternative answer covers entry prices, and how many galleries you can have does the storage arithmetic.
When a free tier elsewhere is the better choice
You sell prints and run a handful of galleries. Pixieset Free is the stronger choice. The plan does not expire, collections stay online, and the 15% commission is only paid when a client actually orders. A studio that earns from a store should not trade it for a gallery with no store. Pic-Time Free also has a store, but plan around the drop to 3 GB and the 60-day inactivity rule.
You need up to three galleries live at once and social-size downloads are enough. CloudSpot Free gives three active galleries against our one. The trade is the 2048px download cap, the 7-day download links and the CloudSpot credit on every gallery cover.
Your whole business is sales, and you would pay for a plan anyway. ShootProof states it never takes a commission on your sales. Compare its paid plans directly rather than a free tier.
You deliver to one client at a time and do not sell prints. This is where the clientgallery.io free account fits. One gallery, a proofing round, picks sent back, no commission and no expiry. When a second client arrives, the paid plan is 10 $/month.
You only deliver a few shoots a year. You may not need a gallery platform at all. The do I need a client gallery platform answer works out where a shared folder link stops being good enough.
Sources
Every competitor figure was read from the platform's own pricing page or help centre on 15 September 2026. Help-centre articles are cited with their own update date where one is shown. The commission column headed "On a 500 $ order" is arithmetic from those rates, not a published figure. clientgallery.io figures were checked against the product code on 15 September 2026.
- Pixieset, "How does the 0% commission fee work?" (Free 15%, calculated on the order subtotal before discounts, coupon codes, taxes or shipping), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 8 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002975072-How-does-the-0-commission-fee-work
- Pixieset, "What is the cost of goods sold / application fee?" (15% on the Free Plan; processing fees charged separately), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 11 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003793352-What-is-the-cost-of-goods-sold-application-fee
- Pixieset, "Managing your Pixieset subscription" (you start on the Free Plan, which does not expire), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 11 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003816812-Managing-your-Pixieset-subscription
- Pixieset, "Do my Collections expire?" (collections do not expire unless Auto-Expiry is used), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 14 July 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002975012-Do-my-Collections-expire
- Pic-Time pricing (Free US$0; 10GB of photos, about 3K, and 1GB of video; "Reduced to 3GB after 3 months" in the desktop table and "after 6 Months" in the mobile view; commission applied only to your markup; card processing fees covered when Pic-Time collects payment), fetched 15 September 2026, https://www.pic-time.com/pricing
- Pic-Time Client Delivery Suite pricing (Free plan, no credit card required), fetched 15 September 2026, https://www.pic-time.com/pricing/client-delivery-suite
- Pic-Time, "Why has my free plan storage been reduced to 3GB?" (10GB to 3GB after 3 months of use, counting the 30-day trial, from account creation), fetched 15 September 2026, article dated 11 June 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/9210592-why-has-my-free-plan-storage-been-reduced-to-3gb
- Pic-Time, "What are the commission rates for various subscription plans?" (Free 15%, always collected regardless of store setup), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 25 April 2025, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/7901454-what-are-the-commission-rates-for-various-subscription-plans
- Pic-Time, "How can I download my gallery media in Pic-Time 2.0?" (download from the Photos & Media tab; not available on Free plans), fetched 15 September 2026, article dated 28 April 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/11402965-how-can-i-download-my-gallery-media-in-pic-time-2-0
- Pic-Time, "Why was my account set to be deleted?" (Free-plan galleries marked for deletion after 60 days of inactivity, deleted in 7 days if no action is taken), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 18 June 2025, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/11604933-why-was-my-account-set-to-be-deleted
- CloudSpot pricing (Free $0, 5 GB, up to 3 galleries, JPEG only, 15% store commission), fetched 15 September 2026, no update date shown, https://www.cloudspot.io/pricing
- CloudSpot, "Free Plan Features" (3 active galleries; "Powered by CloudSpot" on the cover; downloads limited to 2048px on the longest edge; direct download links expire after 7 days; 15% commission on store orders), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 22 July 2026, https://help.cloudspot.io/en/articles/1090678-free-plan-features
- CloudSpot, "How to expire a Gallery" (no default expiry; set manually), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 14 August 2025, https://help.cloudspot.io/en/articles/9106306-how-to-expire-a-gallery
- CloudSpot, "How do I cancel my subscription?" (over 5 GB stored at cancellation, all data removed), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 5 January 2026, https://help.cloudspot.io/en/articles/4450102-how-do-i-cancel-my-subscription
- ShootProof, "Are there any other fees?" (ShootProof never takes a commission on your sales), fetched 15 September 2026, article updated 2 March 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008032267-Are-there-any-other-fees
- Zenfolio plans and pricing (free trial, no free plan listed), fetched 15 September 2026, https://zenfolio.com/plans-pricing/
- Zenfolio Terms of Service (files posted to a free trial account permanently deleted if you do not continue), fetched 15 September 2026, last updated 19 February 2026, https://zenfolio.com/terms-of-service/
- clientgallery.io free and paid figures (free: 1 gallery, 5 GB of proofs, no full-resolution ZIP; paid: 10 $/month or 100 $/year, no gallery cap, 250 GB fair-use proof ceiling, 1,000 photos per gallery, full-resolution ZIP live 3 days per handoff with 100 GB of standing ZIPs; no commission, no store, no gallery expiry), checked in the product 15 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/
Frequently asked
Is there a truly free client gallery for photographers?
Several platforms have a free plan, but each charges somewhere. Pixieset, Pic-Time and CloudSpot take 15% of store sales on their free plans. Pic-Time reduces free storage from 10 GB to 3 GB. CloudSpot caps free downloads at 2048px. clientgallery.io charges no commission but limits the free account to one gallery and 5 GB of proofs.
Which free photo gallery for clients has no commission?
ShootProof states it never takes a commission on your sales, and it has a store to sell through. clientgallery.io also takes no commission, because it has no store at all. Pixieset, Pic-Time and CloudSpot each charge 15% on sales made on their free plans.
Do free client galleries expire?
Not by default on most platforms. Pixieset states its Free Plan does not expire and collections stay online unless you set Auto-Expiry. CloudSpot has no default expiry. Pic-Time marks free-plan galleries for deletion after 60 days of account inactivity. A clientgallery.io gallery has no expiry setting and stays until you delete it.
Can clients download full-resolution photos on a free plan?
It depends on the platform. CloudSpot limits free-plan downloads to 2048px on the longest edge, with links that expire after 7 days. On a free clientgallery.io account clients can download the proofs, which are sized for viewing, while the full-resolution ZIP handoff needs the paid plan.
What does the clientgallery.io free account include?
One gallery with 5 GB of proofs, client picks, a password, your branding and subdomain, and face search, with no commission and no expiry. Unlimited galleries and full-resolution ZIP delivery come with the paid plan at 10 $/month or 100 $/year.
When should I choose a different free plan instead?
If you sell prints and run only a handful of galleries, Pixieset Free is usually the better pick: the plan does not expire and the commission is only paid when a client orders. If you need three galleries live at once and small downloads are fine, CloudSpot Free gives three against our one.
Your client galleries, under your name
Unlimited galleries, your branding, one-click Pixieset import, and a Lightroom plugin, all on a flat 10 $/month with everything included. Your first gallery is free.
Start with one free gallery