Answers
Lightroom Cloud vs Lightroom Classic for Client Galleries
The two-way plugin runs in Lightroom Classic. If you work only in the cloud app, you upload from the browser and read the client's picks in the gallery. Here is exactly what that costs you.
Updated September 2026
Adobe ships two photo applications with almost the same name. One is Lightroom, which keeps your library in the cloud and runs on desktop, phone and browser. The other is Lightroom Classic, which keeps your library on a drive you own. Photographers who deliver client work have to pick one, and the choice quietly decides how your proofing and delivery loop behaves.
Here is the part most comparison pages will not tell you straight. Our two-way plugin is built for Lightroom Classic. There is no cloud-app version of it. If your catalog lives in the cloud app, you can still run every client gallery on clientgallery.io, but you upload the proofs from the browser and you read the client's picks in the gallery rather than in your catalog. That is a real limit of this product, not a footnote, and it should be the first thing you know before you decide.
The short answer
If you run Lightroom Classic, the round trip is closed. Proofs go out of the catalog and the client's picks come back into it as a collection. The whole loop is written up in the Lightroom client gallery workflow guide.
If you run only the cloud app, the round trip is open at one end. You get the gallery, the branding, the client proofing tools and the full-resolution handoff. What you do not get is the pick list landing back inside your library automatically. You look at the picks in the gallery and you apply them yourself.
There is a third answer that suits a lot of people. Lightroom Classic is included in the same Lightroom plan the cloud app comes in, so a cloud-first photographer can install Classic for the delivery half of the job without paying Adobe anything extra. Prices and plan contents are in the table further down.
What Adobe itself says separates the two
Adobe states the difference in one sentence on its Lightroom product page: "Both Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Lightroom Classic offer most of the same features, but Adobe Lightroom lets you edit and organize your photos across desktop, mobile, and web, while Adobe Lightroom Classic is optimized for desktop use."
Adobe also publishes a short comparison table on the Lightroom Classic product page. These are Adobe's own words, row by row, checked on 11 September 2026.
| What Adobe compares | Lightroom | Lightroom Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Where you work | Desktop, mobile, and web | Desktop only |
| File storage | Cloud | Local hard drive |
| Backup | Automatic | Not included |
| Organization | Automatic tagging and intelligent search | Manual keywords |
| Best for | Recommended for everyone | Recommended for photography experts |
Note what that table does not describe, and what this page will therefore not describe either: how syncing behaves between the two applications. Adobe documents that in its user guide, and the user guide could not be read on the day this page was written. We would rather leave a gap than guess at behaviour that changes between releases.
Why the plugin is Classic only
A plugin has to live somewhere. Ours lives inside Lightroom Classic, where it reads the frames you selected in the catalog, sends them up as proofs under your own branding, and later writes the client's chosen filenames back into the catalog as a collection. Both directions depend on there being a local catalog to write into.
That is the honest reason, stated as a fact about our software rather than as a claim about Adobe's. We have not shipped a cloud-app equivalent. If you want the exact behaviour of the Classic side, including what happens when you re-publish after a reshoot, it is documented in the guide on syncing a published collection to a live gallery.
The cloud-only workflow, step by step
Nothing about clientgallery.io requires Lightroom at all. A cloud-first photographer runs the same job in five moves.
- Cull in the cloud app as you already do, using flags, stars or albums. Nothing changes here.
- Export the frames you want to show as JPEGs, to a folder on the machine you are sitting at.
- Create the gallery in the browser and drop that folder in. Each photo is compressed in your browser into a proof of roughly 0.6 MB before it is hosted, which is why the price stays flat.
- Send the gallery. The client marks favorites and leaves comments on any device, with no platform branding wrapped around your work.
- Read the picks in the gallery, edit those frames in the cloud app, then deliver the finished files as a full-resolution ZIP.
Step five is the one that differs. On Classic the pick list arrives in your catalog. In the cloud workflow it stays in the gallery, and you are the one carrying it across.
What you lose, and what you keep
The table below is the whole difference. Rows marked the same are genuinely identical. There is no cloud penalty in the gallery itself.
| Step | Lightroom Classic, with the plugin | Cloud app only, from the browser |
|---|---|---|
| Getting proofs online | Published from the catalog | Export, then drop the folder in the browser |
| Adding frames later | Re-run the publish, existing photos stay put | Upload the new files to the same gallery |
| Where the picks land | A collection inside your catalog | A list you read in the gallery |
| Applying the picks | Already matched by filename | You flag the matching frames yourself |
| Client proofing tools | Favorites, comments, labels | Same |
| Your branding on the gallery | Your subdomain, no platform branding | Same |
| Sub-galleries and Face Search | Included | Same |
| Price | $10 a month or $100 a year | Same |
| Photos per gallery | 1,000 | Same |
| Proofs per paid account | 250 GB | Same |
| Free account | 5 GB | Same |
| Full-resolution handoff | ZIP per gallery, live 3 days, 100 GB standing | Same |
So the loss is narrow and specific. You lose the automatic pick-back and you lose publishing without a separate export. On a 40-frame portrait session that is a few minutes. On a 600-frame wedding where the client keeps 40, it is the half hour you spend re-flagging by eye.
What you keep is everything the client sees and everything the job depends on: the branded gallery, proofing, one-click download of the whole gallery, sub-galleries, and the full-resolution handoff. Hosted galleries do not expire. Full-resolution ZIPs are the exception, and they are deliberate: each handoff stays live for three days and you can re-upload it any time the client comes back.
You may already own Lightroom Classic
A lot of cloud-only photographers assume Classic is a separate purchase. On Adobe's US storefront on 11 September 2026 it was not. Adobe's Lightroom Classic page states that "Lightroom Classic is now included in the Lightroom plan for just US$11.99/mo." Both figures below were shown identically on three Adobe plan pages that day.
| Adobe plan | Price shown | Billing label | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightroom (1TB) | US$11.99/mo | Annual, billed monthly | Lightroom for desktop, mobile and web, plus Lightroom Classic |
| Photography (1TB) | US$19.99/mo | Annual, billed monthly | The above plus Photoshop on desktop and iPad |
Those are US dollars on the US storefront as of September 2026, and Adobe changes plan pricing without notice. Check your own storefront before you budget anything.
The practical move for a cloud-first photographer is not to migrate a library. It is to install Classic alongside the cloud app and use it for delivery jobs only: import the shoot, publish the proofs, pull the picks, edit, hand over. The step-by-step setup for publishing from Classic is written to be followed once.
When you should ignore all of this
If your entire practice runs on a phone and a browser, installing a desktop application to save thirty minutes on a wedding is a bad trade. Adobe lists the cloud app as the one it recommends for everyone, and for mobile-first shooters that recommendation is right. Upload from the browser, read the picks in the gallery, and get on with your day.
If your practice is print-sales-led, with a lab and a storefront wired into your gallery, neither answer on this page is your answer. A flat-price gallery with no print store is the wrong shape for you, and you are better served staying where your lab integration already lives.
The case for Classic is narrow and honest: high frame counts, client selection that actually drives your editing time, and a willingness to keep a local catalog. If that is you, the round trip pays for itself on the first big job.
Sources
- Adobe, "Adobe Lightroom" product page. adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html Fetched 11 September 2026. Source of the quoted desktop, mobile and web statement.
- Adobe, "Lightroom Classic" product page. adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic.html Fetched 11 September 2026. Source of the five comparison rows and of the statement that Lightroom Classic is included in the Lightroom plan at US$11.99/mo.
- Adobe, Creative Cloud plans. adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html Fetched 11 September 2026. US$11.99/mo and US$19.99/mo, both labelled Annual, billed monthly.
- Adobe, photography plans. adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html Fetched 11 September 2026. Same two prices, same billing label.
- Adobe, compare photography plans. adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-plans.html Fetched 11 September 2026. Third confirmation of both prices and of the 1 TB storage on each plan.
- clientgallery.io product behaviour and pricing, verified in the product on 2 September 2026: $10 a month or $100 a year, 1,000 photos per gallery, 250 GB of proofs per paid account, 5 GB on a free account, proofs compressed in the browser to about 0.6 MB, and a full-resolution ZIP per gallery that stays live for three days with 100 GB of standing ZIPs per account. clientgallery.io
Frequently asked
Does the clientgallery.io Lightroom plugin work with the cloud version of Lightroom?
No. The two-way plugin is built for Lightroom Classic, because both directions depend on a local catalog it can publish from and write a collection back into. If you work only in the cloud app, you create the gallery in the browser and upload exported JPEGs.
Can I still use clientgallery.io if I never open Lightroom Classic?
Yes. Nothing on the platform requires Lightroom. You upload proofs in the browser, the client marks favorites and leaves comments, and you deliver the finished files as a full-resolution ZIP. The plugin saves steps, it is not the product.
What exactly do I lose without the plugin?
Two things. Publishing without a separate export, and the client's picks arriving in your catalog as a collection matched by filename. Everything the client touches is identical, and so are the price and the limits.
Do I have to buy Lightroom Classic separately?
On Adobe's US storefront on 11 September 2026, no. Adobe's Lightroom Classic page stated that Lightroom Classic is included in the Lightroom plan at US$11.99 a month, shown as Annual, billed monthly. Adobe changes pricing without notice, so check your own storefront.
Can I run the cloud app and Lightroom Classic at the same time?
Photographers commonly install Classic alongside the cloud app and use it only for client delivery jobs. This page does not describe how the two applications sync, because Adobe's own user guide could not be read on the day it was written and a guessed sync behaviour would be worse than none.
Does the gallery itself behave differently depending on which Lightroom I use?
No. The same limits apply either way: 1,000 photos per gallery, 250 GB of proofs on a paid account, 5 GB on a free account, and a full-resolution ZIP per gallery that stays live for three days. Hosted galleries do not expire.
Which one should a wedding photographer choose?
If client selection drives your editing time on high frame counts, Lightroom Classic with the plugin removes the re-flagging step and pays for itself on the first large job. If you shoot small sessions or work mobile-first, the browser workflow is fine and the cloud app is the simpler tool.
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.
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