Answers
Can I Use My Own Website for Client Galleries?
Yes. Squarespace, WordPress.com and Wix all document a password on a page. The useful question is not whether it works but how much of the job stays on your desk: uploading, resizing, passwording and collecting picks.
Updated September 2026
You can. The three website builders we checked each document a way to put a page behind a password. Squarespace offers page passwords on all plans. WordPress.com gives every post or page its own password setting. Wix prompts visitors who reach a protected page to enter the password. Put a gallery on that page and the client can see their photos.
So this page does not argue about possibility. It compares workload. A client gallery involves four recurring jobs: getting the photos onto a page, sizing them for the web, gating the page, and getting the client's choices back. On a website you do each of them by hand for every client. A gallery on your own subdomain does them as part of uploading. The comparison below goes job by job, using what the builders publish about their own products, fetched on 24 September 2026.
Your website is the right place for some studios, and the last section says which ones.
The four jobs at a glance
| Job | On your website, by hand | On a clientgallery.io gallery |
|---|---|---|
| Upload | Build a page per client, add gallery sections, stay under each section's image ceiling | Create a gallery, drop the photos or a folder, or publish from Lightroom Classic |
| Resize | Export every file to the size and weight the builder recommends before upload | Photos are compressed in the browser into proof JPEGs as they upload |
| Password | Set per page; on Squarespace one shared code per page | One switch and a code per gallery |
| Chase picks | The choices arrive by whatever channel the client uses, and you match them to files | Client stars and loves, sends; you export a filename list or pull picks into Lightroom Classic |
Two more jobs sit around those four: knowing whether the client opened the link, and handing over the final files. Both are covered after the four below.
Job one: getting the photos onto a page
On a website, each client is a page you build. Squarespace's help centre puts a ceiling of 250 images on a gallery section and 250 on a gallery block, and its gallery overview warns that an excessive number of images can make a site load slowly. A wedding of several hundred frames becomes several sections on one page, laid out by you.
On clientgallery.io you create a gallery and drop the photos in. A gallery holds up to 1,000 photos. If you drop a folder that contains sub-folders, each sub-folder arrives as a sub-gallery with its photos already filed. Sub-galleries are a way for you to organise the set in the studio. The client still sees one scrolling page with a jump-to bar at the top, not a set of pages to click through.
If you edit in Lightroom Classic, there is a third route. The plugin publishes proofs straight from the catalog, so the upload step becomes part of the edit rather than a separate job.
Job two: resizing every file
Website builders are built for web images, and they say so. Squarespace accepts JPG, GIF, PNG or WEBP only, caps uploads at 20 MB and 120 megapixels, and recommends 2,500 pixels wide at 500 KB or less. It does make several resized versions of each upload for display, but the upload limits and the 500 KB recommendation mean the export to a web size is still yours to run, for every client, before anything goes up.
There is a second consequence. Squarespace's own article on image downloads recommends 1,500 to 2,500 pixel images under 500 KB and notes that images like that will not be suitable for printing. A website gallery built to Squarespace's advice is a viewing gallery. The print files have to travel another way.
On clientgallery.io the resize happens during upload. Photos are compressed in your browser into proof JPEGs of about 0.6 MB each, sized for fast viewing on a phone. The full-resolution set is a separate handoff on the paid plan: you upload a full-resolution ZIP for the gallery, it stays live for 3 days per handoff, and you can re-upload it any time, with 100 GB of standing ZIPs per account.
Job three: gating the page
This is the job every builder does reasonably well, and the details differ in ways worth knowing before a client complains.
| Builder | What its help page states |
|---|---|
| Squarespace | One shared password per page, no per-person passwords, 30 characters at most, a 4-hour session before the visitor enters it again, and the protected page is not accessible to search engines |
| WordPress.com | Each post or page has its own password setting, remembered in a browser cookie; images added to a protected post or page can still be indexed by search engines |
| Wix | Visitors are prompted for the password; protecting a page also stops search engines crawling and indexing it; a whole site can sit behind one password |
Two cautions follow from those pages. The WordPress.com note means the image files themselves are not covered by the page password in the way a photographer might assume. And on Squarespace, a page left out of the navigation is not private: its access-control article says search engines and visitors can still reach a Not Linked page.
On clientgallery.io the password is a switch on the gallery. Turn it on, type a code, and the client types that code to open the gallery. Turn it off and the link alone opens it. There is no page to build around it.
Job four: getting the picks back
This is the job that costs the most on a website, because the gallery articles we read describe no way for a visitor to mark favourites. Squarespace's help articles for gallery sections, gallery blocks and its gallery overview describe no favourites, selection or bulk-download feature. Without one, the client's choices reach you through whatever channel they pick, and turning those choices into a list of files is your job.
On clientgallery.io the client stars the photos they like and loves the ones they must have, then sends the selection. After they send it, the gallery page in your studio shows an Export picks (.txt) button. It downloads a plain text file named after the gallery, with one filename per line, loved photos first and starred photos after. In Lightroom Classic the plugin pulls the picks back into the catalog instead, so there is no list at all. If the client changes their mind, you reopen picking on the same gallery rather than starting again.
The two jobs around the four
Knowing whether the client looked. We did not check what analytics each builder offers for a password page, so we make no claim about them. On clientgallery.io each gallery tile in your studio carries an opened indicator, with filters for all galleries, those seen by the client and those not opened yet. Your own visits are not counted. Account-wide figures such as visits, photo views and ZIP downloads sit on a separate analytics page, not per gallery; the opened indicator is the one signal shown per gallery.
Handing over the set. A client downloads the whole gallery in one click, or any single image, without an account. You can switch downloads off for a gallery that is for viewing only. The full-resolution ZIP described above covers the print files.
What it costs to stop doing the four jobs
| Item | clientgallery.io |
|---|---|
| Price | $10 a month, or $100 a year |
| Galleries, photos, clients | Unlimited under fair use |
| Photos per gallery | 1,000 |
| Proofs per paid account | 250 GB; a free account holds 5 GB |
| Where galleries live | Your studio's own subdomain, no platform branding |
| Print store or commission | None |
| RAW files | Not warehoused; galleries host JPEGs |
The subdomain row matters here. A gallery on clientgallery.io lives at your studio's subdomain of clientgallery.io, not on the domain your website uses. Your branding is on the page and ours is not, but the address is not your own domain. The own-domain guide explains the difference and how to link your site to your galleries.
When your own website is the right place
Keep galleries on your site if these describe how you work.
- Clients only look. There is no selection round, so job four does not exist for you.
- You deliver a few galleries a year, small enough that building a page for each is a few minutes, not a routine.
- The gallery must sit on your own domain, inside your own navigation, for a client or a contract.
- Your builder already gives you a client area you use and your clients know how to log in to.
Move when the four jobs repeat every week: you export to a web size for each client, build a page, set a code, and then match a client's message against filenames. That is the workload a gallery removes. If Squarespace is your builder, the Squarespace client galleries answer goes deeper on its specific limits, and do I need a client gallery platform covers the general threshold.
Sources
Every builder behaviour on this page comes from the builder's own help pages, fetched on 24 September 2026, with each page's own update date where it shows one. clientgallery.io behaviour was checked in the product code on 24 September 2026.
- Squarespace Help, Page passwords (one shared password, 30 characters, 4-hour session, search engines, all plans). Article updated 6 June 2026. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205814618-Page-passwords Fetched 24 September 2026.
- Squarespace Help, Controlling who can access your site's pages (Not Linked pages remain reachable). Article updated 6 June 2026. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022365512-Controlling-who-can-access-your-site-s-pages Fetched 24 September 2026.
- Squarespace Help, Gallery sections (up to 250 images). Article updated 25 June 2026. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360035636332-Gallery-sections Fetched 24 September 2026.
- Squarespace Help, Gallery blocks (up to 250 images). Article updated 28 August 2026. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206543407-Gallery-blocks Fetched 24 September 2026.
- Squarespace Help, Image galleries on Squarespace (slow loading with many images). Article updated 10 July 2026. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206542467-Image-galleries-on-Squarespace Fetched 24 September 2026.
- Squarespace Help, Formatting images for display on the web (formats, 20 MB, 120 MP, resized versions, 2,500 pixels and 500 KB recommendation). Article updated 19 August 2026. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206542517-Formatting-images-for-display-on-the-web Fetched 24 September 2026.
- Squarespace Help, Preventing visitors from downloading your images, videos, and audio (1,500 to 2,500 pixels under 500 KB, not suitable for printing). Article updated 28 August 2026. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206542457-Preventing-visitors-from-downloading-your-images-videos-and-audio Fetched 24 September 2026.
- WordPress.com Support, Page visibility (password per post or page, browser cookie, images in protected content can still be indexed). Page last updated 12 August 2026. https://wordpress.com/support/pages/page-visibility/ Fetched 24 September 2026.
- Wix Help Center, Password protecting a page (password prompt, no crawling or indexing, whole-site protection). Page last updated 28 May 2026. https://support.wix.com/en/article/password-protecting-a-page Fetched 24 September 2026.
Frequently asked
Can I use my own website for client galleries?
Yes. Squarespace, WordPress.com and Wix each document a way to put a page behind a password, and a gallery on that page lets the client see their photos. The trade-off is workload: you build the page, size the files, set the password and collect the client's choices by hand for every client.
Is a password-protected page on my website private?
It gates the page, with limits each builder documents. Squarespace uses one shared password per page and asks for it again after a 4-hour session. WordPress.com notes that images added to a protected post or page can still be indexed by search engines. An unlinked Squarespace page with no password is not private, because search engines and visitors can still reach it.
Do I have to resize photos before putting them on my website?
On Squarespace, in practice yes. It caps uploads at 20 MB and 120 megapixels, accepts JPG, GIF, PNG or WEBP only, and recommends 2,500 pixels wide at 500 KB or less. On clientgallery.io, photos are compressed in the browser into proof JPEGs as they upload, so there is no separate resize step.
How do clients pick their favourites on a website gallery?
Squarespace's help articles for gallery sections, gallery blocks and its gallery overview describe no favourites or selection feature, so the choices come back through whatever channel the client uses. On clientgallery.io clients star and love photos and send the selection, and the studio exports it as a text file of filenames or pulls it into Lightroom Classic with the plugin.
Can clients download the whole set from my website?
Squarespace's gallery articles describe no bulk-download feature, and its download article recommends web-sized images that it says will not be suitable for printing. On clientgallery.io a client downloads the whole gallery in one click or any single image, and the paid plan adds a full-resolution ZIP handoff that stays live for 3 days and can be re-uploaded any time.
Will a clientgallery.io gallery sit on my website's domain?
No. Galleries live on your studio's own subdomain of clientgallery.io, with your branding and no platform branding on the page. If the gallery must be on your own domain, keep it on your website.
Your client galleries, under your name
Branded galleries, client selections and a Lightroom Classic workflow. Start with your first gallery, then compare the current plan. Full-resolution delivery is a separate handoff with its own limits and conditions.
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