What Is a Client Gallery?

Platforms differ, but the category shares a core. These are the jobs a client gallery is expected to do, described as a category rather than as any one product.

• A private link. Each gallery has its own address that is not listed anywhere public. Many platforms add an optional password, so a forwarded link alone is not enough to open it.
• Viewing built for photos. The page is laid out for images rather than files: a grid, a large single-photo view, and a layout that works on a phone, where many clients first open it.
• Picks or favourites. The client marks the frames they like and sends the selection back. This is called proofing, and it is how a photographer learns which images to retouch or put in an album.
• Downloads. The client saves one image or the whole set. Some platforms let the photographer switch downloads off, or offer a separate high-resolution file.
• Your branding. The studio's name and logo on the page, so the delivery reads as the photographer's work rather than a software vendor's.
• Sometimes a store. Some platforms attach a shop for prints, albums and digital files, and some take a commission on those sales on some plans.

Not every product does all six. Some are delivery tools that stop at viewing and downloading. Some are proofing tools built around the selection round. Some are sales platforms where the store is the point. All three are called client galleries, which is why comparing them on price alone goes wrong.

A client gallery is most often confused with three other tools photographers already use. Each is good at a different job. The table sets them side by side in general terms.

A shared cloud folder such as Dropbox or Google Drive holds the same files a gallery would, but presents them as a list of files. It does not collect picks and it shows the storage service rather than the studio. The detailed comparison is in Dropbox vs a client gallery.

A transfer link is built to move files from one place to another. It is the right tool for sending a set to a magazine or a second shooter. It is a weak delivery to a paying client, because it is not built to be revisited months later.

A portfolio site faces the other way. It is public, curated and meant to win the next client. A client gallery is private and holds the whole shoot for the current one. Many photographers run both, and some platforms sell them together, but they are different pages with different audiences.

If you decide you need one, these are the questions that separate a good fit from a bad one. None of them is about the number of features.

• Does the client need an account? Every sign-up screen between the link and the photos loses some clients. A link and an optional password is the lightest path.
• Whose name is on the page? Check whether the platform shows its own logo or links to your client, and whether removing that costs extra.
• How does it behave on a phone? Open a test gallery on your own phone before you trust it with a wedding.
• What expires, and when? Separate the gallery page from any download file. They often have different lifetimes, and clients confuse them.
• How do picks come back to you? A list of filenames you retype is very different from picks that arrive in your editing software. The proofing guide covers the selection round in detail.
• What is metered? Platforms charge by gallery, by photo count, by storage or by commission on sales. The meter decides how your bill moves as the business grows.
• Is it an archive? Almost never. A gallery is a delivery copy. Your masters belong on your own drives and backups, whichever platform you choose.

A client gallery solves specific problems. If you do not have them, a free shared link is cheaper and completely adequate. You can skip a gallery when most of these are true:

• You shoot a handful of jobs a year.
• The client receives a finished set and is not choosing anything.
• You do not need to know whether the link was opened.
• Your clients are comfortable downloading from a file list.
• The recipient is a vendor or colleague rather than a paying client.

A gallery starts earning its place when clients choose photos, when you deliver often enough that the handoff eats time, or when the delivery is part of how you want the studio to look. Where that line sits, with the costs on both sides, is worked through in Do I need a client gallery platform?

clientgallery.io is a delivery and proofing gallery. It has no print store, so it sits in the first two groups described above, not the third.

• Each gallery is a private link, with an optional password that protects viewing and downloading.
• Clients never create an account. They open the link, and type a name and email only when sending picks.
• Clients star or love photos and send their picks back to the studio in one step.
• Clients download the whole gallery in one click or any single image.
• No platform branding on client-facing pages, and the studio gets its own subdomain.
• Galleries do not expire. The full-resolution ZIP handoff, on the paid plan, stays live for 3 days per upload and can be re-uploaded.
• One plan at 10 $/month or 100 $/year, and the first gallery is free.

It hosts JPEGs, not RAW files or video. If your income runs through print and album sales inside the gallery, a platform with a built-in store is the better fit, and you should choose one.

This page describes a category and deliberately quotes no competitor figures. The only numbers on it are clientgallery.io's own, checked against the running product on 15 September 2026.

• clientgallery.io plan and product behaviour (10 $/month or 100 $/year; first gallery free; optional per-gallery password; no client account; star and love picks; whole-gallery or single-image download; no platform branding; own subdomain; galleries do not expire; full-resolution ZIP live 3 days per upload on the paid plan; JPEG hosting, no print store), checked 15 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/