Comparison
Pixieset vs Pic-Time vs ShootProof: Pricing Compared
All three ladders in one table, the fee each platform does not put on its pricing card, and a year of costs worked out at 25 weddings so you can redo it with your own numbers.
Updated 4 September 2026
The three pricing pages are not comparable as printed. Pixieset meters storage. Pic-Time meters storage and takes a cut of sales. ShootProof counts photos today and switches to gigabytes in nineteen days. Each page also leaves one real cost off the card.
This page puts the three ladders in one table, names the fee that hides on each platform, then prices a year at a stated volume with the working shown. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page, help center or terms, fetched 4 September 2026 and listed in the Sources section. Figures we calculated are labelled as arithmetic on published rates.
The three ladders side by side
All prices are US dollars, exclusive of tax. One thing to note before you read the annual column: neither Pixieset nor Pic-Time publishes a yearly dollar total anywhere. Both publish only a monthly rate billed annually, so the annual totals in their rows are our arithmetic on that rate. ShootProof publishes real annual totals, so its rows are quoted rather than calculated.
| Platform | Plan | Per month, annual | Per month, monthly | Twelve months | What the tier holds | Store commission |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pixieset | Free | 0 $ | 0 $ | 0 $ | 3 GB, unlimited galleries, no photo cap | 15% |
| Pixieset | Basic | 8 $ | 10 $ | 96 $ (arithmetic) | 10 GB | 0% |
| Pixieset | Plus | 16 $ | 20 $ | 192 $ (arithmetic) | 100 GB | 0% |
| Pixieset | Pro | 24 $ | 30 $ | 288 $ (arithmetic) | 1 TB, RAW upload | 0% |
| Pixieset | Ultimate | 40 $ | 50 $ | 480 $ (arithmetic) | Unlimited photos, RAW capped at 1,000 GB | 0% |
| Pic-Time | Free | 0 $ | 0 $ | 0 $ | 10 GB, reduced to 3 GB after 3 months | 15%, always |
| Pic-Time | Beginner | 7 $ | 8 $ | 84 $ (arithmetic) | 20 GB photo, 5 GB video | 15%, always |
| Pic-Time | Professional | 21 $ | 25 $ | 252 $ (arithmetic) | 100 GB photo, 30 GB video | 8% when Pic-Time collects, 0% when you do |
| Pic-Time | Advanced | 42 $ | 50 $ | 504 $ (arithmetic) | Unlimited photo under fair use, 60 GB video | 6% when Pic-Time collects, 0% when you do |
| ShootProof | Free | 0 $ | 0 $ | 0 $ | 100 photos, up to 5 GB | 0% |
| ShootProof | 1,500 | 8.33 $ | 9.99 $ | 99.99 $ (published) | 1,500 photos, up to 75 GB | 0% |
| ShootProof | 5,000 | 16.67 $ | 19.99 $ | 199.99 $ (published) | 5,000 photos, up to 250 GB | 0% |
| ShootProof | 25,000 | 26.67 $ | 31.99 $ | 319.99 $ (published) | 25,000 photos, up to 1250 GB | 0% |
| ShootProof | Unlimited | 50 $ | 60 $ | 600 $ (published) | Unlimited photos, archiving included | 0% |
Read across the commission column first. ShootProof is 0% on every tier including Free. Pixieset is 0% on every paid tier and 15% on Free. Pic-Time is the only one of the three that keeps a percentage on paid plans, and the rate depends on who collects the money.
ShootProof's plans change on 23 September 2026
Nineteen days from the date on this page, the ShootProof table above stops being current. ShootProof's own FAQ states it plainly: "Our plans will transition from photo-count-based storage to GB-based storage on September 23rd, 2026." The same page states the money side: "Our plan prices are not changing."
If you are choosing a platform this month you need both tables, because you will sign up under the first one and live under the second one. Here is what replaces it.
| New plan | Replaces | Photo storage | Video storage | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 100 | 3 GB, photos only | None | 0 $ | 0 $ |
| Starter | 1,500 | 20 GB photo and video | Included | 9.99 $ | 99.99 $ |
| Standard | 5,000 | 100 GB photo and video | Included | 19.99 $ | 199.99 $ |
| Professional | 25,000 | 1000 GB | 50 GB | 31.99 $ | 319.99 $ |
| Advanced | 50,000 and 100,000 | 2000 GB | 100 GB | 51.99 $ | 519.99 $ |
| Premium | Unlimited | Unlimited photo | 150 GB | 60 $ | 600 $ |
The migration rule is worth reading before you upload anything large. ShootProof states: "If your account contains too much data for the equivalent plan in the new structure, you'll automatically be moved into the plan that has enough storage", with a one-year discount to the old price. The alternative it offers is the one that costs money later: "You can archive your photos to free up space."
Where Pixieset's fee hides
Pixieset's commission is 15% and it applies to the Free plan only. Every paid Client Gallery tier is 0%. That much is on the card. Two details are not.
First, the base. The help center states that "the commission fee is calculated based on the order subtotal, before any discounts, coupon codes, taxes, or shipping fees are applied." It then works the edge case for you: if a client's coupon brings the total to zero, "you will still be charged the commission fee because the fee is calculated based on the subtotal before discounts are applied." A free print promotion on the Free plan is not free to you. It costs 15% of the list price.
Second, the stacking. The commission "would be in addition to any processing fees charged by your third-party payment processor." Pixieset names the processors and their rates on the same page: 2.9% plus 0.30 $ and 3.49% plus 0.49 $ USD. Those come off the same order.
The other Pixieset cost is not a commission at all. Section 6 of the Terms, last updated 20 March 2026, reserves the right "to charge additional fees to users who go above the fair usage amount that is determined to be more than 20 GB per collection, and 100 GB of bandwidth per month." The same section says "Our client gallery plans are meant for individual photographer business use only" and directs multi-photographer studios to the separate Studio plans. Both of those sit above the Ultimate tier that is sold as unlimited storage.
Where Pic-Time's fee hides
Pic-Time is the only one of the three that takes a percentage on paid plans, and the rate depends on who runs the checkout. Its help center states that Pic-Time "offers commission-free store sales for all paid plans (with the exception of Beginner Client Delivery Suite plan and Art Store Professional plan)" when you collect payments yourself. When Pic-Time collects, the rate is 8% on Professional and 6% on Advanced. On Free and Beginner the commission "is always collected, regardless of store setup" at 15%.
So the 0% headline is conditional on two things at once: being above Beginner, and collecting payments yourself. If you want Pic-Time to handle the money, you are paying 6% or 8% on every sale for as long as you stay.
Pic-Time's unlimited tier carries the same fair-use pair as Pixieset's. Advanced storage "is designed for individual photographers' business only" and, verbatim, "if your usage exceeds the fair limits (more than 20GB per gallery and 100 GB of bandwidth per month), additional fees may apply." Two independent vendors publishing the identical pair of numbers is worth noticing: 20 GB per gallery and 100 GB of bandwidth a month is the practical shape of unlimited in this category.
The third Pic-Time cost is not billed in dollars, it is billed in files. Drop from Advanced to Professional and storage is "limited to 100GB only", with galleries above the cap "permanently deleted 45 days after the plan changes (oldest galleries first)". On the Free plan the window is shorter: storage starts at 10 GB and is reduced to 3 GB after 3 months, and "any galleries above that limit will be permanently deleted 1 week after the plan changes (oldest galleries first)". Pic-Time also states the result is not reversible: once purged for over a week, the high resolution photos cannot be restored.
Where ShootProof's fee hides
Start with the part ShootProof gets right, because it is the most generous commission policy of the three and it deserves a plain statement. ShootProof's help center says "ShootProof never charges a commission on your sales." That is every tier, including Free. Neither of the other two matches it.
The fee that hides is archiving. ShootProof publishes it precisely: "Archiving costs a minimum monthly charge of $2.99 for up to 25 GB of storage. Once you exceed 25 GB, you will be charged $.05 per additional GB. Archiving is billed monthly for the previous month's usage." It is included free on the Unlimited plan. On every other tier it is a separate line that grows with your back catalogue, and because it is billed a month in arrears, stopping it does not stop the next bill: "When you remove all galleries from archiving, you will still incur one more bill."
Archiving is also not a hosting substitute. ShootProof states that an archived gallery "will become static" and that "archived galleries are not live for client viewing." That matters because archiving is exactly the remedy ShootProof offers when you run out of space, both today and under the September structure. Freeing space by archiving takes those galleries off the client-facing side of your business. Unarchiving is free, but conditional on having enough room in your plan.
One more add-on, small but on every tier including Free: online booking is 4.99 $ a month, or 49.99 $ a year in the United States. It is not bundled anywhere.
A year priced at 25 weddings
Here is the arithmetic at a stated volume. Change the assumptions and redo it. Every derived number below is arithmetic on the published rates in the tables above.
The profile. 25 weddings a year. 800 delivered photos per wedding, so 20,000 photos a year, one gallery per wedding.
The assumptions. Delivered JPEGs average 8 MB each; that is an assumption, not a published figure, and it is the number most likely to differ for you. At 8 MB, one wedding is 6.4 GB and a year is 160 GB. Nothing is deleted in year one or year two. Prices are the annual rate. No sales tax.
| Platform | Tier the volume requires, year one | Year one | Year two at 320 GB, 40,000 photos | Year two |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pixieset | Pro, because 160 GB clears Plus at 100 GB | 288 $ | Pro still fits inside 1 TB | 288 $ |
| Pic-Time | Advanced, because 160 GB clears Professional at 100 GB | 504 $ | Advanced, unlimited under fair use | 504 $ |
| ShootProof, today | 25,000 photos, holds 20,000 inside 1250 GB | 319.99 $ | 40,000 photos clears the cap: Unlimited, or archive year one | 600 $, or 436.87 $ |
| ShootProof, from 23 Sept | Professional, because 160 GB clears Standard at 100 GB | 319.99 $ | 320 GB still fits inside 1000 GB | 319.99 $ |
| clientgallery.io | One plan, no tiers | 100 $ | One plan, no tiers | 100 $ |
Pixieset. Storage is the only meter and there is no photo cap. 160 GB is above Plus at 100 GB, so year one is Pro: 24 $ a month billed annually, 288 $ over twelve months as arithmetic on Pixieset's monthly figure. Year two ends at 320 GB, still inside Pro's 1 TB, so the price holds. Year three ends at 480 GB and still holds. Each 6.4 GB gallery is well under the 20 GB per collection fair-use line, but 25 wedding galleries being downloaded by couples and families is where the 100 GB of bandwidth per month becomes the live question.
Pic-Time. Same storage logic, one step more expensive because Professional stops at 100 GB and the next tier is unlimited. 42 $ a month billed annually is 504 $ over twelve months as arithmetic on Pic-Time's monthly figure. It holds in year two and beyond, subject to the same 20 GB per gallery and 100 GB of bandwidth fair-use pair.
ShootProof today. The meter is photos online at any time, not gigabytes, so year one at 20,000 photos sits on the 25,000 plan at the published 319.99 $ a year. Year two is where the photo count bites: 40,000 photos online is past the cap, so you either move to Unlimited at 600 $, or archive year one. Archiving 160 GB is 2.99 $ for the first 25 GB plus 0.05 $ for each of the remaining 135 GB, which is 9.74 $ a month, or 116.88 $ over twelve months as arithmetic on ShootProof's published archiving rates. Added to the 319.99 $ plan that is 436.87 $, and the archived year-one galleries are no longer live for client viewing.
ShootProof from 23 September. The switch to gigabytes helps this profile, and it is worth saying so. 160 GB in year one and 320 GB in year two both sit inside Professional's 1000 GB, at the same published 319.99 $ a year, with no archiving line and no photo count to manage. The count-based squeeze in year two goes away.
The print-sales overlay
Subscriptions are only half the bill for a studio that sells prints. Take 4,000 $ of print revenue in a year and run it through each commission policy. These are our percentages applied to a stated revenue figure, so they are arithmetic on the published rates, not published figures.
| Platform and plan | Rate | On 4,000 $ |
|---|---|---|
| Pixieset, any paid tier | 0% | 0 $ |
| Pixieset, Free | 15% on the pre-discount subtotal | 600 $ |
| Pic-Time, Advanced, Pic-Time collects | 6% | 240 $ |
| Pic-Time, Professional, Pic-Time collects | 8% | 320 $ |
| Pic-Time, above Beginner, you collect | 0% | 0 $ |
| Pic-Time, Free or Beginner | 15%, always | 600 $ |
| ShootProof, any tier including Free | 0% | 0 $ |
Two readings come out of that table. On a free tier, Pixieset and Pic-Time both take 600 $ out of 4,000 $ of prints, which is more than any paid subscription in this comparison costs. And on Pic-Time's paid tiers the 240 $ or 320 $ is the price of convenience, avoidable only by collecting payments yourself.
The flat-price option, on the same arithmetic
clientgallery.io has one plan: 10 $ a month, or 100 $ a year. No storage tiers, no print store, no commissions, no per-gallery fees. Galleries, photos and clients are unlimited under fair use, on the studio's own subdomain, with no platform branding on any client-facing page. Face Search and a two-way Lightroom Classic plugin are included.
Fair use in figures, so it is comparable rather than asserted. Uploaded photos are browser-compressed proof JPEGs of about 0.6 MB each, hosted for as long as the account exists. The ceilings are 1,000 photos per gallery and 250 GB of proofs per paid account, which is hundreds of thousands of photos; free accounts hold 5 GB and one gallery. Full-resolution delivery is a paid feature: you upload a full-resolution ZIP per gallery, it stays live for 3 days per handoff and can be re-uploaded any time, with 100 GB of standing ZIPs per account.
Run the same 25 weddings through it. 20,000 proofs at about 0.6 MB is roughly 12 GB a year against the 250 GB account ceiling, and 800 photos per gallery sits under the 1,000 photo ceiling. Each wedding's full-resolution ZIP is 6.4 GB on the same 8 MB assumption, live for 3 days per handoff, against 100 GB of standing ZIPs. Year one is 100 $, year two is 100 $, and year ten is 100 $, because the number that moves the other three platforms up their ladders is a number this plan does not meter.
The reason the price can be flat is a real limitation, and it belongs in the comparison: clientgallery.io hosts JPEGs. It does not warehouse RAW files or master video. If RAW delivery or in-gallery video is part of your service, you need Pixieset Pro or Ultimate, Pic-Time Professional or Advanced, or ShootProof from 23 September.
None of these three is a bad platform
This page is arithmetic, not a verdict on quality, and the arithmetic favours us on one axis only. Three things are true and go the other way.
ShootProof's zero commission on every tier including Free is the most generous commission policy in this set. Nobody else charges nothing on a free plan. If print sales are how you make money and you want to start without a subscription, that policy is worth more than the archiving line costs.
Pixieset's suite is the broadest of the three by a distance: the client gallery sits alongside a website builder, a store, a photo editor and email campaigns, all on one account with one bill. clientgallery.io is one product and does not attempt any of that.
Pic-Time's Lightroom integration on Professional and Advanced does more than ours. It imports project structure, batch renames, and syncs client selections. Our plugin publishes proofs from the catalog and pulls client picks back in as ratings, flags and colour labels, which is a narrower job done in both directions.
And the plain version: a studio that sells prints should not buy clientgallery.io. We have no print store at all, so there is nothing to sell through and no commission to save. If your revenue runs through a print lab and a gallery storefront, stay on Pixieset or Pic-Time and treat this page as pricing research rather than a pitch.
The verdict, in three names
For a print-sales-led studio: Pixieset, on a paid tier. 0% commission from Basic upward at 8 $ a month billed annually, the broadest surrounding suite, and no condition attached to the zero. Pic-Time only matches that zero if you collect payments yourself; if you want the platform to handle checkout, Pixieset keeps 240 $ to 320 $ more of a 4,000 $ print year in your pocket than Pic-Time does.
For a high-volume delivery-only studio: Pixieset Ultimate. Of the three unlimited-photo tiers it is the cheapest at 40 $ a month billed annually, against Pic-Time Advanced at 42 $ and ShootProof Premium at 50 $. All three carry conditions: Pixieset and Pic-Time both reserve fees above 20 GB per gallery and 100 GB of bandwidth a month, and Pixieset caps RAW at 1,000 GB.
For a studio that wants no commission and does not mind archiving: ShootProof. Zero on every tier including Free, published annual totals rather than a monthly rate you have to multiply, and from 23 September a gigabyte meter that removes the photo-count squeeze entirely. Budget the archiving line at 2.99 $ for 25 GB plus 0.05 $ per additional GB, and accept that archived galleries stop being live for clients.
Who clientgallery.io is for. A studio that delivers finished JPEG galleries, gets paid by invoice rather than through a gallery storefront, and does not want the bill to move when the back catalogue grows. One plan at 10 $ a month or 100 $ a year, your own subdomain, no platform branding, and a Pixieset import that reads a whole account from the Pixieset dashboard with one bookmark and reproduces the galleries under your brand. If you sell prints, buy one of the three above instead.
Sources
All competitor pages fetched 4 September 2026. Prices are the US dollar figures as published; nothing on this page is converted between currencies. Figures marked arithmetic are our multiplication of a published rate, not a vendor-published total.
- Pixieset pricing (five tiers, storage, monthly and annual rates, commission, RAW, video), fetched 4 September 2026, https://pixieset.com/pricing/
- How does the 0% commission fee work (0% on Basic, Plus, Pro and Ultimate, 15% on Free), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002975072-How-does-the-0-commission-fee-work
- What is the cost of goods sold application fee (commission on the pre-discount subtotal, coupon-to-zero still charged, stacked on processor fees at 2.9% plus 0.30 $ and 3.49% plus 0.49 $), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003793352-What-is-the-cost-of-goods-sold-application-fee
- Pixieset Terms of Service, section 6 (fair usage: 20 GB per collection, 100 GB of bandwidth per month, individual photographer business use only), last updated 20 March 2026, fetched 4 September 2026, https://pixieset.com/terms/
- Uploading to Client Gallery (no photo cap, all uploads count toward storage), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003740132-Uploading-to-Client-Gallery
- Managing your Pixieset subscription (yearly plans offer up to a 20% discount compared to the monthly rate), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.pixieset.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003816812-Managing-your-Pixieset-subscription
- Pic-Time Client Delivery Suite pricing (four tiers, monthly and annual rates, photo and video storage, feature matrix), fetched 4 September 2026, https://www.pic-time.com/pricing/client-delivery-suite
- Pic-Time commission rates by plan (15% on Free and Beginner always, 8% on Professional, 6% on Advanced, 0% when you collect above Beginner), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/7901454-what-are-the-commission-rates-for-various-subscription-plans
- Why has my free plan storage been reduced to 3GB (10 GB reduced to 3 GB after 3 months, one-week permanent deletion, no restore), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/9210592-why-has-my-free-plan-storage-been-reduced-to-3gb
- How do I downgrade my plan (100 GB limit and 45-day permanent deletion, oldest galleries first), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/7905681-how-do-i-downgrade-my-plan-and-how-will-my-account-be-affected
- Pic-Time unlimited storage accounts (individual photographers only, fair limits of more than 20GB per gallery and 100 GB of bandwidth per month), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.pic-time.com/en/articles/12002681-unlimited-storage-accounts
- ShootProof plans (five current tiers, photo caps, stated storage, feature matrix, archive for a fee), fetched 4 September 2026, https://www.shootproof.com/plans/
- ShootProof Photo Plan Change FAQ (transition to GB-based storage on 23 September 2026, plan prices are not changing, new tier table, annual totals, migration rule), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/42846503437591-Photo-Plan-Change-FAQ
- What does archiving cost (2.99 $ minimum for up to 25 GB, 0.05 $ per additional GB, billed in arrears, included on Unlimited, one final bill after removal), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008322408-What-does-archiving-cost
- How do I archive my photos (archived galleries become static and are not live for client viewing, unarchiving is free but needs space), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008322448-How-do-I-archive-my-photos-and-remove-them-from-Archiving-later
- What does ShootProof cost ("ShootProof never charges a commission on your sales"), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008032167-What-does-ShootProof-cost
- Are there any other fees (the complete official fee list: archiving plus card processing), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008032267-Are-there-any-other-fees
- How do your plans work (the photo count is photos online at any time), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008189128-How-do-your-plans-work
- ShootProof Online Booking Plans (4.99 $ a month or 49.99 $ a year in the United States, available on every tier), fetched 4 September 2026, https://help.shootproof.com/hc/en-us/articles/27393226553111-Online-Booking-Plans
- clientgallery.io plan and fair use (10 $ a month or 100 $ a year, unlimited galleries, photos and clients under fair use, 1,000 photos per gallery, 250 GB of proofs per paid account, 5 GB and one gallery on free, full-resolution ZIPs live 3 days per handoff with 100 GB standing, JPEG hosting, no print store), checked 4 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/
Frequently asked
Which is cheapest, Pixieset, Pic-Time or ShootProof?
It depends on volume. At 25 weddings a year and 800 photos each, on an 8 MB average file assumption, year one is 288 $ on Pixieset Pro, 504 $ on Pic-Time Advanced and 319.99 $ on ShootProof's 25,000 plan. The Pixieset and Pic-Time annual totals are arithmetic on their published monthly rates, because neither publishes a yearly dollar total. ShootProof publishes 319.99 $ directly.
What is changing about ShootProof's plans on 23 September 2026?
ShootProof's FAQ states that plans transition from photo-count-based storage to GB-based storage on 23 September 2026, and that plan prices are not changing. Free becomes 3 GB photos only, Starter 20 GB at 9.99 $ or 99.99 $, Standard 100 GB at 19.99 $ or 199.99 $, Professional 1000 GB plus 50 GB video at 31.99 $ or 319.99 $, Advanced 2000 GB plus 100 GB video at 51.99 $ or 519.99 $, and Premium unlimited photo plus 150 GB video at 60 $ or 600 $.
Does ShootProof charge a commission on print sales?
No. ShootProof's help center states that it never charges a commission on your sales, on every tier including Free. That is the most generous commission policy of the three platforms on this page. Its published fee list is archiving plus card processing.
When does Pic-Time charge 0% commission?
Only when you are above the Beginner plan and you collect payments yourself. When Pic-Time collects the money the rate is 8% on Professional and 6% on Advanced. On Free and Beginner the commission is 15% and, in Pic-Time's words, is always collected regardless of store setup.
Does Pixieset's 15% free-plan commission apply to a discounted order?
Yes, and to the pre-discount amount. Pixieset states the fee is calculated on the order subtotal before discounts, coupon codes, taxes or shipping. It also states that a coupon bringing the total to zero still incurs the fee. The commission is charged in addition to the payment processor's fees.
How much does ShootProof archiving cost?
A minimum of 2.99 $ a month for up to 25 GB, then 0.05 $ per additional GB, billed monthly for the previous month's usage. It is included on the Unlimited plan. Archived galleries become static and are not live for client viewing, so archiving frees space at the cost of taking those galleries off the client-facing side.
How does clientgallery.io compare on price?
One plan at 10 $ a month or 100 $ a year, with no storage tiers, no print store and no commissions. Fair use is 1,000 photos per gallery and 250 GB of browser-compressed proof JPEGs of about 0.6 MB each per paid account, with free accounts at 5 GB and one gallery; full-resolution ZIPs stay live 3 days per handoff with 100 GB standing. It hosts JPEGs and does not warehouse RAW or master video, which is what keeps the price flat.
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.
See the one flat plan