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Comparison

Pixieset vs ShootProof: Commission, Price and What Happens to Old Galleries

The two most-compared client gallery platforms, read only on the lines both of them actually publish. Where one of them keeps a figure unpublished, this page says so instead of guessing.

Updated 9 September 2026

Most Pixieset versus ShootProof comparisons print a tidy price grid with both columns filled in. Half of that grid is invented. Pixieset does not publish a per-tier price table or a storage amount on any route that answered a request on 9 September 2026, and its help centre gives an entry price and nothing more. ShootProof publishes its whole ladder in public.

So this page does not print a side-by-side price grid. It compares the two on the axes where both publish a real figure: store commission, what it costs to start, what happens to a gallery over time, downloads and resolution, and mobile gallery apps. ShootProof's tier table gets its own section, because it exists. Every number below traces to a page or help article listed in Sources, with that article's own date. For the wider field, start with the full platform comparison.

Start with the commission, because that is where they differ most

Pixieset states that commission fees are only charged on orders placed while you are subscribed to the Client Gallery Free plan, and that the rate there is 15%. Every paid Client Gallery, Suite and Studio plan is listed at 0%. That is from Pixieset's own help centre, in an article updated 8 September 2026.

The basis matters as much as the rate. Pixieset states the commission is calculated on the order subtotal, before any discounts, coupon codes, taxes or shipping fees are applied. A coupon you hand a client does not shrink the commission. Pixieset also states the commission is separate from payment-processor fees and fulfilment costs.

ShootProof says it “never charges a commission on your sales” in its help centre, and repeats the same claim in two other official places and on its plans page. The rate is 0%, on every plan including the free one. There is no percentage to quote because ShootProof asserts none exists.

Plan familyStore commissionStated where
Pixieset Client Gallery Free15% of the order subtotalHelp centre article updated 8 September 2026
Pixieset Client Gallery Basic, Plus, Pro, Ultimate0%Same article
Pixieset Suite Starter, Pro, Ultimate0%Same article
Pixieset Studio 60, Studio 80, Studio 1200%Same article
ShootProof, every plan including free0%Help centre articles updated 2 March 2026 and 26 August 2026, plus the plans page read 9 September 2026
clientgallery.ioNo store, so no cutProduct

One honest qualifier on the ShootProof side. Its fees article states that the only charges beyond the plan fee are archiving and credit card processing, and that the processing fee applies at checkout and when the card on file is charged for lab items. That article publishes no percentage and no dollar amount for it, and no other page read on 9 September 2026 does either. So a processing fee exists and its rate is not published. We are not going to fill that gap with a generic card rate. Ask ShootProof for the number before you model anything, and ask Pixieset the same question, since Pixieset states its commission sits separately from processor fees.

What it costs to start

Pixieset's help centre states that Client Gallery plans start as low as 8 $ a month billed annually, or 10 $ a month billed monthly. Note the date on that one: the article carrying the figure was last updated 25 May 2026, so treat it as Pixieset's published entry price rather than as a live quote. A separate article updated 1 September 2026 states that yearly plans offer up to a 20% discount compared with the monthly rate, that a new account starts on a Free plan which does not expire, and that the Suite plan bundles Client Gallery, Website and Studio Manager into one subscription at a discounted price.

That is the whole of what Pixieset publishes on price where we can read it. There is no per-tier table and no storage figure for any tier on that route. This is not a small gap, because several capabilities are documented as tier-dependent without a price attached: original-resolution downloads require an upgraded Client Gallery or Suite plan, a custom subdomain for Client Gallery requires an upgraded Client Gallery or Suite subscription, and 4K video delivery is limited to the Pro and Ultimate plans. If any of those matter to you, the upgrade price is the number to ask for first.

ShootProof leads with a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, per its FAQ article updated 26 August 2026. Its plan prices are in the next section, because unlike Pixieset it prints them.

ShootProof's plans, as published on 9 September 2026

All figures below come from ShootProof's plans page, read on 9 September 2026. The photo number is the total number of photos you can have online in the account at any one time, spread across unlimited galleries, per its help centre article updated 26 August 2026.

PlanPhotos onlineStoragePer month, monthlyPer month, annual
Free100up to 5 GB0 $0 $
1,5001,500up to 75 GB9.99 $8.33 $
5,0005,000up to 250 GB19.99 $16.67 $
25,00025,000up to 1,250 GB31.99 $26.67 $
Unlimitedunlimitedunlimited60.00 $50 $

A warning that belongs on any page quoting these numbers. ShootProof publishes two different price sets on two of its own live pages, and both were read on 9 September 2026. Its plans page shows the 1,500 plan at 9.99 $ monthly and 8.33 $ a month on annual billing; its pricing page shows 12.99 $ and 10.99 $ for the same plan. The plans page shows the 5,000 plan at 19.99 $ and 16.67 $; the pricing page shows 21.99 $ and 19.99 $. The 25,000 and Unlimited rows are identical on both. This page uses the plans page set, which is the lower of the two. Check which set your own account is billed on before you budget from either.

Archiving is the fee that surprises people. ShootProof's help centre states archiving costs a minimum monthly charge of 2.99 $ for up to 25 GB of storage, then 0.05 $ per additional GB, and that it is billed monthly and retroactively for the prior month's usage. Archiving is included at no additional cost on the Unlimited plan. Unarchiving is free. Archived galleries are not live for client viewing, and archived media does not count toward the plan storage amount, which is exactly why studios use it to stay under a tier.

Plan mechanics, all from ShootProof's own articles updated 26 August 2026: an upgrade takes effect immediately with the remaining plan time prorated onto the new bill, a downgrade does not take effect until the next bill date, you can move up and down between plans without penalty, and all purchases are non-refundable. Sales tax is applied in 20 states plus Washington, D.C. Online Booking is a separate add-on at 4.99 $ a month, and invoicing and e-sign contracts are excluded from the Free plan and included on every paid one.

What happens to a gallery when you stop touching it

This is the second axis where both platforms publish a clear answer, and the answers are different in shape.

Pixieset states that your collections stay online for as long as you have an active subscription, or until you delete them yourself, and that they do not expire unless you use the Auto-Expiry feature. That is an article updated 14 July 2026. If you do set an expiry date, Pixieset states the collection expires at 11:59 pm your local time on the date you set, is switched to Hidden status so clients can no longer view their images, and that this does not delete the images or the collection. That is an article updated 10 August 2026. Cancelling, however, is a different matter: Pixieset states that cancelling fully ends the subscription and removes access to that product, and that refunds are not issued for account cancellations.

ShootProof documents the mechanism rather than a period. A gallery expires on a date the photographer sets, and at 11:59 pm on that date in the studio's time zone the gallery expires and becomes inactive. Expiry is a per-gallery setting that can also be applied to every future gallery through Gallery Presets, and an advanced setting sends a gallery to Archiving a chosen number of days after it expires. That is an article updated 18 August 2026. No page read on 9 September 2026 publishes a default expiry period, so there is no “ShootProof galleries expire after N days”figure on this page. If you have never touched the setting, check what your presets say rather than trusting a number from a review site.

For contrast, hosted galleries on clientgallery.io do not expire while the account exists, and there is no expiry setting to forget about. The one part that is deliberately time-boxed is the full-resolution handoff, covered below.

Downloads, resolution and mobile apps

Pixieset publishes a full resolution ladder, in an article updated 9 September 2026. Web size downloads come in three resolutions, sized at 640px, 1024px and 2048px on the width. High resolution photos are available at 3600px or Original, and Original resolution requires an upgraded Client Gallery or Suite plan. Video is delivered up to 1080p on the Basic and Plus plans, and up to 4K on the Pro and Ultimate Client Gallery or Suite plans.

Two Pixieset download details are worth knowing before you set a gallery up. Pixieset automatically sets a 4-digit download PIN on collections, applying to both photo and video downloads, per an article updated 1 September 2026. And a download limit is shared between all collection visitors by default; to make the limit apply separately to each person you also have to enable Restrict Downloads to Specific Contacts. That is an article updated 4 September 2026. A pooled limit means one enthusiastic guest can spend the whole family's allowance.

ShootProof publishes nothing comparable on a page read on 9 September 2026. Its FAQ notes that downloads can be limited per contact, but publishes no figures, and no download resolution ladder was found. There is nothing honest to put opposite the Pixieset numbers here, so the row stays empty rather than filled from a third party.

Mobile gallery apps are one place both publish. Pixieset states its Mobile Gallery App holds a curated selection of up to 200 images, that paid Client Gallery or Suite plans can create an unlimited number of them, and that the Free plan is capped at 3, in an article updated 6 September 2026. It installs from the phone's home-screen menu rather than an app store. ShootProof's plans page, read 9 September 2026, allows up to 5 mobile gallery apps on Free and unlimited from the 1,500 plan up.

Where clientgallery.io fits, and what it does not do

One plan: 10 $ a month, or 100 $ a year. No print store, no commission, no per-gallery fee, no storage tiers. Galleries carry the studio's own subdomain and no platform branding at all. Face Search is included. There is a two-way Lightroom Classic plugin that publishes proofs from the catalog and pulls the client's picks back in, and sub-galleries inside a gallery for a multi-day job.

Because this page argues about caps, here are ours in plain numbers rather than the word unlimited. Uploaded photos are browser-compressed proof JPEGs of about 0.6 MB each, and they stay hosted for as long as the account exists. Fair use runs to 1,000 photos per gallery and 250 GB of proofs per paid account; a free account holds 5 GB. Full-resolution delivery works differently: the photographer uploads a full-resolution ZIP for a gallery, it stays live for 3 days per handoff and can be re-uploaded any time, with 100 GB of standing ZIPs per account.

The reason the price can stay flat is what we refuse to store. clientgallery.io hosts JPEG proofs. It does not warehouse RAW files or master video. That is a real limitation, not a footnote, and it is the trade that keeps one number on the invoice.

What is missing compared with both platforms on this page: no print store, no price sheets, no lab fulfilment, no invoicing, no e-sign contracts, no booking, no website builder.

Which of the three you should pick

Pick Pixieset if your revenue runs through a print lab. A store with price sheets, automatic fulfilment through a lab partner and the option of self fulfilment is a real business system, and the Suite subscription bundling Client Gallery, Website and Studio Manager answers a real problem for a studio that wants one vendor. Two things to settle first: the price of the upgraded plan you will need, because original-resolution downloads, a custom subdomain and 4K video are all documented as requiring one and the tier prices are not published where we can read them, and the 15% on the free plan if you were planning to test the store before subscribing.

Pick ShootProof if you sell prints and want a commission-free store on every plan including the free one, with invoicing and e-sign contracts in the same tool rather than in a second subscription. Its ladder is legible: a photo count, a storage amount and a price, all printed. It is also the better fit if you would rather pay a small monthly archiving charge to park old work outside the plan count than delete it. Confirm which of its two contradicting price pages your account is billed against, and ask for the card processing rate that its own fees article does not print.

Pick clientgallery.io if you sell no prints, deliver digital files, and want one flat price with no tier to outgrow, your own subdomain from the first day, and client picks landing back in your Lightroom Classic catalog. If you sell prints, or your invoices and contracts live inside your gallery tool, do not switch. You would be trading a business system for a delivery tool, and you would feel the loss in the first month.

If you decide to leave Pixieset

Pixieset's help centre documents exports for Studio Manager business data: invoice payments and contacts. Searching it on 9 September 2026 turned up no documented bulk export of a photo library and no documented transfer of collections to another account. An absent article is not a refusal, and Pixieset support is the right place to ask directly, but that is what the published documentation says today.

The import here is built around that gap. From the Pixieset dashboard the studio clicks one bookmark. It reads the account through Pixieset's own dashboard API, the endpoints its web app already uses: every collection, its sets, titles, descriptions, event date, password and photo order. Galleries are reproduced one by one at full size under the studio's brand. Pixieset is only read and never changed, and no password reaches clientgallery.io. Re-running the import skips what it has already brought over, so a migration can run in stages across a few evenings instead of one long night. The mechanics are on the import page.

There is no ShootProof importer. Leaving ShootProof is a manual download and re-upload, and it is fair to weigh that before moving a large archive.

Sources

Pixieset figures are quoted from Pixieset's own help centre, each with that article's own last-updated date, and read on 9 September 2026. ShootProof marketing pages were read on 9 September 2026; ShootProof help articles carry their own dates.

Frequently asked

Does Pixieset take a commission on sales?

Pixieset states that commission fees are only charged on orders placed while you are subscribed to the Client Gallery Free plan, where the rate is 15%, and that every paid Client Gallery, Suite and Studio plan is 0%. It also states the 15% is calculated on the order subtotal, before any discounts, coupon codes, taxes or shipping fees, and that it is separate from payment-processor fees and fulfilment costs. Help centre article updated 8 September 2026.

Does ShootProof take a commission?

No. ShootProof states across three of its own help articles and its plans page that it never takes a commission on your sales, on every plan including the free one. It does charge for two other things: archiving, and credit card processing. The rate of the processing fee is not published on any ShootProof page read on 9 September 2026, so ask for it directly rather than assuming a standard card rate.

How much does ShootProof cost?

As published on its plans page on 9 September 2026: Free holds 100 photos and up to 5 GB at no charge, then 9.99 $ a month for 1,500 photos and up to 75 GB, 19.99 $ for 5,000 photos and up to 250 GB, 31.99 $ for 25,000 photos and up to 1,250 GB, and 60.00 $ for unlimited photos and storage. Annual billing lowers those to 8.33 $, 16.67 $, 26.67 $ and 50 $ a month. Note that ShootProof's separate pricing page shows higher figures for the two lowest paid tiers, so confirm which set applies to your account.

How much does Pixieset cost?

Pixieset's help centre states that Client Gallery plans start as low as 8 $ a month billed annually, or 10 $ a month billed monthly, in an article updated 25 May 2026, and that yearly plans offer up to a 20% discount compared with the monthly rate. Pixieset does not publish a per-tier price table or a storage amount for any tier on any route that answered on 9 September 2026, so this page prints neither. If you need original-resolution downloads, a custom subdomain or 4K video, ask Pixieset for the price of the upgraded plan those require.

Do Pixieset or ShootProof galleries expire?

Pixieset states that collections stay online for as long as the subscription is active, or until you delete them, and do not expire unless you use Auto-Expiry; when an expiry date is reached the collection is set to Hidden at 11:59 pm your local time and neither the images nor the collection are deleted. ShootProof galleries expire on a date the photographer sets, at 11:59 pm in the studio's time zone, after which the gallery becomes inactive. No ShootProof page read on 9 September 2026 publishes a default expiry period, so there is no standard number of days to quote.

Can I move my galleries off Pixieset?

Pixieset's help centre documents exports of Studio Manager business data, specifically invoice payments and contacts. Searching it on 9 September 2026 found no documented bulk export of a photo library and no documented transfer of collections to another account, which is an absence rather than a refusal. clientgallery.io imports a whole Pixieset account from the Pixieset dashboard with one bookmark: it reads collections, sets, titles, descriptions, event dates, passwords and photo order, reproduces the galleries at full size under your brand, changes nothing on the Pixieset side, and skips anything already imported when you re-run it.

Which one is better if I do not sell prints?

Neither is built for you. Both are store-first platforms, and much of what you are paying for is the print and sales machinery. If you deliver digital files only, a flat delivery tool costs less and gets out of the way: clientgallery.io is 10 $ a month or 100 $ a year with no store, no commission and no storage tier, with proof JPEGs of about 0.6 MB each, 1,000 photos per gallery and 250 GB of proofs per paid account. If you do sell prints, stay with Pixieset or ShootProof.

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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Related guides

Pixieset vs ShootProof: Commission, Price, Expiry (2026)