clientgallery.io

Comparison

Zenfolio vs Pixieset: What Is Published and What Is Not

One sells a website and a store. The other sells client galleries and grew a suite around them. This page compares only what each company publishes on its own pages, and names the numbers neither of them does.

Updated September 2026

Most Zenfolio versus Pixieset pages open with a side-by-side price and commission grid. That grid cannot be built honestly today, and the halves that would be missing are exactly the numbers you came for.

Zenfolio publishes plan prices and storage on its own pricing page. It does not publish a print-sale commission anywhere we can read. Pixieset publishes its commission structure in precise language and dates the article. It does not publish a per-tier price table or a single storage figure on any route that answers an automated request, even though its plans are metered by storage.

So this is not a grid. It is what each product is for, the mechanics each company does document, a section that names the gaps plainly, and a verdict that sends you to the right product rather than to ours. Every figure below traces to a first-party page listed under Sources, with the date that page or article carried on 9 September 2026.

What each product is actually for

These two products are not the same shape, and the shape decides more than the price does.

Zenfolio is a portfolio site and a store that also delivers galleries. Its plans page sells a bundle: a custom domain on all three plans, custom watermarks, an SMS allowance measured in messages per month, team members, a Product Builder, a Volume Wizard and a QR Code Workflow, plus paid add-ons for AI culling and for booking and scheduling. If your public website and your print sales both run through Zenfolio, replacing it means replacing several products at once, not one.

Pixieset is a client gallery that grew a suite around itself. Its own subscription article describes a Suite plan that bundles Client Gallery, Website and Studio Manager into one subscription at a discounted price, and says new accounts start on a Free plan that does not expire. Its commission article names the full plan taxonomy: Client Gallery Basic, Plus, Pro and Ultimate, Suite Starter, Pro and Ultimate, and Studio 60, Studio 80 and Studio 120. That article names those tiers. It does not price them.

One consequence of the suite shape is worth stating early. Pixieset's help centre says cancelling fully ends the subscription and removes access to that product, and that refunds are not issued for account cancellations.

Zenfolio's published plans, in Canadian dollars

Zenfolio's pricing page served the figures below in Canadian dollars on 9 September 2026. They are labelled CA$ here every time because that is the currency the page served. Do not read them as United States dollars, and do not convert them: no USD list price could be verified.

A site-wide banner on that page reads "Save Up To 50% off annual plans", so the annual column is a promotional rate rather than a list rate. Professional's annual figure is exactly half its monthly figure.

Zenfolio planMonthlyAnnual, per monthPhoto storageVideoCustom watermarksTeam members
BasicCA$12CA$915 GB, approx. 4,500 photosMP4, MOV (HD)1Not stated
ProfessionalCA$32CA$16150 GB, approx. 60,000 photosMP4, MOV (HD)12
AdvancedCA$55CA$27.50Unlimited JPEG plus 150 GB video, approx. 10 hours, 4K supportedMP4, MOV (4K)315

Two more lines from the same page. A custom domain is included on all three plans. AI culling and booking and scheduling are CA$10 a month each as add-ons on Basic and Professional, and are included on Advanced. A free trial exists, described as "Try It FREE" with no credit card required, and its length is not stated on the page.

Zenfolio's Terms of Service publish two things worth knowing before you commit an archive. A dormant account holding a positive balance is charged an account administration fee of US$15.00 per month. And Zenfolio reserves the right to terminate accounts that are inactive for an extended period, as determined by Zenfolio in its sole discretion, with or without notice.

Pixieset's published commission, and the one price it publishes

This is the part Pixieset documents better than anyone else in the category, so it deserves to be quoted exactly.

Commission fees are charged only on orders placed while the account is on the Client Gallery Free plan, at 15%. Every paid family is listed at 0%: Client Gallery Basic, Plus, Pro and Ultimate, Suite Starter, Pro and Ultimate, and Studio 60, Studio 80 and Studio 120. The 15% is calculated on the order subtotal, before any discounts, coupon codes, taxes or shipping fees are applied, and it sits separately from payment processor fees and fulfilment costs. That article was updated on 8 September 2026.

On price, Pixieset publishes one figure on the route that answers. Pixieset 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. A separate subscription article, updated 1 September 2026, states that yearly plans offer up to a 20% discount compared with the monthly rate. Those two sentences are the entire published price picture. Everything past them is covered in the gaps section below.

To take store payments at all, Pixieset says you must have at least one payment method connected, and that price sheets decide product pricing and which products clients can buy inside a collection. Fulfilment is either automatic through a lab partner or self fulfilment, where the client orders in the gallery and you arrange printing and shipping.

The gallery mechanics Pixieset documents

These are the rules that decide what a client experiences, and Pixieset publishes all of them with dates. Each row below is that company's own statement, not an interpretation.

MechanicWhat Pixieset statesArticle updated
Download resolutionsWeb sizes at 640px, 1024px and 2048px on the width. High resolution at 3600px or Original, with Original available on upgraded Client Gallery or Suite plans.9 September 2026
Download limitThe limit is shared between all collection visitors. Enabling Restrict Downloads to Specific Contacts applies the limit separately to each contact.4 September 2026
Download PINPixieset automatically sets a 4-digit download PIN for collections, applying to both photo and video downloads.1 September 2026
Video resolutionUp to 1080p on Basic or Plus. Up to 4K on Pro or Ultimate Client Gallery or Suite plans.9 September 2026
Mobile Gallery AppA curated selection of up to 200 images. Unlimited apps on paid Client Gallery or Suite plans, up to 3 on the Free plan.6 September 2026
Custom subdomainAn upgraded Client Gallery or Suite subscription is required to set up a subdomain to your Client Gallery.6 September 2026
Photos per collectionNo limit on the number of photos, but all uploads count toward the account's available storage.20 August 2026
Collection lifetimeCollections stay online for as long as the subscription is active, or until you delete them, and do not expire unless Auto-Expiry is used.14 July 2026
Auto-ExpiryA collection expires at 11:59 pm local time on the date set, is put into Hidden status, and clients can no longer view the images. Nothing is deleted.10 August 2026
Store commission15% on Client Gallery Free, 0% on paid Client Gallery, Suite and Studio plans, on the order subtotal before discounts, coupon codes, taxes or shipping.8 September 2026

Two rows there are worth a second read. The download limit being pooled across every visitor to a gallery is the one that surprises studios: a family of six sharing a link spends one allowance unless per-contact restriction is switched on. And Original resolution sitting behind an upgraded plan means the ceiling on what your client can actually take home is a billing decision, not a gallery setting.

What neither company publishes

This section is the reason the page exists. A comparison that quietly fills these cells with numbers from review sites is not more useful than one that leaves them empty. It is just wrong in a way you cannot check.

  • Zenfolio's print commission. No percentage or revenue share appears on Zenfolio's plans and pricing page, and none appears in its Terms of Service, the two pages fetched for this comparison on 9 September 2026. The only fee language in the Terms is that payments are recorded in a photographer account net of any fees associated with the transactions for your type of photographer services account. Its help centre redirects to a support portal that returns no readable article content. So the Zenfolio commission cell on this page is empty, and it stays empty. Ask Zenfolio directly before you build a sales model on a number you found somewhere else.
  • Pixieset's per-tier prices. No help centre article lists a price for Client Gallery Basic, Plus, Pro or Ultimate, for Suite Starter, Pro or Ultimate, or for Studio 60, 80 or 120. The marketing pricing page refuses automated requests with HTTP 403, confirmed 9 September 2026. The entry figure quoted above is the only published price on this page, and it carries a 25 May 2026 article date, so it is what Pixieset states rather than what you will be charged today.
  • Every Pixieset storage figure. Pixieset says all subscriptions are storage-based, so how much you can upload depends on file sizes and your plan. It publishes no gigabyte or terabyte number for any tier on the readable route. That is the most important unknown in this comparison, because storage is the meter the whole price ladder runs on.
  • Zenfolio's trial length, expiry rules and download behaviour. The pricing page confirms a free trial exists but not how long it lasts. Neither fetched page states gallery expiry rules for a normal account, nor how full-resolution or ZIP downloads and download caps work. None of that is published, so none of it is compared here.
  • A documented way to take your photo library out of Pixieset. Pixieset's help centre documents no bulk photo-export or account-transfer path (searched 9 September 2026). What it does document are Studio Manager business exports: payment transactions and contacts. An absent article is not a denial that something exists, and this page does not treat it as one. It is a gap in the documentation, and you should ask about it before your library gets large.

Where clientgallery.io fits

We are the third option in this comparison, and a narrow one. Here is the whole offer, with its limits in the same paragraph rather than in a footnote.

  • One plan, 10 $/month or 100 $/year. No print store, no commission, no per-gallery fee, no storage tiers. There is no upgrade path because there is nothing above it.
  • Your own subdomain, with no platform branding on client-facing pages. There is no plan gate on it. Pixieset states that an upgraded Client Gallery or Suite subscription is required to set up a subdomain, and that Original resolution downloads are available on upgraded plans. Those two gates are the honest contrast to draw, because both are verified from Pixieset's own articles.
  • What fair use actually means here. Uploaded photos are browser-compressed proof JPEGs of about 0.6 MB each, hosted for as long as the account exists. The tripwires are 1,000 photos per gallery and 250 GB of proofs per paid account. Free accounts hold 5 GB.
  • Full-resolution delivery is a ZIP per gallery. You upload it, it stays live for 3 days per handoff, and you can re-upload it any time, with 100 GB of standing ZIPs per account. It is a handoff, not an archive, and we will not describe it as one.
  • The trade that keeps the price flat. clientgallery.io hosts JPEGs. It does not warehouse RAW files or master video. Zenfolio's Advanced plan carries 150 GB of video and Pixieset delivers video up to 4K on its upper tiers. We do neither, on purpose.

Face Search, sub-galleries inside a gallery and a two-way Lightroom Classic plugin are included on that one plan. Hosted galleries never expire.

The verdict

A photographer who wants a full website and a store in one product should look at Zenfolio. That is what it is built to be, its prices for that bundle are published, and nothing here replaces a website builder and a storefront.

A studio living inside a print lab and a CRM keeps Pixieset. Its commission on paid plans is 0% and documented, its store, price sheets and lab fulfilment are real, and the Suite ties the gallery to the website and to Studio Manager. Leaving that to save a subscription fee would cost you more than it saves.

We are for a studio delivering digital files under its own name at one flat price. No store, no tiers, no commission, no branding on the client's screen. If that is not the business you run, one of the two products above is the better answer, and this page would rather say so than sell you the wrong thing.

If you are moving off Pixieset

The migration is one bookmark, run from your Pixieset dashboard. 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 then reproduced one by one at full size under your brand. Pixieset is only read, never changed, and no password reaches clientgallery.io. Re-running the import skips whatever is already imported, so a large account moves in stages without duplicates and without a bad week.

The full walkthrough is on the import page. If you are still comparing, the alternatives index covers the rest of the category.

Sources

Every competitor figure, quote and policy on this page comes from the pages below. Zenfolio's pages were fetched on 9 September 2026 and served prices in Canadian dollars. Each Pixieset help centre article carries its own update date, shown here and in the tables above, because an article updated months ago is Pixieset's published statement rather than today's live figure.

Frequently asked

Does Zenfolio charge a commission on print sales?

No figure is published on the pages that can be read. Zenfolio's plans and pricing page states no commission or revenue share, and neither does its Terms of Service, both fetched 9 September 2026. The only fee language in the Terms is that payments are recorded net of any fees associated with the transactions for your type of photographer services account. This page will not print a percentage taken from a review site, so ask Zenfolio directly.

How much does each Pixieset plan cost?

Pixieset does not publish a per-tier price on any route that answers an automated request, and its pricing page returns HTTP 403 to those requests, confirmed 9 September 2026. Pixieset states that Client Gallery plans start as low as $8 a month billed annually, or $10 a month billed monthly, in a help article updated 25 May 2026, and that yearly plans offer up to a 20% discount. That is the whole published price picture.

Which is cheaper, Zenfolio or Pixieset?

The question cannot be answered honestly right now. Zenfolio's verified prices were served in Canadian dollars at CA$12, CA$32 and CA$55 a month, and CA$9, CA$16 and CA$27.50 a month annually, under a Save Up To 50% off annual plans banner, so the annual column is promotional. Pixieset publishes only an entry figure, from an article updated 25 May 2026. Comparing a promotional Canadian-dollar rate with a four-month-old entry figure would be a guess dressed as a comparison.

Does Pixieset take a cut of my print sales?

Only on the free plan. Pixieset charges 15% on orders placed while the account is on the Client Gallery Free plan, calculated on the order subtotal before any discounts, coupon codes, taxes or shipping fees. Client Gallery Basic, Plus, Pro and Ultimate, Suite Starter, Pro and Ultimate, and Studio 60, 80 and 120 are all listed at 0%. The article was updated 8 September 2026.

Do Pixieset galleries expire?

Not by default. Pixieset states that collections stay online for as long as the subscription is active, or until you delete them, and do not expire unless Auto-Expiry is used. When Auto-Expiry is set, the collection expires at 11:59 pm local time on the chosen date and is put into Hidden status, so clients can no longer view the images, but the images and the collection are not deleted.

Can my clients download original-resolution files from Pixieset?

Depending on the plan. Pixieset states that web-size downloads come in 640px, 1024px and 2048px on the width, and that high-resolution downloads are 3600px or Original, with Original available on upgraded Client Gallery or Suite plans. A download limit is also shared between all visitors to a collection unless Restrict Downloads to Specific Contacts is enabled.

Can I move my Pixieset galleries to clientgallery.io?

Yes. From your Pixieset dashboard, one bookmark reads the account through Pixieset's own dashboard API: every collection, its sets, titles, descriptions, event date, password and photo order. Galleries are reproduced one by one at full size under your brand. Pixieset is only read and never changed, no password reaches clientgallery.io, and re-running skips what is already imported so a large account moves in stages without duplicates.

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

Zenfolio vs Pixieset: What Is Published and What Is Not