Smugmug, Flickr, 500px etc

[DanielW]

Dear CR friends,
Which of the hosting websites do you prefer, and why is it better for you?
Thank you!
Daniel

[mackguyver]

I'm a long-time SmugMug user and have never been happy with them.  They have great service, but the interface and ability to truly customize is tedious and really cumbersome.  Also, they really jacked up their prices a couple of years ago unapologetically.  I'd leave them if I didn't have thousands of photos to deal with and time to build a new site elsewhere. 

I would not recommend SmugMug.

[distant.star]

.
I've been using Smugmug for several years now. While I have minor dissatisfactions with them, they are adequate. I pay a reasonable price for a service level that gives me what I need.

Many more professional photographers I've seen lately seem to be using Zenfolio. I'd probably try them if I were not so lazy.

I abandoned Flickr when they did their "graphic" redesign. Now all your pictures look like they have been dumped into a blender. I still visit once in a while for the comments in groups -- you can find some good insight into particular bodies, lenses, etc. from people who are actually using them.

I tried 500px briefly, but they're too social oriented. It's all about campaigning to have members vote for your pictures. I quickly grew weary of all the needy pleas to "like my picture!"

[DanielW]

(...) but the interface and ability to truly customize is tedious and really cumbersome. (...)

Thank you for answering!
Do these problems persist despite the recent "upgrade"?

[DanielW]

.
I've been using Smugmug for several years now. While I have minor dissatisfactions with them, they are adequate. I pay a reasonable price for a service level that gives me what I need.

Many more professional photographers I've seen lately seem to be using Zenfolio. I'd probably try them if I were not so lazy.

I abandoned Flickr when they did their "graphic" redesign. Now all your pictures look like they have been dumped into a blender. I still visit once in a while for the comments in groups -- you can find some good insight into particular bodies, lenses, etc. from people who are actually using them.

I tried 500px briefly, but they're too social oriented. It's all about campaigning to have members vote for your pictures. I quickly grew weary of all the needy pleas to "like my picture!"

I will give Zenfolio a try, then.
Thanks!

[mackguyver]

(...) but the interface and ability to truly customize is tedious and really cumbersome. (...)

Thank you for answering!
Do these problems persist despite the recent "upgrade"?

Yes.  It's much better, but you're still stuck with one of about 10 different themes.  You can tweak them further, but it's still not simple to create a truly unique site.  I have tried to create my "new" site about 10 times now and spent hours trying to customize it, but something always seems to break or not work as it's supposed to and I just give up. Last time this happened, I typed up a long message in their support form and when I submitted it, it said their site was down and of course the contents of my message were lost and they never received my request for support.

It's really frustrating to have an old site that you're not happy with and your only choices are go with a cookie-cutter design you don't like or spend days/weeks trying to customize a site.  Also, unlike Photoshelter & Zenfolio, it's almost impossible to integrate a blog into your site.  They want you to integrate your galleries into a blog, which just seems a$$-backwards to me.

On the plus side, their back-end is awesome in terms of uploading and organizing photos, it's just the outward website that is such a pain. 

Also, and most importantly, I have given up on their Pro feature of selling through your site.  Their proof tool has failed me on multiple occasions, and I've lost several sales and made one client really angry with the results.

You're probably wondering why I'm still with them - it's because they bill annually and I've already paid.  I had high hopes of getting the new interface together, but now I'm debating whether to try one last time or just ditch them and move on to someone else.  I'll probably try PhotoShelter next as they seem to be the most popular amongst the pros I know.