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Comparison · Site visits and photos

Pixieset alternatives (2026): client galleries and proofing, compared on price

By Blink Brief · Updated  · How pages are made

Pixieset's Client Gallery is free up to 3 GB, with a 15% commission on store sales; paid plans start at $10 a month ($8 billed annually) for 10 GB and no commission. Of the other eight services in the tables, Pic-Time, ShootProof, CloudSpot, Picdrop and Picflow also have a free plan, and Zenfolio, Pixpa and SmugMug start with a trial. For proofing, Picflow's free plan has favorites and comments, Pixieset and ShootProof give you the client's picks as file names for Lightroom, and Picdrop exports them to Lightroom or Capture One.

On this page

Quick picks

  • Proofing on the free plan

    Picflow

    Favorites and comments on every plan, the free 2 GB included; free galleries carry a Picflow badge.

    Free; Plus $15/month

    picflow.com

  • No commission, even free

    ShootProof

    Commission-free sales on every plan; the free plan holds 100 photos; clients favorite and label photos.

    Free; Starter $9.99/month

    shootproof.com

  • Picks out to Lightroom

    Picdrop

    Comments, color markers and likes; every plan exports selections to Lightroom or Capture One.

    Free 1 GB; Pro $18.99/month

    picdrop.com

What Pixieset costs and does

  • Free: "$0 / mo", "Billed Never": 3 GB, unlimited galleries, and a store with a 15% commission fee.
  • Paid: Basic $10/month (10 GB), Plus $20 (100 GB), Pro $30 (1 TB, RAW photos) and Ultimate $50 (unlimited), or $8, $16, $24 and $40 a month billed annually. Paid plans add full resolution download, your own domain and logo, and commission-free sales.
  • Proofing: clients click the heart on a photo to add it to a favorite list, add notes if you turn on Favorite Notes, and send you the list. You can set a limit on how many they pick. The Lightroom Copy List gives you the file names formatted for Lightroom's search.
  • Languages: galleries display in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Chinese, Portuguese or Swedish. Pixieset's own site has English, Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil) and French.

Prices and free plans

Service Free plan Entry paid plan Storage on that plan
Pixieset 3 GB, unlimited galleries Basic $10/month, or $8/month billed annually 10 GB
Pic-Time 10 GB, reduced to 3 GB after 3 months Beginner US$8/month, or US$7/month billed annually 20 GB
ShootProof 100 photos, unlimited client galleries Starter $9.99/month list price; half price in its sale until 1 December 2026 20 GB of photos and video
Zenfolio None; a free trial Basic $9/month, or $7/month billed annually 15 GB
CloudSpot 5 GB, up to 3 galleries, JPEG only Entry $7/month; $3/month for the first 3 months in its current offer 15 GB, up to 15 galleries
Picdrop 1 GB, 3 galleries Pro $18.99/month, or $15.99/month billed annually, before tax 500 GB
Picflow 2 GB, unlimited galleries Plus $15/month, or $144/year 100 GB
Pixpa None; a 15-day free trial Basic $9/month, or $64.80/year 3 GB for original files
SmugMug None; a 14-day free trial Direct $29/month, or $20/month billed annually Unlimited

Read on each vendor's own pages on 5 November 2026, in US dollars. Picdrop lists net prices and also shows euros and pounds; Pixpa shows each visitor their own currency, and these are the US-dollar prices in its page's data. ShootProof (50% off until 1 December 2026), Zenfolio (60% off the first year of a Professional or Advanced annual plan, until 25 November) and CloudSpot run sales; the table gives the regular price.

Proofing: favorites, comments and file names

Proofing is the step before delivery: your client picks the frames to edit or print, and you find those files. What matters is how the picks come back to you.

Service Client picks Comments on photos Picks back to Lightroom
Pixieset Favorite lists, with an optional limit on how many Notes on favorites, when you turn on Favorite Notes Lightroom Copy List: the file names, formatted for Lightroom's search; a toggle drops the commas for Capture One
Pic-Time Client Selections, on Professional (US$25/month) and Advanced Not stated on the pages read Selections and favorites sync to Lightroom, on Professional and Advanced
ShootProof Favorites, and labels you set up (main album, parents' album) Not stated on the pages read Copy the file names of a client's favorites into Lightroom's Library Filter
Zenfolio "Favorites and Comments" on every plan Yes, on every plan Not stated on its pricing page
CloudSpot Clients mark favorites; you see all of them Not stated on the pages read Not stated on the pages read
Picdrop Votes and likes, color markers; Pro's "Collaboration mode for proofing" Comments and scribbles "Export selections to Lightroom, Capture One", on every plan
Picflow Favorites with a star, on every plan, Free included Comments with replies and emojis, on every plan Not stated on its pricing page
Pixpa "Client proofing & favorites" on every plan "Image comments & ratings" on every plan Not stated on its pricing page
SmugMug "Client favoriting" on Pro only: $52/month, or $37/month billed annually Not stated on its plans page Not stated on its plans page

From each vendor's pricing page and, for Pixieset, Pic-Time and ShootProof, their help articles, read on 5 November 2026. "Not stated" means the pages read for this table don't say; the feature may still exist.

Store sales and commission

  • Pixieset: 15% commission on store sales on Free; none on paid plans.
  • Pic-Time: a commission on Free, "reduced with each plan increase", and none on payments you collect yourself on Professional and Advanced. "Commission is only applied to your markup." The rate isn't on the pricing page.
  • ShootProof: "Commission-free sales" on every plan, Free included.
  • Zenfolio: selling prints and digital files starts on Professional ($23/month); the pricing page states no commission.
  • CloudSpot: 15% on Free and Entry; commission-free from Lite ($17/month).
  • Pixpa: "Zero commission on sales" on every plan; Basic sells your photos as prints or downloads.
  • SmugMug: selling starts on Portfolio ($35.50/month, or $23.50/month billed annually), where you set your profit margins; the plans page states no commission.
  • Picdrop and Picflow: no store on their pricing pages. They are built for sharing and review.

Which one fits: 3 questions

  1. Selling prints from the gallery without a paid plan? ShootProof lists commission-free sales on its free plan; Pixieset and CloudSpot take 15% on theirs. Pixpa has no commission but no free plan.
  2. Want comments as well as picks, for free? Picflow's free plan has both, with a Picflow badge on the gallery. Zenfolio and Pixpa have them on their cheapest plans, $9 a month each.
  3. Want the picks in Lightroom without retyping them? Pixieset's Lightroom Copy List, ShootProof's favorites file names, Picdrop's export on every plan, or Pic-Time's Lightroom sync from Professional.

When you only need proofing

Every service above is a delivery gallery first: storage, downloads and, for most, a store. If all you need is your client's picks before you edit, a contact sheet does that part. Our free Contact Sheet puts a shoot on US Letter or A4 pages, 2 to 8 photos across, with the file name, the frame number or both under each photo. You download a PDF or JPG pages and email them; the file names in the PDF are real text your client can search or copy. No sign-up, no watermark, and your photos are never uploaded.

It has no proofing of its own: your client replies with the numbers or file names, and you find them in your editor. It doesn't open RAW files, so export JPEGs first. How to make a printable photo contact sheet with file names has the steps in Bridge, Lightroom Classic and other apps.

Our product · in development

Blink Proof: a private proofing link of your contact sheet. Your client stars their picks and comments on frames, and you get the picked file names in one line, to paste into Lightroom Classic's Library Filter (Text › Filename › Contains). It is for proofing only: no delivery gallery, no print store. Planned price $9/month.

Join the early list

More tools that make the sheet itself are in contact sheet makers compared.

Questions

Is Pixieset free?

Yes, up to 3 GB. Pixieset's Free plan is $0 with unlimited galleries and a 15% commission fee on store sales. Paid plans start with Basic: $10/month, or $8/month billed annually, for 10 GB and commission-free sales.

Does Pixieset have client proofing?

Yes. Clients click the heart on a photo to add it to a favorite list, add notes when you turn on Favorite Notes, and send you the list. Pixieset's Lightroom Copy List gives you the list's file names formatted for Lightroom's search. Pixieset's help doesn't say which plans include it.

Is ShootProof cheaper than Pixieset?

At entry level they are close: ShootProof's Starter is $9.99/month at list price for 20 GB, and Pixieset's Basic is $10/month for 10 GB. ShootProof runs a 50% sale until 1 December 2026. ShootProof's Free plan holds 100 photos against Pixieset's 3 GB, but ShootProof lists commission-free sales on every plan, Free included, where Pixieset's Free plan takes 15%.

Pixieset or Pic-Time: which free plan holds more?

Pic-Time's Free plan starts with 10 GB and is reduced to 3 GB after 3 months; Pixieset's Free plan has 3 GB. Pic-Time's client selections start on its Professional plan, US$25/month or US$21/month billed annually.

What is a free alternative to Pixieset for proofing?

Picflow's Free plan has 2 GB with favorites and comments. Picdrop's Free plan has 1 GB and 3 galleries, and every Picdrop plan exports selections to Lightroom or Capture One. Our free Contact Sheet makes a PDF with the file name under each photo, for your client to reply with the ones they want.

Sources

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