Comparison
Cheapest client gallery per GB (2026): the storage math
Price per 100 GB at the nearest plan on eight client gallery platforms, monthly and annual, what unlimited really costs, and a worked example for 30 weddings a year.
Almost every client gallery platform meters one thing: storage. The plan names and feature lists differ, but the price you pay is mostly the price of the gigabytes you keep online. So the useful comparison is not “what does the plan cost” but “what does 100 GB cost”. We make FOCL, so we are in the table. All other prices are from each company’s pricing page on 12 September 2026, in US dollars. ShootProof’s plans change from photo counts to gigabytes on 23 September 2026, so its new plans are used here.
How the math works
Price per 100 GB is the plan price divided by the plan’s storage in hundreds of gigabytes. A 500 GB plan at $19 a month is $3.80 per 100 GB. Annual figures are the yearly charge divided by 12. Where a company does not publish a standard annual price, the table says so rather than using a promotional one.
Price per 100 GB at the nearest plan
| Platform | Nearest plan to 100 GB | Monthly | Per 100 GB, monthly | Annual, per month | Per 100 GB, annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOCL Galleries | Essentials, 100 GB | $10 | $10.00 | $8.33 ($100/yr) | $8.33 |
| Zenfolio | Professional, 150 GB | $23 | $15.33 | Standard annual not shown; a first-year promo of $11.50 runs to 15 Sep | Not verified |
| CloudSpot | Lite, 100 GB | $17 | $17.00 | No annual price listed | Not listed |
| ShootProof (from 23 Sep) | Standard, 100 GB | $19.99 | $19.99 | $16.67 ($199.99/yr) | $16.67 |
| Pixieset | Plus, 100 GB | $20 | $20.00 | $16 | $16.00 |
| PASS | Standard, 100 GB | $24 | $24.00 | $20 ($240/yr) | $20.00 |
| Pic-Time | Professional, 100 GB | $25 | $25.00 | $21 | $21.00 |
| SmugMug | Direct, unlimited | $29 | Not applicable | $20 | Not applicable |
At the 100 GB tier the spread is $10 to $25 a month for the same storage, with FOCL cheapest and Pic-Time most expensive. SmugMug does not sell 100 GB; it sells unlimited, and at $20 a month billed annually it undercuts Pixieset, PASS and Pic-Time’s 100 GB plans outright.
Price per 100 GB at the bigger plans
This is where the ranking moves, because the per-gigabyte price falls fastest on the platforms with a 500 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB step.
| Platform | Plan | Monthly | Per 100 GB, monthly | Annual, per month | Per 100 GB, annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOCL | Studio, 500 GB | $19 | $3.80 | $15.83 ($190/yr) | $3.17 |
| FOCL | Pro, 2 TB | $39 | $1.95 | $32.50 ($390/yr) | $1.63 |
| Pixieset | Pro, 1,000 GB | $30 | $3.00 | $24 | $2.40 |
| ShootProof | Professional, 1,000 GB | $31.99 | $3.20 | $26.67 ($319.99/yr) | $2.67 |
| ShootProof | Advanced, 2,000 GB | $51.99 | $2.60 | $43.33 ($519.99/yr) | $2.17 |
| CloudSpot | Pro, 500 GB | $34 | $6.80 | Not listed | Not listed |
Pic-Time, Zenfolio and PASS have no plan between 100 GB (150 GB for Zenfolio) and unlimited, so their next step is the unlimited price below. Zenfolio sells add-on storage up to 100 TB, but the price is not on the pricing page.
What unlimited costs, and what it means
| Platform | Unlimited plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | The fine print we could verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SmugMug | Direct | $29 | $20 | Unlimited full-resolution JPEG and video; each video capped at 20 min and 3 GB; 5,000 items per gallery; RAW storage is an add-on at $10 a month for the first TB, then $6 per TB |
| Zenfolio | Advanced | $40 | Standard annual not shown | Unlimited JPEG plus a separate 150 GB video pool |
| PASS | Unlimited | $44 | $38 ($456/yr) | The FAQ says galleries above the limit are removed if you later downgrade |
| Pixieset | Ultimate | $50 | $40 | Unlimited photos and video; no fair-use text in what we checked |
| Pic-Time | Advanced | $50 | $42 | “T&C applies”: the help center says use over 20 GB per gallery or 100 GB of bandwidth a month may incur fees, and the plan is for individual photographers, not agencies |
| CloudSpot | Unlimited | $50 | Not listed | No fair-use text in what we checked |
| ShootProof | Premium | $60 | $50 ($600/yr) | Unlimited photos; video capped at 150 GB; photo archiving included |
| FOCL | None | Top plan is Pro at 2 TB |
Pic-Time’s is the only fair-use clause we could verify in writing. The absence of one on the other pages does not mean there is none; ask before you move a 3 TB archive onto anyone’s unlimited plan. FOCL does not sell unlimited at all, which is a genuine mark against it for photographers who keep everything online forever.
Worked example: 30 weddings a year at 2 GB each
That is 60 GB of new galleries a year. 2 GB is a lean gallery, roughly a full wedding exported for the web rather than for print; how much storage wedding galleries take explains what moves the number. If nothing ever expires, you hold 60 GB after year 1, 120 GB after year 2 and 180 GB after year 3. The cheapest plan that fits each year, billed annually where a standard annual price exists and monthly otherwise:
| Platform | Year 1 (60 GB) | Year 2 (120 GB) | Year 3 (180 GB) | 3-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOCL | Essentials, $100 | Studio, $190 | Studio, $190 | $480 |
| SmugMug | Direct, $240 | Direct, $240 | Direct, $240 | $720 |
| Pixieset | Plus, $192 | Pro, $288 | Pro, $288 | $768 |
| ShootProof | Standard, $199.99 | Professional, $319.99 | Professional, $319.99 | $839.97 |
| CloudSpot | Lite, $204 | Pro, $408 | Pro, $408 | $1,020 |
| Zenfolio | Professional, $276 | Professional, $276 | Advanced, $480 | $1,032 |
| PASS | Standard, $240 | Unlimited, $456 | Unlimited, $456 | $1,152 |
| Pic-Time | Professional, $252 | Advanced, $504 | Advanced, $504 | $1,260 |
Two things the table hides. First, SmugMug’s flat line. It never steps up, so at year 5 (300 GB) it is still $240, and at year 10 (600 GB) it is still $240 while FOCL has moved to Pro at $390. If you keep every wedding online for a decade, SmugMug is the cheapest of the eight. Second, an expiration policy changes everything. Expire galleries after 12 months and you never leave the 100 GB tier on any platform, which makes the first table the only one that matters.
The pricing traps
- Photo counts instead of gigabytes. ShootProof’s current plans count photos; 5,000 photos is “up to 250 GB” by their estimate. The 23 September switch to gigabytes makes them comparable, so check which plan your account lands on.
- Promotional prices. Zenfolio’s annual toggle shows first-year prices that renew at standard rates. CloudSpot shows $3 a month for the first 3 months. PASS shows $1 for the first month. None of these is the price you pay in year 2.
- Shared video pools. On FOCL, Zenfolio Basic and Professional, and ShootProof Starter and Standard, video counts against the same gigabytes as photos. See client galleries that host video.
- Archiving fees. ShootProof’s archived media does not count against the plan, but archiving starts at $2.99 a month below the top plan.
- Bandwidth. FOCL never meters downloads. Pic-Time’s unlimited plan does, at 100 GB a month. The other six do not state a cap either way.
- Sales tax. ShootProof charges it on subscriptions in about 20 US states. The others do not say.
For what all of this works out to per wedding, see client gallery cost per wedding.
Storage is the only thing FOCL meters
100 GB for $10 a month, 500 GB for $19, 2 TB for $39. Downloads and bandwidth are never capped, and every plan has unlimited galleries.
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