FOCL vs CloudSpot for wedding photographers

We make FOCL, so read this with that in mind. CloudSpot is a clean, well-liked gallery product with a studio manager attached, and for some photographers it is the better fit. Prices are from cloudspot.io/pricing on 12 September 2026 and from our own pricing page. The page showed a promotion that day, $3 a month for the first 3 months on any paid plan; the table uses regular prices. It lists monthly prices only; we did not find annual prices.

The short version

Choose CloudSpot if you want contracts, e-signatures, invoicing, questionnaires, scheduling and lead forms in the same tool as your galleries, client mobile apps, or a print store with abandoned-cart reminders, album and card design and discount codes, and you do not deliver video files.

Choose FOCL if you shoot weddings and want the day itself handled: timeline, shot list, family photo list, couple portal and an offline phone app, next to galleries that host video, give you more storage per dollar, and never meter downloads.

FOCL Galleries also works for portraits, families and events. Create a standalone gallery with a client or session name; no wedding is needed. In Settings → Downloads, choose which sections or individual photos clients can download while keeping the others visible. How download controls work.

Pricing

Both have a free plan. Both meter storage. CloudSpot also limits the number of galleries on its two cheapest plans.

	FOCL	CloudSpot
Free	3 GB, photos only, unlimited galleries, full-resolution downloads	5 GB, up to 3 galleries, JPEG only, downloads capped at 2048px, store takes 15%
Around $10 a month	Essentials: 100 GB, $10 monthly or $100 a year	Entry: 15 GB, up to 15 galleries, JPEG only, store takes 15%, $7 a month
Around $20 a month	Studio: 500 GB, $19 monthly or $190 a year	Lite: 100 GB, unlimited galleries, all file types, commission-free store, $17 a month
Around $40 a month	Pro: 2 TB, $39 monthly or $390 a year	Pro: 500 GB, $34 a month
Around $50 a month		Unlimited: unlimited storage, $50 a month

Like for like, FOCL is cheaper per gigabyte: 100 GB for $10 against 100 GB for $17, and 500 GB for $19 against 500 GB for $34. CloudSpot’s Unlimited plan at $50 beats FOCL’s 2 TB Pro at $39 only above 2 TB. CloudSpot’s FAQ says storage is a running total that does not reset each month, and that high-resolution photos are never archived after a year.

The free plans are not alike. CloudSpot Free has more storage, 5 GB against FOCL’s 3 GB, but shows a “powered by CloudSpot” tagline, has no watermark or logo upload, JPEG only, 3 galleries, and downloads capped at 2048px. FOCL Free has unlimited galleries, your logo, watermarks, passwords, expiry dates and full-resolution downloads. Video is the one FOCL gallery feature that needs a paid plan.

Downloads and bandwidth

FOCL does not meter downloads or bandwidth. Storage is the only thing we count. A guest can download one section on its own, large ZIPs are emailed as a link valid for 7 days, and a download PIN is optional.

CloudSpot’s pricing page does not publish a bandwidth figure, and we could not verify one. Its free plan caps downloads at 2048px; high-resolution downloads start on Entry. CloudSpot can put an instant download link in the first email and set download sizes, limits and expiry. FOCL’s delivery email is editable and previews the exact message before it goes. Our gallery delivery email templates work in either.

Video

CloudSpot does not host video. Its pricing table row is “Add video links”, and its help center covers embedding YouTube, Vimeo, Animoto and Google Drive videos in a gallery. A client who wants the file downloads it from the third-party site. If you deliver films, budget for a Vimeo plan or similar alongside CloudSpot.

FOCL hosts video on paid plans, up to 30 GB per file, with hours included per plan: 3 on Essentials, 10 on Studio, 30 on Pro. It streams at the quality the connection supports, and the couple downloads the original or 1080p. Videos are never in the ZIP and never watermarked. Files above roughly 200 Mbps bitrate cannot be processed, so export a delivery version.

The wedding day itself

CloudSpot’s Studio Manager runs the business before the wedding: lead forms, scheduling, mini-sessions, contracts with e-signatures, questionnaires, project management and invoicing with tipping. The pricing table ticks those rows from the $17 Lite plan up, with a 2.5% invoice processing fee, US only per their homepage. FOCL has none of that.

FOCL runs the day. The subscription that hosts your galleries also gives you:

• A timeline with photo moments flagged. Import the planner’s PDF and it fills itself in. On the phone, “+5 min” cascades a delay through the rest of the day.
• A family photo list you work through on your phone, one grouping at a time.
• A shot list in sections, assignable to a second shooter.
• A couple portal where the couple fills in people, family groupings, vendors and must-have moments, and nothing lands in your brief until you approve it.
• A phone app that works with no signal, if you opened it while online. Ticks made offline are not synced later.
• Team access: 2 seats included, $5 a month for each extra.

Galleries, feature by feature

Both do the essentials: covers, layouts, fonts and colors, favorites, email capture, expiry dates, download controls, activity insights, and a print store.

FOCL extras that matter for weddings:

• Photo search for guests. Keyword and selfie search per gallery, with tags you set so “first look” is exact. See guest photo search and privacy.
• Couple Controls. The couple hides photos from their own guests with a short code; you can restore them.
• Couple-only photos. Getting-ready frames and first-look reactions stay out of the guest list’s view; they open for anyone who enters one of the couple’s email addresses. Hide a photo instead when nobody should see it.
• Shared sets. A link to just the photos you choose, with your branding, for a florist, planner or magazine.
• Favorites you can act on. By person or by photo, filenames to copy, a CSV for your album designer.

CloudSpot extras FOCL does not have:

• Client mobile apps: 3 on Free, 15 on Entry, unlimited from Lite.
• A Social Site, a link-in-bio page with analytics, on all plans.
• Email reminders before a gallery expires.
• The studio manager described above.

Print store

FOCL’s prints are made by WHCC; you set a markup over the lab cost and keep the difference, FOCL handles payment and shipping, and payouts go through Stripe. CloudSpot’s storefront is on every plan: 15% commission on Free and Entry, commission-free from Lite up, automatic or custom fulfillment, digital file sales, album and card design, augmented reality previews, discount codes and abandoned-cart reminders (not on Free). Bank deposits take 4 days on Free and 2 on paid plans. CloudSpot’s store is the more complete one. Our guide to pricing prints in your gallery applies to both.

Switching

CloudSpot’s help center has a guide to migrating galleries in from other platforms. Moving from CloudSpot to FOCL is a download and an upload. Export each gallery at full resolution, then drag the folders into a FOCL gallery. Your couples get a new link. There is no importer for favorites or visitor history.

The verdict

If your business also needs contracts, invoices and booking, you sell prints seriously, and you do not deliver video files, CloudSpot from Lite up is a good all-in-one, and Unlimited wins above 2 TB.

If you deliver photos and films, want a free plan that is usable on day one, and want the wedding day run from your phone, FOCL is built for that, at a lower price for the same storage. Start on the free plan and see. For the wider field, read FOCL vs Pixieset as well.