SmugMug, Shutterfly, Picasa, OH MY!

I asked a question on Twitter today about Smugmug - here is my question:

"Anyone have thoughts on why you would pay for SmugMug versus a free Picasa or Shutterfly (or other) account?"

Responses were all over the map, such as:

"I used to pay for a SmugMug account. Now I pay for a Flickr account. It has more tools and the small cost is worth it for me."

"re: Smugmug vs free... you get what you pay for. Smugmug has excellent customer service, is beautiful, securely stores photos"

"smugmug easiest way for parents to grab print-quality copies of your kid photos, for free."

My uses are simple - showcase personal pictures, create and purchase everything from prints, to books with the photos, easily post to typepad or Facebook, and offload my own storage onto a web-based provider.  I feel like I can do all of this through Shutterfly (except post, but I don't seem to be able to do that at SmugMug either), where the vast majority of my photos currently reside, but maybe not.  What am I missing?  Why are people paying for SmugMug galleries?  This is clearly a fragmented space and it does not look like there is a clear leader. 

One thing that is clearly different about SmugMug is that within about 3 hours of my original question, I got this from SmugMug's twitter team:

"@tismoi We also use twitter to keep in touch with our customers. If you need help email us http://tinyurl.com/fzg7w"

That is one point for SmugMug...and a big one.  I have been a long time customer of Shutterfly, and have never heard anything immediate and direct from them.

Comments

[Craig Maunder]

Hi,

Being the person you quoted second "re: Smugmug vs free... you get what you pay for. Smugmug has excellent customer service, is beautiful, securely stores photos", I thought I would elaborate a bit.

I've never experienced such good customer service... probably the best thing about Smugmug. Not only rapid responses to questions, but they're exceptionally helpful through their forum Digital Grin. Not just regular tech support either, if you're interested in customizing your galleries (in pretty much any way imaginable) they'll help you through the coding, you don't need to understand any of it.

The other reason I switched (from Flickr) is that Smugmug blocks right clicks, preventing people from easily stealing your photos.

Finally a shameless plug. If you're interested in trying it out the following codes are pretty helpful at evening out the price difference.

Coupon code: YAHOO (50% off any year membership)
Referral code: XYIzvlyAxTPgo ($5 off year membership)

[Andy Williams]

Hi Kylie, I'm the COO of SmugMug ... thanks for tweeting @ us! Great question. I think you'll find us a different sort of company .. we're in our 7th year, we're growing and investing in our customers, yet we're debt free and venture free - not your usual web company! We're fiercely guarding our independence. We charge a fee, and our customers return year after year, because we continue to listen to your needs and deliver service that is above and beyond. We're still a "family business" even though we've grown beyond the original founding family members :)

There's a ton more I can tell you, if you like.... and I could answer any specifics here, or @SmugMug or @awilliamsny on Twitter.

All the best,

Andy

[tismoi]

Craig - thank you very much! Your input is much appreciate, and the codes! Nothing like a loyal user as the best marketing you cannot buy!

[tismoi]

Andy - thanks so much for the note - further evidence of the service smugmug is known for. And glad to hear you are debt and venture free - I am a VC and am always very impressed by people who build businesses on their own, without outside capital. I will be checking out smugmug as a user. kylie

[Edward Kim]

SmugMugs's customer service and internet presence never ceases to amaze me. They were the standard that we looked up to when creating our own photo sharing site. I think especially in economic times like these, SmugMugs business model is something that a lot of web startups are looking up to.

If you are interested at all in photo printing, we are creating a service where you email pictures from a phone or computer, and we'll automatically print and mail them to whomever you want. Perfect if you want an easy way to get prints of the kids to the grandparents! I'd love check back in when we launch

[Cat Hoffman]

I have been with SmugMug for about 4 years now, I joined in 2005. I originally signed up because I had just come back from Japan at the time and had 1,000 pictures that needed a good home. Most of the sites I looked at couldn't accommodate that many photos, certainly not for free, or would have advertisements and require me purchasing prints on fear of account deletion. So I started looking at the pay places, and smugmug won by a landslide.

Their customer service has been phenomenal, they are amazingly fast at addressing my needs! Plus it really it truly unlimited storage. I have over 150GB's of photos stored there presently! I have since upgraded to a pro account (over a year ago) since now I do photography professionally (weddings and sports mostly) and smugmug has continued to fit my needs as I grew from amateur to pro.

I promise if you join the smugmug family you won't be disappointed. If you do or if you don't, you should also come and sign up for the dgrin.com forums (where all us smuggers and some non smuggers share photos and thoughts on photo topics). They're a fun bunch!

[hdurrow]

I LOVE smugmug for great-looking display galleries, easy upload (I upload from my picasa with a button but also a free software app that allows me to right-click folders to easily upload), and for the UNLIMITED storage. I also like that I can protect my galleries that are public so that they can't be right-clicked and downloaded.
However, I also use Picasa web albums (sometimes), and a Pro Flickr account. The Flickr account is helpful because I can easily upload photos from my phone--and also easily post photos to my typepad account. My only wish for SmugMug is to make it easier to post on blogs (typepad, tumblr) and social networks (facebook, myspace). Finally, I feel like my photo archive is SAFE with Smugmug--I don't think the company will go belly up and delete my photo history!

[lebisol]

Thanks for this post as I too am looking for a new online storage.
While I understand the old 'you get what you pay for'....but no one here seemed to share what is so wrong with shutterfly?
How much customer support do you guys really need or use?
Again, not trying to start a war here just curious where is the value? I am 'techy' enough that I don't need support on files or page customization etc. but rather a safe and unlimited storage that I would use with 2500 images per year with no desire to 'socialize' my images. Store, share with family (pass protection works fine) and print. Right-click and watermarks are barely tools of protection so we can rule this out as value.

What makes you feel safe with Smugmug? The fact that you pay for service? Have you ever deleted something by mistake and have them restore it for you?

Do share, appreciate your comments.

[Ravi]

Hi Kylie,

So, what did you decide in the end? SmugMug or Shutterfly or something else?

TIA,
Ravi