SmugMug Review  

SmugMug Review- Facts, Company Profile, Service Description, Benefits, Drawbacks, Customer Comments and Personal Review

Facts & Company Profile 

Smugmug ® is a photo sharing company that promotes printing and photo gifts.  The company is based out of Mountain View, California.  It began in 2002 by cofounder and current CEO Don MacAskill.  It promotes its services through the website, smugmug.com. 

***For more information about SmugMug® or to purchase its services, click on the following link: SmugMug®.***

Service Description

Smugmug ® offers high end photo sharing benefits to its customers.  It is a paid photo sharing service that offers three different account plans to customers.  The first is Standard which offers unlimited photos and themes for $39.95 a year.  The second is Power which adds video and customizing for $59.95 a year and finally, Pro which adds commerce and HD video for $149.95 a year.   

Pictures are given quite large sizes as the picture sizes can be as big as 12 megabytes for Standard and Power accounts and 24 megabytes for Pro accounts.  Also, 48 megapixels is the max for all three accounts. 

Here, are more point by point breakdown of each account plan: 

   Standard Account ($39.95/year) 

• Allowed to upload and store unlimited photos. 
• You can post photos to forums and blogs and invite visitors to view your gallaries.  This works similar to photobucket; however, is not designed for regular web graphics of commercial websites. 
• Many different themes are provided to help make your album and galleries look great. 
• Friends and family do not need an account to view your pictures and galleries. 
• Prints and photo gifts can be purchased with this account like other photo hosting services. 
• Passwords can be used to help safeguard your galleries and particular photos from visitors.  Essentially, you control who sees what. 

   Power Account ($59.95/year) 

• It offers all the benefits of the Standard Account and 
• Able to store dvd picture quality video clips to your account. 
• Can dress up your smug mug site by giving it your own special feel with customized banners, themes, etc. 
• Plus, you can brand your smugmug site and even use your domain name. 
• Pictures can be further protected by using right click protection.  This feature reduces the risk of unauthorized usage. 

   Professional Account ($149.95/year) 

• Offers all the benefits of Standard and Power accounts and 
• Allows for the uploading of HD quality video clips. 
• Images can be protected further with custom watermarking. 
• You can set prices for prints and photo gifts and sell them through the site. 

Benefits 

• Three different account plans available for various photography needs.  Most basic options offers low pricing of under $40 a year.  
• One of the few photo sharing sites that offers storage space for video sharing for its Power account and hi def video for its Pro account.  
• You can change to a different account plan at any time.    
• Friends and family do not need an account to view your pictures and galleries.  
• Provides the upload of an unlimited number of photos on all three of its accounts.  
• Service can upload pictures from camera phones and digital cameras.  In fact, it offers a large number of different ways to download photos.  
• Programmers will be glad to know a published API is provided to offer them more functionality.  Businesses are encouraged to use it.  
• The site allows for linking to blogs and websites and even has RSS XML and Atom feeds.  
• Service allows uploading from a number of popular software packages including iPhoto®.  
• Photos are able to be categorized and even given keyword tags for ordering and gallery arrangements.  In addition, viewers of photos can rank photos with the PhotoRank™ service.  
• Program even allows photos that use GPS to be linked up with Google Maps. 
• Also, no adds, pop-ups, or spam.  
• Strong army of happy supporters and glowing comments.  

Drawbacks 

• Must be at least 18 years of age or older to create an account.  
• Unlike other services, it is a paid service photo sharing service, but offers a free trial offer for the first 14 days.  

***For more information about SmugMug® or to purchase its services, click on the following link: SmugMug®.***

Customer Comments 

Here, are some snippets of comments made by customers of this service: 

“I use it, and love it…Their support has been awesome.”  Actual User Photography On The Net Forum

“I just started a smugmug site (pro account) and am very happy…Their help and tutorials are outstanding for an html dummy.”  Actual User DP Challenge Forum 

“Smugmug is very easy to use… Easy to customise your site… link to any photo… password protect albums… have albums that only you have access to…”  Actual User Whirlpool Forum 

“…it is great. You can load high res pics…EZPrints does their printing and I have never had a problem..prints done up to 16x20 with great results.”  Actual User Photography On The Net Forum

"I love Smugmug, and their customer support cannot be beat... they get back to you right away, are very kind and helpful...They are great people...the prints, from the lab they use, are excellent."  Actual User DP Challenge Forum 

“I have been using Smugmug for almost 2 years…very happy….There is always someone to help with any problems you might have…”  Actual User Photo.net Forum

“Smugmug is very customizable…I have not been disappointed with any of the prints…I recommend Smugmug!”  Actual User Pop Photo Forum

“What sold me on it…a guy…asked if he could upload nearly 2 TB of data and the CEO replied…no worries, mate…they seem pretty genuine on their 'unlimited' storage.”  Actual User Photography On The Net Forum

“I'm happy with SmugMug….SmugMug is more customizable.”  Actual User DP Challenge Forum 

“I'm 7-day free trialing…it's great…able to share photos without my friends/family having to register and be marketed to.”  Actual User Steves Digicams Forum 

“I… love it.  It is the easiest way for me to share photos with family…”  Actual User Photography On The Net Forum

“I started an account…been very happy..easily customized, nice selection of prints.”  Actual User Photo.net Forum 

"I'll add my 2 cents for Smugmug...they have the very best customer service in the whole world."  Actual User DP Challenge Forum 

“I've had my smugmug acct…very happy…They seem to add a new feature or two every few months…You can even tag each photo with geographic coordinates…link them to Google Maps.”  Actual User Photography On The Net Forum

“I have many prints done…as large as 16x20, 18x24, and 24x36…they all look great.”  Actual User FM Forums

“I upgraded from the power plan to Pro…There is a lot of help on the smugmug forum…i am happy with sumgmug.”  Actual User Photo.net Forum

"Freakin Smugmug rocks my world...I just can't complain... It's well worth the money."  Actual User DP Challenge Forum

“…it is wonderful…I took advantage of the 1 week trial.”  Actual User Photography On The Net Forum 

Personal Review 

The Smug Mug ® offerings are very attractive.  Although the service is paid, it offers a higher range of qualities including the ability to link to photos and do rss feeds in its basic account plan.  In addition, the other plans allow even more versatility including storage for video and even hi def video for the final account.  Depending on your needs, this is an option other competitors can’t match.  So the real question is about the price and whether it is worth it? 

In my opinion, it definitely is where you are using them for business or personal use.  The user interface is easy to use and offers a number of different methods for uploading.  If you like the features of more basic photo sharing setups, you will definitely like this one.  In the end, if you are looking for a service that does not limit its services, you have found it here.  Instead, of finding a parade of you can’t do this, you instead find out this service delivers all the things you want.  This is a nice change of pace. 

***For more information about SmugMug® or to purchase its services, click on the following link: SmugMug®.***