The popular portfolio platform, Zenfolio, has undergone some wholesale changes and added a wealth of functionality, particularly for business. Is this now the best portfolio platform for photographers?
My portfolio has been with a number of different companies over the years; some I left as they couldn't tick all the boxes I wanted, some shut down, and then I tried Zenfolio at some point several years ago and I've been with them ever since. The price of the subscription was reasonable, the templates were attractive and proficient on desktop and mobile, and client areas were a real selling point for me. However, the platform hasn't changed that much since I joined them and although I have altered the appearance of my website a few times, I've never looked to do any more than simply creating my portfolio and client galleries. Now, Zenfolio has undergone its biggest update in some time and has added some impressive features, particularly if you're a professional photographer.
The tagline for the update is "Show, Share, and Sell", with an emphasis on selling in my opinion. There has been some evolution happening with the features currently implemented, for example, there are more mobile-friendly templates that require no coding, more customization, and even automated emails that send to your clients when their images are ready to view. There are also better gallery preview and filtering options, with facial recognition technology and multi-tasking within the back-end. Both of these are huge quality of life improvements as I often work in large galleries and have to hunt one person down, and not being able to work within Zenfolio while you upload time-gated my tasks. However, the cosmetic and quality of life sides are not the most interesting parts.
Zenfolio for Professionals
After watching their presentation and looking into the changes, I will summarize them below in bullet-point format. These additions to the platform are warmly welcomed for professional photographers and photography businesses.
- Full SEO support.
- Built-in print buying and digital download systems, with discounts and coupon codes compatible.
- Analytics for traffic, website activity, and revenue from print and digital sales.
- Integrated booking system (using BookMe) with payment.
As you can see, there is a real drive from Zenfolio to enable their users to run businesses through the platform with better utility and efficiency, all while improving quality of life.
The second bullet point features have been around forever.
Zenfolio stinks as a platform. They've been pushing bookme for a year which could be done by a variety of 3rd party services to schedule. Galleries suck, checkout stinks, mobile experience is terrible.
SmugMug isn't going anywhere either. If someone actually wanted to buy a framed print of one of my photos they'd give up in 2 minutes of wading through endless options. None of these "gallery" sites are getting any real investment or development, they're just on autopilot.
How does offering Book Me make them stink? Don't want Book Me? Don't sign up. It's not like Zenfolio is forcing you to pay for it by bundling it with the regular subscription.