SMUGMUG - REVIEWER'S COMMENTS
Our team at Photo Print Reviews.com love Smugmug! This photo sharing service merits a spot as one of the best in the world. Unlimited photos, unlimited storage, no spam, no ads, easy uploads and easy sharing — these are just a few of the Smugmug trademarks. If you want to publish your high resolution photos to share with others, you'll need to purchase a membership. This website does not offer a free account; however they do offer a Free trial account for 14 days.
Besides a world class photo sharing service, Smugmug also offers photo prints of various sizes and also prints your photos on various collectables - to make great photo gifts. It doesn't take long to realize that 1 photo on SmugMug is worth 10 photos in the closet!!
Set Of Features:
Smugmug offers four options for uploading your photos: Batch uploading for Internet Explorer on Windows and Macintosh, Windows Drag & Drop, batch uploading for OS 9 & OS X and batch uploading for other systems including various versions of Linux, etc. Besides photos, Smugmug also users to upload MPEG–1 video clips and play them in your galleries. The maximum size limit for a video clip is 8 MB.
Smugmug offers three types (levels) of account memberships and a 14 day free trial version (membership), so that you can try the service before buying an account. The Standard User Account for $39.95/year provides a complete ad-free and spam-free premium photo sharing experience. The Power Users account for $59.95/year allows you to replace Smugmug's header and navigation with your own - thereby making your album look like a custom made website. You can control colors, add a footer, add JavaScript, and more (Knowledge of HTML will allow you to be more creative). There's also a Professional account available where you can actually sell your photos; this account costs $149.95/year.
Using Smugmug, you can order film–quality prints and order custom printed gifts; mailed directly to your doorstep. You can also access your original photos for printing on your home color/photo printer. The service provides links to your friends and family for your own smugmug homepage and your friends and family won't be required to enter an email address or create an account to view your photos/album.
Smugmug prohibits uploading and displaying photographs or other media portraying explicit nudity that would be unacceptable in a public museum.
Quality of Service:
We were extremely happy with Smugmug's quality of service. Smugmug keeps two exact copies of the photos you upload - in a secure data center. You can order CD and DVD backups any time, or you can download your high-resolution originals; back to your computer. You set the options for how your photos are displayed, who gets access, captions, and more. Smugmug offers your viewers the ability to buy prints of your photos and have them shipped to them, download full resolution images to their computer to print them at home, or burn them to a CD to print at a local retail store.
There's a Pro version of Smugmug as well for professional photographers who want a low cost means of selling their images online without the hassles having their own web site.
Ease Of Use:
Smugmug is fairly easy to use and navigate. The looks of the website is eye-candy and very beautiful. The only drawback is that the free account only lasts for 14 days. However, you don't have to provide your credit card information to use the free account. They provide a complete risk-free no obligation trial.
Help & Support:
Smugmug offers several options to get answers to all your questions - concerning their service. There is a FAQ page, user forum, tutorials and an email address to contact customer service. We were very impressed with Smugmug's prompt response to our query email. They replied back in less than 30 minutes.
Other Services:
As far as extra services go, Smugmug offered a bunch of creative, photo-based gifts to choose from. These gifts range from baby bibs to greeting cards, t-shirts to tote bags and more. Your album visitors can even order photo prints or custom photo gifts from Smugmug album site and Smugmug will ship it to them!
Summary:
Smugmug offers an outstanding photo sharing service - period! For the level of service excellence on their paid annual plan - starting at $39.95 per year, Smugmug is the best!
