If you've spent any time deciding where to put your photos, you've probably come across SmugMug. It's a long-established name in the space, widely known for combining a portfolio website and image galleries into one customizable home. So when a working photographer asks me whether to build on SmugMug or hand finished shoots to clients with Capturely, the honest answer is that they solve different problems, and the right pick depends on what you actually do every week.
This is a fair, side-by-side look at how each tool approaches delivery, privacy, branding, search, and pricing philosophy, so you can match the platform to your studio instead of the other way around.
Two different jobs
SmugMug is best understood as a portfolio-and-gallery platform. Its reputation is built on giving photographers a customizable public website plus image hosting under one roof, with deep theming control. If your goal is a permanent online home that showcases your work to the world and doubles as a place to keep everything, that's the lane it's known for.
Capturely is a client-gallery delivery platform. The job it does is narrower and sharper: you upload a shoot, share one link, and your client views, favorites, and downloads their photos without creating an account. It's the handoff after the shoot, not a public showroom you maintain forever.
The real question isn't which platform is better. It's whether you're building a storefront or delivering a shoot. Those are different verbs.
The delivery experience
This is where Capturely is opinionated. Galleries open on a cinematic, full-screen cover addressed to the client by name, then flow into a justified-grid viewer with a proper lightbox, and photos keep the orientation you shot them in. The whole point is that the moment a client opens the link feels like a finished gift, not a file dump.
From there, clients can:
- Download a single photo at full resolution, or grab the whole gallery as a zip
- Heart their favorites to build a selection, with an optional pick limit you set
- Leave per-photo comments, so feedback lives on the exact frame
- Browse in their own language: twelve are built in, and paid plans add others with AI translation
You stay in control on your side: per-photo download counts, view-only galleries when you don't want files leaving yet, and an optional watermark. The first action a client takes asks for their name, so picks and comments are always attributed.
SmugMug also offers client galleries and downloads, and is known for proofing and selection flows as part of its broader toolset. The difference is one of focus. SmugMug spreads across portfolio, hosting, and sales; Capturely spends all of its design budget on the single moment of delivery and the client's first impression. If proofing and handoff are the heart of your week, that focus shows. Check SmugMug's current delivery features on their site.
Privacy and expiry
Here's a genuine difference in philosophy. Capturely treats galleries as temporary by default, which suits client work where you don't want a wedding sitting on the open web indefinitely.
- Galleries are not indexed by search engines by default
- Add a password and the gallery is private; expired or password-protected galleries are never indexable
- Self-deleting galleries auto-delete on a schedule you choose: 7 days to a year, a custom date, or keep forever
- Deletion is a permanent removal of the gallery and the originals, and the client gets an email reminder a few days before the gallery closes
That self-deleting behavior does double duty: it protects client privacy and keeps your storage lean, so you're not paying to warehouse shoots you delivered two years ago. A portfolio-first platform like SmugMug is generally built around the opposite assumption, that your images live online for the long haul as part of your public presence. Neither is wrong; they're tuned for different intentions. Check SmugMug's current privacy and retention controls directly if this matters to you.
Branding and your link
Both platforms care about letting your studio's name lead, not theirs. SmugMug is well known for deep customization and theming of a public site. Capturely's branding is delivery-focused: on paid plans you can remove Capturely branding entirely, and every account gets a clean yourstudio.capturely.me subdomain, plus a public studio page that ties your galleries together.
Extras and search tools
Pro also adds built-in privacy-friendly analytics that use no cookies, so you can see engagement without a consent banner, and every plan has RAW support, reviews and photo comments. SmugMug has its own search and organizational tooling oriented around a larger library and public discoverability; verify the specifics on their site.
Pricing philosophy
The pricing tells you what each tool is for. Capturely's plans are built around delivery volume and studio scale rather than running a public website.
- Free: 1 gallery, 15 GB, 14-day expiry, no card required
- Pro: €10/mo or €70/yr, unlimited galleries, 120 GB (plus a 30 GB bonus), branding removal
- Studio: €25/mo or €180/yr, everything in Pro plus 500 GB (signed webhooks and RAW support are on every plan)
- Extra storage in 100 GB blocks at €5/mo or €48/yr, and every new account starts with 14 days of Pro, no card needed
SmugMug uses a tiered subscription model as well, historically organized around website and gallery capabilities. Because those tiers and limits change, check SmugMug's pricing page for the current numbers before comparing line by line.
Side-by-side
| Capturely | SmugMug (verify on their site) | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Client-gallery delivery: upload, share a link, clients view/favorite/download with no account | Portfolio website + image galleries in one |
| Delivery feel | Cinematic full-screen covers, justified grid, lightbox, original orientation | Customizable galleries within a broader site |
| Privacy default | Not indexed by default; password = private; expired/password galleries never indexable | Built around a public online presence; verify controls |
| Expiry | Self-deleting from 7 days to 1 year, custom date, or keep forever; permanent removal of originals | Generally long-term hosting; verify retention |
| Branding | Remove branding on paid; free subdomain + studio page | Deep theming/customization; verify specifics |
| Analytics | Built-in, cookie-free | Verify on their site |
| Pricing shape | Free / Pro €10/mo / Studio €25/mo + storage blocks | Tiered subscriptions; verify current tiers |
So which fits your studio?
Reach for SmugMug if you want one place that is both your public portfolio website and your image library, with heavy customization, and you're comfortable maintaining a long-lived online presence.
Reach for Capturely if your week revolves around delivering finished shoots: weddings, portraits, events, commercial sets where the client experience at handoff, privacy by default, self-deleting galleries, and clean per-shoot branding matter more than running a public site.
Plenty of photographers happily use a portfolio site for the public face of their business and a dedicated delivery tool for client handoff. If that's you, the two don't compete, they complement.
Ready to deliver galleries your clients remember?
Try Capturely freeEvery new account starts with 14 days of Pro and no card, so the fastest way to know if the delivery experience fits is to send one shoot through it and watch how a client reacts.
