Online Photo Printing for Pros

Photo printing sites for professionals who want to showcase their work

SmugMug (*Est. $40 per year; 19 cents per 4-by-6-inch print) is for serious hobbyists or professionals who want a platform to display a portfolio and sell their work online. The service is highly regarded, but its intricacies hold reviewers somewhat at bay. Rated No. 1 by PhotographyReview.com and given the TopTenReviews.com Bronze Award for excellence in digital printing, SmugMug isn't a digital photo service for the masses. Right off the bat, the up-front fee of $40 per year for a basic membership will eliminate a lot of potential customers. SmugMug offers membership plans from the basic to professional level, with costs rising incrementally.

Per-print prices are higher than at other sites, though for other products they are in line with similar competitors, but SmugMug's attractiveness lies in its dynamic ad-free viewing galleries, which appeal to photographers who really want to make their work shine. SmugMug offers the same types of photo products that other sites do, but they also offer the option (with higher levels of membership) to submit print orders to several highly praised professional photo labs, which puts you on an entirely different playing field.

Uploading on SmugMug is simple; there is a mobile app for iPad, iPhone and Android, and you can add directly from iPhoto, Lightroom, Aperture and Picasa. The photo-editing program, Picnik, is excellent, though those who aren't familiar with making adjustments to their digital photos might struggle a little with the learning curve.

Along with sophisticated editing software, you can customize galleries, headers, almost anything on SmugMug. But as mentioned before, this isn't for consumers who just want to share pictures with their friends and families. It requires some attention to detail, and though SmugMug walks you through some coding, it's intimidating if you thought you were just going to be adding and managing a few snapshots.

For those photographers who want a professional experience but don't want to build their own website, they can get the same type of functionality with SmugMug for less headache and cost. Where SmugMug shines is in their striking displays, vigorous protection of artist rights and helpful customer service (although they are not available by phone, so you'll have to work through some basic troubleshooting on your own first).

The alternative for photographers is to buy their own domain name and create their own website. See our related reports on domain registration, web hosting and web design software to learn how to get started.