I’m going to make this kind of short.
I’m a Flickr user. I was told in the chatroom at live.pirillo.com by someone (i forgot the name since it happened yesterday) that SmugMug is actually better than Flickr.
Let me say that I’m sure SmugMug is mighty fine from what I saw but, I will admit I didn’t like that you can’t get a free account. Oh, they offer you one… for a trial for 14 days and then (this is the hook) YOU HAVE TO PAY!
Flickr does have a “pro” account that you pay but at least they give you a free account.
My judgement: Flickr wins this battle. That is, unless you want to say otherwise.
May 6, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Otherwise.
…must…resist…
May 7, 2008 at 7:12 am
lol
May 7, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I use Smugmug and not Flickr. I think they are both very good services and neither will be right for everyone. The only problem I have with your comments is the tone. You make the free trial at Smugmug sound like a bait-and-switch or something. I don’t see any need to characterize it as a “hook” and to add a dramatic – “AND THEN YOU HAVE TO PAY!”
I think it’s very clear – Smugmug does not have a free option. I also think it’s pretty obvious what a free trial is. It is not an offer for a free account.
Smugmug has great features and is highly customizable, and it has the best customer service I have ever seen bar none. That said, it is not the solution for everyone and Flickr serves the needs of a great many people just fine. And for free.
May 7, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Seeing as I never been on SmugMug except on that day, I wouldn’t had know if they had a free account or not. I guess you can’t tell I was leading up to the trial by saying you get a free account but only as a trial. No need to explain what a trial is. People should know by now.
June 29, 2008 at 7:37 am
I was moving my pictures from ImageEvent and settled on Flickr pretty quickly. Shortly after paying for the “Pro” account I noticed my stuff was not loading as quickly as it should and the interface seemed unintuitive when browsing through photos. Someone had mentioned SmugMug and so I went to check it out. I am not pysched about the $60 for the tier I want but am kinda hooked on how fast it is and how slick the black themes make your photos look. I can also upload higher quality video clips with a limit to 2.5 minutes instead of the 1.5 minutes with Flickr. My family is spread all over the U.S. and our photo site is the main way we can share events with family, so I am willing to spend more if the pics and videos are higher quality and the user experience is better. I like Flickr’s community and groups but I will use SmugMug as my primary photo hosting site.
August 24, 2008 at 5:06 pm
You should try out this online photo service Joomeo: http://www.joomeo.com as a good alternative between a paying service a more community oriented one, I have to agree with Fotograffiti that I appreciate the higher quality and experience I get can get from a site even if to do so I will have to reduce my budget on other web stuff!