SmugMug vs Jigsy: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Between SmugMug and Jigsy, SmugMug emerges as the more specialized and feature-rich platform, particularly for photographers and creatives looking to showcase and sell their work online.

• 
  SmugMug (Overall Grade: 6.3/10)
  
  excels with its focus on high-quality image display, robust photo protection features, and tailored ecommerce capabilities for selling prints and digital downloads. It offers a user-friendly interface, extensive customization options through a variety of templates, and integrations specifically designed for photographers. SmugMug’s higher scores in design functionalities, ease of use, website editors, and customer support highlight its suitability for users seeking a dedicated platform for photography and creative work.
• 
  Jigsy (Overall Grade: 4.4/10),
  
  while offering a versatile website builder that caters to a broader audience, falls short in providing the specialized features and customization options that SmugMug offers for photographers. Despite its lower scores, Jigsy’s drag-and-drop interface, range of templates, and affordability make it a decent option for individuals and small businesses looking to establish a general online presence without the need for advanced photography-specific features.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: For users focused on selling photography and creative works, SmugMug offers specialized ecommerce features that outshine Jigsy’s more general ecommerce capabilities.

• 
  SmugMug
  
  : Tailored for photographers and creatives, SmugMug provides robust ecommerce features designed to showcase and sell high-quality images and digital downloads. Its focus on photography makes it the superior choice for users in this niche.
• 
  Jigsy
  
  : While Jigsy supports ecommerce functionalities, it is more suited for general website building. Its ecommerce features are basic compared to SmugMug, making it a less ideal choice for users with specific ecommerce needs in photography and creative works.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: SmugMug is better suited for informational websites that are heavily reliant on visual content, particularly for photographers and creatives. Jigsy, while versatile, offers a more generalized platform that may not cater as specifically to the needs of visual artists.

• 
  SmugMug
  
  : Designed with photographers and creatives in mind, SmugMug excels in showcasing high-quality images with customizable, easy-to-use templates. Its focus on photo protection and e-commerce capabilities for selling prints and digital downloads makes it a strong choice for informational business websites in the creative industry.
• 
  Jigsy
  
  : Jigsy provides a broad range of tools and templates for creating professional-looking websites without coding knowledge. Its drag-and-drop interface, hosting services, SEO tools, and e-commerce support make it a comprehensive solution for small businesses and individuals looking to establish an online presence. However, it may lack the specialized features that SmugMug offers for photographers and visual artists.

Detailed comparison

🏆

Winner: SmugMug.

If you’re a photographer or a creative looking for a platform that offers a range of customizable, easy-to-use templates optimized for displaying high-quality images, SmugMug is the preferred choice.

SmugMug offers a variety of templates and designs, catering to the diverse needs of photographers and visual artists. Users can choose from an extensive collection of customizable templates, ensuring their website or portfolio reflects their unique style and brand.

SmugMug Themes

Compared to SmugMug, Jigsy offers a diverse range of templates and designs, catering to various needs and preferences. Users can choose from a wide variety of themes, ranging from simple to more complex, ensuring there’s something for every type of website. However, Jigsy’s Design Functionalities Templates score is lower than that of SmugMug.

Jigsy Themes

🏆 Winner: SmugMug

. Scoring 7.8, SmugMug offers a user-friendly interface that caters to both beginners and professionals, making it easy to create and customize photo galleries. Jigsy, with a score of 6.5, also provides a user-friendly interface but lacks the specialized features that SmugMug offers for photographers.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: SmugMug

. SmugMug provides a variety of learning materials and features, including beginner’s guides and a wide array of tutorials on YouTube created by content creators. Jigsy, on the other hand, offers a Wiki for users to learn to build and manage websites, but these resources may have limitations in quality and accessibility.

SmugMug and Jigsy both offer ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different needs and audiences. SmugMug is designed for photographers and creatives who want to sell their work online, while Jigsy is a more general-purpose website builder that supports ecommerce functionalities.

SmugMug ecommerce features:

• Digital Downloads
• Product Pricing
• Tax handling
• Discounts and Coupons
• Multiple Currencies support

Jigsy ecommerce features:

• PayPal integration
• Ecwid product listing
• Ecwid shopping bag
• eBay product listing

Ecommerce themes & templates

Almost all of the templates of SmugMug are designed with ecommerce in mind, providing built-in shopping cart functionality. On the other hand, Jigsy does not offer ecommerce specific templates, but it is possible to extend a website’s ecommerce capabilities with Ecwid and eBay product listings within the chosen templates.

Product page customization

SmugMug prioritizes photography, offering a platform tailored for photographers to showcase and sell their work, despite having more limited product page customization compared to dedicated e-commerce platforms. It still provides enough functionality to detail digital and printed photography products effectively, enabling users to sell online with ease. This balance between showcasing art and facilitating sales makes SmugMug a suitable choice for photographers looking to professionalize their online presence and monetize their art efficiently. In contrast, Jigsy has very limited product page customization possibilities.

Payment processing

SmugMug has a unique approach to payment processing. Payment processing for your sales is managed through your account settings, where you must complete a Tax & Payment form to set up your payment preferences. You can choose your profit payment schedule, with automatic monthly payments for balances over $500, or request payments for lower amounts. Your earnings are calculated as 85% of the markup on print prices or download sales, with SmugMug retaining 15% to cover various costs. Payments are made via ACH direct deposit for U.S. users or PayPal for international users, processed on the first business day after the 7th of each month for profits accumulated through the end of the previous month.

On the other hand, Jigsy offers only a few payment processing options, lacking a built-in payment gateway within its platform. It exclusively supports PayPal among third-party gateways. Notably, Jigsy doesn’t impose any transaction fees, nor does it provide any point-of-sale (POS) capabilities.

🏆

Winner: SmugMug

. Scoring 7.3, SmugMug’s website builder editor offers a user-friendly interface that allows for the creation of visually appealing, professional-grade photography websites without the need for coding knowledge. Users can customize their site by choosing from a variety of templates, adjusting layouts, and incorporating their own branding elements like logos and colors. The editor also supports easy uploading, organizing, and showcasing of high-quality images, with robust privacy and security settings to protect content.

Jigsy’s website builder, scoring 5.7, boasts a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, but falls short in terms of modernity and customization capabilities. While it offers various templates and customization options for text, images, and videos, the templates appear outdated. Users can utilize advanced settings for basic SEO, social media integration, and e-commerce features to augment their site’s functionality and visibility.

Mobile editor/app

🏆

Winner: SmugMug

. Both SmugMug and Jigsy have limitations when it comes to mobile editing. SmugMug offers a mobile app, but its functionality is limited to adding new photos and editing descriptions, with no options for layout changes. On the other hand, Jigsy does not have a dedicated mobile app, and while some small changes can be made using a mobile browser, this is not an ideal solution.

Despite these limitations, SmugMug scores higher in the mobile editor category, likely due to its dedicated app, even with its limited functionality.

Overall Result

:

SmugMug wins

. SmugMug scores 7.4 in product testing options, while Jigsy scores 5.3. SmugMug offers a 14-day free trial during which users can test all premium features. However, it does not offer a money-back guarantee. On the other hand, Jigsy offers a free version that allows users to build but not publish a website. It also allows users to test premium features during a 30-day refundable period, but it does not offer a trial version.

SmugMug and Jigsy have similar price scores, but SmugMug offers more advanced features and discounts for annual billing.

Winner: SmugMug

. While both SmugMug and Jigsy offer hosting, SmugMug edges out with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, both platforms lack transparency about their hosting features, including type of hosting, uptime statistics, and data center locations. This lack of information makes it difficult for users to make an informed decision about the reliability and performance of their hosting services.

🏆 Winner: Jigsy

Both SmugMug and Jigsy have strategies in place for website speed optimization, but Jigsy’s use of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and image optimization gives it a slight edge over SmugMug’s mobile responsive design.

Jigsy uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and image optimization as part of its strategy for website speed optimization. This approach helps to reduce the load times and improve the PageSpeed scores of websites built using Jigsy. However, the exact load times and PageSpeed scores can vary widely, depending on the level of optimization and the complexity of the website. Jigsy does not disclose any specific information regarding its Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, SmugMug’s strategy for website speed optimization is focused on mobile responsive design. This approach ensures that websites built using SmugMug are optimized for viewing on mobile devices, which can help to improve load times and PageSpeed scores. However, as with Jigsy, the exact load times and PageSpeed scores can vary widely, depending on the level of optimization and the complexity of the website. SmugMug does not provide any information on its Core Web Vitals improvements.

🏆 Winner: SmugMug.

With a score of 6.2, SmugMug offers a range of integrations specifically designed for photographers, including Dropbox, Adobe Lightroom, Google Photos, Flickr, and Amazon Drive. These integrations allow for efficient and easy importation of photos directly from these services to SmugMug, bypassing the need to first sort through or store photos on a computer.

On the other hand, Jigsy, with a score of 5.0, offers limited integrations but includes them within their pricing plans, which means that there’s no need to pay extra for using the plugins. Jigsy’s integrations are more focused on multimedia and social components, enhancing interactivity and content diversity.

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Overall Winner: Tie

. Both SmugMug and Jigsy have limited marketing features, with neither offering email marketing or ads and promotions. However, Jigsy does have a blogging feature, which can be a useful marketing tool. Both platforms offer SEO tools and social media integration, but their analytics and reporting capabilities are limited to Google Analytics integration.

🏆 Winner: SmugMug

. SmugMug takes the lead in this category with a customer support score of 7.9, compared to Jigsy’s score of 4.3. SmugMug provides customer support mainly through email and chat, available 364 days a year, with rapid response times. Users can contact support by submitting a form via the “Contact Us” button on any page of their help center. Additionally, chat support offers an immediate response option through their help portal. While these support options are widely accessible, phone support is available exclusively for users with a higher-tier business subscription.

On the other hand, Jigsy’s customer support is primarily accessible through support tickets for users on its paid plans. However, it’s noted that the support experience, especially for users on the free plan, may be less satisfactory, as the company does not provide easily accessible communication channels for all users. Additionally, while Jigsy claims email support availability, feedback suggests that responses to email inquiries may not be consistent.

🏆

Winner: SmugMug

. SmugMug takes the lead in security with a score of 6.0, compared to Jigsy’s 0.0. SmugMug’s commitment to privacy and security is evident in their implementation of strict privacy settings and controls, allowing users to manage who can access their content. They also employ data protection practices to safeguard user information and content, ensuring compliance with data privacy laws and regulations.

On the other hand, Jigsy does not provide any information about their private data storage and protection or website security measures, which is a significant drawback for users concerned about the safety of their data and website.

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Neither SmugMug nor Jigsy offer any AI capabilities. Both platforms focus on providing user-friendly interfaces and tools for creating and managing websites, but do not incorporate AI technology into their services.

🏆 Winner: SmugMug

. SmugMug offers a more robust user management system compared to Jigsy.

• SmugMug allows the primary account holder full control over the account, with the ability to add additional users through “Shared Account Management” for Portfolio and Pro level accounts. These additional users can be given various roles with different permissions, enabling them to manage or edit the website without full access to billing or account settings. The number of users and the extent of their permissions depend on SmugMug’s current offerings.
• Jigsy, on the other hand, does not support multiple users editing features.

SmugMug User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

Users appreciate SmugMug for its reliability, ease of use, and the platform’s ability to securely host and share high-resolution photographs and videos. Highlights include seamless mobile device syncing, excellent gallery features for showcasing assets, and robust customization options minus JavaScript support. However, some users desire improvements in facial recognition technology for automatic album creation, expanded asset management capabilities beyond primarily photos, and more advanced search functionalities. Concerns about rising costs and the platform’s intuitiveness were also mentioned. Overall, SmugMug is valued for its central storage solution, privacy features for client photos, and its ability to simplify file sharing and photo sales.

Jigsy, on the other hand, does not have any reviews on the G2 platform, so user feedback is not available for this website builder.

FAQ