SmugMug vs Tilda: guide for 2024

Final verdict

SmugMug and Tilda both offer unique features tailored to different user needs, but they cater to slightly different audiences.

SmugMug (Overall Grade: 6.3/10)

is a premium website builder designed specifically for photographers and creatives. It excels in showcasing and selling high-quality images with robust photo protection features. SmugMug’s ecommerce capabilities are tailored for selling prints and digital downloads, making it an ideal choice for photographers who want to control how their work is shared and sold online. However, it may not be as versatile for other types of websites.
Tilda (Overall Grade: 6.7/10)

is a versatile website builder suitable for bloggers, small businesses, and digital marketers. It offers a wide range of pre-designed blocks and templates, focusing on typography and visual content. Tilda’s ease of use, comprehensive learning resources, and integration with various services make it a user-friendly choice for non-technical users. While it may not have the specialized features for photographers that SmugMug offers, Tilda provides a broader range of design functionalities and marketing tools.

	Overall grade: 6.3	Overall grade: 6.7
Design functionalities & templates	7.1	8.6
Ease of use	7.8	8.0
Ecommerce	7.3	7.2
Website editors	7.3	8.0
Product testing options	7.4	5.9
Price	7.8	8.0
Hosting quality	5.0	6.2
Website speed optimization	5.5	4.9
Plugins/extensions and integrations	6.2	7.6
Marketing features	3.8	6.9
Customer support	7.9	5.5
Website security	6.0	7.6
AI capabilities	0	2.1
User management	7.2	7.3

Best for ecommerce

7.3

7.2

Verdict

: SmugMug is ideal for photographers and creatives, while Tilda offers a versatile solution for various online projects.

SmugMug

: Designed specifically for photographers, SmugMug excels in showcasing and selling high-quality images. It offers robust photo protection features and ecommerce capabilities like digital downloads, product pricing, and multiple currencies support. However, when comparing SmugMug vs Tilda, SmugMug may lack some advanced ecommerce functionalities that broader online stores might need.
Tilda

: Tilda is a versatile platform suitable for bloggers, small businesses, and digital marketers. It provides a wide range of pre-designed blocks and templates, along with comprehensive ecommerce features like product catalogs, payment gateways, and built-in CRM tools. While it may not offer the same level of photo-specific features as SmugMug, Tilda’s flexibility makes it a strong contender for various ecommerce needs.

Best for informational & business websites

7.5

8.4

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, Tilda outshines SmugMug with its versatile design functionalities and ease of use. Tilda’s higher score of 8.4 compared to SmugMug’s 7.5 reflects its superior capabilities in this category.

SmugMug

: SmugMug is tailored for photographers and creatives, offering customizable templates optimized for high-quality image display. While it includes e-commerce capabilities and robust photo protection features, its specialization in photography makes it less versatile for general informational and business websites. In the SmugMug vs Tilda comparison, SmugMug is more niche-focused, which might not cater to broader business needs.
Tilda

: Tilda excels in creating visually appealing and professional-looking websites with its wide range of pre-designed blocks and templates. Its focus on typography and visual content, along with integrations for analytics, email marketing, and payment solutions, makes it a versatile tool for bloggers, small businesses, and digital marketers. In the SmugMug vs Tilda debate, Tilda’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive design options make it the preferred choice for informational and business websites.

Detailed comparison

7.1

8.6

🏆

Winner: Tilda.

Tilda offers a wider range of design functionalities and templates, making it a more versatile choice for users who want to create visually appealing and professional-looking websites.

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

On the other hand, Tilda offers a diverse selection of design templates that are suitable for various types of content, all crafted by professional designers. These templates emphasize gorgeous typography, minimalist blocks, and striking images. Users have the flexibility to modify any template significantly or even start from scratch, ensuring the final website can meet a wide range of design preferences and requirements.

Tilda Themes

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7.8

8.0

🏆 Winner: Tilda

. With a score of 8.0, Tilda edges out SmugMug (7.8) in terms of ease of use. Tilda’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface, wide range of templates, and robust features make it a user-friendly choice for non-technical users, content creators, and small business owners. SmugMug, while also user-friendly, is more specialized for photographers and visual artists.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Tilda

. Both platforms offer learning resources, but Tilda provides more comprehensive materials, including detailed articles, tutorials, and video guides. SmugMug’s resources are more limited and mainly consist of beginner’s guides and YouTube tutorials.

Learn SmugMug

Learn Tilda

7.3

7.2

SmugMug and Tilda both offer ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different user needs. SmugMug is specifically designed for photographers and creatives who want to sell their work online, offering robust photo protection features and ecommerce capabilities. On the other hand, Tilda is a versatile tool for building and managing online projects, offering a wide range of pre-designed blocks and templates, and integrating with various services for analytics, email marketing, and payment solutions.


Ecommerce themes and templates	8.0	6.5
Product page customization	6.5	7.0
Payment processing and commissions	6.0	7.5
POS capabilities	0.0	0.0
Payment gateways	5.0	7.8
Product numbers	9.0	6.0
Additional ecommerce features	6.5	6.5

SmugMug ecommerce features:

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

Tilda ecommerce features:

Product Catalogs and Inventory management
Payment Gateways integration
Shipping options
Order management
Built-in CRM and marketing tools

Ecommerce themes & templates

Almost all of the templates of SmugMug are designed with ecommerce in mind, providing built-in shopping cart functionality. Tilda allows users to build their eCommerce sites using around 20 ready-made online store templates, emphasizing ease of use and the ability to create a store without needing coding or web design skills.

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. Tilda enables a wide range of customizations for product pages in online stores, including the design, e-commerce functionalities, and integration with external services.

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. 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.

The Tilda website builder supports a variety of popular payment systems such as Stripe, PayPal, and 2Checkout, allowing for easy integration to accept online payments. Tilda does not impose additional transaction fees beyond those of the payment gateways themselves. Tilda does not have POS capabilities, Tilda’s focus is on online transactions and e-commerce functionalities, with flexibility for “Cash on Delivery” options.

7.3

8.0

🏆

Winner: Tilda

. Tilda, with a score of 8.0, offers a user-friendly, block-based design approach that simplifies the process of creating websites without requiring in-depth coding knowledge. It features advanced customization options through its Zero Block feature, allowing for detailed control over design elements for those needing more specific layouts. The platform supports responsive design, ensuring websites are optimized for all devices, and includes built-in SEO tools, analytics, and a range of integrations with third-party services for extended functionality.

Tilda editor

SmugMug’s website builder editor, scoring 7.3, 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.

Smugmug website editor

Mobile editor/app

7.5

5.5

🏆

Winner: SmugMug

. Both SmugMug and Tilda offer mobile editing options, but they are limited in their functionality. SmugMug provides a mobile app, but it only allows for adding new photos and editing descriptions, with no options for layout changes. On the other hand, Tilda does not have a dedicated mobile app, but users can manage and edit their websites using the mobile browser version of the editor.

Despite these limitations, SmugMug scores higher in the mobile editor category, indicating that it may offer a better overall mobile editing experience.

7.4

5.9

Overall Result

:

SmugMug Wins

. SmugMug scores 7.4 in product testing options, while Tilda scores 5.9. SmugMug offers a 14-day free trial during which users can test all premium features. Tilda, on the other hand, offers a free plan with some premium features available for testing, but does not offer a trial version.


Free Plan	No	Yes
Trial Duration	14 days	No trial version
Testing Premium Features	During the free trial	Some features with the free plan
Money Back Guarantee	No	No

7.8

8.0

Tilda offers more affordable options, but SmugMug’s features are more refined, especially for photographers and creatives.

	Offerings	Offerings
Free	No offering at this amount.	Free ($0/month): Tilda’s Free plan allows for 1 website with up to 50 pages per website and 50 MB of space per project. It includes a free subdomain on tilda.ws, responsive design on all devices, basic animations, a built-in image and icon library, and Tilda CRM.
$10-$20	Power ($15.00/month): Best for the photographer who wants their entire photo catalog safe and shareable on their own terms. Unlimited storage, Seamless Lightroom integration. Value for price: 6.5	Personal ($15/month): The Personal plan offers 1 website with up to 500 pages and 1 GB of space. It includes all features of the Free plan plus the ability to connect a custom domain, advanced animations, full access to the Block Library, analytics, SEO tools, and online store capabilities. Value for price: 7.5
$20-$40	Portfolio ($31.00/month): Best for the photographer who wants to start selling photos and keep their archive organized perfectly. All Power plan’s features, plus 21 premade templates, prints and digital downloads sales, Custom Watermarks, Payment integration for credit cards and PayPal, Integrated cart and checkout experience, Sales statistics. Value for price: 8.0	Business ($25/month): The Business plan expands capabilities to 5 websites per account, each with up to 500 pages and 1 GB of space, including source code export and API access. It builds upon the Personal plan features with additions suitable for more extensive business needs. Value for price: 9.0
$40-$50	Pro ($45.00/month): Adds to Portfolio with custom price lists and coupons, Platform access for assistant or second shooter, Full control over client downloads, Branded packaging and thank you notes for print sales, coupon creator. Value for price: 8.5	No offering at this amount.
$500+	Venture (Starts with $500/month): All Pro features, plus dedicated support contacts and account representative for all Smugmug needs, Design, workflow, and organization consultation and support.	No offering at this amount.

In some cases companies have different prices based on various components like a
location. As a result in rare cases the prices displayed here can differ from the ones you see on their
websites.

5.0

6.2

Winner: Tilda

Tilda offers cloud hosting with up to 1GB storage capacity and a 99.9% uptime. However, it does not provide an uptime guarantee and does not disclose the locations of its data centers. On the other hand, SmugMug does not provide detailed information about their hosting features, including their type of hosting, uptime statistics, and data center locations. Despite this, they do offer an uptime guarantee of 99.9%. Due to the lack of information from SmugMug, Tilda is the winner in this category.


Do they offer hosting?	Yes	Yes, cloud hosting with up to 1GB storage capacity
Type of hosting:	No information provided	Cloud Hosting
Uptime:	No information provided	99.9%
Uptime Guarantee:	Yes, 99.9%	No
Data Centers:	No information provided	Not disclosed

5.5

4.9

🏆 Winner: SmugMug

Both SmugMug and Tilda have strategies in place for website speed optimization, but SmugMug edges out Tilda with a slightly higher score.


Key Strategies	Mobile Responsive design	Lazy Loading, Image Optimization
Load Times	Varies widely, depending on optimization and website complexity	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity
Page Speed Scores Range	Varies widely, depending on optimization and website complexity	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity
Core Web Vitals Improvement	No information available	No information available

SmugMug, a website builder designed for photographers and creatives, focuses on mobile responsive design as a key strategy for speed optimization. However, both load times and PageSpeed scores can vary widely, depending on the optimization and complexity of the website. Unfortunately, SmugMug does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, Tilda, a web-based platform for creating websites, landing pages, and online stores, employs lazy loading and image optimization as their main strategies for speed optimization. Similar to SmugMug, Tilda’s load times and PageSpeed scores can vary depending on the optimization and complexity of the website. Tilda also does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

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6.2

7.6

🏆 Winner: Tilda.

Tilda scores 7.6, offering a diverse range of integrations that enhance the functionality of websites created on its platform. It supports popular payment processors, integrates with various form services, connects with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for in-depth website analytics, and includes other integrations like Google Maps and social media platforms. SmugMug, with a score of 6.2, supports integrations with several photo-hosting services, enhancing its functionality for photographers. However, Tilda’s wider range of integrations gives it the edge in this category.

3.8

6.9

🏆

Overall Winner: Tilda

. Tilda offers a wider range of marketing features, including SEO tools, email marketing, blogging, social media integration, and analytics and reporting. SmugMug, while offering some of these features, lacks in email marketing, blogging, and ads and promotions.


SEO Tools	Basic SEO tools	Comprehensive SEO tools
Email Marketing
Blogging
Social Media Integration	Yes	Yes
Analytics and Reporting	Google Analytics integration	Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager integration
Ads and Promotions

7.9

5.5

🏆 Winner: SmugMug

. In the SmugMug vs Tilda comparison, SmugMug takes the lead with a customer support score of 7.9. SmugMug offers email and chat support available 364 days a year, ensuring users can get help when they need it. Additionally, SmugMug provides phone support for higher-tier business subscriptions, and enterprise customers benefit from dedicated account representatives and specialized support.

Tilda, on the other hand, has a customer support score of 5.5. Tilda primarily offers email support and encourages users to utilize their comprehensive Help Center for self-help. However, the lack of specified support hours and the absence of enterprise-level support options make it less robust compared to SmugMug’s offerings.

6.0

7.6

🏆

Winner: Tilda

. Tilda’s security measures are more comprehensive, with a focus on GDPR compliance, DDoS prevention, and HTTPS encryption. Tilda also provides built-in security features and enables the use of SSL certificates, including free Let’s Encrypt certificates, to secure data transmission.

SmugMug, on the other hand, does not disclose detailed information about its website security measures, apart from the possibility to change privacy settings to protect website content with passwords and hide account owner information. However, SmugMug does take privacy and security seriously, implementing strict privacy settings and controls that allow users to manage who can access their content.

2.1


AI Builder
AI Ecommerce features
AI content generation		Tilda has an AI feature for generating website content
Additional AI features

🏆 Winner: Tilda

. Tilda, with a score of 2.1, has a basic AI feature for generating website content, which is accessible through the Page Editor. This feature requires a detailed description of the website for better text generation. The generated content is displayed in the “Result” box, with options to regenerate or apply the text directly. The feature is limited to 100 successful requests per day. Tilda does not have other AI features apart from text generation.

Tilda AI text generation

SmugMug, with a score of 0, does not have any AI capabilities.

7.2

7.3

🏆 Winner: Tilda

. Both SmugMug and Tilda offer user management features, but they approach it differently.

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.
Tilda, on the other hand, allows adding teammates with either Full or Limited access through the Collaborators feature. Full access enables collaborators to edit, publish, delete pages, view requests and statistics, and make changes to built-in website services. Limited access allows the project owner to specify what actions the collaborator can perform. This feature is available as a premium offering, and adding more collaborators requires additional payment, with costs adjusted based on previously paid periods. It applies to the entire account, not individual projects, and collaborators can be managed or replaced through the Site Settings.

SmugMug User Roles and Access Levels:

Role	Description	Access Highlights
Owner	The primary account holder who has full control over the site.	Complete access to all features, settings, content management, and billing.
Admin	Users granted almost the same level of access as the owner, minus some critical billing or account settings.	Manage content, order prints, access to stats, and settings except for account and billing changes.
Contributor	Users who can upload and manage content in specific galleries.	Upload content to assigned galleries, edit captions, and keywords. Limited access to settings.

Additional Features


SSL Certificate
Custom Domain
Free Custom Domain Included
International Domains
Mobile Responsive
Page Speed
Website Builder Mobile App
Convert a Website To An App
Website Analytics
Multilingual Sites
Multiple Users

User Feedback

SmugMug

33 reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars

Tilda

47 reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars

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.

Tilda Publishing receives varied feedback from users, highlighting its strengths in offering a no-code, customizable website building experience with features like Zero Block for personalization and easy backend setup. Users appreciate its affordability, user-friendly interface, and responsive customer support. However, criticisms include buggy font customization, limited design elements, and instability in some of its features. Despite these drawbacks, many find Tilda beneficial for creating professional websites quickly and managing multiple sites under one plan, although some users advise caution due to issues with stability and customer support.

The making of this blog

We followed a clear, step-by-step process to write and research this article.

Our Ranking Criteria

FAQ

Which platform is better for photographers, SmugMug or Tilda?

SmugMug is specifically designed for photographers and creatives, offering robust photo protection features, customizable templates optimized for high-quality images, and ecommerce capabilities for selling prints and digital downloads. It’s the preferred choice for professionals in the photography industry.

Can I use Tilda for creating a website without any coding skills?

Yes, Tilda is a web-based platform designed for creating websites, landing pages, and online stores without the need for coding skills. It offers a wide range of pre-designed blocks and templates that users can customize to fit their design needs, making it suitable for bloggers, small businesses, and digital marketers.

How do SmugMug and Tilda compare in terms of ecommerce capabilities?

Both SmugMug and Tilda offer unique ecommerce capabilities tailored to their target audiences. SmugMug is best suited for photographers and creatives looking to sell their work online, with specialized features such as digital downloads and product pricing options. Tilda, with its broader focus, serves users looking to create visually appealing websites with ecommerce functionality, offering easy integration with payment gateways and additional marketing tools.

Which platform offers better customer support, SmugMug or Tilda?

SmugMug provides customer support mainly through email and chat, available 364 days a year, with rapid response times. Tilda provides customer support mainly via email, but does not specify the hours or availability of this support. SmugMug is known for its responsive support team and comprehensive help documentation, making it easier for businesses to resolve issues quickly.

Are there any AI capabilities in SmugMug or Tilda?

Tilda has a basic AI feature for generating website content, which is accessible through the Page Editor. This feature requires a detailed description of the website for better text generation. SmugMug does not have any AI capabilities.