For most wedding photographers the choice is about print sales, not the monthly fee. Pic-Time suits you if galleries and albums are a revenue line, with AI search and an album designer built in. Pixieset suits a simpler gallery, with AI editing sold separately. List prices: Pixieset Pro $24, Pic-Time Professional $21 a month, billed annually.
Those two prices are not like for like. Pixieset Pro includes 1 TB of storage and charges no commission; Pic-Time Professional includes 100 GB and charges a commission on orders it processes unless you collect the money yourself. Everything below turns those differences into yearly sums you can repeat with your own numbers.
Plan ladders side by side
Both companies run a free tier and three or four paid tiers. The figures below are USD list prices read from each vendor's pricing pages in October 2026; check the pages themselves before you commit, because both change plans without much notice.
| Tier | Pixieset Client Gallery (monthly / annual per month) | Pic-Time Client Delivery Suite (monthly / annual per month) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, 3 GB | $0, 10 GB (reduced to 3 GB after three months) |
| Entry | Basic: $10 / $8, 10 GB | Beginner: $8 / $7, 20 GB |
| Middle | Plus: $20 / $16, 100 GB | Professional: $25 / $21, 100 GB |
| Upper | Pro: $30 / $24, 1 TB | Advanced: $50 / $42, unlimited (terms apply) |
| Top | Ultimate: $50 / $40, unlimited | None |
Read the table by storage, not by name. Pixieset's Plus and Pic-Time's Professional both give 100 GB, and there Pixieset is $5 a month cheaper on annual billing ($16 against $21). The names suggest a match between Pixieset Pro and Pic-Time Professional, but they are different products: Pixieset Pro is a 1 TB plan (the pricing page notes RAW uploads of up to 1,000 GB), and Pic-Time Professional is the tier where the AI features and the self-collected, commission-free store switch on.
Storage matters more than most photographers expect. Say a wedding delivers 600 edited JPEGs at about 5 MB each. That is roughly 3 GB per wedding, so 24 weddings a year add 72 GB. A 100 GB plan fills during the second season if you keep galleries live, which is why many photographers end up one tier higher than the one they planned for. Pic-Time quotes about 30,000 photos for 100 GB, which implies files of around 3 MB; heavier exports hold fewer.
Print and album fees: the part that changes your yearly cost
Gallery platforms make money in two places: your subscription and a cut of your store sales. The cut is where the two products differ most.
How Pixieset charges
Pixieset states 0% commission on all upgraded accounts, and a 15% commission on store sales for free accounts. Pixieset handles printing, packaging and shipping for store orders. The pricing page I read does not publish print costs or payment-processing charges, so ask support for the lab price list and the processing terms before you set your markups.
How Pic-Time charges
Pic-Time applies commission to your markup only, never to production costs. Its help-centre article (dated April 2025) lists the default rates when Pic-Time collects the payment: 15% on Free and Beginner, 8% on Professional, 6% on Advanced. On Professional and Advanced you can instead collect payments yourself and pay no commission. Pic-Time's pricing page adds that it covers card-processing fees on the payments it collects and deposits earnings every two weeks. The pricing page itself does not print the percentages, so confirm the current rate with Pic-Time before you rely on the April 2025 figures.
That processing detail is the honest comparison. An 8% commission looks like a tax until you notice it replaces a card-processing charge you would otherwise carry. The question is which costs you less on your own volume, and for that you need a sum.
Yearly cost for a 24-wedding photographer
Here is an illustrative year for a solo wedding photographer who shoots 24 weddings, keeps about 72 GB of galleries live (twelve months of weddings), and earns $6,000 a year in markup (profit above lab cost) from prints and albums sold through the gallery. These figures are made up to show the method; swap in your own.
| Cost line | Pixieset Plus (100 GB) | Pixieset Pro (1 TB) | Pic-Time Professional, Pic-Time collects | Pic-Time Professional, you collect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription, annual billing | $192 | $288 | $252 | $252 |
| Commission on $6,000 markup | $0 | $0 | $480 (8%) | $0 |
| Card-processing fees | Check terms | Check terms | Covered by Pic-Time | Your processor's rate |
| AI editing add-on, if used | $144 (Photo Editor, $12 a month) | $144 | Not needed for AI search | Not needed for AI search |
| Known total before processing | $192 to $336 | $288 to $432 | $732 | $252 |
On those numbers, Pic-Time costs more in subscription-plus-commission when it collects ($732 against $192 to $432 for Pixieset), but it also removes the processing line. At $6,000 of markup the commission is $480; at $2,000 it is $160 and Pic-Time Professional ($412) lands close to Pixieset Pro ($288 to $432). At $15,000 the commission is $1,200, and collecting the money yourself, or moving to Advanced at 6% ($900 plus $504 subscription), is worth working out.
Two checks before you trust this sum. First, find out what your processor charges on the average order, because that is the number Pixieset users carry and Pic-Time collecting users do not. Second, check whether you want the money in your own account at all: self-collected payments land with you at once, while Pic-Time-collected earnings arrive in two-week deposits.
What the AI actually does in each product
This is where vendor comparison pages blur marketing with fact, so keep to what each vendor's own pages say.
Pic-Time
Pic-Time lists several AI features. The ones a wedding photographer meets first:
- AI-powered gallery search. Keyword and face recognition so clients can find images. On the plan page, selfie, people and keyword search for photographers sits in Professional; the client-facing Smart Search for guests, with face recognition, is listed under Advanced.
- Next Gen Album Designer. AI-assisted album layouts built from the couple's favourites. Professional includes two album sales at no extra cost; after that you need Advanced.
- AI watermark protector. Aims to stop viewers removing watermarks; listed under Professional.
- Automatic write-ups and slideshows from a curated selection, plus an AI writing assistant for your website posts.
Pixieset
The Client Gallery page I read makes no mention of AI search or face recognition. Pixieset's AI sits in the separate Photo Editor product, listed at $12 a month and described as AI editing and culling for photographers, with RAW editing, smart batch editing and culling. That is a different job: it speeds up your edit, where Pic-Time's AI speeds up your clients' browsing and your album sales. If a Pixieset feature has appeared since, the vendor page will show it; I have not stated what I could not read.
Because they target different stages, you should not weigh the two AI lists against each other. Ask which stage costs you the most hours. If culling and editing eat your evenings, the Photo Editor line item matters. If couples email asking for every photo with their grandmother, search matters. The tutorial on paying for AI culling as a wedding photographer covers the first question in more depth, and the AI software picks by genre and volume covers the wider toolkit.
A 90-minute test on your own wedding
Neither vendor's marketing tells you how the product behaves on your files, so run the same test on both. Both have a free route in: Pic-Time offers a 30-day trial of Advanced features with no card, and Pixieset has a free plan with 3 GB.
- Pick one finished wedding of 400 to 600 images, including a group shot with the couple's families, a first dance and a table-by-table candid set.
- Upload it to both and time the upload. Note whether captions, folders and your Lightroom export names survive.
- Search as a guest would. Type "first dance", "cake" and "grandparents". In Pic-Time's trial, try people and selfie search with a photo of a friend who appears in the set.
- Favourite as a couple would. Make a list of 30 favourites, export it, and see whether the export drops into your album software without retyping.
- Price a real order. Build a 10x10 album and a print set at your actual markups and read what the platform says you earn after commission.
- Ask support two questions: what is the current commission, and what are the payment-processing terms?
Record the results in a short scorecard. The one below shows the shape, filled with illustrative values.
Test item Pixieset Pic-Time
Upload time, 520 images 11 min 9 min
Guest search "first dance" n/a 14 of 16 correct
Selfie search, 1 guest n/a 22 images, 2 wrong
Favourites export to album CSV works CSV works
Album order, my markup $140 profit $140 profit, minus 8%
Support reply time 4 hours 1 hourTreat anything marked n/a as "not found on the plan I tested", then check the vendor's help centre before writing the feature off.
Using an AI assistant to keep the comparison honest
A chat assistant is useful here as a calculator and a second reader, not as a source of facts. Paste in the figures you verified yourself and ask it to do the maths for your volumes.
I am a solo wedding photographer. Here are two platform price lists
that I copied from the vendors' pricing pages today:
[paste plan table and commission figures]
My numbers: 24 weddings a year, about 3 GB of images per wedding,
about $6,000 a year in print and album markup, galleries kept live
for 24 months.
Calculate the yearly cost of each plan that can hold my storage.
Show storage first, then subscription, then commission, then total.
List every number you used and mark any you had to assume.A realistic reply gives a tidy table, and the thing to fix is the storage line. Assistants often forget that galleries stay live for two seasons, so they pick a 100 GB plan that overflows in year two. Ask it to recalculate at 144 GB (24 months of 72 GB a year) and watch the shortlist change to Pixieset Pro or Pic-Time Advanced. For the delivery emails that surround the gallery, the tutorial on client emails with AI has templates.
Which one wins for which kind of wedding business
| Your situation | Leans towards | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under 15 weddings, few print sales | Pixieset Plus or Basic | Low fixed cost; commission barely matters. |
| Heavy RAW or video delivery, large archive | Pixieset Pro or Ultimate | 1 TB or unlimited storage at a fair monthly price. |
| Album and print sales are a real revenue line | Pic-Time Professional | Album designer, AI search and a commission-free self-collected store. |
| Guests constantly ask for "all photos of me" | Pic-Time Advanced | Client-facing selfie and people search listed on that tier. |
| You edit and cull 40 hours a month | Either gallery plus an editing tool | The gallery choice does not decide your editing speed. |
| You never sell prints | The cheapest tier that holds the storage | Store features are not worth paying for. |
Three small studios, three different answers
A single illustrative table hides how much the answer moves with the business. Here are three typical set-ups, each with the reasoning rather than a verdict you should copy.
The part-time photographer with 10 weddings. Weekends only, a day job, and prints are an afterthought: roughly $800 of markup a year. Storage is 30 GB. Pixieset Basic at $8 a month annual (10 GB) is too small, so Pixieset Plus at $192 a year holds everything. Pic-Time Beginner at $7 a month has 20 GB, but its commission is a flat 15% by default and, per the help article, is always collected. On $800 of markup that is $120, so the cheapest sensible plan is Plus, and the AI features are irrelevant at this scale.
The established studio with 45 weddings and an album habit. Roughly $18,000 of markup, because most couples buy a parents' album and a framed print. At 6% the Advanced commission would be $1,080, and the Advanced subscription is $504, so about $1,584 in total when Pic-Time collects. Self-collecting removes the $1,080 and leaves $504 plus your own processing fees. Pixieset Pro at $288 with no commission looks far cheaper on paper. The tie-breaker is revenue per couple: if the album designer and guest selfie search lift album take-up even slightly, say from 40% of couples to 45%, the extra five couples out of 100 each buying a $300-profit album add $1,500 per 100 couples. That is an assumption to test, not a promise, and it is why the first two events on a trial matter.
The video-heavy studio. A photographer who also delivers highlight films cares about video limits, which differ more than the photo ones. Pic-Time lists 30 GB (about three hours) on Professional and 60 GB on Advanced, with paid add-ons from 100 GB at $10 a month on annual billing. Pixieset's comparison table runs from 30 minutes of HD video to 5 hours of 4K across its paid tiers, with 4K on the top two (read the row against each plan, because it is easy to misalign), and extra video hours cost $5 a month each. Convert your own films into hours and gigabytes before looking at either price, because video add-ons can outweigh the plan fee.
Setting up the first wedding gallery without wasting a day
Whichever you pick, the first live gallery deserves a checklist, because mistakes here are visible to a couple who just paid you. This one works on both platforms.
- Export at a consistent size. Decide on long-edge pixels and quality once. Mixed sizes make the same album look different from page to page.
- Name files with the wedding date and a sequence number. It makes search and favourites exports easier to reconcile later.
- Create folders by moment (getting ready, ceremony, portraits, reception) so the gallery reads like the day itself.
- Set expiry and download rules on day one. Choose how long the gallery stays live, whether downloads need a PIN, and whether low-resolution downloads are free. Changing rules after the couple shares the link causes complaints.
- Set your markups before the email goes out. A price list you edit after launch confuses couples who screenshotted the old one.
- Send yourself the client email. Open the gallery on a phone, on mobile data, as a guest would, and try to order one print.
For the email that carries the link, a chat assistant can draft the first version from a few facts. The prompt below stays generic on purpose, with a placeholder for the couple's names.
Write a warm, short delivery email for a wedding gallery.
Facts: gallery link [link], PIN [PIN], live for 12 months,
favourites button on every photo, print and album store open
now with a 10% launch discount for two weeks.
Tone: friendly, plain English, no exclamation marks.
End with one sentence asking them to choose 30 favourites
for their album by [date]. Sign off as [your name].A usual output is polite and slightly long. Trim it to under 130 words, check that the discount is the one you actually set in the store, and make sure the favourites deadline matches your album production calendar. Models invent urgency very readily, so delete any line about "limited stock" for products that are printed to order.
Before you sign up for a year
Annual billing is where both companies give their lower price, and it is also where a wrong choice hurts. Pixieset's Pro costs $24 a month annual against $30 monthly; Pic-Time's Professional costs $21 annual against $25 monthly. Over twelve months that is a $72 and $48 saving respectively. If you are still deciding, pay monthly for one season, because switching costs more than the premium. Once the first wedding has gone through the full cycle (upload, favourites, album order, delivery), move to annual billing on whichever platform you kept.
Four ways this decision goes wrong
Paying for the free plan's commission by accident. A photographer tests on the free plan, a couple orders a $900 album, and 15% of the markup goes to the platform before the upgrade has even happened. Upgrade before the first real order, not after.
Comparing tier names instead of storage. Pixieset Pro against Pic-Time Professional looks like a fair fight and is not. Line the plans up by gigabytes and features.
Trusting a quoted commission from a year-old help page. The 8% and 6% figures come from a help article dated April 2025. Ask support for the current figure in writing and keep the email.
Switching in the middle of a season. Galleries, favourites and order history do not move with you. Move between seasons, keep exported copies, and tell couples before their links change.
Making the call
If you only remember one rule: choose by your print-and-album revenue and your storage, then let the AI features break the tie. Under about $2,500 a year in markup, Pixieset's flat pricing and no commission usually wins. Above about $5,000, price Pic-Time's Professional with self-collected payments or Advanced and see whether the album designer and AI search earn their keep. If you want a second pair of eyes on the rest of the workflow, the same-day quotes and shot lists tutorial covers the stage before the gallery, and my AI implementation consultation can map the whole chain; see the contact page.
Gallery platform questions photographers ask
Can I move galleries from one platform to the other later?
Photos are yours, so you can re-upload them, but gallery links, favourites lists, orders and client email history stay behind. Keep original exports for every wedding, and avoid switching mid-season. Check each platform's help pages for any import tool before you promise couples that old links keep working.
Is the free plan enough to run a small wedding business?
Only as a trial. Both free plans take a 15% commission on store sales and have small storage allowances, so a busy season outgrows them quickly. Use the free plan to test the client experience, then upgrade before real couples order prints or albums.
Do I need a gallery platform at all if I deliver by download link?
Not strictly. A plain cloud-folder link works for delivery. A gallery platform earns its fee through favourites lists, print and album sales, a branded look and automated reminders. If you never sell prints and your couples never ask for a favourites list, the cheaper option is the folder.
Is guest selfie search safe to offer at a wedding?
It matches faces, which is personal data in many places. Tell the couple before you switch it on, make it opt-in if the platform allows, and read the platform's privacy terms. If you have customers in the EU, data-protection law such as the GDPR may apply, so ask a qualified adviser if unsure.
Further reads
- Photographer Gallery Delivery: Reminders and Print Upsells With AI — Sets up gallery reminders and print upsells once you have chosen.
- AI Culling vs Outsourced Editing: Which Saves Photographers More? — Puts numbers on culling in-house versus sending it out.
- Best AI Photo Editor for Photographers: Cull, Edit or Retouch First? — Decides whether culling, editing or retouching AI comes first.
- GDPR for Photographers: Client Galleries, Contracts and AI Tools — Covers face search, galleries and client data rules.
- AI Agent for Photographers: Enquiry to Booking Without the Inbox — Moves the front of the funnel off your inbox.
- Claude for Photographers: Contracts, Client Emails and Captions Tested — Tests a chat assistant on contracts and captions.
- HoneyBook or Dubsado for a Wedding Photographer? Costs and AI Compared — HoneyBook against Dubsado for a wedding photographer: three-year costs, plan-for-plan matches, AI features and a trial plan to decide.
- ChatGPT Prompts for Wedding Photographers: Timelines, Groups, Albums — Eight copy-ready prompts for the planning side of a wedding: timeline, family groups, album spreads, captions and proof-round replies, with sample outputs.
- How to Price Photography Packages: A Cost-per-Shoot Model With AI — A cost-per-shoot sheet that counts every hour behind a session, then a three-rung package ladder and print add-ons priced from it.
- How Can AI Help Photographers With Alt Text, Filenames and Captions? — Naming, alt text and captions for a 300-image wedding gallery with AI: a filename scheme, a prompt, a sample-check rule and the privacy checks for faces.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Pixieset pricing and Client Gallery pages, Pic-Time pricing pages, features pages and help-centre commission article (April 2025 version), all read in October 2026.