How to Deliver Photos to Clients

Does Your Photo Delivery Vanish After Seven Days?

If you use WeTransfer's free tier, the download link you send expires in seven days. Miss the window -- a client on vacation, a buried email, a slow reply -- and you are resending. That is not a delivery system; it is a follow-up loop.

Email is not the answer either. A single edited JPEG runs 5-10 MB. Deliver a full wedding shoot -- 600 finished files plus short video clips -- and you are looking at 15 GB or more. Most email providers cap attachments at 25 MB. Files bounce, land in spam, or simply never arrive. Then your client emails you asking where their photos are.

The question is not whether your current method is imperfect. It is whether there is a simpler way that removes you from the chasing entirely.

Gallery Apps vs. File Portals: What Is the Real Difference?

Gallery apps are designed for the browsing and selection experience. File portals are built for structured delivery -- organized by client and project, download-tracked, branded with your name instead of the platform's. Both move files. They solve different problems.

Gallery platforms like Pixieset, Pic-Time, and SmashFolio are built so clients can browse a light table, mark favorites, and leave comments before the final edit. If clients choose selects as part of your workflow, a gallery platform is doing exactly the job it was designed for.

A file portal is for the final handoff: RAW archives, video exports, print-ready TIFFs, PDF contracts -- any format, any size, organized by shoot. The client gets a login that works months later and a download record you can refer back to. Creative agencies often run a portal alongside a gallery for exactly this split.

When a Gallery App Is the Right Tool

A gallery app wins when the selection experience is part of the service you provide. Three clear cases:

• Portrait and wedding photographers where the client chooses favorites before the final edit. The proofing workflow -- light table, star ratings, selects -- is the gallery's core purpose.
• Newborn and family studios where print ordering is part of the package. Gallery platforms handle product upsells natively; a file portal does not.
• Photographers who sell prints or digital downloads directly through their gallery. If revenue happens inside the gallery, that is where your workflow belongs.

If any of these describes your core workflow, keep your gallery platform. A client portal is not a replacement -- it is a different tool for a different job.

When a Client Portal Makes More Sense

Four scenarios where a file portal consistently outperforms the alternatives.

• Commercial and agency clients. Brand shoots, catalog work, retainer clients -- these clients need labeled folders of deliverables, not a light table. A campaign with ten product categories delivered in organized folders is cleaner than a gallery wall.
• Video alongside stills. Gallery apps handle images; they do not handle mixed media cleanly. A portal accepts any file type -- ProRes video, behind-the-scenes clips, RAW exports -- with no format restrictions or size caps.
• Repeat clients with a growing archive. Clients who come back every quarter benefit from one login and a project history that builds over time. They find what they need without emailing you for a re-send.
• Large deliveries with no room for failure. Resumable uploads matter when a shoot runs 40 GB. If the transfer drops at 38 GB, it resumes where it left off -- not from zero.

What to Look for in a Delivery Portal

Five things that separate a purpose-built delivery portal from a general file-sharing app.

• Resumable uploads. A 40 GB upload that fails at 35 GB should not mean starting over. This is the baseline for large-file creative work.
• No expiring links. Your client should be able to re-download the final edit two years later -- for a reprint, a new art director, or a backup they forgot to make.
• Per-download logs. A timestamped record of who downloaded what. Useful when a client says they never received the files.
• Your brand, not the platform's. Your logo, your domain, your outbound emails -- the client should see your studio name on every touchpoint, not Dropbox or WeTransfer.
• Pricing by your account, not per client. You should not pay a per-seat fee for each client who logs in to download a folder. The model should work for studios with dozens of active clients.

How ProjectSend Cloud Fits In

ProjectSend Cloud is the hosted version of ProjectSend, an open source file-delivery platform with more than 1,900 GitHub stars and 4.8M+ Docker image downloads. It has been running on self-hosted instances for over a decade -- by studios, agencies, and solo photographers who needed a client portal without building one from scratch.

Plans start at Free ($0, no credit card, no time limit): 2 GB of storage and 3 active client accounts. That is enough to deliver a real shoot and see whether the workflow fits before committing to anything. Pro ($19/mo) covers most working studios. Business ($49/mo) handles high-volume commercial work. Your clients never pay and there are no per-seat fees on the client side.

If you ever decide to move to a self-hosted install, the export is free and portable. ProjectSend Cloud is built on ProjectSend.org (GPLv2 -- not a proprietary fork, not AGPL), so your data drops right into any self-hosted install. See how the platform works -- the exit is part of the design, not a support ticket.

Ready to replace the follow-up loop with a client portal that does not expire? Start free on ProjectSend Cloud -- no credit card, no time limit.