Image Depot vs PhotoDay
Both let you deliver and sell photos to clients online. Here's how the two actually differ, on the specifics that affect your bottom line -- not a marketing spin.
| Image Depot | PhotoDay | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | A Free plan (3% commission on sales), or a flat monthly plan with 0% commission: $9.99/mo Starter, $24.99/mo Solo, $39.99/mo Pro, $54.99/mo Studio, $119.99+/mo Agency -- a month free when you pay annually | No subscription, setup fee or contract -- it's free to sign up. Instead, PhotoDay takes a 10% transaction fee on each order's subtotal (before tax and shipping), with volume discounts; studios doing $500K+ a year in PhotoDay sales may qualify for custom rates as low as 6% |
| Card processing | Charged by your own Stripe account (PayPal coming soon) at its standard rates -- Image Depot doesn't add a processing fee | 2.9% + $0.30 per order, on top of the transaction fee |
| Payouts | Straight to your own Stripe account (PayPal coming soon) -- Image Depot never holds the money | Through a Stripe account you connect; lab costs come straight out of each order and go to the lab |
| Storage | A real quota per plan: 2GB (Free), 25GB (Starter), 50GB (Solo), 100GB (Pro), 250GB (Studio), 1TB (Agency) | Unlimited, included free -- a genuine PhotoDay advantage |
| School picture day | Not what Image Depot is built for: there's no subject-data capture, per-student access codes, yearbook export or picture-day pre-pay. Galleries are shared by link, with an optional password or email gate | Built for it: the Capture app and FaceFind match subject data to photos, private galleries give each subject their own access code, and there are yearbook (PSPA) exports, AutoCrop head sizing and AdvancePay pre-pay credits |
| Finding every photo of one person | Find My Athlete: families search a name or jersey number across your whole public portfolio, built on the tags you add. The optional AI Athlete Tags add-on reads printed jersey numbers and team names for you (Pro plan and up, $19.99/mo for 2,500 photos a month, your first 200 photos free). No facial recognition, by design | FaceFind facial recognition: in group and public galleries, families search by face to find every photo of a person, or narrow things down by tags |
| Print fulfillment | You fulfill prints yourself by default, through any lab you already use. Automatic lab fulfillment is set up per studio on request -- it isn't a self-service setting yet | Orders go to the lab automatically and ship straight to the customer's door by default, with lab costs taken out of each order -- no lab bills. Lab partners include Miller's, Bay Photo, WHCC, APS, Reedy Photo and Richmond Pro Lab. A genuine PhotoDay advantage |
| Sales tax | You set a tax rate on each price sheet and it's added at checkout; filing and paying it stays with you | Calculated, collected and remitted for you -- PhotoDay acts as the marketplace facilitator |
| Marketing to buyers | One-off email campaigns to a gallery's visitors and buyers, plus an automatic reminder when someone leaves checkout unfinished | Automated text-message and email marketing, included free: gallery-published alerts, special offers, reminders to order and shipping updates |
| Screenshot protection | Watermarking, plus half of every preview blurred until it's purchased -- baked into the file itself. Turned on per gallery | Built in, free and on by default: Auto Blur for desktop screenshots, Screen Block on iOS (Android is in development) and an Info Overlay watermark with the customer's details, which you can turn off |
| Upload formats | JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC/HEIF (iPhone photos), up to 50MB per photo | JPG/JPEG, or PNG with a background collection attached; 30KB to 15MB per file and no more than 8,000px on a side, per PhotoDay's help center |
| Highlight video | Highlight videos on Solo and up (60 minutes included, +300 minutes for $9.99/mo), sold as downloads through the same checkout as photos | Not listed on PhotoDay's features or pricing pages |
If you shoot school picture days, PhotoDay is built for exactly that and Image Depot isn't: its Capture app, FaceFind matching, per-subject access codes, yearbook exports and AdvancePay have no equivalent here. It also bundles in unlimited storage, lab fulfillment with no lab bills, automated text marketing and sales-tax remittance, with no monthly fee at all. What that costs is 10% of every order, plus card processing. Image Depot works the other way around: a flat monthly plan with 0% commission, paid straight into your own Stripe account (PayPal coming soon), so the more you sell, the more of it you keep. It's built for the sports, event and portrait galleries you sell from directly -- Find My Athlete, highlight videos, photos live from the camera with Image Depot Live -- and every original photo is exportable any time, guaranteed in writing.
Common questions
Is PhotoDay free?
It's free to sign up, with no monthly subscription. Instead, PhotoDay charges a 10% transaction fee on each order's subtotal (before tax and shipping), plus 2.9% + $0.30 per order for card processing, according to its own pricing page. Image Depot works the other way around: a Free plan with 3% commission on sales, or a flat monthly plan from $9.99/mo with 0% commission.
When does a flat monthly plan cost less than PhotoDay's 10%?
On fees alone, once your monthly sales pass about ten times the plan's price: roughly $100 a month for Starter ($9.99/mo), $250 for Solo ($24.99/mo) and $400 for Pro ($39.99/mo). Below that, or in a month you don't sell at all, PhotoDay costs less. Card processing applies on both, and this math leaves out what PhotoDay's fee also covers: lab fulfillment, unlimited storage and sales-tax handling.
Which is better for school picture day?
PhotoDay, plainly. Its Capture app, FaceFind matching, per-student access codes, yearbook exports and AdvancePay are built for picture day, and Image Depot has nothing equivalent. Image Depot is built for sports, event and portrait galleries that clients browse and buy from directly.
Does Image Depot use facial recognition like FaceFind?
No, by design. Find My Athlete searches the names and jersey numbers you tag, and the optional AI Athlete Tags add-on reads the jersey numbers and team names printed in your photos. Neither identifies anyone from their face. If face search is what you need, PhotoDay's FaceFind does it.
See how Image Depot stacks up against every other option at once in photography gallery software alternatives, or the sports-specific case at best gallery software for sports photographers.
See the real product before you decide -- no credit card required.
Start free