As I've mentioned. I'm sticking with zenfolio until the ship sinks.

And I mean zenfolio the platform, not NextZen. 

As I don't often join "delete ::platform::" cries, and this is somewhat the antithesis. If you are a classic zenfolio user like me I encourage you stay on zenfolio:

Do Not Switch to NextZen

As I've explored NextZen, I'd like to share where it falls short:

• Cannot inherit price lists: Do you really want to have to manually add a price list to every gallery you upload?
• There is no mobile app: No more automated mobile phone backups
• Pricing is more expensive: $480 for unlimited photos, that's more than double what I'm currently paying
• No multi-user option: Your business cannot grow to have 2nd photographers or assistants that upload or manage galleries
• No collections: Can no longer have a collection of portfolio images that would allow for clicking on the image to view (and buy!) more from that gallery.

Now there are plenty of reasons to leave zenfolio for NextZen

• faster page loads
• modern interface
• facial recognition on galleries

And of course there are plenty of reason to leave zenfolio entirely for other platforms

• less expensive
• lower commission rates
• better SEO
• or simply because you've lost trust in zenfolio

But if you are somewhat platform agnostic, your website is just kind of there, and your annual rate is in the $200 range like mine, just hold onto it.

While I've opted out of the archive, remember there are other ways around the archive. (If you really want to throw an F-U to zenfolio and prove a point, just upload ALLLLLLLLLLLL the files to your classic platform)

Here's My Logic:

In this blog post by Bay Photo dated Aug 9, 2024, they say that zenfolio represents 500,000 photographers. In the CEOs open letter, he said that "NextZen is now trusted by tens of thousands of photographers". That tells me PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE NOT SWITCHING TO NEXTZEN.

Now there is a chance that "500,000 photographers" was inflated to make it sound like more people use it (likely). There's also a chance that "tens of thousands" is the high tens (this seems less likely because "over 50,000 photographers" sounds much more impressive than "tens of thousands photographers" - I'm guessing it's closer to 20,000).

For their benefit, let's say there's only 250,000 active zenfolio users, and let's say there are 90,000 that have switched to NextZen. That's still less than half of their user base switching to NextZen. Sure, zenfolio has suggested that users not switch until they get the invite with option to (un)seamlessly transfer to NextZen. But by all accounts, I would say NextZen is a FLOP.

Why I Think NextZen Is a Flop

• I know ONE zenfolio user who switched to NextZen shortly after it was launched and rebuilt their archive on the new platform. It's a portfolio site only, they do not make sales through it, and they use an alternate method for image delivery (including a separate zenfolio classic site)
• As an entirely new platform, without a transfer option on launch (or still, for users like me) NextZen is a competitor to zenfolio. This makes NO SENSE to me from a business standpoint. It's like zenfolio the company built out a SmugMug or Pixieset, but instead of just offering as a new product, they launched under the same zenfolio brand.
• Few photographers starting their website are going to think zenfolio/NextZen is a good idea. If someone were to research "NextZen" they might get a mix of good and bad reviews, just as one would when searching any platform. But since "NextZen" is launched as "Zenfolio", when someone researches "zenfolio" they are getting all the bad reviews about people who lost faith in zenfolio and are leaving after 15+ years.
• I think most photographers are like me and either sticking with zenfolio, finding workarounds, and just hoping against hope, that they will reinvest in the Classic platform

That's good news for Classic Users

If photographers on the classic platform leave for another platform (well done, those of you who managed to do that!) or simply do not switch to NextZen, zenfolio the company is going to have to make a decision:

a) Hope that they can outlive the terrible PR of how they destory classic zenfolio websites and lost the trust of photographers, and hope to gain market share of new photographers to NextZen

b) Reinvest in Classic and hope to hold on to the remaining users before more users jump ship

I honestly think we photographers have enough power to force their hand to option b if enough current classic zenfolio users do not switch to NextZen. We've already had enough pull to force their hand with an archive exclusion.

Check It

If switching from zenfolio to NextZen or switching from zenfolio entirely is better for your business model, then by all means, I don't begrudge anyone for doing what is best for their bottom line.

Check In

So, are you with me?! Long live zenfolio classic!