Before you choose a client gallery platform, find out how you leave it

Hardly anyone reads the exit terms when signing up for a client gallery platform. The demo looks good, uploads are quick, and leaving feels like a problem for some other year. The terms start to matter when you pause the business for a season, move to a cheaper plan, or a card payment fails while a couple is still choosing their photos.

Some lock-in is deliberate and some just comes from how an account is billed. Either way, clients can lose access or galleries can be deleted sooner than you expected. A gallery host delivers work; it does not keep it for you (more on that in a client gallery is not an archive). So it pays to know, before you commit, when delivery stops and what happens to the files.

Four exit events to look up before you sign

Every studio runs into at least one of these sooner or later. Look each one up in the vendor's help centre and in its terms.

1. You cancel. Do client links keep working for a while, or do they stop the day the subscription ends?
2. You move to a free or smaller plan. What happens to galleries above the new storage limit? Are they hidden, or deleted?
3. A payment fails. How long do you have to fix the card before anything changes for your clients?
4. A single gallery's period ends. Even with the account in good standing, a gallery can have its own end date. Is that date visible, and can you extend it?

For each event, write down two things: whether a date or number of days is given, or only a vague "for a period of time", and which document says it.

What vendor documents actually say

Here are two well-known platforms as examples of what to look for. Neither is better or worse here; the point is how differently the same question can be answered.

Pixieset's help article Do my Collections expire? says collections stay online while you have an active subscription and do not expire unless you use Auto-Expiry. After you cancel, they are "kept for a period of time before being deleted", with no number of days. The Pixieset Terms of Service put it differently: if an account is canceled or terminated, its contents "may be removed immediately". The same terms say Pixieset may terminate a subscription if it can't charge the card on file.

That gap between a friendly help article and the terms is exactly what to notice. If the two disagree, plan around the terms.

ShootProof's Terms of Use say that on termination, stored content "will be deleted and may no longer be retrieved", and recommend making a backup before terminating your plan. A paid account can be terminated for unpaid amounts (the terms give "within 90 days of payment due date" as an example), and the cancellation form has to be submitted at least three calendar days before the end of the subscription period. In the trial section, content above the free plan's storage limit is automatically deleted when a trial converts to a free subscription.

ShootProof's help article How do I close my account? adds a billing detail that's easy to miss: if you have archived galleries when you move to the Free Plan, you are still charged for them until you remove them from archiving.

Account-level and gallery-level billing fail differently

How you pay shapes how things go wrong.

With an account subscription, the account's status decides the fate of every gallery at once. One failed renewal or one cancellation affects every link you have sent.

When each gallery is paid for a fixed period, each gallery has its own end date. A single lapse affects one client, not all of them, but you have more dates to keep track of.

Neither model is free of lock-in. They just fail in different ways, and it's worth knowing which way yours will fail.

Five questions to email a vendor before you commit

Help articles change. An answer in an email is something you can keep and come back to.

• How many days do you keep galleries after a subscription is cancelled?
• What does a client see when they open the link to an expired gallery?
• Can I extend a single gallery without changing my whole plan?
• Can I export client selections and original files in bulk?
• Can I import galleries from another platform, or do I re-upload?

If you have already decided to leave, the switching checklist covers the move itself.

How PixiProof answers these

PixiProof lets you pay per gallery for a chosen period of 1, 3 or 12 months, or use Studio, a pooled 100 GB or 300 GB subscription billed monthly or annually. A gallery expires after its selected period, and before that the photographer gets an email with an option to extend it. There is no automatic import from other platforms, so you re-upload your files. Your first gallery up to 1 GB is free, with no card required. The details are in the pricing FAQ.

Ten minutes with your current vendor

Open your current platform's help centre today. Find the article on cancelling or expiry, then the termination section of the terms. Write down the retention period they give, or note that they give none, and put it in your calendar next to the renewal date. If you are comparing platforms, run the same check on each one before you upload a single client. See PixiProof pricing.

FAQ

What happens to client galleries if I cancel my subscription?

It depends on the vendor, and sometimes on which of its documents you read. ShootProof's terms say content is deleted on termination and may not be retrievable. Pixieset's help centre mentions "a period of time" before deletion, while its terms allow immediate removal. Back up before you cancel.

Will clients lose access if I move to a free plan?

Check the free plan's storage limit and what happens to content above it. Also check billing: ShootProof's help centre says archived galleries are still charged after moving to the Free Plan until you remove them from archiving.

Is pay-per-gallery less lock-in than a subscription?

It's a different failure mode, not zero risk. Per-gallery periods end one gallery at a time; an account subscription affects every gallery at once. You still need your own archive.

What should I ask a gallery platform before signing up?

Retention after cancellation in days, what clients see after expiry, whether you can extend a single gallery, bulk export of selections and originals, and import from other hosts. Ask in writing.

Can I move my galleries to another platform automatically?

Ask the platform you're moving to. PixiProof does not import galleries automatically; you re-upload your files.

What happens when a PixiProof gallery expires?

It expires after the period you selected (1, 3 or 12 months). Before that, you get an email with an option to extend it.

Should my gallery host be my backup?

No. Keep your own copies. A client gallery is not an archive explains a simple backup routine.