Pacco vs SmugMug: archive or delivery for 2026

SmugMug has outlived almost everything photographers have stored photos on. Founded in 2002, still family-run enough to have bought Flickr in 2018, still selling the same headline promise: unlimited photo storage, your whole archive, forever-ish. If you’re comparing it with Pacco you’re comparing two different jobs. SmugMug is where a life’s work lives and gets sold. Pacco is how this month’s weddings reach this month’s couples. The overlap (client galleries, proofing, digital sales) is real, which is why the comparison is worth doing properly.

We make Pacco. Every SmugMug claim below is sourced and dated; the recommendation at the end includes the photographers who should genuinely stay on SmugMug.

At a glance

Feature	Pacco	SmugMug
Per-photo digital sales	✔ (built into delivery)	✔ (Portfolio and Pro plans)
Client favorites / proofing	✔ (all tiers)	Pro plan only
Native RAW upload	✔	✔ (3 GB/file; Source add-on for unlimited)
Photo storage	By plan (Studio unlimited)	Unlimited on every plan
Custom domain	Pro (middle tier)	Portfolio and Pro plans
EU data residency	✔ (Brussels controller)	✘ (US storage, SCCs for transfers)
French UI	✔ (dashboard + galleries)	✘ (English only, translate widget)
Free tier	✔ (100 galleries, 5 GB)	✘ (14-day trial only)
Client mobile app	✘	✔ (native iOS and Android viewers)
Years in market	New	Since 2002

What this comparison covers

Client photo delivery for working photographers: galleries, proofing, selling, and the surrounding posture (data, language, currency). SmugMug is also a portfolio site builder and a lifetime archive; Pacco doesn’t compete there, and we’ll say so plainly in the recommendation. What we hold side by side is the part where couples open a link and choose their photographs.

Where Pacco wins

Proofing on every tier, not the top one. On SmugMug, client favorites (the mechanic wedding proofing runs on) is a Pro-plan feature, at $37/month billed annually (plans, checked 2026-06-12). On Pacco, selections and proofing are the core product, on the free tier included. If “pick your 30” is how you deliver, the entry price for that workflow differs by a multiple.

A delivery model, not a storefront conversion. Pacco galleries are built around the base-pack-plus-extras purchase: the couple gets their included selection and adds individual photos beyond it, in one flow. SmugMug sells digital downloads per photo from $0.49 on Portfolio and Pro (digital downloads), a pricelist mechanic that works but reads like a store, because it is one.

EU residency and EUR billing. SmugMug stores data in the United States and relies on Standard Contractual Clauses for EU transfers, with no EU residency option (privacy). Their public pricing is USD (plans). Pacco: Brussels controller, photos on Cloudflare R2 in the EU, EUR pricing with VAT handled for consumers and businesses.

French exists here. SmugMug’s interface is English-only; their own suggestion for other languages is a Google Translate widget (their post). With Pacco, the tool you edit in and the gallery Sofia and Tom open are both genuinely written in French (or English), no widget involved.

A real free tier. SmugMug offers a 14-day trial and no free plan (plans). Pacco is free up to 100 galleries and 5 GB, indefinitely.

Where SmugMug wins

Unlimited photo storage, on every plan. This is the moat: your entire archive uploaded at full resolution, with no quota arithmetic, from $20/month annual (plans). Caveats exist (videos capped at 20 minutes and 3 GB each, RAW at 3 GB per file), but for photo archives the promise is real. Pacco’s unlimited storage starts at the Studio tier (€39/month).

RAW depth beyond ours. Both platforms accept RAW. SmugMug goes further for archival use: the Source add-on ($10/month for the first TB) adds unlimited RAW backup with AI search and sidecar support (RAW storage). If RAW archival is the job, this is the stronger tool.

Native client apps and a 24-year ecosystem. Real iOS and Android apps where clients view, save offline, and cast galleries (iOS app), Lightroom plugins on both Classic and CC, and print fulfillment through Bay Photo, WHCC, Fujifilm and Loxley Colour for Europe (EU lab news). Pacco has no app, no print store and a far smaller ecosystem.

Portfolio and archive in the same place. A SmugMug subscription is also your public site, your SEO surface and your backup. Pacco is none of those things; it pairs with them.

Pricing in EUR

SmugMug prices in USD, as of 2026-06-12: Direct at $20/month, Portfolio at $23.50, Pro at $37, billed annually; monthly billing runs $29 to $52 (plans). We could not verify any EUR display for EU visitors. Pacco prices in EUR: Free, Pro €15, Studio €39, VAT-inclusive for EU consumers and reverse-charge for VAT-registered businesses.

The like-for-like that matters: client proofing plus selling on SmugMug means Pro at $37/month; on Pacco the same workflow starts free and is fully unlocked at €15.

Migration friction

Honest in both directions. Leaving SmugMug rarely means deleting it: most photographers who adopt Pacco alongside SmugMug keep the archive there and move only client delivery. If you do migrate galleries, it’s the manual pattern: re-upload from your local archive, rebrand, re-share; Pacco has no importer today. Moving a 20-year SmugMug archive into Pacco is not the assignment, and we won’t pretend it is.

Who should pick SmugMug over Pacco

• Photographers whose first problem is the archive: decades of work, full-resolution, one searchable place, optionally with RAW backup via Source.
• Studios that want portfolio site, store and storage in one subscription, with native client apps and US-plus-EU lab fulfillment.
• Anyone for whom unlimited storage at $20/month is the deciding number.

If your first problem is this Saturday’s wedding reaching Sofia and Tom in French, with selections, EU-resident data and a euro invoice, that’s the product we build. Start free, and keep SmugMug for the archive if it’s serving you; the two jobs were never the same one.