Does SM still charge for storage???

nfocuz

I've been away from this site for awhile and have not kept up on the developments of SM, but I'm reviewing my online backup options. At one time, SM discouraged the service as a online backup of photos. I believe that at one time they offered a separate service for this. Is this still true or have they allowed unlimited backup storage? I could not find anything on their site.

Thanks.

denisegoldberg

There are no limits to the number of photos you can load to your smugmug account. From the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93278-what-types-of-files-can-i-upload-to-smugmug-?b_id=1644:

You can add an unlimited number of JPEG, GIF, and PNG files to your SmugMug account.

Are you asking about other types of files? There was a service called SmugVault that could handle other file types but the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93324-what-is-a-smugvault-?b_id=1644 states:

This service is being transitioned, so it's no longer possible to sign up. We hope to find another solution for you soon!

If you're looking for a place to store files other than (or in addition to) photos you might look at some of the backup services available. I use CrashPlan - http://www.code42.com/crashplan/. There are many options available; you'll need to look at the features of each to see which best meets your needs.

--- Denise

nfocuz

Thanks Denise,

What made me revisit SM storage issues was that I recently purchased a digital download image from an organization that uses PhotoShelter for their ecommerce. When I looked at it closer, I thought I was looking at a re-branded SM account.

Personally, as a tech-head, what jumped out at me as intriguing features of PhotoShelter was the unlimited storage, full control of css and html coding, digital download, direct billing of off-line sales and ANY photo processor of your choice.

With a closer look at PS storage option vs. SM was the ability to store PSD and PDF files. Not a game-changer.

On another note, I'm a stickler for privacy and control and it confounds me why anyone would use any these services for storage other than what they would want to be shown publicly, SM notwithstanding, Doesn't anyone read these ToS's.

For my online storage, I use AmazonS3 directly. I pay for what I use. About 0.024c per GB for roughly 725GB. About $18/month. Initially, due to size my storage and bandwidth issues, I had to send in a hard drive to have Amazon load the data directly. That cost about $20. The downside? You need to be tech savy. Understand GET/PUT/COPY/POST/LIST request is key. There is no "pretty" front end interface to walk you through the process, although I'm sure there are some front ends that can be purchased.

Anyhow, I'm getting off track. Thanks again for your reply.

denisegoldberg

nfocuz wrote: »

For my online storage, I use AmazonS3 directly. I pay for what I use. About 0.024c per GB for roughly 725GB. About $18/month. Initially, due to size my storage and bandwidth issues, I had to send in a hard drive to have Amazon load the data directly. That cost about $20. The downside? You need to be tech savy. Understand GET/PUT/COPY/POST/LIST request is key. There is no "pretty" front end interface to walk you through the process, although I'm sure there are some front ends that can be purchased.

Anyhow, I'm getting off track. Thanks again for your reply.

I used to use Amazon S3 directly but I found the storage costs were way too high. I switched to CrashPlan+ which is $59.99 per year. That's much more acceptable to me than Amazon S3's monthly rates. If you're paying $18 per month for S3, that's $216 per year.

--- Denise