WHY I DECIDED TO “PASS” ON PASS

When I first heard about PASS I was immediately hooked!  It sounded like such a great product!  As a Northern Virginia Wedding Photographer I’m always looking for new and innovative ways to deliver images to my clients.  I want something that looks clean,  is easy to operate,  and is multi-purposed.  PASS seemed to fit the ticket perfectly…  But that came at a pretty high cost,  so it wasn’t all candy and roses.  Not long after I started to implement PASS as a part of my business model,  they changed some things.  Things that I REALLY did not like.

PASS made an announcement that they were going to add print sales to the plethora of other services they offered.  MY first reaction was,  “great!”  But then I learned the details behind this new “feature” that did NOT thrill me.  PASS worked up an agreement with WHCC (White House Custom Color) to offer prints sales to clients via the online gallery.  I thought,  “well…  I don’t use WHCC,  but I suppose I could look into it.”  As I continued to read about the new “improvements” of PASS,  I found out that photographers couldn’t set their own prices for the prints that are sold on PASS.  Say what!?  And not only that,  PASS decided to price the prints DIRT CHEAP.  Like waaaaaaaaay cheap…  (4×6’s are $1 and 8×10’s are $4).  The are so cheap,  in fact,  that WHCC can’t seem to be able to afford proper packaging and customers are receiving their prints damaged from shipping.  (This doesn’t happen to everyone,  and I’m sure it is actually fairly infrequent,  but I have read SEVERAL reports of these incidences and it was enough for be to be appalled by it.)

Needless to say,  I was bummed out because of all of the reasons I once loved PASS.  But the reasons I loved PASS were not great enough to erase the insanity that had been rolled out on the floor before me.  I knew that I was going to drop PASS, like a bad habit, and find a new solution.  So I made a “pros” and “cons” list.

Here is my list of “pros” and “cons” of PASS.

PROS:

• online galleries
• integrated with social media (FaceBook)
• mobile friendly (but you have to get your clients to download the App that is currently only available on iOS devices)
• ability to set “favorite” images
• 10 years of cloud storage

CONS:

• $30 per event (gallery)
• galleries are only accessible for one year (but you can pay another $30 for another year…  psh!)
• online sales (photographers not able to set their own prices OR use their own labs)
• photographers can NOT set their own print prices (this is just ludicrous and so I felt that was worth of TWO bullets on the CONS list)
• did I mention you don’t actually get the money from your PASS “print sales” but rather, PASS “credit” (what is that anyway?!)
• did I also mention that when you get “credit,”  you only get a piddly 50% of the “sales” you make…  PASS keeps the other 50%
• the free 30-day option does not allow you to turn off certain features like print sales, and it doesn’t include the cloud storage
• did I mention it is $30 PER gallery!?!?!?

Wow.  I still can’t believe that other photographers are still paying into,  and even promoting,  PASS.  There is the argument that PASS is designed for “shoot and share” (aka “shoot and burn”) photographers…  such as wedding photographers.  But many,  many photographers out there shoot weddings AND portraits.  And PASS is clearly not a good tool for portrait photographers.  But even so,  I really didn’t like PASS telling me how much my work was worth,  which lab to use,  not paying me MONEY for my sales,  and then taking half of it…  I mean,  really?!

Anyways,  I found a few alternatives recommended by other photographers.  After my search and comparing features and prices,  I settled on Pixieset.

PIXIESET – A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Just when I thought that PASS had the monopoly on “cool online galleries,”  I found Pixieset.  It was like a breath of fresh air.  Pixieset has all of the features of PASS (except the Facebook integration) but better!  Oh,  and it’s more affordable too!  I won’t make a “pros” and “cons” list for Pixieset,  because honestly,  I can only think of “pros.”

So here is my “pros” list for Pixieset:

• online galleries
• mobile friendly (no app needed)
• ability for clients to set “favorite” images (photographers can utilize this feature as a way of proofing for albums)
• unlimited cloud storage/gallery access (as long as you maintain a current subscription)
• photographers can turn “on” or “off” the print sales feature without being forced to “upgrade”
• photographers can use their own labs and set their own product prices (self-fulfillment orders)
• not limited to selling JUST prints (I can also sell gallery wraps,  etc. due to the fact that it is self-fulfillment)
• they take a lot less than 50% of your sales! (Pixieset takes either 15%, 10%, 9%, or 8% based on your subscription level)
• you get actual ca$h-money for your sales (not goofy “credit” …still don’t know what that is)

And another great thing about Pixieset is that you can try it for FREE!  PASS claims to be free,  but you only have a temporary gallery (or rather,  “less” temporary gallery… instead of one year access,  you only have 30 days access).  The FREE trail for Pixieset allows you to utilize all of the features.  You only need to upgrade when you use up your 3GB allowance.

And just for fun I wanted to do some math!

Based on Pixieset’s most expensive subscription ($40/mo)  and PASS’ $30 per event;  let’s say that I did two weddings every month for a year for a total of 24 weddings.

PASS: 24 wedding galleries with PASS = $720

PIXIESET: PIXISET’s most expensive annual subscription (1,000GB)  = $480

And once more…  Say your business is booming and you are one of the amazing KatelynJame’s of the wedding photography world and do upwards of 40 weddings a year.  PASS would cost you around = $1,200.  I know I’d rather be spoiling my clients with that money!!!

For now I am going to use Pixieset.  There are many other providers out there that offer similar services,  so I’m not saying that I will use Pixieset forever.  It is just the best fit for me,  right now.  I still consider myself a “shoot and share” photographer,  especially for my weddings.  I’ve also not totally written off PASS and Showit.  I think they are great (nay,  excellent) products…  I intend on using Showit for my new website,  and I’m TOTALLY stoked about it.  I just think these recent changes to PASS are not in favor of photographers’  best interests.  I have to do what makes sense for my business,  and I refuse to use a service that dictates what my work is worth.  I really think that was the breaking-up point for me.  Maybe one day PASS will allow photographers to set their own print prices,  take way less than 50% of the sales,  and actually pay photographer the money they earned instead of issuing them credit (can anyone tell me what this credit stuff is?!).