What you actually pay
Lensdrop is priced per gallery, in US dollars, as a one time purchase, tax included: 5GB (about 480 photos) for $6.99, 10GB (about 970 photos) for $9.99, 25GB (about 2,400 photos) for $14.99. Shoots bigger than 25GB go on the Studio Pass, $249 a year or $24.99 a month, paid once and never renewed. You choose nothing up front. Upload the shoot, and the price is set by what the finished gallery actually weighs when you share it.
Your first gallery is free, up to 2GB, and stays online for 30 days. It behaves exactly like a paid one: same viewer, same downloads, same 0% commission. Paid galleries stay live for six months. You can extend one by six more months at its own price.
Payment is by card, and Apple Pay and Google Pay where your browser offers them. Lensdrop's payment provider is the merchant of record, so US sales tax is handled on their side and you get a receipt without setting anything up.
The arithmetic against a monthly plan
The honest comparison depends entirely on how many galleries you deliver, so here is the crossover rather than a sales pitch.
| Galleries a year | At $9.99 each | A $20/mo plan | A $34/mo plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $99.90 | $240 | $408 |
| 20 | $199.80 | $240 | $408 |
| 25 | $249.75 | $240 | $408 |
| 41 | $409.59 | $240 | $408 |
Read it plainly: up to roughly 24 galleries a year, per gallery wins against a $20 plan, and it stays ahead of a $34 suite until around 40. Above that, paying per gallery stops being the cheap option, and no amount of framing changes that. Volume shooters delivering weekly are better served by a flat plan. Lensdrop's Studio Pass is $249 for a year of unlimited galleries and 1TB of uploads, paid once and never renewed.
Storage caps are the part people forget. A monthly plan is sized to everything you are still hosting, so last season's galleries keep pushing you up a tier. Per gallery pricing has no cumulative ceiling: an old gallery costs nothing once it is delivered.
What US photographers ask about most
Do my clients need an account?
No. You send one link and a PIN. They open it on a phone and download, with nothing to install and no signup. That single detail removes most of the support messages a delivery causes.
Can I sell prints through it?
No, and that is deliberate. Lensdrop is a delivery tool, not a storefront. It never touches your clients' money and takes 0% of anything you sell elsewhere. If your galleries are a shopfront, ShootProof or Pic-Time will serve you better and this comparison says so.
Is it built for high volume?
Yes. Uploads are resumable and go straight to storage from your browser, and the viewer stays fast on galleries in the thousands. Sports and school work is the heaviest case and has its own page.
What happens to a gallery after six months?
It is archived rather than deleted, with warnings by email before that happens, and you can extend it. Nothing disappears without telling you first.
Who this suits
- Wedding and portrait photographers delivering a few dozen galleries a year, who resent paying in January for a June wedding.
- High school sports and school photographers, where one Friday night produces thousands of frames and a plan's photo count is the real ceiling.
- Second shooters and part-time photographers whose season is short and whose subscription would idle most of the year.
- Anyone whose clients want the files, not a print store.
If that is you, the pricing page has the full ladder, and the free gallery is enough to deliver a real job before you decide.
