DeepSearch: The Best Place to Sell Prints Online in 2025

Key Points

The best site for a photographer to sell prints in 2025 is SmugMug, based on print quality, revenue per sale, and exposure to potential buyers.

Why SmugMug Stands Out

Print Quality

SmugMug partners with reputable labs like Fujifilm and Loxley, ensuring high-quality prints, which is crucial for photographers. This means you can trust the final product to look professional without handling printing yourself.

Revenue Per Sale

SmugMug takes a 15% commission on the profit (sale price minus lab cost), allowing you to keep 85% of the profit. For example, if you sell a print for $20 with a $10 lab cost, you keep $8.50, which is competitive compared to other platforms.

Exposure to Potential Buyers

While Etsy has massive traffic (458.3 million visits in November 2024), SmugMug’s 2.5 million visits are more targeted to photography enthusiasts, increasing the likelihood of sales for photo prints. It’s surprising that a niche platform like SmugMug can compete with general marketplaces in exposure.

Survey Note: Detailed Analysis of Platforms for Selling Photo Prints in 2025

When selecting the best platform for photographers to sell prints in 2025, we evaluated several options based on three critical criteria: print quality, the highest percentage of revenue per sale, and the highest overall exposure to potential buyers. This analysis dives deep into the platforms, their features, and how they align with these criteria, ensuring a comprehensive understanding for photographers looking to monetize their work.

Methodology and Criteria Explanation

The evaluation focused on platforms that cater to photographers, including SmugMug, Fine Art America, Etsy, Society6, and others, as identified through web searches and user reviews. Each platform was assessed for:

Print Quality: The ability to deliver high-quality prints, either through partnered labs or by allowing photographers to choose their printing options.
Highest Percentage of Revenue Per Sale: The commission structure and how much of the sale price the photographer retains after fees and costs.
Highest Overall Exposure to Potential Buyers: The platform’s traffic volume and its relevance to potential buyers of photo prints, ensuring maximum visibility.

Data was gathered from traffic analytics (e.g., Semrush, Similarweb), platform documentation, and user reviews to provide a holistic view. Let’s explore each platform in detail.

Platform Analysis

SmugMug

SmugMug is a photography-focused platform that offers storage, sharing, and sales features, making it a strong contender for photographers. Here’s how it fares:

Print Quality: SmugMug partners with labs like Fujifilm and Loxley, ensuring high-quality prints. User reviews, such as those on dpreview.com, highlight satisfaction with print quality, especially for color prints and various finishes. This is ideal for photographers who want consistent, professional results without handling printing themselves.
Revenue Per Sale: SmugMug’s commission structure is 15% of the profit, meaning the photographer keeps 85% of the difference between the sale price and the lab cost. For example, if a print sells for $20 with a lab cost of $10, the profit is $10, and the photographer earns $8.50 after SmugMug’s $1.50 commission. This was confirmed through reviews on photographylife.com, which noted a 15% commission rate. Compared to other platforms, this structure is favorable, especially when considering the ease of not managing printing costs.
Exposure to Potential Buyers: SmugMug had approximately 2.5 million visits in November 2024, according to Similarweb data. While this is lower than Etsy’s 458.3 million visits, it’s more targeted to photography enthusiasts, increasing the likelihood of sales for photo prints. The platform’s focus on photographers, as seen in cloudwards.net, suggests a niche audience, which can be beneficial for exposure.

Fine Art America

Fine Art America is another print-on-demand platform popular among artists and photographers, offering a wide range of products.

Print Quality: Fine Art America is known for high-quality prints, with options for various papers, framing, and finishes. User reviews, such as those on briansloanartist.com, praise the print quality, making it comparable to SmugMug’s offerings.
Revenue Per Sale: Fine Art America allows artists to set their base price, which is what they earn, and adds their own markup to cover costs and profit. For example, if an artist sets a base price of $20 and Fine Art America adds a $30 markup, the total sale price is $50, and the artist keeps $20, which is 40% of the sale price. This can vary, and by setting a higher base price, the artist can increase their percentage, as noted on topbubbleindex.com. This flexibility can lead to higher revenue percentages compared to SmugMug’s fixed 15% commission on profit, depending on pricing strategy.
Exposure to Potential Buyers: Fine Art America had 3.64 million visits in December 2024, according to Semrush, slightly higher than SmugMug. This increased traffic, as seen on semrush.com, could offer more exposure, but the competition is high with over a million artists, as mentioned in lieslwalshphotos.com.

Etsy

Etsy is a general marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, including photo prints, with a massive user base.

Print Quality: Etsy doesn’t handle printing; photographers must manage it themselves or use print-on-demand services like Printful. This gives control over quality but requires finding a reliable printing partner, as noted on expertphotography.com. Quality can be high if the photographer chooses well, but it’s less consistent than platforms with partnered labs.
Revenue Per Sale: Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee plus a payment processing fee (e.g., 3% + $0.25 in the US), and the photographer keeps the sale price minus these fees, then pays printing costs. For a $20 sale, fees might be around $2.15, leaving $17.85 before printing costs. If the lab cost is $10, the profit is $7.85, which is lower than SmugMug’s $8.50 for the same sale price, as calculated in the analysis. This was detailed on help.etsy.com.
Exposure to Potential Buyers: Etsy had 458.3 million visits in November 2024, far surpassing others, as per semrush.com. However, its general audience means competition is high, and not all traffic is targeted to photo prints, which could dilute exposure for photographers, as seen on bloggingwizard.com.

Society6

Society6 is another print-on-demand platform for artists, offering various products.

Print Quality: Society6 handles printing through their partners, with mixed reviews on quality, as noted on trustpilot.com. Some users report issues, which might not meet high standards for photographers.
Revenue Per Sale: Artists can set their markup on top of Society6’s base price, with a default of 10% but adjustable up to 999%. For example, if the base price is $35 and the artist sets a 15% markup, the sale price is $40, and the artist earns $5.25, which is 13.13% of the sale price, as detailed on sidehusl.com. This can be lower than SmugMug’s structure, depending on the markup.
Exposure to Potential Buyers: Society6 had 1.84 million visits in November 2024, according to Semrush, lower than SmugMug and Fine Art America, as seen on semrush.com, limiting exposure.

Comparative Analysis

To organize the comparison, let’s use a table to summarize the key metrics:

Platform	Print Quality	Revenue Per Sale (Example)	Exposure (Monthly Visits, Nov/Dec 2024)
SmugMug	High (Partnered labs)	85% of profit, e.g., $8.50 from $20 sale	2.5 million (Similarweb)
Fine Art America	High (Various options)	Variable, e.g., 40%-50% of sale price	3.64 million (Semrush)
Etsy	Variable (Self-managed)	Lower after fees, e.g., $7.85 profit from $20 sale	458.3 million (Semrush)
Society6	Mixed (User reviews)	Adjustable, e.g., 13.13% of sale price	1.84 million (Semrush)

Decision Rationale

Given the criteria, SmugMug emerges as the best choice for 2025:

Print Quality: SmugMug’s partnership with labs like Fujifilm ensures consistent high quality, aligning with the first criterion. This is supported by user reviews on dpreview.com.
Revenue Per Sale: With a 15% commission on profit, SmugMug allows photographers to retain 85% of the profit, offering a competitive edge. For example, a $20 sale with a $10 lab cost yields $8.50, as calculated, which is better than Etsy’s $7.85 for the same scenario, as seen on photographylife.com.
Exposure to Potential Buyers: While Etsy has higher traffic, its general audience may not be as targeted. SmugMug’s 2.5 million visits are more focused on photography, increasing the likelihood of sales, as noted on cloudwards.net. This niche focus is crucial for exposure, despite Fine Art America’s slightly higher 3.64 million visits.

Other platforms like Fine Art America offer flexibility in pricing but have higher competition, and Society6 has lower traffic and mixed quality reviews. Etsy, while having massive exposure, requires more effort in managing printing, which may not suit photographers prioritizing ease. Thus, SmugMug balances all criteria effectively, making it the best platform for selling photo prints in 2025.