Last year I wrote an article about Pro Photo changing to a hosted platform, similar to ShowIt or SquareSpace. It still uses WordPress but they now offer their own hosting. At the time, I was lukewarm about this change. Now that I have experienced it hands on with several clients, I absolutely whole-heartedly recommend the change.

Beginning in January 2022, Pro Photo discontinued selling the stand-alone version of it’s theme, that many of us have used for years. This means if you’re new to Pro Photo, there is no option. However, from what I see most photographers reading this are the ones who are already committed and a bit torn about making a change with their websites.

If you have Pro Photo 7 already (the latest version), you don’t have to change right away, but I have been advising my clients to plan to do so within the next year if they want to stay with Pro Photo.

Why should you change to their hosting?

• Support for Pro Photo 7 will end in December 2022.
• The developers at Pro Photo are actively working on improvements to their theme, but these updates are only available to customers that are hosting with them. There are no longer any updates if you have Pro Photo and host on GoDaddy, Bluehost, ect.
• Most importantly, they are offering a premium all in one solution for your website with super fast hosting, incredible support and a long trusted theme.
• The Pro Photo support team will handle the entire migration of your website.
• If you have the older Pro Photo 6, there is no upgrade fee, just the hosting cost.

The only negative is that it may be priced higher than what you are use to, but it is reasonable for good quality hosting and right inline with ShowIt or a higher level plan with SquareSpace. It’s $25 per month for the first year, and then goes up to $39.

Three clients I’ve sent recently had specific issues going on with their sites, and all were able to be resolved by changing to Pro Photo’s new hosting.

Client 1: Pro Photo 6 with a custom design, had to be tweaked to work on latest version

Pro Photo 6 is past support and doesn’t work with the latest versions of PHP (php is a software your web hosts uses and you want the latest for security reasons). We moved this client’s site and upgraded it to the latest version of Pro Photo. It was working right away but the design needed a bit of tweaking. I expected to have to do this for the client, but their support got it looking back to how we originally designed it for us!

Client 2: PP7 experiencing technical issues with DNS / hosting and possible malware before switch

We spent many hours troubleshooting and working with the old host to determine what was wrong with this client’s website. After not being able to get quality support, I suggested she transfer the site to PP. They were able to migrate it, get it cleaned up and working again within a few days.

Client 3: Pro Photo 7, previous hosting was slow, masonry grid galleries loading very poorly

Pro Photo understands that you are photographers and that your website will be filled with lots of images, often displayed large. This website was loading extremely slowly and the masonry portfolio galleries were taking an even longer time to display. I knew the migration would improve this but I was amazed at by how much. The site now loads super quickly.

In summary, if you are on Pro Photo 6, I recommend signing up right away for Pro Photo hosting to get your site up to current. If you are on version 7, you have some time, but the sooner the better for making the switch.

(This post is not an affiliate or any way paid, just an honest review.)

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