Pixpa Review

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Pros

• Good photography portfolio tool
• Excellent blogging
• Excellent photo eCommerce integration
• Excellent photo galleries
• Free 15-day trial

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• No image editor
• No free plan
• Limited features
• No undo/redo buttons

Overview

Pixpa is a simple, clean, mobile responsive website builder with a unique focus: the building of portfolio websites for photographers and artists. Beyond portfolios, Pixpa is also known for image management, blogging, and advanced style editing features. Founded in 2013 by CEO Gurpreet Singh in New Delhi, Pixpa initially comes across as a nifty, modern website builder. Read my Pixpa review to find out if Pixpa’s innards are as compelling as its fresh exterior.

Pricing

When you sign up with Pixpa, you’ll get to use the product for free for 15 days. After that, you’ll have to choose from one of Pixpa’s three subscription plans, all of which are ad-free (as is the trial). The details are thus:

Lite

• $6/month (annual plan)
• $8/month (monthly plan)
• 200 images/videos
• 10 galleries
• 10 pages/blogs
• Unlimited blog posts
• Custom domain
• SEO & social sharing
• Mobile optimized
• SSL security
• Integrated Google Maps, Youtube, Vimeo and many more apps
• Free setup & 24/7 support
• Fully integrated eCommerce
• Commission-free sales
• Sell 5 products
• Digital products
• Manage shipping rates & taxes

Starter

• $9/month (annual plan)
• $12/month (monthly plan)
• Unlimited images/videos
• Sell 15 products
• Client proofing
• Private or public collections
• Client access area
• Password collection
• Activity data
• Digital downloads
• 1GB Cloud Storage

Pro

• $16/month (annual plan)
• $20/month (monthly plan)
• All of the Above PLUS:
• Sell 50 products
• Discount coupons
• Inventory management
• Take back-orders
• 10GB Cloud Storage

Plus

• $24/month (annual plan)
• $30/month (monthly plan)
• Sell 500 products
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Unlimited galleries, pages & blogs
• 25GB Cloud Storage

All plans include:

• Connect custom domain
• Fully-hosted
• Mobile website
• Ecommerce with Fotomoto
• Google Analytics
• Integrated blogging
• Connect with social networks
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Full access to all themes
• Search engine friendly
• 24 X 7 support

If you’re a student, Pixpa offers a 33% discount on all plans. Just email them a copy of your current student ID.

Payment is accepted via credit card only (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, Discover).

Web-hosted or Licensed

Pixpa is web-hosted.

Hardware/Software Requirements

All you’ll need is an updated browser.

Business Types Supported

In reviewing Pixpa’s 30 available templates, it’s apparent that the company is, indeed, catering to those with photography portfolios, as there are a number of attractive options along those lines. The fields of fashion, restaurants and travel will also be well-served by Pixpa’s template selection.

Ease of Use

At first glance, Pixpa’s editor seems to be on par with most modern website builders in terms of how it operates. However, I found it to be more frustrating to use than most. Adding content to your page entails first clicking on the page in question along the left of the screen, at which point a drop-down menu of “Content Blocks” pops up along the right of the screen (rather than simply dragging and dropping individual elements along the side of the screen). These blocks are arrangements of individual elements that you can stack on your page. Unfortunately, you can’t just place individual elements on your page, and the way Pixpa displays its available Content Blocks doesn’t make it easy for you to find the element you’re looking for. Simply put, it’s not the most intuitive editing system.

That being said, Pixpa gives you a plethora of style editing options (and the ability to save your custom styles), and when creating photo galleries (Pixpa’s specialty), you’ll find 17 different layouts to choose from when arranging your photos. It shouldn’t be too hard for you to create a professional-looking photography portfolio site.

Sadly, Pixpa doesn’t give you any undo/redo buttons to revert your edits, and its Preview function won’t let you preview the mobile look of your website. Pixpa loses a few ease-of-use points here.

Features

Pixpa, unsurprisingly, is not loaded with features. It is a basic website builder focused on pretty image galleries. Nonetheless, you’ll still find the basics:

• eCommerce: While Pixpa doesn’t have full in-house eCommerce, it is integrated with Fotomoto, a service that allows you to sell your images as prints or downloads. If you have a Fotomoto account, you can link it to your Pixpa site and start making money (one hopes) off your photos. It’s definitely a niche form of eCommerce, as you’ll only be able to sell your photos, but seeing as Fotomoto subscriptions start at the free level, it’s a nice way to monetize your images without setting up an expensive online store.
• Blog: Pixpa includes a solid blogging tool in its arsenal. Choose from three image-emphasizing layouts, include photos/video in your posts, allow for user comments via Disqus, schedule your posts to be published in advance, and even specify SEO settings for individual blog posts.
• Contact Form: Though it may take you a bit of time to figure out how to create one, Pixpa’s contact form is actually nicely customizable. Create as many fields as you wish, customize the response box – do whatever you want. A good form builder goes a long way, and Pixpa’s form builder makes the grade.

Other Pixpa features include customizable guestbooks and calendars, password-protected pages, the ability to add external scripts, and social media links/icons for all of the following:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Youtube
• WhatsApp
• LinkedIn
• Vimeo
• Tumblr
• GitHub
• Pinterest
• Gplus
• Dribbble
• Reddit
• Snapchat
• Flickr
• And many more

One thing I would have liked to have seen, considering Pixpa’s focus, was an image editor of some kind. However, there is none to be found.

Web Design and Editing

• Templates: Pixpa’s template selection is one of its selling points. They are clear, simple, and designed to highlight photos. Beyond the photo portfolio templates, Pixpa offers up simple-but-attractive templates for creative-class industries.
• Mobile Editor: Pixpa doesn’t have a mobile editing app or any way to use the editor from a mobile device. Sorry!

Integrations and AddOns

Pixpa integrates with Fotomoto for image sales, Google Analytics for SEO, and Disqus for comments. That’s about it.

Customer Support

Pixpa’s customer support is top-tier. Along with a very thorough knowledge base. Pixpa provides email support and live chat, with rapid and helpful responses. It’s indicative of a company with enough resources to devote to the end user’s experience. The only thing lacking here is a user forum.

Negative Reviews and Complaints

Reviewers have had a few nits to pick with Pixpa, including the following:

• Users can’t tweak the code
• Relatively expensive
• Editor isn’t drag-and-drop/WYSIWYG

Positive Reviews and Testimonials

Pixpa has been largely well-received by reviewers, earning plaudits for the following:

• Great customer service
• Good visual aesthetics
• Can create private galleries for clients

The customer feedback I’ve found has been mostly positive as well, with users praising Pixpa’s simplicity and its top-notch customer service.

Final Verdict

In a world of website builders that aim for the broadest possible appeal, Pixpa offers up something different from its larger competitors with its laser-focus on creating a portfolio tool for artists and designers. While the end result may be something that’s a little too narrowcasted for certain uses, and while the editor is less than a joy to work with (I prefer a good drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor myself), the product does what it sets out to do with flexibility and style. Those of you in the visual arts would do well to consider Pixpa as a medium to showcase your work.

Four stars.