Finding the right photo app for your wedding

On their home pages the offers look almost identical: QR code, gallery, unlimited guests, "from €29". The differences are not there. They are in the details you notice once the party is over. These seven questions separate them more reliably than any feature list.

1. How long does the gallery stay open?

The most common place offers diverge. Some run thirty days, some three months, some twelve. The price difference between them is often smaller than the runtime difference.

Two follow-ups are worth asking: when does the clock start, at purchase or at the event? And what does an extension cost if the pictures should stay up longer?

2. What happens to the pictures afterwards?

The more important half of the same question. A good offer sends you an archive before the runtime ends, or keeps a download ready. A poor one switches off and assumes you remembered in time.

Ask directly: do I get everything in one file at the end, and how long do I have to fetch it?

3. Do I get the originals or resized copies?

This is where the largest quality differences hide. Some services only keep a display-optimised version, perfectly fine on a screen, not enough for a 30 × 40 print.

The question that settles it: is the download the file the phone recorded, or one generated from it?

4. Do guests have to sign up?

Every sign-up costs guests. Not many, but precisely the ones who were hesitating anyway, and those are often the older ones, who produce the more unusual pictures.

Watch whether "no app" also means "no account". Those are two different promises, and some providers only make the first.

5. Where does the data sit?

For a private party this is a matter of taste; for a company event it is a hard requirement. Servers in the EU save the entire discussion about international transfers. Ask where the servers are, not where the company is registered. These are not the same thing.

6. What happens when thirty people upload at once?

The moment after the cake is the load test. Things that make it stall: a cap on how many pictures you may select at once, and a size limit that excludes phone video.

Ask concretely: how many files at a time? How large may a video be? A modern two-minute phone video easily reaches 300 MB.

7. What does it actually cost?

The starting price is rarely the final price. The usual extras: more storage, longer runtime, removing the provider's logo, several galleries for one party, full-resolution download.

Work out once what your real case costs, with the runtime you want and the download you will definitely need. That number is comparable; the starting price is not.

Where we stand on this

Our answers to the seven: twelve months of runtime, an archive before it ends, untouched originals, no guest accounts, servers in the EU, no cap on how many files a guest may pick, and one price with no surcharge for downloads or runtime.

That does not make us the right choice for everyone. If you need one weekend and nothing else, a cheaper short-runtime service serves you better. If you want face recognition ("show me all pictures of me"), you will not find it here. We decided against it deliberately.

Our pricing fits on one page. And here is a real gallery to click through before you decide.