The bill is not the sticker price
Pixieset's Client Gallery plans run from a free tier capped at 3GB up to roughly $40 per month, with the paid ladder starting around $10 per month for 10GB as of July 2026. Check pixieset.com/pricing for the current numbers, because they move.
For an Indian photographer, three things get added on top of that number before the money leaves your account:
- The exchange rate, which you do not control and which quietly moves your monthly cost by a few percent a year.
- Your card's foreign transaction markup, commonly around 2% to 3.5% on international charges depending on the bank and card.
- The friction, which is not a fee but costs you anyway: international payments declined by Indian cards, no UPI option, and no GST invoice you can hand your accountant.
Markups and tax treatment vary by bank, card and how the charge is routed. Read one of your own statements rather than trusting a number in a blog post, including this one.
The seasonality problem, in Indian terms
Indian wedding work is not spread evenly across the year. The muhurtham calendar bunches it: a punishing run through the winter season, then months where you are editing, upgrading gear and waiting. A subscription does not know that. It bills the same in December and in June.
Run the year out. An entry Client Gallery plan at roughly $10 a month is about $120 a year, which lands somewhere near ₹11,000 before card markup at July 2026 rates. If you delivered twelve galleries, that is fine. If you delivered five, you paid full price for seven months of nothing, in a currency that was not yours.
And the free tier does not rescue you: 3GB is roughly one small shoot. A single wedding delivery clears it. It works as a trial, not as a working tier.
What pay-per-gallery costs instead
Lensdrop charges once per gallery, at creation, sized to the shoot. Prices are set in rupees for India, not converted from dollars: Small 5GB at ₹149, Standard 15GB at ₹399, Large 30GB at ₹799, XL 50GB at ₹1,299. Two free galleries at 15GB each come with the account, no card needed.
Payment runs through Razorpay, so UPI, Indian debit and credit cards and net banking all work, the charge is domestic, and there is no forex markup on it. A quiet month costs nothing, because there is no plan running when you are not delivering.
| Pixieset Client Gallery | Lensdrop | |
|---|---|---|
| Charged in | US dollars | Rupees, set for India, not converted |
| Payment methods | International card | UPI, Indian cards, net banking via Razorpay |
| Pricing model | Monthly subscription, about $10 to $40 as of July 2026 | One time per gallery: ₹149 to ₹1,299 by storage size |
| Free tier | 3GB storage | 2 galleries, 15GB each |
| Cost of a quiet month | Full subscription price | Zero. No gallery, no charge |
| Print store | Built in, 15% commission on the free plan | None. Delivery only, and it never touches client money |
Ten Standard deliveries in a year comes to ₹3,990 total. That is roughly a third of an entry subscription, and you only spent it on months you actually worked.
When Pixieset is still the better call
This should be an easy comparison to trust, so here is the other side. Pixieset is a suite: client galleries, a website builder, a studio manager with contracts and invoicing, and an integrated print store. If you sell prints and albums through your galleries, that store earns its subscription back. If you deliver thirty or forty galleries a year, an unlimited-storage plan gets cheap per gallery and beats paying per delivery.
Lensdrop does none of that on purpose. It is a delivery tool. Upload a shoot, share one PIN-protected link, the client views watermarked previews or downloads clean originals, and that is the entire product. If delivery is the only part of a suite you were using, you were renting the other 80%.
Switching without breaking anything
- Start with the two free galleries. Deliver a real shoot on them before you change a single thing about your workflow.
- Keep Pixieset running through the current delivery windows. There is no migration and no rush.
- Send the next gallery on Lensdrop and watch how the client reacts to a PIN link with no signup. That is the part clients notice.
- Cancel the subscription when the last old gallery closes, not before.
Full tier list in rupees, plus the UPI details, on the India page. For the wider India picture, including Pixpa, Kamero and TurtlePic, read client gallery software in India. For the global version of this comparison, see the Pixieset alternative post.