Sprout Studio

Pros

A LIFE SAVER. This software is everything a photographer could ask for. Invoicing, galleries, contracts, questionnaire and much more all in one place. It makes it easy to stream line everything and looks way more professional for the clients.

Cons

Some designing errors are still appearing there and there in the page script, but nothing that would make me change my mind about how amazing this software is!

Pros

I cannot say enough about the customer service with Sprout! When I signed up, I received a handwritten thank you note from the CEO. The software definitely has a learning curve, but the Sprout School videos lay everything out so clearly, and every time I've reached out with questions, someone from Sprout has promptly responded. If I call customer support instead of sending a message, a live representative answers the phone by the third ring. The software is beautifully designed with a lovely client portal. If you take the time to go through the Sprout School videos (which I highly recommend), you'll find the software is much easier to navigate than it seems at first brush. Sprout Studio is constantly growing and evolving. Just last month, they vastly improved the features available for customizing client galleries. I actually prefer it to PixieSet for gallery delivery. I love that this program was specifically developed with photographers in mind and that it is a small business run by real, kind, supportive people. I can't recommend it enough!

Cons

I'm hoping to one day see Sprout Studio add an automatic payments feature, so my clients don't have to make each payment manually. Other than that, I have nothing but good things to say!

Pros

They guide you through all of the setup. They've thought about almost every situation a Photographer has in managing a studio, and have tried to offer a time-saving solution. Not only that, they offer training for how to improve your Photography business. They also give you analytics that gives you statistics that can help your business grow. That combined with customer service that rocks, and you have a superb company and software.

Cons

It's a powerful piece of software, and takes some time to get to know. But once you do, it's awesome! I wouldn't use anything else to run my Photography Business.

Pros

This software eliminates the learning curve a non-salesperson would normally have with a typical CRM. Opportunities are called Shoots, for instance. Also, the gallery feature and workflows are spot-on, and the online contracts are a game-changer. All in all, there's some great functionality to be had.

Cons

Don't plan on communicating with your clients. I cannot fathom how a CRM solution would have no communication capability outside of an automated response. It's not possible to export contact records based on shoot type or date. It's not possible to send mass emails in any way. It's not possible to automate messages based on shoot type or date. It's not even possible to filter a list of contacts by shoot type. If you want to put your data into a system but not be able to get it back out in a useful manner, Sprout's the way to go.

Pros

Migration. -I can't stress how easy it was to integrate orders and contracts that were made in my previous CRM and online. This was something I had struggled with when signing up to my previous one.

Interface - Really well-thought out, easy to use and intuitive. I love how quick it is too.

Galleries and shop - Are truly beautiful, my setting up Sprout and having a shoot ready to present to a client was a happy coincidence. After creating a couple of test galleries, I got the nack of it pretty quickly and the client side is simple and easy to use. Payment integrations are great too and I love being able to give the client the choice to still pay in person by cheque or cash too (and the option to create my own methods!)

Customer support - This is always important to me as there's nothing worse than running into issues and having no help when you need it. Sprout's customer service is great. I had the pleasure of dealing with rep. He was really keen to help and his responses were lightning fast, no more than 5-10 minutes apart.

Cons

As someone who will be using the lower packages at least for another year or so, it could do with just a few more features of the premium-featured plans. I get the reasons for doing it and it's great for growing businesses that are working their way up to needing that package but some of the reports (even just income and profit) would be helpful and are almost necessary for all businesses and doesn't take much away from your existing offering. The same can be said for album proofing, it would be good to at least have maybe even one album proofing allowed at any one time?