Siftr Review 2018

Item: Siftr
Rating: 9.5
Author: Jonathan Kerns

Are you looking for a website builder with specific features to help you showcase your photos and share them to the world? If so, then you would want to look into Siftr, a photography website builder with simple controls and layout, plus a host of intelligent features. It picks the best photos from your collection so you can choose which ones to highlight, has a built-in analytics engine that analyzes your visitor traffic, and a completely customizable interface so you can inject your own vision and style into your website.

What else does Siftr offer, and how much would it cost you to sign-up for their service? Keep on reading to find out the answers!

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Jonathan KernsMay 14, 2019

Pros

Ultra-affordable plans: Unlike other website builders that can make you feel robbed with their exorbitant rates, Siftr offers more competitive plan prices that are quite appealing even for newcomers and amateurs alike. You won't even reach $20 a month for their most comprehensive plan, and it already offers the complete set of the most powerful features of the service. If you are on a tight budget, then Siftr should definitely be among your final choices.
Your personal touch: Siftr lets you customize the interface and layout of your website so you can bring your own style into the mix. Aside from numerous templates that you can choose from, you can also tweak each pre-arranged layout to better fit your vision and preferences. Moreover, you don't have to be a highly knowledgeable and skilled techie to do the customizations by yourself as the menus and options are simplified so nearly everything can be done in just a few clicks.
Automatic uploads & updates: Don't you hate it when you have to manually upload new photos to your website storage and social media accounts, because you would be spending a couple of minutes waiting for the upload to finish? Or worse, if you forget to do the task altogether, you can get delayed even further when you accumulate a lot of photos in your camera without uploading them. Siftr does the uploading and updating of files and photos on its own, so all that is left for you to do share them to the public.
Get to know your visitors: The power of analytics isn't just for IT personnel anymore as more and more website owners are using this easy-to-absorb service to obtain and understand information about their website traffic, visitor count, peak hours, and other substantial information. Siftr integrates this into their website builder so you can get to know your traffic data better without having the need to purchase another software dedicated to this task.

Cons

Limited help page: Possibly the only gripe that you will have with Siftr is that their FAQ section is limited to several questions and answers. While they do include some of the important topics, it would have been more informative for customers if they included more details in this page, like how-to instructions and getting started procedures. Nevertheless, this is just a very minor quibble on their part and is actually negligible if you already know your way around building and designing photography websites.

Pricing and Features

Siftr has three different plans to choose from, each with an increasing number of features to better fit your needs. First up, their Free plan gives you the basics of their service without you incurring any cost. It allows you to connect to different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and 500px, and provides advanced photo search, basic smart collections (landscapes, portraits, and food) with up to 5 custom collections, website layout customization, website updates every fortnight, and creation and sharing of stories.

Should you feel the need to upgrade, the All You Need plan is your first go-to for a more affordable cost with added functions. Aside from the previous features, it also has photo back-up, advanced smart collections like black and white, dark, background, and macros, unlimited allocation for smart collections, connecting a custom domain, SEO integration, and an ad-free experience on the website. This one has a minimal cost of $6.99 per month.

Last but not the least, the Power-Packed Pro costs $11.99 a month and unlocks all of the available features offered by Siftr: pro smart collections like minimalist, silhouette, bokeh, and HDR, real-time updates, and analytics about your gear, complete with all the previously mentioned features and options.

You don’t have to be burdened with all the work when building your website — creating one is quite easy thanks to their unique approach. Siftr automatically picks the best photos from your tied photo and cloud storage accounts and places them into organized and identifying genres. More than that, it also builds your site from your photos and updates them as well without you having to lift a single finger.

From there, you can pick which ones work for you while managing your galleries. You can also include contact pages complete with your set of pricing for photography services so visitors can know how much they will be shouldering should they opt to hire you as their official photographer. Your website is completely mobile-friendly as well so you can widen your reach and extend your talent and services to smartphone and tablet users. Even better, being mobile-friendly means that your site will maintain the original design, layout and functionality of your desktop site, allowing for a seamless browsing experience.

Customer Support

Siftr has a FAQ page containing need-to-know topics on their service, although this is rather limited since it only houses several discussions. For more assistance, you may reach their support team via email, and although they do not publish their average response time, you can fully expect them to be able to reply to your message at the soonest possible time. You can also check out their blog for tips and tricks on how to make your website standout. Sadly, they do not provide any phone or live chat options for those who may want to talk to a support agent in real-time.

Siftr Analytics

The work of having a website does not end when you have published every single content for public view. All your efforts of building a website and putting up samples of your craft on cyberspace are for naught if you fail to maximize the exposure of your photography site. Without having a clear grasp of how to improve your website traffic, you could risk losing potential clients.

To help you gather and understand your website’s traffic data, Siftr offers its own built-in analytics engine complete with a simple interface that even less tech-savvy users will understand. You will also be able to harvest a variety of data information regarding your website, like daily, weekly, and monthly visitors, visitor trend, locations, and referrers (website and social media sources from which your traffic was directed from). This feature is included in all of their paid plans, so you don’t have to allocate another portion of your budget just for this data.

What's the Verdict on Siftr?

A Must Try

Siftr Review 2020 – Conclusion

With a pocket-friendly price tag coupled with a whole boatload of features, Siftr stands as one of the most reliable photography website builders in the market. They offer powerful analytics to help customers track and understand visitor traffic, plus a website editor that searches for your best photos across multiple accounts and automatically updates your website. It may contain a lackluster help section and some support options, but if you have very little budget to spare or if you want a very easy-to-use photography website builder, then Siftr is surely one of your best bets to finally showcase your photography talent in the digital world.