Framekit vs PicDrop 2026: Choosing or Handing Over

An art director opens 640 frames from yesterday's campaign shoot on a laptop between meetings. She marks keepers in green, scribbles "crop tighter" across one frame, tags the retoucher with an @mention and closes the tab.

That is the moment PicDrop was built for, and it does it better than almost anything else on the market.

Three weeks later the retouched set of 38 images goes to the brand, the CEO forwards it to the board, and someone asks for the behind-the-scenes film as well.

That is a different moment, with a different audience, and it is the one Framekit was built for: a branded delivery on your own website, with the film in the same link and the review round for that film already done on the same account.

A proofing tool is software for narrowing a large take down to a selection, usually between professionals who comment, mark and vote on frames, while a client gallery is software for presenting finished work to the person who paid for it, with favourites, downloads and access controls.

Framekit is an AI website builder with client galleries, video review, Slides and a digital-download store in one account, so this Framekit vs PicDrop comparison sets a selects-first platform that has added delivery against a delivery-first platform that lives inside your website.

Full disclosure: Framekit is our product, and this page recommends keeping PicDrop for the job it does best. We re-verified every PicDrop plan, price, storage figure and video allowance on 12 October 2026 against PicDrop's own pricing page and its August 2026 plan update, and every Framekit figure against the plan table on framekit.ai. The September 2026 version of this page called PicDrop deliberately unbranded; its current Pro plan includes your own branding and a presentation mode for delivery, so that framing is gone.

How We Put This Framekit vs PicDrop Comparison Together

Everything here comes from what PicDrop and Framekit publish about their own products in October 2026, plus arithmetic on those published figures, so every claim traces to a vendor page and every cost can be rerun with your own job sizes.

Read at the source. PicDrop's pricing page and full feature comparison, which list storage, galleries, team members, video conversion hours, inboxes, Live Push connections and the features included on every plan, and PicDrop's August 2026 article explaining its new plan lineup.

PicDrop's prices are net of VAT; we quote the US dollar figures its page shows and give the euro figures where they help.

For Framekit, the plan comparison at framekit.ai/pricing and the gallery, review and store settings in the shipped product.

Calculated. Storage for three kinds of work, using 10MB per delivered JPEG, 6GB for a 600-frame JPEG selects take, and a 10 megabit per second export for films.

Megabits per second times seconds, divided by eight, gives megabytes. Annual prices use each vendor's yearly billing unless a row says monthly.

Not tested. We did not run a selects round on either platform, time uploads, test PicDrop's Live Push camera connection or measure how either gallery feels on a client's phone.

Neither tool is described here in terms of speed, and where PicDrop's page lists a feature without saying which plan includes it, we say so.

Framekit vs PicDrop at a Glance

Both platforms host private galleries with branding, ZIP downloads and watermark protection, so this table concentrates on the rows that actually separate them: file formats, proofing depth, video handling, the website and what the cheapest useful plan costs.

In one linePicDrop is the deeper workspace for choosing and the more flexible home for working files, Framekit is the broader account for handing finished work over, and the formats row and the website row settle most cases.

Seven Numbers That Decide Framekit vs PicDrop

These seven figures, each read from PicDrop's or Framekit's own pages in October 2026 or calculated from them, settle most Framekit vs PicDrop decisions, and each one points at a specific kind of photographer rather than an overall winner.

• 500GB for $15.99. PicDrop Pro's storage at its yearly rate. Framekit Pro holds 300GB for $15, so on raw storage per dollar PicDrop is ahead.
• 1GB and 3 galleries. PicDrop's free plan. Framekit's free plan holds 10GB with no gallery cap, shared with your website and review files.
• $7 a month. Framekit Starter on yearly billing, with 50GB and your own domain. PicDrop has no paid plan below Pro since Lite was retired for new customers on 12 May 2026.
• 1 hour a month. The video conversion included on PicDrop Pro; Advanced includes 2 hours and Business 4, with add-ons sold in 1-hour steps. Framekit has no monthly conversion meter.
• 2 hours. The longest single film a Framekit gallery or review accepts, on any plan, with per-file caps of 500MB, 1GB, 2GB and 3GB.
• 250GB. The step size for PicDrop storage add-ons. Framekit has no storage add-on; you move up a plan.
• $0 extra. What Framekit charges for galleries on top of the plan that runs your portfolio site, review links, decks and store.

Where PicDrop Wins

PicDrop wins every comparison that turns on the selects round or on working files, because it accepts RAW and nearly every format, gives professionals marking tools Framekit does not have, lets clients upload, and holds more storage per dollar on its Pro plan.

Proofing tools built for professionals. Comments, colour markers and custom colour markers, votes and likes, scribbles drawn on the image and @mentions inside comments are all in PicDrop's feature table.

An art director can mark a frame red, scribble a crop and tag the retoucher without learning anything.

Framekit's proofing is built for clients: hearts, named lists, notes and a Send to photographer button, with no colour markers, scribbles on photos or @mentions.

Working files, not just finished ones. PicDrop says every plan supports almost every image and video format, naming RAW, TIFF, JPG, GIF and PNG.

Framekit galleries accept JPEG, PNG, WebP and GIF photos and refuse RAW, DNG, TIFF, PSD and HEIC at upload. If the client contracted for camera originals or layered files, PicDrop can carry them and Framekit cannot.

Files flow in both directions. Client uploads are listed on every PicDrop plan, and Live Push sends images straight from the camera into a gallery during the shoot, with 1 connection on Pro, 5 on Advanced and unlimited on Business.

Selections export to Lightroom or Capture One. Framekit galleries are one-way: clients cannot upload, there is no camera connection and no Lightroom or Capture One plugin.

Search and structure for a busy studio. PicDrop's comparison table lists metadata search, content search, inboxes, collections, custom email texts, an archive of all your jobs and, from 2026, folder structures and custom sorting.

Advanced adds team members, 2 included and up to 4, and Business up to 9 with custom permissions. Framekit's team members are site admins on Pro and Business, and it has no cross-gallery search.

Storage per dollar. PicDrop Pro is 500GB for $15.99 a month billed yearly, against 300GB for $15 on Framekit Pro, and PicDrop sells extra storage in 250GB steps.

PicDrop's data is hosted in Germany, it says it is GDPR compliant, and it states that your data is not used for AI training.

The number that matters640 frames, marked without an account or a tutorial. That is the job, and nothing in Framekit is designed to make a professional's selects round faster than PicDrop's.

The gotchathe free plan is a trial-sized plan, at 1GB and 3 galleries, and since 12 May 2026 the cheapest paid plan is Pro at $15.99 a month billed yearly, with Lite retired.

Video playback is unlimited but conversion is metered, at 1 hour a month on Pro, so a busy wedding month can run past it. And there is no portfolio website or store on the same account.

Skip it ifyour clients are consumers rather than art directors, you deliver films more than you run selects rounds, or you want your galleries to live on the same domain as your portfolio.

Verdict: PicDrop is the right home for the selects round and for any job where RAW, TIFF or client uploads are part of the brief. Photographers comparing it with other proofing tools can see the wider field in the best PicDrop alternatives and PicDrop vs Pixieset.

Where Framekit Wins

Framekit wins at the handover, because its galleries put every delivery feature on every plan, hold films up to 2 hours without a monthly conversion meter, and live as pages of your own website on the same account as video review, Slides and a digital store.

A delivery built for the people who paid. Watermarks, a gallery password, a separate download PIN, favourites, slideshows, full-resolution downloads, ZIP downloads of everything or favourites only, email registration, auto expiry and sending the gallery by email from Framekit are on every plan, free included.

Paid plans add your own domain and your own uploaded fonts, while the small Made with Framekit footer stays on galleries at every tier.

Favourites that come back as a decision. A client hearts frames into lists they name themselves, such as "Annual report" or "Website hero", adds a note to any photo and presses Send to photographer, which notifies you in Framekit and by email.

The Activity panel logs favourite and download activity by email address, with the scope of each download, the resolution, the PIN used and the date, and exports both logs to CSV.

Films in the same link, with no conversion clock. Videos sit in the gallery beside the stills, are transcoded so they play smoothly in a browser, and are never watermarked.

Framekit counts video in bytes from one pool shared with your site and reviews: 3GB of the free plan's 10GB, 15GB of 50GB on Starter, 150GB of 300GB on Pro and 750GB of 2TB on Business.

There is no monthly limit on how many hours you convert.

Your website is the gallery's home. Every gallery publishes at /client/ followed by its name on one of your Framekit sites, so the brand contact the CEO forwards it to lands on your domain, the same address as your portfolio and about page, though the gallery page does not link to them.

PicDrop has presentation mode and your own branding on Pro, but no website.

The number that matters$84 a year. Framekit Starter at $7 a month billed yearly carries unlimited galleries, 50GB, your own domain and the full website. PicDrop's cheapest paid plan is $191.88 a year.

The detail most comparisons missdownloads always deliver clean originals. The watermark protects what a viewer sees in the gallery, not the file they download, so a forwarded gallery is protected by the download PIN rather than by a watermarked deliverable.

The gotchaFramekit is no place for working files or a professional selects round.

RAW, TIFF and PSD are refused, there are no colour markers, scribbles on photos or client uploads, the per-file video cap is 2GB on Pro, and there is no mobile app, no print store and no unlimited storage tier.

Skip it ifyour galleries are mostly selects rounds with art directors, your clients need camera originals, or you want 500GB of storage for the least money.

Verdict: Framekit is the better fit for the last step of a job, especially one with a film, when you would rather pay one plan for the website, the review round and the delivery than three.

Limits, Formats and Plan Gates in One Table

This table collects the published limits that decide whether a job fits, from storage and file formats to team seats, video handling and access controls, with every PicDrop figure read from its pricing page in October 2026.

Two rows deserve a closer look. PicDrop's video line is about processing time, not storage: playback is unlimited, but each plan converts a set number of hours of footage a month, with more sold in 1-hour steps.

And the team row is not like for like: PicDrop's seats are collaborators in galleries, while Framekit's team members are site admins and only the account holder creates galleries and uploads reviews.

What Happens When: Mechanics the Feature Lists Skip

The situations that cost a photographer time rarely appear in a feature table, so this section covers seven that come up on commercial and wedding jobs and says what each platform documents, without guessing past it.

The art director wants the RAW files. On PicDrop you upload them to a gallery and she downloads them, because PicDrop accepts RAW on every plan.

On Framekit the upload is refused, so camera originals go through cloud storage or PicDrop while the finished JPEGs go into the Framekit gallery.

The client wants to send you their own images. PicDrop lists client uploads on every plan, which suits a brand sending reference shots or a couple sending a family list.

Framekit galleries are delivery-only, so you collect incoming files by another route; the roundup of client galleries with client uploads covers the options.

Four wedding films land in one month. On PicDrop Pro, four 25-minute films are 100 minutes of footage against 1 hour of included conversion that month, so you buy conversion in 1-hour steps or wait for the next month.

On Framekit, each film uploads as long as it fits the per-file cap, 2GB on Pro, and runs under 2 hours; a 25-minute film at 10 Mbps is about 1.9GB.

The gallery should come down after 60 days. Framekit unpublishes the gallery on the date you set and returns it to draft with every file intact, shows visitors a message to contact the photographer, and can email you and the gallery's linked contacts three days before.

PicDrop added automatic gallery expiration in 2025, so both can create a selection window.

The client asks who downloaded the final set. Framekit's Activity panel lists every download by email, scope, resolution and PIN, with a date and a CSV export.

PicDrop sends real-time notifications about what clients are doing; check its activity history in the plan you choose before you rely on it for a dispute.

You stop paying. PicDrop's FAQ says you can cancel before the current billing period ends and that the 14-day trial does not charge you automatically; after the trial you can stay on the 1GB free plan.

Framekit's free plan has no time limit, so a downgraded account keeps up to 10GB of galleries and site on a framekit.ai address.

A second photographer needs access. PicDrop Advanced includes 2 team members and allows up to 4, with custom permissions on Business.

Framekit Pro includes 3 team members, but they are site admins rather than gallery collaborators, which suits a studio manager editing the site more than a second shooter running selects.

A Year of Costs at Three Kinds of Work

The cheapest option depends on whether your galleries are selects rounds, finished deliveries or both, so these three worked examples price a full year on each platform's yearly billing, with the arithmetic shown.

Assumptions: 10MB per delivered JPEG, 6GB per 600-frame JPEG selects upload, films at 10 Mbps, prices before VAT.

PicDrop Pro is $191.88 a year and Advanced $569.88; Framekit Starter is $84, Pro $180 and Business $372, and Framekit's figures include the website, video review, Slides and store.

The second row is where PicDrop is plainly the better buy, and it is fair to say so.

A commercial studio running selects rounds at that volume gets 500GB for $191.88, and if any of those selects are RAW files, Framekit cannot store them at any price.

Framekit only competes there if selects come down after the round and the finals are what stays online.

The first and third rows tilt the other way. A portrait photographer needs nothing from PicDrop's professional tools and pays $191.88 for storage they will not fill, against $0 or $84 for a Framekit plan that also runs their website.

A hybrid wedding studio pays almost the same subscription on either, but on PicDrop a busy month of films runs past Pro's 1 hour of conversion, and on Framekit the review round and the website are included.

Run it on your own numbers. Count last year's jobs and split them into selects rounds and final deliveries.

Multiply each by its frame count and average file size, add each film's seconds times your bitrate divided by eight, and note which jobs needed RAW or client uploads. If most of your storage is selects or working files, price PicDrop first.

If most is finished photos and films for clients, and you pay separately for a website, price Framekit first.

The Two-Stage Workflow Many Studios Already Run

A large share of commercial photographers end up using PicDrop and Framekit together, because a job has two audiences with different needs: professionals choosing from a large take, and a client receiving and forwarding the finished work.

The split looks like this. During or after the shoot, the take goes into a PicDrop gallery, over Live Push if you shoot connected.

The art director and the retoucher mark, scribble and vote, and the selection exports to Lightroom or Capture One.

The retouched finals, and any film, go into a Framekit gallery on your own domain, with a password if the work is confidential and a separate download PIN so the brand controls who takes files.

If there is a film, its review round happens first in Framekit's review room, and the approved cut joins the stills in the gallery.

What that costs depends on volume. A photographer whose selects fit PicDrop's free plan, at 1GB and 3 galleries, can pair it with Framekit Starter for $84 a year.

A studio running selects every week needs PicDrop Pro at $191.88, and Framekit Pro at $180 brings the pair to about $372 a year for selects, delivery, film review, a website, decks and a store.

If that pair replaces a separate website builder and a separate gallery platform, it often costs less than the stack it replaces.

The guide to delivering photos and video from one shoot walks through the delivery half step by step.

Video Review Before the Delivery

Video is where the two platforms differ most, because PicDrop treats footage as files to convert and play inside a proofing gallery, while Framekit adds a Frame.io-style review room for the cut and then delivers the approved film beside the stills.

On PicDrop, video playback is unlimited and each plan converts a set amount of footage a month: 1 hour on Pro, 2 on Advanced, 4 on Business, with add-ons in 1-hour steps, which keeps a long highlight film playable for proofing without a separate host.

PicDrop's pricing page does not list timecoded comments, frame drawing, version stacks or approval statuses for video.

On Framekit's video review, you upload the cut, send a link, and the client comments at the exact frame with a timecode chip, draws on the frame, replies and reacts, with no account.

Upload version 2 and version 1 stays in the stack with its notes; set the status to needs changes, in progress or approved; then deliver the final film in the gallery. Review pages carry your logo, banner, fonts and accent colours.

The limits are the same as galleries: 2 hours per video and a per-file cap of 500MB, 1GB, 2GB or 3GB by plan, with file attachments on comments from Pro.

Framekit's review room has limits worth knowing before a commercial job: no NLE panel for Premiere, Resolve or Final Cut, no side-by-side version compare, no image or PDF proofing, and only the account holder uploads cuts.

The Framekit vs Frame.io comparison covers where a dedicated review tool still wins.

The Website, Decks and Store Around the Gallery

The part of the job PicDrop does not touch is the public side of your business, and Framekit's strongest argument is that the portfolio site, proposal decks and a digital store sit on the same account as every gallery you deliver.

On Framekit, the site is the core product. The AI builder generates full sections from a description, writes copy and can recreate a layout from a reference screenshot, using templates built with AI and trained by senior designers.

Hosting, SSL and a global CDN are included on every plan, with a framekit.ai address on Free and your own domain from Starter.

A commercial photographer can put case studies on the site, send the treatment for the next pitch as a Slides deck, and deliver the finished campaign under /client/ on the same domain.

Slides makes pitch decks, treatments and lookbooks with shot lists, moodboards and storyboard panels, with unlimited decks on every plan and a monthly AI allowance for generation; you can edit any slide by hand without spending it.

The store sells digital products such as presets, LUTs or guides through a hosted checkout on framekit.ai with your name and logo, at a 5% fee on Free and Starter, 3% on Pro and 0% on Business, with Stripe processing on top and you as the merchant of record.

None of that replaces PicDrop's selects tools, and none of it exists on PicDrop.

Moving Client Delivery From PicDrop to Framekit

Moving client-facing delivery from PicDrop to Framekit works best as a forward switch that leaves PicDrop in place for selects, because neither platform imports the other's galleries and Framekit has no redirect manager for old links.

How to Choose Between Framekit and PicDrop

This decision path puts the questions in the order that removes options fastest, starting with who receives the gallery, because that single answer settles Framekit vs PicDrop for most photographers before storage or price come up.

1. Is the person opening the gallery a professional narrowing a large take? If yes, use PicDrop, and check whether its free plan's 1GB and 3 galleries cover your selects. If the recipient is a paying client receiving finished work, go to question 2.

2. Does the job include RAW, TIFF, PSD files or client uploads? If yes, PicDrop carries them and Framekit does not. If the deliverables are JPEGs, PNGs and films, go to question 3.

3. Do you deliver films and want a timecoded review round before delivery? If yes, Framekit Pro holds 150GB of video with review, versions and approvals on the same account. If not, go to question 4.

4. Do you pay separately for a portfolio website? If yes, Framekit replaces the site and the delivery at one price, from $84 a year on Starter. If not, go to question 5.

5. Do you run both selects rounds and final deliveries every month? If yes, run both: PicDrop for choosing, Framekit for handing over. If you only deliver to consumers, Framekit alone covers it; if you only run selects, PicDrop alone covers it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Framekit vs PicDrop: which should a photographer use in 2026?

Use PicDrop for professional selects rounds and working files, because it accepts RAW and nearly every format, has colour markers, scribbles, votes, @mentions and client uploads, and Pro holds 500GB for $15.99 a month billed yearly.

Use Framekit for delivering finished photos and films to clients, because every gallery feature is on every plan and the same account runs your website, video review, Slides and a store. Many commercial studios use both.

Is Framekit a PicDrop alternative?

Partly. Framekit replaces PicDrop for client-facing delivery of finished JPEGs, PNGs and films, with favourites, notes, download PINs and an Activity log, on a gallery that lives on your own website.

It does not replace PicDrop for professional selects or working files, because it has no colour markers, scribbles or client uploads and refuses RAW, TIFF and PSD at upload.

How much does PicDrop cost in 2026?

PicDrop's pricing page in October 2026 lists Free with 1GB and 3 galleries, Pro at $15.99 a month billed yearly or $18.99 monthly with 500GB, Advanced at $47.49 yearly or $56.99 monthly with 1TB, and Business at $117.99 yearly or $141.99 monthly with 3TB, all before VAT.

In euros, Pro is 14.99 a month billed yearly. Enterprise is priced on request.

What happened to PicDrop Lite?

PicDrop retired Lite and other older plans for new customers from 12 May 2026, making Pro the entry paid plan and adding Advanced between Pro and Business, according to its August 2026 plan update.

Existing Lite accounts move to Pro, and PicDrop says it will show each customer their next price in billing settings and by email before anything is charged.

Does PicDrop brand the delivery with my studio name?

Yes, on paid plans. PicDrop Pro includes your own branding and a presentation mode for delivery, alongside its collaboration mode for proofing. What it does not offer is a website, so a PicDrop gallery is not a page of your portfolio site.

Framekit galleries publish under /client/ on your own Framekit site, on your domain from the Starter plan.

Can I deliver RAW files through Framekit?

No. Framekit galleries accept JPEG, PNG, WebP and GIF photos and refuse RAW, DNG, TIFF, PSD and HEIC at upload, so camera originals travel through PicDrop, cloud storage or another delivery tool.

PicDrop accepts RAW and TIFF on every plan, which is one of the clearest reasons commercial photographers keep it.

Does PicDrop limit video?

PicDrop meters video conversion rather than playback: Pro includes 1 hour of conversion a month, Advanced 2 hours and Business 4, with add-ons in 1-hour steps and unlimited playback.

Framekit has no monthly conversion meter; it caps each video at 2 hours and 500MB, 1GB, 2GB or 3GB per file by plan, counted against a video share of 3GB to 750GB.

Which is cheaper, Framekit or PicDrop?

It depends on the work. For consumer deliveries, Framekit is cheaper: Free costs nothing and Starter is $84 a year with a website, against $191.88 for PicDrop Pro.

For heavy selects storage, PicDrop is cheaper: 500GB for $191.88 against $372 for Framekit Business at 2TB, or $180 for Pro if selects come down after the round.

Can clients upload photos to a Framekit gallery?

No. Framekit galleries are for delivering your work; clients favourite photos into named lists, add notes, download within the limits you set and send their list to you.

PicDrop lists client uploads on every plan, which makes it the better choice when a brand or couple needs to send you files.

Does either platform sell prints?

No. Framekit has no print lab, price sheet or print store on any plan, and PicDrop's pricing page lists no print store either.

Photographers whose income includes prints or albums should price Pixieset, Pic-Time, ShootProof or CloudSpot instead, and the best client gallery platforms compares them.

Do Framekit galleries expire?

Only if you set a date.

A Framekit gallery stays published until you choose an expiry, then unpublishes on that date and returns to draft with every file intact, and an optional reminder emails you and the gallery's linked contacts three days before.

PicDrop added automatic gallery expiration in 2025, so both platforms can run a selection window.

Does Framekit have team seats like PicDrop Advanced?

Not in the same way. Framekit Pro includes 3 team members and Business unlimited, but they are site admins, and only the account holder creates and manages galleries and uploads video reviews.

PicDrop Advanced includes 2 gallery collaborators and allows up to 4, Business up to 9 with custom permissions, which suits a studio where several people run selects.

Should I stop using PicDrop if I move delivery to Framekit?

No, not if you run professional selects rounds. PicDrop is better at that job, handles RAW and client uploads, and its free plan may cover light use.

Move the client-facing delivery to Framekit so it lives on your website with your film and review round, and re-examine a separate website subscription instead.

Final Verdict

PicDrop is the stronger choice for the selects round and for working files.

Its colour markers, scribbles, votes, @mentions, client uploads, Live Push camera connection, Lightroom and Capture One export, support for RAW and nearly every format, team seats and 500GB on Pro make it a professional workspace that Framekit does not try to copy.

Framekit is the stronger choice for the handover.

Every gallery feature is on every plan with unlimited galleries even on the free plan, films up to 2 hours sit in the gallery without a monthly conversion meter, the review round runs on the same account, and $84 a year on Starter or $180 on Pro also pays for the website, Slides and a digital store.

Where Framekit loses, plainly: it does not accept RAW, TIFF or PSD, does not take client uploads, does not have colour markers, scribbles on photos or a camera connection, does not sell prints, does not have a mobile app, does not offer unlimited storage and is not a studio manager.

If any of those is central to how you work, PicDrop or a print-led gallery is the better fit.

Related reading: the best photo proofing tools compares the selects side, the best client galleries for commercial photographers covers the delivery side, and the best client galleries for large file delivery helps when files outgrow either.

More head-to-heads: Framekit vs Pixieset, Framekit vs PhotoShelter and Framekit vs CloudSpot.