I’m obsessed with how photographers can use tech to grow and streamline their business. Right now, I’m testing Zenfolio, a photography business management suite designed to help photographers handle everything from portfolio building to bookings and e-commerce. In terms of the software, it’s in a bit of a transitional period, and I needed to know if it’s still a platform that can genuinely serve photographers while navigating changes. Instead of guessing, I went straight to the top and secured an exclusive interview with the company’s CEO, John Loughlin.

I’m not ready to publish my full Zenfolio review just yet. I prefer to spend serious real-world time with any software before sharing my final thoughts. The same goes for the best photo editing software or photography website builders. However, on first impressions, I will say I’m really enjoying the user experience, Zenfolio feels far less overwhelming than similar tools I’ve used in the past.

So why really speak directly to the CEO when testing a product?

Right now, Zenfolio is split between two versions: Zenfolio Classic and the new NextZen, which is a complete rebuild of the platform, aimed at solving the limitations in the original.

Also, we seldom hear from the people steering the ship of a photography software company. Instead we’re left to interpret marketing copy and promo emails. So, I thought it would be useful (and pretty cool) to get an insight on what’s really going on at Zenfolio, what’s new and how the company is ensuring it’s offering the best possible product to photographers.

Them Frames: Hey John! It’s been a challenging time for Zenfolio, what’s keeping you optimistic about the future of the brand?

John Loughlin: I’m hugely optimistic about our business based on our strengthening operating metrics, the underlying dynamics of the industry and the opportunities that are being revealed and enabled by the leaps in technology we’re all experiencing.

Our performance as a company, and especially our new NextZen service, is showing sustained improvement with gains in total paid subscriptions driven by increases in customers trying and subscribing to NextZen and improved subscriber retention.

We are also seeing increases in ecomm orders and AOV, and the highest Net Promoter Score (NPS) ratings ever. NextZen is succeeding because it was built to serve multiple genres of photography from portrait and wedding to landscape and fine art to multiple forms of volume. As photographers diversify their lines of business, NextZen fully delivers across multiple genres and models eliminating the need for photographers to rely on multiple, discreet solutions.

Our strong performance is enabling us to invest more and faster in new functionality and services we can offer to photographers to improve their businesses.

My optimism is also driven by the passion I see daily from our photographers as they work to serve their clients, and by the passion of my Zenfolio colleagues to support and assist those photographers in their mission. Being a professional photographer is not for the “faint of heart”, but it is hugely inspiring and it pushes us to be better.

Feeling bullish about the future is also tied to the technological innovation we’re seeing. Today, AI can be used to empower photographers’ work in the form of faster, more powerful and effective workflows, greater visibility and customer discoverability (search) and in better serving the needs of end clients. As a SaaS company that has devoted considerable resources to the development of responsible AI, we’re very well positioned to attract and retain photographers who are thinking ahead and are forward focused.

Them Frames: I’m loving the current user interface. Can you give us some insight into what kind of work goes into settling on the front end appearance of a platform such as this?

John Loughlin: It’s driven by intimately understanding our photographer’s tasks and workflows. Our very explicit goal was to build an efficient and intuitive interface that enables our photographers to easily grow their business and to create a great experience for their end clients.

For example, we’re really focused on mobile delivery, given 70% of the end customer interaction involves a mobile device. We have to not only make it simple for our photographers to build a mobile responsive website but also create a commerce and communication environment that helps them sell and upsell their products and services via the phone.

Them Frames: What features in the current iteration of the software should really pique the interest of photographers wanting to manage their portfolio and build strong relationships with their clients?

John Loughlin: A portfolio website needs to do more than look good - it has to produce for photographers by turning visitors into clients. That’s why Zenfolio offers one of the most powerful yet easy-to-use website design tools available.

From sleek, ready-made templates to advanced customization with color palettes, fonts, and content blocks, photographers can create a site that’s both stunning and uniquely theirs.

But it’s not just about aesthetics. Under the hood, we’ve built in robust SEO tools to help photographers rise in search rankings and get discovered faster. On the client side, features like image favoriting, gallery commenting, and automated gallery notifications help photographers stay connected and responsive. And with integrated Booking & Scheduling, clients can see availability and book sessions directly, making it easier than ever to turn interest into action.

Them Frames: What changes have you made to the backend infrastructure to ensure you don’t have repeat issues of the past with user content overloading your servers?

John Loughlin: It’s not a change to backend infrastructure, but rather the decision and investment to build an entirely new platform (infrastructure) we call NextZen to replace the 20 year old original platform we refer to as Classic.

First, we needed a new platform to accommodate new subscribers to reduce system stress on Classic and its users - that was completed a while ago. We then successfully moved our Classic customers' storage of 5 billion images from 5 old terrestrial data centers to the Cloud which runs NextZen.

We are now completing the rewriting of old Classic code to run on NextZen and this is delivering faster responsiveness and improved system reliability. The last step which is well underway is creating tools that enable Classic customers to quickly and easily upgrade their service– their sites and business– to NextZen.

NextZen is as scalable and “future proof” as current technology enables, and it was designed and built based on all the learnings and experiences, successes and failures, of two decades worth of serving photographers.

Them Frames: It would be unfair to put the issues of the past solely on your desk, but you are the CEO. People will want to know, what are you doing to drive a culture of change company-wide and to ensure statements like “while we were focused on building for the future, we failed to keep our Classic members appropriately informed along the way…” don’t just become empty statements in a press release?

John Loughlin: It is fair. I am the party ultimately responsible for the decisions we make and the implementation of those decisions. Very simply we had a platform, Classic, that was becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain, scale and, most critically, upgrade and evolve.

The choice was to invest in “bandaids” or to build a from-the-ground-up state of the art platform. It’s taken three years but we are now delivering with both a new, fundamentally more powerful service, NextZen, but also giving our long-time loyal Classic subscribers the ability to shift their business with as little friction and hassle as possible onto this new platform. In hindsight, I should have been more explicit with our Classic customers about that plan. Lesson learned!

Them Frames: Classic Zen is still alive, with no requirement for users to switch to NextZen. For those on the fence, what would you say to them that will encourage them to switch over to the improved version of the platform?

John Loughlin: Zenfolio Classic was ahead of its time, but it was built before the iPhone, before the rise of social media and dominance of the gig-economy. The world, and the way photographers run their businesses, has evolved dramatically since then. That’s why we built NextZen from the ground up - not just as an update, but as a complete reimagining of what a photography platform should be.

NextZen combines decades of photographer feedback with modern, flexible technology to deliver a seamless experience across the entire workflow, from client booking and scheduling to gallery delivery and print sales. It’s faster, smarter, and packed with features that just aren’t possible on Classic, or available among our competitors.

If you’re on the fence, know this: switching to NextZen means unlocking powerful tools to save time, boost your SEO, double your ecomm AOV, and grow your business—without sacrificing the quality, control or professionalism that have been the bedrock of our Classic service.

If you would like to try Zenfolio and see what it can do for your photography business and online presence, you can do so risk free. Sign up for a 14-day free trial and see what you think.

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