From the LiveWall Blog

How does LiveWall compare to competitors?

LiveWall is a new player in the event photo market (launched November 2024). How does it compare to the incumbents?

Events are delicate - there's so many things that just have to be absolutely right at the same time. Choosing platforms and vendors for an event is a crucial part of making sure everything goes as planned. The beauty of events is also that they only happen once, and that once-in-a-lifetime chance of capturing photos and videos means choosing a platform for event photo sharing is an important decision.

There are many providers in this market, from incumbents with years in this business via disruptors to tiny startups. We can mention names like POV, GuestPix, WedUploader, Wedibox, GuestCam, Celebrate, Lense, Kululu, LiveShareNow, SocialWalls, Rompolo, Evental, PixelParty, TacBoard, RequestNow, Piccnic... and there's new vibe coded alternatives popping up every month. Not everyone is in it for the long run, as a quick look at their websites and demo versions will show. But several have high quality offerings. So why did LiveWall choose to go after this market? Competition is for losers, right? (Silicon Valley proverb.)

I (Chris, the creator), have a long background in software, specializing in the media industry and with photo software. For my own wedding I simply deemed the solutions I found too expensive and most too weak. (Rightfully, there are very worthy competitors too!) I have much experience with privacy and data protection through my professional career, and quite frankly, some of the terms and privacy policies scared me.

The result? I went down the rabbit hole of making something that is both technically and legally superior. This article sums up what we believe is important factors in choosing a solution. They were guiding principles for developing LiveWall, and may be useful for you to choose a solution that best fits your needs.

No app

The threshold of downloading an app is simply too much for the average event attendee. Plus WiFi is often 'challenged' at venues, meaning app downloads take way too much time. Many are very concious of giving apps access to their smartphones photo libraries.

Guest engagement

Guests share more through "positive group pressure". Choose a provider that lets you share content with guests, automatically send notifications and reminders, and also give value to your guests to ensure they are encouraged to share photos and videos with you.

Safety

Consider available moderations tools. Can you enable manual moderation? Is there an option for multiple moderators (and what is the cost)? Is there an automatic moderation function so you don't necessarily have to do this yourself or delegate to a person? Can you force attendees to use a built-in camera without the option of uploading from their camera roll (if that is important to your event)?

Privacy first

Photos and videos taken at events deserve the best privacy protection. Choose a vendor that has designed their solution around a privacy first principle. Are they using tracking cookies? We recommend that you test for tracking cookies with Blacklight. Do they share data with other platforms and advertising networks? Have they designed their solution so that they do not have access to customer data? (Some even share examples of customer use in public material!)

Content ownership

It is worthwhile taking the time to read the terms and privacy policies. A tip is asking a chatbot to act as a lawyer specializing in privacy, copyright, and consumer protection and then evaluating the Terms of Service of the supplier you are considering (you can provide a link or paste the text itself). Do you retain full ownership to your content? Can the supplier share and/or modify your content? You must grant a license to your content somehow (otherwise the supplier cannot store and display the data), but how can you practically retract that license?

Pro-photographer support

Professional photographers and second shooters are common at many events. It can create a lot of engagement and value to attendees if especially the second shooter can deliver photos live during the event. Attendees can benefit if the professional photos are delivered through the same solution so that they can download photos of themselves taken by pros. Evaluate how frictionless this is for the photographers. Does the solution support FTP so photographers can send straight from their cameras without overhead? Does the terms of service allow the photographers to upload to your chosen supplier?

Most events are small, but some are huge

When LiveWall was launched, most incumbents charged by the number of event attendees. We are proud that we have driven a change in the market and most suppliers now have a single price tier for private functions. Consumer pricing should have a package based on actual usage (most of your attendees may not access the software) and base limits high enough to support all typical events.

Professional event organizers need to know that the solution they choose can support very large events. If this applies to you, is there a price model that works for the size of events you run, and does the supplier offer a professional Service Level Agreement? Do they document how the software is built to instantly scale to handle massive traffic spikes, and is the storage system designed to handle thousands of parallel uploads and downloads? Can you whitelabel, customize, and include your own legal notices to ensure compliance?

Free trial

We believe the world expects to try software before they make a decision. We believe suppliers benefit from this too, as potential customers can give quick feedback that improves the products. Customers benefit from thousands of users testing and using the software continously. We're proud that we've driven a change in the category from upfront payment to most serious suppliers now offering a demo album or a full free trial the same way LiveWall does. Many still require registration via email, LiveWall believes in the [libre principle]((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre) and continue to offer a completely free trial without registration.

Upload speed

People are impatient with tech, and guests upload fewer photos and videos if it takes significant time. We highly recommend that you perform a single batch upload about 30-50 photos when you get access to a free trial to see how the software behaves. Ideally do this at the time of week and day of your event - in our testing many solutions do not behave the same on Saturday at 5PM as they do on Tuesday at noon... (Pro tip: Ask your event venue contact person to do this from their site under circumstances similar to your event, WiFi in venues is notoriously challenging and may be the little leak that sinks a great ship...)

Reasonable price

Google Drive costs $2.49 per month for 2TB of storage. While it is tailored for a single user, has rate limiting, not everyone likes their terms, and it cannot be used for all event use cases, it still says something about storage and bandwidth prices these days. Flickr Pro, with unlimited uploads and web sharing, has an annual price of $78. We expect solutions in this space to align with industry wide pricing for storage and bandwidth. Maybe willingness to pay is higher with important events, but it should still be fair. After all, we've chosen to document how to collect photos with a QR for free with Google Drive as a budget option.

Support

Is the software and company designed to just work? Do you trust them to keep the lights on during your event? Is there proof of good engineering practices, and do they publish historical uptime? Can you subscribe to be notified of any issues or outages? Can you get in touch with their support team? We recommend you ping your preferred suppliers on social or preferred channels to see how they react.

The importance of photos

What material possession would you bring out of a burning house if you could? Many say their photo albums. Is the supplier showing passion for photos, videos, and memories? Is there a plan for your next event, and to be a part of your life and legacy with the assets so many of us value so much?

Longevity

Is the supplier out there to make a quick buck? Or have they set up their offering so that they will be in the game for the long run? Does the software continously improve, or are they capitalizing on a sunk development cost? Do they publish change logs and roadmaps - and are there proof of live in them?

We hope this will help you make a concious choice of platform. Also, if you'd like to see a little of our competitive analysis before making LiveWall, we have prepared concrete comparisons to the largest incumbents below.