Sunshine Photo Cart: Free Client Photo Galleries for Photographers Plugin

Sunshine Photo Cart is a free client photo gallery plugin for WordPress that let’s you sell photos securely with professional features, no limits or commissions, and 100+ 5-star reviews. Quickly create galleries, sell photos to clients, and make more money than ever.

“I would say my sales went up at least 300% since installing Sunshine Photo Cart.”
– Edward Amos

“Sunshine elevated my small photography business and I know it can elevate yours as well.”
– Kendra Heller

Sunshine Photo Cart is used by thousands of wedding photographers, portrait photographers, school/sports photographers, and fine art photographers around the world. Check out all our testimonials, detailed case studies, and example sites to see how Sunshine has helped other photographers just like you.

“Sunshine Photo Cart has allowed me to deliver proof galleries quickly, efficiently, and effortlessly. This plugin has really taken out the aggravation of setting up galleries, allowed me to work more efficiently, and gives my clients such an easy-to-use interface for viewing. I am grateful I found it and highly recommend it to other photographers!””
– Drew Johnston

This free version is fully functional and has the following features:

• Cart system for letting users choose photo, select product and add to cart for purchase
• Accept offline payments (check) or online payments (PayPal, Stripe*, Square*)
• Unlimited galleries, images, and products!
• Integrates directly into your theme automatically (or use one of our design layouts)
• Upload images via FTP or browser in WordPress admin
• Galleries can be password protected, require email, require user account or be completely private for specified users
• Gallery expiration dates – great for pressuring clients to buy and not wait forever without purchasing
• Sub galleries – organize your client photo galleries into a hierarchy, great for weddings or large events
• Favorites – Let users select their favorites, view any user’s favorites in the admin
• Social sharing – Get friends and family to see photos, increase exposure and possible sales!
• Watermarking – Automatically have a watermark added to all your images when uploaded to a gallery
• Multiple shipping methods (Flat rate, local delivery, pickup)
• Easy order management
• Printable invoices
• International ready – Works with all currencies and translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Portuguese, British English, Norwegian, and more! Learn more about translations

Upgrade for more features

The free, core plugin offers an amazing set of features but you can upgrade to take your client photo galleries to the next level by using many of our add-ons. Learn more about our pricing plans

Our full-list of available add-ons that are available individually or as part of our money-saving pricing plans:

• Digital downloads – Allow users to purchase digital download files at any size and have instant access to files securely
• Discount codes – Boost sales with flexible discount codes, enticing customers to purchase more
• Lightbox – Deliver a seamless browsing experience with user-friendly lightboxes and slideshows for your clients
• Advanced Analytics – Gain key insights from gallery analytics, best sellers, and precise profit figures to guide your sales approach
• Price Levels (price sheets) – Set unique prices for your products across your galleries giving you more control, flexibility, and profits
• Packages – Bundle products to offer clients more prints at a discounted price, encouraging larger purchases in a single transaction
• Product Options – Increase sales by empowering customers with customizable options for anything from frames to paper types
• Multi Image Products – Products, like picture boxes or albums, that let customers select many photos
• Exports – Simplify financial reporting and order fulfillment with effortless CSV exports of order data
• Automated Emails – Empower your outreach with automated emails, tailored to your clients’ gallery interactions for a personalized touch
• Client messaging – Simplify the task of inviting clients to galleries with message templates
• Minimum Order – Boost your sales by setting a minimum order requirement for checkout
• Quantity Discounts – Stimulate larger purchases with quantity-based discounts for your clients
• Price List – Effortlessly display product pricing on your page with our simple short code
• Advanced Shipping – Set more complex rules for when specific shipping options are available
• Exports – Simplify financial reporting and order fulfillment with effortless CSV exports of order data
• Light Blue – Integrate with this popular photography CRM

Also available are these additional payment gateways with no added fees!

• Stripe payment gateway (removes platform fees)
• Square payment gateway (removes platform fees)
• Authorize.net payment gateway
• Mollie (with iDEAL support) payment gateway

Integrate with these email newsletter platforms to grow your customer base

• MailChimp integration
• Campaign Monitor integration

…and so many more to come! Feel free to request new features

1. Activate the plugin
2. Go to Sunshine > Settings and configure the options
3. Create Products (example: 8×10)
4. Create Galleries
5. Make money selling to clients with no commission fees!

1. 

   Main galleries view using Twenty Twenty One theme - Note: Private Galleries show only for logged in admin users or for users assigned to the gallery

2. 

   Single gallery view. Note the gallery expiration notice and watermarks!

3. 

   Single image view - Customers can add products to cart

4. 

   Add to cart screen

5. 

   Store View - showing products first and allow customers to add multiple images to cart at once

6. 

   Sharing favorite images

7. 

   Social media sharing

8. 

   Cart - Manage items in cart

9. 

   One page checkout - easy, quick process for your clients to pay for their order

10. 

    Order confirmation

11. 

    Admin: Create a gallery and add images

3.2.5

• Add new Product Type filter in products admin table
• Hotfix – Not logged in multi-image selection fix

3.2.4

• Remove Stripe/Square SDKs, use native functions to massively reduce overall file size of plugin
• Fix mobile image select for gallery image upload in admin
• Filter sunshine gallery images to not use Jetpack/WordPress.com Image CDN to prevent watermark issues
• Fixed and improved discount validation check rules and applying discount per line item
• Fix get product max quantity check function (remove version without filter)
• Update icons used for better UI consistency
• Fix and improve the multi image selection JavaScript
• Set lang strings to be passed to sunshine.js so they can be translated
• Translations updated

3.2.3

• Show ID in admin table list for galleries and products
• Update add to cart to allow empty gallery ID for general products

3.2.2

• Prevent ability to favorite images from private galleries current user does not have access to
• Translations updated

3.2.1

• Fix allowing free shipping with discount code + restrictions
• Fix add to cart permission checks to allow Sell Anything products with no image
• Updated order access check function
• Fix getting cart total as proper float value

3.2

• New! Drag and drop to set the order of payment methods
• New! Add new Stripe option to configure layout: tabs vs accordion
• New! Add-on category filters to make finding add-ons easier
• Adjust the Checkout payment options so the payment fields are closer to the selected payment option
• Checkout will auto select the first payment option even if multiple are available
• Fix [sunshine_gallery show_main_menu=”false”] does not show main menu
• Adjustment to cart_total_formatted()
• Add filter to customer gallery query args
• Style adjustments to mobile checkout
• Adjust checkout shipping/payment selection to make it more clear they are selectable options, default to first if none yet selected
• Fix resending order receipt email so it does not send to the admin

3.1.13

• New! Order Status Update email
• Change position of single image menu icons to be above image instead of on top
• Adjust various styles for text colors
• Fix capabilities for price levels

3.1.12.1

• Fix issue with debug code left behind which did not allow Packages to be shown with image add to cart
• Update gallery password form to say “Gallery Access Code” to reduce confusion, languages updated

3.1.12

• Add password generator button for galleries
• Add filters for allowed products for image and for store
• Add reinstall Tool
• Fix discount calculation when applied after tax and line item has qty > 1
• Fix searching multiple levels of descendant galleries
• Fix query to get all customer’s private galleries
• Fix checkout required fields so if marked as required but not visible it still shows the fields

3.1.11

• Refinements to onboarding flow
• Invoice only shows filenames to admin and if there are filenames for the line item
• Fix bugs related to parse_query introduced in 3.1.10
• Fix issue with finding alternate translation file but using en_US
• Order details properly show filenames with period in middle of filename
• Order search now also searches order line item metadata

3.1.10

• New onboarding flow
• Filter orders in admin by mode and payment method
• Improved invoice display for multi-image and packages
• Allow sunshine_get_orders to ignore mode with “all”
• Better collection of cart item meta during order
• Adjustments to license settings page
• Improved failed modal opening error display

3.1.9

• Addons page more clear when they need an upgrade to be installed
• Will pull main language po file when specific dialect is not available. Ex: es_MX -> es_ES
• Fully update languages
• Order line item with options saves with incorrect price (option price added twice)
• Fix mobile styling of modal close button

3.1.8

• Show all private galleries assigned to a customer in their admin Profile page
• Fix issues with tax applied to customers outside the allowed taxable locations

3.1.7

• Further refining how taxes are added up in price with tax + show with tax situation

3.1.6

• Add invoice link on order receipt page
• Fix invoice templates to include “extra” line item data
• Accessibility feedback implemented
• Further fixes for price with tax + show with tax and discount totals
• Fix for PayPal with rounding errors for price with tax + show with tax

3.1.5

• Fix rounding errors in cart line items and tax calcs
• Allow discounts to be applied after tax calcs

3.1.4

• Fix taxable shipping, enter prices with tax, and show price with tax it was not calculating the shipping tax properly
• Fix adjusting tax totals immediately when taxable shipping method is selected
• Fix issues with credits applied at checkout when price with tax + show with tax

3.1.3

• Fallback featured image option for galleries
• Default image for password protected galleries until access is granted
• Fix issue with checkout where logged in user cannot get past first step if guest checkout is not enabled
• Fix checkout where selecting pickup no longer allows changing to shipping for delivery method
• Fixes for all variations of price entered with tax/show price with tax configurations
• Two new filters to more easily customize text when login is required for a gallery: sunshine_gallery_require_login_signup_message and sunshine_gallery_require_login_message
• Translations updated

3.1.2

• Security fixes
• Remove custom order item tables during uninstall
• Options to make phone/vat/notes required fields at checkout

3.1.1

• Fix tax amount sent to PayPal when tax included in price
• Add [order_number] template tag to order receipt emails
• Adjusted default customer receipt email to include link to invoice
• Fix PDF invoice download
• Fix PDF invoice to use new custom order number
• Change how gallery content is displayed to better work with some themes/blocks

3.1

• New! Payment method fees
• New! Custom order numbering
• New! Option to limit quantity of a product
• New! Option to disable need for shipping on a product
• New! Tax report
• Updated translations
• Restructured how tax amount is determined for better accuracy across pricing setup (with/without tax in price)
• Properly replace template tags in Messages during Sunshine 3 upgrade process

3.0.24

• Fix order number format back, previous was a breaking change

3.0.23

• Fix finding galleries from just password when access type is direct URL
• Fix scroll issues on mobile for long product list in add to cart window
• Add more hooks to invoice template
• Force use of own translation files within plugin, no longer using from .org
• Fix order value return numbers to use the sunshine_format_amount function
• Updated all translations

3.0.22.2

• Removing file name in line item data sent to PayPal, causing too many issues
• Fix maths in cart when discount total was over 1000

3.0.22.1

• Left debug code in for sunshine_get_orders that only get test orders

3.0.22

• Add PayPal Legacy payment method (for Personal PayPal account sellers)
• Adjust store add to cart price display when images are not required
• Ability to add simple product/image to cart from a URL
• Allow discount codes to be all numerical when checking their validity
• Remove image favorite if gallery has been removed (even if image still exists)
• Admin order email add link to invoice
• In PayPal, include image name as description in line item details

3.0.21

• Show custom VAT label on checkout
• Notes field at Checkout now shows and included in all order templates
• Discount now includes descendants of allowed/disallowed
• If shipping and pickup are both available, do not auto select first shipping option for cart until shipping is actually selected
• Prevent access to store for gallery when products/purchasing is disabled
• Added Site Health recommendation if PHP memory is less than 256M and to ask host for more
• Additional styling to comments input when adding to cart
• Fix Sunshine 3 order update process when an order line item does not have gallery_id set
• Prevent duplicate metadata issues for Sunshine galleries
• Show discount codes applied in admin order details
• Taxes applied when Pickup/Digital Download delivery method selected and products in cart are taxable
• Properly get fallback/default Price Level when one is not properly assigned to a gallery

3.0.20

• Fix Classic main menu styling issues from 3.0.19
• Add wrapper classes for single gallery embed, fix menu CSS
• Put Favorites at top of source select list for multi-image products
• Always show customer name in the invoice
• Add an admin URL query var to show some debug info to help with support
• Fix checks for login/password reset account endpoints so they work with customized options
• Ability to clear the Sunshine log file
• Do not include customer password in new account signup email
• Bring back option from Sunshine 2 to require an account and be logged in to see products
• Fully clear old cart data on upgrade to Sunshine 3 so it does not cause fatal issues for admins
• Do not prompt for shipping at Checkout if no shipping methods are enabled
• Fix issue when going back to Delivery method, selecting Pickup, and total still adding in previously selected shipping cost on immediate refresh
• Send weekly email summary even if no orders
• Further fix for properly sending allowed tracking data
• Do not init Stripe payment intent if $0 order

3.0.19

• Major PayPal update to work in more situations (payment popup was disappearing), removed PayPal SDK as no longer necessary with new integration
• Updated Square/Stripe SDK
• Tracking info properly sending each week when enabled
• Properly dismiss notices button visible and functional
• New promos for volume galleries, price levels
• Option for plan users to hide any promos throughout Sunshine
• Fix Clear Favorites button
• Fix invoice line item amount
• Fixed email signature not being included
• Order report data only get count orders, do not count test
• Set default view order endpoint to “order-details” to prevent conflict with WooCommerce
• Better reset permalinks when URLs are changed
• Update how custom invoice content is put in the invoice to prevent page builder conflicts
• Frontend notice when viewing order details if order is a test
• New filter to customize redirect URL after login
• Improved order comment email templates
• Fix masonry display for Galleries tab in account
• Improved image regeneration for offloaded images
• Only show gallery content once access is granted
• Allow quote marks in passwords (but don’t recommend using)
• More clear indicator that selected FTP folder has new images available for import
• Setup gallery post type URLs to work better for sub-folder WP installs
• Adjustments to CSS for modal windows on mobile
• Set “Friend” as fallback for all emails using the [first_name] placeholder
• New filter for logout redirect URL

3.0.18

• New! Set specific logo for invoices
• New! Separate gallery layout option which allows you to set a different layout for just galleries
• New! Account page: Galleries – displays all private galleries assigned to the logged in user
• New! Use built-in WordPress system info/site health report
• Adjust when cart is cleared to ensure it does not clear when a failed payment happens
• Fix display of tax total on customer receipt and admin order page when prices include tax
• Fix display of line item prices on customer receipt and admin order page when prices include tax
• Show all image meta data values in admin for a media attachment
• Show proper image title when loading more images in gallery via infinite scroll
• Show order line item options in printable invoice
• Show logo on invoice when selected
• Do not allow invalid PayPal orders to go through
• Adjust Checkout structure so hitting enter to apply discount code does not submit the Checkout page as a whole
• Prevent Stripe/Square from loading at Checkout if not yet properly connected
• Remove issue with spaces in PayPal API keys because their copy/paste is bad
• Do not show offline payment instructions once order has paid status
• Fix issues with license keysed during update process

3.0.17

• Fix issue with sessions not being set because of plugin conflict
• Show gallery type in admin list
• Fix issue of sign up new account at checkout
• Add clear favorites link on favorites page
• Stripe payment method updated to better handle customer card input errors
• Complete missing step of reset password process
• Admin order details links to customer page instead of WP user edit
• Customer page has link to WP user edit
• Option for sign up password to be optional
• Allow First/last name on sign up form and allow to be optional
• Allow signup/login forms use even more autocomplete options for mobile to make it easier/faster to fill out
• Update default email subject when favorites are submitted, allow email address
• Fix issue where permalinks for galleries not getting set on new install

3.0.16

• Notice when logged in as admin viewing password protected gallery that you get automatic access
• Notice in admin for Rank Math SEO users to disable attachment URL redirects
• Checkout display fixed when order is free after applying credits
• Fix checkout validation check when square or stripe is only payment gateway & customer pays in full with credits
• Fix order change status checkbox to notify customer was not sending email
• Fix issues with bulk editing custom order statuses
• Specific search terms would cause fatal error
• When logging in to view private gallery, redirect back to gallery instead of account page
• Digital download items removed from cart during Update Cart because qty field was disabled, switched to max qty of 1
• Disable sign up option will also remove the password (thus account sign up) from the Checkout flow
• Add to log whenever email is sent
• Updated new account email to customer after registration
• Update/install process handles new option for 6.4 to enable media attachment URLs
• Added en_GB translation, updated all others

3.0.15

• New! Ability to disable account sign up
• New! Option to collect comments on item during add to cart
• Don’t set galleries as not public when registering if Hide Galleries from Search Engines is enabled so URLs can still be editable, rely on noindex meta tag only
• Fix issue with empty emails
• Show selected product options on Checkout cart summary
• Improvements to showing tax/no tax in pricing based on settings and showing totals with notice about tax as needed
• Square/Stripe was allowing orders to go through when the CC form was not properly initiated
• Fixed search result template for Classic/Cover themes
• Fixed search results to follow gallery permissions for user
• Delete the FTP folder when gallery is permanently deleted based on option
• Fixed PayPal when prices include tax
• Always include image filename on each line item + new filenames list in admin order receipt
• Properly create account at checkout as needed
• Show prompt to login at top of checkout page

3.0.14

• Different payment gateways can change the submit button label, Offline payments will now only say “Submit Order”
• Adjusted how checkout JS was output because some themes were having issues
• Improve admin speed by not loading post type options until absolutely necessary
• New “galleries” meta field type that allows for easily searching/selecting galleries for various areas, ideal optimized for larger sites
• Fix issues with bulk order update sending emails incorrectly
• Fix links in order details to an image’s gallery
• Improved order search in admin: Search first/last name and email
• Fix issue with tax not always being added to order total
• Fix link to order receipt page in email when guest checkout used
• New Customer Signup email notification available

3.0.13

• Fix issue around resizing watermark before it is applied based on Max Size settings
• Customer search now looks at first/last name as well
• User selection now search powered so sites with lots of users do not crash
• Add email to printable invoice
• Fixed issue with weekly summary email being sent in some cases
• Fixed cart/order total number formatting issue when over 1000
• Fix issue with Load More button for pagination repeating first page of results
• Only apply standalone checkout class to body when on the checkout page
• Update email custom messages to not run through the_content filter to prevent some issues in specific cases
• More customer information in admin order receipt
• At checkout, shipping defaults to using the first/last name from user account or the name given in Contact section to make easier
• Fix searching all galleries
• Fix orphaned images removal tool
• Fix issues preventing discounts to properly take max quantity into effect

3.0.12

• Showing Free shipping option properly based on discount setting
• Further refine setting default shipping method at checkout for customer
• Do not set shipping option for cart if it is no longer allowed after cart changes
• Adding back [sunshine-gallery-password] so there is less confusion about the shortcode update to [sunshine_gallery_password]
• Fix applying tax when set to All Countries
• Fix getting billing address line 1
• Sunshine 3 update does not try to update newly created galleries
• New “force” URL param for the update to process only one specific section to run the update
• Show error notices for gallery password shortcode
• Adjust CSS in Classic theme on mobile so it does not hide gallery password form shortcode on other pages
• Fix standalone checkout to properly show receipt page after order
• Fix sorting product categories when there were more than 10
• Image regenerate more clear when it is done
• Fix reports to show even if no orders yet
• Fix issue in Sunshine 3 update with customer roles
• Further improvements to help preselect single payment method during checkout to save time
• Displaying Title even when Filename is selected to show for each image thumbnail
• Improved search query
• Keyword editor field for an image in admin
• Improved efficiency for multi-image select when changing galleries

3.0.11

• Emergency fix to prevent deletion of package data in orders

3.0.10

• New option to only allow test payment method for admin users
• Add closing HTML tags for classic/cover themes
• Deactivate any Sunshine 2 add-ons the moment they are activated to prevent crash with notice to outline next steps
• Include admins in the Customer list
• Fix issue with applying credits at checkout
• Fix admin order status notification error message showing when it was working
• Restore custom HTML output for showing an image to prevent WP srcset fallbacks from showing full res image
• Remove required on inputs in post type metadata to work when Gutenberg is disabled
• Show full gallery hierarchy in admin order line item details
• Make search results data more accessible so add-ons can use data
• Better search result templates
• Admin notification if Yoast SEO is active and it is blocking attachment URLs
• Improved mobile styling
• Add back “return to gallery” link on cart page
• Make shipping method required and pre-select first option by default

3.0.9

• Fix new install setting proofing to active by default
• Fix default email subjects in non-en_US languages
• Fix check for private gallery access
• Checkout page CSS improvements to be more clear to users what is selected regardless of color scheme
• Updated add-on licensing to work with new access pass system in EDD (use primary license key now instead of individual for each)
• Filter on sunshine-gallery post type args to allow for customization
• Can edit qty filter for cart items, used for digital download so customers don’t add more than 1 to cart
• New Checkout option: Require address – Forces user to provide at least one address no matter what even if no need for shipping/billing.
• Fix showing errors when uploading an image to gallery goes wrong
• Watermark image upload/selection only allows png files, more clear instructions on this
• Adjust how free shipping is allowed to work better with Advanced Shipping add-on
• Improved image regenerate process so it deletes any extra file sizes accidentally elsewhere
• Proper pluralization for wording in cart (“1 item”, “2 items”)
• In Store View, no longer show the gallery content
• New Design option to enable and allows better integration with page builders
• Fix access to store when proofing-only enabled
• Fix issue when gallery was set to Direct URL access but still allowing it as a source to fill package or select in store
• Fix password reset process
• Customer ordering for admin columns by numeric values
• Classic theme logo/name links back to home page of site

3.0.8

• Fixed gallery URLs to match Sunshine 2 and include the main Client Galleries page URL.
• Fixed pagination
• Fixed gallery URLs to set with_front to false for cleaner URLs for those who have more custom permalink settings for the rest of their site
• Load default Sunshine CSS on pages using it’s shortcodes like sunshine_gallery and sunshine_gallery_password so they can be styled
• Clear out Sunshine 2 session data to optimize options table
• Show shipping address even if no shipping method selected in admin and order receipts
• Properly handle 100% free orders
• Fix display of categories in the add to cart modal when there are a lot
• Update process now allows for incremental release database
• Update product options where needed
• Properly show shortcodes in gallery content/description
• Fixed update process to clear out old cart/session data first so it does not cause memory issues for first step
• Fixed update process to handle order package items

3.0.7

• Fix license fields
• Restore how overall templates are determined to prevent most themes from using single-post fallback which is ugly for galleries
• File list in favorites email to admin
• Filenames in copy removed extension for better searching

3.0.6

• Fix getting default email subject issues
• Bring back gallery access type: registered and logged in
• Better handling of shortcodes in gallery descriptions and before/after content
• Don’t show unnecessary pagination on search results
• When only one payment method available at checkout, auto select and trigger it’s actions
• Fix link from Users section to new Customer Profile
• New customization option to include content on invoices
• Fixed link to regenerate single gallery images for non-english sites
• Fix PayPal needing prices as strings when sent to API for who knows what reason
• Prices from Store View are shown as $X/each for better clarity

3.0.5

• Fixed update system – images have watermarks applied
• Fixed issue with product options not showing

3.0.4

• Fixed update system – was not calculating how many things needed to be updated properly

3.0.3

• Issues updating orders during update process in some instances
• Fixed infinite and button pagination
• Fixed pagination repeating images
• Fixed favorites thumbnail display
• Better checks when trying to limit image sizes to just Sunshine needed sizes, fixing image update times significantly
• Fix issue with custom gallery store URLs
• Custom CSS and before/after content now showing
• Properly show image title/name when selected with thumbnail in galleries
• Unused image size tool to remove accidentally created useless image sizes for Sunshine gallery images
• Show instructions for offline payments on order receipt page and email

3.0.2

• More ways to get back to the update screen when needed
• Deactivate add-ons if they are not at 3.0 or higher to prevent errors
• New – Option to disable the Store link for all galleries

3.0.1

• Update process enhancements to help with common problems thus far
• Handle licensing for various plans instead of just Pro
• Add-on management based on active plan not just Pro

3.0

• All new codebase
• Entire UI overhaul
• NEW! Store view
• NEW! Cover theme
• Multiple pagination methods
• Multiple tax rates
• Multi-shipping methods
• Masonry/Mosaic part of core
• Distraction free checkout
• Test payment method
• Improved email customization
• Stripe and Square part of core (with platform fees)