Photler: The Website Builder for Travel Photographers by a Travel Photographer

When Polish Web designer and travel photographer Piotr Kulczycki set out to display his photos online, he was pretty disappointed by his options. So he built his own.

The whole story is that Kulczycki built his own website—World in My Lens—and was immediately flooded with questions from fellow travel photographers about what service he used and how much he would charge to build these sites custom. Instead of building travel site after travel site for his friends, he created Photler:

Photler’s main draw is its specificity—it’s the only portfolio site built specifically for travel photographers, by a travel photographer. All of its features evolve from there.

As with all website builders you’ve got drag-and-drop functionality, simple customization tools, blogging functionality, various templates and ways to display your photos, and 24/7 support in case you run into issues. Unlike the other options, this one was made with photographer’s needs and best interests at heart.

All the templates feature an interactive world map where you can pin your galleries, your menu breaks down galleries by continent, and Photler takes 0 commissions on any sales you make through the site… you set your price, you set your terms, and you make 100% of the revenue.

Finally, the last piece of the puzzle is a community component that can help get your photos seen. The so-called “Photler portal” is where the company’s team hand-picks and shares the best travel photos Photler users generate, and the Photler blog includes educational content targeted at travel photographers.

Photler does a lot of things right, and any misses can be attributed to age. The young portfolio site still only features 4 templates—#5 is almost out and #6 is in development—payment for photo sales is currently only available through PayPal, and customization options are a bit thin compared to, say, Squarespace.

Even still, travel photographers will be hard-pressed to find an online experience better tailored to their specific needs, or a team more dedicated to its small-but-passionate user base. That, too, is a result of being a young company without the millions of users others boast—they’re paying attention.

To find out more about Photler or give it a shot for yourself, head over to their website. All their plans offer a 14-day free trial so you can see what you’re getting into; after that, Basic, Standard, and Premium memberships with a variety of features differentiating them (see above) go for $3, $15, and $30 per month, respectively.