Wordpress Or Zenphoto
Foreword
If you've been following this blog for a while, you've probably noticed that I often switch between different CMS/blogging platforms.
Each of these platforms has its pros and cons. Ultimately, it always depends on what you plan to do with the platform.
For a pure gallery system, I consider Piwigo to be one of the best systems, alongside Zenphoto.
If you want to add a blog, sooner or later you’ll end up with WordPress or Zenphoto.
WordPress
Because of its widespread use, WordPress offers plugins for every purpose and an overwhelming number of themes.
The downside: Some of the really good themes and plugins cost money, and ongoing costs can quickly add up. Many developers no longer offer “one-time purchase” versions but have instead joined the subscription trend. This means that costs are typically incurred annually, provided the relevant plugins continue to be used.
Not all plugins are compatible with one another—there are certainly situations where Plugin A doesn’t work with Plugin B.
In my opinion, there are two categories that are absolutely essential for WordPress:
- Since WordPress itself—as well as quite a few plugins—rely on cookies, there’s no getting around having a proper cookie banner with the appropriate opt-in and opt-out options.
I can wholeheartedly recommend the Real Cookie Banner here—this plugin is definitely worth the price.
- Since WordPress isn't particularly high-performing by design, a good caching plugin is simply a must.
I rely on WP-Rocket here, which is also a paid plugin.
These two plugins alone result in annual costs of approximately €100.00.
Zenphoto
Zenphoto includes virtually all the necessary plugins in its basic package. This means there is essentially no risk of incompatibilities—unless a bug has crept in during the release, which is very rare.
Zenphoto also comes with caching built-in—when it’s enabled, Zenphoto runs significantly faster on my site than WordPress with caching enabled.
With this site, I typically achieve a score of 95 on Google Page Speed for the mobile version and 100 for the desktop version.
However, I wouldn’t rely 100% on Google’s tool; the results fluctuate quite a bit (sometimes within minutes).
If you’ve installed Zenphoto, it’s surely because you want to showcase your gallery online. I don’t know of any WordPress plugin that does this even remotely as fast. Only Piwigo works similarly fast, but it lacks the option to include a blog.
Overall, Zenphoto feels faster—this becomes clear, for example, when saving a post. While WordPress tends to take its time with this, Zenphoto gets right to work.
By the way: Zenphoto and its included plugins work without cookies. This may require some settings adjustments in the backend—for example, enabling gallery sessions instead of cookies.
As for privacy: The system also includes the option to anonymize IP addresses right out of the box.
The only downside for me: The available themes are quite limited, and some of them don't seem quite up to date anymore. This is certainly due to the fact that Zenphoto isn't as widespread or well-known as WordPress. I hope to see some changes in this area in the future.
Now that I've been running WordPress and Zenphoto on different domains for quite some time, I'm currently (January 2025) preparing for the final switch to Zenphoto.
Since Zenphoto is free and the system requirements are very modest, a test installation is no problem. Give it a try—it might just be exactly what you’ve been looking for all these years.
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