PRO version compare
Compare the full feature set before you upgrade.
Compare the feature set through version 34.0.1, including member profiles, private messages, friendships, gallery transfer, watermarks, voting and paid gallery actions.
Upgrade path, not a separate product line
Start with the Free version to validate the complete gallery foundation, including transfers, watermarks, average ratings and combined vote-and-comment workflows. Move to PRO when the project needs identity controls, automation, advanced rules or live monetization.
The matrix below shows the actual feature differences between the Free and PRO versions in a clear, detailed way.
Start with profiles, messages and friendships in FREE
Both editions include the core member experience. PRO adds editable notification email subjects and contents, optional message previews through those templates, and additional account navigation settings.
What can FREE and PRO monetize?
Start with FREE
Sell physical shipping products, build your member community and privately test action credits with saved test actions and no real payment.
Explore the earning modelsExpand with PRO
Sell digital downloads, services and live upload, vote and comment credits. Edit the member email subjects and contents for your community.
Set up paid submissionsProfiles, private messages and friendships are part of the shared member foundation. Charging for gallery actions is a separate PRO decision.
More ways to move, protect, engage and monetize.
Move and publish complete galleries
Export a gallery as ZIP, import it on another site with user assignment options, and publish or update a listing on the Contest Gallery Network.
Protect public gallery images
Write real watermarks into public image files while keeping the original files protected and available for controlled restore or download workflows.
Turn ratings into conversations
Use average or cumulative ratings and combine voting with required or optional comments in a modern two-step experience.
Sell gallery actions with credits
PRO can sell upload, vote and comment credits from regular galleries. FREE includes a private preview with saved test actions and test credits. It does not take real payments.
Transparent comparison: features marked FREE + PRO are fully available in both editions. Private test actions and test-credit balances are available in both editions. Live credit sales and administration of real purchased credit balances require PRO.
Choose the version by use case, not by vague labels.
Shared foundation
Free covers the core gallery engine plus gallery transfer, real watermark protection, average and cumulative ratings, direct comments and the private paid-action preview.
Where PRO starts to matter
Start with FREE for member profiles, Google Sign-In, private messages and friendships. PRO adds configurable member email subjects and contents, advanced access and voting rules, and live paid gallery actions.
Best fit for campaigns
If your site has participants, time windows, moderation, repeated events or team workflows, the PRO-only features make the plugin much more capable for running structured gallery campaigns.
Best fit for monetization
Free supports shipping products and private paid-action previews. PRO adds downloads, services and live upload, vote and comment credits with persistent balances. Older upload-slot products remain a separate legacy workflow.
Go straight to the part that matters for your project.
Reading hint: scan the Free column first to see how much is already included out of the box. Then focus on the PRO-only rows related to access control, participant handling, email automation and paid workflows.
Feature-by-feature comparison
Member profiles, messages and friendships
Gallery member area with email PIN or configured Google Sign-In
Public member profiles with images and selected public fields
Frontend profile editing
Participants in gallery and supported multi-gallery overview views
Accessible published entries across eligible galleries in public profiles
Registration and profile URL fields
My entries with private access to unpublished submissions
Owner editing, deletion and file replacement under gallery rules
Private member-to-member messages
Friendship requests and confirmed friends
Blocking and unblocking member contact
Enable notification emails for messages and friendship requests
Administrator conversation overview and per-user communication controls
Edit member notification email subjects and HTML contents
Optional message previews through the editable email template
Configure logout redirects and return links from the WordPress profile
Gallery view options
Number of entries per screen (Pagination)
Enable full window button
Enable full screen button
Allow search for entries
Allow sort
Preselect order when page loads
Random sort (Each page load)
Random sort button
Bright or dark color sites
top controls style
In gallery contact form button
In gallery contact form
text configuration
This text is visible until first entry appears in the gallery
Allow only registered users to see the gallery
Redirect URL for parent site of Contest Gallery entries
Additional CSS cg_gallery page
Gallery Thumb View (all options)
Gallery Height View (all options)
Slider view (all options)
Blog view (all options)
Entry view options
View entries as full window slider
View entries as full window blog view
Forward to entry landing page
Enable comments
Enable emojis
Allow only logged in users to comment
Social Share Buttons:
Facebook, Twitter, VK, Qzone, Weibo
Social share button: WhatsApp
Social Share Buttons: Telegram, Skype, Pinterest, Reddit, XING, LinkedIn
Show EXIF data:
Original image date
Show EXIF data: Camera model, Aperture, Exposure time, ISO, Focal length
Show “Nickname” who added entry
Show “Profile image” who added entry
Copy original file source link button
Forward to original file source button
Download original file button
Copy gallery entry link button
Show back to gallery button on entry landing page
Back to gallery button text
Back to gallery button custom URL
General text on entry landing page before an activated entry
General text on entry landing page after an activated entry
Text on entry landing page if entry is deactivated
Additional CSS on entry landing page
Forward directly to original source
after clicking an entry
Gallery Thumb View (all options)
Make entries unclickable
(Only gallery view)
Show original image date
from EXIF data
Gallery view
Gallery name
Activate photo contest start time
Select start day
and time of photo contest
End photo contest immediately
Activate photo contest end time
Select last day
and time of photo contest
Show permanent vote
comments and info in gallery view
Allow only registered
users to see the gallery
Show text instead of gallery
(if user is not logged in)
Allow comments
Comment notification e-mail options for administrator
Comment notification e-mail options for registered participant user
Gallery transfer and publishing
Publish and update gallery listings on Contest Gallery Network
Export a complete gallery as ZIP
including entries, media, votes and comments
Import a Gallery ZIP on another site
with user assignment options
Process large gallery transfers
with progress and temporary-file cleanup
Image protection and real watermarks
Write real watermarks into public gallery image files
Keep protected originals and restore or unwatermark images
Apply real watermarks automatically after frontend uploads
Bulk watermark or unwatermark visible entries with progress
Voting options
Allow manipulate rating by administrator
Recognize user by IP
Recognize user by cookie
Recognize user by login
One vote per category
Votes per category
One vote per picture
Votes per user
Show HTML content instead of translation message when user used all votes
Show HTML message after every successful vote
Voting of self-added picture is not allowed
Allow vote via 1 star rating
Allow vote via cumulative
2–10 stars rating
Allow vote out of gallery
(without opening an entry before)
Hide rating of a picture
until user voted for this picture
Votes in time interval per user
Votes in time interval
per user amount
Votes in time interval
per user interval
Votes in time interval
per user alert message
Delete votes
(frontend users can delete their votes)
Voting notification e-mail options for registered participant user
Allow vote via average
2–10 stars rating
Configure the star scale separately
for average and cumulative voting
Show rating value, distribution bars and total number of ratings
Open the rating overview as read-only when voting is disabled
Configure decimal and thousands separators
for rating and comment numbers
Output AggregateRating structured data
for publicly visible average ratings
Voting and comments
Combine rating and feedback in one responsive workflow across gallery, entry and full-window views.
Two-step vote-and-comment dialog
for one-star, average and cumulative voting
Set comments for voting to
required, optional or disabled
Comment directly from gallery views
without opening the full entry
Show matching previews for images, video, audio, files and consent-aware social embeds
Preserve unsent comment drafts and anonymous commenter names during the browser session
Link votes and comments in frontend and backend
and remove linked items together
Upload options (allowed formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF, ZIP, TXT, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, CSV, MP3, WAV, OGG, M4A, WEBM, MP4, MOV)
Automatically activate users
entries after frontend upload
Confirmation text after upload
Text before contact form
Text after contact form
Forward to another page after upload
Forward to URL
Confirmation text on same
page after upload
Show contact form again after upload
Confirmation text after upload
Uploads per user
Recognize user by IP
Recognize user by cookie
Recognize user by login
Show text instead of contact form
if user is not logged in
Restrict frontend upload size
Maximum upload size in MB per entry
Bulk upload
Maximum number of entries per upload
Restrict resolution for JPGs
Restrict resolution for PNGs
Restrict resolution for GIFs
Modify entry name frontend upload
Select possible entry name options
Inform admin after upload in frontend
E-mail to administator after upload
Addressor (From)
E-mail to administator after upload
Admin mail (To)
E-mail to administator after upload
Reply mail
E-mail to administator after upload
Cc mail
E-mail to administator after upload
Bcc mail
E-mail to administator after upload
Subject
E-mail to administator after upload
Mail content
Show real file-transfer and server-processing progress as a percentage
Registration options
Select user role group for registered
users over Contest Gallery
Select role groups which can edit
fields from “Registration form”
in “Edit profile” when
logged in
Text before registration form
before logged in
Login user immediately
after registration
Confirmation text after registration
Confirmation text after
e-mail confirmation
Hide registration form
if user is logged in
Show text instead
Confirmation e-mail
Addressor (From)
Confirmation e-mail – Reply mail
Confirmation e-mail – Subject
Confirmation e-mail – Mail content
Login options
Text before login form before logged in
Forward to another page after login
Forward to URL
Confirmation text on same site
after login
Confirmation Text after login
Permanent text when logged in
Logout URL
Back to gallery URL
Lost password e-mail options
Login via Google
Google sign in button shortcode
Google sign in button options
E-mail confirmation e-mail
Create e-mail field in “Edit contact form”
to send this confirmation e-mail after an upload.
After an e-mail address is confirmed this e-mail will
not be send anymore.
Activate e-mail confirmation e-mail
E-mail confirmation e-mail
Addressor (From)
E-mail confirmation e-mail
Reply mail
E-mail confirmation e-mail
Cc mail
E-mail confirmation e-mail
Bcc mail
E-mail confirmation e-mail
Subject
E-mail confirmation e-mail
URL to confirmation page
E-mail confirmation e-mail
Mail content
Entry activation e-mail
Create e-mail field in “Edit contact form”
to inform users when activating their entry.
Activate entry activation e-mail
Entry activation e-mail
Addressor (From)
Entry activation e-mail
Reply mail
Entry activation e-mail
Cc mail
Entry activation e-mail
Bcc mail
Entry activation e-mail
Subject
Entry activation e-mail
URL of same page where shortcode
of the gallery is inserted
Entry activation e-mail
Mail content
Translations
93 changeable translation fields
Icons
15 changeable icons
Addable registration form fields
First name (WordPress field)
Last name (WordPress field)
Input
Textarea
Select
Check agreement
Profile entry
HTML
Simple captcha
I am not a robot
Google reCAPTCHA
I am not a robot
Username (WordPress field)
Nickname (WordPress field)
E-mail (WordPress field)
Password (WordPress field)
Password confirm (WordPress field)
Addable contact form fields
File
Textarea
Select
Select categories
Date
URL
Check agreement
HTML
Simple captcha
I am not a robot
Google reCAPTCHA
I am not a robot
Ecommerce
PayPal, Stripe, shipping products and the private paid-action preview are available in both versions. PRO adds downloads, services and live upload, vote and comment credits with protected post-purchase workflows.
Sell shipping products
Sell downloads
Sell services
Legacy upload-slot products in supported existing galleries
Create invoices
Send order confirmation emails
Restrict checkout to registered users
Restrict order summary visibility to registered purchasers
Privately preview paid upload, vote and comment actions with saved test actions and no live payment
Sell upload credits from regular galleries
Sell vote credits from regular galleries
Sell comment credits from regular galleries
Set a separate gross price for each paid action
Combine upload, vote and comment credit quantities in one checkout
Show persistent balances and return customers to the relevant gallery after payment
Authenticate credit buyers with Google or a one-time email code
Keep credits gallery-local or share them across participating galleries
Audit balance adjustments and revoke only unused credits after full refunds
Saved private test actions and persistent test-credit balances
Reset the gallery’s saved preview actions and return related test credits
Create a visitor link for real provider sandbox credit purchases
Quick conclusion
Choose Free version if you want to validate the base product first
It includes the complete gallery foundation plus transfer, real watermark protection, average ratings, combined voting and commenting, and a private paid-action preview.
Choose PRO version if your gallery needs more advanced workflows
Start with FREE for the core gallery, shipping products, profiles, messages, friendships and private Paid Actions previews. Choose PRO for downloads, services, live action credits, editable member email templates and advanced participation controls.