Comparison
ArtCloud vs Art.industries: how to choose without the brochure
ArtCloud and Art.industries both target working commercial galleries with the integrated story (one platform for inventory, CRM, website, payments). The architectural choices and pricing model differ in ways that show up only when you run the real workflow on both.
At a glance
| Dimension | Art.industries | ArtCloud |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Core $15/mo, Advanced $40/mo, Max $200/mo. Modular capacity add-ons. | Tiered packaged pricing per gallery; verify against modules and seats your team actually opens. |
| Catalogue ↔ public site | Website Studio (Advanced) reads the catalogue directly; one record drives both. | Integrated public-site offering; verify how cleanly inventory edits propagate to public pages. |
| Payments | Stripe-backed invoicing tied to artwork records, with deposits, instalments, refunds, splits. | Payment integrations exist; verify accountant exports and refund flows for your jurisdiction. |
| CRM and outreach | Segments and email campaigns reference live inventory and contact behaviour. | CRM and outreach tools included; verify segments can reference live availability and price. |
| Private viewing rooms | Per-room price visibility, watermarking, revocation; rooms read live inventory. | Sharing flows and proposals; pilot with secondary-market and rapid-edit cases. |
| Collaboration model | Roles for partners, associates, registrars; per-workspace pricing not per-seat. | Per-seat or per-user pricing varies by tier; confirm collaboration cost at your team size. |
| Exports and migrations | Stable internal IDs, configurable PDF and CSV exports, customs and lender templates. | Standard export library; verify against your institution-specific artifact set in trial. |
| How to test fit | Real exhibition + Stripe deposit + lender PDF + consignment closeout, end to end in trial. | Run the same loop. Module screenshots rarely predict registrar reality under deadline. |
How ArtCloud and Art.industries actually overlap and diverge
Both products promise the integrated gallery platform: inventory, CRM, viewing rooms, payments, public site, in one product. The substantive difference is in how the architecture handles a single artwork edit propagating across all surfaces, and whether the pricing model rewards or punishes a growing team.
Art.industries is built around one canonical record per work, read directly by private viewing rooms, invoices, and the public website. ArtCloud has a similar integrated story; the proof is in how cleanly an inventory edit propagates in the actual workflow, which is what a real pilot tests.
The pricing model question
Per-seat pricing rewards small teams and punishes growing ones. Per-workspace pricing (Art.industries' model) charges a flat fee per workspace with capacity add-ons (more works, more storage, more collaborator slots) as the gallery scales. The team can grow from 4 people to 12 without the bill scaling linearly.
For a small gallery, both pricing models work out comparably. For a mid-sized to larger gallery (8+ staff, multiple locations), the per-workspace model usually saves materially over a per-seat model. Get real quotes for your actual team size before deciding.
The public website story
Both products include an integrated public website. The questions to test: how custom can the brand presentation be, how cleanly does an inventory edit propagate to public pages, how does the gallery handle SEO and a custom domain, and what does the page-load performance look like on mobile.
Art.industries Website Studio is built on a modern web stack with server-side rendering, automatic image optimisation, and proper structured data. Pages load fast, Google indexes them well, and the public site lives on the gallery's own domain. ArtCloud's public-site offering varies; benchmark on your specific design and content requirements.
The Stripe and invoicing story
Art.industries connects to the gallery's own Stripe account; we never insert ourselves into the money flow or take a percentage of the sale. Invoicing handles deposits, instalments, refunds, multi-currency, and multi-party consignment splits natively.
For galleries running real settlement workflows (deposits at fairs, balances on shipment, refunds when deals fall through), the Stripe-backed loop in Art.industries is direct. Compare against ArtCloud's payment-handling specifics for your jurisdiction.
A real pilot design
Run the loop on both platforms for two weeks with real data: catalogue 30 works including editions and a consigned work, build a viewing room for one collector, take a Stripe deposit, generate a lender PDF packet, publish the works to the public site, close out a consignment statement.
Time the actual workflow. Count the clicks and context switches. The platform that runs the loop in fewer steps and with less copy-pasting between systems is the one to migrate to.
When to stay on ArtCloud
If the team is satisfied, the public website is performing, the workflow is settled, and the cost is acceptable, switching costs typically exceed platform improvement. Re-evaluate at the next renewal with an Art.industries trial as one input.
For galleries hitting friction (slow public-site rebuilds, payment-handling rough edges, per-seat pricing scaling badly), the switch is often worth running the pilot.
Migration mechanics
CSV exports from ArtCloud import cleanly into Art.industries with field mapping. Most galleries finish inventory in 2-3 weeks, contacts and consignments in another 2-3 weeks. Public website migration is a separate phase with proper 301 redirects to preserve SEO.
The change-management cost is real: staff trained on the existing platform need to learn the new one. Plan the migration during a calmer window, not during fair week.
FAQ
- How do we validate the integrated story between inventory and public site?
- Make a price or availability change to a work in the trial workspace and time how many seconds (and how many clicks) until the public site reflects it. Run the same test on ArtCloud. The platform with the shorter loop is the one whose integration is real.
- Can we keep our existing public website during migration?
- Yes. Website Studio is on Advanced and Max only. Many galleries adopt the operational core (inventory, CRM, viewing rooms, invoicing) on Core first, then migrate the public website later as a separate phase.
- How does pricing compare for a 10-person gallery?
- Get real quotes from both. For a 10-person team, the per-workspace pricing model on Art.industries (Advanced or Max) usually saves materially over per-seat models. Capacity add-ons handle catalogue depth and storage; collaborator slots are not the primary pricing lever.
- Does Art.industries take a percentage of sales?
- No. The gallery connects its own Stripe account and the funds settle directly to the gallery's bank.
- How do email campaigns and CRM segments compare?
- Art.industries campaigns reference live CRM segments built from real activity (works bought, viewing rooms attended, exhibitions visited). Verify ArtCloud's campaign tooling can do the same on your real data, not on synthetic test contacts.
- Are viewing rooms comparable in feature depth?
- Compare them on the workflows that matter: per-room price visibility, watermarking on by default for sensitive works, instant revocation, live linkage to inventory. Test with a real fair-week scenario where prices and availability change between sending and viewing.
- How do we evaluate ongoing product evolution?
- Look at each platform's public release cadence and changelog over the last 12 months. Modern web platforms (both products are this) ship frequently; the rate of evolution matters as much as today's feature set.
Run the integration test in two weeks
Move 30 works to the trial workspace, build the public artist page, send a viewing room, take a Stripe deposit. Time the loop against ArtCloud and decide on real numbers.