Launch year Our first year on sale. Half off your first year of Pro. Half off your first year. Ends Dec 31 The launch price is here until December 31, 2026. Ends December 31. All of Pro Every Pro feature, on your own WordPress site. All of Pro, your site. $125 was $249.99 first year Claim launch pricing
Mankai
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Photography CRM for WordPress

Finally, a photography CRM that lives inside WordPress.

Mankai is a WordPress plugin that runs your photography studio: clients, booking, contracts, invoices, payments and galleries, all in the dashboard you already use. No second app to log into.

Try Mankai free See pricing
  • Free to install
  • No credit card
  • No fee on your payments
A session in Mankai: Jessica Miller's family session with the $450 total, the $150 retainer paid, the questionnaire completed and the contract signed. The Coming up list: three sessions this week, each showing whether the contract is signed and the retainer is paid.

Works with the WordPress setup you already have

In your WordPress admin

Your studio, one menu below Posts and Pages

Mankai adds a studio to the WordPress admin you already know. Every session keeps its client, contract, balance and gallery together, so checking on Saturday's shoot is one screen, not three apps.

  • Clients, sessions and bookings in your own dashboard
  • Every job keeps its contract, invoice and gallery together
  • Keep your theme, Gutenberg or Elementor, and your domain

1 loginThe WordPress one you already have.

The Clients list in Mankai with each client's type, revenue and status.
One client's profile with their sessions and what they owe.

Booking

Clients book a time you are actually free

Clients pick a session type and a time from your studio hours. If the session has a contract and a retainer, they sign and pay in the same visit, and you get a booked session instead of an email to sort out.

  • Set the price, retainer and length once for each session type
  • Only open times show, with buffers and a daily limit if you want them
  • The contract and the retainer happen while they book

One visitPick a time, sign the contract and pay the retainer.

The Day view of Saturday, October 24 on the Mankai calendar: a family session with Jessica Miller from 4:30 to 5:30 PM and a mini session with Chris Anderson at 6:00 PM, with a Month, Day and List switch above the hours.
The pane that opens on a click: Jessica Miller’s family session on October 24 is in golden hour, her questionnaire is completed, her contract is signed, her $150.00 retainer is paid and $300.00 is still due.
Click a session and see where it stands. The contract, the retainer and the balance are right there, and so is the golden hour for that day.

Galleries and the client portal

Deliver galleries on your own domain

Clients pick their favorites in a gallery on your site, you edit the picks, and you deliver the downloads when you are ready. Prints sell from the same gallery at your prices.

  • Clients heart their favorites, and you see the picks
  • Watermarks and download protection, gallery by gallery
  • Gallery files stay on your own hosting

Your domainClients sign in to your site, not a rented portal.

The Carter wedding gallery on the photographer’s own site: Megan has hearted five of her twenty photos, and a Submit selections button sends her picks.
The photographer’s Copy file names panel for the same gallery: Capture One is chosen, the five picks are listed as plain camera file names DSC_0412 to DSC_0498, and a Copy button puts them on the clipboard.
She hearts, you copy. Her picks arrive as the file names from your camera, ready to paste into your editor.

Three ways to run a studio. One of them lives in WordPress.

A hosted studio app, a stack of separate plugins, or one plugin built for photographers.

What you get Hosted studio app A stack of plugins Mankai
Runs inside your WordPress admin No Yes Yes
Clients, booking, contracts and payments in one place Yes No Yes
Client records in your own database No Yes Yes
Client portal on your own domain Partly Partly Yes
One thing to update and get support for Yes No Yes
Free version to start with No Partly Yes

Try Mankai free

Feels built for how we already run the studio.

Dandelion Soul StudioMy mom's photography studio in Wisconsin, and the reason Mankai exists. Not an independent review.

Frequently asked questions

What is a WordPress photography CRM?

It is software for running a photography business (clients, booking, contracts, invoices and galleries) that installs as a plugin on your WordPress site, instead of living in a separate hosted app. Mankai is one: it adds a studio area to your WordPress admin.

Does Mankai work with my WordPress theme?

Yes. Mankai is a plugin, so you keep your theme. Booking, the client portal and your studio details go on any page, and there are blocks for Gutenberg and widgets for Elementor.

Is Mankai free?

The free version runs clients, booking, contracts, invoices, payments, galleries and the client portal. Pro is $249.99 a year and adds quotes, custom workflows and emails, advanced forms and reports.

What do I need to run it?

WordPress 6.4 or newer, PHP 8.1 or newer, and hosting you choose. To take card payments, connect your own Stripe or PayPal account.

Can I move over from another studio app?

Yes. You can import your clients from a spreadsheet, and if you would rather have it done for you, Setup and migration installs Mankai, brands it and moves what you use now.

What happens to my data if Pro runs out?

You go back to the free version. Your clients, sessions, invoices and galleries stay in your WordPress database, and the Pro features come back when you renew.

Run your studio from your own WordPress.

Install the free plugin today. Add Pro when you want quotes, custom workflows and reports.

Try Mankai free See pricing