Sprout Studio vs Mankai

Sprout Studio is a hosted all-in-one for photographers, while Mankai gives you the same kind of setup as a plugin on your own hosting.

Is there a Sprout Studio alternative I can host on my own WordPress site?

Yes. Mankai is a WordPress plugin for photographers that covers booking, contracts, invoices and galleries on your own hosting, with no active-shoot limits. Sprout Studio hosts CRM, galleries and email marketing for you from $228 a year, and Lite allows 10 active shoots and galleries. Mankai is free to start; Pro is $249.99 a year.

Elijah Lemanski, the photographer who makes Mankai

The short version

Both are good tools. Which one suits you comes down to hosting, galleries and how you like to get paid.

What Sprout Studio does well

CRM, galleries and email marketing in one.
Made for photographers and shoot-based work.

What Mankai does differently

A plugin on your own WordPress hosting.
No active-shoot caps on Free or Pro.

Stay with Sprout Studio if…

You want one hosted company for everything.

Try Mankai if…

You keep hitting active-shoot or storage tiers.

At a glance

Last checked July 24, 2026. Their plans and prices can change, so check their site before you decide.

Mankai compared with Sprout Studio, last checked July 24, 2026
Running the studio
	Mankai	Sprout Studio
Studio CRM	Yes: clients, sessions, portal	Yes, a photography-first all-in-one
Booking and scheduling	Yes, included	Yes
Contracts and invoices	Contracts and invoices; new quotes on Pro	Yes
Client galleries	Yes: proofing and a print shop	Yes, with storage and active-gallery tiers
Email marketing	Studio emails to clients; not a full email marketing tool	Yes, included in the suite
Money
Starting price	Free, or Pro at $249.99/yr; hosting is separate	From $228/yr (Lite at $19/mo)
Invoices and payments	Your Stripe or PayPal	Built-in payments, marketed as commission-free
Extra fee on payments	No Mankai cut; processor rates only	Marketed as commission-free; processor fees still apply
How you pay for it	Free download, or Pro yearly	Lite, Basic, Pro, or Unlimited; storage tiers
Active work limits	No per-client fee from Mankai	10 active shoots + galleries on Lite
Your site and your data
Where it lives	On your WordPress site	Sprout Studio hosts it for you
Built for WordPress	Yes, as a plugin	No
Where client data sits	Your WordPress database	Sprout Studio’s servers
Moving over	Optional Setup & Migration help; no auto-import	Import tools and paid concierge migration

What this page doesn’t claim

The exact email marketing send limits on each Sprout plan over time.
Feature checkmarks that have no public, plan-by-plan footnotes.
Dollar savings against any particular Sprout Lite, Pro or Unlimited setup.

Switch or stay

Here are good reasons to move and good reasons to stay put. Sprout Studio may still be the better fit for you.

Why you might switch

Your CRM and galleries on your own domain and database, instead of another studio cloud account.

Lite and Basic cap active shoots and galleries. Mankai’s Free and Pro aren’t sold that way.

If you already run WordPress, Mankai is one more plugin on hosting you control.

Free covers the core studio work. Pro is $249.99 a year, and galleries sit on your host, not on Sprout storage tiers.

Your CRM and galleries on your own domain and database, instead of another studio cloud account.

Lite and Basic cap active shoots and galleries. Mankai’s Free and Pro aren’t sold that way.

If you already run WordPress, Mankai is one more plugin on hosting you control.

Free covers the core studio work. Pro is $249.99 a year, and galleries sit on your host, not on Sprout storage tiers.

Why you might stay

Sprout gives you CRM, galleries, email marketing and album tools without WordPress. That’s a fair thing to want.

If album proofing or lab fulfillment is how you sell, check how Mankai handles prints and proofing first.

Self-hosting makes updates, backups and uptime your job. If that’s a hard no, stay.

Mankai isn’t trying to replace a full email marketing service feature for feature.

Sprout gives you CRM, galleries, email marketing and album tools without WordPress. That’s a fair thing to want.

If album proofing or lab fulfillment is how you sell, check how Mankai handles prints and proofing first.

Self-hosting makes updates, backups and uptime your job. If that’s a hard no, stay.

Mankai isn’t trying to replace a full email marketing service feature for feature.

What moving over involves

Sprout can’t move itself into WordPress. You export what you can, rebuild your shoots and templates, and switch when you’re ready.

Export contacts and open shoots
Download your contacts, and note which galleries still need something from clients before you change links.
Save contracts and money records
Save active contracts and invoices as PDFs, and keep payment history with your processor.
Rebuild booking and delivery
Set up your packages, contracts, questionnaires and gallery settings once in Mankai.
Send new work to your site
Update your public links so new leads and galleries land on your WordPress site.

Active galleries, favorites and your Sprout email marketing history don’t come with you. If it’s safer, finish the jobs already underway in Sprout.

Setup & Migration is $799.99, paid once, after you have Pro. I go over the scope with you first. It doesn’t include automatic imports.

Ask about Setup & Migration

A Zenit-E film camera beside three instant prints, laid out on an old map

Questions people ask before leaving Sprout Studio

Not quite. They overlap a lot on CRM and galleries, but Sprout is a hosted all-in-one with email marketing and album tools. Mankai is a WordPress photography plugin you host yourself.

For a lot of studios, yes: proofing, delivery, watermarks and a print shop. It won’t copy every Sprout gallery theme, lab option or album proofing feature, so compare the parts you actually use.

Lite starts at 10 active shoots and galleries with 50GB of storage. Higher plans raise or remove those caps. Mankai doesn’t sell active-shoot tiers, and your host decides how much storage you have.

Their pricing page says “commission-free”, though processor fees still apply. Mankai doesn’t take a cut of your Stripe or PayPal payments either.

Then staying on Sprout is a fair choice. Or book Setup & Migration and choose good WordPress hosting, so you aren’t the one keeping the server running. Self-hosting is a real tradeoff.

Read their current help pages and pricing. If running your studio on WordPress appeals to you, look through Mankai’s features too. Then pick the setup that suits how you like to work. Neither one is right for every studio.

Sprout Studio site (opens in a new tab) Mankai features Mankai pricing