This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

Symbiostock – Sell Photos Online For Free!

Description

Symbiostock is a free, full featured WordPress plugin to sell your digital media. Our software is the preferred choice for independent photographers and vector artists who want to retain maximum control over their digital art, whilst earning a high profit margin. Symbiostock makes the setup process seamless and easy for any avid photographer.

Love taking photos? Why not make money on them?
Ever thought about monetizing all those great travel photos? Just can’t get enough of taking shots of delicious foods? Well, now instead of just storing all these images on your phone or computer, you can showcase them and actually sell them to magazines and bloggers using Symbiostock!

Protect your digital photos.
Symbiostock automatically watermarks your uploaded photos, so that when it appears on your online store, it is safely stamped to deter internet users from violating your copyright. Watermarking your images helps to protect your original work from theft and unauthorised use.

We offer two versions of our core software. A Lite version which is ideal for very basic use, and a Pro version that is complete with everything a photographer or vector artists might need to create a full-fledged digital media store and management centre. Both Lite and Pro versions are 100% free to use – there are no hidden fees or monthly subscriptions and updates are also always free.

Symbiostock Lite

The Symbiostock download on WordPress is Symbiostock Lite and is for basic use. Symbiostock Lite is a WooCommerce extension that allows you to upload JPEGs that will automatically be watermarked and added to WooCommerce as a digital product. Watermarking your images helps to protect your original work from theft and unauthorised use.

Once Symbiostock Lite is installed, you will see a new ‘Upload Media’ tab under your WooCommerce products header. Once uploaded, an image will be added as a digital product in draft mode. You can then edit the title/description/tags for your image and once published it is ready to be purchased and downloaded by customers.

Whilst Symbiostock Lite is good for those who wish to supplement their existing Woocommerce store by offering a limited selection of downloadable images to customers, you can upgrade to the Symbiostock Pro plugin for free to create a full featured photography or vector illustration store.

Symbiostock Pro is a free, fuller upgrade to Symbiostock Lite with many more features. Symbiostock Pro is ideal for hobbyists, amateur to professional photographers and vector artists who want to create a full digital media store and management system, complete with resized images, custom watermarks, licensing, protected downloads, meta data editing and more. Complete information on Symbiostock Pro is detailed below.

Please keep in mind that Symbiostock Lite products are not compatible with Symbiostock Pro, so it is advisable to upgrade to Pro right from the get-go. Remember Pro is also free, so if you think you might want to use Pro features in the future, upgrade straight away to make it easier for yourself in the long run.

Symbiostock Pro Free Upgrade

Check out the Symbiostock demo site to see Symbiostock Pro in action.

Symbiostock Pro is a free upgrade to Lite that offers advanced licensing, image manipulation, and other features, including the option of uploading videos, illustrations and vectors, with optional agency distribution and more. Symbiostock Pro is a full application that allows both professionals and amateurs alike to easily upload and automate the entire management of their online media store. It also allows you to include your media in Symzio, the first contributor controlled agency. Symbiostock Pro is completely free, there are no fees or monthly subscriptions and includes free lifetime software updates.

Features available in Pro include

  • FTP & Web Uploads. Upload all your images via FTP or a browser.
  • Imagick & GD Support. Use either Imagick or the built in PHP GD library for image processing.
  • Automatic thumbnails. All your images are protected via your custom watermark and thumbnails are automatically created.
  • Fully supports Vectors. With Imagick, you can sell vectors as both vectors and raster images.
  • Custom delivery format. Choose JPEG, PNG, GIF or others for customer downloads. Symbiostock converts everything automatically.
  • Robust licensing. Create your own licenses, edit pricing and licensing individually or globally using powerful filters.
  • Secure downloads. All image downloads are protected, files hidden from public view. Decide how many times, and for how much time, images can be downloaded once purchased.
  • Bulk editing. Change titles, descriptions, tags in bulk.
  • Full Metadata support. Symbiostock reads metadata when importing media and can write all your changes back to media. Converts your WordPress install into a full metadata editor.
  • Compatible with any WordPress theme. As Symbiostock is built on WordPress, you can use ANY WordPress theme and it will work beautifully with Symbiostock.
  • EU VAT Supported. With optional third party plugins, works to charge correctly, collect evidence, and even allow business customers to be exempted under the new EU VAT regulations.
  • GPS Geotags Supported Reads GPS information within geotagged images (usually automatically signed with enabled cameras) and displays location on an interactive Google Map on your image’s product page.
  • Optimized Related Products Uses meta data to display highly related ‘Related Products’ on individual product pages.

Fully Automated

Pro only

Once your WordPress site is online and Symbiostock has been installed, all you have to do is upload photos and Symbiostock does the rest. Licensing, pricing, even delivering protected content to customers is all done automatically and all you do is one-click upload. However, if you wish to customize your watermarks, licensing (add/remove/edit licenses), pricing or even change the sizes of the images you sell, you can easily do all of this with Symbiostock Pro.

About Us

Symbiostock started as a plugin for a small group of microstock artists to sell their media online. Symbiostock was created and is maintained by photographers just like you. We are artists who want to be able to sell our media directly to customers without having to rely solely on any third parties for distribution. Along with setting our own prices, having full control over the way in which we market our media has always been a high priority. As a community driven enterprise, we do our best to listen to and meet our community’s needs in order to empower our fellow digital artists.

Support

All support is performed on Symbiostock.org in our forums. Symbiostock provides help guides, extensive in-software tool tips and documentation for all our plugins. You may also submit custom support requests via our premium support system.

Symzio Integration

Pro only

In addition to selling all your stuff on your own WordPress site, you can also become a Symzio contributor and all of your Symbiostock media will automatically be included and displayed for sale on Symzio.com. Symzio connects all member Symbiostock sites together to provide customers one simple front end where they can search all the hundreds of Symbiostock sites at once, and make purchases in real-time.

Large Community

Via the Symbiostock Forums you can meet other Symbiostockers, ask questions and provide assistance to others. Showcase your site and network with others. Even the Symbiostock developers often interact on the official forums. Once you join Symbiostock, you’re part of the Symbiostock family!

Premium Add-ons

Pro only

Symbiostock Express
Our customized, responsive, mobile-friendly Symbiostock theme. Highly customizable, this is used by a majority of Symbiostock users. Symbiostock Express demo.

Symbiostock Video
Adds full video support to Symbiostock. With the Symbiostock Video plugin, you can upload videos directly to Symbiostock just as you would images. Previews are created with your custom watermark and it is fully compatible with the Symbiostock Submitter plugin.

Symbiostock Submitter
Powerful addition to Symbiostock that automatically submits all your new media to stock agencies such as Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. Streamlined so all you have to do is upload your media, keyword it, and the system automatically does the rest. Requires that the agency support FTP uploads.

Symbiostock Maps
Uses the Google Maps API to display your media in a clickable, interactive Google map. Symbiostock Maps is perfect for artists who capture travel locations, architectural marvels and natural wonders, whether it be via photography, video or illustrations.

Symbiostock Google Licenses
Enhances your search engine visibility within Google Images. It uses Google�s proprietary system to tag your media in such a way so that if a visitor sees one of your products in Google Images, it will now contain licensing information that will link directly to you Symbiostock store.

Symbiostock Anytype
An advanced plugin that allows you to sell RAW/ZIP/PDF files and other non-standard files alongside regular Symbiostock media products. Permits you to upload a file that you can associate to any product within Symbiostock to be served to customers upon purchase instead of the original uploaded media file.

Symbiostock Vendors
Transform your site into a multi-vendor marketplace & allow multiple contributors to sell via your site. Symbiostock Vendors enables groups of artists who wish to work together as one entity, to establish their core Symbiostock site whilst at the same time provisioning each artist with the tools needed to control their media products, without affecting the media of other users.

Constant Innovation

Symbiostock is constantly being improved, so keep up to date by joining our forum and introducing yourself.

Screenshots

  • Web-based media uploader
  • The backend of your media store
  • Advanced Quick Edit to edit meta data, categorize & publish
  • Actual front end screenshot from live demo site
  • Create unlimited custom licenses
  • Use a custom or default watermark
  • Optimize your product pages
  • Set products to auto-publish
  • Customize download limits
  • Symbiostock Cron Processor settings
  • Option to connect Symzio stock agency

Installation

Symbiostock requires WooCommerce to operate. Symbiostock can operate solely on the built in PHP GD library, but the Imagick PHP extension is needed for fully featured functionality, incuding vector support. Symbiostock has been tested in production with PHP5.4-7.3.

  1. Install Symbiostock either via the WordPress.org plugin directory, or by uploading the files to your server, and activate it.
  2. If you do not already have WooCommerce, you will be prompted to install it. Just click the link and it will be automatically installed.
  3. That’s it. You’re ready to start uploading media!

If you need additional help, refer to our documentation which explains how to get started with Symbiostock and assists in troubleshooting any installation issues. Don’t hesitate to visit our forums if your problem persists! Also remember that Symbiostock is fully documented within the plugin itself, with tooltips explaining most of the functionalities.

(Please note that Symbiostock will work with other versions of WooCommerce, but the version listed above is the currently verified stable one that we are able to actively support. You are discouraged from automatically updating WooCommerce on live servers)

FAQ

What is the difference between Pro and Lite?

Symbiostock Pro is a full application meant to provide everything you could possibly want and need from a customizable media store. For full features check the plugin’s main page. Symbiostock Lite is mainly an extension for WooCommerce that lets you upload JPEGs that will automatically get watermarked and converted into a WooCommerce product.

Is Symbiostock Pro completely free or is there a premium version with more features?

Symbiostock Pro is 100% free! There are no fees or monthly subscriptions. We have decided to release it as a fully featured free version and sustain development through value added services such as our optional Symbiostock Submitter and Video plugins, our premium themes, and of course our hosting solution.

Will Symbiostock conflict with my current WooCommerce integration?

Symbiostock controls products created through its interface. Products not created by Symbiostock remain unaffected, and you can actively sell both digital and non-digital goods through the same WooCommerce install.

Are you going to be doing any networking amongst Symbiostock stores?

We’re already there! Symbiostock exclusively allows you to syndicate your media within the first global contributor driven agency at Symzio. Control your prices and join in the push towards artist independence while earning 70% on all your sales.

What limitations are there if I don’t have Imagick installed?

Without Imagick, Symbiostock cannot process vectors and some other minor functions will not be as optimal as they would be with it installed. This is due to limitations with the built in GD library that bundles with PHP. In essence, you can only process JPEG images using the GD library and is fully suitable for photographers. As well, using the GD library requires approximately 10x the amount of memory that Imagick does to process images.

How do I contribute to Symbiostock?

Easy!

  • You can join our forums to provide feedback, suggestions, and to help other users optimize and troubleshoot.
  • You can support Symbiostock by using our value added services such as Symbiostock Hosting and our premium plugins and themes.
  • You can give us a glowing review on WordPress – reviews from users like you are the bread and butter of any good plugin.
  • If you use Symbiostock or just support the drive behind it, you can extend your support into a donation to help fund development.

Reviews

August 10, 2020
After the installation several menu items have disappeared. It is no longer possible to define delivery times or to create your own product variants. If you want to sell not only photos but also physical products, this is now only possible in an extremely limited way. Then the server becomes extremely slow, because a CRON job has to run constantly for the PlugIn to work. And in Europe the plugin can not be used legally safe, because all DSGVO points are missing. Conclusion: In Europe not applicable, and also otherwise only usable for pure photo pages.
June 23, 2020
We are so glad we found Symbiostock since it's a perfect fit for us in combination with WooCommerce. Also, we needed the support for one GPS issue, and they helped us very quick and pointed us to the right solution. Just can recommend it to photographers who want to sell their images online. Thanks & best regards
April 13, 2020
As I finally set it up I give it 5 star regardless of the minor inconveniences I stumbled upon ~on my journey.
April 7, 2020
Amazing plugin now compatible with the last version of Woocommerce (4.0.1). Robin offers absolutely first class support. A must have plugin for every photographers or illustrators ! Chris
April 7, 2020
Love this plugin. Something went wrong with my initial installation (probably a User Error on my part lol) and it took a couple of weeks of back and forth with support to identify the issue and get it sorted. Robin from Symbiostock was always happy to make a suggestion and answer my queries. Since I found the issue with Robin's help and fixed the cause, every part of the system just works beautifully, from uploading media to customers downloading purchased products and every process in between. Thank you to the Symbiostock Team for an awesome product and wonderful support. Cheers, Pat 🙂
Read all 45 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Symbiostock – Sell Photos Online For Free!” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

4.0.0

  • Compatibility with WooCommerce 4.0.1
  • Compatibility with Symbiostock Pro & Premium Plugins
  • Security fixes

3.2

  • Added failsafe for ZIP files on certain PHP installs
  • Split Symbiostock into Lite and Pro, shifted Pro hosting to Symbiostock.org