Portfolio builders
Cliux vs Format
Pick Cliux if you want a freeform canvas for the whole site, with a store, bookings and memberships on every plan and an agency console. Pick Format if you want a photographer's toolkit: client proofing galleries, file transfers, contracts and image-heavy hosting on themes made for the trade.
In Format’s own words: “The Portfolio Builder for Photographers”
Side by side
What each product offers
Every figure in the right-hand column links to the page it was read on and the day it was read. Cliux figures are read from the product's own catalogue.
| Feature | Cliux | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest paid plan | $192 a year per published site, billed yearly; building and previewing is free | Basic: $10 a month billed annually, $14 a month billed monthly[1] |
| Free plan | Free to build and preview with a password-protected share link. A site is free to build and preview; publishing it is $192 a year on the Website plan, and selling starts on Business at $348 a year. An agency buys each client site's plan at its workspace discount; Pro and Scale add seats and white label. | No free plan; a 14-day trial site is online on a free .format.com address[1] |
| Fees on your sales | 0% platform commission on any sale your site makes; payments go to your own Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie or Adyen account and that provider's processing fee applies | No Format commission on store sales; processor fees apply[2] |
| Editor model | Freeform canvas: drag anything anywhere, pixel placement, with a separately tunable phone layout | Theme-based sites; the Flex Block section gives a drag, resize and overlap canvas inside custom pages[3] |
| Sites per plan | One site plan per published site, from $192 a year; agencies buy them at their workspace discount (Starter: free, 2 seats; Pro $588 a year for 10 seats, white label and 20% off every site plan; Scale $1,788 a year for unlimited seats, white label and 30% off every site plan) | One account can hold several sites, each with its own subscription[4] |
| Team seats and client access | Agency console: owners and admins reach every client site; a site role reaches only the sites it is granted; custom roles from 9 permission keys. One account can belong to several agencies with a role in each, and an agency can invite people who already use Cliux | not found on official pages (no collaborator or team article in the help centre)[1] |
| Selling online | Online Store: physical and digital products, card or bank transfer, shipping zones, stock, discount codes; no product variants | Format Store on Pro (15 products) and Pro Plus (1000 products); none on Basic[1] |
| Blog | Blog with categories, tags, authors, comments and scheduling | Included on all plans with tags, comments and per-post SEO[5] |
| Forms | Forms with a submissions inbox, spam filtering, email alerts and webhooks | Contact form and mailing list form on all plans[6] |
| Custom code | Page code panel in the editor: your own JavaScript, addressing elements by name, in a sandbox; no server-side code | CSS on all plans; theme HTML files and HTML blocks on Pro and Pro Plus[7] |
| Custom domain | Connect a domain you already own: two DNS records (@ and www) pointing at Cliux, certificate issued for you; every site also keeps a Cliux address | Connect an existing domain on all plans; a free domain for the first year on Pro and Pro Plus yearly[8] |
| AI site generation | None | not found on official pages; Format blocks AI training crawlers by default[9] |
| Starting points | 11 design themes x 8 site types, then change anything | More than 90 themes, switchable without losing content[10] |
| Code export | None | No site or code export; images can be downloaded, page text cannot be extracted[11] |
| Support | Human support seven days a week by chat and email; priority support on Pro Plus[12] | |
| Pages or projects per plan | One-click publish with version history and rollback; up to 200 pages per site | 10 pages and 70 images on Basic; unlimited pages on Pro and Pro Plus[1] |
| Views per month | Hosted by Cliux on a Cliux subdomain; no published uptime figure | not found on official pages (no view cap is published; storage and image counts are the meters)[1] |
| Client proofing | Password-protected share previews with an expiry and a comment thread for whoever reviews; no per-image proofing galleries | Client galleries with favouriting, downloads, watermarking and passwords on every plan; file transfers and contracts in Workflow[13] |
Where they lead
Where Format is stronger
A commission-free store on Pro and Pro Plus with PayPal or Stripe[2]
Photographer business tooling on every plan: client proofing galleries, branded file transfers, contracts[13]
Image-centric hosting: large files, up to 1 TB of image storage and hosted video on Pro Plus[1]
A free domain for the first year on yearly Pro plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee on annual plans[8]
Human support seven days a week and more than 90 switchable themes[10]
Where we differ
Where Cliux is different
Freeform canvas: drag anything anywhere, pixel placement, with a separately tunable phone layout
11 built-in apps on every published site: Blog, Online Store, Bookings, Events, Restaurant, Community, Donations, Members Area, Paid Subscriptions, Forms, Smart Chat; taking payments starts on Business, recurring payments on Business Plus
Starter: free, 2 seats; Pro $588 a year for 10 seats, white label and 20% off every site plan; Scale $1,788 a year for unlimited seats, white label and 30% off every site plan
Agency console: owners and admins reach every client site; a site role reaches only the sites it is granted; custom roles from 9 permission keys. One account can belong to several agencies with a role in each, and an agency can invite people who already use Cliux
0% platform commission on any sale your site makes; payments go to your own Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie or Adyen account and that provider's processing fee applies
Proposals, contracts and invoices in the agency console, paid into your own Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie or Adyen account
Moving over
How a move from Format works
There is no import tool. This is what a switch involves, step by step.
There is no import tool, and Format publishes no site export. Download your images from Format first, then open the old site beside a new Cliux site and rebuild each page on the canvas.
Publish on your free Cliux address, share the password-protected preview with whoever signs off, and keep the old site live until you are happy.
Point your own domain at Cliux: two DNS records, and the certificate is issued for you; the Cliux address keeps working beside it.
Frequently asked questions
Have other questions?Use the contact form
Cliux: the whole page is a freeform canvas with a derived, tunable phone layout. Format sites follow a theme; its Flex Block section gives a drag, resize and overlap canvas inside custom pages.
Neither: Cliux takes 0% and Format states no commission on Store purchases. Processor fees apply on both. Format's store starts on Pro; the Cliux store is on every published site.
Not as a gallery. A Cliux site can share a password-protected preview with an expiry and a comment thread for the reviewer, but there are no per-image proofing galleries. Format includes client galleries with favouriting and downloads on every plan.
A site is free to build and preview; publishing it is $192 a year on the Website plan, and selling starts on Business at $348 a year. An agency buys each client site's plan at its workspace discount; Pro and Scale add seats and white label. Format has no free plan; the entry is a 14-day trial.
Connect a domain you already own: two DNS records (@ and www) pointing at Cliux, certificate issued for you; every site also keeps a Cliux address. Format connects an existing domain on all plans and includes a free first-year domain on yearly Pro plans.
Get started
Build it on the canvas, then decide.
Building and previewing costs nothing. Publishing on your own domain is $192 a year on the Website plan, and selling starts on Business.
Sources (13) and editor’s note, checked on 2026-09-18
- [1]format.com › pricing-portfolio
- [2]help.format.com › articles › 28139512330643-Format-Store-overview
- [3]help.format.com › articles › 40378133636883-Flex-Block-overview
- [4]help.format.com › articles › 28139445683475-Add-a-New-Site-to-your-Format-account
- [5]
- [6]help.format.com › articles › 28139467422867-Creating-a-Contact-Page-with-a-Contact-Form
- [7]help.format.com › articles › 28139451213587-Advanced-Code-Editor
- [8]help.format.com › articles › 28139494971155-How-to-get-a-free-custom-domain-name
- [9]help.format.com › articles › 28139412042259-Understanding-AI-and-how-Format-protects-your-content
- [10]format.com
- [11]help.format.com › articles › 32173761860627-How-to-export-or-download-your-website-content
- [12]help.format.com › articles › 28139365191059-How-to-get-help-at-Format
- [13]format.com › workflow-photography-studio-management
Editor’s note: the facts on this page were checked on 2026-09-18 against Format’s own pages; prices and plans change, and the other product’s site is the authority on itself. Not read on official pages: The help centre answers 403 to plain fetches; its articles were read through the help centre JSON API; Whether the promotional annual prices shown for Pro and Pro Plus are the standard price after the promotion ends; The pricing page disagrees with itself on Basic client galleries (10 on the card, 3 in the table); Team seats, roles or collaborator access: no official page found either way; Built-in visitor analytics: not found; Google Analytics is connected by ID; Bookings, memberships and white label: not found on official pages. Format is a trademark of its owner; this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by Format. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.