Share photos as an online gallery
Updated 11 June 2026
A folder of photos dropped onto Nippy becomes an online gallery automatically: a thumbnail grid that loads fast on any connection, a full-screen lightbox for flicking through, and downloads for saving photos. The originals are never recompressed — thumbnails are generated for browsing, but every download serves exactly the file that was uploaded, at full resolution. Visitors can save one photo or a whole folder as a single zip, and downloads can be switched off per site when a gallery should be view-only.
Subfolders work the way folders should: drop in “Ceremony” and “Reception” and visitors see them as sections to open. There is no expiry — a gallery stays online until it is paused or deleted — and updating means dropping more photos onto the site and publishing in one click, on the same link. The free plan’s 25 MB suits a small, web-sized set; paid plans add the space full shoots need, plus password protection so a gallery can be shared with the client alone.
Step by step
- 1
Put the photos in a folder
Organise them however the viewer should see them — subfolders like “Ceremony” and “Reception” show up as sections visitors can open.
- 2
Drop the folder and pick an address
Drag it onto the upload area and choose something like shoots.nippy.site. The grid, lightbox and download buttons are generated for you.
- 3
Send one link
Visitors browse in any browser — no account, no app. They can download single photos or a folder as one zip, always at original quality.
- 4
Add photos later
Drop new files onto the site’s Files tab and publish. The link you already shared now shows the fuller gallery.
Common questions
Are my photos compressed?
No. The gallery shows optimized thumbnails so it loads fast, but files are stored and served exactly as uploaded — downloads are always full resolution.
Can visitors download everything at once?
Yes — any folder can be downloaded as a single zip of the original files. Very large galleries are downloaded folder by folder.
Can I make a gallery view-only?
Yes — downloads can be switched off per site, which removes the zip and per-photo download buttons while the gallery stays browsable.
Can I keep a gallery private?
On paid plans, protect the site with a password: visitors see a password form and nothing else — no thumbnails, no file names — until they enter it.
How big can a gallery be?
The free plan includes 25 MB — fine for a small, web-sized set. Paid plans add the space full shoots need.
Ready to do it?
Host a photo galleryMore guides
- Publish from Claude with the MCP server
- Deploy from the terminal or CI
- Get your first site online
- Connect a custom domain
- My custom domain is taking a while to go live
- Password-protect a site
- Understand site analytics
- Edit your site in the browser
- Share a Claude Artifact at your own link
- Publish a page made with ChatGPT
- Open a Keynote file without a Mac
- Open a Pages file on Windows
- View Word and PowerPoint files in the browser
- How the free trial works
Still stuck?
Our team is happy to help with anything Nippy.