Hi, I'm Elijah. I made this for photographers like my mom.
Own the system that runs your studio.
Mankai is a WordPress plugin that puts your whole client business on your own website: booking, galleries, contracts, invoices, email, and automation. Your domain. Your database. One license a year.
One license. Unlimited clients. No funny meters. Built for photographers, works for any client business.
You didn't start a studio to manage subscriptions.
But somewhere along the way, the business side turned into a stack of tabs. Booking lives in one tool. Galleries in another. Contracts and invoices in a third. Each one has its own login, its own logo, its own monthly fee, and its own copy of your clients.
Add it up and many studios pay more for their tab stack than for their camera insurance, without owning a single row of the data inside it. (Yes, I checked the insurance math.)
What if all of it just… lived on your website?
You already have a website your clients trust. Mankai turns it into the whole system. Clients book there, sign there, pay there, and pick up their galleries there, while you run everything from one dashboard behind it. One brand, end to end. Yours.
A real back office, built around how shoots actually run.
Booking that fills your calendar properly
Define your offerings once: price, deposit, duration, delivery window, contract, questionnaire. Mankai handles the rest. Clients pick a session type, answer your questions, and land on your calendar with the retainer already requested.
How session types work
A calendar that thinks like a photographer
Month, day, and list views with your sessions, your blocked time, and the golden hour marked on every single day. Set weekly availability, export to your phone, and check tomorrow's light without opening another app.
See the calendarEvery client, every thread, one screen
Mankai keeps a real client record: sessions, payments, signatures, questionnaires, conversations. The built-in inbox syncs your actual email and sorts it into a pipeline. New inquiry. Waiting on you. Waiting on them. Follow up.
Inside the inbox
Galleries your clients will screenshot.
(They can't. You watermarked them.)
Full-bleed covers, clean grids, favorites, downloads, and print ordering. Delivered from your domain, protected the way you choose.
Proofing, two ways.
Standard delivery, or soft-proof mode where clients pick favorites from previews, you edit only what they chose, and then deliver final files. Selection limits included.
Protection you control.
Per-gallery watermarks with position, opacity, and tiling. Download limits, expiry dates, password and private-link options, even DevTools detection.
Prints without the middleman.
Clients order prints right in the gallery. Your products, your prices, crop preview included. Orders, statuses, and tracking emails are built in.
Quotes, invoices, deposits, reminders. No 3% haircut.
Clients pay by card through Stripe or PayPal at standard rates. Mankai adds zero on top. That alone pays for the license on most studios.
The money runs itself
Send a quote, and approval converts it into a booked session automatically. Invoices track retainers, balances, and installments, then chase politely on their own. The reminder history lives right on the row.
Thirty-eight emails you'll never have to write again.
Booking confirmations. Session reminders. Gallery delivery. Payment receipts and polite overdue nudges. Every one branded, editable, and sent at the right moment while you're out shooting.
Edit them like a human
Every template opens in a friendly editor with a live preview. Change a sentence, send a test, done. No HTML wrestling.
Forms that do the asking for you
A drag-and-drop builder with 20 field types and conditional logic. Each session type gets its own questionnaire, so the right questions go out before you ever arrive on set.
What's your dog's name? Which door should I knock on? Asked automatically, answered before the shoot.
See the form builder
Rent software if you like. Never rent your business.
Own your data.
Clients, contracts, payments, galleries. Rows in your WordPress database. Export any of it, any day. Even the uninstaller asks before deleting a single record.
Own your client experience.
Every page, portal, and email carries your domain and your brand. Nobody else's logo touches your client relationship.
Own your website.
The system lives inside the site that markets you. One login, one brand, no bridge between marketing site and client portal.
No lock-in.
Stop renewing and the plugin keeps working with your data intact. You lose updates and support, never your records.
Don't take my word for the exit. The data-retention switch is on the settings page, default off. Your records outlive the plugin unless you decide otherwise.
One license, the whole job.
These are good tools. The difference is how much of the job each one covers, and who owns the result at the end.
| What a studio needs | Mankai | HoneyBook | Pixieset | Studio Ninja |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booking & scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Client galleries & proofing | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Watermarks & download protection | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Contracts with e-signature | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Invoices & online payments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Real email inbox in the CRM | ✓ | ~ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Print shop at your prices | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Runs on your own domain | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Data in your own database | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Flat yearly price, unlimited clients | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ~ |
| ✓ included · ~ partial or limited · ✕ not offered. Based on each product's public feature pages, June 2026. They're all solid at what they do; none of them hand you the keys. | ||||
Own it for less than they rent it.
Plugin
Best if you already run WordPress and just need the CRM.
Renews at $149/yr · updates, support, every feature.
Includes
- Full Mankai CRM plugin on your WordPress site
- Booking, calendar, session types, and availability
- Proofing galleries, delivery, print shop, watermarks
- Contracts, quotes, e-signatures, and PDFs
- Invoices via Stripe/PayPal — Mankai adds 0% on top
- Email inbox sync + 38 automated email templates
- Client portal on your domain
- Unlimited clients, sessions, galleries, and invoices
Does not include the public photography website theme.
Get the pluginPlugin + Theme
Best if you want the CRM and a complete public site together.
Renews at $199/yr · plugin + theme licenses.
Everything in Plugin, plus
- Mankai Photography Theme for your public website
- Portfolio, investment, about, and contact pages
- Booking pages wired to your session types
- 3 homepage layouts and built-in dark mode
- Pricing on your site synced from the CRM
- Theme updates included with your license
You install both on hosting you control. No page builder required.
Get the bundleSetup + Migration
Best if you are switching tools or want it live without DIY setup.
Then $199/yr for plugin + theme · year one included.
Everything in Plugin + Theme, plus
- Done-with-you install on your host (or a fresh WordPress site)
- Your branding, logo, colors, and typography applied
- Session types, packages, intake forms, and booking flow configured
- Payment processor connected and tested
- Email templates and automations wired to your workflow
- Data migration from HoneyBook, Pixieset, spreadsheets, or galleries
- Live walkthrough when you go live + 30 days priority support
After year one, renew at the bundle rate. Your data stays on your server either way.
Book setupEvery tier includes every CRM feature — no per-client fees, no payment surcharges, no feature gates. Renewals cover updates and support; your install and data stay yours if you stop. During early access all sales are final, so watch the videos, read the docs, and buy when you are sure.
| Your stack | Per year |
|---|---|
| Mankai + hosting you likely already pay for | $149 to $199 |
| Typical CRM + gallery subscription pairing | $700 to $950+ |
"I grew up watching renewal emails land in a photographer's inbox. I write mine like I remember that." · Elijah
New software, honestly labeled.
It's early.
Mankai is in active beta. It runs real studios today, and you'll find rough edges. When you do, you'll be telling the person who can fix them.
It moves weekly.
Small, steady releases beat a silent roadmap. The changelog is public. Judge the pace yourself.
ChangelogThe docs are real.
Written by the person who built the thing, from installation to automation. No AI filler.
Read the docsA human answers.
Support is open every day, 8 AM to 2 PM Central (Wisconsin time). You're emailing the developer, not a queue.
Say helloThe first fifty accounts get 50% off, and that price stays locked for as long as you keep the license. It's my thank-you for trusting a new tool while it's still getting its polish.
FOUNDING50Build on something you own.
Install Mankai on your WordPress site this afternoon, or let me set the whole thing up with you.