Mankai CRM by elijah lemanski
Get Mankai

WordPress CRM for photographers

Run your entire photography business from WordPress.

Mankai keeps clients, sessions, contracts, invoices, payments, galleries, email, and workflows in one connected platform. Your domain, your database, your brand.

Get Mankai Explore Features

Independently built by @eplemanski around real studio workflows.

The Mankai dashboard for a fictional demo studio: active sessions, items needing attention, upcoming work, income and expenses, and recent payments.
Clients Sessions Booking Calendar Golden hour Quotes Contracts Invoices Payments Retainers Expenses Inbox Email templates Forms Workflows Documents Galleries Proofing Print shop Client portal Mobile PWA Website tools
The platform

One system for the whole job.

Every screen below is the real Mankai interface running a fictional demo studio. This is the software you get.

Sessions

Every session carries its own price, retainer, contract, and checklist.

Session types define the offering once. The session workspace shows the client, time, balance, and next action in one view.

The Mankai session-at-a-glance card for a fictional booking: client, date, golden hour note, and session value.
Inbox

Your real email, sorted by what needs you next.

IMAP and SMTP connect the mailbox you already use. Conversations stay linked to the client and the job.

A fictional client conversation open in the Mankai inbox with waiting-on-you labels.
Calendar

Month, day, and list views with availability built in.

The Mankai calendar month grid with fictional sessions and blocked time.
Galleries

Proofing, favorites, and delivery on your domain.

The Mankai gallery editor grid with fictional demo photographs.
Golden hour

Light, sunset, and timing on every session.

The golden hour panel on a Mankai session showing sunset timing for a fictional shoot.
Browse every feature
Daily work

From inquiry to shoot day, one workspace.

The Mankai session action pane for a fictional booking with status, payments, and delivery actions.

Everything about the job on one screen.

The action pane keeps status, payments, documents, delivery, and internal notes attached to the session instead of scattered across tools.

  • Status, balance, and next action at a glance
  • Reschedule, deliver, and collect from one pane
  • Internal notes stay with the job
Get paid

Quotes, contracts, invoices, and payments stay on the same job.

A client approval turns a quote into booked work without retyping anything. Card payments run through your own Stripe or PayPal account, and Mankai adds no percentage on top.

A Mankai invoice for a fictional session with line items, retainer, and remaining balance.
The Mankai payment records list with fictional transactions.
The Mankai quote editor with fictional line items a client can approve.
The Mankai expense records list with fictional business expenses.
Retainers and installmentsDeposits at booking, payment plans, reminders, and receipts without a second tool.
Expenses and reportingRecord expenses, track income against spending, and export CSVs for your accountant.
Coupons and gift cardsRun promotions and sell gift cards that apply directly at booking and checkout.
A client-facing Mankai gallery on the studio domain with fictional demo photographs.
The Mankai gallery editor with a fictional client gallery.
The Mankai client portal dashboard greeting a fictional client.
An open invoice with Pay Now inside the Mankai client portal.
A client print order checkout inside a fictional Mankai gallery.
Deliver

Galleries clients love. A portal that answers their questions.

Proofing, favorites, downloads, and watermarking run on your own domain. The client portal turns internal status into a clear checklist: sign the contract, pay the retainer, open the gallery, order prints.

  • Client favorites and proofing selections
  • Invoices with Pay Now, documents, and signing in the portal
  • Print shop with your products, sizes, and pricing
  • Deliverables that stay available behind one login
Communicate and automate

The repetitive work runs itself.

Forms feed clients in, workflows react to real events, and templated email keeps every message consistent without sounding canned.

The Mankai form builder editing a fictional intake form.

Forms

Intake and booking forms that create real client records.

When-then workflow steps in the Mankai workflow editor.

Workflows

Bookings, payments, signatures, and replies trigger the next step for you.

Built-in lifecycle templates in the Mankai email customizer.

Email templates

Lifecycle emails from booking confirmed to gallery delivered, editable with live preview.

A fictional contract in the Mankai document template editor.

Documents

Contracts and documents with merge tags, signing, and PDF export.

Mobile PWA

Your business does not stay behind a desk.

Check sessions, reply to clients, review payments, and manage the day from the Mankai mobile experience. It installs like an app, straight from your own site.

A fictional session open in the Mankai mobile app with schedule and balance.
Sessions
The Mankai mobile dashboard with fictional daily overview and financial insight.
Dashboard
An open client conversation in the Mankai mobile inbox with fictional messages.
Inbox
The Mankai mobile calendar with fictional sessions.
Calendar
A fictional invoice open in the Mankai mobile app.
Invoices
Built to work with WordPress

Keep control of the platform your business runs on.

Mankai installs into WordPress on hosting you control. Client records, invoices, galleries, and email live in your database, on your domain, next to your website instead of scattered across disconnected subscriptions.

  • Your data stays in your WordPress database, exportable any time
  • Unlimited clients, sessions, and galleries with no metered tiers
  • Website tools included: portfolio, blog, testimonials, branding, SEO settings

Want the matching public website? The Mankai Photography Theme is the companion theme designed around the CRM, proven on Dandelion Soul Studio, a working portrait studio in central Wisconsin. Existing customers can add it for $59.99 per year; new customers who want both should choose Mankai Complete.

Get the Companion Theme Visit the live studio(opens dandelionsoul.studio in a new tab)
Mankai Photography Theme homepage preview for a portrait studio, with booking and gallery entry points.

The companion Photography Theme: public website, booking, and galleries on your domain.

Pricing

Three products. Annual licensing. No meters.

No per-client fees, no per-seat math, and no transaction percentage from Mankai. Pick the CRM, add the companion theme later, or get both together.

Mankai CRM

$149/year

The core business platform inside your WordPress site.

  • Clients, sessions, booking, calendar
  • Quotes, contracts, invoices, payments
  • Inbox, forms, workflows
  • Galleries, delivery, client portal
  • Weekly updates and licensed support
Get Mankai CRM

Mankai Complete

Recommended

$199/year

Mankai CRM and the Photography Theme together, in one checkout with both license entitlements.

  • Everything in Mankai CRM
  • The Mankai Photography Theme
  • The complete connected experience
  • Weekly updates and licensed support
Get Mankai Complete

Photography Theme

$59.99/year

The companion website theme, for existing Mankai CRM customers.

  • Requires an active Mankai CRM installation
  • Photography-focused public website design
  • Booking and pricing connected to the CRM
  • Theme updates while the license is active
Get the Companion Theme

Does not include the CRM. Need both? Choose Mankai Complete.

Want Mankai set up for you? Professional Setup and Migration, $799 one time. Purchase Mankai first, then request the project.

Annual licensing only. An active Mankai CRM license is required for CRM administration; expiry starts a seven-day grace period and stored business data is not deleted. An expired theme license leaves your public website rendering while updates and support pause. Details in the FAQ.

Professional Setup and Migration

$799 one time, invoiced after review

The service covers installation, branding, session types, booking, forms, payment configuration guidance, email templates, automations, theme configuration if you own the theme, and migration of applicable data from your current system.

  1. Purchase Mankai CRM or Mankai Complete.
  2. Submit a setup and migration request with your current system and approximate volume.
  3. The project is reviewed and an invoice is issued.
  4. Work begins after approval and payment.

Nothing is charged automatically from the request. Unusually large migrations may need scope confirmation before the invoice, and not every source platform can be migrated completely.

Request Setup and Migration
FAQ

Straight answers.

Licensing, data ownership, and what happens when things expire, in plain language. Anything else, ask the developer directly.

Yes. Mankai CRM is a WordPress plugin and the Photography Theme is a WordPress theme. You install them on hosting you control, or request Setup and Migration and I will configure them with you.

No. Mankai CRM runs with your existing WordPress theme. The Photography Theme is the companion public website built around the CRM; it requires Mankai CRM and is not sold as a generic standalone theme. New customers who want both should choose Mankai Complete.

Each product uses an annual license sold through Freemius. An active Mankai CRM license is required to use the CRM administration system. There are no per-client or per-session caps.

You get a seven-day grace period to renew. After that, CRM administration locks until the license is reactivated. Your stored business data is not deleted, and public booking and client portal pages are not gated the same way.

Your public website keeps rendering with its existing content and layouts. Theme updates and licensed support pause until you renew. The theme does not use the CRM admin lock.

No. Clients pay through your own Stripe or PayPal account at standard processor rates, and Mankai adds nothing on top. Manual payments such as cash, check, and Venmo can be recorded too.

Yes. Professional Setup and Migration is a one-time service. Purchase Mankai first, then submit a setup request; the project is reviewed and an invoice is sent afterward. Nothing is charged automatically.

In your WordPress database on your hosting. It is exportable and not rented from me. Uninstalling does not wipe business data unless you explicitly turn that on.

Your photography business can run from one connected system.

Built to work with WordPress, improved every week, and priced without meters.

Get Mankai Explore Features

Want the long version first? Read the documentation.

Mankai · from $149/yr Get it