Smugmug vs Custom — Platform Benchmark

31.4

Smugmug

12 sites

51.8

Custom

254 sites

WINNER

Score Summary

Avg AI Readability

37.7 52.2

Avg Security

33.3 37.2

Avg Efficiency

28.4 56.6

Avg Total Score

31.4 51.8

Avg Structure

19.4 47.1

Avg Load Complexity

34.8 67.6

Avg Lighthouse

31.7 54.9

Best Site Score

42.3 87.6

Worst Site Score

23.1 15.7

Smugmug Custom

Performance by Industry

Average total score for each platform within shared industries.

Industry	Smugmug	Custom
Architecture	—	52.4 6 sites
Content Creation	—	54.1 6 sites
Corporate-personal	—	47.3 86 sites
Design	—	66.2 3 sites
Photography	—	53.9 153 sites

Comparison Insights

Overall Verdict

Custom significantly outperforms Smugmug by 20.4 points - a gap large enough to suggest structural differences in how each platform supports web quality.

Dimension Edge

Smugmug leads in: nada. Custom leads in: AI Readability, Security, Efficiency, Structure, Load Complexity, Lighthouse. Custom has a broader performance advantage across dimensions.

Opportunities for improvement

Smugmug could target AI Readability, Security, Efficiency, Structure, Load Complexity, Lighthouse to close the gap.

Industry-by-Industry Results

The platforms split industry wins evenly across 5 shared verticals - the overall score gap may be driven by a few outlier sites rather than a consistent pattern.

Sample Size Consideration

Custom has 21.2× more audited sites than Smugmug. Larger samples surface more variation and may pull averages toward the mean, so this comparison should be read with that in mind.