TIME&SPACE vs Fotop: Guest Pays or Organiser Pays?
TIME&SPACE · Business of Events
Fotop and TIME&SPACE both let people find event photos by face. The difference is who pays: on Fotop the guest buys the photos, on TIME&SPACE the organiser pays once per event and guests receive theirs.
TIME&SPACE vs Fotop: Guest Pays or Organiser Pays?
In short: Fotop is a marketplace where event photos are sold to the people in them. Guests pay, photographers earn, and Fotop keeps a share. TIME&SPACE is the opposite arrangement: the organiser pays a fixed price per event and every guest finds and downloads their photos from one selfie. Fotop is built for races and large public events where selling photos is the business. We are built for organisers who want their guests to receive their photos as part of the event.
What Fotop Is
Fotop is a platform for selling event photos, mainly at sports events such as races, marathons and cycling, and increasingly at festivals and concerts. Its site describes it as a complete platform for photographers to sell and deliver photos, and states 32k+ photographers and 65k+ events. Photographers register for free and Fotop earns from a commission on each sale, plus prepaid credits photographers can buy, including for face recognition and bib-number recognition. Guests browse an event, search for themselves, and buy a photo pack. Checked on 20 October 2026 on fotop.com, fotop.pt and Fotop's own terms of use and privacy notice. Their pages are in Portuguese, and fotop.pt lists Portuguese events.
Where TIME&SPACE Is Stronger
The guest does not pay. On Fotop the person who wants their photos is the buyer. On TIME&SPACE the organiser has already paid, so a guest takes a selfie and downloads. For a conference, a corporate event or a festival where you want guests to feel looked after, that is a different experience.
One price per event, published. STARTER is 188 EUR, ADVANCED 488 EUR and PRO 888 EUR per event, all on our pricing page. Fotop's commission percentage is not stated on the pages we read. Their terms say rates are disclosed to photographers before they register for an event.
Everything included per event. Galleries stay online 365 days on every plan, analytics and unlimited team members come with every plan, ADVANCED and PRO add Event Branding, and PRO has unlimited photos.
EU hosting and consent we publish. Guests tick an explicit consent box before the selfie. Selfie images are deleted after 30 days and the face index one year after the photo is uploaded, all in our privacy policy. Fotop's privacy notice, as we read it on 20 October 2026, says account data is stored on Amazon servers in the United States, and we found no separate retention period for facial data in it.
No app to download. Guests scan a QR code and take a selfie.
We can supply the photographers. Our agency arm shoots the event if you want it to. Fotop is a marketplace for photographers who bring themselves.
Built for events that are not a race. Conferences, corporate events and private galas where nobody is buying a pack.
Where Fotop Is Stronger
Selling photos is the point. If your event is a race or a festival where participants want to buy their photos, Fotop gives you a ready marketplace and photographers who earn from it. We do not sell photos to guests.
Scale and track record. Their site states 65k+ events and 32k+ photographers.
Race tooling. Their terms describe bib-number recognition alongside face search, and sports events are most of what they list.
No fixed cost to the organiser, as far as their site shows. Photographer registration is free and the terms we read list no organiser fee. If a guest-paid model suits your event, that costs you nothing up front.
Visible Portuguese presence. Their Portuguese domain lists many Portuguese events, and their pages show Rock in Rio Lisboa days sold as photo packs.
Capability Comparison
| | TIME&SPACE | Fotop | |---|---|---| | Who pays | The organiser, once per event | The guest buys photos, photographer pays commission | | Published price | Yes, 188, 488 or 888 EUR per event | Photo packs priced per event, for example 29,90 EUR or 24,90 EUR for a Rock in Rio Lisboa day (their page shows both figures without labelling them) | | Commission on sales | None, we do not sell photos | A variable percentage, rate not stated on pages we read | | Face search by selfie | Yes, the core of the product | Yes, stated in their terms | | Bib-number search | Not part of the product | Mentioned in their terms | | Explicit consent step before selfie | Yes, tick-box | Not described in the pages we read | | Data location | EU | Amazon servers in the United States, per their privacy notice | | Gallery lifetime | 365 days, every plan | Sold photos available 2 years, per their privacy notice | | Photography crews available | Yes, agency arm | Marketplace of independent photographers | | Languages | English, Portuguese, Spanish | Portuguese on the pages we read |
No comparative performance figures here for either product. Everything above about Fotop was read from their live site and terms on 20 October 2026 and will drift; check theirs before deciding.
GDPR: What Changes When the Vendor Is Outside the EU
Face matching processes biometric data, which GDPR treats as a special category (Article 9) that normally needs the person's explicit consent. Three things follow for an organiser whose guests are in the EU, and none of them depends on which vendor you pick:
- The rules follow your guests, not the vendor's address. GDPR applies to processing aimed at people in the EU even when the company is based elsewhere (Article 3(2)).
- Moving the data out of the EU needs a legal mechanism such as an adequacy decision or standard contractual clauses (Chapter V). If the vendor will not say where the data sits, you cannot check this.
- You are normally the controller, the vendor is your processor. That means a data processing agreement, a known storage location, a stated retention period and an answer to who handles a deletion request.
What Fotop's own documents say, read on 20 October 2026. Fotop's privacy notice says account data is stored on Amazon servers in the United States, and that facial biometrics are not stored, only a hash. It says photos that have been sold stay available for two years. In the pages we read there is no separate biometric retention period and no explicit biometric consent provision.
What to ask Fotop before you buy: where the face data is stored, for how long, under which transfer mechanism, whether they will sign a data processing agreement, whether they have an EU representative, and how a guest withdraws consent.
On our side: TIME&SPACE is based in Portugal, stores and processes biometric data only in the EU, gets explicit tick-box consent before the selfie, deletes selfie data after 30 days and the face index one year after the photo is uploaded, and provides a data processing agreement. The detail is in our privacy policy. This is general information, not legal advice; your own data protection officer or lawyer should decide.
Which to Choose
Choose Fotop if you run a race, trail or cycling event, or a festival, and you want participants to buy their photos while photographers earn from the sales.
Choose TIME&SPACE if you want every guest to receive their photos as part of the event, with the cost known up front and the guest paying nothing.
Ask both if you are unsure: the models are different enough that your own audience usually settles it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How much does Fotop cost?
For an organiser, the pages we read list no fee. Fotop earns a variable percentage of photo sales, and charges photographers for prepaid credits. Guests pay per photo pack, set per event. As of 20 October 2026 we saw prices such as 24,90 EUR to 34,90 EUR for European events. Ours is 188, 488 and 888 EUR per event.
Q: Does Fotop have face recognition?
Yes. Their terms of use say buyers can search for event photos by face, using an uploaded image or a selfie. Their homepage does not mention it, so the terms are the source.
Q: Where does Fotop store facial data?
Their privacy notice states that they do not store facial biometrics themselves but generate a hash, and that account data sits on servers in the United States. Read their notice directly if this matters for your event.
Q: Can guests get photos for free with TIME&SPACE?
Guests pay nothing: the organiser has paid for the event. There is no free tier for organisers.
Founder, TIME&SPACE