TIME&SPACE vs Sportograf: Race Photos and Event Photos Are Different Jobs
TIME&SPACE · Business of Events
An honest comparison of TIME&SPACE and Sportograf: a participant-pays race photo service built around bib numbers, and an organiser-pays platform for conferences, festivals and corporate events.
TIME&SPACE vs Sportograf: Race Photos and Event Photos Are Different Jobs
In short: If you are organising a running race, a triathlon, a cycling sportive or an obstacle course, the honest answer is usually Sportograf. They have built their whole company around endurance sport, they bring their own photographers, and your participants pay for their photos, so you pay nothing. TIME&SPACE is built for the other kind of event: conferences, festivals, corporate events and weddings, where there are no bib numbers, the organiser pays once and every guest receives their photos free. No scan rates or delivery rates for either company here, because those depend on your event.
What Sportograf Is
Sportograf is a German race photography service. By their own account, its founders Tom Janas and Guido Holz programmed the first version of the website in December 2005, after being frustrated by expensive paper prints at bike races. When we read their About page on 25 September 2026 it counted 550 events worldwide and 500 freelance photographers.
Their homepage that day was a list of endurance and fitness events: marathons, HYROX races, UTMB trail races, Spartan and Tough Mudder obstacle races. Their testimonials include the organisers of the Berlin marathon, the GFNY cycling series and Spartan Europe. This is a company that knows one kind of event extremely well.
Where Sportograf Is Stronger
Bib number recognition. At a race every participant wears a number, and Sportograf has spent more than fifteen years building software that reads it. They describe it as probably their best kept secret. For a race, a bib is a better key than a face: it works when the runner is wearing sunglasses, a helmet or a mask.
More ways to search. Participants can find their photos by bib number, by selfie at many events, by uploading a Garmin or Strava track, or by location and time. We offer one method, the selfie, because that is the one that works at events without numbers.
They bring the photographers. Sportograf plans the course weeks in advance and staffs it from its own pool of photographers. On TIME&SPACE you bring your own photographer, or you hire our agency, which is a separate service.
The organiser pays nothing. Participants buy a Foto-Flat, a single package with all of their personal photos plus a selection of the best shots of the event. If your budget for photography is zero, a participant-pays model is what makes coverage possible at all. We do not offer it.
Two decades of endurance relationships. GFNY has worked with them since its first race in 2011 and Spartan Europe since 2015, according to their own site. If your procurement asks who else in endurance sport uses this, their answer is long.
Where TIME&SPACE Is Stronger
Guests never pay. The organiser pays once per event and every guest downloads their photos free. Our prices are on the pricing page: 188 EUR, 488 EUR and 888 EUR per event, no subscription. Sportograf's price is paid by each participant and is shown after they search for their photos; we found no public price list on 25 September 2026. Neither model is simply cheaper. They put the cost on a different person.
Built for events with no numbers. At a conference, a festival, a gala or a wedding nobody wears a bib. The selfie is the only practical key, and our whole product is built around it: scan a QR code, take a selfie, see only your photos.
Your photographer, your gallery. You keep the photographers you already work with, and on the Advanced and Pro plans the guest gallery carries your event's colours, logo and font.
Galleries that stay open. Every plan keeps the gallery live for 365 days.
Published data handling. Face data is processed in the EU and the selfie used for a search is deleted within 30 days. Sportograf also states that it does not store the selfie, so on this point we are not claiming an advantage, only that ours is written down.
Side by Side
| | TIME&SPACE | Sportograf | |---|---|---| | Who pays | The organiser, once per event | Each participant, per Foto-Flat | | How people find their photos | Selfie | Bib number, selfie at many events, GPS track, location and time | | Photographers | Yours, or our agency | Their own pool | | Public price | Yes, 188 to 888 EUR per event | Shown per participant after searching, as of 25 Sep 2026 | | Built for | Conferences, festivals, corporate events, weddings | Running, cycling, triathlon, obstacle and fitness racing |
Which One to Choose
Pick Sportograf if your participants wear bib numbers, you want photography at no cost to you, and you want the photographers supplied. For most races that is the right answer.
Pick TIME&SPACE if there are no bib numbers, you want every guest to receive their photos free as part of the experience, and you already have a photographer or want ours.
There are no comparative performance figures in this post for either company. Sportograf's details were read from their own website on 25 September 2026 and will change over time, so check theirs before you decide. If your event is not a race and you want to see what it would cost, start here.
Founder, TIME&SPACE