Shot List Planner vs Honcho
These solve opposite ends of the problem. Honcho is about what happens to photos after they're taken. Shot List Planner is about making sure they get taken at all.
| Shot List Planner | Honcho | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Plan the shots | Deliver the photos |
| Used before the wedding | Yes | No |
| Used during the wedding | Yes — as a checklist | Yes — as delivery |
| Used after the wedding | Print & archive | Yes |
| Who buys it | The couple — free | The photographer |
| Camera-to-cloud upload | No | Yes |
| AI face recognition for guests | No | Yes |
| Live gallery & slideshow | No | Yes |
| Priority shot flagging | Yes | No |
| Guest headshots for the photographer | With Seat the Day | No |
Not actually competitors
Honcho is a camera-to-cloud system: the photographer tethers their camera to a phone, images upload as they shoot, and guests find their own photos in a live gallery using face recognition. There are live slideshows, wireless printing, and an online store attached.
It's a genuinely impressive piece of engineering, and it's aimed squarely at a real frustration — the weeks of silence between the wedding and the gallery.
But it operates entirely on photos that already exist. If nobody took a picture of you with your grandmother, no amount of face recognition will find one.
The gap Honcho doesn't cover
Honcho's own blog publishes a wedding photography checklist, which tells you something: even a delivery company knows the planning step matters and isn't solved by their product. Their guidance is sound — most planning happens four to eight weeks out, and a checklist helps photographers adjust priorities quickly when the schedule runs late.
That last point is exactly the argument for priority flagging. A checklist helps a photographer triage — but only if it says which shots to protect.
Using both
If your photographer offers Honcho, that's a nice perk and you should take it. It changes nothing about your planning:
- Build your shot list and star what matters
- Send your photographer the link and the printed face sheet
- They shoot the day, working from your list
- Honcho delivers those photos to your guests in near real time
The planning tool makes sure the right photos exist. The delivery tool makes sure people see them quickly. Neither substitutes for the other.
Which one you should use
Pick Honcho if…
- You want guests seeing photos during the reception
- Your photographer already offers it
- Waiting six weeks for a gallery is your main frustration
Pick Shot List Planner if…
- You haven't planned which photos you want yet
- You want a say in what gets protected when time runs short
- You're the couple and want your own tool
Comparison based on each product's own public pages, checked August 2026. Products change — if something here is out of date, tell me and I'll fix it.
Common questions
Is Honcho a shot list app?
No. It's a photo delivery platform — camera-to-cloud upload, live galleries, face recognition, and sales tools. They publish a shot list checklist as a free content piece, but planning isn't the product.
Do I need to pay for Honcho?
It's bought by the photographer, not the couple. If yours uses it you'll get the benefit without a separate purchase.
Which matters more?
Planning, and it isn't close. Fast delivery of the wrong photos is still the wrong photos. Getting the shots taken is the part you can't fix afterwards.
Build your shot list free
No account needed to start. Add your shots, flag the ones that matter, share a link your photographer can check off on their phone.
Free forever. The paid tier lives inside Seat the Day.