Almost every photography studio in the Arab world runs the same way: bookings live in WhatsApp chats, the books live in an Excel file, contracts are retyped in Word for every client, installments are tracked in a notebook, and final photos are handed over on a USB stick or a Drive link that expires. That chaos is why we built Lnsly: an Arabic-first photography studio management platform that brings bookings, contracts, payments, the crew and client galleries into one place, from the client's first message to the last delivered photo.
This is the full story of Lnsly: how the idea started, how its founders built it, what it does for studios today, and where it's heading.
Who is behind Lnsly?
Lnsly is an independent product, founded and built by two equal partners, both engineers before they were founders:
- Mohamed Elzekred: the one who had the idea for Lnsly and sparked it, with nearly ten years of building mobile products. He started as an iOS developer in 2016, then became an iOS team lead and technical lead manager, and now heads engineering. At Lnsly he owns the mobile apps, engineering operations and delivery.
- Ali Allam: building software since 2013, he has led frontend teams at several tech companies and has built booking, scheduling, point-of-sale and payment flows before. At Lnsly he leads product and web engineering.
The founders built Lnsly themselves from the very first line, and today it has its own team, website and customers. The idea was simple: understand the problem from the people who live it, then design a solution that actually works in the Arab market, not a translated copy of foreign software.
How the idea for Lnsly started
It started with a conversation between two friends. Mohamed Elzekred was visiting Magdy Ali, one of Egypt's best-known wedding photographers (whose website Krypton Devz built, as it happens), and found him running his studio on an old desktop app: a poor experience, painful maintenance, and support that went quiet when it was needed most. Worse, the app only ran on the studio's computer, so he couldn't confirm a booking or check a date when he was away from the studio.
That's when the question came that sparked everything: why isn't all of this online? Mohamed suggested an online CRM so he could book dates and follow up with clients from anywhere, from a shoot or from home, not only from inside the studio.
Magdy then told him about the best-known foreign alternative, Pixieset: how expensive it is in dollars for a studio that earns in pounds, and how it doesn't fully cover the way an Arab studio works. That conversation lit the spark, and the idea became an equal partnership with Ali Allam to build the product from scratch.
Today Lnsly has grown far more complete than where it started, at a much lower price than the foreign alternatives, with everything a studio needs in one place: a booking website, client and contract management, installment tracking, the crew and client galleries. And Magdy Ali's own studio was the first to move its business onto it, as you'll read later in this article.
The problem: a studio running on five tools that don't talk to each other
Before writing any code, the founders sat with real studio owners and watched how they work day to day. Most studios run their business on five separate tools:
- WhatsApp: inquiries, dates and approvals buried in chat threads.
- Excel: a year of bookings and expenses spread across tabs.
- Word: a contract retyped and printed for every client.
- A notebook: installments paid in cash, transfers and wallets, tracked by memory.
- A USB stick or a Drive link: final photos delivered in a way that gets lost or expires, so clients come back months later asking for them again.
The result: double-booked dates, missed installments, unsigned contracts, and a studio owner who doesn't know what the month actually earned.
Why global software doesn't fit Arab studios
There are strong global tools for photographers' businesses and client galleries, such as HoneyBook, Pixieset, Dubsado, ShootProof and Pic-Time. But they were designed for a photographer in the US or European market, and an Arab studio hits four walls on day one:
| Challenge | Global software | Lnsly |
|---|---|---|
| Language | English-only screens and contracts, no real right-to-left support | Arabic and English on every screen, contract, receipt and gallery |
| Payments | Built for card checkout | Tracks cash, bank transfers, InstaPay, Vodafone Cash and installments |
| Channel | Email-first workflows | Ready-to-send WhatsApp messages in one tap |
| Price | US dollar pricing for the US market | Priced in Egyptian pounds, with free plans |
So Lnsly isn't translated foreign software: it's Arabic software from the ground up.
What is Lnsly?
Lnsly is one platform to run a photography studio: it organizes clients, bookings, contracts and finances, gives you a booking website that shows your packages and takes requests, and delivers photos in galleries under your studio's name, all in Arabic or English.
The full journey inside Lnsly has six steps:
- Book: the client browses your packages on a branded booking page, picks a date and answers your questions.
- Sign: the contract is drafted from the booking and signed on the client's phone.
- Collect: installments are recorded by any local payment method, with the balance and a receipt updated automatically.
- Shoot: schedule the booking, assign photographers and editors, and sync Google Calendar.
- Deliver: share the photos in a private client gallery.
- Pay out: track crew pay, expenses and the real profit of every booking.
Lnsly features in detail
An online booking website for your studio
Instead of every client asking "how much?" and "are you free that day?", you publish a booking page with your packages, add-ons and questions. Create several pages (one per service or season), share them in your Instagram bio or WhatsApp status, or embed them in your existing website. Set working days, block unavailable dates and choose the minimum notice for requests.
Photography contracts clients sign on their phone
The contract is drafted from the booking's package, date and payment schedule. Add your terms and share the signing link; the client reviews and signs on their phone, and you download the signed PDF in Arabic or English. No more digging through old messages for what was agreed.
Payment and installment tracking
Set a payment schedule for each booking and record every payment with its method and reference: InstaPay, Vodafone Cash, bank transfer or cash. Lnsly updates the remaining balance and prepares a receipt to share or print. Access to financial details depends on each team member's role.
Branded client photo galleries
Upload photos or folders and they become albums in a gallery carrying your studio's brand. Clients open it with a link or PIN, or WhatsApp access codes if your plan includes them, and download single photos or whole albums. Goodbye, expired Drive links.
WhatsApp in one tap
Booking details, contracts and receipts are prepared as a ready-to-send WhatsApp message; you just review it and hit send.
Team roles and crew
Roles built for how studios work: your secretary can run the diary without seeing a single price. Assign freelance photographers and editors to bookings and track their pay without creating a login for each of them, with Google Calendar sync for every team member.
Profit reports per booking
Reports for income, expenses, outstanding balances and profit for any period you choose, with costs linked to each booking so you see its real profit, plus crew fees and payouts.
Your data stays yours
Import your existing records from Excel or CSV with duplicate checks before saving, and export clients, bookings, payments and expenses at any time as a backup.
On your phone
Lnsly works on desktop and mobile and can be installed on your phone as an app, with notifications relevant to each team member's role.
Lnsly Rentals for camera and gear rental houses
A separate product for rental houses: your own rental store taking requests on WhatsApp, an automatic check that never promises the same piece twice, and deposits, fees and balances tracked on every rental. It's free for up to 10 pieces of equipment.
Lnsly plans and pricing
Lnsly comes in three main products, all priced in Egyptian pounds with no exchange-rate surprises:
- Lnsly Gallery: for delivering photos in professional galleries, starting with a free plan.
- Lnsly Studio: the studio CRM for clients, bookings and contracts, also starting free.
- Lnsly Suite: management, finances and galleries working together in one connected system.
The free plans need no card and have no time limit, annual billing gives you two months free, and you can cancel anytime. Every plan's details and limits are on the Lnsly pricing page.
How Lnsly was built
Lnsly didn't start from a template or a translated product, but from a blank page in January 2026, and every feature in Lnsly today started as a request from a working studio:
- 750+ code commits since January 2026.
- 17 modules on the platform.
- Full Arabic and English support, with correct right-to-left layouts on every screen.
The stack was chosen to scale from day one: Next.js for the app, PostgreSQL with row-level security so every studio's data is isolated from every other studio, photo storage on Cloudflare R2, error monitoring with Sentry, and end-to-end tests covering every user journey.
Some of the releases during 2026:
| Month | What shipped |
|---|---|
| April | Lead pipeline, client questionnaires, data export and Google Calendar sync |
| July | Multiple booking pages per studio, one per service or season |
| August | Subscriptions, invoicing, storage, seat and messaging allowances |
| September | An installable mobile app, booking notifications, crew payroll and payouts |
The first studio on Lnsly
The first studio to run its whole business on Lnsly was Magdy Ali Art Studio, together with its second brand Ovvio Studio. The Lnsly team migrated 231 clients from their spreadsheets and a full year of bookings and expenses; they launched 4 booking pages taking real requests, and 3 roles (owner, secretary and photographers) now work in one shared workspace.
Where Lnsly is heading
Its founders' ambition is bigger than a local tool: they want Lnsly to become the leading platform for running event businesses in the Arab world, matching global software on quality and beating it on understanding the Arab market:
- Expanding into the Gulf: local currencies, phone numbers, contract templates and payment methods.
- Beyond photographers: the same booking, contract, installments and delivery journey fits makeup artists, kosha and decor designers, event planners and venues.
- One place for the wedding day: every vendor for a single event on one shared date, and one place where the couple finds all their contracts and payments.
Lnsly started from zero, and its team works every day to take it as far as it can go: an Arab product that stands confidently next to the best software in the world.
Lnsly FAQ
What is Lnsly?
Arabic-first software for running photography studios, bringing the booking website, client management, contracts, payments, crew and client galleries into one platform.
Does Lnsly support Arabic?
Fully: the dashboard, booking pages, contracts, receipts and galleries, with correct right-to-left layouts, alongside English.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. Lnsly Gallery and Lnsly Studio both have free plans, with no card required and no time limit.
Which payment methods does Lnsly track?
InstaPay, Vodafone Cash, bank transfers and cash, with installment schedules and automatic receipts.
Can my secretary use Lnsly without seeing prices?
Yes. Team roles let a secretary manage the diary without access to prices and payments.
Who founded Lnsly?
Lnsly was founded and built by partners Mohamed Elzekred, who had the idea, and Ali Allam.
Try Lnsly for your photography studio at lnsly.com. And if you have a digital product in mind that you want built, whether it's custom software, a mobile app or a web platform, talk to the Krypton Devz team and let's build it with you.