Best Website Builder For Artists

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10 of the Best Website Builders for Artists

Being an artist is one of the greatest things because you can make money from your skills. This is a skill that few people are talented in. Hence it is always on high demand. But if you fail to market yourself, you may be unable to reach the market that demands your services.

So, how can you ensure that your voice is heard and potential customers see your skills? It is by displaying your work online. Most individuals think that only programmers can afford to have a site because they know how to code. But this is a misconception that you need to brush off.

A new tool known as a website builder can help an artist and people in other occupations to create sites without the need for learning how to code. Many site creators can design stunning websites online.

However, it is important to be aware of the benefits and limitations of each of the builders before settling on one. Knowing about the price of each is also important for financial planning. 

With a builder, you can easily move your business from zero to a million or more dollars’ worth of revenue. Therefore, you should take these tools seriously and be sure that you select one carefully. Because once you settle on one, it may be expensive to shift to another. It may also waste time that you would spend creating more artworks for your customers.

What to Look for in a Website Builder for Artists 

As an artist, you may be confused by too much information that is available online about site builders. You may find many reviews of various software, but then fail to find out if these tools are good for your profession. 

In this article, we will make this process easy for you. We will review ten of the best artist website builders that you can find online. Although there are more than ten of these tools online, we believe that these are the best for showcasing artworks in an attractive way. 

We will review the features, benefits, limitations, and prices of each. This is because these are some of the things you should take into consideration when selecting a builder. You must know how easy it is to use a tool as a beginner, whether it has a variety of templates to choose from and the disadvantages of using the device.

This information is necessary because even if you are an artist, your business may be different from that of someone else in the same profession. You may be wanting to build a simple site while someone else would want a complex one for showcasing thousands of artworks. In such a case, a platform that is good for you may not be perfect for that other person. 

You should lookout for the following factors when choosing a site creator.

Affordability 

Ensure that the builder you select is within your budget. This will help you to manage finances for your business so that you have enough money to advance your knowledge, purchase equipment and promote your products.

Ease of use

If you have coding knowledge in addition to being an artist, it means that you can be able to use complex site creators. However, if you are a beginner who lacks programming skills, you should select a tool that can be operated without this knowledge. Otherwise, you will face a lot of difficulties and may have to hire a developer if you choose a builder that turns out to be complicated for you. 

Ability to showcase galleries

As an artist, you want a site that can create beautiful galleries of your portfolio to attract clients. Therefore, you should choose a builder that can do this efficiently. Check out the templates that various tools offer and select the one that has a wide range of customizable templates.

Choosing the Best Website Builder for Artists- What to Look For

The ten site builders that we will review in this article to help you in selecting the right tool for your business include: 

  • Weebly
  • Jimdo Creator
  • Shopify
  • Squarespace
  • Wix
  • Wordpress
  • Duda
  • Gator
  • SmugMug
  • Pixpa

 

Weebly – The Best Free Website Builder for Artists

Weebly is one of the simplest builders that an artist can use to create their sites. To use it, you do not need to have technical skills because everything is about dragging and dropping layouts into position. It has some of the best website templates for artists. It also has many themes with various designs meaning that it is easy to get a customizable one.

Weebly allows you to import a custom domain if you host your site with them. But this is possible when you choose the paid plans because, with the free one, you can only get a Weebly branded name. 

Weebly enables an artist to rank high on Google search engine with its SEO tools. With these tools, it is easy for clients to find your website when they search for artists online. Therefore, if you build your site with Weebly and do some additional SEO, you will be better placed than someone who uses builders that do not have technical SEO.

Benefits and Limitations of Using Weebly to Build Artist Website 

The benefits of using Weebly as an artist surpass the limitations. If you are building a site for the first time, here are some of the advantages that Weebly offers:

  • It is cheap for a beginner.
  • It offers free SSL certificate, hence enhancing the security of a site.
  • Has a developed blog section for an artist who wishes to write articles in addition to creating galleries of their works.

Cons

  • You have to contact the customer support department when your site breaks down so that they may help to restore it.
  • Premium plans may be expensive for starters who have limited funds

 

Weebly’s Pricing 

The creator has a free plan with enough storage and tight security features. This is in addition to three subscriptions that cost $5, $12 and $25. With the paid plans, you have more freedom such as importing a custom domain name, unrestricted storage and the ability to remove Ads from your site. 

Jimdo Creator- Makes Unique Websites for Artists

Jimdo Creator is also good for building websites. It is easy in that it customizes sites for an artist using the answers they provide to a few questions. Therefore, all you need to do with this creator is to provide accurate answers to the questions that they present you with. After that, it creates a custom site for you using artificial intelligence.

Therefore, you do not need to know much with this creator. However, you lack the full control of the site once it is created using artificial intelligence. For example, it may be difficult to change the position of a gallery once the AI sets it up.

Jimdo is also top-rated because of the ability to create different types of sites. With it, you can design a simple site where you showcase a few photos and write blogs to attract readers. It also has an option to create highly responsive e-commerce stores for selling artworks. Therefore, as an artist, this builder can help you explore various areas of your business. 

Pros and Cons of Using Jimdo Creator for Creating an Artist Website

The main benefit of Jimdo is that you do not need to have any knowledge of designing a website. The artificial intelligence does everything for you. Because of this, we find it to be the best option for a starter who is interacting with builders for the first time.

It is also cheap to eliminate advertisements from the creator by upgrading to the most affordable premium plan. This is in addition to getting infinite storage space for graphics and content.

If you need assistance, you can easily get answers from the help center that is dedicated to this task.

The main limitation of this program is that it does not have a variety of templates. Therefore, if you love selecting a template from a wide choice, you may be disappointed by the few choices on Jimdo Creator. 

Jimdo Creator Pricing

The creator has five plans, with each offering something unique. The free one offers basic features with a Jimdo branded domain name. The second one costs $9 with the main benefit being that it does not have Ads and you can import a domain name.

The third plan costs $15 and offers SEO and web visitor statistics. The third and fourth subscriptions cost $19 and $39. With these, you can design an e-commerce store, get personalized support and unlimited storage. All the prices are monthly based, and once you upgrade to a premium plan, Jimdo bills your credit card annually.

Shopify - An E-commerce Platform that Creates Best Websites for Artists

If you are looking to expand your business to a dynamic e-commerce store, Shopify is the builder for you. It has specialized in helping individuals to create beautiful online stores that convert site visitors to customers. 

It is possible to add thousands of products in your store. And no matter how many items you sell, the site continues to be very fast and easy to use.

The customer service department is also very efficient. Once you raise an inquiry, they respond very fast with accurate answers. If you are stuck, they may also show you how to go about the site creator without facing major problems.

It has numerous themes and templates for artists. Therefore, with this builder, you are spoilt with many choices of how to design your site.

Benefits and Limitations of Using Shopify, a Unique Artist Website Builder

One of the benefits of using Shopify is that it is responsive to mobile. Therefore, you can create a site and add products using your mobile phone. Once customers purchase their custom arts, you may also fulfill their orders on mobile.

You may integrate a Shopify store with Instagram and reach a larger audience. It also allows you to sell through a Facebook page.

The main limitation of Shopify is that it is costly, hence not suitable for an artist with a limited budget.

Shopify Pricing

It offers three monthly subscriptions that cost $29, $79, and $299. The more expensive a plan is, the more capabilities it has; for example, the $79 and $299 plans offer custom reports that are not available for the cheap option.

Squarespace - Create Artist Website with Beautiful Galleries

Squarespace boasts of elegance in designing stunning websites for artists. This builder focuses mainly on developing sites with dynamic galleries. With it, you can’t ask for more as it covers every aspect that you can think about.

It has a special capability of enabling you to contrast features of products, for example, color and size. This means that you can display artwork with different colors so that web visitors may view the different variations and be able to make an informed decision. 

Squarespace also has numerous templates with dynamic picture galleries. 

Pros and Cons of Building an Artist Website Using Squarespace 

The main advantage of Squarespace is that it has numerous templates for creating custom websites. These themes are of high quality, and they are responsive on both mobile and desktop.

It is a drag-and-drop builder meaning that you do not need to have coding knowledge to be able to use this software.

However, the limitation is that with a Squarespace account, customization of an e-commerce store is possible only when you are selling a few products. It may not be suitable for an artist who wants to sell thousands of products at the same time.

Squarespace Prices

The creator has four pricing options that include $12, $18, $26, and $40 plans. Although the plans are expensive, they are much more affordable compared to those of Shopify. The $40 monthly subscription has all the capabilities you would want a site to have. It does not also charge a transaction fee for sales that you make from your online store.

Wix - Best site Builder for Artists

Wix is a drag-and-drop builder that has lived to its reputation. Survey of different artistic websites will reveal that they have been developed using this platform. This is because it enables you to develop high-quality sites with minimum hassle. This is thanks to their visual editor, who makes everything appear simple even for the less tech-savvy individuals. What’s more? It is equipped with a wide range of modern designs for you to use in customizing your website. 

Benefits of Using Wix to Build Your Own Artist Website

What are some of the features that make Wix a top-rated site builder? Here are some of the notable benefits of using the platform. 

Wix ADI Technology

It is one of the innovative products they have developed as part of maintaining their competitive edge. This tool aims at maximizing user convenience and the speed of creation. All you need to do is provide them with details about your artistic life by uploading samples of your work, and they will develop a professional site for you. Also, their standard editor makes it possible for you to make changes and achieve more customization. 

Free Wix Art Store

You can find it in the app market. One amazing feature about it is that it can be integrated into your website. It has all the right tools needed in promoting and selling your artwork. For a music artist, there is a Wix music app. It can be used for online distribution and sale of music. Therefore, with their store, there are numerous opportunities to expand and earn through your art sale. 

Opportunity for Connecting a Blog to Your Website

 Blogging is one of the effective strategies to promote a product online. This is because it creates opportunities to review and provide insights about a product to potential consumers. Therefore, you can use the blog to provide customers with discounts, coupons, and other offers to your artwork. 

 

Potential Drawback of Using Wix

Even though considered as one of the best, it has some weaknesses of its own. One of them is discussed here.

Templates Cannot Be Edited After Publishing

A common problem with Wix is that while their designs can be edited, the same cannot be said for their templates. It is impossible to make changes without losing your original content. 

Is It Affordable to Build Artist Website Using Wix

For starters, Wix does offer free plans that an artist can use to develop their art gallery. The problem with it is that there is no storage capacity and fewer features to work with. Their paid packages begin at $13 per month for their Combo bundle, and the premium one is Wix VIP $39 a month.

WordPress- Best Free Website Builder for Artists

WordPress is a popular builder among many people because of its free features and low pricing. For programmers, its wide range of integration options such as plugins and templates make it suitable for developing innovative sites. However, this may come as a disadvantage to an artist with inferior web design skills because it becomes harder to use. 

Creating a site for an artist using WordPress is also considered complicated. This is because there are no editors to help or do much of the work for you. Therefore, to effectively customize your page, you may need to outsource professional help. 

 

Advantages of Using WordPress to Make an Artist Website

Because of its popularity, WordPress has several aspects that people consider as its strengths. They include:

More User Freedom

The thing about WordPress is that it is open-source software. This means that a developer can customize their site without any restrictions. As such, it opens up an opportunity for individuals to develop personalized designs instead of buying them. For example, you can come up with landing pages, headers, edit layouts, and include widgets without having to code them. This, in turn, motivates increased creativity among the users, hence producing high-quality websites for artists. 

Extensive Range of Features 

The wide range of elements is all thanks to the fact that WordPress is open-source software. This implies by making use of plugins; you can include a lot of functionality to your website. Developers take advantage of this freedom to utilize personalized images, designs, and themes on the sites they create. 

Availability of Search Engine Optimization

There are plugins on Word press that are dedicated for SEO purposes. They also have guides on how to make use of Meta descriptions and tags to ensure that your site is up there in search engine rankings. This makes it suitable for artists because their content can be visible to a large number of people.

 

Disadvantage of Using WordPress to Create Artist Website

The main disadvantage of using WordPress is that it has minimal automation. This implies that you have to manage everything on your site. For example, you will be in charge of updating your plugins, files, and themes when the need arises. 

There is also minimal virtual support on the platform. This means that users have to rely on online forums to get solutions on how to manage their sites. 

Is WordPress Among the Free Websites for Artists?

Being open-source software, WordPress is free. The problem with this is that you have to be in charge of acquiring a domain name and hosting your website. You will also incur costs when searching for more quality templates and plugins. 

Duda - Among the Best Website Platforms for Artists

Unlike its competitors, Duda offers artists the option of mobile responsive websites. What this means is that your site can easily be accessed using a phone. This is a huge plus for them because of the large number of people currently using smartphones. Therefore, your art can reach a larger consumer base.

Reasons Why You Should Learn How to Create an Artist Website with Duda

Discussed are some of the benefits of using this platform.

Variety of Marketing Tools

Duda provides with several mechanisms to ensure that you can sell your art. For easier interaction with your customers, the platform offers you click to call and click to email widgets. On the other hand, you can also add maps that help clients in finding directions to your store.  Moreover, there is also a PayPal widget, which one of the safe online payment options.

Options to Create a Multilingual Site

Among the competitive strengths of Duda is that it offers an artist the option to create a site in different languages. This is a huge plus in a globalized world. You can reach consumers from all corners of the globe. 

Freedom for Customization

If you are an artist that require higher control levels, Duda may be the site builder of your choice. This is because you will have the freedom to decide how you want your site to be in terms of design, headers, background images, and themes. There is also the option for social media integration to facilitate efficient communication with your customers. 

Drawbacks of Using Duda 

Here are some of the notable weaknesses of this platform:

  • It lacks an app store
  • Minimal live support for users

Duda’s Price Review

Can pricing be the reason you learn how to build an artist website using this platform? Probably not. Their basic plan will cost you about $14.25 a month, and it does not even include a domain name. On the other hand, their site for life package will set you back about $299. 

Gator Artist Website Builders

Gator differentiates itself from other artist site builders through offering amazingly affordable web hosting and publishing services. It is also easy to use because it comes with the option of drag and drops editor to help you in creating and managing your website. 

Advantages of Using Gator

What benefits can you expect when using this platform?

  • All in one package. You can create, host and publish your site on this platform. 
  • High levels of social media integration
  • Stage by stage guide to developing your site

Disadvantages of Using Gator

Are there some drawbacks of using this platform? Here are a few:

  • They do not include a free trial
  • Lacks a reliable app store

Gator’s Pricing

Their starter plans begin at $3.84 per month. Other packages include Premium and e-commerce bundles for monthly charges of $5.99 and $9.22, respectively. 

SmugMug - Creating an Artist Website for Photographers 

SmugMug’s main focus is on photographers. It hosts more than millions of photos for its clients. This is why top papers such as Forbes, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal have labeled it as the best photography site builder. This is because it provides all the attributes that are critical for developing a fashionable and attractive page. The aim is to ensure that it satisfies the photography needs of the user. For example, e-commerce templates, presentable full-screen galleries, and custom websites. 

Is SmugMug Among the Best Site Builders for Artists? 

Here are some of its pros:

  • Unlimited photo uploads- this is made possible by their cloud storage.
  • Social media integration to increase your sharing options. This way, your art and website can be known by a large number of audiences.
  • Provides amazing apps and designs for photographers

Cons of SmugMug

Here are some of the weaknesses of this platform:

  • They will charge you a hidden 15% on every transaction you conduct.
  • The platform’s layout is considered inflexible. 

Best Website Templates for Artists at Affordable Pricing 

For all the value, SmugMug provides you with; their prices are a bargain. To kick you off, they will welcome you with a 14-day free trial period. Not a bad offer for a test-run. They have plans, which are as low as $3 a month for the basic package. The highest one is the Business bundle, which goes for $25 a month. 

Pixpa Artist Website Builder

Pixpa is one of the site builders that provides a suitable platform for an artist, especially photographers. It is popular among creative professionals as it enables them to display their work digitally. Imagine being provided with over twenty gallery layouts that you can use to display your art. The fun does not end there; you will have a drag and drop page builder to aid your site creation.

Potential Benefit of an Artist using Pixpa

What benefits can you expect when using this platform. 

  • E-commerce and blogging features
  • Freedom for third-party integration, including Shopify
  • Reliable customer support

Drawbacks of Using Pixpa

Some of its weaknesses include:

  • Limited import-export functionally 
  • Lacks image editing option

Pixpa Pricing 

The platform offers its users three packages. They include the Starter, Pro and a Plus plan that will set you back $10, $15 and $20 per month respectively. 

 

Which of the10 Best Website Platforms for Artists Should You Use?

As you have seen, there are very many builders for creating blogs and e-commerce stores. You don’t need to be a coder to understand how these software work. Therefore, if you are already an artist, why not start building a website to be able to reach a larger audience?

You must first select a builder, but to do this effectively, you need to know what you want. Do you want a free site? If yes, then select the tools that have free options and start designing your website immediately.

 

Do you need an e-commerce store? If the answer is yes, then choose from among those with this capability. The choice you make obviously depends on the budget. If you have enough cash to spend and you want a powerful builder, go for Squarespace or Shopify. 

In short, you have to write down the things you want to achieve with a builder so that you may select the right program for the job. 

 

If you have time, you may test the free ones before committing your money to a paid builder. Try everything you think of using the free plan as this experience may give you a deeper understanding of how these programs work. 

 

The experience of free software may also help you in making the right decision for your business. It may save you from making the wrong choices that may cost you a lot in the future when you want to transfer your site from one builder to another.

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