As an artist, you probably need to focus more on your art than creating a website for your art platform. I have carefully reviewed and created a list of the website builders to use for your art website purposes. If you want to choose the best web hosting for artist, you can check here.
Table of Contents
Why do I need a website builder?
Most artists like me think that creating a website is a lot of hassle. This is mostly because I would rather be focusing on my art content than the technical side. Even so, it wouldn’t kill you to have basic skills in website building.
However, a good website builder will save you a lot of valuable time that could be compensated for at friendly pricing. There are various website builders on the market that are ready to offer website building tools for you. You can even get these services for free.
Wix – the best website builder for artists
In my review of top-rated website builders, I found that Wix is by far the best website builder for an artist looking to create a great artistic website. With regards to the design features, Wix has been ranked as the best site builders for SEO.
Moreover, you can get a lot of features with Wix site builder while utilizing a smooth learning curve. It has an easy drag and drop feature that enables you to easily setup your website to perform your artistic functions.
Furthermore, Wix has been very highly rated with regards to the provision of their customer support service.
Wix is especially the best website builder for artists because it has a Wix Art Store that enables you to sell your artwork on your Wix site. This feature is the most attractive of Wix features as it enables you to focus on your art just as much as you earn on the sales from your art.
Bottom line…
If you are an artist looking for a cost friendly site builder that enables you to spend more time on your art while getting the value of your art in return, Wix site builder is the perfect website for as it lets you juggle between managing and creative functions of your business side.
When choosing your website builder…
Consider the elements that you need in your website to be able to serve the relative functions that you need to promote and progress your artwork. It is prudent to argue that the most important criteria should include:
- Cost of the site builder
- Customization features for your site
- Ease of use
- Site security
- Commercialization of your art
- Reliability of site and functionality
You can add a list of factors in addition to my selection criteria depending on the nature of your art. You might find that you need a flexible site that enables the customization and application of themes from third party developers. You will obviously have to take this factor into consideration before you go ahead and decide the ideal website builder for you.
Which are the best website builders for artists in 2021?
I reviewed and even used some of the top rated website builders to determine the best website builder for artists. Using my selection criteria as indicated in an earlier section of this article, I found the following 5 website builders to be the best for artists:
- Wix
- Squarespace
- ArtStation
- Crevado
- Foliodrop
In this section, I will review the relative features offered by each of the website builders as well as the comparisons of their benefits and limitations to help you make the best choice for your website needs.
Wix
Wix powers over 110 million websites worldwide. This in itself says a lot about the platform. Drawing in on this precept, Wix makes it super easy to use their website builder, making it much more preferred by users worldwide. Furthermore, it utilizes modern and latest designs to create websites that meet the industry standards.
Wix has free site building plans which will enable you to showcase your art to your target audience. Nevertheless, you may not be able to commercialize your art under this plan on Wix platform. You will also have to pay for your domain at a relative pricing of $4.50/year under the free plan.
Even so, Wix has 4 pricing tiers that are suitable for a wide range of users depending on their use: Combo ($8.50), Unlimited ($12.50), eCommerce ($16.50), not to mention the VIP package at $24.50 monthly.
Wix Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Intuitive drag and drop featureFast and secure serviceOver 500 designer-made templatesBest for SEOWider resource base | Content migration is not possible on WixWix allows business optimization for their eCommerce and VIP plan onlyIncludes ads even on the platform’s starter plan. |
When contrasting Wix’ pros and cons, you find that the disadvantages are not really limitations to the progress and growth of your art as well as your art platform. Therefore, this means that you still get to enjoy multiple features specifically geared for your art content on the web.
Squarespace
Squarespace is uniquely designed to enable artists in different niches to showcase their art. With respect to attention grabbing designs, squarespace is the absolute leading platform. You can subscribe to either of Squarespace hosting plans: Personal hosting plan at $12.00 per month and the Business hosting plan at $18.00 monthly. Furthermore, you can also choose the online store hosting plans at $26.00 for the Basic plan and $40.00 for the Advanced hosting plan.
Squarespace also has an easy drag and drop feature that enables you to set up the best designs for your site as an artist. It might be a little bit expensive to set up a website under squarespace but it is definitely worth the trouble. In fact, squarespace has the most visually impressive design templates in the market so far.
Squarespace Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Has very advanced visual editorsIt has highly responsive mobile templatesIt provides the CSS customization featureSquarespace includes an e-commerce platform that is idea for medium and small businessesSquarespace has analytics that allow you to monitor the site performance as well as measure the SEOIt is ideal for startup artists as it can be able to manage your site even after building the website | It has a complex interface that might take some time to get used toIt is more expensive than rudimentary website building platforms |
When comparing the benefits and the disadvantages of using Squarespace to build your website as an artist, the only thing that might be challenging is the pricing tiers associated with the numerous site building features associated with it.
Top Free Website Builders for Artists in 2020
ArtStation
ArtStation is yet another platform that would be ideal for website building among artists. ArtStation is technically a de-facto of the popular DeviantArt. DeviantArt has been for long the ideal place to publish your artwork. Nonetheless, this precept has been taken over and managed by ArtStation.
Let’s look at some of ArtStation’s features
ArtStation, just like Squarespace has an amazing interface that attracts clients into your platform. Further, they have an amazing ‘search’ feature that enables the clients on your website as well as the back-end user to be able to access your art media content with ease.
ArtStation also offers free account creations. You can be able to sign up for a free account and even start publishing your artwork almost instantaneously. Further, you can even plan and categorize your folders and files according to your specialization. You will be able to add extra links that lead to your social media accounts under the free plan.
For you to be able to access the in-built portfolio site on ArtStation, you have to subscribe to the pro version of the account. This might be a major inconvenience for you as an artist with respect to the cost. In fact, other website builders like Portfolio box will offer the same style and features without the cost involved in hosting your site. Even more, you will have to purchase your own domain with ArtStation, which will cost you as well as use a lot of your time setting up.
As such, I would still recommend artists trying out ArtStation as it combines the features provided by Behance and DeviantArt in their workstation to deliver high quality websites for artists. You will also be preview to regular updates on what other artists using the sites are developing their websites to meet their market targets, through their online community forum.
Crevado
In addition, you could also use Crevado as your selected website builder as it has all the functionalities that are needed to see your website meet your artistic expectations.
Here are some of Crevado site building features…
- Crevado offers free portfolio hosting on their platform – You can get a sum total of 30 image uploads, which can be organized to up to 5 galleries. This service is also available limitlessly. This means that you can be able to use the website tools for a lifetime.
- Attached Google Analytics – Crevado enables tracking platforms to be able to access valuable incoming client data so as to provide appropriate analytic data to you. You will be able to know the number of visitors who visited your site, the content previewed as well as the linking protocols that have been provided to your clients on the sight. These analytics help you make informed decisions as to the items that would make your site gain more traffic and improve your business.
- Crevado has two main pro plans which cost $4 or $7 monthly depending on your subscription package. This will allow you to have more than 30 images uploaded to your site.
- Crevado has an easy to use drag and drop feature which adds on the simplicity of the interface. Nevertheless, the designs and themes offered by Crevado have been ranked to be among the best for art applications.
With respect to the features offered by Crevado, I would argue that it qualifies to be in my list of the best website builders for artists as it provides valuable resources that are specifically designed to suite artist needs.
Foliodrop
Finally, my last choice for the best website builders for artists in 2020 is no doubt Foliodrop. The platform has received a 4 star ranking which is considerably higher as compared to other website builders like ArtStation which only had a 3 star ranking on the same user review platform.
Let’s take a look at some of Foliodrop hosting features
- For starters, Foliodrop has a provision of up to 80 images on its free account offer.
- Foliodrop lets you access the relevant features that you need for your artistic content including unlimited pages, as well as a link to your domain name even under the free account. Even so, you will be preview to getting domain names with third-party affiliates.
Interestingly, some affiliates such as Namesilo will enable you to get your domain at $10 per year. Under this plan, the registrar will also enable you to keep all your personal information hidden under the WHOIS privacy provision.
After which, you can direct your domain to point to your newly created website, which will legitimize your site functions. You will have your professional page hosted at no extra cost.
- Foliodrop further enables you to customize your logos, restyle the basic themes, as well as set up the website in however method that works for your art site.
- Foliodrop also has free video tutorials that help you get started with the setup process. You will get backend tips, showing you how best to set up your website to suit your website needs.
My name is Nate Reiner and I am the editor here at 10Webtools. I have 8 years of experience using 50+ different web tools ranging from podcast, web hosting, email marketing, and much more. I previously managed a team offering support services to a large conglomerate that utilized tens of software solutions. I now run this blog full-time and when I am not reviewing or testing software, I enjoy riding bikes and supporting my clients achieve internet success. You can reach me directly at [email protected]