How to choose the right website package for your art business

When you’re looking to create a website to display your art and act as the central online hub for your business, you need to make sure that you weigh up your options when it comes to the best website builders from different suppliers.

There are a lot of different website packages out there with a stream of features.

The right website package for you, however, depends entirely on what you’re looking for, what features you’d like your website to include and how tech savvy you are.

Some website platforms require technical knowledge to operate them effectively, so if you’re a bit shy on web development skills, maybe a drag-and-drop style or templated website package would be more suited to your needs.

Deciding on your web package: Squarespace vs Wix vs Shopify vs WordPress

You need to weigh up all of your options and do your research, otherwise you could end up with an expensive website package that requires lots of additional purchases or training to function properly.

To help you to decide on the best website builders and packages for your online art business, we have developed this overview of each of the available options so that you can review them easily and make an informed decision on which web package you should choose.

Should you choose Shopify for your art website?

Shopify is ideal for those who are new to web development and want to keep it simple by creating nothing more than an online store and blog page to sell their artwork.

They have over 500,000 active stores that collectively drive over 40 billion dollars’ worth of sales*.

Much like eBay and Etsy, Shopify stores are part of a larger website.

Whereas other website builders, such as WordPress, create stand-alone websites with an independent domain (URL).

All of Shopify’s packages include the following features:

• Online store
• Unlimited products
• Staff accounts (+2)
• 24/7 support
• Sales channels
• Manual order creation
• Discount codes
• Free SSL certificate
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Fraud analysis
• Shopify point of sale app
• Hardware peripheral support
• Third-part POS apps

That is a big list of items that will be a god send to those who are new to the concept of creating a website.

Although their templates will restrict the functionality and design of your website, you will save a lot of set up time and expense if you opt for Shopify.

Shopify offer a free trial for their online stores. So, if you’re a beginner this is a fantastic option to get started and give you a taste of what you can achieve with an art website promoting your work.

Shopify Pricing: Package price starts at $29 per month. Experience: Ideal for beginners!

Why is Squarespace a good option for building an art website?

Squarespace is cool because no matter what experience you have in creating websites, there is an option for you.

Similar to Shopify, there are two simple online shop options for retailers that want a ready-made website package.

Squarespaces’ dynamic online store packages include all of the features in the website “Business” option and more:

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage
• Mobile-friendly website
• Advanced website metrics
• Free SSL certificate
• 24/7 customer support
• Unlimited contributors
• $100 Google Ads credit
• Promotional pop-ups
• Fully integrated e-commerce
• Unlimited products
• Mobile information bar
• Complete customisation through CCS & Java
• Premium blocks and integrations
• Announcement bar

Squarespace is very much an all in one tool that can provide you with a custom website as well as help you to promote it.

In this aspect, it’s range of tools are enough to rival the most well-known website building businesses that you can think of – They now host over one million websites!*

Squarespace Pricing: Package price starts at £20 per month.

In addition to this, Squarespace offer more basic web packages.

These packages are cheaper, however if you’re thinking about making an art website that can carry out transactions online, it’s worth taking into consideration the cost of the time and effort it will take to turn one of these sites into an e-commerce store.

Buying the readily integrated web package is a lot easier if you have no experience with plug-ins or web development.

Squarespace Pricing: Package prices start at $10 per month. Experience: Beginner to advanced

How does a Wix website compare with other websites?

Wix is one of the largest website building platforms in the world with over 150 million users in 190 countries.*

Wix offer a total of seven different packages that range from personal blogging sites to full e-commerce packages.

Their platform is also incredibly easy to use, with most features consisting of simple drag and drops from the handy tool bars that they provide.

The very minimum package that you should choose with Wix would be the Entrepreneur & Freelancer package.

Anything less than this package is useless if you do not already have a website.

Based on this the features that you can expect from a Wix site include the following:

• Unlimited bandwidth
• 10GB storage
• Option to connect to your domain
• 1 Video hour
• Removal of Wix ads
• A free domain for one year
• £75 of Google Ads vouchers
• Site booster app
• Form builder app

Wix Pricing: Package prices start at £8.50 per month. Experience: Beginner to advanced

Again, with Wix’s extensive offering, it may be worth considering an e-commerce package if you would like your customers to be able to make a purchase through your site.

This would mean less messing around with plug-ins and backend development.

Wix is so simple to use that you will be able to figure out how to create your website without a problem, it is designed for everyone and that means you too!

Would WordPress be a good choice for an art website?

WordPress is considered by many to be the daddy of website builders, and if you consider website building ability alone, it probably is.

WordPress is used by over 75 million websites!

Where WordPress falls short of the competition is in any feature that is outside of the whole web building persona.

However, their range of themes is extensive, their platform is easy to use and the number of different websites that you can create is mind boggling.

WordPress packages range from basic blogger sites to full e-commerce packages.

The minimum option that you should choose for your art business would be the Premium package, this package includes the following features:

• Jetpack essential features
• Free domain for one year
• Email & live chat support
• 13GB storage space
• Extensive amount of free themes
• Unlimited premium themes
• Advanced design customisation
• Removal of WordPress Ads
• Advanced social media
• Simple payments
• Site monetization
• Video support

WordPress Pricing: Package prices start at $7 per month. Experience: Intermediate to advanced

WordPress offer a great e-commerce website package too if you want customers to be able to make a purchase online.

Building a site on this platform does require a little bit of experience or training in web development, so make sure that you prepare if you are going to take on this challenge.

There are plenty of Youtube videos out there that can show you around the basics.

Which website package is the best option for artists?

All of the above website building platforms have their perks, however, the best website builders for your artwork will be entirely dependent on your ability to create a website.

There is no use is choosing a tool that you are unable to monetize effectively because you simply don’t know how to use it.

We have graded the above platforms from beginner to advanced to help you.

We hope that the above will help you to make an informed decision on the best website platform for your needs.

You can learn more about the different ways that you can sell art online and make money here.