A photography website is an integral part of a photographer’s identity. It’s where they can demonstrate their style and world views, without restrictions. Thanks to a range of services, it’s quick and easy to set up your website, and to help you, I’m sharing the best website builder for photographers.

Key Takeaways

• FORMAT and Sqaurespace are the frontrunners for photographers wanting the very best website builder.

• Zenfolio and SmugMug are top options for those selling prints and desiring some support with their pricing structure.

• Those looking for the best free website builder should consider both Pixieset and SITE123.

Why build a photography website?

The benefits of having a photography website include having full control over your content and a space to grow your photography business. Websites also easier to navigate in comparison to the endless doom-scroll functionality of social media, plus you’re not in competition with a sea of ads and other accounts.

You can add multiple galleries and create an in depth bio so people can really learn about who you are as a photographer. A website also looks more professional and can take you into the realms of serious photographer, rather than someone who just posts images online.

Most of the best website builders for photographers also have blogging features. This is great for boosting your site in search results and as a method to collect email subscribers so you can market yourself further. You can also add an online store to sell your prints or photography workshops, and also use it to accept client bookings.

Website builder for photographers: Pros & Cons

Before we get into the best options, let’s first look at some of the pros and cons of using website builders for your photography.

Pros

• You don’t need coding experience

• You get full creative control

• Harder for people to steal images

• Create multiple galleries

• Easier for people to contact you

Cons

• Takes time to set up

• Monthly and yearly fees

• Design templates can be boring

Best website builder for photographers: At a glance

I’ll break down each of the best website builders, but if you don’t have time for that, here is a quick glance at my selection.

• FORMAT

• Squarespace

• Wix

• Zenfolio

• SmugMug

• 22Slides

• Pixieset

• SITE123

The best website builder for photographers: FORMAT

FORMAT has continued to grow and grow since its inception. It’s a very easy to use website builder and you’ll notice many popular photographers use it to showcase their work. It’s packed with plenty of features too, that help you promote and build your fan base.

Depending on your plan, you can create anything between 10 and unlimited pages for your photography website. They can be galleries, blog posts, store products and more. You can also create a page from scratch if you want more control over the final outcome of a specific page.

The platform lets you upload high-resolution images. This is perfect if you want people who use large computer monitors to view your work in all its glory. Users on the lower tier plan are limited to 70 images, while those on the highest tier can upload as many high-resolution images as they please.

If you sign up for the Pro or Pro Plus plans, you get a free custom domain. This adds a more personalized touch to your online photographic identity – it’s also more professional. You can use a custom domain on the lowest tier plan, however that will come at an extra cost.

FORMAT offers over 50 website templates that are designed for photographers. You can have multiple images on a single page, display one image at a time and show off your work in a range of different sizes.

Price wise, FORMAT offers very good value for money. The entry-level plan works out to $8 per month when you pay annually. The highest paid plan is only slightly more expensive, costing $13 per month on annual billing.

Squarespace: For blogging and client building

If you spend a lot of time on photography YouTube, you’ll no doubt know about Squarespace. It’s packed with plenty of professional tools that can help you manage your photography business. And, although you don’t need to code, there is coding functionality if you want to add more of a personal touch to your photography website.

There are no limits to the overall number of images you can upload to your Squarespace website. Each gallery can hold up to 250 images, and I can’t think of any photographer that would need anywhere near this amount. You can upload images of all sizes - and you can add videos too if you work in both art forms.

SEO is such an important part of a photographer's online presence. But, not every photographer is savvy when it comes to SEO best practices. Squarespace supports you by offering step by step guides on how you can use SEO to boost your search rankings. The platform can also connect you with an SEO expert for extra guidance, but this feature comes at a separate cost.

To help grow your audience, Squarespace offers a pop-up box that appears each time someone visits your website. You can modify the contents of the box, allowing you to add a call to action so people sign up to your email newsletter.

The platform also has tools that allow you to design a newsletter and send it to your subscribers. This removes the need to use third-party platforms like Mailchip or Hubspot. Squarespace does charge for this service, but I found it to be more affordable than several of the leading alternatives, and just as easy to use.

On the pricing front, I wouldn’t consider Squarespace to be cheap. Prices range between $16 to $52 per month on annual building. I recommend only going on higher tier plans if you plan on using your photography website to sell products and build a business. The personal plan will suffice if all you want is a beautiful space for your photography.

Wix: For managing photography bookings

Wix is a very popular website builder and currently has over a quarter of a billion active users around the world. The company comes with over 15 years of experience in the space, and knows all there is to know about offering the perfect website builder for photographers and beyond.

Wix does have a free account, but it’s laced with its company branding across your site. That means co-promoting two products. If you only want your own branding then you’ll need to go on a paid plan. With that you also get a free custom domain for one year - you’ll need to continue your subscription if you want to keep the domain for longer than that.

Every paid plan other than the entry-level plan offers site analytics. You can track how many people visit your site and keep record of any e-commerce you sell to customers. Those on the Light plan can always sync their Wix website with the free version of Google Analytics. This way you can still track your site traffic in some capacity.

Built into the platform is an online booking system. Here you can display your services and how much you charge per booking. New clients can hire your photography services, and their booking will automatically save to your calender. It’s a very streamlined tool, which is perfect if you’re take a high amount of bookings and want a simple space to manage them.

The platform has a couple of interesting ways to showcase your photography. There’s Wix Albums, which allows you create a range of albums for viewers to click on. You can also choose a cover photo for each album. Then there’s Wix Pro Gallery which let’s you blend photos, videos and text, allowing you to build a more dynamic view of your creative talents.

When it comes to cost, Wix is also on the higher side. Prices range from $17 per month for a Light personal account, through to $159 per month for a Buisness Elite subscription. Photographers selling products will need at least the Core plan, which comes in at $29 per month.

Zenfolio: For a more affordable option

Zenfolio is a website builder that puts photographers front and center of its product. All of its website templates are photo friendly. Also, like the other options, you can optimize your photography website for both desktop and mobile.

With Zenfolio you have the ability to create private galleries, which you can share with your clients. You have the option to password protect each gallery so only you and the specific client can access its contents. This is a more asethically pleasing way of delivering client work when compared to sending a Google Drive or Dropbox link.

The platform has useful tools for those starting out their professional photography career. For example, there’s a feature called Smart Pricing. This feature uses geo location to determine how you should price your services and products for specific area. You’re able to ignore the advice and price your services as you wish.

Even when you use one of the photography website templates, you still have the power to do some customization. You don’t need to know how to code either. Instead you can play around with different building blocks and position everything exactly where you want it - super easy, and fun.

If you like to write about photography, two of Zenfolio’s paid plans provide blogging features. It’s simple enough to create a dynamic post filled with text, headings and media. You build a post by adding different blocks and there are several formatting options available as well.

The good news is Zenfolio is very affordable. The entry-level plan costs $7 per month when you pay annually. The most you’ll pay is $20 per month for the Pro Suite plan, again on annual billing. If you don’t plan on selling products and services, the Portfolio plan will do you just fine.

SmugMug: For print sales

SmugMug is as much a cloud storage service as it is a website builder. Photographers gain access to unlimited storage space, and you can upload and preview RAW files as well. You can create multiple folders and galleries and upload photos directly from your desktop if you download the app.

This platform is a good options if you sell prints. Not only can you create a product gallery, but SmugMug also handles all the printing and customer service on your behalf. For more control, you can request SmugMug sends you the print each time someone makes an order, so you can package it yourself.

The company uses Loxley Colour, Bay Photo and WHCC to print your photos, depending on where in the world your customers are from. All of them come with a strong reputation for making high quality prints, so you can have peace of mind in that department.

SmugMug’s website templates are a little basic. But, they’re still nice and if you want those minimalist vibes that put your photos at the forefront of the screen, then SmugMug will make you happy. Like others you can customize your templates so you can get the frontend of your website exactly how you want it to look.

Like Zenfolio, SmugMug is ideal for those sharing galleries with clients. It has similar features, allowing you to password protect galleries and create unique shareable links. There’s also an option to allow other users to add to gallery, which is good is you work within a photography team.

How cost effective SmugMug is depens on how many photographs you want to store and how many prints you can sell. If you intend to upload massive amounts, then $31 or $45 per month will be a sweet deal, especially if you’re selling a high number of prints. You can try SmugMug for free before committing, to see fi it’s for you.

22Slides: For photography centric websites

22Slides is very much the trendy kid of website builders for photographers. It offers some unique features we seldom see elsewhere, and there some other other services that can help you take your photography website to the next level.

On topic of uniqueness, rather than limit you to a single website template, you can mix and match multiple templates until you have a design you love. It has some intuitive cropping features too. It’s able to detect the type of device a viewer is using and ensures your images are not cropped in a way that spoils the picture - you can also upload full-bleed images.

If you don’t want to use a standard template, 22Slides is on hand. The company offers web design services so they can tailor a design to your specific needs. They can take control of the SEO for your site, so you can rank higher on Google, plus they offer copywriting services for those who “aren’t good at writing about themselves.” These services are charged independent of your monthly plan.

Speaking of plans, 22Slides only has one. What’s great is that you can create two websites underneath the same bundle, helping keep costs down. On annual billing you’ll pay an equivalent of $10 per month and you get a free custom domain within that price. That’s a fair price and one that should attract photographers with a range of budgets.

Best free website builder for photographers

A majority of the best website builders excel on their paid plans. However, we know not everyone has a budget for photography websites, especially if you’re a beginner. To help those with limited finaces, below are two candidates for the best free website builder for photographers.

Pixieset

Pixieset offers 3GB of storage on its free plan. Which should be plenty for most entry-level photographers. You can also create an unlimited number of galleries, allowing you to really show case your photography talents.

Unlike other services, Pixieset allows you to set up an online store on its free plan. You can sell a range of photography accessories and products, and sell coupons and giftcards. There’s a 15% commission on transactions which goes to Pixieset - but this is pretty fair considering you can host a store free of charge.

There’s no custom domain and you must be content with having Pixieset’s branding layered across your site. But, it’s a small price to pay if you don’t have a budget. To remove all that, you can pay $8 per month for the entry level plan, which is a pretty good deal.

SITE123

Boasting millions of users, SITE123 offers a simple to use platform that can be the home for your photography. Although it caters for many professional sectors, it has a range of photography website templates so you can get up and running in no time.

The free version only has 250MB of storage space for your images. That may not seem much, but if you resize your images for internet use only, then you can still upload more than enough images to show of your best work

You can’t use a personalized domain on the free plan. But, that shouldn’t be too much of an issue if you’re only looking for a simple, personalized home for your portfolio. You can also integrate your site with third party apps including Google Analytics, Zendesk Chat and many more. A 14-day free trial is also available on SITE123’s paid plan.

Reddit: Best website builder for photographers

What do our friends over on Reddit consider to be the best platform to build a photography website?

Most users spoke highly of 22Slides, with one user writing, “22Slide is actually incredible! I’m so happy with how my website turned out.” Another user wrote, “I liked Squarespace but [22Slides] takes the lead.”

Other options were very much aligned with our selection. Squarespace and Pixieset being amongst the most common recommendation. There was also several shout outs for WordPress, the OG of website hosting. Keep in mind it’s not as no-code friendly as popular website builders, but it has plenty to offer, even in today’s competitive market.

Signing off

Now you know the best options for building your photography website, it’s time to go build. Remember, my favorite is FORMAT because it offers beautiful templates and is easy to use, it also offers the best bang for your buck.

That said, all of the options above are worthy of your attention. Do some research and make the most of free trials before committing to paid subscription. And, if you don’t want a photography website and are content with social media, check out this selection of the best social media for photographers.

Did you find this article useful? What website build do you use for photography? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading!

FAQs

Which is the best website for photographers?
There are several options, however the best website for photographers is FORMAT. It can be a beautiful home for your portfolio and it comes with features that help you build your audience and scale your photography business.

What do photographers use for website?
Sqaurespace tends to be the popular website builder for photographers. Beyond creating a photo gallery, it’s great for blogging, selling products and building your email database.

Is Wix good for a photography website?
Yes, Wix is solid option for photographers looking to build a website. It has plenty of sleek templates and it’s customizable too. Photographers use Wix for client bookings and customer management.

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