Best Website Builders & Blog Sites for Photography - Free & Paid
If you are a photographer and you want to showcase your masterpiece clicks to the entire world, the best and easiest way to do it is to have a photography website. And as a photographer, quite often creating a website on your own using coding can be very tough or even impossible if you do not have any coding knowledge. Then there are website builders. Website builders are the perfect companion for the people who want to create their websites without breaking a sweat.
You will need a website builder that is extremely easy to use and that bundles with loads of eye-catching themes and templates to make your job simpler. But the requirements don’t end right here. You will need a lot of space to host your files over the internet and a package with very limited storage space will just make things harder for you.
Therefore, we have put together a list of best website builders for photography websites that offer a complete package and all the other features that you should not miss out on when you are creating and running a photography website:
Even though a photography website is something that you use to show off your work, the work is the photos and videos that you upload to your website. And photos and videos fall under a different niche altogether. You will not be able to create an attractive and gorgeous photography website if you choose a regular website builder. Therefore you will need a specialized photography website builder.
Photography websites are probably the most attractive and coolest type of websites in the world. Because a photography website not only displays different emotions and moments in stills but also in motion as videos can also be uploaded to photography websites. And you may ask yourself why you need a specialized Photography website builders instead of just using portfolio website builders. Photography websites somewhat similar to portfolio websites, but the similarities are limited to the purpose behind creating both the types of websites, which is to show off the work by the professionals behind it.
Top Photography Website Builders Explained
1. Wix
Wix is our top pick here as it is one of the most complete website builders in the market and it has reigned as the industry best for quite a time now. Wix has versatile features that make it a suitable option for any kind of website and photography website is no exception. Wix offers class-leading features and themes that can make your website visually superior than the rest and all these features come at a throwaway prices.
Pros of Wix:
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One of the most popular website builders
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Highly modern and responsive template collection
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Best priced website builder
Cons of Wix:
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No live chat option
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Non transferrable websites
Wix Pricing:
Free version: Available
Misses out of many features
Premium version: Priced at INR 29/mo.
If you are buying Wix services from India, you are fortunate as Wix offers its one-off premium plan at throwaway price of just INR 29/mo. But the downside is that you do not get any eCommerce features or any eCommerce based plan here in India. For international customers, Wix has its premium plans starting at $5/mo. and there are eCommerce plans on offer that are priced at a starting rate of $23/mo. These eCommerce plans are the best for the photographers that would like to sell their photos online.
Wix has regularly featured at the top spot of many lists consisting of different website used for creating different types of websites and Wix has been able to such a position due to many factors. For starters, creating a website with Wix is one of the easiest things you can do in your journey with your website. And to make things simple, they have given an effective drag-and-drop builder that offers next level flexibility to the users and beginners will not be left stuck in between the technical stuff. Despite being bundled with lots of advanced features, things are kept very neat and clean in the interface, which itself grabs good first impression of everyone that uses Wix for the first time.
And as you upload the photos of individuals or of places or anything, you would not want your clicks land in the wrong hands like hackers or data stealers. To ensure this, Wix comes with advanced security features that make it literally impossible for anyone with wrong intentions steal your data. You get free SSL with Wix’s paid plans and hence the security of your website is assured.
Wix has upped its game over time when it comes to templates with its collection of highly responsive themes that are very advanced and modern. You can customize these templates to their core and if you don’t want to get your hands in the customization process, you can use any template out of the 30 templates are specifically designed for photography websites. You can also take assistance of the Wix ADI, which is the AI assistant that takes a few inputs from you and gives you a website designed with its futuristic AI characteristics.
2. Pixpa
Pixpa is one of the very few website builders that are dedicated to providing service to photographers and artists. Pixpa is one of the best website builders to create a portfolio website too. Pixpa has all it takes in order to create a fully sophistic photography website that stands out in the crowd of other websites. The websites created with Pixpa are extremely attractive and Pixpa is also an ideal choice for the photographers that are creating a website for the very first time, as Pixpa is extremely beginner friendly and is one of the easiest website builders you can use to create a photography website.
Pros of Pixpa:
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Has dedicated features required for photography websites
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Dedicated template collection
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Comes with image protection
Cons of Pixpa:
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No drag-and-drop builder
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Trial version does not allow publishing.
Pixpa pricing:
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Trial period: 15-days
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No credit card required
Pro: Priced at INR 6999 per year
5GB storage
Biz: Priced at INR 9999 per year
25GB storage
Pixpa has different plans on offer for artists and photographers. You can choose either of the plans as they are both priced the same and come with same features. Each category has two different plans and the basic plan costs INR 6900 annually, the more advanced plan costs INR 9999 when billed annually. The client gallery costs has its pricing ranging between INR 3600 to INR 36000 billed annually.
Even though Pixpa has a long way to go in order to match or even come close to the kind of service offered by the segment leaders, one thing that works in favour of Pixpa is the fact that it is specially designed for photographers. Therefore, it offers all the features that a photography website needs in particular and no feature you must need to create a beautiful photography website is given a miss. Also making the deal even better is the collection of templates that are fully dedicated to photography and portfolio websites. You can do the customization that you would like to have in your website or just use any template as it is. And Pixpa offers 38 modern and responsive templates and all these templates are tailor-made for your photography website.
Pixpa also comes with client gallery that lets the photographers to share their clicks, proof, sell and deliver their photos to their clients. This comes with simplified proofing, secure online delivery of your images, ensuring that your photos are not misused. You can collect payment directly from the customers and there will be no commission rates imposed on sales. You can also run discounts and offers.
3. Weebly
Weebly is a versatile website builder that it can be used as a multi-purpose website builder to create any kind of website. And when creating a photography website, Weebly’s ease-of-use plays a huge role as it lets even a mere beginner create an attractive website without breaking a sweat. Weebly’s ease-of-use stands next to none and what makes Weebly special is the fact that along with being very simple and easy to use, it has been stuffed without amazing features.
Pros of Weebly
Extremely easy to use
Feature loaded
A large collection apps in the app store
Cons of Weebly:
Lacks advanced marketing tools
Weebly Pricing:
Free - No custom domain
- Free SSL
Connect –Priced at $5/mo.
-Connect custom domain
Pro - Priced at $12/mo.
- Site search option
Business – Prices start from $25/mo.
-Advanced eCommerce features
Weebly has priced its plans very aggressively and they also have a free plan on offer. This plan comes with 500MB storage and choosing this plan for a photography website makes very less sense as you will need more space than what is offered with the free plan. The premium plans have their prices starting from $5/mo. Barring the most basic plan, other two plans comes with eCommerce features and these plans are priced at $12/mo. and $25/mo.
What makes Weebly one of the ideal choice for creating a photography website is the simple yet powerful templates on offer and the unmatched variety of apps on offer. Nowhere will you get to see as many apps as that you get in Weebly. Using these highly advanced templates and features, creating a photography website does not get easier than this. These templates are highly customizable and you can literally do any change you want to make to these themes.
4. WordPress
WordPress is one of the most popular platform used to create websites, and it is not really a website builder. Rather, it is a CMS. But it has enough punch to find itself in the list of best photography website builders list. WordPress is known to offer higher level of flexibility and what makes it one of the best options out these is the unbeatable amount of themes on offer. You can not only get themes from the official WordPress Theme Directory, but also from third party theme vendors.
Pros of WordPress:
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Most popular method of creating a website.
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Extensive availability of themes and plugins
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Best suited for photography website containing blogging.
Cons of WordPress:
Interface can be confusing for beginners
No built-in Drag-and-drop builder
WordPress Pricing:
Free version: Available
Self-host or subdomain
Personal: Priced at INR 160/mo.
Custom domain
Premium: Priced at INR 280/mo.
Custom CSS
Business: Priced at INR 640/mo.
Custom themes and plugins
eCommerce: Priced at INR 1152/mo.
Comes with eCommerce features
You can get WordPress in its free version, where you can either opt to self-host or have your website on a subdomain of WordPress. And the premium version of WordPress comes with its own hosting by WordPress and you need not worry about searching for a
web hosting provider. The premium plan gave their prices starting at INR 160/mo. and the prices go all the way up to INR 1152/mo.
WordPress is not the easiest to use. But upon getting used to the interface of WordPress, there’s literally no stopping. Hence, WordPress in not quite beginner-friendly. But with time, it can be used to create almost any kind of website you want. And where WordPress outshine its competitors is with its blogging prowess. Therefore, WordPress is the most recommended option for the photographer who want to do a bit of blogging, for example, you can have include travel photography and blogging combined in a single website with WordPress.
5. Format
Format is another website builder that is specially meant for creating photography and portfolio websites, unlike other website builders in the list that are multi-purpose. Being a single purpose website builder has its pros and cons. When you choose a dedicated website builder, you get the features that the type of website you want to create requires but you lack that sense of security and reliability that comes with other leading website builders, unless you are choosing a well-established website builder.
Pros of Format:
Comes with image protection
Support social integration
Cons of Format:
Pricing is on the costlier side
Interface needs improvements
Pricing of Format:
Pro: Priced at $12/mo.
Supports up to 1500 images
Pro Plus: Priced at $18/mo.
Supports unlimited images
Unlimited: Priced at $25/mo.
Offers Priority Support
The pricing of Format is not the best in the market, still it is reasonable for the advanced features that come loaded with it. Format comes with a 14 days of trial period and the plans are priced starting at $12/mo. and the prices go up to $25/mo. for the most advanced plan.
Format must be your choice for creating a photography website quick and easy. Though it does not come industry leading features, you get all that you need to create a stunning photography website. Format comes with modern and mobile responsive templates that can either be used by completely customizing them or you can just use them as they are. Such is the flexibility you get with Format. While Format packs enough punch to be considered as an option, it still has a long way to go to match up with the big guns like Wix and Weebly, especially in terms of functionality.
Conclusion:
While they are only a few handful of options to choose from dedicated photography website builders, most of them are yet to make their presence as reliable contenders to be considered. Pixpa and Format are the two that we found the best out of all the dedicated photography website builders and then there are website builders like Wix, Weebly, and WordPress with industry best features and performance. These website builders are versatile and offer a complete package that must help you in creating your photography website without any coding knowledge. You can choose Pixpa or Format if you are after a dedicated photography website builder, and if you are someone that wants reliable service with class-leading features, you can consider Wix, Weebly, or WordPress.