Website builder for artists and small business owners: Which is right for you?

Looking to create a website, but not sure where to begin with all this? I know for a fact that there is a bottomless sea of website builders out there, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. 

However, in this article, I’d like to take a look at some of my personal favorites.  Website builders for artists, their features, affordability factor, and ease of use: these are the things that will help you choose the right one for your small business.

Whether you’re looking to design a website that can showcase your art or trying to start your small online store, or maybe you’ll opt for a portfolio website. Im, sure there’s a platform that can help you achieve your specific goal.

Squarespace as a website builder for artists

Squarespace is a website builder that allows you to create professional-looking websites without needing advanced technical skills. It offers a range of templates, customization options, and integrations to help you create a website that suits your needs.

Squarespace is generally perceived as a go-to service for small businesses, creative professionals like artists, and about anyone who is looking to build a website quickly and easily. I personally like it for its sleek designs and user-friendly interface, which can be particularly appealing to those without previous web development experience.

Here are some of the benefits of using Squarespace as your website builder:

• Ease of use: Squarespace is designed to be user-friendly and straightforward. Obviously, there is a drag-and-drop editing feature and a clean, intuitive interface.
• Design templates: Squarespace offers a wide range of professionally designed templates that are to be customized to your requirements. This is definitely a big plus since you don’t have to start from scratch, so to say. 
• Features: The platform offers a variety of features, such as e-commerce functionality, blogging tools, and social media integrations. These can help you build a robust website tailored to work for your benefit. 
• Customer support: Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support via live chat and email. This can come in handy should you run into any issues.

Now, that being said, there might be some potential downsides if you happen to go with Squarespace as a website builder for artists:

• Price: Squarespace can be on a more expensive side compared to other website builders. Especially, if you need advanced features like e-commerce functionality.
• Customization limitations: Sure, Squarespace offers a lot of customization options, but there are some limitations to what you can do with the templates. This is more of an issue for any website builder. 
• Learning curve: While Squarespace is designed to be user-friendly, there may still be sort of a learning curve, especially if you have never engaged in website building.

Wix can build a website for your art

Wix is an outrageously popular website builder platform that offers countless templates and customization options to help novice users create decent-looking websites without those advanced technical skills in coding. 

Here are some potential benefits of giving Wix a shot if you are looking to build a website for an artist or a small business owner:

• Ease of use: Wix is built around that drag-and-drop editor, just like the previous platform. This can make the whole process of designing your website more intuitive.
• Design templates: Templates are available even in the free plan and there are enough to satisfy basic small business needs. 
• Features: Wix doesn’t lack features when it comes to its e-commerce toolset, and some blogging features as well.  You can choose to build both a website and a landing page.
• App market: Wix has an app market that allows users to add functionality to their website, such as social media integration, contact forms, and e-commerce functionality.

That being said, there are also some potential downsides to using Wix:

• Customer support: Wix probably offers 24/7 customer support. However, the contact us section is more straightforward than its competitors.  
• Customization limitations: As I said earlier, Wix just like any other website builder will have limitations in altering those templates.  
• SEO limitations: Wix has been criticized for its shortcomings when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), this might influence your website to rank properly on good old Google.

Is the website by Weebly an artist’s choice?

Weebly is a sort of more affordable website builder that just like the platforms above helps users to design a website even if they lack coding knowledge. 

Why would you consider Weebly as a website builder for artists?

• It’s simple: Weebly has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create a website, and yes it does have that drag-and-drop builder. 
• Customizable templates: You can design your own or go for a premade template. This can help you create a professional-looking website on a shoestring budget.
• Affordable: Weebly has paid plans that cater to various budgets, making it a somewhat good option for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and start-ups.

Look out for potential drawbacks of using a website builder by Weebly:

• Lack of ownership: When you use Weebly or any other platform on this list, you are essentially renting their services. This can only mean that you don’t have full ownership of your website and can’t easily move it to another platform.
• Limited mobile optimization: Weebly’s mobile formatting has some imperfections, sometimes your website won’t look as it is supposed to on a smaller screen.
• Technical capabilities: Weebly has limitations in terms of technical capabilities, such as the inability to add custom code to your website, but this is true for many website builders.

Things to consider before you decide on the website builder for artists

Limited customization options—Most website building platforms offer somewhat limited customization options, especially If we are talking about a website builder for artists. This means that it can be quite hard to make the website look exactly as you, as an artist, would like it to.

Half-baked SEO – Website building platforms rarely offer the proper SEO options, making it harder for your website to be found in search engines like Bing or Google. 

Lack of scalability—While website builder for artists doesn’t have to be packed with corporate-size functionality, it may be difficult to add new features or content as your venture grows and so does your website. In the future, you might want to add a sales chatbot or other marketing channels.

Pricing—Many website-building platforms require paid plans in order to access certain features or remove branding. A website builder for artists has to be affordable, as the art market is saturated and very competitive. 

Lack of technical support—Small business owners and artists look for a website builder that delivers technical support. Many platforms may leave you to figure out some issues on your own, which can be challenging without a technical background.