When deciding whether you should build your own website, cost is a factor for many artists. There is no point in shelling out $250 a year for a fully-featured website that you’ll barely use. There are times that using a free website provider makes sense for many artists.
A free website can be an ideal solution for creating a portfolio of work that is to be used for applying for galleries, grants or other opportunities. It may also be an ideal backup for an Etsy artist who wants to have offering available outside of the marketplace.
In my own case, I used the free SquareUp website to add a shop to my portfolio site. I already had an extensive portfolio site that was built when it was considered taboo to sell on your own website if it was competing with your gallery representation.
Once those “rules” changed and selling your own work online became commonplace, I created a webshop with Square Up and used the menu options to link the two together. It was a fast and easy integration. And the bonus? I was able to import my shop listings to Facebook and Instagram. All for free.
Top Three Best Free Websites For Artists
I’ve done the research and checked out the following nine FREE websites hosts. But before we dive in to them one by one, here are the top three recommendations:
| Square Up | Square Up wins for the best fully-featured shop. It is ideal for creating a shop and then tying it to your existing website. |
| Google Sites | Google Sites wins for the best free website on a fast server. Google Sites is ideal for creating a website around a specific creative project. |
| Mail Chimp | Mail Chimp wins for the best integrated e-commerce solution. Although the Mail Chimp site can be complex and tricky to navigate, it is ideal if you want all of your online marketing (website, newsletter, social media campaigns, and ads) in one place. |
Free Websites for Artists
I surveyed many website hosts, and most did not make the list. For example, I did not include website providers that offered a free trial, because that’s not much use. If you take the time to build a website, you should be able to keep it until you are ready to delete it or upgrade it.
I’ve listed website providers with free websites in alphabetical order. Almost all of these plans have paid upgrades you can opt for when you’re ready. Each of the website profiles below lists the features of the FREE plan, the pros and cons of each, and a takeaway.
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