Best website builders for artists (2026)

Your work first, large and sorted into series, each piece with its title, medium, size and year; an artist statement and a short bio; your exhibition history and any press; what's for sale and how to buy it, with prices or an inquiry button; how commissions work and what they start at; and a newsletter sign-up for collectors who aren't buying today. The portfolio, store and newsletter tests above show which builders do those three without another tool.

Both write a first draft with AI, both have a gallery with a full-size view and both sell originals and prints from the site, so the difference is in this page's tests. Wix edits and adds pages by chat and sends newsletters itself (its built-in sending covers 200 emails a month); Squarespace's AI chat edits text and images but adds no pages, and its newsletter is a separate Email Campaigns subscription. The table above has every mark, and the order is computed from them rather than chosen, so read the scores rather than take our word for it.

They're portfolio tools, and ChatGPT named all three. Format's plans are Basic at $10, Pro at $12 and Pro Plus at $15 a month billed yearly, after a 14-day free trial, as its page showed them on the day we read it, with Pro and Pro Plus marked down from $24 and $36 ("up to 50%" off); Pro has a commission-free store (15 products) and Pro Plus a bigger one (1,000) and client galleries, and its pricing page mentions no AI. Adobe Portfolio comes free with an Adobe Creative Cloud plan, by Adobe's own account, and is a portfolio rather than a shop. Cargo's pages refused our reads, so we can say only that ChatGPT named it for experimental design. None of the three is scored here; we read Format's and Adobe's pages on October 24, 2026. If the website is a portfolio and nothing else, they're built for exactly that; if you also sell, take commissions and want a newsletter and local search, the table above is the comparison.

Do both, in that order if you're starting from nothing. Marketplaces such as Etsy and Saatchi Art put your work in front of people already shopping for art, for a share of each sale, and that's where many first buyers come from. Your own site is where a collector who saw you at a fair or on Instagram checks the rest of the work and buys without the marketplace's cut, and where a gallery looks you up. The store test above shows which builders sell from the site without another company's checkout; every one here does, Zarla through your own Stripe account. Keep the marketplace profile pointing at your site.

In the US, yes: income from selling your work is taxable whether you call it a hobby or a business, and most states charge sales tax on art sold to buyers in the state, which you collect at checkout; selling into other states can bring their sales tax in once you pass that state's threshold. Elsewhere the sales tax is GST in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore once you're registered, and VAT in the UK and EU past the registration threshold. None of the builders here files your taxes; what each store does about tax at checkout is on its own pages. Confirm the details with your accountant.

With Zarla, the first draft takes about 30 seconds: every page, written for your art business, including a contact form and a gallery. What's left is your own photos of the work, your prices and your statement. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and WordPress.com can also write a first draft with AI; how long the rest takes depends on how much you set up yourself. We haven't timed them side by side yet.

Wix, WordPress.com, GoDaddy and Squarespace have it built in. It takes another tool or a workaround on Zarla (gallery layouts picked for you; no tap-to-enlarge view). We read each on the builder's own pages on October 24, 2026.

Collectors buy from artists they've followed for a while. Wix's built-in sending covers 200 emails a month; more needs its separate email plan. Wix, WordPress.com and GoDaddy have it built in. It takes another tool or a workaround on Zarla (AI blog and a sign-up form; no newsletter sending); Squarespace (blog; sending email is a separate subscription). We read each on the builder's own pages on October 12, 2026, and re-checked them on October 24, 2026.

Building and previewing one can cost nothing on most builders; a live site on your own domain costs money on every builder here. Wix: Core, the cheapest plan with bookings, is $29/mo billed yearly. Light is $17/mo without bookings, and there's a free plan on a wixsite.com address. WordPress.com: Personal is $4/mo billed yearly; form file uploads need Business, $25/mo billed yearly. Plugins can add their own cost. GoDaddy: Websites + Marketing plans are priced by country, and GoDaddy's page didn't show us a US price, so check it for yours. Squarespace: Basic is $19/mo and Core $29/mo, billed yearly, after a 14-day free trial. Online booking is a separate Acuity Scheduling subscription. Zarla is free to build and preview, and you pay when you publish, on the Premium plan. Each price is the builder's own, read on its pricing or help pages (September 28, 2026); check it for your country before you buy.

Wix has Price Quotes that clients accept online and that can turn into an invoice. WordPress.com needs a quote plugin from another company. Zarla sends a quote as one link: the customer picks an option, ticks any extras and accepts it, and Zarla drafts the invoice for what they chose, with any deposit you asked for, ready for you to send. GoDaddy sends invoices, with a payment schedule for deposits, but has no quotes built in. Squarespace sends estimates and proposals with an Accept button, from its Basic plan. For an artist the quote is the commission price: the leads, quotes, invoices and payments test above scores which builders let a buyer accept one online, and an accepted quote with a deposit is a commission that goes ahead. We read each builder's quoting on its own pages on October 4, 2026.

Yes: Wix placed first of five here, with 15 of 18 points. Of the tests that are particular to artists, it gets a tick on "A portfolio with a full-size view", "Originals and prints sold from the site" and "A blog and an email newsletter". The catch: bookings need the Core plan rather than the cheapest one, and pages for each town you serve are yours to write.