The Best Photography Website Builders In 2022

12 min read
Vlad Kovalskiy
February 11, 2022
Last updated: March 11, 2024
The Best Photography Website Builders In 2022

If you’re a photographer, you should build a website for yourself. It should help you to showcase your works, find new clients and monetize your talent. You can hire someone to create a site for you — or you can do it yourself even if you have no coding skills. This article should enable you to find the best photography website builder. The solution that we recommend to you should come in handy for photographers with any budget and level of experience.


How to Create a Website for a Photographer

Before we help you to select a website builder for photographers, let’s discuss why you need a site at all and which functions it should have.

A personal site should enable you to achieve the following goals:

  • Promote your personal brand

  • Attract new customers

  • Make more money

A photographer website should include the following pages:

  • Portfolio — this is where you showcase your works

  • About Me — here, you share your biography and explain what makes you stand out from your colleagues

  • Contacts — your potential clients should be able to promptly get in touch with you to book a photoshoot

  • Online store (optional) — you can sell your photos, albums and other items here

It might also be wise to include a FAQ section. It should come in particularly handy for wedding photographers. There, you can provide answers to such questions as “How far in advance should I book a photographer for my ceremony?” or “How can I get a discount?”.

As for the portfolio, you don’t need to upload all your works there. It would be wiser to hand-pick only the best and the most representative pictures. When a potential customer opens your portfolio, they should be able to assess your strongest sides and your signature style at first sight. A typical website builder for photographers offers limited storage space for its cheapest plan — but it shouldn’t turn you off. Most likely, that space should be enough for a meticulously curated portfolio.

Young photographers often ask whether it makes sense to add an online store to their site. The answer depends on your monetization model. When you get started, you probably make most of your profit on photoshoots. Then, you can discard an online store. Instead, you should make your contacts visible and showcase your best photos.

To be able to make good money on a store, you should make a name for yourself and know how to promote your site. You might try to build a store on a dedicated ecommerce platform that will help you to take off. But we should warn you: top ecommerce platforms can’t boast such premium looks as sites that were tailor-made for photographer portfolios. You might need to sacrifice the design for the sake of sales (or vice versa).

Some young artists doubt whether they need a website at all. Isn’t it enough to have a social media presence? Social networks are indeed a helpful tool and you can use them for free — but they can’t substitute a personal site for the following reasons:

  • Social platforms lack customization opportunities. You can share your works there but you would fail to create such a strong aesthetic impression as on your own site.

  • The algorithms of social networks tend to hide some part of the content in the feed. You can’t fully control what your followers see.

  • People’s perception of art in social networks is distorted by likes, shares, comments and other indicators. They get distracted too easily.

  • One day, you might lose access to your account in a social network. You might violate the rules of the platform, or make a mistake, or your account might get hacked. When you own a site, you’ll never lose access to it.

Now, let’s talk about how to choose a photography website builder. You don’t need any coding skills to use the solutions that we recommend in this article. You don’t need to be a professional designer either. All the builders that we list have easy interfaces, offer large collections of templates and helpful client support. Most of them have either free plans or free trials that allow you to test their functionality before the purchase.


Bitrix24

Target audience

All photographers

Primary advantages

  • Free domain and hosting 

  • Intuitive interface

  • Excellent help center

Main shortcomings

A lot of excessive features

Bitrix24 is much more than just a website builder for photographers. It’s a large and versatile software system that includes a CRM, a contact center, time, task and project management functionality and so on. This is the only thing that might seem a bit confusing about this product. If you need to build a site, you should simply discard all the excessive functionality.

The drag-and-drop editor of Bitrix24 is highly intuitive and the selection of templates is impressive. Even if you have never tried your hand at building sites before, you should be able to create yours in just a couple of hours. The customization opportunities are very flexible. If needed, you’ll be able to use images from a free photo bank.

Your site will be fully responsive and SEO-ready. You can use the Bitrix24 ads network to promote it. You’ll get a free domain name and free hosting. Whenever you need a consultation, the polite and professional support crew will be glad to attend to you. Plus, you can find a lot of informative articles on the official site of the product and educational videos on its YouTube channel.

Bitrix24 is available in a cloud and on-premise version as well as a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can try its basic functionality for free — but please mind that its free plan features only 5 GB of online storage.


Squarespace

Target audience

Young and established photographers

Primary advantages

  • Visually appealing templates

  • Great customization

  • Powerful ecommerce tools

Main shortcomings

Pricing

Squarespace is targeted not only at photographers but at all creatives in general. That’s why its templates are eye-candy and ideal for showcasing works of art on the Internet. Over 40 templates were purposefully designed with photographers in mind. They are perfect for displaying large, high-quality images. Your works will look stunning on any device, be it a stationary computer, a laptop, a smartphone or a tablet.

Squarespace is not the easiest website builder for photographers who lack coding skills — but it’s not the most difficult either. You should appreciate its drag-and-drop interface as well as helpful pop-ups that come up every time you hover over an area. This builder enables you to add an online store or a blog to your site if you need it. The support crew will be ready to attend to you through live chat Monday to Friday, from 4 am to 8 pm EDT. Plus, you can send them an email 24/7 and they should respond promptly.

If you opt for the cheapest Squarespace plan, you’ll need to pay $12 per month. You’ll get a custom domain only if you pay annually — otherwise, the price of the domain will start at $20. You can begin with a free 14-day trial and you won’t be required to share your credit card number immediately.


Wix

Target audience

For users with a limited budget

Primary advantages


  • Affordable pricing

  • Free version

  • Ease of use

Main shortcomings

Too basic templates

It would be incorrect to call Wix a website builder for photographers because it’s a generic site builder. It was tailor-made for small businesses from all industries. Its templates collection includes nice options for all types of photographers: from those who work at weddings to photojournalists. By default, some of the templates might seem not too impressive — but you can customize them using third-party apps. Whenever you need a consultation, you can request a callback.

If you lack the time or just don’t feel inspired enough to build a site with your own hands, you can resort to Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence). The system will ask you a few questions to find out what you expect from your site. Then, it will pull data from your social networks — and you’ll get a ready-to-use site.

Wix Combo plan costs $14 per month and other plans have higher price tags. To save funds, you might want to stick to the Free Forever plan: your storage space will be limited, there will be a lot of ads on your site and a large Wix banner at the top. For young photographers who are just making their first steps in this profession, that’s a great way of creating their first portfolio.



What Is The Best Photography Website Builder In 2022?

Try Bitrix24. This free and powerful website builder allows you to build any type of site, including the one for a photographer. You’ll get free hosting and a free domain name.

Try Now



Format

Target audience

Professional photographers

Primary advantages

  • Tailor-made for photographers

  • Pro shooter features

  • Affordable pricing

Main shortcomings

Not the easiest interface

This is probably the most dedicated website builder for photographers. Its templates are sleek and modern. It can boast many specific features that its more generic competitors lack. For instance, you can upload photos directly from Lightroom or Capture One. You can disable the right-click on pictures so that no one will be able to save and use them without your permission. Format allows you to manage your portfolio through the iOS app but it lacks an Android app. To make money on your prints, photobooks and presets, you can add an online store to your site.

Thanks to the client-proofing system, you’ll be able to put together private, password-protected albums for clients. That should be a more user-friendly approach than using email, Dropbox or WeTransfer. If needed, you can protect your works with watermarks.

The cheapest plan costs $7 per month if you pay annually. This plan enables you to add a maximum of 15 website pages and 1000 high-resolution images. Besides, your selection of themes will be limited. To benefit from advanced functionality, you should upgrade to a more expensive plan. Then, you’ll also get a free custom domain and will be able to use the code editor.


SmugMug

Target audience

Android users

Primary advantages

  • Android app

  • Pro shooter features

  • Tailor-made for photographers

Main shortcomings

Limited selection of templates on cheap plans

Compared to Format, which was also purposefully built for photographers, SmugMug has a trickier interface. The full collection of templates is available only on the most expensive plans — but you can be sure these templates look very professional and are fully responsive.

While Format is compatible only with iOS, SmugMug caters to Android owners too. When you’re shooting with your smartphone, you can upload new photos to your site without any delays.

This website builder for photographers features ecommerce options, a Lightroom plugin, watermarking, password-protected galleries and the ability to disable right-click on images. Its Basic plan costs $9 per month and includes unlimited high-resolution storage. You can get a 14-day trial without sharing your credit card details.


Pixpa

Target audience

Client-oriented photographers

Primary advantages

  • 50% discount for students

  • An opportunity to create mobile gallery apps

  • Money-back guarantee

Main shortcomings

Not the easiest interface

This is a functional and affordable website builder for photographers and other creatives. It might take you some time to get used to its interface but the effort will be worth it. Pixpa allows you to create personalized gallery apps for customers to access on their mobile phones. This feature should enable you to expand your client base and make more money.

This solution smoothly integrates with other apps, including Google Analytics, MailChimp and Spotify. You won’t need to pay processing fees for your online store. You'll appreciate the selection of handy ecommerce features, such as the ability to generate discount codes.

The cheapest Pixpa plan costs just $3 per month. With this plan, you won’t get a free custom domain and the number of images that you can upload to your site will be limited to 100. After your upgrade to a more expensive plan, you’ll be able to add a blog and an online store to your site as well as benefit from various website extensions. To get started, you can request a 15-day free trial without revealing your credit card details. Students have a right to get a 50% discount.


Shopify

Target audience

For those who want to sell their works

Primary advantages

  • Helpful apps and extension

  • Powerful shop tools

Main shortcomings

  • High transaction fees

  • It’s good only for professionals who’re planning to sell their works

This is not exactly a website builder for photographers but an ecommerce platform that enables you to sell whatever you wish. You can make money on your prints, photobooks, workshops or anything else.

Shopify was not tailor-made for photographers, so its designs might seem a bit too basic for a creative’s taste. But it enables you to set up an online store with minimum effort and it supports a vast range of third-party integrations, such as Instagram, Facebook and other social media. The more platforms you integrate your shop with, the more sales you should be able to make.

The main drawback of Shopify consists in the fact that it’s good only for sales. If you build a site only to showcase your works and promote your personal brand, you might consider using some other site builder. Yet those photographers who want to make money on their site should appreciate a large choice of Shopify marketing tools and payment options.

The cheapest Shopify plan costs $29 per month and you’ll need to pay to use most templates. You can start with a 14-day free trial.


Zenfolio

Target audience

School and events photographers

Primary advantages

  • Shallow learning curve

  • Is perfect for large file volumes

Main shortcomings

  • Minimal client support

  • Very basic designs

With this website builder for photographers, your site can go live in a few hours after you start working on it. It’s true that Zenfolio designs look a bit simplistic, compared to other builders, and the selection of templates is limited. But the interface is intuitive and you can easily create a very decent portfolio website with your own hands.

The Starter plan costs €6 per month if billed annually and offers unlimited storage. That’s very good news for those who need to handle large volumes of photos. It would be wise to start with a 14-day free trial (and you won’t need to share your credit card details for it). After you upgrade to one of the most expensive plans, you’ll discover some special opportunities for school and event photographers, such as password-protected folders and the ability to add packaging and pre-orders for prints.

On the flip side, the only way of getting a consultation is to fill in a form and wait for an email. The support crew states that they should get back to you in around 4 hours. Unfortunately, there is no email or live chat where you could submit your query.


Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you found this article informative and now you better understand how to select a top-notch website builder for photographers.  An ideal solution should have an easy interface and an affordable price tag. It should offer an extensive selection of modern, professionally designed templates. Apart from the opportunity to upload photo galleries to the website, you should be able to enjoy some extra features, such as a blog, an online shop, a ban for right-clicks, Instagram integrations and so on. Most builders offer either free plans or free trials so that you can test their functionality before the purchase. Among all the solutions that are available on the market, you might want to turn primary attention to Bitrix24. This free and powerful website builder allows you to build any type of site, including the one for a photographer. You’ll get free hosting and a free domain name.

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