The easiest way to sell photos online is to create a visually stunning website that will make your photography portfolio stand out from the competition. To do this, you’ll need a reliable website builder that’s packed with excellent design features, ecommerce capabilities, and effective SEO tools. To save you time scouring the net, we’ve created the ultimate list of the best ecommerce platforms for photographers that will help you showcase your creativity and sell photos online. 

Table of contents

1. Key features that ecommerce platforms for selling photographs online should have
2. A quick summary of the best ecommerce platforms for photographers in 2020
3. Best ecommerce platforms for photographers in 2020
4. Comparison table
5. FAQ

Key Features that Ecommerce Platforms for Selling Photographs Online Should Have

Entering the world of ecommerce platforms can be confusing for photographers as there are a number of things you need to take into account before choosing an ecommerce provider.

Firstly and most importantly, because of the nature of the work, you need to find an ecommerce solution that offers you a variety of well-designed templates and layouts that will do justice to your work. 

Secondly, launching a beautiful website won’t bring you traffic if it’s not supported with powerful SEO tools that will make it easier for you to optimize your content. Integration with social media platforms, your CRM software, and other third-party apps is another important feature to look out for, especially if you want to grow your business (and who doesn’t?). 

Additionally, given that mobile shopping has become so widespread nowadays, a mobile-friendly ecommerce platform is a must if you want your customers to be able to enjoy visiting your site from their mobile devices. And lastly, there should be enough customer payment options, especially the most popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stipe, and Payline.

A Quick Summary of the Best Ecommerce Platforms for Photographers in 2020

1. Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder that helps savvy photographers sell photos online by using well-designed templates and eye-catching fonts.

2. SITE 123

Site 123 is an intuitive website builder that allows clients to set a website and an online store within a few clicks.

3. Weebly

Weebly is a drag-and-drop website builder that provides clients with exceptional functionality.

4. GoDaddy

GoDaddy is an effective website builder that allows clients to sell photos online by providing them with exceptional ecommerce features.

5. Jimdo

Jimdo is an all-inclusive website builder that uses artificial intelligence to ease the process of launching a website.

6. Wix

Wix is a fully-responsive website builder, packed with a number of visually stunning templates.

Best for template design: Squarespace 

 This colour-rich website is created with Squarespace. Click here to visit the website.

If you’re looking for a platform to sell photos online but you’re still a beginner, look no further. Squarespace is a versatile website builder packed with stunning templates that will take your portfolio to the next level.

This platform is packed with over 100 fancy mobile responsive templates. The best part about Squarespace’ templates is that you can switch yours whenever you like without losing any information. Plus, Squarespace’ photography templates are simply stunning. They are specially designed to help photographers make the most out of their portfolios and look amazing on every device. 

Squarespace is intuitive, beginner-friendly, and easy-to-use. The Site Styles menu gives you the freedom to customize every aspect of your website without having any particular knowledge of HTML or CSS.

One of the best things for photographers is the Squarespace Gallery block that allows you to upload images in bulk, embed videos, and add stock photos. Squarespace also has built-in SEO features, so you can add alt tags and meta description to your photos and blog content which can help your website rank higher in search engines. 

Additionally, Squarespace features effective ecommerce features such as discounts, automatic delivery, and customizable emails.

Features

• Well-designed templates
• Template switching
• Style editor
• Free Typekit fonts
• Video backgrounds
• Custom CSS
• Built-in mobile websites
• Customizable content layouts

Pros

• Easy-to-use
• Intuitive and beginners-friendly
• Stunning templates
• Built-in SEO features

Cons

• Limited 3rd party service

Pricing

• The Squarespace Personal plan starts at $12 a month. You get a free domain, unlimited bandwidth and storage, SEO features, templates, basic web metrics, and 24/7 support.
• The Squarespace Business plan starts at $18 a month. You get all the features included in the personal plan, plus premium integrations and blocks, complete customization with CSS and JavaScript, advanced analytics, fully integrated ecommerce, transaction fees, and more. 
• The Squarespace Basic Commerce plan costs $26 a month. You get all the features from the Business plan, plus even more advanced analytics, integration with Instagram Shopping, powerful merchandising tools, and more. 
• Squarespace Advanced Commerce plan costs $40 a month. You get all the features in the Basic Commerce plan, plus even more features like subscription selling, abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping, and more.   

Best for photographers on a budget: SITE 123

This elegant website was created with Site123. Click here to visit the website.

Site 123 is an intuitive and beginner-friendly website builder ideal for new photographers who want to sell photos online but don’t have much experience with creating websites. The best part about it is that it takes only a few minutes to create a small website or an online store. 

Site 123 features high-quality and fancy templates created with modern browsers in mind. All the templates are responsive for mobile phones and tablets, and you can find some beautiful photography templates that can help you display your images in the best light possible. But as opposed to Squarespace, you won’t be able to change the template once your website goes public.

When it comes to uploading images, adding color schemes, and changing fonts, SIte 123 excels as it allows photographers to customize every aspect of their website’s design. The platform even has a built-in logo resizer, so you can get creative with all the visual aspects of your website. Additionally, you also have access to the Google fonts library. 

Site 123 has built-in SEO features, so you’ll be able to set metadata descriptions, alt tags, and manage 301 redirects. Unlike most website builders, Site 123 doesn’t use a drag and drop builder which does minimize customizability. However, you get to upload all your information and content in a wireframe layout which makes things super easy and fast.

And best of all, Site 123 has quite affordable plans for photographers – their Basic plan is completely free, while their Premium plan is only $5.80 per month.

Features

• Website editor
• Custom domains
• Built-in SEO tools
• Blog
• Video tools
• 24/7 customer support
• Free hosting
• Free image and icons library
• Social media integration

Pros

• Beginners-friendly
• Intuitive
• Great customer support
• Easy access to the app market
• Effective SEO features 

Cons

• No flexibility

Pricing

• The SITE 123 Basic plan is available for free. You get 500MB storage, 1GB monthly bandwidth, a branded subdomain, basic SEO features, and noecomerce tools.
• The SITE 123 Premium plan starts with $5.80 per month. You get an online store,10GB storage, 5GB monthly bandwidth, more advanced SEO features, ecommerce tools, and no ads, among other things.

Best for photographers with small portfolios: Weebly

This visually-stunning website was created with Weebly. Click here to visit the website.

If you’re looking for a powerful drag-and-drop website builder, Weebly is a great choice for creating a photography portfolio. This website builder is specially designed to ease the process of launching a website, so photographers can create effective and beautiful sites and online stores without a line of code.

Weebly is extremely effective when it comes to creating fully responsive websites. Their templates are minimal, well-designed, and fully responsive for mobile phones. However, Weebly doesn’t offer as many templates as some of the other website builders on this list.

What particularly distinguishes Weebly from the competition is their super effective App Center which allows you to install a number of add-ons and enrich your website content. You can use these apps to scale your website and add functionalities according to the needs of your portfolio. There are over 250 different apps, most of which are available for free.

There are also premium versions of each app for those who need some extra functionality. The apps are divided in 5 categories – communication, ecommerce, site tools, marketing, and social.

The platform features an effective Image Slider and an Image Gallery with a number of features. Plus, it has a Social Slideshow, so you can instantly showcase your Instagram photos on your website. Additionally, Weebly allows selling digital prints in the POWr Online Store.

Although Weebly provides photographers with a wide array of features and functionality, it’s not very flexible when it comes to customization. Photographers that have some experience with coding can customize certain parts of the templates via CSS.

Features

• Drag-and-drop builder
• Custom domain
• App centre
• Built-in SEO features
• Email marketing
• CSS control
• Image editing
• Visual analytics
• Order management
• Online catalogue
• Shopping cart

Pros

• Ease of use
• Intuitive
• Beginner- friendly
• Customer support
• Great App Center

Cons

• Not flexible

Pricing

• The Weebly free plan offers a domain with Weebly branding, free SSL certificate, various templates, an unlimited number of products, inventory management, customer support, SEO tools, and 500 MB storage.
• The Weebly Connect plan starts with $5 per month. You get all the features from the free plan plus a custom domain. 
• The Weebly Pro plan starts at $12 per month. On top of all the features you have in the Connect plan, you also get site search, shopping cart, payments through 3rd party providers, advanced analytics, and phone support. 
• Weebly Business plan starts at $25 per month. With this plan, you get everything you need to create and manage your online store – you can check out all the features on their pricing page. 

Best for drag-and-drop functionality: GoDaddy

GoDaddy provides photographers with the opportunity to create minimalistic and fully-responsive websites. Click here to visit the website.

GoDaddy is particularly liked by photographers as it has an established Photography network that helps freelance photography businesses grow.

Another reason behind its popularity is the Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) which this platform uses to ease the process of launching a website. GoDaddy is intuitive and user-friendly which can help those without coding knowledge create a unique website with a few clicks.

This platform is a great choice for photographers who want to sell photos online because of its amazing tools for small photohraphy businesses. It features some basic ecommerce features like designer-made templates, customizable themes, responsive design, and much more. 

You also get SEO guidance which can help you get your website indexed in search engines. This is particularly helpful for photographers who don’t have any SEO knowledge. The platform uses an SEO wizard which is a super useful tool that eases the process of optimization.

Aside from that, GoDaddy offers great options for blogging which can be very useful to any photographer who wants to share the stories behind their images. You can easily add video backgrounds, audio materials, and images on every blog post which can help them showcase their work in the best light.

Features

• Drag-and-drop page editor
• SSL security
• Website management
• Blog management
• Photo gallery
• Video embedding
• Online payment processing
• Shipping management
• Social media links
• Email marketing
• Online store

Pros

• Easy-to-use
• Intuitive
• Beginner-friendly
• Excellent knowledge base
• Customizable

Cons

• Missing password protection

Pricing

• The GoDaddy Basic plan starts at $10.00 a month. You get SSL security, custom domain, basic analytics, PayPal button, 24/7 support, and integration with 1 social media platform.
• The GoDaddy Standard plan starts at $15.00 a month. You get everything from the Basic plan plus integration with 3 social media platforms and SEO features. 
• The GoDaddy Premium plan starts at $20.00 a month. This plan offers everything in the Standard plan plus integration with an unlimited number of social media platforms and online appointments features.
• The GoDaddy Ecommerce plan starts at $25.00 a month. With this plan, you get everything from the Premium plan plus more advanced ecommerce features like flexible shipping options, managing discounts and promotions, adding and editing product listings, and so on. 

Best for user experience: Jimdo

This minimalistic and well-designed website is created with Jimdo. Click here to visit the website.

Jimdo is an effective website builder that allows photographers with no coding knowledge to sell photos online by effortlessly creating a fully-responsive and well-designed website. The platform provides excellent functionality, ease of use, and a wide array of features.

Photographers can get playful with Jimbo’s flexible content blocks and scale their website.

You can easily manage your website content and upload images with a drag-and-drop editor.

One advantage that Jimdo has over its competitors is that it provides you with the opportunity to choose from two different modes – “Dolphin” and “Creator”.

The “Dolphin” mode gives you ease of use and excellent speed. This mode handles the website creation with an AI editor. Photographers answer questions about their personal tastes and chat with an artificial intelligence designer which helps them create the website they want. The “Dolphin” mode is suitable for non-techy individuals that have no coding experience. However, this mode is not very flexible when it comes to customization.

Jimdo’s “Creator” mode, on the other hand, is ideal for photographers who need more flexibility and design options. You’ll get more than 40 templates and the opportunity to create a small online store. Additionally, you can add video backgrounds, galleries, and a blog to make your website more visually attractive.

The platform also has built-in SEO features so you can create SEO friendly headings, meta descriptions, and page titles. 

Features

• Drag-and-drop editor
• Built-in SEO features
• Social media integration
• Photo galleries
• Storage and bandwidth
• Password protection
• Responsive designs
• Online store
• Free shipping

Pros

• Ease of use
• Responsive themes
• Great SEO tools
• SSL encryption

Cons

• No live chat support

Pricing

• The JimdoFree plan is absolutely free and suitable for simple websites that don’t need much storage and includes 5 pages, 500MB of storage, 2GB bandwidth, and HTTPS security. 
• The Jimdo Start plan costs $9 a month. You get an ad-free website, a free domain, 5GB storage, 10GB bandwidth, 10 pages, automatic SEO, and analytics. 
• The Jimdo Grow plan starts at $15 a month. This offers everything that’s in the Start plan, with more storage (15GB) and bandwidth (20GB).
• The JimdoUnlimited plan starts at $39 a month. You get unlimited storage, bandwidth, and website pages, as well as professional design analysis, business listings, and more.

Best for photographers with large portfolios: Wix

This beautiful portfolio is created with WIX. Click here to visit the website.

Wix is an intuitive and beginner-friendly website builder that gives photographers the opportunity to create stunning portfolios and online shops with their vast number or beautiful templates, specially designed for photographers. Uploading images is super-fast, and some templates even have built-in galleries in them which allow you to upload images in a bulk.

Wix features a photo editor that allows photographers to make some basic edits within the website builder. The platform makes it super easy to add a Pinterest Feed and a DeviantArt Feed. What’s more, you can use the Right-Click-Protect option which forbids visitors to download your images and share them online.

Wix features a before-and-after slider so photographers can showcase the edits they’ve carried out in their images. 

The platform uses a drag-and-drop website editor which allows you to just drop text and images anywhere on the website. Their drag-and-drop editor is super effective and gives you a preview option of how your website will look before it goes live.

Alternatively, photographers can also experiment with Wix ADi. This is an artificial intelligence designer that chats with you and asks you questions about your website, and creates a complete website according to your answers. This gives you the chance to improve or create your website from scratch, without any coding knowledge.

Features

• Drag-and-drop editor
• Wix ADI
• Wix App market
• Online store
• Email marketing
• Live chat
• Marketing tools
• Blog
• Web hosting
• Designer templates

Pros

• Easy to use
• Great template collection
• Excellent speed
• Great SEO tools
• Intuitive

Cons

• Wix branding on the free plan

Pricing

• The Wix Basic plan starts at $4.50 a month. Clients get 50GB storage and 1GB bandwidth.
• The Wix Combo plan starts at $8.50 a month. You get a free domain, 2GB bandwidth, 3GB storage, no ads, and embed up to 30min of video.
• The Wix Unlimited plan starts at $12.50 a month. This plan features unlimited bandwidth, 10 GB storage, visitor analytics app, a site booster app, and many premium apps.
• The Wix VIP plan starts at $24.50 a month. Besides unlimited bandwidth and 20 GB storage, you get priority support, a free domain for 1 year, priority response, and VIP support.

Website Builder	Best for	Pricing for the basic plan (monthly)	Free trial/Free plan
Squarespace	Best for template design	$12	14-day free trial
Site 123	Best for photographers on a budget	$5.80	Free plan
Weebly	Best for photographers with small portfolios	$5.00	Free plan
GoDaddy	Best for drag-and-drop functionality	$10.00	1-month free trial
Jimdo	Best for user experience	$9.00	Free plan
Wix	Best for photographers with large portfolios	$4.50	14-day free trial

FAQ