Getting your new website built and ready for showtime is an exciting time for any art business owner. However, choosing a website platform (also referred to as a Content Management System, or CMS) can be tricky. There are so many options … WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, Joomla, and so on, plus proprietary platforms like Art Logic, FASO, Art Storefronts and more.

All of those website platforms have something in common — they make it sound so easy to do-it-yourself.

But for many business owners who don’t have lots of time on their hands or are not confident in their technical abilities, it’s not so easy after all.

Many people contact us after spending too much trying to DIY it on various platforms. They might figure out a few simple tasks but soon discover that building a business website is not a piece of cake and it’s taking up all of their time.

Even if you outsource your website project to an agency like ours, you’ll still be faced with a daunting choice: Which platform to choose? (If you’ve talked to an agency that doesn’t give you any choice, please keep shopping.)

We’ve been building websites for a long time, and have worked with a variety of platforms and business types. Here’s our perspective with no strings attached; you’ll see no affiliate (for pay) links here. (We are in various partner programs, but there’s no advantage to us pushing one over another.) These are our honest opinions based on experience.

A shout-out to the DIYers

We realize that you don’t want to break the bank with your website, and we applaud anyone for wanting to learn something new. Allow yourself a good amount of time; with 20 products, it takes us up to 75 hours including copy editing, asset uploads, SEO foundations, legal foundations, financial connections (payment processing and payouts), testing, and ongoing adjustments — and we’re extremely efficient at what we do. Factor that it will take at least twice that amount of time to finish a full, legally sound, transaction-ready website. If you find yourself stuck on something specific or just have a few questions about Squarespace or Shopify, try our tutoring service.

But if you find yourself starting to procrastinate in general, that’s a sign that it’s getting overwhelming. Time is money, too. Consider hiring help as an investment and get it done right.

TOP Platform CHOICES

The top 4 industry-standard website-building tools for small and medium-sized businesses are WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix. We’ve worked with all of these and more. Millions of businesses use each of these platforms.

Most website platforms can produce the same basic results; they just have different ways of getting there.

All 3 mentioned here cost roughly the same; be prepared to spend $30 - $100/month for basic functionalities with any platform. (That’s for the platform itself, not agency Design & Build pricing.) You’ll pay for the platform on an ongoing basis. If you ever decide to pause your website, you can save your website pages and data, since you fully own it.

The advice here is to work with an agency that 1) is experienced with these and other platforms, 2) is willing to really learn the details of your offerings and goals, and 3) understands your desired level of involvement when changes are needed. Only after those 3 criteria are met should an agency recommend the best solution.

WHAT WE RECOMMEND For Artists

Artists tend to like a sense of ownership and control of their website. They like the idea that they could try to update their site if need be, even though most use a Technical Support Plan. For this reason, we generally don’t recommend WordPress because in almost all cases, for our artist and small gallery clients, it’s overkill.

• For our Mini-Showcase and Showcase websites that do not include eCommerce, we recommend Squarespace. But if you’re certain you will evolve to an eCommerce site over time, we would likely recommend Shopify.

• For Show & Sell eCommerce websites, we recommend Shopify. But it really depends on the quantity of your work and your business goals. Shopify is the best eCommerce solution, especially if your gallery of works is dynamic and will keep growing. If you’re more focused on offering online courses, offering classes or teaching sessions, or having a Membership area, Squarespace has some nice options built in, whereas Shopify integrates with several apps. It comes down to preference. (We give demos of both as part of our tutoring service, if that helps.)

• Millions of websites are built on both Squarespace and Shopify. They are both excellent choices. View usage and other stats on Squarespace at 4.9 million users (not all eCommerce stores) and Shopify with 4.6 million actual eCommerce stores, for perspective.

• Wix seems like a reasonable platform, but we’ve only built one site on it, long ago.

• All of these platforms continually introduce new features.

At the time of writing, Shopify has a few important advantages:

• Shopify has SEO (Search Engine Optimization) methods and suggestions built in resulting in a stronger SEO start. Other platforms have apps that can assist, but Shopify does historically have the edge on SEO.

• In our testing, page load times are always faster with Shopify, and this is extremely important for that first impression. If you use Squarespace, you must be very cautious about not adding “heavy” factors such as integration code, video, and more to your home page. Keep checking that site speed using tools like PageSpeed.

• It cannot be denied that Shopify’s Shop App network has grown impressively, with millions of ready customers and a very fast, easy checkout process that your site can offer, too. Squarespace only recently rolled out its own version called Squarespace Payments; it will take a while for them to be able to compete with the scale of the Shop App.

• If you’re going to sell in-person (which most artists do), Shopify has the best POS (Point of Sale) integration and lower costs compared to Wix, for example.

• Shopify offers pre-written, legal templates (for GDPR, Cookies, Privacy Policy, etc.) and also specific guidance about how to sell to an international market. Unless you’re an attorney specializing in online business, these templates are very helpful.

What About Wordpress?

While WordPress is one of the most used website platforms for larger businesses, it requires more technical aptitude than the others. It’s more complex; it’s like a giant mall. WordPress is the structure, but almost all key functionalities are from third parties (the many different stores in the mall, if you will).

And each store in the mall has its own prices, policies, features, and compatibility levels. And they can change at any time.

You’ll need to choose third-party plug-ins, themes, extensions, etc. for things like hosting, domain names, SSL certificate, eCommerce functionality (WooCommerce is the most used), email marketing, and more. The key point is that all the above are already built into Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix. With WordPress, your hired web administrator is the maintenance person who can keep everything knit together without unraveling.

Because of this, WordPress and its wide variety of options is best used by very technical DIYers or larger businesses with custom applications. It’s best for business owners willing to pay a premium to an administrator for the life of their business. (Or you should plan to hire an in-house marketing team.)

Bottom line, there’s a lot of flexibility and options with WordPress, but we find that the long-term maintenance costs and the risks of so many moving parts don’t make much sense for artists.

More on Squarespace and Shopify

Squarespace and Shopify (and Wix) are more like going to a department store than a mall. There are several functionalities (departments) all housed under one roof or easily integrated.

Here are some of the features that are already included or easily integrated into Squarespace and/or Shopify:

• domain name

• hosting

• SSL certificate

• website builder/Content Management System

• blogging

• basic e-commerce capabilities including subscriptions and donations; integrated payment processor options (eg. Stripe, Shop, Paypal)

• email marketing

• and more

It’s easy to see how everything “built-in” is an attractive option for artists and small-medium-sized businesses. It also helps that the initial agency investment level for a professional business website in Squarespace or Shopify is significantly lower than WordPress.

Squarespace and Shopify are also a bit more DIY-friendly than WordPress, but they’re not perfect. Clients can get lost fairly easily if they’re trying to do something that they don’t do daily or weekly. The Wix interface seems about the same.

In Squarespace, we’ve seen clients delete an entire section on a webpage by accident; make small images huge, delete our “invisible” code markers, and break the navigation. The drag-and-drop functionality of Squarespace has definite quirks and takes practice, and there are lots of features that are not obvious or easy for casual users.

Shopify is set up differently; there are different areas to change things and it’s not always obvious to the layperson. But with some quick training, most shop owners are able to log in and add or adjust their products, which is the most important function. We don’t recommend that the average shop owner go in and make major changes to their Home page, for example.

Our monthly Technical Support Plan fees for Squarespace, Shopify, and Wix are also significantly lower than WordPress.

Proprietary Art Platforms

There are a few proprietary systems that are branded as just for artists, such as Art Storefronts, FASO, and Artlogic. These are understandably attractive to artists, and they seem to think of everything you could possibly need. We have not personally used any of these systems, so we can’t give a full review.

What we have assessed is their feature list and pricing (when shown), and it’s clear that if you want the level of features you’d get with Shopify, for example, you will likely pay more. These are monthly fees that you’d pay for as long as you have the website. (But you’ll also pay monthly for any website platform.)

There are pros and cons to this model. One drawback is the dependency; you don’t really own or control what happens to your website if they go out of business, for example. It’s not clear what happens to all of your content if you want to change providers (whereas in Shopify or Squarespace, you can save or transfer your content).

The advantage of using tried and true website platforms like Shopify or Squarespace is that they’re here for the long-term with literally millions of active businesses relying on their infrastructure. (View usage and other stats on Squarespace and Shopify for perspective.)

Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix are not dependent on one type of industry, and they continually invest in ongoing improvements and features. Because of their scale, their pricing stays fair, and the integration options are plentiful (such as Augmented Reality, print providers, wishlists, the ability to offer subscriptions, etc.) because developers are incentivized. You can hire art industry specialists like Austen Agency or other experts to help you make the most of these amazing platforms.

When considering a proprietary art platform instead of a foundational platform, always first seek input from dedicated art groups, boards, and other communities. Be cautious of over-the-top sales pitches and the oddly excessive use of the word “free” (IYKYK). All businesses, including ours, want to make money.

In Conclusion

To summarize, Shopify has its roots in eCommerce as it was primarily built for eCommerce product sales, but can be turned into a services business site. Squarespace has its roots in a more general website ideal for service businesses but can be turned into an eCommerce product sales site. Wix seems to be gaining more market share in general. All three platforms have the functionality needed for either.

That said, if you’re trying to make a living as an artist and you plan on selling your dynamic art collection via your website for years to come, we think Shopify is ultimately the way to go.

A recent Forbes article summed it up this way:

“For most e-commerce categories, including POS, customer support and SEO tools, Shopify is ahead. This is mainly due to the fact that it was originally designed to power online stores, and it’s been around long enough to have perfected a lot of elements. On the other hand, Squarespace is geared more toward general website building for all of your different pages, with some extra e-commerce functionality for selling. The best choice for you will ultimately come down to what you want out of your online presence.”

We hope this provides a good starting point for your decision-making. Schedule your free consultation and we’ll help you determine the best fit for your goals and budget.