Nowadays, every artist should have a website. WordPress is one of the most popular website builders around. But is WordPress good for artists? In this honest WordPress review by an artist, you will learn why or why not you should create an artist website using WordPress. Should you decide to make an art portfolio or to sell your art on WordPress, you will find a selection of the best WordPress themes for artists at the bottom of this post!
WordPress is a popular website building system that lets you create almost any kind of website you can think of. It’s extremely versatile and gives you full control over the design of your website.
The numbers speak for themselves: WordPress powers around 40% of all websites on the web, which is more than 80 million websites! This just goes to show how popular it is.
But before we dive in, a quick note about wordpress.com and wordpress.org:
In this post, we will be talking about the content management system wordpress.org and I will give you may honest opinion whether or not WordPress is good for artists.
But hang on… are you still wondering if an artist should have a website at all?
Should an artist have a website?
The internet holds enormous potential for creatives of all fields. Whether you’re a traditional painter, digital artist, photographer, illustrator, etc., making a website for your art is the most effective way to build a brand, market your products and services, and showcase & sell your art.
With all the social media platforms and art sharing websites around, you might wonder, ‘why should I make a website for my art?’.
Because fact is YOUR website is the only place where YOU have full control over your content.
It might seem that social media is all you need to promote and sell your art. However, these sites should serve as a complement to your own website, and not replace it. They are rather a way to help you create exposure and drive traffic to your artist website.
But making a website for your art has even more advantages. Your artist website is what comes up first when someone searches you online. That means you have way better chances to be found by potential customers and art lovers!
If that hasn’t convinced you quite yet, read on about 10 Reasons Why You Should Make A Website For Your Art. ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ
Is blogging good for artists?
WordPress actually started out as a simple blogging platform at WordPress.com. But then, it quickly developed into the highly flexible CMS as we know it today from WordPress.org.
Nevertheless, WordPress has kept its blogging capabilities, and having your own blog is definitely good for artists, too. Why?
Because your blog is an excellent way of connecting with like-minded people, art lovers, and potential customers.
A blog lets you tell the story of your art. You know the most about the art you make and you know best how to describe your work. The more your fans understand about your work, the more they are enticed to buy it.
But blogging is not only good for artists to drive traffic and sales. It can also be an extremely satisfying experience on a creative level. You can use your blog to inspire others to create art, offer free tutorials to help newbies learn the necessary skills, and recommend the best tools to make art.
More importantly, your blog can improve the visibility of your artist website in search engine results.
By optimizing your posts for SEO, you greatly enhance your chances of being discovered on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search platforms.
All in all, a blog is without doubt the best way to get exposure. In my Ultimate Guide to Build an Artist Website for Success, I show you everything you need to know to get your art website noticed, drive traffic, grow your email subscribers, and generate sales!
Is WordPress best for an artist website?
There’s no general answer to that question. Because whether WordPress is best for your artist website is largely down to personal preference.
How flexible and customizable do you want your artist website to be? How much time are you willing to invest into learning WordPress? How much effort are you ready to put into building a website on your own?
Since WordPress is so scalable and powerful, it has a much higher learning curve than other website builders in the market. You don’t need any coding skills to get to grips with WordPress, but it’s not as easy to use as Pixpa, Squarespace, or Simvoly.
Related: Is Squarespace Good For Artists? – A Squarespace Review For Visual Creatives
Those platforms come with drag-and-drop website builders that are straightforward and intuitive to work with. So if you want to put together a website rather quickly, those are the best website builders for your artist website.
WordPress itself comes with a basic visual editor. However, you can install additional plugins that provide you with all the comfort of designing your artist website just by dragging and dropping elements on your selected WordPress template.
One of the best website builders for WordPress is Elementor, along with Essential Addons for Elementor and Ultimate Addons for Elementor– which I also use to make my art website, the one you’re on right now. ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ
Elementor even comes with a free version that gives you all the tools you need to create a basic WordPress site.
Don’t worry – Elementor is super-easy to use and you don’t need any coding knowledge whatsoever. To learn more about Elementor, check out my Elementor Tutorial for Beginners and my Elementor Review for Photographers and Artists.
Other powerful page builders that also offer a free version are Divi and Brizy.
Elementor – The Leading WP Website Builder
The World’s Leading WordPress Website Builder.
Divi – Building Framework
for WordPress
The Complete WordPress Toolkit for New Design Possibilities.
Brizy – Best No-Code
WP Website Builder
The Most Trusted White Label Page Builder for WordPress.
Why is WordPress good for artists?
There are lots of good reasons to use WordPress for your artist website. I have built this art website with WordPress and I am absolutely happy with it!
That being said, this WordPress review is somewhat biased… (◕‿◕)
… but I honestly can recommend WordPress for artists, especially for the following reasons:
Reason #1: It’s free.
WordPress is open source software. That means it doesn’t cost any money. You can download the content management system from WordPress.org and start making your artist website on your local computer. However, once you decide to send your website live, you will need to get hosting and a domain name. This doesn’t have to be expensive. You can buy both for just a couple of dollars per month from Bluehost, A2 Hosting, or ScalaHosting.
Reason #2: You have full control.
Because WordPress is so highly customizable, you can make your website look like anything you want – from a simple art portfolio to an ecommerce platform to sell your art. I am going to introduce some of the best website templates for artists later on in this post that will allow you to present your art and sell it through your own web shop.
Reason #3: You are the sole owner.
Your WordPress site belongs to you and only you. When you upload your artwork to social media, art sharing sites or to a website made with one of the standard website builders (like Pixpa, Squarespace, Simvoly, Wix, Weebly, …), you are not really the owner. Your website is just part of the platform, and if the platform disappears, your artist website disappears with it!
WordPress is self-hosted. You can store your website files on your local computer and pick your own hosting provider that best suits your needs. If you’re not happy with the hosting anymore, you can simply move your WordPress site over to another hosting company.
Reason #4: Highly customizable and functional.
WordPress comes with extremely customizable designs and lots of functionality. Since WordPress is open source, you will get full access to all HTML and CSS files to modify any pre-made theme to your liking. You can customize anything from colors, fonts, navigation menus, post and page layouts, website header and footer. There are practically no limits!
Related: Best Hyperlink Colors For Your Artist Website – With Hyperlink Style Guide
Reason #5: Lots of plugins and addons.
There are heaps of third-party tools to extend the design and functionality of your WordPress site. There are more than 50,000 free and premium plugins and addons to help you create whatever website you want. You can add a portfolio gallery, online store, membership area, and much much more. There are specific WordPress artist plugins that enable you to create beautiful art galleries to showcase your work.
Feel free to have a look at my step-by-step tutorials to find out how to make an art gallery in WordPress:
Reason #6: You can find help everywhere.
Since WordPress is open source and has been around for quite some time, there is a lot of free help available. WordPress has an active community of users and developers who share their knowledge on the web.
You can look up just about any kind of WordPress problem and find a how-to article or video tutorial to help you solve it. I have published dozens of WordPress tutorials on this website, too, to help you get your artist website on point in every aspect!
Why should an artist not have a WordPress website?
Despite all the good that WordPress offers for artists, there are a few reasons why an artist should not have a WordPress site:
Reason #1: There’s a learning curve.
WordPress is definitely not as fast to learn as other website builders in the market. You don’t need any coding skills to build a website with WordPress, but you will need to acquire some sort of technical knowledge to customize and design your theme.
You also need to get familiar with the plugins you are using. Even though plugins like Elementor, Divi, and Brizy are so-called visual “What you see is what you get” editors, they take some time getting used to.
Moreover, you will also need some technical knowledge to setup and manage your hosting. Using WordPress means managing your own hosting – and having some patience every time you encounter a problem.
That being said, you shouldn’t build your artist website with WordPress if you don’t have the time to put into learning the skills and if you are not ready to take the challenge of solving technical problems yourself.
If you are not ready for that, then using one of the website builders is the better option for you!
Reason #2: You are in charge of your website.
As I mentioned above, having full control over your WordPress website can be a good thing. On the other hand, you are also the one that is in charge of everything. That means you are responsible for hosting your artist website, keeping it secure, making regular backups, installing updates, etc.
If you have your site hosted with one of the website building platforms, the company will take care of these things. If there’s a problem, all you need to do is contact the customer support and they will fix it for you. While you can also automate some of those tasks with a WordPress site, (especially with managed WordPress hosting), you remain in control of the overall management.
How do I make an art portfolio in WordPress?
Because it’s so flexible, you can basically make any kind of artist website using WordPress. As an artist or other creative, you have primarily two options: you can make an art portfolio in WordPress or you can make an ecommerce website to sell art. Or you combine both options. ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ
There are countless WordPress art gallery themes you can choose from. Many artists prefer a clean and simple design to put the focus on their artwork. Choosing a minimalist WordPress theme will allow to make a portfolio that puts the focus on your art. I will suggest a number of such themes later on in this post.
Can you sell art on WordPress?
Of course, you can also sell your art on WordPress. There are various ways to build an online store for your artwork.
WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress sites. And the best thing is that it’s free and very powerful! You can create an entire storefront with digital and physical products, shopping cart, discounts and coupons, product management, shipping zone and tax rate calculation, and much more.
Apart from that, you can integrate payment gateways like Stripe and Paypal using Woo Payments, and add other services, such as shipping providers, newsletter opt-ins, wishlists, live chats, Trustpilot reviews, printing providers like Printful that will handle physical print sales for you, and many, many more.
To get an idea of what is available, check out the WooCommerce Marketplace.
To learn more, check out my full guide to selling art on WordPress with WooCommerce.
Best WordPress themes for artists to make an art portfolio and sell art
To help you find the best template for your needs, here’s a hand-picked list of the best WordPress themes for artists that are easy to use, versatile and offer lots of design possibilities to put your art in the limelight.
The selection includes the best multi-purpose and minimal WordPress themes that are all suitable for creative portfolios. They are compatible with the top WordPress plugins and come with e-commerce capability.
1. OceanWP
OceanWP is my favorite WordPress theme that I am also using for this website. If you are still not sure whether WordPress is good for artists, then check out OceanWP. It offers countless design possibilities and exceptional functionality. You can make it look like anything – from a minimalist WordPress template to a sophisticated e-commerce online platform.
OceanWP is fully compatible with WooCommerce (to launch your shop), and visual page builders like Brizy, Elementor, Divi and Breakdance that allow you to design your pages without coding and add all the features to your WordPress site that you can possibly dream of!
→ Is OceanWP A Good Theme For Artists? – Hands-On Review By An Artist
2. Astra
Astra is another lightweight multipurpose theme with a 5-star rating and more than a million customers. It comes with an array of ready-to-use starter templates to create any type of website. Astra is highly customizable; you can adapt everything to your liking, from pages, posts, archives, sidebars, header and footer.
For that purpose, Astra even provides its own page builder, called Spectra. But the theme also works with any other page builder. So, if you prefer Elementor, Divi Builder, Brizy, or Breakdance, you’ll have no problem using them! All in all, whether you want to create a minimal portfolio or a large online store – with Astra you have all the design freedom you can wish for!
3. Divi
Divi is another popular WordPress theme with dozens of designs that can be customized to almost anything. It is bundled with the Divi page builder, enabling you to build an artist website in no time. The theme is lightweight and fast-loading; all layouts are SEO-friendly and mobile-responsive. Just like with OceanWP and Astra, you will have access to ecommerce functionality to add your own web shop and drive sales.
4. GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a popular WordPress theme with a 5-star rating and 200,000+ active installations. It is very powerful, yet one of the most lightweight and fastest themes in the market. GeneratePress is easy to use; you can customize it with the native WordPress editor (Gutenberg block editor) or another drag-and-drop builder like Elementor, Divi, Spectra, and Brizy. You can create custom portfolios, gallery and blog pages, and your very own online art store thanks to seamless WooCommerce integration.
5. Gallery
Gallery is a slick WordPress template from Thrive Themes, a company known for providing all-round solutions to build high-converting websites. Whether you want to sell products, offer online courses or memberships, get into coaching, blogging, or affiliate marketing—Thrive Themes got you covered! All themes feature enhanced WooCommerce compatibility and come with the company’s on page builder, Thrive Architect. Gallery is a great WordPress template for artist sites with different homepage layouts to beautifully showcase your art and a fully functional online shop to start selling right away.
6. Folio
Folio is a powerful minimalist WordPress theme for artists that makes your portfolio stand out. The theme is developed by Automattic and comes with a built-in portfolio feature with different gallery styles to showcase your work. It fully integrates with WooCommerce, allowing you to start selling right away. To customize each and every aspect of your store, you can use the Elementor connector for WooCommerce, also developed by Automattic. If that sounds like right down your alley, then check out Folio today!
7. Art Gallery
Art Gallery is a minimal WordPress theme with a responsive layout. It’s easy to customize and also comes with the Divi Builder. You can use one of the pre-designed templates or create your own website from scratch. There are two more premium plugins in the basic package: Bloom for email opt-ins and forms, and Monarch for social sharing. Plus, if you want to sell your art, you’ll be delighted to hear that Art Gallery also offers WooCommerce integration for your online store!
8. Ultra Photography
Ultra Photography is a multi-purpose theme specifically designed for visual creatives. It has a clean layout and a ready-made portfolio page where you can display your artwork in a masonry-style gallery. Photography is also a great pick if you want to get into blogging, because Themify’s Builder Pro allows you to custom-design everything, from single posts to post archives, progress reading bar, related post widget, and so on. Builder Pro and many other plugins are included in Themify’s Club subscription.
9. Basti
Basti is a distinctive WordPress theme specifically tailored to the arts & crafts industry from Automattic’s collection. It is fully responsive and optimized for WooCommerce. There’s even a dedicated ‘Basti Art Market‘ layout that you can import with one click of the mouse. You can choose from seven different layouts for the home page that welcomes your visitors with a selection of your best images and shortcuts to your art products.
10. Shoppe Artist
Shoppe Artist is a clean and modern multi-purpose WordPress theme. It’s ideal for artists and other creatives thanks to its image-focused design. The home page features a huge hero image to showcase your best work; different gallery layouts let you showcase your portfolio in the best light. In addition to that, you’ll also get a pre-designed services page and storefront. Overall, Shoppe Artist is the perfect WordPress theme for artists to showcase their portfolio and sell art!
I hope this review helped you decide whether or not WordPress is good for your artist website. Let me know how you like WP and whether you can recommend it for artists! See you on the next post, Angie ✌️
I’ve read some excellent stuff here. Definitely worth bookmarking for revisiting. Thank you for all your efforts you put into this website!
Thank you so much, Quincy, it means a lot to me to hear that from my readers! ♥︎
I enjoy reading through and I conceive this website got some truly useful stuff on it! .
Great to hear that! Thanks for leaving a comment, Geanopulos.
Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with SEO?
I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share. Many thanks!
Hi Sibyl!
WordPress itself doesn’t make any SEO plugins. However, you can add a third-party plugin to optimize your posts.
YoastSEO and RankMath, for example, are great plugins for search optimization. They’re both free!
I’m using YoastSEO for my website, too.
This review was a lifesaver! Now that my website is up, how do I optimize it for search engines? Any specific plugins or strategies you recommend to improve visibility and attract more visitors to my artist portfolio?
For search engine optimization I recommend using a plugin like YoastSEO or RankMath. Both are powerful SEO plugins that show you where your content needs optimization to rank well in Google and other search engines. They are both free, so you can try them out to see which one you like better. I’m personally using YoastSEO for my site.
I tried WordPress for my art website, but I found it a bit overwhelming at first. After spending some time learning the ropes, I now appreciate the powerful tools it offers. It’s definitely a solid platform for artists, but be ready to invest some time in getting to know all its features.
I agree. It takes some time getting to grips with WordPress. I think I’ve probably spend altogether three months watching tutorials, learning and setting up everything. First you have to understand the WordPress dashboard, then your theme, then WooCommerce and then maybe your page builder. But I believe in the end, it really pays off. You have your own super-versatile website that just belongs to you!