The best photography website builder for most working photographers is Pixieset, because its website and client galleries come from the same company, there's a usable free plan, and paid plans charge no commission on sales. Format is the budget portfolio pick (Basic is $10 a month billed yearly, but only 70 images), SmugMug wins on storage and print sales (unlimited photo storage from $20 a month billed yearly), Squarespace on design, Wix on layout freedom, and Pixpa on an all-in-one plan with zero-commission sales. Greta.sh is the build-your-own option when booking, contracts and a client portal need to work your way. Prices were checked on each vendor's own pricing page on October 19, 2026.
A photography website does two jobs that pull in opposite directions. The portfolio has to load big images fast and get out of the way. The business side has to collect inquiries, deliver galleries and take money. Most builders are better at one than the other, and the real yearly bill depends on which add-ons the second job needs.
At a glance
| Builder | Free plan | Cheapest paid (as of October 2026) | Storage on cheapest paid | Sales commission |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pixieset | Yes: 15 pages, 100 photos, Pixieset banner | Website Plus $12/mo billed yearly ($15 monthly) | Unlimited photos on the site; galleries priced separately | 15% on free accounts, 0% on paid |
| Format | No, 14-day trial | Basic $10/mo billed yearly ($14 monthly) | 70 high-resolution images, no store | Store from Pro, commission free |
| SmugMug | No, 14-day trial | Direct $20/mo billed yearly | Unlimited photo storage | Selling from Portfolio ($23.50/mo billed yearly) |
| Squarespace | No, 14-day trial | Priced by country | Not a photo-storage product | 2% on Basic, 0% from Core |
| Wix | Yes, with Wix ads | Priced by country | 2 GB on Light | Payments from Core |
| Pixpa | No, 15-day trial | Priced in local currency | 3 GB of originals on Basic | 0% on all plans |
| Greta.sh | Free plan builds (5 credits a day) | Starter $5/mo on the welcome offer, normally $20/mo | Set by what you build | None from Greta |
What should a photography website have?
Five things separate a photographer's site from a nice-looking template:
- Galleries that don't crop your work. Verticals stay vertical, and full-screen viewing works on a phone.
- Client proofing. Clients favourite, comment and approve without an email chain.
- Booking or inquiry intake that asks for the date, location and package before the first reply.
- Print and download sales, with lab fulfilment if you don't want to pack orders yourself.
- Fast image loading. A portfolio is the heaviest page type on the web, and slow galleries lose visitors before the second image.
Every builder below covers the first point. The rest decide which plan you actually need.
How we compared them
We read each builder's pricing page on October 19, 2026 and noted the free plan, the cheapest plan a working photographer would use, storage and image limits, sales commission, and what a full year costs once you add a domain, galleries and selling. Squarespace, Wix and Pixpa showed prices in local currency, so we link to their pages rather than print a US figure we couldn't confirm.
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The best photography website builders, one by one
1. Pixieset – galleries and site under one login
Pixieset splits its products, and that's the first thing to understand. The Website free plan gives you 15 pages, 100 photos and 5 blog posts on a mypixieset.com address, with a Pixieset banner. Plus, at $12 a month billed yearly ($15 monthly), adds unlimited pages and photos, a custom domain and banner removal. Pro ($18, or $24 monthly) adds custom code and AI copywriting.
Client Gallery is priced separately. Free includes 3 GB and charges a 15% commission on store sales; Basic is $8 a month billed yearly ($10 monthly) with 10 GB, your own domain and commission-free sales. Pixieset's Suite bundles Website, Client Gallery, Studio Manager and Store from $28 a month.
Who it's for: wedding, family and portrait photographers who deliver galleries every week. Limits: the free store's 15% cut is steep once sales start.
2. Format – the budget portfolio
Format Basic is $10 a month billed yearly ($14 monthly), with 10 pages, 70 high-resolution images and 10 client galleries. It has no image storage, no online store and no free first-year domain. Pro is where Format becomes a business tool: $12 a month billed yearly on the current offer (normally $17 billed yearly, or $24 monthly), with unlimited pages, 1,500 images, 100 GB of storage, a commission-free store of 15 products, 50 client galleries and a free custom domain for the first year. All plans have a 14-day free trial.
Who it's for: photographers who want a clean portfolio cheaply. Limits: 70 images on Basic fills up fast, and Format has no free plan, whatever older roundups say.
3. SmugMug – unlimited storage, built-in print sales
SmugMug prices everything around storage. Direct, $20 a month billed yearly, gives unlimited photo storage, privacy controls, digital delivery and Lightroom integration, but no selling. Portfolio, $23.50 a month billed yearly, adds print and download sales with full-service order fulfilment, watermarks, website templates and a custom domain. Pro, $37, adds custom pricelists, packages, coupons, client favouriting and download limits. SmugMug lists no credit card processing fees on Portfolio or Pro, and RAW storage is an add-on. There's a 14-day free trial.
Who it's for: photographers with large archives and steady print sales. Limits: you pay for the storage whether or not you need it.
4. Squarespace – best design out of the box
Squarespace still has the templates that make a portfolio look expensive. There's a 14-day free trial, annual plans include a free domain for the first year, and prices vary by country. The store fee is 2% on Basic and 0% from Core; selling digital content and memberships carries its own fee (7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 0% on Advanced).
Who it's for: photographers who sell a few products and care most about looks. Limits: client proofing isn't its strength.
5. Wix – most control over layout
Wix's free plan publishes at a wixsite.com address with 500 MB of storage and Wix ads. Light adds a free domain voucher for a year and 2 GB of storage; Core, which adds payments and 50 GB, is the first plan that can sell. Prices vary by location.
Who it's for: photographers with a specific layout in mind. Limits: 2 GB on Light is small for a working portfolio.
6. Pixpa – portfolio, store and proofing in one plan
Pixpa puts the website, store, blog and client galleries in one subscription. Every plan has zero commission on sales, client proofing with favourites, comments and ratings, and print sales with WHCC fulfilment. Basic allows 10 pages, 200 images and 3 GB of originals; higher plans raise storage to 5, 25 and 100 GB. The pricing page also lists a free first-year domain through its partner Ionos. There's a 15-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the price shown depends on your location.
Who it's for: photographers who want one bill instead of three. Limits: 3 GB of gallery storage on Basic covers only a few shoots.
7. Greta.sh – when the business side needs custom software
Greta.sh doesn't give you a gallery template. You describe the site and the workflow, and it builds a web app with a database, logins and payments. The section below covers when that beats the options above.
What does a photography website really cost per year?
Add the plan, the domain, gallery storage and the cut on sales. Using listed prices billed yearly:
- Pixieset Website Plus + Client Gallery Basic: $144 + $96 = $240 a year, commission free, plus your domain.
- Format Pro: $144 a year on the current offer ($204 at the normal yearly rate), with the domain free in year one, 100 GB and a 15-product store.
- SmugMug Portfolio: $282 a year, with unlimited storage and print sales, plus your domain.
- Format Basic: $120 a year, but with 70 images and no store it's a portfolio, not a business site.
Commission is where free plans get expensive. Sell $3,000 of prints in a year through Pixieset's free store and the 15% commission is $450, nearly double the cost of the paid Website and Gallery plans together. Squarespace Basic's 2% on the same sales is $60.
Do photographers still need a website if they have Instagram?
Yes, if clients pay you. Instagram is good at getting you discovered and bad at the steps that follow. A client planning a wedding wants to see full galleries rather than a grid of crops, check packages, see if you're free on their date and book. A website does all of that, and it's the one channel whose rules you control.
Speed matters more here than on most sites. Google's web.dev guidance says pages should aim for a Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, and on a portfolio the largest element is almost always your hero image. Export images at the size they're displayed rather than straight from the camera, keep the home page to a handful of images, and test your gallery page with PageSpeed Insights before you launch.
If you've just finished the editing side, our photo editing apps for photographers guide covers it, and our website builders for artists comparison covers the wider portfolio market.
Got an idea? Build it now!
Just start with a simple prompt. No coding required: Greta.sh turns your idea into a working app in minutes.
When you want something the templates can't do
The bought tools go further than they used to. Pixieset has Studio Manager for running the business, and Format's Workflow tools cover proofing, client management, contracts and file transfers. If those match how you work, use them and skip building anything.
Build when your process doesn't fit their screens. A wedding inquiry that checks your calendar and your second shooter's before quoting. Album approvals where each revision round after the second is billed automatically. A client portal that keeps every shoot you've done for a family in one place, year after year. Those are applications, and describing one to Greta.sh builds it: "clients book a session with a deposit, sign the contract, get a private gallery to pick favourites, and my dashboard shows every job from inquiry to delivered." Your galleries can stay on Pixieset or SmugMug while the booking and portal live on your own subdomain. Our client portal software comparison helps decide whether you need one, and the wedding website builders guide shows the same template-or-build line from the couple's side.
On pricing, Greta.sh's Free plan gives you 5 credits a day to build; deployment and a custom domain start on Starter, at $5 a month on the welcome offer (normally $20 a month). The honest trade: you own the workflow, and you also own its upkeep. For a portfolio with occasional print sales, a template is the better buy.
FAQ
What website builder do most photographers use?
There's no reliable public count. The photography-specific builders are Pixieset, SmugMug, Format and Pixpa, which add client galleries and print sales to the website. Squarespace and Wix are the general builders they're usually weighed against.
How much does a photography website cost?
From $0 on the Pixieset or Wix free plans to roughly $120 to $300 a year for a working setup, as of October 2026. Format Basic is $120 a year, Pixieset Website Plus with Client Gallery Basic is $240, and SmugMug Portfolio is $282. Add a domain where the plan doesn't include one.
What is the best free website for photographers?
Pixieset's free plan: 15 pages, 100 photos and 5 blog posts with a Pixieset banner, plus free client galleries with 3 GB. Wix is free with Wix ads and 500 MB. Format, SmugMug, Squarespace and Pixpa offer free trials, not free plans.
Squarespace or Pixieset for photographers?
Pixieset if you deliver client galleries and sell prints, because galleries, proofing and the store are built for photographers and paid plans charge no commission. Squarespace if design matters most and you sell a few products, keeping in mind the 2% store fee on Basic.
What are the best tools for building websites using just text prompts?
Wix lists an AI website builder that turns a prompt into a site, WordPress.com has a guided builder you chat with, and Pixieset's Website Pro plan adds AI copywriting and alt text. For a site with booking, contracts or a client portal behind it, an AI app builder such as Greta.sh builds the full web app from a plain-English description.
Start with your next three clients
Pick the builder by tracing your last three jobs from inquiry to delivered gallery, then price the plan that covers every step. If no template covers your workflow, see Greta.sh's plans.
