If you’ve ever Googled “photography website builder,” you’ve probably realized pretty quickly that there are approximately 400 options… and somehow every single one claims to be the easiest, most beautiful and best choice for photographers.
Showit. Squarespace. Wix. WordPress. Pixieset.
So… which one are you actually supposed to use?
After designing websites for photographers for years, I don’t think there is one platform that is automatically right for every photographer. What matters more is choosing a platform that works for your business, your skill level and what you actually need your website to do.
Because your website isn’t just somewhere to put your portfolio.
It needs to showcase your work beautifully, explain what you offer, help the right people find you on Google and make it incredibly easy for someone to take the next step and inquire.
So if you’re trying to choose the best photography website builder for your business, here’s what I’d actually pay attention to.
First, what does your photography website actually need to do?
Before comparing platforms, start here. It is very easy to get distracted by templates, fonts, animations and all the fun design things. Trust me, I get it.
But your website has a job. At a minimum, a good photography website should allow you to:
- Showcase your portfolio beautifully
- Clearly explain your services
- Create individual pages for your main offers
- Add enough written content for Google to understand your business
- Blog consistently if you want to use content for SEO
- Make updates yourself
- Look just as good on mobile as it does on desktop
- Give visitors a clear path toward contacting you
If a platform makes those things unnecessarily difficult, it probably isn’t the right platform for your business.
And if you’re starting your website from scratch, I wrote an entire guide on how to create a photography website and what I think you should include.
What should you look for in a photography website builder?
There are a few things I would consider before committing to any platform.
1. Can you actually update it yourself?
This is a big one. Your portfolio is going to change. Your services might change. Your pricing will probably change. You’ll want to swap images, add galleries, write blog posts and change copy as your business grows.
You shouldn’t need to email a designer every time you want to replace one photo.
When comparing website builders for photographers, actually look at the editing experience. Is it something you feel comfortable learning and using?
Because the easier your website is to maintain, the more likely you are to actually keep it current.
2. Does it give your photography room to shine?
Your images are obviously a HUGE part of your website.
A good photography website builder should let you use large imagery, galleries and thoughtful layouts without making everything feel boxed into the same rigid structure.
This is especially important if you have a really distinct visual style.
Your website should feel like an extension of your photography — not like you squeezed your work into a template that doesn’t really fit.
3. Can you customize it enough to feel like your brand?
This is probably where my designer brain comes in. I don’t think every photographer needs a completely custom website.I do think your website should feel like you.
Even if you’re starting with a template, you should be able to change the fonts, colours, images, copy and layouts enough that the finished website feels connected to your brand.
That’s one of the reasons I love working with templates as a starting point. You don’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel. You just need a really strong foundation that gives you enough freedom to make it yours.
Don’t forget about SEO
This one gets overlooked constantly.
A beautiful website isn’t very helpful if Google has absolutely no idea what you do.
Your platform doesn’t magically “do SEO” for you — there is still strategy involved — but your photography website builder should make it easy to handle the basics.
You want to be able to edit things like:
- Page titles
- Meta descriptions
- URLs
- Image alt text
- Headings
- Blog content
You also want the ability to connect tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console and submit your sitemap.
None of that needs to be scary or wildly technical.
It just needs to be possible.
And if you’re currently thinking, Tina, I have absolutely no idea whether Google can even see my website, I made a free 5-Minute Google Guide for Photographers that walks you through the basics.
What about mobile?
Please don’t choose your website platform based only on how the desktop templates look.
A huge portion of the people finding you will probably first see your website from their phone — especially if they’re coming from Instagram, Pinterest or a referral.
So when you’re comparing a website builder for photographers, look at how much control you have over mobile.
Can you adjust the layout?
Can you change image crops?
Can you make sure your giant beautiful headline isn’t suddenly taking up someone’s entire phone screen?
Because yes, I have designed something that looked absolutely perfect on desktop and then opened mobile to discover chaos. 😂
It happens.
The important thing is having enough control to fix it.
Okay, so which website builder should photographers use?
There are several solid options, and they aren’t all trying to solve exactly the same problem.
Squarespace is popular because it gives you a relatively straightforward all-in-one website experience. If simplicity is your biggest priority and you don’t need a huge amount of design freedom, it may be enough for you.
Wix also gives you drag-and-drop editing and plenty of features. There is quite a bit you can customize, although the editing experience and amount of choice can feel like a lot depending on how comfortable you are designing your own site.
Pixieset makes a lot of sense for photographers who already use its photography-specific tools and want their website, galleries and client experience living within the same ecosystem.
WordPress can be incredibly powerful and flexible, especially for content-heavy websites, but depending on how it’s set up, there can be more of a learning curve and more moving pieces to manage.
And then there is Showit, which is what I personally use.
Why I use Showit for photography websites
I’ve worked with Showit for years, and the biggest reason I’ve stayed with it is simple:
I can pretty much design what I want.
I’m not trying to convince a rigid template to do something it doesn’t want to do. 😂
Showit gives me a lot of creative freedom while still making it possible for my clients and template customers to go in afterward and update their own photos and copy.
It also lets you design the desktop and mobile versions separately, which is something I really value as a designer.
And for photographers specifically, that freedom is useful because your imagery gets to play such a big role in the design.
You can create those big editorial layouts, interesting image placements and beautiful portfolio moments without needing to know how to code them from scratch.
Showit also integrates with WordPress for blogging, which means you can have the visual freedom of Showit while still using WordPress for your blog content.
Is Showit automatically the best website builder for photographers?
I wouldn’t say one platform is automatically best for everyone.
But if you care a lot about design, want your photography to be the focus and want the freedom to create something that doesn’t feel cookie-cutter, it’s absolutely one I would consider.
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Template or custom website?
This is another place photographers tend to get stuck.
You don’t necessarily need to spend thousands of dollars on a custom website when you’re getting started — and you also don’t necessarily need to DIY the entire thing from a blank screen.
There is a pretty big middle ground.
A well-designed website template gives you the strategy and structure to start with, while still allowing you to bring in your own brand, photography and personality.
That’s actually a huge part of why I’ve shifted so much of my work toward creating Showit website templates for photographers.
I can take what I’ve learned from years of designing websites — page structure, calls to action, portfolio layouts, service sections, mobile design — and build that thinking into the template from the beginning.
Then you make it yours.
The best photography website builder is the one you’ll actually use
It sounds ridiculously simple, but this is where I’d land. Don’t choose a platform because another photographer uses it. Don’t choose one because someone on Instagram told you it’s the only platform that’s good for SEO.
And definitely don’t choose your photography website builder because you liked one font in a demo site.
Think about what you need your website to do.
Think about how much design freedom you want.
Think about whether you can comfortably update it yourself.
Think about whether it can grow with you as your photography business changes.
Because the goal isn’t simply to have a pretty website.
It’s to have a website that showcases your work, helps the right people find you and makes it easy for those people to become clients.
And whichever platform helps you do that is the right place to start.
