By Tata Rossi 23 days ago, Photography Tips
Modern website hosting for photographers provides ample storage space and fast loading times for your photography portfolios. And let's be honest, no one likes a slow-loading website, especially when it's filled with beautiful images. That's why it's important to choose a website hosting that ensures your site has no downtime and is always available for anyone who wants to view it.
I know the importance of choosing the best website hosting for photographers for showcasing my work. First and foremost, storage space is crucial. Photographers have a vast collection of high-resolution images that need to be stored and accessed easily. So, finding a hosting provider that offers ample storage space is essential.
Another important factor is the speed at which the website loads. High-resolution images can be quite large, so having fast servers is vital to ensure that my images load quickly and don't cause any performance issues.
Verdict: Squarespace boasts a huge number of features, which makes it one of the best website hosting for photographers. The most remarkable peculiarity that appeals to most photographers is a user-friendly website builder that comes with up-to-date Squarespace templates and e-commerce-oriented options. Even those, using their portable gadgets, can take advantage of this website for photography, as each design is optimized for mobile.
Uptime is secure at 99.95% and the customer support is very comprehensive, though, a bit slow. If you choose the annual plan, you can expect a free domain, SSL and WHOIS privacy. However, the latter are available in all plans.
A very serious issue about this website hosting that can scare off some users is its slow speed. Clients aren’t very tolerant of waiting and may simply go to more snappy resources.
In terms of pricing, Squarespace offers flexible plans starting at $16 per month. While it may not be the cheapest option out there, the features and support provided make it worth the investment.
Verdict: As one of the best photography hosting websites, Wix is known for its ease of use. If you feel that you lack knowledge on how to construct a professional-looking website, you can fully rely on support tools, well-crafted wizards, help files, and video tutorials.
This eCommerce website builder also has a large selection of photography templates. The drag-and-drop editing tools make it simple to build a website, and you can also create a blog and use Wix Bookings to take online bookings.
Paying quite a moderate sum on a monthly basis (from $10/mo), you get a website with a forum, a blog, an online store, a mailing list, an appointment booking section, a gallery of photos, newsletters, and many more. In fact, most of these functions are available even if you stick to the free plan.
However, there is a drawback you need to be aware of. You can’t change the template that you selected when you first designed your website. The only way out is to build it from scratch. Moreover, your website isn’t transferrable, and it is impossible to access its code unless you are using the developer’s version called Velo by Wix.
Verdict: HostPapa is an efficient web hosting for photographers and other creatives. It appeals to users with high speeds, boosted performance, and 24/7 support. If you already own a domain name, you can transfer it for free and run your site on HostPapa’s advanced servers with 99.9% uptime guaranteed.
With the help of the PapaSquad feature, you can effortlessly transfer your site to WordPress platform without dealing with additional settings. Thus, you receive high-speed, secure WordPress hosting that doesn’t require making manual customizations.
Thanks to free SSL Certificates, you can be sure your website is absolutely safe to use. Besides, there are auto-detect and malware removal features that will make the user experience absolutely enjoyable. HostPapa’s cutting-edge security software keeps tabs on their servers and your website for the utmost protection.
When it comes to pricing, it's crucial to find a web hosting plan that suits your budget while still offering the necessary features. HostPapa's affordability (from $2.95/mo) makes it attractive for photographers, especially with its inclusion of a free domain name and unlimited storage.
Verdict: Pixpa is a user-friendly, end-to-end portfolio site builder that is perfectly suited for photographers and other creatives. It’s also a great choice if you’re interested in selling your images or prints online, as it provides a broad range of intuitive eCommerce features.
This platform offers attractive pricing (from $6/mo), and convenient controls, and represents an interesting option for both non-tech-savvy users and advanced content creators. The fact that Pixpa doesn’t impose any transaction fees makes it that much more attractive.
I was happy to see Pixpa provide over 60 responsive WordPress photography themes for me to choose from while offering a trendy, clean UI.
This website hosting for photographers also offers a proofing gallery system, which is a great advantage. It eliminates the need for clients to download files from a third-party app and allows them to view and purchase their photographs directly.
Verdict: First off, I have to say that Adobe Portfolio is a fantastic tool for graphic designers and photographers alike. It offers website hosting that is easy to use and looks amazing on all devices. Plus, it comes with a bunch of customization tools, so you can make your portfolio truly your own.
The clean and minimalist design of this website hosting for photographers is a big plus. It gives your work the spotlight it deserves without any distractions. And the features it offers are pretty impressive too. You get unlimited bandwidth, integration with Google Analytics, and access to Adobe Fonts. Plus, you can even create a customized URL for your portfolio.
When it comes to pricing, Adobe Portfolio is a convenient and straightforward option. It's free with any Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, making it a cost-effective choice for photographers who want to showcase their work without the hassle of building a fully-featured website.
However, don’t expect too much, as the program is designed as a portfolio builder – there is no blog or integrated storage. Of course, such a limited functionality can incite some users to look for a more feature-packed option.
Verdict: Hostinger is a beginner-friendly web hosting for photographers suitable for small to medium-sized businesses. Its custom-built control panel has an easy-to-use interface translated into 17 languages. If you run into trouble, its Customer Success team is ready to help you 24/7.
Furthermore, Hostinger has data centers all over the globe, providing a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Headquartered in the European Union, Hostinger strictly complies with the GDPR requirements, demonstrating a strong commitment to data privacy. For example, the domain privacy protection feature is included free of charge for eligible top-level domains.
Transferring your website from a previous website hosting platform to Hostinger is simple, quick, and doesn’t incur any extra charges.
Verdict: This is one of the most popular website hosting for photographers that can offer features and tools required by both professional photographers and those treating this art as a hobby. In general, if you choose SmugMug, you receive a website and a portfolio builder oriented on photographers’ needs, and reliable photo hosting.
Such a package is a fantastic offer. However, not all photographers, both experienced and fanciers, really need such extensive functionality. If you don’t want to waste your time, you may opt for third-party platforms that provide cloud hosting services and ensure enterprise-grade security.
SmugMug combines hosting, sophisticated functions, e.g. e-commerce tools, and site building on a truly user-friendly platform. Besides, the pricing policy here is rather moderate. You don’t need to pay much to enjoy fast performance and all the available features.
When it comes to pricing, SmugMug is competitive compared to other website builders offering similar features. Their plans start at $13 per month, which is quite reasonable. They also offer a free trial for fourteen days, allowing users to test out the platform before committing to a paid plan.
Verdict: One of the standout features of Host IT Smart is its affordable pricing (from $0.73/mo). They offer competitive rates, especially considering the ample storage space they provide.
Another advantage of this web hosting for photographers is its impressive bandwidth. This ensures that my website loads quickly, allowing visitors to easily view and appreciate my photographs without any frustrating delays. Additionally, their customer support has been top-notch.
One major advantage for me as a photographer is that Host IT Smart offers a free domain for one year. This is a great perk and helps save some costs when setting up a new website. Plus, their variety of payment methods, including PayPal and NetBanking, adds convenience.
However, Host IT Smart does have its disadvantages. One limitation I've encountered is the lack of specialized templates and features specifically designed for photographers. While they do offer a decent range of features, such as SEO tools and logo design tools, there isn't anything particularly tailored to the needs of photographers, like galleries and portfolios that truly stand out.
Verdict: Jagoan Hosting is one of the low-priced hosting services in Indonesia that has been inviting thousands of customers to do web hosting, Cloud hosting, and VPS since 2007. I like that the company’s crew gets it right to take your website traffic as very important, putting forward unlimited bandwidth to your benefit.
Being one of the best photography hosting websites, you can also take advantage of its servers whose network is able to speed up to 500 Mbps with no fear of getting slow. The servers the company provides are well-optimized in accordance with the demands of the website and its application. Several of its tech partners do cooperate with Google and VeriSign.
By effectively using advanced hosting equipment and infrastructure top-of-the-line, Jagoan Hosting can provide its clients with shared hosting free of risk and sound VPS solutions at a fair cost.
Jagoan Hosting offers some of the cheapest offshore hosting packages in the market (from $3.70/mo), which is great for photographers on a small budget. Their plans also come with high-speed SSD storage, leading to faster website loading times.
Verdict: ScalaHosting is an innovative web hosting provider with a focus on VPS solutions. Their servers are well-optimized for maximum performance and impenetrable security.
Being one of the best website hosting for photographers, Scala develops their own unique hosting solutions for easier management and better control. The host offers feature-packed servers with very high upload limits in three top-tier data centers across the US and Europe.
Photographers and media outlet owners can choose from several fixed plans (from $2.95/mo) or fine-tune a server as per their exact requirements. Even the most media-heavy projects can find an affordable home with ScalaHosting. Moreover, the VPS plans support all popular image gallery apps like Piwigo, Coppermine, ZenPhoto, and more.
Should users have any difficulties installing the needed software or configuring their server - Scala Support can help them out in a friendly and effective manner.
Verdict: A2 Hosting is a feature-rich web host that boasts many hosting packages, including those designed specifically for photographers. If you decide on this photography website platform, you get a whole range of top-notch security options, first-class photo hosting tools and some other great features such as portfolios creation.
Thanks to a strong infrastructure, you can easily manage big medial files. In fact, you can even select where your data will be stored. In terms of pricing, A2 Hosting offers a variety of hosting plans (from $2.99/mo), including managed WordPress and VPS. They also provide a free Cloudflare CDN, optimizing speed and security.
The feature that allows A2 Hosting to stand out among other website hosting for photographers is the integrated gallery of software. For example, you can resort to Coppermine to generate a PHP-based photo gallery or make use of Piwigo to configure a gallery backed with an active community.
This web host gives you more than 16 original software tools to manage and present your images/photos in a better way. Thus, you don't need to waste time looking for third-party digital asset management software for photographers. You can also read the difference between A2 Hosting and SiteGround.
Verdict: If you are mainly interested in marketing your products in an efficient manner, without tackling numerous settings and creative controls, Strikingly is a wonderful variant.
Photographers like this photography hosting website because of understandable photography website templates it offers at a very reasonable cost. Though it can’t stand in one line with industry-leading website builders for photographers, Strikingly comes with all the necessary features for a regular website, which you can get without going bankrupt.
Strikingly starts at $8 per month in terms of pricing. It provides an unlimited-site free plan in addition to its premium packages. These websites' customization options are quite constrained, though.
