10 Best Websites For Selling Art Online

Get Started with Square Online

Best for artists who want an easy way to add an online gallery to in-person sales.

After gaining a solid reputation for its POS (point of sales) system, Square now offers users the opportunity to build an online store. This could be a good option for an artist without a big budget because you can build and operate a Square Online store for free. Your only expense would be payment processing fees when your customers make an online purchase from you; at 2.9% + $0.30, Square Online’s payment processing fees are squarely in line with industry standards.

Compared to other platform’s free plans, Square Online’s Free plan rises above. Users can add an unlimited number of products, sync inventory and orders with Square POS for in-person sales, and utilize social media integrations that make it easy to sell your art on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can even use the Free plan to sell digital downloads of your artwork, if that’s a part of your business model. The Free plan does limit users to 500 MB of storage, however, which may not be enough if you plan to include many high-res images of your artwork. If you need more space, you can upgrade to a reasonably priced paid plan, starting at $16/month. Read our full review of Square Online for more in-depth information on pricing, features, and more.

Screengrab of Square Online custom layout information

Screenshot of Square Online webpage, captured 6/29/2021

Building a Square Online store is simple, even for eCommerce novices with little tech skill or interest. Square Online uses the popular website-builder Weebly’s framework for creating standalone online stores. It’s a versatile and easy-to-use software that you can use to build a store and start selling quickly. And you won’t need a lick of experience with web design, coding, or software.

Pros

Easy to use
Free plan
In-person sales
No tech skills required

Cons

Limited features
Not ideal for high-volume sales

2. Shopify

Shopify

Shopify is giving Merchant Maverick users a 14 day free trial + 100% off your first month.

Best for artists focused mainly on online sales who want access to advanced eCommerce features and stylish templates.

If you haven’t heard of Shopify, you’ll want to get familiar with it. It’s one of the top names in online selling and one of the platforms we most often recommend, for good reason. We think Shopify offers the right mix of useful complexity and ease of use, at a range of prices that means there’s a plan to fit every budget. Even if you don’t have experience with web design or coding, you can use Shopify to set up an online store and start selling quickly. When you’re ready, you can use Shopify to add advanced features and enable high-volume online sales. If you’re looking for a slower speed of business, you can even use Shopify Lite, at just $9 per month, to add an eCommerce element to an existing website or to facilitate sales via social media. For these reasons and more, Shopify could be just the place for you to start selling art online.

If you don’t have time to read a full review, check out our crash course on using Shopify to see how easy it can be and how your art business can benefit. One of our favorite things about Shopify is the stylish templates you can choose from as you build your store. They really are among the best in the business, and artists especially should appreciate the aesthetic. Of more than 100 mobile-responsive Shopify themes, you’ll find eight that are completely free and supported by Shopify. Or you might like a paid theme better, for a one-time fee of $140-$180. You can browse Shopify’s theme store and apply filters to narrow your search, view demos, and get more information about each theme’s features.

Screenshot of Shopify webpage, captured 6/29/2021

In addition to Shopify Lite, you can choose from three service plans, ranging from $29-$299 per month, with access to additional features as your plan goes up in price. Each of these three main plans gets you a full online store as well as access to a POS system for in-person selling and includes unlimited products, bandwidth, and storage. Depending on the payment processor you use, you may pay a transaction fee of up to 2% in addition to credit card processing fees. Sellers who use Shopify’s Shop Pay exclusively avoid those added transaction fees.

Pros

Easy to use
Attractive templates
Advanced features
Free trial available

Cons

Transaction fees
Access to advanced features costs extra

Get Started with Shopify

3. BigCommerce

BigCommerce

Get Started with BigCommerce

Best for artists who want a platform that can accommodate growing sales.

After you figure out how to start selling art online, if you’re lucky you’ll soon be asking how to keep up with your growing sales. If that sounds like an essential part of your eCommerce plan, BigCommerce may be the place to start your search. Whether you’re selling original art online or selling prints and other products, you can use BigCommerce to build a site that will grow along with your sales — no matter how big they get.

BigCommerce is a fully hosted, easy-to-use website builder, meaning you can build a website yourself (even if you have no experience and get it up and running) without worrying about any of the technical details such as site hosting or security. All BigCommerce plans include unlimited products, storage, bandwidth, and staff accounts, so it’s a good choice for any seller with lots of products, multiple high-res photos, or several employees working to create and ship your artistic works. Activate the free 15-day trial to discover how easy BigCommerce can be to use and to discover how well the platform will work for your products and mesh with your sales goals. Be sure to check out the theme store, where you can filter your search and find themes designed for artists.

Screengrab of BigCommerce themes designed for artists to use

Screenshot of BigCommerce webpage, captured 6/29/2021

One potential downside to BigCommerce is the sales limits attached to each plan. When your sales hit the cap for your plan, you’ll automatically be bumped up to the next, more expensive level. Fortunately, the sales limits are generous, with the first bump occurring at the $50,000/year mark taking users from the Standard plan ($29.95/month) to the Plus plan ($79.95/month); the Plus plan accommodates sales up to $180,000/year. And of course, the price increases are accompanied by increasing access to advanced features, meaning you’ll have the tools you need to support your increasing online sales.

Pros

Free trial
Scalable
Good customer support
Multi-channel functionality

Cons

Revenue caps
Moderate learning curve

4. Squarespace

Squarespace

Get Started with Squarespace

Best for artists looking for an inexpensive yet stylish and easy-to-use sales site.

Designed for artists and musicians seeking a venue for online sales, Squarespace offers templates with both stylish design and top-notch performance. It’s a cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) that requires only a monthly subscription and an up-to-date computer for setting up and operating an online store. With plans running from $12-$40/month, Squarespace allows users to create an artistic sales space without taking too much money out of even a lean budget.

Screengrab of Squarespace templates designed for artists to use

Screenshot of Squarespace webpage, captured 6/29/2021

Aside from its superior templates, Squarespace also gives users some nice tools to use. That includes tools to refine your custom images, such as Image Zoom, Set Focal Point to center the best part of each image in thumbnails, galleries, automatic image scaling, and display effects. Photographers especially will appreciate progressive image loading, a trick that speeds up image loading times for visitors. As you build your site, you can easily toggle your view, from desktop to tablet to mobile device, to make sure that your images look their best no matter how your customers view them. Squarespace sites also include blogging capabilities, allowing artists to tell the story behind each piece of art included on the site.

While it’s a good option for many artists and creators, Squarespace is not the best choice for high-volume artistic endeavors. Although you’ll find everything you need with Squarespace to set up and run an online store, you won’t find the advanced tools that a large eCommerce business depends upon. That said, most agree that Squarespace is a good, user-friendly option for any artist seeking an easy-to-use design-forward business website that leaves plenty of money left to buy all those art supplies you know you need.

Pros

Stylish templates
Easy to use
Free trial
Excellent design tools
Capable systems for online and in-person sales

Cons

Limited integrations
No advanced eCommerce tools
Limited payment processing options

5. Duda

Duda

Best for artists with an international following.

Aimed at design agencies, Duda is suitable for small to medium-sized artistic ventures. The platform takes a slightly different approach, presenting eCommerce as a module available to purchase and add on to the basic website package. Even with the added expense of the eCommerce module, Duda can be a cost-effective option. For example, the Basic plan costs $14 per month per website; additional websites can be added for $171/year of you can choose a higher level plan to gain access to more websites. The Standard eCommerce add-on comes with a price tag of $7.25/month per site. That allows 100 products and a host of sales tools, like payment gateways, SEO, inventory tracking, low stock notices, real-time shipping, Google shopping feeds, and more. You can also choose the Advanced or Unlimited eCommerce add-on, for a higher per-site price.

Duda offers 106 templates that may not be quite in line with the very best out there, but they’re close. And Duda includes a desktop editor that’s flexible enough to satisfy both rookies and design pros. Because Duda’s primary focus is not eCommerce, it’s possible to build a truly stylish website and add a sales element that’s not the primary focus of the page. That’s something that could appeal to serious artists who want a way to let customers find their artwork.

Screengrab showing a sampling of Duda's art-focused templates

Screenshot of Duda webpage, captured 6/29/2021

Duda also offers some rather unique international capabilities that would serve an international artist well. Every plan, including the Basic, come with multi-language functionality. Add the Standard eCommerce functionality, and you gain multi-currency support as well as 45 built-in storefront translations. The Advanced eCommerce add-on ($19.25/site/month) includes automatic tax calculations for Canada, the UK, EU, and Australia in addition to the US. If you’re intrigued by Duda’s possibilities, you can test the platform with a free 14-day trial, with no credit card required.

Pros

Easy to use
Free trial
Excellent support
Multilingual capabilities
Numerous templates

Cons

No free plan
eCommerce tool sold separately
High cost

6. Etsy

Etsy

Best for artists selling custom work or digital downloads.

Still the go-to site for crafters and vintage resellers, Etsy has a large art subcategory where you can find art in almost any media, including original art and art prints. Top sellers include digital prints, drawing and illustrations, and painting. Custom artwork is a vibrant category, with original paintings of pets and animals among the top sellers. One advantage to selling original art on Etsy is that visitors to the site are already interested in shopping for unique, hand-created objects, and they’re willing to pay for what they want (unlike on some marketplaces, where cost is king).

However, Etsy is a crowded field, even for original artwork. So you can’t necessarily depend on art lovers finding your shop there on their own. If you’re not prepared to drive traffic through advertising and social media marketing, you may not find the sales success you envision. Moreover, some recent changes to Etsy’s fee structure and new policies like automatic advertising have left more than a few users looking for alternatives to the Etsy marketplace.

Screengrab of Etsy's artwork subcategories

Screenshot of Etsy webpage, captured 6/29/2021

Before you open an Etsy shop to sell your original artwork, familiarize yourself with the fee structure. Start with the Standard marketplace plan, at $10/month. If you want to operate a standalone store using Etsy’s Pattern website builder, expect to pay an additional $15/month. Budget for numerous fees, too, including a listing fee for each item, a 5% transaction fee, a shipping transaction fee, and a payment processing fee. Your account may also be charged Offsite Ads fees. When you add it all up, you may find that you’ll save money by operating an independent online store, using a shopping cart platform like Shopify. It would be wise to compare costs on Shopify VS Etsy, in fact. As you compare costs, however, don’t overlook the fact that Etsy is designed to connect artists and makers with willing buyers. That’s something you’ll have to work a little harder to make happen on your own.

Pros

Easy to use
Large marketplace
Supportive user community
Emphasis on hand-crafted
Digital downloads

Cons

Numerous fees
Crowded selling field
Limited design tools

7. eBay

eBay

Best for artists with an existing sales strategy who want to add another sales channel.

Best known as an auction site where buyers can find a little bit of everything, eBay also has a dedicated and thriving art section. eBay Art includes drawings, photographs, posters, prints, sculptures, paintings, and even NFTs. And with eBay’s total sales topping $31 billion in 2020, artists and art resellers who are looking for additional sales revenue would do well to take another look at the site. With a little bit of extra effort at the listing stage, artists can even sell digital downloads of their work.

Screenshot of eBay webpage, captured 6/29/2021

Artists selling their work on eBay can list them as auction items with a minimum price requirement and include a “buy now” price. eBay artwork policies are broad and allow lawful sales of original artwork, reproductions that don’t violate trademarks, exact replica paintings that are clearly listed as reproductions, and art with alterations or repairs as long as the listing description includes details about what work was done. Sellers are responsible for the authenticity or legality of items described as genuine and must be able to provide evidence of authenticity.

Artists and art sellers who operate a standalone store on Shopify can link their Shopify store to eBay to facilitate sales. While anything can be sold successfully and for a profit on eBay, art is not one of the auction site’s top-selling categories. In fact, we believe that eBay works best for artists when it’s used as one sales channel among one or more others.

Pros

Auction option could increase price
Vast audience
Easy to join

Cons

Uncertain reputation
Complicated fees

8. Printful

Printful

Best for sellers who want to sell designs only without the hassle of shipping.

Not every artist has physical products to sell. If your focus is on designs or doodles instead of sculptures or framed oil paintings, you might find the sales home you’re looking for on a site like Printful. It allows users to sell their designs, printed on 277 custom-ordered products like T-shirts, pillows, hats, masks, and cellphone cases. Printful’s unique business model allows you to focus on your art — or perhaps on your day job, if art is a side hustle — while they take care of the printing and shipping for you.

You can even integrate your Printful store to your sales site on Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and more, allowing customers to access Printful’s print-on-demand services. Think of it as a dropshipping service where your own artistic designs are the products you’re selling. Like any legitimate dropshipping option, Printful is a low-risk business model aimed squarely at artists, with a low financial investment required to join. You can even pick which products you want to make available in your Printful store.

Screengrab of Printful print-on-demand product samples

Screenshot of Printful webpage, captured 6/29/2021

It’s free to join Printful and set up a shop there, and you will set the price for your work. When you make a sale, your profit is the difference between what you charge customers and what Printful charges you for printing and fulfilling the order. As an example, a T-shirt printed with your design will cost about $13, plus shipping that varies by location and delivery method. You will pay nothing until a customer places an order from you.

Pros

Free to join
Integrations available
No up-front costs
Hassle-free shipping and printing

Cons

Some quality concerns noted
High price for materials
eCommerce integrations limited

9. ArtPal

ArtPal

Best for artists of all kinds who want an easy, free way to sell art online.

What if you could set up a website and put your artwork in front of a global audience, at no cost to you? That’s the basic premise of ArtPal, and it seems to live up to the promises it makes. With no membership fees and no commissions on sales, you can use ArtPal to sell your art online on a website that gives you unlimited selling space. ArtPal even handles the payment for you, processing customers’ payments and transferring funds directly to you, securely.

Screenshot of ArtPal webpage, captured 6/30/2021

ArtPal is an inclusive art site where shoppers can find paintings, prints, photos, sculptures, jewelry, crafts, and more. It’s appropriate for artists, collectors, galleries, and anyone with any kind of art to sell. You can even use ArtPal’s print-on-demand services, at no cost to you. Customers who select print services will pay the printing and shipping costs directly.

Setting up a gallery on ArtPal is quick and easy. You’ll be assigned a unique URL that you can use to drive traffic to your site. You can set up one big store or subdivide by collections, to make browsing easier. Be sure to set up your artist profile, with a profile image and an About You section. You can pay a $0.99 fee to highlight any piece of your artwork, so more people see it. If you’re promoting your gallery on your own, that’s probably not necessary. After you add an item, you can choose to activate social media automations so that posts are made to your choice of the following: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. That’s an effortless method of multichannel marketing that costs you nothing.

Pros

Free
Print-on-demand services available
Payment processing options
All kinds of art allowed

Cons

Crowded sales field
Self-marketing may be necessary

10. Fine Art America

Fine Art America

Best for artists who want to sell quality prints online.

Another print-on-demand service, FineArtAmerica offers many of the same product options as other websites, with a similar business mission and model. If your goal is selling high-quality prints online, it’s worth taking a closer look at FineArtsAmerica for your online art store.

Screenshot of FineArtAmerica webpage, captured 6/30/2021

Artists can use FineArtsAmerica to sell the same kinds of digital downloads, clothing, phone cases, greeting cards, and more. It has a special focus, though, on prints. You can upload your high-resolution images and offer them for sale as different types of prints, including canvas, framed, metal, acrylic, wood, posters, and more. You set the sizes you want to make available for each piece. Then, when a customer orders, ArtPrintAmerica takes care of the printing, matting, packaging, shipping, payment processing, customer service, and everything else that’s involved in delivering the customer’s order. Items are shipped out with a 30-day guarantee. You can also sell original artwork on ArtPrintAmerica — commission-free. Any visitor to the site who is interested in purchasing one of your originals can contact you directly through your profile page. You’ll have to handle that kind of transaction on your own, but you’ll get to keep all the money, too.

It’s free to join FineArtAmerica’s marketplace and start selling your art there. The free plan gives you a unique, customizable sales page that you can customize with your artist profile picture, biography, contact information, and more. You can add up to 25 images and sell prints and more from that page. You can set your own prices and ship worldwide using FineArtAmerica’s fulfillment network. There’s also a mobile app, and you can connect to your Shopify store and auto-promote on social media. FineArtAmerica’s profit comes from your buyers, rather than from the top of your sales. A Premium plan, priced at $30/year, gives some additional features, such as a shopping cart widget you can embed in your own website to enable sales, a standalone website, and unlimited images.

Pros

Free plan available
Large audience
Supportive community
Direct payment to artist

Cons

Crowded sales field
Limited contact with customers
Free site includes limited listings