What is the best website platform for artists?

It depends on what the site has to do. Most lists judge a platform on its templates, which matter on launch day. Ask five more questions: does your work look right on a phone, who takes a cut when you sell, who keeps the site updated and backed up, will you know whether Google and AI assistants can find you, and what will it cost in three years, including leaving.

Do I need a website if I sell on Etsy?

Etsy brings buyers, and for many artists it is worth keeping. A website of your own sits beside it. Etsy can train AI on sellers’ listings from 16 December 2026. On your own website, no marketplace licence applies and you decide what it tells AI companies.

Can a website stop AI companies training on my art?

No website can promise that every AI company will listen. You can say no clearly, in the ways AI companies say they read, and keep the proof that you made the work.

The best website platform for artists: what Google tells you, and what it leaves out

A woodcut of a little painting of a tree on a hill on an easel, beside a stool holding an open laptop that shows the same picture and a jar of paintbrushes.

This week we typed one search into Google: “best website platform for artists”. It’s the question every artist asks at some point, usually late at night, usually after an exhibition or a good month of sales.

We read the whole page, top to bottom. The ads, the AI summary, the lists, the Reddit threads and the questions people ask next. It tells you a lot about what artists are being sold. It tells you even more about what they actually need.

What Google tells an artist today

Before any advice, the page is bought. Four ads sit at the top: two website builders and two “we ranked them all” comparison sites.

Then Google’s AI summary. Its honest answer is “it depends”, followed by a tidy list: Squarespace for clean portfolios, Wix for design freedom, Big Cartel for a small shop of prints, Shopify for a big stock list, Format or Cargo for image-led portfolios, FASO for painters.

Then the lists. Nearly every one crowns the same winner for the same reason: beautiful templates. They are good templates. But a template is the first day of a website, and an artist’s site has to work for years.

The top result isn’t a list at all. It’s a Reddit thread where artists ask each other: “who did you build yours with?” That says something. When the stakes are your work and your income, you trust the person at the next easel more than a ranking.

What artists are really asking

The best clues sit lower down the page, in the questions people ask next:

Is Wix or Squarespace better for artists?
Which is better for artists, Squarespace or Shopify?
What platforms do artists use?

And in the searches Google suggests after that: free, sell work, show their work, free portfolio.

Read together, they aren’t really asking which builder has the nicest template. They’re asking three things. Can I show my work properly? Can I sell it without giving away a slice of every sale? And can I afford this year after year?

What the lists leave out

Every list on that page judges a website on the day it launches. Almost nothing on it talks about what happens after. That’s where most artists come unstuck.

Someone has to look after it. Updates, security, backups, broken links. On some platforms that’s your job. On others it’s done for you, but only inside their templates.
Being found has changed. People now ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s own AI “who makes ceramics near me?” or “where can I buy an original landscape painting?” Your site needs to be readable to those tools too, and you deserve to know whether they’re reading it.
Prices keep climbing. The plan that suits you in year one rarely stays the plan you pay for. Selling often moves you up a tier, or hands a share of each sale to the platform.
Leaving should be easy. If you outgrow a platform, can you take your site with you? It’s worth asking before you start.
Who else gets to use your work? Etsy can train AI on sellers’ listings from 16 December (Etsy can train AI on your listings from 16 December. What it means for your photos), and the platform’s rules decide what happens to your photos, not you. On your own website, the rules are yours (Etsy, Instagram or your own website: who decides what happens to your photos?).

None of this is in the templates, and none of it is in the ads.

How we’d choose

If a friend asked us, we’d skip the rankings and suggest five questions instead:

Does my work look the way it looks in the studio, on a phone as well as a big screen?
When I sell, who takes a cut, and how much?
Who keeps the site updated, secure and backed up? Me, or them?
Will I know if Google and the AI assistants can find my work, and what to do about it if they can’t?
What will this cost me in three years, and can I leave with everything if I need to?

The right platform is the one with good answers to all five. Not just the first.

Where Bernard fits

We built Bernard because we think running a website should be simpler, and the technology to make it simpler now exists. We also vehemently believe that artists should retain their own copyright and not have AI training on it.

The page we read offers artists a choice between two halves. Look after the site yourself and keep control, or hand over the upkeep and live inside someone’s templates, with a bill that climbs as you grow. We think Bernard gives you both halves.

Your site, your way. He builds a new one or moves your existing site across, keeping how it looks. Change it yourself whenever you like, or ask him to.
The upkeep is always done. Updates, security and backups, with no plugins to go wrong.
Sell without a cut. Add a shop and Bernard takes no commission on your sales.
Protect your work. One switch says no to AI companies learning from your images and video. While it is on, Bernard writes “not for AI training” into the photos you mark as yours, beside your name and copyright line. He keeps your untouched original, dated, as evidence that you made it (can I stop AI companies training on my photos and video?).
Know whether you’re being found. He keeps the site fast and readable to search and AI tools. He shows you which AI assistants and robots are visiting, and why (is AI reading my site?).
Someone reads the numbers. Once measuring is on, he reads them each week and suggests what to do next, with a button that does it.
Nothing happens by surprise. Every change lands on a draft you approve, and you can undo it.
One flat price, and you can leave with everything. From £200 a year per site.

No website can promise that every AI company will listen. But you can say no clearly, in the ways they say they read, and keep the proof. If this matters to you, these are worth ten minutes:

It isn’t only for artists. But artists, with a body of work to show and sell and very little time to spare, are exactly who we had in mind.

Bernard is an AI-assisted website and marketing platform for small businesses. He builds a new site or moves an existing one, keeps it fast and readable to search and AI tools, and looks after it. Once measuring is on, he reads your numbers each week and suggests what to do next, with a button that does it. On the Medium and Large plans he also plans your marketing every six weeks and drafts your posts, emails and pages. Everything lands on a draft you approve. One flat price per site.

Try Bernard on your own site first. It’s free: paste your address and see a draft. Already have a website? Paste your address into bernardmoves.com and he’ll measure it up, free, and show you the new place before you decide anything. Starting from nothing? Tell him what you’re making, he can help with that too.

Questions people ask

What is the best website platform for artists?: It depends on what the site has to do. Most lists judge a platform on its templates, which matter on launch day. Ask five more questions: does your work look right on a phone, who takes a cut when you sell, who keeps the site updated and backed up, will you know whether Google and AI assistants can find you, and what will it cost in three years, including leaving.
Do I need a website if I sell on Etsy?: Etsy brings buyers, and for many artists it is worth keeping. A website of your own sits beside it. Etsy can train AI on sellers’ listings from 16 December 2026. On your own website, no marketplace licence applies and you decide what it tells AI companies.
Can a website stop AI companies training on my art?: No website can promise that every AI company will listen. You can say no clearly, in the ways AI companies say they read, and keep the proof that you made the work.