The best website builders for musicians make it possible for any independent artist to create a professional and stylish website quickly.
There is a lot of choices out there, each with its own set of benefits and drawbacks, so in this guide, we’ve reviewed some of the most popular on the market to help you decide which is best for your project.
We’ve come a long way since the days of $2000+ web designers and hideous blog feeds for musicians. It’s also a good thing: whether you’re just starting out or a well-established touring act, a website is an important part of self-promotion and fan engagement.
Easy-to-use website builders have leveled the playing field for many DIY musicians: for a low monthly fee, you can create a design that rivals the biggest major label artists in your genre, as long as you have some great visual content to build into your site.
So keep reading for a list of four of the best website builders for musicians:
- WordPress
- Bandzoogle
- Wix
- Squarespace
A quick note on pricing: website builders come in various tiers, making it difficult to compare them side by side. Instead, we’ve included a price range for the plans we believe the average musician will require. You can view the full pricing page by clicking on each one.
Squarespace
Best for those looking for a super-stylish musician website that requires no site-building experience.
Squarespace has emerged as a popular choice for all types of creatives, with a sizable portion of the music community using this stylish website builder.
In terms of usability, it’s a drag-and-drop builder, similar to Bandzoogle and Wix; no coding is required, and you can simply arrange the elements on the page as you see fit.
While the design options are completely customizable, the site’s default settings steer you toward the site’s signature clean and clear style.
Full-width cover images, white backgrounds, neatly aligned margins and sections, gorgeous clickable buttons, and trendy fonts…
If you want to create a site that is both easy to use and appealing to the eye (and why wouldn’t you? ), we believe this is the best option.
- Elegant and simple design
- Integrations with Bandsintown, Soundcloud, and other services
- Simple drag-and-drop operation
- Paying monthly costs 25-30% more than paying annually.
You can have a professional-looking website up and running in minutes if you have some great photos to work with.
The builder is so simple to use that you can quickly create the format you want for the site, but there are also a plethora of templates – including musician-specific ones – that you can use as a starting point to expedite the process even further.
Squarespace is not designed specifically for musicians, so it does not provide the most industry-specific ‘in-house’ options for selling music, direct streaming, and displaying upcoming shows.
But that might not be such a bad thing…
Embedding elements from specialist external platforms such as Spotify, Bandcamp, Songkick, Bandsintown (for which Squarespace has a native integration), and Youtube is arguably far better in fan engagement than trying to find a site that does it all.
Finally, and most importantly, with website builders like Squarespace, you don’t have to worry about technical updates, viruses, or hacks because they handle everything. Simply set up your equipment and get back to making music!
- Pricing ranges from $12 to 18 per month (paid annually).
- 14-day free trial
WordPress (Divi Theme)
Best for a little tech-savvy musician who wants to create a completely customizable website.
WordPress currently powers roughly 40% of the world’s websites, including behemoths like BBC America, TechCrunch, and MTV News.
The main reason for its popularity is the complete freedom it provides the user. However, while experienced web designers can use HTML code to customize everything, a growing number of WordPress themes offer drag-and-drop functionality similar to the other builders on this list.
Divi, created by Elegant Themes, is one of the most popular, with over 800,000 users worldwide. Several of their vast layouts are aimed squarely at musicians, such as these examples.
- Complete adaptability
- Chat support is available at all times.
- Theme cost only once
- Technical knowledge is required.
- Regular maintenance is required.
- It is not intended solely for musicians.
The main disadvantage of WordPress websites for first-time users is that they require some technical know-how to set up and regular maintenance to keep them safe and running correctly – which is why we didn’t give it a higher rating!
You won’t find a more customizable way to build that same website you’re looking for if you already have those basics – or are eager to learn. And, because of its popularity, it is relatively easy to find freelancers to help tweak the design at a later date.
- WordPress is free
- Hosting and domain names start at $4.95 per month.
- The Divi theme costs $89 per year or $249 for lifetime access.
- 30-day free trial (get here)
Bandzoogle
Best for: a dedicated musician-focused website builder with excellent customer service.
As you might have guessed from the name, this platform is solely dedicated to musician websites.
As a result, it may have more industry-specific bells and whistles than any other option on this list.
It’s debatable whether this is a good thing (we prefer to maximize the reach of existing networks like Spotify and Bandcamp rather than bringing everything in-house). Still, if you want this level of control, Bandzoogle could be the one for you!
- Designed by and for musicians
- Excellent customer service
- Custom streaming and retail solutions
- Some useful features are only available on the highest-tier pricing plan.
We asked more than 50 musicians what they liked best about their current website builder, and customer service was the overwhelming response from Bandzoogle users.
If you’re a beginner website builder without access to Squarespace or WordPress support, Bandzoogle is an excellent choice.
The platform provides hundreds of templates for musicians, which you can customize with a simple drag-and-drop tool.
While you can integrate Soundcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp, or Youtube, they also provide their own custom solution for streaming music through a music player and selling music and merch directly to your fans through a shop.
- Pricing ranges from $8 to $16 per month (paid annually).
- 30-day free trial
Wix
Best for: a reliable, user-friendly platform with your own online store.
Wix, founded over 15 years ago, is one of the longest-running and largest website builders, with over 200 million customers worldwide.
As you might have guessed from that statistic, they aren’t specifically looking for musicians’ or creatives’ websites. In fact, it would be difficult to find an industry where at least some businesses or individuals are not using Wix.
This reach level provides security and stability to the company, but it also means that dedicated music-focused support may be more difficult to obtain.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t any good options for musicians: Wix works with templates and provides hundreds of options for bands and artists.
- Builder with simple drag-and-drop functionality
- A well-known platform
- Analytics built into the store.
- Not intended for musicians or artists.
- Wix branding is included in the free plan.
Wix, like all other platforms that provide websites for musicians, allows you to integrate everything you need, from Songkick tour dates and a Spotify player to your Bandcamp store and mailing list signup form.
Like Bandzoogle, you can upload your music directly to Wix Music to stream and/or sell, which is useful if you prefer to keep that aspect of your career in-house.
Given Wix’s diverse clientele, they have also developed a high level of analytics, which you can access as a user. If you have a lot of traffic and want a simple interface for learning more about your visitors, building with Wix could be an exciting benefit.
Like many other website builders, Wix has a free tier rather than just a free trial. However, while this is useful for determining whether or not Wix is the right website builder for you, it is not recommended for long-term use: promoting yourself as a professional artist or band with a Wix-branded domain name and site is not a good look.
Monthly cost: $14-18 (paid annually).
14-day free trial
Websites for musicians don’t have to be the most complex, but they have their own requirements (streaming music, tour dates, connecting with fans, etc…). As a result, it makes sense to use a platform designed specifically for creatives.
Many of the most popular website builders for musicians emphasize how much you can do right away:
- You can sell your music on their platform.
- Add your tour dates to the website directly.
- Make use of a native streaming player.
- Gather email addresses using their custom signup form.
As a booking agent, manager, and publicist who has worked with artists, I argue this is not the primary goal.
No, the primary goal is to have a visually appealing web design that allows you to embed or link to completely specialized platforms in their field.
- Why create an online store when you can link to Bandcamp, a company that makes it so simple to build an audience of record-buying fans?
- Why upload your tour dates repeatedly when platforms like Songkick and Bandsintown add so much value?
- Why should people listen to your music directly from your website when you can embed a Spotify player and get more listens?
- Is it necessary to create a new section when you can get information directly from social media?
With that in mind, the choice of which artist’s website builder to use becomes somewhat less important.
Find some great musician website examples and use any of these platforms to recreate the eye-catching visual-first design that has become the norm today.
Conclusion
The best website builders for musicians offer a range of options for artists to create professional and stylish websites. Among the top choices are WordPress, Bandzoogle, Wix, and Squarespace. However, choosing WordPress with the Divi theme is the best choice for musicians looking for total customization and flexibility in their website design.
Divi, created by Elegant Themes, is a popular WordPress theme with over 800,000 users worldwide. It offers a variety of layouts, including musician-focused designs, and allows for a drag-and-drop style functionality. Although it requires some technical know-how and regular maintenance, the customizability offered by WordPress and Divi is unmatched. Using this combination, artists can create a unique and engaging website to rival even the biggest major label artists in their genre at an affordable price.
