How do potential clients learn about your work? They visit your website and social media accounts. Of the two, your website would offer the most comprehensive details of your business.

You can't afford for it to be offline or glitching, which is why the web host you select is critical. We've curated a list of some of the best web hosting companies available. Some of them also offer web-creation services if you're building a site.

Importance of a website

A website is several things for a professional photographer.

It is your digital storefront.
It is an internet business card.
It hosts your portfolio.

Your website must have the capacity to perform these and other functions if you want to be a successful photographer. Clients today are more technologically savvy than ever. Many of them expect the option of shopping online.

Your website host should offer unlimited bandwidth and enough space to host your images (and videos if you do them). Oh, and ideally, web hosting shouldn't cost you a small fortune!

Let's take a closer look at some good options. Before you sign up with any web hosting company, always read their contract terms. Be sure you understand what you're paying for.

Wix

Wix makes it easy to build your own website. The user-friendly platform offers various themes, eCommerce tools, and apps, making it popular with creatives. You can also connect it to Gmail business email. There are free and paid options, but you might find the free one a bit limited with 500 GB of storage. The good news is that it won't cost a fortune to upgrade.

Pros

Free and paid options
Base level hosting is free.
It offers various themes and numerous page templates.
Its drag and drop builder is user-friendly.
There are no transaction fees for online sales.

Cons

Its creative options are rather limited, especially with the free account.
Some of the more advanced web designs are trickier to figure out.
You can't host a WordPress site.

SmugMug

We know several photographers who use SmugMug. It's specifically tailored for photographers, giving it a leg up from other web hosting options. It offers web hosting and several good options for image sharing and eCommerce.

It's easy to use for beginners and more advanced users. It also integrates well with Lightroom. It allows you to pick your must-have features for a website, and it will steer you toward their best match plan, or you can just select a plan for yourself. There is no free option, however.

Pros

You can easily customize design templates.
It offers unlimited photo and video storage at all price points.
There's zero image compression and automatic backup.
It offers unlimited bandwidth
There's a free domain with custom use.
Extensive eCommerce options

Cons

There's no free option, but there is a free trial period.
There's no free CDN.

Godaddy

Godaddy could also be called the Big Daddy of website hosting and domains. It works with WordPress. Its Economy plan offers 100GB storage, but you can easily upgrade. Its many features make it an attractive and easy-to-use web hosting platform, especially for beginners.

Pros

It's a comprehensive platform specializing in web hosting.
Its plans can be customized.
It's very user-friendly.
It has unmetered BW.
It offers 24x7 support.

Cons

It's not free.
A large number of upsells can be off-putting.

Kinsta

Let's start with the fact that there is no free plan with Kinsta, so you'll have to pay. There is, however, is a basic paid plan where you can start. It offers WordPress hosting with a user-friendly interface that makes things relatively easy for beginners.

It also offers some great advanced features for those with more experience. You can choose their basic plan and upgrade later as your needs change.

Pros

It has a handy dashboard from where you can control things.
It has good security features.
All of its plans offer free CDN and SSL.
You get a wide array of website resources
It offers free migration.

Cons

It doesn't offer any free plans.
The base-level plan has pretty limited storage.

Weebly

Weebly hinges its platform on its ability to expand your website as your business grows. You can start with building a free website and upgrade as needed.

They customizable webpage designs with handy tools. They offer a collection of themes that are good for an image portfolio.

Pros

Easy to use website builder.
It offers integrated marketing tools.
It has e-commerce capability.
It has free SEO tools to help your site get found on the internet.
It offers email, chat, and phone support

Cons

Its free plan is a bit limited and runs ads.

Adobe Portfolio

There is no free option with Adobe Portfolio (unless you're already paying for Creative Cloud), but what you pay for is lovely if a tad limited. Start with selecting between a Splash page or an image gallery to showcase your work.

From there, quickly build your site by adding more pages using any of their many features. There are various themes; use their handy theme preview feature. If you're already using Adobe, you'll find Adobe Portfolio a useful option.

Pros

Free with a subscription for Creative Cloud
Interfaces easily with Lightroom, allowing you quick access to import your photos from Lightroom with your Creative Cloud account.
There are loads of customization options.

Cons

It's strictly geared toward images rather than text content.
Embedding videos isn't quick.

Squarespace

Squarespace has some good options that allow you to create a visually appealing website with an easy-to-work-with web host. You can use your own colors or work with their offerings.

They have award-winning templates, blogging capacity, enterprise solutions, website analytics, and if you want an expert to build your website, you can hire theirs.

Pros

They have some great options for image templates.
They're user-friendly.
They offer an online store and booking services.
Create online email campaigns easily.

Cons

They need to offer more customization options for users.

Conclusion

Ultimately, which web host and web design platform you select is a very personal decision. At a minimum, it should offer critical basics such as unlimited bandwidth and generous storage and options that can be scaled up as your business grows. From there, select the one you feel the most comfortable working with.

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