Two Affordable Web Hosting Services JUST for Artists
Despite all the time I spend on art-and-internet based projects, I am a web dummy! For years I guiltily relied on the kindness of graphic designer friends to build and maintain my artist website. As a result, I rarely updated either the images or the text and my website wasn’t a very accurate professional representation of my work.
Now, that has all changed. I have discovered two different web services for artists, and both are affordable. Both services include web hosting and offer a blog-like, template approach. All I have to do is upload image and text, in order to build the site. I can change it whenever I want and, overall, I am happy with both of these services. One is OPP (as in – are you down with OPP?) which stands for ‘Other People’s Pixels.’ I have chosen this organization to do my personal website at caraober dot com. The other service I have used is Icompendium, also a template based and affordable service. Dana and I have used this service to help build our website at Paperwork Gallery dot com. I would recomend both. If you are an artist looking to build an online site, but you’re not interested in learning code – this is a great way to do it. Here’s the skinny from both sites.
Other People’s Pixels:
“We’ve already designed a website for your artwork.
You don’t need to do any of the tough stuff, just plug in images of your work and your portfolio can be online today. If you already have a website, you can keep the same domain name. If not, we’ll get the one you want and set it up.”
OtherPeoplesPixels was created by artists to help artists and students get their work online quickly and easily.
Why did you start OPP?
Some of our friends asked us for help making a portfolio website.
After the 5th person, we realized that this was something that a lot of artists and art students needed. It seemed like everyone wanted a portfolio website but no one had the time to learn how to make one. We knew it had to be quick, easy, and cheap… and so OtherPeoplesPixels was born.
Prices include your web hosting for a year and are $90 for students, $160 for a ‘standard’ site, and $260 for a ‘Multimedia’ site. All prices are per year.
Icompendium:
The Icompendium Web publishing system lets artists easily create and maintain a website at yourname.com. Add images, text and video with only a Web browser.
Icompendium is incredibly user friendly and full featured. All websites are setup, hosted, and supported by Van Stokes. Van Stokes writes, makes art and things people can use. His work has been published in several literary journals and help desk support manuals.
Since leaving Yale with an MFA, he has taught Visual Thinking I, II, Foundation Color and Design, and Digital Photography at Mercy College in White Plains, NY, and been an invited critic at NYU, Yale and Maryland Institute of Art. Current pedagogical work includes teaching his four year old daughter to strum the guitar.
As a technologist and long time end user, Van advocates simple economic solutions.
Cost per year includes web hosting and is $200 for Bronze, $300 for Silver, $400 for Gold, and $500 for Platinum. There’s a chart which explains what each service includes.
If any blog readers would like to suggest additional affordable web services for artists, please post it in a comment.
23 Comments → “Two Affordable Web Hosting Services JUST for Artists”
New Publication from the Walters Art Museum
I’ve been using opp for about two years now and i’ve been very happy with them. I can use google analytics to see my website traffic and images load fast. Are there any examples of an icompendium site with integrated paypal?
Every icompendium site I see has the exact same layout, are there more customization options? Anyone over 40 would have a hard time reading that light grey, small font on white background.
hi mike.
thanks for your feedback. i definitely think there are advantages and disadvantages to both services. i can see why you chose OPP for your own site. feel free to post a link so we can check it out!
I use Siteground for my web hosting and it seems to be a much cheaper solution than the others in this article. Especially if you sign up for multiple years.
I have had great success with Siteground and have never had any issues. If I needed to stream video or other things I just create or embed a link from Vimeo or Youtube.
http://www.siteground.com/hosting_features.htm
My opp site can be found at http://elihalpin.com/home.html
And I can definitely appreciate the login/private gallery features in icompendium
Just to add more options:
I just started using indexibit this month for the artwork section of my site. (and bigcartel for my shop section). both have been pretty user friendly thus far, and neither costs a ridiculous amount.
I was using ez-webhosting for years and though they have excellent customer service and reasonable prices, the template are very limiting. I just built a bunch of websites with iweb and am having my domain name hosted through godaddy.com I like having iweb on my desktop, it’s super easy to work with.
Kris
Generic Website Hosting has a page here, http://genericwebsite.com/hosting.htm
Mike–
There’s a free online service you can use for an integrated paypal online store. It’s limited to 100 items, but well worth a look. You can categorize items and customize the look and feel to reflect your personal style.
Big Cartel
Thanks for posting these links! The artist in would want to explore different hosting service providers but their pricing deters me. Web hosting shouldn’t be an overpriced to begin with.
Hi,
I would recommend “Host Gator” for your web hosting because it’s very cheap and reliable. Their support service is awesome. This company offers site building tools, application vault, web mail, antivirus, Php, MysQL ,e-commerce and hosts unlimited websites in one plan. Don’t go for free web hosting.They are not reliable. Check it out here (read the User Reviews):
Top50WebHosting.org
I’m down with OPP! …and have been for over a year now. I agree with Mike, light gray font? No way!
Thanks for this web hosting Information. I am glad that your service is strongly working to improve own services. I’m enjoying your blog. It’s really informative for me. here nice store of content, nice blog too.
yourarthere.net is an artist-run web host for artists, galleries, and arts organizations.
Thanks for this useful post.Web hosting services are the key for any individual or business with aspirations of succeeding online.
Host Gator, MochaHost or BlueHost are all around good and cheap. They are large companies though and sometimes their support and customer service makes you feel like a number. You could try Full Spectrum Internet Hosting or Retrix Hosting for a more personal, human warmth service.
PortfolioWebsites.com is another web hosting/portfolio management service for artsts
I would prefer to go for the paid ones. Free is good for starters but they have limitations with them. Out of the following, which one is the best to start with(less expensive and good uptime)Hostgator,Godaddy or Bluehost. Could you please give advice on it.
Interesting article. I noticed that the company Best Inexpensive Web Hosting Inc. in Atlanta Georgia also serves quite a lot of artists. I don’t know if that’s their specialization, but they are popular among artists.
smallGod webHosting also provides hosting for artists. They have a one click installer for Indexhibit.
http://smallgod.net/
I’ve been with OPP for a few years now…no complaints. They provide a good solid product.
A few things I dislike about OPP. The worst is not having a format for the artist to post their CV. Instead, it must be downloaded via PDF. That’s terrible. I don’t want to download a PDF (or wouldn’t do so on someone else’s computer) just to get a glimpse of the artist’s background.
Also, all OPP sites look the same, and squeeze all the content into a small box. The rounded-edge box is the worst, because it almost never complements the art inside it.
Lastly, the OPP graphic is too pronounced.
well thanks for sharing where to find the hosting, its worth it!