Get out of the stone age and get yourself a website!
While there is a certain nostalgic charm to word-of-mouth advertising and city sidewalk gigs, nothing will garner you the attention you deserve like a well-executed, comprehensive website.
Whether you are a soloist or an up-and-coming band, a visually striking and user-friendly website will help you land shows, reach out to booking managers, sell merchandise, promote your tracks, and reach fans seamlessly.
The ten best website builders for musicians and bands we’ll guide you through today are notable for their accessible interfaces, simple tools, and helpful tutorials.
Trust us – you don’t need to start taking night classes in computer science to get yourself a fine and dandy music site.
1. Wix – Overall Best Website Builders for Musicians & Bands
We couldn’t go making a website builder list without including Wix, could we?
The OG “DIY” website builder, Wix is user-friendly, customizable, and easier than sleeping in on a Sunday.
Wix is kind of like the kid brother of WordPress and offers a more intuitive backend interface. Its drag-and-drop feature is, well, addictive.
Wix nearly has it all.
It has eCommerce functionality so you can link your site to an existing store or sell directly from your Wix panel.
You can embed photos and videos easily, and adding your MP3 tracks is a pinch.
You can access a wide and ever-expanding library of templates.
One of the best aspects of the template library is that you can search for designs that are custom-made for musicians, DJs, and music producers.
You can access website analytics and install SEO plug-ins so you can track your visitors and campaign successes.
You can link all of your social media pages to your site, and you can link ticketing and promotion services like Songkick and Bandsintown straight to your homepage Bonus?
They don’t take a commission from any sales you make via your website or online store.
2. Bandzoogle
It’s all in the name, right?
One of the coolest offerings on the website builder scene, Bandzoogle has always tailored and marketed itself for musicians.
They offer a suite of musician management tools, and you can try their service for free for 30 days.
Because it is a targeted service, it doesn’t come bloated with tons of extraneous features and plug-ins.
This makes it an approachable choice for the tech-averse among us.
Bandzoogle has all the goodies: SEO tools, real-time analytics reports, eCommerce functionality, mailing list capabilities, and unlimited bandwidth for heavy-duty, fully-stocked sites.
You can integrate your tracks from Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Youtube, allowing visitors to stream directly from your webpage.
We love the email sign-up and gig calendar plug-ins, which enable fans to follow your moves directly.
Like its competitor Wix, it is easy as heck to use, with drag-and-drop features, customizable fonts and headers, and spiffy layouts.
You can choose from hundreds of templates, all of which have the added benefit of being fine-tuned for musicians’ needs.
Their lite package starts at $8.29 USD per month, their standard is $12.46 USD per month, and their pro package is $16.63 per month.
At those cheap-as-chips rates, we recommend skipping your Monday drive-thru muffin and splashing out for the Pro.
Sweet bonus?
They don’t take any commission so you can promote your records and merch worry-free.
3. WordPress
WordPress needs no introduction.
Chances are high your favorite stadium-sellout bands and music magazines use this tool for their own web design.
WordPress offers the widest range of plug-ins and customizations.
You can create a simple one-pager with a Y2K design, or you can create a fully stacked, polished, and professional website suitable for business, sales, and promotions.
While WordPress is hard to beat when it comes to flawless results and professional layouts, it can be a daunting space for newbies to the web development space.
There is a glut of options, and the dashboard and admin settings can be overwhelming and confusing.
We recommend educating yourself by watching Youtube clips and reading up on some WordPress for Dummies.
Better yet, if you and your band have the cash to splash, it might be worth hiring a freelance web creator or graphic designer to help you with the not-so-fun nuts and bolts of the process.
The benefit is a resilient, secure site with staying power.
4. Squarespace
Squarespace is similar to its peer, Wix – simple, simple, simple and fun to use and set up.
It offers eCommerce functionality, mailing list builders, appointment booking features, and innovative marketing tools.
Loved by small businesses, Squarespace aims to make operations and admin laidback and uncomplicated.
Because of its target audience, it is responsive, reliable, and consistent.
You can expect speedy data processing speeds and limited outages, making day-to-day management a breeze.
The template library is stunning and comprehensive, and you get unlimited storage.
This is ideal for heavy-duty sites with lots of images, graphics, and embedded videos.
You can also go wild on updates and blog posts.
Squarespace will store it all without fuss.
You can integrate third-party websites like Eventbrite and Soundcloud and easily link your social media pages to your webpage.
You can opt-in to a free trial, after which you will be looking at around $19 USD per month.
5. Music Glue
No secrets here, Music Glue takes the needs, goals, and desires of the musician seriously.
This website builder is a great choice for selling music and merchandise and reaching your fans.
Why?
They offer simple eCommerce functionality and groovy ‘fan club’ rewards for subscribers.
They also have a compelling on-demand print service, so you don’t need cardboard boxes full of shirts collecting dust in an attic somewhere.
Music Glue is one of the most commerce-centric services.
Do be advised that they do take a 10% commission on sales.
The upside?
They make it seamless to sell tickets and music from one easy portal.
As the business side of your career grows, you can create pro-order campaigns, sell VIP ticket packages, bundle merchandise, and offer perks to your loyal fans and customers.
You can build your mobile-friendly site for free, making this an approachable choice for newbies and those who want to experiment before committing their coin.
They have a more limited selection of templates than Wix and Squarespace, which is a blessing for the indecisive among us.
6. Bandvista
Bandvista is similar to its peer, Music Glue, with two key differences: they do not take a cut of your sales, and they are slightly less “commerce” focused.
That being said, they offer all the essentials: eCommerce functionality, integrated music players, social media plug-ins, video embedding tools, mailing list builders, and newsletter tools.
This makes it an ideal one-stop shop for creators who want to sell their goods and reach their fans from one simple and intuitive portal.
Bandvista excels when it comes to the blogging, community-building, and fan outreach aspects of launching a successful music career.
Their templates and configurations are a bit more limited, which may frustrate more tech-inclined musicians, but we suggest sampling their free trial to play around.
Prices range from $9.95 to $15.85 USD per month, which allow you to create a custom domain name and upload a larger quota of tracks.
7. Weebly
Similar to Wix and Squarespace, Weebly is a blast to use and offers countless templates, layouts, and graphic customizations.
You also get eCommerce functionality and SEO tools to expand your reach and drive traffic to your pages.
You can get unlimited storage at the higher subscription plans, as well.
You can easily host video and music, and embed any of your links from other platforms.
We like that Weebly allows you to create a fully-stacked website in under an hour if you’re tech-averse, but it also allows you to make more advanced customizations with HTML/CSS and Javascript tools.
One thing to note is that the free version has slightly more limits than a free Wix account, but for a small fee, you can unlock an online treasure trove of nifty, useful features.
It costs $10 USD to connect to a custom domain (always recommended for professionalism) and just $13 USD a month for the pro tier.
8. Hostinger
While you might not have heard of Hostinger, they have a sturdy and reliable reputation, evidenced by a high TrustPilot rating and five stars on Google.
With a free domain and 24/7 hour support, you’re getting above and beyond value for the $2.99 per month price tag.
With sleek and creative web-developer-designed templates and layouts, Hostinger offers a premium, upmarket experience.
Drag-and-drop features make design and customization a pinch, and their eCommerce functionality allows you to list up to 500 items (so get recording!).
They also allow you to incorporate AI-powered features into your design and content.
Ultimately, Hostinger allows you to access a full suite of branding and marketing tools, which will provide you with a website you’ll be proud of showing off to gig booking managers and prospective collaborators.
9. Weblium
No coding, web development, or tech skills are needed to get yourself up and running with Weblium.
They have mastered what they do, namely distilling all of the components of web design into an easy and effortless process.
They have ready-to-use templates and layouts, many of which are ideal for musicians and bands.
You can go as crisp and uplifting or as dark and brooding as necessary.
You can set up a custom portfolio, an eCommerce store, a marketing and gig event planning calendar, and a live blog.
In this respect, Weblium will check all the boxes for you with a minimal headache on your part.
You can try their free trial, after which it costs $15 USD per month, or $8.25 USD per month when you sign up for an annual plan.
For $250 USD you can get a professional web designer to set your website up for you, which is a pretty enticing offer if you can split it between your bandmates.
10. Tumblr
Before you run screaming for the hills, give us a chance to explain.
Not only is Tumblr synonymous with originality, creative non-conformity, and aesthetic iconoclasm, but it is also a convenient and customizable Valhalla.
Tumblr still offers a real emphasis on community and groundbreaking collaboration and can be a DIY, indie-core way of making waves in the alternative music scene.
You can upload up to 10 MB of music daily, and the format of the site allows for daily updates, blog posts, and announcements.
Tumblr is accessible and offers a streamlined, kitschy way to reach your fans and establish an organic, authentic rapport.
The key downside of Tumblr is that it does not offer eCommerce functionality or extensive metrics reporting, so you’ll have to link out to your merchandise and live with limited analytics.
But for down-to-earth community building and awareness raising, it is still unmatched.
And free.
How Do the Best Website Builders for Musicians Work?
A solid and reliable website builder replaces the need for a pricey web designer. It lets you take your creative, aesthetic, and marketing destiny into your own hands and allow you to find a permanent home for your musical vision.
A website builder allows you to create a hub where marketing, blogging, rapport building, and gig booking can all share space. You can sell merchandise on one page, write long-form creative essays on the next, and share your upcoming shows with new fans on the next
Our picks for the best website builders allow you to drag-and-drop and hand-pick from stunning templates and layouts. No coding is required here!
You can choose your fonts, color scheme, and landing page graphics and embed videos and songs. They also offer a suite of SEO, advertising, and analytic tools so you can squeeze as much as possible out of your website.
Most of the website builders listed above allow you to sign up for a free trial so you can get a taste of the features, support, and interface before committing.
How to Choose the Best Website Builder
We get it – we’ve thrown a lot of information at you today. With ten top picks, what’s a creator to do? You could put each of the websites’ names in a hat and let fate decide, or you could hang on for five more minutes and be the master of your own destiny.
E-commerce Needs
With the exception of Tumblr, each of the entries we’ve listed above has e-Commerce functionality. But you may have noticed that some take a commission, and some don’t.
We’ve found that the more marketing and merchandise-centric sites tend to take a cut because their business model is more focused on the merch and sales side of the equation.
If you are willing to pay a small commission on your sales in exchange for more high-powered commerce tools, this won’t deter you. But if sales are peripheral to your main goal of landing gigs and marketing your new music, this may be an imposition you don’t need.
Ease of Use
If you’re not super tech-literate, an easy and intuitive interface will be one of the biggest draws for you. We can’t all moonlight as web developers, so a website builder with lots of nuts and bolts might be intimidating to some.
WordPress is hyper-professional and customizable but is best for musicians who have some knowledge of design and back-end formatting.
Wix and Weebly are ideal for musicians who want to create a nifty, aesthetic website without too much of a headache. Drag-and-drop is an absolute dream when it comes to building a stunning, responsive site.
Templates and Design
All of the options listed above allow you to choose between beautiful, striking designs, layouts, and templates. We recommend perusing the different sites and choosing the template selections you like best. This is the “face” of your website, if you will, and you’re going to want to love it.
Bandzoogle and Music Glue have designs and layouts tailored to musicians and will help you narrow down your options. This is ideal for musicians who don’t want to be overwhelmed with thousands of options, particularly if you and your bandmates all have different tastes.
Price Point
Budget is obviously a key consideration when it comes to any purchase. Luckily, when it comes to the websites above, the prices and plans are all wildly competitive and won’t leave a dent in the ol’ savings account.
It does pay to explore the professional plans, however, because you want to have all of the tools of the trade at your fingertips. We suggest trying the free plan, if offered, with a view to upgrading as soon as you’ve got the hang of the site.
Why? Because your website is ultimately your band’s business portal. You are going to want the storage, SEO tools, and analytic reports that paid plans offer.
Compatibility
You are going to want to ensure that your website builder of choice is compatible with your social media handles, media links, and calendar software. You want to have the ability to embed videos, link to tracks and Soundcloud streams, and add any visual media that fans need to see.
Having the ability to link your gig calendar is paramount so you can inform existing fans and recruit new ones. Mailing lists and contact forms are essential so you can land gigs and make contact with booking agents.
Blog-a-bility
Are you planning on blogging and writing articles to build a fanbase and offer insight into your creative process? You’ll want to find a website builder that will allow you to post regularly and seamlessly include links and images in your posts.
You will also want to have the option to easily share your posts across your different social media channels.
Customer Support
We all need a good hand-holding now and again.
What does customer support look like? Is it 24/7? Do they offer live chat and phone support? Is their contact number buried on the last line of an obscure page, suggesting that they don’t want you to reach out at all? Do you have to wait on hold for an hour before the phone disconnects? All important things to consider.
How We Chose the Best Website Builders for Musicians
We didn’t want to overcomplicate things on this one. As musicians and music lovers, we know what features we look for, and we’ll take a wild guess it’s similar to your own wish list.
We chose sites that are reasonably priced, with easy and intuitive interfaces, or in the case of WordPress, insanely high-powered tools. We featured sites that have drag-and-drop capabilities and a library of original and eye-catching templates.
We chose website builders that are easy to set up, manage, and update and we focused on options with eCommerce functionality that take little to no commission.
These builders allow you to advertise and sell your music and merchandise, while also promoting your more creative pursuits. We also focused on website builders that allow you to install different apps and plug-ins like calendars, booking software, and mailing list builders.
Best Website Builder for Musicians & Bands – Final Thoughts
Build the Website and they will come, right?
A solid, individualized, comprehensive website will help you market your music, plan and book gigs, and create relationships with fans.
Best of all?
It will offer the curious masses a glimpse into your inspirations, creative processes, and musical journey.
