Best website builder for tattoo artists
Best website builder for tattoo artists
You’ve decided you need a website. The next question is how to get one. Google “best website builder for tattoo artists” and you’ll get a wall of affiliate-link listicles ranking platforms the author has never used. This isn’t that.
We build tattoo artist websites for a living, so we know what the options are and what actually matters. We also have a financial interest in you choosing our service, so take what we say accordingly — we’ll be transparent about where Beeinked fits and where someone else might suit you better.
No affiliate links in this article. We don’t earn a commission from any platform mentioned.
What a tattoo artist actually needs from a website
Before comparing platforms, it’s worth nailing down what you’re actually looking for. Most tattoo artists need the same five things:
A portfolio that shows work at decent resolution, ideally organised by style. A way for clients to get in touch or book — either a contact form or a booking form that collects the right information. Basic SEO so you show up when someone Googles “tattoo artist” plus your city. A custom domain (yourstudio.co.uk, not wix.com/sites/your-name). And the whole thing needs to look good on a phone, because that’s where most of your clients will see it.
Everything else — blogs, email marketing, analytics dashboards — is nice to have but not essential on day one.
Squarespace
Cost:
- From £12/month (Basic, billed annually) to £17/month (Core).
- Monthly billing is higher — £16 and £24 respectively.
- Prices exclude VAT. Free custom domain included for the first year; renewal is around £8–15/year depending on the extension.
What it does well: Squarespace has the strongest templates of any mainstream website builder. The designs are clean, modern, and image-focused — which is exactly what a portfolio site needs. Every plan includes unlimited storage, which matters when you’re uploading high-resolution tattoo photos. The drag-and-drop editor (Fluid Engine) is genuinely intuitive once you’ve spent an hour with it. SSL, hosting, and basic analytics are all included.
What to watch out for: You still have to build it yourself. That means choosing a template, customising it, writing all the copy, uploading your images, and setting up your pages. Budget a full weekend for the initial build if you’re not tech-confident. SEO tools are included but basic — you can edit page titles and descriptions, and Squarespace generates a sitemap automatically, but you won’t get the depth of control you’d have with WordPress. There’s no built-in booking system; Squarespace Scheduling (formerly Acuity) is a separate add-on starting at around £13/month. Custom email (you@yourstudio.co.uk) requires Google Workspace at roughly £5/month on top.
Best for: Artists who are comfortable spending time on setup and maintenance, want strong visual design, and don’t need a booking system built in. If you enjoy the process of building and tweaking a site, Squarespace gives you the best-looking result of any DIY option.
Wix
Cost:
- From £9/month (Light, billed annually) to £16/month (Core).
- Monthly billing runs a few pounds higher.
- Prices exclude VAT.
- Free domain included for the first year on annual plans.
What it does well: Wix is the most flexible editor of the bunch. You can drag elements anywhere on the page, which gives you more layout control than Squarespace’s more structured grid. The app marketplace is large — there are booking widgets, contact form plugins, and gallery tools you can add without coding. Wix Bookings is included on the Core plan and above at no extra cost, which is a genuine advantage over Squarespace if you want clients to book directly through your site. There’s also a free plan (with Wix branding and a Wix subdomain) if you want to test it before paying.
What to watch out for: That flexibility is a double-edged sword. Because you can put anything anywhere, it’s easy to end up with a site that looks messy or unprofessional unless you have a good eye for layout. Templates are plentiful but less consistently polished than Squarespace’s. Storage is limited on lower plans (2GB on Light, 50GB on Core). Professional email isn’t included — you’ll need Google Workspace (around £5/month) or a third-party provider. And the free plan includes Wix branding and ads on your site, which doesn’t look great for a business.
Best for: Artists who want a booking system included in the price and don’t mind spending time getting the layout right. Wix’s flexibility is an advantage if you know what you want; it’s a trap if you don’t.
Format
Cost:
- From around £10/month (Basic, billed annually) to £26/month (Pro Plus).
- Pricing is in USD — approximately $14/month to $36/month.
- Domain hosting is $30/year, waived for the first year on Pro and Pro Plus annual plans.
What it does well: Format is built specifically for creative portfolios, and it shows. The templates are designed around showcasing visual work — photography, illustration, tattoo art — rather than trying to be all things to all businesses. Gallery layouts are strong, and the platform handles high-resolution images well. E-commerce is included with zero platform commission, which matters if you sell prints or merch. The interface is simpler than Squarespace or Wix, which makes it faster to get started if all you want is a clean portfolio.
What to watch out for: Format is more limited than the general-purpose builders. The lower-tier plans cap how many images and pages you can have, which can be restrictive for an artist with a large body of work. Design flexibility is narrower — you’re customising within the template’s structure rather than building freely. SEO tools exist but are basic. Booking functionality is limited compared to what Wix offers natively. And because it’s a smaller platform, the ecosystem of third-party integrations is much thinner.
Best for: Artists who want the simplest possible portfolio site and don’t need booking forms, blogs, or anything beyond showing their work. If your website’s job is purely “look at my portfolio, here’s how to contact me,” Format does that cleanly and affordably.
A managed service (like Beeinked)
Cost:
- £35–120/month depending on the plan.
- No setup fees, no contracts.
- Domain included forever.
What it does differently: You don’t build anything. You send photos on WhatsApp, and someone else handles the design, the build, the SEO, the hosting, the portfolio updates, and all the ongoing maintenance. The website is custom-designed (not a template you’ve customised yourself), and SEO is actively managed rather than just available as a tool for you to figure out.
What’s behind it: Beeinked is built by a software architect with experience designing, building, and running large-scale websites for enterprise clients. The same infrastructure thinking — performance, security, uptime, SEO — that goes into sites handling millions of visitors is what underpins every tattoo artist site we build. You’re not getting a student project or a freelancer’s side hustle. You’re getting production-grade engineering applied to a five-page portfolio site, which is frankly overkill in the best possible way.
More importantly, if you need something your site doesn’t do yet — a specific booking integration, a flash day announcement system, a way to sell prints — we can build it. Beeinked isn’t a template platform with a fixed feature list. Every site is custom code, and the people building it are the same people you message on WhatsApp. You’re not a ticket in a queue. Beeinked was started because our founder married a tattoo artist, and every customer we take on becomes part of the reason we exist.
What to watch out for: It costs more per month than any DIY builder. If you enjoy building websites or want full control over every design decision, a managed service removes that control by design — you’re trusting someone else to make those calls. You’re also dependent on the service provider continuing to operate; if Beeinked disappeared tomorrow, you’d need to move your site somewhere else (though we’d help you export everything).
Best for: Artists who don’t want to think about their website at all. If the reason you haven’t built a site yet is that you don’t have the time, interest, or patience to learn a website builder, a managed service solves that specific problem. The trade-off is cost — but you’re paying for engineering and ongoing attention, not just hosting.
The honest comparison
Here’s the summary, stripped of marketing:
| Squarespace | Wix | Format | Managed (Beeinked) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | From £12 | From £9 | From ~£10 | From £35 |
| You build it yourself? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Portfolio quality | Strong | Good (if you design it well) | Strong | Custom-designed |
| Booking system | Add-on (~£13/month extra) | Included (Core+) | Limited | Included |
| SEO tools | Basic, self-managed | Basic, self-managed | Basic | Actively managed |
| Custom email | Add-on (~£5/month) | Add-on (~£5/month) | Add-on (~£8/month) | Included (Pro+) |
| Ongoing maintenance | You | You | You | Handled for you |
| Time to set up | A weekend | A weekend | A few hours | 4 days (done for you) |
| Time to maintain | A few hours/month | A few hours/month | An hour/month | Send photos on WhatsApp |
The cost difference between DIY and managed isn’t as wide as it first looks once you factor in add-ons. A Squarespace Core plan (£17) plus Scheduling (£13) plus Google Workspace (£5) is £35/month — the same as Beeinked Starter, except you’re doing all the work yourself. Whether that trade-off makes sense depends entirely on whether you value your time more than the price difference.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Squarespace if you want the best-looking DIY result and you’re willing to spend a weekend building it. Start on Basic (£12/month) if you don’t need e-commerce or custom code.
Pick Wix if you want a booking system included without paying extra and you’re comfortable with a more flexible (but less structured) editor. Start on Core (£16/month).
Pick Format if you want the simplest possible portfolio site and nothing else. Start on Basic (~£10/month).
Pick a managed service if you’ve been meaning to build a website for two years and it still hasn’t happened. The reason it hasn’t happened is probably that you don’t want to do it yourself — and that’s a perfectly reasonable position for someone whose actual job is tattooing. Beeinked starts at £35/month and the only thing you do is send photos.
Any of these is better than no website. The worst option is the one you pay for and never finish building.