Format Review: Is It The Best Website Builder For Photographers?

As a photographer, why do you need to have a dedicated website? It is to showcase your work to the world as well as sell your work to those interested. It is therefore primarily a portfolio website that also serves as your business center where prospective clients can inquire about your services, buy prints, book you for shows, or hire you for events and projects.

Having your website is a necessity and choosing a website builder will be a critical decision and a key investment. You can go for general, all-purpose website builders and personalize your site as a showroom, but that would need lots of tweaking. Why not try a website builder specifically for photographers? One such highly-regarded platform is Format. Is it the best website builder for photographers?

Check if you can get any special discount with our Format coupon code article.

What is Format?

Format is firstly a photography community founded in 2010 to provide resources and tools to its members so they can grow their businesses and share their work. It currently boasts a membership of over 50,000 creative professionals from 190 countries who draw inspiration, find common space, and utilize the technology that Format offers.

One of those tech resources that Format provides is a cutting-edge website builder platform specifically geared towards photographers and other creative professionals. In our article on the 10 best website builders for photographers, Format ranked number two for many good reasons which we’ll discuss in the Highlights section.

But just to give you a run-through of the many benefits of using Format, the first one is quite obvious – it was built by photographers for photographers. Whether you need a basic online portfolio to showcase your work or the essential lineup of tools to operate your photography business, Format can provide these.

Likewise, you get professionally-designed templates that are sophisticated yet mobile-ready so your work always looks great on whatever screen size. These templates are your canvas for complete customization, allowing you to personalize your website to match your style and content. A codeless and intuitive builder/editor will help you do these and more.

Key Features

• Award-Winning Templates
• Client Contracts
• Client Galleries
• Copyright Protection
• File Transfers
• Free Custom Domain
• Free Mobile App
• Gallery Password Protection
• High-Resolution Images
• Online Store
• Photo Storage
• Powerful SEO Tools
• Premium Design Features

Pricing

Format offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. All prices below are billed annually.

• Basic (for starting your creative career) – $4/month, billed annually
• Pro (for building your business) – $8/month, billed annually
• Pro Plus (for growing your business) – $13/month, billed annually

Highlights

* All images in this article are from format.com

Polished portfolio

One of the best strengths of Format is helping you easily come up with a polished and sleek portfolio or online gallery to show your work. Whatever your specialization as a creative professional – whether you’re a photographer, fashion designer, web designer, or graphic artist – Format is guaranteed to give you the best-looking, minimalist portfolio. The award-winning portfolio website templates are to highlight your work, without clutter and distraction.

Gallery modes

Showcasing your work in your online gallery or portfolio can be done in various ways. You can choose from several presentation modes such as full screen, tiled, slideshow, horizontal scroll, and vertical scroll. Pick the best one that distinguishes your creativity and unique style.

E-commerce capability

You’re not only a creative, but you’re also a businessman. Hence, Format gives you the tools to market your work like an online store. You can set this up with a custom domain and sell all kinds of stuff like digital products, prints, and packages. Format will not charge you additional fees for the items you sell so you can keep all your revenues.

Many useful tools

You have at your disposal many handy tools to expand your website’s functionality. There are blogging tools where you can set text style, organize the layout, and import videos and images. You can also use SEO tools to guide and assist you in making your website rank well in search engines.

Security tools are also built-in to prevent unauthorized downloads and distribution of your work. And there is integration with Adobe Capture One and Lightroom as well as with your favorite Google tools like Calendar, Docs, Drive, Forms, and Sheets. Some 30GB of cloud storage is also provided.

Low Points

No free plan

You’ll have to do with a 14-day free trial which, fortunately, does not require your credit card info. Some of the top alternatives we have in the next section offer free basic or starter plans so Format takes a back seat in this area compared to other similar website-building platforms.

Slow image uploads

It may not be the fault of the site and can be traced to a slow internet connection or large file sizes, but a certain lag in uploading images has been experienced by users. It’s no big deal if you’re not in a hurry building your site but it can be an issue if you’re a busy professional.

Top Alternatives

Format is just one of many website builders around whether specifically for photographers or for general purposes. Below is a list of options that you can consider.

• Zenfolio – Photography portfolio website builder with 3 premium plans starting at $36/month.
• SmugMug – Custom website builder and e-commerce platform for photographers; offers 3 paid plans starting at $13/month.
• Pixpa – All-in-one professional website creator platform with 4 paid packages starting at $3.60/month.
• PhotoShelter – Photo website builder and digital asset manager; offers 3 paid plans starting at $10/month.
• Wix – Popular website creator platform that can easily be customized; a free plan and several paid packages for a website and business site are available.

So, what’s our conclusion with Format – is it the best website builder for photographers?

The Verdict

Not quite the best but it certainly gives a strong showing when it comes to building a portfolio website. Admittedly, the portfolio website templates are a bit on the minimal side, but they certainly are sleek and modern. With some personalization, your Format portfolio can very well reflect your craftsmanship and style.

Format is a one-stop platform to present your work and ideas. Aside from attractive themes and an intuitive builder, you also get to have a blog, an online store, cloud storage, e-commerce capabilities, SEO tools, and more. It gives you the means to advance your career and move your business forward. For those alone, Format is worth a try.
Check Format Pricing