Where to sell artwork online for free

Are you ready to start selling your art online? There are several ways to get started, and it’s not as overwhelming as you may think! We’ve put together two lists to make it easy for you to start selling your art online. The first is a list of our favorite online art marketplaces, and the second is a list of the top artist website platforms we personally recommend. As you grow your art business you will also want to check out the resources we have available on the various print-on-demand options available to artists: Ultimate Guide to Print-on-Demand Resources.

Top Marketplaces to Sell Art Online

1. Artfire – A little bit like Etsy, ArtFire is a marketplace, craft, and maker community where people from around the world come together to buy, sell and interact. Forums and articles keep buyers and sellers in the loop. Related: Selling Your Art Online: Advice from 3 Online Gallery Leaders.
2. Artplode – On Artplode  galleries, dealers, artists, and collectors can list art for a low one-off fee of $60 per artwork for advertising. No commission is charged to buyers or sellers. Artworks must be priced at $1000+ to be offered for sale on Artplode.
3. Artsy – A massive, venture-funded online gallery that sells art from thousands of artists from all over the world. “Artsy’s mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. We are a resource for art collecting and education.” They even have an app!
4. CafePress – Turn your art into unique products and get featured on the site without having to worry about managing an online storefront.
5. Ebay – The world’s largest auction site. Follow @ebayart on Twitter to get a good idea of what kind of art does well on Ebay. Related: How to Sell Your Art on eBay.
6. Etsy – A well-known site catering to a community of artists who make handcrafted pieces. Related: How to Sell Your Art on Etsy.
7. FineArtAmerica.com – Sell prints at any price you want to set. Fine Art America handles the logistics of fulfilling each order.
8. Imagekind – An online marketplace offering artists a place to sell their art with print-on-demand, high-quality printing and framing options, a supportive community, and marketing tips. Related: Imagekind Power Selling Tips.
9. Saatchi Art – Saatchi Art is an online art marketplace through which artists can sell both prints and originals. It’s free to sign up to sell, and Saatchi handles shipping — the artist pays for the packaging. Saatchi takes a 35% commission on each piece sold. Artists of all mediums can sell on Saatchi, and can even use the platform to offer commissions.
10. Artspan is a hybrid that’s been in business since 1999. They offer an integrated eCommerce platform for your own website as well as a dedicated online art marketplace. Artists pay a monthly fee ranging from around $11 to around $26 based on the package. They offer a free “Live Preview” feature that allows buyers web-browser access to see how the art will look in their own space.
11. Zatista is an online marketplace for artists to sell their original work. Artists are selected via scheduled rounds of curation, keeping the overall quality higher than other online art marketplaces, but it does mean you’ll have to apply to join and wait for the next round of curation. Zatista takes 45% commission but there are no listing or membership fees.
12. Artfinder is a curated online art marketplace that requires an application with multiple examples of your work. There are a variety of seller plans available with different commissions taken out depending on the plan chosen. Artfinder sells original art and limited edition prints only.
13. UGallery – According to UGallery, their “mission is to “democratize” the process of selling artwork by connecting artists directly with collectors.” UGallery is a juried platform with an application process that ensures that all art sold through the website maintains a high standard of excellence. They cater specifically to emerging and mid-career artists looking to get out from under the shadow of the traditional gallery system.
14. Pictorem sells print on demand reproductions and handles all the printing costs. Artists can create an online gallery of their work, determine the price of their art, and keep all the proceeds without commission taken out.
15. Singulart is a curated online art gallery that provides digital sales tools for their artists and handles all payment, insurance, shipping, and delivery. Artists must apply to join Singulart, and they favor artists who already have some level of recognition.

Top 5 Website Platforms for Artists

Although art marketplaces are useful, we always recommend that artists sell primarily from their own website. This allows you to retain customer information for future communication and marketing, and also eliminates having to give a percentage to a third party website on commission. Here are our top 5 picks for website platforms for artists. These choices are based on our own experience as well as an extensive website survey we conducted in 2018 with dozens of professional artists.

1. Squarespace: Squarespace offers a free trial and extensive documentation. They make building a website very easy. Among artists we surveyed in 2018, nearly a quarter of them preferred Squarespace for creating their website. The Abundant Artist offers a course that will help you plan your website and gather your branding and marketing materials in preparation for building. Check out Artist Websites That Sell.
2. WordPress: More than 10% of our surveyed artists liked the hosted WordPress solution the best. More than 60% of responses said that WordPress.com is easy to use and inexpensive. But when we asked what people dislike, the most common responses were that there is a steep learning curve. This leads us to believe that many WordPress.com users are more tech savvy than the average user. Read about why we most often recommend the Divi theme for use with WordPress.
3. Shopify: Shopify offers arguably the most powerful eCommerce experience on the web. They also integrate with nearly every third party marketing tool available. See our review of Shopify.
4. FASO (Fine Art Studios Online): FASO has been around for a long time, with a customer satisfaction rating of 4.62 out of 5, largely because of their origins. Their templates are designed for artists and they have artists staffing their support lines. The downside is their templates can be inflexible and don’t connect well with third party services.
5. ArtStoreFronts.com: ArtStoreFronts.com is a newcomer to the website building space. They originally positioned themselves as a way for artists to sell prints on demand, but have pivoted to being a full service eCommerce platform for artists. Read our review of ArtStoreFronts.

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