Ask David
I’m an artist and want to create a website to showcase my work, sell digital downloads, and perhaps sell real prints too. So I’m researching website builders. Initially I thought to use Wix or Squarespace because I heard they are easy, but going deeper they seem too simple and won’t have the customization options I need. I want to be able to style my website to show me. I need photo galleries, slideshows, and collages. I need e-commerce. Pricing is another thing too. I don’t want to deal with price hikes, so I want to have the option to host my website anywhere I want. So I’m choosing between WordPress and UltimateWB. Does WordPress have anything that UltimateWB does not – and vice versa? Please help me decide. Thanks!
If this were my website, I’d go with UltimateWB.
You have a pretty specific list of requirements: a highly customized design, strong photo presentation, digital downloads, physical products, e-commerce, hosting freedom, predictable costs, and – importantly – a website that doesn’t require constant attention.
That’s a very good match for UltimateWB. You can get all these features built-in.
Start With the Artwork
For an artist, the way the work is presented is a huge part of the website.
You mentioned galleries, slideshows and collages. UltimateWB has built-in tools for all three.
The Photos / Galleries / Slideshows app lets you create galleries and slideshows with different display and animation options. It also supports batch photo uploads, image compression, and batch watermarking.
That can make a big difference once your portfolio gets large.
Say you’ve finished a new collection and have 75 images ready to put online. Instead of processing each image individually, you can upload them in a batch, with image compression available as part of the process. You can also batch watermark your photos, choosing the watermark’s transparency and position. If you save the original images in the Admin Panel, UltimateWB keeps the unwatermarked originals in a restricted-access folder that isn’t accessible from the Internet, so you can revert to the original image later if needed. The watermarking is applied to the actual image rather than being added “on the fly” when a visitor views the page, so the unwatermarked image isn’t simply sitting there waiting to be extracted by a visitor.
You can organize your work into whatever galleries make sense for you – paintings, photography, digital art, portraits, landscapes, recent work, exhibitions, or individual collections.
You can also use slideshows for featured work, recent pieces, exhibitions, or a rotating selection on your homepage.
Want Something More Like a Collage?
That’s where the Mosaic Grid app comes in.
With the Mosaic Grid app you can automatically arrange images into a collage-style layout rather than putting everything into identical boxes. You can customize the sizing, spacing, animations, resizing behavior, captions, colors, and other styling. You can also make images open in enlarged popups or link them to other pages. And it isn’t limited to photos – you can mix photos with text boxes, which opens up some interesting possibilities for an artist’s portfolio.
You can also batch upload photos to a grid, which is handy when you’re adding a whole new collection.
So you could have a large mosaic of your work on the homepage, use traditional galleries for individual collections, and use slideshows for featured pieces.
You’re not stuck presenting everything in the same format.
Make the Website Look Like You
You said you want to “style my website to show me.”
That’s important. An artist’s website shouldn’t necessarily look like every other portfolio site using the same template.
UltimateWB’s Styles Manager gives you control over backgrounds, colors, fonts and sizing. You can also add custom CSS, and if you want to go further, you can work with your own HTML, JavaScript and PHP.
So you can start with the visual tools and then get as hands-on with the design as you want.
Maybe you want a very minimal site where the artwork gets all the attention. Maybe you want something dramatic and image-heavy. Maybe your work has a particular visual style that you want the entire website to reflect.
You have room to build around that rather than simply picking a template and trying to make your work fit into it.
Sell Digital Downloads
Then there’s the other half of the equation: selling your work.
UltimateWB’s built-in shopping cart supports digital downloads as well as physical products. Digital products can be automatically delivered after a successful PayPal purchase.
Depending on what you create, that could mean digital artwork, high-resolution files, printable artwork, wallpapers, digital collections, or other downloadable products.
You can create the product, add images and descriptions, set the price, and have the digital file delivered after purchase.
And You Can Sell Physical Prints, Too
If you decide to sell physical prints, the same e-commerce system handles those as well.
You can set up product options, inventory, shipping prices and tax rates. Variable product options can be useful if, for example, you sell the same artwork in several print sizes.
There are also built-in features for coupons and discounts, product reviews and ratings, related products and inventory management.
So the site can be your portfolio and your store.
Someone can find a piece in one of your galleries, look at the details, and then purchase a digital version or a physical print.
WordPress vs. UltimateWB: Where the Difference Really Is
WordPress can certainly do all of this.
Its biggest advantage is its enormous ecosystem. There are huge numbers of themes, plugins, developers, integrations and third-party services. If you need some unusual piece of functionality, there’s a good chance that someone has already built a WordPress solution for it.
That’s useful if you need something highly specialized.
But there’s a tradeoff.
With WordPress, the functionality of a particular website can depend on a combination of WordPress itself, a theme, plugins, e-commerce extensions and other third-party components.
With UltimateWB, all the features you’re asking for are already part of the software: galleries, slideshows, Mosaic Grid, e-commerce, digital downloads, image tools and much more.
And you don’t have to give up customization just because the functionality is built in. There’s a huge amount of customization available within the features themselves, and also, in addition you can still use your own HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP when you want to take the design or functionality further.
So the question isn’t really whether WordPress can do these things. It can.
The question is whether you want to assemble and maintain the pieces or start with all of the functionality already there.
And if you’re wondering what that WordPress maintenance can look like in practice, take a look at Thinking About Switching From WordPress? What Should You Consider Before You Move?, an Ask David question from someone who had become tired of dealing with WordPress and was looking for an easier alternative. It’s a good example of why the platform you choose at the beginning can matter later.
Maintenance: You Want to Make Art, Not Fix Your Website
This is probably one of the biggest things I’d consider in your situation.
A WordPress site that uses multiple plugins can require regular attention. WordPress itself needs updates. Themes need updates. Plugins need updates. And sometimes those updates don’t play nicely together.
That’s when you can find yourself asking:
“Why did my gallery stop working?”
“Which plugin caused this?”
“Why did this update break my layout?”
“Are these two plugins compatible?”
“Do I need to update one plugin before updating another?”
“Why did something that worked yesterday suddenly stop working?”
These aren’t just theoretical questions. We’ve helped people troubleshoot and fix real WordPress problems like these. We’ve dealt with cases where a WordPress update broke a website’s design, a plugin update broke a WordPress site, and a PHP upgrade triggered a critical WordPress error. We’ve even dealt with a NextGEN Gallery plugin error – particularly relevant when one of the main things you want your website to do is showcase your artwork.
Maybe the problem is WordPress. Maybe it’s the theme. Maybe it’s a plugin. Maybe two plugins are conflicting after an update. Or maybe an underlying PHP upgrade exposes a compatibility problem.
And now you’re troubleshooting your website instead of working on your next piece.
That’s one of the reasons we’ve had people move from WordPress to UltimateWB. They’re not necessarily looking for some amazing new feature. They’re simply tired of maintaining the WordPress site they already have.
They’ve spent enough time dealing with updates, plugin problems and website troubleshooting and would rather have a system where more of the functionality is already integrated.
With UltimateWB, maintenance can be as hands-off as you want it to be. If you purchase the downloadable software and host with UltimateWB, UltimateWB can handle the installation and your available updates for you. UltimateWB Cloud combines the software and hosting into one plan, with software updates included.
For both UltimateWB hosting and UltimateWB Cloud, when an update is available, we’ll email you and you can confirm that you want us to install it.
So if your goal is to spend your time creating artwork rather than maintaining your website, you can have UltimateWB handle the hosting and updates for you.
You get to spend more time creating and selling your work rather than figuring out why your website broke.
And Then There’s Security
Maintenance isn’t only about whether something breaks. There’s also security.
A WordPress website can have multiple layers that need to be kept secure: WordPress core itself, the theme, plugins, and other third-party components. A vulnerability in any of those components can put the website at risk.
And these aren’t hypothetical concerns. We’ve covered several real-world WordPress security incidents here on the UltimateWB blog.
For example, The Latest WordPress Core Exploit (wp2shell) and Why Forced Updates Break Websites covered a serious vulnerability that existed in WordPress core itself, meaning a standard WordPress installation could be vulnerable without a single plugin installed. The subsequent security updates also created compatibility and stability problems for some sites.
And plugins have their own history of serious security problems. We’ve covered the 1.6 Million WordPress Sites Hit in the OptinMonster and ShapedPlugin Supply Chain Attacks as well as the WordPress Backdoor Scandal: Why 30+ “Trusted” Plugins Just Turned Malicious.
And there’s another problem: a security plugin isn’t a magic shield. Our article The Hidden Cost of WordPress Security: Why Security Plugins Aren’t the Whole Answer goes into why relying on another plugin to protect a website doesn’t eliminate vulnerabilities in WordPress core or other components.
That doesn’t mean every WordPress website is insecure. Properly maintained WordPress sites can certainly be secured.
But security becomes another part of the ongoing maintenance job. You have to keep WordPress, themes and plugins updated, pay attention to security advisories, and make sure the components you’re using aren’t vulnerable.
And if you’re an artist trying to run your website yourself, that’s worth thinking about.
Do you really want another recurring task on your list:
“Check whether any of my plugins have a new security vulnerability?”
With UltimateWB, you’re not building the site around a large collection of independently developed WordPress plugins and themes in the first place. The functionality you’re looking for – including galleries, slideshows, e-commerce and image tools – is built into the software.
That doesn’t mean security can be ignored. It means you’re dealing with a different architecture, with fewer independent components to keep track of.
That’s one less thing competing for your attention when you’d rather be creating your next piece of artwork.
What About Website Speed?
There’s one other thing I’d consider for an artist’s website: performance.
You’re going to have a lot of images. You want those images to look good, but you don’t want a beautiful portfolio site that takes forever to load.
This can become another issue with WordPress. Depending on the theme, page builder and plugins you’re using, you may end up adding more and more tools to handle things like image optimization, caching, minification and lazy loading. Those tools can themselves add complexity and don’t always work perfectly together. We’ve gone into this in more detail in Why WordPress Sites Score Low on PageSpeed – and How UltimateWB Fixes That.
With UltimateWB, image optimization and performance features are built into the software rather than requiring a collection of optimization plugins. This includes image compression, automatic conversion to WebP, lazy loading, optimized code, and automatic minification and deferred loading of images, JavaScript, and CSS.
That’s particularly useful for an image-heavy artist portfolio. You shouldn’t have to choose between showing your work at its best and having a website that loads quickly.
What About Hosting?
You specifically said you don’t want to deal with price hikes and want the option to host your website wherever you want.
The downloadable version of UltimateWB gives you that option.
It’s purchased with a one-time payment, and you can choose where to host the website. You can use UltimateWB hosting if you want the convenience, or use another compatible hosting provider that satisfies the server requirements.
So you’re not required to keep your website on UltimateWB’s hosting.
If you decide down the road that you’d rather use another compatible host, you have that option.
WordPress also gives you hosting freedom because WordPress itself is open-source software. So hosting freedom isn’t something UltimateWB has that WordPress doesn’t.
The difference is that UltimateWB combines that hosting freedom with the built-in website, image and e-commerce functionality you’re looking for.
What About Price?
WordPress itself is free and open source.
But running a WordPress website can involve more than the WordPress core software. Depending on how the site is built, there can be premium themes, plugins, e-commerce extensions and other third-party services. Some of those can involve recurring charges.
UltimateWB’s downloadable version uses a one-time software purchase, and you can choose your hosting separately.
If your concern is specifically, “I don’t want the platform I built my business on to keep raising its price,” owning the software and controlling the hosting gives you more control over your long-term setup.
So Which Would I Choose?
Definitely UltimateWB.
You already know you want more than a basic portfolio site. You want control over the design, strong ways to present your artwork, e-commerce, digital downloads, physical prints, hosting freedom, and predictable costs. UltimateWB gives you all of that without requiring you to build the site around a collection of plugins.
And there’s a lot more built in that you may find useful as your website grows. For example, you can add comments and ratings to pages, create forms, polls, and use additional built-in website applications as your needs change.
Fun fact: UltimateWB also has an integrated WordPress blog option. So if you specifically want WordPress for your blog, you don’t have to build your entire website with WordPress to get it. The WordPress blog automatically integrates with your UltimateWB website, so it can match the site’s design, but you can also give the blog its own look if you want it to stand out as a separate section. UltimateWB also provides built-in SEO tools, automatic image compression and WebP optimization, and schema markup, so you don’t need to install a collection of WordPress plugins just to add those capabilities.
You don’t have to know today exactly what features you’ll want two years from now. You can start with your portfolio and store and expand the site as your art business evolves.
Most importantly, you don’t have to make website maintenance part of your job.
You’re an artist. Your time is better spent creating your next piece, photographing it, promoting it and selling it – not troubleshooting plugin conflicts or wondering whether the latest update broke your gallery.
So if I were building the website you described, I’d choose UltimateWB.
Ready to design and build your website with a website builder that has all the features you need built-in? Learn more about UltimateWB! We also offer web design packages if you would like your website designed and built for you.
Got a techy/website question? Whether it’s about UltimateWB or another website builder, web hosting, or other aspects of websites, just send in your question in the “Ask David!” form. We will email you when the answer is posted on the UltimateWB “Ask David!” section.