Format Website Builder Review 2026

If you’re just finishing up time in the studio and dreading the thought of sitting down to (finally) make a website for your business, don’t stress, Format might be exactly what you need to make the process easy. 

With dozens of popular website builders available on the market, it’s hard to stand out unless you custom build for specifically for one type of consumer. 

This is what the Format website builder has tried to do. Instead of allowing users to build anything they want through their service, they offer a clean portfolio creation platform. When you take a closer look at their options, it’s obvious they had creatives in mind.

If you’re not interested in creating a portfolio, skip Format before you waste too much time. But if that’s what you have in mind while searching for website builders, then this platform could be the perfect choice for you.

Who should use Format (best for):

Format is tailored for photographers who want to showcase their work online without worrying much about the process of building a site. If you want to write simple blog posts and maybe even make money online by selling photos, then Format is the website builder for you.

Honestly, Format is great for sharing visual work of all types. If you’re an artist of any kind, you will love what Format has to offer.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to build a business website, have custom features you want to embed, or want to focus on blogging, this website builder might not be a great fit. Instead, I suggest looking at WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace.

Review summary

Detailed Format review

• Ease of use
• Templates
• Design flexibility
• Domain options
• Mobile site optimization
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Blogging functions
• eCommerce integration
• Business forward features
• Pricing & plans
• Format vs Squarespace Comparison
• Format: best website builder for photographers?

Ease of use

Format prioritizes simplicity. And they know their primary user base is new to website building, not seasoned website developers. 

They’ve focused in on providing a great portfolio website builder for creatives. Unlike other website builders that have endlessly customizable features you can easily get lost in, Format focuses on tools to help make it easy to showcase your work.

The entire user interface is straightforward and clean, which is something you notice immediately.

The navigation menu keeps things tidy so it’s easy to access all areas of your Format website. You can easily switch between the primary areas you’ll need to build a professional website:

1. Dashboard: overview of your site
2. Portfolio: where you easily display and curate your body of work
3. Workflow: function to run your business like tracking for clients and their private client galleries
4. Selling: manage your listings for sale and prints
5. Storage: where your media lives

Like with any new medium, there’s a learning curve. Format leverages nesting menus so it’s worth it to set aside a few hours to orient yourself to the options.

One thing we love is their use of hover text explaining the function of each area. It saves unnecessary clicks into each option to see what it does.

Format templates

Format’s range of templates are definitely a strong point. They have just under a 100 templates that are sorted in two main ways.

Profession:

• Architecture
• Art
• Design
• Illustration
• Makeup & Fashion
• Makreting
• Model
• Photography
• Student
• Video
• Wedding Photography
• Writing

Gallery Style:

• Horizontal Scroll
• Tiled
• Vertical Scroll
• Fullscreen
• Slideshow

Their templates have enough variation that just about anyone can choose the best one for their needs. A lot of the templates give old school Instagram vibes, as you would expect with a website builder for creative professionals.

With that said, don’t stress too much about your template choice, they can be easily changed at any moment during the design process. So, choose one, and play around with it until you find the perfect fit for your site.

Aside from the templates being specifically designed to showcase photography an added perk is that they also automatically optimize images for the web while maintaining your sharpness and color accuracy. Less work for you.

Design flexibility

The template controls the design of your new website. You do have some freedom in editing the general layout, colors, and fonts. 

Adjustments to your site are controlled by adding new sections. Your sections options are: 

• Dividers
• Pre-formatted section templates: home page title section, sections combining text and images, etc
• Text
• Images
• Forms
• Media

Compared to other website builders like Wix or Squarespace, the section options are limited. But their goal isn’t to be everyone’s use case, Format provides a simple user experience for a photography website or portfolio builder. 

Once an element is added to the page, you can makes simple modifications to it. For text, that means selecting a predefined size of the font, alignment, making it bold or italic, and adding a link. Think along the lines of what you could do in a typical word editor. 

When it comes to images, you can change the photo (use their images, import from DropBox, or upload a custom one), orientation, add alt text for search engine optimization, or make a link out of it. If the image is large enough, you’ll be able to zoom in. That’s all.

If you already have an understanding of website builders and customization options are important to you, the Pro Plan and up do offer the ability to upload custom fonts and have a custom code editor so if you want to get more detailed in your edits you’ll access to those features. 

If this is your first website and you’re just wanting a quick way get your creative business online without needing to code, Format makes that easy.

Domain options

Unless you decide to purchase a custom domain name or transfer an existing one, you can access your Format website via their subdomain.

By default, that subdomain will be generated from your personal name, but you can always change it from the settings.

In that case, your site address can be anything.format.com unless it’s already in use by some other Format user. But since there aren’t as many Format users as there are at Wix, WordPress, or Squarespace, it shouldn’t be that hard to come up with a unique subdomain idea.

Mobile site optimization

Since Format has clearly put effort into professionally designed templates, it’s not surprising that all of them look great on mobile devices. With that said, there aren’t any customization options specifically for mobile layouts.

You can preview your website in mobile view at any time from the Pages or Design area. There’s peace of mind in knowing that your design will look professional on mobile as a large portion of website traffic now comes from mobile devices. 

Also of note, there is a Format mobile app on iOS so you can make adjustments to your format pages easily from your phone.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Since Format is such a simple builder, one wouldn’t expect to have options related to search engine optimization. However, it comes as a pleasant surprise to find a few SEO options available in the builder.

Changing titles, adding alt text to your images, and controlling the URL are all excellent additions to the options available with this straightforward builder. 

I was surprised that Format creates a sitemap for you automatically, and that you can access it from the settings at any time. Google and other search engines will love your portfolio site because of this simple file.

They encourage setting up your Google Business Profile, which I love to see as that can have a huge impact on SEO for local businesses.  

You can also connect your Google Analytics, and even add a few keywords you’d like to rank for. As long as you don’t expect to become an SEO star, these options will be more than enough for your simple site.

Format blogging functions

Even if you’re a photographer or an artist, you might still want to write something every now and then. This supports SEO efforts and gives search engines more context on your business and your website.

Format gives you some basic blogging options (which are sufficient for most creatives).

Adding a blog to your website is easy: either choose a template that includes one already or add one with one click from the Page settings.

The blog editor is very simple and, as you might guess, focused on adding media. So, all you can do with your blog post is attach text, images, and videos without any special treatments. 

The blogging functionality gives you the option to turn on comments and social sharing icons as well as change how your posts are displayed (grid, slideshow, or vertically). 

There’s also a section for blog post SEO in each post settings so make sure to take advantage of this. 

While this is adequate for someone entirely focused on imagery, those who tend to blog more often might want more features and options.

eCommerce integration

Creating a simple store honestly feels quite lovely when using Format. Whether you want to sell digital goods, services, print-on-demand prints, or even physical products, it’s quick and easy to set up.

Adding a store to your site means adding a new page. Add items you want to sell, give them descriptions, and attention grabbing images. Then, connect your PayPal Business account, and you will be ready to start selling.

You can manage the inventory and each product in the online store so if you’re selling only a few items, you’ll be good to go. 

For those looking to launch a more complex ecommerce website, you’d be best served looking into other website builder options. 

Format business features

Outside of the eCommerce features, there are additional business features that are specific to creative professionals. The Workflow section of your Format account allows you to keep track of communications and client details. 

It’s essentially a slimmed down customer relationship management tool. You can form submissions, create client galleries, keep notes, setup transfer of files, and store any documents or contracts associated with that client. 

These are really useful features if you’re using something like Google sheets to manage your client list now.

Format pricing and plans

Unlike other website builders that all come with free versions, Format offers a 14-day free trial only. You can start their trial without needing to put in billing information and 14 days should give you plenty of time to know if Format is right for your business.

Each plan has different details, we’ll go over those next. There’s also 24/7 customer support included.

Customer support

The support is quite nice. They have a pretty substantial Help Library with articles searched by topic, everything from SEO to managing clients on Format. Many of these have video overviews as well.  

There’s also a chatbot for questions and you have the ability to submit tickets for their team to review.

Format pros and cons

Examples of sites built with Format

Justin Dingwall — Created with Format

Ana Gil — Created with Format

Caitlin Cronenberg — Created with Format

Stephanie Brasralian — Created with Format

Format vs Squarespace Comparison

These two platforms get talked about a lot among the photography and art community. If Squarespace is among your top options for your website and you want a quick comparison, we’ve put their functionalities side-by-side. 

Image & Portfolio Handling – Winner: Format

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, Format is purpose-built for photography with Lightroom integration through its Publisher plugin, allowing you to publish portfolios directly from Lightroom. 

Squarespace offers flexible gallery options but requires manual uploads and lacks photography-specific optimization.

	Format	Squarespace
Lightroom Integration	Native plugin	Manual uploads only
Image Optimization	Photography-specialized	General-purpose
Gallery Layouts	Photography-focused	Multiple flexible options

Client Management & Proofing – Winner: Format

Format includes dedicated client galleries with password protection and integrated contact forms, designed specifically for the photographer-to-client delivery workflow. The Lightroom integration extends to client gallery publishing, making proof sharing pretty seamless.

Squarespace lacks a purpose-built proofing system and requires third-party tools for professional client review workflows.

	Format	Squarespace
Client Galleries	Built-in, password-protected	Gated content only
Lightroom Proofing	Integrated	Not available
Workflow Optimization	Photography-specific	General-purpose

E-Commerce Capabilities – Winner: Squarespace

Squarespace offers enterprise-grade e-commerce with unlimited product variants, subscriptions, inventory management, and social selling integration. Format provides a basic store suitable for selling prints and services at low volume, but it’s nothing super sophisticated.

Squarespace is ideal if you’re treating your creative practice as a scalable business or expecting significant sales volume.

	Format	Squarespace
Product Variants	Not available	Unlimited
Subscriptions	Not available	Supported
Commission	Zero	Payment processing fees only
Complexity	Simple	Advanced

Content & Marketing Tools – Winner: Squarespace

Squarespace includes AI-powered blog generation, email marketing automation, member sites, and integrated SEO optimization tools. Format provides basic blogging but real dedicated marketing tools. It’s designed for creatives who want their work to speak without active promotion.

Squarespace is better suited for photographers building audience through content marketing and organic search.

	Format	Squarespace
Blog Features	Basic	AI-assisted with automation
Email Marketing	Not included	Built-in with automation
SEO Tools	Limited	Comprehensive
Content Monetization	Not available	Member sites available

Design & Customization – Winner: Squarespace

Squarespace’s Fluid Engine offers customization with full control over grids, block alignment, and layout manipulation. Format constrains customization intentionally, with templates designed to ensure cohesive visual presentation without design overwhelm.

Choose Squarespace if you need complete design freedom; choose Format if you prefer beautiful constraints.

	Format	Squarespace
Templates	~100 curated designs	Unlimited customization
Design Freedom	Constrained	Complete
Drag-and-Drop	Simple	Fluid Engine
CSS/HTML Access	Limited	Full access available

Ease of Use – Winner: Format

Format is renowned for simplicity and can have photographers publishing professional portfolios within a day. Squarespace’s comprehensive features create a steeper learning curve with more configuration options and decisions required.

Format wins for photographers prioritizing speed to launch; Squarespace requires more upfront investment but offers greater long-term flexibility.

	Format	Squarespace
Setup Time	Hours to days	Days to weeks
Learning Curve	Beginner-friendly	Intermediate
Configuration Decisions	Minimal	Extensive
Support Focus	Photography-specific	Broad business

Format and Squarespace Comparison Table

	Format	Squarespace
Best For	Solo photographers wanting quick, beautiful portfolios	Creatives scaling a business with content/e-commerce
Image Optimization	Photography-specialized	General-purpose
Client Proofing	Built-in with Lightroom	Requires workarounds
E-Commerce Power	Basic, commission-free	Enterprise-grade
Marketing Tools	Minimal	Comprehensive
Design Control	Constrained	Unlimited
Setup Difficulty	Very easy	Moderate

Curious about Squarespace? Read our review.

FAQs

Final Verdict: Is Format the best website builder for photographers?

If you’re a photographer or artist who wants to showcase your work by building a custom website, Format is an excellent platform to choose. Templates are modern, beautiful, and responsive. The editor is easy to use and comes only with options that you would actually need. So, you can quickly create a gorgeous site without stressing over the details.

If you’re a creative who’s looking to scale their business through organic marketing or to include heavy ecommerce usage you’ll likely find Format lacking for your needs. Based on your goals Format will either be an easy yes or a sure no.