# Best 'Create your own website' option



## Rob Elliott (Jul 13, 2016)

It has been years since I have had an active website - need to get in gear and create it. I haven't had a good experience using pro's on this BUT mostly I want to do this (and manage it) myself. Can you make recommendations on which do it yourself one is best. I have been told Wordpress and Squarespace. Thanks for your suggestions. I want it to look and feel pro but I don't want a huge time consuming learning curve. Simple and elegant.


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## Arbee (Jul 13, 2016)

I took the easy route and set up on Bandzoogle (even though I have the skill set to do it all from scratch), and it's working well for me, including on mobile (my web site is in my drop down at left). HostBaby (affiliated with CD Baby) is another popular one. I went this way so that I had reliable music player experiences, many music web sites I visit have flaky and unreliable music players on various browsers.

Edit: I should add that Bandzoogle, in addition to usual visitor analysis, also gives me a breakdown of how many times my tracks have been played, from where, and whether they listened all the way through, part way or skipped through it. I find that feedback useful.


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## Rob Elliott (Jul 13, 2016)

Thanks Arbee - I'll check out Bandzoogle. I like the idea it caters to 'music sites'.


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## Soundhound (Jul 13, 2016)

I use Squarespace for my two sites. Their customer service/help is really good. The designs are good looking and pretty easy to use. There's definitely a bit of a learning curve to get it the way you want it, but no more than a couple others that I tried. It doesn't seem completely customizable, but I haven't used more than a fraction of what it's capable of.


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Jul 13, 2016)

I'm pretty happy with Squarespace although it lacks some customization which I'd like to have and a lot of the time the code I find on their forums for doing certain things don't work as they're template specific.


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## Rob Elliott (Jul 13, 2016)

I don't know guys - before I posted here I was leaning towards Squarespace - but this bandzoogle looks like it just might fit what I need.


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## Lawson. (Jul 13, 2016)

I use Wix. It's really straight-forward, quite customizable, you can host media for your site directly on their servers (but no custom hosting I'm afraid), password-protected pages, forums, forms, shop, etc. Plus, with about half of the composer/musician websites that I visit, I can instantly tell they used Squarespace which is a bit of a pet peeve.


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## BenG (Jul 13, 2016)

Another vote for Squarespace here 

As mentioned, great looking templates, easy to use interface and fantastic customer service. They also offer student (and other) discounts!


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## Yogi108 (Jul 13, 2016)

Wix worked great for me  

www.encinitaspiano.com


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## Michael K. Bain (Jul 13, 2016)

As a web designer, I used to recommend WordPress for people who want to build their own. But I can't do that anymore. WordPress is probably the most hack-attempted platform out there, and for that reason, absolute diligence in updating of plugins and themes, and the use of a great security plugin is necessary. Just about everyday, I get an email from security about a new vulnerability found in a plugin.


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## Jdiggity1 (Jul 13, 2016)

Lawson. said:


> ...with about half of the composer/musician websites that I visit, I can instantly tell they used Squarespace which is a bit of a pet peeve.


That's my reaction to Wix sites.


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## Pietro (Jul 14, 2016)

If you have some Basic HTML skills and time to work on it, you could buy a cheap and nice HTML5 template and make it work for you.

I got this one (litterally, it's how it's called):
https://themeforest.net/item/this-one-one-page-responsive-website-template/7236268?s_rank=6

And super simplified it into this:
www.piotrmusial.com
I update it regularily, although I now see I didn't close a link somewhere last time and everything below projects gallery is a Tutti Vox link :D. Easy to fix though, once I'm back home in a few days.

Against wix - those websites are super slow, and there is no way to set up soundcloud to play in the background. Plus, you pay subscription. HTML template will cost you <50$ + time. And that only once.

- Piotr


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## Polarity (Jul 14, 2016)

Pietro said:


> If you have some Basic HTML skills and time to work on it, you could buy a cheap and nice HTML5 template and make it work for you.
> 
> I got this one (litterally, it's how it's called):
> https://themeforest.net/item/this-one-one-page-responsive-website-template/7236268?s_rank=6
> ...



Thanks Piotr!
I have to redesign my own website too, mainly for making it compatible with the different devices used by peoples
(computer, tablet and smartphones) and make it easier to update.
Yours suggestion seems the best for me: I like the design look and think that this can work fine to re-adapt my pages
that istead I found difficult with other templates (or I didn't like at all their design/look) because my own was very peculiar and singular 
I had to find something estetically good before waiving my own custom menu buttons


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## gsilbers (Jul 14, 2016)

another option is to choose a themeforest wordpress template and hire a webdesigner (-$300) to make it cool and customized how you want it - and different than wix/squarespace template) then update it periodically with new material.


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## Zhao Shen (Jul 14, 2016)

Squarespace, no regrets. I'm a minimalist at heart...

http://www.zhaoshencomposer.com/


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## Rob Elliott (Jul 14, 2016)

I am a minimalist as well. Really all I need is the ability put pics (advert pic) of the various TV shows - and a few music examples of that (films as well.) Best option? Really liking this Bandzoogle. Any others using that one?


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## jacobthestupendous (Jul 14, 2016)

Zhao Shen said:


> Squarespace, no regrets. I'm a minimalist at heart...
> 
> http://www.zhaoshencomposer.com/


When I tried to check out your site, it said "Server not found". That's even more minimalist than I expected.


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## Zhao Shen (Jul 14, 2016)

jacobthestupendous said:


> When I tried to check out your site, it said "Server not found". That's even more minimalist than I expected.


That's odd, I've been connecting without any issues.


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## jacobthestupendous (Jul 14, 2016)

Zhao Shen said:


> That's odd, I've been connecting without any issues.


It must just be my work computer. Your site looks great on my phone.


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## whinecellar (Jul 14, 2016)

+1 for Squarespace and minimalism! Love the clean look, musician-friendly and mobile-optimized layout. The music player is great too. Here's mine: www.jimdaneker.com

Cheers!


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## jononotbono (Jul 14, 2016)

Thanks for this thread. Squarespace looks exactly like what I need! Wicked!


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## whinecellar (Jul 14, 2016)

jononotbono said:


> Thanks for this thread. Squarespace looks exactly like what I need! Wicked!



Yep. Forgot to mention they also have a really nice "Metrics" app that monitors your site, visitors, and, well, metrics


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## jononotbono (Jul 14, 2016)

whinecellar said:


> Yep. Forgot to mention they also have a really nice "Metrics" app that monitors your site, visitors, and, well, metrics



I just checked your one out. Looks very good! I shall look into this. I need an online home now!


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## petejonesmusic (Jul 15, 2016)

I use fabrik.io , which I found a bit easier to use than squarespace, and also seemed to be a bit more geared towards an online portfolio / showreel than squarespace (in my opinion at least).
My site is here : http://www.petejonesmusic.com


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## robh (Jul 22, 2016)

I'm using joomla. I'm currently in the process of a much needed major overhaul of my website.

Rob


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## Piano & Strings (Jul 22, 2016)

I'm a happy Google Sites user. A little limited with embedding options (no flash etc), but no monthly fee (just pay for custom url if needed). My site:

www.marcfilmer.com


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## jeffc (Jul 22, 2016)

Virb.com is really good as well, super easy....


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## webs (Aug 14, 2022)

I *think* these folks may still have a free plan, with a drag-n-drop builder and pretty decent features, and you wouldn't have to worry about wordpress security. However, you'll probably still have to decline the upsells and at some point opt-out of all their emails. But it's free (or used to be anyway.)
Has a nice musical name, too: *Groove*.


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## Markus Kohlprath (Aug 15, 2022)

I'm also with Bandzoogle. One thing that is outstanding for me is their customer support. Every question, and I had a lot of them since I'm not very firm with the topic, has been answered in detail within minutes. Another plus is you get very good discounts for CD Baby releases.


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## mikeh-375 (Aug 15, 2022)

I'm hosted on Siteground. I built the site myself using RapidWeaver. If that sounds impressive, it's not, I'm a fool when it comes to code and stuff. Rapidweaver made it so easy.


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## Karmand (Aug 15, 2022)

Mobirise https://mobirise.com/extensions/kit/?AFFILIATE=62944&__c=1

I have a Mac not sure if it’s cross compatible 

KerbyArmand.com
Then any hosting site ( godaddy etc ) has ftp right in browser to upload and mobirise can publish directly to site.


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## giwro (Aug 16, 2022)

I’ve been using WordPress for quite a few years - first with EasyDigital Downloads, now with WP estore. Tried Woo Commerce, but it crashed the site, it’s probably not compatible with one of my plugins.

If you’re just starting out with WordPress, I recommend installing your store software before any other plugins, that way you can easily tell what breaks the site…

WPestore allows digital delivery by hidden encrypted links, and also can deliver serial numbers (I use it to deliver iLok codes) as well as has an extension to stamp PDFs with customer details.

It’s been a good time-saver for me to begin the switch to automated delivery, but I still have a majority of the samples to convert, and all of the sheet music. I’d say WordPress is a great option if you don’t mind a bit of a learning curve (and maybe have some website building experience already - I came from hand-coding it all myself back in the day - the site is simply too complex to do that now).

If you want to check the site out, link is in my sig - do note I’m actively changing it now, so there are a fair number of things that need tidying!


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## Thomas Costantino (Aug 18, 2022)

Michael K. Bain said:


> As a web designer, I used to recommend WordPress for people who want to build their own. But I can't do that anymore. WordPress is probably the most hack-attempted platform out there, and for that reason, absolute diligence in updating of plugins and themes, and the use of a great security plugin is necessary. Just about everyday, I get an email from security about a new vulnerability found in a plugin.


For functionality and ultimate control over the design, I vote Wordpress as well. But you make a great point. Certainly a give and take balance here with security. I find it odd that there’s no in between options. I see why Squarspace doesn’t open up to a plug-in market, but they could certainly offer better flexibility. 

On Wordpress, are there plugs that you find more vulnerable than others?


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## Daren Audio (Aug 18, 2022)

+1 Wordpress. I like Wordpress for it's flexibility. If you're familiar with HTML/CSS, you can add your own customization to your liking as many templates allow you to add your own CSS. It's the most popular platform used so it's the most hacked. I have several security plugins in place from 2-F-A, automatically blocking IP addresses that tried to login multiple times in a small time frame, etc to prevent brute-force hacking, etc.


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## MarcusD (Aug 18, 2022)

Slightly off the track but - If you're interested in sell digital goods, subscriptions or video courses, Sellfy is pretty good! A little limited with design and back end customisation, but easy to use and does the job. Good customer support too.

Used to use Shopify, similar to WordPress. Quite a few things I didn't like about it, the main thing being they didn't really do enough to protect sellers in disputes. If you're doing physical goods, be wary.


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## creativeforge (Aug 19, 2022)

Rob Elliott said:


> It has been years since I have had an active website - need to get in gear and create it. I haven't had a good experience using pro's on this BUT mostly I want to do this (and manage it) myself. Can you make recommendations on which do it yourself one is best. I have been told Wordpress and Squarespace. Thanks for your suggestions. I want it to look and feel pro but I don't want a huge time consuming learning curve. Simple and elegant.


Hi Rob, not sure if you made a move, but Bandzoogle normally give you a free 30 days trial time so you can freely play around and see how you like it. I used to be with them for a few years, selling CDs as well as digital. It's safe, and solid, althou it has limited templates, but it all depends on your visual content and how you set it up. They have tutorials and live online chat (very responsive and courteous).

But I could not justify a monthly $19.99 due to not selling enough to cover that. Promotion and networking is a key and it's usually our own job. So I moved to Bandcamp. 

However, I've used WordPress for years without much of an issue. I always find a way to force it to do what I need, and there's usually only the monthly hosting fees to worry about, which are usually pretty low ($5 to $12).

Here's the latest site I built. It interfaces with Apple Music for previews and sales. 






Richard Souther Music – Richard "Douglas Trowbridge" Souther – official site







richardsouthermusic.com





If you are minimally savvy, you can manage your own content. WordPress has evolved a lot over the years for personal use. If you want to start an online shop, though, make sure to have your e-cmmerce double-checked by an experienced web developer. The very rare issues I heard about only happen with really big online shops. 

Good luck!


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## rowong (Aug 19, 2022)

Squarespace works perfectly for me .


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## Fizzlewig (Aug 25, 2022)

I use Sparkle built for Apple Mac. https://sparkleapp.com
I used Sparkle to build my website https://www.musicchamber.co.uk


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## HCMarkus (Aug 25, 2022)

Squarespace here, but they just raised their annual rate by a significant amount


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## KEM (Aug 27, 2022)

I’m using Wordpress as well (not final but you’ll get the idea)






Kenneth Mulwee – Media Composer







kennethmulwee.com


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