Pixpa Review

Right from the start, Pixpa is not your standard site builder. It caters to users looking for a tool to create their own online gallery to showcase and sell their works. If you are out of this niche, highly likely you can strike Pixpa off your site builders list.

When it comes to professional activities, Pixpa is mainly used by photographers, artists, architects, fashion models, designers, stylists, and other creatives. If you are the one and you wish to use Pixpa, your possibilities will depend on a plan. On the whole, Pixpa will let you do the following:

• create portfolios (see best samples here);
• sell artworks, services, and digital products;
• add extra pages;
• create blogs;
• make client galleries for presenting your visual products to potential clients, and let them choose, evaluate, and proof items. Via a client gallery, you can receive payments and deliver orders to your clients;
• create personalized gallery apps for mobile clients with the same options as in client galleries on the desktop.

What’s interesting, you’ll hardly find two equal projects made with Pixpa, and you might be interested in what it can do for you. The builder’s official website claims you can create an online store, a blog, a business site, a portfolio and more. Let’s check its capacities so you can decide if Pixpa fits your project.

What Is Pixpa?

Pixpa presents itself as a portfolio-building software (see Pixpa website samples) with eCommerce integrations. Its targeted audience includes artists, photographers, and anyone who needs a professional gallery and the ability to sell items via it. Such a focus defines both the advantages and disadvantages of Pixpa.

The site builder offers good visual options, but competitor platforms also offer excellent client galleries! Moreover, you can find solutions with a broader set of pro features, while Pixpa’s eCommerce and marketing tools may be insufficient for your website. The list of Pixpa features includes the following:

• Portfolio creation;
• eCommerce options;
• Blogging;
• External integrations;
• Image sales;
• Client galleries.

Portfolio Creation

Pixpa comes as the all-in-one platform for creating stunning, professional portfolios. Its sleek templates and intuitive drag-and-drop interface make it easy for photographers, artists, and designers to showcase their work. The customization options are vast, allowing users to tailor their portfolio’s look and feel to match their personal brand. The responsiveness across devices ensures that portfolios look great on screens of all sizes, making it an ideal choice for creatives seeking to impress a global audience.

eCommerce Options

For those looking to monetize their craft, Pixpa’s eCommerce options are robust and versatile. Setting up an online store is straightforward, with various features like inventory management, payment gateway integrations, and customizable product listings. The platform supports selling physical goods, digital downloads and services, offering a comprehensive solution for artists and creators who want to expand their business online. The seamless integration of the store with the portfolio site makes for a cohesive user experience.

Blogging

Pixpa also offers strong blogging capabilities, which are a boon for creatives looking to engage more deeply with their audience. The blog setup is simple yet powerful, with options to customize layouts, add images, and optimize content for SEO. This feature is particularly beneficial for establishing thought leadership, sharing behind-the-scenes stories, or providing updates on projects and artworks. The blogging tool integrates smoothly with the rest of the site, maintaining a consistent brand experience.

External Integrations

One of Pixpa’s strengths is its ability to integrate with external tools and platforms, enhancing its functionality. Users can connect their site with social media, analytics tools, marketing platforms, payment processing, commenting and customer relationship management systems. These integrations streamline the workflow, making it easier to manage a professional online presence while leveraging tools for marketing, client engagement, and site performance tracking.

Image Sales

Pixpa stands out with its dedicated features for image sales. Photographers can easily sell prints or digital copies of their work through an integrated shopping experience. The platform supports various pricing models, license types, and enables the creation of private galleries for exclusive sales. This feature is particularly useful for photographers looking to offer a seamless buying experience directly from their portfolio.

Client Galleries

The client galleries feature in Pixpa is a highlight for many professionals. It allows photographers and artists to create private, password-protected galleries for their clients. These galleries can be used for proofing, selections or simply as a delivery method for finished work. The interface is client-friendly and the ability to receive feedback or selections directly through the gallery simplifies the client interaction process significantly.

Pixpa Pros and Cons

When deciding if Pixpa is a good choice for your website, consider its main benefits and drawbacks:

Pros:	Cons:
over 150 templates; client galleries; dedicated gallery apps; integrations with about 100 apps; no fees for transactions; support 24/7.	an inexplicit design editor with no drag-and-drop; very limited design customizations; no unified storage for images; poor feature supply on cheaper plans; a free trial won’t let you publish anything! all plans offer far from the best value for money.

So, Pixpa was initially a very promising platform for creatives. Today, its options seem undeveloped and insufficient when compared with other competitors.

Editing a Website with Pixpa

Pixpa’s user-friendly interface makes it possible to effortlessly customize and update your website, even without any prior experience in web design. Starting from the dashboard, you can access all the essential features for website management. This includes template selection, where you can choose from a variety of stylish, responsive designs that make your work stand out.

Customizing these templates is straightforward – you can alter layouts, change color schemes, and select fonts to match your brand identity, ensuring your website reflects your artistic vision.

When it comes to portfolio creation, Pixpa shines with its simplicity and effectiveness. Uploading new projects and artworks is as easy as a few clicks. You can organize your work into different galleries and categories, making it easy for visitors to navigate and appreciate your portfolio.

Adding descriptions, captions and tags not only gives context to your work but also helps in improving your website’s search engine visibility. For photographers and artists, this means a hassle-free way to keep their portfolios fresh and engaging, attracting potential clients and followers.

For those utilizing Pixpa’s eCommerce features, managing an online store is equally user-friendly. Adding products, setting prices, and updating inventory can be done directly from the dashboard. The platform offers customization options for your store, allowing you to create a seamless shopping experience for your customers.

Beyond this, Pixpa supports blogging, a valuable tool for creatives to share stories, updates, and news. The blogging interface is straightforward, enabling you to publish attractive, SEO-friendly blog posts that can drive more traffic to your site. Overall, Pixpa provides a comprehensive yet accessible platform for creatives to manage and grow their online presence effectively.

Design Customization with Pixpa

Although Pixpa offers about 150 mobile-responsive, professionally built templates, they look practically the same and only have slight differences in layouts. It’s not a problem for a creative whose main goal is to showcase their own images.

The main drawback of Pixpa here is that you cannot have a kind of image bank. Instead, you need to upload one and the same image to every gallery and every page. This can reduce your storage significantly.

The Pixpa editor is quite a tricky thing. It doesn’t offer drag-and-drop functionality. So, you should be ready to change the order of your images manually by opening the corresponding gallery and rearranging your images. Sometimes, it’s hard to understand how to move or add elements on Pixpa. Its interface requires improvements by all means.

As for customization freedom, it is practically absent on Pixpa. You’ll be limited to font and background edits. Only if you know how to code will you be able to customize more via access to HTML and CSS.

eCommerce Capabilities

Pixpa offers an ideal platform to merge artistic showcasing with eCommerce prowess. Pixpa’s integrated eCommerce capabilities are designed for artists, photographers, designers and small business owners looking to extend their digital footprint into online sales. This seamless integration of eCommerce into a professional portfolio website is a game-changer. It eliminates the need for external sales platforms, thereby streamlining the management process. Whether it’s selling prints, digital services, or handcrafted goods, Pixpa’s tools make it simple and efficient, catering to the unique needs of creative entrepreneurs.

eCommerce Tools

Pixpa’s suite of eCommerce tools is both robust and user-friendly, empowering users to transform their online portfolio into a thriving marketplace. Key features include:

• Product and Inventory Management: Adding and managing products is straightforward. Users can upload product images, set prices, and track inventory. The platform supports a variety of products, including physical goods, digital downloads, and services.
• Payment and Shipping Integration: Pixpa integrates with popular payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe, ensuring secure and versatile payment options. The platform also allows for flexible shipping configurations, catering to both domestic and international customers.
• Order Processing and Customer Management: A streamlined order management system allows users to track sales, process orders, and manage customer details with ease. This centralization of sales and customer data simplifies the administrative aspects of running an online store.
• Marketing Tools: With options for discounts, coupons, and gift cards, Pixpa provides essential marketing tools to attract and retain customers. These features are vital for promotional campaigns and boosting sales.

eCommerce Templates

Pixpa’s eCommerce templates are specifically designed to cater to the aesthetic and functional needs of online stores. These templates are crafted to showcase products in the most visually appealing way, with galleries, slideshows and featured images. Users can personalize their storefront with custom themes, layouts and branding elements, ensuring their online store aligns with their artistic vision.

All Pixpa templates are mobile-responsive, ensuring a seamless shopping experience on any device. They are also optimized for search engines, helping increase online visibility and attract more traffic to the store.

Blogging with Pixpa

Setting up a blog with Pixpa can be a good idea for users willing not only to get a full-featured portfolio but also to build communication with other users. The platform caters to those who want to share their stories, work, insights or updates with a broader audience, providing them with the necessary tools to create engaging and visually appealing blog posts.

Blog Templates

Whether you are looking for a minimalistic design to showcase your photography or a more text-heavy layout for detailed articles, Pixpa has template options to suit various styles. The designs are not only visually appealing but also customizable, letting bloggers tweak designs to match their brand identity. Importantly, these templates are responsive, ensuring that your blog looks great and functions smoothly across all devices, which is crucial in today’s mobile-centric world.

Commenting System

Pixpa’s integrated commenting system allows readers to leave comments on your blog posts, enabling a two-way conversation and fostering a sense of community around your content. As a blog owner, you have control over moderating comments, which is essential for maintaining the quality and relevance of the discussions on your blog.

Social Media Integration

Pixpa’s blogging platform includes seamless social media integration, letting bloggers connect their project with various social media platforms. This feature enables easy sharing of blog content on social networks, amplifying its reach and engagement. Additionally, you can add social media feeds directly to your blog, keeping the content dynamic and updated.

SEO Capabilities

Pixpa is not bad in terms of SEO. It offers automated indexing on Google, but you can edit the metadata of your website and pages. As to images, you can supply them with descriptions and keywords. Yet, you’ll need to work out each image separately.

Again, your customization freedom will depend highly on your chosen plan. Such options as 301 redirects, customizable marketing popups, and cookie bars will be available only on premium plans. In case you want to connect a side SEO app to Pixpa, do not expect much.

Pixpa has no inner analytical tools. However, you’ll be able to connect Google Analytics to your website.

Migration and Export Options

Pixpa offers various options for those looking to migrate to or from its platform, as well as for those who need to handle data transfers efficiently.

Migrating to Pixpa

If you’re moving from another website builder to Pixpa, the first step involves transferring your domain name to the platform, which is a straightforward process guided by Pixpa’s support team. For the content migration, while Pixpa doesn’t offer a direct import tool for website content from other platforms, the process can be done manually. This includes uploading your images, text, and other media to Pixpa. The platform’s user-friendly interface makes rebuilding your site an intuitive process, even if it requires some manual effort. Additionally, Pixpa’s support team is available to assist with any challenges during the migration.

Migrating from Pixpa

If you decide to move your website from Pixpa to another platform, you have the option to export your content. While Pixpa doesn’t provide a one-click solution for a full-site export, most of your data, including images and texts, can be downloaded and then uploaded to your new platform. For blog posts, they can be copied manually, and any integrated eCommerce product details will need to be transferred similarly. Domain names registered through Pixpa can be easily transferred out to your new provider, ensuring you maintain your online brand identity.

Data Export Options

When it comes to data export, whether it’s for backup purposes or for moving to another platform, Pixpa facilitates the process by letting users download their images and content. However, it’s important to note that the website’s structural elements, like the template design and layout, cannot be exported. For regular backups or transferring specific content elements, users can manually download files and data. In cases of bulk image downloads, especially for photographers and artists, Pixpa provides an efficient way to download your high-resolution images.

How Much Does Pixpa Cost?

Like other modern site builders, Pixpa offers a multi-plan system that can pay monthly or opt for 1-year or 2-year billing. You’ll have a choice of four packages:

You can get the presented prices when choosing a month-to-month pricing model. When ready to pay for 12 or 24 months at once, expect to receive a 20% or 40% discount, respectively. Pluses of Pixpa include a 15-day free trial for all plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee. However, we do not recommend using a free trial – you won’t be able to publish or sell anything with its help.

Mind that the Basic package will be limited to up to 10 pages or galleries. You’ll be able to upload only 200 images. For a professional photographer, it’s almost nothing, and even a family album can contain much more items. No blogs or direct payments are available on the Pixpa Basic plan. However, the package will provide your website with an SSL certificate, basic SEO, and 24/7 support.

Strangely enough, a 1-year free domain will be available starting from the Creator plan on Pixpa. The advantage of this plan includes an unlimited number of images. You’ll be able to launch an online store with up to 10 products and the ability to receive direct payments. With this plan, you’ll unlock features like client galleries, blogs, guest checkouts, and others.

Thinking of serious business with Pixpa, your choice should be either its Professional or Advanced packages. The former will also give you unlimited images at your disposal. The plan includes the mobile gallery app option – you can build up to 25 of them. Your online store can sell up to 100 products. They can be sold as prints or downloads.

The Advanced package offers unlimited images, opportunity to trade the unlimited number of products and use the product management inventory. Although this plan contains the abandoned cart recovery tool, checkout on your domain, payment forms, and other conveniences, it is still limited compared to other competitors. Even when it sells artwork pieces, your online store may require more extended functionality, and Pixpa looks insufficient enough in this respect.

Is Pixpa a Good Website Builder?

Pixpa is an interesting site-building platform that can only be the #1 solution for a very narrow group of users. The software will suit individuals who wish to launch a beautiful image gallery with the ability to sell a couple of items.

The Pixpa editor is not beginner-friendly, like Wix (our review), for example. It doesn’t have drag-and-drop, and its editor’s interface is quite perplexing. On the other hand, Pixpa is very limited in terms of customization freedom. If you have no coding skills, you won’t be able to create a fully original design.

For a professional creative or an agency, Pixpa’s capacities will be insufficient in most cases. Only its most expensive plans can ensure a more or less suitable set of features. However, you can pick more advanced site builders with easier editors and more advantageous prices.