Selling art is an art in and of itself. The best apps for selling art are ones that can help you make the most of your time, keep your sanity, and make sure you don’t get scammed.
We’ve put together a list of our top picks for selling art online. Some of them are free and others are paid—but all of them have their benefits.
The first thing to consider when deciding which app will work best for you is what kind of art you’re selling. Are you selling paintings? Sculptures? Photos? We’ve included apps that work for all three types so no matter what type of artwork you have, there’s an app that will help move it out of your studio and into someone else’s collection.
Best Apps For Selling Art
It’s always been tough to make money from art. But for big-city artists and curators, the cost of real estate for galleries and studio space has made it even tougher to build a sustainable practice.
The growing popularity of art fairs has also had an effect, by creating destination experiences that might be great for bringing people in, but not necessarily for actually selling art.
But artists willing to embrace digital technology and take charge of their own destinies have never had it so good. Social media, online platforms, transactional ecommerce platforms and mobile apps have made it possible to reach global audiences, build personal brands, and sell art on more favourable terms than ever before. In this article, we take a look at the best drawing apps for iPad that are shaking things up for creatives.
Selling art online
The artist’s digital journey often starts on social media, with artists using tools like Instagram to promote work and build an audience. Now there are also digital platforms to monetise creativity, and a new breed of digital-first players are building unique connections between artists and collectors, creating markets that simply didn’t exist in the pre-digital age.
16 great places to sell your design work online
Alongside this is an explosion of new channels to reach art lovers, whether it’s using Snapchat to provide behind-the-scenes looks into the creative process, or engaging with storytellers on podcasts to help spread the word (check out this playlist of great art podcasts).
With the global online art market worth around $4.22 billion in 2017, up 12 per cent from the previous year, these new digital tools and platforms are already revolutionising the world of fine art for artists and art-lovers. Here are five apps and platforms that are leading that revolution, creating new ways to make fine art profitable.
- Artsy
Artsy art app
The art on sale on Artsy ranges from design items such as ceramics to sculpture to photography
Artsy has a vision to transform the art world through technology, and it’s executed on that vision from day one, delivering an online platform that connects art lovers to galleries and artists in a global community. Its library encompasses a dizzying breadth of art, from Old Masters to contemporary artists.
Under the hood, Artsy has built relationships with galleries and art fairs, combining their understanding of art markets with its deep technological expertise to provide gallerists and curators with tools and data to promote the artists they represent.
- Patreon
Patreon art apps
Get direct support for your work using Patreon
Patreon is rethinking how artists and creators can finance their work, by enabling direct funding appeals to patrons and supporters. A digital spin on an age-old model, the San Francisco-based platform gives emerging artists control over their careers, without them being beholden to the existing gatekeepers of the art world.
Patreon enables artists to garner financial support for their work directly from the people who love it the most. The platform enables both the discovery of new artists and support for established artists, while leveraging learnings from ecommerce and crowdfunding to help artists make direct appeals to support their creative efforts.
- Artfare
Artfare art apps
Artfare connects potential patrons to artists
Launched in February 2019, Artfare puts a new spin on the art fair model, using a mobile app, in-house curators and local pop-up shows and fairs to create connections between artists and collectors in local art scenes, starting with New York.
Artfare promotes vibrant local art scenes by bringing artists and collectors together through messaging, studio visits and sales of art works. Using Artfare’s listings, artists can promote works for sale on social platforms such as Instagram (where they’ve often built big followings). In addition they can monetise them through online sales using the Artfare app – it gives them more control and effectively tilts the economics of art-buying in their favour.
- Paddle 8
Paddle 8 art apps
Paddle 8 is a bit like eBay for art
Paddle 8 is a curated auction platform that enables a global community of buyers to discover and bid for art in real time. By digitally enabling the auction mechanic, it helps to promote artists’ work and drive sales, creating a global, digital spin on a market dynamic that was previously often limited to those with privilege and access.
- Uprise Art
Uprise Art art app
You can talk to one of Uprise Art’s personal art advisors if you’re not sure what you’re looking for
This one isn’t an app, but a platform. The team at Uprise Art are driven by a mission to enable a new generation of digitally savvy collectors to discover and buy art from emerging artists. Uprise Art is effectively a digital gallery, working online and via pop-ups, collaborations and booths at art fairs to showcase the work of a roster of talented artists.
By creating a digital-first gallery experience and constantly innovating the model – connecting with high-flying tech start-ups to provide art for their offices or working directly with interior designers – Uprise Art gives emerging artists new opportunities to have their work discovered and purchased.
Read more:
The 10 best drawing books
How to succeed as a designer-maker
The best online art classes
art selling platforms
Back in the day, artists were pretty limited in how, when, and where they could sell their art. There were no sites to sell artwork. If you wanted to get your art into someone’s hands, you had to find a way to get to them in person, whether at a fine art gallery, a creative show, or an impromptu street sale.
But thanks to the internet, it’s never been easier for artists to share their work online with art enthusiasts across the globe—and to actually sell that art and support their businesses.
Let’s take a look at some of the best sites to sell artwork online so you can get money from that sale right into your pocket.
CONTENTS
Etsy
Amazon
FineArtAmerica
Saatchi Art
UGallery
Shopify
TurningArt
Society6
Zazzle
Get Out There and Use Sites to Sell Artwork
Save 11 Hrs a Week
Etsy
You can’t talk about sites to sell artwork without mentioning Etsy. Launched in 2005, this mega-popular online marketplace has become the go-to spot for crafters, designers, painters, and artists of all kinds to showcase their work, connect with potential customers and sell their art online.
Etsy’s popularity is both the biggest draw and the biggest challenge for artists. Its online marketplace gives you exposure to one of the largest audiences of craft and art enthusiasts on the internet. On the flip side, it also has one of the largest groups of artists trying to make a living off their work, which can make it hard to break through and get your art in front of the right people online.
How to sell art on Etsy:
sites to sell artwork
To sell your art on Etsy, you’ll need to create an Etsy shop. Once you’ve created your shop, you can list your products (make sure to include high-quality photos) and start marketing your products and making sales. Luckily, Etsy has a variety of tools to help you get your art in front of the right audience.
In terms of fees, Etsy charges a nominal listing fee. If your art sells, you’ll pay a 5% transaction fee and a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee. There are also additional advertising fees if you want to promote your products on the Etsy platform or off-site.
Amazon
These days, people buy just about everything on Amazon—and that includes art.
Depending on the type of art you’re selling, the world’s largest online retailer has a variety of opportunities, including Amazon Handmade, which features homemade, crafted items. Plus there’s an entire section dedicated to fine art, featuring one-of-a-kind paintings, drawings, watercolors, and photographs from partner artists.
How to sell art on Amazon:
sites to sell artwork
Amazon has different fee structures based on where and how you want to sell your products.
With Amazon Fine Art, you’ll need to get approval through Amazon. Once approved, you’ll pay $0.99 per unit sale and a referral fee of between 5 and 20% based on the total cost. You can get a full breakdown of fees on Amazon’s seller pricing page.
If you want to sell your art through Amazon Handmade, referral fees are 15% per sale (listing your art is free).
FineArtAmerica
If you’re looking for versatility, consider FineArtAmerica, one of the world’s largest online art marketplaces. FineArtAmerica combines a more traditional gallery model with extensive print-on-demand offerings. Whether you want to sell your original artwork online or give people the option to have your art transformed into a T-shirt, an iPhone case, or a greeting card, they’ve got you covered.
How to sell art on FineArtAmerica:
sites to sell artwork
The steps to selling art on FineArtAmerica are as follows:
Open an account
Upload photos of your artwork
Choose which products to feature
Set your prices and you’re ready to go
In terms of pricing, FineArtAmerica sets a base price for each product. Then, you set a markup, which you get to keep when the product sells. For digital downloads, you get to keep 100% of your asking price. FineArtAmerica asks you to add a 30% markup, which they keep as a commission. And if you make a sale on an original piece of work? You get to keep 100% of the sale.
Saatchi Art
If exposure is what you’re after, Saatchi Art might be the place for you. The online art gallery and marketplace has a huge audience. Their website gets approximately 12 million page views and 1.6 million visitors each month, and they have almost 500,000 followers on Facebook and over 650,000 on Instagram. Saatchi Art can also help you sell on a global scale. The platform has sold to collectors in over 80 countries around the world.
How to sell art on Saatchi Art:
sites to sell artwork
To get started on Saatchi Art, you just create a profile, then photograph and upload your artwork. When you sell a piece of work, all you have to do is package it. Saatchi Art handles the shipping and takes a 35% commission on the sale.
For more on selling your artwork online through Saatchi Art, check out their Artist’s Handbook.
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UGallery
If you’ve always dreamed of your art lining the walls of a high-end gallery, you might want to consider selling on UGallery. Its selection of paintings, illustrations, sculptures, prints, and photos are carefully curated to appeal to the true art enthusiast. This online gallery/art market is also committed to showcasing new, exciting art. So in order to keep things new and interesting, they only exhibit art from emerging and mid-level artists—and that art must be original and exclusive to the platform. Basically, UGallery is looking to recreate the experience of visiting and shopping at a high-end art gallery—just in the digital space instead of in a physical location.
How to sell art on UGallery:
UGallery has a highly selective application process. To get started, artists have to submit digital copies of their art along with an artist statement, a completed application, and a $5 application fee. If you’re approved to exhibit at UGallery, they’ll take care of marketing your art to their audience. If you make a sale through UGallery, you’ll split the sale 50/50. Their team will send you a custom box to package your artwork for the buyer and cover all packaging and shipping costs.
Shopify
Sometimes, the best way to make a living off your artwork is to take things into your own hands—and that means selling it online yourself.
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that makes it easy to sell art online. With Shopify, you can easily build a beautiful, easy-to-navigate e-commerce website to showcase your work to potential buyers and drive revenue for your business. Shopify also comes equipped with a host of features (including website templates and a suite of marketing tools) that make it easy to get your shop up and running.
How to sell art on Shopify:
sites to sell artwork
To build and host your art shop, you’ll pay a monthly subscription fee that ranges from $29 (for the basic plan) to $299 (for a more advanced set-up). You’ll also need to set up a way for your customers to pay when they buy your art. If you use Shopify Payments, there are no transaction fees—but if you choose to use an external payment gateway, transaction fees range from 0.5 to 2%.
Want to give Shopify a try but aren’t sure you’re ready to commit for the long term? The e-commerce platform offers a free 90-day trial, so if you want to try building a website and selling your artwork on your own, you can do it—risk-free and at no cost.
TurningArt
If you’ve ever walked down the halls of a large, upscale corporate building, chances are you’ve walked by at least a few paintings. And if you’ve ever envisioned your art lining those hallways, you’ll want to check out TurningArt. This service rents and sells art to commercial clients, as well as coordinates original commissions.
How to sell art on TurningArt:
sites to sell artwork
There are three ways to drive revenue through TurningArt:
Leasing: The artist earns a percentage of the artwork’s price every month it’s leased
Sales: The artist earns a commission when they make a sale
Commissions: The client commissions an artist for a specific project
The commission structure for TurningArt varies. For example, if an original work is sold, artists get 60% of the sale—but if a canvas print is sold, artists receive only 20%. For more on TurningArt’s pricing structure, check out the FAQ pages for the Partner Artist Program and the Affiliate Artist Program.
Society6
If you want to see your art plastered on a huge variety of products, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better partner than Society6. This print-on-demand powerhouse has one of the largest product assortments in the industry, enabling customers to explore your art through a huge variety of categories, including furniture, tech, home decor, wall art, and apparel.
How to sell art on Society6:
sites to sell artwork
To start selling your art on Society6, you’ll need to create an account and upload your art to your artist’s shop. From there, you can choose which categories you want to enable and feature your art. You might have one design that would look perfect on apparel, wall art, and phone cases and another that would work best for furniture.
The good news? Society6 is one of the easier places to sell art online. They take care of marketing, fulfillment, printing, and shipping. The bad news? They’re not the most lucrative place for selling art. Artists make just 10% of every sale. However, there are additional ways to drive revenue (including an affiliate program), and opportunities to set higher markups for art prints, framed prints, and canvas prints.
getting paid fast
Zazzle
Zazzle is another major player in the print-on-demand world. Similar to Society6, Zazzle has a huge variety of products where you can feature your art. Currently, the platform has over 1,500 blank product types. But unlike Society6, Zazzle allows you to set your own royalty rate, which can help you earn more per sale.
How to sell art on Zazzle:
To become a Zazzle designer, all you have to do is upload your art, choose your products, and put them up for sale on the marketplace. Zazzle takes care of the rest, including printing, shipping, and customer service.
As mentioned, Zazzle allows you to set your own royalty rates. You can set your rate anywhere from 5 to 99%; then, Zazzle will adjust the product price accordingly.
Obviously, there are benefits to being able to set your own commission rate—namely, that you can earn more per sale. But because you’re passing on that rate to your potential customers, it’s important not to set it too high. Otherwise, it can be hard to drive sales in the Zazzle marketplace, especially when other artists are offering similar designs or products at a lower price.
Get Out There and Use Sites to Sell Artwork
As an artist, your top priority is to create. And with these sites to sell artwork, you can find new customers and drive revenue for your business—which will give you the financial stability you need to continue to do so. So all that’s left for you to do? Get out there, use one of these sites to sell artwork, and start dealing!
This post was updated in November 2021
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