Starting with my nr.1 artist website/portfolio builder, Bandzoogle. You simply cannot go wrong here. A fully designed website within minutes, with professional design and valuable additions for musicians.
You can sell your music and your merch directly from your website, including an audio player, integrate Bandcamp and much, much more.
You can read more about Bandzoogle in this small beginners guide.

Pros:

• Cheap, all-in-one services specifically for artists and musicians
• Simple design features
• Many plugins/addons for musicians
• Online store
• Not possible to “break” your site with bad code or human errors

Cons: (Not a huge problem for most musicians, but I wanted to list them anyway)

• The design is sometimes limited/no options for extra advanced code
• Blogging is limited. It works, but don’t expect fancy tools for SEO.

Check out Bandzoogle.com for more information

Squarespace

One step up in terms of complexity and options is Squarespace. It features a lot of similarities with Bandzoogle, as it also has an easy to use designer.
As with Bandzoogle, you cannot really “break” your site by making errors. It simply works or not.
Also, although not all additions are geared towards musicians, it has a lot more features than Bandzoogle.
I would still recommend it if you are on the lookout for a stable platform with more shopping features.
You can read more about Squarespace for musicians in this blog post.

Pros:

• Easy to use designer
• Many features to start your online music business
• Phone app to monitor all site activity

Cons:

• Pricing is a bit higher than average
• Extra features are often sold separately

Check out Squarespace.com for more information

Webflow

Another step up regarding web-design is Webflow. If you find that Bandzoogle and Squarespace are a bit lacking in features, or you simply want more control over your full website, check out Webflow.
Webflow offers a full, code-based experience that allows you to edit and change literally anything on your website.
If you are comfortable with web code, HTML, css and java, you might find it a complete webkit for your needs.
And, although they do not really offer a one-click solution for your artist webpage, their online web editor makes working on your website a very pleasant job.
Also, their guides are simply hilarious.
Check out my small guide to Webflow here.

Pros:

• Fully customizable website options
• Many online guides to help you edit everything
• Tons of features you can implement in your website
• Did I mention that you can edit EVERYTHING!

Cons:

• You can edit everything… so you can also make many mistakes
• Changing small things might take a while in comparison to the aforementioned web-hosting
• Pricing is a bit high

Check out Webflow.com for more information

Siteground

I wanted to end this list with Siteground. Simply because I believe that they offer a great balance between customisation and easy of use.
While Siteground is a hosting platform at its core, they offer WordPress hosting directly from their main site.
Installing and using WordPress is not as difficult as using Webflow, but you need to be a bit more involved than with Squarespace and with Bandzoogle.
That being said, I know many musicians that run their website on WordPress and never want to switch. And for a good reason!
WordPress is basically a tool that lets you use various blocks to build with. You can add and remove plugins, themes, pages and posts with a single mouse-click.
With the right tools, you can build a solid website as a musician that offers a great experience for your fans and a good workflow for you.
Check out this blog post if you want to learn more about WordPress for musicians

Pros:

• Simple to setup
• Pricing can be cheap (check the discounts!)
• Many, many options to choose from in terms of plugins and themes
• Everything is customizable (if setup correctly)

Cons:

• Can sometimes “break”, so backups are essential
• Needs more maintenance than the above mentioned sites
• Not all plugins and themes are free!
• Double check the pricing on Siteground. Some are low, but for the first year!

Check out Siteground.com for more information

Email Marketing Tools

Mailerlite

For all your newsletter and marketing emails, Mailerlite has you covered. Probably the easiest to use mailing platform out there (and my personal favorite), Mailerlite offers you all the tools you need to update your fans with all your latest news.
Design a great email series and automate them, weeks and even months in advance.
(You can read more about email marketing for musicians here)

Pros:

• Room for 1000 subscribers in the free plan
• Pricing is very insteresting
• Extra options like landingpages and integrations

Cons:

• Some features are behind a paywall (still no dealbreaker 🙂

Check out Mailerlite here

Mailchimp

Another good (and free) newsletter program is Mailchimp. With many features and the option to add up to 2000 subscribers on your free account, mailchimp has you covered.
A few years back, I would recommend Mailchimp over any other program.
However, after using it for many years of use, I found working in Mailchimp a bit cumbersome. Not the main dealbreaker though, as it is still a very powerfull program with many integrations.

Pros:

• A solid and free newsletter program with room for 2000 subs on the free plan!
• Many extra options like landingpages and plugins

Cons:

• The main layout and workflow is a bit outdated.
• Pricing is steep.
• If you switch from the free to the paid plan, you can only bring 500 subscribers with you

Check out Mailchimp here.

Hubspot CRM

A solid and free customer relationship manager, ideal for online musicians who want to keep track of their clients and contacts.
You can use Hubspot CRM to message your clients directly, keep track of interactions with notes and files, and keep track of all invoices you have sent them.

Pros:

YouTube Growth Tools

Morningfame

Tubebuddy

VidIQ