Bandzoogle Review: an Honest Perspective from an Indie Musician

Why should you trust this Bandzoogle review?

Because I’m an indie musician who has been using Bandzoogle for years. 

So I won’t be talking about this website builder theoretically. I’ll be talking about my first-hand experience. 

Full disclosure: Bandzoogle occasionally pays me (and waives my subscription fee) to write content for their blog, but I only started writing for them after I had been using their service for my music website. 

Also, there are some affiliate links in this post for Bandzoogle and MailerLite. So if you sign up for one of those, I may get a kickback. But I only refer services I personally use.

Is Bandzoogle Only for Musicians?

Bandzoogle is definitely tailored toward musicians, currently boasting over 55,000 of them as customers. 

Musician Chris Vinson founded the company back in 2003, and they’ve made it their mission to constantly improve their tools to help musicians create online homes.

But there are other types of artists using Bandzoogle, like comedians and visual artists. But the company first and foremost creates things with musicians in mind. 

Bandzoogle Features

One of Bandzoogle’s strengths is its musician-specific features and tools. 

So how good is Bandzoogle? To find out, let’s look at some of the features they offer… 

Drag-and-drop editor

When a musician in the early aughts wanted a website, they’d have to either build one on a clunky website builder or pay a butt-load to a website designer. 

But things have come a long way. 

And Bandzoogle has kept up, offering a drag-and-drop editor.

It’s seriously so easy to use. I’ve never paid a dime to a web designer. And any time I need to update my site, I can quickly do it myself.

No coding necessary! Although if you like that stuff, you can add your own HTML, CSS, and Javascript. 

They have musician-specific widgets, like a site-wide music player, a tip jar, and integrations with sites like Bandsintown, SoundCloud, and others.

Plus, if you think of a feature you want, just chat a customer service agent and make your suggestion. (For example, they added the button feature not long after I suggested it).

100% commission-free store

This feature is huge. You can sell merch and music on your website and Bandzoogle doesn’t take anything. This feature is included in your monthly/yearly plan (more on plans below).

Bandzoogle doesn’t offer print-on-demand merch themselves. But you can easily copy/paste HTML code from a third-party store. 

But I highly recommend you just use their Printful integration. I integrate my Printful store with Bandzoogle, so any merch I add to my Printful store shows up on my site’s online store. 

For instructions on how to integrate Printful, check out this help article.

Website templates

If you’re not great at visual design, Bandzoogle’s website templates can be your savior. 

Start with a professionally designed website, then customize it to your brand and taste.

They have tons of options and they’re all professionally designed. 

Custom email address

Nothing says “professional musician” like an official email address like [email protected]. 

And for $14.95/year (on top of your monthly plan fee), you can get a custom email inbox.

This makes a better first impression on music industry people. Obviously, this type of email address isn’t going to make or break your music career, but it does look more professional.

Plus, some services (like my favorite email marketing platform MailerLite) require an email address that’s @yourwebsite.com rather than a Gmail account.

Mailing list

One of the most important marketing channels for musicians is email. It’s one of the main ways you can speak directly to your fans sans algorithm.

Bandzoogle offers a mailing list feature, although it’s a bit skimpy. Honestly, it feels like an afterthought. 

I say that because, first of all, the max number of subscribers you can have is very small (100 subscribers for the cheapest plan). 

Secondly, there are free email marketing services that offer way more features and are super easy to use.

Maybe Bandzoogle will beef up their email list feature at some point. But for now, I’d suggest going with a third-party email service (like MailerLite, my fave).

RELATED: 3 Music Marketing Strategies Most People Ignore

Fan subscriptions

I currently use Patreon, which has been great. 

After I launched my Patreon page, Bandzoogle came out with their own subscription service where you keep 100% of the fan payments.

That’s so awesome that I’ve been considering switching to Bandzoogle’s subscription feature. But that requires getting my patrons to cancel their Patreon pledge and go over to my Bandzoogle subscriptions, which feels like a headache.

Still, if you don’t yet have a patron/subscription offering yet, consider Bandzoogle’s.

Like Patreon, it offers pricing tiers with different rewards. But unlike Patreon, you keep all the money.

SEO-friendly and mobile-optimized pages

Every page you create on Bandzoogle is automatically optimized for search engines (i.e. SEO). So you don’t need to hire a copywriter or try to figure that stuff out yourself. 

The pages are also mobile-friendly, and you can preview what they look like on a smartphone from the desktop editor. Just hit “View Site” and choose the smartphone icon.

Integrations

Not only does Bandzoogle integrate with Printful for merch, but they also work with services you know and love. 

As of this writing, Bandzoogle integrates with:

• Bandcamp
• SoundCloud
• Dropbox
• Airbit
• GigSalad
• Bandsintown
• Stripe
• PayPal
• EasyPost
• TaxJar
• Google Analytics
• Facebook Pixel
• Facebook videos
• Twitter feed
• YouTube videos
• Vimeo
• Twitch
• Crowdcast

These integrations just make it easier to connect your other places on the internet with your music site.

Bandzoogle Pricing

Does Bandzoogle cost money at first? Nope, you get a 30-day, risk-free trial with no strings attached. No credit/debit card required.

(If you use my referral link here, you get 60 days free).

Create an account, play around with the website templates, see what you think about it. Then if you like it, grab a plan. If you don’t, you won’t be charged (you’ll just lose access).

Bandzoogle has three pricing options: Lite, Standard, and Pro. 

All of them come with:

• Unlimited award-winning customer support (I can personally attest to their helpfulness)
• Domain name
• Premium hosting
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Hundreds of mobile-ready templates 
• All of the features I talked about above except for the custom email address (that’s an add-on)

Bandzoogle Lite

For $9.95/month (or $8.29/month billed annually), here’s what Bandzoogle Lite gives you:

• 10 pages, 10 tracks, 100 photos
• SSL security
• Fan data
• All themes
• Custom design tools
• 0% commission online store
• Crowdfunding
• Subscriptions
• Sell music downloads
• Mailing list (100 fan subscribers)
• Electronic press kits (EPK)
• SEO tools
• Tour calendar

So, not bad for the cheapest plan they offer.

Bandzoogle Standard

For $14.95/month (or $12.46/month billed annually), Bandzoogle Standard gives you everything in Lite PLUS:

• 20 pages, 50 tracks, 500 photos
• Mailing list (1000 fan subscribers)

So, you get a lot more pages than in Lite. And second, you get way more space to upload music and photos, two very important things to have for a music website.

Bandzoogle Pro

And now for the granddaddy of them all, Bandzoogle Pro. This is the plan I have for my music site. 

For $19.95/month (or $16.63/month billed annually), Pro gives you everything in Standard PLUS:

• Unlimited pages, tracks, and photos
• Custom fonts
• Video headers
• Sell tickets
• Sell video and media files
• Tip jar
• Print-on-demand merch
• Product bundling
• Facebook pixel
• Download codes
• Inventory tracking
• Album pre-orders
• Discount codes
• Sale pricing
• Soundscan reporting
• Mailing list (unlimited fan subscribers)
• Advanced mailout reports

So obviously, you get the most with Pro but it costs the most. 

How To Get Started on Bandzoogle

To sign up for a free trial of Bandzoogle, go here. 

Enter your band/artist name, your email, create a password, and get started. No credit/debit card required. 

The first step is to choose a theme template. 

You can choose a template by genre, although I’m not sure how a website theme is specific to genre. So feel free to browse all of them regardless of the type of music you make. 

Just hit “Apply Theme” and start customizing your site. 

Fortunately, Bandzoogle has a pretty clear walkthrough for first-time users, including design tips. Plus, their customer support is available by chat to help out with any questions. 

This video will also help you get started…

How do you make an EPK on Bandzoogle?

I want to address this question specifically because it’s one that a lot of artists ask. An Electronic Press Kit is a tool that can help you book shows, promote your new album, and get press. 

The good news is, Bandzoogle has EPK templates. This video explains how to add an EPK to your site.

RELATED: SubmitHub Review: How I Got Featured on Blogs and Spotify Playlists

Bandzoogle Pros and Cons

Okay, all that being said, here’s a summary of the good and not-so-good of Bandzoogle…

Pros:

• Musician-focused
• 0% commission store
• Plenty of great integrations
• Easy to set up and use
• Great customer service
• They’re open to feature suggestions

Cons:

• Mailing list feature is very limited
• Custom email address costs extra

Is Bandzoogle the Best Website Builder for Musicians?

Honestly, I think it is. 

Squarespace is good, but not tailored to musicians. Wix is clunky. Weebly is meh. Bandcamp is cool for hosting your music, but not very customizable. 

And I’ve used them all. 

My music site is hosted on Bandzoogle and, unless the company massively screws up in some way, I plan to keep it with them indefinitely.