Overview
Bandzoogle has been around since 2003, but unlike many other musician-specific website builders, this company doesn’t shy away from reinvention. From sleek, mobile-ready website themes to ready integrations with the latest social media and music streaming services, Bandzoogle is equipped to help your band reach modern audiences with minimum effort.
Pricing
You can sign up for free, but bear in mind that the free account is only a trial that’s valid for a maximum of 30 days. After that, your site goes offline unless you continue with one of Bandzoogle’s three plans. Prices range from $9.95 – $19.95 per month depending on your chosen tier, with some discounts applying if you opt for annual billing. Here’s a quick look at the main differences between each tier:
Feature | Lite | Standard | Pro |
Regular Monthly Fee | $9.95 | $14.95 | $19.95 |
Webpages | 10 | 20 | Unlimited |
Tracks | 10 | 50 | Unlimited |
Photos | 100 | 500 | Unlimited |
Mailing List Members | 100 | 1K | Unlimited |
Below, we’ll dig into the details that you get with each plan. For now, though, suffice it to say that the lower-priced tiers aren’t really viable options unless you don’t have a fan base to speak of yet. The limitations on the mailing list alone, for example, severely restrict your audience; and while the limited number of track and photo uploads might be fine for new bands, those with a larger repertoire and more media will have no choice but to get the most expensive Pro plan.
Features
All of Bandzoogle’s plans come with a free domain name and hosting, as well as unlimited data transfers. That’s good news for the less tech-savvy, and it saves you trouble right off the bat. With Bandzoogle also taking care of getting your site online, you won’t need to scout for hosting plans or shuttle from one service to another for site building and hosting. The great thing about Bandzoogle’s free domain is that you have full ownership. After the first two months of your membership, you’re even free to host the domain elsewhere if you like. Bandzoogle can also handle pre-existing domains, which you can simply migrate to your account.
As for the site itself, you’ll have hundreds of themes and templates to choose from. Overall, Bandzoogle’s selections look good, albeit a little basic. You can customize your theme further by dragging-and-dropping applets or modules for blogs, calendars, mailing lists, and more, wherever you’d like them on the site. You won’t have as extensive a module directory as you’d get from more general website builders like Wix (which also has services for musicians), but what you do get are enough to build a good website.
You don’t need any coding experience to switch up your site’s look and functionality, though some experience with CSS will give you more fine-grained control over details like colors and custom fonts. Bandzoogle reserves the latter for Pro subscribers, though, so if your site’s overall look needs extensive customization, you’ll need a premium plan.
Media and Music
Bandzoogle gives you plenty of options to show off your material. To give fans a look at the band or share snapshots from shows and tours, you can upload photos and create galleries directly through Bandzoogle. For more synchronization between your online media accounts, you can also port in content from your Instagram or Facebook page feeds. Already have some videos uploaded? You can simply drag-and-drop a video module onto your page to bring in your videos from Youtube or Vimeo.
Of course, music remains the star here, and you’ll have a number of options in that department. Bandzoogle lets you host and upload tracks directly, though you can also integrate tracks you’ve already uploaded to services like Bandcamp and Soundcloud. Bear in mind, though, that lower-tiered plans put caps on how many tracks you can have in total.
Audience Reach
A Bandzoogle account also gives you many ways to keep fans updated and forge stronger bonds with your audience. Options to include blogs and mailing lists are standard, of course, though if you have more than a thousand fans, you’ll need to jump immediately to Bandzoogle’s Pro offering. You can also put up a gig calendar — either through Bandzoogle’s own module, or through integration of your existing accounts on services like Bandsintown.
To better connect with fans from Facebook, Twitter, and more, Bandzoogle also lets you integrate those accounts with your band website.
Merchandise and Sales
Bandzoogle lets you create an online store and sell digital tracks. However, merchandising is one of the sections where you’ll get the most restrictions if you’re not on the Pro plan. Only the Standard or Pro plans can expand their inventory to include physical merch like CDs, t-shirts, and so on, for example. If you want automatic inventory tracking, the option to give out download and discount codes, more product category options like tickets and video files, and even album pre-orders, you’ll need a Pro plan.
All of the merch you sell on Bandzoogle is 100% commission-free. The great thing is that Bandzoogle integrates with PayPal, too. All the transactions go directly to your seller account, where you can keep track of invoices, payments, and so on.
Integrations
Bandzoogle has numerous integrations, a few of which we’ve already mentioned earlier. This means your website can easily serve as a central hub for your online presence. Fans can use it as a jumping-off point to find your other online accounts, or they can treat it as a one-stop venue for everything from gig updates to band t-shirt purchases. Either way, you’ll be in full control of your band’s main online portal, and all the publicity, sales, and engagement that sprout from that.
Customer Support
Customer support is one of Bandzoogle’s biggest strengths. The company’s blog features tons of resources to help both budding and established musicians improve on various aspects of their craft and business — from using analytics for your website to making more money as a musician. As for troubleshooting, you won’t find a more enthusiastic, warm, and helpful support team anywhere else. You can initiate a live chat session which is available every day during business hours. For email support, they usually respond within an hour if received during business hours, while those sent beyond these hours are looked into immediately the following morning.
What's the Verdict on BandZoogle?
Bandzoogle Review 2020 – Conclusion
For a quick, stylish band website that works even without coding experience on your part, check out Bandzoogle. Sleek, drag-and-drop interfaces and hundreds of good-looking, if basic, themes take the effort out of designing your site. Plus, ready integrations for almost all of the most important online tools for musicians (e.g., Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Bandsintown, and more) give you a comprehensive online hub for your band in no time. Commission-free merchandise-selling boosts your earnings, though you’ll need higher-priced plans if you want to make the most of your store. In fact, you’ll have to work with some considerable restrictions if you don’t jump right into Bandzoogle’s top-tier Pro plan. That’s a downside if you’re working on a budget, but considering the tools and ease of use you’ll get to work with, the cost might just be worth it.
2 Comments
i have been trying the free trial web but its not going. pls kindly give a link to use.
Hi Oluwatosin,
Go to their website and click on the big orange “Try it Free” button–it will take you to the trial sign up page. Hope it works out for you! 🙂