Where to sell your paintings in 2026: the complete platform guide
Reading time: 9 minutes
There has never been more places to sell a painting online. There has also never been more confusion about which of those places is right for you, what the real costs are, and what kind of work each platform is actually equipped to sell.
This guide covers every serious option available to a UK-based painter in 2026: the dedicated art platforms, the general marketplaces, the direct channels, and the traditional gallery route. For each, the commission structure is stated plainly, the audience described honestly, and the verdict given directly.
One rule applies across all of them: know your price before you list. Every platform will happily display any number you give them. Whether that number reflects your work’s actual market value is your responsibility - and the single most important decision you make before you sell anything.
The dedicated art platforms
These platforms exist specifically to sell original art. Their audiences are collectors - people who are actively looking for paintings to buy, not people who stumbled onto your work while searching for something else.
Saatchi Art
Commission: 40% on originals, 40% on print profit
Monthly fee: None
Shipping: Handled by Saatchi Art, cost passed to buyer
Who accepts you: Open application, most artists accepted
Saatchi Art is the largest dedicated online art marketplace in the world. It reaches serious collectors globally and has built genuine credibility as a discovery platform over two decades. For emerging artists, the primary advantage is volume of eyeballs - Saatchi has significant organic traffic from buyers who are actively searching for original work.
The 40% commission is the headline number and it is steep. On a £500 painting, Saatchi takes £200 and you receive £300 before any tax consideration. If you have also applied gallery pricing (which means your direct-sale price should be lower than your Saatchi price), you need to account for this upfront.
The free art advisory service is a genuine advantage: Saatchi employs curators who recommend works directly to collectors. This creates a pathway for emerging artists to reach buyers they would never reach independently, without any additional cost. If your work is included in a curation email, the traffic can be significant.
Best for: Oil painters and figurative artists with a developed portfolio of 10+ works. Artists who want global collector reach without managing their own marketing. Not suitable for artists whose price points are under £200 - the economics do not work at lower price points with a 40% commission.
Artfinder
Commission: 35-42% depending on subscription tier
Monthly fee: £14 (Core) or £40 (Premium)
Shipping: Managed shipping included on both plans
Who accepts you: Reviewed application, original work only
Artfinder is Saatchi’s closest competitor and, for many UK artists, the more natural home. It has a strong UK and European collector base, a Trustpilot rating of 4.9/5, and a reputation for genuinely caring about the artist-buyer relationship. The application review process means the platform maintains a higher curation standard than Saatchi.
The commission structure changed in late 2025. The subscription fee - £14 or £40 per month - is now mandatory, which means you are paying regardless of whether you sell anything. On Core (£14/month) the commission is 42%. On Premium (£40/month) it drops to 35%. The managed shipping - Artfinder handles the logistics of getting your work to the buyer - is a meaningful practical benefit that Saatchi does not offer.
The economics: on a £400 painting at Core tier, you pay £14/month plus 42% commission (£168). You receive £232. At Premium tier, the same painting costs £40/month plus 35% (£140). You receive £260. Premium only makes mathematical sense once you are selling regularly - one or more originals per month.
Best for: UK and European artists with a strong original work output. Artists who find shipping logistics a barrier to selling. Not suitable for artists who sell fewer than one or two originals per month - the subscription fee will erode margins significantly.
Singulart
Commission: 30-50% (varies)
Monthly fee: None
Shipping: Handled by Singulart, including insurance
Who accepts you: Selective jury process - mid-career or established artists preferred
Singulart is the most prestigious of the dedicated platforms and the most selective. A Paris-based curated gallery, it targets serious international collectors with budgets typically starting at £500 and frequently above £2,000. The platform handles everything including shipping and insurance. The collector base is genuinely different from Saatchi or Artfinder - more European, more focused on contemporary fine art, more willing to spend.
The challenge for emerging artists is access. Singulart’s jury process favours artists with gallery representation, exhibition history, and a developed CV. If you are in the first three years of your career, acceptance is unlikely. For developing and established artists, it is worth the application.
Best for: Painters with a strong exhibition history, a consistent visual identity, and works priced above £500. The international collector base makes it particularly valuable for UK artists looking to reach French, German, and American buyers. Not suitable for emerging artists without an established CV.
Artsy
Commission: Varies - typically 12-30% through gallery partners
Monthly fee: Available through gallery membership
Shipping: Managed by the gallery partner, not by Artsy directly
Who accepts you: Primarily through gallery partnerships, not direct artist applications
Artsy operates differently from the other platforms. It is primarily a B2B marketplace where galleries list their artists’ work rather than a direct artist-to-collector channel. If you are gallery-represented, ask your gallery whether they list on Artsy - many do, and it adds significant global collector visibility at no direct cost to you.
If you are not gallery-represented, direct access to Artsy as an individual artist is limited. Some programmes exist but they are selective. For most emerging artists, Artsy is a future consideration rather than an immediate option.
Best for: Gallery-represented artists whose galleries already use Artsy. A goal to work toward, not a starting point.
The general marketplaces
These platforms were not built for fine art, but they have large audiences and meaningful advantages for specific types of work.
Etsy
Commission: 6.5% transaction fee + 20p listing fee per item + payment processing Monthly fee: None (or £8.50/month for Etsy Plus)
Shipping: Managed entirely by you
Who accepts you: Open to everyone
Etsy’s commission structure is the most favourable of any major platform - effectively 8-9% all-in compared to 35-42% on the dedicated art sites. You keep significantly more of each sale.
The trade-off is audience and positioning. Etsy’s buyers are typically looking for handmade, affordable, decorative items. The platform skews toward prints, illustrations, and smaller works priced under £200. Original oil paintings at £700 exist on Etsy but they are harder to position and discover in a marketplace dominated by different expectations.
Etsy works best for artists with a consistent output of accessible-priced work - small originals, limited edition prints, studies - rather than large-scale one-off pieces. If you are willing to invest time in optimising your Etsy shop (keyword-rich titles, consistent photography, good reviews), the low commission can make it genuinely profitable.
Best for: Artists with work priced under £300. Small originals, prints, and studies. Artists willing to manage their own shipping. Not suitable for large-format originals or artists positioning their work at the upper end of the emerging artist market.
Instagram direct
Commission: 0%
Monthly fee: None
Shipping: Managed by you
Who accepts you: Everyone
Instagram is not a marketplace but it has become the most important sales channel for emerging artists in 2026. No platform commission. No listing fees. No application process. You build an audience, show your work, and sell directly to collectors who follow you and trust your practice.
The trade-off is time and consistency. Building an engaged Instagram following that converts to sales requires sustained effort over months and years. It is not a quick channel. But for artists with a visual practice that translates well to the Instagram format - and painting almost always does - it is the highest-margin channel available.
The mechanics are simple: post consistently, show your process, name prices directly in captions or in a link to your own website, and communicate with potential buyers via DM. Many artists now combine Instagram as a discovery channel with their own website as the transaction channel, bypassing all platform commissions entirely.
Best for: Any artist with the discipline to post consistently. Especially effective for artists with a distinctive visual identity and a practice that shows well in process videos. The commission structure - zero percent - makes it the most economically rational channel for artists who can build an audience.
Your own website
Commission: 0-3% (payment processing only)
Monthly fee: £10-30 (hosting and e-commerce)
Shipping: Managed by you
If you sell regularly through any of the above platforms, a personal website with e-commerce functionality is the long-term destination. The economics are straightforward: a £500 painting that sells through Saatchi nets you £300. The same painting sold through your own website nets you approximately £485 after payment processing.
The initial setup cost - a simple website with Squarespace or Shopify, for example - is recouped after one or two sales compared to any commission-based platform.
The challenge is traffic. Nobody visits your website unless you drive them there. This is where Instagram, newsletter subscriptions, and search engine presence combine to create a funnel: someone discovers your work on Instagram, follows you, eventually visits your website, and buys directly. This funnel takes time to build but once it is running, it is the most economically efficient selling structure available to an independent artist.
Before you sell anywhere, know what your paintings are worth. Our valuation gives you a market-backed price range so you can price with confidence on every platform.
Traditional galleries
Commission: 40-60%
Monthly fee: None (reputable galleries) or space rental fee (vanity galleries)
Who accepts you: Invitation or submission, selective
A traditional gallery relationship still carries more prestige and provenance value than any online platform. A painting sold through a reputable gallery adds to your exhibition history, introduces you to a collector base with established buying habits, and signals to the wider market that your work has been curated by a third party.
The commission is high - typically 50% for most UK galleries - but the net value extends beyond the individual sale. A gallery introduces you to collectors, includes your work in curated exhibitions, and manages the selling conversation on your behalf. That 50% pays for marketing, space, curator attention, and the credibility signal that comes with institutional representation.
Two critical distinctions: reputable galleries take no monthly fee. If a gallery asks you to pay for wall space, it is a vanity gallery, not a commercial gallery. The economics are completely different. A reputable gallery only earns money when you earn money. That alignment of interest is fundamental.
Best for: Artists with a developed CV, a consistent body of work, and a visual identity strong enough to anchor a group or solo show. If gallery representation is a goal, build the exhibition history and critical coverage first - those are the signals galleries use to evaluate prospective artists.
The honest comparison
Saatchi Art - 40% commission, no monthly fee. Best for originals priced £300-£2,000. Global collector audience.
Artfinder - 35-42% commission plus £14-£40 monthly fee. Best for originals priced £200-£1,500. UK and European collector audience.
Singulart - 30-50% commission, no monthly fee. Best for work priced £500 and above. International premium collector audience. Selective application.
Etsy - 8-9% total cost, no monthly fee. Best for work priced under £300. Broad, decorative-focused audience.
Instagram direct - 0% commission, no fees. Suitable for any price point. Your own audience, built over time.
Your own website - 2-3% payment processing only, £10-30 monthly hosting. Suitable for any price point. Your own audience.
Gallery - 40-60% commission, no monthly fee for reputable galleries. Best for work priced £400 and above. Local and regional collector audience.
The strategy most emerging artists miss
The most effective structure is not one platform - it is a combination. Start with Saatchi Art or Artfinder for global collector discovery. Build your Instagram following simultaneously. Once you have consistent sales history on a platform, redirect returning buyers to your own website where the economics work in your favour. Use gallery relationships for exhibition history and provenance, not as your primary sales channel.
No single platform is the answer. The artists who sell consistently in 2026 treat each channel differently and understand that the right platform depends on the specific work, the price point, and where the buyer is most likely to find them.
References
10 best websites to sell your art online in 2026 - EntryThingy, October 2025. entrythingy.com
Where to sell artwork online: 15 best platforms for artists in 2026 - Foundmyself, July 2026. foundmyself.com
Commission rate - Saatchi Art Help Centre. support.saatchiart.com
Saatchi Art commission + how to sell in 2026 - Raul Lara, February 2026. raullara.net
Best places to sell art online 2026 - PrintKK, May 2026. printkk.com
Where artists can sell their artwork in 2025 - ArtCabbage, March 2025. artcabbage.com
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