At its core, ArtStation is a website builder connected to a social network for discoverability. This was the original vision of ArtStation right from the beginning.
A user has 2 places where the portfolio will show:
- The community profile: artstation.com/username
- The website: username.artstation.com (This address can be changed to a domain of your choice with a Premium Subscription)
Community Profile (artstation.com/username)
Your community profile is where people involved in the ArtStation community discover you. There are many avenues for discovery, for example appearing on searches, the activity feed, Channels, Marketplace or through recommendations/suggestions.
The community profile and community portfolio are social by nature. Users can Follow you, they can Like your work and comment on it. Users can message you directly and they can also see suggested/recommended works by other artists similar to you for discoverability.
The community profile is good for discoverability within the community and that is its primary purpose.
ArtStation-powered Website (username.artstation.com or your domain name)
Every artist on ArtStation is given a free portfolio website to showcase their work (and only their work) to recruiters and clients without the distraction of the community and the potential for their client clicking to other artists.
Your ArtStation-powered website is very different from your community profile because it's not social: Users cannot Follow you, Like or Comment on your work.
Your website can be customized. In the free version of ArtStation, you can add pages and customize the menu. With the Premium version, you can use a variety of themes with many more options to customize. Premium users can even add their own domain name so that the ArtStation branding is removed entirely, and it looks nothing like an ArtStation community profile at all.
Can the website be removed from my profile?
No. The website builder is a core part of ArtStation since the very beginning and is the basis for ArtStation. We called it "ArtStation" because your website is supposed to be your "ArtStation". Our original slogan was "A website for every artist" - and it's true, we provide all artist accounts with a free website because we believe that all artists should have a personal website. It's so central to the platform that it cannot be removed.