Run it yourself for free. Or let us run it.

Hosting it yourself is a good option. Your gallery is a folder of normal files under an open licence (MIT). Upload it to any web server and it works. No account, no database and no connection to us.

You are independent. Nobody can raise your price for that service (they can for the infrastructure), change the rules or turn your gallery off. If OpenVGal closed tomorrow, your gallery would keep working. If you already have a website, or you want full control, this is the right choice and it is free.

The self-hosting guide explains every step.

Self-hosted galleries rarely break on day one. They break slowly, and you are the one who has to notice. None of it is hard, but it never stops. This is what a first year can look like:

Your first change

You want to add new work, take a piece down or put your logo on the wall. You open the builder, rebuild the gallery, download a new copy and replace the old one on your host.

Your first busy week

One of your posts goes viral and people come to see the gallery. A gallery is mostly images, so you can quickly hit your host's limits.

A browser update

Your copy keeps the viewer as it was on the day you downloaded it. To get fixes and support for new browsers, you download it and upload it again.

A new gallery style

A new style comes out and you want your old gallery to use it. You go through the whole cycle again: rebuild it in the builder, download it and upload it.

Your host changes

Free hosts change their plans, remove features and close accounts. A paid server needs software updates and a renewed security certificate. If you move to another host, your address changes and every link you have shared stops working.

An update goes wrong

You upload a new copy over the old one, a file goes missing and the gallery stops loading. Or a server update breaks something. You find out when a visitor tells you, and fixing it is up to you.

Self-hosting suits people who enjoy this kind of upkeep, not people who would rather not think about it.

A subscription is not mainly about storage: it is about the upkeep. The gallery is still yours. Everything on that list becomes our job.

Change it in place

No rebuild, no download, no upload. Open the space editor on a live gallery and add or remove artwork, rename rooms, or change the style, your logo, the music and the gallery’s name. Visitors see the changes right away.

Always the latest version

Your gallery loads the viewer from our servers, so it gets every fix on the day it comes out. When a new style is released, you pick it from your dashboard.

Nothing to keep an eye on

We run the servers, keep them updated and deliver your files to your visitors. If a post takes off and the visitors pour in, we handle it. If something breaks, fixing it is our job.

One address that stays

Your galleries live at openvgal.com/view/you/gallery, or yourname.openvgal.com on Studio. Put it in your bio once and never change it.

That address also gets an artist page with all your galleries, your bio and your links, which shows a preview image when someone shares it on social media. And when you need it, help by email from the people who make the software.

Some tools only work when there is a server behind your gallery: one that counts the visits, saves your changes as you make them and talks to other services. We are building them now:

Visual placement

Drag artworks onto the walls yourself instead of using the automatic layout.

Visitor statistics

How many people visited, where they came from and which rooms they spent time in.

Connections

Links to services you already use, like your shop or your newsletter.

Paying does not tie you to us. The files are in the same open format whether we host them or you do.

• —You can leave at any time. Download any gallery from your dashboard and host it yourself. You can still do this after your subscription ends.
• —Cancelling does not delete anything. Your galleries stay online until the end of the period you paid for, then they are paused. They don’t just disappear.
• —It is the same software. Hosted and self-hosted galleries use the same code. Nothing you build depends on staying with us.

Not sure? Start free. You can subscribe later if the upkeep stops being worth your time.