A small museum has two websites to build, and most projects only plan for one. The first is the visitor site: hours, admission, directions, what is on display. The second is the collection: the thousands of objects, photographs and documents that your volunteers have cataloged, and that almost nobody can see online. The first is straightforward. The second is the harder job, and the easier one to overspend on.
This guide is for directors, curators and board members of local history museums, historical societies and heritage organizations. It covers what visitors need, how to put a collection online without a large budget, memberships and donations, accessibility, and the data you will want when a funder asks for results.
Already know what you need? Request an estimate and we will reply with scope and a price range for a sensible first phase.
Start with the visitor basics
Before a single object goes online, check that a stranger can answer these questions in seconds on a phone:
- Are you open today? Hours, seasonal changes, holiday closures and appointment-only days belong on the homepage, and they must be kept current. Nothing damages trust faster than a museum that is closed when the website says it is open.
- What does it cost? Admission, member and group rates, and free days, stated plainly.
- Where is it and how do I get in? Address, parking, the entrance to use, and accessibility details such as steps, elevators and seating.
- What is there? Current exhibits, a few strong photographs and what a typical visit includes.
- Can I bring a group or a class? A short booking page for tours and school visits turns inquiries into scheduled visits.
These pages are not glamorous, and they do most of the work. If you are rebuilding a site and the budget is tight, put the money here before the collection.
Putting the collection online
If you already catalog objects in collections software, the best path to an online collection usually runs through that software, not around it. Two real options show the range:
- PastPerfect. A paid collections package from museumsoftware.com, with a cloud-based Web Edition. According to the vendor’s pricing page, as of October 2026 the Web Edition lists new-user setup and licensing from $375 and annual hosting and support from $745 for the Starter package (with a lower price for AASLH institutional members). Public access hosting is listed separately, from $250 a year on Starter. Check the page for current tiers and what each includes.
- CollectiveAccess. A free, open-source system for cataloging and publishing collections. Per its own site, it has Providence, a cataloging and data management application, and Pawtucket2, an optional public web-access application. The project repository lists the GNU General Public License version 3 and import formats including Dublin Core XML, METS and MODS. Free software is not free to run: you still need hosting, setup and someone technical to maintain it.
The trade-off is simple. PastPerfect costs more in subscription fees and takes the technical work off your plate. CollectiveAccess costs less in licensing and demands more technical skill, from you or a contractor. A third path is a plain gallery of your best fifty objects on your own website, with good descriptions and photographs, which can serve a visitor better than an unsearchable database of 20,000 thin records.
Whatever you choose, insist on three things: that your catalog data can be exported in an open format, that it stays in your accounts, and that you decide what is public. Some objects, donor names and sensitive materials should not be online at all. Cultural protocols for materials relating to Native communities deserve particular care, and the right answer is to consult the community involved.
Memberships and donations
Membership and giving are where the website brings in money directly. Make joining a three-minute task: tiers with plain benefits, a payment form that works on a phone, and automatic renewal reminders. A few practical points:
- Compare processing fees. Card processors typically charge a percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction, and the rates vary by vendor and plan. Read the vendor’s current pricing page before choosing, and see how its checkout handles optional donor fee coverage.
- Get receipts right. The IRS says a donor needs a written acknowledgment for a gift of $250 or more, and when the donor receives something in return, such as member perks, the acknowledgment must describe it and give a good-faith estimate of its value. Ask your treasurer or tax adviser how to word membership receipts. This is general information, not tax advice.
- Make the renewal easy. A member who must email the museum to renew will often not bother.
Accessibility
Museums talk a lot about access, and the website is part of it. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) set the standard, currently at version 2.2. On a collection site, the requirement that matters most is the text alternative for non-text content: a photograph of an object needs a text alternative that serves the same purpose, which usually means describing what a sighted visitor would notice. Other basics are a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for regular text and a site usable by keyboard alone. Museums that are part of government may also face the ADA web rule for state and local governments, which names WCAG 2.1 Level AA, so ask your city or county if that applies to you. Writing good image descriptions during cataloging is far cheaper than going back later.
Build in the numbers funders ask for
Grant reports tend to ask the same questions: how many people visited, who they were, how many students came, how many objects were cataloged or digitized, and how many people used the collection online. We cannot speak for any specific funder, so read your grant agreement, but a few records are cheap to collect from day one and painful to reconstruct later:
- Visitors by month, including group and school visits.
- Online ticket, tour and event registrations with ZIP code, where you collect it.
- Records cataloged and records published online, by quarter.
- Membership counts, renewals and donation totals.
- Website traffic to the collection pages.
If your museum draws tourists, local lodging tax funding may be an option. Washington’s RCW 67.28.1816 allows lodging tax to support the operations of tourism-related facilities owned or operated by qualifying 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) nonprofits, and every recipient must report visitor numbers afterward. Our tourism website design guide explains how those reporting requirements shape a website. Application rules and deadlines vary by city and county, so check locally. If your museum sits in a historic downtown, your local Main Street organization may be a natural partner.
The honest verdict
Most small museums should buy, not build. A clean template website for the visitor basics, your existing collections software for the catalog, and a standard membership and donation tool will cover nearly everything. A well-run template site with accurate hours beats an ambitious custom site that nobody has time to update.
Custom work makes sense in a narrower set of cases: you need exhibit-specific interactives, a membership and event system that talks to your accounting and CRM, or a way to produce grant-ready reporting from several systems without hand-compiling it. That is the sort of operations and reporting work we do, as in our Mercy House Ministry case study. Start with our guide to nonprofit website design, or request an estimate if you think you have outgrown the off-the-shelf pieces.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a museum website include?
Start with the visitor basics: current hours, admission and member rates, address, parking, accessibility details, current exhibits and a way to book groups or school visits. Then add membership and donation pages that work on a phone, and, if you have the capacity, an online collection. Accurate hours matter most. A small museum with a simple, correct site serves visitors better than an ambitious one that is out of date.
How can a small museum put its collection online?
Usually through the collections software you already use. PastPerfect offers hosted public access for an annual fee, and its pricing page lists Web Edition packages and public access hosting separately. CollectiveAccess is free, open-source software with a cataloging application and a public web application, but you pay in hosting and technical effort. Whatever you pick, make sure the data can be exported in open formats and that you control what is public.
What accessibility standard should a museum website meet?
The common benchmark is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, with WCAG 2.2 the latest version and WCAG 2.1 Level AA named in the federal ADA rule for state and local governments. In practice that means text descriptions for images of objects, enough color contrast, and a site that works by keyboard. Whether a legal rule applies to your museum depends on whether you are part of a government body, so check with your city, county or attorney.
Do we need custom software for a small museum?
Usually not. A template website, your existing collections software and a standard membership and donation tool cover most small museums. Custom work makes sense when you need exhibit-specific interactives, a membership and event system connected to your accounting, or reporting that pulls from several systems and currently takes days to compile by hand. If your current tools do the job and your staff can maintain them, spend the money on programs instead.