Whether you're a UX designer, freelance author, or lensman, an impressive online portfolio is critical for impressing potential clients, and landing futurity jobs.

But crafting a good digital portfolio tin can feel like a daunting task, peculiarly when you aren't fifty-fifty certain which website y'all should use to create ane. Here, we've created a list of the 9 best portfolio websites for designers, freelancers, and photographers, to ensure you're able to showcase your best piece of work in whatever manufacture.

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What is an online portfolio?

An online portfolio is a collection of your work that showcases your skills and abilities. A portfolio should include your past work experiences, qualifications and skills, degrees or certifications yous've completed, any awards or accolades you've earned, likewise as some examples of your work. Examples of your work might be photographs, writing samples, case studies, spreadsheets, or lesson plans, depending on your field.

Best Free Portfolio Websites for Freelance Writers

1. Journo Portfolio

online portfolio: journo portfolio

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On Journo Portfolio you can create a sleek, modern digital portfolio easily. The site offers nine singled-out themes, and adding an commodity is as easy every bit pasting a URL and clicking add — the site takes care of incorporating the championship, publication, engagement, content, and image. Features include the ability to integrate with Google Analytics or use Journo's built-in analytics tools to measure visitors. Additionally, your site is automatically mobile-ready.

You lot can also blog straight from the platform, which could be useful if you want to showcase freelance work and your electric current blog in ane place. Journo lets you create multiple pages, so you can have a Contact Me or About Me page, as well equally your freelance portfolio.

Pros

  • Live preview editor
  • Built-in analytics plus Google Analytics integration
  • Pre-built themes
  • Subscribe and contact forms
  • Mobile-friendly

Cons

  • Free programme limits you to 10 articles max
  • For unlimited manufactures, y'all'll need to pay $5-$ten per month

2. Muck Rack

online portfolio: Muck Rack portfolio

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Muck Rack is a complimentary media database that helps connect journalists with PR professionals, and so if you employ the site, you'll have good opportunities to network and receive PR pitches. Yous can even include specific topics you don't want to cover, which volition filter out unfit pitches.

Additionally, for true ease-of-apply, Muck Rack creates and maintains your portfolio for y'all by automatically compiling articles and social media profiles. Once information technology's finished, you accept the option to customize your bio, or choose to spotlight sure pieces.

Muck Rack likewise offers a news alerts arrangement, which enables you to runway stories or tweets nigh a company, brand, or specific story angle. With their news alerts system, you tin run across when other journalists share information or publish stories related to your work, which will help you stay on-summit of trends.

Pros

  • Ideal for journalists
  • Auto-updates profile
  • News alerts system for tracking stories and trends
  • Allows you lot to easily build media lists

Cons

  • Some formatting bug when uploading content from Excel
  • Does non integrate with other reporting and monitoring tools

3. WordPress.com

online portfolio: WordPress portfolio

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WordPress, a major content management platform, lets you create a weblog with a separate portfolio page for complimentary. While not specifically geared towards freelance writers, WordPress offers over 100 free themes to arts and crafts a unique blog and showcase your work. If you lot want consummate creative control over your portfolio, this is a skillful option for you.

Additionally, yous might choose to use WordPress if yous want to showcase your writing along with other skills — if you lot want a folio for writing and a page for your photography, for case, WordPress offers a variety of themes and is flexible enough to enable you lot to demonstrate various pieces of creative work.

Pros

  • Ideal for bloggers
  • Can create portfolio page dissever from web log
  • 100+ free themes available
  • Comes with SSL certificate and JetPack features for improving website functioning

Cons

  • Free plan shows ads
  • Limited storage at 3 GB

Best Free Portfolio Websites for Designers

four. Behance

online portfolio: Behance portfolio

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With millions of UX/UI designers, artists, and photographers on the site, Behance is one of the most widely-used online portfolio websites. It's also extremely elementary and like shooting fish in a barrel to utilize — you can organize your work based on project, listing projects under construction, and ask followers for feedback. Additionally, the site allows yous to link your portfolio to your social media accounts.

Behance'south massive digital community makes it a skillful choice to go your proper name out in that location, particularly since recruiters and interviewers peruse the site to find talent, every bit well. However, Behance displays the number of people who accept viewed your work and liked it, which tin can be more than advantageous — but riskier — than a more straightforward website portfolio.

Pros

  • Ideal for creatives who don't have fourth dimension to create their own standalone portfolio site
  • Can get feedback from followers
  • Includes social proof in terms of views and likes on portfolio site

Cons

  • Limited blueprint and feature options on free programme
  • The display of views and likes can exist risky if not enough people see or appreciate a project

5. Adobe Portfolio

online portfolio: Adobe portfolio

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If you already have a Creative Cloud membership, and then Adobe Portfolio is an excellent pick to create a unmarried-page website, or a full gallery of your work. With Adobe Portfolio you're able to prepare up a sleek and customized portfolio in minutes, and each of the platform'south themes are automatically optimized for any device.

Additionally, Adobe Portfolio offers the power to integrate with Behance and Adobe Lightroom to import your projects for greater visibility.

Pros

  • Option to create multi- or single-page website
  • Offers eighteen responsive themes
  • Integrations with Behance and Adobe Lightroom

Cons

  • But costless if have Creative Deject membership

6. Crevado

online portfolio: crevado portfolio

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Ane of the easiest free portfolio websites, Crevado lets yous use a unproblematic drag-and-drop tool to upload your projects and rearrange on the screen for true ease-of-utilise. The site is besides automatically optimized for whatever device, and so your portfolio can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet as well as a desktop.

Crevado also comes with secure hosting and SSL certification then your portfolio site remains secure. Y'all can customize your design to suit your preferences without writing any code. All-time of all, you can sell your work online thanks to the platform's integrations with PayPal and Fotomoto.

The just downside is that free users can't remove the link to Crevado in their website footer. Yous'll have to upgrade to a pro account to practice so.

Pros

  • Drag-and-drop interface
  • Responsive designs
  • Secure hosting and SSL certification
  • PayPal and Fotomoto integrations allow you to sell work

Cons

  • Gratis plan shows Crevado link in website footer

7. Pixpa

pixpa homepage

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Pixpa is an all-in-one, DIY website building platform designed to empower creative professionals, freelance writers, and business organisation owners by helping them build characteristic-rich, professional person websites without touching a single line of code.

Pixpa offers a range of modern, mobile-friendly, and responsive templates which can be fully customized using the piece of cake-to-employ visual editor and drag and drop folio architect. Rich features including blogging tools, built-in SEO and marketing tools, social media integrations, multiple gallery options, due east-commerce functionality, and more, brand Pixpa the perfect portfolio-building platform for writers and creative professionals. The total-fledged blogging platform powered by an intuitive and versatile WYSIWYG editor, allows you to create, edit, schedule, and publish blog posts, all in 1 place.

Pros

  • Beginner-friendly, no-code website building platform
  • Extensive SEO tools permit yous to add custom tags and metadata
  • SSL security on all websites
  • 24x7 customer support through email and live chat

Cons

  • No built-in options for purchasing custom domain names
  • No free plans or freemium models

Best Complimentary Portfolio Websites for Photographers

viii. Flickr

online portfolio: Flickr portfolio

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Undoubtedly ane of the well-nigh well-known portfolio sites with billions of photos and millions of members, Flickr is a good site to share your own work, connect with other photographers, and find inspiration for future projects.

Withal, Flickr'southward customs-oriented platform can arrive difficult to showcase your all-time piece of work and appear professional — specially since the site is typically used to share images with friends and family unit. For this reason, many designers too propose creating a more polished portfolio website, and then linking to that website from Flickr.

Pros

  • Ideal for photographers merely starting out
  • Corking to connect with others and notice inspiration

Cons

  • Limited to GIF, PNG, and JPEG photograph formats
  • Limited to ane,000 photos on free program
  • Will likely outgrow the site every bit you lot accelerate

9. Portfoliobox

online portfolio: Portfoliobox portfolio

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Portfoliobox is a website architect specifically designed for photographers, and it's a proficient option for crafting a professional-looking responsive gallery of your best work. Additionally, Portfoliobox offers an ecommerce link that allows you lot to sell your prints or other artwork directly from the site (without paying whatever commission). With the gratis plan, you can create a web log to further attract visitors and potential customers to your site.

Best of all, Portfoliobox doesn't make you use a standard theme — instead, you lot tin integrate any way for any page to cultivate a unique, one-of-a-kind website. With more than 1 one thousand thousand users, it's a practiced option for both professional and novice photographers.

Pros

  • Ideal for photographers at any skill level
  • Tin sell prints on this site commission-free
  • Tin can use different mode for every page

Cons

  • No elevate-and-drop functionality
  • Limited customization options for ecommerce

10. YouPic

online portfolio: YouPic portfolio

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YouPic's users include famous photographers like Joel Meyerowitz and Julia Fullerton-Batten. Another site specifically designed for photographers, YouPic enables you lot to arts and crafts a free stunning portfolio to showcase your work. Information technology besides allows you lot to buy prints from other photographers or sell your own to make some boosted income.

Additionally, the site offers interactive courses to improve your photography skills, also as a Pinterest-style "Explore" page that lets you check out popular photographs, new artwork, and stories to inspire your own gallery. And, most interesting to note, YouPic allows users the opportunity to copyright their photos on the blockchain, and is the first decentralized photography platform. That means YouPic is one of the few platforms that won't take whatsoever rights or ownership of your piece of work.

Pros

  • Can sell prints on this site commission-costless
  • Can copyright photos on blockchain
  • Doesn't accept any rights or buying of your piece of work

Cons

  • Have to upgrade to premium membership for YouPic to promote your piece of work

For further inspiration, bank check out 21 Memorable Photography Portfolio Websites to Inspire You or The 12 Best Graphic Design Portfolios Nosotros've Ever Seen, & How to First Your Own.

Creating Your Online Portfolio

An online portfolio provides evidence of your work and skills, which tin can set you apart from other candidates or professionals in your field. Using any of the tools in a higher place, yous can create a gratis portfolio in no fourth dimension. What are y'all waiting for?

Editor'southward note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Originally published Aug 4, 2021 five:45:00 PM, updated Feb sixteen 2022