Every designer and developer needs a portfolio website. However, it can be quite challenging to set up one by yourself. That is why we’ve decided to help you choose the best option and look into the best free online portfolio tools that will make your life easier and help you present your skills more attractively.
Being in the design field, you need an online portfolio to showcase your talent, your skills and creativity. Keeping this in mind, I’ve listed down some of the best free portfolio websites in the world that you can choose from.
Behance
The Behance network is a wonderful place to host your online portfolio. It’s also a social network where you can follow and connect with other creatives and employers. Clients can post jobs on the site, so having a Behance portfolio might just help you snag a gig.
Adobe Portfolio
If you want much of the functionality of Behance with more templates and design options, Adobe Portfolio is the way to go. Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers have access to this tool for free, but you can purchase an a la carte subscription for portfolio features.
The primary difference between this tool and Behance is customization of the portfolio design. Adobe Portfolio is more like a website builder packed with templates to make your work look good, whereas Behance is more of a portfolio-only tool.
You can create multi-page layouts, and hosting is included in plans. If you already use Behance, you can actually sync the tools and import projects to jumpstart a more designer-oriented portfolio website that includes features such as custom domain naming, connection to Adobe Fonts and Lightroom, photo grids, and password-protected pages.
The biggest downside? It’s only free with a Creative Cloud subscription and getting started can be a little on the clunky side.
Journo Portfolio
On Journo Portfolio you can create a sleek, modern digital portfolio easily. The site offers nine distinct themes, and adding an article is as easy as pasting a URL and clicking add — the site takes care of incorporating the title, publication, date, 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 can also blog straight from the platform, which could be useful if you want to showcase freelance work and your current blog in one place. Journo lets you create multiple pages, so you can have a Contact Me or About Me page, as well as 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 plan limits you to 10 articles max
- For unlimited articles, you’ll need to pay $5-$10 per month
Muck Rack
Muck Rack is a free media database that helps connect journalists with PR professionals, so if you use the site, you’ll have good opportunities to network and receive PR pitches. You can even include specific topics you don’t want to cover, which will filter out unfit pitches.
Additionally, for true ease-of-use, Muck Rack creates and maintains your portfolio for you by automatically compiling articles and social media profiles. Once it’s finished, you have the option to customize your bio, or choose to spotlight certain pieces.
Muck Rack also offers a news alerts system, which enables you to track stories or tweets about a company, brand, or specific story angle. With their news alerts system, you can see when other journalists share information or publish stories related to your work, which will help you stay on-top of trends.
Pros
- Ideal for journalists
- Auto-updates profile
- News alerts system for tracking stories and trends
- Allows you to easily build media lists
Cons
- Some formatting issues when uploading content from Excel
- Does not integrate with other reporting and monitoring tools
Dribbble
As an online site that is quite similar to Behance, Dribbble is also another popular free online portfolio website among UX/UI designers. You can easily create a free account and share small screenshots of your designing processes, design drafts, interactive prototypes, app design concepts, and more designs.
Moreover, as an online site specially made for designers to present different design projects in the very beginning, Dribbble is also a good platform for designers to display new design works, improve design skills, share and communicate design ideas.
What you can get:
*Free register and create your own profile.
*Free showcase photos of different design works, processes and current projects.
*Free search and follow outstanding designers for communicating design ideas.
*The Dribbble Meetups block allows users to join various designer communities and activities.
*Check and browse the latest UX/UI designer positions there.
*The Blog section offers a nice place for designers to share the latest designs, ideas, and experiences.
And unlike Behance that can present design cases with super details, Dribbble only allows users to display screenshots of different design works. So, in order to attract more employers and recruiters, designers often use Behance and Dribbble together.
For example, firstly upload a group of high-quality and eye-catching design screenshots for arousing interests of site visitors, and then leave a Behance link with design work details for encouraging them to keep on reading. This will be far more effective than using Dribbble alone.
In short, as an online portfolio site that features for showing beautiful design photos, it is also a good choice for you to create perfect portfolios online.
Coroflot
No surprises here. Billed as “the largest, most established, most diverse pool of professional creative portfolios in the world,” no one doubts that this is one massive site. Launched in 1998, Coroflot hosts over 1.4 million creative images for over 150,000 creatives. There are no membership requirements, invites, or application processes. They also have a very nice and well-integrated job board. Bonus!
WordPress
WordPress is a website builder trusted by many creatives and brands around the world. You don’t need to be an expert with code to build a stunning WordPress portfolio. You can choose from a variety of templates (free and paid) to get you on your way to showcasing your work. With WordPress, you can start a blog, share your creations, and get very creative with how your portfolio looks.
Carbonmade
With over 15 million images and 1 million portfolios, Carbonmade is an easy-to-use and hassle-free online portfolio site. It offers beautiful visual-based themes and unique domain name services.
And, as a tool originally used to make life easier for designer fellows, Carbonmade is much better for UX/UI designers who want to meet more talented designers, share design works and communicate with them there.
Moreover, it also features for its simple and easy-to-use interface.
What you can get:
*Get customer support and project archiving services.
*Allow you to upload SD videos and audios.
*Get a bunch of gorgeous portfolio themes.
So, if you want to be able to build an online portfolio with ease and fast speed, this simple and fast Carbonmade would be a good try.
Cargo
Cargo is also a simple and effective online portfolio site that allows designers to create freestanding personal websites with a series of pages and their own URLs. Unlike common free online portfolio websites that typically allow designers to easily register to create an account, Cargo needs designers to be invited to join. Moreover, it is popular with UX/UI designers for offering a variety of diversified well-designed portfolio templates.
What you can get:
*Its free basic service offers 12 projects and 3 pages for free.
*Provide 40 portfolio design templates for designers.
*Allow users to build an online portfolio site with their own domain names.
*Get a selection of typography from Webtype, Type Network and Google Fonts, etc.
In a word, Cargo is more suitable for designers who want to freely choose well-designed portfolio templates and create their own portfolios more quickly and effectively.
Conclusion:
Whether you’re just starting out or already an accomplished freelance pro, an online portfolio is essential in today’s ever-expanding online world. With so many tools available to showcase your skill set and attract new talent, knowing which websites are best for building your online portfolio can become overwhelming. You don’t want to go overboard with features, but you certainly don’t want to spend too much time on something that doesn’t even do what you need.