7 Best Portfolio Website Builders of 2024 (Ranked)

Choosing the right portfolio website builder is crucial for showcasing your work and attracting potential clients or employers.

Whether you’re a designer, photographer, writer, or developer, having a professional online presence can make all the difference in showcasing your skills and getting new opportunities.

The problem? With so many website builders to choose from, finding the right one can be overwhelming.

This guide gives you all the key points to make a quick and effective decision. We’ve ranked seven of the best portfolio website builders by their best features, pros, cons, and prices—so you can choose the right one to build your dream online portfolio.

What Are the Best Portfolio Website Builders?

The following are the best portfolio website builders to consider.

1. Wix

Best for: Beginners who want an easy-to-use website builder.

Wix is one of the most popular website builders on the market, known for its ease of use and versatility. It provides over 500 ready-to-use templates, including many specifically designed for portfolios.

The platform also offers a wide range of features that simplify website creation and empower anyone to build a professional and visually appealing online presence.

Wix is the best portfolio website builder if you’re a beginner. Its visual editor allows you to effortlessly arrange elements, customize layouts, and design your website without writing a single line of code.

Key Features of Wix

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface, allowing you to create beautiful websites without any coding knowledge.
• Access to a vast collection of beautiful, pre-designed templates for various purposes, from business websites and online stores to creative portfolios and blogs.
• Advanced design features like parallax scrolling, artificial design intelligence, and animation to make your portfolio stand out.
• Advanced SEO tools to help your portfolio rank higher in search engine results.
• Wix ensures your website looks great and is optimized for mobile devices.
• Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) leverages machine learning algorithms to understand your business requirements. This feature offers billions of potential combinations, ensuring a website that aligns precisely with your unique needs.

Pricing

Wix provides a wide range of plans, allowing you to choose the option that best suits your budget and website requirements.

• Light: Starts at $16/mo
• Core: Starts at $27/mo
• Business: Starts at $32/mo
• Business Elite: Starts at $159/mo

2. WordPress

Best for: Users who want complete design freedom for their portfolios.

WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder that can be used to create a wide range of websites, including portfolios. With a vast array of themes and plugins available, it provides unmatched customization options.

WordPress is one of the most scalable website builders on this list. Whether you’re starting with a simple portfolio and plan to add a blog or online store later, WordPress can easily adapt to your evolving needs.

Key Features of WordPress

• With thousands of themes at your fingertips, you can personalize your website and leverage portfolio-focused designs for a powerful online presence.
• Wide range of plugins and widgets to extend your website’s functionality.
• Strong SEO capabilities and analytics tools to drive organic traffic from search engines and track your website’s performance.
• A large community of users and developers to help you learn the platform and overcome challenges.

Pricing

WordPress is a free and open-source software! This means you can download and install it on your web hosting to build your website.

However, you’ll need to find a web hosting solution that supports WordPress. Many users opt for well-established names like BlueHost and Siteground.

3. Squarespace

Best for: Professionals who want website templates that exceed expectations.

Squarespace is excellent for those who want to create beautiful, high-quality sites that look great on any device.

Squarespace is a powerful website builder that simplifies website creation and empowers you to build a visually captivating and professional online space. With its intuitive interface, robust features, and beautiful templates, Squarespace is a strong contender in the website builder arena.

On top of that, You get access to integrated e-commerce tools that allow you to transform your portfolio website into a thriving online store. This e-commerce feature includes product management, inventory tracking, order management, and secure checkout – perfect for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Key Features of Squarespace

• Offers a wide variety of beautifully designed, customizable templates suitable for various types of websites, including portfolios, blogs, and online stores.
• Built-in SEO features to help your site appear in search engine results.
• Squarespace also allows you to add custom CSS and code injection to further customize the design and functionality of the website.
• AI-powered website builder that helps you create a personalized website based on your preferences and needs.
• Detailed analytics and reporting tools to track website performance and visitor behaviour to understand how people interact with your portfolio.

Pricing

Squarespace offers these plans:

• Personal: $16 per month
• Business: $23 per month
• Basic Commerce: $27 per month
• Advanced Commerce: $49 per month

4. Weebly

Best for: Beginners who want an intuitive drag-and-drop portfolio website builder.

Weebly is another popular website builder platform that allows users to create and manage websites with ease. It’s known for its user-friendly interface and doesn’t require any coding knowledge.

This powerful website builder prioritizes user experience, making website creation accessible for everyone.

If you’re a creative professional, you can use Weebly to showcase your portfolio, connect with potential clients, and establish your brand with a stunning website. It also offers a vast collection of beautifully designed templates, catering to various needs like business websites, online stores, portfolios, and blogs.

Weebly is the right software if you’re looking for a free portfolio website builder that makes it easy to build your online space.

Key Features of Weebly

• A collection of professionally designed templates.
• Visual editor allows you to effortlessly design your website without writing a single line of code.
• Great SEO tools to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
• Ecommerce functionality to transform your website into an online store with their robust e-commerce tools.
• Extend your website’s functionality with a wide range of apps from the Weebly App Center.

Pricing

Weebly offers these pricing plans:

• Free: $0 / month
• Personal: $10 per month
• Professional: $12 per month
• Performance: $26 per month

5. Webflow

Best for: Users with a technical knowledge looking to design and develop professional websites.

Webflow is a powerful website builder that bridges the gap between design and development. It offers exceptional design capabilities, clean code generation, and a robust CMS, making it a great choice for designers, developers, and anyone who wants to create a visually captivating and unique portfolio website that showcases their work in the best light.

Plus, you can use their interactive features to enhance your portfolio by adding interactive elements like image sliders, lightboxes for detailed project views, and hover effects to showcase your work dynamically.

Key Features of Webflow

• Powerful design flexibility for both Developers and non-coders.
• Robust CMS that empowers you to manage website content easily.
• Optimize your website for search engines with built-in SEO tools like auto-generated XML sitemaps, mobile-friendliness, meta descriptions and title tag management.
• Work with team members simultaneously on website projects using custom-built environment features.
• Integrates with popular third-party tools on Zapier like Slack, MailChimp, and Google Analytics.

Pricing

Webflow offers free plans with limitations, and paid plans scale based on features.

• Basic plan: $14 per month
• CMS plan: $23 per month
• Business plan: $39 per month
• Enterprise Plan: Contact sales for more information

6. Format

Best for: Photographers and visual artists.

Format is another easy-to-use online portfolio platform designed specifically for creative professionals to showcase their work elegantly and professionally. It offers a range of tools and features to help users build visually appealing and highly functional online portfolios.

The focus on high-quality visuals, portfolio-specific tools, and beautiful templates make it an excellent option for photographers, designers or artists seeking a user-friendly platform to build a visually captivating and professional portfolio website.

Key Features of Format

• Powerful drag-and-drop interface that makes building your portfolio intuitive, even for those without coding experience.
• A vast collection of professionally designed templates specifically tailored for creatives.
• You can create a blog to share insights, updates, and news, helping to boost your online presence.
• Professionally present images to clients with password-protected private galleries.
• You can also sell your work directly from your portfolio site, whether digital downloads, prints, or other products.

Pricing

Format offers a 14-day free trial for people who want to experiment with its website builder. The platform provides these pricing plans:

• Basic: $12 per person per month
• Pro: $24 per month
• Pro Plus: $36 per month

7. Adobe Portfolio

Best for: Creative professionals

Adobe Portfolio is a free online portfolio creation and hosting platform offered by Adobe. It’s designed specifically for showcasing creative work, making it a great option for photographers, designers, artists, and other creative professionals.

The platform offers a free plan with enough features to create a basic portfolio website. You can also upgrade to a paid plan for advanced features like custom domain names, increased storage space, and password protection for specific projects.

Overall, Adobe Portfolio is an excellent choice for creatives already using Adobe Creative Cloud products and want a cohesive and professional platform to showcase their work.

Key Features of Adobe Portfolio

• Hundreds of customizable templates designed specifically for portfolio websites. These templates are clean, modern, and optimized for showcasing visual work.
• Unlimited pages and galleries to showcase different projects and pieces of your work.
• Adobe Portfolio includes hosting, and you can also use a custom domain to give your portfolio a professional touch.
• Access to a vast library of best-in-class fonts with Adobe Fonts, allows you to use high-quality typography on your portfolio.
• It seamlessly Integrates with Behance, making it easy to import your projects.

Pricing

Adobe Portfolio offers a free plan for people who want to create a basic portfolio website. However, if you’re a professional creative seeking a more substantial online presence, a paid plan might be a worthwhile investment.

• Individual Plan: $9.99/month
• Behance Pro Plan: $29.99/month

How to choose the best Portfolio Website Builder

There is a broad array of portfolio website builders available, as each professional has unique requirements. What a designer needs from their portfolio website builder will be dramatically different from what a writer requires.

Before committing to a decision, let’s explore some key factors to consider when choosing a portfolio website builder:

Ease of Use: Ease of Use is a key factor to consider when choosing the right website builder. It enhances productivity, saves time, reduces costs, and improves the overall user experience. If you’re a complete beginner, prioritizing a user-friendly platform is crucial. However, if you value extensive design control and advanced features, you might be willing to invest time in learning a slightly more complex builder.

Features: The type of portfolio website you plan to create can significantly impact your decision. You’ll need to choose a website builder that best empowers you to create a stunning and effective portfolio website.
Remember, the perfect feature set is all about you! Consider these questions to make the best decision:

• What’s your budget?
• What type of content do you need to showcase?
• Do you need any specific functionality (e-commerce, blogging capabilities)?
• How user-friendly is the platform?
• Do you plan to integrate with other marketing tools or services?

By carefully considering your needs and the features offered by different portfolio website builders, you will choose a builder that meets your needs, enhances your work, and supports your professional goals.

Design Flexibility: Design flexibility is a crucial factor when choosing a portfolio website builder.
Different types of work (e.g., photography, graphic design, writing, etc.) require different presentation styles. A flexible design lets you customize layouts, galleries, and other elements to showcase your specific type of work, ensuring it looks its best.

Plus, As your career progresses, your portfolio will evolve. A website builder with high design flexibility will let you easily update and reorganize your site to reflect new projects, skills, and achievements without starting from scratch.

Pricing: When choosing a portfolio website builder, carefully consider the pricing to ensure it fits within your budget while providing the necessary features and support to create and maintain an impressive online portfolio. Some offer free plans, while others have paid tiers with additional features.

Find the right website builder for your online portfolio

There are numerous portfolio website builders available.

Focusing on your technical skills and desired features (price, support, templates, ease of use) will help you choose the portfolio website builder that best suits your needs.

In summary, let’s review the options we’ve shared:

• If you’re looking for an excellent portfolio website builder with advanced automation, go with Wix.
• For ultimate creative control over your portfolio website, choose WordPress or Webflow.
• If you want a free portfolio website builder with the basic tools to get up and running, choose Weebly.
• If you’re just starting out and need a website builder platform that can build your portfolio, and improve SEO, Squarespace is the best option.
• If you’re a photographer, designer, artist, or other creative professionals who need a specialized platform to showcase their work online, go with Format or Adobe Portfolio.