Best website builders for portfolios of 2020
Best site builder for portfolios
Creating a new website is a lot easier than it used to be – rather than learning HTML and CSS, you can just click and drag with your mouse and have something very professional-looking on the internet in minutes.
The wealth of website builders means you've got a great selection of tools to choose from, but it can be difficult to pick out the best from a crowd of so many. To help you narrow down your choice, we've picked five website makers that are particularly well-suited to portfolio work and offer a good balance of price points and features.
All of these site builders offer simple ways of customizing your pages once they're online, so you can regularly change the look of your work, and make sure your talents are always being well promoted on the web.
Created with portfolios in mind
Elegant, user-friendly interface
Advanced site analytics in paid plans
Relatively small choice of themes
Weebly was first set up with the intention of making it easy to set up a portfolio of work online, and those origins stand it in good stead today, even as it has broadened its horizons to become more of a general website builder. If you don't mind a Weebly subdomain, some ads on your site, and a limit of 500MB storage, you can actually use it for free.
While the choice of themes is relatively small, they're all fully customizable, and they all work on any size of screen, automatically reformatting to suit the display dimensions. Weebly has one of the most elegant and user-friendly website editor interfaces we've seen, so you can tweak your portfolio in exactly the way you want.
One of the many areas where Weebly excels is in the way it calmly handles a lot of technical stuff quietly in the background: it gives you enhanced SSL security by default, and (on the paid options) advanced analytics for your website, plus the option to transfer over a domain name.
If you want to get up and running quickly, would like to spend some – but not a lot – of time customizing your site, and need something that's going to be reliable and comprehensive, Weebly fits the bill. The fact that you can get started for free to see if you like it is an added bonus.
Portfolio building with an edge
Get up and running in minutes
Great choice of image effects and fonts
Will be too unconventional for some
There's a lot that appeals to us about the website builder Cargo: the unconventional and varied choice of templates, the intuitive page tweaking interface you can edit them with, and the way that you can build up an entire site without paying a penny (you won't be charged until the site goes live).
It's certainly got more of an edge than other comparable website builders, which might be good or bad depending on what you're looking for. The templates available are all eye-catching and bold, and will work best for people wanting to stand out from the crowd, whether that's with photography or writing.
Every template is responsive and works on a variety of screens, while Cargo also offers some cool animated image effects you can play around with too. On top of that, the site builder is to be commended for its wide choice of fonts as well, plus, even more fonts are being added from time to time.
Besides all of the features on the surface – including an online template editor that hits a nice balance between simplicity and customization – you get 6GB of image cloud storage, unlimited pages, unlimited bandwidth, the option to transfer over a domain name if you need to, and a ton of help and support (including tutorial videos).
Strong selection of templates
Doesn't take long to get started
Will be too advanced for some
Built on the latest HTML5 technology and with useful extras like e-commerce and domain name support included, IM Creator is going to be too advanced and in-depth for some, but will suit other portfolio builders perfectly. That's not to say it's difficult to use – there's just more going on.
You don't need to know a shred of code to get started, there are plenty of different themes and looks to choose from, and we like the way the themes are already pre-populated with content. That means you can just edit the sample material that's already there rather than starting from scratch, which can be more daunting.
If you want to go deeper into your website building and customizations, then IM Creator makes this possible. The site editor includes a variety of gallery and slideshow options, plus image effects to drop over your uploaded pictures, and the option to change everything from the fonts used to the page margins.
We'd recommend IM Creator if you're looking to stand out from the pack – it has a wide choice of templates and some detailed editing options too. On the other hand, it does need a bit more of a time and effort investment than other site builders.
Find a job at the same time
Useful third-party integrations
Lacks more advanced customizations
Krop is a creative jobs site and a portfolio builder rolled into one, so you know that its services are trusted by people in the same industry as you (or the same industry that you're trying to break into). What's more, its template options are some of the most well-designed that we've seen.
The website builder ticks all of the boxes that you should be looking for. Setting a site up is quick and easy, you can register a custom domain if you want to, and making tweaks to the design and layout of your pages is very straightforward too. On top of that, you get neat extras like Dropbox and Instagram syncing, and Google Analytics integration.
If you do know some CSS, then you can take more control over the way your site is designed. If not, you can just use the simple site editor instead – picking colors and fonts is as easy as clicking on a side panel.
Those of you who are looking to get a gig at the same time as building your website can of course switch straight over to the job section of the Krop site to find work – there are some big-name employers on the portal. You can try out the service with a free 14-day trial.
A superb option for CC subscribers
Simple and straightforward setup
Online interface is very polished
Requires a Creative Cloud subscription
Considering Adobe makes some of the best creative software in the business, you would hope it knows what it's doing in terms of displaying portfolios on the web – and we're glad to report that is indeed the case.
This is slightly different to the other services we've mentioned here, because it's a free add-on to the Creative Cloud suite developed by Adobe. If you don't already pay for the programs then Portfolio is unlikely to tempt you to part with your cash, but if you are a CC subscriber, it's worth looking at this before venturing anywhere else.
While it doesn't offer as many customization and layout options as some of the other site builders we've mentioned here (although, the popular feature request - video backgrounds, has been added), Adobe Portfolio does make the process of getting your work online simple and fun. Of course there's also the tight integration with Adobe's apps, so you can easily share your work straight from Lightroom to the web. You can also purchase and connect a domain if you wish.
Pages are optimized for any device and certain ones can be password-protected if needed, and there's also the option to bring over a domain name you already own. For a simple portfolio maker that plugs right into the apps you already use (assuming that's the case), it's ideal.
Follow the Rainbow: The Best LGBTQ+ Influencer Accounts in North Texas
The online presence of Dallas-based influencers and savvy Instagrammers within the LGBTQ+ community is particularly dynamic and inspiring. People from all walks of life make up a diverse group of individuals expressing themselves with pride on the internet. Scroll down for some fun and noteworthy, LGBTQ+ Instagram accounts to follow.
@deetoxlifecoachingCoach Dee Coleman is a "spiritual mindset coach" and founder of her own company, Dee'Tox Life Coaching Services. Coleman loves telling people, “Success is when you can love yourself wounded!” as she helps people with their self love and healing, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community. You can listen to her podcast, Dee'Toxin with Coach Dee on Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play.
@amandamarie.photographieAmanda Terrazas is a photographer who loves highlighting powerful women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. Her vibrant style displays personality and provides a fun addition to your Instagram feed, with a diverse group of beautiful faces from many walks of life. Terrazas is married to the tattoo artist queen @dre.dayli of the Third Eye Gallery in Dallas, also a noteworthy account to follow.
@nieceexNiecee X describes themselves as, “a black, queer nonbinary educator, community organizer, poet, artist and a fierce advocate of liberation.” They founded a startup called the Revolution Café & Bookstore coming soon to Oak Cliff, which will provide a vegan menu and books written by QTPOC (Queer & Trans People of Color). As if that wasn’t enough, they also helped found the House of Rebirth, Dallas’ only transitional home for at-risk Black trans women. They also work as an arts educator at Big Thought, teaching poetry and social justice to youth.
@gfbudgetElle Hall-Coleman is a money coach and personal finance blogger. She was featured on Good Morning Texas and the blog Voyage Dallas, and was named one of the Top 40 Women Financial Blogs on the Web by Feedspot. She is the founder of Girlfriend’s Budget, an online resource for women wanting a better financial lifestyle. Follow Hall-Coleman for motivation and tips to be better with your money — but in a totally fun way.
@derrelhallAs a model and stylist at Forty Five Ten, Derrel Hall clearly has taste. Not only is he paid for his taste, but he exhibits his affinity for all things art and style on his intensely creative and beautiful Instagram account.
@saffie_goodThey manage Spiral Diner in Fort Worth. But when they are not making sure diners have a great experience with vegan comfort food, Saff Douglas spends their time dancing, writing and creating art.
@corncobcalhounColby Calhoun is a Cancer double Sagittarius. She says her pronouns are they/them/she/her, “or just call me Beyoncé.” She is a dancer and performer artist and a rehearsal director for the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group. Follow for memes and dance photos.
@chachachaniseChanise Condren owns Electric Kitchen, a vegan catering business we wrote about in 2018. If that weren't enough, she also has a health and lifestyle podcast called Get Intuit with Chanise Condren.
@mollymargaretdesignerMolly Sydnor is definitely an artist to keep an eye on. Her day job consists of being a rug designer, but she keeps herself occupied with various art projects when she’s not at work. She has an upcoming install with Sweet Tooth Hotel, an upcoming show at the Fort Worth Community Art Center, and she documents all her color-filled adventures on her Instagram. She also runs an Instagram account dedicated to hosting events and building community for the local queer community, called @lqcdallas.
@davidboomDavid Quins is a property manager of high-rise condominiums in uptown Dallas. He loves to document his travels and his personal style on his Instagram account, and his more than 16.7K followers agree he is a joy to watch.
@rivasmattMatt Rivas is an event coordinator for Chappy, Bumble’s gay dating app, and he also works for two nonprofit organizations. He’s a digital media chair for the Human Rights Campaign as well as the director of operations and marketing for Project Contrast, which is working to lower the suicide rates among LGBTQ+ youth in the United States. Though based in Dallas originally, he has since moved to Los Angeles and has produced a web series for YouTube Red, interviewing the likes of the cast of Queer Eye, and hosting red carpet events.
@imstephSteph Grant is a brilliant photographer who founded Steph Grant Studios, a full-service media agency owned and operated by creatives from the LGBTQ+ community. She also founded the Promote Love Movement, a space for members of the LGBTQ+ community who were raised in religious families to share their stories. She was recognized on the Senate floor in 2018 for her work in the LGBTQ+ community and has partnered with companies like Google, Fossil and Kellogg’s. Her YouTube channel has now passed two million views.
@howdyalexanderWhile Alexander Hayes was in college working for his school’s newspaper as a graphic designer, he came out in an op-ed about his journey exploring sexuality on a conservative campus. Since then, he has been working as a cycling instructor in Fort Worth for Full Psycle Ft. Worth (@fullpsycleftw) and shares his photography on @ahppetite.
The 10 Best Photo Storage and Sharing Sites
With smartphone cameras getting better and better, you're almost guaranteed to fill your phone with hundreds of photos and videos of friends and family celebrating. Don't let those memories languish on your device, unseen by no one but yourself. Plenty of sites — many of them free — let you easily save and show off your photos, make them into books or let friends and family print copies. Some services even allow you to sell your photographic art.
To find out which photo sites offer the best bang for your buck, we tested a number of them by uploading an assortment of photos from our camera reviews, tagging and organizing them as the site recommends. We then looked at the various ways we could share and print photos, to determine which site offers the best and easiest-to-use range of features.
Our favorite photo storage and sharing site is Flickr, for its good prices, great organizational features, and the ease with which you can share photos with others. However, Android and iPhone owners may also want to check out Google Photos and iCloud, respectively, for their less-expensive storage options, as well as the ease with which you can back up your phone.
We had previously recommended Canon Irista, but Canon Irista is shutting down its service on January 31, 2020. You have until then to remove your photos and videos, or lose them forever.
Our favorite overall online photo storage site
Free subscription: Up to 1,000 photos | Starting subscription price: : $49.99/year
Great selection of tools
Extensive tagging features
Clean interface
Free accounts limited to 1,000 photos
Flickr is our top pick for photo sharing and storage, thanks to its massive amount of storage and a simple, clean interface that makes it a joy to use. It remains the best option for serious shooters. Flickr also offers a great selection of tools, extensive tagging features and support for both viewing and downloading photos at a variety of resolutions (including, unusually, the option to offer the original size). A stats engine lets you track who is looking at your photos. A very easy drag-and-drop system allows you to organize albums of your photos and collections of photos from you and other photographers.
Since being sold to SmugMug, the company announced a cap of 1,000 photos on free accounts. If you upgrade to a Pro account ($49.99 per year), you get unlimited storage, the ability to view your images at resolutions up to 5K, no ads and the option to stream videos up to 10 minutes in length. Pro subscribers get $35 off a $70 order at photo-book service Blurb, up to four times a year. (In our opinion, Blurb isn't that great, so check out our top Photo Book services). You also get two months of Adobe Creative Cloud for free (a $40 value).
Aimed at pro photographers
Free subscription: Up to 2,000 photos | Starting subscription price: : $47.88/year
Can sell your photos as royalty-free artwork through the site
Affordable subscriptions
Doesn't offer photo-printing services
Aimed at serious photographers, 500px offers an image-focused design that puts your photos front and center, providing a clean and elegant way to display your best images. You can organize your pictures into Sets (photos on a particular theme) and Stories (photos of an event) that present the images in a strikingly dramatic fashion. The free version of the service allows you to upload up to seven photos per week and store up to 2,000 in total.
There are three paid levels: Awesome ($3.99 a month, unlimited uploads), Pro ($5.99 a month) and Pro and Adobe ($13.99 a month), which includes a subscription to Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan apps. (Pricing is shown as US only.)
The last two levels also offer unlimited uploads, plus more customization options and listings in the sites' pro directory. You can switch between membership levels, but you have to sign up for a year's membership with the Pro and Adobe plan. You can also sell your photos as royalty-free artwork through the site. 500px no longer offers services like prints and photo books, but these are available elsewhere.
Here are our favorite services for the best photo books, the best photo calendars and the best photo cards.
Great for backing up photos from your smartphone
Free subscription: Unlimited storage for photos up to 16 megapixels and videos up to 1080p | Starting subscription price: : $12/year (50GB)
Unlimited storage
Lots of tagging and sharing features
Basic editing tools
Photos limited to 16MP in size unless you pay for a Google Drive subscription.
Google's photo-sharing service was designed primarily as a way to back up photos and video taken on smartphones, but it has evolved into a decent photo editing and sharing service. Once you have uploaded a photo, you can edit it by cropping and tweaking colors. Once the editing is done, you can create albums of photos and video that can be shared publicly or with specific Google users. In our roundup of the Best Photo Editing Software and Apps, we named Google Photos best for sharing.
Google keeps adding new features as well. For example, if Google Photos sees that a particular friend is in your photo, it will offer to share it with them. It can also automatically colorize black-and-white images, too.
Google Photos offers unlimited space and uploads, but with a small caveat: Photos can be stored at a maximum resolution of 16MP and video at 1080p. If you want to store bigger image or video files, you'll need to pay for space on Google Drive, which starts at $1.99 / £1.99 a month for 100GB.
A no-brainer backup option for iPhone owners
Free subscription: 5GB | Starting subscription price: : $12/year (50GB)
Easy to add photos from multiple users
Simple sharing tools
Tagging of people/places/things
No Android version
Apple's iCloud service integrates with its own Apple Photos software on Macs and iOS devices, although you can use the basic features on a Windows PC. You can upload photos to the free 5GB of space and share them in an online photo stream that can be viewed in Apple Photos or as a web page. Photos can be tagged with names and locations, and other iCloud users can also add their photos. That's a neat trick for creating a photo record from multiple photographers — say, of a party or concert everyone attended.
If you run out of space, Apple offers three additional tiers: 50GB for 99 cents/month, 200GB for $2.99/month, and 2TB for $9.99/month. The latter two plans can be shared with other family members.
While Apple Photos phased out its printing service, extensions are available for exporting photos to third-party printers.
A good option for Adobe CC subscribers
Free subscription: none | Starting subscription price: : $120/year (20GB)
Multiple storage options
Comes with subscription to Adobe programs
Pricey for casual users
Adobe offers this service to users of its Creative Cloud software subscription service, which provides access to programs like Photoshop and Lightroom.
The starting plan is $9.99/month, includes 20GB of storage, as well as Adobe Fonts, Photoshop and Lightroom. A Photoshop-only plan comes with 100GB of storage for $20.99/month, while a Lightroom-only plan with 1TB of storage is $9.99/month.
The top-tier plan is $52.99/month, and includes 100GB of cloud storage, plus all of Adobe's apps, including Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and more.
Individual photos and events can be tagged and labeled with captions. The presentation is clean and easy to use, as it is aimed particularly at professional photographers marketing their services on Adobe's Behance website. Still, it would also work well for amateurs looking for a clean, simple way to show off their work.
A plethora of editing and ecommerce tools for pros
Free subscription: 250 photos | Starting subscription price: : $71.88/year
Lots of editing tools
Easy to sell prints
Intrusive ads on free version
The free version of Photobucket offers storage for 250 photos, though it comes with very intrusive ads, including pop-ups that obscure your photos. There are three levels of paid, ad-free service: Beginner (25GB of storage for $5.99/month), Intermediate (250GB for $7.99 a month) and Expert (unlimited storage for $12.99/month). For a limited time, Photobucket is offering the Expert package for $9.99/month.
All of these plans allow you to show the photos on a third-party site, which is useful if you want to put the photos on a social network site that doesn't have its own image-uploading feature.
Photobucket has a generous collection of editing tools through a simple, easy-to-use interface. This list includes unusual tools like the smart color brush, which selectively adds color back into a black-and-white image.
Once you have edited your photos, you can add basic tags and organize them into albums or stories, the latter of which is a neat scrolling presentation of photos and accompanying text. Photobucket provides extensive support for selling prints: You can buy individual photos, photo books (starting at $1.99) or even things like fleece blankets and tablet cases with your photos on them.
Lots of ecommerce tools for pro photographers
Free subscription: none | Starting subscription price: : $48/year
Lots of templates
Ecommerce tools
Unlimited storage
No free subscription
SmugMug is another design-focused site that offers a stylish home for your photos, with a custom homepage (such as richardb.smugmug.com) and many well-made design templates. SmugMug costs more than other services, though; there is no free version (though there is a 14-day free trial). The cheapest level of service costs $5.99 per month ($48/year), up to $360/year for the Pro plan, which offers professional features such as ecommerce tools.
Regardless of the plan, you get a lot for your money, with unlimited storage of photos (each up to 150MB in size) and 1080p videos, and a good range of editing tools that are simple to use but powerful. These won't replace Photoshop in a professional photographer's toolbox, but they are good enough to fix most common photography issues and tweak a photo.
Generous storage, but no tagging or editing features
Free subscription: 2GB | Starting subscription price: : $120/year (2TB)
Good sharing options
Lots of storage space
No tagging of photos
No editing features
The cloud file-sharing service offers support for photos, with its Android and iOS apps automatically uploading photos from mobile devices to the service. You can also upload images from your computer to Dropbox as you would with any other files. Once photos are in the cloud, you can create and share basic slideshows that anybody can access, or share the files directly with other Dropbox users.
Unfortunately, there is no tagging, no printing and no way to edit photos online. Dropbox does offer a free collaborative editing tool, called Dropbox Paper, that is rather like Google Docs, but this doesn't offer photo-editing features. As such, Dropbox is a good option for photographers who want to back up photos, but not for those who want to catalog and permanently store their images.
Dropbox offers a free 2GB plan; a 2TB plan costs $9.99/month, and includes 30 days of version history and file recovery. The Pro Plan ($16.58/month) gets you 3TB of storage, but 180 days of file recovery, as well as a host of other features. Here is a list of all of Dropbox's storage plans.
Unlimited storage for Amazon Prime members
Free subscription: n/a | Starting subscription price: : $120/year (unlimited)
Unlimited storage
Auto-tagging of photos and videos
Decent sharing options
No free tier
Amazon Prints not very good
Prime Photos is Amazon's photo-storage site for Prime members. (Prime membership costs $119/ £79 year.) It lets you store and share unlimited photos on your desktop, smartphone or tablet. Amazon Photos also automatically tags images and videos, such as animal type, by person, and location. The service also lets you order photo prints, cards, calendars and more — all with free shipping. It's too bad that Amazon Prints is at the bottom of our best photo printing services.
Users can invite up to five friends or family members to receive unlimited photo storage and collect photos in a Family Vault, and you can show photos on the new Echo Show or Fire TV. That might be a good way to share the latest family snaps with the grandparents. Amazon has added a feature called Groups that allows you to share photos with a larger group, which is useful if you are involved in a club or society.
Free, but photos get compressed
Free subscription: unlimited | Starting subscription price: : n/a
Free to use
Facial recognition auto-tags people
Easy to share with others on Facebook
It's Facebook
Images get compressed
The big kahuna of social sites also offers a surprisingly good set of photo-sharing and editing tools. After uploading photos from a cellphone, web browser or desktop client, you can create albums, add captions and tag photos by date, location or the people in the pictures. Face recognition has also been added; it will try to recognize the faces in your shots and tag those people if they are on Facebook. However, Facebook does shrink the images to fit onto the page. Facebook recommends sizing pictures to 720 or 960 pixels wide. You can use 2048-pixel-wide images if you select the high-quality upload option, but if the image is larger than 100 kb, it will get compressed for viewing.
Another downside is that there is no way to share the original-size photo. But if a lot of your family members and friends are already on Facebook, it's a great way to share casual shots or family photos.
A good photo-hosting service should offer six things:
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