7 Best Free Portfolio Websites for Designers, Artists & Creative Freelancers
Whether you are a freelance UX/UI designer, photographer, artist, or any other creative professional, showing off your work to the world over the internet is a must. Having an online portfolio is essential for creative freelancers because it speaks for them in their absence, and knowing about the best free portfolio website gives you an advantage to get some free marketing.
An online portfolio with an impressive and responsive design is important not just to show off your talent, but also to attract the attention of potential employers, recruiters and clients and land better opportunities.
If you are a web designer with knowledge of html and programming, building a portfolio website on your own domain might not be a problem. However, if you are a graphic designer, photographer, model, architect, or an artist and new to freelancing, you must be looking for readymade and easy to use solutions like portfolio websites that allow you to upload and manage your creative portfolio with a few clicks.
Well, there are many online portfolio builders to choose from, and it can be really overwhelming for newbies. So, this article will list some of the best free portfolio websites for designers, artists and other creative professionals to help them narrow down their search and select a platform that best meets their requirements.
1- Behance
Behance is not just a portfolio website, but a lot more than that, i.e. it is a very active social network of artists and designers whereby you can find job postings and opportunity to comment on the work and follow artists.
So, even if you are someone with enough technical skills or budget to have a self hosted online portfolio, joining Behance can give you more exposure as you can get ‘appreciates’ on your work and get noticed by a broader audience for free.
2- Adobe Portfolio
Adobe Portfolio is the Behance Pro and it is free for 60 days with Creative Cloud and then it’s £9.98/US$9.99 per month or £49.94/$52.99 per month for access to all Adobe creative apps.
The platform allows you to build a fully responsive site to showcase your creative work quickly and easily and you can even have your own domain name and the entire library of Adobe Fonts and then can sync with Behance.
There are several packages and the pricier one of course offers the most comprehensive set of tools and Adobe creative apps. Adobe Portfolio is a great choice for creative individuals looking to build a complex and highly personalised portfolio using the state of the art technology at the backend.
3- Dribbble
Dribbble is one of the biggest design communities where all sorts of creative individuals share their work, appreciate the amazing work, and may also find work! It’s a great place not just to share your work, but to explore others and find inspiration, learn, and grow.
You must create an account on Dribble along with Behance, even if you have your own self hosted portfolio website in place.
The basic account at Dribble is free and the Pro is just $5 per month which allows you a lot more features to grow your creative profile.
4- Wix
Wix is another easy-to-use portfolio builder which is evolving constantly and getting better. and we’ve spotted many fresh grads opting for it for their portfolios.
Using the free website builder features of Wix you can easily create a responsive and search-engine-optimized website customized as per your requirements. The best thing about Wix is that it offers a great deal of features in the free version. However, the premium plans offer more storage, bandwidth, no ads, and a lot more features.
Though Wix is great for all kinds of professionals, including business growth consultants, designers and creative professionals find it more usable. Do try the free service with a 500 MB storage to see what it may offer and you can always upgrade to a paid plan as needed!
5- Weebly
Weebly is another platform that allows quick and easy to use drag and drop website builders that can work great for new freelance designers, artists and crafty individuals.
The basic version of Weebly is free and offers a good deal of features, however, the Weebly branding remains there on your portfolio. To remove the Weebly branding and connect a custom domain you will need to upgrade to a paid plan and there are multiple packages, pricier being the most comprehensive option.
One of the best features of Weebly is the built in marketing tools!
6- Portfoliobox
Portfoliobox technically doesn’t have a free version but it does offer a limited time free trial on its packages. One can edit any type of content without needing to know the code and that makes it a popular choice among photographers, designers, artists, makeup artists, models and architects equally.
With simple clicks you can set up galleries, blogs, e-commerce stores and fabolous profiles. You can even design your own templates and layout.
7- Carbonmade
Carbonmade is another easy-to-use online portfolio builder that offers beautiful visual-based themes and unique domain name services. Though it can work for all types of creative professionals, UX/UI designers will make the most out of it.
Carbonmade is not free but it does offer a free trial that too without a credit card, which makes it a great platform to try.
Wrapping it up!
Whether you are a 3D modeling professional or have expertise in animation, character design, concept art, etc. showcasing your work with the best presentation is the first step in building your career. The same goes for all other creative freelancers including apparel designers, architects, fashion designers and photographers, graphic designers, interior designers, textile designers, and web designers.
Check out the above platforms and make sure your work is presented to its best possible quality using multiple platforms from the list above.
