Nowadays, websites are one of the best ways to show off your hard work and share it with the whole world. No matter what you are, whether you are a designer, small business, or blogger, it is crucial to develop a website that will connect your portfolio with users worldwide.
There are billions of active websites that can be pretty intense competition for you. Still, by choosing the best website builder for portfolios, you can quickly get over any obstacles on your way and enhance your portfolio as you imagined it to be. That’s why we’ve provided a comparison chart below, which will help you decide what builder is the best one, according to its features and possibilities. After reading the carefully chosen website portfolio builders, you will be able to see how they compare with their competition and what they will bring to your complete website.
Check our Top 7 Best Portfolio Website Builders:
- Squarespace – best overall website builder for a portfolio
- Wix Website Builder – best for flexibility
How Do We Test and Rank?
Choosing which website builders are the best among all the options available on the market is a long task with a lot of research involved. To save you from spending hours and days researching the Internet in search of the best website builders, we have created our own ranking system, which we used to rank and compile our list of the “Best website builders for portfolios.â€
In order to properly rank each website builder and determine which are the top 7 best builders, we have put each platform through a series of rigorous tests. Our experts have also bought and tested out a plan from each builder to get further insight into their features and services.
Also, we based our ranking on five factors we deem to be the most important for building portfolios. Each factor has its own percentage of importance, and the factors include:
- Design (25%): can everyone use the website builder, how easy it is to use the builder, how long it takes to learn to use the builder, are the builder’s Control Panel and dashboard well structured and organized
- Pricing (20%): is the builder more expensive than its competitors, what kind of features does it offer for its prices, are the features worth the money, is there a free trial, does the builder offer refunds
- SEO Features (30%): does the builder offer any SEO features, what kind of SEO features does the builder offer, are the SEO features enough for ranking your portfolio
- Ease-of-use (15%): is the builder beginner-friendly, is it easy to use, does it require prior coding knowledge from users, how steep is the builder’s learning curve
- Support (10%): does the builder offer support, what kind of support does it offer (live chat, email, phone, a ticketing system), how long does the builder take to respond, does the builder usually solve issues right away
What is a Portfolio Website, and Who Should You Use?
If you are a photographer, designer, or copywriter, you should be aware that you are one in a million. But how to prove that you are one of the best? The best solution to draw your potential client’s attention is to have a portfolio website. A portfolio website is an easy way to put your job online and let others find you. Having a portfolio website will present your dedication and professionalism more clearly than in any CV. Instead of just talking about it, you can show many examples. Thus, you will show a more mature approach to selling your work. The portfolio also offers you to create unique and never-seen-before content, which is a result of letting your inner self go far beyond any basics. Look at this as some psychological trick. You will be available to your future clients, and they will come to you because they like what you have for them. Once they choose you, all of your skills and hard work will come to the fore. So, to be recognized as one of the top-notch in your field, it is essential to have a portfolio website.
The Top 7 Best Portfolio Website Builders
- Overall Score: 4.9
- Design: 5.0
- Pricing: 4.8
- SEO Features: 4.9
- Ease-of-use: 4.7
- Support: 5.0
Squarespace is the most popular choice for those looking to create stunning and aesthetically-pleasing portfolios. With Squarespace, users can build design-focused portfolios and express their creative sides. Also, it allows users to customize and edit their sites whenever they want, even after their sites are live.
Squarespace was founded in 2003 by a university student in America. Ever since then, it has grown to be one of the most popular website builders on the market and has expanded to a team of more than 1,640 people.
Pros:
- High-quality templates
- Excellent built-in features
- SEO features
- Unlimited storage on all price plans
Cons:
- No free plan
- Slightly limited customization opportunities compared to competitors
Squarespace is best known for its beautiful and modern templates with which users can create visually appealing and mobile-responsive websites. It is also quite popular with creatives and people who work in such industries.
Plan | Personal | Business | Commerce (Basic) | Commerce (Advanced) |
Price | US $19/month | US $33/month | US $36/month | US $65/month |
Number of Products | None | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Trials | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Additional Feature |
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Unique Features:
Templates
When it comes to design functionality and the overall look of website templates, Squarespace is the best option there is. Its templates are clean yet modern and give a very professional and elegant vibe to each website made with them.
Also, Squarespace’s templates are visually appealing and are able to catch the eye and attention of virtually anyone who looks at them. Thus, they are an excellent fit for those who want to create a marketing portfolio.
As we mentioned, every Squarespace-designed website is mobile-responsive. That is due to the fact that each Squarespace template is mobile-responsive and will fit seamlessly into all screen sizes. With Squarespace’s portfolio templates, you will also get excellent built-in features, like a blog, contact forms, and an about page.
SEO Features and Marketing Tools
With Squarespace’s SEO features, visitors will be able to find your portfolio online more easily. The builder allows you to tag your content correctly so that it can be found by search engines and consequently by potential customers.
With Squarespace, you will get the following SEO features:
- SEO checklist
- Integration with Google Search Console
- The ability to modify SEO page titles and descriptions
- Ability to hide a page from search engines
- Site map in the .xml Format
- SEO settings for pages and items
- Clean URLs
- Automatic markup
- SSL security
- Built-in mobile optimization
When it comes to marketing tools, Squarespace offers some excellent opportunities for its users to attract more customers and visitors and grow their businesses, including:
- Email campaigns
- Squarespace Video Studio App
- Social Media integrations
- Custom Favicon
- Marketing Analytics
- Profiles
- Newsletter blocks
- Banners and promotions
- Form blocks
- Marketing extensions and connected services
Squarespace is an excellent way to get your portfolio online and take advantage of excellent features and stunning templates. It is especially fitting for marketing portfolios and people looking to create a design-centric portfolio. If you want to learn more about Squarespace, you can do so by reading our expert review on the builder.
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- Overall Score: 4.8
- Design: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.7
- SEO Features: 4.9
- Ease-of-use: 4.8
- Support: 4.9
Wix is another highly popular website builder that made our list. It was founded in 2006, and ever since then, it has been growing at a fast pace and improving as it grows.
Since its start, Wix has powered millions of websites and has launched numerous powerful features and tools. It is used by more than 200 million users from 190 countries worldwide, which truly shows how popular and functional the builder is.
Pros:
- 800+ templates
- Intuitive drag-and-drop editor
- Wix App Market
- Feature-rich
Cons:
- The cheaper plans show Wix ads
- A bit more expensive compared to its competitors
Wix is best known for its easy-to-use, intuitive drag-and-drop editor. It is also known for its extensive App Market, where users can find hundreds of apps and tools to add to their portfolios.
Plan | Connect Domain | Combo | Unlimited | VIP |
Price | US $4.50/month | US $8.50/month | US $12.50/month | US $24.50/month |
Number Of Products | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
Free Trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Additional Feature |
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Unique Features:
Wix App Market
Wix’s extensive App Market is the reason why we deem Wix as the best option for flexibility when building an online portfolio. Namely, thanks to its App Market, you can make your portfolio unique by adding extra functionality. The apps that you can get from the market can be either free or paid, depending on the app, of course. Some of the most popular apps in the Wix App Market include:
- 123 Form Builder and Payment – with which you can collect leads, add payments, and automate flows
- Privy – used for email marketing, pop-ups, and SMS automation
- Packlink PRO Shipping platform – a free app for shipping solutions for eCommerce and Marketplace
- Bigblue – fully integrated logistics and shipping
- Printify – ideal for modern print-on-demand needs
- Santhe SMS – SMS marketing, abandoned carts, and order updates
- LeadDyno Affiliate Marketing – used for launching and growing affiliate programs
- GoogleAds & Google Shopping
- Social Media Stream – allows you to show your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube feed on your portfolio
You can also find apps for other purposes, such as:
- Marketing
- Selling Online
- Services and Events
- Media and Content
- Design Elements
- Communication
Templates
Wix offers more than 800 designer-made templates which are high quality and ready to use. You can choose which template suits your portfolio best from Wix’s vast range of options, which include templates for:
- Landing Pages
- Real Estate
- Business Consulting Company
- Tech Company
- AI Company
- Interior Design
- Gaming
- Wellness Shops
- HR
- Colleges
- Construction
- Photography and many more
Wix offers 41 different templates created explicitly for portfolios, and with its drag-and-drop editor, you can customize your portfolio and have complete freedom over its design.
Wix is an incredible website builder ideal for those looking for flexibility. It is also beginner-friendly and provides hundreds of built-in features and integration with third-party apps, which you can utilize to add extra functionality to your portfolio. If you want to find out more about Wix, you can read our expert review on the builder.
How to Choose the Best Portfolio Website Builder for You?
Every business needs a professional website that will promote its work. Although web design looks complicated, we have a simple solution for you – a website builder. If you use a website builder, you don’t need any coding knowledge or to learn web design principles. The website builders come with finished templates that you can choose from, depending on the type of website you need to develop. You will have an excellent website with different features in no time.
If you are new to this industry, you must need some help with figuring out what the best website builder is. Don’t worry. We’ll give you seven easy tips for choosing the best page builder.
Tip #1: Determine Your Budget
Maybe the most important thing in choosing the best portfolio builder is determining your budget. Many builders come with a free plan, but they usually charge for some business plans that are crucial for your page. Keep in mind that you should probably pay for hosting, so choosing a builder that offers several features for a lower price might be the best solution.
Tip #2: Consider Your Needs and Priorities
Before starting your journey, you must have some plan about what your website will look like and what it will offer. To ensure what your priorities are, we provided some questions you should ask yourselves.
- What level of experience do you have in design?
- How particular are you about getting things right?
- Do you need an online store?
- What types of media will you include?
These four questions should guide you throughout the whole choice process.
Tip #3: Consider the Number of Themes
As we mentioned above, website builders come with different themes that ease the developing process. However, you wouldn’t want to invest in a builder that comes with far too limited customization options. So, be careful when you choose the best website builder for portfolios. Make sure it offers enough themes that are fine for your budget and also fit what you have in mind.
Tip #4: See How Easy it is to Use
The website builder should be drastically easier to use than if you build a website by coding. Usually, website builders come with a drag-and-drop option that makes things a lot easier, especially for those who are new to this. Also, the builder should have an editor that allows you to change something easily without wasting any time. It will be best if you turn to user reviews with the same knowledge as you do.
Tip #5: Always Look for SEO Features
Why would you develop a page that people can’t find? Therefore, it is crucial to choose a builder that provides SEO features for your page. Some website builders come with lots of SEO best practices that you can implement furthermore on your page, and they also give a great head start in getting your job done.
Tip #6: Check Out Resources and Support
Another crucial tip that will help you narrow down your choice is to look for a builder that provides tutorials on how to use its features and how to make changes while designing your website. According to this, the best website builder for portfolios would be the one you 100% understand how it works. Personally, I would go with a website builder that provides clear directions.
Tip #7: Research the Company’s Reputation and the Customer Service
One of the most crucial tips in choosing the best builder is to pay attention to the reviews by other users and how they like it or not. Remember to always go for the company that has a good reputation and reliable customer service. The experience you have with the website builder will be much better if you can get help at any time you need it.
Summary
We have compiled a comprehensive list of the Top 7 Best website builders for portfolios, thanks to our detailed ranking system. So, if you want to create a portfolio but don’t know which builder to choose, you can use our ranking system to decide which builder suits your needs easily.