Where should I host my design portfolio? (Hint: It's not Behance)
Own your work, stand out, become great
As a Designer, having an online portfolio is crucial for showing off your skills and experience to potential employers or clients. Your portfolio is a representation of who you are as a designer.
Some designers are flashy. Some are minimalistic. Some find a good balance.
Your portfolio is a continued work of art. Overtime, you’ll begin to find your stride and truly showcase who you are through your website.
I’ve recently stopped by a few portfolio review workshops and can’t help but facepalm.
Why? Most of the designers were using Behance.
If I were a hiring manager, that’s an automatic rejection. No Behance, Dribble, or Notion.
My annoyance isn’t directed to the designer, but the bootcamp or course who led them in this direction. Junior designers only know what they know, so how can we fault them?
I made the same mistake back in March 2021 when taking the Google UX Course. Whatever I was taught, I listened to. It wasn’t until a year later that I began searching for a platform to host my website.
While you may get hired at some small startup outside of the US (maybe inside) you can’t expect to get hired at notable companies with only a Bahance profile.
There’s better options out there than Behance, and i’ll show you the way!
With so many hosting options out there, how do you choose where to create your personal website?
Beginner websites for the new designer
A lot of the Avocademy peeps use this website (and for good reason.)
UXFolio is an ideal starting point for beginners creating their first UX portfolio website because it simplifies the process with easy-to-customize templates, affordable pricing plans, and a design-focused platform tailored specifically for showcasing UX work.
The built-in analytics, custom domains, inspiration from other UX portfolios, and minimal required maintenance allow new designers to focus on displaying their skills, not wrestling with technical hurdles.
UXFolio's flexibility also lets beginners modify their sites as their abilities progress. With mobile responsiveness covered and no coding needed, UXFolio has everything novice UX designers need to quickly launch a professional portfolio to demonstrate their abilities to potential employers and clients.
It’s also available worldwide!
Wix is a popular all-in-one website builder with a free tier for hosting basic portfolios. The template-based drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create a stylish portfolio even without coding skills.
The tradeoff is Wix domains and branding can look a bit generic. But the free tier is capable enough for many portfolio sites, with 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth. Upgrading to a paid plan gives more customization flexibility.
Cargo is an excellent platform for UX designers to showcase their work and process. The free Cargo sites provide a simple yet powerful way to build narrative-driven project pages that clearly communicate the problem, research, solution, and results.
Cargo's templates make it easy for beginners to create aesthetically pleasing, engaging portfolio layouts without needing design expertise. The emphasis on storytelling allows UX designers to connect the dots and demonstrate their strategic thinking to potential employers and clients.
Portfolios on Cargo have visual impact while remaining minimal and user-friendly. Whether you are a student completing university projects or a professional seeking new UX roles, Cargo offers a freely-available portfolio site tailored to the narrative needs of communicating UX design skills, methodology, and impact.
Carbonmade is an good starting point for UX designers to showcase their abilities. Beginners can take advantage of Carbonmade's simple drag-and-drop interface and customizable layouts to build a visually engaging portfolio at no cost.
The ability to connect a custom domain provides a polished, professional touch even on free Carbonmade sites. For UX designers just starting out, the combination of easy customization, free hosting, and built-in client presentations allows them to focus on highlighting their skills through impactful visuals and case studies.
Carbonmade's portfolios put visually impressive work front and center, allowing beginners to make a strong first impression. While Carbonmade may lack some of the complex features of paid platforms, its free offering delivers everything a novice UX designer needs to curate and display strong portfolio work in a style that captures attention.
For designers without existing websites, Weebly offers a quick and easy way to create an online portfolio. With Weebly's combination of pre-made templates and drag-and-drop tools, portfolios can be built swiftly without coding knowledge.
Weebly provides numerous portfolio layouts that can be used right away or customized to fit individual styles. The platform makes it simple to personalize the chosen template with images, text, and other branding elements. A key advantage of Weebly is that users can manage their portfolio site directly from their phone through the mobile app.
Other handy features for portfolio building include step-by-step guidance, video backgrounds, integrated blogging, and access to hundreds of apps to extend functionality. Weebly empowers creatives to establish an online presence and showcase work by handling the technical aspects in the background. With its range of capabilities optimized for portfolios, Weebly offers an efficient way for designers to get their work online.
Websites for designers who want more creativity
If you have some money for a domain name and can pay for hosting, you’ll have access to more features and will stand out more than designers using free accounts. Here are a few reputable websites for you to use.
Similar to Wix, Squarespace offers a free trial period and basic free hosting tier. Their templates are geared towards creatives and have plenty of portfolio site options. Squarespace also makes it easy to get a polished, professional look without needing to code.
The limitations are comparable to Wix—branding is tied to Squarespace, and customization is limited on free plans. But overall Squarespace is a solid choice for free portfolio hosting, especially for creative fields.
For those looking for a dynamically powered site, WordPress.com offers free hosting on subdomains (e.g. yoursite.wordpress.com). You get access to the whole WordPress content management system for building your portfolio.
The upside is WordPress is very powerful and flexible. The downside is limited control and customization options on the free tier. You also need to display WordPress ads and can't use a custom domain. But overall WordPress.com is a solid option for free portfolio hosting if you want to use WordPress.
Format
This is what I currently use! Format provides an ideal platform for designers to produce minimal yet visually-impactful portfolios. Its multitude of personalizable portfolio themes and modular sections allow designers to carefully craft a site that demonstrates their aesthetic sensibilities.
By integrating with print production partners, Format makes it simple for creatives to transition their work from online to high-quality physical portfolios and samples. This enables designers across disciplines like UX and graphic design to showcase work in the best possible light, both digitally and physically.
Format's portfolio exports, client presentations, and password protection also provide key tools for designers to manage how clients and collaborators view and interact with their work.
For any creative professional seeking a refined platform to display their talents, Format delivers the flexibility and customization needed to produce a portfolio that leaves a lasting visual impression.
With affordable pricing plans and optimization for WordPress sites, Hostinger provides an ideal hosting solution for designers creating portfolio websites. Hostinger offers SSD storage for faster load times critical for visual content, along with offerings like free site migration to easily move existing WordPress sites over to their servers.
Built-in caching and speed optimization features also boost site performance. For beginners, Hostinger's user-friendly cPanel simplifies management while still providing the control needed for customization. Whether using off-the-shelf WordPress portfolio themes or building a custom site from scratch, Hostinger delivers the right server environment for smooth, speedy portfolio sites.
The reliable uptimes and helpful customer support provide confidence for creatives relying on their portfolios for business. For designers seeking robust yet budget-friendly hosting, Hostinger checks all the boxes.
Websites for designers to dare to explore
Being the most technically inclined website on the list, Webflow empowers designers to create stunning, custom portfolio sites. Webflow’s intuitive visual interface makes building responsive, interactive pages easy without coding knowledge. Designers can utilize CSS, animations, and other advanced tools to achieve nearly any creative vision. It features quick loading times and reliable built-in hosting optimized for performance.
For showcasing visual work online, Webflow allows granular control over the look, layout, and interactions to craft a completely customized experience. Designers can use Webflow’s CMS to manage portfolio content on the backend as well.
Whether displaying projects for clients or personal branding, Webflow provides designers the power to fully own their online presence. The ability to effortlessly transition beautiful designs from concept to live site makes Webflow an exceptional portfolio platform for creative professionals.
Semplice is a WordPress-based portfolio builder designed specifically for creative professionals like designers. Co-founded by designers Michael Schmidt and Tobias van Schneider, Semplice aims to provide an advanced portfolio platform that helps creatives showcase their talents in an eye-catching way.
Unlike simple templates, Semplice offers deep customization powered by open source code. Users get robust design capabilities and drag-and-drop flexibility to craft responsive, aesthetically-pleasing portfolio sites without coding expertise. However, with full access to modify frontend and backend elements, Semplice does require an investment of time to master its comprehensive features.
This is not an all-in-one solution - users must have an existing WordPress site for Semplice to plugin and enhance with portfolio building tools. But the tradeoff is complete control over the portfolio experience, from visual layout to content management. For designers seeking a tailored, customizable portfolio builder that delivers professional results, Semplice connects the flexibility of WordPress with user-friendly design tools.
Why you should ditch Behance
When it comes to showcasing your best work online, hosting your portfolio on your own website is key. Platforms like Behance, Dribbble and Notion are handy for showcasing and inspiration, but not ideal for hosting your professional portfolio. Here's why:
Lack of Ownership
With Behance and Dribbble, you don't own your portfolio content. If either platform ever shut down, your work would disappear along with it. By hosting on your own site, you retain full control and ownership over your portfolio.
Behance and Dribbble are also primarily social networks. Your work gets mixed in with millions of other portfolios, making it hard to stand out and be searchable. Having your own site puts the focus solely on your projects.
Limited Customization
All three platforms—Behance, Dribbble and Notion—offer minimal customization options for the layout, branding, and design of your portfolio. They all impose their own styles and branding on your content.
Your own portfolio site lets you customize the design however you like, with your own colors, fonts, layout, and branding for a unique look. This makes a much stronger impression than a cookie-cutter template portfolio.
Difficult to Update and Edit
Making changes or adding new projects to your portfolio on Behance or Dribbble isn't straightforward. And while Notion makes editing easy, it still separates and disconnected from your actual portfolio site.
With your own site powered by WordPress, Squarespace, or other platforms, you have complete control over editing and reorganizing your portfolio. You can instantly update, rearrange, or add new content whenever you want.
No Guaranteed Stability
Relying on third-party platforms means you can't guarantee these services will stick around forever. If any were to shut down, your portfolio would vanish. But your own website will remain online as long as you continue paying for hosting.
While Behance, Dribbble and Notion have their uses, they present major limitations for showcasing a professional portfolio. Owning your site gives you full creative freedom, customization, and stability over the long term.
Decreased chances of being hired
While Behance offers a quick way to display work, designers hosting projects exclusively on Behance miss out on the customized control a personal website provides.
Portfolios on Behance have a consistent look and feel, blending designers together rather than highlighting unique personal branding and aesthetic. Owned media spaces like a custom portfolio site enable designers to craft focused messaging and layouts tailored to their specific skills and talents.
Designers also miss out on website analytics to track meaningful engagement when limited to Behance. Additionally, a personally owned site conveys business maturity and professional dedication compared to only showcase work on a third-party platform. While Behance can supplement a web portfolio, designers relying entirely on it lose the opportunity to fully shape their own narrative and digital presence.
For maximum hireability, designers need the customization and direction of their standalone website to demonstrate their capacities and sensibilities. Your goal as a designer is to stand out, not to blend in.
Domains & Things
Another important thing to note is having a custom domain. Google Domains has them for $12 a year. There are websites like IONOS that host domains for $0.99 for the first year. Domain names look more professional and shows that you’re invested into your career and yourself.
If you want to take professionalism further, you can get a business domain from Google for $6/mo. I want to point out that this is completely optional, but if you’re looking to go into freelance design work, you may want to strongly consider it for legitimacy.