- Comparing the Best Portfolio Website Builders
- 1. Squarespace: Best for Art and Design Portfolios
- 2. Wix: For Business Portfolios
- 3. Pixpa: For Photography Portfolios
- How We Tested the Best Portfolio Website Builders
- How Do I Choose the Right Portfolio Builder for My Needs?
- Which Portfolio Website Builder Should You Choose?
- FAQs
Squarespace is the best portfolio builder for visual artists who require professional, high-end templates that prioritize imagery, while Wix is ideal for business-focused portfolios. Our in-house research team and I have spent more than 300 hours testing 12 of the top platforms, and have hand-picked the five best portfolio website builders.
To help you decide which one is right for you, I’ve organized them based on the work you need to showcase to potential employers or clients.
- Squarespace is our top choice for portfolios because of its stylish professional templates, but it can have slower loading times
- Wix is a great alternative for business portfolios due to its wide range of marketing and ecommerce features
- Pixpa has a unique watermarking feature and high-res image uploads which make it perfect for photographers, although it’s the only platform without an AI website builder
- When choosing a portfolio website builder, consider showcasing, storytelling, and search visibility
We spent over 300 hours collecting independent data, carrying out hands-on testing, and analyzing each portfolio website builder on a six-point methodology. Each research category was given a unique weighting, prioritized for portfolios.
Does it offer quality design features (35%) to help showcase your work? Is there adequate website functionality (20%) to grow your audience and engage with potential clients? How is the overall user experience (20%), and is the builder easy to use? What help and support (10%) options are there? Is the pricing (10%) affordable? Does the builder have a good reputation (5%)?
You can get more detail about our research process at the end of the review.
After giving this page a complete revamp earlier in the year to reflect our latest round of website builder research and testing, I’ve reviewed the guide to check pricing and features are up-to-date. I’ve also added additional information to help you make the right choice, including a clear specification of Wix’s storage limits and the exact SEO features you should be looking for in a builder.
Comparing the Best Portfolio Website Builders
With our table below, you can view a quick comparison of the five portfolio website builders we’ve featured:
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Overall rating
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Today's best price
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Free plan or free trial
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Portfolio templates
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Storage space
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AI website builder
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BEST IN TEST
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 |
 |
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Squarespace |
Wix |
Pixpa |
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4.6
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4.6
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3.5
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$9 |
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14-day free trial |
Free plan |
15-day free trial |
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42 |
219 |
125 |
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Unlimited |
2GB – Unlimited |
3GB – 100GB |
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How Much Do the Top Portfolio Website Builders Cost?
| Free plan or trial | Price of best portfolio plan (billed annually) | Deals and discounts | |
| Squarespace | 14-day free trial | $19 per month | • 50% off for student portfolios |
| Wix | Free plan | $29 per month | • 50% off for student portfolios |
| Pixpa | 15-day trial | $9 per month | • 55% off for student and educator portfolios |
1. Squarespace: Best for Art and Design Portfolios
- 💰 Squarespace pricing: $19-$99 per month (billed annually)
- 💻 Read our full Squarespace review for further details
- 🤖 AI portfolio website builder: Yes
Squarespace is the top choice for portfolios because of its stylish professional templates, particularly for businesses, agencies, or freelancers in art and design fields. It offers an easy way to create a modern portfolio that reflects your unique design philosophy.
42 of Squarespace’s 190+ templates are designed specifically for portfolios, and they’re organized by industry, such as “Photography,” “Art and Design,” and “Media and Podcasts.”
Key Squarespace Portfolio Features
When I constructed a portfolio website with Squarespace, these are the most helpful tools I came across:
- Squarespace Blueprint AI – You can follow its five-step onboarding process to create a custom template that has a consistent font, color palette, and tone of voice.
- Unlimited storage on all plans and a video allowance of between 30 minutes and unlimited, depending on your plan.
- Acuity Scheduling – Secure bookings and appointments from prospective clients (from an extra $16 per month, billed annually).
- Sell digital downloads – Sell digital copies of the art or photography prints displayed in your portfolio. You could also sell online video courses and PDF guides to share your creative expertise.
What’s It Like To Set Up With Squarespace?
I was impressed by Squarespace’s sleek interface when testing out the platform myself. Its drag-and-drop editor was easy to use, letting me add new design elements to my portfolio and arranging them however I wanted to.
I also found it impossible to create an unattractive design, since the builder’s gray grid overlay kept everything in alignment.
Which Squarespace Plan Is Best for Portfolios?
- Basic plan: $19 per month (billed annually)
The Basic plan has suitable tools for your portfolio, since it comes with professional templates for creatives, unlimited storage space, 30 minutes of video storage, and Squarespace ecommerce that enables you to sell your products and services, too.
Who Should Use Squarespace?
- Creatives in art and design who want unique and highly-customizable portfolio templates
- Businesses, agencies, or freelancers booking appointment and consultations
Who Shouldn’t Use Squarespace?
- Content-heavy portfolios may experience performance issues, since Squarespace had the slowest loading speed of all the builders we tested
2. Wix: For Business Portfolios
- 💰 Wix pricing: $17-$159 per month (billed annually)
- 💻 Read our full Wix review for additional details
- 🤖 AI portfolio website builder: Yes
Wix is the best choice for business portfolios, since it comes with the widest range of marketing and ecommerce features on the market, enabling you to add additional functionality to your portfolio page.
Key Wix Portfolio Features
Once you have the Wix Portfolio app active on your website, you have access to the following features:
- 219 portfolio templates – Divided into art, music, modeling, photography, illustration, and architecture.
- AI Portfolio Generator – Automatically organizes your portfolio work into categories and generates titles and descriptions.
- Project collections – I could arrange my portfolio projects into different groups. This is useful if you’ve worked on multiple projects for one client, or want to showcase your work from different creative mediums.
What’s It Like To Set Up With Wix?
Wix’s portfolio templates automatically have the free Wix Portfolio app installed, which unlocks access to portfolio building tools. However, this app can be downloaded to any other template from the Wix App Market.
Wix’s portfolio features will also be included if you use Wix’s AI website builder, since the chatbot builds your site based on your needs.
Wix’s drag-and-drop editor allows you to drag design elements, like contact forms and client testimonials, anywhere on the page. With no grid guidelines, Wix has much more creative control than Squarespace, although the choice can be overwhelming and lead to messy or overcomplicated designs.
Because Wix has the biggest number of website features, your business may need these tools to take your portfolio to another level:
- Marketing – To promote your work and reach a wider audience, you can use Wix’s email marketing tool, SEO features, and social media integrations.
- Ecommerce – If you’re interested in a hybrid portfolio with ecommerce, Wix will let you transition your portfolio website into an online store. With Wix, ecommerce plans start from $29 per month (billed annually).
- Wix AI Tools – Wix’s AI tools can assist you as you create your portfolio. You can enhance your portfolio’s images, get advice on your website’s design, or ask the AI business assistant (Astro) for help.
Which Wix Plan Is Best for Portfolios?
- Core plan: $29 per month (billed annually)
Wix’s Core plan is most suitable for portfolios, since it comes with 50GB storage space, the ability to stream video and music, and basic ecommerce tools if you want to sell your work.
Who Should Use Wix?
- Small-medium sized businesses that want to show off their latest projects
- Businesses that need to stretch their portfolio website with additional functionality, like marketing and ecommerce
Who Shouldn’t Use Wix?
- Creatives likely to change their portfolio design periodically, since Wix doesn’t support template changes on live websites
- Writers and journalists may struggle to create a neat, simplistic portfolio with Wix’s unstructured editor, and run the risk of overcomplicating the design
- Creatives on a budget will be limited by the 2GB storage space on Wix’s $17 Light plan, and may be better suited to Squarespace’s cheapest plan, which comes with unlimited storage
3. Pixpa: For Photography Portfolios
- 💰 Pixpa pricing: $8-$25 per month (billed annually)
- 🤖 AI portfolio website builder: No
Pixpa is a dedicated portfolio website builder that I recommend for photographers, thanks to its sleek and mobile-responsive templates, high-resolution image support, and ecommerce tools to help you sell your work.
Key Pixpa Portfolio Features
Photography websites will benefit from Pixpa’s portfolio features, which include:
- Watermarking – You can protect your original photos by adding watermarks via your website settings. This tool can help you safeguard your work while still providing website visitors with a clear view of your recent projects.
- Progressive image loading – Pixpa uses progressive image loading, a loading technique that gradually loads an image on a page, to load content-heavy portfolios more swiftly.
- Sell images – On all Pixpa plans, you can build an online store and sell your images as prints or downloads.
What’s It Like To Set Up With Pixpa?
Pixpa’s website structure is fixed to the template you choose and only supports replacing images, adding sections, or customizing colors, spacing, and fonts. Pixpa’s customization is very limited, especially compared to the full creative control offered by Wix and Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editors.
Which Pixpa Plan Is Best for Portfolios?
- Creator plan: $15 per month (billed annually)
This plan unlocks the ability to add unlimited pages and images to your portfolio. You can also add watermarks to your images and sell up to 10 products in total.
Who Should Use Pixpa?
- Photographers who want to create a professional online portfolio
- Creatives who need to sell their images online in multiple formats
Who Shouldn’t Use Pixpa?
- Busy businesses wanting a streamlined setup, since Pixpa’s lack of AI builder and native booking tools requires manual, hands-on configuration than competitors
- Businesses wanting to elevate their portfolio with additional features, such as email marketing or scheduling tools, should use Wix instead
How We Tested the Best Portfolio Website Builders
To determine the best portfolio website builders, we’ve conducted over 300 hours of in-house website builder research. From these findings, we identified six key criteria that reflected what users are looking for in a portfolio builder. They were also weighted based on their importance:
- Design features (35%) – The quality of portfolio templates and customization options
- Website functionality (20%) – The features you can add to your portfolio, like bookings or online stores, and the overall site speed of the builder to ensure smooth performance
- User experience (20%) – How easy the builder is to set up with and manage
- Help and support (10%) – How easy it is to find help through support lines or resources
- Pricing (10%) – If the portfolio builder is good value for money, especially for budget-conscious portfolio creators
- Reputation (5%) – The builder’s reputation among existing users online
Alongside this in-house research, I also tested each website builder myself by creating my own portfolios with them. I’ve featured my firsthand experiences throughout this article to help you make a more informed choice.
How Do I Choose the Right Portfolio Builder for My Needs?
A good portfolio website builder should have adequate loading times, storage space, display and customization options, and SEO and marketing tools to help you get found.
This can be broken down into three essential goals that every portfolio should accomplish:
- Showcasing – Whether you’re showcasing images, videos, or project case studies, your portfolio should present your work in an engaging and professional manner. For this requirement, look for a platform with plenty of storage, fast content load times, and different gallery options.
- Storytelling – Can you tell a convincing story through your portfolio’s presentation? Whether you want to show your achievements or your creative evolution as an artist, seek out an easy-to-use editor and versatile design options. This will allow you to present yourself in the best way possible.
- Searchability – Can potential clients find your portfolio online? With integrated marketing tools, like social media sharing and email marketing, your portfolio could be found by the right person at the right time, perhaps leading to opportunities you never saw coming.
Which Portfolio Website Builder Should You Choose?
Squarespace is the best portfolio website builder overall, due to its high-quality templates, versatile customization options, and intuitive editor, you can create a striking portfolio that presents your body of work in the best light possible.
That said, the other portfolio builders I’ve covered might be a more suitable fit depending on your needs – so let’s recap:
- Wix is best for business portfolios. Its extensive features make it easy to add additional functionality to your website, be it bookings or an online store, based on your business needs.
- Pixpa’s sleek templates are ideal for photography portfolios. There’s also an integrated selling feature so browsers can purchase image prints and downloads directly from your portfolio.
FAQs
Pixpa is our recommended choice if you’re looking to build a photography portfolio. While Squarespace has great design options and a user-friendly editor, Pixpa’s dedicated photography tools, such as client proofing and watermarking, make it a great option for photographers wanting to showcase their work online.
Squarespace’s editor and interface are easier to use, plus the high-quality design options are ideal for creative portfolios. Squarespace provides a structured grid system, so you can easily snap elements and sections into place to ensure your portfolio looks professional and clean.
While Wix’s drag-and-drop editor gives you total creative control over how your portfolio looks, this can be overwhelming to navigate, especially if you’re a beginner to building websites.
If you haven’t optimized your images, you’re at risk of slowing down your portfolio’s loading speed. This can be especially critical on design-heavy sites, such as art or photography portfolios. Squarespace will automatically compress your images, without losing quality, but it still performed slowly in our speed tests. Pixpa, on the other hand, uses progressive image loading – this is useful for sites with high-resolution images, since it keeps your site running smoothly.
Squarespace is the best portfolio website builder for fine artists and illustrators, thanks to its template options, creative designs, and ability to sell digital downloads. With Squarespace, there are 33 dedicated “Art & Design” templates to choose from, or you can design your own template with the Blueprint AI Builder.
While you can move the content of your portfolio to another platform, you’ll be required to switch to your new provider’s supported templates, meaning it’s hard to make an exact replica. Squarespace has migration tools in its dashboard to streamline content transfers, whereas Wix and Pixpa require users to manually upload portfolio content to the platform by scratch.
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