There are many talented creatives out there on the world wide web. That means a lot of inspiration, competition, and good portfolios! It can make the average designer feel a bit overwhelmed, but don’t fret! The key to being successful in the creative industry is no different than being successful in any other business; you have to sell yourself by marketing your skills and presenting yourself well. Sure you can utilize social media sites like LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Facebook, but the best way to present your work is to create a stellar portfolio.

While it’s true that nothing beats a unique, built-from-scratch online portfolio, there are a lot of fantastic out-of-the-box options available to designers who don’t want to fuss with tedious code and style sheets. We’ve found ten great portfolio sites for photographers and designers, some are free and others have paid services, but all focus on presenting your work beautifully.

And if you are looking to build an online portfolio, don’t forget to check out our post on building the best portfolio you can.

1. Carbonmade /////////////////////////////////

Carbonmade is a fun site that’s very user friendly. It offers a few templates and color schemes to customize your portfolio pages and image displays. The basic account is free!

 

2. Cargo //////////////////////////////////////////

Cargo is versatile portfolio site with multiple templates and customizable features for users.

 

3. Dribbble ///////////////////////////////////////

Dribbble is “Twitter for designers.” It’s a site where designers can share screenshots of current work. Not exactly a full-fledged portfolio site, but it’s a great way to share with the design community and update work frequently (which is a great discipline to have).

 

4. Behance ///////////////////////////////////////

Behance offers users a portfolio that is straight forward. Behance has also been integrated with LinkedIn, which is helpful in expanding your professional connections.

 

5. Coroflot ///////////////////////////////////////

Boasting the largest pool of portfolios in the world, Coroflot is a great site for portfolio building. Plus, the page layout makes projects and images easy to navigate.

 

6. Viewbook /////////////////////////////////////

Viewbook is a portfolio site on steroids. Portfolios can be designed on a variety of layouts and customized with colors. Beyond portfolios, viewbook also offers a buffet of add-ons to help you get found in search engines, track your visitors, edit your photos, sell your images and more.

 

7. Dripbook //////////////////////////////////////

Dripbook is a very straightforward gallery style portfolio site perfect for users who want a presentation.

 

8. PhotoShelter /////////////////////////////////

PhotoShelter allows users to choose from over ten layouts and customize design options. They also offer additional features such as SEO and a shopping cart for selling work.

 

9. 500px //////////////////////////////////////////

500px is a visually delicious portfolio site for anyone looking to showcase great photography. Based on a grid layout, 500px allows users to like other work, share favorites, post comments and more. It’s kind of like a professional variation of Pinterest.

 

10. 4ormat ///////////////////////////////////////

4ormat offers users a heavily image based portfolio showcase with layout options. I personally enjoy some of the horizontal portfolios featured on their professional spotlight page.

 

If you have a favorite site that we didn’t mention here or you want to share a portfolio from one of these sites, feel free to comment and let us know! We love to hear from you.

About the Author: Shannon spends most her days as a graphic designer at Pixel Productions, Inc. where she enjoys fantastic coffee, awesome coworkers and creating professional design work for clients of all shapes and sizes. She has an eye for detail and her talents include design for branding, packaging, web development and custom illustration.