If you are a photographer, creating a portfolio is certainly one of the most important things you need to do. There are a number of benefits that a portfolio can bring you: it helps you showcase your work online, pulls in new clients and builds a strong and wide online exposure for your work.
The sad thing is that, not all photographers possess technical skills for building a portfolio. Some may feel a little intimidated due to lack of coding skills and the others may think that building a portfolio needs a lot of time as to them, it’s an intricate process to go through.
The good news is that there are a number of platforms for you to build an online portfolio for your work without wasting your precious time and with no coding skills required.
Here is a list of the top 10 portfolio-building websites for photography lovers, in random order.
1. Photoshelter
Photoshelter is one of the most popular platforms for building photography websites and online portfolios. The site allows you to control the layouts, fonts and images of your portfolio with ease and mobility.
The bottom line is that it doesn’t require any coding. Photoshelter doesn’t only provide you with tools to showcase your work; it also attracts buyers to purchase your photos. Its integration with social media sites and SEO turns your photo business strong and solid.
2. Orosso
Orosso is a portfolio building tool that allows its members to build professional and smart portfolios and maintain them easily. It doesn’t take much time to build a photography portfolio website. With Orosso, the process turns out easier and simplistic. In a matter of minutes you can have your portfolio created in a flash and highly customizable towards your looks and requirement.
Artists, designers and architects may consider Orosso as a viable option to create portfolios for a strong online presence. You can try it for 14 days and decide whether it’s worth a pay or not.
3. Foliolink
Foliolink is an online portfolio-building tool specifically for photographers and artists who want tobuild professional portfolios and sell their work online effortlessly. It doesn’t require any knowledge of HTML or CSS coding to get the portfolio created.
Foliolink features iPad and iPhone shadow sites, customization and e-commerce tools, and Search Engine Optimization for your online portfolio. You can create a free 7-days account before deciding what plan suits you best.
4. Zenfolio
Zenfolio is an online tool that helps you make amazing online portfolios fast and painlessly. Whether you are photographer looking for building a stunning portfolio or a photographer serious about selling your work online, Zenfolio is the right choice for you.
The user-friendly ecommerce interface, point-and-click interface and easy customizers are the features that can make you complete your photography website in a flash. The subscription fee starts at $30 per year. However, they provide a free premium account for trial (there is nothing to lose).
5.FolioHD
FolioHD is a self-hosted portfolio platform for photographers, artists, architects, models and designers. They offer essential features to build a website in a simple way and according to the plan you register for. In folioHD there are 3 plans: basic, power and pro. The basic only supports up to 36 uploads of media files, but the plan is free.
On the other hand, the power and pro plans provide more exciting features such as, Google Analytics, privacy options and the Fotomoto access. The power and pro plans only differ in the amount of uploads, which is 1000 and 2000, respectively.
6.Folio Websites
Folio Websites is a portfolio building website for creating mobile and professional photographywebsites. What makes Folio Websites stand out from the overcrowded marketplace, is their clean, simple and clutter-free design.
They work on WordPress, which is highly customizable, offers SEO benefits for better search ranking and mobile compatibility. You can register a premium account starting at $14.60 per month.
7. 1X
1X is more of a social network and online community for photographers than a portfolio building tool. However, photographers can use this platform to get strong exposure with thousands of users in this community.
The interesting thing about 1X is that, not every photo you upload is going to be published. Every photo you submit is selected for publication by a curator. 1X has a forum community whereprofessional designers discuss the projects they are working on and give suggestions for a better craft. You can give it a go for free.
8. 500px
500px is a personalized portfolio building tool and market platform for photographers to sell their work. This platform helps photographers to create online portfolios easily.
In 500px, you maintain and control your site whenever you need and without having to touch any code. They provide their members with great features, such as, advanced tracking system of visitors, unlimited photos upload, custom domain name and a photo store that allows selling of photos online.
9. SmugMug
SmugMug is a platform for digital photo sharing where photographers can expose the masterpiece of their work to a community of thousands of members. SmugMug provides the users with beautiful and elegant themes to build professional portfolios that spark interests.
The portfolio building interface is simple to work on, with easy customizers to select photos, fonts, colors and themes. For wider exposure, share your work on Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks.
10. Pixpa
Pixpa is a portfolio building site that allows photographers to create amazing and elegant portfolios to show off their works. It provides you with hundreds of pre-designed templates to choose and you can select the one that best fits your needs in just a single click. Customizable fonts, backgrounds, colors, menus are among a plethora of features to build your site with ease.
If you are craving for your own domain name to build a strong online presence, Pixpa also supports that. In Pixpa you can also sell your photos online using an e-commerce integrated platform called Fotomoto. Give it a try for 15 days (no credit card required).
