Best Portfolio Website Builders

Stosh

I'm in the process of reworking/changing my portfolio website and wanted to get opinions and thoughts on what are the "best" websites to use to display your work? I've already used webflow and it was....ok. I've heard of other people using wordpress, carbonmade, and others that I can't think of right now. I know a lot of it can depend on what your field of study/work is in. So I was hoping to not only get opinions on what is just the best for me, but open up discussion on all fields of our craft and what would be some of the most recommended site builders. Eventually if this builds up, I can edit this first post into a database of site builders for future polycounters to reference from. Unless of course there already is one and I'm completely blind :poly127:

Anyway, for example I'm an environment/prop artist. I've liked the portfolio sites that have large panels you can click on for each project and then it directs you to a page for said project. Simple and effective to me. I know this could still work for possibly any of the site builders, but what do you think would work best?

pangaea

Just use artstation

Joopson

Weebly and Art station are two of the better ones I've seen, if you don't want to design it yourself.

Just stay far away from wix, and you'll be ok.

Eric Chadwick

More advice here, including past threads
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Portfolio

soulstice

Artstation/Wordpress/Blogspot are pretty awesome.

Swizzle

I've heard good things about Squarespace. They certainly have a lot of nice layouts.

In case you were thinking of checking them out, I'd recommend staying away from Wix; they look terrible and load slowly — especially on mobile.

WarrenM

Just getting into Squarespace myself ... so far, it looks solid! Time will tell...

imyj

Fully recommend Squarespace.

Especially if you have an iPhone / iPad since you can download their portfolio app and keep a copy of your work offline in a pretty sweet layout within the app.

Sean VanGorder

All about Squarespace

beefaroni

I got a chance to sit in a portfolio review recently and seriously whatever has the simplest layout presents images without that iframe is the best way to go.

I think Artstation is fine.

If you do want a paid option, maybe give Dunked a look as well. Here's an example from someone I work with. His portfolio loads quickly, is easy to navigate, images are large by default without a iframe, etc.

http://ckuhner.dunked.com/

ysalex

Indexhibit is my favorite.

kanga

beefaroni wrote: »

If you do want a paid option, maybe give Dunked a look as well. Here's an example from someone I work with. His portfolio loads quickly, is easy to navigate, images are large by default without a iframe, etc.

http://ckuhner.dunked.com/

That is probably the best format I have seen so far, its also responsive and looks great on my phone! Thanks for the headsup.

Jonas Ronnegard

I use Dunked for my portfolio, works well I think.

Torch

kanga wrote: »

That is probably the best format I have seen so far

Agreed, slick folio... Artstation is pretty baws too, although if you want a separate site then this looks great

OutOfMyMind

Did some research on that some time ago, all of those free websites builders suck totally and they put ads inside your site. Artstation is the only way to go. From paid sites Squarespace looks interesting.

kanga

OutOfMyMind wrote: »

Did some research on that some time ago, all of those free websites builders suck totally and they put ads inside your site. Artstation is the only way to go. From paid sites Squarespace looks interesting.

Wordpress is free. You can get responsive themes and the advertising is restricted to a tiny note in the footer. You get a backend that is pretty amazing so editing the site is fairly easy. The only disadvantage is you have to have webhosting that has apache and will allow you to make a database through something like cpanel which not everyone has and its also not something everyone wants to do.

OutOfMyMind

kanga wrote: »

Wordpress is free. You can get responsive themes and the advertising is restricted to a tiny note in the footer. You get a backend that is pretty amazing so editing the site is fairly easy. The only disadvantage is you have to have webhosting that has apache and will allow you to make a database through something like cpanel which not everyone has and its also not something everyone wants to do.

I mean weebly and stuff like that.

Tits

I was with moonfruit before (not a good choice, layout weren't good and I had to do everything manually, adding new pages or changing tumbnails was a nightmare)
I just switched to squarespace and even tho I might have a little less control over, very small and unimportant little details, It's very easy to use, easy to update and works great even on mobile

littleclaude

Eric Chadwick wrote: »

More advice here, including past threads
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Portfolio

I need to use the Wiki more, this is great stuff, thanks for the share.:thumbup:

Mirhale

Eric Chadwick wrote: »

More advice here, including past threads
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Portfolio

Was gonna post this as well but yeah Artstation looks fine for a start, it now supports marmoset viewer too

iadagraca

beefaroni wrote: »

If you do want a paid option, maybe give Dunked a look as well. Here's an example from someone I work with. His portfolio loads quickly, is easy to navigate, images are large by default without a iframe, etc.

http://ckuhner.dunked.com/

That looks similar to how I designed my personal site on wordpress, I haven't made it into a proper portfolio yet though but I will soon.

http://iadagraca.com/

Here's a repository for the files someone could easily take this and make a wordpress theme to look exactly the same.

MmAaXx

artstation for me too.

Jonas Ronnegard

Dunked is nothing special look wise but it's super nice managing wise, editing projects, changing order, changing looks is super fast, and having an option for private projects is also very nice.

Sugus

I've recently switched to Squarespace and i'm really happy with it. Simple to edit, does the platform conversion for you (works really nice on tablet/phone) and they have nice templates to go from.

You can then get a domain + one year's hosting for about £60.

Hope this helps

lefix

I'd also go to artstation, not just because it's extremely well done.
People are much more likely to discover your portfolio there as opposed to some really awesome unique website on your own domain that noone knows.

My second choice would probably be carbonmade, but I'm not sure how much it is still used today.
https://carbonmade.com/examples

DireWolf

Stay away from Wix and Weebly. Those sites use tons of unnecessary javascripts, even if your website has no interaction at all.

PyrZern

Currently using http://cargocollective.com/
There are some nice themes/templates around. Also fast, good customization, and Pinterest-friendly (or just to save images in general).

mats effect

Squarespace is really nice though its more expensive than the other options.

Rinzu

I agree with @ DireWolf , Wix & Weebly come off rather unprofessional as well with the free versions.

I really like the customization of Squarespace and the built in traffic monitoring & store options it offers.

Stosh

Thank you for all the feedback everyone. I've made an artstation since I really didn't want to have to take the time to "make" my website. I liked how artstation just allowed you to input your work and it displays it in a simple format in which you have some control over, but nothing too complicated. Also its a bonus that it can basically house your resume and show that you're interested in being hired. Now I gotta get some 3D models into Marmoset since artstation has added the Marmoset 3D viewer too.

Shrike

if you want something simple that is not shared between others like Artstation is, id recommend Carbonmade, always looks top and no work needed
Squarespace had a really unintuitive and annoying UI last time i tested it and
not much freedom

I use Wix for our sites, the performance is not as great but from all the things i tested (pretty much everything there is) Wix offers by far the most freedom, only weebydo coming close (but pretty early tool still) and thats what I value the most, so only Wix is left, and i can't really say im not satisfied. I want a canvas and place my own stuff by the pixel.

@Rinzu To be clear, nobody should use a free version, its unprofessional no matter if the watermark is small or big, watermark is watermark.

oxblood

Shrike wrote: »

if you want something simple that is not shared between others like Artstation is, id recommend Carbonmade, always looks top and no work needed
Squarespace had a really unintuitive and annoying UI last time i tested it and
not much freedom

I use Wix for our sites, the performance is not as great but from all the things i tested (pretty much everything there is) Wix offers by far the most freedom, only weebydo coming close (but pretty early tool still) and thats what I value the most, so only Wix is left, and i can't really say im not satisfied. I want a canvas and place my own stuff by the pixel.

@Rinzu To be clear, nobody should use a free version, its unprofessional no matter if the watermark is small or big, watermark is watermark.

^^Bingo I use wix too. Aslong as your using the Html version and you don't have a bunch of slideshows and crap all over the place it runs just as well as any other wesbsite for me.