Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash
If you’re interested in showing off your photographs to as many people as possible while keeping them organized and on display in a professional and creative space, you need the best photography portfolio website. There are many different websites that specialize in photography portfolios. By choosing the right one, you can show your photographs to the world.
The best photography portfolio websites allow you to showcase all your favorite snapshots by simply uploading them. It is insanely easy, especially when compared to some of the messy photography portfolio websites of the past, like back in the early 2000s.
Luckily for you, we have the answers for the best photography portfolio websites. These sites have outstanding reviews, they offer great user experience, and they are the best places on the web to show off your artwork.
Adobe Portfolio
This company really does have the market cornered when it comes to photography. Not only does Adobe offer the best in photo editing and organizing, but now they are even offering Adobe Portfolio, an amazing way to showcase all your most beloved photographs. Not only that, but Adobe Portfolio happens to be integrated within some programs that you may already use, whether as a professional or amateur photographer.
Adobe Portfolio can be found within the Creative Cloud platform. This is a paid service that gives you access to heaps of other amazing programs from Adobe. On the portfolio side of things, it’s easy to get your files uploaded and on display within an hour. However, if you’re looking to expand, edit, and really make your portfolio pretty, it could take a bit longer.
One of the best parts about Adobe Portfolio is that it’s integrated with Adobe Behance, great if you’re interested in a larger, more community-oriented portfolio builder. Adobe Portfolio is also linked to Adobe’s Lightroom library, making transferring photos really easy. If you use Adobe for your other photography needs, Portfolio is undoubtedly the best photography portfolio website.
Squarespace
Squarespace is one of the most popular photography portfolio websites currently up and running. It’s an excellent option for individuals and businesses alike who are eager to create an elegant website filled with their own beautiful pictures. Squarespace offers different themes, customizations, and various ways to display your content. They also offer full resolution, meaning the public will be able to see your amazing photos in the resolution you intended.
But here’s the deal with Squarespace: you also get unfettered access to 40 million stock photographs from Getty Images. Of course, you need to pay $10 each for them, but it’s worth it to have all those images on hand when you need them.
Squarespace offers a logo design suite for free, access to analytics, and a customized email address that only costs an additional $5 per month. And that brings us to the only downside of Squarespace. It does cost $8 a month for a personal website with up to 20 pages, blogs, and galleries. But for those $8, you also get unlimited storage and bandwidth. There is even the ability to feature a product for sale by using the integrated E-commerce platform.
But with Squarespace, the more you pay, the more you get. More money means more products you can sell and other bonuses, like an integrated accounting solution.
WordPress
WordPress is what powers websites. It is a bit overkill if you’re just looking for a photography portfolio website. However, WordPress really is the industry standard when it comes to making your own website. It’s absolutely free, though you will need to purchase hosting and a domain name.
WordPress is used by basically everybody. From personal blogs to huge businesses, WordPress works for everyone. There are lots of plug-ins available, you can link directly to Adobe Lightroom, you can add your own online store to get money directly into your bank account for your products, and you can show as many photographs as you want.
If you’re looking to set up a truly seamless, professional, and sophisticated website to showcase your photography, WordPress is your best option. It does have a very steep learning curve. It will probably take days to learn how to properly build a site. But once you do it, the time is well worth it.
As a side note, you may also want to consider hiring someone to build the site for you, making it look awesome and adding all the necessary pages that you need for uploading images.
PhotoShelter
PhotoShelter is purely for photographers. If all you want is to showcase, share, organize, and sell your creative works of art, PhotoShelter is right up your alley. It has dozens of useful features that make showcasing photographs easy and fun. There are DIY templates, domain names, logos, and watermarks available to make everything yours. It really is tailored specifically to you, offering maximum freedom and exposure when showing your photos.
Cloud storage means no cap on file size. All the most important file types can be used. You can upload from several other programs such as Lightroom and Photo Mechanic. All your metadata is even kept intact automatically and then imported to your PhotoShelter site.
And like any proper photography portfolio website, PhotoShelter features sales tools, a search engine that has been highly optimized, tools for social networking, and the best in web security. It only costs $10 a month and gives you a huge number of customizable templates along with 4 gigs of cloud storage and unlimited traffic to your site. But of course, there are pro plans that offer even more.
Semplice
Semplice was created so that designers could showcase their portfolios. Since its early days, Semplice has evolved to add features and capabilities for photographers as well. In other words, this is a great photography portfolio website– and it’s even better for designers.
Semplice can be purchased for a one-time fee of either $100 or $138 depending on which plan is right for you. But if you’re a designer using Semplice for multiple projects, a much more expensive business plan could be more helpful.
How does Semplice work? It’s a WordPress portfolio system. This means it works out the back end of WordPress and is designed solely to showcase your designs and your photographs. There are galleries, portfolios, customizations, and all the other features you expect from a portfolio website. The difference is that you pay once and have it forever, and it works with your WordPress website to be a reliable and finely tuned portfolio system where clients can easily and instantly see photos and designs.
500px
500px is becoming more and more popular by the day, considered a serious photography website for professionals. What began as a social networking site for fans of photography has turned into a paid photography website service and online store. Members can sell their photographs, they have options for specialized themes that show off their skills, and templates are easily customizable by using preset controls depending on your style. You can edit HTML and JavaScript in real-time. It’s easy to drag and drop photographs onto your 500px social page. Everything about 500px is smooth and user-friendly.
The greatest part about 500px is that it’s more affordable than other sites. It costs just over $6 a month for the base subscription.
Format
Format is as simple as it gets. This is a portfolio website that photographers love for the sheer number of options when it comes to themes and custom presentations. Format includes private proofing galleries, they have 24/7 customer support, and you’re even able to connect using your own custom domain. Bandwidth is unlimited, you can sell all your artwork using Format’s own store option, and there’s even a 14-day trial so that you can check out the site before opting for one of their many affordable plans. Depending on which plan you get, you’ll be able to sell and store more.
Format really excels at keeping your personal portfolio looking amazing regardless of which device it’s being viewed on. Format offers an unparalleled touch experience for mobile devices, it integrates surprisingly well with Adobe Creative Suite, and it has tools for changing your page any way you want. The interface allows easy drag and drop, and there is a powerful publishing plug-in for Adobe Lightroom to easily update your online portfolio. You can even manage and upload directly from Lightroom. To be honest, Format offers one of the most satisfying management experiences of any photography portfolio website.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re an amateur photographer trying to find a convenient place to show off your photographs, a designer trying to make the best portfolio possible, or an entrepreneur trying to make some hard cash off your photography work, there are plenty of photography portfolio websites available.
Choosing the best one is really a matter of personal choice, as many of the sites work very similarly. It will depend on which integrated features you prefer and which user interface you’re more comfortable working with.
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