10 Best Portfolio Website Templates We Recommend
If you click to purchase a product or service based on our independent recommendations and impartial reviews, we may receive a commission. Learn more
Sign up to Website Builder Expert’s weekly newsletter
Get the latest tips and industry insights about building traffic to your website
SUBSCRIBEOur methodology
We’ve spent hours sifting through portfolio templates from our top recommended platforms to find the best ones out there.
Written and researched by:
Comments: 4
If you’re looking to build your reputation, attract new clients, and showcase your work, there’s no better way than using a website builder to create a professional, impeccably designed portfolio website.
Don’t worry – you don’t have to be a coding expert to make this a reality. There are a ton of pre-existing portfolio website templates out there that will make showcasing your work simple, without forcing you to compromise on your ideal aesthetic.
But the choice can be overwhelming when there are so many good templates to pick between. Should you go minimalistic or bold? Do you need to pay for one, or can you take advantage of a free website template?
That’s why we’ve written this handy guide. You’ll find a list of all the essential elements your template should feature, and some inspiration to get your creative juices flowing. We’ve scoured the internet from top to bottom, rooting out the best portfolio templates so that no matter what field you work in, you can find one that’s right for you.
Our Top 10 Portfolio Templates
Check out these 10 inspiring portfolio templates below, built using website builders such as Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, WordPress, and more!
#1. Beaumont
Made by Squarespace
Elliott
Click the image below to expand If the saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ had to be represented by a single template, this would be the one. Elliott is all about dramatic impact, and large, immersive images capable of leaving your visitors breathless. This template has minimal text, preferring to let the visuals do the talking. We particularly like the gallery carousels, which will give your work the screen space it deserves and can be navigated using the side arrows.
| Price | Squarespace plans range from $16 to $49 per month (billed annually) |
|---|---|
| Useful Features | ✔ Dropdown menu from navigation bar ✔ Gallery pages ✔ ‘About Me’ page ✔ Social media links ✔ Contact form ✔ Optimized for mobile devices |
| Suited To | Landscape photographers and artists who specialize in large-scale work |
Advice From the Expert
Your portfolio website comes with some significant benefits. It demonstrates your professionalism and dedication, as well as showcasing your talent. You speak about the sophistication of your approach to your business. You can also use this portfolio to define your unique identity or brand, which will help you cut through the noise in your field. With the right design, you can create a search function that allows the potential client to see if you can offer what they require.
Using a website builder makes the creation of a portfolio website relatively easy. The builders help you to drag and drop features and tools into place without much technical ability. Some templates are excellent and will present you as a professional business, which will appeal to the target demographic.
Harvey Morton is a leading digital expert, able to help businesses create and maintain websites. For more information visit www.harveymorton.digital
#3. Nolan
Made by Squarespace
Nolan
Click the image below to expand Big, bold, and perfect for punchy creative businesses, Nolan’s monochrome design is a definite attention-grabber. Its striking entry page introduces your portfolio straight off the bat, so your visitors won’t be in any doubt about what you can offer them. It has a more balanced text-to-image ratio than other portfolio sites, so will be perfect if you run an agency with more than one service to offer.
| Price | Squarespace plans range from $16 to $49 per month (billed annually) |
|---|---|
| Useful Features | ✔ Gallery pages ✔ ‘About Me’ page ✔ Social media links ✔ Contact form ✔ Optimized for mobile devices |
| Suited To | Design agencies and consultants |
Find Out More:
- Squarespace Review – Our detailed review breaks down the positives and negatives of Squarespace so you can see if it’s right for you.
- Squarespace Pricing Guide – Our pricing guide will help you find out more about Squarespace’s pricing plans, what they include, and how much they cost.
- 7 Best Website Builders for Artists – Get a detailed breakdown of how Squarespace and other builders work for those making artistic portfolios.
#4. Interior Design
Made by Wix
Interior Design
Click the image below to expand This interior design template from Wix oozes indulgence and class. Its jewel-colored tones pop out from the neutral background, making it ideal if you want a template with a luxurious edge. It opens with a unique ‘layering’ slideshow of images in the header, while the sticky sidebar on the lower left-hand side travels with you as your scroll, so it’s always within easy reach. It’s an opulent choice, and we love the strong ‘premium’ flavor it dishes up.
| Price | Wix’s paid plans cost between $16 and $59 (paid annually), but it also offers a limited free plan. |
|---|---|
| Useful Features | ✔ Sticky navigation bar ✔ Gallery pages ✔ ‘About Me’ page ✔ Social media links ✔ Contact form ✔ Additional blog ✔ Optimized for mobile devices |
| Suited To | Interior designers, artists, and photographers |
Find Out More
- We think this Wix template is a great choce for students, especially as it’s free! Check out our Student Portfolio Tips for specific advice for students.
#5. Commercial Photographer
Made by Wix
Commercial Photographer
Click the image below to expand If you’re looking for a fun and dynamic creative template, this design is a hole-in-one. The tiled homepage mimics a social media feed, and can support animated media as well as static images. Clicking on a tile enlarges it for a full-screen close-up. Unlike other templates in this list, a contact form is included in the footer of every page, as well as having its own designated area of the site. Plus, the template comes with e-store functionality, so you can sell prints and other merchandise alongside your portfolio too.
| Price | Wix’s paid plans cost between $16 and $59 (paid annually), but it also offers a limited free plan. |
|---|---|
| Useful Features | ✔ Sticky navigation bar ✔ Gallery pages ✔ ‘About Me’ page ✔ Social media links ✔ Contact form ✔ e-Store functionality ✔ Optimized for mobile devices |
| Suited To | Contemporary photographers, graphic designers, illustrators, and creatives who want to be able to sell online alongside showcasing their work. |
Find Out More:
- Wix Review – Our Wix review is the best place to start if you want to know more about one of the most popular builders available
- Wix Pricing Guide – We zoom in on Wix’s premium plans, and how much it’ll cost you to build a portfolio with them.
#6. Showcase
Made by Shopify
Showcase
Click the image below to expand Showcase is a study in minimalism. Ideal for barbers, the template’s brown- and beige-based palette helps build a brand relevant and attractive to your audience, while the prominent calls-to-action (CTAs) in the top banner will help visitors navigate your portfolio of perms and fresh fades with ease.
You can populate your website’s background with striking full-width images or videos, and show off your products with box-like image grids to differentiate between the different services, products, and packages you offer.
We also love the testimonials and five-star customer reviews this portfolio template allows you to showcase towards the bottom – after all, why boast about your skills when your customers can do it for you?
| Price | $320 |
|---|---|
| Useful features | ✔ Gallery pages ✔ ‘About Me’ page ✔ Client testimonials ✔ Social media links ✔ Contact form ✔ Optimized for mobile devices |
| Suited to | Barbers, hairdressers, male beauty and skincare products |
#7. Publisher
Made by Shopify
Publisher
Click the image below to expand Shopify’s hip, quirky Publisher template is ideal if you want a portfolio with a modern, reinvigorating design. Its image-rich layout plays with form and function – varying the size and placement of the visuals to give your portfolio’s reader an immersive, engaging experience.
There’s plenty of room for copy, too – although the portfolio template’s design language prefers to keep the focus on the images, rather than the words. You can easily showcase gift cards to sell your work, and show off your latest stock arrivals in neat vertical columns that’ll catch eyes, capture minds – and win hearts!
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Useful features | ✔ Gallery pages ✔ ‘About Me’ page ✔ Social media links ✔ Contact form ✔ Optimized for mobile devices |
| Suited to | Photographers, creatives, booksellers, print media enthusiasts, hipsters |
#8. Sketch
Made by WordPress
Eris
Click the image below to expand If your aim is to build a portfolio that mimics the ambiance of an art gallery, Eris is a natural choice. Its striking monochrome palette is the perfect backdrop to show off your work, with multiple page layout options available and a large carousel image slider at the top of the homepage. You can also choose between a standard navigation bar or a hidden menu, to make sure there aren’t any distractions from your images. If you’re looking for elegance and modernism, Eris is a strong contender.
| Price | This WordPress theme is $62, in addition to your WordPress.com plan which will cost between $4 and $45 |
|---|---|
| Useful Features | ✔ Variety of menu display options ✔ Customizable gallery pages ✔ ‘About Me’ page ✔ Blog ✔ Social media links ✔ Contact form ✔ Search function ✔ Optimized for mobile devices |
| Suited To | Photographers and artists |
Find Out More:
- WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – What’s the difference, and which one is best for you? We’ll answer these questions and many more in our comparison guide.
- WordPress.com Review – Once you’ve decided WordPress.com is the one for you, take a look at our full review, where we get stuck into everything it offers.
#10. Fuller Group
Made by GoDaddy
Fuller Group
Click the image below to expand The Fuller Group template channels a strong and industrial design that’s bolder than other portfolio templates. It employs a modern feature set, with large images to showcase your work to its best advantage. The drop-down menu in the navigation bar allows you to separate projects, displaying the many facets of your skillset in one place. We also love the testimonials section at the bottom, so visitors can get a real appreciation for your professionalism.
| Price | GoDaddy plans cost between $9 and $19.99 a month, although there's also a free trial available. |
|---|---|
| Useful Features | ✔ Sticky navigation bar ✔ Project gallery pages ✔ ‘About Me’ page ✔ Social media links ✔ Contact form ✔ Testimonials ✔ Optimized for mobile devices |
| Suited To | Architects, design agencies and consultancies, and corporate creative businesses. |
Find Out More:
- GoDaddy Website Builder Review – Our review will take you through everything GoDaddy offers, and why it could be the builder for you
What Features Do the Best Portfolio Website Templates Have?
In our experience, using a template is the smartest way of getting online fast with a portfolio you can be proud of.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choice, so here are some key features you’ll want to look out for when narrowing your options down:
- A slick and professional aesthetic
- A mobile-friendly, responsive design
- Easy-to-browse galleries for your work
- A contact form
- An ‘About Me’ section
- Links to Social Media
- User testimonials
But what qualifies a template as slick and professional? Look for layouts that don’t feel too cluttered and have plenty of space for high-quality images, as well as a color palette that matches your style of work. It’s also worth checking that it has the capacity to do everything you need it to. If you look at a template and feel like the quality is on par with something you’d pay for, you’re on the right track.
One thing you won’t have to worry about too much is functionality. All premade templates undergo thorough testing to make sure they work properly. So not only will your chosen template look great, but technical errors should be few and far between.
Picking a premade template rather than designing your own doesn’t mean you have to give up your editing rights. All templates are customizable, at least to some extent. This means you can tweak to your heart’s content, safe in the knowledge that the heavy lifting and arduous groundwork has already been done.
This is important if you’re hoping to win new business from your portfolio. 61% of people won’t bother returning to your website if it isn’t optimized for mobile, with 40% of them turning to a competitor site instead. If you want to stand out from the crowd and elevate your chances of attracting new clients, a mobile-friendly design is one of the key basics you need to ace.
All the templates in this list are fully responsive. In fact, all website builders make sure your site can be viewed effectively on a range of mobile devices. Often, you can preview this when you’re customizing your chosen template. Find the small mobile or tablet icon at the top or side of the page, and click between them to double-check how your design will render across different screen sizes.
When picking a template, making sure it has an attractive and easily navigable gallery system is crucial. Not only will this make it easy for potential clients to see what you can do, but it gives your work the space it deserves to shine.
If visitors find your images too difficult to look through, or poorly rendered, they won’t stick around for long. Going without a functional gallery feature will cost you traffic and opportunities.
Not only that, but it puts a face to the work on display, and helps to build up your credibility.
If you select a template without an ‘About Me’ section already included, you can add an extra page when you come to customizing your site, but opting for a design that already ticks this box can save you time. Simply edit the text, add your picture, and you’re ready to start making a good impression!
If a visitor lands on your website to view your work and there aren’t any visible opportunities for them to continue following you, they’ll fade into a search statistic. However, if your social media links are prominently featured, they can follow you and remain up-to-date with the work you’re doing.
Almost all templates come with the option to add your social media icons to your pages, giving users a quick and easy way to become long-term followers.
88% of customers trust online reviews just as much as they do personal recommendations, so if you’ve had positive feedback from previous clients, it’s a good idea to shout about it. It’ll distinguish you from your competitors!
Some templates build testimonials into their homepage design, whereas others have a designated area of the site to store reviews. Which one you opt for is down to personal preference, but both help to promote what you have to offer.
Portfolio Website Templates: Summary
If you were feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of templates out there, we hope that you’re more confident now that we’ve shown you the 10 best templates on the market.
And don’t forget, the designs we’ve featured here only make up a very small slice of what’s on offer. If they aren’t quite what you’re looking for, don’t lose hope. It’s important that you choose a design that complements and accentuates your work – a portfolio isn’t any good if it distracts from the pieces it’s designed to showcase!
Why not start with Squarespace? They came out top in our research process for best designs, so if you’re still undecided, exploring their library of templates – or diving back into some inspiration, with our guide to the best marketing portfolio examples – is a good place to continue your search.
Written by:
Researched by:
Found this article helpful?
Share this article or comment below!
4 comments