Whether you're a UX designer, freelance writer, or photographer, an impressive online portfolio is critical for impressing potential clients, and landing future jobs.
A digital portfolio enables you to cultivate and display your very best work -- additionally, if you don't have a ton of prior experience in the industry, a portfolio can help you display your skills and talent with mock projects.
But crafting a good digital portfolio can feel like a daunting task, especially when you aren't even sure which website you should use to create one. Here, we've created a list of the nine best portfolio websites for designers, freelancers, and photographers, to ensure you're able to showcase your best work in any industry.
Best Free Portfolio Websites for Freelance Writers
1. Journo Portfolio
On Journo Portfolio you can create a sleek, modern digital portfolio easily. The site offers six distinct themes, and adding an article is as easy as pasting a URL and clicking add -- the site takes care of incorporating the title, publication, date, content, and image. Features include the ability to integrate with Google Analytics or use Journo's built-in analytics tools to measure visitors. Additionally, your site is automatically mobile-ready.
You can also blog straight from the platform, which could be useful if you want to showcase freelance work and your current blog in one place. Journo lets you create multiple pages, so you can have a Contact Me or About Me page, as well as your freelance portfolio.
Note: It's free for a name.journoportfolio.com URL (10 articles max), but for a custom domain URL and unlimited articles, you'll need to pay for a Pro version ($5-$10 per month).
Image courtesy of Journo.
2. Muck Rack
Muck Rack is a free media database that helps connect journalists with PR professionals, so if you use the site, you'll have good opportunities to network and receive PR pitches. You can even include specific topics you don't want to cover, which will filter out unfit pitches.
Additionally, for true ease-of-use, Muck Rack creates and maintains your portfolio for you by automatically compiling articles and social media profiles. Once it's finished, you have the option to customize your bio, or choose to spotlight certain pieces.
Muck Rack also offers a news alerts system, which enables you to track stories or tweets about a company, brand, or specific story angle. With their news alerts system, you can see when other journalists share information or publish stories related to your work, which will help you stay on-top of trends.
Image courtesy of Muckrack.com/ggreenwald.
3. WordPress
WordPress, a major content management platform, lets you create a blog on their platform for free. While not specifically geared towards freelance writers, WordPress offers plenty of impressive responsive themes to craft a unique blog and showcase your work. If you want complete creative control over your portfolio, this is a good option for you.
Additionally, you might choose to use WordPress if you want to showcase your writing along with other skills -- if you want a page for Writing and a page for your photography, for instance, WordPress offers a variety of themes and is flexible enough to enable you to demonstrate various pieces of creative work.
Image courtesy of Wetheparents.org.
Best Free Portfolio Websites for Designers
4. Behance
With millions of UX/UI designers, artists, and photographers on the site, Behance is one of the most widely-used online portfolio websites. It's also extremely simple and easy to use -- you can organize your work based on project, list projects under construction, and ask followers for feedback. Additionally, the site allows you to link your portfolio to your social media accounts.
Behance's massive digital community makes it a good option to get your name out there, particularly since recruiters and interviewers peruse the site to find talent, as well. However, Behance displays the number of people who have viewed your work and liked it, making it riskier than a more straightforward website portfolio.
Image courtesy of Behance.
5. Adobe Portfolio
Adobe Portfolio offers options to create a single-page website, or a full gallery of your work. With Adobe Portfolio you're able to set up a sleek and customized portfolio in minutes, and each of the platform's themes are automatically optimized for any device.
Additionally, Adobe Portfolio offers users a free Creative Cloud subscription service as part of the package, as well as the ability to integrate with Behance to import your projects for greater visibility.
Image courtesy of Garrett Byrum.
6. Crevado
One of the easiest free portfolio websites, Crevado lets you use a simple drag-and-drop tool to upload your projects and rearrange on the screen for true ease-of-use. The site is also automatically optimized for any device, so your portfolio can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet as well as a desktop. Best of all, you can customize your design to suit your preferences without writing any code.
Image courtesy of Kmbillustration.com.
Best Free Portfolio Websites for Photographers
7. Flickr
Undoubtedly one of the most well-known portfolio sites with billions of photos and millions of members, Flickr is a good site to share your own work, connect with other photographers, and find inspiration for future projects.
However, Flickr's community-oriented platform can make it difficult to showcase your best work and appear professional -- particularly since the site is typically used to share images with friends and family. For this reason, many designers also suggest creating a more polished portfolio website, and then linking to that website from Flickr. 
Image courtesy of Flickr.
8. Portfoliobox
Portfoliobox is a website builder specifically designed for photographers, and it's a good option for crafting a professional-looking responsive gallery of your best work. Additionally, Portfoliobox offers an e-commerce link which allows you to sell your prints or other artwork directly from the site. With the free sign-up, you'll receive a domain name, and a blog to further attract visitors to your site.
Best of all, Portfoliobox doesn't make you use a standard theme -- instead, you can integrate any style for any page to cultivate a unique, one-of-a-kind website. With more than one million users, it's a good option for both professional and novice photographers.
Image courtesy of Mika Suutari.
9. YouPic
YouPic's users include famous photographers like Joel Meyerowitz and Julia Fullerton-Batten. Another site specifically designed for photographers, YouPic enables you to craft a free stunning portfolio to showcase your work.
Additionally, the site offers trainings to improve your photography skills, as well as a Pinterest-style "Explore" page that lets you check out popular photographs, new artwork, and stories to inspire your own gallery. And, most interesting to note, YouPic allows users the opportunity to copyright their photos on the blockchain, and is the first decentralized photography platform.
Image courtesy of YouPic.
For further inspiration, check out 21 Memorable Photography Portfolio Websites to Inspire You or The 12 Best Graphic Design Portfolios We've Ever Seen, & How to Start Your Own.
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