It is said that Instagram killed the personal photography portfolio websites, but having an online portfolio still matters. Even if your Instagram account or your Facebook page draws their attention first, serious art buyers or potential clients usually head to your website afterwards, and at that point, having an online presence with a decent portfolio makes a great difference.
I used to have several websites running on different platforms like WordPress. WordPress has lots of developers and you can find thousands of designs. Also, it is known that most websites are based on WordPress and it is good for search engine optimization, however, it is a system built with different components and each component should be compatible with each other in order to run your site flawlessly. It also requires a serious knowledge and effort for regular updates and maintenance. I worked with web designers for my custom website, but the designs and features never resulted as I expected. So, I decided to go on with an online website builder to save time and take the full control my website in an affordable way. In that period, I got a chance to try some online website builder platforms and here are my opinions:
Squarespace
Personally, I have been using Squarespace for the last eight months. I’m happy with the results, and the whole system is really easy to use. Drag and drop system works flawlessly, especially on Google Chrome and Firefox, but there are some problems on Safari. Some templates that I used to like, are no longer supported, and the recent templates are not very unique. On the other side, the support page is really beneficial, and you can easily find a solution if a problem occurs during the building of your site. Also, with a little effort and a basic html and CSS knowledge, you can also insert some useful codes that let you create before/after galleries. The prices are still a little high in my opinion.
Price:
Personal Plan: $12 for yearly subscription / $16 for monthly subscription
Business Plan: $18 for yearly subscription / $26 for monthly subscription
Pros: Ease of use and installation, modern tools and templates.
Cons: Still expensive, and the free Google Adwords coupon only works within United States. Also, if you have different sets of shots that you want to show separately, you have to create separate pages, not galleries. When you exceed 20 pages, you have to subscribe for the business plan, which is more expensive. Lastly, I’d like to have a horizontal in-page gallery for showing my images, but it seems like it is impossible if you have different sets of images like I do. Good galleries are only available if you want to use your images mixed in a single gallery, which I personally don’t prefer.
I personally use Squarespace, and I tried to build a minimal design
Wix
Before going on Squarespace, I also tried Wix, just because they have a native app-market which lets you install some useful add-ons like before/after galleries. However, the site dimensions are limited to 980px and I think it is quite narrow for 2016 standards. On some templates, you can change it to 1280px or use full width templates which are only available in parallax templates, but I personally don’t like parallax templates for online photography portfolios. And as a photographer, I prefer showing my photos as large as possible, and I don’t want to use small thumbnails either.
Price:
Combo Plan: $8.25/month
Business Plan: $12.42/month
Pros: Cheaper alternative and lots of customization options with its built-in app app market.
Cons: Wix would be ideal for start-ups, designers, and people who want to launch a personal branding website, but for photographers, to be honest, I didn’t find it suitable. Also, the combo plan includes limited bandwidth, which can be easily exceeded if you have a lot of visitors, and as a result your site will be shut down till the next billing period.
SITE123
SITE123 offers a great website building option that requires no design or coding skills. It's one of the easiest website builders out there.
Price: $10.80 USD/month basic yearly plan, $16.80 USD/month advanced yearly plan, $22.80 USD/month professional yearly plan, $28.80/month gold yearly plan
Pros: There are excellent style and layout options, automatic responsive web design, dozens of different languages available with translation tools, and great SEO results.
Cons: There is no access to the source code and there is advertising that comes with the free plan. No user access is available and you are not able to create large and complex e-commerce websites yet.
PhotoFolio
PhotoFolio looks like the best option in terms of designs and gallery customization, because it is obviously built for photographers. However, they are the most expensive service that require $1000 for initial setup and $17 for monthly payments. They also have a plan that requires only $34 per month without initial setup fee, but still it is pricey enough. The overall designs are not quite different than the opponents, but the gallery designs are definitely better. On their website, they claim that they are different than $9 websites as they present the best options, however I couldn’t see a major difference instead of the full size gallery features.
Price:
They offer three different plans starting from $17 with $1000 (4x$250) starting fees.
Pros: Useful gallery features and unlimited bandwidth.
Cons: Really expensive, and the features stated as “premium” and “different than the others” are not actually so different and unique. Many other website building services also have the same or similar features.
22 Slides
22 Slides is a new service and it has the same features like the others. It supports CSS customization, password protected file access, SEO support, and most importantly it is retina ready and mobile friendly like some other alternatives. So far, 22 Slides looks like it will be an alternative for my next personal website design.
Prices: $10 fixed price
Pros: Affordable, and quite enough for a portfolio website. Standard features and pricing is convincing.
Cons: Lack of built in before/after sliders, and the gallery options should be improved.
Format
Format has been known for years, and they adapted their designs to industry standard, but when I started searching about custom website building services, Format unfortunately didn’t satisfy me with its boring and usual designs. On the other side, the prices are affordable and they present the same-old features like its rivals.
Price: Prices start from $6 per month (of course when you accept to pay annually) and they have several plans up to $44 per month
Pros: Easy to build, a good alternative for amateur photographers
Cons: Out-dated templates, lack of customization
Photoshelter
Photoshelter is another alternative to online website builders, but the designs are not so different than the others. So, let’s take a look at the prices, pros, and cons:
Price:
Basic – $9.99/month
Standard – $29.99/month
Pro – $49.99/month
Pros: You can upload any image format including RAW, PSD, TIF, PDF and JPG and unlimited bandwidth on all plans.
Cons: Only nine basic mobile-ready templates which are quite usual.
Adobe Portfolio (a.k.a Behance ProSite)
Adobe has made a big step by incorporating Behance Network and they also re-built the Behance’s ProSite under a different name: My Portfolio. Anyone can use Adobe Portfolio with their custom domains as long as they’re subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud, which makes My Portfolio almost a free solution for personal portfolios.
Price: Free for Creative Cloud Subscribers
Pros: It is easy to use, and your Behance.net portfolio is integrated automatically
Cons: Not good enough for photographers, and the designs are still the same even Adobe claims they have been working on it for a long time.
Pixpa
Pixpa offers a well rounded portfolio website builder for photographers and creatives. You can sign up with a free trial to explore their platform which includes an integrated e-commerce store, blogging options, client gallery features, and more. They offer versatile and responsive themes with over 15 layouts to choose from and 24/7 email support.
Price: Plans range between $5 - $15/month.
Pros: Responsive themes, multiple gallery options, integrated e-commerce store, and a helpful support team.
Cons: Ideal for portfolio building but not for more elaborate websites.
Some Notes for First Time Builders
- It's better to get a domain name from well-known domain providers such as GoDaddy. Therefore, it will be easier to connect your domain to any online-built website as you can easily find instructions.
- Before launching your website, preview your design on different devices and screens with different resolutions. There are some online services for that, so you basically don't have to own various devices and screens.
- If you want additional features like sticky footers or before/after galleries, ask to support teams if your custom code will be supported or not, before paying and going online.
- Be careful about the prices, as the lower prices are usually for annual subscriptions. If you want to try for a short amount of time, beware of subscribing annually.
Conclusion
Before choosing the right platform for your online portfolio, it is vital to check some important features that required for today’s standards such as responsiveness and mobile device support. In addition, it is always better to find the right features that will suit your needs with the most affordable price. Most of these companies, claim that they’re built for “pro photographers,” but as we all know, this is just a marketing trick for convincing, as many professional photographers out there using different solutions for their online presence. So, if you want to go with an online site builder, just try the ones that you liked and check whether they met your requirements or not. If you have any experience with these kind of site builders, please share in the comments section below.
Flash not really a platform. And since even Adobe is not promoting Flash anymore, why use it. Mobil devices cannot access Flash anyway.I use Zenfolio and the top plan is $240 per year. Not really good for SEO unless you use Zenfolio as your own domain. The same might be also true with Photoshelter . I also have made my own site with Rapidweaver. I have yet to try 500 px.
I use jigsy.com for my own portfolio, I also work for them. We offer a freemium package to try then offer several different paid packages based on your needs. I created a promo code for anyone wanting 30% off their upgrade: fstop2016
I have both Squarespace and Format sites for different businesses. Squarespace can do some of the things you mentioned, but you have to know HTML/CSS and add your code to their custom library. Not saying that's easy, but it's also not impossible as you indicated.
For what it's worth, Format has done me well http://www.geoffbadner.com
Hi Geoffrey, very nice website! By the way, I don't think I've indicated using CSS is impossible on my post :) I wanted to say default customization (not css) is missing on Format, cheers
Why do you say Portfolio isn't good for photographers? I recently just switched to it for a bit while I try out different websites. So far I like it though.
Hi Kris,
I used to try Portfolio and Behance Prosite in the past, but what I didn't like is; all designs and layotus are the same and you cannot change them (actually you can but I didn't want to deal with css)
Also, if you want to show an image on full size, scrolling vertically cuts the images which I really don't like
Yeah, that was a big thing i noticed. There were only like 4 templates to use and they were very basic. Though i tend to keep my site very basic and minimalist.
Thanks for responding, This article was perfectly timed since I had just started looking at other website builders!
I use it for what it is literally named for; a portfolio. If I'm looking to supply something to a potential employer to prove I can do a particular job, I'll send them a link to my Adobe portfolio. I can stick folders of assorted genres of photography in there, without every claiming that I'm a "specialist". If I want to market my work as a fashion photographer, or as a real estate photographer, I prefer to have seperate dedicated websites for them. I don't find Adobe's site design templates beautiful enough for a fashion site (hence Squarespace), and I'm still searching for something that would work better as a more functional commercial site for my real estate work.
Currently I'm using www.allyou.net, do you guys think this is ok? Or recommend I change to others? $8/month or 15/month. Thanks for advise.
http://www.allyou.net/en/pricing
Hi Simon,
If you're happy with the loading times (on different machines) and the design, then go for it, also check your SEO rankings (you can find more info on google). If the results aren't so good, then you can consider changing to another, I didn't add Allyou to this list as it was quite similar to some others on the list,
Cheers
Thanks Burak Erzincanli!!
Why no mention of PhotoDeck? They are the only ones I know of that support multiple languages on your site, and they have tons of advanced functionality, but can still be kept easy to setup.
Cheers,
Eivind
PhotoDeck are great, good customer support too.
Ah! This article is just what I needed! I have been with Livebooks.com for 6yrs now and I love the simplicity of their setup and ease of use. Recently/finally they made switch from Flash to HTML 5 I believe so they are trying to keep up with other services. My question to you Burak is, could you take a look at their service/offerings and share your thoughts in an "Update" to this article sometime? Their service is a lil pricey but man do they make things a breeze for me. I tried both Format and Squarespace and did not see the WOW! factor in either to be honest. Im on the fence about trying a new service. Anyone else out there in the comments try or currently use Livebooks?
Hi Derya,
Actually I didn't add Livebooks on purpose as they are more expensive than Adobe subscriptions and with the basic plan you cannot even change the favicon of your website. To be honest, I don't think Livebooks is photographer friendly, due to their pricing policy.
Thats not good news lol. Im so torn. I signed on for their lowest tier to jump into the HTML 5 layout from Flash. Their pricing structure is horrid lol to be honest, they like to nickel and dime you which sucks but the internals of the site building layout is so fluid. More than the favicon I'm sad they don't offer developer tools to all the tiers.
Yola is great for me and its free if you tag their name at the end of your domain name
Please give Imagely.com/hosting a good look. We have built a platform that's getting closer and closer to the simplicity of Squarespace but running on WordPress. I wouldn't give up on WordPress, especially since it runs more of the Internet than any other platform. Photographers can do nearly everything they need with a WordPress website, including having an iOS or Android app, a portfolio, sell photos and so much more.
Hi Scott,
Your system looks good but I think anyone can buy any premium theme about 40-50$ for a lifetime license, and with a 5$ monthly cloud hosting, it will be far cheaper than your system, so what are your advantages on Imagely?
You're very right, but to the point of WordPress not being included in this article - WordPress can be confusing. Imagely Hosting manages your site for you, and even sets it up for you. It's a turnkey solution for photographers who don't have the patience, time or desire to manage a WordPress website, but understand the value in having one.
So the price you're paying for is fast, quality servers on the Amazon cloud, with a management team behind it to support you in any way possible. Many of us are also photographers and other artists, so we understand the needs of our customers.
Oh, and we're launching print lab integration for WordPress ;-)
SiteGround.com seems to have the same features but it's cheaper. I have had zero issues iwth Site Ground, they are awesome.
It's actually quite different. SiteGround is a shared hosting company. Imagely Hosting is not shared hosting. It's individual cloud servers per site. More on that here https://www.imagely.com/shared-hosting-vs-managed-hosting/
Also, SiteGround doesn't offer turnkey websites for photographers. They offer a WordPress installer.
Wow, but for that price I can pretty much use Wordpress.com and have it all managed by Automattic. The idea is pretty good, but the price is too high. :(
A big shared server might run faster than a dedicated server with limited resources. Without specs and testing the statement itself is of little value.
Once you have WP and a theme you essentially have a site.
I've always been happy with Zenfolio. With the amount of prints that I typically sell year round it's absolutely perfect for it.
I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion on Squarespace. I have multiple sites running with it and I am designing them professionally for other clients.
But my biggest concern with Squarespace is still:
- no (or very limited support) of multiple language websites
- not the most fluid display of photos (even though I only use a resolution of max. 1500x1000px) - I guess the caching is not optimal
- AND - which I find very important for photographers: you cannot implement (by default) a "PDF selection function" by which you - as a client - can custom select photos of the website for downloading or printing purposes - this is a feature which I have been requested in the past and is very difficult to implement into Squarespace - I wish Squarespace would make that happen because Art Directors are lazy when they have to sift through many photographers' websites. With PDF selection your chances to end up (printed) on the table with a short list in the editor's room are higher.
I have only seen this function (as part of the standard features) in Foliodrop (www.foliodrop-welcome.com)
Wow, Smugmug didn't make the cut? They're great... best customer service/experience I've had in a long time.
I too was surprised to see that it didn't make to the list... I'm in the process of moving from squarespace to smugmug and I found it pretty easy to use, reasonably priced and with the great advantage of having the printing labs included in the website so you can start selling prints right away (this last feature is what made me move to smugmug)
You mention WordPress, and being that 25% of the Internet runs on WordPress, I don’t think it should be passed up. I have been using Imagely.com for a while now. It's made it easier for me to get more on board with WordPress and given me more time for my photography. They offer a turnkey solution, like Squarespace, except you control your content because it’s turnkey on WordPress.
without doing some PHP editing wordpress as a responsive design for tablets and phones can be a nightmare depending on the theme.
The themes Imagely hosting comes with are already responsive. Plus there are hundreds upon hundreds of already responsive themes available for WordPress.
Been using 22Slides for a few years now. (www.jeanclaudephoto.com) Extremely happy with them. I tried Squarespace when I was making my decision and I had a site built in half the time using 22S. Super easy interface, especially if you're someone who wasn't born to build websites.
Actually have to disagree with the cons mentioned. They have more gallery options than most, and tweaks like the B/A slider require little bits of code you can contact them for and they will respond very promptly. Customer service is top notch.
And Wordpress?
I was so surprised to see WordPress excluded.
You score zero for reading skills and comprehension.
Excuse me?
Can't believe SmugMug isn't up here.
I am using since 3 years PhotoDeck, very fast loading, an excellent tool adapted to the workflow of photographers, templates can be easily personalized, and multi language, example : www.matthiaskoch.fr
Have shifted from Smugmug to Pixpa recently and it is one of the best decisions I've made for my photography business. Pixpa as they claim is built specially for photographers, which becomes very much clear when you start using the product. Selling pictures is a breeze, and within the same portfolio website. With elegant themes and complete flexibility over the website, it is one of the best option for photographers.