If you're reading this, you're aware of what Adobe Portfolio is, as well as of the fact that it may not be perfectly suited to your needs — why else would you be looking for an alternative?
Be it features, price point, or usability, you're curious to know if there are other/better options. I couldn't agree more.
Before I started my freelancing gigs, I spent a couple of months looking through portfolio builders, many of which would be excellent alternatives to Adobe Portfolio. In this piece, I'll discuss these tools to create portfolio websites, ones that could do well as a stand-in for Adobe Portfolio.
📖 What you’ll get out of this article:
• A quick peek into Adobe Portfolio and what makes it popular
• A look at 5 Adobe Portfolio alternatives
• A glance at Authory and why it is an excellent alternative to Adobe Portfolio
What is Adobe Portfolio and what's the hype around it?
Adobe Portfolio
This section is for anyone who might have heard of Adobe Portfolio but hasn't dived into it, features and all.
Offered as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, Adobe Portfolio lets you upload your work samples (especially images) into a professional portfolio website, ready to be viewed by prospective employers. You can publish static web pages with dynamic galleries in order to showcase your best work.
Adobe Portfolio offers online portfolio website templates, so you do not have to start from scratch. You also don't need any coding experience. Just pick a theme, upload your images, type in your bio, and voila!
Adobe Portfolio is especially favored by photographers as it offers specific features ideal for them — dynamic galleries, integration with Adobe Lightroom & Behance, and password protection for single and multiple pages.
Additionally, when you sign up for Adobe Portfolio, you get a custom domain. But you'll have to register and host it manually through a web hosting account. You can also get a domain through Adobe Portfolio, and Namecheap will host your site via its affordable web hosting services, but you'll have to set everything up manually.
As of now, Adobe Portfolio comes bundled with Adobe Creative Cloud, priced at:
Creative Cloud — Photography: $9.99/month
Creative Cloud — All Apps: $54.99/month
5 Adobe Portfolio alternatives you should try out
Authory
Authory
I'll get straight to the point. Authory is an excellent portfolio website builder for many reasons, but the one that makes it worth its price is the automatic importation of content from any website, as long as you enter the source website's URL.
Here's what you do: enter the URL of the website(s) on which your content is published. Within 48 hours of doing so, Authory will automatically import all your bylined content to its database, and make them available at your fingertips. The tool will also continue to import all bylined content published in the future. As long as you publish content, you'll have everything in one searchable, organized location, thanks to Authory.
Authory allows the inclusion of content in text, audio, and video formats. So you can treat it as an audio or video website builder too.
Of course, you can manually add non-bylined content for safekeeping and storage. Once content has been imported, just sort them into collections, and add these collections to your portfolio with a click.
If needed, you can make any collection private to protect your content, and send a link to the specific person/people you want to show your work (in that collection) to.
All imported content is automatically backed up. Anything imported to your Authory account is preserved forever, even if the original webpage with your content on it dies or disappears for some reason. All the backups are in the original content format (text, audio, and video), not screenshots.
There's also an Analytics feature that gives you solid numbers on content engagement every 30 days. You get to know about the number of site visitors as well as interaction, and it's a great way to quickly understand which content is striking a nerve with your audience.
There are plenty of other features (automatic SEO optimization, responsive templates, widgets, email notifications), but the ones I detailed above are more than enough to make Authory add significant value to your day. It builds your portfolio for you by doing the lion's share of the work — actually finding all the work you've done so far, and will continue to do.
Authory’s price
$8/month
🖱️ Authory is, amongst other things, a portfolio builder & content backup service, used by thousands of top professionals worldwide.
SmugMug
SmugMug
You can use SmugMug to create a portfolio, both through still images and/or video. You can also sell your images via this platform, as SmugMug comes with an in-built ability to set up a functioning online store with just a few clicks. However, since SmugMug actually calls itself a "photography website builder" on its website, it's safe to assume that it is best suited for photographers.
SmugMug provides professionally designed templates, a custom domain, in-built SEO optimization, a drag-and-drop custom page builder, custom themes, and unlimited, zero-compression photo storage.
If you can code, the tool allows HTML and CSS customization options.
SmugMug's price
Power Plan: $15/month
Portfolio Plan: $33/month
Pro Plan: $50/month
Squarespace
Squarespace
If you're looking to create your own portfolio websites, then Squarespace is a name you've come across. With gorgeous customizable templates tailored for multiple purposes (depending on the user's needs), getting started with Squarespace is fairly simple.
You get pre-designed layouts carrying necessary sections like the ones for Contact, About Me, Blog, Products, Portfolio, and the like. Everyone can use these elements, but you can stand out with your ability to learn quickly and your out-of-the-box imagination.
You also include multiple content types and page elements: text, photos, videos, audio, galleries, products, newsletter sign-ups, appointments, calendars, tour dates, reservations, menus, forms, maps, links, files, social links, buttons, quotes, custom code, charts, etc.
On top of all this, you can leverage SEO, password protection (of single or multiple web pages), in-built eCommerce features, and numerous extensions to manage marketing, finance, sales, products, inventory, shipping, and the like.
Squarespace's price
Personal Plan: $23/month
Business Plan: $33/month
Commerce Basic: $36/month
Commerce Advanced: $65/month
Portfoliobox
Portfoliobox
Portfoliobox is an excellent option for creating portfolios, especially if you work with visual media like photography and graphic design.
Its major offering is that it lets you use a different theme for every page (if you're creating a multi-page portfolio). You can see why artists, designers, stylists, models, photographers, illustrators, and anyone with a visually creative bend would like this feature.
Like most of the tools in this list, Portfoliobox offers responsive templates, dynamic galleries, and project management features (send content to clients and receive feedback within the tool). You also have password protection for galleries so your work can be viewed without anyone downloading it.
Don't miss the watermarking tool to keep the images you own, and the integration with Adobe Lightroom. You can use the tool's eCommerce features to sell your work directly from your portfolio.
Portfoliobox's price
Light Plan: $3.50/month
Pro Plan: $9.50/month
Pro Plus Plan: $12.50/month
🖱️ Authory is, amongst other things, a portfolio builder & content backup service, used by thousands of top professionals worldwide.
WordPress
WordPress
A massive number of websites on the internet today are WordPress websites. As of 2022, WordPress is used by 43.2% of all websites on the internet. This is no surprise, given the many features and offerings that make WordPress an exceptional website builder.
Obviously, you can use WordPress to create sharp, stunning professional portfolios. Start with choosing from thousands of layouts/customizable templates in the WordPress library, and add everything from photo carousels, maps, tiled image galleries, and forms with a click.
You can include practically any design element — text, photos, forms, Yelp reviews, testimonials, maps, etc., and move them around on your site as you see fit. You can even launch newsletters with a couple of clicks.
You can also choose from thousands of easy‑to‑install add‑ons to expand your site's functionality — capture leads, insert contact forms, institute subscriptions, automatically back up your site, and do much more. And, of course, you can sell your work directly from the site; just activate the eCommerce features.
You can also leverage in-built SEO tools and use custom domain names.
WordPress’ Price
Personal Plan: $4/month
Premium Plan: $8/month
Business Plan: $25/month
eCommerce Plan: $45/month
Why pick Authory as your Adobe Portfolio alternative?
Simply put, Authory is not just cheaper but requires me to do far less work than any other tool on this list.
Honestly, if you're a photographer/visual designer, I recommend that you choose Portfoliobox or SmugMug. They are built for people like you, and you'll find features tailored to meet your immediate needs (watermarking, image protection, etc.).
However, if you're a freelancer writer like me, or a journalist, content marketer, thought leader, or work in a similar domain, Authory is your best friend.
Bear in mind that, unlike every other tool on this list, Authory doesn't require you to upload your own content. You enter the URL of the website where your work is published and let the tool get everything to your dashboard.
Moreover, everything I've ever imported is automatically backed up, so I never have to worry about losing anything I've ever published. At $8 a month, I get assurance of having all my content in one place, and of never losing any of it. I'd say that's worth the investment.
Now, obviously, you shouldn't take my word for it. However, you should probably take Authory's 14-day free trial and let the tool make your life so much easier like it did for me.
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