A design portfolio can live in three kinds of place. There are showcase sites where people browse, portfolio builders made for showing work, and sites on a domain you own. You can use more than one. Below: what each option is, what it costs as its own pages state it, and what happened to people’s work when platforms changed.
Prices were read on each service’s own page on 12 November 2026, in US dollars. They change often, so check before you pay.
1. Three places a portfolio can live
Each option gives you a different mix of reach, effort and control.
| Our reading | Showcase site | Portfolio builder | Your own site |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A profile on a site where people browse work | A website service made for showing creative work | A site at an address you own |
| Who tends to find it | People already browsing that site | Mostly people you send there | Mostly people you send there |
| If you leave | Your profile and its links stay behind | It depends on whether the service lets you export | You can move the domain to another registrar or host |
Our reading: a showcase site brings people to you, and your own site keeps the address yours. You can use both: a profile where clients browse and a home you control.
For example, a designer might post each project on a showcase site and end every post with a link to their own site.
2. Showcase sites: where people browse
A showcase site puts your work where clients and other creatives are already looking.
Dribbble and Behance
Dribbble and Behance are two design showcases, and our side-by-side page covers them in detail.
Our Dribbble vs Behance page compares what each costs, the fees on paid work and the rules you agree to. One detail matters here.
Try this: if you already post on Behance, check whether you can turn the same projects into a site on your own domain.
ArtStation
ArtStation is a showcase for art and design that also gives members a portfolio website.
ArtStation says its portfolio site updates itself: “As you post artwork, it will automatically post to your site.” Its feature list includes a “Custom domain name with HTTPS”. Its help pages say the site’s address is username.artstation.com unless you have a Premium subscription, which lets you use your own domain. It accepts high-resolution images, video, Marmoset and Sketchfab 3D scenes and 360 panoramas. Members can also sell digital assets and prints there.
Try this: if you use the portfolio site on a Premium plan, connect your own domain, so the address stays yours if you ever move.
Cara
Cara is a social and portfolio platform for artists that says it filters AI-generated images out of portfolios.
Cara describes itself as “a social and portfolio platform for artists and people who love art”. Its about page says it uses “AI detection that filters out AI images from portfolios”. It says it “won’t host AI-generated portfolios” unless the ethical and data privacy issues around datasets “are resolved via regulation”.
Try this: if you want your work shown only beside human-made work, read Cara’s about page and see whether its stance fits you.
Contra
Contra is a portfolio and freelance network that says it takes no commission from creatives.
Contra’s pricing page says it “is always commission-free for all creatives”. Its Free plan is $0 a month, and Pro is $199 a year or $29 a month. Its fee table lists fees on client payments and digital products for the Free plan, and says its plans can “waive fees for anyone paying you”. The page notes that its fees do not include “payment processing fees charged by third-party providers”.
Watch for: read the fee table for your plan before you send a client an invoice through it.
Coroflot
Coroflot is a design portfolio site that also runs a job board for design roles.
Coroflot says it launched in 1997 and hosts “over 2 million images”. It says it was “created by designers, for designers”. Its about page lists industrial, fashion, 3D modeling, architecture, illustration, graphic and UX design among the fields it covers.
Try this: if you are job hunting in one of those fields, a profile here sits next to the job listings.
Peerlist
Peerlist is a professional network for tech workers that can also act as a portfolio site.
Peerlist describes itself as a community “for all tech professionals, especially designers and developers”. It says a profile “can be a replacement to your portfolio”. It says you can host your profile “on your own custom domain”, and that this is free.
Try this: if your work is spread across several sites, a profile like this can gather the links in one place.
3. Portfolio builders: a site made for showing work
A portfolio builder gives you a website made for showing creative work, without writing code.
The five below are listed in alphabetical order, not ranked.
Adobe Portfolio
Adobe Portfolio comes with most Creative Cloud plans and with Behance Pro.
Adobe’s page says Portfolio is “now included free with any Creative Cloud subscription”. Adobe’s Portfolio help centre says it is included in most Creative Cloud plans, and lists plans that do not include it, such as Adobe Express and Acrobat Pro. It is also part of Behance Pro, as noted above.
Try this: if you already pay for Creative Cloud, check whether you already have Portfolio before paying for another builder.
Cargo
Cargo is a site builder that says it is priced with the budgets of artists and designers in mind.
Cargo’s rates page says: “There is only one price for Cargo: $14/mo (when billed yearly, or $19/mo when billed monthly).” A subscription includes one custom domain connection. Cargo offers free use to students, teachers and related administrators. Its help pages answer “Can I export my site?” with “We do not offer an export option at this time”.
Watch for: without an export, moving later means rebuilding the site by hand.
Carbonmade
Carbonmade lets you build for free and pay only when you publish.
Carbonmade’s pricing page says: “You start with a free unlimited trial. No credit card required. You only pay when you choose to go live.” Its three plans are $9.99, $14.99 and $24.99 a month, or $99, $149 and $249 a year. It says you can connect a domain you already own.
Try this: build the whole site during the trial and publish only once it is ready.
Format
Format is a portfolio builder with templates and features aimed at photographers, filmmakers, artists and designers.
Format offers a two-week free trial. Its Basic plan is $10 a month billed annually or $14 monthly, with 4 website pages and 70 high-resolution images.
Watch for: compare the page and image limits on the cheapest plan with the size of your portfolio.
UXfolio
UXfolio is a portfolio builder made for UX designers and their case studies.
UXfolio’s paid plan is $9 a month billed $108 yearly, or $15 billed monthly. Its 7-day free trial lets you build, but publishing, buying a domain and collecting reviews are not available during it.
Try this: draft one case study during the trial to see whether the case-study sections suit how you work.
How sure: Strong each price and limit is from the service’s own page on 12 November 2026, but plans change often.
4. Your own site
A site on a domain you own keeps your address the same, whatever you build it with.
Own the domain
The domain name is the part you can carry from one service to another.
In plain words, a domain registrar is a company that sells domain names. ICANN says registrars “are accredited by ICANN organization and certified by the registries to sell domain names”. ICANN’s registrant FAQ says “it is your right to transfer your domain name registrations between registrars”. A registrar may deny a transfer if the domain is within 60 days of its first registration. ICANN’s rules cover generic domains such as .com.
A custom domain is your own address, such as yourname.com, connected to a site that another service hosts. Several of the services above let you connect one.
Try this: register the domain in an account you control, so it stays with you if you change builders.
Choose a builder you can leave
If you use a general website builder, check what it lets you take with you.
Our web design guide lists what Webflow, Framer, Wix, Squarespace and other builders say about exporting a site.
Try this: keep your own copies of every image, video and case-study text, so a rebuild starts from files you already hold.
Or host plain files
A site made of plain files can be put on many different hosts.
The same guide’s hosting section compares places to put such a site, and what a traffic spike can cost.
For example, a one-page portfolio of images and text can be uploaded as a folder of files.
5. When platforms change or close
Platforms get sold, change their rules or close, and these dated examples show what users were told to do.
- From 8 January 2019, Flickr limited free accounts to 1,000 photos and videos, and said anyone needing unlimited storage would need Flickr Pro.
- CG Press reported that CGSociety would close from 8 January 2024, and that members were encouraged to download their personal content first.
- In January 2025, TechCrunch reported that Read.cv would wind down after Perplexity bought it, and that users could export profiles, posts and messages until 16 May.
- Dribbble said that on 31 March 2025 it would remove direct contact details from profiles that still showed them.
- Bento said it would shut down on 13 February 2026 and redirect its pages to Linktree. It said user and profile data would be deleted, and asked users to export anything they wanted to keep.
- In August 2026, ArtStation announced it was becoming part of KitBash, and said there were no changes to how creators access or use it.
Our reading: in cases like these, people who already kept their own copies and their own address had less to rescue.
How sure: Strong each date comes from the platform’s own announcement or a named news report from the time.
What a platform may do with the work you upload is a separate question. Our Dribbble vs Behance page covers what you agree to when you upload on those two sites, and our page on what happens to your work when you upload it looks at the terms of more platforms.
6. Before you choose
A few questions asked early can save a rebuild later.
These are our suggestions:
- Can I export it? If not, plan on rebuilding by hand if you ever leave.
- Can I use my own domain? An address you own can follow you to the next service.
- Where will clients see it? A showcase brings browsers; your own site needs you to send people.
- What does a year cost? Compare yearly and monthly billing, and check what the cheapest plan leaves out.
Quick answers
Where can I host a design portfolio?
On a showcase site where people browse work, on a portfolio builder made for showing creative work, or on a site at an address you own. You can use more than one.
Is Adobe Portfolio free?
It comes with most Creative Cloud plans, Adobe's help pages say, and with Behance Pro. Some Adobe plans, such as Adobe Express, do not include it.
Can I move my portfolio to another builder later?
It depends on the builder. Cargo's help pages say it does not offer an export option. Your domain, though, can be transferred between registrars.
What happens to my portfolio if a platform closes?
In the closures we read, users were given a date to export their work. Bento said it would delete user and profile data after it shut down.
Use this
Our suggestion: three habits that keep your portfolio yours, wherever it is hosted.
If this platform closed tomorrow, what would I still have?
Quick quiz
Nothing is scored or saved. Recalling it once now is what makes it last.
1. What do Cargo's help pages say about exporting a site?
Answer: There is no export option.Read it again ↑
2. What does ICANN's registrant FAQ say about moving a domain to another registrar?
Answer: It is your right to transfer it between registrars.Read it again ↑
3. What did Bento ask its users to do before it shut down?
Answer: Export anything they wanted to keep.Read it again ↑
How we checked this · Last checked November 2026
- We read each service's own about or pricing page on 12 November 2026, without signing in. Prices are in US dollars as shown that day.
- Adobe Portfolio's page loads its text by script, so its own page description and its help centre were used. Bento's farewell post now redirects, so an Internet Archive copy was read.
- The CGSociety and Read.cv closures come from named news reports at the time. The other dated changes come from the platforms themselves.
- Dribbble, Behance, builder export and hosting are covered on two of our other pages, linked rather than repeated.