Portfoliobox

Portfoliobox is a browser-based portfolio builder for visual creatives who want a website alongside tools for client work and sales. It suits independent photographers, designers, artists and other image-led professionals best. Its lasting free plan is a useful starting point, but a growing portfolio or working business will likely need Professional.

Overview

Portfoliobox combines portfolio publishing with commerce and business tools, without requiring software downloads or hosting setup. Hundreds of templates, page-by-page design choices and responsive layouts give visual work room to vary its presentation. The main trade-off is the sharp divide between the small free site and the paid features needed to operate a business.

Key features

Templates can be mixed across pages or customized, and gallery layouts include full-bleed, grid, masonry, slideshow and lightbox. That flexibility helps creatives present different kinds of work without settling on one gallery treatment for the whole site. Pages adapt to desktop, tablet and mobile, and hosting and SSL are included on every plan.

The free site allows five pages and 30 PNG, JPG or GIF images on a Portfoliobox subdomain. It stays online indefinitely, with no credit card required, so it is a real small portfolio rather than a timed trial. The image ceiling will soon constrain a photographer with a substantial body of work. Images can be up to 24MB, and those larger than 1920px are resized automatically.

Professional adds e-commerce for physical products and digital files, bookings, appointments, invoicing, quotes, analytics, custom email and client-sharing controls. Portfoliobox takes no commission on sales, and payment options include Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Klarna, Google Pay and Apple Pay. File sharing supports files up to 1GB, with links expiring from one hour to 30 days; password-protected pages are useful for keeping client work private. These tools make the plan more than a publishing upgrade, though they are unnecessary overhead for someone who only wants a small showcase.

SEO fields, an automatic sitemap, built-in analytics and support for Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager and Meta Pixel cover basic discovery and measurement needs. Third-party embeds include Calendly, Figma, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Slides, Spotify, Typeform, Sketchfab and StudioNinja. Professional subscribers can also export images from Adobe Lightroom directly to their portfolio. Email support is included on every plan, and an AI assistant answers questions around the clock.

Pricing

Free: free, billed 0 forever. It includes 30 images, five pages, a Portfoliobox subdomain and a mobile-responsive site. This is a strong fit for a compact personal showcase, but its page and image caps make it a poor home for a growing archive. There is no free trial because the free site itself has no time limit.

Personal: €8.90 a month, billed $8.9 /month. It raises the allowance to 150 images, 15 pages and 100 blog posts, and adds a custom domain. Choose it for a personal portfolio that has outgrown the free limits; it does not include the commerce and business tools reserved for Professional.

Professional: €15.90 a month, billed $15.9 /month. It includes 1,000 images and pages, a custom domain, custom email, e-commerce, bookings, invoicing, analytics, file sharing and password-protected pages. It is the relevant option for creatives who sell work or manage client appointments and documents, but its broader business suite is difficult to justify for a portfolio-only site.

Prices exclude VAT, which depends on the billing country. Annual eligible plans include domain registration for the first year; monthly plans do not.

Platforms

Portfoliobox runs in a web browser, with no download required. Its responsive templates adapt to desktop, tablet and mobile, making the site usable across screen sizes without a separate mobile app.

Who it's for

Photographers, designers, architects, models, makeup artists, illustrators and artists can use the templates and galleries to present visual work. The free plan suits a small initial portfolio; Personal fits a larger showcase with a blog, while Professional is for creatives who also want sales, bookings or invoicing in the same service.

Pros and cons

• Pros: The free site remains online indefinitely and needs no card, giving new creatives a practical way to publish a small portfolio.
• Pros: Flexible templates and five gallery styles support varied visual presentation across pages.
• Pros: Professional combines sales, appointments, invoices and client sharing, with no commission taken from sales.
• Cons: Five pages and 30 images make the free plan restrictive for established or image-heavy portfolios.
• Cons: Commerce, bookings and client tools require Professional, so Personal will not suit users who need those capabilities.
• Cons: Monthly plans do not include first-year domain registration, and VAT is added according to billing country.

Alternatives

For a broader portfolio website builder comparison, start with the category guide. Choose Framer instead if its free plan’s 500 AI credits, free Framer domain and 1 GB bandwidth better match a design-led site. Gesso is worth considering for an artwork-focused portfolio with a free allowance of 10 artworks and three images per artwork. Wfolio offers a free plan with 120 GB storage, a different priority for photographers concerned with storage capacity. Journo Portfolio is the alternative to consider for a web-based portfolio with annual Plus pricing at $7 a month. Pixieset Website offers a free mobile-optimized site with 15 pages and 100 photos. Weblly, UOVA and Portfolio Studio are other free-plan alternatives.

Verdict

Choose Portfoliobox if you want a visual portfolio that can grow into a place to sell work, take bookings and handle client files. Its permanent free tier is a credible way to start, and Professional’s commission-free commerce and business tools are the strongest reason to pay. Look elsewhere if you need generous free image capacity or only want a simple showcase without paying for business features.