Overview

Portfoliobox brings portfolio publishing together with sales, bookings and invoicing, without requiring software downloads or separate hosting setup. Hundreds of templates, flexible page-by-page design choices and responsive layouts make it adaptable to varied creative work. The trade-off is a clear divide between the small free site and the paid features aimed at running a business.

Key features

Templates can be switched, mixed across pages or customized, and galleries support full-bleed, grid, masonry, slideshow and lightbox layouts. That range gives visual portfolios room to present work differently by page rather than forcing one gallery style throughout. Sites adapt to desktop, tablet and mobile, and every plan includes hosting and SSL certificates.

The free site supports five pages and 30 PNG, JPG or GIF images on a Portfoliobox subdomain. It remains online indefinitely, with no credit card required, so it can serve as a genuine small portfolio rather than a timed evaluation. The image cap is restrictive for photographers with substantial bodies of work; each image may be up to 24MB, and images wider than 1920px are automatically resized.

Paid plans add domains and storage; Professional also includes commerce, bookings, invoicing, email, analytics, file sharing and password-protected pages. Commerce covers physical goods and digital files, with payment options including Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Klarna, Google Pay and Apple Pay. Portfoliobox takes no commission, which is attractive to sellers, though payment processing terms are not covered here.

Business tools include appointments, scheduling, quotes and QR-code in-person payments. Professional file sharing supports files up to 1GB, with links set to expire from one hour to 30 days. SEO fields, an automatic sitemap, built-in analytics and support for Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager and Meta Pixel help connect a portfolio to promotion and measurement. 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 a portfolio.

Email support is available on every plan, alongside an AI assistant that answers around the clock. Portfoliobox says it complies with GDPR and lets users access, edit and delete personal data.

Pricing

Free: 0.00 USD per free, billed 0 forever. It includes 30 images, five pages, a Portfoliobox subdomain and a mobile-responsive site. This is the sensible starting point for a compact portfolio, but not for a large image archive or a business needing its own domain.

Personal: 8.90 EUR per month. It raises the limits to 150 images, 15 pages and 100 blog posts, and includes a custom domain. This fits a growing personal site, but the listed plan features do not include the commerce and business tools bundled with Professional.

Professional: 15.90 EUR per month. It includes 1,000 images and pages, a custom domain and email, e-commerce, bookings, invoicing, analytics, file sharing and password-protected pages. It is the more appropriate tier for client work and selling; the higher cost buys an integrated business toolkit rather than simply more room to publish.

Prices exclude VAT, which varies by billing country. Annual eligible plans include domain registration for the first year; monthly plans do not. The free plan has no time limit, and Portfoliobox offers no free trial.

Platforms

Portfoliobox runs on the web in a browser, with no downloads required. Responsive templates adapt portfolios to desktop, tablet and mobile screens.

Who it's for

Photographers, designers, architects, models, makeup artists, illustrators and artists are the core audience. It is particularly suitable for a creative professional who wants a portfolio alongside bookings, client file sharing or direct sales. Someone who only needs a small public gallery can begin free; a larger operation should budget for Professional.

Pros and cons

Permanent free publishing: five pages and 30 images can stay online without a card, making it a practical home for a small portfolio.
Flexible visual presentation: mixed templates and multiple gallery layouts allow distinct treatment for different kinds of work.
Business tools in Professional: selling, bookings, invoicing and client file controls reduce the need to assemble those functions elsewhere.
No platform sales commission: sellers keep all sales revenue, though this does not establish the terms charged by payment providers.
Free tier has a low ceiling: 30 images and five pages will quickly constrain image-heavy or expanding portfolios.
Key business functions require a higher tier: the Personal plan adds capacity and a domain, but commerce and client tools are reserved for Professional.

Alternatives

Portfolio Website Builders is the broader category to browse when comparing portfolio-focused services.

Choose Zarla instead if an AI-credit-based builder with lead-capture forms is a better fit: its free plan offers 75 AI credits, 10 pages per site and unlimited forms, but only preview publishing. Framer is another freemium option, with a free Framer domain, design pages, 1 GB bandwidth and 10 CMS collections on its free plan; it also offers a free trial.

Mahara is worth considering when open-source terms and self-hosting are priorities; it can be copied, used and modified under conditions that include sharing source code and keeping the same license. Gesso suits a narrower artwork-presentation need, with a free allowance of 10 artworks and three images per artwork.

Wfolio may suit photographers prioritizing storage: its free plan includes 120 GB and it offers a Galleries plan. Journo Portfolio is an alternative for writers, with annual-billed Plus at 7.00 USD per month or $9 monthly, and Pro at 10.00 USD per month billed annually or $12 monthly. Base44 is an app-building alternative rather than a dedicated portfolio choice, with free monthly message and integration credits and up to five apps. Zenfolio is a paid alternative with a free trial and a Basic plan at 9.00 USD per month, billed monthly, with an annual plan also offered.

Verdict

Portfoliobox is a strong fit for independent creatives who want a polished portfolio and may later add sales, appointments or client sharing without piecing together separate tools. Its permanent free tier makes a low-risk starting point, but its limits are modest and its most useful business features require Professional at 15.90 EUR per month. Choose it for the portfolio-to-business workflow; look elsewhere if you need a larger free publishing allowance or open-source control.

	Portfoliobox	Showit
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	Yes
Paid from	€8.90/mo	$22/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Web	Web
Free plan	Yes	No
Paid from	$709/mo	$22/mo
Custom domain	Yes	Yes
Client proofing	Yes	—
Portfolio analytics	Yes	—
Selling tools	Yes	—

Portfoliobox vs Showit

Portfoliobox

Showit