How to make a portfolio website for free

Get these ready before you start

Most people stall because they sit down to "make a website" and then spend an hour deciding what to say. Do the writing first, in a notes app on your phone. The building part takes ten minutes after that.

• A clear photo of you. Daylight, plain background, face visible. A phone photo is fine.
• Two lines about what you do, in the words a client would use. "I design logos and packaging for food brands in Kochi" beats "Creative visual storyteller".
• Three to five pieces of work. Not twenty. Pick the ones you'd be happy to be judged by.
• One sentence per piece: what it was, what you did, and what happened because of it, if you know.
• How people should reach you. For most people in India that's WhatsApp first, then phone or email.

Pick the right kind of free

There are three free routes, and they're good at different things.

• A portfolio builder (like Foliopin). You fill in your details and pick a design; it's online straight away on a free address such as yourname.foliopin.com. Best if you want something that looks finished and you don't want to learn web design.
• A general website builder. More freedom over layout, but you'll spend longer arranging boxes, and the free plans usually show the builder's ads or banner.
• Free hosting for code (GitHub Pages and similar). Free and flexible if you can write HTML or use a static site generator. Not worth it if you can't; you'll spend the evening on setup instead of your work.

Whatever you choose, check one thing before you start: can you take your content with you, or at least switch designs later without retyping everything? You will want to change the look in a year.

Build it in this order

1. Add your name, photo and two-line intro. This alone already makes a useful page.
2. Add your best piece of work first, then the rest. Write the one sentence for each.
3. Add your WhatsApp number with the country code (+91 for India), and an email if clients expect one.
4. Look at it on your phone. Most of your visitors will. If a photo crops your face, move the focus point.
5. Choose your web address and publish. Short and close to your name is best.
6. Send the link to two friends and ask one question: "What do you think I do?" If they can't answer, fix the intro.

What "free" usually doesn't include

Free plans are real, but they have edges. It's better to know them now than to find out the week a client is about to look.

• Your own domain. yourname.in or yourname.com is almost always a paid extra, and the domain itself costs money every year wherever you buy it.
• Storage. Free plans limit space. On Foliopin the free plan holds about 25 photos because they're compressed as you upload, which is enough for a first portfolio. YouTube videos don't use any.
• Some designs. Expect a few free templates and the rest paid.
• The builder's small credit in the footer, like "Made with …". Most people don't mind it.

Free plans on most builders also need you to log in once in a while or renew so that abandoned pages don't sit online forever. If a free plan has a yearly renewal, put a reminder in your phone.

When it's worth paying

Pay when the page is earning its keep: when clients are finding you through it, when you need more photos than the free space allows, or when your own domain would make you look more established to the people you sell to. A clinic or a wedding photographer usually gets there quickly. A student often doesn't need to for a year or two.

If you'd rather not do any of this yourself, that's a fair choice too. Our parent company CloudtoBuild builds custom websites with a domain included, from ₹599 a month.