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Design Self Promotion

AVC 248  ·  Michelle B.

AVC248 › Where to Put Your Portfolio › Squarespace and Wix

Squarespace and Wix

The best-looking sites you can make without code. You will pay for them every month for as long as the site exists.

Cost: Paid, ongoing, foreverCode needed: NoneCustom domain: Yes, on paid plansSetup: a weekend

Goal

Get a polished, professional site with zero technical friction, and understand what that convenience costs.

Audience

Designers who would rather pay money than spend time, and freelancers who need e-commerce or client-facing polish.

Process

Pick one, choose a template, fill it with your work, connect a domain, pay every month forever.

What you are actually buying

You are buying time and polish. These are the best-looking no-code sites available, they handle every annoying detail (mobile layouts, contact forms, image optimization, e-commerce), and there is a real human support line when something breaks. Nothing free on this list has that.

That is a legitimate trade. Just make it on purpose, and know the number.

This is a subscription you carry for your entire career. Stop paying and your portfolio goes offline. Over ten years, this is by far the most expensive option on this page, more than the domain, more than Creative Cloud.

Squarespace has no free tier at all. The trial ends, you pay or the site dies.

Wix has a free tier, but it is not usable for a professional portfolio. It puts Wix’s ads on your work and gives you a wixsite.com/yourname address. Do not put that on a résumé.

What it looks like: the best of any option here, honestly. Squarespace in particular has templates that look like a design studio built them, because a design studio did. Sophisticated typography, real editorial layouts, everything responsive by default. If your priority is “this needs to look expensive,” this is the answer.

Squarespace or Wix?

Squarespace if you care about how it looks. The templates are more restrained and more designed. Better for a portfolio.

Wix if you want more freedom to move things around. More flexible, easier to make ugly. Better if you want to fight the template.

Check for a student discount before you pay full price. Squarespace has offered one. It is worth ten minutes of searching.

Set it up

  1. Start a free trial at squarespace.com or wix.com.
  2. Pick a template built for portfolios, not for restaurants or stores. Filter for it.
  3. Replace every piece of placeholder content. A leftover “Lorem ipsum” or stock photo on a live portfolio is fatal, and it happens constantly.
  4. Build a page per project, with your walkthrough video embedded.
  5. Write a real About page.
  6. Add a contact form. This is one thing these platforms do well and for free, and it is a pain to build yourself.
  7. Connect your custom domain in the settings. Both handle this cleanly, and some plans include a free domain for the first year (note: first year then you pay).
  8. Publish, and set a calendar reminder for when the bill renews, so it is never a surprise.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • The best-looking no-code option.
  • Truly zero technical skill.
  • Real human customer support.
  • Contact forms, e-commerce, and mobile layouts handled for you.
  • Great if you freelance and need to sell prints or take client inquiries.
  • Possible student discount on Squarespace.

Cons

  • Stop paying and your site is gone.
  • Squarespace has no free tier. Paid from day one.
  • Wix’s free tier puts their ads on your portfolio.
  • The most expensive option here over time, by a lot.
  • You are a tenant. They set the price, and they can raise it.
  • Templates are recognizable. People will know what you used.

Resources

Platforms change their plans and their menus constantly. If a step here does not match what you see on screen, tell me and I will fix the page.