Learn how to build a professional portfolio website on Wix. This guide covers selecting the best templates, customizing your design, and publishing your work.
Building an online presence is essential for creatives today. Whether you are an actor, photographer, or designer, knowing how to make a Wix portfolio website is one of the fastest ways to showcase your work professionally. This guide walks through the full process—from signing up to publishing under your own domain—based on a hands-on walkthrough of the Wix platform.
Getting Started with Wix
Head to Wix and create a free account using your email address. You can start building and exploring the editor without paying anything upfront, which makes it easy to test the platform before committing.
After signing up, Wix presents an AI-driven setup assistant. You can chat with the AI and describe your portfolio idea, and Wix will attempt to assemble a starting point from that input. However, skipping the AI step and going straight to the template library is a reasonable choice—the existing templates are proven designs that look polished across devices, and they give you a concrete visual starting point that is often easier to customise than an AI-generated draft.
Choosing the Right Portfolio Template
From the dashboard, click Design Site, then select Pick a Template. The template library is organised by category. For portfolio work, look under the creative section, where you will find sub-categories such as:
- Basic Portfolio – clean, image-forward layouts
- Photography – full-bleed photo displays
- Design Portfolio – project-grid formats
- CV / Acting Resume – text-and-image layouts suited to personal branding
- Music / DJ – visually bold options for audio creatives
Click View on any template to preview it before committing. One example from the walkthrough is an acting resume template: the subject's name appears on the left, a portrait on the right, and an About Me section and video sample below. Templates in this category are also mobile-optimised out of the box, which matters because the majority of web traffic now comes from phones.
Once you find the right fit, click Edit Site to open the editor.
Customising Your Portfolio in the Editor
The editor opens with an optional AI content prompt. You can type a short description—for example, your name, profession, and the languages you speak—and Wix will generate placeholder text tailored to your details. This text is fully editable afterwards, so treat it as a starting draft rather than a finished product.
Text and Typography
Click any text block to edit it directly. The toolbar lets you change font style, font size, colour, and add effects. That said, staying close to the template's original typography is generally the better approach: Wix's designers have already balanced the type hierarchy for readability on every screen size. If you want to make a global font change, use the Design Settings panel rather than adjusting individual elements one by one.
Colours and Branding
To update your colour scheme across the entire site at once, go to Design Settings and open the colour theme panel. From there you can enter a hex code, RGB value, or HSB value to replace the template's default accent colour. Any change made here propagates to every page automatically, which saves significant time compared with updating colours element by element.
Images and Background Media
Click on the hero section and select Change Background Image to replace the placeholder with your own photo or video. You can upload an image from your device, paste a YouTube or Facebook URL, or generate an AI image directly within Wix. Keep file sizes reasonable to avoid slow page-load times—large, uncompressed images are one of the most common causes of poor performance on portfolio sites.
For other images throughout the page, click any image element and choose Change Image to upload your own media from the Wix media manager.
Video Sections
If the template includes a video block, click Manage Video to either upload a file directly or paste a URL from YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo. This is useful for showreels, project walk-throughs, or demo clips.
Managing Pages and Navigation
A single-page portfolio works well for simple CVs, but adding a second page lets you separate your full story or project archive from the homepage. To add a page:
- Click Pages & Menu in the left sidebar.
- Select Add Page and choose from Wix's page templates (options include Services, Projects, Profile/About Me, and more).
- Name the page and click Done.
- Drag it into the position you want in the navigation menu.
- Return to the homepage and link any relevant button to the new page using the Link icon—select Page, then choose your new page from the list.
This structure means visitors can navigate naturally from your homepage to a detailed About Me page or a full project archive without getting lost.
Previewing the Mobile Version
Wix automatically generates a mobile layout from your desktop design. Before publishing, switch to the mobile preview to check that text is readable, images are not cropped awkwardly, and buttons are easy to tap. Minor adjustments—such as resizing a text block or repositioning an element—can be made directly in the mobile view without affecting the desktop layout.
Publishing Your Portfolio
When the design is ready, click Publish. Wix immediately makes your site live under a free subdomain in the format
yourname.wixsite.comwixsite.comFor a professional portfolio, connecting a custom domain is strongly recommended. Click Connect Your Own Domain, type the domain you want, and Wix will guide you through the available plans.
Choosing a Plan
| Plan | Best For | Notable Features |
|---|---|---|
| Light | Most portfolio creators | 2 collaborators, 2 GB storage, free domain for one year |
| Core | Portfolios that accept payments | Basic e-commerce, payment processing for bookings |
For a standard portfolio—one that presents your work and directs visitors to contact you—the Light plan covers everything you need. The Core plan is worth considering only if you want to accept payments directly on the site, for example for booking sessions or selling prints. Domain registration after upgrading can take up to 24 hours to propagate fully.
For a detailed walkthrough of the upgrade process, see the guide on how to buy a Wix Premium plan.
SEO Before You Go Live
Publishing is not the last step. Before your site starts attracting visitors, take time to set page titles, meta descriptions, and alt text for your images inside Wix's SEO settings. The guide to Wix SEO basics covers the essential steps worth completing before you share your URL publicly.
Recommendation
Wix is a practical and capable choice for portfolio websites. The template library covers a wide range of creative disciplines, the drag-and-drop editor has a low learning curve, and mobile optimisation is handled automatically. The free tier is genuinely useful for getting started, and the Light plan is sufficient for most portfolio creators who want a custom domain without e-commerce features.
If you want to compare options before committing, the tutorials on how to build a free portfolio website with Wix and how to build a free Wix website cover related ground in more detail.
Ready to start? Try Wix for free and use the steps above to have your portfolio live within a few hours.
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