After 6 years as a professional designer, there’s one reason why I still don’t have an online portfolio: it’s a pain in the ass to create and maintain. Online portfolios just involve labor-intensive design, coding, updating, and promoting. I know I’ll eventually get around to making a stellar online portfolio. But for now, I need something quick and dirty.

If you’re in the same boat and need to swiftly put up work to show friends, family, and potential employers, try one of these free services. No HTML experience needed.

Coroflot
Created by industrial design site, Core77, Coroflot hosts portfolios as well as job listings, which means you’re more likely to be seen by recruiters and employers. You can also create and join groups with other members of like interests. It’s totally free, and you can upload an unlimited number of images.

CarbonMade
It’s quite easy to upload images and setup projects on CarbonMade, but customization is limited. You can’t change the portfolio’s theme beyond switching the background color from black to white. The free version is limited to 5 projects and a total of 35 images. Unlike Coroflot, CarbonMade has no job hunting/listing services. The paid version ($12/month) allows 50 projects with 500 images and 10 videos.

Flickr
I know Flickr is supposed to be about “photos,” but you can also use it to collect other types of images such as illustrations, sketches, diagrams, and design work. Just upload your work, create a set, and voila! An instant portfolio you can share. Best of all, it’s free. That beats paying for an expensive and constrained portfolio hosting service like Portfolios.com. A basic Flickr account gets you 100MB/month upload limit and a maximum of 3 sets. Paid accounts ($25/year) gets you unlimited uploads and photosets.

DeviantART
DeviantART is “the largest art community in the world.” With 4.5 million members, I believe it. However, designers don’t have as large a presence as illustrators and fine artists on the site. The free account is loaded with features, letting you upload images and create galleries in a cornucopia of categories from Anime to Typography. You can even make some money by selling prints of your work. The paid account ($30/year) removes ads and includes a few special features like advanced journals and large thumbnails.