Behance, Dribbble, or my own portfolio website?

They do different jobs. Behance and Dribbble help people discover you. Your own website is the link you send when someone is already deciding whether to hire you.

If you are applying for jobs, aim for both: a simple site with two or three full case studies, plus a Behance or Dribbble profile that points back to it. If you can only do one this month, start where your case studies read best, then add the other.

What goes inside the portfolio matters far more than where it lives. My portfolio guide covers what to put in it, and my case study guide covers how to write each project.

Nielsen Norman Group sums up web portfolios fairly. The upside: they are easy for hiring managers to find and view, and many setups need no code. The downside: a template may force you to bend your content to fit it.

From Behance's own help centre:

• Image width: projects display images at 1400px wide, and up to 2800px when someone clicks into the lightbox. Images narrower than 1400px show at their own size with padding on the sides.
• File size: Behance recommends 10MB or smaller per image and does not accept images over 50MB. Images must also stay under 32 million pixels.
• File types: JPEG (recommended), PNG, and GIF. GIFs work in projects but not as covers. PDFs are not accepted, so export each page as an image.
• Colour: CMYK images get converted to RGB, so colours can shift. Export in RGB.
• Cover image: shown at 202 x 158px, but upload at least 808 x 632px so it stays sharp on high-resolution screens.

In practice, export at 2800px wide if you want the lightbox to look crisp, and keep each file well under 10MB.

Dribbble is built around shots, which can be images, GIFs, or videos. Its help centre recommends a minimum width of 1600px, with no fixed ratio or height. Images (PNG, JPG, GIF) can be up to 10MB and videos (MOV, MP4) up to 20MB.

Dribbble has a free tier. Its paid Pro plans are sold as a way to generate client leads, and the Pro page lists search ranking boosts on every paid tier (Lite also includes a portfolio website). In 2026 the tiers are Pro Lite (US$8/month or US$48/year), Pro Standard (US$16/month or US$96/year), and Pro Plus (US$199/month or US$1,188/year).

Behance suits longer projects where you can tell the whole story. Behance Pro starts at US$9.99/month on an annual plan, with prices varying by country. It includes Adobe Portfolio (up to five websites with your own domain) and removes Behance's platform fees on freelance work. Behance says Pro does not change how projects rank in search or feeds.

If you freelance through Behance without Pro, the freelancer platform fee is scaled: 5% on payments up to US$500, 2% from US$501 to US$2,500, and 0% above that, plus a payment processing fee.

A simple rule: Dribbble for visual craft and quick shots. Behance for full case studies inside a community.

Not on day one. But for product and UX roles, it is worth building once you have real work to show.

A case study needs room: the problem, your role, the decisions, the outcome. Your own site lets you shape that story without fighting a template. It also puts your name in the URL, and that link works in every application, every LinkedIn profile, every DM.

Be honest about the cost. A site takes time to build and keep up to date. You have three realistic routes:

1. Adobe Portfolio. It is included in most Creative Cloud plans and in Behance Pro. Adobe says there is no stand-alone subscription.
2. A no-code website builder. Fast to set up, and good enough for most junior designers.
3. Design and code it yourself. The most work, and the most proof. This site is designed and coded by me, from my own Figma design system. It fits the design engineering work I do. It is not a requirement for you.

One warning applies to every platform. NN/g says that "imaginary redesigns of existing products hosted on Dribbble or Behance are nearly worthless when applying for UX roles." The problem is not the platform. It is the lack of real constraints, real users, and real collaborators. Put real work first, wherever you host it.

• Your site: two or three full case studies, a short About, and contact details. This is the link on your CV.
• Behance: the same case studies in long form, each linking back to your site.
• Dribbble: single screens, animations, and visual details from those projects.
• LinkedIn: your best case study in Featured, and your site in Contact info. My LinkedIn guide walks through it.

Make one project, then cut it three ways. That is far less work than three separate portfolios.

1. Pick your strongest project and write it up as one full case study this week.
2. Publish it on Behance with an 808 x 632 cover and images exported at 2800px wide.
3. Post one detail from it to Dribbble at 1600px wide or more.
4. Choose your website route (Adobe Portfolio, a builder, or code) and give yourself two weekends to ship the first version.

Still without real projects to show? Start with how to get your first design job with no experience.