On Format?
Great for photos. Different for a career.
Format is built for photographers and visual creatives, with proper galleries and client proofing where clients pick and approve shots. That is a job Portfolio does not do, so if selling and delivering images is your work, stay on Format. Portfolio is for a different need: paste your resume and get a multi-page professional website on your own domain, with a designer resume, a live ATS score, and a matched cover letter. If you want a career site rather than a photo gallery, read the honest split below.
What Format is great at.
A fair account before the comparison. Format is a specialist, and for photographers that focus is the whole point. If images are your product, it is built for you.
Image-first layouts that make a body of photographic work look its best.
Clients review, select, and approve shots inside private galleries. Portfolio has nothing like it.
Tuned for photographers, illustrators, and visual artists showing a portfolio of images.
People whose work is the imagery itself are exactly who Format serves.
Format and Portfolio, judged fairly.
Different tools for different work. Format wins on photo galleries and client proofing. Portfolio wins when the goal is a professional site drafted from a resume.
| Format | Portfolio | |
|---|---|---|
| Best at | Photo galleries for creatives | A professional site drafted from your resume |
| Client proofing | Yes, purpose-built | No, it is not a proofing tool |
| Built around | Images and visual work | Your resume and career history |
| How you build it | Upload and arrange images | Paste a resume, get a draft in about a minute |
| Resume tooling | None | Designer resume with a live ATS score |
| Cover letter | No | Matched to the same profile |
| Designs | Gallery templates | 60 designs tuned for professional sites |
| Custom domain | Yes, on paid plans | Yes, TLS handled automatically |
For photo galleries and client proofing, Format is the specialist and the right call. For a resume-driven professional website with a scored resume, that is what Portfolio is for.
When to stay on Format.
Portfolio is not a photo gallery and has no proofing. If your work is images and you deliver them to clients, Format is the better tool, and we will say so plainly.
Move to Portfolio if you
- +Want a professional website built around a resume, not a photo gallery.
- +Want a designer resume and a live ATS score alongside the site.
- +Want separate pages for work, about, and contact, drafted for you.
- +Want a matched cover letter from the same profile as the site.
Keep Format if you
- −Are a photographer or visual creative and images are your product.
- −Need client proofing so clients can select and approve shots. Format is better here.
- −Want galleries tuned to show a large body of visual work.
- −Deliver imagery to clients rather than applying for roles.
Format questions, answered.
Straight answers on where each tool wins and where it does not compete.
Does Portfolio do client proofing like Format?
No, and it does not try to. Client proofing, where clients pick and approve shots, is a real strength of Format and part of why photographers use it. Portfolio builds a professional website from a resume and has no proofing or gallery delivery. If proofing is your workflow, keep Format.
Can Portfolio show a photo gallery?
Portfolio is built around a resume and career story, not a large image gallery. Format is the specialist for photo-heavy work. Portfolio is the better fit when the site is about your experience and you want a scored resume with it.
What does the ATS score do?
It shows live how readable your resume is to an applicant tracking system, so nothing important is lost in parsing. You can try the free ATS score checker before you build.
Do both support a custom domain?
Yes. Format supports a custom domain on its paid plans, and Portfolio connects one with TLS handled automatically. On that point they are comparable.
How does Portfolio build the site?
You paste your resume and it drafts the pages, the copy, and a matched designer resume. See resume to portfolio for how each section becomes a page.
Should I leave Format?
Not for photography. Format is the right tool for galleries and proofing. Consider Portfolio when you separately need a career website built from a resume with a scored resume beside it.
Keep reading.
The product, how a resume becomes a site, and the free tool to check your resume.
Keep the galleries.
Build a career site.
Stay on Format for photo galleries and client proofing. When you want a professional website built around your experience, paste your resume into Portfolio and get a multi-page site, a scored resume, and a matched cover letter in about a minute, on your own domain with TLS handled for you.