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After years of designing websites, I know how important it is to feel inspired before starting a new web project.

With the overwhelming number of “web design” resources, some designers find themselves scrolling through thousands of beautiful websites, without ever settling on a creative direction for their project.

Just like searching for stock images, the key to finding inspiration online is browsing resources that offer:

  • Large databases of high quality web designs;
  • Filtering options (such as color, style, and category);
  • Powerful search engines and great user experiences.

In this guide, our team has reviewed the top 5 sources where you’ll find inspiration for your next web design.

#1 Awwwards

Number of designs:
11,000+ websites

Search / Filtering options:
Awards, categories, tags, technologies, colors, countries

Overview:
Awwwards has one of the largest collections of beautiful website designs. Creative professionals from around the world submit their designs to Awwwards in order to compete for site of the day, month, or year. Each website is rated based on design, usability, creativity, content, mobile experience, and development quality.

Although the designs are truly inspiring, they can be very difficult to recreate unless you have extensive experience with code or are working with a visual website builder like PageCloud.

Pros:

  • Largest database of live website designs;
  • Unique award system (site of the day, month, year);
  • Profile pages help showcase the agencies behind the designs;
  • Ability to search using keywords;
  • Great user experience and design;
  • Very little advertising.

Cons:

  • Complex designs that can be hard to recreate without code;
  • You need to pay in order to submit a website;
  • Several sample websites focus on aesthetics over user experience;
  • Limited number of simple websites showcased.

#2 Site inspire

Number of designs:
7,500+ websites

Search / Filtering options:
Styles, types, subjects, platforms, search

Overview:
Site Inspire offers a simple 3 column layout to help you quickly scroll through their eye-catching websites. You can click on one or several tags in order to filter down the number of displayed designs. Everytime you select a tag, the system automatically removes irrelevant tags so you are never left with “no results”.

Pros:

  • Large database with thousands of beautiful websites;
  • Directory showcasing website creators;
  • Tagging system helps filter website styles;
  • Ability to search using keywords;
  • Subtle advertising.

Cons:

  • Tags under “Types” and “Subjects” are similar and create confusion;
  • Lack of search and filtering features within directory;
  • Missing web designs from popular professional platforms such as WordPress, Webflow, and PageCloud.

#3 Best Website Gallery

Number of designs:
2,500+ websites

Search / Filtering options:
Colors, CMS, style, framework

Overview:
David Hellmann, the creator of Best Website Gallery, has been publically bookmarking his favorite website designs since 2008. Each site in his collection is tagged by color, style, cms, framework, and service to help users find what they are looking for. Thanks to a great user-experience and 2,500+ of the most visually appealing websites around, Best Website Gallery is a go-to resource for every designer.

Pros:

  • Beautiful website examples that offer both aesthetics and functionality;
  • Great user experience with easy-to-use search and filters;
  • The ability to see how website designs have changed over the years.

Cons:

  • Older websites are somewhat outdated and less inspiring;
  • Limited number of newer websites;
  • No way to submit websites.

#4 Webdesign Inspiration

Number of designs:
2,000+ websites

Search / Filtering options:
Industry, types, styles, colors, and device layout

Overview:
Webdesign Inspiration showcases thousands of live websites as well as a number of templates sprinkled throughout. With powerful filtering options and the ability to view desktop, mobile, and tablet views of each site, it’s a great resource to get your creative juices flowing.

Pros:

  • Desktop, tablet, and mobile views for each site;
  • Easy to view websites in new tab via single click;
  • Large variety of website styles.

Cons:

  • Not enough websites to leverage multiple filters - often returns “nothing found”;
  • Older websites are somewhat outdated and less inspiring;
  • On-site advertising can be a little distracting.

#5 Pinterest

Number of designs:
100,000+ website pins

Search / Filtering options:
Keywords, pins, videos, people, boards

Overview:
As the largest visual search engine, Pinterest provides you with thousands of inspiring “pins” based on your target keywords. Thanks to lazy loading, you can scroll to reveal additional web designs, instead of clicking on “next page” like many of the resources on this list. Another difference with Pinterest is that many of the designs are mockups made with desktop publishing apps as opposed to live websites. Pinterest also helps showcase amazing creations from design communities such as Behance and Dribbble.

Some of our favorite boards:

Gustavo Girard:

From up North:

Pros:

  • Largest database of visual web design inspiration;
  • Easy-to-use search functionality including search suggestions;
  • Clicking a pin brings up related content;
  • The ability to follow inspiring boards and people;
  • You can create your own boards and save your favorite designs.

Cons:

  • Not all live websites, making it difficult to see what visual elements are being used (ie: fonts, colors);
  • Mockups often showcase design elements that are extremely complicated to do in a responsive design;
  • User experience can be inconsistent as each Pin links out to a third party website.

Bonus - Instagram

Number of designs:
6,000,000+ posts

Search / Filtering options:
Hashtags, accounts

Overview:
Just like Pinterest, Instagram is a visual network used by designers around the world to showcase their best stuff. If you’re looking to add a steady stream of inspiration in your daily routine, we’d highly recommend following some web design accounts on Instagram.

Although you aren’t scrolling through live websites on Instagram, you will be presented with some of the highest quality mockups and visual treatments that are sure to help you overcome creative blocks.

Some of our favorite boards:

Daily Web Design

We Love Web Design

Zero Toone

Pros:

  • Millions of posts to explore with steady stream of new content;
  • Instagram explore showcases relevant accounts and posts based on your interests;
  • You can follow curated accounts that only showcase their best design work;
  • Easy-to-use mobile app for constant inspiration on the go;
  • Great way to showcase your own design portfolio.

Cons:

  • Following hashtags is not efficient as there are a lot of low quality designs that show up;
  • No easy way to view live web designs;
  • Often design mockups are limited to hero images with overlaid text.

Final thoughts

Looking at beautiful content is a great way to spark your creativity.

However, keep in mind that creating a quality web design is much more than combining stunning images and great fonts.

In order to create a professional grade website, you need to consider your client’s business goals and how the website’s design, content, and user experience will help them achieve success online.

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