Portfolio / Blog / Hosting all in one site?

I know there are 5,000,000 threads on different types of sites etc.

I am looking for a site, that includes hosting, and I can apply templates etc. to for Photography, that is an all-in-one package.

For example I love Wordpress, however you need to pay for the upgraded Wordpress, plus THEN pay another provider to host it.

Any input or direction would be greatly appreciated.

If you figure this out, please let me know! This is a constant struggle for me. Zenfolio is great for my client galleries, custom pages, and even a blog, but I hate its presentation for portfolio pages. I mention Zenfolio, because that is my current 'solution'.

You don't have to pay for Wordpress. Wordpress.org is the software that runs a site. You can go host this anywhere that supports it (most places do, and even have installers for it).

You can then theme it with stuff from themeforest.net (there are a few other places, too). Or, you can hire someone proficient in Wordpress design to do it exactly the way you want. If you chose the latter, I'd suggest finding someone that can do the whole thing for you if you aren't comfortable.

Wordpress.com is basically the wordpress.org software, but they do everything from hosting and maintaining updates. What you lose is being able to chose your own theme and customizing existing stuff isn't completely flexible. What you gain is no need to worry about the backend.

If you want to do sales/proofing... this is where it gets iffy because I love zenfolio/smugmug for this... but integrating them into an existing theme is tough.

I use wordpress. I pay about $10/yr for my domain name, pay nothing for a separate company to host it (Google is your friend), and pay nothing for the template that I've heavily modified. It's not advanced, but it does the trick.

If you want something like a store front and more advanced flash or html features, you're better off buying a package from someone else - unless you're good at coding and/or have the time.

I use wordpress.org too. Although I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "portfolio." I do use my website as my portfolio with a handful of photographs from the different areas I work in. But I don't use it like smugmug and upload whole shoots there. I think that might get a bit unwieldily in wordpress.