VFX portfolio and recruitment site Zerply is closing later this month
Long-running VFX and animation industry portfolio and recruitment site Zerply is to close later this month, after 16 years in operation.
The news was announced on the site last week, in a statement that reads, in part: “We ran out of time and resources to make it work. That’s the whole story. We’re sad to end it this way.”
Artists who maintained portfolios on the site have until 28 September 2026 to redirect their Zerply URLs to another online profile, after which the site will stop working.
Anyone wanting to save their profile data or assets uploaded to the site is advised put in an export request by 21 September.
A specialist, community-focused portfolio and recruitment site for VFX and animation
Founded in 2010 by IT entrepreneur Christofer Karltorp and web developer Taaniel Jakobs, Zerply began as a general creative recruitment site before specialising in VFX jobs four years later.
Describing itself as “show and tell for creatives in high-end VFX and animation”, the site enabled artists working across film, broadcast, gaming and advertising to create online portfolios.
Studios looking to recruit could browse those profiles and post details of vacancies.
Although it was dwarfed by LinkedIn, which became the dominant way for artists to find new jobs, users praised Zerply’s community spirit, and to the end, the site was regularly recommended in threads on r/vfx, particularly as a way to find freelance and contract work.
In the closure announcement, the Zerply team writes: “From day one, the mission of Zerply has been to celebrate the creative process and promote the extraordinary humans behind it.”
“Tens of thousands of you put your work here and trusted us with it, and a lot of you found jobs, collaborators, and each other through it. That was the whole point, and we’re glad it happened.”
Redirect your Zerply URL to another online profile before 28 September
Zerply will stop working on 28 September 2026, after which it will become a static page.
After that point, it will be impossible to log in, so users are advised to redirect their Zerply URLs to point at other online profiles, like LinkedIn, IMDb, Vimeo or FrameRate accounts.
Zerply says that it will keep the redirects running “for at least a year” after the shutdown.
“A lot of people have zerply.com links on their CVs and we didn’t want those to break,” said Jakobs.
Put in an export request for anything you want to save before 21 September
Anyone who wants to save their profile data from the site is advised to put in an export request by 21 September 2026, as the process is being handled manually.
You can choose whether to include your uploaded media assets: for example, if the site hosts older demo reels or portfolio material you no longer have stored locally.
It will also be possible to download assets individually until 28 September.
User data stored on Zerply’s systems and those of its providers will be deleted “within 90 days of the shutdown”. The site has already turned off new signups and cancelled recurring billing.
Read Zerply’s announcement that it is closing down
(Includes instructions for redirecting URLs and requesting profile exports>
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