The more than 59,000 free plugins in the WordPress official
directory deal with nearly every feature or function to be put to use in any
type of website. Premium WordPress plugins from third-party marketplaces are
also available. The largest, CodeCanyon, has over 5200 WordPress plugins.
The question is, do you have the time to sift through
59,425 free plugins? Would you do so even if you did had the time?
We tested scores of WordPress plugins, narrowed the options,
and listed what we consider to be the 8 top WordPress plugins for a range of key
functions and purposes.
We looked at plugins for –
building stunning website landing pages with
ease.
visual storytelling featuring unique and
engaging user experiences.
managing and displaying financial, statistical,
scientific, commercial, and other types of data.
automating the booking of appointments and
events.
Since the majority of the following plugins offer a free
version, you’ll be able to build your website for a minimal cost.
The following review provides important knowledge about these
8 great WordPress plugins for 2024:
The good news is there is no shortage of awesome WordPress
themes that can help you create an engaging and well-functioning website. The
not-so-good news is that the options open to you can be overwhelming because of
the thousands of great WordPress themes available. Finding one you can rely on
to help you quickly create a beautiful website that will attract new visitors
to your site. And encourage them to stick around can be a challenge.
Theme selection is therefore a crucial step in the process of
creating a WordPress website. The one you pick will go a long way toward determining
the look and feel of your site. And can play an essential role in creating a trustworthy
source of information for potential customers. Our 10 top picks for the best
WordPress themes are designed to help you find one that is just right for you.
BeTheme
is popular for a multitude of reasons, and it keeps getting better with each
new release. A cool selection of new features adds to its well-established
popularity. Not satisfied with being just another premium theme, BeTheme’s
authors have created a total website management system that is perfect for
building any type of website thanks to a multiplicity of powerful core features
that include BeBuilder, a new Developer Mode, and a host of other tools and
design aids.
The 700+pre-built websites with their total customizability,
responsiveness, and built-in UX functionality enable users to get any project
off to a rapid start.
BeBuilder is the fastest, most flexible, and most intuitive
website builder for WordPress. It heads up an imposing collection of builders
that include a Header Builder, a Footer Builder, a WooCommerce Builder, a Loop
Builder, a Popup Builder, and a Sidebar Menu Builder.
BeBuilder’s new Developer mode provides improved workflow and
takes users to the next level and BeBuilder’s Blocks mode features 80+ building
blocks to work with together with selections of premade payouts and global
theme options.
Other new BeTheme features include a Single Post option, a Single
Portfolio option, a Layer Navigator, and a Nested Wraps capability for managing
more advanced layouts.
Users will love the Dynamic Data feature and Conditional Logic
tool that can determine if a content element or section can be rendered.
Click on the banner and take time to acquaint yourself with each of BeTheme’s core website-building features.
There is a huge variety of free and premium web design tools and resources to choose from to help you create stunning websites. They range from complete website design platforms to design frameworks and wireframing tools to plugins featuring “must have” functionalities. And, a whole lot of things in between.
These design tools and resources don’t do everything for
you, but they can sometimes come close. Many of them offer website features or
functionalities. It would be difficult if not nearly impossible if you had to
design and build them on your own. Conversely, most of them leave the actual
design creativity up to you, which is the way things should be.
With the above in mind, here are 13 Best Tools &
Resources for Designers and Agencies.
BeTheme
doesn’t do everything for you, but it comes closer to doing so than you’re
likely to find in any other multipurpose theme. Popular (250,000 customers),
and powerful (40+ core features), BeTheme has everything you need to create a
website that will effectively drive your message home.
Be’s
updated Setup Wizard helps you get your project underway, after which it places
at your fingertips these best-in-class builders:
BeBuilder, the fastest, lightest, and most intuitive website
builder you’ll find in WordPress. BeBuilder is supplemented with the BeBlocks
library of pre-designed sections.
Be’s WooBuilder offers a straightforward approach to creating an
online store.
Be’s Header Builder 2.0 makes it easy to create the pixel-perfect
header you need.
Add Be’s library of 650+ customizable pre-built websites to the mix and it becomes apparent how powerful BeTheme actually is. The amazing Be Builder’s features can be tested in this free Live Demo.
One description of a WordPress plugin could be “a software addon that packs a punch”. That doesn’t necessarily apply to every WordPress plugin. Even though that is more often than not the purpose behind them. At their best, plugins can be capable of taking a business to the next level, and that could be your business as well.
One or more of the 9 essential WordPress plugins featured
in this article could do that for you. Or, at a minimum give your websites some
extra pizzazz, make them more engaging, or make them more useful.
Having said that, you have to have created a quality
website to begin with, so that’s where we will start.
Brizy is a no-code website builder that you can use to add
functionality to or customize existing areas in your WordPress site or start
from scratch and build your own. Brizy is free to download, and you
don’t have to be a techie or worry about having code or design skills to use
it.
Brizy’s theme builder
makes it as easy as can be to customize any and every part of your site.
You can create your own
dynamic templates for special pages, headers, and footers, and display
conditions make it easy to set up repeating header and footer blocks.
150+ high-converting
pre-made templates are included along with a useful selection of dynamic
elements (posts elements, breadcrumbs, shortcodes, sidebar, etc.).
The 100% White Label
option allows you to brand the builder as your own. A perfect option if you are
doing client work.
WooCommerce integration
is included if you are building an online store. You can customize all areas of
your shop site.
A Pro version of Brizy is available that adds extended
functionality to the Free version.
Click on the banner to find out more about this WordPress theme builder.
An effective, well-organized workflow is an important web
design asset. It can be a critical asset for a professional web designer. But
less experienced designers and beginners also appreciate having design tools or
resources at their disposal. It makes their work easier and more efficient.
There are many productivity-enhancing tools out there. Way
too many in fact when it comes to trying to find one or more that would best
meet your needs.
When we talk about web design tools and resources, we don’t
often use the word “leverage”. If indeed we ever use it at all. But the word
seems to apply here.
For a small investment in time or money any of these top 15
tools and resources for designers can make a major positive impact on time
savings. It can improve the workflow and improve the functionality and/or quality
of the end product as well.
Putting to use one or more of the following
productivity-enhancing tools and resources could have the same effect on your
mindset as when the sun breaks through the clouds after a prolonged period of
wet, gloomy weather.
This popular WordPress theme is the biggest WordPress and
WooCommerce theme of them with its 650+ pre-built websites, more than 40
powerful core website building features, practically limitless design options,
and 240,000+ customers.
BeTheme fosters productivity. You can build a complex,
high-quality website in an amazingly short time.
Be Themes key features that make this happen include –
650+ customizable pre-built websites that make
it super-easy to create almost any website type. They are responsive, UX ready,
and can be imported with a single click.
The fast, and powerful BeBuilder that features
a host of impressive new page-building and editing capabilities. It is the most
flexible WordPress builder ever which allows you to create more advanced and
diverse layouts than you ever dreamed.
An absolute gem of a BeBuilder Woo that enables
you to create a limitless variety of shop or single product layouts.
BeTheme is loaded with valuable design options and
settings, it is Elementor ready, and it is frequently updated.
Click on the banner to check out Be’s powerful core features in detail.
The right WordPress theme used in conjunction with the WordPress Platform allows a web designer to create almost any website design. There are situations however where almost isn’t quite good enough. The design may not have quite as much pizzazz as the designer hoped for, or may simply lack some functionality that, if added, would put it over the top.
That’s what WordPress plugins do. A plugin is a piece of added software that when put to use can extend the capabilities of a software system, in this case, a website.
There are more than 42,000 cool WordPress plugins in the
marketplace. So, you should be able to design a website that could do anything
and everything you could possibly think of.
It doesn’t work that way of course. Most WordPress themes feature more useful WordPress plugins. When they don’t provide everything you may need, it usually takes but one or two additional plugins to set things right.
Examples of how a WordPress plugin might add to your design
will become quite obvious as you go down this list of these 9 top WordPress
plugins for 2022 projects.
The Amelia WordPress booking plugin will automate and streamline your business’s interactions with its existing or potential clients. It does this by helping them select a given service online, at a given time, and with a certain employee.
Amelia replaces
manual or partially automated systems that tend to be slower, error prone, and
labor intensive.
Amelia can manage bookings at multiple locations for an unlimited
number of customers.
Amelia can track the work schedules of an unlimited number of
employees, again at multiple locations.
Your clients can easily book, change, or cancel appointments
online 24/7. They can also receive automatic reminders and make payments
online.
Your booking forms can be customized to match your brand.
Events can also be booked using Amelia, attendees can be tracked.
This popular plugin can save you and your workers significant
amounts of time and money and at the same time make appointment bookings much
easier for your customers.
Click on the banner to find out even more about what Amelia could do for your business.
Every year at this time you’ll find us hard at work to place an enticing selection of great Black Friday deals and discounts in front of our web design and agency friends to help them prepare for the big event.
2021 is no different. The task
has been somewhat easier thanks to a greater number of tempting bargains. At
the same time, the difficulties encountered in paring the number down to a
manageable few are always present.
We think you will be pleased with
the final result; ten great deals on top-quality web design and time and money saving
products.
Brizy brings
power to the novice! This fast and easy to use drag and drop builder is great
for beginners and experienced web designers alike, and for agencies as well.
An easy to
understand and navigate UI together with an excellent selection of multi-page
templates and landing pages makes building a website a quick, easy, and
satisfying task.
Designers can
select or switch between the Brizy for WordPress and the Brizy Cloud website
builders. The latter includes hosting.
White label
options are available for agencies
Pre-made
designs help you get off to a fast start, but you also have the option of
starting with a blank page and using your imagination as your guide.
Huge Black
Friday discounts are offered across the board, including partner rewards and
promotions, discounts for white label Agency plans, and the opportunity for
participants to win a MacBook Pro.
Since the Brizy
team has been at it for 11 years, Brizy gets better with each update. Click on
the banner to learn more.
There can be various reasons for failing to deliver a product on time. Take for example a situation in which progress grinds to a halt because of a requirement or specification cannot be met because the designer doesn’t have the means to satisfy it.
While your toolbox may be well stocked, there may be design
tools or design resources you frequently go to that are simply no longer up to
the task, even if they are long-time favorites.
The 15 tools and resources for designers and agencies
described in this article are tops in their respective categories. They will
help you or your team be more productive, and in some cases, they could be
life-savers.
This multipurpose WordPress theme is hard to beat in terms of its powerful array of core features, design options, flexibility, and ease of use. Given that the sales of this long-time favorite web designer’s tool has exceeded the 200,000 mark, you have every reason to believe that you’ll get a huge return on your investment.
Be’s 40+ core features give you the tools and flexibility you need to meet the most stringent of deadlines
Be’s Muffin Builder- Admin Panel-Shortcode Generator trio lets you drag and drop your way through a project without ever having to write a line of code.
If there was a single secret to Be’s success it would likely be the selection of 600+ customizable (and responsive) pre-built websites that cover the major industry sectors, business niches, and website types and styles.
Be’s Layout Generator facilitates starting a page from scratch, plus you have ready access to a wealth of layout options to see your project through.
Click on the banner to find out what BeTheme can do for
you.
There are few if any good reasons not to choose the best of the bunch when you’re looking for useful WordPress plugins to take your web design or business to the next level.
The problem is, how do you go
about finding them?
For several categories of best WordPress
plugins, the answer is simple, and that is to just keep reading.
The WordPress plugin market is
never static. It just keeps getting bigger, and in most instances better. New cool
WordPress plugins that show great promise are continuously being added. The
more established plugins continue to improve.
You’ll find some of both types here, and whichever you may chose you won’t have to worry about bugs or bad coding.
For fitness centers, beauty salons, training, and similar business types that rely on efficient and effective appointment booking systems – Amelia is an ideal solution – an affordable, feature-rich booking manager.
Amelia is easy to set up and does not require any training to use
Amelia can manage an unlimited number of appointments and events for an unlimited number of clients and employees.
Amelia can serve multiple locations
Clients and employees are presented with smooth and shiny UIs to work from
Clients can access Amelia 24/7 to make, change, or cancel appointments
Employees can connect to their Google and Outlook Calendars to avoid overlapping appointments or interference with personal commitments or events.
The list can go on,
but the message is this:
Customers don’t have to be put on hold to make an appointment.
Business owners have an instant and accurate overview of current and future appointments.
You can sell packages of appointments in Amelia by group appointments of the same service or various services in a bundle for a single price. This way, you can increase your profit and sales.
Amelia provides all parties concerned with the error-free appointment and event booking.
Click on the banner to learn more about this best-in-class WordPress plugin.
Many shoppers, including web designers and web design teams, look forward to Black Friday as the year’s top shopping event.
In the past, Black Friday meant getting up early and
getting in line in the dark on a wet and windy November morning. Then charging
through the doors when the store opened, and trying to claim your bargains before
the shelves emptied out.
This year, shopping from home makes added sense thanks to
Covid-19. Shopping in a crowded store while trying to maintain proper social
distancing isn’t something to look forward to. It’s much better to stay safe and
cozy while checking out these super bargains from the comfort of your home.
Slider Revolution a well-established and renowned tool that
designers can use to create unique and award-winning website sliders. Any tool
of this type that can claim more than 7 million users obviously has a great
deal going for it.
Not every designer may be aware of the Slider Revolution
transformation that has taken place. It consists of additions and improvements
that enable its users to create award-winning websites.
They include:
An excellent selection
of sliders, carousels, and other web design elements
Innovative layouts for
building single-page websites
Hero sections designed
to make your home pages stand out from the crowd
Modular design elements
and sections that can be mixed, matched, rearranged, and reused
Addons that enable
website builders to test the limits of design possibilities
To celebrate Black Friday or Cyber Monday, purchase a Slider Revolution plan now at a 33% discount. Click on the banner, use the code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout, and Slider Revolution is yours.
