Namecheap is one of the best domain name registrars with an excellent customer service. As its name suggests, Namecheap offers really competitive prices for many domain name extensions. I like very much their clean and simple account panel and I appreciate that you can chat with a live person at any time if needed.
Helpful Resources for Web Designers and Front-End Developers
When it comes to web design, the applications and services you use play an essential part in your productivity and results. Check out my list of 42 greatly useful tools and resources for web designers and front-end developers below.
Full disclosure: some of the links in this list are affiliate links, which means I may receive a couple of bucks off of your purchase (no additional cost to you) if you happen to click the link and buy a product or service I truly recommend. In other words, my next Starbucks drink could be from you – thank you!
SiteGround
SiteGround is a great hosting solution for all your WordPress projects. The service they provide is stable, secure and super fast thanks to the special tools they’ve developed in-house. I love SiteGround because they offer fair prices and excellent customer support. As a web developer, I recommend the GoGeek plan.
OVH
OVH is a French web hosting solution providing shared and dedicated servers, cloud hosting, domain registration service. OVH is known as one of the leading web hosting companies in Europe. I recommend them if you’re on a budget and need to host several websites. OVH is also a great VoIP provider I use for all my international calls.
MaxCDN
A Content Delivery Network or CDN is a service that can help your website to run faster and more efficiently. It’s a network of servers where you can store data from your site in different worldwide locations. I personally recommend MaxCDN because it integrates with WordPress fairly easily and their customer service is fantastic.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare is a freemium online service that speeds up and secures your site by acting as a proxy. With CloudFlare, you can protect your website against malware attacks, save bandwidth and reduce page load time. While I think the free plan already includes all you might need, you can go further and upgrade to one of their paid plans.
Sucuri
Sucuri is a website security company that protects your website from hackers, malware, DDoS and blacklists. When you enable Sucuri, all your site traffic goes through their cloud-based firewall before coming to your hosting server. I use Sucuri on client sites to block all the attacks and only send legitimate visitors.
Pingdom
Pingdom is a website monitoring service that allows webmasters to analyze the load speed of their websites, find bottlenecks, and learn how to resolve them. Enter the URL of your website, select the test location then hit the Start Test button and wait for the results to roll in. Now you know what to fix to improve site performance.
Atom
Atom is a free and open-source code editor developed by GitHub, available for macOS, Linux, and Windows. I especially enjoy the smart autocompletion integrated tool that helps you write code faster. You can easily tweak the look by customizing the syntax theme and add packages to extend features and functionality.
Diff Checker
Diff Checker is a free online diff tool that allows you to easily make a text comparison and find the differences between two texts. Just paste the two texts and hit the Find Difference button. The two texts are shown side by side, with differences highlighted. I use Diff Checker to compare code snippets. I like that you can save diffs if needed.
DesktopServer
Available on both Macintosh and Windows, DesktopServer is an application that should be included in every web developer’s workflow! It has saved me countless hours in creating and testing sites locally before deploying them online. Using this software is as simple as giving your site a name and clicking a few buttons.
Genesis Framework
The Genesis Framework by StudioPress is one of the most popular WordPress theme frameworks available on the market. It’s secure, fast to load, optimized for search engines and very well coded. I use the Genesis Framework for all my web projects and I highly recommend it to all intermediate and advanced developers.
Dynamik
Genesis is an amazing theme framework for WordPress powered websites but making tweaks to the design often requires some coding. If you’re not a professional developer, I recommend you have a look at Dynamik which is a powerful theme builder that gives you complete control over your site customizations.
Divi
Genesis from StudioPress is my go-to WordPress theme framework when designing websites for clients or for myself. It is great but you need to know how to code. If you are more a visual type of person, then I suggest you have a look at Divi which is a drag-and-drop page builder and comes with over 20 pre-made layouts.
WPForms
WPForms is a premium WordPress plugin that allows you to create smart online forms with just a few clicks. With its pre-built form templates and the drag-and-drop builder, you can create a new form that works in a few minutes without writing a single line of code. Your clients won’t need any training to use it.
Soliloquy
Soliloquy is a premium WordPress slider plugin which makes it easy to insert a simple slider gallery into a post or page, exactly where you want it. I like it because it is rich in features, fairly easy to manage, and responsive. I am not a huge fan of sliders, but when I need to add one to a client’s website, I always use this plugin.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a lead-generation plugin for WordPress that allows you to create and integrate highly effective email signup forms on your website. It works with most popular email service providers like MailChimp, Aweber, ConstantContact, etc. If you need an opt-in popup, this is the plugin you should install and set up.
G Suite
Stop using your @gmail.com email address for your business needs! Instead, go get a branded email address that builds credibility and promotes your brand. Thanks to G Suite (formerly Google Apps), it’s actually quite easy and inexpensive to setup. G Suite also includes services like Docs, Calendar, Drive, Hangouts and more.
1Password
1Password is a Macintosh program that remembers all your passwords for you, and keeps them safe and secure behind the one password that only you know. Use tags and the integrated search engine to quickly find what you’re looking for on any of your devices. 1Password has become my go-to app of choice for password management.