Reviews
Leaders Merchant Services
Though it has a less-than-stellar track record amongst merchants, Leaders Merchant Services (LMS) has recently made a push to turn things around. Mostly, it’s been a successful one. A 98% approval rate, essential but reliable features, and top-tier customer service make LMS one of the best credit card processors around, even if some past frustrations remain unresolved.
Smartsheet
If you don't mind a crude UI, Smartsheet is a powerful software that’s good for managing both small and large projects. You can use it to organize a team, create stunning reports, and optimize your schedule. However, Smartsheet can take a while to learn. And unlike most other project management software, it doesn’t have a free plan.
InterServer
InterServer’s offering is very clear: unlimited resources at low rates. While it delivers on this promise, there aren’t many standout features beyond this. Also, it only has data centers within the US, so it’s not the ideal provider for an international site. If you’re willing to look past that, though, InterServer provides excellent performance and complete flexibility at...
Clover POS Systems
Clover offers some of the most advanced and versatile POS devices on the market. Its main con has been the less-than-stellar credit card processing provided by its parent company, Fiserv. With the introduction of Paysafe’s high-quality credit card processing, however, the Clover + Paysafe combination could be one of the best available for merchants today.
SITE123
SITE123 simplifies website creation with its user-friendly interface, helpful tips, and 24/7 live chat support. The mobile-responsive templates and e-commerce features make it ideal for beginners who want to create simple sites. However, if you’re planning on building something more complex, SITE123 might prove too limiting. Read on to discover all the pros and cons.
Webador
Webador’s strong suit is easy to use, making it an excellent choice for beginners. With an intuitive and user-friendly editor and highly affordable pricing, it’s a standout option for quickly getting a site online. However, users seeking advanced customization and more robust features may find it lacking and might need to explore other options.
Kinsta
If you have great expectations for your website, Kinsta’s cloud-based managed WordPress hosting delivers incredible performance worldwide. It also gives you useful hosting tools and a user-friendly dashboard. It’s an ideal choice for far-reaching and continuously evolving websites, but its high price won’t suit everyone.
ScalaHosting
ScalaHosting offers outstanding performance and feature variety, especially for its prices. You might find that its shared hosting plans don’t stand out much when compared to other providers, but its cloud and VPS hosting plans are its best-value offerings. If you’re looking for a provider that can grow along with your website(s), ScalaHosting is a very good choice.
FastComet
FastComet’s worldwide data centers make it a solid choice for reaching locations like East and South Asia. It also provides every basic feature you’d expect from a quality host (even if it doesn’t come with many extras). When you add excellent customer support and a user-friendly interface, FastComet is an excellent choice for beginners looking to reach a worldwide audience.
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects definitely looks good, and it offers fantastic value for its price. It’s a particularly excellent software if you are familiar with the Zoho ecosystem or you manage a small-to-medium-sized team. But while there’s much to love about Zoho, it can get complicated to use if you manage large, complex projects. Read on to see what I mean.
PaySafe POS
Though it's received mixed reviews in the past, Paysafe’s tailored transaction fees, high-risk merchant accounts, and support for international payment methods certainly make it an ideal choice for some businesses. Its POS offering might be fairly standard, but it includes everything you need to accept your customers' preferred payment methods.
IONOS Website Builder
MyWebsite Now from IONOS is a dead-simple site builder with very low prices. If you want to get a website up and running very quickly, it could be just right. It also has a nifty e-commerce feature in case you’re starting an online store. Just be aware that the English version is not available in all countries. If you’re in the right region, it’s worth a glance!
TeamGantt
TeamGantt is extremely easy to use thanks to its great-looking user interface (UI). It's an attractive tool if you're an inexperienced manager or can't wait to get your project up and running. But unlike other project management software, TeamGantt doesn’t provide much beyond the basics. For small, simple projects, that’s more than enough. For larger projects, it’s a...
Rytr
Thanks to its classic word processing interface and variety of AI writing features, Rytr is an excellent tool for writers and content creators looking to streamline their workflow. Its selection of tones and use cases also makes it incredibly versatile. But if you’re looking to generate entire articles with just the click of a button, Rytr won’t be for you.
Web.com Website Builder
While it hasn’t always been the case, Web.com offers a powerful builder with an impressive range of high-quality tools and very good design flexibility. An often confusing user experience keeps it from reaching its full potential, but it’s still an outstanding builder if you care about the minutiae of design and are looking for a high degree of control.
Blog Posts
US Court of Appeals Strikes Down Net Neutrality Rules
On January 2, a US court of appeals ruled against the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) attempt to reinstate net neutrality rules. The ruling states that the federal government cannot regulate internet providers as telecommunications services and likely concludes a legal battle that began in 2015. Under the FCC’s proposed rules, net neutrality would require internet...
Apple To Pay $95 Million in Lawsuit Over Siri’s Eavesdropping
On New Year’s Eve, Apple filed an agreement to pay $95 million to settle a 2019 class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit accused the tech giant of recording users through its voice-activated virtual assistant, Siri, and sharing those recordings with third parties without consent. As part of the settlement, aggrieved parties can receive up to $20 per Siri device for up to 5...
Module 6: The Cases Page
Click the image above to preview the live page We’ll finish up our marketing agency site by creating a “Cases” page for visitors to examine previous success stories in depth. Showing your expertise can be the tipping point for customers when deciding whether to hire your business. We’ve already learned how to create a lot of different sections through the previous...
Module 6: The Gallery Page
Click the image above to preview the live page The last page for our Local Business Site will be a simple gallery with our best arrangements and some of the global sections we’ve included in the rest of the site. There’s really no need for this page to be any more complicated than that. We’ve already created many different sections, so hopefully, you’ll be able to add...
Module 1: Quick Prep
I tend to get ahead of myself, so if you’re anything like me, you’re probably already thinking about the social media campaign you’ll run for your website. However, there’s some important legwork we need to do before we can get to all those exciting parts. So, before we get going, let’s focus on the first steps. You’ll have to decide on your site’s main purpose, come up...
Module 2: Your Homepage – Agency
2.1 The Header Click the image above to preview the live page We’ll start by creating the first sections visitors will see when they visit your site: the Header and the Hero. First impressions matter, so these should immediately convey your site’s purpose, style, and tone. We wanted the marketing agency website to be inviting and easy to read, so we went for a...
Module 2: Your Homepage – Portfolio Site
2.1 The Header Click the image above to preview the live page We’ll start by creating the first sections visitors will see when they visit your site: the Header and the Hero. First impressions matter, so these should immediately convey your site’s purpose, style, and tone. For the header, we wanted to keep things minimalistic, so we chose a text-based logo and a...
Module 2: Your Homepage – Local Business
2.1 The Header Click the image above to preview the live page We’ll start by creating the first sections visitors will see when they visit your site: the Header and the Hero. First impressions matter, so these should immediately convey your site’s purpose, style, and tone. Our local business site is for a flower shop, so we wanted the site to be understated and...
Module 3: The About Page – Agency
Click the image above to preview the live page 3.0 Adding a New Page Since this is our first time adding a new page, let’s see exactly how we do it. The process is the same for every page we add later down the line. Step 1: Go to the pages menu. Click on the icon that looks like a rectangle with some horizontal lines on the left-side menu. It’s just below the...
Module 3: The About Page – Portfolio Site
Click the image above to preview the live page 3.0 Adding a New Page Since this is our first time adding a new page, let’s see exactly how we do it. The process is the same for every page we add later down the line. Step 1: Go to the pages menu. Click on the icon that looks like a rectangle with some horizontal lines on the left-side menu. It’s just below the...
Module 3: The About Page – Local Business
Click the image above to preview the live page 3.0 Adding a New Page Since this is our first time adding a new page, let’s see exactly how we do it. The process will be the same for every page we add later on. Step 1: Go to the pages menu. Click on the icon that looks like a rectangle with some horizontal lines on the left-side menu. It should be just below the...
Module 4: The Contact Page – Local Business
Click the image above to preview the live page Since we’ve already created a contact form for our site, we’ll just add some additional information to the “Contact” page of our local business site and a more in-depth form for visitors to reach out. We’ll have to create a new page before we start the building process. Since we already know how to do this, I’ll simply give...
Module 4: The Contact Page – Portfolio Site
Click the image above to preview the live page To keep up with the minimalism theme of the overall site, we’ll make sure that the “Contact” page for our photography portfolio site is rather simple. This isn’t only an aesthetic choice since we’re also ensuring that we remove any possible distractions. Of course, before we start, we’ll have to create a new page and rename...
Module 4: The Contact Page – Agency
As a general rule, we don’t want to oversaturate the dedicated contact page for any website. This page is merely utilitarian, and for many websites, getting visitors to press “Submit” on the contact button is the ultimate goal. So we don’t want to distract our visitors when they’re so close to the finish line. Of course, before we start, we’ll have to create a new page...
Module 5: The Services Page – Agency
Click the image above to preview the live page Success stories are great, but they can only take us so far, so we’ll want to include a dedicated page where we explicitly focus on providing detailed information about our services. To do this, we’ll divide the page into three sections: a simple hero, a detailed list of our services, and a blog strip on the bottom. Of...