As a web professional, you’re dedicated to keeping up with the latest design technologies. This is even though you find doing so can be more than a bit overwhelming at times.
The good news is you don’t have to know it all. There are plenty of other designers out there who build amazing tools. These tools can help you cope with the constant changes.
Take advantage of how these tools can help you. Do so by learning what they can accomplish and try them out (some are free, so you might give them a try anyhow).
We suggest that you take an inventory of your digital toolbox. You need to see what in the way of tools or resources have become obsolescent. Maybe there are some tools that no longer quite up to the task? Perhaps, some are incapable of helping you take advantage of the latest technologies?
Looking through these 15 best-in-class tools and resources will be a good start.
1. Elementor Page Builder
Elementor is a free, open source WordPress page builder noted for its lightning speed, its ability to work with any theme, and a live frontend editing feature that enables you to create one stunning page or website after another without a need for coding.
Elementor is also first in its class. The 600,000 loyal users who selected it as their go-to page-building tool and did so in less than 2 years following its initial release would seem to prove the point. It’s also worth mentioning that following the release of Elementor 2.0 with its cool and exciting new features, the number of Elementor users now stands at 900,000+.
Elementor is developer friendly and easy to work with. Although it comes with a library of templates designed to meet your needs, you can design your own templates if you wish, and add them to the library. Templates can also be imported, exported, and shared with other designers, and they can be used again and again.
A Pro version of Elementor is also available.
2. Mobirise Website Builder
A mobile-friendly website has gone from being a curiosity, to being something of significant importance, to being for all intents and purposes mandatory; especially among shoppers and most businesses.
It makes sense then to invest in a WordPress theme that’s focused on creating mobile-friendly websites since that is what most clients are looking for and need. Creating mobile-friendly websites is Mobirise’s specialty, and it is also a great choice for building small websites of any type, landing pages, and portfolios – all coding.
This web-building tool comes with a host of features including 1,000 trendy design blocks and templates, a rich assortment of icons and fonts and 500,000 free images.
Mobirise is an offline builder, so you have total control over your design approach as well as where and how you plan to host your website. Mobirise can be used to create both personal and commercial websites without restrictions.
3. Amelia - Enterprise-Level WordPress Appointment Booking Plugin
Introducing Amelia, a WordPress plugin you can put to good use if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to add an automated booking feature to your business website. This plugin application, from the creators of the Code Canyon best-selling wpDataTables plugin is the brainchild of an Elite Envato author who can lay claim to more than 17,000 licenses sold.
Once you bring Amelia into the fold, you can dispense with having to pay someone’s salary to manually book, track, and organize your appointments. Clients and customers can book appointments from their computers and smartphones 24/7. Amelia will organize and track appointments and notify the appropriate parties when an appointment is pending, or has been booked, cancelled, or rejected.
Amelia also does an excellent job of scheduling follow-up appointments, sending reminders, and even sending birthday greetings. As Amelia just launched, it is available at a promotional price for several weeks, so hurry before it goes up.
4. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme
Uncode is a creative multiuse WordPress theme that makes it possible for a web designer to produce an eye-catching, pixel-perfect portfolio in an amazingly short time. It’s not necessary to start a project from scratch, nor do you have to concern yourself with code.
Already a favorite, Uncode is destined to become even more popular thanks to its recently added Slide Scroll and Shape Dividers features, and the new and impressive Gallery Manager.
5. monday.com
monday.com gives you the advantage of being able to manage projects from a single centralized platform. You can use this team management tool for a team consisting of yourself and one other, or a team of thousands.
Whether a team is tech-oriented or not, or whether the team belongs to a startup or a Fortune 500 company; this team management tool encourages project transparency and is a proven productivity booster.
6. Nutcache
Like the little mascot in the logo, Nutcache saves things until they are needed; in this case, critical project management information. Nutcache was designed specifically for Agile and Scrum project managers and teams to collaborate better and improve projects’ performance.
Moreover, this business-oriented productivity tool will integrate your business’s financial capabilities and track and report on task time and expenses from the time of a project’s initial estimating and budgeting until final billing.
7. Houzez
Realtors and real estate agency websites require features and capabilities that are extremely difficult to create from scratch and are virtually absent for most WordPress themes, even the multiuse themes. Houzez provides everything needed from advanced property search capabilities and multiple listings options to recently added features like a custom fields builder and search composer that make this theme more flexible and powerful than ever.
Plus, Houzez’s customer support follows the best industry standards.
8. Salesmate
By integrating your WordPress website with the Salesmate CRM plugin you can easily capture leads from the website, nurture them, and convert them into sales. Salesmate tags and organizes the leads, assigns them to sales team members and moves them through the sale cycle.
Try Salesmate for free to see how it can help your business.
9. 34,000 Icons Full Bundle by Roundicons.com
Roundicons.com features the world’s largest bundle of royalty-free icons. There are 34,000 flat, round, solid, doodle and other icons in the bundle all of which can be yours to download with a one-time payment. A commercial license is included, plus monthly additions to the bundle will be yours for free. Mention coupon code R120OFFALL when you download for a 20% discount.
10. Themify Ultra
With Themify Ultra you can build an unlimited number of different websites to satisfy an unlimited number of clients from a single multipurpose theme.
A wealth of pre-designed websites, header, footer, and post layouts and customizable megamenus are included along with WooCommerce support and a free post type plugin.
11. Stockfresh
Need a few stock photos for your projects? Or perhaps a lot of them? This stock photo agency is well worth looking into. Stockfresh offers millions of handpicked photos and image vectors at competitive prices.
They’ve made searching for what you need easy and you can expect friendly support. Be sure to check for specials and discount codes when you’ve found photos or images you want.
12. PhotoBlocks Grid Gallery
The PhotoBlocks’ drag and drop visual builder makes it easy for you to create pixel-perfect grid galleries that are always properly justified. Photoblocks is customizable, responsive, and loads lightning fast. You can use both horizontal and vertical images and a mix of different media in the same gallery, and PhotoBlocks also supports filters.
You can also create sparkling portfolios and product showcases with PhotoBlocks.
13. The Web Designer YouTube Channel
If you need to brush up on or learn more about UX, UI, WordPress, or other web design topics pay The Web Designer YouTube Channel a visit. As a subscriber, you can view high-quality videos on these and other subjects.
The Web Designer also features videos that offer design tips and provide real website design examples.
14. Beamer
Beamer is a smart, easy-to-use newsfeed that can be integrated as a sidebar on your website; on your “What’s New?†page for example. No technical skill is needed to put the sidebar in place, and it replaces less effective blogs and email newsletters as a means of keeping a business’s customers informed.
You can try Beamer for free for 14 days.
15. Portfoliobox
Portfoliobox’s online website-building tool is easy to use, no coding is necessary, and it is not theme based. Portfoliobox is designed with creatives in mind, and both free and pro plans are available. The free plan, which is a great starting point, includes hosting for 50 images, 10 pages, and 10 products plus access to all the templates.
Conclusion
Choose any of these 15 best-in-class tools and resources. They will help you stay abreast of the latest web design trends and technologies. Depending on what you select, you can also expect an uptick in productivity. You will see a smoothing out of your day-to-day workflow. Do not be surprised to notice an improved project transparency and team collaboration.
Some of these tools and resources are free. Others offer free trials or feature competitive and affordable prices.
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