Top 15 Tools and Resources that Designers are Using

Written by Kevin Liew on 23 Jun 2021
32,491 Views • WordPress

Let's assume that you are starting a business or a project from scratch or working to improve upon an existing one. Having the best design tools available at your fingertips can go a long way toward enabling you to reach your goal.

That is especially true if your project involves creating an online presence for your business or agency. Or if you are trying to make certain business operations perform more efficiently and effectively. 

The option or options you may choose will obviously depend upon your need. It’s important therefore that you fully understand the features or capabilities a given option provides.

To assist you in this matter we’ve assembled a listing of 15 products and services that are the best of the best in their respective categories. Any one of which could be a potential game changer for you and your business or agency.

1. BeTheme | Limitless Website Builder for WordPress

Bigger isn’t always necessarily better, but BeTheme is a classic example of a multipurpose WordPress theme that just happens to be both.

Highlights among its 40+ core features there are the Muffin Builder, Admin Panel, and a library of 600+ professionally-designed and customizable pre-built websites. These, combined with other core features, provide limitless website design opportunities.

The pre-built websites cover 30+ industry sectors and provide users with a great website-building starting points. As for the popular Muffin Builder, it has been replaced by the new and improved Muffin Builder 3 with its intuitive and versatile UI.

Muffin Builder 3 allows you to:

  • Use sections, wraps, styling options, and shortcodes to create virtually any layout
  • Import and export page sections and blocks of content and save and restore design revisions
  • Highlight code and process shortcodes while editing text

Theme Options 3 is another new feature that gives users the ability to:

  • Set portfolio, blog, and shop page styles
  • Select among 600+ settings to modify layouts and design elements

Click on the banner to find out more.

2. Total WordPress Theme 

Aptly named, Total has the features you need to build any site layout you may want to without having to deal with bothersome limitations.

Total’s secret may be found among its wealth of flexible page-building features and styling options such as:

  • 40+ easy to import pre-built Theme Demos to get you off to a fast start
  • 100+ Builder Modules to help you create custom pages quickly and easily
  • The Dynamic Template function for making and assigning custom post type layouts
  • The drag and drop WPBakery page builder
  • The Slider Revolution plugin
  • Pre-designed Card Styles that come in handy for displaying post entries
  • A developer-friendly API for creating your own card styles
  • Templatera: a WPBakery add-on that is super helpful for managing your page layouts

Total is also developer friendly and can claim 47,000 happy customers. Click on the banner to learn more.

3. Mobirise Website Builder 

Several of the things that set Mobirise apart from traditional website builders include its mobile- and Google-friendly minimalistic design, a super-intuitive interface, unique “out-of-the-box” website blocks and techniques, and the fact that it is free for both commercial and non-profit use.

  • Mobirise is offline, so you’re not tied to a specific platform, and you can host your website wherever you want to
  • 100+ HTML themes, 300+ home page templates and more than 4,000 website blocks are included to help you build your award-winning site
  • Like speed? Mobirise’s Google AMP/Bootstrap4 frameworks ensure your website will be both super-fast and 100% mobile friendly.
  • There are plenty of page-building features to work with ranging from images, videos, and galleries to Google maps, sliders, icons, and more.

Mobirise, 2021’s #1 offline website builder, has been used to create more than 1.5 million websites. Click on the banner to find out more.

4. wpDataTables

The wpDataTables is the top selling WordPress plugin in its category and without question one of the premier table and chart building software apps on the market.

With wpDataTables you can:

  • Create responsive, interactive, and easily editable tables and charts
  • Create tables and charts from huge amounts of data from multiple sources and in multiple formats
  • Process data in real time (MySQL data)
  • Make use of conditional formatting to highlight and color code key information.

5. Trafft

The Trafft booking software application is still in an early stage of release. If you join as an early adopter, you will have an opportunity to contribute to this application’s game-changing approach to how businesses book and manage appointments.

Highlights include:

  • Booking and managing appointments including SMS and email notifications
  • Zoom integration and Google Calendar 
  • Employee assignment and time management

Try 14 days for free.

6. Uncode – Creative Multiuse & WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Uncode is a creative, high performance pixel perfect theme that enables you to create websites exhibiting those very same characteristics.

  • Building impressive magazine, blog and portfolio sites are just three of Uncode’s many strong points
  • Key components in Uncode’s designer’s toolkit include the new WooCommerce Custom Builder, 450+ Wireframes section templates, and its juiced-up Frontend Editor. 
  • Uncode is an Envato top seller with 85,000+ sales to date and is an ideal choice for creative individuals and agencies.

7. Amelia Booking Plugin

Amelia is an easy to work with WordPress booking plugin that effortlessly manages appointments and events from a single platform, while saving businesses and their clients time in the process.

  • Clients can book or change appointments online 24/7
  • Employees and clients have their individual frontend dashboards to manage appointments and events 
  • Amelia can serve multiple business locations
  • Amelia can be integrated with Zoom and Google meet for virtual sessions

8. Getillustrations – Premium illustrations library

The use of illustrations has proven to be one of the most popular design trends and GetIllustrations is loaded with cool UI design illustrations you can access within seconds.

  • This, the world’s biggest web illustrations bundle features 6,800+ cleverly-designed illustrations
  • Each illustration you purchase comes with a commercial license and is yours to keep and use as you wish
  • Illustrations are available in SVG, PNG, Sketch, Figma, Vector AI and Adobe XD formats.

9. Rey theme for WooCommerce

Any theme that integrates with Elementor, WooCommerce, and the WordPress engine is going to pack a punch, and Rey does just that. Rey is in fact considered by many web designers to have been the top WooCommerce theme in 2020.

  • This SEO-friendly theme is highly modular and is noted for its cleverly crafted modern design
  • Rey’s authors focused is on its performance – and still do
  • Rey brings to the table an impressive array of eCommerce tools and other custom features

10. Goodiewebsite

The GOODIE web development platform provides services to web designers and others who need to get a website reliably coded and up and running in a short amount of time.

  • GOODIE’s development team specializes in small to medium size websites, custom websites, and eCommerce sites
  • Frontend development, website maintenance, and responsive email template development are other areas of GOODIE’s expertise.

11. WHATFONTIS

WHATFONTIS is an AI-driven software app designed to assist designers in finding a font they need or have an interest in.

  • A clear image of the font in question is uploaded.
  • A rapid search of the apps database of 700K+ fonts operating in tandem with its powerful font-finding algorithms typically provides an answer in seconds.
  • Premium support is offered in the event the AI engine produces an awkward result

12. Litho – The Multipurpose HTML5 Template

Creative types, agencies, businesses, and startups will profit from what the Litho HTML5 template has to offer with its creative modern design and Bootstrap4 performance characteristics.

Key features include:

  • A creative modern design and a Bootstrap4 framework
  • Impressive selections of home pages, templates, and page styles for shop, portfolio, and blog sites
  • Design aids and elements ranging from hero sliders and contact forms to interactive banners and tables
  • Detailed documentation and excellent customer support.

13. 8b Website Builder

Much to like about this futuristic and super simple to use online website builder.

  • With 8b you can build websites on your desktop, on a mobile device when you are out and about, or both
  • The package features 16 starter templates to get projects off to a fast start and 250+ website sections to complete the job
  • 8b won’t cost you a dime. It’s free.

14. Siter

The Siter website builder is a great choice for design teams or website building projects in which there is a need for collaboration among stakeholders.

  • While Siter does not require coding, you can easily insert your own custom code  
  • Siter gives you access to thousands of photos, icons, and YouTube videos
  • Use a free Siter domain or your own

Siter has affordable monthly and annual plans, but you can start using it for free.  

15. Heroic Inbox

Instead of managing inboxes from a separate platform, Heroic Inbox gives businesses the advantage of doing so inside their own websites.

  • Heroic inbox archives and manages emails using tabs
  • Heroic Inbox promotes collaboration among departmental groups
  • Inbox Zero status is rapidly achieved and maintained
  • Key email response and other performance metrics can be tracked and acted upon

It’s a given that experienced web designers will make good use of any of the above designer tools and services. You want to build and maintain a website but you aren’t particularly technically inclined. Or if the words software applications or software tools sound a little scary, you needn’t worry. The above tools for designers and services are easy and straightforward to use, and they will serve you well.

The focus here is to give you the opportunity to use the some of the best tools and services on the market. Here “best” Implies ease of use in addition to superb performance.

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