Welcome to 2024, where web design is as fast-paced as ever. You know how crucial a killer website is nowadays — your online handshake, 24/7 billboard, and usually the first hello to your customers. But with all these rapid changes, it’s tough to keep up, right?
There is an ongoing debate about whether design is more art or more science. SEO is 100% alchemy; if you know where to look and how to interpret what you find, anyone can turn underperforming websites into gold.
These three design trends are sure to help you generate some hot ideas in one of the coldest months of the year.
These three design trends are sure to help you generate some hot ideas in one of the coldest months of the year.
The WordPress directory has 50k+ free plugins that were developed so you can extend a WordPress website with functions and features far beyond your imagination.
Additional thousands of WordPress plugins are available from various marketplaces.
No matter how much you might have a need for a specialized plugin or two, would you really want to spend a full workday on reseraching? Probably not.
So, what, if anything, can you do? We have an answer to that.
We tested tens of WordPress plugins and selected the 8 best WordPress free and premium plugins for a range of both popular and lesser used functions.
These plugins focus on important functionalities that you won’t typically find in a WordPress theme. They address web designer/developer needs for:
These 8 best WordPress plugins for 2024 are available in trial, free, or premium.
Support – We reviewed product development teams’ responses to problems and questions and recommended only those products whose teams have a history of answering support issues within 24 hours.
Reviews by users. We extensively read product reviews and testimonials that specified both ‘Have’ and ‘Have nots’ of these plugins.
Features – We scrutinized each plugin to ensure its advertised features would meet the goal the plugin was designed and built to satisfy.
Free version – All 8 have free versions with a large number of features.
Compatibility – We made certain each plugin was fully compatible with the latest WordPress and PHP versions, and has been updated within the past two months.
These 8 WordPress plugins are excellent in their areas. And we have made your job easier by doing time-consuming work for you.
Below, you will read about each plugin’s key features, how their customer evaluated them, and we will give you links to test them out or find out more info for yourself.
WordPress Plugin — Appointment Booking WP PluginAmelia is the best WordPress plugin for a service-oriented business looking for an automated booking system.
More than 70% of Amelia’s users agree that Amelia’s standout feature is its powerful multilingual Notifications system that enables users to seamlessly manage their appointment and event bookings via SMS, email, and/or WhatsApp messages.
Product qualities users realize once they begin using Amelia:
A service-oriented business like the one shown in the barbershop template can take advantage of Amelia’s new and improved booking form, organize an appointment flow that best suits their business model, and receive appointment requests online 24/7.
Product rating: 4.8/5 on Captera.
Customer Insight:
Pros: “Amelia is one of my favorite plugins because: 1. Easy to install and use. 2. Reliable and professional quality. 3. Full of great features – better than any others I have used. 4. Great layout, versatile and works seamlessly with clients 5. It is always updated and improved. 6. Support help and communication is fast, friendly, and excellent. 7. Not just a flash in the pan. It has been around for a long time.”
Cons: “Nothing I can think of or have had to be concerned with.”
Instant Support: Documentation, Videos on YouTube and a Discord Group.
wpDataTables is the best WordPress plugin for organizations or individuals tasked with creating tables and charts from complex and/or massive amounts of data.
wpDataTables’ key feature is its Multiple Database Connections capability. This groundbreaking feature is a data management breakthrough that allows a table to set up independent connections to MySQL, MS SQL, or PostgreSQL databases and become a versatile data hub in the process.
Product qualities users quickly become aware of:
wpDataTables is excellent for statistics data tables that are responsive. Other uses include:
Product rating: 4.83/5
Customer Insight: “Really great for tables using csv or Excel. Solved a very difficult content issue for me. Thanks so much!”
Instant support options: Excellent documentation and on point YouTube videos.
Brizy is the ideal WordPress website builder for those looking for a White Label solution to market their own brand.
Brizy’s standout feature is its White Label option. You can brand the Brizy builder as your own and encourage clients to create websites using “your” builder.
Product qualities users discover as they use Brizy Builder:
Tailored features for agencies and resellers in addition to the White Label option, include Billing, Reseller Client Management, Multi-language capabilities, and Marketing integrations.
Brizy Builder is ideal for building creative websites and landing pages in the Brizy Cloud or when used with the Brizy WordPress theme. “Petits” Brizy’s pet website template is ideal for a pet shop in addition to having a wide range of other uses.
Product rating: 4.6/5 on Trust Pilot
Customer Insight: “In many way a very satisfying pagebuilder, with a generous and fantastic free version. Especially the way of working with pictures is really nice. However, sometimes experience that Brizy is a little unstable, some things that in between do not flow as they should. But can warmly recommend it, not least for beginners.”
Support capabilities include the Brizy support manual and YouTube videos.
Click here to check out the Brizy Builder plugin.
Slider Revolution is the best WordPress plugin for those looking to incorporate a WOW factor into their sliders without any need for coding.
Some say it’s the knockout effects for WordPress that turn them on. With others, Slider Revolution’s top feature is the one that enables them to create sliders visually. Both are right.
Revolution Slider has a host of design options for every category of user:
Users quickly take note of the features that allow them to easily upgrade a WordPress website visual in mere minutes.
Product rating: 4.6/5
Customer Insight: “This is a stunning tool. There are great templates that are easily modified to suit you. There’s a learning curve which should come as no surprise once you recognize its potential (and therefore yours.) I don’t know one line of code.”
Support: Slider Revolution’s support manual and YouTube videos provide instant support.
Click for a preview of the Slider Revolution plugin.
LayerSlider is the best WordPress plugin for web designers looking for an uncompromising approach to making amazing web content with gorgeous visual effects.
LayerSlider is not only for building responsive sliders and popups but is also excellent for creating more complex websites. LayerSlider’s top feature is, in fact, a scroll effect in which a hero image magically animates as visitors scroll through the page, as is the case in the Fairy Magical Company example with its scroll scene, scroll transition, and pinned layers.
With respect to templates, the Wood Sculptor website template shows a great example of LayerSlider’s capabilities.
Qualities that only its users will notice include:
Although LayerSlider’s popup and banner-creating capabilities and popular animation features are excellent for marketing purposes, LayerSlider is “tailored” for use on any website niche.
Customer Insight: “Powerful features and a flexible slider for many effects. Makes a very professional looking slider.”
Support: A support manual comes with the package, plus built-in help for almost everything inside the LayerSlider Project Editor.
Click for a preview of the LayerSlider plugin.
Essential Grid is the #1 WordPress gallery plugin for creating galleries guaranteed to capture visitors’ attention.
The grid skin options and 50+ unique grid skins are clearly Essential Grid’s top feature.
Users can easily plug and play these customizable templates to complete projects in no time at all, plus Essential Grid’s visual skin editor enables users to create as many skin variations as they want.
Team, blog, portfolio, and You/Tube Vimeo channel stream grids are popular among target client categories. The Portfolio Grid example features a image-based portfolio grid layout with pinned text layer and hover effects.
The developers of the wildly popular Slider Revolution plugin, which also appears on this list of best plugins, created Essential Grid as well.
Product rating: 4.7/5 on Trust Pilot
Customer Insight: “It’s rare in today’s world to find support that is competent and responsive, but Theme Punch’s Essential Grid support is AMAZING!!! My issue was resolved on the first contact, and within an hour of submitting a ticket.”
Support: Look to the support manual and YouTube videos for instant support.
Web Stories helps users create powerful narratives and fast-loading full-screen experiences.
The top feature of this WordPress storytelling editor is how smoothly it blends a selection of story creation capabilities into a WYSIWYG creation tool. WebStories also provides an impressive selection of templates. Bike Shop is simple, straightforward, and also one of the most popular eCommerce themed templates.
Other popular features include even more beautiful page templates to help get story creation activities underway together with:
Product qualities that Web Stories’ users discover when they begin using the plugin include:
Product rating: 4.1/5
Customer Insight: “On our website, we personally love the web story platform! It’s SO beautiful and customizable, we can create different posts that fit our media outlet, and our public likes it a lot. It isn’t that easy to make in the beginning, but once you get it, you can produce a lot!
Instant support option: Solid documentation.
View the Web Stories plugin.
Tablesome is the best WordPress form automation plugin for those who need to efficiently transfer information from submitted forms into tables.
Tablesome’s top feature is easily its WordPress Automation feature which enables users to automate certain data management processes when people have submitted forms such as:
Tablesome’s users appreciate what Workflow Automation does to make their work easier. As they become familiar with Tablesome they gain a better understanding of the tasks it can do, and also become aware of the significant reduction in the number plugins needed to carry out those tasks.
Tablesome can also be used to support building of or improving data-centric websites thanks to its integrations with MailChimp, Google Sheets, Slack, HubSpot CRM, OpenAI/ChatGPT, and WordPress.
Product rating: 4.7/5
Customer Insight: “I was searching for a simple responsive table plugin that allowed Excel file imports in the free version, and after testing all the so-called popular table plugins, I realized that none of them offered excel imports in the free version or if they did, they were not responsive. Then I found Tablesome, and it worked perfectly! Within minutes I had the table setup from the existing excel sheet. Thank you to the authors of Tablesome, and I highly recommend it to everyone!”
Support: YouTube videos and Tablesome’s user manual are best for instant support.
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It’s understandable you would not need every one of them, but having one or two could add significant value to your projects. With so many free and premium WordPress plugins to select from in the 4 areas that we covere, we saved you a great amount of time.
Each of these best WordPress plugins is:
And customer support for each of these plugins is on point, responsive and pro.
Check out these free and premium wordpress plugins, take them for a spin and go premium if you need the extra features.
Read More at 5+ Best WordPress Plugins to Try Out [2024 edition]
A WordPress theme that doesn’t look modern, doesn’t come with built-in flexibility, and with a developer that doesn’t support it can spell trouble for you down the line. Your website’s design needs to adapt and evolve alongside the business it represents.
Welcome to the first best sites collection of 2024. We’d like to offer you some inspiration to lift your spirits this Blue Monday, so this month’s collection is all about positivity and optimism.
Happy New Year to you, and happy new tools! Whether you are a dedicated web tool enthusiast, looking for something specific, or just having a casual browse, welcome to our first collection of 2024.
Searching for a tool to make cross-platform design a breeze? Desperate for an extension that helps you figure out the HTML code of that fantastic color palette? Looking for a trick that will supercharge your productivity this year? We’ve got you covered.
There is certainly no shortage of excellent WordPress themes you can select from to help you create an engaging and high performing website. Finding the best one for the job would most certainly be a challenge as there are literally thousands of great WordPress themes available plus you’ll have to define just what the makeup of the “best” would be like. Simply finding one you can rely on to help you create a website that will attract and engage new visitors to your site can be a problem in itself.
Since the one you pick will go a long way toward determining the look and feel of your site and would play an essential role in creating a source of information potential customers can feel they can rely on, one of our 10 top picks for the best WordPress themes should suit you quite nicely in that each brings a wealth of powerful website-building features to the table.
One of the most consistent features of BeTheme is that it keeps getting better with each new release, with each new feature or set of features adding to its already well-established popularity. BeTheme has in effect become a total website management system thanks to a multiplicity of powerful core features that can be used for quickly building high performance websites of any type.
Click on the banner to check out each of BeTheme’s core website-building features. You’ll be impressed and glad you did.
Take Cornerstone, the most advanced builder in WordPress, pair it with Pro Theme, and what you get is the most powerful combo in WordPress. Cornerstone, with its app-like design and development capability is website building in the browser at its best and makes building websites fun, as it should be.
The Cornerstone Builder brings to the table the ability to build custom layouts and templates, stunning headers, content blocks, optimized workflows, glorious grids, and much more.
Cornerstone’s imposing family of builders include a Header Builder, a Footer Builder, a Layout Builder, and a Blog Builder.
Click on the banner, visit the Pro + Cornerstone website and be prepared to be impressed with what you see. Reviews by satisfied users are included.
Whether you have a new website building project in mind or have decided it would be a good idea to spice up an existing one, having Total at your fingertips will help you do either to perfection. The Total WordPress theme is an ideal choice for developers, small business owners, and web designers of all skill levels.
Having the ability to create a website that does justice to your business is good. Having tools on hand that enable you to build it your way is even better. The Total WordPress theme guarantees both with its:
Total is developer friendly with a full complement of action hooks, filters, custom snippets and more. Click on the banner to learn more about what Total could do for you.
Suggestion. Visit Uncode’s website and view its inspirational user-built website gallery that shows what its users have accomplished, as well as what Uncode could do for you.
This best-selling (110,000+ sales) creative and WooCommerce theme features include:
The Outgrid Elementor Theme with its impressive range of 2,000+ blocks, 250+widgets, pages, and stunning interactions gives you everything you need to create an exceptional website that will stand out from the competition.
Outgrid also offers a White Label version. Simply add your logo, brand name, brand color, and disable theme features.
750,000+ first-time WordPress users and professional web designers (more than 24,000 of whom have submitted 5-star reviews) have discovered how Avada, the ultimate website builder and the #1 best-selling WordPress website building theme ever, makes it so fast and easy to create an amazing website.
Avada is responsive, optimized for speed, e-commerce enabled, and you’ll receive top-notch customer support.
Woodmart, the owner of a 4.95/5.0 average rating, offers an all-in-one solution for creating an attention-grabbing online store.
Visit the Woodmart WooCommerce theme website and go down its selection of 80+demos with their shop, business, corporate, fashion, electronics, and furniture themes. Chances are you’ll catch yourself trying to order something before remembering it’s only a demo.
Woodmart is simply demonstrating what an engaging website should look like.
The 100% eCommerce ready Blocksy WordPress theme is chock full of intuitive website building tools and aids that include –
Blocksy is compatible with Elementor, Brizy, and Beaver Builder page builders. Blocksy also features a White Label module that allows users to emphasize their company brands for maximal trust and user engagement.
Building an online store should be done with careful attention to detail but it does not have to become a tedious grind. You’ll need to have your own content (products, descriptions, etc.) at the ready, but the rest will be the easy part if you let the XStore WooCommerce theme do the work for you.
Design tools include 130+ ready to customize and launch shops, Single Product, Product Archive, Checkout Layout, and Cart Layout builders, and 15 Sales Booster features that include:
If a creative, multi-purpose Elementor WordPress theme is your cup of tea, Litho is right for you.
Litho is built with Elementor and can be used for any type of business niche like corporate, design agency, restaurant, travel, yoga, architect, fitness, interior, cafe, application and more, plus portfolio, blog, and eCommerce. Just add the WooCommerce plugin and you’re ready to go.
Litho is ideal for novice and advanced users alike.
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Site appearance is key with respect to how people will perceive your brand. It is therefore imperative that your online presence features a professional, visually appealing, and responsive design that helps you gain credibility, engage site visitors, and increase your conversion rates.
A WordPress theme can make this happen by giving you a fast, reliable, and efficient approach to website design by providing you with solutions that allow you to jumpstart your design efforts in minutes as opposed to the time it can take to create a layout from scratch.
Selecting the right WordPress theme is key if you want to present your content in an engaging, easy-to-digest, and functional manner. Now that you’ve checked out these 10 excellent WordPress themes, this might be the time to select one that suits you best and get on with building your site.
Read More at 10 Excellent WordPress Themes for 2024
