Web design and development is a field of employment and research that has been getting a lot of attention recently. A lot of integral parts of our everyday lives have become tied in with the Internet and/or the information that we gather from there.
Naturally, the Internet hasn’t grown so much and so fast without the help of millions of developers and designers across the globe who contribute their work to the ever growing repository of websites and web oriented tools.
Speaking of said tools, their number and diversity has grown tremendously in the past few years, there are now tools or services developed to help you do anything from building your very own website to customizing the way the icons on your page are displayed.
Take a look at our selection of the top 20 web development resources and tools and see how they can make your job easier.
1. Gridgum
Gridgum is the ideal marketplace for sellers who want to offer their own responsive themes and templates and buyers who are looking for premium quality products.
Among the templates and themes sold by Gridgum you can find a wide range of frameworks used, from Bootstrap, Foundation or Skeleton, or you can choose to use your own responsive framework.
Since responsive themes have become a must in the web world, finding all you need in one place saves you time and money. Gridgum has a system that offers buyers points with every purchase. For example, if you gather 100 points, you get 1$ off your next sale.
What really makes Gridgum stand out from the crowd is their principle of choosing quality over quantity. You can be assured that at Gridgum you’ll find the most appealing themes and templates that will make your website shine and appeal to your viewers. Gridgum themes can be created for WordPress sites and can be put to so many uses: blogs, photo portfolios or even e-commerce sites.
A short guideline for sellers would be to make their themes responsive and give each of them a unique name. Also, the themes have to be tested in multiple browsers, while keeping in mind to emphasize the visual quality.
2. ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine is a powerful content delivery and management platform. ExpressionEngine aims to be the tool you turn to in order to be able to manage the content of your website easily and swiftly. This content management system allows you to define the way your website’s content is stored and accessed, disregarding any ‘standard’ way it should be done.
When using ExpressionEngine you will have such a high degree of flexibility within the installation that you will always feel like it was tailored especially for you. Since the website content that you’re managing from ExpressionEngine is completely independent from your website’s design, you can be assured that it will be displayed without any issues across a variety of devices.
What’s more, even if ExpressionEngine was created to be easy to operate by all users, developers will find it to be one of the most extensible content management systems they’ll ever encounter. Read more on ExpressionEngine.
3. Html5 Maker
HTML5Maker is an online service that can help you create multimedia content, such as animated banners and sliders, you can then embed into your website. It is a great tool aimed at people who are dealing with online advertisement.
The first thing you should know is that you won’t need design or development skills – HTML5Maker is that easy to use. HTML5Maker provides a series of great features. They have an Online Animation Editor as well as an Online Image Editor.
You can create responsive animations that are also compatible with Google Double-Click and Google AdWords. You have a great variety of ready-to-use templates that you can edit and download anytime. Plus, you can easily embed your animations stored in the cloud into your website, blog or ad campaign as well as share it as a Template with your customers and friends.
And since you can’t have a proper animation without Transition Effects and a Photo Editor, HTML5Maker features both of them in order to help you create more attractive and unique animations.
4. Argento
Argentotheme.com provides one of the most advanced Magento templates available. Argento was created based on the best e-commerce store’s principals and practices in order to give you the best experience possible.
It comes with over 15 popular Magento extensions and it uses CSS3 in order to bring your webstore to a whole new level. Argento is optimized for both speed and SEO and it is highly responsive, fitting any browser width and screen resolution. It also provides improved HTML structure for better Magento SEO performance.
Plus, it’s very easy to install and its interface is very user-friendly due to additional extensions such as Sold Together and Suggest Page. Argento is powered by 14 popular extensions: AJAX search, AJAX cart 2.0, Navigation PRO, Easy Slider, Easy Banners, Easy Catalog Images, Products Highlight and more. With so many great features, Argento is by far one of the most suitable themes for ecommerce. Go to http://argentotheme.com/ and give it a try.
5. Themify
Themify.me offers a great variety of themes for any need, from blog themes to ecommerce themes and restaurant themes. These themes are responsive, and some of them are even free so if you browse through their website, you’re sure to find one that will perfectly suit your needs (in addition, we’ve got a promotional code for you, it applies to any product from Themify and will allow you a 20% discount: ADDONSPROMO).
If you’re wondering what else the team over at Themify has prepared for you the answer is their new tool Builder Addons that extends the Themify Builder. Builder Addons can be used with any Themify theme and the Builder plugin. Here are the top addons you’ll find:
Pointers that help you highlight areas of your image;
WooCommerce will show products anywhere in the Builder;
The option to display content in a Timeline layout;
Add a Progress Bar based on input percentage.
Add custom designed action Buttons;
Add Audio playlist
Compare 2 images side by side.
6. Templates-master
Templates-Master.com is a leading provider of Magento themes and extensions. All templates are based on improved HTML structure and they always think about search engine optimization.
In addition to this, they’re constantly coming up with updates for their products, making sure they can be used with the most recent Magento releases. Their Magento Page Cache tool will help you make your Magento store faster as well as pay less for your hosting packages. Its basic purpose is to make your store faster.
This tool is very easy to install and it has great additional extension settings that allow you to set flexible cache rules based on page, block or any module. They offer a live demo as well as a free download so you can check out how it works for yourself. Go to http://templates-master.com/magento-page-cache-extension.html and give it a try. Besides, they offer 1 year of free support, so any issues you might encounter will be quickly solved by the team.
7. FreeIconMaker
FreeIconMaker.com is a powerful online tool that will help you create the perfect icon sets for your website. With Icon Maker creating and designing your own customized icons will become easier and faster than ever. You can browse through thousands of icons or choose the one you’re looking for and move on to making it look just how you want.
Add your own touch by changing the gradients and color. Next on, download your icon sets for free. Using icon maker is great because it doesn’t require any design skills and it’s free for personal and commercial use. There is no limit on the number of icons you’re allowed to design, so you can let your creativity flow free.
What is more, you can upload your own vector (SVG) icons and once you’re done you can share your icons with others as a template. Adding stunning icons to your personal blog or photos portfolio has never been simpler and quicker before.
8. BugMuncher
BugMuncher is a smart tool that helps its users receive feedback and bug reports from a live site. If you’re tired of receiving emails that only tell you your website is not working, then you need BugMuncher in your life.
It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words. With BugMuncher whenever your visitors find a problem, they’ll be able to highlight it and the system automatically takes screenshots of the website and also includes essential information about the user reporting the issue.
With just a glance you’ll be able to see what browser your user has, their operating system, their installed plugins and the path they took through your website. This way, you’ll be able to pinpoint the problem faster than by exchanging emails.
BugMuncher is incredibly quick to install and can be integrated with tools like Zendesh, Trello, ActiveCollab and GitHub. Instead of asking your users to describe their issue, you’ll now be able to see it for yourself, they’ll just have to pinpoint the problem on the website and BugMuncher will do the rest.
9. Tickera
Tickera is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to sell tickets for different events from your own website. This helpful WordPress plugin is not only incredibly easy to set up, but it also has 0% commission fees and a bunch of other cool features.
You can even check in attendees on iPhone, Android or barcode reader. Tickera will save you a lot of time and hassle whether you’re planning small or big events. The ticket builder tool enables you to create different ticket templates for different kinds of tickets. This way, for instance, your Standard, Premium or VIP tickets can sport different looks.
Designing your tickets is a piece of cake too: simply drag and drop, reorder and change the fonts or colors of your elements and you’re done. For a special touch you can add your own background image. What is more, the Tickera plugin includes a number of the most popular payment gateways out there – PayPal Standard, PayPal PRO, 2Checkout, Stripe, Paymill, Authorize.net, PIN, Vogue Pay, Braintree, Custom Offline Payments and Free Orders.
10. Kukook
Having an attractive and interesting resume can help put you ahead of your competition when you’re looking to get a project. This is why it’s so important to create a resume that perfectly recommends you for the job. Kukook Resumes is the perfect solution for creative resume templates.
With this service you will have access to a varied array of resume templates that are easy to edit with Word and are assured to make you stand out to all future employers. Kukook supplies a much-needed service for everyone looking for employment and not in the least for web developers and designers.
Having a creative resume ensures that the Human Resources department takes a few extra moments to analyze it. Seeing as the average time for viewing a resume is around 6 seconds, any amount of time you can gain is precious. By selecting a template from Kukook’s gallery and modifying it in order to reflect your personal experiences, you can be assured that you’ve taken the right steps toward getting the job you wish for.
11. Daily Hosting
If you’re looking for a hosting solution for your website, DailyHosting.net is the perfect place to start. Before buying a web hosting service, you have to take into consideration different factors. Daily Hosting guides you through the entire process of identifying the ideal service for your website.
You could opt for shared hosting, which is the most popular service out there. It is the most affordable option and it’s used for hosting a wide range of sites from personal blogs to e-commerce sites. However, if you require hosting for a heavier volume of traffic, VPS hosting is for you.
It’s costlier than shared hosting, but more reliable. Finally, dedicated hosting is the most expensive of the three, appropriate for application based websites. Daily Hosting offers tools and resources about varied hosting providers. According to your needs, you’ll find the solution to your problem no matter if you’re looking for VPS, cloud or reseller hosting.
12. GoJS JavaScript Library
GoJS is a JavaScript library that allows you to implement interactive diagrams on the latest browsers and platforms. With GoJS it’s now easy to create diagrams from scratch with complex Nodes, Links and Groups thanks to the templates and layouts that are fully customizable.
GoJS offers its user a wide range of advanced features. To create your diagram you can drag and drop, copy and paste elements. What is more, GoJS even has an extensible tool for custom operations, event handlers and overviews.
With GoJS you can start by learning how to build an app using a diagram and model data. Using their step-by-step description you’ll become a pro in no time. You can also read the introductory documents for a technical overview of concepts of techniques and browse through hundreds of live interactive examples. GoJS supports graphical templates and data binding of graphical object properties to model data and allows you to easily create interactive diagrams.
13. XQual
XStudio is a simple to use test management solution that helps you design and log all your manual tests. What is more, it even enables you to schedule fully automated test campaigns. XStudio can do this through leading test automation frameworks like Selenium, Ranorex, Sahi, Testcomplete and many others.
XStudio comes with some amazing features that help you measure the coverage of the testing, the execution progress and the quality index of your website.
Handling the entire life cycle of your QA/testing projects, XStudio is not just another test management platform.
What sets it apart from the rest is the versioned data that enables you to quickly get the necessary metrics and indicators like the test coverage, progress and the team’s performance.
XStudio’s features include authoring business requirements, planning, execution, scheduling and archiving of test campaigns and management of bugs. XStudio also incorporates an open source (LGPL) SDK allowing interface with all types of automated tests.
14. VirtueMart
VirtueMart is a complete eCommerce solution that can support an unlimited number of products and categories. With VirtueMart you can have products assigned to multiple categories. Also, VirtueMart offers a catalog mode in which the shopping cart features are turned off. The extension can support multiple prices for one product, which is set according to shopper groups or quantity range.
VirtueMart has to be used along with the Content Management System Joomla. Both are free to download and use and are written in PHP, which makes them easy to use in a PHP/MySQL environment.
VirtueMart is very user friendly and offers thousands of built-in features that enable its users to create their store and give it a polished finish with just a few clicks.
If you are looking for any particular features that are currently missing you can easily extend the functionalities of VirtueMart by installing new Plugins, Components, Templates and Modules. This way you’ll add your personal touch to your website.
15. MotoCMS
With MotoCMS you can create your own website, which will look good, work properly and appeal to your viewers, in no time. The best thing about all this is that you don’t need any special knowledge or programming skills. MotoCMS makes it easy for you to create and design your site in just a few steps. This powerful tool enables you to create functional and SEO-friendly websites and it has an intuitive interface.
If you need a mobile friendly website for your business, MotoCMS is for you. Within seconds you’ll be able to customize you site and make it look however you want it. The nice design offered by MotoCMS and the user friendly Admin Panel really make it stand out of the crowd.
With MotoCMS you’ll be able to create multilingual sites, you’ll have an Image Editor and an extensive Media Library. Their websites are optimized to comply with the Google Webmaster Guidelines, so you can rest assured everything is always up to date.
16. Opinion Stage
Opinion Stage allows you to create polls for your website within minutes. Once you’ve registered on Opinion Stage and decided what your poll will be about you can customize it after your heart’s desire.
You can choose how the poll looks like and select what information it shows (for example the total number of voters). If you want to make this more profitable, Opinion Stage allows you to monetize the poll by including advertisements or by promoting other polls from Opinion stage.
On your report dashboard you’ll be able to check how well your polls are performing and see if they are engaging, if they were shared on social platforms and how many times, how much traffic they brought to your website. You can also add your poll to your Facebook page simply through one click. If you’re looking for a simple and fast way to engage your users and bring viewers to your website as well as receive feedback, then Opinion Stage is the perfect tool for you.
17. Adverts
Adverts is a newly launched WordPress plugin that will help you create a classifieds website in no time. This plugin has been developed to run on the latest WordPress releases and respects all the WordPress development standards, so you’re guaranteed that it will work seamlessly with your WordPress website.
Adverts has been created to be modular, which means that it has a basic lightweight core that can be subsequently extended with modules. This allows you to be in complete control of all the functionalities Adverts offers at any time.
In addition to this, Adverts works seamlessly with free WordPress addons like Stripe Payments or Google Maps. Also, don’t hesitate to contact the Adverts development team, they are completely dedicated to providing you with the best customer support available as well as promising some amazing new features for Adverts in the near future. Installing Adverts is only a few mouse clicks away, check out their online demo here.
18. Uptime Robot
It’s vital that once you put out a website, said website is constantly available for your visitors. Unfortunately, nothing is perfect in the world and it sometimes happens that technology fails us and when that happens you need to be informed and get a handle on the situation as fast as possible.
This is where Uptime Robot comes to the rescue. This free uptime monitoring service is the perfect way to keep an eye on your websites or servers and get notified as soon as they go down.
Uptime Robot checks them every 5 minutes and as soon as it finds a problem with them, it will send you a notification via email, SMS or any other way you tell it to from its easy-to-use interface that also gives you access to 50 monitors that are completely free. What’s more, you can use Uptime Robot’s services to monitor the response times for both your websites and servers as well.
19. Webflow
Creating a website is no longer the complicated, nerve-racking task that in the past was reserved only for professionals. Nowadays you can find a ready supply of tools online that will help you create your own website easily and rapidly.
The best tool from the crowd by far is Webflow. This amazing website builder will help you create a first-rate website that will look great on any device from laptops to handheld devices without writing any code. All you have to do is drag and drop the elements you want to incorporate in your website and Webflow will take care of all the rest. In no time at all you will be the proud owner of a fully functional website.
20. CoffeeCup
Choosing the right layout for your website is a very important step in the development and design process. Even though there are a number of markets out there that supply layouts that are ready to use straight into your project, you may want to have a bigger say in how your layout turns out.
This is where CoffeeCup comes in. This app will help you make custom, content-drive, responsive layouts from scratch. By using CoffeeCup you will have access to a Responsive Layout Maker, a HTML Editor, a Form Builder and a Website Insight tool that will help you improve your website’s usability and search rank.
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