Web development is one of the topics on everybody’s lips. Whether it’s people talking about the website launched for the latest film, about the online shops they choose to visit or even actual web developers trading ideas, everyone is in on the discussion about websites.
This is one of the main reasons why the industry has to keep evolving and constantly come up with new, entertaining ideas. And let me tell you, it’s not easy.
Luckily, there are a number of tools and services that were created in order to help web developers achieve amazing results easily and quickly. Here’s our selection of the top 20.
1. Gridgum
Whether you’re looking for a niche marketplace where you can sell your responsive themes or if you’re looking to buy premium quality themes and templates, Gridgum is the place for you. Gridgum aims to bring you the best responsive themes and templates available and it’s succeeding in doing this by choosing quality over quantity. You can rest assured that all themes from Gridgum are not only beautiful and appealing to the viewers, but also responsive and stable. The marketplace offers WordPress and Bootstrap themes and also Admin Panels for people who are shopping for their new website. Gridgum accepts themes created with Bootstrap, Gumby and Skeleton frameworks or even your own framework. If you want to sell your responsive theme on Gridgum, you should bear in mind that each theme must have a unique name, that themes must be tested in various browsers and that static HTML templates must use index.html as the filename for the home/default page. You’ll also be glad to hear that all theme authors get fixed commission rates for all their work. Buyers get perks also, Gridgum has a neat purchase points system that allows clients to redeem the point they earned in this purchase in any future one.
2. ExpressionEngine
The team at EllisLab came up with one of the most flexible content management tools for your website –ExpressionEngine. This tool allows you to break down content into parts that make sense to you instead of trying to conform to a preconceived notion of how it should be stored and accessed. ExpressionEngine is very easy to install and will fit both the website and its content. Therefore, it’s going to work perfectly whether you use it for a university website, a tourism, real estate or eCommerce site and even with a personal blog. You won’t have to try and twist the application to make it fit, because it goes smoothly with anything. Since the content is completely separated from the design, you can display it anyway you want and integrate it with several apps and services. Plus, you can do this without having any programming experience. On the other hand, if you’re a programmer you’ll instantly recognize the maneuverability of this tool and see that it’s one of the most extensible content management systems there is.
3. HTML5 Maker
HTML5Maker is one of the best online services out there that can help you create animated multimedia content. Whether you want something refreshing for your personal blog or you’re planning a whole ad campaign, HTML5Maker is the tool you’re looking for. You don’t even have to be a programmer or have any design skills in order to use the tool. HTML5Maker comes with many great features. The Online Animation Editor and Online Image Editor will help you get creative in no time. Plus, you can create responsive animations that are compatible with Google AdWords and Google Double-Click. There’s a great variety of ready-to-use templates you can choose from and you can also embed your animations from the cloud into your website or share them as a Template with your customers. HTML5Maker also provides Transition Effects and a Photo Editor that will help easily create the most attractive animations, whether they are sliders or banners or any other type of multimedia content.
4. Argento
If you’re looking for a way to improve your store, Argentotheme.com has the solution for you. Argento is one of the best Magento templates you can find. It was designed to be both highly functional and to answer to all the needs of an eCommerce website. The theme is fully responsive and respects all Magento developer guidelines. It scales to adapt any screen resolution and works smoothly on all operating systems including iOS, Android and BlackBerry, so you don’t have to go through the trouble of creating a mobile application for each of them. Plus, the Argento theme is easy to install and the professional developers from Argentotheme.com can get it installed for free in less than 24 hours. The theme was created with SEO in mind, so it will provide your store with improved HTML structure for better Magento SEO performance including SEO important tags and HTML attributes. Argento also comes with lots of popular extensions that will create a more user-friendly interface for your visitors to enjoy.
5. Tickera
Tickera is the perfect tool for those who organize and handle events. It’s also helpful for small parties or gatherings since it’s intuitive and highly efficient. Tickera allows you to design tickets and sell them through your website. This WordPress plugin is 100% free and it will save you a lot of time, especially if you have to deal with several events at the same time. Tickera is so user friendly it even allows you to check in attendees on your iPhone or Android device via barcode scan. All you have to do is enjoy automation and save your money. Ticket builder lets you create ticket templates for each ticket type. This way you can have Premium or VIP tickets for the same event that look different. Play around with font size, color, paper size and orientation until you’re happy with the end result. As a plus, the barcode readers will help you improve the check-in, leave less people waiting outside of your venue and make your attendees happier.
6. Kukook
Everyone has gone through the struggle of sending out resumes in order to get a job and failing to have too much or any feedback whatsoever. This generally happens due to the fact that the vast majority of recruiting managers have to go through hundreds of resumes on a daily basis in search for the right one. How can you make sure you end up on the short list? You go over to Kukook Resumes, choose a resume from their gallery, modify it to your particular needs using Word and you’re done. You are now the proud owner of an attractive, professional resume that is surely to get you noticed. Kukook Resumes specializes in creating creative, eye-catching resume templates that make it easier for those in search for a job to stand out. Regardless of the domain in which you are searching for a job, be it publishing, engineering or web development, a good resume will speak volumes about you. Head on over to Kukook Resumes right not and get started with your new resume.
7. Themify
Themify.me offers a wide range of responsive themes that are beautifully designed and highly customizable with the Drag&Drop Builder, shortcodes and custom widgets. You can customize you own template without having to write a single line of code. Themify.me also offers a new set of tools called Builder Addons. These are the modules that extend to the Themify Builder. Builder Addons can be used with any Themify theme and the Builder Plugin. Here are some of the Addons. The Pointers addon helps you emphasize certain parts of an image by placing different pointers that will draw the attention on your images. The Contact module allows you to create custom designed contact forms by personalizing them to match your website. The Audio feature allows you to upload your audio file and place it in any column within the Builder. With the A/B image module you can place two images side by side and compare the two versions and more.
8. Templates master
Templates-Master.com offers a great variety of Magento themes and extensions. They create the best templates based on improved HTML and are always careful about SEO. Besides, they’re constantly coming up with updates in order to make sure that they’re products will work with the most recent Magento releases. If you’re looking for a way to make your Magento store faster and pay less for hosting packages, Magento Page Cache is the right solution for you. This tool was created with the sole purpose of making your store faster. Page Cache is based on core Magento architecture that supports both static and dynamic blocks. It’s very easy to install and works right out of the box. It also has additional extension settings that allow you to set flexible cache rules based on page, block, or any module. They provide installation instructions and manuals as well as 1 year of free support so you can quickly solve any issues you might encounter with the tool.
9. Icon Maker
FreeIconMaker.com will help you design your own icon sets faster and more efficiently than ever before. Icon Maker is a site that offers over 1000 beautiful icons from which you can choose the one you need. From here, you can customize it and make it suitable for your website. Change the inner shadow, drop shadow or shine if you want more depth. Play around with the colors and size until you’re happy how your icon looks like. You can let your creativity flow free. You don’t need design skills to use Icon Maker. Just have fun by creating unlimited icon sets and uploading your own vector (SVG) icons. When you’re ready, you can share your icon as a template with your fellow users. Icon Maker is free for personal and commercial use and it will enable you to create, personalize and download icon sets in no time. And the best part is you won’t lose quality because all the icons are vector-based files.
10. BugMuncher
BugMuncher is a helpful tool that will enable you to receive feedback and bug reports on your live site from your users. What is cool about BugMuncher is that it helps you keep your users happy. No more sending and receiving hundreds of emails from your users who can’t describe you what problem they are having. BugMuncher will automatically take a screenshot of your site that will show the problem highlighted by the user. And because BugMuncher knows you need more details, it will also tell you the user’s browser, their installed plugins, their operating system and even the path they took through your website. It couldn’t get any simpler than this. Feedback with screenshots is fast and efficient both for the users and the site owners. BugMuncher is easy to set up, it supports all web browsers and can be integrated with many third party tools like Zendesk, Trello, Activeollab and GitHub.
11. Webflow
Tools like Webflow make creating websites easy. In order to use this tool you don’t need any web development prior knowledge or any sort of vast experience with web design. All you need to have a firm grasp on is what your website will look like and what content you want to add to it. From there on, Webflow provides you with an easy to use drag-and-drop interface that will help you define your website and take care to generate all the code for you. The best thing about Webflow is that it provides you with a fully functional website at the end of day, not just a pretty mockup like other similar tools.
12. CoffeeCup
Having a responsive layout for your website is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it is a minimum requirement. With the fast spread of hand-held devices with constant access to the Internet, it is vital to both get your business online and make its online presence as pleasant as possible. CoffeeCup is the app to help you achieve all this. CoffeeCup is a tool that will enable you to create your very own custom, content-driven, responsive layout. With access to features that will help you prototype responsive designs and generate custom layouts and also offer you complete insight into your website based on the analysis of over 70 factors that concern usability and SEO, CoffeeCup is the best application to choose.
13. Daily hosting
Looking for a hosting solution and you don’t know where to start? Finding what’s right for your website is not an easy task, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it on your own. DailyHosting.net is the ideal place to get informed about your choices, browse through hundreds of options and find what suits your needs best. When searching for a hosting solution for your website you have to keep in mind several factors. You should know how much traffic your site brings in every day and also take into consideration if it will increase in the near future. Also, you should bear in mind what your site’s purpose is: personal blog, eCommerce site or an application based website. Last but not least think about your budget and how much time and money you’re likely to invest in your site. Based on these factors at Daily Hosting you’ll find resources on different hosting services whether you’re looking for VPS, cloud or reseller hosting.
14. GoJS JavaScript Library for HTML5 Canvas
GoJS is a feature-rich JavaScript library that enables you to implement interactive diagrams across modern browsers and platforms. GoJS supports graphical templates and data-binding of graphical object properties to model data. Only the model, consisting of simple JavaScript objects, needs to be saved and restored. GoJS offers many cool tools for user interactivity like transactional state and undo management, palettes, overviews, data bound models and event handlers. With GoJS you can step up your game and construct diagrams of complex Nodes, Links, and Groups much easier. GoJS even has an extensible tool system for custom operations. And since it’s 100% JavaScript, your users will get interactivity without having to use plugins like Flash or Silverlight. If you need a little help at the beginning, you can run over 90 sample apps that illustrate different diagrams, showing their full source code. Also, check out the useful step-by-step explanation on building apps with GoJS diagram and model data which will surely come in handy.
15. XQual
XStudio is an advanced test management program that lets you control the entire life-cycle of your products. It provides great measuring tools for the coverage of your testing, like the traceability matrix, the execution progress and the quality index of your web site. XStudio is very customer friendly and it is able to assess your QA/testing project from users, specifications, requirements, test plans and more. Your customers will be able to check which requirement has been developed and tested in real-time. For storing data XStudio uses MySQL, Oracle or SQL Server, so it can be used from Windows, Linux or Mac. What is more, XStudio is the only test management tool that can be interfaced with proprietary tests due to its particularly flexible and easy to use Java SDK. Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, XStudio also offers reporting results, progress, quality, coverage and both manual and automated planning, execution, scheduling and archiving of the test campaigns.
16. VirtueMart
VirtueMart is the complete eCommerce solution you’ve probably been looking for all this time. Just head on over to their homepage and take a look, you’re sure to find that it perfectly supplies all your needs and more. VirtueMart is a one-stop shop due to its cool features that allow you to have as many customers, categories and products on your site as you wish. Forget about having to compromise or create Miscellaneous categories because you were running short.
VirtueMart is used together with the Content Management System Joomla!. Both these products are free to use and download so you can start working with them right away. You can change the look and feel of your website by using the templates for Joomla! sites, which use CSS and XHTML in order to help you customize your design. VirtueMart is extremely easy to use and can be run as a shopping cart, or in catalog mode. It’s suitable both for beginners and experts. What is more, it offers thousands of built in features that will help you create your store in only a few minutes. And if you are looking for a particular feature you can always add plugins, components and templates that will spice up your shop and make it look more professional.
17. MotoCMS
Searching for a way to create beautiful and mobile friendly website in the blink of an eye? MotoCMS will enable you to do just that. MotoCMS is an advanced content management system that is both user-friendly and efficient. Creating attractive, SEO optimized sites has never been this easy before. The powerful Admin Panel is simple and allows you to customize and manage all your content and layout. Whether you need a search field, a subscribe button or an embedded photo gallery, MotoCMS has got you covered. With just a few clicks you can improve your personal site to make it look like you’ve always wanted. The Image Editor and Media Library are two other cool features that will make your life easier. MotoCMS’s websites are optimized to comply with the Google Webmaster Guidelines, keeping everything up to date at all times. It couldn’t get any easier than this. Still, if you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out to their friendly support team who will gladly assist you on any topic.
18. Opinion Stage
A good tip for increasing user feedback as well as your site’s daily viewer number is to create social polls. Opinion Stage helps you make standard or social polls, enabling you to customize them the way you like. Opinion Stage is a quick and efficient tool that offers lots of features for all its users. You can even monetize your polls by integrating ads or promoting other polls from the network.
Opinion Stage’s rich reporting dashboard keeps you on top of things at all times: you can filter the results by gender, time span, geographical location or social network. If you want to know even more details, with just a glance at your dashboard you’ll be able to find out how your polls are performing. Opinion Stage informs you about how much traffic they are bringing in and on what social networks your polls are trending. And if you usually like to post everything to Facebook you can publish your poll with just one click.
19. Adverts
Creating your very one classifieds website has never been as easy as it is with Adverts. This newly launched plugin allows you to have a pro classifieds website up and running in no time. It installs like any other WordPress plugin that you’ve encountered and is suitable for both existing blogs as well as for new ones. What’s more, Adverts allows you full freedom to create your very own shortcodes in order to be assured that your website will always run smoothly. WPAdverts is compatible with any WordPress theme worth its value and it will be ready to use as soon as it’s activated. In addition to this, it’s also integrated with a number of third party plugins like Yoast SEO, Jetpack and more, allowing you to create a unique experience for your users. If you want to take a look at just what Adverts can do, go to its official website and take a look at the demo for this amazing new plugin.
20. Uptime Robot
Uptime Robot is the perfect tool to turn to in case the unspeakable happens and, when it comes to web development, the most common unspeakable is having your website or server go down at the absolute worst possible time. Since nobody wants to suffer from this problem and be unaware, Uptime Robot provides a service that notifies you as soon as the crash appears. The way it works is this: the application checks your website or server every 5 minutes and, should an issue arise, it sends you the information via email, SMS, web-hooks and various other methods. Uptime Robot is easy to use and its interface is both intuitive and efficient, offering you the possibility to monitor up to 50 websites or servers completely free. In addition to this, Uptime Robot also offers a response monitoring service that lets you know how fast the monitors it is tracking are responding.
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