Cool List of Inexpensive & Reliable WordPress Hosting Services For Your Blog

Most of the time new users make the mistake of paying lots of money for web hosting plans which they do not even need. If you are starting a WordPress blog and you’re shopping for a hosting service, my advice would be to get a shared hosting plan which is not only inexpensive but is also perfect for a new WordPress blog.  Such a plan will be at least 50% less expensive than other forms of hosting such as managed WordPress hosting or VPS hosting.



If you are new to the WordPress blogging platform, you may initially find your options for choosing the right hosting company confusing.
Here at ShoutMeLoud, I continue to share tips which help other Shouters to create their perfect blogs.  In this post, I will be sharing some quality tested WordPress hosting companies which should fit perfectly into your budget, whatever your budget may be!
In the following paragraphs I will be giving you various excellent options for inexpensive WordPress hosting companies, but if you are simply looking for a single recommendation, I would suggest that you go ahead and sign up for Bluehost (discount coupon added in the link), and follow this guide to get your WordPress blog up in the next 30 minutes.
Back in 2008 when I started Blogging, I began with a self-hosted WordPress blog on a  shared hosting server. In time, as my site traffic increased, I moved to a better server, and then later moved on to VPS, and then back again to shared hosting! So on my journey, I experienced various hosting options, all of which have given me a great foundation from which to offer my recommendations to you.
I was once a “newbie” in the online world myself, so I know that it is helpful to create a post containing lists of good, inexpensive options that a new blogger can refer to when starting an online career.  In the following paragraphs, I will offer just such a list, allowing you to see your various options and the cost (or lack of cost!) associated with each.

Reliable & Cheap WordPress Hosting Companies:

Here I will list only those WordPress hosting companies which are perfect for WordPress sites and are used by millions of WordPress users worldwide. These hosting services are globally renowned and are popular in social media spheres for their quality services.

Alternatives	Free domain	Bandwidth		Coupon	Buy Now
Bluehost		Unlimited		Included in the link
Siteground		Unlimited		Included in the link
InMotion Hosting		Unlimited		Included in the link

Bluehost: $4.95/month unlimited hosting

Bluehost is the top recommended Webhosting service for hosting a WordPress blog, and it is also the most affordable service available to you. They offer various hosting packages, or you can simply grab their shared hosting plan which offers unlimited resources and one free domain at the cost of $5.95/month. (A special discounted link is added below.)
What makes BlueHost the best choice among cheap WordPress hosting is their offering. They offer Free SSL certificate which is a crucial search engine ranking factor. Apart from this, they also offer PHP 7.0 which is the latest version of PHP & makes your site perform faster than other hosting companies.  In fact, ensure the hosting company that you pick for your WordPress based blog/site offers free SSL & PHP 7.0
I have four WordPress blogs hosted on Bluehost, and many of them are seeing the traffic of close to 10,000 hits per day, and yet Bluehost ensures that my sites never go down!
Bluehost offers simple scripts, which will allow you to Install WordPress on Bluehost with just a few clicks.

Signup at Bluehost (Discount added in the link)

Important points regarding Bluehost’s offerings:

• WordPress specialized hosting
• Free domain for one year
• Free SSL Certificate
• PHP 7.x
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited space
• One-click WordPress installation
• $100 Adwords credit
• Rating: 5/5

Siteground:

I am currently using Siteground for few of my niche WordPress blogs, and while it is certainly not the cheapest hosting service on the list, their outstanding support and server quality make them definite stand-outs in the game.
Siteground offers various hosting packages, but for a beginner, I would suggest starting with a shared hosting package for WordPress, one of the more reliable PHP/MySQL hosting packages.
Siteground shared hosting service offers the following shared hosting packages with discounted prices after applying the coupon code:

• Startup: One website hosting
• Growbig: Unlimited site hosting & most popular plan
• Grow Geek: Free private IP + Private SSL

Siteground is one of the few hosting services which also offer reseller hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers. This makes it easier for clients to quickly upgrade to a higher server package when their site’s traffic increases.

Check out SiteGround : 60% Discount.

Pointers:

• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Free Site Migration
• 24*7 live Chat and Telephone support
• Pay bill via Paypal, Credit card.
• Free SSL using LetsEncrypt
• PHP 7
• Rating: 4.5/5

InMotion Hosting:

InMotion Hosting is a Los Angeles based Web-hosting company which is popular for their excellent customer support & server quality. They are a non-EIG hosting company that offers unlimited hosting storage + bandwidth. What I like most about them is their friendly support & especially for one who is looking to host WordPress website in U.S.A, InMotion Hosting is an idle choice.

Signup at InMotion Hosting (Discount added in the link)

These are the best inexpensive (cheap!) WordPress hosting services currently available to you at the time of the writing of this point. These can be purchased at a super affordable price, and they offer good reliable quality service.

There are a few other cheap hosts for WordPress such as Hostmonster (a sister company of Bluehost), Godaddy WordPress hosting and Siteground. 
Here is some more information for you to study regarding the pros and cons of the following three hosting services.

Easy Digital Downloads Review: Best Way To Create Digital Download Store in WordPress

Have you ever wanted to start your own online store? How about launch your own e-commerce portal on WordPress to sell eBooks or other digital downloads on your WordPress powered blog/site?
Back in the day, it seemed impossible to set up a digital downloads store of your own, but thanks to various online WordPress plugins, now anyone can start a digital downloads store on WordPress and start making money


Don’t let the term “digital downloads store” misguide you, as it is merely a popular term in the business industry. For a blogger like you and me, what it means is:

• You can sell eBooks, plugins, or themes on your blog. (You need to have a product of your own or collaborate with others to sell their products.)
• Musicians can sell their music.
• Graphic designers can sell graphics or .psd files.
• Any digital product (image, sound, video, template, or any other digital file) can be downloaded for a price.
• You can offer consultancy and collect payment.

Last year, we launched an online store here at openoutLoud to sell eBooks online. Earlier, I was selling eBooks on Instamojo and Gumroad. However, I needed a more reliable solution to sell my eBooks internationally, as many Shouters complained about not being able to buy them outside India.
After a lot of thinking and research, I figured out it’s about time to sell eBooks on ShoutMeLoud directly. This is when I bumped into a popular WordPress plugin called Easy Digital Downloads (which is free to use).

What is EDD (Easy Digital Downloads) & How Does it Work?

It is basically the WooCommerce equivalent for digital goods.
With Easy Digital Downloads, also known as EDD, you can easily set up an online store (e-commerce store for digital downloads) within a couple of hours. EDD is easy to configure, and as an end user, you will have no problem managing things like:

• Adding or removing new products.
• Setting up pricing.
• Settings up payment gateways.

It makes it easy to manage everything from the WordPress dashboard and even adds in a “Downloads” post type for you to easily make new entries.


What I like the most about EDD is how it integrates with all popular WordPress plugins like AffiliateWP, GravityForms, and many others popular products.
Moreover, this is a free plugin which you can try right now.

EDD offers paid add-ons, and this is where they make money. These paid add-ons enhance the features of your store, and I must say, some of the EDD add-ons are important to have.
Initially, I got overwhelmed with the huge number of add-ons, and I was about to buy their add-ons bundle. I luckily changed my decision and purchased only those add-ons which I required.
I suggest you pick the bundle only if you require all of those add-ons, otherwise you are better off by buying add-ons individually.
Here are the Easy Digital Downloads add-ons I purchased for the SML store:

• 2checkout payment gateway
• Stripe payment gateway
• Recommended Products
• Email attachments
• PDF stamper (This one automatically prints buyers name on the Internal pages of eBook)

I have also purchased one Instamojo payment gateway add-on from a 3rd party, which is essential for anyone who wants to collect payment from India.


Note: Indian users whose primary audience is in India should use another gateway other than PayPal due to PayPal restrictions. (An Indian PayPal user can’t send or receive payment from other Indian Paypal users.) I suggest you look at other payment gateway such as 2checkout and Instamojo.

The Most Important Thing: Selecting the right payment gateway
The biggest challenge is to pick the right payment gateway. Depending on your country of residence and your target audience’s geo-location, you should pick the one that supports most of the payment collection points.


For your reference, here are the most popular payment gateways:

• Stripe (For a majority of countries)
• 2checkout (Also supports a lot of countries)
• Instamojo (For Indians only)
• PayPal (Most popular)
• Payza
• Cryptocurrency payment gateway

EDD has inbuilt support for PayPal basic, and it’s a good starting point if you don’t want to spend money on buying paid add-ons.
Here is another trick if you want to save money initially…
You should browse the free EDD plugins on the WordPress plugin repo. Many developers have released free plugins for EDD which are otherwise paid on the EDD add-on store.
Here is how my EDD e-commerce store looks (see screenshot below or browse the store for better understanding):

How To Configure Easy Digital Downloads Plugin

Configuring the Easy Digital Downloads plugin is as easy as installing and selecting a few options. Here is a video tutorial created by Chatty where he gave an overview of the EDD plugin and how to configure it:

Since this plugin is free, you must try it and watch it open up new possibilities for you. If you don’t want to test it on your live site, you can create a staging site or test it on a local WordPress installation.

Easy Digital Downloads Review – Is It Worth It?

For all those who want to extend their blogging business to next level, EDD is a great choice.
You can create your first eBook or eCourse or anything which is digitally downloadable and start making money. I have been using the EDD plugin for more than a year now, and it’s a high-quality plugin to launch your digital store on WordPress.

The team behind EDD is one of the best as you get great support in case of any queries, and they always keep rolling out timely updates.
From an entry point, the pricing of add-ons might look a little steep, but considering the possibilities this opens for your e-commerce portal, the price is worth it. Moreover, my suggestion is to add addons slowly as you discover your needs.
Learn more about the EDD plugin
Do let me know if you have further questions regarding the EDD plugin. When and what are you planning to launch on your WordPress based digital downloads store?
If you liked this review of Easy Digital Downloads, do share it with others who can

How To Use A Free SSL Certificate With Bluehost Hosting

Bluehost is one of the top web hosts for running WordPress-based blogs & websites.
They are also one of ShoutMeLoud’s recommended WordPress hosting companies. In the past, I have shared many tutorials to help you use and get the most out of Bluehost hosting

In today’s exclusive tutorial, you will be learning how to use a free SSL certificate with your Bluehost hosting. Using this guide, you will be migrating your WordPress blog from HTTP to HTTPS.
According to Google, using SSL is one of the positive ranking factors. Moreover, SSL adds a higher trust level to your blog.
When it comes to SSL certificates, you have the option of using free ones as well as paid ones.
Before we move ahead, let’s get to know a little more about SSL certificates so that you will know what you are doing.

First of all, there are various types of SSL certificates.
For an information-based site (like a blog), you are good using a free SSL certificate.
The most popular company for issuing free SSL certificates is Let’sEncrypt. They have completely changed the model of SSL certificates, and they have made it easier for individuals like you & me to start using SSL certificates without paying a dime.
However, when you are running an e-commerce platform or transaction based site, you might consider using an EV (Extended Validation) or OV (Organization Validation) certificate that you can only get from a paid provider.


In this tutorial, I will be sharing all the steps you need to follow to start using a free SSL certificate for your WordPress blog hosted on Bluehost hosting.
Do remember, this is an important task & you should have at least one hour to implement everything. After moving your site to HTTPS, you need to do a few other things to ensure your traffic doesn’t get affected, so you will need to make sure you have enough time set aside.
Are you ready? 

Complete Tutorial On How To Use A Free SSL Certificate On Bluehost Hosting For WordPress

Note: Before you start following the steps, make sure you disable your Who.Is guard & your domain’s Who.Is information is updated. You only need to do it for a few hours as sometime Bluehost sends email for validating domain ownership.
Once you have successfully activated the SSL certificate, you can enable the Who.Is guard for your domain again.
With that, let’s get started with this epic guide…
So Bluehost now offers a free SSL certificate for their users directly from the Bluehost cPanel. To start using it, log into your Bluehost cPanel & click on WordPress tools at the top.



Click on Security to access the SSL options panel.
In front of “Free SSL Certificate”, toggle the button to On.  This will start installing the free SSL certificate on your Bluehost hosting account.
You might see a pending notice & this message:
“Working on it…

We’re setting up your SSL – this may take a few hours. In some situations, we may need you to take action. If so, you’ll receive an email with instructions. For now, feel free to start exploring WordPress or jump into building your website.”



You will also get an email from the Bluehost billing team about your free SSL certificate purchase.
In my case, I let the page work for 45 minutes & it was still loading. Eventually, I reloaded the page & had to re-toggle the “Free SSL certificate” button to On.
This time, within 5 minutes, the page stopped loading & I got the final screen.


This means the free SSL certificate has been installed on the domain & now we can migrate our site from HTTP to HTTPS.
It’s a good idea to use an online SSL checker tool like this to verify if your domain has an active SSL certificate or not.
Here is the result from my test domain after adding the free SSL certificate:


If you are doing this for an existing WordPress site, your real work starts here.
There are a few steps that you need to do to ensure you are properly moving from HTTP to HTTPS. Moreover, you also need to take care of SEO.
However, do not worry, as this tutorial is going to help you with every step to properly migrate to HTTPS.

Moving Your WordPress Site From HTTP To HTTPS

Now after activating the SSL certificate, the next step is to force everything to load on HTTPS & also ensure that the HTTP to HTTPS migration is search engine friendly. If you don’t do this, you might end up losing traffic.

Follow all the below mentioned steps & in the next 10-15 minutes, you will have successfully moved your WordPress blog to HTTPS.
Note: SiteGround, A2Hosting, and Dreamhost users can also take advantage of a free SSL certificate. Just ask your hosting support team to enable a free SSL certificate for you & follow these below-mentioned steps to further finish the migration from HTTP to HTTPS.

Install Really Simple SSL Plugin

When you enable your free SSL certificate on Bluehost hosting, it automatically updates the site’s URL.
However, at this moment, your site is accessible with both the HTTP & HTTPS addresses.
By using the Really Simple SSL WordPress plugin, all of your traffic on HTTP will automatically redirected to HTTPS.

• This is an easy plug & play plugin.

Once you have installed & activated the plugin, you will see a screen like this:

Click on Go ahead, activate SSL!

Edit Your .htaccess File & Add The Code For HTTP To HTTPS Redirection

You also need to add these few lines of code into your WordPress .htaccess file.
You can edit this file using the Yoast SEO plugin or by FTP. Here is a guide to learn more about editing the .htaccess file.

At the beginning or end of the .htaccess file, add:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
Once this is done, you are almost done with moving your WordPress blog to HTTPS.

Update All HTTP URLs In Database To HTTPS Using Really Simple Plugin

The Really Simple SSL plugin + the .htaccess code above will help you redirect all traffic from HTTP to HTTPS. However, it’s a good idea to update all existing links from HTTP to HTTPS.
You can do that using a WordPress plugin called Better Search & Replace.
Install & activate the plugin. Go to Tools > Search & Replace to start using the plugin.
Note: Take a backup of your WordPress database before running this plugin.


Once this is done, you can also install the Broken Link Checker plugin & use its redirection module to find links to 3rd party sites with HTTP that should now be HTTPS.
This is a regular practice that I follow to keep my site’s SEO intact.
Now it’s time to make some changes in your CloudFlare dashboard (or using the CloudFlare WordPress plugin).

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Steps For CloudFlare Users

In my earlier blog posts, I have told you to start using CloudFlare as it helps in many ways:



First, log in to your CloudFlare dashboard & go to your domain.

Go to Crypto & under “SSL”, change the settings to Full.

On the same page, scroll down & enable Automatic HTTPS Rewrites.

That’s it!
Now, your HTTP to HTTPS migration is done.

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However, you still need to do a couple of quick things:

• Submit your new HTTPS site to Google Search Console & submit your sitemap.
• Update your profile link on Google Analytics.
• Update your website links on social media profiles & anywhere else they exist. This step you can do in pieces in the coming days.
• Read this guide to learn more about HTTP to HTTPS migration & fixing mixed content.
• If you disabled Who.Is guard for your domain name, you can enable it now.

Well, that’s all! If you have done all the steps mentioned above, give yourself a pat on the back. It’s time to celebrate.
You should also treat me some day for this guide.

Conclusion: Using Free SSL on Bluehost

The new WordPress tools inside the Bluehost cPanel make it easier for every Bluehost user to enjoy free SSL certificates. However, if you are activating a free SSL for an existing blog, you also need to follow the steps mentioned above to ensure moving from HTTP to HTTPS doesn’t affect your traffic.
For a new blogger who is just starting out, you just need to enable HTTPS as soon as you buy hosting from Bluehost.

You can get hosting from Bluehost here. (Free SSL + PHP 7 + Free Domain)
Now it’s your turn to let me know: How was your migration from HTTP to HTTPS? Did you face any problems & how did you overcome them? Let me know your experience in the comments section below!
Find this tutorial useful? Share it with others who are using Bluehost for their WordPress blog!

Best 5 Top Cloud Website Builders For Web Developers

 

 

Freelancers and web studios creating custom made websites don’t feel comfortable nowadays.
With such an impressive variety of web creation tools and services, organizing the ideal ecosystem of cooperation with customers is not that difficult.
The fewer complicated elements are involved into the process, the better the result is.
Unfortunately, the tasks of a web developer don’t come down to creating a website with regard to the technical requirements of a client only. Much effort is needed to communicate with clients and service the readymade products afterwards.

If you have lots of projects to be created, then it is you, who are initially interested in helping clients manage their readymade websites after they are developed.
Generally, people, who order custom made websites, are far from understanding the nuances of the web design process. Otherwise, they could handle the projects on their own.
This is what makes the choice of the proper web building platform crucial. The simpler and more understandable it is, the fewer phone calls, primitive questions, complaints and other suchlike problems you will encounter.


An ideal option is to have user-friendly and simple website builders for each type of project at hand to provide the clients with short tutorials on the major web building nuances. This will simplify the management of a website after its completion. You will keep working on your projects, while the clients will be satisfied with your job. This really sounds great.
Your clients will be able to upload fresh content, change design elements, add new pages and do other things they need. And what really matters is that they won’t disturb you.

How is it possible to reach this goal? You obviously have your favorite CMS and feel comfortable and confident when working with it. But what about users, who will have to cope with websites that come with complicated dashboards, dozens of integrated plugins and scripts? The answer is simple – they will have the urge to get in touch with you each time they face problems, because they won’t have any desire or ability to cope with these problems on their own.

Apart from that, users ordering such websites, will have to pay for the hosting and its management, cope with accounts and handle lots of other related problems. It’s easy to entangle yourself in such a variety of to-do things. This is how the project completion becomes a complex multi-level quest. How is it possible to optimize the process, minimizing the investment of effort and time? The use of cloud website builders proves to be the best solution to the problem.

The benefits you get with such an approach are obvious: the web development process will become quicker, the servicing will get simpler, while the clients will avail a convenient and easy-to-use dashboard they will be able to manage on their own after a short training period. The technical support of the service chosen will work for your benefit as well, reacting to the clients’ questions on time. Thus, you will get the profit without having to bother about these nuances.
We have compiled a list of featured cloud website builders, which work great when it comes to the development of client websites: uKit, Site123, Webydo, Bookmark and Weebly. By using them, you will be able to realize the majority of client inquiries without any special problems, providing them with high quality readymade websites. Although, there are lots of different website builder reviews over the Web, we still want to take a point at each of these systems now.

1. uKit

This is the project that is rapidly developing nowadays. It is a nice choice to create promo websites, small online stores, landing pages and portfolio websites. It comes with a rich selection of templates and reliable technical support. The dashboard is convenient and functional. The cost of the website builder is affordable as well (it constitutes $36/year with a promo code).
The speed of website development is one of the highest in uKit. You can get a full-featured project in a few days only. The WYSIWYG editor makes it possible for you and your clients to change the design and content of web pages without any effort. Website design is responsive and modern. The website builder allows for the effective SEO management by setting up the statistics collection system, calculating the cost of products and services, setting up music streamers, designing appealing charts etc.

You can also create small online stores by making use of the integrated widget or by means of setting up a popular and powerful Ecwid plugin. A convenient backup creation option, which allows creating backups with one click only, matters a lot as well. You or your client can go back to the previous website version, if something goes wrong. That’s a surefire way to avoid the mistakes.
uKit is updated on a regular basis and ensures nice tech support. By working with it, you and your clients will feel safe. This is a promising and profitable choice. It works great when creating business websites of any specialization.

2. SITE123

It offers 15 localization options. It’s worth mentioning that the pricing policy is optimized for each language region here. The website builder is used to create promo sites, blogs, landing pages and online stores. The templates are responsive, appealing and easy to set up.
SITE123 is a module-based website builder. It comes with a user-friendly visual editor. Your clients will surely be satisfied with the simplicity and functionality of the system. This is one of the most affordable and convenient website builders.

Creation of decent client business websites and blogs is what you can succeed at with SITE123. It’s not that great, however, when it comes to landing pages and online stores because of their functionality nuances. However, in some cases, the use of SITE123 for these purposes can be appropriate as well – your clients will easily master all the features of the website builder.

3. Webydo

This is a great service for all those users, who like creating impressive website designs from scratch. The visual editor is similar to Photoshop in terms of options and settings presentation. You can create stunning landing pages, promo websites, personal sites and online stores.
It goes without saying that this tool is far more complicated as compared to other systems. Its major benefits include bundle pricing plans and powerful website customization options. You can design a large number of websites for one price only. Having purchased a base plan for $204/year, for example, you can create up to 10 client websites and add 1 team member, who has access to the projects. It’s quite easy to calculate that the cost of building one website will constitute around $30, including hosting. That’s very cheap, indeed.

Webydo caters to the needs of web developers, designers and web studios. You can choose any pricing plan to meet your order bulk requirements and make your projects profitable. The only disadvantage of the system is that newbies (your clients) will find it difficult to manage and edit their websites. The dashboard is convenient here, but the website editor is meant for more experienced web designers. It’s easy to change the titles or images here, but it takes effort and time to modify the structure or add other elements. You need skills and taste to do that.
By using Webydo, you can offer your clients stunning and appealing projects as well as an opportunity to manage their businesses with the assistance of the professional team working for the service. This is a specialized system for website developers. You cannot use it to create one website only (the system even doesn’t have such a plan). All in all, Webydo has everything a web designer needs.

4. Bookmark

This is another nice and simple website builder with a WYSIWYG editor. It comes with a stylish and appealing interface as well as an impressive, although, limited template gallery. The designs are subdivided into 2 types: for single- and multi-page websites. You have to be attentive when making your choice, because you can’t change the template afterwards.

The service works well when designing promo websites and landing pages. The online store creation option is available here as well, but the eCommerce functionality leaves much to be desired here (just like in the rest of suchlike services). It can be used to develop an appealing product display list, but it lacks features to develop more serious projects.
Bookmark is a nice middle-class website builder. The major advantage of the service, which makes it stand out from the crowd, is the structure and design of the dashboard. Your clients will appreciate the result. Everything looks modern, stylish and decent. The system is easy to use, so, the customers will hardly face problems when managing their websites.

5. Weebly

Weebly is a nice solution from all the points of view: its functionality will make it possible to reveal your creative abilities, while a convenient dashboard allows your clients to manage their websites without any problems at all. The cost of the website builder is also affordable.
A rich choice of creative templates with powerful customization options, widgets and applications that can be installed from a brand store of the service, allows for the creation of bright and appealing promo websites, landing pages, blogs and even online stores.

Weebly is rightfully considered one of the best website builders in the world. And it’s also one of the most popular, flexible and powerful services, which steadily keeps developing.
By using it, you can realize all the preferences of all your clients regarding the design and functionality of their websites. This may be the best choice for you and your clients. Take your time to explore this website builder or just look at weebly website examples, if you haven’t done that yet.

Bottom Line

Rapid development of the web building niche eventually results in the client base growth. People keep phoning you, place their inquiries and demand your time. How is it possible to change a title, logo, add an article or a slider? Such questions become more and more annoying. However, you have to answer them, explaining the same things over and over again, irrespective of your job engagement. There is no other way out – these are your clients and you have to make them satisfied. Thus, you are bound to communicate with them well in order to keep the completed projects working in a variety of ways.

It’s not easy to manage a large number of client websites as well. There are myriads of problems your clients may encounter, including hosting, domain name prolongation, account problems and what not. Maintaining control of all the processes at a time seems to be much more convenient.
By using website builders, you won’t have to monitor the aspects mentioned above. You just create a website and entrust the management nuances to the client, who will further receive notifications regarding hosting and domain payment terms. You won’t be bothered by similar questions over and over again: all website builders come with tech support and detailed FAQ. These features will work for your benefit as well.

Another notable advantage of using website builders is an opportunity to get engaged into affiliate programs. Many services will pay you for having the plans at new accounts. Apart from paying for the readymade websites, you will get the affiliate payments of the general cost of a plan. This is a pleasant bonus and you don’t have to do something special to get it. Just do what you have used to and the result will come in due time. Take your time to learn all the nuances of affiliate programs offered by the services applying for them. This is a nice incentive and an important reason to choose a service. Anyway, no one will refuse from the passive income and you won’t get such an opportunity from a CMS.

The viability of using website builders is obvious. Any system of those discussed above works great when it comes to the development of client websites. Your work will become even more profitable, simple and effective, especially in terms of cooperation with your clients. Everyone will eventually be satisfied.

5 Cool WordPress Plugins For Creating Online Courses for 2017

Teaching what you know online can be the best thing you can do for your audience. More and more bloggers, entrepreneurs, and freelancers are adding online courses in addition to their blogs.
It’s a great way to help others while establishing yourself as an expert in your field.

 

 

One of the first things you’re going to need when launching a course is a piece of software for creating your content.
Courses are not the same as blog posts. For one, a course needs to be accessed by registered students and not just anyone who lands on your site. It doesn’t matter if you’re offering a free or paid course, you need to have some kind of student profile to track your students’ progress.
The next feature for paid courses is a payment gateway. There should be a way for you to accept payment when a user enrolls in your course.
PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout are popular online payment gateways that are available for online course integration.
These and more features are now accessible with WordPress plugins. You don’t have to hire a developer to build a simple eLearning site. If you want, you can even use your existing WP site to host your course.
These eLearning plugins work like regular plugins in WordPress, where you install them and access their control panel from the WordPress dashboard.
In some cases, you may need to install add-ons to add more functions to the main eLearning plugin.
Let’s take a look at these plugins and what they can do to help you create and publish courses on your site.

Best WordPress Course Plugins To Launch Your eLearning Portal

1. WP Courseware

• Price: Starts at $99
• Features: Create quizzes, drag and drop builder, drip content, certificates

WP Courseware is great for WordPress users who like building websites with drag-and-drop interfaces.
Courses are added the same way you would add a new post.
You can also add in media content like audio and video.
Once you have all your content added, you can organize them with the plugin’s easy-to-use course builder.



WP Courseware also allows you to have certain modules available in batches. You can enable this drip-feed function with options to schedule content delivery on fixed dates, at specific intervals, or upon completing specific courses.

• Pros
  • More affordable than most premium plugins.
  • Easy to use.
• Cons
  • Can have conflicts with other plugins.
  • No built-in payment system.

2. LearnDash

• Price: $159
• Features: Inbuilt payment system, quizzes, drip content, pre-requisite courses, multiple instructors, lesson timers, Tin-Can API

LearnDash is a feature-rich plugin that’s focused on providing the best eLearning options for traditional learning environments like schools and universities.
It’s an ideal solution for big projects that might involve a considerable amount of courses.


You don’t have to install a separate membership plugin with LearnDash, as it has its own membership functionality. This is done through the native user registration system on your WordPress site (which can be a big issue as one review reveals).
LearnDash is also the only plugin that supports Tin-Can API integration. Tin-Can is a better version of SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model), which collects detailed student information for more accurate learning records. This means LearnDash can be integrated with eLearning software like Adobe Captivate and Articulate.

• Pros
  • Best all-in-one option.
  • Lots of great features.
• Cons
  • Takes time to learn the interface.

3. LifterLMS

• Price: Free (with paid extensions)
• Features: Inbuilt membership functionality and payment system, gamification, drip content, coupons, student profiles

LifterLMS is a free plugin that’s ideal for smaller learning projects and course-makers on a budget. It’s surprisingly easy to use and has all the features (and more) of paid plugins.



The important thing to note is that its payment integration function requires a paid add-on.
At the time of this writing, all add-ons for LifterLMS cost $99 each. This includes separate add-ons for PayPal, Stripe, and WooCommerce as payment gateways.
There’s also a WordPress theme called LaunchPad that you can purchase to easily customize your course design.

• Pros
  • Great for creating basic courses for free.
• Cons
  • Requires paid add-ons for payment and other integrations.
  • No customer support for free users.

4. Sensei

• Price: $129
• Features: WooCommerce integration, quiz styles, course analytics, ideas board, question bank, certificates

Sensei is made by the same developers behind WooCommerce.
It’s built to seamlessly integrate with WooCommerce for course payments. This means that you can sell courses the same way you would sell products on an e-commerce site.
With this setup, you don’t have to install a membership plugin just to allow access to paid courses.



Courses are broken down into lessons, which are made just like standard WordPress posts and pages. Each lesson is then configured using a meta box below the post editor.
While Sensei is made to work with most popular themes, the plugin creators have released a guide to help fix design problems that might arise from the plugin.
Sensei can be a bit tedious to configure, as it will rely on WooCommerce to accept payments. However, it’s a great option for those who are familiar with WooCommerce and WooThemes in general.

• Pros
  • Clean code.
  • WooCommerce integration.
  • Lots of free extensions for added functionality.
• Cons
  • Drip content is a paid option.
  • Can be hard to set up for a non-technical user.

5. LearnPress

• Price: Free
• Features: Drag and drop editor, timed quizzes, PayPal integration, course statistics, free add-ons for more functions

LearnPress by ThimPress is a free plugin with lots of free and premium add-ons for added functionality.
The plugin adds a LearnPress tab on the WordPress dashboard where you can start creating courses and quizzes.
The visual editor has some drag and drop features, although they are not as advanced as WP Courseware’s.



While LearnPress offers basic LMS features like creating quizzes, limiting the number of students, and integrating with a payment method, other functions require you to install add-ons.
There are 23 add-ons for LearnPress at the time of this writing. Eight (8) of them are free including Offline Payment and BuddyPress integration. Fifteen (15) add-ons are paid, including Content Drip and Stripe Payment (both at $39.99 each).

• Pros
  •  Create attractive courses for free.
• Cons
  • Only a few free features.

Conclusion: Which WordPress Online Course Plugin To Select?

These WordPress eLearning/eTeaching plugins have their own strengths and weaknesses. The key is to recognize which features are important to you and which ones you can do without.
If you’re new to creating courses and want the easiest way to do it, going with WP Courseware or LifterLMS are the most ideal options. However, if you plan to build a library of courses and manage more than just a handful of students, then LearnDash is the way to go.

Personally, I like WP Courseware the best. It’s the most affordable premium plugin that meets my needs. I’m not an overly technical person, so I like that WP Courseware is easy enough to learn.
No matter what kind of lessons you plan to sell or publish, always remember that you should value functionality over cost. Avoiding paid options might cost you in the long run when you discover that your free plugin can’t do what you want it to do.
The best approach is to try some free options first and see if they’re enough to meet your standards. If not, then you can look at premium plugins for a better course creation experience.
Have you created an online course in the past? Which WordPress plugin did you use? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below!


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