Pricing tables need to be simple and easy to understand because they help users make an informed buying decision. A lot of information is likely to overwhelm the customer while too little or unclear information can be ineffective.

Other benefits of pricing tables include:

• Tables help remove unnecessary clutter.
• They save on space.
• Provide a clear call to action.
• Can attract more clients and generate more sales.

Now, it is important to note that not all WordPress themes have pre-built pricing tables, so you might need to download a plugin to integrate this feature.

What To Look For In A WordPress Table Plugin

Before we get to the list, let’s first pause to discuss what features are a must-have for any pricing table plugin you decide to use.

1. Pricing Table Templates

Look for plugins that offer several pricing table templates. This will help you in customizing your designs according to exactly what you’re looking for.

2. Price

If your website is small and you’re just looking for something simple, be sure to check the available free plugins before purchasing one. There are so many free plugins, many with a bunch of cool features.

3. Customization

You should look for a plugin that will allow you to customize your table according to your branding. That means custom colors, fonts, etc.

4. Integrations

Look for a plugin that can easily integrate with your WordPress theme so it works seamlessly.

WordPress Pricing Table Plugins

Below, we have identified some of the best pricing table plugins available and we hope you’ll find one that best suits your needs.

1. Go Pricing

Go Pricing is a table plugin that offers you almost 200 table designs. Its modern and stylish features will help you create the perfect pricing table for your website.

The plugin will help you customize your table without having to code. This is perfect for someone who isn’t familiar with web design.

It also offers you 200 templates, 2,000+ font icons, over 600 fonts, an unlimited color selection, modern media options, and more.

Some of its pros and cons include:

Pros

• Has extensive customization options and is feature-rich.
• Has a live preview option that allows you to see how your table will look at the end.
• Popular with page builders like Elementor, WP Bakery, and Beaver Builder.
• Has a column animation feature.

Cons

• You have to be on a paid subscription to download table templates.

2. Responsive Pricing Table

Responsive Pricing Table is a free WordPress plugin that has a shortcode that allows you to show your table anywhere on the website. It adds a pricing table tab in the admin section which makes adding a pricing table easy.

With the many features it offers, you’re able to: add different colors to your table, choose unique fonts, and more.

Some of its pros and cons include:

Pros

• Easy to create and customize.
• Can be used to compare products.
• You can change the currency sign.
• You can highlight any plan.

Cons

• Poor customer support.

3. CSS3 Responsive WordPress Compare Tables

The CSS3 Responsive pricing table is a premium plugin with several customization features. It comes with two table styles and 20 predefined color options.

It also offers a number of features that will help you create the best tables for your site such as hover animations, pop-ups, and ribbons. This plugin is perfect for creating beautiful pricing tables.

Some of its pros and cons include:

Pros

• Allows you to see your changes in real-time.
• Can highlight columns and customize fonts.

Cons

• You need CSS if you wish to access more customization features.
• Comes with only two table styles and 20 color themes.
• Can be time-consuming to set up.

4. ArPrice Pricing Tables

This is a free and premium WordPress plugin that allows you to make responsive pricing tables that can be used on multiple devices. Some of its features include the ability to create an animated pricing table.

With ArPrice you have a selection of over 170 already made templates to choose from. You can also use the drag and drop editor to adjust and resize columns as needed.

ArPrice has a real time editor feature that will make the customization of your site easier.

Some of its pros and cons include:

Pros

• Allows language translation.
• It’s lightweight.
• Easy to use.
• Offers a variety of colors.

Cons

• Can be slow at times.

5. Easy Pricing Tables

Easy Pricing Tables is a WordPress plugin that lets you create your tables with ease. The plugin is easy to use and gets the job done quickly. It includes predefined colors and themes. With this plugin you get 120+ ribbons, a live preview, 100+ content elements, and more.

Some of its pros and cons include:

Pros

• Easy to use.
• Has the drag and drop feature.
• Gutenberg compatible.
• Compatible with all WordPress themes.

Cons

• No cons found.

Best Pricing Table Designs

So, you now know about a few pricing table plugins that can help you display pricing information in a straightforward way. But if you’re stumped on design inspiration, we’ve compiled a shortlist of some top designs to add some fuel to your design fire.

1. Shopify

The Shopify pricing table is one of the best around because its layout makes it easy to compare different plans. And the prominent Free Trial buttons encourage conversions.

2. Dropbox

The Dropbox table layout makes it easy for buyers to compare pricing and features. This helps users get to know what exactly they are purchasing and decide on what works better for them.

3. Slack

Slack’s pricing table uses different colors to highlight different available plans. This makes the table more eye-catching and is likely to grab the customer’s attention. Each plan comes with a description of how they are billed and also includes a call-to-action.

4. Airtable

Airtable is another great example of a pricing table that uses colors to grab attention. It has a simple design that draws focus to the features available on each plan.

There’s also a monthly or yearly option at the top of the table that helps you select your preferred plan.

5. LightCMS

LightCMS is another great example of a well designed pricing table. They have incorporated different colors to grab attention and to highlight the different available plans. They’ve also used different font sizes for comparison.

Conclusion

A well designed pricing table is likely to grab the consumer’s attention. If you’re looking for a good pricing table for your website, we hope this list of plugins and designs has helped you figure out what will work best for your site. Best of luck! Be sure to check out our other articles about WordPress plugins while you’re at it.

These plugins have features like time tracking and event-hosting capabilities.

Though you can expect better features from premium plugins, here’s a list of some top free WordPress Plugins that can work just fine.

5 Top Free WordPress Plugins

You don’t need to have room in the budget to add a calendar feature to WordPress. In fact, there are several free plugins available to choose from. Let’s explore five top options now.

1. All-in-One Event Calendar

The All-in-One Event Calendar has a unique way of presenting events to users compared to other free plugins. It allows for the easy import and export of calendar feeds that make it possible for events on one website to automatically appear on a calendar opened on a different website. This makes it easy when scheduling important events that should not be overshadowed.

The plugin also allows you to assign different colored categories to tasks and events.

Some of its features include:

• Has widgets for scheduling upcoming events.
• Embedded Google Maps.
• Can be customized using theme options.
• Has a day, week, and month view.

2. Modern Events Calendar Lite

This type of plugin is a good choice if you’re running a booking or events website. The calendar design displayed to users is newer and more modern compared to other free plugins. You can access different calendar views like monthly view, daily view, full calendar, countdown, and carousel view.

There are many features available on this plugin like BuddyPress and some MailChimp integrations. There’s also a feature that allows you to directly import events from the Google events calendar in various file formats including XML, CSV, and JSON.

Some of its top features include:

• Provides different views for events.
• Can be used by multiple workers. Works well in a group setting.
• Offers customer customization for different categories.

3. My Calendar

The My Calendar plugin is built with ease of accessibility and use in mind. It provides flexibility to designers or developers who need a customized plugin calendar.

On My Calendar, you can create recurring events and edit them separately. It also offers widgets that show both upcoming events and events of the day.

If you want a more customized feel, you can easily change the font, margins, primary colors, padding, and borders.

Some of its features include:

• Has custom templates.
• Daily, weekly, and monthly view.
• Has list and grid view of events.
• Has email notifications.

4. The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar is the most popular and widely used free plugin for managing events. Whether your events require in-person or virtual meetings, the features available on this plugin are professional and easy to use.

The plugin gives you the option to specify the start time and end time of events. And for events that require venues, you can easily embed Google Maps on the calendar.

Some of Its features include:

• Can save venues.
• Has widgets for upcoming events.
• Is completely responsive.
• Has categories and tags for different events.

5. Easy Appointments

This plugin is easy to use and is recommended for websites that manage appointments with clients. These can be websites used by doctors, lawyers, hairdressers, and lecturers especially if you’re constantly cancelling and rescheduling events.

It allows you to create events for multiple people, locations, and services. You can also have separate calendars for specific services or locations.

With Easy Appointments, you get email notifications when an event has been cancelled or postponed. You can also have different appointment categories like canceled, reserved, and confirmed.

Some of Its top features include:

• Has email notifications.
• Has an extremely flexible calendar.
• Can be used by multiple people.
• Can be accessed in multiple locations.

4 Top Premium WordPress Plugins

Now, if you do have some room in your budget for a calendar plugin, rest assured there’s no shortage of high-quality ones available. Here’s some of our favorites:

1. Bookly PRO- Appointment Booking and Scheduling Software System

Bookly PRO is an add-on that requires the Bookly plugin for WordPress Websites. With this plugin, you don’t need to endure face-to-face meetings or long phone calls. Your clients can just book appointments directly on the website.

This paid premium plugin offers automated online booking and scheduling features with fully customizable booking forms that have online payment options, google calendar sync, and notifications.

Reviews from loyal users agree that Bookly PRO is a premium and easy to use plugin that saves you hours on chasing clients.  The developers are constantly updating and including suggested features based on user votes.

Some of its top features include:

• Has a number of templates for customizable emails.
• Can be synchronized with Google calendar.
• Offers multi-language support.
• Has an unlimited number of services that can be put in different categories with unique colors.

2. Calendarize it! For WordPress

Calendarize it! is a flexible and feature-rich WordPress plugin that comes with add-ons which add even more functionality to the main plugin. You can use it for all day events and events with fixed timings.

The plugin also offers a number of views that can be customized like monthly view, week view, event grid view, event year view, and event map view.

Some of its top features include:

• Has multiple widgets.
• Has a number of pre-built color schemes.
• Has monthly view, weekly view, and day view.
• Users can customize colors, styles, fonts.

3. Booked – Appointment Booking for WordPress

Booked – Appointment Booking is a simple plugin that makes it easy for businesses to accept bookings online.

Some of its top features include:

• Has custom time slots.
• Has fields for additional information.
• Colors for customizing your calendar.
• Customizable emails.

4. WordPress Pro Event Calendar

The WordPress Pro Event Calendar is a professional looking calendar plugin that adds a stylish view to your event calendar.

Some of its top features include:

• Has an elegant design.
• You can create recurring events.
• You can import events from Facebook.
• Has a responsive layout.

Conclusion

When it comes to WordPress calendar plugins, finding one that works well for you is easy and doesn’t require any in depth knowledge to figure out how they work. A free plugin can work well if you need one for basic use. If you require a plugin for a more complex website with a lot of traffic, then premium is definitely the way to go. Either way, there’s no reason you can’t keep events more organized with one of these plugins in hand.

The good news is that the WordPress community has dealt with these issues too. That’s why a number of plugins have been developed to help you make quick work of even the most painful items on your to-do list.

Today, we’ll introduce you to a selection of plugins that you can use to rip through those tasks with ruthless efficiency. But don’t worry – you won’t have to tell your client how fast you did it. A developer needs a chance to kick back and relax, after all.

Enable Media Replace

We’ve all been there. An image or other downloadable file is uploaded to a WordPress site. Sometimes, that item is used in multiple places. When a change is required, it means hunting down every single instance. That’s exactly what Enable Media Replace intends to fix. It enables you to replace any file uploaded to the WordPress Media Library. In addition, it replaces each instance of it throughout your site. You can even rename the file.

Better Search Replace

There are times when a word, phrase or URL needs to be changed en masse throughout a website. It can take a whole lot of grunt work to find them all. That’s where Better Search Replace comes in to make quick work of the job. The plugin will search your database, even allowing you to select which tables to look in. From there, it will automatically replace each matching occurrence with the content of your choosing. Thankfully, the “Dry Run” mode lets you see changes before they are made.

Broadcast

Broadcast is a plugin built exclusively for sharing content within WordPress Multisite installations. Pages, posts, file attachments and more can be synced between websites. Update the “parent” content, and the changes will be automatically synced throughout the network. It even works with custom fields.

Simple History

If your website has multiple users making changes in the back end, it can be difficult to track down who made a particular change. Instead of asking everyone in a mass email, try installing Simple History. The plugin keeps track of all sorts of changes to content, plugins, menus and a whole lot more. It’s an easy way to keep tabs on what users are doing.

PW WooCommerce Bulk Edit

Running a WooCommerce shop can be a lot of work. And editing products is one of the most time-consuming tasks. PW WooCommerce Bulk Edit takes some of that pain away by enabling you to edit all of your products on a single screen. In-line editing means that you can click on a setting, like a product description or price, and make changes right then and there.

ACF Theme Code for Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is one of the most popular and powerful plugins for WordPress. You can use it to add all sorts of content and functionality to your website. But it does require writing code to get those fields to show up in your theme. ACF Theme Code can save you tons of time by generating that code for you. Copy and paste the generated code into your theme, then customize to meet your needs. Easy!

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Import and Export Users and Customers

Adding multiple users to your WordPress website can be time-consuming. Import and Export Users and Customers makes it easy, with the ability to import users via a CSV file. The plugin also works with WooCommerce, BuddyPress and a number of popular membership plugins. Need to export the entire list? That’s only a few clicks away as well.

TablePress

Talk about a tedious process. Creating HTML tables in WordPress the old-fashioned way means adding data cell-by-cell. TablePress has a better way. This free plugin allows you to import CSV or MS Excel files and turn them into tables. It also utilizes the DataTables JavaScript Library, allowing users to sort tables by column and a whole lot more.

Manage WordPress More Efficiently

The best WordPress plugins tend to make quick work of otherwise difficult tasks. That’s why the selections above are at the top of their class. They’re great at saving you time and eliminating that pesky grunt work. Plus, they may just save you from the sore wrists that accompany click after click of repetitive work.

The more you can streamline site management, the better. We hope these plugins will turbocharge your workflow.

Gutenberg breaks content down into “blocks”, or little sections that can be rearranged with ease. By default, WordPress comes with a nice selection of blocks. But it also allows developers to build their own custom blocks as well.

Custom Gutenberg blocks can be a game-changer for theme developers. Rather than relying on workarounds or rigid page templates, a custom block can place specialized content anywhere within a page. Elements such as testimonials, accordion menus and pricing tables are just a few examples of what can be achieved.

As great as custom Gutenberg blocks sound, there was some initial concern about the barrier to entry. Building blocks natively requires knowledge of React, which could leave out a lot of developers.

Thankfully, the WordPress developer community has stepped up with tools that get around the React/JavaScript requirement. They allow you to create your own custom blocks in a visual manner and implement them into your existing WordPress theme.

Today, we’ll introduce you to a few of these tools and show you how easy it is to get started.

Custom Gutenberg Blocks: Tools

A number of tools have hit the market that allow web designers to create custom Gutenberg blocks without JavaScript. Mind you, they still require at least some knowledge of code (HTML, CSS and PHP) – or at least how a WordPress theme works. That’s because each option requires you to create a PHP file of block code and optionally add some styling to match your website.

That said, each of the WordPress plugins below leverages custom fields in order to create content. Custom fields existed well before Gutenberg came along. In fact, it’s long been common practice to utilize them as a way to get around the limitations of the old Classic Editor.

The nice thing about this sort of configuration is that custom fields offer flexibility in the types of content you can create. Mix that in with the portability of a Gutenberg block and you have a powerful new tool.

Advanced Custom Fields PRO

Advanced Custom Fields has been around for years. It started out as a handy UI for building complex custom field sets and now boasts over 1 million active users of its free version.

The commercially-available PRO version of the plugin (pricing starts at $49 per year) has evolved to allow for custom Gutenberg block creation. The ACF Blocks feature lets developers create a field set and assign it to a custom block.

More than the other plugins in this category, you’ll need to know PHP to get the most out of ACF Pro. However, existing users of the plugin will find the process for block creation very familiar.

Lazy Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks Constructor

Lazy Blocks is a free WordPress plugin that offers a visual way to create custom blocks. Like ACF, the plugin includes a number of custom field types (referred to as “controls”) for your block. Text, image, file, Classic Editor, color picker and repeater fields are just some of what’s available. There’s also an API for creating your own custom controls.

Other handy features include the ability to restrict your blocks to specific posts types, import/export via JSON and custom templates.

Block Lab

With Block Lab, custom block creation is a 3-step process. First is adding a block within the admin – which is similar to adding any other page or post. Next, add in the desired mix of custom fields (text, image, radio buttons/checkboxes, URLs, etc.) and configure settings like a custom icon. Third, create a block template for your theme and style it to your liking. From there, your custom block is ready for use.

The plugin is well-documented and even offers tutorials for creating specific block types.

A Simple Custom Block Using Block Lab

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll take a test drive using Block Lab. However, don’t let that stop you from trying out the other options as they have plenty to offer.

Now, on to our example. We’ll assume you have a WordPress website with the Block Lab plugin installed and activated.

In our project, we’ll create a simple notification block that we can use to display important information to visitors. It won’t be much, just a colored background and some text. But it will hopefully provide a glimpse into what’s possible with a custom Gutenberg block.

1. Navigate to Block Lab > Add New to create our new block.

2. We’ll start by adding a title (Notification Bar) and three fields:

• Background Color – A Color field that will let us choose the background for our notification bar. We’ll assign it to display in the Inspector area of the block editor, which is in the right sidebar.
• Text Color – Another Color field, this time for our text. This one will also display in the Inspector.
• Message – A Text field that will display our custom message. This field will be housed in the main Editor area of Gutenberg.

Note the field names assigned to each block, as we’ll need those in just a bit.

We should also mention that the plugin allows us to choose a custom icon and categorize our block. This will help us find it when we want to add it to a page.

3. With our fields and settings in place, it’s time to click the Publish button to save our block. Doing so will trigger a notification message, telling us where to place our custom block template within our theme:

/wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/blocks/block-notification-bar.php

4. Next, we’ll need to create a block template. So, fire up the code editor of your choice and create a new file called block-notification-bar.php and save it into a new /blocks/ folder within your theme.

Block templates have to be written from scratch. But don’t worry, it’s not too difficult! Block Lab has documented how to do this, with plenty of examples.

In our case, we have just two block types: Color (background-color; text-color) and Text (message). Using the documentation as our guide, we’ll add this code to our custom block template:

Make sure to save the file and upload to your web server when done.

5. Our custom block has now been created! That’s really all there is to it. Now, we can add it to a page.

6. On the front end, we have a basic notification bar that’s sure to grab the user’s attention.

Going Further

Even in this very simple use case, there is a real value in the notification bar we’ve created. It can be placed on any page or post within our website and can be customized each time.

If we wanted to expand upon what we’ve built, there are plenty of options. Adding things like icons, buttons and the ability to link to another page or post come to mind. These things are all possible within Block Lab, as well as the other plugins mentioned above. And, the use of CSS can greatly enhance the look as well.

Now that you’ve had a taste of the custom block creation process, it’s time to experiment! Install one of the plugins above and see how you can enhance your WordPress website.

It’s a real game changer when it comes to managing online learning and classrooms. But some may be intimidated by the prospect of having to get familiar with yet another piece of software. The great thing here is that it’s actually a plugin that can be directly integrated into WordPress. That means one dashboard for your entire website (and less passwords to remember, too).

Before to dive deeper into the subject, let’s pause for a moment to take a look at what LearnDash is and what it can do.

What is LearnDash?

As a learning management system, LearnDash streamlines the process of creating an online class. Within these courses, you can add separate lessons and topics, videos, quizzes, timers, assignments, and more. You can also create drip-fed content and set prerequisites and establish course forums so students can communicate with one another.

LearnDash also makes it possible to monetize your courses and has payment integration built-in that relies on PayPal. You can use other eCommerce platforms, payment processors, or even membership plugins in conjunction with LearnDash as well to add more features and to give your students more ways to pay.

Finally, the learning management features extend to the backend as well. So, once you’ve created a course, students sign up, and they’re actively engaged in learning, you can keep track of assignments, view reports, create user groups, send email notifications, and more all from within WordPress.

Who Can Use LearnDash?

Now that you have a general idea of what LearnDash is, we can explore who might be interested in using such a plugin. To put it simply, this plugin is made for those who want to publish courses on the Internet. This can mean a number of different things to different people, of course. For some, this is just a matter of adding a couple of courses to an existing WordPress site. For others, the goal is to create a learning platform from scratch through which you manage countless students.

LearnDash could be used by:

• Existing companies looking to provide hands-on training to employees.
• Website owners who wish to sell online courses to the public.
• Sites that want to provide a subscription-based educational service.

The great thing about LearnDash is that you can award certificates to those who complete a course to specifications you determine. These certifications can also be used as prerequisites for additional courses.

Features

Let’s take some time to explore the various features of LearnDash. We can’t cover them all here, but a general breakdown will give you an idea of whether or not you can make use of this learning management plugin.

Course Builder

Most important, LearnDash includes a course builder that you can use to create your own custom online courses right within WordPress. It has a drag-and-drop interface and uses a lot of the native WordPress dashboard features to keep things simple and straightforward from a UI perspective. You will basically be using a combination of WordPress tools and plugin-specific tools to create your courses.

Assignments and Quizzes

Another key feature is the ability to create assignments and quizzes. Of course, these are important aspects of any class a person may take, so it’s especially helpful that those features are included here as well. You can configure assignments within LearnDash and their information can be automatically added to the Gradebook where you can manual score them.

The same goes for quizzes. You can select from a variety of question formats, including short answers and essays. You can even add a timed element.

Focus Mode

Another feature we want to point out is Focus Mode. When a student accesses the frontend of your course, it’ll be a seamless experience for them. No clunky back-end style UIs or counterintuitive menus. The student’s experience will be one of professionalism through and through. This saves you a lot of time too, as you won’t have to design the outward look of your course at all.

Integrations & Addons

One final thing we’ll say about LearnDash features is the abundance of integrations and addons available. You can easily add other eCommerce systems and payment gateways to LearnDash outside of PayPal including Stripe, WooCommerce, and Samcart.

You can also add membership plugins like Restrict Content Pro or MemberPress. Add more communication options using Slack and email marketing with MailChimp. Add on forums with BuddyPress or BBPress. And the list goes on. Though LearnDash is a fairly comprehensive plugin to start with, you can expand its features further thanks to these addons and create a richer experience for your students as a result.

Advantages of LearnDash

As you might’ve gathered by now, LearnDash possesses many helpful features that give it a real advantage for use as a learning management system. Here are a handful of reasons to use it:

1. Visual Course Builder: This makes it super easy to create your online courses using a drag-and-drop builder.
2. Prerequisites: Ensure people are following your courses in the proper order.
3. Drop-content: Let the content trickle out at a predetermined rate.
4. Embed self-hosted videos
5. Automated triggers that give you a head’s up when someone enrolls in a course, completes quizzes, and so forth.
6. Plentiful add-ons and integrations
7. Localization and translation-ready

Disadvantages of Using LearnDash

LearnDash is a well-rounded plugin but it does have a few drawbacks:

1. Lack of Setup Help: There’s no setup help or guidance when setting up the plugin for the first time. This can be a bit disorienting if you’re brand new to learning management plugins in general or even dealing with more robust WordPress plugins.
2. Too Many Features: In some cases, LearnDash is a bit too robust. It has a ton of features you can pick and choose from but as with point #1, this can be a tad overwhelming if you’re a newbie. In short, there’s a learning curve here.
3. You Will Need Some Addons: It’s great that this plugin has so many integrations and addons available but it is a bit of an issue that you will most definitely need a few of them if you’re looking to use LearnDash in any meaningful way. The additional payment gateway integrations are often what people flock to first. But digital downloads and forums are also addons people tend to gravitate toward.
4. Cost: The pricing of LearnDash is highly competitive (see below) but there is still a price tag and this can be a turn off for those who don’t have the budget for a premium solution.

Getting Started with LearnDash

Should you decide to add LearnDash to your WordPress site, you can sign up for and download it easily. The plugin comes as a part of three different packages. These break down as follows:

• Basic: For a single site license, a year of support and updates, advanced quizzing, certificates, and drip-feed lessons, you can expect to pay $159.
• Plus: This package includes licenses for 10 sites, ProPanel, and everything in the Basic plan. It costs $189.
• Pro: The third and final package allows you to create up to 25 course sites, provides access to the ProPanel and everything included in the Basic plan. Expect to pay $329 for this one.

And there you have it. Everything you need to know about LearnDash to make an informed decision. Best of luck in your effort to create an online course!

The answers are simple. In most cases, the bad actor is an automated bot. And you’re being targeted simply because you happen to be running WordPress. As the most popular Content Management System (CMS) out there, it is directly in the crosshairs of malicious actors.

While there are all sorts of different attacks floating around out there, the brute-force variety are among the most popular. And that happens to be our subject for today.

Let’s take a look at what brute-force attacks are and some ways you can better protect your WordPress website.

What Is a “Brute-Force” Attack?

A brute-force attack, according to Wikipedia:

“…consists of an attacker submitting many passwords or passphrases with the hope of eventually guessing correctly.”

In the real world, this means that a malicious script runs repeatedly, entering usernames and passwords into the WordPress login page. It’s possible to see hundreds or even thousands of attempts like this per day.

Of course, if this were all completely random, it would be pretty difficult to successfully log into a website using such a technique. But there are two major reasons why these attacks can sometimes work:

1. The use of weak login credentials, such as using an ultra-common username and password.
2. Using credentials that have been previously leaked elsewhere.

If either of these scenarios are in place, that raises the odds of a successful attack. And once the attacker has access to your WordPress dashboard, they can wreak all sorts of havoc.

But even if unsuccessful, these attacks can be both an annoyance and a drain on server resources. Therefore, it’s important to put policies in place that can help mitigate their damage.

Ways to Fight Back

Thankfully, there are a number of things you can do to better protect your WordPress website against brute-force attacks. The most basic being instituting common sense security measures, such as using strong passwords and virtually anything other than “admin” as your username. These steps alone will at least make your site more difficult to crack.

However, there are some even stronger actions you can take, including:

Limit Access to the Login Page

Depending on your web server’s setup, you might consider blocking out access to the WordPress login page to all but a specific group or range of IP addresses. On an Apache server, for example, this could be done via the .htaccess file.

The caveat is that this strategy depends on administrators having a static IP address. In corporate environments, this would likely be the case. However, other scenarios may make this method more difficult. The official WordPress documentation has some further advice that is worth a look.

Another approach is to password-protect the login page at the server level. While this adds a bit of inconvenience, it does help to ensure that only authorized users gain access to the dashboard.

Utilize a Plugin

There are a number of WordPress plugins that are dedicated to security, with several offering features designed to protect against brute-force attacks. Some of the more popular options include:

Jetpack’s “Protect” feature, which will block unwanted login attempts.

Wordfence employs several login-specific measures, such as two-factor authentication, reCAPTCHA and brute-force protection. There is also a companion plugin that solely focuses on login security.

Login LockDown is a plugin designed to limit brute-force attempts. It automatically locks out offending IP addresses after a set number of failed logins.

iThemes Security offers several login-related protections, including brute-force protection, two-factor authentication and the ability to rename the /wp-admin/ folder in order to thwart bots.

Employ a CDN/Firewall

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) not only improve the performance of your website, they offer the side benefit of serving as a barrier between malicious bots and your WordPress install.

CDN providers often include methods to block out IP addresses or even entire countries from accessing your site (or, at least your dashboard). Depending on the service you use, there may also be protections specifically targeted at stopping brute-force attacks.

The beauty of this approach is that you can significantly lighten the load on your web server. How? Attackers are stopped by the CDN’s firewall before they ever reach your site. It’s kind of like having a giant flyswatter out in front of your house, rejecting pests before they make it to your front door.

When It Comes to Security, Be Proactive

Unfortunately, doing nothing to combat brute-force logins is not a viable option. These attacks are both ubiquitous and relentless. And the landscape certainly doesn’t look like it will get better on its own. Therefore, it’s up to us to take preventative measures.

Thankfully, it’s not really that difficult. The options above, while not 100% perfect, are fairly easy to implement. And each one makes things that much tougher on the average bot.

Plus, when you think about it, the relative cost of mitigating these attacks now is much less than having to deal with a hacked website later on. That alone makes being proactive more than worth the effort.

While some locales (the United States being a prime example) don’t have crystal-clear laws pertaining to accessibility, there are a lot of great guidelines for implementing it. So, even if there isn’t necessarily a legal imperative, there certainly is a moral one. Better still is that we have the technology to do it.

But, if you’re building sites with WordPress, there are some additional challenges when it comes to accessibility. By itself, WordPress is accessible (although the Gutenberg editor still has some work to do in that area).

However, we don’t just use WordPress alone. We implement themes, plugins and our own customizations into the mix. This can muddy up the waters when it comes to ensuring our websites follow best practices.

And although we can’t snap our fingers to instantly make everything accessible, there are some common sense actions we can take. Here are a few tips for putting accessibility at the forefront of your WordPress website.

Use or Build an Accessible Theme

Choosing the right theme is about so much more than looks or fancy features. Since it provides the outward face for how users interact with a website, accessibility has to be baked in from the start. Make the wrong decision here and it’s akin to having a beautiful house with a faulty foundation.

If you’re building your own theme, the process is a little easier. Since you’re not reliant on a third-party developer, you can implement only the features you need and test as you go.

But for those looking at either free or commercial themes, it can take some research. You’ll need to look for themes that claim to be accessible. The trouble is that many themes either don’t mention this or are very vague when it comes to details.

In that case, try contacting the theme author and find out what (if anything) they did to ensure that the theme doesn’t get in the way of screen readers or other assistive technology. You might also want to run a demo version through one of the validation or simulation tools out there. Then, try navigating the site via a keyboard.

Since many themes allow you to choose colors and typography, it’s also important to keep contrast and readability in mind. Is the text too small? Do the colors provide enough contrast to allow text to be read? This is something that should be relatively easy for you to control.

Determine the Effect of Plugins

WordPress plugins are another area worth paying attention to. While some simply adopt your theme’s CSS, others add their own markup. Both the accessibility and quality of this code can vary.

This means that, even if you have a theme that follows best practices, the wrong plugin could cause unintended issues. And the bigger the plugin’s front-end footprint on your website, the more potential it has to negatively impact accessibility.

For example, a page builder plugin could theoretically add a ton of HTML, CSS and JavaScript beyond your theme. If it’s not been built with accessibility in mind, that could be a problem. But this goes for any plugin that injects its own markup.

If you can’t avoid using these types of plugins, that’s okay. But it is recommended you run tests with and without plugins active to gauge the impact. You can also utilize your web browser’s inspector tools to pinpoint any troublesome code.

Have an Existing Site? Add Accessible Features

For websites that are already out there in the public space, retrofitting can be difficult. Factors such as a site’s age and how it was initially built can play a role in just how much work is involved. In some cases, a full-on revamp may not be within a reasonable budget.

Certainly, if you’re working on a site that has so many challenges, an argument can be made for a redesign. That might well be the best path forward, as you can establish accessibility as a primary goal. But it’s understandably not always realistic, either.

In these situations, there are still some things you can do:

Make Small Enhancements

Maybe those big, all-encompassing changes aren’t going to happen. Instead, look for little things you can change without too much trouble. For instance, bumping up the font size and increasing line spacing will offer a cleaner look and allow your content to be more easily consumed. The same goes for colors.

Other possibilities include making sure that images have descriptive ALT text and that hyperlinks have a :focus state defined. There are any number of small changes that can add up to a better user experience.

Provide Users with Options

Another way to make an existing site more accessible is by empowering users make some choices for themselves. By allowing them (within reason) to adjust things such as font sizes or color contrast, you’re helping to meet their needs.

One simple and cost-effective way to do this is by installing a plugin, such as WP Accessibility. It adds font and contrast features in a handy front-end toolbar. Plus, it can optionally add :focus states to your links, add a skip link to your pages, along with other goodies.

Awareness Is Half the Battle

Because the WordPress platform offers so many possible looks and functionalities, we often take things for granted. It’s easy to pick a theme or install a plugin and not think twice about how they affect accessibility. Yet, each decision makes a difference.

Just having an awareness of the potential impact makes us better designers. It encourages us to take that extra step of testing and to be more discerning about what we use.

The result is that we start putting users first – in front of unreadable color schemes and special effects that hurt usability. Once we do that, accessibility becomes just another feature we build in by default.

The jack-of-all-trades CMS offers a number of different plugins that will help you distribute software, eBooks, music, stock photos and just about anything else that can be downloaded. And you can build a simple configuration with free tools.

But because there are a number of options available, it can be difficult to figure out which path to take. You’ll want to adopt a strategy that allows you the flexibility you need without adding a whole lot of unexpected costs and/or roadblocks.

Sound daunting? No need to worry! Today, we’ll show you a few different possibilities for selling digital products. While they won’t cover every possible need, they should at least help you determine the path that’s right for you.

Scenario #1: Single Product Sales

If you want to sell digital products on a one-off basis, a shopping cart is the way to go. A free plugin such as WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads can do all of the heavy lifting for you. Configure your products, set pricing and you’ll have a basic store up and running rather quickly.

What’s more, each of these shopping cart plugins have a wide variety of free and paid add-on components. They provide extra functionality such as the ability to tie in with specific payment gateways, offer product bundles and allow for affiliate sales – to name just a few.

The biggest decision here may be which cart to use. Each has its own strengths when it comes to digital products.

Easy Digital Downloads

As its name suggests, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) was built specifically for selling downloadable goods. Thus, it offers a whole lot of features dedicated to this purpose.

You can, for example, use the built-in function to limit access to downloadable files by download attempts or expiration date. And if you’re selling software that requires a license key, you can add this functionality through an available paid add-on. If you’re distributing large files, there is even an add-on for storing them on Dropbox.

Or, start a community site by allowing users to post and sell their own items. Need a way to provide users with sales commissions? It’s just another plugin away.

However, at its core, EDD is also a shopping cart. Out of the box, the plugin includes things like discount codes and customer management (including front-end account profiles). About the only feature missing is the ability to ship physical goods – but again, there’s an extra piece that can allow for this as well.

WooCommerce

By now, just about everyone knows WooCommerce. It’s the dominant shopping cart in the WordPress sphere. It’s feature-packed, highly-customizable and you can use it to sell just about anything – including digital products.

This functionality is built right into the core plugin, so you can start selling right away. Like Easy Digital Downloads, the ability to limit downloads based on attempts or an expiration date is included.

Downloads also work with variable products. For example, if you’re selling images, you can allow users to pick from a number of different sizes or formats. This also enables you to price them accordingly.

Of course, WooCommerce is also famous for its large number of extensions. You’ll find a few that are specifically geared towards digital goods, including one aimed at professional photographers and another that enables you to offer downloads on subscription-based sites (we’ll get to that in a moment).

But since the plugin is used to sell so many different types of products, those who have very specific needs when it comes to digital goods may be a bit disappointed. There aren’t a lot of extra bells and whistles in this category.

That being said, if you don’t need some of the extras that EDD offers, or you’re selling a variety of physical and digital products, WooCommerce is still a great choice.

Scenario #2: Subscription-Based Service

Another typical scenario is in offering digital downloads to customers via a subscription. This is frequently becoming the preferred method for sites that sell stock photography, illustrations, icons and other types of assets. Customers pay monthly, yearly or even a single lifetime fee in exchange for access to files.

The good news is that both Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce have add-ons that enable subscriptions and recurring payments. Just note that you’ll need to work with a payment gateway that supports this functionality.

Making Your Site Members Only

Beyond the ability to sign up subscribers, you’ll also want to think about how you’ll protect your files from unauthorized users. This functionality is available for either of the aforementioned shopping cart plugins. But again, it will require a combination of commercial add-ons if you want to stay within their respective plugin ecosystems.

Alternatively, you could also work with a full-on membership suite. Plugins such as Paid Memberships Pro or S2Member Framework, among others, could be a good fit if you are just looking to sell access to restricted content. This may limit you quite a bit when it comes to features like download limits and licensing, however.

There may be some cases where combining both a cart and membership suite makes sense. This is a piecemeal approach, though, and could make implementing features a little more difficult. Therefore, you’ll want to weigh your options carefully.

Dealing in Downloads

Setting up a basic store to sell digital products is well within reach. With the help of a free shopping cart plugin, you can go from installation to selling online in a few short hours.

If you’re looking for something a little more robust, that’s also possible through the plugins mentioned above. But it will most likely take some commercially available add-ons to bring the desired functionality to your website.

Either way, you’ll have a solid foundation for your store that can grow along with you over time.

Writing about something that’s “OK” seems hardly worth the effort.

The past few WordPress builders I’ve been using have been “OK”, with at least one of them rating 3+ stars in my mind, but still nothing to write home about.

Two of the three didn’t have all the features I wanted in a WordPress builder. The best of the bunch did, but it could be difficult to use at times and product support wasn’t the best.

I should add that I work as a freelancer and mostly in a lone wolf capacity. Although, I do correspond and sometimes collaborate with several of my peers on social media.

One of them suggested I share my experience with others; hence this article.

The suggestion was made when I told him about my new WordPress builder and why it was not only far greater than “OK” but has proven to be a game changer.

I’m sure most of my peers are in the same boat, making do with tools that range from OK to very good indeed, and occasionally coming upon a game changer.

Like the Eureka moment that happened to me.

What I Always Wanted in a WordPress Builder – Even When I Wasn’t Always Aware of It

I look for several key things in a WordPress builder. The first ones I used appeared to be satisfactory until I found something missing or less than ideal. What I looked for and wasn’t always there generally involved one of three things:

Ease of Use

I like a learning curve that’s flat, or at worst has a very gentle slope. A steep learning curve can make it difficult to complete a project fast.

Responsive Preview

I like to see what I’ve done as soon as I’ve done it, and I like to see how it will appear on any device.

Free Templates and Elements

The more the better. But at least enough of them so I don’t have to code anything from scratch. The templates need to be easy to customize and I need to be able to place the elements (buttons, video players etc.) with ease wherever I want.

The Other Builders

I won’t name the 3 others I’ve used since they may work well for others.

After all, it’s not uncommon to find a product that receives both a 1- and 5-star rating and everything in between. What’s been OK for me could be a real game-changer or a terrible choice for someone else.

Like I said earlier. None of my choices made it much past a 3.

All three were easy to use, although one of them could not be described as “intuitive” and lacked helpful documentation.

One of them lacked a true WYSIWYG feature and neither of the others provided what you would consider to be a genuinely responsive live preview.

Only one of the three, the one I liked best, had templates and elements to work with. The customizable templates were fine, but the elements weren’t all that helpful.

My Deal Breaker – the Visual Composer Website Builder Free Version

I’ve heard about Visual Composer – the Page Builder used by so many WordPress themes and now known as WPBakery.

Yet, I knew nothing about the Visual Composer Website Builder – the reason being that it was only released a year ago.

Looking for something better I gave the VC Website Builder a try.

And that was my Eureka, Aha, Game-Changing moment.

I can build a website top-to-bottom (header and footer included), and since it doesn’t use shortcodes it allows me to generate clean code.

This helps avoid crashing or other nuisance problems when I disable the plugin.

I started by downloading the free version and it surprised me how intuitive and easy this website builder is to work with. The learning curve isn’t flat, but it’s not steep either. I’m sure almost any beginner could pick up on how to use this tool rather easily.

It also seemed to me that VC’s free version has more features than any other free website builder.

For example, I don’t need a third-party tool to test the responsiveness of my designs. Nor do I have to resize my browser window or check the design on my phone and waste precious time.

Everything can be done in Visual Composer, with a mouse click.

The Visual Composer Website Builder isn’t perfect.

Although it seems nearly so when a project consists of building a simple, basic page or website. For more complex projects, the 10 free customizable templates and 50 free design elements that you will find in their Hub are not enough. But heck, it’s free after all.

The Visual Composer Hub does set it apart from other website builders. It’s a cloud-based marketplace of web design assets that makes unnecessary the need for extra plugins or custom coding. And it’s the place where you can search for the design templates and elements you need.

Oh, and the stunning parallax effects I could achieve were pretty cool too.

Give It a Shot

Maybe someday something even better will come around. In the meantime, give the Visual Composer Website Builder a try. There’s a free version you can download.

Here’s the download link. Let me know what you think.

The Hub’s massive library of content elements and templates makes anything possible, and in tandem with the Visual Composer builder, web design is faster and easier than ever.

As enormous as the library is, you don’t have to settle for “what’s there”, because every element and template is editable and customizable. With respect to what you want to build, the sky is literally the limit.

What is Visual Composer Hub?

The Visual Composer Hub is a cloud-based marketplace of web design goodies. It’s connected to your Visual Composer account, so you can use it to search for the content elements, page and block templates, and images you need.

Using the Hub is a much better deal than having to rely on a selection of plugins, or worse yet, custom code to get the results you’re looking for. It’s simply a matter of finding ready content and downloading it directly to your Visual Composer Website Builder account.

Pick what you want and once it’s downloaded it will be sitting in your account waiting to be put to good use.

The Visual Composer Hub Library

The Visual Composer Hub library content is huge. Its content elements and templates work with any theme and can be used on any project. You’re free to view all the content, but a Visual Composer Premium account is required for total access to the content and unlimited downloads.

To make things easy, access to the cloud-based Hub and downloading is built right into the live-preview Visual Composer Website Builder.

What’s Inside the Visual Composer Hub

There 4 main types of Hub content:

• Content Elements
• Page templates
• Block templates, and
• Stock Images

1. Content Elements

With these content elements you can build your site without coding. With Visual Composer Premium the number of downloads you have is unlimited, and the Hub’s Content Elements are constantly updated.

Content Elements consist of the following:

• Buttons
• Media
• Post Grids
• Social Compatibility Elements that can be integrated with MailChimp,Ninja Forms, Envira Gallery and more.
• Advanced Elements including logo sliders, tabs, hover boxes, and more.
• and, an E-Commerce Plugin

With Content Elements:

• You can edit any element and there are multiple editing options, including editing Element CSS Animations to create exciting transitions.
• You can easily replace elements and switch between them as well. With the Smart Replace option you can change the look of your content in an instant.
• You also have access to some important advanced features that include turbo-powered flexibility, creating content “types” to organize and build hierarchies of elements, and leave notes to others. Certain advanced features are only accessible on Visual Composer Premium.

To get an even better idea of all the designer content elements available, take a peek at everything you can access with a Visual Composer Hub Premium account.

2. WordPress Templates

A significant portion of the Hub library is devoted to page templates. You can find them for any WordPress theme, and when you find one you can edit it.

As you start building your site, you’ll want to be searching for templates that will fit your website’s look and feel. When you find one, click download. You’ll be notified with a pop up that it has been placed into your account, ready for you to adjust as appropriate to create a beautiful page in a matter of minutes.

You can add templates to the WordPress Template section of the library and even save your own pages. Any page or template you save can be used again and customized if need be. Global templates can also be applied, and template widgets can be added and stored.

3. Block Templates

You have Content Elements for detailed design and page templates to make building your website quick and easy. What about the middle ground; something that offers a bit of both worlds?

Block Templates fill that “sweet spot.” For the best of both the custom design and easy drag-and-drop functionality worlds, Block Templates are the answer.

Unlocking the Block Templates section of the Hub requires a Visual Composer Premium subscription. If you feel brave enough to take a next step and savor the added flexibility you’ll experience, you’ll want to try building pages in sections.

4. Stock Images

The Unsplash library of stock images is seamlessly integrated into the Hub, which enables you to download images directly into your Visual Composer Website Builder. Searching for these high-quality images can be done directly from the Frontend editor, and once downloaded they are placed in your account, which is about as easy as it gets.

When you find an image you like and would like to view others by the same author, all that’s required is to hover over the author’s name and click; a good way to give your website a unified look and feel.

The Resources You Need to Build Top-Quality Websites

Yes, it’s indeed true that a top-rated website builder isn’t enough if you don’t have the resources to feed it. The Visual Composer Website Builder and Visual Composer Hub combination gives you everything you need to create one awesome website after another.

We’ve covered the Hub library’s Content Elements, Page and Block Templates, and Stock Images. It’s indeed a colossal resource to have access to, and there are add-ons and other premium hub elements you can check out too.

Why not log in now to the free version of the Visual Composer Hub? You have everything to gain, and nothing to lose.