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How to Add a Shipping Calculator to Your WordPress Site
Do you want your visitors to easily calculate the cost of shipping on your website?
Using a shipping calculator, customers can accurately estimate the total cost of a product they’ll have to pay with delivery. It helps keep your business transparent and builds trust with potential customers.
In this article, we will show you how to add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site.
What is a Shipping Calculator & Why Use It?
A shipping calculator helps estimate the total cost of shipping automatically. It shows delivery charges and other relevant fees to customers, so they don’t have to manually figure out shipping rates and expenses.
There are different factors that come into play when calculating shipping costs. Some of these include the price of the product, destination, origin of a shipment, weight, dimensions, type of shipping service, and other variables during the calculation.
Manually calculating shipping costs can be time-consuming if there are multiple orders on your online store. Plus, the manual calculation would also lead to mistakes, which can impact customer satisfaction.
You’ll save a lot of time and simply automate the process by using a shipping calculator plugin for your WordPress site or WooCommerce site.
Customers can simply select their location and see what the product will actually cost after delivery. This helps strengthen your relationship with your customers and builds trust.
That said, let’s see how you can easily add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site. We’ll also show a way of adding it to your WooCommerce store.
You can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:
Adding a Shipping Calculator to WooCommerce
The best way to add a shipping calculator in WooCommerce is by using the Product page shipping calculator for WooCommerce plugin. It is a free plugin that allows customers to calculate the cost of shipping before adding a product to the cart.
First, you’ll need to download and install the Product page shipping calculator for the WooCommerce plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can go to WooCommerce » Shipping Calculator to configure the plugin.
The plugin works out of the box, and you can use default settings to get started. However, there are options to edit them and customize your shipping calculator.
It’s important to note that the plugin will use the information from the shipping zone settings in WooCommerce when calculating shipping fees.
Setting Up Shipping Zones in WooCommerce
If you haven’t set up shipping zones, then you will need to go to WooCommerce » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and switch to the ‘Shipping’ tab.
Under the Shipping zones section, simply click the ‘Add shipping zone’ button.
Next, you’ll need to enter a zone name and select regions from the dropdown menu. You can add multiple countries or cities under a single zone.
After that, you can click the ‘Add shipping method’ button.
A popup window will now open.
WooCommerce offers 3 shipping methods to choose from. You can select a ‘Flat rate’ and then enter an amount that will be charged for shipping. Or you can choose ‘Free shipping’ and ‘Local pickup’ options.
When you’re done, simply click the ‘Add shipping method’ button.
You can add multiple shipping methods for the zone and set up conditions when they’ll apply.
Next, you’ll need to click the ‘Edit’ option under your shipping methods.
After that, a small window will open where you can change the title of the method, select whether you’d like the shipping method to be taxable or not, and enter a cost.
For costs, you can enter a flat rate that will be charged when a customer adds a product to a cart. There is also an option to multiply the shipping cost by the quantity.
Once you’re done, click the ‘Save changes’ button.
You can now head back to the shipping zone section to view your zones, regions, and shipping methods.
Edit Shipping Calculator Settings
After setting up shipping zones, you can head back to WooCommerce » Shipping Calculator to change the settings of the Product page shipping calculator for the WooCommerce plugin.
In the Basic setting tab, you can edit the position of the calculator on the product page and the position of the calculator results.
If you scroll down, you’ll see more settings. For instance, the plugin lets you edit the messages used in the plugin, auto-load the shipping method, and more.
When you’re done, simply click the ‘Save Changes’ button on the side or at the bottom of the page.
Next, you can switch to the ‘Remove fields’ tab. Here, you’ll see options to remove any field from the shipping calculator.
For instance, the plugin will show country, state, town/city, and postcode/zip fields by default. You can disable any of the fields that don’t match your shipping zones.
After that, head to the ‘Design’ tab. The plugin gives you multiple options to edit the appearance of the shipping calculator.
For example, you can change the background color and text color to show shipping methods. Or you can choose colors for the buttons that appear in the calculator.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Change’ button to store your settings.
Next, you can visit your WooCommerce store to see the shipping calculator in action.
In the screenshot below, customers will first need to select a delivery location and click the ‘Update Address’ button.
Once that’s done, the plugin will automatically calculate the shipping cost that you set up in the shipping zone section and will add it to the total cost.
This way, customers will know the shipping charges they’ll have to pay in addition to the cost of the product.
Adding a Shipping Calculator to WordPress Site
If you don’t have a WooCommerce store and want to add a generic shipping calculator to your WordPress site, then you can use Formidable Forms.
It is a popular contact form plugin for WordPress that lets you create advanced and complex forms. For instance, you can add a contact form, calculators, surveys, directories, and web applications using the plugin.
For this tutorial, we will use the Formidable Forms Pro plan because it includes pricing fields and more customization options.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the Formidable Forms Lite and Formidable Forms Pro plugins. The Lite plugin is free to use, and the premium plugin adds more advanced features to it.
If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Formidable » Global Settings from the WordPress dashboard. From here, you can click the ‘Click to enter a license key manually’ link.
Next, you’ll need to enter the license key and click the ‘Save License’ button.
You can find the license key in your Formidable Forms account area.
After that, you must go to Formidable » Forms to add a new form.
Simply click the ‘+ Add New’ button at the top.
Next, Formidable Forms will show different templates to choose from. You can choose from multiple categories, like business operations, calculator, conversational forms, and more.
Formidable Forms doesn’t offer a pre-built template for a shipping calculator. However, you can create one using a blank form template.
Go ahead and select the ‘Blank Form’ template.
On the next screen, you’ll need to enter a name for your form.
There is also an option to insert the template into an application. However, you can leave this to the default setting for this tutorial.
After entering the form name, click the ‘Create’ button.
Next, you’ll see the drag-and-drop form builder.
You can simply drag any form field from the menu on the left and drop it on the template.
For instance, you can add form fields like name, email, phone number, and more to the template.
To create a shipping calculator, you can scroll down to the Pricing Fields section on the left and add a ‘Product’ form field.
Next, you can select the product form field and further customize it.
For instance, we changed the label of the field and product type. Formidable Forms also lets you show products as checkboxes, dropdowns, radio buttons, single products, or user-defined.
Besides that, you can add your products and their prices under the Product Options on the menu on the left.
Now that you’ve added your products, the next step is to add your shipping regions and charges. To do that, you can again add a Product form field under the Pricing Fields section in the menu on the left.
After that, you’ll need to edit its label and product type, and then enter each region individually and its shipping cost.
In the screenshot above, we changed the label to Shipping Regions and changed the Product Types to Checkboxes. From here, we added different shipping zones and their cost under the Product Options section.
Once this is done, you’ll need to show a total for your shipping calculator. To do that, simply add the Total form field under the Pricing Fields section to the template.
Next, you can select the Total form field and edit its label, add a description, and more.
Formidable Forms also lets you add conditional logic to the form fields and show them based on user responses.
After that, you can switch to the ‘Style’ tab from the top.
Formidable Forms offers pre-built styles for your form. Simply select one or create a new style. For this tutorial, we will use the default Formidable Style.
Next, you can also change form settings in Formidable Forms.
Simply switch to the ‘Settings’ tab at the top. Here, you’ll find general settings for changing the form title, adding a description, and more.
There are also options for actions and notifications, form permissions, and scheduling your shipping calculator form.
After you’ve configured the settings, save your changes. You’re now ready to embed your calculator anywhere on your site.
To start, you can click the ‘Embed’ button in the form builder at the top. This will give you multiple options, like add the form to an existing page, create a new page, or insert manually.
For the sake of this tutorial, we will choose the ‘Create new page’ option.
Next, you can enter a name for your new page and click the ‘Create page’ button.
From here, you’ll see a preview of the shipping calculator form in the WordPress content editor.
Go ahead and publish your page and visit your site to see the shipping calculator in action.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to set up form tracking in Google Analytics and the best WooCommerce plugins.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
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The Ultimate eCommerce Launch Checklist for WordPress
Starting a new online store can feel intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before. There are a lot of things to keep track of, from choosing the right eCommerce software to promoting your products.
However, following an eCommerce launch checklist ensures that you don’t miss any crucial steps that could impact your store’s success. This list can help you stay organized, prevent errors, and boost efficiency.
In this article, we will share the ultimate eCommerce launch checklist for WordPress.
Why Use an eCommerce Launch Checklist for Your New Online Store?
An eCommerce checklist allows you to check your online store’s security, pages, checkout options, SEO, and other features without forgetting anything before you launch it.
It acts as a safety net, catching any potential errors or snags that you may have overlooked while preparing your website for launch.
Plus, it keeps you on track and helps you avoid any delays. This physical or digital product launch checklist allows you to prioritize tasks based on importance and deadlines.
If you are working with a team, it also ensures that everyone stays on the same page and tasks are divided effectively. Other than that, it can also be used to evaluate your launch and identify areas for improvement.
Having said that, you are now ready to follow the ultimate eCommerce launch checklist to prepare your store for success. Here is a breakdown of the steps we will cover in this guide:
1. Choose a Website Builder and a Hosting Plan
To start an online store, you will first need to select a website builder. We recommend WordPress because it is the best website builder on the market with over 43% of all sites using it.
It is free, flexible, has several customization options, and is super scalable for businesses of all sizes. This makes it the ideal choice for your eCommerce store.
Note: Keep in mind that we are talking about WordPress.org, which is an open source platform. There is also WordPress.com, which is a self-hosted software. You can view our comparison on WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com to see the difference.
Now even though WordPress is free, you will still need to purchase a hosting plan and domain name for it. Hosting is where your website stores all its data while a domain is your store’s name on the internet, like www.shoppingonline.com.
Expert Tip: If you are just starting your store, then you can use our WPBeginner Free Business Name Generator to come up with your company name.
If you plan to sell physical products, then we recommend Bluehost WooCommerce hosting. This is a WordPress-recommended company that also offers a free domain name, SSL certificate, and pre-installed WooCommerce.
Plus Bluehost offers a huge discount to WPBeginner readers. To take advantage of this offer, just click the button below.
However, if you want to sell digital products, then SiteGround’s managed hosting for Easy Digital Downloads is the better option.
It comes with a free SSL certificate, EDD pre-installed, all the optimization features, and a huge 81% discount, making it a great choice.
To get this discount offer, just click the button below.
Once you purchase hosting and set up a domain name, WordPress will automatically be installed for you. You can now head to your dashboard to start creating your store.
For more details, see our guide on how to make a WordPress website.
2. Choose the Right eCommerce Platform
The next step in creating and launching an eCommerce store is to select a platform that allows you to build a store without any coding.
For this, we recommend WooCommerce because it is the best eCommerce plugin on the market and is completely free.
The plugin allows you to easily add products, integrates with numerous payment gateways, and supports multiple currencies and languages, making it a great choice for creating your store. For details, you can see our guide on WooCommerce made simple.
However, if you plan to sell digital products on your eCommerce platform, then we recommend Easy Digital Downloads instead.
It allows you to sell eBooks, music, PDFs, and any other digital products you want. Plus, the plugin is beginner-friendly, integrates with a lot of different payment gateways, has in-depth reporting, and connects with email marketing solutions.
For details, you can see our tutorial on how to sell digital downloads on WordPress.
Note: If you have created a store that sells digital goods, then the following list will still work for you as a digital product launch checklist.
3. Create and Check All the Pages for Your Store
After you have added your products to your store, it’s time to create some pages on your website. We recommend starting with the home page and making it attractive because it will be customers’ introduction to your website.
You should add a CTA (Call To Action) on this page to direct users to where you want them. Additionally, you should create a navigation menu so users can browse through your store easily.
For example, this is the homepage for WPForms, a popular WordPress form builder. As you can see, it has a prominent CTA button that directs users to the online store for the plugin software.
For details on how to do this for your online store, see our tutorial on how to create a custom home page in WordPress.
Bonus Tip: If it feels like too much work to create custom pages for your store, then you can opt for WPBeginner’s Website Design services instead. Our team can create a beautiful and functional eCommerce website tailored to your specific needs, complete with a seamless checkout process and optimized for conversions.
Depending on which eCommerce plugin you are using, it should have already created a checkout page, products page, and cart page for your online store.
You can customize these pages using SeedProd, which is the best page builder on the market. It fully supports the WooCommerce integration and also has special WooCommerce blocks that you can add to any page you want.
The plugin also offers numerous premade templates and a drag-and-drop builder, making the process super easy.
For more information, see our beginner’s guide on how to edit WooCommerce pages.
4. Create a Seamless Checkout Process
Next, you need to create a seamless checkout process for your store. This will improve conversion rates, reduce cart abandonment, and boost your brand’s image.
To do this, you must integrate your online store with popular and reliable payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. Customers usually trust these options, and they provide secure transactions, making them a great choice.
Plus, these gateways easily connect with WooCommerce. All you would have to do is install the plugin for these gateways and visit the WooCommerce » Settings » Payments page.
Here, you can toggle the switches to enable different gateways and then add your account details to complete the process. For instructions, see our tutorial on how to accept payments with Stripe in WordPress.
After configuring the gateways, you can add an express checkout button to offer a seamless experience to customers. This button allows users to go directly to the payment page without having to fill in any details.
For information, see our step-by-step tutorial on how to add express checkout buttons in WooCommerce.
If you need some more tips, then you can see our beginner’s guide on how to customize your WooCommerce checkout page.
5. Add Social Proof and FOMO
Now that your store has been set up, adding some social proof before launching it is important. This proof will show visitors that other customers have trusted your store and had a good experience with it.
Plus, it will develop FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) which can boost your sales. One way you can do this is by adding testimonials and customer reviews to your store.
If your customers have left reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, or Facebook, then you can also showcase these feeds on your site with the Smash Balloon Reviews Feed Plugin.
It comes with a visual editor and makes the process of connecting these platforms with WordPress super easy.
For instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to show your Google, Facebook, and Yelp reviews in WordPress.
Popups and optins are other great options for building FOMO and social proof.
You can use OptinMonster to display popups with customer reviews and limited-time offers/sales to encourage customers to take action and purchase.
For more details, see our guide on how to increase WooCommerce sales.
Another excellent way to build FOMO amongst customers is to use TrustPulse, which is the best social proof plugin on the market.
It tracks your store activity, such as purchases, signups, and downloads, and then displays notifications in real time that highlight these actions to visitors.
For detailed information, check out our guide on using FOMO on your WordPress site to increase conversions.
6. Add a Contact Form
You need to add a contact form to your online store so that customers can reach out if anything goes wrong, like reporting inappropriate behavior or having issues processing their payments.
For this, you can opt for WPForms, which is the best contact form plugin on the market. It has a beginner-friendly drag-and-drop builder, 1800+ premade form templates, and complete spam protection.
Upon activation, you can simply use the plugin’s ‘Simple Contact Form’ template and add it to any page you like using the WPForms block.
For details, see our tutorial on how to add a contact form in WordPress.
Keep in mind that this is a good solution if you are just starting your store, but as your website grows, a contact form won’t be sufficient to provide all customer support.
Add Other Tools To Contact Support
When you outgrow a contact form as the only way that customers can reach you, we recommend using a business phone service.
We believe Nextiva is the best business phone service for your site. We actually use Nextiva for our business, and you can read more about it in our complete Nextiva review.
It will allow customers to contact you over phone calls and you can also set up an auto attendant if you want.
Plus, you can use Nextiva to add live chat, online faxing, surveys, CRM, analytics, and more.
If your store grows rapidly, then we recommend picking a customer service tool like Groove, which will allow you to manage all your customer data in one place. We use Groove across a few of our brands, which you can learn about in our complete Groove review.
You can also create a knowledge base, use AI to create smart responses, and set up automated workflows.
For more information, see our top picks for the best customer service software.
7. Optimize Your Store for Search Engines
Before launching your store, you must optimize it for search engines so that it will rank high in search results and gets more traffic and customers.
This is where All in One SEO (AIOSEO) comes in. It is the best WordPress SEO plugin that allows you to optimize your store in just a few minutes.
The plugin has a broken link checker, schema generator, XML sitemaps, on-page SEO checklist, keyword tracker, image SEO, and so much more. For more details, you can see our AIOSEO review.
Plus, AIOSEO offers a GTIN, ISBN, and MPN schema that allows your individual products to rank in search results.
You can also write product SEO titles and descriptions, optimize slugs, enable breadcrumbs, and add alt text for product images.
For detailed instructions, see our ultimate WooCommerce SEO guide.
8. Set Up Email Marketing
Before opening your store, you must choose an email marketing service and set up your account on it. This is an important step of your physical or digital product launch checklist because it allows you to start building an email list as soon as your store goes live.
You can then send cart abandonment, welcome, birthday, or discount offer emails to customers to bring them back to your website and earn their loyalty.
For your online store, we recommend using Constant Contact because it is the best email marketing software for small businesses.
It allows you to add signup forms and comes with automation tools, email segmenting, split testing features, drip campaigns, and a visual builder for workflows.
The tool also offers easy tracking and reporting, built-in social media sharing tools, a free image library, Facebook ads integration, and amazing customer support.
For details, you can see our guide on how to connect Constant Contact with WordPress.
However, if you plan to consistently send automated emails for order confirmations, abandoned carts, and invoices, then FunnelKit Automations is a better choice.
It is the best automation marketing plugin for WooCommerce that comes with a visual funnel builder, premade email automation templates, A/B testing, and more.
For complete details, see our tutorial on how to send automated emails in WordPress.
9. Set Up Google Analytics
Another crucial step to making your store customer-ready is installing Google Analytics. This will allow you to track your store’s performance and give you real-time insights into how users interact with your website.
You can then use this data to improve your marketing strategy and drive more sales.
To make using Google Analytics super easy, you can use MonsterInsights, which is hands-down the best analytics solution for WordPress.
It easily integrates with WooCommece and lets you track product performance, shopping cart abandonment rates, and checkout behavior. You can easily identify products with high abandonment rates and take steps to improve those product pages.
For more information, see our step-by-step guide on how to set up WooCommerce conversion tracking.
10. Create a Backup of Your eCommerce Store
Once you have added all the features to your online store and feel that it’s ready for launch, we recommend first creating a backup.
This will allow you to safeguard your data against security threats and let you recover it in case of data loss due to malware or hackers.
For this, you can use Duplicator, which is the best WordPress backup plugin. It has features like scheduled backups, recovery points, cloud storage integration, migration tools, and more.
With this plugin, you can create a backup right from your WordPress dashboard in just a few minutes.
For step-by-step instructions, see our tutorial on how to back up your WordPress site.
11. Secure Your Online Store
Once you have followed all the steps in our eCommerce launch checklist, your store is ready to go live. However, you can still take some extra steps to secure your online store from malware or hackers.
To do this, you can use Cloudflare, which the best security solution for WordPress. It comes with a powerful firewall to filter out bad traffic, prevents DDOS attacks, and has a browser integrity check to block hackers.
Plus, it has an amazing CDN (Content Delivery Network) that improves your page load time by caching static content across multiple servers worldwide.
Note: We use Cloudflare at WPBeginner to protect our site from hackers and malware. Overall, we have had an amazing experience with the tool and have even observed improved page load times since we started using it.
Cloudflare also lets you optimize your images for reduced bandwidth, add page rules, manage SSL certificates, perform email routing, use fast DNS services, and identify and block malicious bots.
However, if you have a small business or blog, then Cloudflare may not be the best option. In that case, you can pick Sucuri, which is a popular firewall plugin that comes with a free plan.
For more tips, see our ultimate WordPress security guide.
Keep in mind that once you implement these security measures, you will still need to monitor your site regularly for threats or malware, which can be time-consuming and a bit annoying.
That is why we recommend WPBeginner’s Website Maintenance Service. Our team of experts will provide 24/7 maintenance and support to your website.
We will consistently update WordPress core, themes, and plugins, monitor uptime, remove malware, create routine cloud backups, prevent slow-loading page times, and even give you detailed maintenance reports.
Plus, we offer affordable pricing, making us an ideal choice for small businesses. For details, see our WPBeginner Pro Services page.
Frequently Asked Questions About Launching an eCommerce Store
Here are some questions that are frequently asked by our readers about starting an eCommerce website.
Is WordPress good for eCommerce?
WordPress.org is an excellent platform for your eCommerce store because it is open-source, free, scalable, and beginner-friendly.
It is used by 43% of the sites on the internet, has a massive community, and gives you complete freedom to build an online store according to your liking. To learn more, you can see our guide on whether WordPress is good for eCommerce.
Do I need any coding knowledge to launch a WordPress eCommerce store?
You do not need any coding knowledge to start an online store. All you have to do is select an eCommerce plugin and configure its settings to launch your store in just a few minutes. Plus, you can use a drag-and-drop page builder like SeedProd to design your store without coding.
How much does it cost to launch a WordPress eCommerce store?
Your eCommerce store costs can add up as you choose a hosting provider ($5-$25/month), domain name ($10-$15/yr), and eCommerce plugin (free-paid) for your store.
In our opinion, costs will start at about $100 to build a basic online store, with costs adding up as your store grows.
Related Guides to Help You Build an eCommerce Store
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John Kostak of Web Dev USA – WordPress.com News
John Kostak has been building websites for longer than most social media networks have even been around. So splashy features don’t interest him much—he’s far more into performance, reliability, and compatibility. Which is why he and his company, Web Development USA, have been using WordPress.com from the start.
In this fun Q&A, John shares more about his WordPress journey, what matters most to him as a developer, and a few of his favorite sites (in spite of the fact that it was like making him pick his favorite child). Note: The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
If John’s love for WordPress.com has you reconsidering your current hosting environment, you can learn more about our specs and get started at WordPress.com/hosting.
Jeremy: How long have you been using WordPress and WordPress.com?
John: I have been building websites for about 15 or 16 years and started in a corporate environment for a large company. We never had an internal digital team and we basically created our own digital agency within this big corporate company. And that was pretty innovative back then.
Then out of that, I spun off and started Web Development USA. That began in 2015, and so next year will be our 10th year, which is crazy to think about. But it went quickly because we really do enjoy this. And we look for people who find this to be a passion, as we do.
Jeremy: Have you been using WordPress.com the entire time?
John: Yes we have. We started doing some testing with SiteGround and Elementor hosting, but we still like WordPress.com the best. You know you can go through a McDonald’s three miles away or 10,000 miles away on the other side of the planet and your lunch is going to be reasonably what you expect. That’s what WordPress.com feels like with its consistency and the familiarity of the UI and getting around.
Jeremy: What do you like most about WordPress.com? Is it about ease of use on your side as a builder? Convenience for the customer? Both?
John: Resiliency. With Jetpack at the core and all the updates that it does, we just don’t have that much of a risk of things exploding, especially when we bring contractors in and out. We can always fall back to a previous state, and we have an exact record of it. We can get into PHP code. We can get into the very, very back end if we want. We can really be dangerous if we want, without being too afraid of it.
Overall, it is certainly the all-around performance, security, and cadence that you use for backing up sites.
Jeremy: What are some of your favorite features when building sites on WordPress? Do you have go-to themes, blocks, plugins, etc.?
John: Well, it’s changed over the years. We used to use standard old-school wireframe and theme templates that were very basic. And then we went into more “custom designer” mode, I would say, with templates and flashy designs. We graduated from Walmart t-shirts to Gucci t-shirts. And, you know, we enjoyed that for a while.
Now we’re going back to robust wireframes and doing more from scratch. What’s more important now is really the entire stack, including performance and compatibility. You know, we just don’t have time to troubleshoot when we have some whizzy feature on the site. We don’t have time to go in and look for why the thing is down. So, we are sort of simplifying certain things and then standardizing on a certain stack.
Jeremy: What excites you about the future of WordPress.com? Are there any new features you’re especially excited to try out and use?
John: Honestly, we just don’t have time to get into a lot of that. We don’t look much to experimental features or anything like that. We’re trusting that by the time the feature or tool makes its way into being a standard of WordPress, it will be tried and true. We’re not looking for early adopter types of things anymore.
The reality is that our value add is more about custom coding for integrations—maybe for a particular reservation system that has to shake hands and stay for a while on the site before it goes out to a third-party point of sale. It takes some custom coding there. That’s where our focus has really been—managed services and then a lot more programming. We’ve been onboarding more programmers in the last 18 months than we did the first eight years of the company.
Jeremy: Do you have a few favorite client sites that you can share?
John: Well, Jeremy, it’s like asking you who’s your favorite child.
Jeremy: Depending on the week, I can give you a pretty good answer. 😊
John: Yeah, that’s a good point! Sure, I have a few:
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Analysing Features, Pricing, and User Experience
When I started building my website with WordPress, I stumbled upon Elementor’s plugin. This powerful website builder, known for its drag-and-drop interface, has been my go-to tool, thanks to its user-friendly interface and wide array of design options.
Since then, Elementor decided to take things up a notch by expanding into the hosting space.
Elementor Hosting is a hosting service tailor-made for WordPress users, seamlessly integrated with Elementor’s page builder and WooCommerce. With Elementor hosting, you get a streamlined experience from site creation to publication, all within the Elementor platform.
This article will dive into Elementor’s hosting service, examining its features, pricing, and overall value, providing an in-depth Elementor Hosting review.
What is Elementor Hosting
Elementor Hosting is a managed web hosting service provided by Elementor, the industry-leading WordPress website builder.
I’ve found that Elementor Hosting is designed to seamlessly merge web hosting services with the advanced capabilities of the Elementor page builder. This unique integration creates an all-in-one platform that empowers you with everything you might need for website creation, hosting, and management.
In a single package, you gain access to the Elementor Pro website builder, valued at $99 per year, alongside the freedom to install preferred plugins.
Keep reading this full hands-on Elementor Hosting review to decide if this is the right option for you.
Who is Elementor Hosting for?
Elementor Hosting is designed for users who want to create, manage, and host WordPress websites using the Elementor website builder.
Here’s a closer look at who might find Elementor Hosting particularly beneficial:
- Web developers and designers: Elementor is a great choice for people who regularly build websites for clients and appreciate its versatility and extensive design capabilities.
- Small- and medium-sized businesses: Ideal for entrepreneurs looking to establish or enhance their online presence with a polished web design without shelling out hefty design fees.
- Bloggers and content creators: Elementor Hosting is suitable for individuals seeking a user-friendly platform that enables them to concentrate on content creation.
- E-commerce store owners: Elementor Hosting comes with WooCommerce, which is great for people with an online store.
- Marketing and SEO professionals: Perfect for marketing professionals requiring quickly editable and optimized web assets.
Core Features of Elementor Hosting
Elementor Hosting is tailored to offer a seamless experience for users who wish to design, manage, and host websites easily. You get everything under one roof — editor, theme, and hosting.
Before we get into how you can easily build a website with Elementor Hosting, let’s have a look at the features.
Below are the core features that make Elementor Hosting stand out.
Page Builder
Elementor is the #1 Page Builder plugin for WordPress, and it comes free of cost with Elementor Hosting. You get all the following features of Elementor Page Builder to build your WordPress website:
- Drag-and-Drop Editor: Elementor’s website builder is renowned for its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to build websites without any coding knowledge.
- Responsive Design: Every design or element you create will be responsive, ensuring your site looks great on all devices.
- Live Editing: See the changes you make in real-time, offering a true what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience.
Pre-Designed Templates
When building a website with Elementor Page Builder, you can choose from an empty canvas, wireframe designs, or a design from a large library of all-inclusive website templates.
- Extensive Template Library: Access to a vast library of pre-designed templates suited for various industries and purposes.
- Blocks and Sections: Apart from full-page templates, Elementor also offers blocks and sections to quickly build custom pages.
- Template Import/Export: Easily import templates from other projects or export them for use in different websites.
Customization Options
With Page Builder, you get a comprehensive collection of widgets and global settings to add different functionalities to your web pages, such as sliders, buttons, and forms.
- Widgets: A wide range of widgets are available to add functionality to your pages, such as buttons, headings, sliders, and more.
- Theme Builder: Gain control over your website’s theme, allowing you to design headers, footers, single posts, and archive pages.
- Global Settings: Customize and maintain a consistent design across your website with global settings for colors, fonts, and other styling options
Performance and Security
- Optimized for Speed: Elementor Hosting is optimized for performance, ensuring fast loading times for your website.
- Secure Hosting: Implementing the latest security measures to protect your website from online threats.
Integrations with Other Tools
- WordPress Ecosystem: Seamless integration with the vast array of WordPress plugins and themes, expanding the functionality of your website.
- Marketing Tools: Integration with popular marketing tools and platforms, such as MailChimp, HubSpot, and ConvertKit, to enhance your marketing efforts.
- eCommerce: Full compatibility with WooCommerce, allowing you to build and manage an online store directly within your website.
Elementor Hosting Dashboard
Elementor hosting has an easy-to-navigate dashboard where you can manage your site(s), teams, and subscriptions. You can choose which websites you’re hosting with Elementor Hosting and which ones you’re hosting somewhere else. Accessing the site’s dashboard gives you access to:
- Manage Domains: Simplifies custom domain setup with an intuitive process. Initially assigns a temporary staging domain.
- Email Account: Easily set up email sending post-domain connection. Partnered with Zoho Mail, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 for custom business emails.
- Backups: Access automatic daily backups and initiate manual backups for data security.
- Advanced: Provides tools like staging sites, phpMyAdmin, and SFTP details for advanced management. Creating staging sites is effortless with supported plans.
Onboarding Experience with Elementor Hosting
Starting my journey with Elementor Hosting was a breeze, thanks to its seamless onboarding process. From signing up to getting my website up and running, the platform guided me every step of the way, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free experience.
Here are the steps that you can also follow to set up your WordPress website with Elementor Hosting:
Step 1: Sign Up
- Plan Selection: Choose the hosting plan that best fits your needs. Elementor Hosting offers various plans based on the size and requirements of your website.
Step 2: Website Setup
- Domain Configuration: You can either register a new domain through Elementor or connect an existing domain to your Elementor hosting account.
- WordPress Installation: Elementor Hosting automatically installs WordPress for you, eliminating the need for manual setup.
Step 3: Elementor Plugin and Theme Installation
- Automatic Installation: The Elementor plugin and Hello Elementor theme are automatically installed on your WordPress site. This ensures you have the essential tools to start designing your website immediately.
- Activation: Log in to your WordPress dashboard, where you’ll find the Elementor plugin and theme already activated.
Step 4: Template Selection and Customization
- Template Library Access: Upon entering the Elementor editor, you’ll have access to a wide range of pre-designed templates. Choose one that fits your website’s purpose.
- Customization: Utilize the drag-and-drop editor to customize your chosen template. You can change text, images, layout, and more to match your brand. Here, I have chosen the interior design agency template from Elementor.
Step 5: Website Launch
- Preview and Test: Before going live, preview your site and test all functionalities to ensure everything works as expected. With Elementor’s responsive design, you can check how every element looks across all devices.
- Publish: Once you’re satisfied with your website, hit the publish button.
Congratulations, your website is now live!
Plans and Pricing
Elementor offers different tiers of hosting plans tailored to various needs, from personal blogs to business websites.
Basic Plan
- Price: $9.99/month (discounted from $14.99)
- Features: Includes Elementor Pro, 10 GB storage, 25K monthly visits, and 30 GB/mo bandwidth.
Business Plan
- Price: $19.99/month (discounted from $24.99)
- Features: Everything in Basic plus more storage and bandwidth for higher traffic sites.
Grow Plan
- Price: $49.99/month (discounted from $59.99)
- Features: Includes all Business plan features with increased storage, bandwidth, and monthly visitor limits to support growing websites.
Scale Plan
- Price: $299.99/month (discounted from $349.99)
- Features: Includes all Grow plan features with expanded resources, advanced performance optimization, and priority support.
Educational resources
Elementor offers a wealth of educational resources designed to help users learn, grow, and excel in web creation. These resources cater to a wide range of audiences, from beginners to advanced users, covering various aspects of using Elementor and web design in general.
Below is an overview of the key educational resources provided by Elementor.
1. Elementor Academy
The Elementor Academy is a comprehensive learning hub filled with courses and tutorials aimed at enhancing your web creation skills. Whether you’re looking to understand the basics of using Elementor or delve into advanced design techniques, the academy has something for everyone.
2. Help Center
The Help Center is your go-to resource for detailed articles and guides on troubleshooting, FAQs, and step-by-step instructions on using Elementor features. It’s a valuable resource for solving specific issues you might encounter while working with Elementor.
3. Elementor Blog
The Elementor Blog is an excellent source of inspiration, tips, and the latest trends in web design and marketing. It features articles written by web design professionals and Elementor experts on everything from cloning your websites to new features and the latest releases.
Customer Feedback and Reviews
Per user reviews, while Elementor Hosting shines, there are complaints about its support lacking efficacy.
Nonetheless, Elementor Hosting is praised by individuals building personal websites and agency owners alike.
Check out the positive Elementor Hosting reviews received on Trustpilot, and you’ll be instantly convinced.
Final thoughts
Overall, I think Elementor Hosting is a great choice that will work well for various types of websites that web designers, business owners, bloggers, e-commerce entrepreneurs, or simply someone with a passion for web design are trying to build.
It simplifies the entire website-building process by eliminating the need to purchase hosting separately. At the same time, you also get great pricing that comes included with Elementor Pro at no extra cost. Furthermore, the performance and speed optimizations tailored for WordPress and Elementor ensure that websites hosted on this platform look great and deliver an exceptional user experience.
In a world where being online has become crucial, Elementor Hosting can help users create their web designs with ease, style, and comfort.
Keep reading the article at WP Mayor. The article was originally written by Osheen Jain on 2024-04-01 07:00:00.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.
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