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The best tools to build powerful websites.

There are thousands of apps and tools out there, but only a small fraction of them are actually worth your time. Here are the tools we’ve personally vetted and use on a day-to-day basis.

🔥 Editor’s Note

Welcome to the NewPulse Labs resource section! I’ve curated all the tools & software I recommend to build and grow online businesses.

To get an important disclaimer out of the way: some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at absolutely no cost to you.

That being said, please know that these are tools I’d fully recommend with or without an affiliate link. I’ve tested or used each and every tool extensively, for both client and personal projects. If you’d rather not use my link, you can always Google the product name as well.

Need a personal recommendation? Feel free to reach out!

Hosting

Don't waste your time with $4/mth hosting providers. Getting a good host is 100% worth it - especially considering it’s the foundation of both you & your clients' businesses. Your sites will be faster, more reliable, and more secure.
Best for Agencies

GridPane

If you want to take your hosting to the next level, GridPane is the way to go. It's what I use to host most of my websites now. You pick your server and they add their highly performant stack on top. It's most cost-effective if you manage multiple websites, and want to be more involved in optimizing your servers.

Try GridPane

WP Engine

If you host medium-to-enterprise level sites, aren't sensitive about pricing, and would rather not be tinkering around with your servers, check out WP Engine. They're not cheap, but they provide fantastic support and are a good worry-free premium hosting solution.

Try WP Engine

Website Building

As a web designer, you'll spend thousands of hours inside your theme/page builder of choice. It might be the most important decision you make.

Elementor

Elementor is a very good option for the average user. It doesn't offer the same power as Oxygen, but it has plenty of available addons and can be very quick to create standard layouts. I often use Elementor to quickly build landing pages and for sites where the client will be managing the content.

Try Elementor

Opt-ins, Funnels, & Checkouts

The most valuable websites are optimized to generate leads and drive conversions. These tools can provide a major ROI boost to almost any website.
Best for WooCommerce

CartFlows

CartFlows is a great way to create beautiful e-commerce funnels on WordPress. It ties into WooCommerce, allowing you to create custom product pages, checkouts, and thank you pages. It also let's you easily create upsells, downsells, order bumps, and custom checkout forms. If you're using WooCommerce, you should get CartFlows.

Try CartFlows

SureCart

This is a brand new e-commerce platform for WordPress that I'm really excited about. It's headless, meaning it doesn't add any bloat to your website (unlike WooComemrce). Currently it's best suited for digital products and one-off sales. You can read my full review of SureCart here.

Try SureCart

Convertful

Convertful is a very good popup and opt-in form builder. While most page builders have popups and forms built-in, Convertful's magic sauce is in allowing you to deeply integrate with your email marketing CRM. This lets you show opt-ins based on lists, tags, etc, and create highly targeted calls-to-action.

Try Convertful

Essential Plugins

You’ll find these plugins installed on most of my WordPress websites.

Fluent Forms

Fluent Forms is a great all-purpose form builder. It has an easy-to-use interface, plenty of conditional logic built in, and allows you to create conversational forms (think TypeForm). Its founder is active in the WP community, and the plugin is well supported by most page builders.

Try Fluent Forms

WP Rocket

Server-level caching is where it's at these days, but WP Rocket has introduced a bunch of speed optimization features that make it essential for any website. Including CSS/JS minification, delay JS execution, video lazy-loading, link preloading, CDN integration and more. It works really well with all the hosts I mentioned above.

Try WP Rocket

SureMembers

SureMembers is a new membership plugin on the market that has quickly become one of my favorites. It's lightweight and doesn't add any unnecessary bloat to your site. It also integrates well with Gutenberg and most page builders. You can read my full review here.

Try SureMembers

ShortPixel

Optimizing the images on your website is super important for page speed and search rankings. ShortPixel is the best plugin I've tested in terms of reducing file size & ease-of-use, and I use it on all the sites I build. It's also great for automatically converting your images to WebP format - reducing file sizes even further.

Try ShortPixel

NinjaFirewall

I previously used Wordfence, but NinjaFirewall offers a better Web Application Firewall (WAF) at the free level. Its rules are updated every few hours as opposed to every 30 days, and it processes requests before they even reach your website. This allows it to block more attacks and use up less of your server resources.

Try NinjaFirewall

Design

These amazing design tools can drastically improve your workflow. Levelling up your designs doesn't need to be difficult.

BrandBird

Not only has BrandBird sped up my content creation process, it's made it a lot more enjoyable. I love being able to take a simple screenshot and make it look amazing in 5 seconds flat. If you want nice visuals for your content or social media posts, it's definitely worth trying out.

Read my full review here. You can also use the coupon code NEWPULSE20 to get 20% off at checkout.

Try BrandBird

Figma

Figma is life. Along with Oxygen, it's easily one of my favorite pieces of software. You’re able to quickly create pixel perfect web & app designs, and it’s much more efficient than using something like Photoshop. All my site builds get designed in Figma first. Their free plan is very generous and 100% usable.

Try Figma

ui8

ui8 is similar to Envato Elements, but has fewer, more premium resources. It has some beautiful modern web/app UI kits, icon sets, mockups, illustrations, and templates. You can choose to buy items individually or get an all-access pass.

Try ui8

Envato Elements

Envato Elements is a handy resource to have for a wide variety of graphical assets. It’s a monthly subscription, but you have unlimited access to all their graphics, videos, stock photos, sound effects, templates, fonts etc.

Try Envato Elements

Email Marketing

If you or your clients run an online business, you need to be emailing your list. It’s a great way to nurture your leads and turn customers into raving fans.

Newsletter Glue

If you write a newsletter, you should definitely check out Newsletter Glue. It let's you publish to WordPress AND your email service provider (like ActiveCampaign) at the same time. I've been using it for The Lab Report since the beginning of 2022, and it's easily saved me 1-2 hours a week.

Read my full review here. You can also use the coupon code NEWPULSE10 to get 10% off at checkout.

Try Newsletter Glue

FluentCRM

FluentCRM made a splash when it launched in late 2020. Most ESPs can get really expensive the more contacts you add. It still has a lot of catching up to do, but the beauty of FluentCRM is that it's self-hosted - you pay one flat price whether you have 100 subscribers or 100k subscribers.

Try FluentCRM

Klaviyo

If you run a traditional Shopify or WooCommerce store, Klaviyo will provide the deepest integration. Its UI can be a little primitive at times, but compared to Mailchimp or most other email marketing platforms, you’re able to build some really advanced flows.

Try Klaviyo

Business Apps

These tools can quickly become essential for the day-to-day operation of your business.

Testimonial

Testimonial.to is a really easy way to collect testimonials/reviews and embed them on your website. You can either ask your customers for a text or video testimonial directly, or automatically pull them from social media. The UI is well-thought out and enjoyable to use. You can read my full review of Testimonial here.

Try Testimonial

Bonjoro

Bonjoro allows you to send customers/contacts personalized videos in an easy & automated fashion. It sends you a notification when a contact meets your trigger criteria, you record the quick video through their app, and they send it out automatically. It’s a great way to engage your audience.

Try Bonjoro

ClickUp

ClickUp is one of the most powerful project management tools out there. They add new features at an insane pace and are very receptive to the community's feedback.

Try ClickUp
Best Accounting Platform

Xero

If you need an advanced accounting platform, Xero is the winner. It has the best multi-currency features of all the platforms I've tested, it directly integrates with a ton of bank accounts, and you’re able to use your own Stripe and PayPal accounts to accept payments on your invoices. For me, the time savings make it easily worth the price over Wave.

Try Xero
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