You need to know your CMS, website building platforms, and page crafting tools. How else do you expect to pacify the two forces behind website creation – design and development?
You could be a design guru, and have no clue about coding. You could be waist-deep in the analytic mindset required for programming, even though you’re essentially creative. But there’s no way you can serve both masters and still have the time to increase your client base as a freelancer.
See the problem?
Work with a good platform, CMS, or WordPress plugin, and save precious time. Time that can be used to take on more projects. Get to the finish line faster, and don’t go any further than the Front end to create fantastic websites.
Webydo
We should start with a browser-based web design platform. Before we do, let go of notions like “how hard can it be to get a domain and hosting on my own?” or “website builders are too rudimentary for my taste”. Building your websites on a robust platform specifically designed for web designers and design studios to build and manage client sites, and you can truly build good websites.
Webydo offers advanced cloud hosting, standard-compliant code, and a Photoshop-like design studio where you can work your magic. As a professional designers, it’s easy to create and manage a stunning responsive website, code-free. What’s more, you can actively build your own brand through a white label solution and have the ability to bill your clients from your Webydo dashboard. Webydo is perhaps the best website builder for true designers because of its advanced features.
Visual Composer
When your project depends on a timescale, every minute counts. The recent boom in WordPress page building tools helps web designers create client websites faster than ever. It used to take ages to construct a complex layout. And now you have tools like Visual Composer to get there in minutes. As you can imagine, a tool this valuable sells like crazy. It powers more than 500K websites. And at the price of $ 28, it’s basically a steal.
This is how Visual Composer changes the game. All of a sudden, designers have the option to work from Front end or Back end in a visual studio, if they get this builder as part of their WordPress theme or individually.Creating a web page is fun. You drag and drop your way to an awesome website, and choose from 40+ elements in the process.
Qards
Repeat customers are living proof that you’re doing a great job. You get a vote of confidence every time they come back, asking you to redesign some areas, or to enhance their online presence by getting a web store running. Give them what they want, fast. Work with a page building plugin for WordPress that draws on card design. That means you waste no time in performing the changes your clients requested, and you don’t delve into the coding part.
Get Qards from Designmodo and plug it into your already-installed theme. Then move on to modify your client website with an in-line editor. If you have to add some image galleries or other types of content, simply upload them. Then, move your cards where you want them. Easy as that.
IM Creator
Speaking of easy, there are a lot of website builders that offer to help you launch a website in no-time. However, not all of them rise to the occasion as well as Im Creator. You don’t have to register to test it out.
And once you do, you realize that even a 12 year-old can make it work to their advantage.
But you’re not a teenager who plays World of Tanks all day. You’re a professional creative who can strike up a design starting from a blank canvas. Im Creator gives you this option, as well as a plethora of business-specific templates to start from.
WebsiteBuilder
You want to simplify how work gets done, and at the same time have plenty of options. Our list of useful website building tools continues with the platform named, simply, WebsiteBuilder. Pick any of the 10K templates from the shelves and carve a delightful website for your customer. The deal includes a free business email account to add to the site.
Breezi Nitrogen
If more speed is what you want, then take your design projects to the next level with the website builder Breezi Nitrogen. Go through hundreds of design iterations in the blink of an eye, with the Designbot function. This helps you start from a point that is closer to the end result.
MotoPress Editor
Watch exactly what is happening to your website design, as you work. One of the best things that ever happened to WordPress are content editors with live preview. Take MotoPress, for instance. It’s an easy to use Front end page builder, with a real-time preview feature. By the way, large motion backgrounds are a big trend this year. Get MotoPress, and set up video or parallax backgrounds that reel in your end users.
AllYou.net
Do you plan on landing more clients this year? Be ready to pitch them at a moment’s notice. Maybe you accidentally run into an old friend and she tells you all about her small handmade jewelry business and how she’s thinking of taking it online. See the opportunity? Get your smartphone or tablet out right there and then. Show her your creative portfolio. AllYou won’t let you down. This is portfolio builder for creative professionals who want a responsive and retina-ready website.
Gutensite
There are so many good website builders out there, that choosing one of them for your project can be a challenge in itself. We did a lot of market research, so you don’t have to. Just scan through the handful of builders presented in this post, and find one that appeals to you and your business. Gutensite, maybe?
Themify Builder
For the sake of variety, we want to show you the many ways you can go about your WordPress websites. That is the most popular CMS, after all. So, how are you on geometric design? If you enjoy piecing modules together to create layouts, Themify Builder is definitely worth a shot. See how you like creating websites with one of the themes from Themify. Or, purchase the plugin separately and you can integrate it with any theme.
Wix
5 more platforms for website building, and our list comes to a close. Are you paying attention? Good. You wouldn’t want to miss Wix. It’s only one of the hugely popular tools for website creation. Plus, it has a feature-rich image editor. So, it earns a place in your options for this year’s client projects.
Squarespace
Then again, Squarespace is also on the rise. Choose this builder if you’re bursting with ideas and feel like a single template is not enough for your client’s website. Install several templates, and then work on all of them at the same time. Then, leave the choice to your client. May the best design win.
LightCMS
One of the best offers this year comes from LightCMS. You should try it. There’s a lovely discount attached to the Unlimited Plan, for designers who join their Partner Platform. The price? A mere $ 19-a-month for each website you create as a reseller. Conclusion? It’s a bargain.
Carbonmade
A lot of start-ups and freelancers are looking to get their personal brands online this year. And when they do, you’re there to see them through. So far, we only mentioned one builder who specializes in portfolio creation. Let’s make that two. Use Carbonmade for your own benefit, and also for your clients’.
Wopop
Care to set up shop with an international marketplace? Lots of clients ask you to do that. Make sure you include many payment options at checkout. The final touch to this fresh list of important tools and platforms is a Hong Kong-based builder, Wopop. Every Wopop website is coupled with a free 2nd level domain.
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Overall, it’s not lack of options that stops you from running a successful web design business. Know yourself, your strengths and your limitations, and choose page crafting tools or platforms that streamline your creative process. Grow more efficient. That way, you complete projects faster, and expand your customer base.