The web development industry is now probably the most wide-spread and successful industry in the world. With everyone on the Internet and more and more people interested in having their own website, whether it is for their business or for personal use –like blogging, the demands and work-load of web developers has largely increased.
In order to keep up with these demands and of course, with the trends, web developers have come up with different solutions that will make developing and managing a website a lot easier. Here are 20 of the most interesting and helpful tools that can help you and make your work easier.
Animatron
Animatron is a new HTML5 animation web app that makes it easy for you to create amazing web content that’s compatible with both desktop computers and mobile devices. Animatron delivers a completely new workflow for creating interactive web content, and its intuitive UI can be used by professionals and newbies alike.
Traditional animation software is expensive and has a steep learning curve, but Animatron is both affordable (it even has a free plan) and very user-friendly. Also, Animatron can easily be used by development teams, as it makes collaborating on a project very easy: all you have to do to share your work is simply copy/paste a link to your project and you’re done – your coworkers will be able to look at your project and even make changes to it, which you can view in real time, as they happen. Another great thing about using Animatron is that it allows you to access your work from any device with an Internet connection, as all your work will be saved in your account online. As soon as you’re done, you can download your project’s HTML5 code and you’ll be ready to add your animation to your website.
WPJobBoard
Nowadays you don’t even have to know HTML, CSS, PHP or any other programming language in order to create your own job board website and get started with posting jobs. All you have to do is use the WPJobBoard plugin for WordPress, which will take care of everything. You can opt for the default theme “Jobelon” offered by the plugin. WPJobBoard also works beautifully with WP “frameworks”, which means you can choose between WooFramework, Genesis, Headway or Thesis. You don’t have to worry about keeping your visitors posted. WPJobBoard will automatically send them email job alerts and RSS feeds. It has an intuitive interface that will guide you through all the steps of listing a job post. You can be sure you won’t be overwhelmed by arranging all the job posts, since WPJobBoard will help make it look neat and organized. The support team offers extensive online documentation, and you can always reach out to the friendly team via email – you are guaranteed an answer in less than 24 hours.
Original Mockups
Using Original Mockups you will no longer have to go through the tedious task of having to print all your designs in order to make them visually accessible to your potential clients. Original Mockups offers you first rate mockups for anything you need from business cars, to fliers, devices, UI displays and even books or magazines. If you choose the Infinity Bundle that Original Mockups offers right now, you are sure to find that all the 70 mockups both look amazing and can be seamlessly integrated into your design by simply copy/pasting them. What’s more, you can also choose the new Stellar bundle that comes with 50+ mockups that will simply blow you away. So, what are you waiting for? Go over to Original Mockups right now and see for yourself how truly fantastic these mockups are. And, as soon as you decide to purchase a bundle, rest assured that all the mockups will come in PSD format so you will be able to make use of them easily.
Hiveage
Issuing bills and invoices and getting paid for your services or goods just became easier thanks to Hiveage. This very user-friendly platform will relieve you from the boring task of sending bills manually. Hiveage’s interface is polished, fast, fluid and intuitive, and the amount of features available is pretty amazing. For example, you can customize your bills and invoices with your own logo and color scheme for a touch of elegance. Hiveage will deliver everything on time and it will even thank your punctual clients for paying on time. With the help of Hiveage’s new user tiers, you can now delegate billing responsibilities quickly and easily. What is more, you can create expense reports and send them off with just a few clicks. Hiveage Free comes integrated with the PayPal Standard payment gateway and it also accepts payments from PayPal Pro, Stripe, 2Checkout. The best thing of all is that Hiveage is modular, so you only pay for what you really need. If your business doesn’t use estimates, skip this module and get some other functionality instead.
ShrinkTheWeb
If you work as a web or mobiles application developer, then this tool is perfect for you. Automating hundreds or even thousands of screen shots daily can become tiresome. The good news is that ShrinkTheWeb will do all the work for you. That includes capturing, shrinking, cropping, saving, uploading and displaying screenshots. ShrinkTheWeb offers the most dependable website screenshot platform available, and its API for developers is the most intuitive and well documented you’ll find. All the tasks mentioned before can be easily done by ShrinkTheWeb with a single line of code or by using an existing plugin. Moreover, this ingenious platform also offers its users other tools like URL to PDF Conversion, Custom Size Previews, Full-Length Previews and Private Label Service. Thanks to its special features that are not found anywhere else, ShrinkTheWeb offers unlimited scalability and unmatched reliability. Since it’s been used by Microsoft, you can be sure it will definitely make your links more appealing to your viewers in no time.
MotoPress
If you’re looking for a way to easily customize your page, an alternative to the default WordPress editor is the MotoPress Content Editor. MotoPress is a plugin that helps you customize your page content without having to write any sort of code. It is compatible with any WordPress theme and you can easily make changes by dragging and dropping page elements. Besides, the MotoPress Content Editor comes with built-in content elements like image, video, sliders or buttons which makes it even easier to use. The plugin enables you to create responsive and mobile ready layouts and is WPML compatible. Plus, you can always extend it with your own shortcodes. MotoPress also includes files for easy translation in order to make your work even easier. Furthermore, for any problems you might have you can address the team and they will provide professional support that will most likely cover all your needs. Also, regular updates will be available.
Framebench
Framebench is a cloud-based online collaboration platform that can enable you to easily communicate with your team and with your customers, in order to get the best results for your projects. With the “TableTop Sync” feature you get the best synchronization so everyone online can see every activity, any change you make, even a zoom into an image, in real time. All assets, changes or reviews will be automatically documented for later access. The synchronization extends to videos as well, so you can share, make changes on frames and receive feedback on your videos as if all of you were in the same room. Also, visualizing your entire project, ideas and files is very easy with the intuitive magazine page like flipping Framebench has. Another great feature Framebench offers is the Mail Markup Gmail that allows you to annotate, comment and send any files without having to download them first.
Froont
Froont is a useful platform that enables its users to design responsive websites visually, speed up website prototyping and share their final designs with their clients just by sharing a link. It’s easy to create HTML and CSS without coding. Here’s how it works: you can opt between starting from scratch or you can choose a design from some else. From here, you can tweak and adjust everything after your heart’s desire. Play around with the 2000 fonts available from Typekit, Google and System fonts. With Froont you can paste CSS from Photoshop and use SVGs online. Formatting the texts, moving around different elements, changing the fonts, color scheme and size of the logo can be done with just a few clicks. What is more, Froont’s library will remember and store your favorite items for the next time you use the platform. When you’re satisfied with your work and you want to share it, just hit download and you’re ready to go.
Cashboard
Cashboard is a cloud-based tool that offers freelancers and small businesses an easy way to manage their projects, their time and their finances. It enables you to bill your customers either for products or time or even for both. You can track the entire process by listing tasks, assign them to your team members, seting deadlines and billing your clients. Also, Cashboard makes it easy for you to generate estimates before you begin your project. The best part is that it’s very easy to use, so anyone in the team can generate estimates, invoices or reports and you can have complete control over everything. Plus, Cashboard is fully integrated with payment processors like Stripe or PayPal so your clients can pay invoices online. If you’re curious about how this tool works, Cashboard offers a 14-day free trial with monthly or yearly plans, so go to www.cashboardapp.com and get started right now.
Themify.me
Themify is the best tool to turn to in order to make any adjustments you need on your website’s layout or theme. By using its simple, seamless drag and drop editor, you will be able to manage all your content easily. Also, due to the fact that Themify comes with a live preview, you will be able to observe all your alterations as you make them. By the end, when you’re sure you’re satisfied with the result, Themify will take care to make your layout look just as good on any device, so you won’t have to worry about it. The best part about Themify is the fact that it was designed to help non-coders hit the ground running. It was designed in order to be used by people without any knowledge of the programming aspect so you will have full control over every detail straight from the options panel.
Macaw
Macaw has been named by enthusiasts the beginning of the end of coding. While using this tool you will be able to take image editing to a whole new level. With Macaw, you will be able to adjust images in any way you see fit in an editor that resembles Adobe Photoshop. When you’re done, Macaw will take care to generate all the HTML and CSS you need in a matter of seconds.
RIU
Responsive Image Uploader (RIU) is a WordPress plugin that solves responsive image problems by automatically keeping the image subject in focus on all screen sizes. With RIU, it only takes 2 minutes to make images fully responsive.
All you have to do when you upload an image to your website is choose a relevant area of focus (AOF) and point of focus (POF) and the image will display properly, with the subject in focus, on all screen sizes. Visit http://bit.ly/1p8E838 to see a short demo of how RIU works.
Launchlist
Launchlist is the perfect tool to keep you organized while developing a project. Using Launchlist you can define your own list of pre-launch tests so you can make sure your code is bug-free. By using Launch list you will be able to define a launch list, manage the project with Launchpad, customize the template of each of your projects, have the possibility to collaborate with your teammates and more.
Flowdock
Flowdock is a tool dedicated to making your team’s collaboration as easily as possible. Flowdock is available on desktop, mobile and web in order to give access to it at all times. By using Flowdock you will be able to define and manage vital points of your project, make all the activities within your project transparent to all those involved and communicate with all your teammates with a minimum amount of effort.
Context.IO
If syncing email data across IMAP has ever been the caused you any problems, then turn to Context.IO. This tool will make sure that it builds, scales and maintains the entire infrastructure required for your email synching needs. By using Context.IO you can focus on what really matters in your business and leave all the email syncing to it.
Metricfire
Metricfire is the perfect tool when it comes to your statistic and performance metric needs. With Metricfire you will be assured to always have access to all recordings that concern the performance of your project because it is completely independent of your code. Therefore, even if you have a fatal bug that crashes your system, this data gathered by Metricfire will still be available and extremely valuable in the fixing stage.
Hostoople
Hostoople has been voted as the best hosting provider of 2014 and it’s no surprise. Amongst the numerous first rate services it offers, you’ll find that they also provide the best windows reseller hosting you’ll find. The reason that Hostoople is one of the best hosting services you’ll find is because they have a specialized tech team that is more than equipped to help you with any issues you might encounter and it’s available 24/7. In addition to this, Hostoople offers a wide variety of bundles to cater to the needs of any kind of website. To start with, their core bundle comes with access to free domain registration or transfer, easy to use control panel, unlimited MYSQL databases, free blogging software and free premium website builder. Moreover, depending on the type of website you want to put out (eCommerce, blogging, photography, etc), you’ll find a number of dedicated bundles that come with one click installer software, many of said software are free, by the way.
WPHelpDesk
As a business owner, in order to stay on top of things and handle hundreds of tickets, the best solution is to use an online help desk. The WordPress plugin WPHelpDesk was specially created and designed to be fully integrated in any WordPress site and it will allow you to set up your help desks in a matter of minutes. All customers have to do is submit their issues online by filling in the standard fields. You can work on fixing the issue yourself or you can assign it on to someone who has more experience with that type of problem. With just a few clicks you can adjust the ticket’s status, see when and who last made changes to it and convert any comments into a new ticket. What is more, WPHelpDesk will also keep you protected against harmful data thanks to the plugin’s special hooks and filters that are applied to all tickets and messages before they are stored on your database.
Konstant Infosolutions
Your website is an important tool that can make the difference between a successful business and a lousy one. So, when it comes to eCommerce website development you might want to choose someone with skills and experience. With over 11 years of experience in the field of IT, Konstant Infosolutions provides the full range of web development, mobile application development and eCommerce development services. Magento is definitely one of the most popular choices because of its large number of modules and support available, that make it both functional and versatile. So, it’s no wonder that the team at Konstant offers Magento development services for high quality ecommerce stores at competitive pricing. With their skill and expertise they manage to keep their clients satisfied by creating aesthetic designs that are eye-catching as well as functional and user-friendly ecommerce stores. Plus, they offer professional support for any problems you might encounter. To find out more about them and the services they offer go to their website right now.
Stamplia
Stamplia Builder aims to be the easiest way to manage your email templates. By using this tool, developers will be able to both offer a wide variety of options for their clients to choose from and effortlessly customize the email templates their clients have already purchased. The Stamplia Builder allows you to make adjustments easily by using drag & drop, the live preview and a top-notch image editor. The Stamplia Builder also takes care of automatically exporting your templates to providers like MailChimp, CampaignMonitor and SendGrid and making sure that your template will look good on all devices. The builder is now in its Beta version and you can access it with 5 free templates at https://builder.stamplia.com. In addition to this, developers can submit their own templates that are compatible with Stamplia Builder by following the steps in this guide (https://builder.stamplia.com/doc/) and checking the box ‘My template is compatible with the editor’ in the upload tab.