Best WordPress Themes for Blogs

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More people blog on WordPress than any other platform. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need the right theme.

WordPress themes determine the layout of your blog, the impression it has on visitors, and how easy it is to navigate.

There are a lot of WordPress themes to choose from. Over the years, I’ve experimented with dozens of themes across my sites. As one of the internet’s most successful bloggers, I know what works.

Here’s my latest take on the seven best WordPress themes for blogs. This page is always getting updated as new themes come out and others outlive their use.

Keep reading to find my top picks along with a buyer’s guide that will help you make sense of your many good options.

#1 – Extra Review — The Best for Most Standard Blogs

If you are looking for a WordPress theme that lets you do it all–and have an easier time doing it–then Extra is my top recommendation.

With some themes, you can get pigeon-holed into a certain style or format. With Extra, you never have to worry about limits or boundaries.

Blogs of any type, digital magazines, portfolios, online stores–really any kind of blogging experience you are looking to deliver is possible with Extra.

Extra is from Elegant Themes, the same people who make Divi, which is the most popular WordPress theme in the world. If you are looking to build a unique website on WordPress, Divi is a great choice. 

However, if you are specifically focused on finding a theme for WordPress blogging, go with Extra. It gives you the same foundation as Divi, but it’s been optimized for bloggers.

The most important aspects are the new modules within the Divi Builder that help you curate your content for readers, including post feed, post carousel, post slider, and tabbed posts. All of these are tied to the categories you set and easy to arrange in an appealing layout.

Publishing the striking blog on the left is as easy as filling in the intuitive layout on the right.

With Extra you get the Divi Builder ability to create everything visually, but it’s within a framework that makes blogging easier. It’s a true drag-and-drop editor that lets you build elegant posts and pages very quickly. 

Start from one of more than 800 pre-made layouts and customize virtually every aspect from there. Colors, fonts, sizing, spacing, sizing is easy to adjust with clicks, not code. Whatever you design is fully responsive to any screen size. No extra work or double-checking on your part.

Here are some of the other ways that Extra helps people take their WordPress blog to the next level:

• Built-in ratings and review system
• Customizable menus and headers
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 customer support
• Optimized for WooCommerce
• Social media integration

All of these features work together beautifully. Your blog readers are greeted by an enticing layout and your site is effortless to navigate. They can read, review, rate, and share your posts across other channels.

Extra is available for purchase through a membership to Elegant Themes. That means for one price, you get access to Divi, Extra, as well as Bloom (email plugin) and Monarch (social media plugin).

This is a complete set of tools that can power your entire website with a modern and integrated blog.

Elegant Themes memberships are $89 per year, or $249 for a lifetime subscription. This includes 24/7 premium support and unlimited usage of every product.

The company is constantly adding new features. I’m talking about fresh layouts every week and new tools to help your blog stand out.

Try the whole suite of Elegant Themes products risk free for 30 days.

#2 – Olsen Review – The Best WordPress Theme for Lifestyle and Fashion Blogs

If you are a lifestyle or fashion blogger looking for a place to store all of your content among a focused layout with crisp fonts, Olsen is the perfect theme for you.

It takes very little work to pull off a very professional blog. You’re not going to break the mold with something people have never seen before–Olsen’s strength is in it’s familiarity. Readers will immediately be comfortable with your layout, knowing how to navigate and share your content.

Providing a fluid and peaceful reading experience, Olsen is the theme for anyone who wants their images to stand out next to their content. Tell a story with more than just words.

Olsen is completely customizable and is the perfect place to show off your best work.

Two unique elements this theme offers are a  Featured Content slider and an Instagram footer widget. Both elements are great for sharing your work with readers.

The Featured Content slider is a little different from the average Featured Content add-on. This element allows you to pick up to six images or posts and include them at the front of your blog. The reader can navigate this slider by clicking the left or right arrow.

The Instagram footer widget is unique and doesn’t appear in any other theme on this list. This is the perfect add-on for a fashion or lifestyle blogger who wants to showcase their photos. It shows the widget at the bottom of your blog and features your most recent Instagram posts in a large single row.

The downside is for people who want the Instagram feature for free. Unfortunately, you must pay for the theme or buy a plan to use it, but we think this trade-off is worth it.   

You can get started with Olsen today for free. Upgrading to Olsen Pro is only $34.30 for a full year. There is also a Club Membership, which gives you access to many more themes and plugins, and it’s only $48.30.

#3 – Newspaper Review — The Best for Breaking Stories

Some people need a simple blog that showcases their portfolio. Others need a platform that delivers new content to their readers on a daily basis, whether they are breaking stories about their brand or community.

I’m talking about a blog experience where visitors show up to find a new arrangement of content every morning. If this describes you, then Newspaper is the WordPress theme for your blog.

It is the number one bestselling news theme of all time, and for good reason. You can use any kind of content or social media integration–it’s all going to look sharp. 

Beginners and professionals will love how easy Newspaper is to use. Whether you want to get set up in minutes or craft a trendsetting design, you’ll find the theme very accommodating.

Include sound, moving images, and other features to engage your audience with no more than a few clicks. And, you can rest assured that none of the changes you make will slow your site down.

This is true even if readers are on their phone, as Newspaper is completely integrated with the Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) plugin. 

Instead of a slow, cluttered experience–as you might get with another news-style WordPress theme–all of your readers can enjoy what you publish. Given how much traffic comes from mobile-users, this is a big deal.

None of this will require coding, so your whole team can take advantage of the theme. No graphic design degree necessary to edit images. With Newspaper, it’s a snap to create eye-catching, on-brand images that develop your story.

This means fewer steps to make sure your content, logos, headers, and footers are all working together to deliver a positive blog experience for your readers. And if you are constantly updating, the time-savings adds up quick.

With Newspaper, you can eliminate hours from your monthly workflows and free up your team to create.

Despite being able to do so much, management remains quite simple. Quickly gain mastery over your blog and use the great features included with Newspaper like:

• 100+ pre-built websites
• 1,000+ pre-made templates, pages, posts and sections
• Unlimited sidebars
• Live search display
• WooCommerce shortcodes
• Membership paywalls
• Rating and review system

Monetizing your blog is incredibly easy with banner ads, Google Ads, and Adsense. All ads are responsive, and Newspaper starts you off with 14 predefined and 5 custom spots. You can place ads where you want without disrupting the flow of your blog.

Pricing for Newspaper starts at $59 for a regular license. This includes free future updates and 6 months of premium support. You can extend support for a full year for $17.63.

There’s a ton included with the price, but if you want to add other plugins to optimize SEO, open an online store, or increase security, you can rest assured that Newspaper theme will integrate smoothly.

Get started with Newspaper today and start publishing a world-class blog every day.

#4 – Akea Review — The Best for Minimalist Style

Akea is a WordPress theme from GoodLayers, a company that empowers bloggers who live by the “less is more” mantra. 

Over the years, the company has released some of the greatest minimal blog themes. It’s best for people who don’t want too much information and stimulation a negative and expect readers with similar tastes.

You get total control over how your content is exhibited. Play with the spacing between items on your page. Tweak the size of thumbnails used for your blog. Use a single image to fit any screen size with the 100 percent fluid layout. 

Customize it until you get it just right. With Akea, you don’t have hundreds of templates, but you don’t have to squeeze anything into a pre-built mold. Instead, you get a relatively small selection of blog layouts and each one is an open field.

Upload your own font. Bring in any video, quotes, galleries in a slider. Make a bold impression using a few commanding content elements arranged just the way you like.

If you’re looking to jam the most content per square inch into your blog, this is not for you. 

This isn’t to say you can’t include sidebars, or menus, or give your readers tons of options. With Akea, that’s all easy to do. It’s just really focused on the minimal style, so all of these elements are unobtrusive and clean.

You get a floating navigation bar, so your readers always have quick access to more content, but you are never overloading them at any point.

That’s the spirit of Akea, which comes with a trim feature set designed for you to start making it your own immediately. Some of the essentials include:

• Drag-and-drop page builder
• Unlimited customizable sidebars
• 14 blog layouts
• Social media integration
• WooCommerce integration
• Custom skin colors for page sections

While you get comparatively few templates compared to other options, there’s a lot you can do with each one.

Akea starts at $54. It includes free lifetime updates and premium customer support for the first six months.

Because Akea is a newer theme, there are fewer reviews of the theme than some of the others I recommend. But GoodLayers has always done a solid job, and Akea works well with the latest plugins and WordPress updates.

This means less work on your end to make sure everything is running smooth, as the modern integration decreases problems and potential security issues.

It’s also fully compatible with the WordPress Gutenberg editor, which is now standard for all new sites. This is going to save a lot of time and make the final product look better with less configuration.

If you value simple, clean design for your WordPress blog, Akea is a theme you should check out today.

#5 – Pearl Review — The Best Corporate WordPress Theme

Pearl is an incredibly feature-rich and flexible WordPress theme that’s got enough options to outfit any business. 

I recommend this to people whose blog is part of a larger website. Pearl is kind of overkill if you just need a blog, though you could make an incredible blog with it. 

On that note, it might be a good option if you are hitting your limits with your current WordPress theme. If there’s features and functionality you can’t swing now, Pearl will help you get there.

To put it simply, with Pearl you’re not making compromises–you’re making a blog that’s tailored to fit the needs of your industry and goals. Pearl offers an astonishing range of demos for virtually every vertical: agency, beauty, ecommerce, law, music, software, and more.

Each of these demos has been carefully designed to include a suite of features and layout to meet the challenges businesses face.

The Pearl Viral demo, for example, showcases your posts according to how popular they are, with professional category tags to help readers find what they want.

For a business in the entertainment industry, the out-of-the-box power of this blog layout and styling is obvious. The same is true for everyone of the many industries Pearl supports.

And your blog will be totally tied into the rest of your site, which is a must if blogging is a part of your business outreach. Readers can react to posts, leave a reply, share it on social media, or get drawn further into your site and company offerings.

You can add more than 55 different types of shortcodes (UI blocks) into your posts. This includes things like a music player, calls to action, events lists, icon boxes, galleries, pricing tables, and a lot more.

This is huge for corporate users who need a range of ways to communicate and interact with their audience. Some of the other standout features include:

• Visual Composer drag-and-drop builder
• Mega menus with three drop down levels
• Customizable headers and footers
• 800+ fonts
• Custom icons
• Sidebar builder
• 24/7 with live chat

There’s really not much you can’t do with Pearl, and most of it can be accomplished without writing a line of code. 

And all of this is available for the price of $59 for a regular license with free lifetime updates. Six months of maintenance is included, with additional coverage available for purchase. 

If you need a high-functioning blog, bear in mind that Pearl includes a number of premium plugins for free. You get WPBakery, Booked Appointments, Ninja Popups–in total it’s about $325 worth of premium plugins based on the going rates.

Pearl is a very reasonable price for what you get, and you’ll have to spend less moving forward. 

Get started with Pearl today, and forget about limitation. 

#6 – TinySalt Review — The Best for Food Blogs

For as popular as food blogs are, they can be tricky to create if you are using a multi-purpose theme. 

You can do it, for sure, but it’s going to take a lot more work. And it’s probably not going to come out as well as if you had just started with a WordPress theme built specifically for food blogs..

TinySalt is just that. It’s got every feature and formatting capability you need to blog in this space. 

Where a recipe would be difficult to get the formatting correct with an ordinary WordPress theme, TinySalt gives you turnkey options to produce this niche type of content immediately.

Breakdown your most complicated dish into a series of simple steps. Include photos where you think it will help. Add a button early in the post to let readers jump straight to the recipe.

And you don’t have to spend any time getting all of this to flow on your blog. TinySalt has 12 demos you can import to your website. Mix and match to deliver the exact experience you are looking for.

Readers can quickly search through your recipes with a convenient filter, or browse your beautiful blog. When they find one they like, they can print, rate, and share them with their friends on social media.

If they decide against a certain meal, your blog can automatically recommend related recipes at the end of a post.

Don’t let the Tiny in the name fool you, this theme is packed with potential. You get:

• 32 blog variations
• 10 post templates
• Recipe videos
• Unlimited colors
• 900+ fonts
• Featured recipes slider on your homepage

All TinySalt is missing is your recipes and imagination.

TinySalt starts at the low cost of $39 for a regular license. Future updates and six months of premium customer service is included at that price. Ongoing support is available if you need it.

At that price, it’s not hard to turn a profit with TinySalt, even if it’s just a side-hustle for now.

You’ll be able to see your own products with WooCommerce, or promote items through advertising and affiliate marketing. It’s also compatible with MailChimp, which means you can turn your food blog into a newsletter to build your subscriber base.

Eliminate the complex configuration that goes into food blogging and take your site to the next level. Stop cooking with the wrong equipment and get TinySalt today.

#7 – ConsultingWP Review — The Best for Promoting Your Business

I really like ConsultingWP for businesses that want their blog to make a splash.

Whether you are looking to make connections for providing services, or to get your brand out to the world, this is an empowering WordPress theme for business blogs.

You get tools to build that anyone at your company can use on day one. You’re not going to have to hire out a professional or lean on a single person in-house to keep everything looking great.

Never touch code and never compromise on the finished product.

Simply browse through the hundreds of templates offered by ConsultingWP, find the one you like, and begin importing it. You’ll have complete control over what plugins and options you want to bring over to your new blog.

From there, you can customize the blocks, fonts, headers, layout, and so on on. Instead of having to mess around editing PHP or CSS files, everything is a few clicks.

Up to this point, what I’ve described is a very good WordPress theme for blogs, but where ConsultingWP steps away from other easy/powerful options is the business-focused feature set.

One of the most useful is the Cost Calculator Builder, which lets clients price out your services on your blog. Instead of having to call for a quote (which can be a tricky step to get people to take) people can investigate on their own using the simple calculator.

Normally, creating an interactive form like this would take some serious effort. And, if you wanted to make changes to your pricing, it might be a hassle to get it right.

With ConsultingWP, you have full control over this simple feature. Run promotional pricing without worrying it’s going to break your site and confuse potential clients.

Some of the other fantastic built-in elements include:

• eRoom Zoom meetings and webinars
• Professional booking for appointments
• 100+ page templates
• 500+ theme options
• Customizable menus
• Events manager
• 24/7 customer support

For businesses, the all-in-one feature set is really attractive. I mean, you can do all of this with a hodge-podge of third-party plugins, but there is zero guarantee they are going to work well together. At best, you’d have a lot of maintenance to keep things running smooth without slowing your site to a crawl.

With ConsultingWP, on the other hand, businesses get a toolkit that’s been designed to work in harmony. This means less work for better results.

Starting at $59 a regular license, this is a great deal. Trying to match the feature set by downloading individual plugins would be far more expensive and frustrating.

A regular license comes with six months of premium customer support. You can choose to extend support for an additional cost.

If you are looking for a professional blog that establishes your business as a leader in your space, I highly recommend ConsultingWP.

What I Looked at to Find the Best WordPress Theme

Now that you know our seven best theme recommendations, it’s important to understand what matters.

Make the right decision by following these considerations.

Know Your Blogging Niche

It sounds self-explanatory, but it’s relevant when choosing the perfect theme. Today we looked at the seven most common blogging niches, and how each theme suited for those niches is different.

When choosing a theme, you must know your blogging niche because you don’t want to install TinySalt if food blogging is your focus. Different niches require different themes with distinct features, layouts, and designs.

I would suggest creating a list of your most passionate hobbies and start there.

Customization is Key

Having a customizable theme is crucial for an easily-navigated blog.

It’s okay if you are not interested in investing money into your blog. However, many free themes have limits on customizing, whether for headers, colors, or layouts.

Every theme on this list is customizable to some extent, some more than others, so it’s important to look into the nitty-gritty before installing.

Features

Every theme listed here today has some incredible features that work best for its particular niche. However, some themes have more unique elements than others, and it’s critical to weigh whether you need them.

Paid themes are more likely to have more unique elements, such as Olsen with the Instagram footer widget, and the premium plugins that come free with Pearl.

If you know you won’t need an Instagram footer, it’s best to keep your money in your pocket.

Some basic features that are imperative for most blogs include:

• Custom colors
• Site logo
• Flexible display
• Classic menu
• Widgets

So, make sure you look for these when installing any theme.

Conclusion

Running a successful WordPress blog isn’t easy. Having the right theme helps a lot.

Here’s the complete list of my top recommendations:

1. Extra – Best for most standard blogs
2. Olsen – Best for lifestyle and fashion blogs
3. Newspaper – Best for breaking stories
4. Akea – Best for minimalist style
5. Pearl – Best corporate WordPress theme
6. TinySalt – Best for food blogs
7. ConsultingWP – Best for promoting your business

Extra is a great all-in-one blog solution that’s going to cover most people. No matter what direction you take, you’re always going to get the latest features to experiment and engage your audience.

Some of my recommendations work really well in particular niches, like Olsen and TinySalt, whereas others play to a certain style. Akea favors minimal content with maximum impact, whereas Newspaper is going to give readers dozens of posts to read at every turn.

ConsultingWP and Pearl are safe bets for any business blog. I’d lean toward the former if you are looking for something sleek for your company, and toward the latter if your blog is part of a more complex site.

What matters most, of course, is what you do with your WordPress theme. Even the best products can only get you so far. Check out my guide on how to get your blog posts to rank in Google’s top 10 search results.

Hope this helped. Happy blogging!

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Best Free Web Hosting

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Here’s some good news–you can get a website up and running without spending a dime.

Yes. Free web hosting exists, and I’ll show you how to get it.

You’ll be able to launch a website with a few clicks, but don’t expect anything fancy.

Some of the trade-offs with free web hosting include: ads on your site (that don’t make you money), a cap on how much traffic you can get, sudden downtimes, and little to no customer support.

There’s some really great cheap web hosting options that will help you build a site without tradeoffs for a few bucks a month.

But if you really need a 100% free web hosting solution, check out my recommendations below. 

#1 – Wix Review — Best Free Web Hosting With Website Builder

When it comes to building a simple blog or an online portfolio that highlights your work, Wix is the best intuitive website builder you can count on. 

With the help of its simple drag-and-drop interface, you can create a simple website in minutes. Wix takes care of your website through free hosting so long as you don’t mind having Wix brand ads displayed on your pages. 

And if you don’t want to build your own site, all you need to do is answer a few questions. The platform’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) will then automatically generate a website with a design based on the answers you give.

You’ll get a great looking page in a few minutes, and from there you can fine-tune it the way you want. Editing within Wix is easy, and you’ll be surprised at how many options you have.

Although free accounts can only use the Wix subdomain, there are enough templates and apps you can choose from to add a little bit of personal touch to your website. 

Should you decide to create a website with Wix, you will get a storage space of 500 MB and a bandwidth of 500 MB, enough for a low-traffic site like an online portfolio.

If you want more flexibility, you can upgrade to premium plans anytime to access custom domain, email, and ecommerce features. 

Premium plans also eliminate ads so your website will look more professional and less cookie-cutter. 

But even with ads, Wix has plenty to offer that will put the spotlight on your content. Whether you’re a writer, designer, or photographer, Wix remains the best website builder to help you establish an online presence without touching any code. Sign up now.

#2 – Square Online Review — Best Free Ecommerce Hosting Platform

Square Online is a free ecommerce platform for aspiring entrepreneurs who are still getting their feet wet with online selling. Unlike big names in the industry, Square Online lets you sell unlimited products without paying recurring fees.

It’s free to set up your online store hosted by Square Online. You’ll pay a fee for transactions on the site, but it’s only a small percentage of your total sale.

Your still making money on your free Square Online site, which is pretty great considering you still pay transaction fees on paid hosting platforms as well.

The drag-and-drop editor only offers four customizable themes, but you get an assurance that every design follows your industry’s best practice. Without touching any code, you can create your online store with a responsive design that fits in any device. 

Square Online also offers the following to help you get started with your business:

• Square POS integration so you can automatically import your product catalog and let it sync with your online store for a seamless inventory management
• Payment processing system that accepts all major credit cards, Google Pay, and Apple Pay
• In-house and on-demand delivery
• Instagram integration
• Free SSL security
• SEO tools

In exchange for hosting your online store for free, Square Online requires a small commission fee of 2.9% + 30¢ for each product sold. Should you decide to scale your business, you can leave the free plan and move to the premium plans starting at $12 per month. 

Through a new feature called Square Online Checkout, sellers also have the option to sell their products and receive payment using only a link instead of a website. 

Whether you’re an established brick-and-mortar store owner or just starting from scratch, Square Online has all the basics to help you navigate the unfamiliar world of ecommerce with ease. Start now.

#3 – DreamHost Review — Best Free Web Hosting for Nonprofits

DreamHost believes in every nonprofit organization’s advocacy so much that they’re giving them a shared hosting plan at no cost. 

Aside from free web hosting, DreamHost also provides US-based charitable organizations with the following:

• Free domain
• Free backups
• Free shopping cart installation so you can accept donations with ease
• Unmetered transfer and unlimited monthly visitors
• Free SSL certificate to keep online transactions secure

To create a free hosting account, DreamHost does not require any credit card details and needs just your billing address for verification purposes. 

You also need to attach a 501(c)(3) determination letter, a document from the United States IRS proving your tax-exempt non-profit status under the applicable sections of the tax code.

Since it’s a free account, you won’t have access to reliable 24/7 customer support. However, DreamHost’s dedicated help center and ticketing system offset this, which more than meets the need for straightforward troubleshooting solutions. 

Should you want more control over your account, nonprofit organizations can also avail themselves of a 35% discount off DreamHost’s managed WordPress hosting plans. This means you can host your site under a paid plan for as low as $11 per month. 

#4 – WordPress.com Review — Best Free WordPress Hosting Service

Often confused with the open-source software WordPress.org, WordPress.com is the free platform where non-technical users can create websites. 

Since it is powered by the same robust and world-class infrastructure behind nearly half of the world’s websites, WordPress.com is the best place to learn how to manage a website while you’re still not ready or able to pay for a hosting service.

Setting up a website is easy. You can select a WordPress subdomain and choose from any of the available themes. 

Just like Wix, WordPress.com also displays ads to sustain its free platform. While the ads may sometimes be annoying, this is a small price to pay for all the other features that WordPress.com has to offer:

• 3 GB storage space so you can publish both text and beautiful images
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate for an additional layer of security
• Optional backups so you can save your files on your hard drive

While it has excellent performance for a free hosting platform, WordPress.com can’t beat the paid version in terms of flexibility. The WordPress CMS installed on websites in paid hosting plans gives you direct server access and freedom to install plugins and themes of your choice.

Still, WordPress.com is good for starters, especially if you only want a simple, stripped-down website to showcase your writing portfolio or personal diary. 

#5 – GitHub Pages Review — The Best Free Static Web Hosting for Developers

Anyone with basic coding skills is already familiar with GitHub, an open-source platform where developers store their coding projects. GitHub Pages is where you can take these codes from the repository, have them go through a build process, and turn them into a simple static website. 

A static website is ideal for those who prefer a small website that doesn’t need to be updated regularly. It’s also perfect for students who want a test site to play around with or present for their school projects. 

GitHub Pages is completely free, yet it comes with a range of outstanding features:

• One site per GitHub account 
• Unlimited project websites
• 1 GB of storage plus 100 GB bandwidth every month
• Standard github.io subdomain or custom domain name you own
• Free HTTPS to prevent others from tampering with your traffic
• Built-in integration with Jekyll, a popular static site generator, for more customization options

To build your static website, all you need to do is sign in to your account and create a new repository. You can then use the Jekyll Theme Chooser to pick from one of the pre-made themes. 

If you don’t like your theme or your static website’s content, no need to worry as changes are a simple edit and push away. You can make these changes either via the web or locally on your computer. 

Whether you’re a developer or a non-techy looking for easy-to-follow instructions, GitHub Pages has all the tools you need to create a free static site. 

What I Looked at to Find the Best Free Web Hosting

Before we proceed, you have to remember that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. 

In the case of a free web host, it has limitations that don’t appeal to everyone. 

Free web hosting is designed to meet the needs of a niche market like a new hobby blogger who doesn’t intend to earn from his website or a student looking for a free platform where she can test her web development projects. 

With that being said, you can’t use the same criteria in selecting a paid hosting plan when zeroing on the best free web hosting to suit your needs. 

Remember, you get what you pay for. And in the case of a free web host, you shouldn’t expect to receive round-the-clock support, daily or on-demand backups, and 100% uptime guarantee, among others. 

However, some free options are a cut above the rest. Use the following parameters to figure out whether a free web hosting service is worth a try. 

Custom Domain

Most companies are willing to host your website for free so long as you’re also willing to use a subdomain. 

For instance, Wix is a popular website builder that requires its free users to use a subdomain (e.g., neilpatel.wix.com). 

A subdomain doesn’t look professional nor is it good for branding. So, unless you only want a stripped down website you can play around with, it would be better to opt for a company that can host your custom domain for free. 

A custom domain is one that you own (e.g., neilpatel.com). You can purchase it from a domain registrar or from any hosting provider that also offers domain registration on the side. Domains are inexpensive, and you’ll need to renew them annually.

If branding is your top priority, make sure to find a free web host that gives you the option to stand out in a sea of other freely hosted websites. 

Security

While advanced security features don’t exist in free web hosting platforms, they should at least offer a free SSL certificate.

SSL (secure sockets layer) is a technology that encrypts the information that passes through your website. It protects your site visitor’s sensitive data like passwords and credit card data from outside intruders. 

If you’re launching a basic ecommerce site on a free hosting platform, a free SSL certificate is non-negotiable. However, some free web hosting services only offer a self-signed SSL, which misleads users into thinking that it’s the same as the industry-standard SSL certificate.

A self-signed SSL is issued by servers and not by trusted authorities like Comodo, Digicert, and Let’s Encrypt. Since it’s not a standard version, websites with self-signed SSL will still show security warnings to visitors.

Hence, a self-signed SSL defeats the purpose of an SSL certificate even though it offers the same level of encryption. Especially if you’re planning to sell a product through your website, having a self-signed SSL is no better than not having an SSL certificate at all. 

Storage and Bandwidth

As a rule of thumb, never go with free web hosting unless you’ll use it for a basic website with little to no traffic. 

A free web host isn’t designed to handle huge traffic volume. This is why it’s important to read the fine print of the hosting provider’s terms and conditions before signing up.  

Unfortunately, a lot of free hosting providers tend to mislead clueless users by including “unlimited storage” and “unlimited bandwidth” in their list of features. 

Disk space or storage space is the amount of server space allocated to your website files, while bandwidth is the amount of data allowed to transfer from the server to your visitors in a given amount of time. If your website is hosted in a free platform, your disk space and bandwidth are best described as low and never “unlimited.”

“Unlimited bandwidth” is a promotional tactic by free hosting providers based on the assumption that sites on a shared server will not use up the available resources, which is rarely the case. 

Instead of being swayed by these superficial features, pay more attention specifically to file size limit and CPU limit. 

A file size limit is the maximum file size your website can upload, while the CPU limit refers to how much of the server’s central processing unit (CPU) your website is allowed to use. 

Free web hosting providers can temporarily shut down your site without warning, so make sure you know exactly what and how much your limitations are. 

Ads

The only reason why free web hosting continues to exist is because of the business behind it. And a business requires a source of revenue. 

Some of the more popular free web hosts sustain their platform through ad space. This monetization method may be effective, but it comes at the expense of your visitors.

You have no control over what appears on the advertisements or where they’re placed. Not to mention ads, in general, tend to be obtrusive and take the joy out of consuming your content.

If you want free hosting but care about your site’s aesthetics and user-friendliness, you can opt for a company that supports their free platform through other means, such as the sales of premium hosting plans. 

Customer support

Support for websites hosted in a free web host is limited at best. Unless you already have both the budget and need to upgrade to premium plans, there’s nothing else you can do. 

When looking for the best free web host to entrust your website, choose one with an active community forum. 

Check the latest posts and see how fast the response time is. The more active users the service has, the quicker you’ll get a resolution to any problem you might face in the future.

In addition to a community forum, some free web hosts also have a self-service knowledge base where users can quickly get answers to their most basic questions.

Conclusion

Nothing beats a paid hosting plan for all the extra support, features, and functionality. Still, if you need free web hosting or if you want to try out different web hosts before committing to an investment, there are some good free options available. 

These are my top choices if you are looking to get online without spending a dime:

1. Wix – Best free web hosting with website builder
2. Square Online – Best free ecommerce hosting platform
3. DreamHost – Best for nonprofits
4. WordPress.com – Best free WordPress hosting
5. GitHub Pages – Best free static web hosting for developers

The best free web hosting for you depends on what you’re looking for. Use the reviews and guide to help you narrow down your choices.

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Best Document Management Software

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Companies exchange private information with clients and customers all the time. If a single document falls into the wrong hands, they could lose a great relationship in an instant.

Everyone I work with uses document management software, and you should too. Once you get started, you’ll see that it gives you tons of advantages beyond security. 

Whether you are trying to go green, stay organized, or satisfy the strictest regulations—document management software can make a hard process much easier.

The key is finding the right one for your specific needs. I’ve put together a list of my top five document management solutions.

You’ll find these products serve very different purposes. Let’s talk through why each one is valuable, and how to decide which is right for you.

#1 – DocSend Review — The Best for Sales Engagement

DocSend is a sleek document management solution that provides great information about how people interact with the files you share. Know who’s read your pitch or who’s not even opening emails any more.

And it is not hard to use at all. Once your documents are uploaded to DocSend, you can share secure links instead of sending the files themselves.

You can also share links to virtual data rooms, which hold multiple documents. Keep everything in one place for your customers. Passcode protect the data room link, control permissions, and even make someone sign an NDA in order to view certain documents.

Because DocSend integrates with all the top storage platforms, you’re not going to have to change how or where you keep your files. Sending them will just be easier and more secure. 

No more attachments, no more asking leads to download monster files, and no more getting stuck in a client’s spam folder.

Whenever someone views a link you’ve shared, you’ll get a notification and the ability to track how they engaged with the document. See whether they forwarded your document and get page-by-page analytics that show you where they spent the most time.

What’s really holding the customer’s attention? Now you know. 

These insights can be really valuable for figuring out what’s really connecting with each customer.

Another nice feature is the ability to create Spaces. You can get all of your sales material in one place and use flexible permissions to let different customers engage with the right files.

Whenever you share a document, you can set passcodes, expiry dates, and later revoke access.

There are obvious uses for all of these features in sales, but DocSend will work wonders for organizations that need rich engagement metrics. I’m thinking fundraising and marketing, really anyone who benefits from being able to gauge readers’ interest level in their documents. 

With DocSend, you also get:

• Branded spaces and deal rooms
• Signable documents
• Team engagement reporting
• Audit trails
• Watermarking
• One-click NDA

This last feature, in particular, is super helpful for sharing sales materials. Make it so all viewers have to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) before accessing a document, even if someone else forwarded it to them. 

Increase the security of your intellectual property and eliminate the back-and-forth of traditional NDA signing.

DocSend is available with an annual subscription at the following pricing tiers:

• Personal: $10/month per user
• Standard: $45month per user
• Advanced: $150/month per user
• Enterprise: Contact sales

The Personal plan is great for entrepreneurs who need to share secure information with total peace of mind. They also get great document-level analytics to know what people are doing with proposals.

The Standard plan will work well for any business and Advanced will satisfy the most comprehensive compliance requirements.

There’s a 14-day free trial with DocSend, which will let you test drive all the premium features.

#2 – FileCenter DMS Review — The Best for Going Paperless

FileCenter DMS is so far ahead of the game in terms of helping companies get out of the file cabinet and into the future.

First of all, it has a great interface for staying organized throughout the biggest jobs. You can divide and label information easily, even automating document separation and routing.

The interface will be super approachable to anyone who has used Windows before. Navigating your documents is the same, but you get all sorts of amazing powers because of the advanced optical character recognition (OCR) features. 

The text recognition is so good with FileCenter DMS, that you can automatically make OCR part of the digitization process. As a scan comes in, FileCenter can read the text and name the document automatically.

Scanning a document makes it searchable, indexable, and copyable. Instantly. You can also use OCR on existing scans.

And how about this? You can scan a document and turn it into a Word doc with one click. FileCenter extracts the text, pushes it to Word, and voilà!

It should be pretty clear how FileCenter DMS can supercharge your efforts to digitize your entire workplace. On top of the best-in-breed text recognition, they offer:

• Inbox for incoming files
• Integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
• Automatic page cleanup
• One-click PDF conversion
• Local and network search
• File recovery

FileCenter DMS is a one-time purchase, downloaded to a single computer. There are three different editions:

• FileCenter DMS Standard: $99.95
• FileCenter DMS Pro: $199.95
• FileCenter DMS Pro Plus: $299.95

Compared to many of the top SaaS document management solutions, the fact you only have to pay once for FileCenter DMS is very alluring. And, if you need more than one license, FileCenter offers multi-user discounts. 

If you are looking for a way to digitize documents with no learning curve, look no further.

#3 – PandaDoc Review — The Best for Closing More Deals

PandaDoc is a wonderful document management solution that also will help your sales team build more appealing, on-brand content in less time. It really feels like a secret weapon.

Create a proposal, contract, or estimate from one of your templates in seconds. Literally whip one up while a rep is on the phone, send the secure document, and clients can sign before hanging up.

Think of PandaDoc as a smarter workspace for sales professionals. Creating the templates themselves is quite easy. Add blocks like text fields, dates, signatures, pricing tables, videos, and other content with a drag-and-drop interface.

Don’t want to design your own template? No worries—PandaDoc supplies 450 templates prebuilt for a variety of scenarios.

PandaDoc has native integrations with CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive that tie right into your workspace. Through this, customer and pricing info can get pulled over automatically.

You can also add optional products at the end of an invoice for an extra upsell opportunity. 

There are a number of other handy features that streamline the sales process, including:

• Simple workflow builder
• Content locking
• Document activity tracking
• Audit trail
• eSignature and payment gateway

PandaDoc offers a free tier, which gives you unlimited document uploads, eSignatures, and payments. Pretty nifty, right? 

If you want to create smart, trackable documents, you’ll have to go with one of the paid plans:

• Essentials: $19/month per user
• Business: $49/month per user
• Enterprise: Contact sales

With Business, you get direct CRM integration, which I think is definitely worth it. Try PandaDoc free for 14 days to evaluate how much of an impact it can have.

#4 – Rubex by eFileCabinet Review — The Best for Automating Daily Tasks

Rubex is the document management solution from eFileCabinet that is helping companies streamline their operations. From frictionless hiring to lightning-quick data entry, tasks that used to be error-prone become flawless.

The intuitive interface centralizes all of your documents in a single place. From there, employees can search the full text of any document that has been scanned. 

With zonal OCR, Rubex can be set to recognize key zones of text, automatically naming the file.

Documents literally file themselves!

As good as the search, tracking, and text recognition features are, it is the ability to automate simple workflows that sets Rubex apart. 

Set triggers to push the paperwork through based on rejections, approvals, and other variables, so people are spending less time on repetitive tasks.

It’s a really mature document management solution, but it takes no time to figure out. Some of the other great features that save time and frustration include:

• eSignature integration
• File versioning
• Audit logging
• Missing item search
• Automated governance
• Direct integration with Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive

The pricing for Rubex by eFileCabinet is broken into three tiers:

• Advantage: Starting at $55/month per user
• Business: Starting at $99/month per user
• Unlimited: Starting at $199/month per user

Full-text search, OCR, and many of the automated governance features come with all plans. The zonal OCR and advanced workflow features are only available with Unlimited subscriptions, or as an add-on with Business. 

That said, Advantage comes loaded with lots of features to help teams stay organized. If you are looking to centralize your document management, Advantage will work as well or better than many of the other options on this list.

#5 – MasterControl Review — The Best For Enterprise Compliance

MasterControl is full-service document management software that can handle any law or regulation. 

The more stringent the requirements, the better MasterControl will perform.

Think about medical device manufacturers, just one example of a business that relies on MasterControl. 

Believe it or not, there’s a wee bit of documentation that goes into convincing the US government that an artificial hip is safe to put inside people.

MasterControl provides the document trail, security, and compliance features to keep companies in the clear throughout the most rigorous audit processes.

Their document security module is one part of a larger MasterControl quality management system and, depending on your needs, it may be wise to purchase some of the other modules.

For companies that operate in competitive and highly-regulated markets, a lighter document management solution is not going to have all of the tools necessary to speed a product to market. 

MasterControl is purpose-built for this reason, and comes with: 

• Continuous validation for FDA compliance
• ISO quality compliance
• Secure web-based routing
• Automated escalation and approval
• Advanced tracking, analytics and reporting

You’ll have to get in touch with MasterControl to get a price for what the document management module will cost you.

MasterControl is not for everyone, but for enterprise compliance you’d be hard pressed to find a more fitting solution to your needs.

What I Looked at to Find the Best Document Management Software

Estimates, proposals, contracts, invoices—documents are the base layer of every business relationship.

The easier it is to manage documents, the easier it’s going to be to manage these relationships.

Document management software can do a lot to help you stay organized and efficient. Let’s look at some of the features that can have a huge impact. 

Scanning and Imaging

Digitizing documents is a pain without the right product. In fact, going paperless is one of the key reasons people get document management software. 

It turns a really inefficient workflow into a streamlined process with tools to identify, sort, tag, and store all kinds of file types. 

Some products come with optical character recognition (OCR) which translates the printed words into digital text. This means that any document you scan can be searched. Pretty slick, right?

Document Security Features

A lot of these tools increase the control people have over documents, even after they have been shared.

Some of the features I really like are:

• Password protection
• Flexible view, comment, and edit permissions
• Document expiry
• Restricted use

It’s really nice to be able to send a document knowing that it can’t be shared, altered, or printed. This is a huge step forward for businesses that lose all control once they have sent a document.

Document Engagement Metrics

At a glance, I know exactly who has read a proposal and how much time they spent on each page. Microsoft Word won’t tell you that.

For sales, this is an information gold mine. Or, if you are trying to raise funds, this is insight into who is actually interested that is easily gleaned.

I find these metrics ultra-valuable. There’s definitely a reason more and more document management solutions are adding these features.

Document Creation

Making great looking, on-brand, up-to-date content of any kind is hard. Document management software takes all the formatting and presentation legwork out of the equation. 

There are templates for all kinds of use cases, helping you quickly build proposals and newsletters that look phenomenal, automatically optimized for both web and mobile.

Some products have a visual document builder. Drag and drop your way to a show-stopping proposal that includes videos, or draw up the perfect contract with a signable field.

Design legal documents with confidence, no law degree necessary.

It’s really nice when a document management solution connects to your CRM software and autofills templates with customer information. Get a proposal in a lead’s inbox before the first call is over.

Logging and Versioning

As you might expect, good document management software keeps a careful record of events. 

This is important for collaboration. People always know that they are working on the latest version of the same document. This avoids needless time lost due to redundant actions and confusion.

Plus, with prior versions logged, changes to documents can be examined and the original can be restored if something bad happens.

For companies that are subject to lots of regulations, document management software provides helpful audit trails and additional compliance features.

eSignature and Payment Gateway

I really like having an electronic signature solution built into my document management platform. It removes a needless hurdle between my customers and my service. 

Closing a deal is hard enough. I don’t want to have to fret about how to get a signature.

Plus, I’m not asking a potential customer to sign up for a third-party signature service. It’s all in-house and frictionless.

The same is true of connecting a payment gateway. It’s always a good idea to streamline the process of getting paid. I mean, look at Amazon. You can pay with one click from practically anywhere on their site. Not an accident.

An eSignature solution and payment gateway really go hand-in-hand. Integrations with PayPal and Stripe allow you to get both signature and payment in a single step.

Can the same be said about the products that you use?

However your eSignature and payment gateway connect, find a document management solution that makes the basic stuff a breeze.

Conclusion

Managing your documents doesn’t have to be a problem. With so many great options out there, the question is which will work best for your situation?

Start with the reviews of my top recommendations:

1. DocSend – Best for sales engagement
2. FileCenter DMS – Best for going paperless
3. PandaDoc – Best for closing more deals
4. Rubex by eFileCabinet – Best for automating daily tasks
5. MasterControl – Best for enterprise compliance

In terms of digitizing documents quickly, FileCenter DMS is the obvious choice. It has the most comprehensive text recognition capabilities at an affordable price.

I really like DocSend and PandaDoc for sales teams. DocSend has deep engagement features that will feed insight to reps about who is interested. 

Choose PandaDoc if you are looking to give your teams a visual edge, as you will be able to create professional, on-brand documents at a moment’s notice.

If you are looking to automate your document workflows, I suggest Rubex by eFileCabinet. Quickly build elegant solutions to cut down on the lag time for every process.

For companies that need to keep firm control over the document lifecycle because of regulatory requirements, MasterControl is the answer. It is built to handle the most complex demands, helping companies bring products to market without a needless delay.

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Florida man sues Twitter in a desperate bid to post again

The kids are on his lawn, and he damn well needs to tweet about it.

Former president and Florida resident Donald Trump is suing Twitter in an attempt to get his account back, reports The Verge. The lawsuit, filed Friday in the Southern District of Florida, seeks to grant the failed blogger immediate temporary access to his account while he continues to pursue a larger fundraising effort disguised as a legal broadside against tech giants like Twitter and Facebook.

Trump was permanently booted from Twitter in January of 2021, shortly after the storming of U.S. Capitol building by pro-Trump extremists. Facebook, in comparison, has not committed to making Trump's banishment from its service a permanent one.

"[Twitter] is censoring Plaintiff, a former President of the United States," claims the lawsuit.

We asked Twitter if it has any comment on the suit, but received no immediate response.

"[Twitter's] censorship and prior restraint of Plaintiff's speech violates the First Amendment to the United Sates Constitution and likewise violates Florida's newly enacted Stop Social Media Censorship Act ('SSMCA')," continues the suit.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the SSMCA into law in May, however in June a judge prevented the law from going into effect.

SEE ALSO: Instagram boss says social media is like cars: People are going to die

So, yeah. Like with many things Trump, the latest lawsuit against Twitter appears more bluster than substance.

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How to get followers on Twitter

It's the age-old social media question: How do I get more followers on Twitter?

The truth is, there is no simple answer.

Some people stumble upon making a post that just happens to go insanely viral and gain a slew of followers that way. Others happen to be somewhere offline at the right time and catch something incredible on camera for their 15 minutes of fame, which drives a large number of people to hit the follow button.

But that's like hitting the social media lottery. You really can't plan or schedule a tweet that you can guarantee will go viral.

So, what can you do? Let's go through some simple tips to grow your following on Twitter.

Tweet, tweet

This seems obvious, right? Tweet. Post content to your account. Contribute to the Twitter community.

People follow accounts because they're interested in what that user is tweeting. Tweet on a frequent basis, and you'll see your follower count grow, as there's more content to grab people's attention.

Obviously, don't tweet nonstop garbled nonsense. Provide value, whether that's entertainment or information. Throw some multimedia into the mix: Share links, embed photos, upload video.

Life happens; we all need breaks and sleep. I'm not saying you have to become a machine firing off tweets every hour on the hour. But if your last tweet was that "Happy New Year" post ringing in 2017, don't be surprised that you're not gaining a following in the 2020s.

An active account will see gains to their follower count.

Pay attention to what's happening

Twitter asks each user — right there everyday at the top of their feed — "What's happening?"

That's because Twitter is a platform for current events. You don't have to be a newsophile or run one of those "BREAKING" accounts that share news outlet links all day. Just pay attention to what other users are talking about and what topics are listed on the platform's trending topics.

Maybe there's a way to tie your niche into what the day's trends are? If you tweet a lot about horror films and the trailer for the latest big scary movie just dropped, that can work in your favor and provide some inspiration about what to tweet.

If you have something of value to add to a conversation that's trending...add to it!

But don't spam

Yes, trends can help users find your tweets. But don't be an asshole about it.

Don't even think of spamming a trending topic by stuffing those keywords into your completely unrelated tweet. That won't attract new followers and will probably turn some of your current followers into unfollowers.

The same goes for hashtags. Don't clutter a hashtag search with your tweets. People use those to follow events or certain topics. (As a side note, you should probably look into whether you'd like to use hashtags at all. They're quite passé.)

You won't gain followers with off-topic self-promotion cluttering people's feeds. In fact, you'll lose them.

Be aware of when you tweet

There are hardcore social media professionals that analyze their Twitter data and dive into the hour and day of the week in which their content receives the most engagement. You can really crunch the numbers if you'd like.

But you don't have to do that. Being aware of how society functions doesn't require you to be a big data person.

If you're growing a following on the West Coast, it probably doesn't make sense to fire off your best tweets at 8 a.m. ET. If you're running an account tweeting out business tips, you probably don't want your quality material debuting on Labor Day.

Obviously, there are plenty of niches that are evergreen, meaning you can tweet whenever you'd like and find engagement. Just don't be surprised when those 3 a.m. tweets you're blasting out on a Sunday night from NYC mostly get replies from a bunch of Australians passing the time at the end of the work day.

Actually set up your account

Just having a Twitter @ handle isn't enough.

Change your avatar to something unique to you, even if you don't want to use your own photo. Add a header image while you're at it.

Also, fill out that bio. No, really, fill out that bio. Include information that will inform people about what they'll get from this account, what your experience is in.

Are you a football fan? Let people know. Will you be sharing your latest original knitting patterns? You have to put that in your bio! You'd be surprised about how much one's profile determines whether another user will follow them or not.

A complete profile also helps Twitter accurately place your account within its search results so other users can find you.

Don't be a bot

There are some great automated accounts on Twitter that share some quality, funny content around the clock.

But, unless you have some creative idea for a themed-account that can be run by a bot, don't do it. Automating replies or DMs to thank new followers is not that. Be a real person and don't use bots or automated systems to tweet for you. Interact with people where it's appropriate so they know you're a real person.

And if your Twitter handle is the default first name and bunch of numbers Twitter suggests for you, for the love of God, change it. You look like a bot.

Follow people

We're not talking about those "follow back" trains where you reciprocate with someone who follows you so you eventually end up with 30,000 followers and 30,000 people you're following. There's no value in that for anyone.

Follow accounts that you find interesting, even if they don't follow you back. Curate your own Twitter feed so you can find the value in what others are tweeting about. You'll discover interesting content yourself.

From there, you'll end up interacting with these users by replying to their tweets to discuss what they're posting. This will help you grow in your niche among fellow members of that Twitter community. You'll probably end up eventually getting a follow-back too, but this way you'll have earned it, and your new follower will actually pay attention to what you post in the future.

And last, but not least…

Grow your account organically

Do not buy followers. Just don't do it.

There are a slew of websites out there where you can drop money and gain thousands of followers in just a few hours. How are all those wonderful Twitter users finding you? They're not. Many of these websites take advantage of hacked accounts or set up tens of thousands of fake profiles to provide the illusion of being a popular Twitter user.

Ever see a Twitter account with hundreds of thousands of followers, yet each tweet gets no more than one retweet and two likes? It's because they're faking it with paid followers. It's inauthentic, and real people who do find your account can see right through it.

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