This page contains a few affiliate links. I have chosen to be an affiliate of services and plugins that have served me and my clients well over the years.
Want even more resources? Check out the Blog and the Web Glossary.
Web Hosting
Quality web hosting is the key to your website’s success and security. The following hosts are ones I turn to again and again for high quality, secure, and feature-rich hosting tools.
Flywheel
Managed, secure WordPress hosting with built in features like free migrations, SSL, malware monitoring and removal, daily backups, and more. I host my website and my clients on Flywheel because of their great customer service and developer tools like Local.
WP Engine
Managed, secure WordPress hosting. Recommended for resource-hungry sites and shops where speed and support are top priorities. Note: Flywheel is owned by WP Engine.
Kinsta
Managed, secure WordPress hosting. Recommended for resource-hungry sites and shops where speed and support are top priorities. Kinsta and WP Engine are nearly identical in features and I’ve had great experiences with both.
Siteground
Shared website hosting with staging available at the GrowBig or higher level. Siteground is great for smaller websites that don’t need to use a lot of resources. Siteground also includes great tools like email and the SG Optimizer plugin.
Domains
I register all my domains through Google Domains because domain name privacy is included in the pricing. It’s only about $12/yr for a .com domain vs ~$25 on Godaddy.
Cloudflare also provides great domain name pricing and other tools like firewall security and CDN.
Paid WordPress Plugins
Advanced Custom Fields Pro // My favorite plugin of all time! Extend any page/post/post type with extra fields to make editing easier and websites more rich.
CheckoutWC // Transforms your WooCommerce Checkout into a beautiful experience
FacetWP // Advanced filtering for WordPress, like building a sortable, searchable directory.
Gravity Forms // Powerful form builder with integrations into dozens of other plugins and tools, allows for conditionals.
Perfmatters // Fantastic performance and optimization plugin with page-by-page script management.
LearnDash // LMS that works from inside your WordPress site.
For Free WordPress plugins, see my blog post about organizing your WordPress site.
Business Tools
Dropbox / Google One // Cloud storage
Freshbooks // Accounting/Invoicing/Proposal software I’ve used since starting my business in 2014. I find it super easy to use and the pricing fair.
Invision / Markup // Share mockups or mood boards and allow for comments
LastPass // Password Manager. See my in depth blog post on LastPass.
Mailchimp // Email Marketing Platform free up to 2,000 subscribers
Teachable // Powerful but simple LMS
WeTransfer // Useful for sending large files like photos
Stock Photos and Icons
NounProject // Thousands of beautiful and unique icons, see each icon for usage terms or go for the paid ~$20/yr unlimited plan.
Pexels // Free stock photos and videos
Unsplash // Free stock photos