[ad_1] Here is Lesley reading her own story aloud. Why I believe open source is the best and worst thing about WordPress. When I first discovered WordPress in 2016, it was merely a tool for me. It was the cheapest and most flexible way to get a website started for my fledgling explainer video business, so I used it. As a long time blogger and website-maker, since the days of GeoCities, I was very confident I would find WordPress a breeze to use. I opened up a fresh new install of WordPress for the very first time in my life and was confronted with an intimidating admin interface. The stuff on the right seemed meaningless and unhelpful, and the stuff on the left was way more complicated than I was used to. What did media library mean and when do I use it? It was lucky that I’d been making websites and blogging since I was a child. It was also a good thing that I knew WordPress was really really popular. Had it not been for those two things, I would likely have given up. Instead, I powered through, confident that, if millions of people could figure it out, I could too. After some tinkering, and reading recommendations, I purchased and installed a page builder, Thrive Themes, and started building my site. I watched many tutorials, made tons of mistakes, and got frustrated countless times. But after a month or two, it finally felt like I’d gone from pushing a boulder uphill, to chasing the boulder downhill. Incidentally, I still use Thrive today! Why Open Source Matters I owe a big part of my journey to the open source nature of WordPress. Being able to play around for almost no money allowed me the freedom to experiment and make mistakes with little penalty. I didn’t have to worry about paying $50 or even $5 per month for each random side project I start, which allowed me to play around and really deepen my knowledge of building websites. I bet lots of other people attribute their web building journey to WordPress and open source too. And that’s likely to be a large reason for WordPress’ popularity. It’s free for anyone to use, so lots of hosts offer it as one of their default options. There are also loads of plugins out there that help you turn your WordPress site into anything you can possibly imagine. It means that a receptionist or a journalist can move from one job to another and easily log into their company’s website, update the opening hours or write a blog post, because everyone is on WordPress. It means a first-time business owner like myself can create their first website and not worry about making newbie mistakes since the cost of wrong decisions is low – it’s really easy to migrate from host to host, change themes, remove plugins and more. Where’s It’s Not Perfect However, open source is not without its drawbacks. Like I mentioned above, the first time I logged into WordPress I found it overwhelming. It’s hard to draw a direct line to the exact reason why, but here are some of the reasons that came to mind: Firstly, there isn’t a dedicated team with KPIs to hit who are focused on making onboarding super easy for complete beginners. In commercial software, this is typically a top priority as customers who can’t get onboarded, will usually churn, which loses money for the company. In contrast, in WordPress, we have contributors who are typically seasoned WordPress pros. They no longer remember what it’s like to use WordPress for the first time. And because of the contributor model, we also don’t have enough teams with dedicated UX researchers, product managers, and more for each aspect of WordPress. In addition, WordPress is largely built by developers with a developer-first mindset. Thus, the teams are conceived from a developer standpoint (performance, multisite, etc) rather than from a user standpoint. For example, it would be wonderful to have teams focused on the experiences around onboarding, dashboard, plugins, themes, which is how the average user mentally structures WordPress. Also, it’s impossible to keep track of usage data, so there’s no way to know where people are struggling across the entire WordPress project. This matters because the best way to justify having teams focused on certain aspects of WordPress is to present numbers. However, since we don’t have numbers, it’s impossible to present a strong case. The final issue is that WordPress is gigantic. It powers everything from The American Whitehouse website, to small businesses in Singapore (like mine). This pins WordPress in a very tricky spot, because the needs of the Whitehouse are very different to the needs of a small business on the equator. And any updates that are made to WordPress have to take the breadth of use cases into consideration. Ultimately, I’m glad that WordPress is open source, even despite the drawbacks. It helps so many people grow their businesses, communicate, and simply share their thoughts with everyone on the internet. There is no such thing as only good without the bad. And I’m glad WordPress exists. Related [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingTag Archives: Good
Is It as Good as It Is Popular?
[ad_1] In this HostGator hosting review, we show you how good HostGator really is, who should use it, and what features you can expect to get. HostGator is one of the most popular web hosting companies on the web. They’ve won users over with a couple of things. Their affordable prices are one very good reason to give them a look. But perhaps more significantly, their marketing has always been on point, with ads in all the right places. Maybe they’re one of the reasons you are here today? Here’s what we’re going to cover: 🤔 What is HostGator and what types of hosting it offers? HostGator has been around since 2002, so they certainly do know the hosting game enough to stay above the surface. Though that would be an understatement, to be honest. HostGator has done a lot over the years, and merely staying above the surface doesn’t sound like much of a goal for them. There have been many important milestones in HostGator’s lifespan, but a couple of them stand out: In 2012, HostGator was acquired by EIG, a giant of the hosting industry that holds many hosting brands in their portfolio. In 2015, HostGator launched their tailor-made managed WordPress hosting plans, which were the answer to some of the more expensive boutique WordPress hosts out there. Today, HostGator serves more than 800,000 customers in more than 200 countries. Let’s take a look at what all those customers have been that crazy about. Here’s what you’ll find in HostGator’s offering: Shared hosting This is HostGator’s flagship hosting offering. These plans deliver all the features that most users will find essential, and they do so at very affordable prices. What’s great about these plans is that they come with unmetered storage and bandwidth. This means that, for the most part, you don’t have to worry about your website growing too big. There are also one-click installers available for website engines like WordPress, a free SSL certificate, and a free website transfer for users coming from other hosts. Plus, on top of all this, you get a free domain name for the first year. 👉 Go to HostGator’s shared hosting plans. WordPress hosting This tier of hosting is a variation on the shared hosting plans, but with added optimizations for websites running on WordPress. These plans are similarly affordable, and come with a free domain name, too. The bandwidth is not metered, but these setups will work best when you have up to 100k monthly visitors (on the cheapest plan) and up to 500k (on the far end). So, what makes them optimized for WordPress? Just to name a few things: automatic daily backups, added security features for WordPress, optimizations to improve the speed of your WordPress site, integrated catalog of WordPress themes, integrations with SiteLock and CodeGuard. And, of course, these setups come with WordPress installed from the get-go – for users who are going to be launching a completely new site. Alternatively, you can transfer an existing site. 👉 Go to HostGator’s WordPress hosting plans. Website builder This one is a pretty original offering since it flips the way most users think about hosting and owning a website. Instead of selling you access to a web server and then putting the ball in your half of the field so that you then have to figure out how to use that server, HostGator proposes you start with a site builder tool first. In this model, you get access to the builder, craft your website from top to bottom, and then have it launched to the public with the help of one of HostGator’s servers. The website creation part is made user-friendly – the builder comes with nice templates and it’s fully visual (so, no coding skills are required). 👉 Go to HostGator’s website builder plans. VPS hosting Now, we’re entering the realm of pro-level hosting! VPS hosting is commonly used for web apps rather than standard websites. Creations like that usually need more scalable setups as it’s hard to predict the load that the app can experience every day. Also, the server requirements can be different from what a classic website usually needs. Just so that we’re on the same page, VPS (virtual private server) hosting is a virtual machine that comes configured to match given requirements of the project. 👉 Go to HostGator’s VPS hosting plans. Dedicated hosting It doesn’t get much further in the “pro” direction than dedicated hosting. In simple terms, dedicated hosting is where you get access to an actual physical machine (computer) that runs your server software. It’s the most expensive type of hosting and also the most tailor-configurable to match the user’s exact needs. 👉 Go to HostGator’s dedicated hosting plans. Reseller hosting I have a feeling that this last type of hosting will be really interesting to agencies, developers, and freelancers working on client sites. The idea is simple, you buy a hosting package from HostGator, and then resell it to your clients. You also pocket the difference between the price you bought the hosting for from HostGator and the price you sold it for to your clients. 👉 Go to HostGator’s reseller hosting plans. Which type of HostGator hosting is right for you? This all depends on what your needs are and what type of site you want to build. Generally, if you want to build a WordPress website for any sort of serious purpose – like a business, professional portfolio – then you should go with the WordPress hosting plans. Other new website projects and small experiments will work well on the shared hosting plans. For everything more demanding…well, you’ve probably already done the research and know whether you need VPS or dedicated hosting. In the next part of this HostGator hosting review, let’s now see what’s under the hood: ⚙️💵 Features and Pricing ⚠️ For the purpose of this HostGator hosting review, we’re looking at HostGator’s WordPress hosting plans. This is the type of hosting that’s in
Continue readingBluehost Hosting Review: It Is Cheap, but Is It Good?
[ad_1] The post Bluehost Hosting Review: It Is Cheap, but Is It Good? is written by Karol and appeared first on WPKube. Bluehost is one of the most popular and, at the same time, most affordable web hosts on the market. In this Bluehost hosting review, we take a look at what’s under the hood, how good the platform really is, and whether it’s the right solution for your next website project. Here are the things we’re going to cover: Types of…. Continue Reading [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingInMotion Hosting Review 2021: Is This a Good Host for WordPress?
[ad_1] At first glance, InMotion Hosting has everything you’d expect from one of the leading web hosting companies on the market. There are entry-level plans, there are WordPress-specific plans (more on those later), and there are also highly scalable setups that can grow with you over time. In this InMotion Hosting review, we look at how good those hosting solutions really are and whether you should use them for your next WordPress website. Here’s what we’re going to cover: What is InMotion Hosting and what type of hosting it offers? InMotion Hosting is a US-based hosting company that started as a small project back in 2001. This means that it’s been in the hosting business for a whole 20 years. What’s even more impressive is that it’s an entirely employee-owned company. This is a breath of fresh air compared to the corpo-structured hosting giants that we’re all used to. The company is headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, offers US-based customer service, a really generous 90-day money-back guarantee, and secure data centers in the US. What’s also worth pointing out is that the company is making moves to commit to an eco-friendly and sustainable operations model. They’re the first-ever green data center in Los Angeles, reducing their overall carbon output by more than 2,000 tons per year. Let’s look at the different types of web hosting that InMotion Hosting offers: Shared hosting This is InMotion Hosting’s entry-level offering for web hosting. It’s a good choice for users who need a reliable hosting platform for a small website (or a handful of websites). To make the setup easier, InMotion Hosting gives you access to one-click installers for over 400 web applications and website engines (such as WordPress, Joomla). There’s also unmetered bandwidth and enough SSD disk space for a standard website. Those of us who enjoy getting stuff for free – which we all do(!) – will be happy to know that InMotion Hosting throws in a free SSL, free email address, and even a free domain name (on the second-to-cheapest plan). 👉 Go to InMotion Hosting’s shared hosting plans. WordPress hosting WordPress hosting has been getting more and more popular, so no wonder InMotion Hosting has an offering like that in their portfolio as well. Structure-wise, it’s a similar setup to their entry-level hosting, but it’s more optimized to run WordPress, plus it also offers a couple of WordPress-specific features and helpers. For starters, it is what’s called a “managed hosting” setup, which means that some of the everyday hosting maintenance tasks are handled by the InMotion Hosting platform itself. The server hardware/software stack has been put together to better cater to the WordPress platform. It runs on NGINX, PHP8, has WP-CLI, Imagemagick, and a free CDN included. The server is configured with regular security scans for malware and other potential issues. InMotion Hosting will also handle automatic security patches for you, plus you can set all updates to happen automatically. More on WordPress hosting later in this InMotion Hosting review. 👉 Go to InMotion Hosting’s WordPress hosting plans. Advanced hosting InMotion Hosting offers a couple of hosting setups that can be called “advanced hosting” – even though InMotion Hosting doesn’t use this label themselves. These are all hosting plans that are above the entry level and are commonly used by more seasoned users. Such users know what the specific server requirements of their project are and how to then set that server up. This is: VPS hosting. InMotion Hosting offers both managed VPS hosting and unmanaged cloud VPS. The former runs on Linux, it’s powered by UltraStack, and lets you launch and scale your project easily. The latter works as a cluster of self-managed cloud servers. Dedicated server hosting. Here, again, InMotion Hosting has both managed dedicated servers in the catalog as well as unmanaged setups (called “bare metal,” which does sound cool, I give them that). As you’d expect, the managed setups handle a lot of the everyday server work for you. The bare metal setups are exactly what it says on the tin – you get the bare metal server computer. But wait, there’s more! InMotion Hosting also offers specialized WordPress setups: WordPress VPS hosting and managed dedicated WordPress hosting. Most new websites won’t need this level of power, but it’s nice to see that InMotion Hosting is ready for any scale of website. Which one is right for you? As you can see, InMotion Hosting offers a lot when it comes to their hosting portfolio. There’s something here for everybody and every scale of web project. But how to choose which one you need? It’s quite simple actually: If your project calls for an advanced hosting setup, then you probably already know that it’s the case. If you consider yourself a casual WordPress user, get one of their WordPress hosting plans. If you want to launch a new website that won’t be running on WordPress, get one of their shared hosting plans. 🌱 Okay, that’s all fine, but are those hosting setups any good? Let’s find out next: Features and pricing ⚠️ For the purpose of this InMotion Hosting review, we’re looking into the WordPress hosting plans offered by InMotion. Chances are that if you’re planning to launch a new website, you’ll run it on WordPress. First things first, here’s the current snapshot of the pricing page: A couple of things that we need to point out right out the gate: The per-month prices you’re looking at are on a three-year contract. Meaning, you’ll get them if you buy your hosting setup for three years upfront. As you can see in the screenshot above, InMotion Hosting also has two-year and one-year contracts as well as month-to-month plans. Here’s a breakdown of the prices based on contract length: One more thing that’s not immediately apparent with any web host is the renewal prices. Long story short, the prices you see above are InMotion Hosting’s “welcome offer.” This means that you get that price when you first sign
Continue readingGood Interview with Matt Mullenweg & Josepha Haden Chomposy • WPShout
[ad_1] I really enjoyed watching this little interview with between Mark & Keith from Highrise Digital and Matt Mullenweg and Josepha Haden Chomposy (who are probably the two most influential people shaping WordPress today). Nothing that anyone said was really a surprise or revelation to me, but it was all helpful and “orienting” to hear again what their thought process is, what’s been happening lately, etc. For myself, I actually left the interview thinking that “the future or WordPress themes” is even to these important and influential people still an open question. Which I think is both appropriate and a bit annoying. I seems clear that “full-site editing” is reshaping themes in important ways, but not knowing where we’re going leaves one a little unsure what to do. But it also means there’s time to jump in and influence the direction, if that’s something you’ve got interest and time for 🤓 Visit youtube.com → [ad_2] Source link
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