Recommended resources for your website

Good software makes everything easier. Here is a list of digital tools that I recommend.

Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. Thanks so much for your support!

WordPress pagebuilder

Elementor is the most popular WordPress pagebuilder in the world. It has over 5 million downloads. Why I like Elementor:

It is super easy to build pages because it’s all visual, no code at all.
Your can create pixel perfect designs. Just how we like it as designers.
With the Pro version you can customise every part of the website.
If you are working for clients you can buy multiple licenses at once.
It’s popular so they are a lot of tutorials to find about it.
It has amazing animation and scroll effects built in.

Get Elementor

Hosting & Domain

Siteground shared hosting (best choice for most websites)

Siteground is the most loved (from most reviews) hosting provider worldwide. They aren’t the cheapest but deliver top notch performance.

They are recommended by WordPress themselves as a good and safe choice.
Their support is amazing. With 24/7 chat, phone and ticket support.
They have a 1 click WordPress installer. Easy for everybody.
Easy to use interface (recently updated).

View their pricing

Hostinger shared hosting (the cheapest hosting I could find)

I have searched for the cheapest hosting plan that I could find online. This is perfect for anybody on a budget that doesn’t need all the premium options. Also they give you a free domain for 1 year from 12 month plans.

View their pricing

Use the discount code: LIVINGWITHPIXELS to get an extra 10% discount.

Design software

Adobe XD is the new standard for UI / UX design. It’s part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which makes it perfectly to combine with other Adobe tools like Photoshop and Illustrator.

You can design a clickable prototype for your website in minutes.
It has an amazing features to design really fast so you can test different ideas.
It has global settings making it easy to change all your artboards in 1 click.
You can share your prototype with other people via a link and get quick feedback.
It has cool animation effects built it.

Get Adobe XD

Elementor addons

Crocoblock adds advanced functionality to your Elementor website.

It comes with the amazing Jet Engine. Create your own custom lists, grids and advanced custom fields. All in 1 plugin (this also replaces ACF and CPT UI).
Comes with JetSmartFilters, which is great for creating a filter for your dynamic content.
A powerful Search feature to add to a website with Jet Search.
Lot’s of extra widgets like a timeline widget that animates when you scroll.

Pro tip 1: They have a lifetime option, which is the best deal for the long term.
Pro tip 2: Check out all their features on this page.

Check it out

Use the coupon code: LivingWithPixels10 to get 10% discount. Important: it only works if you use the exact link that the button will link you to.

A very well designed library of unique Elementor Widgets to add more functionality and flexibility to any WordPress website.

Very well designed widgets that don’t need a lot of adjustments to impress your clients.
Very customisable (if you want to).
Their starter package is for unlimited websites (you don’t see that often).

Check it out for yourself

Security plugins

Before one of my client website got hacked I thought that free security plugins were enough. Now I know better. iThemes is affordable and protects your websites a lot better.

It’s the second most popular security plugin in the world.
It keeps your website faster (faster than Wordfence).
It has 2 step authentication, which keeps people with fake emails out.
It’s affordable because there is an unlimited website package.

Check out iThemes Security

Payment providers

Stripe is the payment provider that most people use in the west (USA & Europe). It’s has a very easy to use and beautiful interface and will give you a lot of data graphs to check your stats.

Perfectly integrates with Woocommerce on WordPress.
Has lots of payment options (even Apple and Google Pay for example).
It’s popular, so there is enough info about it online.

Check out Stripe

Management software

ManageWP is a tool that allows you to manage all of your client websites in 1 simple dashboard. This makes managing your web design business a lot easier.

Update all of your client plugins with 1 click.
Login to your client websites without remembering passwords.
Create client report PDF’s that you can send to your client.
It’s free!

Get ManageWP

Handy WordPress plugins

In this part I’ve compiled a list of plugins that I use and make it a lot easier to manage your websites.

Rank Math SEO > Optimize every page for Google (more features than Yoast for free)
Duplicate Page > Duplicate a page, post or template with a click
Post Types Order > Change the order of blogposts or products without changing their date.
ManageWP Worker > Easily manage multiple websites in 1 dashboard (my tutorial: https://youtu.be/IVJHCqq58MU)
Antispam Bee > Simple and light Antispam plugin
Elementor Custom Skin > Create a custom design with Elementor for your dynamic content)
Custom Post Type UI > create custom blogposts that can be used for things like a portfolio or repeatable content in a list.
Google Analytics Dashboard for WP > Still a good choose to display Google Analytics in your dashboard (also your client’s)
reSmush.it Image Optimizer > Super simple plugin to automatically compress images when somebody uploads it via WordPress.

Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, where I earn a commission if you make a purchase via my link. This helps me continue to create the free content that I put out. I will only promote companies that I really believe are worth your money. Thanks a lot if use my links to make a purchase.