Recommended resources for your website
Black friday edition
*Most discounts are valid until Cyber Monday
WordPress pagebuilders
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.
- If you are working for clients you can buy multiple licenses at once.
- There is a lot of educational content about it because of it’s popularity.
- It has amazing animation and scroll effects built in.
Get Elementor
Hosting & Domain
Hostinger web hosting (affordable and really good)
Hostinger has proved themselves in the last couple of years to be reliable and fast. I myself have their cloud hosting and it’s blazing fast! It’s also perfect for anybody on a budget.
- Really nicely designed interface
- Super affordable
- Free domain on some plans
View their pricing
BLACKFRIDAY. Users signing up with this code will get an extra 10% off web hosting (not applicable to monthly plans)
Siteground web hosting (premium option)
Siteground a more premium hosting provider with very good support. 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
Design software
Figma is the new standard for UI / UX design. When I saw what Figma could do I replaced Adobe Xd with Figma.
- Figma is web-based, so you will never have to save your files, you can easily share files and can access your files from any computer via the browser.
- It has handy global features that allow you to change colours, fonts and elements from 1 global place.
- Figma has a lot of smart responsive features so that you spend almost no time measuring things.
- Figma has great live collaborations features.
- Figma has Google Fonts implemented so you don’t have to install them.
- They have a free plan!
Get Figma
Elementor addons
Missing plugins/addons for your Elementor websites. You need this if you want to build more complex websites with Elementor.
- It comes with the amazing Jet Engine. Create your own custom post types and custom fields. All in 1 plugin.
- A powerful Search feature to add to a website with Jet Search.
- Comes with JetSmartFilters, which is great for creating a filter for your dynamic content.
- Pretty fun visual effects (like parallax effect) with Jet Tricks.
Pro tip: Check their pricing. The freelance package is the best value I think.
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.
- Well build widgets
- Easily customisable
- The first pricing package already is for unlimited websites (that’s rare)
Pro tip: Don’t fall for their pricing page. The first package is all you need.
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 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.
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.
- Siteground Security: A great free security plugin for WordPress. Does work with any kind of hosting.
- ManageWP Worker > Easily manage multiple websites in 1 dashboard (my tutorial: https://youtu.be/IVJHCqq58MU)
- CPT UI > Create custom post types that can be used for things like a portfolio, hourses, cars or any kind of repeatable content in a list.
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.
Recommendations for software
Good software makes your workflow better. Here is a list of digital tools that I recommend.
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.
- There is a lot of educational content about it because of it’s popularity.
- It has amazing animation and scroll effects built in.
Get Elementor
Hosting & Domain
Siteground hosting (premium hosting)
Siteground is one of the most loved hosting provider worldwide. This is because they not only provide hosting but a lot more.
- Host your website here and good website speed is almost guaranteed
- Their 24/7 support wins prizes every year. It’s the best I’ve experienced.
- They are recommended by WordPress themselves as a good and safe choice.
- They have a 1 click WordPress installer.
- Easy to use interface compared to others (recently updated).
View their pricing
Hostinger hosting (affordable hosting)
Hostinger is perfect for anyone on a budget, because their price quality ratio is very good.
- It’s available in almost every country worldwide.
- You can pay with almost every currency (even crypto)
- You can lock in a very good discount for many years
- They give a free domain on some plans for 1 year.
- Their interface is customised and relatively easy to use. Lots of options!
View their pricing
Use the discount code: LIVINGWITHPIXELS to get an extra 10% discount.
Design software
Figma is the new standard for UI / UX design. When I saw what Figma could do I replaced Adobe Xd with Figma.
- Figma is web-based, so you will never have to save your files, you can easily share files and can access your files from any computer via the browser.
- It has handy global features that allow you to change colours, fonts and elements from 1 global place.
- Figma has a lot of smart responsive features so that you spend almost no time measuring things.
- Figma has great live collaborations features.
- Figma has Google Fonts implemented so you don’t have to install them.
- They have a free plan!
Get Figma
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)
- 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.