You’ve probably noticed i keep referring to the different tools i use in my video’s and blog posts.
Rather than sound like a broken record, i thought i’d write a list of all the different tools i use for WordPress.
I’ll also explain a little bit about what i use them for.
Paint.net
One of the best free web design tools for Windows.
I use Paint to create featured images for all my posts. I’ve added custom fonts and a few extra plugins. Sometimes i use it for creating headers.
Great stepping stone to Photoshop which provides many of the basic features included in Photoshop.
Adobe Photoshop
I’m no expert with Adobe Photoshop but i do use it on a regular basis for slicing and extracting images from PSD files.
They do offer a helpful forum which is good when you get stuck.
Backup & Migration
BackupBuddy is an excellent plugin for beginners who want to migrate to a new host/server or change domain names.
I’ve used this plugin dozens of times because it makes migrations so much easier and faster.
Another alternative for more advanced users which i highly recommend is WP Migrate DB.
Bluehost
Bluehost provide excellent shared hosting for multiple sites and are the best for this type of hosting.
They also offer the easiest way for beginners to install WordPress in one click.
I use Bluehost for hosting smaller sites and a couple of demo sites for testing purposes.
ColorZilla
ColorZilla is a free browser extension for finding out color codes on different sites. Comes in really handy when customizing colors on a website.
Email Service
Your subscriber list is your most valuable asset as search engine traffic can come and go!
Here’s 4 reasons i choose Mad Mimi.
ScreenCast-O-Matic
I use the premium version of this very basic but excellent screen casting tool. I did test out Camtasia which is a great software however just find it better to focus on learning more about WordPress rather than be a Camtasia expert.
Offers both a free and premium version which is easily affordable.
Filezilla
Excellent free FTP program for transferring files to and from your local computer and web server.
Since i do a lot of work locally with instantwp, i don’t use Filezilla as much as i used too however do use SFTP several times day.
Firebug
Excellent free web design tool for inspecting and making changes to your websites code in real time.
I’ve been using this tool for a while now and starting to master it. If you’re new to web design and want to learn CSS, i highly recommend Firebug.
Github
One of the best free code hosting sites.
I host over 1,400 code snippets here and embed them in my site as well as other sites. If you make a mistake in your code you can always fix it and all your embeds will update. Its also a great way to embed different types of code and displays them nicely without messing up your site or someone else’s.
Logitech Headset with Mic
Good cheap headset i use when making video’s.
Filters out the noise of the computers fan and the head phones are really good if you’re watching a video which has low sound.
I know they have better models with USB connections which i will be upgrading to at some point.
Notepad ++
Excellent free text editor which i use to open different file types like CSS code.
The search feature is really good to quickly find the lines of code you want to edit. I also use this when moving code from one CSS or PHP file to another with different child themes.
ServerPress – Desktopserver
Easiest way to install one or more installations of WordPress locally.
Snagit
The best screen capture software made by CamTasia. Its a premium download but well worth it. Try for 30 days free and i’m sure you will agree.
Themes & Framework
I choose the Genesis theme framework and StudioPress themes for WP Sites.
The Pro Plus package gives you access to hundreds of code snippets which you can use in any theme.
The package includes all StudioPress themes now and in the future at a one off investment that’s gold in my opinion, now and for the future.
I use the CSS and PHP code from different themes to create a custom site. This is one of the easiest and best ways to learn coding & all the code works well together on the Genesis framework.
WPEngine Super Fast Hosting
WP Sites is sponsored by WPEngine and receives a WordPress Developers account (invite only). If they weren’t the fastest web host for WordPress, i would host a smaller blog with them and move my main site some where else.
The service is one on one and fully managed meaning its not the same as shared, VPS or a dedicated server. Love these guys after the 18 months of slowness i experienced before making the move.
$30 a month for the cheapest plan is a lot more than you’d pay for shared hosting, but so is the speed, service and security.
Coupon wpsites: You can try them for $5 a month for the first 3 months and save $25 a month.
If you like them, you can also pay yearly and get 2 months free which means you can get nearly 5 months worth of premium hosting for free.
Better than VPS in my opinion.
Your Tools for WordPress
What are some of your favorite and most useful tools for WordPress?
20 responses to “Tools for WP Sites”
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i used Bitnami wordpress installer and other platforms for local test sites for many years.
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Just started using ServerPress rather than instantwp.com and like it better.
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I use many of the tools you mention and for images I use IrfanView-extremely easy to do re-size, crops and simple stuff to existing images.
I just recently started to use Instant WP and the only drawback it could be that you only can have one site per installation.
I had an awful experience with Backup Buddy: almost none of the sites on which I used it managed to perform as expected and the backups failed. I only use WP Twin: best backup solution for cloning WordPress sites I can say. Pricey, though…
Also, not great experience with Bluehost as they use to charge you extra AFTER you place the order. And they don’t show you the final figure at checkout so you basically don’t know how much you are going to be charged. I used Hostgator and still use them and I can give them 5 out of 5 stars for the uptime, support, speed, etc. Really pleased with them.-
Have you tried serverpress?
I tested it recently and was really impressed.
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Have you tried the premium version? It seems has got quite a cool feature to automatically deploy your local site to the live site.
https://serverpress.com/tag/export/-
Tried the free version which is pretty good.
Sounds like the premium version is a bit like Microsoft Web Matrix which also enables you to deploy WordPress from your local machine to a live web server.
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Unlike WebMatrix, ServerPress’ solution works just like the most popular hosting providers simply using Apache, MySQL, PHP.
You won’t be burdened with WebMatrix’s Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Tools, MS-SQL Services, IIS, ASP, or .Net Runtimes (WordPress uses MySQL versus MS-SQL and the extra “reporting tools”, nor does it need Active Server Pages technology and runtimes -that’s a lot of overhead with WebMatrix!).
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Yep. Good point Steve.
Webmatrix is not well supported or easy to use based on my experience.
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Whoops! Your CSS3 section links right back to this page. Thanks for sharing so many great tips, videos and resources!
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Thanks
I use a Mac almost exclusively so Instant WP won’t work for me. At present I use Xampp which works OK but I would like to try a more convenient alternative.
Any suggestions?
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MAMP is best for Macs from what I hear.
I have never used it but its very popular.
Brad have you checked out DeskTop Server? I have been using it for over a year and it fantastic for setting up local WordPress installs. I think you will like it better then InstantWP.
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Thanks Gregg
I will test out serverpress at some stage.
Thanks for sharing all the list of tools, I like InstantWp tool it’s a handy tool to install WP in seconds 😉
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Yeah its a great little tool that makes it super easy to install WordPress locally.
Thanks for the comment Saikrishna.
Thanks for the great tips.
Keep it up with this great blog
Success!
Acts Joshua Mota
It always interests me to find out which tools web designers and developers have in arsenal. I use most of the tools your do, so it would be quicker for me to tell you the ones I do not use.
First of all, I don`t use Instant WP because I have not heard of it before, but I am going to give it a try.
I do not use ScreenCast-O-Matic, I use Camtasia. I may give ScreenCast-O-Matic a try though because I have to re-learn how to use it every time I try to record a screencast.
I do not use Filezilla. It is not because I do not like it, I just never gave it much of a try. I use WinSCP as my Free FTP program, I love it.
I do not use WPEngine as my webhost, I still have shared hosting, but I will talk to you when I am ready to upgrade.
And last but not least, I do not use Logitech Headset with Mic. I use my Webcam’s mic, and no headset. It is an idea I may try though.
I didn’t go to look at which plugins you use, but I always set up JetPack Stats for my clients on thier WordPress sites. It is much easier for them to see thier traffic stats in their dashboard, than Google Analytics is.
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I’m sure you’ll like instantwp Larry.
Really easy to setup and play around with.
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Did you see these tools from Tools from WP Gear Larry? They have a base theme file structure you can use to build your own parent theme which is pretty cool. I’ve already completed all the templates and now working on custom hooks to make it like Genesis. I think the CSS will be the biggest challenge for me.
Not sure about Twitter Bootstrap. Do you now much about it?
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