SiteGround is one of the most popular web hosting services available on the market today. It’s a safe and reliable way to host your website in 2019.

More than 2 million active domains are hosted with SiteGround.

One of the reasons why this service is so popular is because they offer hosting options and plans suitable for a wide range of websites and businesses.

Small personal websites, business websites, and large ecommerce sites alike can all use SiteGround.

For those of you who are looking to find a hosting provider for your new website, SiteGround is definitely a top option for you to consider.

It’s also a great choice for anyone who wants to switch hosting providers for their existing website since SiteGround has plans with a free site transfer. But we’ll talk about this in greater detail as we continue.

I’ll give you a better understanding of the plans, types of hosting, and top benefits offered by SiteGround. You can use this guide to make an informed decision to determine if SiteGround is the best web hosting plan for your needs.

Benefits of Using SiteGround Web Hosting

There is plenty of upside to using SiteGround as a web hosting service. I just want to quickly highlight and explain why this platform stands out from its competitors.

High uptimes

When it comes to measuring how good a web host is, uptime is the ultimate metric. By definition, this is the amount of time that a server stays up and running.

A recent study shows that SiteGround has exceptionally high uptimes, on average, over a twelve-month stretch.

In 2018, SiteGround ranked fourth compared to other web hosts judging by average uptime. As you can see, they were just barely beat out for the third place spot by a one-thousandth percentage point.

Overall, the average uptime for the 32 shared web hosting services in the study was 99.59%. SiteGround was significantly higher than the average and near the top of the list.

High uptimes ensure that your site will nearly always be up and running around the clock.

Fast load times

Just because your site is up, it doesn’t always mean that it will be fast. But take a look at the response time for this SiteGround test website that was set up by Hosting Facts.

We already talked about the great uptime, but now you can refer to the response time column.

The average response time for the first six months of 2019 was 662 ms. That’s phenomenal. In addition to using a good web host, you should also know the other top principles that boost website loading times.

Great customer support

Hopefully, you don’t have any issues with SiteGround. But in the event that you run into a problem, have a question, or need some assistance, it’s nice to know that they provide excellent customer support.

You can access phone support as well as live chat 24/7. As I mentioned earlier, you’ll have priority support if you have a GoGeek plan. This means that you’ll be connected with the most experienced SiteGround technicians whenever you need help.

Free features

Web hosting services will always try to hit you with add-ons at an upcharge. But SiteGround throws in some great features at no extra charge.

Your membership comes with one free site migration. This can be done with their migrator plugin, which we talked about earlier. If you have the GrowBig or GoGeek plan, a SiteGround professional will do the migration for you.

SiteGround plans also come with a free CDN and free SSL certificate.

Cloudflare CDN keeps images, videos, and other large files off of your server. As a result, your server is always fast. Since SiteGround users servers all over the globe, the CDN makes sure that files are stored closer to website visitors for fast delivery.

The SSL certificate is required for all websites. It protects private information being transmitted between devices and websites. SiteGround throwing this in for free is a nice touch since you’d need to get one regardless.

Flexible

Nearly any website can be hosted on SiteGround.

It’s a great web hosting service for beginners and experienced users alike. You don’t need to be too tech-savvy to understand how the platform works and get your site hosted. But on the other hand, if you like to be more hands-on with the server and take advantage of certain features, SiteGround has plans with you in mind.

There are also enough options on SiteGround to accommodate different web hosting needs, such as shared hosting, dedicated server hosting, and cloud hosting.

They have plans suitable for a wide range of average site traffic as well. So as your website scales, you can always upgrade to a plan that will meet your needs.

Money back guarantee

SiteGround offers a 30-day money back guarantee for their shared hosting plans. This shows that they stand behind the services that are offered.

Dedicated servers and cloud hosting plans have a 14-day money back guarantee, which is still enough time to tell if you’re happy with your service.

SiteGround will also refund you if they fail to meet a 99.9% uptime rate. This is clearly written in their terms of service.

This relates back to what we talked about earlier, in terms of their high uptime rates. There’s a reason why it’s so high—SiteGround has a promise to stand behind.

Other considerations

There’s no such thing as a perfect web hosting service. While SiteGround is great, there are a few downsides that you should be made aware of before you proceed.

Setup fee

SiteGround charges a one-time setup fee for $14.95 with all of their plans. It’s not a deal breaker by any stretch, but it means you can’t just sign up for their lowest plan and be out the door for $3.95.

Renewal rates

At first glance, SiteGround’s pricing is very attractive. But those are only promotional rates.

When you renew, your rates will jump as follows:

• $3.95 to $11.95 per month
• $5.95 to $19.95 per month
• $11.95 to $34.95 per month

The cost essentially triples across the board. So I’d recommend locking in the longest contract possible when you first sign up, which is 36 months. This will guarantee you a low rate for a while before you’re forced to renew.

Limited budget plan

For those of looking for the best cheap web hosting service, SiteGround’s StartUp plan for $3.95 per month is definitely attention-grabbing.

It’s a great choice for those of you with smaller websites, but it’s fairly limited for anyone who plans on getting more than 10,000 visitors per month. You may have to upgrade faster than you anticipated if you start with their lowest priced web hosting plan.

Compare SiteGround Web Hosting Plans

Like most web hosting services, SiteGround offers different plans for websites with varying needs. In this case, there are three tiers for most of their hosting types.

With the exception of cloud hosting and dedicated server hosting, the prices of these three plans will remain the same across the board for shared hosting, WordPress hosting, and Woocommerce hosting. We’ll dive deeper into those plans later in this guide.

For now, I’ll focus on the pricing and features of the three most popular plan options offered by SiteGround.

StartUp

As the name implies, the SiteGround StartUp plan is ideal for new websites. With rates starting at $3.95 per month, this plan is suitable for websites with less than 10,000 monthly visits.

You can only host one website with the StartUp plan, and it comes with 10 GB of web space. Other top features include:

• Free site builder
• Free SSL and HTTPS
• Free email accounts
• Free CloudFlare CDN

It’s a basic plan, but definitely appropriate for new websites that are starting from scratch. For those of you who want more features and better performance, you’ll need to upgrade. You’ll also outgrow the StartUp plan as your traffic increases (which is a good thing).

GrowBig

The GrowBig plan starts at $5.95 per month. This is ideal for medium-sized websites averaging up to 25,000 monthly visits. GrowBig has 20 GB of web space and can host an unlimited number of sites.

Unlike the StartUp plan, GrowBig has enhanced caching ability. The SiteGround Supercacher has three levels.

• Level 1 — Static content caching
• Level 2 — Dynamic data caching
• Level 3 — Database queries caching

StartUp only caches at the first level, but GrowBig caches on all three levels.

If you sign up for the middle-tier plan offered by SiteGround, you’ll also get free on-demand backups, a free site transfer, as well as a staging feature for WordPress and Joomla sites. I’d say that the GrowBig plan will be suitable for most of you who are reading this guide.

GoGeek

GoGeek can accommodate up to 100,000 monthly visits and has 30 GB of web space. Obviously, this plan is made for bigger websites with high volumes of traffic.

Rates for GoGeek start at $11.95 per month, but the plan comes with all of the bells and whistles. In addition to everything that’s available in the GrowBig plan, GoGeek offers:

• Advanced priority support (expedited customer service to the most experienced agents)
• PCI compliant servers (necessary for those of you who process payments online)
• Git pre-installed (for creating repositories on your site)

The name for this plan was inspired by technology geeks. So it’s made for those of you who want more control of your site. If you don’t understand some of the tech lingo that’s being mentioned in the GoGeek plan, it’s probably not for you. The only other reason why you’d need to upgrade to GoGeek is if you’re getting tons of monthly site traffic.

WordPress hosting

SiteGround offers hosting options specifically designed for WordPress users. This will save you time since you won’t need to manually download, install, and configure WordPress.

With SiteGround, you can take advantage of their automated process that’s as simple as clicking a button. This plan also makes it easier for you to customize your WordPress site by choosing a theme, picking your site functionalities, and installing marketing tools.

The WordPress Starter Kit from SiteGround is a great added feature for new WordPress sites. You don’t need any technical knowledge or experience to set this up.

If you have an existing WordPress site, SiteGround offers a free WordPress transfer. The SiteGround Migrator plugin takes care of everything for you. This is a secure way to transfer your site.

Alternatively, if you have a GrowBig or GoGeek plan, you can get your WordPress site migrated by one of the experts at SiteGround. This is a free service for one website before rates start at $30 per site.

WooCommerce hosting

SiteGround also has hosting options for ecommerce shops using WooCommerce.

The quick install and integration with WooCommerce is an easy way for you to create a professional theme for your online store. You can get the site up and running in minutes.

Just migrate your WooCommerce site using the migrator plugin. Just like WordPress hosting, WooCommerce migrations done by a SiteGround expert is free for one website if you’re on the GrowBig or GoGeek plan. Then you’ll have to pay $30 per each additional site.

If you have WooCommerce, you’re going to need to the GoGeek plan anyways, since that comes standard with PCI compliant servers.

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting is a new way to host websites. The process uses multiple remote servers and is a great option for those of you who have websites that have outgrown the shared hosting plans.

With cloud hosting, SiteGround gives you guaranteed resources to meet your needs. Your own RAM and CPU won’t be shared with any other websites.

It’s also easy for you to scale your website with this type of web hosting.

You can upgrade your RAM, CPU, and disk space on-demand at any time. You don’t need to get approval to do this, and it happens without any website downtime.

Rather than always doing this manually, you can set up automatic scaling with SiteGround. It will adjust your CPU and RAM to meet the needs of unexpected traffic surges, but you still have control of all the parameters.

There are four plans for SiteGround Cloud hosting. As you can see from the image above, the plans range from $80 to $240 per month. So there’s definitely plenty of options to choose from.

I’d say that the business plan will likely be a suitable choice for most of you who are using a cloud hosting service for the first time.

Dedicated servers

For those of you who don’t want to use cloud hosting or shared hosting, SiteGround offers dedicated server options as well.

This is perfect if you don’t want any restrictions in terms of the software you use on your website. You’ll also be able to make changes directly to your server if you go with this route.

All servers are managed by the experts at SiteGround. They also offer software designed to boost the performance of your server and provide added functionality.

You can also choose the location of your data center.

• United States
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific

There are three dedicated server plans offered by SiteGround:

• Entry Server
• Power Server
• Super Power Server

These plans start at $269 per month, $349 per month, and $729 per month, respectively.

Conclusion

I’ll get straight to the point—I would definitely recommend SiteGround for web hosting.

This platform offers a wide range of hosting types and plans to accommodate the needs of nearly any website, large or small. SiteGround stacks up well compared to its competitors in terms of features and performance.

In this GeneratePress review I will tell you the story of how after using multiple themes in my pursuit for the fastest theme with great design potential for photographers and creatives I’ve finally found the one.

Created by Tom Usborne, GeneratePress claims to be the fastest super light weight theme with clean code. Out of the box it’s 30kb, and even with all my extra plugins and images, my current GeneratePress website is 430kb, whereas this current website is over 1mb which is average for wordpress websites.

Scheme Theme – MyThemeShop

I was so very close to getting the Schema theme from MyThemeShop. This theme has been designed with SEO and speed in mind. This can be the perfect theme for many affiliate bloggers.

It is a simplistic blog design with speeds to match Divi and its competitors. I was even offered a significant discount to get me over the line. I was very tempted.

The Schema theme is great for speed, but I could not gel with the design, it’s not bad, it’s more of a personal choice. Some of the layouts just didn’t match what I wanted with the design structure I had in mind.

Photography and Creative Design

Another reason that stopped me from going with the Schema theme is that it is primarily a blog theme, it is not designed to showcase photography or art. 

Even as a photography blog I feel the fit would not be right having tinkered with the free version. I think there needs to be more integration with a gallery section or an Instagram feed.

For a different niche the Schema theme could be perfect and may well revisit it for future projects.

This then led me to check out OceanWP.

OceanWP Theme

An interesting turn in my story is that I was deciding between Schema theme and OceanWP, specifically the bakery pro demo. 

As you can see it has a great looking transparent menu navigation that blends with the header. The header is a slick slider header design which would be great for featured articles.

OceanWP also had as close to the ideal layout of a blog article I wanted to achieve. I wanted to get as close to the same article format as big websites like Wirecutter.com or TheVerge.com. Which is article meta at the top. Below that, the title and subtitle, and then more meta, like author, published date and social sharing tools.

OceanWP offered this, but again not exactly the way I wanted it. But being closer to what I wanted plus having a better shop page design, I decided on OceanWP.

So I actually ended up purchasing OceanWP and fully customised my next website. All it needed was content.

Photography and Creative Theme Design

What’s great about OceanWP’s demo sites is that there can be a gallery section on the front page, and Instagram can be integrated into the sidebar. 

It can look like a great blog for a photographer or creative person. The design is up there with Squarespace, but with better speeds.

Other notable mentions

I did consider ThemeX from Themeforest, but thought the layout while interesting, was a bit clunky looking and again, being from Themeforest did not offer a multi-site licence.

Why I Chose GeneratePress

The next part in my GeneratePress review story is that I started designing a third website (not for myself) and instead of going with OceanWP again, I thought about checking out GeneratePress, and if I didn’t like it I would just ask for a refund.

I was so impressed, that with only a month used on my OceanWP licence on my second website, I dropped it for GeneratePress and have not looked back since.

Straight away I checked GTmetrix and Pingdom to see the speeds and even without a caching plugin the website is achieving sub 2 second page loads. Page viewers on average will leave a website that loads anything over 3 seconds. Google list page speed as one of their three ranking factors. Speed is important. I have only so far used the SG Optimizer.

For comparison, this website achieves around 3 second load speeds on a good day and that’s with WP Rocket, which is the best caching plugin on the market. But that’s a premium plugin. I’m really curious what the speeds would be for my new website with WP Rocket.

Above is OceanWP on my second site using a free caching plugin and after tinkering the theme to my design aesthetic. If you test the demo site url for Bakery it’s super fast, under 2 seconds, unlike my OceanWP website which you can see loaded in nearly 7 seconds.

It is possible to run my website at that OceanWP’s demo page speeds. But I am certain I would need WP Rocket, and image optimizing plugin and an upgrade to my hosting plan; maybe a dedicated server, which the demo site must be running.

OceanWP have to use the best hosting and plugins to showcase the speed. Because people like me will test their demo site to see if the speeds are possible.

The difference is GeneratePress runs at OceanWP’s speeds and all its premium upgrades without the need for any of them! It runs quick right out of the box. Once I add WP Rocket it’ll probably be under 1 second.

What I don’t like about GeneratePress

I am not sponsored and want this to be an unbiased GeneratePress review but there is actually little to not like. You get a super light theme with consistent speeds and you can tinker it to your liking.

The latter is what will turn off some. You can use GeneratePress out of the box, as there are a few demo sites to choose from and the default site is very simplistic.

However to get it to how I wanted, I had to download the right plugins, change settings in the customer and tinker with a bit of code.

This understandably is not what some people are after. If you want a wordpress website with a demo design you can use straight away you may have to check out OceanWP.  I wouldn’t go with Squarespace.

I should stress, I am not a website developer. I have never had an html coding training. I simply use my common sense and design skills and research what I need. Using the great support network GeneratePress has and the extensive WordPress support system, any queries I had were only a Google search away.

Free Version and GP Premium

Apart from the speed, there are other key features to consider when choosing GeneratePress.

The first is there are two versions. The free version is a standard blog style format with sidebar. It has few bells and whistles, so there is little you can other than upload content.

GP Premium Plugin

The premium version of theme comes in the form of a plugin you install. Unlike OceanWP, there is only the one plugin to install to unlock all of the theme’s attributes. 

With OceanWP there are about 15 or so to get certain demos including all their functions working. For example, there is a plugin for the bakery demo slider, a plugin for GDPR, sidebar, social sharing, sticky header etc.

To be fair, GeneratePress would require a separate plugin for GDPR and a slider if I wanted that. Once I have installed all the necessary plugins like Wordfence, RankMath or Updraft Plus Backup, there are over 30 plugins to run OceanWP. That’s quite bloated and would be more susceptible to issues.

So far my GeneratePress site has less than half the amount of plugins at 14 and counting.

So Why am I not using GeneratePress for this Site?

GeneratePress is a fantastic theme, the potential to design it to your liking is endless. The speed as I have said is the fastest I have seen, and I have tried most of the best themes for speed.

Newspaper X is no slouch, and so long as my website loads under 3 seconds I will not be in any rush to convert.

The Newspaper X theme is also a one time licence fee payment, and if it was a yearly subscription it would make no sense sticking with it when I have the GeneratePress licence as well. 

So if I had my GeneratePress licence before I made this website, I would almost certainly not have used this theme.

When my support for this theme ending this year, if I have any issues I cannot resolve, I will have to renew my subscription. At that point I will not do so. I have not had the best support from Newspaper X’s customer support so there is no incentive for me.

This is, however, a mature site with a lot of articles, so swapping over will not be as easy, but the outcome will be a super fast loading website. Combined with WP Rocket should result in even faster loading times.

GeneratePress Review Thoughts

I hope this GeneratePress review has been informative in your decision making process. In making this GeneratePress review I have attempted to cover all the bases, but one thing I have yet to cover is long term usage. But I will make sure to update this article with my long term findings.

WooCommerce vs. Shopify: which should you choose for your ecommerce business?

Unlike in years past when you had to hire a developer to build an online store for you, there are now a number of services that allow you to build an ecommerce store with little to no knowledge of coding.

When it comes to building your ecommerce store, there are two that really stand heads and tails above the rest: Shopify and WooCommerce. These are the two most popular ecommerce platforms for a reason.

But which is the best e-commerce platform? If you read the reviews, both seem pretty good. They both have glowing reviews. They both have people recommending them. How can you know which is right for you?

That’s where we come in. We’re going to break down everything you need to know about Shopify and WooCommerce, and give you some recommendations on which is more appropriate for specific situations. This can help you a lot if you’re trying to zero in on what makes one solution better or different than the other.

We’ll break this down in detail below, but long story short, here’s what you need to know:

Shopify vs. WooCommerce:

1. Both platforms are outstanding ecommerce options that offer similar features and functionality.
2. Your choice will probably depend on differences in pricing models between WooCommerce and Shopify.
3. Shopify is fantastic for those new to ecommerce or those who want a turnkey solution.
4. WooCommerce is perfect for those who want full control over their ecommerce store and also want the power of WordPress.

But let’s go a little deeper. By the end, you’ll be ready to start building your own ecommerce store.

WHAT IS SHOPIFY?

First things first: what is Shopify?

Essentially, it’s an online tool that enables you to build an ecommerce store without doing any coding.

You don’t need to hire a developer, and if you get stuck on any of the steps, Shopify will guide you by the hand. And, there’s a huge community of Shopify users and experts out there willing to help if that’s not enough.

With Shopify you can sell all sorts of products, including physical items, digital downloads, drop shipped products, and even services. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can integrate it with your Shopify store thanks to their Point-Of-Sale devices.

If you’re new to ecommerce or simply want a simple, turnkey solution, Shopify is certainly a solid option. It allows you to get up and running really quickly.

WHAT IS WOOCOMMERCE?

In order to understand WooCommerce, you need to understand WordPress. WordPress is a massively popular, open-source website building platform. It’s so popular that it’s estimated that WordPress runs 28.9% of the internet, including some of the biggest sites out there. You can be sure that if more than ¼ of the internet uses WordPress, it’s got some things going for it.

However, WordPress wasn’t built specifically with ecommerce in mind. Rather, it’s designed to be an all-in-one solution for creating and managing content with a dynamic website. Part of the reason WordPress is such a popular CMS is because it has an extensive ecosystem of add-ons called plugins. These plugins extend WordPress’s functionality in new and exciting ways allowing it to do much more than just publish blog posts.

That’s where WooCommerce comes in. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that adds a host of ecommerce features to any WordPress site, including things like a shopping cart, product pages, inventory management, etc.

WooCommerce stores are free to create because both WordPress and the WooCommerce plugin are free. Yes, you will need to spend a bit of money on things like WordPress web hosting, but you have that expense anyway if you already have a WordPress website. If you’re not already using WordPress, then the cost of web hosting becomes a bigger factor in your decision. That’s an additional expense you do not have to worry about with Shopify.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SHOPIFY

Now that you know a little bit about both services, let’s explore Shopify to give you a good feel for the service.

DESIGN OPTIONS

If your site doesn’t look good, people won’t want to buy from you. Your site can’t look like it was designed during the Geocities era or by someone who really loved MySpace. It needs to look professional, clean, and be easy to navigate.

Without these elements, you can be pretty sure you won’t succeed in e-commerce.

Shopify offers more than 50 different, professionally designed store themes. Ten of these themes are free, with the rest usually costing between $140-$200. The themes are professionally designed and allow you to easily customize the look and feel of your shop.

Shopify outsources all theme design to professional developers who ensure that the themes stay appropriately updated. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that the theme always stays fresh, but the disadvantage is that they can cost quite a bit.

Shopify makes it pretty simple to change most of the design options on your site, like colors and styles. You can also easily update your site with new items and even change your theme completely. If you’re preparing for a new product launch, you can edit sections of your store without taking it offline.

If you’re an advanced developer, you can use Shopify’s specialized ‘Liquid’ language to make more significant changes. This isn’t necessary; only if you want to really go deep into your site.

PRICING OPTIONS

Shopify is Software As A Service (SaaS) so they offer several pricing tiers that give increasingly more features as the monthly price goes up. The tier you choose determines which options are available to you.

The most popular pricing package for Shopify will cost you $29/month, and they also have a number of other options:

• Lite ($9 per month)
• Basic Shopify ($29 per month)
• Shopify ($79 per month)
• Advanced Shopify ($299 per month).

On top of these monthly fees, you will also pay transaction fees every time you sell something. Shopify takes a cut of every transaction, and if you’re using a payment gateway like PayPal or Stripe, there will be additional transaction fees from them.

Because transaction fees vary and change depending on the payment gateway you choose, you’ll want to look into all the details to determine how you want to handle that aspect.

SHOPIFY FEATURES

Shopify offers a robust set of features right out of the box, including:

• Unlimited products
• Unlimited file storage
• Automatic fraud analysis
• Embedded Oberlo integration
• Credit card payments
• Multiple languages
• Adjustable shipping rates and taxes
• Customer profiles
• Drop shipping capabilities
• Manual order creation
• Discount codes
• Blog module
• Free SSL certificate
• Mobile commerce optimization
• Editable HTML and CSS
• Daily backups
• Site stats and product reports
• Fully featured mobile app
• Product importing via CSV files
• Different product variations
• Print orders
• SEO-ready site structure
• Individual product reviews
• Facebook selling module
• Social media integration
• Physical and digital products in the store
• Unlimited traffic to your store

Again, Shopify’s goal is to be a turnkey product that allows you to quickly and easily build an ecommerce store. Including all these features ensures that you have everything you need to build your store.

With Shopify, you can extend its base features using plugins called Shopify Apps. With Shopify become such a popular ecommerce solution, there’s a large ecosystem of third-party apps available to create advanced functionality like sophisticated email marketing, advanced financial and inventory analysis, and much more. If there’s a need, chances are there are already several apps that solve that problem.

Shopify also offers an Enterprise-grade solution called Shopify Plus. You probably won’t need the power and features of Shopify Plus right out of the gate but it’s nice to know that they can continue to support your store as it grows.

EASE OF USE

One of Shopify’s greatest strengths is ease of use. It’s intentionally designed to make things quick and easy. All you need to do to get started is go to Shopify.com, go through the signup wizard process, and you’re done.

After that, you can take your store live and begin selling. It’s really that simple.

The Shopify dashboard makes it easy to get a feel for your store performance, as well as any issues you need to be aware of. It’s also easy to adjust settings like shipping, taxes, handling new orders, giving refunds, and more.

For example, when you’re adding a product to your Shopify store, every option is available on a single panel so you don’t have to visit multiple spots on your dashboard when adding new products. This means you don’t have to hunt in multiple places for all the things that need to be included (description, specs, shipping, etc.) when you bring new products to market.

If technology is intimidating to you, Shopify does everything they can to make things easy.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Because Shopify wants to be an all-in-one solution, they make great efforts to offer first class customer care. You can reach a customer care specialist at any time, 24/7 via phone, email, or live chat.

They also has an extensive knowledge base that contains solutions to many of the most common problems.

If you’re worried about getting stuck or running into a problem, Shopify wants to set your mind at ease.

SHOPIFY SEO

Basic SEO practices like meta data and site copy are no problem with Shopify. Assuming you’re adding sufficient descriptions for products, home page copy, and other SEO-related items, you should be fine.

And when it comes to design, Shopify themes have a reputation for clean code and natural linking structures, both of which are important for search rankings.

Because Shopify stores are hosted on their massive infrastructure, pages load fast, which is another important element for SEO.

The only downside is that if you want to add a blog, it needs to be hosted on a third-party like WordPress.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WOOCOMMERCE

Now that you have a solid feel for Shopify, let’s explore WooCommerce. WooCommerce offers the same functions as Shopify with one key advantage: control.

Because Shopify stores are built on the Shopify platform, you are limited in what you can do. You’re limited to their themes and their selling options. With WooCommerce, on the other hand, your options are almost unlimited because you’re building on the WordPress platform, which has thousands of themes and plugins, all of which can enhance your store.

With Shopify, you don’t own your site. You get your own URL, and you’re spared the fee of hosting, but you’re restricted only to what Shopify allows you to do. This straightforward approach works well for eCommerce beginners (and lazy entrepreneurs), but not for those that prefer a hands-on approach.

By contrast, WordPress and its WooCommerce plugin are tools to facilitate building your own site. You have much more options, vast libraries of plugins to customize your site, and more control in general — especially when it comes to site design, which we’ll discuss below.

Think of it like this: You’re building a house and you have to choose between two construction crews. One lets you design the plans however you want, but the other comes with a rigid architect who tells you what you can and can’t do.

DESIGN OPTIONS

WooCommerce has been designed to work with the majority of WordPress themes, which means that your design options are essentially endless. There are many free themes available and thousands of top-quality premium themes to choose from. If you already have a WordPress site and a theme you like, WooCommerce can probably work with it. If you’re just getting started, you should pick a theme that advertises WooCommerce compatibility to ensure all its e-commerce features display correctly.

There are themes that have been built specifically for WooCommerce, so if you’re having trouble selecting a theme, these are always a solid option. The Storefront Theme is the official WooCommerce theme and is a fine choice for your ecommerce store.

While Shopify has an impressive range of themes, WooCommerce can be incorporated into any WordPress theme, in addition to its own library. That gives it far more variety, not just in template design, but in site features.

Think about it. With WooCommerce, you can integrate any WordPress plugin into your eCommerce site. This creates a nearly infinite selection of possibilities.

Of course, this means you have to put more time into designing your site, and not all plugins are free. Most of the Shopify themes are well designed, and if you have no desire to mess with design, then Shopify might be a better option.

PRICING OPTIONS

Both WooCommerce and WordPress are free. However, you will need to purchase a few things like web hosting, a domain name, a theme (if you choose a premium one), and any premium plugins you might use.

Additionally, you’ll need to factor in the transaction fees from your payment gateway. Thankfully, these will only come into effect when you make a sale.

When it comes to price, WooCommerce is at least initially, the cheaper alternative. However, if you start purchasing premium themes and plugins, your costs will go up. Depending on the Shopify plan, you could end up paying about the same amount.

FEATURES

WooCommerce can do anything that Shopify can do, and then some. While it doesn’t necessarily have all the features Shopify has right out of the box, you can be sure that someone has developed a plugin for whatever feature you need and there will probably be several different options to choose from. You’ll find plugins for everything from abandoned cart functionality to inventory management. You can fine-tune your checkout page and add in sophisticated marketing automation features. If there’s a need, there’s a plugin. In the event you need some very specific functionality and a plugin doesn’t exist, you’ll find that there’s an ocean of experienced WordPress developers that would be happy to create that plugin for you.

Whether you want to sell on Facebook, implement email marketing, or study your customer’s behavior, WooCommerce can do it.

Here’s what you’ll get with WooCommerce:

• Hundreds of plugins
• Runs off of your WordPress theme
• Payments via PayPal and Stripe built-in
• Adjustable shipping rates and taxes
• Complete control over your website and its data
• Facebook ad and Facebook stores extensions
• Unlimited products and categories
• Inventory control
• Mobile-friendly structure

WooCommerce does a lot right out of the box and it’s free. It’s free core features are very similar to Shopify’s paid plans. This might make it seem like a much more affordable option, and it very well may be, but you should be mindful of the fact that in order to get advanced ecommerce features you may need to buy paid plugins.

EASE OF USE

Once you get through the initial steps of setting up a WordPress site, working with WooCommerce is just as easy as working with Shopify.

The initial setup isn’t difficult, but it does take a bit longer and involve a few small technical details. If you’re uncomfortable when it comes to technology, you could have trouble at this step, but it’s really not difficult.

To get started with WooCommerce, you need to:

• Buy your domain name.
• Purchase web hosting.
• Install WordPress.
• Install the WooCommerce plugin.
• Install any additional plugins needed.

If this intimidates you, there are hosting companies that specialize in WordPress that will take care of everything for you. Some companies even have 1-click WordPress and WooCommerce installation options, meaning you can get your store up and running with minimal technical work.

Once your site and WooCommerce are up and running, you’ll be taken through a setup wizard. It will help you set up things like currency settings, shipping options, payment gateways, and more.

And like Shopify, WooCommerce makes it very easy to add new products. It usually can be done with a few clicks, meaning you don’t have to spend hours trying to get new products into your ecommerce store.

SUPPORT

One downside of WooCommerce is that, unlike Shopify, WooCommerce doesn’t have a central customer support staff. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t find solutions to your problems.

Because WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, you can get support on their forums or by creating a free account at WooCommerce.com.

Additionally, Because WordPress and WooCommerce are open source, the developers who create the themes and plugins are available for support if you run into any issues.

WOOCOMMERCE SEO

This is one way that WooCommerce significantly outperforms Shopify. Hands down, WordPress is the best platform for blogging, which gives it a significant advantage for SEO. In fact, it’s not uncommon for Shopify sites to host their blogs externally on WordPress. Using a WooCommerce site on WordPress means consolidating these two crucial segments of the same brand.

WordPress’s blogging capabilities encapsulate both a comprehensive CMS for content management and specific SEO concerns like meta data. Again, good SEO requires effort, but with WooCommerce on WordPress, the option is there for those that don’t mind the legwork.

If you write outstanding blog content for the right keywords, you have a good shot at showing up on the first page of Google for particular searches, which can drive a massive amount of ecommerce sales.

SO WHICH SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Ultimately, the choice between Shopify and WordPress comes down to what you want out of your ecommerce store.

Let’s break it down like this:

CHOOSE SHOPIFY IF…

Shopify distinguishes itself by being a really simple ecommerce solution for everyone. Anybody with the most basic computer and internet skills can create a Shopify store relatively quickly. It’s a simple, powerful turnkey solution that works right away.

If the primary thing you’re after is simplicity and ease of use, Shopify can provide that. The setup is quick and easy and have a single dashboard that presents you with all the information.

You should use Shopify…

• If you don’t have a website and you want to get an ecommerce store up and running as fast as possible with minimal effort.
• If you don’t mind paying a fee for all the features, even if you might not need them all.
• If you don’t care about the technological side of your ecommerce platform and just want it to work well and look good.
• If you are uncomfortable working setting up WordPress and don’t want to pay anybody to setup your store for you.
• If you want a turnkey approach where all you need to do is sign up and follow a few simple instructions.
• If you think you’ll depend heavily on customer support.

CHOOSE WOOCOMMERCE IF…

WooCommerce takes advantage of the hugely popular and powerful WordPress platform. Because of this, you get access to thousands of themes and plugins that can really make your e-commerce store shine.

In terms of ecommerce, WooCommerce can do everything Shopify can, including coupons, shipping, taxes, and a lot more. You also have significantly more SEO options at your disposal with WooCommerce.

An important concern to consider with WooCommerce, that you don’t have to worry about with Shopify, is choosing the right hosting provider for your website. Shopify handles this for you but you’ll want to be sure you find an experienced WordPress host that’s familiar with the unique technical, security, and maintenance needs of WordPress sites. In the world of web hosting, you generallly get what you pay for so don’t bargain shop on something as important as ecommerce hosting.

You should use WooCommerce…

• If you want full control of your eCommerce store.
• If you to enhance your store with thousands of site designs and plugins.
• If you can handle the technical work required upfront to get your site up and running.
• If you’re one of those people who likes to do everything on their own.
• If you have a smaller budget.
• If you already have a WordPress site and want to build your store on top of it.
• If you already have a WordPress site and don’t want to add the additional cost of Shopify.
• If you can survive without 24/7 customer support.

CONCLUSION

Honestly, WooCommerce and Shopify are both outstanding options for building your e-commerce store. If you’re already familiar with WordPress, you might find the learning curve on WooCommerce more palatable than having to learn the ins and outs of a completely new CMS.

Whichever you choose, the end result will still be a fully functional ecommerce store that can accept payments and process orders.

So the real question is, “What are you waiting for?”

The world needs another Amazon. Go create one!

WP Astra is one of the new kids on the block when it comes to WordPress themes, so I was very interested to see how they stack up against some of the big guns.

There theme claims to be a super-lightweight, easy to use theme that is focused on working with page builders. So, instead of trying to do everything, like most themes do, they leave the heavy lifting up to the pros – the page builder plugin creators.

The Astra theme also comes with a super simple free version, as well as a pro version with more bells and whistles, especially for those that want, or need access to more config options.

Let’s take a look at what’s inside and how it looks when used on a new site.

Lightweight And Built For Speed

As someone who is always helping clients speed up their websites, I am excited to see that Astra is built with speed in mind.

A lot of theme developers will say this kind of thing “built for speed” only to put that statement on their homepage. Which is is my nice way of saying, it’s bullshit (excuse my French).

However, when you take a closer look at what the guys & gals who built Astra  promise (and I will put my developers glasses on here) it is great news:

• Loads at under 50kb which is insanely small (most homepages end up being over 1MB in total, so a big theme does not help anyone) without plugins or anything else it loads in under half a second, which is a great start
• They have decided not to bloat the theme with a Jquery library (so an extra file to load for very little benefit). They have coded all they need themselves and included it in the theme! Big thumbs up for that.
• They get high grades in all page speed test tools, which is a plus and something most themes don’t even bother checking, let alone getting a great score on.

All of the above is great news, but I thought I would also run a quick test on a newly installed theme, on a site with a couple of test pages and posts. So, it is not as pure a test as the Astra team did, but it gives us a great idea of how light/fast the raw theme truly is (especially compared to a few others).

So, here is a quick test on Pingdom speed tester of WP Astra versus – Divi, Generate Press, Squared from Thrive Themes and Ocean WP.

WP Astra – 0.68 seconds

Thrive Themes – Squared – 1 second

Generate Press – 0.65 seconds

Divi – 1.27 seconds

As you can see, Astra stacks up pretty well.

It is not exactly the size they claimed (although it is not a a completely empty WordPress installation) but the speed is close to 2/3 of a second! Nice.

Only Generate Press comes in a tad faster, Thrive a bit slower, and Divi a dismally slow and huge load (I like Divi, but seems they have some work to do).

Designed For Page Builders

I used to code things from scratch. In fact, I was a programer for over 2 years. Nowadays though, I think it is a big waste of time to code a website from scratch.

Especially when you have page builders around to help you build a website in hours!

The problem is though, that many themes are not designed with page builders in mind. Astra is exactly the opposite.

They have realised that a Theme cannot design a website completely, so they have built it to work hand in hand with page builders like:

• Elementor
• Beaver Builder
• Visual Composer
• Divi Builder
• Site Origin

Things like page templates to allow for full-width pages (boxed or completely full-width).

Pages without sidebars, headers or footers, so you can make use of those that come from the page builder. And, the removal of the page title, so you can cleanly insert the page builder content.

WP Astra Settings For Page Builders

They have even taken it a step further with their Pro plugin by allowing by allowing you to place Elementor elements in the header.

This may not seem a big deal, but most themes suffer here. They give you lots of options, but you can’t customise what appears in the header. Want to add a “contact us” button, or “buy my course” button. Too bad. Now, with Astra and Elementor, you can do this easy as pie! 

Library Of Pre-Built Websites

To be able to start from a pre-built site which is customizable will not only save you lots of time but, if you are not a graphic designer or developer, will give you an awesome site right out of the box.

Astra comes with all of the following kinds of templates that you can quickly and easily import into the theme as soon as you have uploaded it to WordPress. Just add the Starter Sites plugin, and you will get an additional menu item to see the sites library.

WP Astra Pre-built Sites

These sites are built with either Elementor or Beaver Builder, so you will need to grab one of those plugins to make them work, but look at all the options.

At the time of writing (December 2017) there are 24 Elementor sites, and 22 Beaver Builder.

And just so we are clear, these are not “pages”, they are whole websites!

Here is one just so you can see:

Astra Prebuilt Site Pages

SEO Friendly (Really)

When theme builders say they are SEO friendly, I am often very skeptical, but in this case the Astra creators have included a whole load of Schema to help get your website’s SEO on track.

If you don’t know what Schema are, here’s a quick explanation. They are a small piece of code you can add to specific pages and portions of your site to help search engines know “exactly” what is on the page.

This includes things like products, events, reviews, recipes, your organisation and a whole lot more.​

It may seem a little pointless until you check out search results for things like recipes or reviews and see the extra things Google shows when you use Schema, like this:

Schema.org data displayed for a recipe on Google

They also bake in some specific Schema code to help get a search panel in the sitelinks, which is awesome for when people look up your website on Google. Below is what the code and search panel look like:

Schema Code To Help Add Search Panel To Google Results

Search Panel on Google For The Moz.com website

From an SEO perspective, this can really help sites like Google display your search results better and potentially higher, so any theme that bakes in Schema is on my good side for sure!

LEARN MORE ABOUT ASTRA

Hooks & Filters (Great For Developers)

If you are a developer (or maybe even if you are not :>) you will find the access to hooks and filters in Astra a god-send.

Instead of having to hack your own way into the code to insert specific custom code into the theme, there are lots of intuitive hooks to help you find exactly the right spot.

And, if you really want to see “exactly” where the code will be injected, you can use their hooks visualiser plugin to give you an overview of where these hooks load.

Astra Visual Hooks

Astra Pro Addons

The great things about Astra is that all of the killer features mentioned above are free.

However, if you want to take things to the next level, you can invest in the Pro version and get some very helpful add-ons like these:

• transparent header
• sticky header
• custom header options
• mega menu (coming soon)
• custom footer
• custom page and blog layouts
• page header designer (breadcrumbs, title etc)
• further color options (all website elements)
• further typography options
• scroll to top element
• white label for agencies :>
• woo commerce designer (in Beta)

Some of the handier features include:

Mobile Header

This gives you full control over the mobile header display which we all know can be difficult to customize without full access to all the features.

Sticky Header

Having something stick to the top of your page is great for promotions and conversions. Getting people to click something is hard enough, and even harder when it scrolls away when they move down the page. That is why this kind of feature is a must have for any modern website.

Header Sections

Being able to create a custom header is one thing, but being able to add specific sections just underneath it can be great. Especially if you are using ads (which convert well so high up) and other conversion related elements.

Page Headers

Customizing your website to your needs is killer and being able to specifically create page headers is something I always want to do. Depending on the specific page, you might want a different font or color, or even a full width background image behind the heading. All these options are available with page headers.

Blog Pro

If you have any kind of blog on your website then you know how handy it can be to customize it even further than the basic features. This module allows you to play with your blog or archive pages – including things like author bio box and other design features. Of course, if you already use Elementor Pro then you can customize your blogs with this too.​

So, if you want complete control over how your website looks and the ability to whip up sites for yourself or clients a whole lot faster, this plugin is a no-brainer. It extends all the basic areas of the theme and lets you tweak almost everything I can think of? And they are constantly adding to it. Constantly.

SEE ASTRA PRO

Astra Pro Pricing

Of course, when you go for the Pro version you are going to have to fork out a little cash. But for what you get, in my humble opinion, the Pro version is definitely worth it.

The way the Astra team price things may seem a little strange, but it is kinda geared towards agencies.

For $59 you get Astra Pro and can use it on as many websites as you like. Then from there, it includes other handy add ons for page builders like Elementor, and other plugins you might need. This makes sense, especially when you are building a lot of sites.

The prices shown below are yearly prices, but if you want to just lock it all in you can go “Lifetime” and it costs about 4-5 times the price, but you never have to worry about renewing your subscription again!

SEE ASTRA PRO

What Is SITE123?

If you’re looking to build a website in a quick and easy manner, Site123 may just be the solution! Site123 focuses on making your experience of getting online really simple. Regardless of whether you’ve never built a website before, you’ll still be able to build a professional looking site in a matter of a few hours.

Website builders like Wix allow you to drag and drop elements to create a website. There’s no denying that this process is very simple, however, Site123 have taken simplicity one step further.

Site123’s design assistance creates website templates that are customised to your exact needs. There’s absolutely no need for any technical intervention, making it a great choice for beginners.

Visit SITE123.com

Site123 have an EXCELLENT rating on TrustPilot, with over 80% excellent reviews and only 1% poor. Many of the positive reviews focus on their ease of use and customer service. It’s so nice to hear positive message in terms of support. The poor reviews, of which there are few, appear to comment around Site123’s pricing, which we’ll discuss later in my review.

Even though they are a website builder, Site123 have a good presence on social media. Their Facebook and Twitter pages are always updated and they’re very responsive to messages. It’s extremely refreshing to see GREAT customer feedback in this domain which is making me even more excited to review them myself.

Site123 Uptime & Performance

Not many Site123 reviews seem to look at the website builder’s uptime and performance. As a customer, I always strive to find services that offer great performance. After all, you expect a decent uptime with a web host, so why not a website builder. They too are hosting your website, so it’s important to factor this into your decision.

I signed up to Site123 myself so I could monitor my website’s performance. When you first sign up to Site123, you’ll be asked a few questions. These questions establish the type of website you want to build, and for what purpose. Once you’ve gone through the questions, a template will be created for you containing all of the features you desire on your website.

I kept my website pretty basic to begin with and was REALLY pleased to get an uptime of 99.99% over the space of a few months. During this time I only experienced a total of 2 outages which is brilliant. In fact, this is better that some web hosts I’ve reviewed! Who said website builder hosting wasn’t any good!

My site’s response time averaged out at just over 800 ms. This is great because it’s below 1 second! The recommendation is around 2-3 seconds so again I was really pleased with this result. Of course, the more videos and images (if unoptimised) you have on your site, the higher your response time will be.

Visit Site123 (£0.00/Month)

Site123 Ease of Use

Site123 is super easy to use. Even from the sign up process; you can register your details by linking your social media accounts. There’s absolutely no need for any coding experience when you create a website with Site123. Setting your website up literally takes around 15 minutes, creating a template that’s fit for your purposes.

Site123 doesn’t complicate things, in fact it makes things even easier than thought possible. As their own website states, you can launch your website or business within 3 simple steps. All you need to do is select the type of website you want to build and upload your own content to it. You can then publish your website which will go live in the space of an hour.

Making things even easier, all of Site123’s templates are mobile friendly and responsive. This means that your website will look great on any device! When 94% of people judge a website by it’s mobile responsiveness, this is definitely a good feature to have! What’s more, you can optimise your website’s SEO to ensure that your site appears on search engine results. The more traffic driven to your website, the better your business will do!

Site123 Features

Although Site123 is a simple website builder, it boats many features. There’s absolutely no reason to shun the simplicity of this website builder. Just check out what they have to offer (remember, one of their services is free)!  There are a few differences between Site123’s free and premium plans, so we’ll cover all the features below. I’ll outline where there are differences, because I’m helpful like that!

 Dashboard: The dashboard is (as expected) very easy to access and get the hang of. You will have an overall view of all the websites you’ve created, allowing you to edit or delete them. You can easily add more websites to your collection, create domain names, and check your balance (we’ll come to that shortly). If your website is set up for them, you can also read messages and comments from blogs and newsletters. It’s great having everything all in one place.

 eCommerce: It’s entirely possible to create a fully functioning eCommerce website with Site123. Their advanced eCommerce features make this process really easy, whilst keeping everything very professional. Once you’ve created your online store, you can manage your products and orders in one place. If you want to customise your online store to fit in with your ideal look, this is of course easy to do as well! You can edit your shopping cart, currency options, design, and more. Site123 integrates flawlessly with PayPal, one of the most popular payment methods on the internet.

 Blog: Lots of websites now make use of a blog. It allows users and customers to interact with you, to share their thoughts and experiences, and potentially increase traffic and revenue. Blogs with Site123 can include your content, posts, videos, photos, and more. You can specify the type of topic you wish to write about which will tailor your blog to your purposes. As I’m sure you can expect by now, creating a blog with Site123 is very easy and can be done within a matter of minutes.

 SSL: When you register with Site123 and build a website, you’ll be entitled to a free SSL certificate. This ensures that your website is securely encrypted, allowing you to maintain a high level of protection. This is also a great sign for your customers (if you run an online store). Some websites charge upwards of £80 for these licences, but Site123 includes it absolutely free.

 Email: To maintain a level of professionalism, you’ll have your own email account. Rather than some website builders who require you to have their website name within your email address, yours will look something like email@websitename.com – best of all, this comes at no extra cost!

Visit Site123 (£0.00/Month)

Site123 Pricing

	FREE	PREMIUM
STORAGE	500 MB	10 GB
BANDWIDTH	1 GB	5 GB
DOMAIN	Subdomain	Free domain & connect
BRANDING	Included	Removed
ECOMMERCE	None	Included
PRICE	$0 /month	$12.80 /month (£10.24)

Site123’s pricing plans are really simple, there’s just two of them! Their free plan is entirely free and allows you to create a website, giving you access to all their templates. You are limited to 500MB storage, but this should be plenty to get you started! Unfortunately you can’t connect your own domain, so you will have a domain that looks something like yoursite.site123.com

If you like what Site123 offers and you want to upgrade your plan, their full pricing plan is just $12.80 per month (around £10.24). You’ll get a free domain that you can connect to your website, making it look professional. Storage increases to 10GB which should be comfortable enough for any website or small online store. Speaking of online stores, their premium plan opens up the option to use their eCommerce features.

Here’s a list of some of the eCommerce features:

 Online store (create and manage an online store)
 Currency selection (over 80 currencies to choose from)
 PayPal (integrate PayPal checkout)
 Products (create and sort products by categories)
 Coupons (create coupons and offer/discount codes)
 Shipping options (multiple shipping options to choose from)
 Order forms (customise and create your own order forms)

Visit Site123 (£0.00/Month)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

 Simple and easy to use (no need to have any coding experience)
 Wide choice of templates (all are mobile responsive)
 Multiple websites all under one account
 Access to plugins (great for improving SEO)

Cons:

 Limitations on free plan
 Maybe too simplistic for eCommerce users

Do I Recommend Site123?

Site123’s website builder is great for a lot of users. Whether you’re looking to create a personal website, blog, or online store. The benefits here are that things really are so simple. You don’t need an ounce of coding experience, as the intuitive designer does all the hard work for you. This allows you to focus on the content of your website, without needing to manage the nitty gritty.

If you want to expand your set of features, their premium plan allows the use of plugins. You can use these to your advantage in order to create a professional looking site that can work to your needs. This makes it pretty versatile, so if you are experienced, you’ll probably enjoy this more than the software doing it for you.

In terms of price, Site123 offer a free plan. Free plans, in my opinion, are a great starting point. It gives you a feel of the website builder and allows you to decide whether you’d want to pay for more features and accessibility. Granted, you may get more storage and bandwidth from other website builders at a cheaper price, but you’re paying for complete ease of use here.

Site123’s templates are professional and have a nice modern feel. You won’t need to worry about creating a separate mobile site, because all their templates are responsive. With the amount of people accessing websites via mobile or smart devices, this is an absolute must have feature.

Visit Site123 (£0.00/Month)