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Godaddy Web Design Tools
Most design and development work, either as a freelancer or as a full-time employee, requires your utmost focus and attention. Every second of our attention is critical, and it is important that we do not waste any time troubleshooting work, re-doing work, or doing repetitive non-productive tasks. It’s a scenario that leads the wise to seek out content tools for web developers and designers.
This is especially true for those on the clock. Sometimes your employer, client, or manager would only have a specific budget for your time, and any overtime will leave you overworked and underpaid.
Not exactly a situation you would want to be in!
5 content tools for web developers & designers
There are times that you would wish that you would have multiple versions of yourself just to finish your tasks and beat the deadline. Well, cloning yourself like a ninja isn’t exactly definitive, and automating tasks is the closest that we can get.
These tools that I have been using over the years help me pull through excruciatingly tough days (or even weeks!) and I have found them reliable.
Be it automating some setup tasks, or making use of industry-standard templates, these tools can be helpful for you. Here are some of the tools I make use of, and how I use them:
- Fresh proposals
What it is: This tool is a huge help when it comes to connecting with and in sending project proposals to clients. It contains a library of project proposal templates to choose from, and you can customize its contents according to any business need. The best part are the content placeholders/variables that change according to new and stored client details.
Fresh Proposals Content Tools for Web Developers & Designers
A huge library and ready customization make Fresh Proposals one of our favorite content tools for web developers and designers.
Fresh Proposals (FP) easily tops my list as this is the first tool I use as a freelancer. Fresh Proposals is primarily used for… well… crafting proposals.
On a typical day for a freelancer, job searching can happen on a freelancing platform, such as UpWork or Freelancer. Clients post jobs on a board, and then freelancers send job proposals to clients. These proposals usually contain a cover letter, a page detailing samples of work, a plan on how to complete the job, and more.
Writing these normally gets repetitive and tedious.
You can spend hours writing and modifying proposals. However, with Fresh Proposals, you can have an app that can change proposal details automatically and can generate a PDF or send that proposal email quickly from its dashboard.
Fresh Proposals’ benefit for freelancers is its expansive library of proposal templates. The massive proposal template library almost covers any kind of freelancing work, such as photography, marketing, Facebook Ads and marketing, and videography.
It even has templates for other kinds of documents.
Need to make a job offer letter? FP has it. Need a sign-off document for a video or any creative asset? FP’s got you covered. Need to create a nice-looking project quote for a construction project? There is a template for that, and it comes with a premade layout and pre-written text!
As a bonus, you can always build a new document from scratch in Fresh Proposals.
Let’s say you are responding to a request for quote (RFQ) from a government agency, and they have very unique requirements for structuring document submissions. You can easily create a new proposal or quotation template and use it in future requests and projects. It is the epitome of “build once, use everywhere” for proposals.
Fresh Proposals also has a proposal management feature where you can have the system send the proposal to your client using your domain’s email. Configure this email in your account settings and let FP do the rest.
Fresh Proposals can send the email (it also has customizable templates for these), change proposal status, and manage digital signing of proposals. It even lets you know if a client has viewed your proposal! It removes the guessing game from waiting for client responses and gives you an added peace of mind when sending one.
The takeaway
Fresh proposals can save you time in creating documents — it may be project proposals or any kind of document. If there’s nothing in the library that fits your needs, you can design one as needed and save it as a template. Set content placeholders, and then fill in client details when you’re generating the document. What will normally take 30 mins per client will take about 10 mins per client. Huge time saver and at the same time, lets you work with more clients than ever!
- Canva
What it is: A super simple designing tool with support for complex designs. Many designers stay away from Canva as some do not like its simplicity when it comes to creating designs, but the sheer volume of integrated stock assets and elements make building design assets a breeze. For seasoned designers, I primarily use the toolkit of Canva to create design pegs and studies for clients. After which I download and open them in Photoshop and Illustrator for refinements.
Content Tools for Web Developers & Designers
Simplicity and functionality earn Canva a spot on our list of content tools for web developers and designers.
For a time, I have ignored Canva for what it is: a tool so simple that I had believed that it diminishes my design reputation (if ever there was!) if I used it. But when a huge influx of design projects came in and content creation requirements have come up, I needed a tool that can work with me on any platform, anytime and anywhere.
This was when I rediscovered Canva, and I am glad that I have taken that leap of faith.
Canva is a design tool that makes every common task accessible to you. You can start with an empty canvas or with a predefined template. You can also browse their extensive library of templates for ideas and inspiration. From there you can add elements such as text, symbols, images, and shapes. They even have a tool to remove backgrounds from images!
All of these happen quickly and seamlessly, you would think that you’re using a web version of Photoshop.
Another strength of Canva is they also have print material templates, such as documents, posters, and brochures. I was able to build a print-ready brochure in minutes. And since I have been designing professionally, I am able to create unique and custom designs on my own. Now that’s flexibility!
One downside for Canva is its lack of layer control. In other professional software, you can see your layers, visually arrange, and customize them. In Canva, you can’t—there is no interface where you can control your layers. There is an order of display for your canvas in Canva, but if your design has you buried in more than five or six layers that cover the entire canvas it will be hard to manage them all.
The Takeaway
Canva is a useful tool for making quick and professional designs on your desktop and on the go. Need to send a client a quick design idea? Go ahead. Need to send multiple design studies while on an errand? Tap away. It’s a multi-platform design tool that is genius in its simple controls, but powerful in its customization features. And if you really need to, you can create designs initially in Canva then import and refine them in a heavy-duty design tool, such as Photoshop.
- What Font Is
What it is: Ever wondered what a font was on an amazing app? Or on a signboard? Take a photo, upload it, and find the font!
Content Tools for Web Developers & Designers What Font Is
Looking to find a font with Shazaam-like ease? Add What Font Is to your kit of content tools for web developers and designers.
What Font Is is a simplified service where you can rediscover good fonts from any user interface, service, or signboards. What’s best is that it makes use of image recognition, which means you can identify fonts even from physical sources. Like a font from a sign from the subway? Take a photo, upload it, and click Find the Font.
This is a big godsend for certain designers who have trouble memorizing fonts they work with (like me!).
Also, it’s very useful if a client sends in a design peg and just says “I like the font from this design, let’s use it!” (Which happens most of the time). Instead of spending minutes to hours scrolling through a library of fonts in fonts.com or typography.com, you can just use this service and start working on your projects.
The Takeaway
It’s a nifty tool for designers that work with clients that send design briefs and pegs that doesn’t specify what they want. This tool eliminates vagueness in your design requirements, giving you more time for actual designing and not in looking for “that font I saw in front of a store a while ago”.
- Mobirise
What it is: A quick-and-easy way to build a static HTML site with responsive design. Hit it up with a Git repository and hook it up with a deploy pipeline, and you have an automated website building tool that is as easy as 1-2-3.
Content Tools for Web Developers and Designers Mobirise
Easy building with HTML makes Mobirise another one of our favorite content tools for web developers and designers.
If there’s a tool that I most of the time get away with, it’s Mobirise. I cannot count the times I have depended on this wonderful piece of software.
A key feature of this tool is that it has a lot of website “building blocks” that you can mix and match from. Kind of like a website “lego”, you can pick what fits your needs and combine them into what you want to build.
Now, all you need is your creativity and imagination!
For seasoned developers, you will also love the idea that you can insert custom code into your site– though at a price. The custom code plugin for Mobirise is pretty inexpensive as a stand-alone plugin, but it comes part of the entire Mobirise Kit, which I think is something you would rather buy if you’re planning to build websites using Mobirise as a freelance gig.
The Takeaway
Mobirise is an easy to use tool to build websites, especially that websites typically have common “patterns” and code that you can totally reuse (unless you’re into bespoke designs, then you’ll have to build yours from scratch!). But, for those projects that you want to focus on the design rather than the implementation, Mobirise is there to help you bring that vision into reality.
- Loader Generator
What it is: A simple, no-nonsense loading screen or loader creator for applications made in React.
Content Tools for Web Developers and Designers
Don’t waste time building loading screens. Just add Loader Generator to your kit of content tools for web developers and designers.
For start-ups, building an app or service from scratch has always been a dream, especially if your value proposition is unique, uses cutting-edge technology, and niche.
Building such an application takes a lot of time, resources, and man-hours.
But this is in contrast when start-ups are still… well… starting out (heh). You don’t need to custom code everything, especially if you are still validating your product in the market. Even Dropbox started out as a video to validate the product in the market.
Enter Loader Generator.
This lets you build a simple loading animation whenever the React-based application is loading, or whenever you need a loading screen to pop up. It uses Framer Motion and NPM for its dependencies for easy integration with your project. The generator site gives you code to copy and paste into your project, so you won’t need to write anything from scratch just for this loader. Time saver? Totally yes.
The Takeaway
When you’re working on an app with minimal effort required, using existing builders and tools are very helpful in completing the build. There is no shame in using builders and generators as long as it gets the job done. And if you do validate your product and get that seed money, you’ll get the last laugh.
Final notes on content tools for web developers & designers
The bevy of tools and services I have outlined here have worked for me for years now. These have helped me work with multiple clients and projects to the point that I don’t even bother to think too much about it when I begin a new project.
You, too, can take advantage of these apps and services to help cut back time spent in doing routine and repetitive tasks.
Doing so lets you save much-needed time, especially when working with multiple clients and deadlines. And finally, these services offer a lot of their features for free, which means you can always try things out before shelling out cash for their services.
free website builder
It’s almost impossible to maintain a successful business without a fully functional, responsive, SEO-compatible website — but you don’t have to shell out the big bucks to afford one.
There are plenty of options for building and designing a website for free, many of which require little to no coding knowledge. And these website builders are often comparable in quality to their paid alternatives, particularly for small businesses or personal brands.
The free website builders we’re sharing today offer SEO benefits, embedded analytics systems, mobile optimization, and professional-looking templates. If you’re on a tight budget and can’t quite swing the paid builders, these are the next best thing.
Read on to check out 18 of the best free website builders, so you can build a website for free without forfeiting quality.
Build your website with HubSpot’s Free CMS Software
Best Free Website Builders
HubSpot Drag-and-Drop Website Builder
Wix
Weebly
WordPress
Elementor
WebNode
Jimdo
Mozello
WebStarts
Webflow
IM Creator
SITE123
Strikingly
Duda
Squarespace
GoDaddy
Strikingly
Pixpa
- HubSpot Drag-and-Drop Website Builder
Creating a beautifully branded website doesn’t have to be complicated. If you’re taking the DIY-route when it comes to creating your website and you don’t have coding experience, consider trying this drag-and-drop website builder.
Within the HubSpot website builder, there are themes and templates that make launching your new website quick and easy. Using this tool, you can also connect your website directly to your CRM to seamlessly integrate your contact forms, live chat requests, and more.
Free Website builder: HubSpot Drag and Drop website builder
- Wix
Wix is one of the most popular free website builders out there, with 110 million users. The fully hosted platform offers an easy drag-and-drop editor, and a large collection of professional-looking templates that are well-suited for small businesses, online stores, restaurants, or personal portfolios.
Wix supplies built-in Google Analytics to monitor your site, and even offers additional apps for individual preferences. If you want, Wix can even design your site for you. The biggest downside of Wix’s free version is it doesn’t come ad-free, and each page of your site will have a prominent Wix ad. Ad-free is only an option if you pay for the premium version.
Website by Amber Schormans built with Wix
- Weebly
This open source SaaS offers web hosting, domain registration, web design, and even ecommerce functions, making it suitable for businesses and startups. Weebly’s a particularly flexible website builder, compatible with every device and platform, and easy to use.
Like Wix, Weebly has drag-and-drop functionality, as well as an integrated CMS solution, and hand-coded HTML files. The in-house editor comes with SEO tools and Google Analytics. With PayPal integration, an automatic tax calculator, digital gift cards, and more, Weebly is a smart choice for ecommerce businesses. And unlike some of its other free competitors, Weebly is ad-free.
Website by Mill Clothing built with Weebly
- WordPress
WordPress is a commonly used free website builder that also allows you to buy a web domain. For those who don’t want to pay for a domain, you can also run your site live with a WordPress-owned URL.
Like Wix and many of the other builders on this list, you can create visually stunning websites, blogs, and landing pages with WordPress. You can also place assets like contact forms, videos, and embedded content on to many WordPress pages.
For those who are less experienced in webpage building, WordPress offers and easy-to-understand backend interface with minimal to no coding needed.
WordPress is especially great for web editors with less design experience. When creating sites on this platform, you can build one from a professionally predesigned template or theme, or you can get more technical and personalize your own website. Below is an example of one of its pre-designed templates:
Maywood WordPress TemplateWhen you first get started, WordPress will show you a variety of themes that you can preview and test out. Then, once you select a theme, WordPress will give you a tutorial on how to edit your website. You can then change your theme at any time fairly quickly.
If a theme or the WordPress platform doesn’t have something you’re looking for, like an intricate customer relationship management system, you can easily get a plugin. A plugin is like an add-on feature that is compatible with WordPress but usually managed by another company.
For example, HubSpot offers a great WordPress marketing plugin which allows you to capture contacts through WordPress and send track them in HubSpot’s free CRM. You can learn more about the plug-in here.
- Elementor Website Builder
While WordPress is a great option for building a site, sometimes it’s nice to have a little help as you get started with designing from scratch. That’s where a WordPress page builder can be helpful.
Elementor is a drag and drop builder trusted by over 5,000,000 users, and it’s a great no-code option for getting a WordPress site off the ground quickly. With Elementor’s page builder, you can choose from hundreds of available templates, customize them, and guarantee your site displays correctly regardless of device size. It’s built with design in mind, and you can create pixel perfect pages without worrying about the underlying code.
elementor page builder
While Elementor is free to use and includes 70+ templates, there are paid plans starting at $49 that offer more templates and functionality.
- WebNode
WebNode is a popular choice for both personal brands and professionals — it’s easy to use, and you can create a website in a different language or on a different platform to suit your business’s needs. WebNode supports ecommerce stores, and the sites are compatible with Android, Mac, and IOS devices. WebNode will provide statistics to track your site’s success, free of charge, and even with the free version, you won’t have ads.
Website by Orange Grove built with WebNode
- Jimdo
Based in Germany, Jimdo is a valuable option for international companies, with options to create a site in more than nine different languages. The builder is compatible with smartphones and tablets, and there’s a mobile app you can use to build a mobile-optimized site, as well.
With no page limit and 500 MB of space, you’ll likely have more than enough space to build your site, and it even provides HTTPS/SSL encryption, meaning your visitor’s information will be kept safe. Plus, you’re able to integrate your site seamlessly with social media accounts. If you do decide to use Jimdo, beware of one thing: the builder prevents free websites from being indexed by search engines.
Website by Vorm built with Jimdo
- Mozello
One of the biggest selling-points for this Latvian-based company is the builder allows you to create a multilingual site for free — something unmatched by other website builders.
Mozello’s features include a blog, online store, SEO options, and 500 MB of storage. There is an advertisement, but it’s just a link in the footer, so most visitors won’t see it. The only drawback is the drag-and-drop system isn’t as intuitive or complex as some other options, and there aren’t a ton of design customization options.
Website by Anna Photography built with Mozello
- WebStarts
With a wide collection of beautiful templates and a user-friendly drag and drop functionality, WebStarts makes building a website as simple as possible: best of all, whatever you see when you’re designing is exactly what your visitors will see when you publish the site. This can take some of the guess-work out of the process.
Website by Business Coaching built with WebStarts
- Webflow
While most of the other builders in this list are for people without a ton of coding knowledge, Webflow is specifically for designers and agencies who build sites for clients — this means the HTML and CSS is entirely in your control.
After you’ve built a site on Webflow, you will need to transfer it to a content management system. There are some features, like drag-and-drop widgets for adding social components, maps, and videos, that don’t require coding knowledge. But if you want the full benefits of Webflow, you’ll need to know HTML or CSS. There’s a limited set of themes, a responsive interface, and your Webflow site can be customized for desktop, tablets, or smartphones.
Apart from the necessity of knowing code, one other drawback of Webflow is you can only have two pages, and there’s a limit of 500 visits for free users.
Website by Geely Automobiles built with Webflow
- IM Creator
With more than 11 million sites built on IM Creator, it’s a popular option for a few reasons: there’s an easy point-and-click interface, an extensive range of templates and images, and unlimited web hosting and domain services. Plus, the platform is scalable, and you can have either single or multipage layouts. This builder is unique for its built-in ecommerce tools, and offers SEO and Google Analytics to fully optimize your site for search engines.
Website built with IM Creator
- SITE123
Arguably one of the most flexible and easy-to-use builders, Site123 lets you customize anything and offers a one-click installation wizard with graphics and templates. Site123 stands out as particularly helpful with its free images library, professional fonts to add visual elements to your site, and creative DIY plans for creating multiple pages (which are unlimited). Plus, since it offers web hosting domain registration, 500 MB storage space, Google Analytics, and is ad-free, you won’t feel pressured to switch to a paid plan.
Website built with SITE123
- Strikingly
Strikingly prides itself on helping its users build a website with no programming skills required. Thousands of sites have been launched through this website creator, and users can start designing their own by selecting from countless templates contributed by site owners around the world. You can find website designs suited for startups, ecommerce stores, blogs, events, product launches, and personal branding.
Strikingly’s free offering comes with unlimited free sites but a modest 5 GB of monthly bandwidth. You’re also limited to a strikingly.com domain unless you upgrade to a paid plan, which starts at $8 per month.
Website by The Adventure Learning Project built with Strikingly
- Duda
Duda is a feature-rich website creator with numerous site widgets and media files, allowing you to piece together a website to fit your specific needs. On top of site templates and a lengthy content library, Duda comes with a team-collaboration tool and basic analytics to show you how visitors are engaging with different parts of your website.
Duda offers a free trial, as well as plans that start as a low as $14 per month billed annually.
Website promoting wine event built with Duda
- Squarespace
Squarespace is fairly similar to WordPress and Wix in that it allows you to work off of pre-designed themes or build a site from scratch with its wire-framing features. Squarespace claims to require no plugins while offering 24/7 service to its users.
Squarespace’s pre-designed themes usually emphasize imagery or video, so it might be great for people in visual media, entertainment, dining, or fashion industries. Many templates, such as the one below, are both simplistic and mobile optimized. While simplicity might be difficult for a software company or a business which offers many services, it could be great for consumer facing companies that sell products related to one major industry:
Wexley Portfolio Template from Squarespace
- GoDaddy
While GoDaddy is known as a website where you can go to buy cheap domains, it also has its own website builder for website owners that want to purchase domains and design their site at the same time.
GoDaddy Cafe Faba Template GoDaddy’s website templates are simple, clean, and effective. They can also be uploaded to WordPress sites for those who prefer to use WordPress’ software.
- Strikingly
Strikingly is another easy-to-use and code-free website builder that allows you to create a website using templates that are optimized for different sizes of screens. It also offers basic image editing features to make your photos look crisp and clean.
TribeWanted Mobile Optimized Site designed with Strikingly.
Because of its simple interface, Strikingly and its customer testimonials claim you can build your site within an hour on the platform.
- Pixpa
Pixpa is an all-in-one, DIY website builder designed to empower photographers, creative professionals, and businesses in creating beautiful, professional websites without touching a single line of code.
Pixpa’s range of pixel-perfect, minimalist, professional website templates are easy to build with and fully customizable. With a built-in online store builder, blogging platform, client proofing tools, and more, Pixpa enables you to showcase, share, sell and deliver their work online easily – all in one place.
pixpa homepage
While Pixpa isn’t free, you can access the full-featured website builder for 15-days. Afterward, if you’d like to continue using Pixpa’s tools, pricing plans start as low as $3.
Picking Your Website Builder
There you have it! Since all of these website builders are free, try out a couple if you’re unsure of the best fit. In particular, take note of what you really want to get out of your site to ensure your needs will be met by one of these free builders.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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