Website Software Reviews: Grow Your Website With The Right Tools

A lot of real estate business owners assume that to have a professional, informative, and stunning website you have to fork out a ton of money and invest in a long-term contract with a web design firm. Well, it’s simply not true. There’s another, more agile way to get started.

With WordPress Themes, you can create a fully functional website that you can manage & control yourself with a shorter learning curve than you might think.  In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of “off-the-shelf” WordPress themes for businesses that have stunning design and amazing functionality beautiful galleries to display your listings, map features, search functions and more.

And, even better, WordPress themes are open-source so you gain access to a wide community of resources and help…which means you’ll never be left high and dry by a design firm using a proprietary software.

That said – like owning your own house – there are additional responsibilities that you’ll need to take care of when you run your own website rather than using a website builder. Be sure to think through your requirements and how you are going to actually use and market your site.

Here are 8 WordPress themes for real estate businesses and agencies (+2 frameworks) curated from marketplaces and theme sellers around the Internet. [Read more…] about Best 8 Themes for Real Estate WordPress Websites

Themes are one of the “killer” features of using WordPress to power your website. Unlike drag and drop website builders, you start with a defined, beautiful template with built-in features. While some themes come with feature over-kill (or a blank slate), there is a whole universe of themes customized for every type of business imaginable.

In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of “off-the-shelf” WordPress themes for athletes and coaches that have stunning design and amazing functionality like beautiful galleries to show off your skills & experience, pages to build your biography, blog functionality to share tricks of the trade, and more.

And, even better, WordPress themes are (supposed to be) open-source & GPL licensed so you gain access to a wide community of resources and help…which means you’ll never be left high and dry by a design firm. Some require a learning curve, and some are super-simple, but all have the versatility for athletes and coaches that want an active online presence.

Here are 11 of the best WordPress Themes for Athletes & Coaches from our favorite marketplaces around the internet. Read on!

It’s only natural as a web or graphic or even interior designer to think about your own website. Whether you are an individual contractor or a large company, it’s actually *pretty* important to have a professional, informative, & stunning website yourself.

Themes are one of the “killer” features of using WordPress to power your website. Unlike drag and drop website builders, you start with a defined, beautiful template with built-in features. While some themes come with feature over-kill (or a blank slate), there is a whole universe of themes customized for every type of business imaginable.

In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of “off-the-shelf” WordPress themes for web & graphic designers that have stunning design and amazing functionality like beautiful galleries and portfolios to display your services and products, pricing tables, bio pages, and more.

And yes – I know what you’re thinking – “I’m a designer…shouldn’t I have a custom design that I built myself?” – yes and no. Here’s the thing. You get paid when you design for other people. And just because you are a designer does not mean you are a front-end developer either. If you can get a custom design, then that is preferable. Go for it.

But if you need something that looks good, is quick and will get leads to get in touch with you…then an off the shelf theme with flexibility will allow you to focus on the work that you get paid to do.

And, even better, WordPress themes are (supposed to be) open-source & GPL licensed so you gain access to a wide community of resources and help. Some require a learning curve, and some are super-simple, but all have the versatility for a web or graphic designer that wants an active online presence.

Here are the 12+ Best WordPress Themes for Web & Graphic Designers (+2 frameworks) curated from marketplaces and theme sellers around the Internet. [Read more…] about Top 12+ WordPress Themes for Web & Graphic Designers

Publicity is a major – and necessary – part of being a successful musician or band. But let’s be real. Using SoundCloud, Bandcamp, YouTube, and Facebook are great for getting off the ground, but eventually, you’ll want to get your own website.

Themes are one of the “killer” features of using WordPress to power your website. Unlike drag and drop website builders, you start with a defined, beautiful template with built-in features. While some themes come with feature over-kill (or a blank slate), there is a whole universe of themes customized for every type of business imaginable.

In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of “off-the-shelf” WordPress themes for bands and musicians that have stunning design and amazing functionality like bio pages, tour date calendars, integrated audio players and more.

And, even better, WordPress themes are (supposed to be) open-source & GPL licensed so you gain access to a wide community of resources and help. Some require a learning curve, and some are super-simple, but all have the versatility for a musician or band that wants an active online presence.

Here are 15 of the Best WordPress Themes for Musicians and Bands (+2 frameworks) curated from marketplaces and theme sellers around the Internet. [Read more…] about Top 15 WordPress Themes For Musicians & Bands

Themes are one of the “killer” features of using WordPress to power your website. Unlike drag and drop website builders, you start with a defined, beautiful template with built-in features. While some themes come with feature over-kill (or a blank slate), there is a whole universe of themes customized for every type of website imaginable.

In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of “off-the-shelf” WordPress themes for mobile apps and app showcases that have stunning design and amazing functionality like beautiful galleries to display your newest product, social media integration, and apps tours.

And, even better, WordPress themes are (supposed to be) open-source & GPL licensed so you gain access to a wide community of resources and help…which means you’ll never be left high and dry by a design firm. Some require a learning curve, and some are super-simple, but all have the versatility for an app developer or mobile app store owner that wants an active online presence.

Here are the 12+ Best WordPress Themes for Mobile Apps (+2 frameworks) curated from marketplaces and theme sellers around the Internet. [Read more…] about Top 7+ WordPress Themes for Mobile & Apps

Looking for creative ways to get the word out about your church or ministry? Believe it or not, 61% of potential churchgoers who checked out the website beforehand said that it was “somewhat to very important” in their decision to visit that church and with the increasing number of non-profit organizations and ministries, more and more potential volunteers and donors want some sort of online engagement with their organization of choice.

But investing in a design firm or a webmaster can be an expensive affair, especially when you want to use your budget for the good of the community! With WordPress Themes, you can easily create a beautiful, functional website for your church or ministry – without knowing a bit of coding! It’s an amazing platform because it offers versatility in design, function, and user-friendliness. What’s more – you’ll have complete control and ownership over it.

There are a ton of WordPress themes out there – everything from the basic foundation to an out-of-the-box theme with all the bells and whistles you can imagine (like donation portals, event management systems, and even podcast options). And since WordPress themes are open-source, you gain access to a huge community of resources, ideas, and help. It really can’t get any better for a church or ministry trying to maintain effective communication and outreach with their community!

Finding the perfect theme can be a little overwhelming, especially if you’re new to all the lingo. Here are the Best WordPress Themes for Church & Ministry Websites from our favorite marketplaces around the internet + 2 amazing theme frameworks. [Read more…] about Best WordPress Themes for Churches & Ministries

One of the best ways to generate publicity and interest for your fitness or personal trainer business is a website that looks amazing – but who wants to spend a huge chunk of their budget on a web designer and contracts?

With WordPress themes you can create your own fully functional website with professional, stunning design without knowing any coding. And what’s more, you’ll have complete control and ownership over it.

There are a ton of WordPress themes out there – everything from the basic foundation to an out-of-the-box theme with all the bells and whistles you can imagine. And since WordPress themes are open-source, you gain access to a huge community of resources, ideas and help. It really can’t get any better for a fitness company or a personal trainer trying to establish a solid online presence.

Finding the perfect theme can be a little overwhelming, especially if you’re new to all the lingo. We’ve curated 11 of the best WordPress Themes for Fitness & Personal Trainer blogs, websites and businesses from our favorite marketplaces around the internet + 2 amazing theme frameworks. Read on! [Read more…] about 11 Best WordPress Themes for Fitness & Personal Trainers

WordPress Plugins are an enormous reason for the success of WordPress. Plugins allow anyone to add nearly any function to any WordPress powered website with a series of clicks – no coding knowledge required. You can add anything from social networking to ecommerce to email capture to SEO options to really anything you can dream up.

As a bonus for website owners the world over – thousands of plugins are free to use and available in the community supported WordPress.org repository.

That said – plugins can also present problems. Since anyone can create a plugin…they can suffer from bad quality control (to say the least). And even if a free plugin is well-supported, it might not be up to the standard that your site needs.

Although the WordPress community has a habit of destroying the idea that “you get what you pay for” – plugin code quality is usually directly related to the resources that the author has to invest in the plugin.

Enter premium plugins – aka, WordPress plugins that you pay for directly before use. “Premium” does not necessarily equal “good” but it does make the relationship more direct. If you have a critical website function, premium plugins are certainly worth a look.

Here’s a roundup of the most stable & reputable providers of premium WordPress plugins based on my experience and following of the WordPress community.

Aside – before looking at the list, please remember that WordPress is GPL licensed software and any software that is dependent on WordPress must follow the license as well. It gets complicated, but just be sure to always check that your plugin is licensed correctly to follow the GPL license.
[Read more…] about WordPress Premium Plugin Providers + Free Premium WordPress Plugins

The growth of technology has changed the way that our world functions in practically every sphere from politics to medicine to relationships – and especially education. This source calculates upwards of 5.8 million people have participated in an online course, and that number is only increasing. Having an online education presence is essential – whether you’re a community college, a niche education startup or you want to ramp up your YouTube tutorials.

But what if you aren’t a coder? That’s not a problem anymore! WordPress Themes can really give you the upper hand if you want to manage a high quality & professional website and still be cost effective. It’s an amazing platform because it offers a high score with user-friendliness, versatility with design & functionality, and it has great SEO potential. And no, you really don’t have to be tech-savvy to get it all right!

And the cherry on top is that WordPress is open-source, so you’ll gain a huge network or support & resources to build a stunning website. Forget blowing your budget and high-commitment contracts with a design firm.

A major element to keep in mind while you’re scrolling through the thousands of themes available out there – you need a way to manage all the aspects of your online learning center. A learning management system for courses and tutorials is usually handled with a plugin (an application for specific task in a theme) since it’s a function element, not a design element. Two of the best course plugins available are Sensei by WooCommerce & CoursePress by WordPress.

However, courses and tutorials do present certain design challenges that can be solved with a particular theme. Additionally, there are some themes that bundle the functionality you might need (like timers, quizzes, etc) to keep things simple. Otherwise, make sure that the theme you go with will sync with your plugin of choice.

All that said, here are the Top 12 Best WordPress Themes for Online Courses & Tutorials! All of these options either come with the functions you need or integrate well with plugins like Sensei & CoursePress. [Read more…] about Best 12 WordPress Themes for Courses, Tutorials & Learning Management Systems

It’s a pretty common assumption – and misconception – that the only way to have a professional and useful website for a hotel, bed & breakfast or resort is to invest in a long-term contract with a web design firm and fork out a ton of money in the meantime. But there is another way!

With WordPress Themes, you can create a fully functional website for your Hotel, Bed & Breakfast or Resort that you can manage yourself with just a few clicks…and little to no coding knowledge necessary! On top of that, WordPress Themes are open-source so you gain access to a wide community of resources and helps.

Side note – since WordPress is such a widely adopted backend software, you can hire a professional to work with if/when that time comes.

It can be a bit daunting to step into such a vast new world, so we’ve curated 11 of the best WordPress Themes (and 2 Theme Frameworks) for Hotels, B&Bs, and Resorts from marketplaces and themesellers around the Internet.
Disclosure – this website receives customer referral fees from companies and products mentioned on this website. All data & opinions are based on ShivarWeb staff’s independent research and professional judgement.

The age of technology has shifted the way most things work – including how authors get noticed by publishers and readers alike. Having an online presence is essential, even if you aren’t publishing your works online. But what if you aren’t a coder or tech-savvy?

That’s where WordPress Themes come in. A WordPress theme can give you the upper hand if you’re looking to manage a website that’s high quality and cost-effective. It’s an amazing platform because it offers versatility in terms of design, functionality & user-friendliness, plus it has fantastic SEO potential. And no, you don’t have to be a coder to get things right!

On top of that, since WordPress is open-source, you’ll gain a huge network of support and resources to build a stunning website. Forget dropping big dollars and high-commitment contracts with a design firm! Here are 13 of the best WordPress themes (and 2 Frameworks) well-suited for book authors and publishers that we have curated from our favorite internet marketplaces. [Read more…] about Top 13 WordPress Themes for Book Authors & Publishers

MailChimp sends out over 10 billion emails a month created by everyone from huge corporations to individuals. MailChimp sends everything from personal musings to multi-million dollar product announcements to curated marketing newsletters.

Every one of those emails shares one thing in common – they all had some sort of template or design.

So here’s the (quite possibly) million dollar question: what’s the best MailChimp template for your campaign? Here’s what I’ve learned digging deep into MailChimp’s treasure trove of data on how to choose & use their email templates effectively. [Read more…] about Best MailChimp Templates: How To Choose & Use Effectively

Do you have a hobby or craft ideas galore to inspire fellow creatives – but building websites isn’t your cup of tea? Put on your DIY gloves and check out WordPress Themes!

With WordPress Themes, you can create a fully functional website with a beautiful design – and no coding knowledge required! It’s got a simple, streamlined setup and an unlimited number of amazing design and function options – you can even create your own storefront!

Plus, you’ll be joining an experienced open-source community with all the resources, suggestions, and helps that you need! It’s a practical way to expand your craft & hobby blog or business without the expensive, annoying contracts you get with design firms.

Here’s a list of the best creative WordPress themes for crafts and hobbies + 2 theme frameworks curated from our favorite theme marketplaces around the web to help you create the website of your dreams! [Read more…] about Top 9 Creative WordPress Themes for Crafts & Hobbies

What’s one of the best ways to generate publicity, revenue and/or interest for your yoga or pure barre studio, health & wellness website or blog? A professional, informative and stunning website. But who wants to spend a huge chunk of their budget on a web designer and confusing contracts? Nobody.

Enter WordPress Themes. You can create a fully functional, professional website without any coding knowledge necessary – and you will have complete control & ownership over it. And since WordPress Themes is open-source, you’ll gain access to a huge community of resources and help.

Finding the perfect theme can be a little overwhelming. So I’ve curated 11 of the best WordPress Themes that work well for health and wellness websites, yoga studios, and personal health and fitness blogs.  [Read more…] about 11 Best WordPress Themes for Health & Wellness

Thinking about overhauling or creating your contractor or construction company website but don’t have the technical know-how? Signing an expensive, long-term contract with a design firm is not the only way to do it anymore.

With WordPress Themes, you can create a fully functional website with a stellar design – with no coding knowledge required. It’s got a simple, streamlined setup and a ton of amazing design and function options. Plus, with the open-source community, you’ll have all the resources and helps you need.

Here’s a list of the best WordPress themes for Contractors, Builders and Construction Companies + 2 theme frameworks curated from our favorite theme marketplaces around the internet to help you build a solid foundation for your website. [Read more…] about Best 8 WordPress Themes for Contractors & Builders

Are you trying to build or revamp an online presence for Landscaping or Outdoors-focused business or blog – but without blowing your budget? WordPress Themes is the platform to kickstart your success!

With WordPress themes, you can create a fully functioning website for your business or blog, and best of all, no coding knowledge is required! WordPress themes has a simple setup and allows you to maintain control of your own site instead of dealing with the contracts and long-term commitment of web design firms. Plus, WordPress is an open-source software so you’ll have a ton of resources and helps from the online community.

Here’s a list of the best WordPress themes for Landscaping and Outdoors – focused businesses or blogs curated from our favorite theme marketplaces to get you off on the right foot. [Read more…] about Top 14 WordPress Themes for Landscaping & Outdoors

Online gaming has grown a ton in popularity over the years – and there’s really no indication that it’s gonna slow down either. There are people from all corners of the globe jumping on board and enjoying a little friendly competition.

If you are looking for a way to get in on the action – maybe creating your own gaming website or online gaming community – but you don’t want to go broke trying, you should consider WordPress Themes!

With WordPress Themes, you can create a fully functional gaming website that you can manage yourself with just a few clicks. You don’t have to be a pro at design coding – there are WordPress gaming themes that have stunning designs and multipurpose WordPress themes that fit the bill too. On top of that, WordPress Themes are open-source so you gain access to a wide community of resources and helps.

Here’s a list of the top WordPress themes for gaming websites + 2 theme frameworks curated from our favorite theme marketplaces to jumpstart your website’s design.
[Read more…] about Best 9+ WordPress Themes for Gaming Websites

If you’re looking for an impressive alternative to expensive web design firms for your business in the farming or fishing industry, WordPress should definitely be on your list. It’s an amazing platform for your business because it’s versatility in terms of design and functionality.

On top of that, you gain the support of a huge open-source community with tons of help and resources to build a stunning website through the simple installation and beautiful design features of WordPress Themes for fishing and farming. Whether you are building your agritourism business, CSA, direct to consumer retail or just need to communicate to stakeholders more effectively – you can have something worthwhile.

Here are our top 14 WordPress Themes for Farm, Fishing and Agricultural websites curated from marketplaces and sellers around the Internet!
Disclosure – this website receives customer referral fees from companies and products mentioned on this website. All data & opinions are based on ShivarWeb staff’s independent research and professional judgement.

Thinking about revamping your automotive or car dealer website or building one from scratch? With more and more agencies turning to WordPress as their software of choice, there’s also more interest in “off the shelf” designs – whether it’s a multi-purpose theme for any industry or an automotive or car dealer WordPress theme.

WordPress Themes make that option more possible than ever. Since they plug and play, WordPress themes offer you a great opportunity to create a unique, professional website without any previous coding knowledge. It’s very easy to manage and it’s open-source, which means that there is a ton of flexibility and support within the community of users.

As part of our series on specialized WordPress themes, we’ve searched the web and curated 9 of the Best WordPress Themes for Car Dealers and Automotive Businesses. [Read more…] about 9 WordPress Themes for Automotive Businesses & Car Dealers

The Fashion & Beauty world has some of the stiffest competition you could imagine – which means creating and managing a solid, beautiful website is a priority.

WordPress’ ability to pull in off-the-shelf themes means that you can spend more time creating content instead of digging around the CSS & HTML code. There are tons of options ranging from WordPress.org’s free theme repository to theme frameworks to individual theme sellers to marketplaces. We put together this list to help you narrow your research.

So whether you’ve got a beauty blog, a fashion website with an online store or a combination of both, here are 9 fantastic WordPress Themes for Fashion & Beauty blogs curated from around the Internet. [Read more…] about 9 Fantastic WordPress Themes for Fashion & Beauty Websites

Facebook. LinkedIn. Twitter. Google+. Instagram.

Social networking, social media and online community building has quickly become one of our strongest forms of communication – personally and professionally. And WordPress has a pretty sweet way for your social network-integrated website: Themes. They are an attractive alternative to an expensive web design firm because they give you versatility in terms of design and functionality, plus it has amazing SEO potential.

On top of that, you get the support of a huge open-source community with tons of help and resources to build stunning website without any coding knowledge – and you get all of this without breaking the bank!

Our favorite WordPress plugin that seamlessly integrates social network functionality to your website is called BuddyPress. It works well on a ton of WordPress themes, but here are our top 12+ WordPress Themes for BuddyPress curated from the best marketplaces and sellers around the Internet. Some of these guys are premium themes and some of them are free downloads!  [Read more…] about Top 12+ WordPress Themes for BuddyPress Social Network Plugin

The world of online news content is rapidly expanding; in fact, did you know that about 93% of men and 92% of women who got online in August 2015 were reading online news at some point or another?

WordPress themes give you the upper hand if you’re looking to manage a newspaper or journalist website that’s high quality and cost-effective. It’s an amazing platform because it offers versatility in terms of design, functionality & user-friendliness, plus it has fantastic SEO potential. And no, you don’t have to be a coder to get things right!

On top of that, since WordPress is open-source, you’ll gain a huge network of support and resources to build a stunning website. Forget dropping big dollars and high-commitment contracts with a design firm! Here are 12 of the best WordPress themes (and 2 Frameworks) well-suited for newspapers and journalists that we have found from around the Internet. [Read more…] about Best 12 WordPress Themes for Newspapers & Journalists

Don’t be fooled by the misconception that a stunning and professional website can only come from hiring an expensive design firm and signing lots of fine print. WordPress Themes are a fantastic way to create a tailor-made website that can showcase your work and skills or your studio for a fraction of the cost – and you don’t even have to know any code.

Most themes are incredibly flexible in terms of design, and since WordPress themes are open-source, you have a ton of support and resources at your finger-tips. Who said you can’t create your own website?

Though this list isn’t exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, here are some of the best “off the shelf” WordPress themes for Actors, Models & Studios out there. [Read more…] about 8 Curated WordPress Themes for Actors, Models & Studios

A lot of business owners assume that to have a professional, informative, and stunning website you have to fork out a ton of money and invest in a long-term contract with a web design firm. And it’s simply not true. There’s another, more agile way to get started.

With WordPress Themes, you can create a fully functional website that you can manage yourself with just few clicks…with little to no coding knowledge necessary! In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of “off-the-shelf” WordPress themes for businesses that have stunning design and amazing functionality.

And, even better, WordPress themes are open-source so you gain access to a wide community of resources and help…which means you’ll never be left high and dry by a design firm.

Here are 13 WordPress themes for businesses, agencies and companies (+2 frameworks) curated from marketplaces and theme sellers around the Internet… [Read more…] about 13 Best WordPress Themes for Agencies, Businesses and Companies

Why go with WordPress restaurant themes as a template for building your restaurant website? Well, from amazing SEO potential to versatility to being able to update it yourself – WordPress is an amazing website platform for your restaurant business. It’s open-source with a huge community (so you’ll never be left truly high and dry by bankrupt software or design firm). There’s tons of help and resources out there as well.

Not only is it super-powerful with a great community, but you can use Themes to get amazing functionality and design for the “front-end” of your website. Amazing WordPress restaurant themes allow you to get thousands of dollars worth of functionality (like reservation systems) and beautiful design and by simply uploading it into your WordPress installation.

While you can always have a custom theme developed for your website – here are 8 innovative WordPress restaurant themes that can be tweaked with your logos, colors, and photos so you can have a world-class restaurant website without the huge outlay and lock-in to a design firm… [Read more…] about 8 Innovative WordPress Restaurant Themes

Can a WordPress theme really be functional for a music-based business or portfolio? Absolutely! WordPress themes offer you a great opportunity to create a tailor-made website that has a professional, yet sensational design that you can manage yourself!

Using WordPress themes for music producers, djs and bands means that you won’t have to fork out a ton of money toward hiring a design firm to manage your website – plus coding knowledge isn’t required! Another great thing – WordPress themes give you incredibly flexibility and support from it’s open-source community.

Learn how to set up a WordPress website from scratch – and explore the themes below!

Here are 11 top WordPress themes for DJs, producers and businesses in the music industry curated from theme marketplaces and sellers around the Internet… [Read more…] about 11 Top WordPress Themes for DJs & Producers

Why consider using a WordPress Theme as a template for building your education or school website? It’s actually pretty simple. You get a beautifully designed, fully functional website that you can easily manage yourself without having to lock into a contract with a design firm.

And since it’s all open-source, WordPress themes gives you access to a huge community of resources and help so you’re never left stuck in the mud by a bankrupt design firm.

Without further ado, here are some of the best WordPress themes for education websites, schools and college websites that I’ve curated from major theme marketplaces and sellers. [Read more…] about The Best WordPress Themes for Schools and Educational Sites

I’ve written how to develop a WordPress store with Woocommerce before – and mentioned the tools to turn WordPress (which is usually just website software) into a powerful online store.

But what kind of designs can you expect? Our favorite “plugin” for eCommerce, WooCommerce, works well with any design built by WooThemes. But there’s more – lots more.

Here’s 25 interesting WordPress eCommerce Themes that you can install, customize and use for a beautiful storefront design…