Category: wordpress

No matter what type of your website is, you probably need an option for visitors to upload their files. They can be a screenshot of their problem when using your product or a Microsoft Word file of their guest post.

Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t allow file submission by default. You have to seek help from file upload plugins.

In some cases, your uploaded files from the front end may contain users’ private information. They should be protected so unauthorized people won’t be able to access or view them.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the tutorials on how to allow file uploads from visitors as well as the way to secure them efficiently. But before digging into the detailed guides, let’s discuss the types of websites that need file upload capability the most. 

When You Need File Uploads on Your WordPress Site

Here are the most common cases when WordPress file upload plugins come in handy. 

• Job portal – You’re running a job agency website to collect applications. The best way is to create application forms for candidates to submit their resume files. They can also include other important documents such as Reference Letters, Certificates, and CVs.
• Guest post websites – You want experts to share their experience about a specific niche and contribute to your blog via guest post. A submitting form with a required file upload field forces visitors to provide their portfolios and an outline of their post beforehand. In this way, you can reduce the spamming submissions rate. 
• Giveaway award confirmation – Let’s say you organize a contest about design. You can create a form with an option for participants to send their designs directly to your site. As a result, you don’t have to worry about your inbox getting booming by participants’ emails.
• Banking websites – This type of website also needs a file upload plugin for users to provide a file of their credential information, including identity, address, and income proof.
• Feedback and support – Users and customers may have issues when using your products. To clearly clarify their problems and provide suitable support, you need to have at least one screenshot describing their problems. A file upload field in the support contact form makes it easy for users to report their issues.

How to Allow File Uploads in WordPress

There are a lot of plugins allowing you to create an option for users to upload files to your site. Among them, Contact Form 7 stands out from the crowd as one of the free and robust contact form plugins that support file uploads at its core. The number of over 5 million users in every corner of the world and more than 1.3k 5-star reviews have said it all.

The plugin primarily enables you to build forms anywhere on your WordPress site. Its simple markup makes it easy for you to customize your forms in just a few minutes. 

On top of that, unlike other contact form plugins that require you to pay an extra amount for file upload extension, Contact Form 7 lets you add a file upload field to your form for free.

Follow these 2 steps to get started with the plugin:

Step 1: Install and Activate  Contact Form 7 Plugin

1. Log into your WordPress admin dashboard and go to Plugins → Add New

2. Type “Contact Form 7” in the keyword box to search for the plugin

3. Install and activate the plugin

Step 2: Create a Form for File Upload

Upon activation, the plugin will be added to your WordPress admin navigation menu as the Contact section. You can add a new form by going to Contact → Add New. The next step is to name your form.

Then, click on options under the Form tab to add different fields to your form. You should add basic fields such as Name, Email, Subject, Message to the form. Anytime you press a field button, it will show a popup allowing you to adjust the field. Click Insert Tag to add that field to the form.

Click on the File option and follow the same process as what you do for other previous fields.

Now it’s time to enter the acceptable file type in the popup as well as providing the file size limit. Click Insert Tag to include the file upload field in your form and you’re ready for the next step.

Step 3: Add Your Contact Form to a Page

When you finish creating a simple file upload form, it’s time to add it to your WordPress pages or posts. All you need to do is copy the form shortcode in the form you have just created and paste it into your desired page. 

This is how your page looks with a file upload form created by Contact Form 7:

Protect WordPress File Uploads Automatically

You might not notice but file upload fields are one of the most attractive areas to hackers and malware. They can upload executable codes under PHP or JavaScript file format. Consequently, these harmful files can break your site down quickly.

Believing it or not, attackers used to take advantage of the Contact Form 7 file upload security flaw called “the unrestricted file upload vulnerability” in December last year. 

In brief, the vulnerability caused WordPress sites to accept some blacklisted file formats, such as PHP or ASP. Not only did they execute commands and functions on your site but they also spread malicious scripts to the WordPress uploads folder. 

WordFence estimated that over 10 million WordPress sites had suffered from that attack. Luckily, Contact Form 7 released a security patch to fix it right off the bat.

What’s more, uploaded files by users can get crawled and indexed by crawlers. As a result, visitors can find them on search results. If files with the private information of customers or clients leak out, ill-intentional users can take advantage of them. 

These are why it’s necessary to secure your file uploads. Luckily, you have the PDA Gold plugin at hand. The tool integrates seamlessly with Contact Form 7 allowing you to protect unlimited files of any type automatically right after they’re uploaded with just a click.

Once protected, your files become private to the public. Plus, the plugin will block all search engines from indexing your files. There is no more concern about leaking important files or information outside your site or organization.

How to Use PDA Gold to Protect WordPress File Uploads

The PDA Gold only works properly when you have its Lite version ready at the same time. So make sure you have both PDA Lite and PDA Gold installed and activated on your WordPress site. 

The following guide shows you have to install these plugins:

1. Open Plugins → Add New in your WordPress dashboard

2. Type “prevent direct access” in the keyword box

3. Click “Install” and “Activate”

4. Download the PDA Gold plugin from their site under a zip file format

5. Go to Plugins → Add New and hit the Upload Plugin button to add the plugin to your site

6. Enter the license key sent to your email and activate the plugin

7. Head to General Settings under the Prevent Direct Access section on your admin navigation menu

8. Enable the feature Auto-protect New File Uploads

By default, your protected file is available to admins only. You can set file access permission to enable other users to view them too, such as subscribers or logged-in users. 

Save changes and you’re done.

Explore other Powerful File Protection Features of PDA Gold

Apart from securing uploaded files automatically, PDA Gold gives you a helping hand in making unlimited files in the WordPress Media Library private. The plugin protects almost of file types, from PNG, JPEG, to ZIP, DOCX, PDF, MP3, and MP4. 

Even though users have the right URL of your private files, they’ll be redirected to a 404 not found page when trying to access them. You can replace the original URLs with private download links for paid members or logged-in users to view and download your files. 

What’s more, these private download links can expire after a certain time or clicks, depending on your settings. This reduces the chance that users share your links with others which helps boost file security.

Ready to Protect Your WordPress File Uploads?

The file upload option gives you a chance to take screenshots of users’ problems, writing files, or any documents from clients, customers, guest writers, and site members.

Creating a form for users to upload files has never been easier thanks to the free and feature-rich Contact Form 7 plugin. You can create and customize your form via shortcodes and add it to any pages on your WordPress site.

Allowing file uploads is not enough. You need to protect them from hackers and unauthorized access. These uploaded files may contain important data of clients, customers, and users that shouldn’t be available to everyone.

PDA Gold helps release your headache by auto-protecting any files uploaded by visitors from the front end with a click. People without permission won’t be able to access them even if they have the file URL. It also blocks search indexing on your private files too.

Do you still have any questions about how to secure WordPress file upload? Share with us your concern in the comment section below. 

Author bio: Tammie Clark is a young and enthusiastic blogger who is passionate about WordPress development and content protection. She enjoys exploring the world through cuisine. 

When you migrate a website from one place to another host you risk yourself to potential dangers along with loss of time. This is one reason why people try to avoid migrating websites: The fear of crashing them. 

This is exactly where migration plugins come into the picture. Now that you have the solution for it, you might be swimming in a plethora of options to choose the perfect plugin to meet your needs. 

Here are the 10 best migration plugins that are available for WordPress. 

1. UpdraftPlus 

UpdraftPlus has turned out to be one of the most popular and high-rated migration plugins which is available for WordPress. With UpdraftPlus you can jump from one making one website your host to another with the assistance of a single click. Furthermore, with this plugin, you can also backup your WordPress files including all the data, themes, etc. 

2. BackupBuddy 

BackupBuddy is a plugin developed specially so one can host WordPress sites. This Premium  WordPress backup plugin assists you to create a safe backup copy that contains media libraries, plugins, themes, and databases.

The good thing about opting for this plugin is that you get the advances to make changes to your domain name along with the hosting provider. BackupBuddy takes care of the migration process of your URL and also changes the URLs when you finally shift a site to a different domain. In case you yourself are a developer you can use this plugin and very efficiently migrate to the custom site you crafted for your client. 

3. VaultPress

VaultPress is an ongoing reinforcement and security filtering administration created via Automatic. This module will migrate each post, page, dashboard setting, remark, media record, and post amendments of your site on a committed worker. 

Aside from that, it likewise offers a site movement including without making the interaction a muddled and costly experience. You can without much of a stretch move a site to another host or make a copy duplicate and save it for wellbeing purposes. When the relocation cycle is done, you can reestablish the sponsored up documents that you’ve gotten with this plugin. 

4. Duplicator 

Duplicator is a finished site relocation plugin that allows you to move your site to another host with no issue. It additionally functions as a reinforcement module that allows you to clone your site and save it on your nearby drive. You can make heaps of your modules, topics, or your whole site, which can be moved to practically any web have. 

Duplicator permits clients to move a live site to the local host on the off chance that they need to make changes to their site. This module has a free form and a superior arrangement, as well. The exceptional variant of duplicator has the webpage reinforcement planning highlight, distributed storage to keep site reinforcements, and multi-string support for bigger site relocation and reinforcement. With this module introduced, the cPannel can be associated straightforwardly from the Duplicator site installer. 

5. Jetpack 

Jetpack is an across the board plugin that takes security, execution, and advertising apparatuses to the following level. In addition, it allows you to reestablish or relocate your site with simply a solitary snap. It likewise backs up your site progressively to save each change you make.

Jetpack will efficiently create a backup of every one of your posts, media, settings, remarks, etc to guarantee you don’t miss anything. The reinforcement reestablishing measure with Jetpack is basic and viable. 

It additionally gives malware checking to the entire site, and a single tick fix can protect the site from online dangers. Jetpack additionally shields the site from spam coming from remarks and structures. 

6. Super Backup and Clone 

Super Backup and Clone is a top-notch WordPress backup plugin that accompanies a few significant highlights like custom reinforcement, programmed booked reinforcement, and fast reestablishing. The cloud sync instrument empowers a fast download and reestablishes alternative, which is extraordinary when you’re relocating your website starting with one host then onto the next. 

The reinforcement records can be put away in cloud administrations like Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You have fast admittance to these documents and can arrange them on any site during the relocation cycle. You can likewise design the email notice and the reinforcement catalog in the module settings itself. 

7. Across the board WP Migration 

Across the board, WP Migration is a free WordPress movement plugin that permits you to trade the entire site with every one of your topics, modules, media documents, and data set with no specialized information. The traded document gets compacted in a .zip design and can be put away on a nearby PC or any cloud drive. Notwithstanding, you can just access the distributed storage with a superior arrangement. 

The traded document can later be imported on some other WordPress site. The import include is fast and simple to follow. The imported webpage will be actually equivalent to the traded form and is upheld on any web have with a WordPress establishment.

8. WPvivid 

This one is free! Wpvidid is a migration, free backup and restore plugin which assists users in creating full website backups. From the list of options available you can choose if you wish to migrate your entire site, specific files, or you just have to migrate the database. Going through with the process of migrating your website to a new domain can be done with just a click. 

Furthermore, WPvivid becomes a backbone to the migration of sites when it moves from a specific developer environment to a different domain or in some cases from one server to another. With WPvivid you also have the option to migrate your site to a subdirectory. 

9. Clone 

Clone is one of the most efficient migration plugins out there. It was developed by WP Academy to help users create a free backup along with the facility to copy and move your WordPress site from one host to another. This plugin is considered to be one of the simplest and most user-friendly plugins available. One can start the process of site migrations with nothing but just a click. Apart from all that Clone offers, its selling highlight is the facility it provides its users with reduced vulnerability.

10.. Migration Guru 

As the name suggests, Migration guru is definitely the Guru in the world of plugins that offer fast, easy to use, and let’s users migrate huge amounts of data without having to even lift one finger manually. Another pro bullet point of Migration Guru is that the developers keep a check to keep it updated frequently. 

When you use this plugin you open yourself to drop the need to download a backup and keep it for safe use. With Migration Guru, the backup is automatically stored on a server which is dedicated to the same cause and after your restoration or migration process is complete, the backup earlier created will be discarded by the server automatically. 

If you’ve been running your website on WordPress CMS, there’s a chance you might look for multiple sites. If your websites have common features, you might wish for an efficient way to run them with a single install? WordPress Multisite is the perfect technique offering functionality to create a network on your single WordPress installation, allowing the creation of multiple sites. In this blog post, we will discuss everything to know to install WordPress Multisite and to leverage its benefits.

What is WordPress Multisite?

WordPress Multisite helps to add multiple sites to your WordPress installation. This feature has become a key element of WordPress website development among business enterprises to reduce operational cost. The feature can be added to either your existing or newly-designed website. To activate this feature, a few lines of code are added to a couple of files in your WordPress installation. Next, you create websites in your network. The existing website remains as it is, with its URL unchanged, while the new websites are added on top.

How WordPress Multisite is different from WordPress Installation?

• The user roles.
• The higher number of individual sites.
• Access to themes and plugins.
• The Multisite adds screens to manage the network.
• The Multisite adds extra folders for uploads to every individual site.
• The Multisite creates extra database tables for each site.

What are the benefits of WordPress Multisite?

1. Efficient Coding

Running multiple sites on one network helps to reduce coding work. No matter how many sites you want to run, there’s only one set of core WordPress files is required. A single copy of each theme and plugin is needed. This clearly reveals that the network consumes less server space than running a separate installation for every site. This method saves you money on hosting and the time required for code maintenance.

2. Smooth Development

If you’re building websites with custom themes, you need a core theme to start development. This could be a framework theme, a simple parent theme, or a starter theme. But with the Multisite feature for WordPress website development, you can install the theme once, use it as a parent theme for the themes activated on individual websites, and save yourself time. This is particularly beneficial if your websites will have common design elements. If you’re building websites for different divisions, simply create a parent theme with common design and layout elements. Next, design and activate a child theme for each website.

3. Proficient Management

The best thing about WordPress Multisite network update is the efficiency & low cost in comparison to doing the same for different WordPress installations. The themes & plugins need to be updated once, regardless of how many websites they’re active on. Testing is highly crucial when a theme or plugin is implemented on different websites, as you’ll need to see its functionality on all the relevant sites. Kinsta’s staging environment can be implemented to test updates on your staging network and then make it live when you’re happy everything is perfect.

Key Parameters for WordPress Multisite Implementation

1. Work with a Professional WordPress Developer

We advise that you hire or consult an experienced WordPress developer who is an expert in WordPress Multisites implementation. If the multisite network scales, it is important to keep an eye on the number of server resources acquired, as well as the maintenance of the database. It’s completely fine as long as you are positive, and it helps to work with a professional who can assist you through the scaling phase of your multisite.

2. Pick a Good Hosting Provider

For successful WordPress Multisite implementation, it’s quite important to use a secure hosting provider. Select a hosting provider who already supports multiple features of multisite. Look for customer reviews, portfolios, and work styles before making a selection. A hosting provider with a great track record in hosting multisite will simply boost the likelihood of overall success for your projects.

We hope this information makes it simpler for you to identify if multisite is perfect for you.

Wrapping Up:

The multisite functionality offers numerous benefits as discussed earlier, especially for large enterprises having similar websites with different user bases. In addition to that, several aspects of this feature-rich platform can be further expanded using plugins that can be installed on all websites simultaneously. As long as admin does not exceed it by overpowering the system with unnecessary elements, this setup can end-up in a tightly integrated network managed via a single dashboard. If you have questions about your specific multisite configuration, we’d be glad to help.

This article is contributed by Abha Reddy, senior website developer at WordPressindia – WordPress Development Company

You might need to get a new website made and thinking of using a CMS platform to get the job done. But how exactly can you choose the best one from among the so many options present out ther?

To make your final decision easier, we’ll be offering you an overview and comparison of two, highly popular CMS platforms out there i.e. WordPress and Squarespace.

While WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular Content Management System since forever, it’s wise to keep your options open and look out for better alternatives, if available. Website builder options like Squarespace, Duda, and Wix have surfaced in recent years, proving to be flexible and beginner-friendly. Before opting for a CMS platform, business owners should know the perks and benefits that other platforms are providing, so that they can make an informed, final decision.

Maybe WordPress would work correctly for you but not for someone else having different requirements.

Lead Up To This Blog:

• How did WordPress and Squarespace Qualify for the Finale?
• Which One Would Beginners Find Easier to Adapt?
• Does Squarespace Offers Better Options of Design & Templates?
• If E-commerce is a Major Interest of my Site, Which One Would Work Better for me?
• My Website is A Conventional One, Which CMS Should I Go For?
• How Would SEO Be Affected?
• Collected Thoughts
• FAQs

First things first, we need to clear one thing to you at the start. In this article, we would be talking about WordPress.org, the site which has taken over 37% of the whole website market space and not WordPress.com, which is mainly used for blogging.

Starting with the basic features, let’s dive into what both of these CMS platforms have got on offer.

How did WordPress and Squarespace Qualify for the Finale?

WordPress is universally the top choice of most website users, including many famous brands like Facebook Newsroom, Walt Disney, BBC America, Sony TV, and Toyota Motors. Its success and popularity lie in the compelling features it offers like unlimited designing options, complete authority allowance for customization, and powerful integration options.

When it comes to Squarespace, it’s called the one-stop solution for all of your website requirements. It’s effortless to set up for beginners, attracting nearly 1000 new users every day. It takes care of every aspect of web building, from domain name to templates and designs, like a caring guardian. No wonder, within 10 years of its launching, it became a heavyweight champion in the ring of website builders.

Which One Would Beginners Find Easier to Adapt?

The answer to this question would come out as a reflex action. SQUARESPACE!

Yes. The level of ease it offers is unmatchable.

If you are new to the technical world of websites, you might not be familiar with the jargons thrown around when using WordPress to create websites.

Even if the mentioning of the word plugin makes you feel empty-minded, Squarespace has got you covered! Do you know how to click with a mouse? Then you can set up your Squarespace site without any issues at all.

It is one of the most beginner-friendly website building platforms out there offering a drag and drop approach. If you don’t like coding at all or don’t even want to dabble with technical issues like installing plugins etc. then Squarespace is meant for you totally.

On the other end of the spectrum, WordPress requires proper coding and plugin knowledge for setting up a properly designed site. Although users get adapted to WordPress pretty quickly, it still has a habit of freaking techno-phobic people out at the start!

Does WordPress Dominate In Terms Of Offering Better Options of Design & Templates?

Both WordPress and Squarespace offer various designs and templates to their users to choose from. The designs offered by Squarespace are incredibly beautiful but the number of options you will have in this regard will be severely limited if you compare it with what WordPress offers.

Squarespace also has limitations in terms of customization options. Themes are available with a limited number of layout choices with each template. You can edit the primary colors, fonts, logo, and other things, but advanced options aren’t available.

Since WordPress is open source, it’s developer and design community consistently churns out thousands of templates, out of which many are available for absolutely free.

For all kinds of websites, you can find relevant themes, meeting your requirements. Not only it has superiority in quantity, but it also offers excellent customizing options, making you able to produce personalized logos, colors, designs, and to upload images from your gallery as well. It has multiple layout choices, drag and drop page builders, sliders, photo galleries, and tons of other features. These factors make WordPress rule over Squarespace in terms of designs and templates.

If E-commerce is a Major Interest of my Site, Which One Would Work Better?

WordPress is way ahead of Squarespace when it comes to E-commerce. In WordPress, plenty of customized E-commerce plugins are available in helping you to turn your website into an online store with quick, easy steps.

WooCommerce, a world-famous E-commerce platform, is a WordPress plugin. It comes with thousands of ready themes.

WordPress allows the integration and usage of any payment processors or platforms. There is no limit on the number of products you add to your e-shop, the way you display it, or how you sell it. This gives you the liberty of running your online business in your way and grow sales without any constrictions.

In Squarespace, there are somewhat lesser options available in terms of features. Only Stripe and PayPal are available for payment processing, which aren’t available in many countries.
You’d have to shift to Business or Commerce plan for selling purpose as Squarespace doesn’t offer this facility in the Basic version. This would make it more costly than a WordPress shared hosting plan or a VPS.

My Website is A Conventional One, Which One Should I Go For?

Firstly, what’s the difference between conventional and unconventional websites?

A conventional website is the one which is covering small-scaled businesses, blogs, photography portfolios, or small level organizations. They require a rather simple set of features without much complexity.

An unconventional website would include larger-scale businesses or organizations. For their services to run correctly, you would need a more complex set of features and characteristics.

Here’s a straight rule. Use Squarespace for conventional websites and WordPress for unconventional ones. Squarespace focuses more on providing features for conventional websites. For example, it has an excellent and flexible collection for photo gallery content block, which would go with any theme.

How would SEO Be Affected?

No matter which niche your website falls into, you need a good ranking in order to gain organic traffic that can be channeled towards your sales funnel and finally get converted into leads. SEO is the most obvious way to get that done.

The primary purpose of a blog website is to get traffic and ultimately result in a higher ranking position. This gets complicated when you’re operating in a highly competitive niche market.

Squarespace is available with an easy-going SEO approach for you. It lets you add and edit title, tags, Meta descriptions, custom URLs, and 301 redirects.

Squarespace automates many of the processes and is mobile-friendly. It is SSL-secured. Their support articles are quite helpful if you get stuck.

WordPress has a relatively more reliable SEO game going on. But to get the most out of it, you need to give a little push at the start. If you’re pro enough or you have technical support available on hand readily, you can tweak the HTML manually to get desired results. Or you can use plugins, such as Yoast, to get it done in an easier way through leveraging Google-friendly info.

Collected Thoughts:

Squarespace and WordPress both target a different set of audience. Both have different features providing services for diverse types of users.

If we summarize the whole article, it will come down to these few points:

Pros for Squarespace:

• Relatively easier and smooth to use
• Gives a flexible and polished user experience
• Beginner-friendly
• Hassle-free starting setup

Cons for Squarespace:

• Cost you more than shared hosting websites
• Has limited designs and templates options
• Doesn’t support unconventional websites making it pretty useless for larger, more complex projects
• Limited features
• Limits your business for growth in terms of e-Commerce

Pros for WordPress:

• Easy to use once you get the hang of it
• Incredibly flexible for building any type of website
• A vast number of designs and themes
• Best available option for e-Commerce
• Can be started without any payment or at a low cost

FAQs:

1. Which one is better for blogging?

Both are excellent in terms of blogging with nearly the same features and facilities they provide. You will be satisfied with both of them.

2. What if you change your mind later and want to switch your website platform?

There is an option available to transfer blog posts between Squarespace and WordPress since both of them have importing and exporting tools available. The sad news is, it isn’t easy to transfer pages, themes, and other content automatically. You need to opt for transferring domains, but that would be tricky.

3. What kinds of websites does WordPress caters?

There is no type of website that WordPress cannot build! Unluckily, it comes at a cost. You have to get your domain, which means you would have to find a WordPress hosting company and then partner with them for future maintenance and services.

Author Bio. :- Alan Mathew is a professional digital marketer with years of experience in leading brands, working with multiple industry verticals. Currently, he is a Managing Partner of WPPals, which is specialized in providing WordPress maintenance and support services.

What started out as a neat way to blog about your life now powers up 34% of the internet. That is WordPress in a nutshell.

It’s a powerful platform that’s used by everyone from all walks of life. From small businesses to enterprise corporations, everyone benefits from the unmatched functionality provided by the platform.

More often than not, however, we’ve observed that it’s marketed as a “free” platform. But is it though?

Well, technically it is, but there are additional costs associated with using it. In this article, we’ll give you a short rundown of the costs you can incur when using WordPress.

So, let’s begin!

How Much Does a Web Host Cost?

Let’s make one thing clear from the outset; not all web hosting is created equal.

Your choice of web hosting depends on what you want to achieve with WordPress.

If you’re just going to blog about something, then the choice of host would be a lot cheaper. A basic plan from Bluehost or SiteGround can work wonders for your blog.

If you’re going to start an eCommerce store with lots of products, you’re ideally looking at an intermediate-level hosting package that supports your eCommerce efforts.

For a beginner, that is enough. But what if your blog or business starts to grow?

Whenever a business grows (scales up), owners decide to migrate to a newer, more professional host. Whereas before you were working with shared hosting services like Bluehost, now you’ll be using a WordPress managed hosting service like WPEngine.

These hosting services are a lot more powerful than their shared hosting counterparts. Not only do they provide more powerful features, they help you scale your website without you ever having to worry about running into any particular hurdles along the way.

The only problem is that these services are expensive.

To reiterate, your choice of hosting depends on what type of WordPress website you want. If you have a limited budget, it’s best to start off small and build your way up in such a way that you’ll be able to afford the advanced hosting services in the future.

Now, let’s talk about SSL certificates.

A Note on SSL Certificates

SSL certificates are an integral pillar of your website’s security. That nice little “https” you see at the top of a browser matters a lot to Google and indicates that your site is secure.

Almost all the major hosting services, shared and managed, do provide SSL certificates with the hosting package. If for some reason, you did not get an SSL, you can always contact web hosting support or purchase an SSL certificate.

Domain Name Registration

As with the hosting, the price of a domain name depends entirely on the type of name (abc, xyz) and extension (.com, .org) you’re looking for.

There are plenty of sites where you can purchase a domain name. The most notable amongst them being NameCheap and GoDaddy. They provide affordable options for domains that cost you anything in between $10 – $40 per year.

These companies also offer additional services like WHOIS Guard that allows you to hide your personal information from the WHOIS domain directory. If you’re worried about your identity being public, then it’s a very important feature to have.

Costs of WordPress Design and Themes

The best thing about using WordPress is that there are tons of free themes available on the official WordPress theme store. You can install and customize them to your liking with website building tools like Elementor.

However, if you’re strapped for time and want a professional theme without the extra effort you can always pay for a WordPress theme. The costs you incur on these premium themes vary depending on their provider.

In addition to these free themes, there are also third-party WordPress themes that you can download from sites like ThemeForest. While their prices are high, you’re getting tons of useful features that you would be hard-pressed to find on free themes.

What’s the Cost of a WordPress Plugin?

Another redeeming feature of WordPress is its plugin database. Similar to WordPress themes, the official WordPress plugin store has a vast collection of free and paid plugins. You can get a plugin for just about any WordPress functionality.

While the majority of the plugins are free, those that are paid can cost you anything between $47 to $200 depending on what the plugin does.

For example, MailChimp and Yoast SEO are both freely available on WordPress. They are, however, limited in their functionalities and features. If you want the whole range of features, you can purchase their premium versions for $89 and $35 or more respectively.

Note: There are plenty of piracy sites where you can get premium versions of various WordPress plugins for free. But what you’re getting for free you’re trading off for your website’s security. These “nulled” themes are infected with bugs and viruses that can lead to dire consequences for your website.

WooCommerce and Extensions

Let’s talk about WooCommerce and the price you can incur using the plugin.

The plugin itself is free. You can create an aesthetically designed and functional online store in just a few hours. On the WooCommerce platform, you get a ton of nifty extensions, both free and paid, that you can use to power up your eCommerce operations even further.

Where you’re getting Easy Digital Downloads for free, you’re also paying $50 to $175 for Inventory Source, a dropshipping extension for WooCommerce. There are plenty of paid extensions that add serious value to your store if you have the budget to go about purchasing them.

Final Words

From all of what we’ve discussed in this article, it should be pretty clear that WordPress isn’t free. The costs you incur in addition to downloading the software can range depending on your requirements and budget.

At the end of the day, it all depends on the amount of time you’re willing to invest on the platform. If you’re not giving your site enough time, it’s eventually going to fall apart even with the most advanced theme, plugin, extension, or web host.

Thanks for reading!

Author Bio. :- Shazaib – A passionate writer and tech enthusiast,  He works as a Digital Content Producer at Reviewsed.