All posts by webasite

Having a website is essential for businesses and individuals alike. While website builders have made it easier than ever to create a website, it’s not uncommon for users to run into issues or have questions that require customer support. In this article, we’ll be taking a comprehensive look at website builders with the best customer support.

Wix

Wix is a popular website builder that is known for its user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop features. However, it’s also known for its excellent customer support. Users can access customer support via phone, email, or live chat 24/7. Wix also has an extensive knowledge base and community forum where users can find answers to shared questions.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder that is popular among creatives and businesses due to its sleek templates and powerful features. Squarespace offers customer support via email and live chat, which is available 24/7. The platform also has a robust knowledge base with articles and video tutorials to help users troubleshoot issues.

Weebly

Weebly is a website builder that is known for its simplicity and ease of use. Weebly offers customer support via email and live chat, which is available 7 days a week. Weebly also has a knowledge base and community forum where users can find answers to frequent questions.

Shopify

Shopify is a website builder that is specifically designed for e-commerce websites. While Shopify doesn’t offer phone support, it does offer 24/7 live chat and email support. The platform also has a help centre with articles and tutorials to help users troubleshoot issues.

WordPress

WordPress is a popular website builder that is known for its flexibility and customizability. While WordPress doesn’t offer direct customer support, users can access the WordPress community forum, which is a vast network of users and developers who can help with troubleshooting and support. Additionally, WordPress has a knowledge base and extensive documentation to help users navigate the platform.

Conclusion

When it comes to website builders, having excellent customer support can make all the difference. Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, and WordPress all offer diverse levels of customer support, but they all have one thing in common: they want their users to succeed. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced website builder, choosing a platform with excellent customer support can help you achieve your goals.

Researchers have discovered two high-severity vulnerabilities in a popular WordPress (opens in new tab) theme and plugin that could allow threat actors to completely take over the affected websites.

Cybersecurity experts from Patchstack uncovered two flaws in a premium add-on used mostly for real-estate websites. The $69 theme is called Houzez, and reportedly has more than 35,000 customers. 

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Selena Gomez is sharing beauty tips for spring! The Rare Beauty founder spotlighted some of her “favorite” products in a makeup tutorial posted to the beauty brand’s YouTube page and Gomez’s Instagram on Monday (Feb. 27).

“Get ready with me to do absolutely nothing at my house,” the fresh-faced singer stated at the start off the video.

“First, I’m going to start with my illuminating primer – it’s my favorite primer,” Gomez added while using her hands to apply the primer before grabbing another Rare Beauty favorite: Positive Light Tinted Moisturizer ($30).

After giving the bottle a good shake and applying the foundation with a Rare Beauty Liquid Touch Foundation Brush, the Only Murders in the Building star dabbed on the brand’s brightening concealer (which she blended with the Liquid Touch Concealer Brush) and the Positive Light Under Eye Brightener in the shade “Light.”

“I am so excited about this! It is really, really fun but this is the cool part,” Gomez said showing off the brightening wand. “It has a cooling, metal tip that you can use as you put it in the designated area. This is really good for de-puffing and getting the circulation going.”

Other products used in Gomez’s tutorial include Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighter in Mesmerize ($25), Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara ($20), Brow Harmony Shape & Fill Duo in Light Brown ($27), Always an Optimist 4-in-1 Mist ($27), Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer ($26).

Another beloved product from the lineup, the Soft Pinch Liquid Blush ($23). “It’s one of my favorite products – I keep saying that about everything so I’m sorry but I’m just really proud of my stuff,” Gomez says with a laugh.

Gomez, the most followed person on Instagram, announced ,” target=”_blank”>a that she was taking a social media break earlier this week after a slew of drama unfolded on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

In between doing her makeup on camera, the 30-year-old singer revealed why she’s looking forward to living in New York temporarily and shared advice for the Rare Beauty community.

“Try to be intentional, take moments for you,” Gomez said. “Take moments for people that really matter. I guess another piece of advice is be aware of who you surround yourself with.”

Watch the full makeup tutorial below.

There is concern about the lack of an easy way to opt out of having one’s content used to train large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. There is a way to do it, but it’s neither straightforward nor guaranteed to work.

How AIs Learn From Your Content

Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on data that originates from multiple sources. Many of these datasets are open source and are freely used for training AIs.

In general, Large Language Models use a wide variety of sources to train from.

Examples of the kinds of sources used:

• Wikipedia
• Government court records
• Books
• Emails
• Crawled websites

There are actually portals and websites offering datasets that are giving away vast amounts of information.

One of the portals is hosted by Amazon, offering thousands of datasets at the Registry of Open Data on AWS.

The Amazon portal with thousands of datasets is just one portal out of many others that contain more datasets.

Wikipedia lists 28 portals for downloading datasets, including the Google Dataset and the Hugging Face portals for finding thousands of datasets.

Datasets Used to Train ChatGPT

ChatGPT is based on GPT-3.5, also known as InstructGPT.

The datasets used to train GPT-3.5 are the same used for GPT-3. The major difference between the two is that GPT-3.5 used a technique known as reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF).

The five datasets used to train GPT-3 (and GPT-3.5) are described on page 9 of the research paper, Language Models are Few-Shot Learners  (PDF)

The datasets are:

1. Common Crawl (filtered)
2. WebText2
3. Books1
4. Books2
5. Wikipedia

Of the five datasets, the two that are based on a crawl of the Internet are:

About the WebText2 Dataset

WebText2 is a private OpenAI dataset created by crawling links from Reddit that had three upvotes.

The idea is that these URLs are trustworthy and will contain quality content.

WebText2 is an extended version of the original WebText dataset developed by OpenAI.

The original WebText dataset had about 15 billion tokens. WebText was used to train GPT-2.

WebText2 is slightly larger at 19 billion tokens. WebText2 is what was used to train GPT-3 and GPT-3.5

OpenWebText2

WebText2 (created by OpenAI) is not publicly available.

However, there is a publicly available open-source version called OpenWebText2.  OpenWebText2 is a public dataset created using the same crawl patterns that presumably offer similar, if not the same, dataset of URLs as the OpenAI WebText2.

I only mention this in case someone wants to know what’s in WebText2. One can download OpenWebText2 to get an idea of the URLs contained in it.

A cleaned up version of OpenWebText2 can be downloaded here. The raw version of OpenWebText2 is available here.

I couldn’t find information about the user agent used for either crawler, maybe it’s just identified as Python, I’m not sure.

So as far as I know, there is no user agent to block, although I’m not 100% certain.

Nevertheless, we do know that if your site is linked from Reddit with at least three upvotes then there’s a good chance that your site is in both the closed-source OpenAI WebText2 dataset and the open-source version of it, OpenWebText2.

More information about OpenWebText2 is here.

Common Crawl

One of the most commonly used datasets consisting of Internet content is the Common Crawl dataset that’s created by a non-profit organization called Common Crawl.

Common Crawl data comes from a bot that crawls the entire Internet.

The data is downloaded by organizations wishing to use the data and then cleaned of spammy sites, etc.

The name of the Common Crawl bot is, CCBot.

CCBot obeys the robots.txt protocol so it is possible to block Common Crawl with Robots.txt and prevent your website data from making it into another dataset.

However, if your site has already been crawled then it’s likely already included in multiple datasets.

Nevertheless, by blocking Common Crawl it’s possible to opt out your website content from being included in new datasets sourced from newer Common Crawl datasets.

This is what I meant at the very beginning of the article when I wrote that the process is “neither straightforward nor guaranteed to work.”

The CCBot User-Agent string is:

CCBot/2.0

Add the following to your robots.txt file to block the Common Crawl bot:

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

An additional way to confirm if a CCBot user agent is legit is that it crawls from Amazon AWS IP addresses.

CCBot also obeys the nofollow robots meta tag directives.

Use this in your robots meta tag:

<meta name="CCBot" content="nofollow">

A Consideration Before You Block any Bots

Many datasets, including Common Crawl, could be used by companies that filter and categorize URLs in order to create lists of websites to target with advertising.

For example, a company named Alpha Quantum offers a dataset of URLs categorized using the Interactive Advertising Bureau Taxonomy. The dataset is useful for AdTech marketing and contextual advertising.  Exclusion from a database like that could cause a publisher to lose potential advertisers.

Blocking AI From Using Your Content

Search engines allow websites to opt out of being crawled. Common Crawl also allows opting out. But there is currently no way to remove one’s website content from existing datasets.

Furthermore, research scientists don’t seem to offer website publishers a way to opt out of being crawled.

The article, Is ChatGPT Use Of Web Content Fair? explores the topic of whether it’s even ethical to use website data without permission or a way to opt out.

Many publishers may appreciate it if in the near future, they are given more say on how their content is used, especially by AI products like ChatGPT.

Whether that will happen is unknown at this time.

More resources:

Featured image by Shutterstock/ViDI Studio

Since its humble beginnings in 1997, DreamHost has grown to service over 400,000 customers in 100 countries. Today, it hosts more than 1.5 million websites, including 750,000 WordPress sites. No matter which of its five hosting services you choose, you’ll receive a number of freebies, including free SSL certificates, a free domain and free WHOIS Privacy protection.

DreamHost offers dedicated WordPress hosting as well as shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting and cloud hosting. If you choose shared hosting or WordPress hosting, you’ll get a 97-day or 30-day money-back guarantee, respectively. Other plans don’t come with a money-back guarantee—just DreamHost credit if you cancel your plan early.

Because DreamHost offers such versatility for beginners to experts, we’ve ranked it highly in our list of best web hosting services.

Pros

DreamHost is the king of easy WordPress installs. It just takes one click to install the content management system (CMS) and have it up and running. If you’re importing your WordPress site from another service, you can even migrate it for free using a manual plug-in. If you need a little extra help, handing over the reins to the customer support team is $99.

Speaking of free, DreamHost offers a number of free features that other hosting providers charge for. The free SSL certificates, domain and WHOIS Privacy protection are all things that can help save you money each month.

We also like DreamHost’s wide number of plans. That can make it a little confusing to narrow down which option is right for you, but it means you can find a plan that has only the features and options you need. This makes it a good choice for newbie website builders to advanced programmers alike.

Cons

Unlike many other hosting providers, DreamHost charges for its anti-malware tool. At $3 a month, this cost could add up over time. Without this tool, your site may be susceptible to hackers who steal your customers’ private information or send them to harmful websites.

While DreamHost does offer robust 24/7 support, there’s no way to call in and talk to a real person. It all happens through email and chat, which can be hard to deal with if you need an immediate answer when your site goes down.

Some users might also find the lack of a cPanel frustrating. Instead, you’ll have to use DreamHost’s custom control panel. While it offers pretty much all of the same functionalities as a cPanel, including website management, databases, email access and billing, it might be limiting if you’re used to another, more advanced setup. Most casual users shouldn’t have issues, however. Additionally, if you’re trying to import a cPanel from another web host, you’ll have to do all of this manually using file transfer protocol (FTP) or MySQL.

Before you actually start building your e-commerce website, you need to be clear about your business needs for building a website. Here are some reasons why you should sell online.

More People Are Buying Online

Buying online is convenient as well as safe, and during the recent pandemic, e-commerce sales surged by as much as 40% in 2020, the first pandemic year. The easy availability of smartphones also means that you can buy from anywhere, any time of the day. So it’s obvious that people will continue buying long after the pandemic has abated.

Setting Up an E-Commerce Storefront Is Cheaper

When you compare it with a brick-and-mortar store, Setting up an e-commerce storefront is much cheaper. This is partially because brick-and-mortar stores incur multiple fixed costs such as rent, electricity bills, employee payments, infrastructure maintenance, etc.

E-Commerce Website Can Augment Off-Line Sales

It is not necessary that online and offline stores should be mutually exclusive. They can augment each other nicely when you tell people about your brick-and-mortar store on your e-commerce website and install app kiosks in your stores.

For instance, Amazon is now opening brick-and-mortar stores after the runaway success of its online e-commerce website.

Create Unique Customer Experiences

Personalizing experiences and services are much easier online. You can use different media including video, audio, stories, customer reviews and personalized messaging to build an experience your customers cherish and share with others.

Start Selling Immediately

Once you have the website ready, all you need to do is set up payment processing and list your products on the website to start selling. There is no need to wait for new employees, stockpile inventory or generate enough marketing buzz. You are in business the moment you put your website live.

Eliminate Costly Overheard With Dropshipping

When you think of retail, the first thing that comes to mind is sourcing, maintaining and handling inventory. However, if you choose a dropshipping business model, you don’t need to maintain and handle inventory by yourself. You can read all about dropshipping here.

Bottom Line

An e-commerce website is your online brand identity. You must take care to build it in a way that makes it easier for customers to experience your brand. Also, remember that it is not possible to get everything right the first time. Keep learning from your experiences, be ready to experiment and make changes when required.

Comparing Wix vs. Shopify pits two e-commerce-friendly website builders against each other. Both Shopify and Wix allow you to create a website relatively easily and quickly, and both let you sell products and services online. So which platform is best for your website or online store? That depends on your exact business requirements.

Forbes Advisor analysed Wix and Shopify, looking at key features such as cost, e-commerce capabilities, customer support, ease of use and scalability. Each platform has its pros and cons, which we explain in depth in this review.

Wix vs. Shopify: at a glance

FEATURED PARTNER OFFER

Wix

Term lengths

Month-to-month, annual and two-year

Term lengths

Month-to-month, annual and two-year

Pros & Cons

• Extremely user-friendly
• Free plan available
• Wide variety of plans
• 800+ design templates
• Large Wix App Market

• No live phone support; call-back only
• Only basic e-commerce integrations available
• Limited storage
• Not great for large online stores

FEATURED PARTNER OFFER

Shopify

Term lengths

Month-to-month, annual and two-year plans

Term lengths

Month-to-month, annual and two-year plans

Pros & Cons

• Strong scalability
• Excellent customer support
• 6,000+ integrations
• Extensive e-commerce features
• Strong reporting/sales analytics

• Higher-tier plans are pricey
• Limited number of free templates
• Not as intuitive as more basic website builders
• E-commerce features limited on lowest-tier plan

How Wix and Shopify stack up

There are several differences between the two website builders. Wix offers a free plan; Shopify does not. Shopify does not give you a free custom domain, but Wix does. Shopify’s gift card feature is built into the platform, while you’ll need a third-party app to offer gift cards on your Wix site.

You can sell digital goods on both platforms, but you’re restricted to a 1 GB file size limit with Wix, while Shopify allows files of up to 5 GB. Shopify offers more real-time shipping options than Wix, but Wix offers more product options and variations. Wix does not charge transaction fees and neither does Shopify if you’re using Shopify Payments, but it charges 0.5% to 2% for other payment gateways.

Ease of use

Wix and Shopify are both built with user-friendliness in mind; however, that doesn’t mean they’re both super easy to use. To understand which website builder is right for you, it’s helpful to know how each evolved.

Wix is built for those who need a professional online presence but have limited coding and design skills. The Wix platform is rich with features that help you create website content, such as “About Us” business descriptions, blogs and articles. Wix offers e-commerce functionality, but it was not originally designed to host online stores.

Shopify is, and always has been, a tool to create online stores. Content features such as blogs and business description pages are available with Shopify, but they are not the platform’s key focus.

The reality is that building a basic business website is much easier than building a full-fledged online store; that’s because there are fewer choices you need to make. With an online store, you need to make decisions about payment gateways, tax calculation, product variations, shopping cart functionality, shipping options, return policies and procedures – and that’s just to get up and running.

Both Wix and Shopify are relatively easy to use. Shopify is easier if you’re building an online store, particularly if you plan to scale it. Wix is easier if you’re building a content-rich website that also offers basic e-commerce functions, such as collecting payment for services or selling a limited number of items.

Pricing

Wix offers a free plan as well as seven paid plans, plus customised enterprise plans. The free plan comes with limited features, contains Wix branding and is not e-commerce-enabled.

The four Wix basic website plans are designed for those who need a professional website but don’t plan to accept online payments. These plans all include a free custom domain, an SSL certificate and 3 GB to 35 GB of storage. The VIP and Pro plans also come with a professional logo and an events calendar app. Here is the pricing breakdown for these basic website plans:

• Connect Domain £4 per month
• Combo £7.50 per month
• Unlimited £11 per month
• VIP £21 per month

To accept online payments on your Wix website, you’ll need to choose from one of three Wix e-commerce and business plans. Pricing for these plans is as follows:

• Business Basic £15 per month
• Business Unlimited £20 per month
• Business VIP £21 per month
• Enterprise (price on application)

All Wix e-commerce plans come with the following features:

• Accept secure online payments (single payments and recurring)
• Customer accounts
• Free custom domain
• 20 GB to 50 GB of storage
• Unlimited products
• Abandoned cart recovery

The Wix Business Unlimited and Business VIP plans also come with 100 to 500 automated sales transactions, subscription sales, marketplace selling, dropshipping by Modalyst and product reviews by KudoBuzz. The Business VIP plan includes priority customer care, customised reports and a loyalty program powered by Smile.io.

Shopify offers a Shopify Lite plan which lets you add e-commerce functionality to your existing website, but it’s not available to new customers. Existing customers who add on Shopify Lite will be able to add Buy Buttons to Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress or even Wix website. You can also use Shopify Lite to accept credit card payments in person via the point-of-sale (POS) app that you can add to your iOS or Android device.

If you want to build a fully functional, e-commerce-ready website with Shopify, you’ll need to choose from three plans. All Shopify plans come with unlimited products, 24/7 support, the ability to sell on online marketplaces and social media, discount codes, abandoned cart recovery, gift cards, shipping labels, fraud analysis and Shopify POS Lite.

The chart below illustrates some of the key differences among the three Shopify plans.

Design options

With over 800 design templates, Wix offers far more design flexibility than Shopify. Wix comes with a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor so you can tailor your site for your business needs. If you prefer, you can opt to use the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) editor instead. With the ADI, you simply answer a few questions regarding the purpose of your website and basic visual preferences, such as fonts nd colours, and the Wix ADI designs your website for you.

Shopify has only 10 free design templates, though each of those comes with two to three variations for a tad more design flexibility. There are further 70+ charged-for Shopify themes available.

Integrations

The Wix App Market lists 300+ third-party integrations that allow you to add advanced features to your Wix website. Many of these apps are free, while others charge.

Integrations can help you perform several business functions including collecting leads, analysing traffic, improving visitor engagement, selling more online or enhancing your website’s design. Popular third-party apps that sync with Wix include Privy, Overtok Call Conversion, MarketPush Cart Recovery, Shippo, SKU IQ Inventory Sync, Printful, Birthday Club, Low Stock Alerts, Gifted, Etsy Shop and Compare Ninja.

Shopify has a lot more third-party integrations than Wix; all 6,000+ Shopify integrations are related to marketing and operating an online store. Here are just a handful of the most popular apps available for Shopify:

• UpPromote Affiliate Marketing
• Facebook Channel
• AfterShip Order Tracking & SMS
• Trustpilot Reviews
• TikTok
• Back in Stock: Customer Alerts
• Klaviyo Email Marketing & SMS
• One-Click Upsell – Zipify OCU
• Bulk Discounts Now
• QuickBooks Sync
• Amazon FBA Shipping
• Easy Digital Products
• Snapchat Ads
• Return Magic
• Wishlist Plus
• DSers – AliExpress Dropshipping
• Printful
• Hotjar

Customer support

The Wix Help Centre features an extensive knowledge base that is adequate for finding answers to frequently asked questions and addressing common technical issues. Wix offers call-back and email support for all its paid plan customers. Support is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese from Monday to Friday between 5am and 5pm. Customer enquiries are usually addressed within 24 hours, except on weekends. Priority support is available for Wix VIP plan customers.

Shopify offers true 24/7 live support via email, chat and telephone. Shopify also gives you access to an extensive online help centre that features guides, FAQs and tutorials. In addition, Shopify has nearly 900,000 members in its online forum, where you can also turn for support. The contest between Wix and Shopify for best customer support is not even close; Shopify wins.

Bottom Line

In the contest between Wix vs. Shopify, the best solution for you comes down to what you intend to do with your website. Hands down, Shopify is the one of the best e-commerce platforms if you need a feature-rich, scalable online store. While Shopify’s plans can get pricey, it’s money well spent when you consider all the built-in e-commerce features plus the 6,000+ third-party integrations.

Wix is the right choice if you need a content-focused website builder that, at most, needs basic e-commerce functionality. Wix offers affordable website plans, more design flexibility and is exceptionally user-friendly.

Video editing has a steep learning curve.

Many of the best feature-complete tools have complex user interfaces (UIs) and require advanced knowledge to use them effectively. They can also be hefty investments.

In evaluating beginner tools, I focused on two core areas: user-friendliness and price.

Some of the tools on the list are a bit more expensive, but they could be worth the price for their features and support.

Others are entirely free but more difficult to use. The higher learning curve could be worth it if you’re willing to invest time in the tool.

It doesn’t make sense to spend much on a tool until you’ve developed preferences for functions and UI elements.

Let’s look at some of the best places to start.

1. Adobe Premiere Elements

• Price: $99.
• Platform: Windows, macOS.
• Experience Necessary: Beginner to intermediate.

Adobe is the gold standard in creative tools, and Premiere Pro is an industry-standard video editor.

Premiere Elements is an easier-to-use program targeted toward non-professional consumers.

The Elements family of software exists outside of Adobe’s Creative Cloud so you can purchase them individually without a subscription.

If you or your business is already subscribed to Creative Cloud, it might make more sense to try out Premiere Pro.

Premiere Elements comes with a price tag but gives you access to powerful features, such as:

• Automated artificial intelligence (AI) editing functions.
• Guided edits inside the program.
• Templates.
• Audio track library.

2. Adobe Premiere Pro

• Price: $20.99 per month for individuals, $35.99 for businesses.
• Platform: Windows, macOS.
• Experience Necessary: Intermediate.

No list of video editing programs, even a beginner list, would be complete without Premiere Pro.

It has a much higher learning curve than Premiere Elements but does feature built-in tutorials to help you get started.

One of the biggest benefits of using Adobe is the Creative Cloud suite of software. It has an app for pretty much any creative task, and many of them integrate with one another.

You can add dedicated animation software to your subscription and use it alongside Premiere Pro, for example.

Much like VEGAS Pro, Premiere Pro likely offers the most advanced and powerful features compared to other programs in this list.

While it does offer helpful tutorials and videos, it’s quite complex. I wouldn’t suggest going right for Premiere Pro as a complete beginner.

The Adobe suite is, generally, for more advanced users who have honed their creative skills. But if you’re starting a creative journey and want access to various powerful tools, Adobe is worth a look.

If you’re already subscribed to Creative Cloud for another program, you can add Premiere Pro to your subscription to access capabilities  like:

• Export directly to social platforms.
• Edit any format of a video file.
• Automated color matching and correction.
• AI tools.
• Speech-to-text automatic captioning.
• Motion effects and keyframe animation.
• Robust sound panel for audio editing and effects.
• Integration with other Adobe creative apps; add animation, image editing, and visual effects software to your plan as needed.
• Stock images, video, and audio.
• Motion graphics templates.

3. Animaker

• Price: From $10 per month.
• Platform: Browsers, iOS.
• Experience Necessary: None.

Animaker is probably the most beginner-friendly tool on this list. You can create entire animations with easy click-and-drag functionality, as well as edit live videos.

If you need to produce short-form video content quickly and easily, this might be your go-to.

You can build animated characters, backgrounds, and text with a few button presses. And with lip-synching and motion features, it’s easy to make smooth, professional animations.

Key capabilities:

• Create animations from scratch.
• Easy-to-use interface and tools.
• Apply effects, audio tracks, transitions, etc., to animations and live-action videos.
• 100 million+ stock image, video, and GIF assets.

4. Clipchamp

• Price: Free or $11.99 per month.
• Platform: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome browsers.
• Experience Necessary: Beginner.

Clipchamp operates inside your browser, which makes it easy to access on the go but limits its power. Professionals will outgrow it quickly.

The core features of the program are free, including audio, video, and image stock.

Access to more advanced stock and editing features is gated behind the subscription. You can still use those features on a free account, but your video will be watermarked.

One of Clipchamp’s coolest features is its integration with different video platforms. It’s easy to create videos pre-formatted for YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest videos, as well as Instagram and Facebook ads.

Key capabilities:

• Screen and camera recorder.
• Preformatted exports for different platforms.
• Templates and video, audio, and image libraries.
• AI text-to-speech voiceovers.

5. DaVinci Resolve

• Price: Free or $295.
• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux.
• Experience Necessary: Intermediate.

DaVinci Resolve boasts a complete set of professional post-production tools.

It’s used by pros in Hollywood and offers everything from visual effects to transitions, animations, and audio post-production tools.

While it’s flexible with intuitive controls and training courses, it’s likely overwhelming for a beginner.

Trying to learn a complete workstation might not be ideal; Unless you’re jumping into complex video production right away, it probably features many tools that you won’t need.

There is a paid version of the software that you can grow into, but you likely won’t need it unless you’re committing to the platform as an advanced professional.

Key capabilities:

• Color correction.
• Node-based 2D and 3D effects.
• Keyframe animation.
• Effects and transitions library.
• Audio editor, plugins, and effects library (including Foley sounds).
• Audio recording.
• Cloud collaboration on projects.
• Complete, advanced video editing suite.

6. Hitfilm

• Price: Free, $8.99 per month, or $12.99 per month.
• Platform: Windows, macOS.
• Experience Necessary: Beginner to intermediate.

Hitfilm boasts ease of use for any skill level. It features enough guided and templated content to make things easy for beginners, plus advanced tools to experiment with as you learn.

Hitfilm’s transitions and presets are easy to drag and drop on your timeline; It leans into intuitive, fast, easy-to-use tools.

You may find it less customizable than some other software in the list, but it’s more powerful than the Apple and Microsoft native tools.

Key capabilities:

• Stock library, including footage, images, sound effects, and music.
• Easy drag-and-drop functionality with presets and templates.
• Color grading presets.
• Plugins for visual effects, 3D animation, and motion tracking.

7. iMovie

• Price: Free.
• Platform: iOS, macOS.
• Experience Necessary: None.

iMovie is Apple’s answer to a consumer-level movie editor. It boasts powerful features coupled with an interface Apple users will be familiar with.

It’s one of the most beginner-friendly programs on the list, but you might find that you outgrow it quickly.

Key capabilities:

• Cross-functional between iOS and macOS. Edit the same video on multiple devices.
• User-friendly effects, templates, filters, and other ready-to-use features.
• Audio track library.

8. InVideo

• Price: Free, $15 per month, $30 per month.
• Platform: Browser, Android, iOS.
• Experience Necessary: None.

InVideo is another tool perfect for beginners who don’t want to wade into the complexity of timelines, tracks, and advanced tools.

It’s a template-based program that works in your browser. It’s easy to customize templates for your liking, plus it’s got tons of stock and tools to make the process quick.

Being a browser app, it will be much less powerful than the in-depth software titles on this list. But that’s fine if you’re not looking for a tool with advanced use cases.

Like Animaker, it’s integrated with stock platforms to access stock images, videos, and audio.

The templates are organized into specific platforms and use cases, plus you can watch in-depth tutorials on the website.

Key capabilities:

• Easy-to-use browser and app editor.
• Many pre-formatted, well-organized templates to get you started quickly.
• Plenty of shortcuts and quick functions.
• AI tools.
• Millions of stock files.
• Cloud collaboration.

9. Media Composer

• Price: Free or $23.99 per month.
• Platform: Windows, macOS.
• Experience Necessary: Beginner to intermediate.

Media Composer is a powerful tool with several different versions, from a free version for beginners to an enterprise software suite.

This program will have a higher learning curve than others, but the website offers a series of free tutorial videos.

It also offers practice footage that you can download and follow along with, making the learning process smooth.

As with other programs that offer multiple subscription tiers, you can grow into this software.

Start with the free version, and upgrade as you need more features. You’re less likely to outgrow it and have to learn a whole new program.

Key capabilities:

• Video effects and stabilizers.
• Audio effects.
• Upgradable plan.
• Advanced color correction.
• Custom keyboard mapping.

10. OpenShot

• Price: Free.
• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux.
• Experience Necessary: Beginner to intermediate.

OpenShot is seriously underrated. It’s open source and free.

It doesn’t feature as much guided automation as some of the other tools on the list, so it may have a higher learning curve. However, it’s much more powerful and customizable – and there’s a comprehensive user guide if you get stuck.

As you get more familiar with video editing, you can learn advanced tools like the keyframe animation framework, audio editing features, and others.

Even professionals should find almost everything they need. This is a program you can grow into and learn new features as you need them.

Key capabilities:

• Advanced timeline tools.
• Video effects engine.
• 3D animations.
• Keyframe animations.
• Unlimited layers and tracks.
• Title templates.

11. PowerDirector 365

• Price: Limited free version, starts at $4.33 per month.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
• Experience Necessary: None.

PowerDirector positions itself as a “no experience necessary” video editor. There’s a free version you can try, but you’ll likely need to purchase a license to use it effectively.

This software features a large assortment of AI visual effects tools, blending tools, keyframe tools, and color tools.

It also offers a huge library of stock images, videos, and audio, as well as premade titles, transitions, templates, and animations.

There are also plugins for recording and livestreaming.

If you’re a beginner, you can use pre-made assets from start to finish to create a professional final product. Drop in customizable titles, intro templates, and animations.

Key capabilities:

• Speech to text in multiple languages.
• Recording and livestreaming.
• Easy-to-use templates, animations, and transitions.
• Huge library of stock.
• AI audio and visual effects.

12. Shotcut

• Price: Free.
• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux.
• Experience Necessary: Beginner to intermediate.

Shotcut is open source and free, much like OpenShot.

Open-source tools tend to offer the best customization, but they take a little more work to learn and set up the way you like them. They’re also your best options if you’re a Linux user.

Shotcut features customizable UI layouts that you can save and switch between.

Once you get comfortable with the program, you can create different layouts for different tasks.

You can search for features and edit keyboard shortcuts. After a while, you’ll be able to perform tasks extremely quickly.

Key capabilities:

• Mix different resolutions and framerates on a single timeline.
• Supports native editing in many different formats (less converting/importing files).
• Webcam and audio capture.
• 4k resolutions.
• JSON animations.
• Video effects and filters.
• Audio filters.

13. VEGAS Pro

• Price: From $12.99 per month.
• Platform: Windows.
• Experience Necessary: Intermediate.

VEGAS Pro is one of the most advanced and powerful tools on the list. Just like Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, and other complex editors, it may not be ideal for a complete beginner.

VEGAS Pro does provide tutorials, and it boasts the best versions of most of the features of anything else in this list.

It features AI filters and tools and a range of supported formats for native editing, effects, transitions, titles, color correction, and video repair. It has all the bells and whistles.

It can also export in social media-friendly formats and upload directly to YouTube and Vimeo.

Key capabilities:

• Preset filter effects, transitions, and titles.
• Direct upload.
• Motion tracking.
• Color correction.
• Video repair and stabilization.
• Complete, advanced editing suite.

Conclusion

Everyone was a beginner once.

Before you pick your video tool, you need to decide what kind of beginner you are.

Do you need a quick and easy solution because you don’t have the time or resources for in-depth editing? Then you may want to pick one of the less powerful tools, even if it comes with a price tag.

Are you a beginner looking for a tool to commit to and that you can grow into as you learn? You may want to pick one of the more powerful tools with multiple subscription tiers.

Are you the kind of beginner who loves to learn how to hack your workflows and customize everything? Try open-source software.

More Resources:

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Featured Image: DC Studio/Shutterstock

For an online business to succeed, it must create an outstanding online presence. Many customers now prefer shopping online, and every business needs to leverage that market.

Your business can attract more customers through different online platforms and boost sales. Thanks to e-commerce solutions like WooCommerce and Magento, businesses now have an easier time leveraging the online market.

WooCommerce and Magento are great e-commerce platforms with great features. The two platforms also have a lot of tools and users that prefer online transactions. However, the almost similar platforms give many users challenges in choosing the best one.

A business has to understand the difference between the two to avoid confusion and make an informed choice. This article explains the difference between WooCommerce vs Magento through a detailed comparison.

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a great WordPress plugin and e-commerce platform famous all over the world. It is an easy-to-use platform that offers all the necessary e-commerce features for free.

WooCommerce is a flexible, user-friendly and easy-to-use platform that offers the required support to different companies. It is a good choice for beginners who need to gain e-commerce knowledge. However, the users need to know how to use WordPress or go through online tutorials to learn this.

The open-source platform can work on any server for free. A business can also opt for the premium package extension, which requires a subscription fee. Additionally, WooCommerce has web hosting charges that depend on the company’s size and packaging offers.

WooCommerce Features

It can support several products
Accepts different payment methods
Facilitates theme customization at a lower cost
Has free plugins
Fast and easy installation

Pros

It is easy to install and use.
It has free and premium themes.
It is free to create a store.
It allows users to access various documents.
It has a support team where users can ask questions or contact if there is an emergency
It can offer SSL support (after obtaining certification).
It is an extension that automatically integrates with google.
It allows for various payment processors.
It enables users to adapt or expand their stores at will.

Cons

It might be challenging to use without basic knowledge of how to use WordPress.
The cost of the premium themes and extensions is higher.

Magento

Unlike WooCommerce, Magento Development Company is an e-commerce platform for established organizations. It has a free community edition and an enterprise edition, which attracts charges. Magento is not dependent on other Content Management Systems (CMS) since it offers a full business solution.

However, it is an open-source platform, just like WooCommerce. It lets users change the source code and choose or develop customized templates and unique features. The platform also allows for API access and integrations. The best thing about Magento e-commerce development is that it can be used to manage various stores at once. It also accepts international currency payments. It has been used for nearly a decade and is among the most powerful open-source e-commerce platforms.

Features of Magento

It supports various products like a self-hosting platform
It has great admin interfaces and product creation tools
Has better themes and layout systems
Incorporates APIs that facilitate connection with any third-party solution
It offers better product search
It comes with a point-and-click interface, making it easy to use

Pros
It allows payment from different currencies through PayPal, Braintree and Authorize.Net.
It allows customers to checkout easily and faster. Guests can also checkout through default settings.
It can handle bigger stores as it is built for scalability.

Cons

The enterprise edition is expensive to manage or own
It is more geared toward established businesses instead of regular users

Security
Customers prefer transacting on secure online platforms. So, as a company, your site’s security is vital. A company can manage security with secure add-ons.

Both WooCommerce and Magento are secure business platforms. WooCommerce security is self-hosted and needs an SSL certificate. It works with a web hosting provider, and users must manually make the platform PCI-DSS compliant. However, Magento automates PCI compliance and has regularly released security patches.

It also contains a site scanner, and users enjoy extra security from the hosting provider. Additionally, the SSL certificate is free, and the server undergoes 24/7 monitoring.

The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protects crucial customers’ details from hackers. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) enables your company to facilitate credit card payments.

Magento is more secure as it offers better security to users. The only disadvantage of Magento is that its security patches are not easy to use.

This gives new users challenges in maintaining a secure system. In fact, most newbie stores remain outdated without their knowledge, which is a security risk.

Relying fully on the protection of the commerce website development company can compromise your customers’ crucial data. So, it is best to take the necessary actions to improve security.

Site Performance
Site performance is another essential component of an online store. Remember, a poorly responsive site chases away potential customers and makes it unreliable.

However, a secure and reliable platform needs to run faster to earn clients’ trust. A responsive site also boosts sales and can attract prospective customers while retaining existing ones.

Both WooCommerce and Magento offer varied site speeds. The performance of any of the platforms depends on the hosting provider and the available bandwidth. If your WooCommerce site speed is slower, consider reducing the WordPress plugins or using Content Delivery Network (CDN).

Magento allows users to change hosting providers to improve the platform’s scalability. The best thing about web hosting providers is that they tighten security too.

Pricing

One of the notable differences between WooCommerce vs Magento e-commerce platforms a business needs to pay much attention to is their pricing. WooCommerce is a free, open-source platform that allows businesses to save money. However, to access the premium services, companies must subscribe for a fee.

Magento, on the other hand, has two versions. The community edition is available for free. However, your company has to pay to access Magento Enterprise Edition. It is advisable to note that Magento is much more expensive to use.

Its enterprise edition also keeps evolving, meaning it will keep attracting more charges. For example, the premium features of Magento 1 go for a different price than Magento 2.

Apart from the subscription fees, the two platforms also attract additional charges. For example, WooCommerce, a free platform, requires hosting providers. Additionally, your business must pay for a domain name or other features.

Magento is able to host multiple stores attracts paid extensions, needs paid SEO tools, and has product management features. This means a business using Magento will spend more than one using WooCommerce. This is because of the additional premium features, which are costly.

Ease of Use

An e-commerce platform with great features is what every business looks for. However, such a platform can become useless if it is not easy-to-use or if users do not know how to use it. So, while selecting between WooCommerce vs Magento look at the one that is easiest to use.

WooCommerce is easy to use and does not require training to understand how it works. Instead, you need to understand how WordPress works to build, install, and use your store. Since it is an open-source solution, expect to experience some difficulties that require technical assistance or knowledge to access different features.

WooCommerce also has attractive and easy to use templates that help make a company’s site appealing. The customizable themes require basic technical knowledge to manage.

Magento is a bit different from WooCommerce as its installation is more technical. It requires tech savvy individuals to manage and run the store, which attracts additional charges.

It also has fewer built in themes, and using third party themes may take users back to class. Even though the platform has drag and drop features, a non-tech savvy user might find it challenging to achieve the desired outcome.

Extensions and Plugins

A good e-commerce platform should have great built-in features. Such features reduce the cost of managing the store and should be easy to use.

However, as a company expands, the in-built features might limit its operations. This requires the intervention of extension features to provide a better user experience.

WooCommerce has various inbuilt SEO and add on features. It entails 50K plugins, which integrate easily within the platform.

Despite that, Magento has better add on feature options. It has about 3500 extensions and 1,900 free plugins that require frequent updates and maintenance.

A company using Magento does not need to pay for these services. Most extensions are part of the package price, but you pay to modify and integrate them.

Developing a website with WooCommerce is a better choice for companies looking to include extension features on their stores. This is because the extensions or plugins are cheap to integrate through WordPress, making it a great choice to use.

Product Management

Good product management also determines the progress of an e-commerce solution store. So, before settling on either of the two platforms it is best to look at their product management.

WooCommerce has a good product management approach for both physical and digital products. It makes it easier for companies to set up new products. It is also possible to infuse add-on features with extensions.

On the other hand, Magento limits a company’s product management. This is because it has inbuilt features like wish list, grouped items and advanced pricing rules.

Such features make the platform more functional. It also does not allow for the easy inclusion of additional features after the product has gone through its full cycle. With WooCommerce the expanded features can come in through the extensions.

Support System

Every online platform needs a good support system. The support system helps organizations in times of emergency or crisis. It also provides basic answers customers may need while transacting through the platform.

WooCommerce has an active help center that provides solutions through FAQ sections or WooCommerce documents. It provides enough support for businesses that want to be in charge of their support system.

However, it does not have email, live chat, or phone support. Instead, it has a public knowledge base and community, and users with bought extensions can enjoy using the support center. WooCommerce’s huge user base also enables individuals to seek help from WooExperts, established developers, or a network of peers.

The Magento platform allows its open-source edition users to get help from third-party developers or the community. Your company can receive direct support for commerce or commerce cloud versions through phone, tickets, and email.

Design and Themes

Most customers prefer buying from attractive websites. Additionally, a number of site visitors judge the credibility of a site depending on its design. This means, as a focused business, it is important to check on your website’s design and theme.

Woocomerce has 20 built in themes, three of which are free and 13 of which are responsive. The themes are highly customizable, and it is possible to buy them. In WooCommerce customizing the themes is a lot easier and faster through the WordPress plugins.

However, Magento has two built-in themes that require users to design their own. The themes also require coding. This means that customizing the blank themes in Magento is a real challenge, as using the tools is not easy.

Even though both platforms require technical and IT skills, designing the themes for Magento is much more complex. The Magento platform might need an established IT specialist which attracts additional charges.

Transaction Fees and Payment Mode
WooCommerce vs Magento also has different transaction fees and payment options. WooCommerce has 4 payment methods, cash on delivery, check payments, direct bank transfers, and online card payments.

It also consists of 3 payment gateways like PayPal, BrainTree, and WooCommerce. It does not attract transaction fees and is also Apple supported.

Magento has more payment methods. Users can pay through an online card, check, purchase order, bank transfer, money order, zero subtotal checkout, and cash on delivery.

Additionally, customers can use payment gateways, such as Authorize.Net or PayPal. It is also possible to add gateway extensions at a fee to facilitate Amazon Pay, Stripe, and Square. It also does not attract transaction fees or Apple Pay support.

Built-I.n Features

Having a business platform with more features gives customers a better user experience. The features enable them to go through your site and find specific items or search for services.

WooCommerce has fewer built-in features like suggested products on different product pages, customized checkout, and one-click refunds. It also has advanced SEO tools, but the paid add-on features are also available.

Magneto contains advanced SEO tools, advanced analytics, and allows sales of all product types. The inventory management system enables customers to login, compare products, create wish lists, and anchor menus. It also provides staff logins and gift card payments.

A store website with fewer built-in features integrates with many add-ons and plugins. Such extensions enable your business to modify the site and provide a better user experience. WooCommerce has less built in features unlike magneto.

Server Specifications

As a startup business, it is not easy to decide on the right server for the platform. Look into the number of site users and the size of the business to determine this.

WooCommerce depends on a 1 GB Digital Ocean server to run, which is ideal for organizations with few daily users. Since it is best to have a server with 2 GB, the WooCommerce platform can be a bit slower. However, some tech savvy individuals can try using a bigger RAM server on WooCommerce’s server to improve its performance.

The Magneto server needs 4GB to operate. Such a server can accommodate more users than WooCommerce. A business with more than 100 users needs to upgrade its server storage space to reduce page loading time.

Source: https://www.sigmasolve.com/woocommerce-vs-magento-which-is-the-best-ecommerce-platform/

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Sigma Solve, Inc. provides enterprise software solutions for its customers in USA, Canada, UK, Middle East, Japan and Australia. Sigma Solve, Inc is ranked 2077 by Inc 5000. Currently, we work with the Fortune 5000 Companies, and a key reason for our multi-fold growth is the unique discovery process and custom solutions we design for each client.

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