20 Extremely Useful Tools and Resources for Creating a Website

Long gone and forgotten are the days when the Internet was a place only few of us had access and even fewer recognized its full potential. Nowadays, we can go online at any hour, from anywhere. Accordingly, the need for businesses, causes, organizations and so on to create an online presence for themselves has become more pressing.

Naturally, this has lead to an increase of workload for web developers and designers as well as higher requirements for visual appeal and interactivity. Luckily, the number of helpers for developers and designers have grown as well and we’ve looked through some of the best tools available and chosen our top 20.

1. HotJar Insights

When designing or developing a website, the biggest drawback you’ll have as far as its usability is concerned is that you’ll always know where to look for the things you’re interested in, because you’re the one who put them there in the first place. Sadly, the same does not apply to your visitors. This is why a tool like HotJar is invaluable for any web project that aims to be a success. By supplying developers and owners with information about how visitors are really using the website and collecting feedback from these same users, HotJar will help you turn more visitors into customers in no time.

Unlike most of its competitors that only covered a limited range of usability information, HotJar provides you with a unified platform where you can find all the data you need. Amongst the features that HotJar offers in their quest to help you improve your website you will find:

• Heat maps, that allow you to see the areas where your customers have clicked or tapped most often as well as their scrolling behavior.
• Feedback and exist polls, to help you better understand what your visitors want and what, in some cases, you fail to provide.
• Online surveys, that you can define yourself and collect the responses in real-time from any device thanks to HotJar’s storage of your data in a secure cloud.

Recruit user testers who just so happen to be the best possible participants for user research and testing and much more.

2. Giverz

Giverz is a website dedicated to finding, organizing and promoting the best giveaways available online at any given time. Do you need to know more or are you already browsing to their home page? Well, if you’re still around, here’s the gist of it: Giverz is a team of dedicated individuals who have set off on the search for the sweetest deals that money are redundant for. In other words, they’re looking for giveaways and they don’t plan on keeping them all to themselves, they aim to share them with as many people as they possibly can. In order to be one of the lucky individuals who get a chance to grab the giveaways that Giverz is putting out, all you have to do is subscribe to their mailing list. Once you’ve done that, keep up with their latest campaigns on Twitter and Facebook and be ready to receive their email telling you that the giveaway has become available. Now, the trick to becoming the lucky winner of the giveaway is to click on the link provided by Giverz in their email as fast as possible. Don’t waste any more time.

3. ZippyPixels

When looking for the best place for resources to help you in your web development and designer profession, you might find that most websites ask for ridiculous prices that only a select few can afford. Luckily, there’s also ZippyPixels, a platform that aims to offer good quality and low prices for all the items that they commercialize. ZippyPixels is dedicated to creating a community where developers and designers are helped with all the resources they need in order to be on their way. This is why the team at ZippyPixels is very sociable and in tune with their customers’ wants and needs. And this is how the Grandé bundle came to be. As a result of the community’s need for more, ZippyPixels gave them more. They don’t call the bundle Grandé for nothing, it contains 160 HD mockups that you can head on over and asses for yourselves. We’ll tell you they include a varied selection of logos, books, stationery, device and more.

4. ShrinkTheWeb

It is humanly impossible to look forward to a workday that involves thousands of screenshots. This is way ShrinkTheWeb is both a popular and a very useful tool for web developers, because it offers you the possibility to automatize the entire screenshot capturing process. ShrinkTheWeb is the most reliable screenshot platform available online. This service automatically captures, shrinks, crops, saves, uploads and displays screenshots. ShrinkTheWeb cannot only boast an intuitive and well-documented API, but also unmatched reliability and unlimited scalability. What’s more, the service offers more than automating the process of creating screen shots, but also a divers variety of features like:  URL to PDF Conversion, Custom Size Previews, Full-Length Previews, Private Label Service, Inside Page Previews and more. With all these cool options, you’d think that ShrinkTheWeb is a costly service, but we’re happy to announce that this particular tool for web developers is completely free. And with a list of past clients like Symantec, Technorati and Microsoft, its performance speaks for itself.

5. DealFuel

DealFuel is the home of web developer and web designer deals. It offers it’s community a repository filled with first rate WordPress themes, tools for websites, dedicated software and a plentiful selection of online learning resources and tutorials. As far as designers are concerned, they will find an abundance of goodies on this website, starting off with web fronts, icons, buttons, vectors and much more. Also, DealFuel keeps a dedicated Freebies section that you can browse at your leisure to find the best free deals available. Let’s not forget the amazing bundles that they’re in the habit of offering their clients where they include some of the best resources that money can buy. Oh, and if we’re talking money, you’ll be glad to know that DealFuel has taken it upon themselves to go ahead and negotiate deals and discounts for you straight from the producer of the item you are purchasing.

6. RumbleTalk

Integrating an active chat room to your website can surely help add it to the map. RumbleTalk is the company to turn to for any active HTML5 chat room you might need for your projects. These chat rooms are fully customizable with the option to use predefined templates or create your own, as well as define the way your fonts and background look. You will have complete integration with social networks like Facebook or Twitter in order to allow your users to invite their friends easier as well as sign in directly with their account. What’s more, users are free to add videos and pictures straight into the chat room, making their experience more entertaining and also, hopefully, more lengthy. RumbleTalk’s chat rooms can be integrated into your website in two ways, either as a floating toolbar or as an embedded chat room, regardless of what system you choose, you can be sure that the team over at RumbleTalk will aid you with any problems you might hit along the way.

7. BrowseEmAll

The fact that there are a number of browsers available that you can use to access the Internet is a great thing for users, but a nightmare for web developers and designers. Technically, a standard as to what is compatible cross-browser exists, but actually…it’s somewhat wishful thinking. This is why a tool like BrowseEmAll is so useful in developing a website. With the help of this easy to use, lightning fast desktop application you will be able to detect all compatibility issues within your code and fix them in the shortest amount of time. BrowseEmAll helps you automatize your testing process and offers you features that will help you optimize your website for mobile platforms and more. By using BrowseEmAll, you will have all the conditions you need in order to test both your HTML and raw files for any compatibility issues that might arise and as much help as you can get in dealing with the problems you encounter along the way.

8. Paddle

If you’re going to be selling digital content on your website, look no further than Paddle’s eCommerce platform. Especially designed for digital content creators, Paddle makes it incredibly simple to start selling anything from apps and games to eBooks and creative resources — just name & price your product, upload your files and start selling with your own Paddle checkout link.

Using Paddle’s Overlay Checkout, you can rest assured that customers will have a beautiful and seamless checkout experience without having to leave your website.

All Paddle sellers get an analytics dashboard for free, equipped with reporting and product management functionality, along with the ability to view and manage customer data. And with Paddle handling the “boring things” like taxes, chargebacks and even customer support, you can dedicate your time on creating awesome products instead.

Selling with Paddle costs just 5% + $0.50 per sale, so if you want an incredibly simple way to sell your digital content, be sure to sign up to Paddle.com for free here.

9. Stamplia

The Stamplia Builder is an editor designed to cut the time developers used to spend on modifying email templates to suit their client’s needs in half. The Stamplia Builder offers a diverse array of features that will satisfy the needs of any developer and help him or her be more productive and flexible. One of the most useful features you will find within the Stamplia Builder is the real-time responsive visualization mode that will allow you to make alterations and decide if they’re suitable or not faster and easier. Another great feature is the automatic export into email providers like MailChimp, CampaignMonitor and SendGrid. Also, developers who create templates that are compatible with the Stamplia Builder editor will have the chance to be promoted amongst the clients of the aforementioned email providers and thusly increase their client base.  All you have to do to file your compatible template with Stamplia Builder is follow the guide and check the box ‘My template is compatible with the editor’ in the upload tab of your Stamplia account.

10. New Relic

It’s important for both developers and website managers to be up to date with the performance of their application. This information isn’t as easy to come by as it may sound and this is why New Relic is such an important and reliable tool. By using New Relic you will have access to software that will give you real-time operational & business analytics, a deep understanding with custom events & attributes, the possibility to query your data at lightning speed and more.

11. Opinion Stage

It’s a widely accepted fact that most people on the Internet enjoy expressing their opinion and making it known to as many people as possible. This is why adding a poll to your website will boost user engagement, the number of contributors and the time they spend on your website or app. In order to make sure you’re getting the best polls available, you should turn to Opinion Stage. Opinion Stage is the company to help you with all your polling needs, it will help you add an opinion polling service to your website or application in under 5 minutes. With Opinion Stage you will have complete control over the look and feel of the polls on your website, you will discover the opinions of your visitors and, most importantly, you will get to know your users. Opinion Stage offers you a rich aggregation dashboard where you can view and interpret the results of all our polls at any time and get a better understanding of your visitors’ wants and needs.

12. WPEka Club

What could be better than a repository of premium WordPress themes and plugins? A repository of first rate WordPress themes and plugins that offers you an all-inclusive membership at only $27 a month and the promise that it will continue to add to its collection at least 4 new releases each month. In other words, WPEka Club. WPEka Club is a repository of over 50 WordPress themes that supply a diverse range of customer needs including, but not being limited to, business, hobbies, portfolios and so on. Also, WPEka Club offers an attractive array of plugins that will help you with all your needs starting with SEO, to Social Media, AdSense, Advertising, Auction and more. Why keep wasting your time searching endlessly for that perfect WordPress theme for your website when you can shoot straight and head on over to WPEka Club, the place for all the WordPress awesomeness you need.

13. Luvly

If you’re looking for a digital download marketplace where you can find graphics, vectors, designs, WordPress and Blogger themes, look no further than Luvly. This marketplace will offer you a rich variety of elegant and eye-catching graphic resources to help you make your website stand out of the crowd. Have a look at the Web and Graphics sections of their website and pick whatever item or items suit our fancy and your needs. Luvly applies a thorough acceptance procedure that makes sure only the best items find themselves on their virtual shelves. This way, you can be sure that you have made a quality purchase at all times. What’s more, Luvly is a team that wants to help its community grow and prosper along with the marketplace. To this end, they take to organizing workshops, tutorials and classes to help new talented individuals start off on their journey, as well as seasoned designers hone their craft.

14. CloudCart

Putting out an online store is not the easiest task to undertake, but by using CloudCart it becomes quite simple. With the help of the team at CloudCart, you will have a fully functional online store up and running in no time. CloudCart will provide you with all the essentials you need for your business, like elegant, functional and SEO optimized templates, secure hosting and CDN, integrated live chat and 24/7 support. To add to that, CloudCart will take care of the social integration aspect of your website and will offer you full social media integration with websites like Google+, Twitter and Facebook. Also, as more and more people have grown accustomed to browse the Internet from their hand-held devices, CloudCart will also offer you a website that is completely mobile optimized with mobile checkout and free updates that will help you keep ahead of your competition. Let’s not forget about making the selling aspect of your online store as easy to manage as possible with integrated payments, 1-page checkout and delivery and tax calculator.

15. Inspiration Hut

Inspiration Hut is the place to go to for one of the most diverse collections of web developer and web designer resources on the Internet. With an active and dynamic community, Inspiration Hut manages to keep its edge and be constantly at the forefront of designer and developer trends. If you don’t believe us, go check out the mockups for both iPhone 6 and Apple Watch that have been available for some time now. In addition to this, feel free to browse through their diverse gallery that encompasses a variety of themes, patterns, text effects, brushes, print templates and more. Also keep in mind that most of the resources gathered on Inspiration Hut are completely free so don’t forget to give credit when required. And if you’re a web developer or designer, why don’t you go ahead and join the Inspiration Hut community and submit your work to the repository. Inspiration Hut is more than ready to welcome you in.

16. OOcharts

With OOcharts you will have all the information gathered up by Google Analytics in one place. In order to get going with OOcharts all you have to do is connect your Google profile and make an API Key for your site. This tool allows you have better control over the information provided by Google Analytics. Your reports will be cached so they will be processed faster the second time and all the requests that would normally exceed the Google Analytics API limits will be queued in with OOcharts.

17. Fiddler

Fiddler is a debugging proxy that is compatible with all browsers (Chrome, Safari, etc), systems (Windows, Linux, Mac as well as mobile devices) and platform(Ruby, PHP, Java and so on).  You will be able to use Fiddler for security testing your applications and easily identifying performance bottlenecks through performance testing. What’s more, you will be able to benefit from a rich extensibility model, ranging from simple FiddlerScript to powerful Extensions which can be developed using any .NET language.

18. Web Starter Kit

When starting off a project that aims to create a website that will be compatible across multiple devices, take a look at what the Web Starter Kit has to offer. Amongst the features provided by the Web Starter Kit you will find: living component style guide, multi-device responsive boilerplate, performance optimization tools, a built in HTTP server, Sass support and more.

19. BrowserShots

With the use of BrowserShots, you’ll be able to take a look at your website in different browser and operating system configurations. This service if very straightforward to use, all you have to do is paste your URL, check the boxes of the browsers you’re interested in and hit Submit.

20. jQAPI

jQuery is becoming one of the most popular libraries for JavaScript among web developers and with good reasons, given it’s flexibility and scalability. In order to help developers to get a better handle on the language, jQAPI has been created as an Alternative Documentation Browser that can be used both online and offline with great ease.