Shipfusion is an ecommerce fulfillment solution that provides businesses across the United States and Canada with powerful fulfillment, inventory management, and customer support to assist in building a seamless ecommerce operation. 

With additional products in returns, freight, and warehouse projects, you can focus on growing your business with an all-in-one solution.

Shipfusion Compared

Shipfusion did not make it onto our top list of the best ecommerce fulfillment services, though it is still a decent option. ShipBob is the best option for most, with two-day shipping and omnichannel support. Request a quote for free. 

• ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform
• Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
• ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
• Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
• Easyship – Best for international fulfillment

About Shipfusion

Shipfusion offers comprehensive features for ecommerce fulfillment that scale to the size of your business. Whether you need shipping for 10 products or 100 products per month, Shipfusion can help you process orders, manage customer returns, and track inventory without the hassle of outsourcing various fulfillment platforms. 

• Shipfusion Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Review

Along with Shipfusion’s ecommerce fulfillment platform, its other products and services include inventory management, fulfillment center locations, a returns program, a freight management system, warehouse projects, and a reporting portal. 

Shipfusion Health and Stability

Shipfusion was founded in 2014 as a privately traded company with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Shipfusion has four investors, including Kanye Anderson Capital Advisors, Vitality Capital, Seek Captial Management, and MER Partners, collectively raising $40 million across four funding rounds. 

As of 2023, Shipfusion has hired more than 250 employees across the United States. With a 4.9-star rating on Glassdoor, most of Shipfusion’s current and former employees seem to support the CEO and like the work culture. 

Shipfusion Pricing

Unfortunately, Shipfusion doesn’t disclose pricing for any of its products on its website. This is because its ecommerce solution is highly customizable, and Shipfusion wants to work with the user to create a package that works well with their exact needs.

Shipfusion Pricing Structure

As Shipfusion doesn’t disclose pricing on its website, there isn’t much to discuss in terms of pricing structure. However, after extensive research, we found a few users claim that Shipfusion uses a monthly pricing structure.

But because Shipfusion works with you to create custom pricing, there’s a high chance that you can choose a structure that best suits your budget and business. 

Shipfusion Pricing Comparison

One of Shipfusion’s main—and most popular—products is its ecommerce platform, so I will compare the pricing for this same product between two competitors. Similarly to Shipfusion, many ecommerce platforms don’t disclose pricing on their website, but let’s take a look at two companies that do. 

ShipMonk bases its pricing on how many monthly orders you expect to pack and ship. For example, if you have between zero and 500 monthly orders, you will pay a $3.00 pick fee per order, a $0.75 fee for additional items per order, a $0.20 fee for promotional inserts, and $2.00 for return processing. ShipMonk also offers monthly storage fees that range from $1.00 per month to $25 per month for a pallet. 

Easyship offers a different pricing structure, with tiers that range from free to $29, $69, and $99 per month. Easyship’s free plan comes with 50 shipments per month and unlimited ecommerce integrations. 

Shipfusion Trials and Guarantees

Shipfusion doesn’t currently offer any free trials or guarantees. However, you can request a custom quote and view a demo for free. 

Shipfusion Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Review

Shipfusion stands out for its robust inventory software with incredible fulfillment features. Shipfusion’s ecommerce fulfillment service is flexible, with comprehensive customer support and smart storage. 

You will benefit from Shipfusion’s ecommerce fulfillment platform if you are looking for a flexible platform that will grow with your business. If you want to explore other excellent alternatives, check out our reviews of the best ecommerce fulfillment services. 

What Makes Shipfusion Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Great

Robust inventory software: Shipfusion can help you manage your entire inventory with its robust inventory software. This software automatically updates your inventory data across multiple sales channels in real-time, which allows you to sell products on various platforms simultaneously while ensuring your data stays consistent. Shipfusion’s robust inventory software also allows you to transparently view all stock levels, including SKU continuity reports, back order notifications, and count/adjustment entries. 

Smart storage: If you’re looking to reduce storage costs and optimize how you store your products, Shipfusion offers storage solutions that target both areas. Shipfusion strategically designs its warehouses and inventory systems to assign your products to designated areas. And fewer shipment errors will likely result in fewer returns. Shipfusion also offers customized storage solutions, including temperature-controlled spaces and food-grade storage options.

Flexible shipping: Shipfusion works closely with its selected merchants to ensure you get the best rates possible. Shipfusion currently offers ground shipping, which is flexible and affordable for everyone involved. As a third-party logistics (3PL) fulfillment provider, Shipfusion handles the entire shipping process—from warehousing to distribution—and can help you deliver your products in as little as two days.

Comprehensive customer service: Slow customer support is a worry of the past with Shipfusion’s comprehensive customer service options. Instead of only having the options of phone or email customer support, Shipfusion allows you to choose from support tickets, live chat, email, phone, help video demos, and a blog. Plus, every Shipfusion user gets a dedicated account manager for additional support.

Powerful inventory fulfillment features: Aside from Shipfusion’s inventory management options, you’ll also benefit from its powerful inventory fulfillment features that help streamline your fulfillment and shipping process. For picking orders, you can choose from piece picking, which allows you to hand-pick orders, batch picking for bulk orders, or zone picking, where employees are assigned to one area of the warehouse at a time. You also have the option to integrate Shipfusion into your preferred sales channel for seamless order processing. 

Where Shipfusion Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Falls Short

Tracking issues: After reviewing dozens of reviews, I found a small percentage of reviewers who experienced tracking issues while using Shipfusion. They claimed that Shipfusion failed to accurately track their inventory, which led to overselling inventory they didn’t have.

Non-transparent pricing: Most ecommerce fulfillment services don’t disclose pricing on their website, so it’s not an uncommon practice. However, it does make it increasingly difficult for businesses to understand what their budget should look like for Shipfusion’s service. Instead, Shipfusion works with each customer to create a customized pricing plan that will suit your needs.

Sometimes slow shipping speeds: Despite Shipfusion claiming that its ground shipping can deliver products in as little as two days, this doesn’t seem to be the case for a few users. Some reviewers claimed that Shipfusion took up to a week to deliver their products, which caused them to lose money and time. 

Shipfusion Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Compared

While Shipfusion is a powerful ecommerce fulfillment service with smart storage and extensive inventory management, the best company on the market today is ShipBob, with reliable two-day shipping and omnichannel support.

• ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform
• Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
• ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
• Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
• Easyship – Best for international fulfillment

Final Verdict

Shipfusion is an excellent ecommerce fulfillment service that caters to businesses looking to streamline their fulfillment and shipping processes. With robust inventory software, smart storage, and comprehensive customer service, Shipfusion can help you create a reliable ecommerce operation. 

Even though Shipfusion has been in the industry for nine years, the company continues to prove its reliability through generous funding rounds and a 4.9-star rating on Glassdoor.

Rakuten Super Logistics (RSL) was acquired by ShipNetwork in 2022 and now operates under the brand name ShipNetwork. But while the owner has changed, ShipNetwork continues to be an ecommerce fulfillment service you can trust. Admittedly, it’s still too new to vet its current formation. However, the integrations with key partners like Shopify, Amazon, and ShipStation and fast fulfillment promises are a solid first start. 

Before the acquisition, ShipNetwork had seven strategically located warehouses across the US and an international network of shoppers. Post-acquisition, ShipNetwork continues to build on its existing resources, partnering with its sister company, FirstMile, to provide users with a full suite of logistics parcel technologies and solutions.

ShipNetwork Compared

ShipNetwork hasn’t made it on my list of the best ecommerce fulfillment services, primarily because of its high minimum order clause and the tremendous goodwill of its competitors. Instead, I chose ShipBob as my top pick, with its 99.95% fulfillment accuracy rate and two-day shipping. Request a quote to get started.

• ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform
• Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
• ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
• Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
• Easyship – Best for international fulfillment

Check out our best ecommerce fulfillment services.

About ShipNetwork

ShipNetwork is a leading ecommerce order fulfillment company that offers scalable, flexible, and cost-effective distribution solutions to your fulfillment problems. It aims to provide online retailers and consumers with fast, accurate, and efficient distribution for truly borderless ecommerce.

With over 250 employees across the country and 20 years of experience in logistics, ShipNetwork is one company you know you can rely on to deliver a positive shipping experience for your customers and uphold your ecommerce store’s reputation.

• ShipNetwork Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Review

Aside from order fulfillment, ShipNetwork offers other 3PL services like returns management, subscription boxes, freight, and kitting.

ShipNetwork Health and Stability

ShipNetwork is a privately-owned company with annual revenue between $25 million-$100 million. It has been in the industry for 22 years and offers national fulfillment services and a network of fulfillment centers across the United States, including Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), Houston (TX), Las Vegas (NV), and Salt Lake City (UT).

Besides ecommerce, ShipNetwork offers specialized solutions in the transportation, trucking, railroad, and internet software niches.

Upon the recent acquisition of RSL, ShipNetwork and FirstMile owner Devin Johnson mentioned he plans to provide clients with a full suite of domestic and international transportation solutions and technology. All these are positive indications that ShipNetwork isn’t going anywhere soon.

ShipNetwork Pricing

ShipNetwork’s main focus is to provide users with customized and transparent pricing. You’ll have to get in touch with its sales team to learn how much you need to pay to use the ecommerce fulfillment service.

ShipNetwork Pricing Structure

ShipNetwork understands no two businesses are the same. To accommodate each business’s unique needs, it provides potential customers custom quotes based on factors like order volume, SKU mix, average product weight and size, inventory storage, and product handling and packaging, among other factors.

ShipNetwork Pricing Comparison

One can’t really compare the pricing of ecommerce fulfillment services, as most of them don’t have fixed pricing. You’ll have to request a custom quote from each service provider.

ShipNetwork Trials and Guarantees

ShipNetwork doesn’t offer free trials or money-back guarantees.

ShipNetwork Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Review

ShipNetwork specializes in expedited domestic shipping and fulfillment, a promise it can deliver on, thanks to the company having more than 10 fulfillment centers across the United States. Other notable features include next-day shipping, return management, subscription box fulfillment, and tons of integrations.

ShipNetwork boasts an excellent 100% order accuracy guarantee, but it’s important to note the company has only recently been acquired, so nothing is set in stone. However, there are a few caveats, such as the high minimum orders and vague pricing, which after taking into account, I haven’t featured ShipNetwork on my best ecommerce fulfillment services list.

What Makes ShipNetwork Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Great

Enhanced national reach: The acquisition of RSL resulted in increased volume and density, which is likely to benefit both ShipNetwork and FirstMile clients. The expanded network means ShipNetwork can reach deeper into postal and regional carrier networks, thereby reducing costs and improving service performance. With the company planning to expand its facilities in both the eastern and western regions of the United States, you can expect larger facilities to support larger-scale retail distribution.

Fast and simple order fulfillment: ShipNetwork‘s order fulfillment process is super fast and simple. Once a customer makes an order on your ecommerce store, it’s automatically synced with the nearest ShipNetwork warehouse (currently, there are over ten in the US). The fulfillment center then processes and ships the orders to the customer via ShipNetwork shipping partners. If any items need to be returned, ShipNetwork‘s fulfillment center will follow your prescribed process. 

Wide range of 3PL services: In addition to order fulfillment, ShipNetwork offers additional 3PL services to further streamline third-party logistics. For instance, its kitting is great for product bundling, while the cloud-based fulfillment and inventory system gives you complete control over your orders and inventory at all times. Other services include lot tracking, climate control, and project-based solutions to ensure your products are handled accurately and carefully.

Efficient returns management: Customers wanting to return an item because it wasn’t quite what they were hoping for is inevitable in ecommerce. Understanding this, they offer hands-on retail management services, which include restocking returned items to your inventory and discarded and damaged items. While you can work with the ShipNetwork team to plan your ecommerce return management, the company will collect the returns on your behalf and send them to the specific locations on schedule to minimize transit costs.

Tons of integrations: ShipNetwork’s ecommerce integrations include popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay, BigCommerce, Magento, and Amazon. It also integrates with other shipping platforms and carriers like FirstMile, DHL, USPS, and ShipStation to streamline the overall shipping process while making it more cost-effective. However, be sure to check whether these carriers deliver in the regions you actively sell to.

Subscription box fulfillment: Another advantage of ShipNetwork is its subscription box fulfillment service, which is great for securing ongoing sales. Generally speaking, ShipNetwork ships the boxes out once a month or at another predefined interval and takes full responsibility for assembling and packing all the required items, ensuring they’re shipped at the right time.

Where ShipNetwork Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Falls Short

Vague pricing: ShipNetwork hasn’t published any pricing information on its website. You have to request a quote from the sales team, which unnecessarily prolongs the process. Case in point—you have to schedule a discovery call with the ShipNetwork team, who will then do a deep dive into your product, shipping, and handling requirements. Then they’ll put together a proposal for fulfillment services based on the information you gave.

High minimum orders: ShipNetwork mainly caters to clients that have about 4,500 orders per month. While it may consider working with smaller firms and startups with potential, the orders should not be below 250 a month. This may not be a feasible minimum for small businesses.

ShipNetwork Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Compared

While it’ll be exciting to see how ShipNetwork’s fulfillment services turn out in the future, ShipBob is currently my top pick for the best ecommerce fulfillment platform.

• ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform
• Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
• ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
• Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
• Easyship – Best for international fulfillment

Final Verdict

ShipNetwork is a promising ecommerce fulfillment service that provides fast and cost-effective order fulfillment services, complete with a 100% order accuracy guarantee. A bunch of other 3PL services like returns management, subscription boxes, and freight ensures reliable 3PL services whenever you make a sale.

To build a successful website, you need to start with a solid foundation—a reliable and reputable web hosting provider. Without one, you risk excessive downtime, slow page loading speeds, and even security threats.

This guide introduces and makes a side-by-side comparison of two of the most popular web hosts. Read on to discover the right web host for your unique needs.

Hostinger vs. Bluehost Compared to the Best

Hostinger and Bluehost were both among our favorites in our review of the best web hosting providers. They both deliver in all the key areas—uptime, speed, security, and ease of use. Hostinger, though, came out on top. We did the research and can confidently recommend Hostinger for most web hosting needs. Try Hostinger and save up to 75% today.

• Hostinger – Best overall
• DreamHost – Best value for shared hosting
• SiteGround – Best for extra speed and security
• Bluehost – Best for new WordPress websites

Hostinger vs. Bluehost High-Level Comparison

Hostinger stands out for two big reasons. It provides dependable web hosting and does it at a really low cost. It also offers a few other outstanding features that make it the ideal solution for those who prefer to outsource the behind-the-scenes tasks that go with running a website.

Hostinger offers free backups with all shared hosting plans so that your site can be quickly restored in the event of a major problem. Most other hosting services charge extra for this peace-of-mind feature. Hostinger also gives you a simplified control panel—aptly called hPanel—with simple navigation icons, making it easy to find what you need, even for first-time website owners.

Bluehost also targets those new to website management, especially anyone using WordPress to build and run their sites. Bluehost has built a very beginner-friendly platform and fine-tuned it for WordPress to make things as smooth as possible.

Bluehost keeps beginners in mind with its user interface, too. Tackling a task for the first time? Bluehost will usually walk you through it, so doing things like setting up an email account or starting a blog isn’t a guessing game for you. Bluehost also keeps prices on the low side, making it affordable to get started.  

Both Hostinger and Bluehost are in the top four of our recommended web hosting providers. While both services work no matter what platform you build your website on, WordPress-built sites are the sweet spot for both.

Products and Services Offered By Hostinger and Bluehost

As major web hosting providers, both Hostinger and Bluehost offer very similar shared hosting services. They both offer multiple plans, free SSL certificates, and a free domain name for the first year. Bluehost is one of three preferred WordPress hosting providers. Hostinger offers a dedicated WordPress dashboard, so running WordPress sites on either platform is streamlined.

Hostinger boasts some impressive speeds for a low-price web hosting provider. Usually, you sacrifice one for the other, but not with Hostinger. The industry average for page loading speed is around 900 ms and Hostinger halves that number to an average of about 300-400 ms.

Hostinger also gives you its website builder for free when you sign up for web hosting. The Hostinger website builder is extremely easy to use and consistently makes our top list of the best website builders. This extra functionality can be a valuable benefit. Take a deeper dive into Hostinger in our full review.

Bluehost focuses on making website hosting as easy as possible. Even beginners at website administration find Bluehost’s user interface intuitive and straightforward. Bluehost also throws in some valuable marketing credits for Google Ads and makes it simple to set up your Google My Business account.

Bluehost is also a WordPress-preferred hosting provider. So if you’re going to build your website with WordPress, it makes sense to choose a provider recognized as one of the best by the source. You’ll even get customized WordPress themes with all Bluehost plans. Discover more about Bluehost in our comprehensive review.

Company Health and Stability of Hostinger and Bluehost

Hostinger and Bluehost each have decades of web hosting expertise. In fact, they both started at about the same time.

Hostinger is based in Lithuania and originally began as Hosting Media back in 2004. It was eventually rebranded to its current iteration in 2011. While they don’t disclose the total number of websites hosted, they do have over 1,000 employees today. 

Provo, Utah-based Bluehost started in 2003 and currently claims to host over 2 million websites. It has 750+ employees.

Both companies have great reputations and longevity in the space. Health and stability are not concerns for either, and we give both an A+.

Hostinger vs. Bluehost Pricing Comparison

Both companies focus on offering shared web hosting at affordable prices. Each breaks down its pricing on a per-month basis and entices longer-term commitments by offering cheaper monthly rates for multi-year agreements. You’ll have to commit to a longer-term contract and pay upfront to grab those lower prices, though. 

As is typical in this industry, once renewal time rolls around, your monthly price will go up.

Hostinger lets you lock in pricing for 12, 36, or 48 months but also allows you to pay month-to-month. Bluehost gives you two choices, 12 or 24 months, and it does not offer monthly pay-as-you-go plans.

Both hosts give you a 30-day money-back guarantee to try out their services. If you’re unhappy, you’ll be refunded the web hosting costs. However, any extras you purchased are not included in the money-back guarantee.

Hostinger and Bluehost Pricing

Hostinger offers three shared web hosting plans—Single Web Hosting, Premium Web Hosting, and Business Web Hosting. You can choose a monthly, annual, 36-month, or 48-month plan period. The longer you commit, the lower the monthly price.

To get the lowest rate with Hostinger, you need to commit to a 48-month plan and pay in full upfront. When you do, you get Single Web Hosting for $1.99, Premium Web Hosting for $2.99, or Business Web Hosting for $3.99. All prices are per month, with payment in full at the start of your contract. 

Hostinger offers a pay-by-the-month plan, but the rate jumps to a hefty $9.99 per month plus a $4.99 one-time setup fee. However, this may still be a great option if you have short-term website goals. Get all the details on Hostinger pricing.

Bluehost offers four shared hosting plans—Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Online Store. Contract duration is 12 or 36 months. You get the best introductory rate when you go with the 12-month commitment, but your renewal rate will be slightly higher than if you go with the 36-month plan. 

Bluehost pricing is Basic for $2.75, Plus for $4.95, Choice Plus for $4.95, and Online Store for $9.95. All prices are per month with a 12-month contract, and you’ll need to pay in full when you sign up for service. At renewal, your monthly price will increase. Find out more about Bluehost pricing.

Cost Comparison of Hostinger and Bluehost

For anyone with simple web hosting needs for a single site, Hostinger is the way to go. You can get your site up and running for as low as $1.99 per month and lock that rate in for 48 months. Even at renewal, you’ll still only pay $3.99 per month, which is a pretty sweet deal. While you have to pay in full upfront, it is still one of the cheapest options to launch a new website.

To host a single site on Bluehost, you’ll have to go with its basic plan for 12 months to get the $2.75 per month rate. After your annual subscription expires, you’ll see a monthly renewal rate of $10.99. This is quite a price difference from Hostinger and may be too big of a jump for smaller websites with minimal needs.

If you’re looking to host multiple websites, Hostinger still offers a lower monthly cost. With its Premium Web Hosting plan, you can lock in a monthly rate of $2.99 for 48 months and get three months free. The renewal rate is $6.99 per month. These rates are for up to 100 websites. Hostinger’s shared hosting plans max out at 100 websites. You have to move to their Cloud or Professional hosting packages if you want to host more than 100 sites.

To host multiple sites on Bluehost, you need its Plus package, which starts at $4.95 per month for one year. After that, the renewal rate jumps to $14.99 per month. This price gives you unlimited websites, so if you plan to go big with the number of websites you run, Bluehost is the better option.

Trials and Guarantees for Hostinger and Bluehost

Both Hostinger and Bluehost give you 30 days to try out their services with no risk. Not happy? You can get a full refund for the web hosting costs you paid. 

However, with Bluehost, the refund is only for hosting services. If you paid for extras like domain name registration, you can’t recoup those costs.

Hostinger also has some limitations on its money-back guarantee. Things like domain name renewals, privacy protection, and the SEO toolkit are not included.

Neither Hostinger nor Bluehost offers free trials, but the money-back guarantee gives you a full month to decide without much risk.

Hostinger vs. Bluehost Core Criteria Comparison

Our research put Hostinger on top for most of the key criteria important to anyone shopping for a new web hosting provider. Reliable site uptime, faster loading and page performance speeds, and unlimited site traffic are just a few of the ways Hostinger excels. Low prices and advanced features like free site migration and low-cost managed hosting are also highlights.

Bluehost excels in the customer service category because of its 24/7 phone support option, which Hostinger lacks. So if you prefer to speak to a live person to work through any issues, Bluehost works best if you’re willing to make some tradeoffs.

To find out how Hostinger and Bluehost stack up against their strongest competitors, dive into our top picks for website hosting.

Site Uptime – Hostinger Wins

Hostinger guarantees a site uptime of 99.9%, meaning your site should be up virtually all the time. If you experience downtime, Hostinger will compensate you with a credit of 5% of your monthly hosting fee. However, there is some fine print.

Hostinger is the sole determiner of what constitutes site downtime. And if they do acknowledge a downtime experience in any given month, the 5% compensation you have to proactively ask for will be issued in the form of a future credit towards other Hostinger services. Luckily, Hostinger has an excellent reputation for uptime, so you probably won’t have to pursue a credit.

Bluehost advertises a 99.98% uptime rate, which is really good. However, its own Network Server Uptime Agreement waffles a bit and doesn’t mention this rate at all. Instead, Bluehost talks about downtime being normal and striving to fix most issues within 15 minutes, with some serious problems taking days. 

Consumer review sites do have a fair number of users commenting about poor experiences with their websites being down for extended periods on Bluehost.

Despite Bluehost saying they have a higher uptime rate, Hostinger ultimately wins when it comes to site uptime.

Site Speed – Hostinger Wins

Hostinger offers some of the fastest site loading speeds, using SSD drives and optimized server deployments to achieve it. In our research team’s testing, we noted average page loading times of between 300-400 ms. This is about half the industry average.

Bluehost isn’t the worst for site loading speeds, but it doesn’t quite reach Hostinger levels of speed. Online sources note that Bluehost speed tests were not impressive, with an average page load time of 1107 ms, sometimes longer.

Bluehost doesn’t tout any special features or functionality related to speed on its website. However, they have an article about ways you can improve your site speed. They also include a free CDN in every web hosting package, which you can utilize to boost site speed.

Hostinger wins the site speed category.

Customer Support – Bluehost Wins

Bluehost offers 24/7 customer support via phone or chat. This means no matter where you are, you should be able to reach a live person anytime. Bluehost also provides a pretty robust knowledge base on its website. In it, you’ll find how-to guides, tutorials, FAQs, and troubleshooting articles to help you work out common issues on your own.

Hostinger also offers 24/7 customer support but explicitly does not include phone support. You can only reach them via chat or email. So if you prefer to talk to someone to work through your issues, you’re out of luck. Their website includes a knowledge base, tutorials, and a blog, plus you can access Hostinger Academy on YouTube. 

Some users have complained about inconsistencies with Hostinger’s customer support, citing longer wait times and inconclusive responses.

Bluehost wins in the customer support category, as it goes the extra mile by offering 24/7 phone support.

Traffic Volume – Hostinger Wins

Hostinger is crystal clear about its approach to site traffic for each plan. You get 100 GB of bandwidth on its Single Web Hosting plan and unlimited bandwidth on the two higher-tier plans. If you’re not planning on having high traffic volume to your website, 100 GB is probably fine. But having unlimited site traffic limits is great for sites that either expect to grow or experience unexpected surges in traffic.

Bluehost isn’t as straightforward with bandwidth information. It took a live chat with a salesperson to find out they don’t meter their traffic or throttle bandwidth but do place a limit of 150 simultaneous database connections on all shared plans. The salesperson also pushed us to consider dedicated resource plans, like VPS, if site traffic was a concern.

Because of its straightforward approach to presenting this information, Hostinger wins this category.

Price – Hostinger Wins

Price is almost always a concern for those just starting out with their first (or second or third) website. Low monthly costs go hand-in-hand with small website budgets.

Hostinger offers the cheapest per-month rate for shared hosting, starting as low as $1.99 per month with a long-term commitment. It just doesn’t get cheaper than that. But you do have to commit to a four-year contract and pay in full upfront to claim this rate. Renewal pricing is $3.99 per month once your four-year commitment is up, which is still a great deal.

Bluehost’s cheapest plan comes in at $2.75 per month based on a 12-month contract. You’ll also have to pay in full to start the service. Once renewal time rolls around, your monthly hosting costs jump to $10.99. You can also commit to 36 months, which will net you a cheaper renewal rate of $9.99, but your introductory rate will be $4.95 per month.

Hostinger wins this category, hands down.

Migration Features – Hostinger Wins

Hostinger offers free website migration when you sign up for service with them. They’ll move one or one hundred sites for you, all for free. But you won’t get any plugins or other ways to quickly do it yourself. Instead, you need to request their team to migrate the site(s) for you. The Hostinger team quickly responds to these requests, but it may take a few rounds back and forth to resolve things if something goes wrong.

Bluehost also offers complimentary website migration but limits it to WordPress sites. You will have to go through a multi-step process to get it done, including a pre-qualification check. If you don’t pass this check (e.g., you don’t actually have a WordPress-powered site), you’ll have to pay $149 for them to move your site for you. You’ll also be limited to a maximum of five sites that you can migrate for that price.

Hostinger makes it easy to migrate your websites and wins this category.

Managed Hosting – Hostinger Wins

Managed hosting takes the guesswork out of keeping your site up and running. It’s especially great to maximize speed, performance, and security for larger WordPress sites.

Hostinger offers managed WordPress hosting for as low as $1.99 per month. You get all the same features of its shared hosting plans plus the convenience of managed hosting for the same cost.

Bluehost also offers managed WordPress hosting, but you’ll pay a lot more for it. Bluehost’s managed hosting packages begin at $19.99 per month with a 36-month commitment on the Build Plan. For bigger plans, you’ll pay $29.95 for the Grow Plan and $49.95 for its Scale Plan.

Hostinger wins when it comes to managed hosting. 

Final Verdict – Hostinger Wins

When it comes to the criteria most important when choosing a web hosting provider, Hostinger wins in almost all categories. Reliable uptime, fast site speeds, low price, and robust migration features make it a logical choice for anyone that needs to launch or manage a website.

If multiple options for customer service—including live phone support— is non-negotiable on your requirements list, Bluehost is the better option. To see how Hostinger and Bluehost stack up against other top web hosting providers, read our top picks for best web hosting and best managed WordPress hosting.

Want to just get started? The best lead generation service for most people is WebiMax.

Lead generation is the lifeline of your business. Without qualified leads, you’re wasting valuable resources trying to sell in the dark.

There are hundreds of different lead generation companies and services on the market today, but not all of them deliver quality leads—this guide will help you narrow your search.

The Best Lead Generation Companies and Services

• WebiMax
• LeadGeneration
• Callbox
• Upcall
• CIENCE
• DiscoverOrg
• CandorWorks
• Overdrive Interactive

With so many lead generation companies to choose from, narrowing your search can seem like a tall task. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place.

I’ve already done all of the extensive research required to find the best lead generation services. After countless hours of investigating, I found eight that I can confidently recommend.

I’ve provided an in-depth review for each one of these lead generation companies below. These reviews will help you identify the best lead generation service for your business.

The Best Lead Generation Companies and Services Reviews

WebiMax

Visit WebiMax

• Transparent pricing
• 24/7 campaign dashboard
• Full-service ad management
• Lead nurturing

Get Started Now

WebiMax is a full-service marketing agency that tackles lead generation from multiple angles.

While they specialize in lead generation through advertisements, WebiMax also provides your business with custom landing pages, CRM integrations, call and text tracking, automated lead nurturing, CRO services, and more.

You’ll have 24/7 access to your campaign data and performance. So you can check the status of your lead-gen campaigns from anywhere to ensure WebiMax is doing what they’ve promised you.

As a full-service ad management solution, WebiMax will optimize and manage your ads across all platforms, including Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more. 

Rather than taking a cost-per-lead approach to this initiative, WebiMax goes the extra mile and focuses on CPQL—cost per qualified lead. This is a significant and important distinction.

They’ll also create customized landing pages for your site to ensure that ad clicks ultimately generate new leads. 

I really like the fact that WebiMax also provides businesses with a single point of contact. So no matter how complex the lead generation strategy is, you can always get in touch with an expert who knows your business inside and out.

WebiMax’s lead generation pricing is very transparent and affordable for all business sizes and budgets: 

• Entrepreneur — $500 per month
• Professional — 15% of monthly ad spend
• Enterprise — 10% of monthly ad spend

For smaller businesses only planning to spend up to $3,000 per month on ads, WebiMax charges a fixed monthly fee for their services.

As your ad spending increases, the pricing structure switches to a percentage based on the total monthly ad spend. The Professional plan is based on $3,000 to $25,000 per month on ads, and the Enterprise plan is for businesses spending more than $25,000 per month on ads. 

WebiMax doesn’t have any long-term contracts, so you can adjust your ad spend each month as needed without having to worry about meeting any minimums. 

Sign up now to get started.

LeadGeneration

• Real time leads
• Dedicated team
• Multi-channel approach
• Custom integrations

>> Compare Quotes

LeadGeneration is a fantastic solution for finding new customers.

They provide services to well-known brands like Aeropostale, Toshiba, and J.G. Wentworth—so you’ll be in good company if you go with them.

They provide a dedicated management team for you. The team customizes a lead development strategy that’s unique to your org.

So you won’t get a worthless list of leads that won’t help.

Once you have a process in place that’s finding traction in your market, LeadGeneration will continue to work with you to improving. You’re getting ongoing optimization.

Leads are developed and delivered to you in real-time. You can get those leads via email, text, or directly to your integrated CRM platform. LeadGeneration is compatible with CRM software like:

• Salesforce
• HubSpot
• Highrise
• Zoho
• Infusionsoft
• Pipedrive
• Sugar CRM

Don’t worry if your company uses a different system. Contact the LeadGeneration sales team about a custom integration, and lead delivery method.

Your project management team at LeadGeneration will help you develop custom campaigns for lead generation. They take a multi-channel approach, specializing in campaigns related to:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media
• Paid search
• Whitepapers
• PR and brand awareness
• Content distribution
• Web development
• Email marketing
• Lead nurturing
• Call tracking
• Landing page creation
• Appointment setting
• Lead follow-up

Like most lead generation companies, pricing is not available online. You’ll need to request a custom quote based on your needs. Fortunately, you can get a free consultation by answering a few basic questions.

Just provide your name, company name, phone number, email, customers (B2B, B2C, both), and your monthly budget. Budget options range from less than $1,000 to $10,000+.

Callbox

• B2B lead generation
• Identify key stakeholders
• Multiple stages of verification
• Leads primed and ready

>> Compare Quotes

Callbox specializes in B2B lead generation. If you own or manage a small or medium-sized enterprise, Callbox will be a top solution for you to consider.

You want warm leads, webinar attendees, and appointments set without any work on your end? That’s the idea behind callbox. Focus on closing deals, not filling your pipeline.

I like this company because they have niche-specific lead generation services. Not only does Callbox provide leads to B2B organizations, but more specifically, they provide B2B leads in the following categories:

• IT and Software
• Consultancy
• Healthcare
• Finance
• Advertising

When you first start working with Callbox, they’ll compile a list of companies that match your target business profile. Callbox takes that to the next level by identifying the key stakeholders and prospects within those organizations.

Callbox will engage with those prospects across all channels using various forms of media communication.

Setting appointments and confirming those meetings with a qualified lead is the final step of their process.

By the time you speak with a lead, they’ve already gone through several stages with Callbox. These leads are primed and ready to be sold.

In addition to lead generation, Callbox provides database solutions, event marketing services, and account-based marketing. They take the heavy-lifting off of your plate for B2B lead generation.

Upcall

• Monitor results in real time
• Multiple lead gen services
• Robust technology
• High-quality sales professionals

>> Compare Quotes

Upcall combines robust technology with  high-quality sales professionals to generate leads.

They’re trusted by brands like LG, Airbnb, QuickBooks, and Farmers Insurance.

And it’s simple: Upcall provides your business with a team of professional callers. They’ll make the calls and interact with the leads for you. You’ll be able to view and monitor their results in real-time with Upcalls intuitive software.

It’s a great no-touch lead generation solution. They give you everything you need to engage with a contact, without actually having to make those calls on your own.

I like Upcall because they waste no time contacting leads. Each time a new lead comes in, Upcall contacts them within seconds.

The calls are made by seasoned veterans. More than one million calls have been made by the professionals at Upcall.

There are four main categories to their services:

Lead Generation

• Cold calling
• Candidate screening
• Appointment setting
• Telemarketing
• Sales outsourcing

Lead Qualification

• Facebook leads
• Appointment scheduling and confirmation
• Lead nurturing
• Cross-selling and upselling

Market Research

• Phone surveys
• Stock check
• Mystery shopping
• Data collection
• Fundraising

Customer Engagement

• Customer feedback
• Customer retention
• Event follow-up
• Payment reminder
• Customer surveys

Upcall can be used throughout the entire customer journey process. From lead generation to customer feedback, this service offers robust options for companies of all sizes.

CIENCE

• Focused on B2B
• 4 different PaaS models
• High accuracy & targeting
• Dedicated staff members

>> Compare Quotes

CIENCE combines human intelligence with machine learning to generate leads for B2B organizations.

They offer four “people-as-a-service” (PaaS) models for you to consider:

SDR Team

• 2 dedicated staff members (researcher and SDR)
• 3-month pilot program
• Guaranteed 40 hours per week per person
• Roughly 1,000 leads per month
• Max 25 SDR teams per company

Inbound SDR Team

• 1 dedicated staff member (inbound sales assistant)
• Monthly service fee
• Guaranteed 40 hours per week
• Max 15 inbound SDR’s per company

Research

• 1 dedicated staff member (researcher)
• Monthly service fee
• Guaranteed 40 hours per week
• Roughly 750-1,250 leads per month
• Max 10 researchers per company

CIENCE Now

• Unlimited staff
• Cost based on contract
• Weekly, monthly, and per project lead list deliverability
• Outputs based per contract

Don’t see what you need? No worries: You can customize your PaaS plans for outsourced lead generation. You might choose one or several of the teams above.

CIENCE offers solutions for business owners, sales teams, and marketing managers as well. With CIENCE, you can keep your sales team selling at all hours of the day.

Research prospecting and lead response can be left up to the outsourced team at CIENCE. That’ll save you and your org time to focus on more important matters to grow your business.

DiscoverOrg

• Connect with decision makers
• Cloud-based platform
• 95% data accuracy guarantee
• Used by 15,000+ teams

>> Compare Quotes

DiscoverOrg is a business contact database. They’ll connect you directly with B2B leads and they’ll provide you with company data and sales intelligence to give you actionable information before pitching a prospect.

DiscoverOrg guarantees that their data is at least 95% accurate. The process they use combines humans with technology and research.

Specialties and areas of expertise from DiscoverOrg include:

• Sales leadership
• Sales development
• Marketing and demand generation
• Sales and marketing operations
• Recruiting

It’s a cloud-based platform that’s simple and easy for anyone to use. The database will give you an edge over your B2B competitors.

A cool aspect of DiscoverOrg is its free trial. You don’t really see that too often in the lead generation service space. So if you are on the fence, you can check it out with no commitment.

The free trial will include:

• Department-level organization chart
• Verified email addresses
• Direct line phone numbers
• Buying signals and intent data
• Firmographic and technographic details
• Job responsibilities and functions

This trial is an excellent place to start with DiscoverOrg. It gives you a true depiction of what the actual database will provide you with, just at a smaller scale.

CandorWorks

• Integrated demand generation
• High-quality leads
• 100% accuracy guarantee
• Multiple pricing models

>> Compare Quotes

CandorWorks allows your team to focus on sales while they handle the lead generation process.

The company specializes in integrated demand generation. This allows them to deliver a consistent stream of high-quality leads to your business.

CandorWorks guarantees 100% accuracy with their lead information. If you find any invalid leads, CandorWorks will replace them. You’ll only pay for leads generated and qualified leads. They’ll also assist you with strategic guidance, planning, execution, and follow-up for your lead generation campaigns.

I like CandorWorks because they have different pricing models that meet the needs and preferences of various organizations:

• Retainer based
• Fixed fee
• Project based
• Performance based

In addition to lead generation, CandorWorks provides marketing data management services, account-based marketing, and MarTech management.

Engagement with CandorWorks is extremely flexible. You can easily ramp-up or ramp-down based on your needs, and there are no upfront fees to sign up.

Overdrive Interactive

• End-to-end lead generation
• Multi-channel approach
• Enterprise-level services
• Clients include Dell & GE

>> Compare Quotes

Overdrive Interactive specializes in end-to-end lead and demand generation for enterprise-level organizations. The service helps you maintain and optimize your most powerful lead generation channels.

The approach starts with each stage of the customer journey. From a prospect’s first impression to the final nurture message that ultimately converts, Overdrive Interactive is there each step of the way.

Overdrive Interactive will engineer an end-to-end marketing system for lead generation that syncs with your company’s sales efforts.

The multi-channel approach for generating leads and demands includes:

• Account-based marketing
• Paid search
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Retargeting
• Inbound marketing
• Social media marketing
• Paid social media management
• Email list rental
• Newsletter sponsorship
• Content development
• Marketing automation
• Landing page development and testing
• Mobile advertising
• Native ads and digital PR

Global giants across finance, healthcare, tech, and consumer industries trust Overdrive Interactive for lead generation. Some of their most well-recognized clients include Dell, GE, Samsonite, IBM, John Hancock, AIG, and Harley Davidson.

How to Find the Best Lead Generation Company and Service For Your Business

Finding the best lead generation service for your business might seem overwhelming. But there are certain factors that you can use to assist with your decision-making process.

This is our methodology for narrowing down your options:

Niche-Specific Leads

Stay away from lead generation companies that are for “everyone.” You won’t be able to get the most qualified and accurate leads this way. Some services specialize in B2B, while others are better for small businesses and B2C organizations.

Look for a lead generation company that has experience in your industry. Whether it’s technology, healthcare, or retail, look for a service in your niche.

Lead Generation Process

Lead generation methodology is not created equally. Every service seems to have a unique twist on how they come up with leads. You should pick a company based on how you want to have your leads delivered.

Some organizations will simply provide you with a list of leads and contact information. Other services take the extra step by contacting those leads and setting appointments for you.

There are lead generation companies that provide PaaS (people-as-a-service), which essentially means you’re outsourcing a full-time lead generation staff.

Do you just want leads delivered? Or do you want lead scoring data and lead nurturing assistance? These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself when evaluating a company’s lead generation process.

Competitive Price

Unfortunately, most lead generation services do not post their prices online. That’s because they offer a unique quote based on your custom needs.

So you might want to get a quote from at least a couple of your top considerations. The price needs to be reasonable and fit within your budget. Otherwise, the lead generation service could negatively impact your ROI.

Some companies offer flexible pricing options. You might only pay for qualified leads. Others will bill you on a monthly or contract basis per campaign.

Reputation

Every lead generation service is going to do a great job of selling themselves on their website. But you should do some digging on your own before you make a final decision.

Look up case studies, customer reviews, and testimonials to learn how that organization has actually helped businesses generate leads. If you can’t find that information online, you should consider looking for an alternative service.

Top Lead Generation Companies and Services in Summary

WebiMax, LeadGeneration, Callbox, and Upcall are excellent lead generation companies. If you’re ready to start generating more quality leads at scale, a lead generation service is the best way to go.

Lead generation can drastically improve your sales process right away. You’ll benefit from qualified leads, and your sales team can spend more time selling.

We recommend using WordPress with Hostinger to start a book blog, as it’s easy to customize. Join today for just $2.59 per month.

Are you an avid reader keen to turn your passion into a career? Perhaps you already engage in the book community through your reviews on book sites and apps but want to step up your game. You might even be an entrepreneur in the making and have decided literature is the right niche for you.

Follow the steps in this guide to start a book blog from scratch. You’ll learn how to get set up for success on a blogging platform, create content guaranteed to perform well, and how to earn money from your book blog.

The 3 Best Blogging Platforms to Start a Book Blog

We conducted research and scoured user interviews to handpick the best blogging platforms out there right now. These are our top choices for starting a book blog from scratch:

• WordPress with Hostinger — Best overall
• Wix — Best for beginners building a professional blog
• Squarespace — Best for artists and designers

Start a Book Blog in 10 Easy Steps

Follow these simple steps to start a book blog the right way:

1. Sign Up for Hostinger and Install WordPress

2. Decide on a Niche for Your Book Blog

3. Come Up With an Interesting Blog and Domain Name

4. Add a Theme and Design Your Site

5. Install Useful Plugins

6. Research Existing Book Blogs

7. Create Your First Blog Posts

8. Optimize Your Site and Content for SEO

9. Launch Your Book Blog and Promote Your Blog Posts

10. Monetize Your Book Blog

Step 1: Sign Up for Hostinger and Install WordPress

WordPress must be doing something right as it’s by far the most popular content management system (CMS), with a market share of 63.5%. The next in the rankings is Shopify, with a share of just 5.5%.

Hostinger offers dedicated hosting for WordPress. They go together like cereal and milk. 

Choose a managed WordPress plan with Hostinger and receive ready-to-use features like website speed optimization plugins and marketing tools. What’s more, Hostinger’s servers are optimized to improve performance, and the host automatically updates WordPress for you. 

Get started quickly with the one-click WordPress installer. Choose the duration of your plan and enter your email address to sign up for Hostinger for just $2.59 per month. 

Then, head to the Auto Installer on the control panel and search for WordPress. Enter a few website details, click Install, and you’re ready to go.

Step 2: Decide on a Niche for Your Book Blog

You need to pick a niche to differentiate your book blog from others and build a loyal audience that shares your passions.

You may wish to choose a niche based on your favorite book genres, such as romance, true crime, thriller, or young adult (YA). The blog Utopia State of Mind, for example, focuses on science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction (SFF):

Alternatively, you can choose a niche according to the type of content you plan to create, your goals, or how the audience will benefit from reading your blog. For instance, you might solely focus on top ten lists, aim to give up-and-coming authors exposure, or help people find cheap books. 

Ultimately, you should pick a niche that you enjoy and care about. But there must also be an audience for it – go too obscure, and nobody will visit your blog.

Step 3: Come Up With an Interesting Blog and Domain Name

Your domain name or web address is almost always the same as the name of your blog. It needs to be eye-catching, memorable, and representative of your brand.

To come up with a unique domain name, make it personal to you and represent the kind of content you’ll produce. 

A good example is Books and Bao. It’s a super cute name, sure, but it’s also relevant, as the blog has a pan-Asian influence and includes posts on travel/literary travel.

When you have a domain name in mind, check that it isn’t already taken using Hostinger’s Domain Name Search:

If it is already taken, don’t go with a different top-level domain (TLD) like “.co” or “.net.” Instead, go back to the drawing board and choose another domain name entirely, as you want to create a distinct brand.

Step 4: Add a Theme and Design Your Site

The WordPress Theme store offers a range of free and premium themes with ready-made designs, layouts, and built-in features. Use a theme to build your website with no coding skills required.

When choosing a theme, consider the aesthetic and vibe you want to have. Choose one with fonts, color palettes, and imagery that make sense for your brand. For instance, a blog about romance books should look very different from one about horror.

Remember that free and premium themes may come with useful plugins, widgets, and built-in tools that enhance your blog. Look for tools such as a drag-and-drop page builder, social share buttons, and forms. But if the theme doesn’t have them, it’s no big deal, as you’ll see in the next step.

You may wish to choose a theme that integrates well with WordPress’s ecommerce platform, WooCommerce. This is important if you plan to monetize your blog by selling digital or physical products.

Step 5: Install Useful Plugins

Plugins are add-ons for your website that provide additional tools and features. You can use them to customize your site and enhance things like site security, search engine optimization (SEO), and site speed or add sign-up forms, connect your Instagram to the site, and more.

Here are a few plugins that are particularly beneficial for book bloggers:

• WP Review – Create a book review website with star ratings picked up by Google and featured in search engine results. Add review boxes to give blog posts a clear and easy-to-follow structure.

• bbPress – Add discussion boards to your blog where your audience can discuss their favorite books and authors, creating a community atmosphere. Moderate and engage in discussions easily.
• Mooberry Book Manager – Display and sell your own books, linking to multiple retailers. Or add affiliate links from which you earn a commission when users click or buy.

Step 6: Research Existing Book Blogs

Research top book blogs to get inspiration for your own and gain a competitive advantage. Find what works and what doesn’t.

Some things to look for include:

• Which website features do audiences find useful?
• What kinds of content get the most engagement?
• What are the best channels to promote blog posts in your niche?

Use relevant keywords and hashtags to find influential bloggers through Google and social media searches. 

A quick Pinterest search for “romance books” produces relevant content from book bloggers along with related search terms that could be helpful in generating content ideas or finding even more niche bloggers:

Organize your list of bloggers in a spreadsheet so you can continue to monitor their work and blogging/marketing strategies.

Also, use your list to network with other bloggers to create mutually-beneficial relationships.  Seek opportunities to tap into an existing audience through cross-promotion, guest blog posts, interviews, etc.

Just remember that this is for research and inspiration only; never copy someone’s content.

Step 7: Create Your First Blog Posts

If you want to get lots of traffic, make your blog posts audience-centric. Write the kind of content your audience wants to read rather than what you want to write. Remember that most people visit websites to learn something or be entertained–and they want content that speaks to them, not to the writer of the content itself.

Use social media channels, Q&A websites like Quora, and book forums to discover trending topics and what your audience cares about most.

Go to a forum and filter by most recently added or updated posts. Select the forum posts with the most views and/or comments, then use these for blog post inspiration. 

For example, on this thriller thread, a post on author Elizabeth George has had over 10,000 views:

Therefore, you have it on good authority that a blog post on Elizabeth George’s books will attract many readers.

To find popular blog post formats, research your competitors’ top posts. Many bloggers have a list of their most popular posts on their homepage. Compile your research to bring together blog post topic ideas and the formats that will likely perform well. 

Step 8: Optimize Your Site and Blog Posts for SEO

Optimize your site for the search engines to rank higher on Google and drive more traffic to your site. The majority (53.3%) of website traffic for all sites comes from organic search.

First, make sure you have the Yoast SEO plugin. This gives you a list of SEO actions to tick off for every blog post you create, such as entering your key phrase and writing a snippet of text to appear in search engine results.

You must also create quality content and a positive user experience to improve SEO. There are further technical aspects, such as removing broken links. And finally, prove you have a trustworthy, authoritative site by getting others with good authority to link back to your blog posts. You do this by posting useful, valuable content that other websites want to link back to. 

Step 9: Launch Your Book Blog and Start Promoting Your Blog Posts

It’s difficult to capture people’s attention with a new blog. The “build it, and they will come” philosophy doesn’t work here. So put as much effort into promoting content as you do creating it.

SEO is key to attracting traffic to your website. Networking with other bloggers to tap into their existing audience will also help you attract visitors who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Engage in relevant communities in your niche to raise your profile among readers. Find where your audience spends their time. This might be in the comments section or discussion boards of apps like GoodReads, social media, or online book clubs.

Also, encourage users to sign up to your email list so you can regularly engage readers, promote new content, and encourage would-be flyby visitors to return to your website. Consider offering an exclusive piece of content in return for signups.

Step 10: Monetize Your Book Blog

Your book blog can be a lucrative venture. On average, bloggers earn $8000 per month.

The best way to monetize a blog is to generate multiple income streams. That way, you increase profits overall and always have a backup. Here are the best ways to earn money from your book blog:

• Affiliate marketing – Promote books and other relevant products to earn a commission every time a reader purchases. Amazon Affiliates is a good place to start.
• Ebooks – Promote and sell your work via your blog.
• Freelance blogging – Accept paid blogging work from media outlets and companies in the book industry. Showcase your expertise and promote your freelance services via your blog.
• Digital products – Create products that make sense for your audience or solve a pain point, e.g., ebook templates, a publishing course, or something more creative like a reading journal.

• Memberships – Sell access to premium content and other benefits, such as forums and book discounts, etc.
• Advertising and sponsored content – Place ads on your site via agreements with sponsors or a tool like Google AdSense.

Final Thoughts on Starting a Book Blog

Bibliophiles hoping to make a career out of their hobby should absolutely start a book blog. Thanks to blogging platforms such as WordPress, the process is simple, and you can easily customize your website with useful plugins, tools, and ready-made designs. 

Ensure the success of your book blog by creating the kinds of content your audience wants to read, something you’ll learn through comprehensive reader and competitor research. Network with other bloggers and promote your blog posts where your niche audience spends their time to raise your profile. Then, develop multiple monetization strategies for your blog, such as affiliate marketing or selling your digital products, to maximize profits.

If you want to outsource ecommerce fulfillment, ShipBob is the best service for most. Get a free quote from ShipBob today.

Optimizing fulfillment is essential to the growth of your online store. You must ensure the process is efficient and cost-effective on your end while keeping your customers happy by delivering their orders in a timely, convenient fashion. Here we’ll explain everything you need to know about the ecommerce fulfillment process and teach you how to do it most effectively.

The 5 Best Ecommerce Fulfillment Services

We reviewed the top ecommerce fulfillment services on the market today and appraised them on key differentiating factors such as scalability, shipping times, and supply chain expertise. Here are our top choices from that list:

• ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform
• Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
• ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
• Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
• Easyship – Best for international fulfillment

What Is Ecommerce Fulfillment?

You’ve had to consider ecommerce fulfillment from the moment you started your online business. It’s the crux of your business model, especially if you don’t have any brick-and-mortar stores for your customers to visit.

Ecommerce fulfillment refers to the storage, sorting, packing, and shipping of the products you sell on your online store, as well as the management of returns and exchanges. Some ecommerce companies take care of this entirely in-house, while others employ third-party fulfillment solutions. 

If you have an actual inventory of products that need to be physically shipped to the people who order them from you, this contrasts with a couple of other ecommerce models. Some companies only deal with digital products, ranging from SaaS companies to online content creators, eliminating the need to consider shipping and fulfillment at all. 

On the other hand, dropshipping companies don’t sell their own inventory; instead, they use vendors and providers to source inventory (who store the stock themselves and ship directly to the dropshipping store’s customers). Dropshippers still have to consider aspects of fulfillment, like picking-and-packing and shipping providers, but don’t have to fret about storage.

For most ecommerce stores, an efficient ecommerce fulfillment process is vital. Customers expect quick and reliable delivery, and a positive delivery experience means customers are more likely to return to your store and have a greater lifetime value.

How Ecommerce Fulfillment Works

Ecommerce fulfillment can be broken down into four steps: inventory management, order processing, shipping, and returns management. 

Inventory management is just like it sounds. It requires that your product inventory be stored securely in a warehouse or similar facility. Each product needs a unique stock-keeping unit (SKU) number to keep track of it along the supply chain. 

When you outsource the inventory management part of your fulfillment, that entails you sending inventory to the fulfillment company’s own warehouse. You’ll pay more for that convenience but can often unlock benefits like shorter time spans between the receipt of an order and when it ships out. And, if your fulfillment partner has multiple warehouses, you can often get items to your customers more quickly by having inventory in a warehouse nearest to their shipping address.

Order processing describes the sequence of events from when you get a customer’s order to prepare it for shipment. Your staff receives the information about the customer’s order, where to find the products in your inventory, shipping information, and any specific packing instructions. At the fulfillment center, staff retrieve the items, pack them, and add a shipping label.

Then, the package is shipped using the U.S. Postal Service or another carrier, like UPS, DHL, or FedEx. Whether you do this yourself or use a fulfillment service, you’ll receive tracking information that you can pass on to the customer and use to send delivery updates via email or text.

Returns management doesn’t always come into play, but it’s a crucial part of this process to prepare for. To facilitate and receive returns from customers, you must provide the means for them to send defective or mistakenly ordered products back to your company. For example, you might set up a page on your website that describes your return policy and a returns portal customers can use to print off shipping labels. 

When you receive returns, they must be assessed and their value recovered where possible through resale. Alternatively, you’ll need to dispose of faulty items or items that no longer meet compliance regulations efficiently.

The Different Types of Ecommerce Fulfillment 

Here are the three main ecommerce fulfillment models to consider.

In-house fulfillment entails storing and shipping products from your own premises. This may suit small or new ecommerce stores, as well as direct-to-consumer businesses that handle every step of the customer journey themselves.

Third-party fulfillment is when you send your inventory to a service provider that stores, picks, packs, and ships your products. This is the right option for growing businesses or those that want to scale effectively. A third-party provider has the infrastructure and technology to speed up shipping and reduce costs.

Dropshipping is a uniquely modern ecommerce model. You outsource manufacturing as well as fulfillment to a third party, essentially acting as a middle person promoting goods and getting a cut of the profits. This suits online entrepreneurs with little to no starting budget. Yet, it’s also difficult to make a ton of money from dropshipping alone.

Which Is the Best Ecommerce Fulfillment Model?

You may start small, even bootstrap an ecommerce store handling shipping from your own home or a small office. But, as your business grows, the logistics get more complex, not to mention more expensive. 

In general, you should invest in a third-party fulfillment solution as soon as you feel financially able to do so. It means you can expand your product line, sell to more customers, and speed up the entire supply chain process, providing a better ROI and a better customer experience overall.

Third-party services like ShipBob have multiple distribution centers, meaning you can store and ship inventory from different locations across the country, close to where your customers live. It reduces the cost of shipping and means your packages arrive much quicker—a real win-win.

It’s crucial that you offer fast, reasonably priced delivery to stay in business. 68% of consumers abandon their shopping carts when shipping costs are too high, and 44% abandon their purchases when the estimated delivery time is too long for their liking.

Furthermore, third-party services automate much of the fulfillment process. For instance, inventory levels are automatically updated, and you’ll receive analytics reports containing sales insights and notifications to replenish inventory.

In other words, you get to focus on other aspects of your growing business and leave the complex processes to the robust tools that third-party fulfillment services have to offer.

The 5 Best Ways to Improve Ecommerce Fulfillment

Streamline processes, reduce costs, and increase shipping speeds to improve the ecommerce fulfillment process. Here are the most effective ways to do these things.

1. Offer Faster Shipping

Big companies have the infrastructure to ship products to customers super fast. ASOS, for example, is able to offer same-day delivery in the UK.

Customers have come to expect fast delivery times. The trouble is, it’s expensive for your average ecommerce store to make this happen.

But there are ways to get around this problem. Third-party fulfillment solutions have the infrastructure to be able to guarantee two-day delivery, for example.

They optimize where your products are shipped from and how they’re shipped. ShipBob’s two-day express fulfillment service uses a combination of ground, air, and regional carriers to transport goods, for example.

To lessen the cost of shipping, you can also use certain pricing strategies. Add shipping costs to the overall cost of the product to cover the expense of free or cheap delivery. Or, set up a minimum spend threshold on free delivery.

2. Use a Multichannel Fulfillment Program

Multichannel sales grow year on year in the United States. Selling on marketplaces, social media, and other channels in addition to your website is the norm these days.

This is because modern consumers require a simple, convenient shopping experience. They want to be able to buy items using their preferred channel or whatever app they’re browsing at the time.

This means your ecommerce fulfillment system must be equipped to handle multiple channels. Choose software or a third-party service that integrates with top sales channels as well as your online store. It makes the entire process more manageable.

ShipBob, for one, integrates with major channels such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.

Orders get sent to the fulfillment center from each channel automatically—you don’t need to be the middle person. This is another way you can streamline the fulfillment process.

3. Choose Optimal Storage Locations

Ship items from close to where your customers live to optimize shipping costs and speeds.

Shipping is calculated using zones based on the distance between the package’s point of origin and its destination. So, the closer the origin zone is to the destination zone, the better.

The best option is to store and ship from multiple locations. You can optimize the process in a granular way, using analytics data to store the right inventory in the right locations based on consumers’ purchase behaviors. ShipBob uses an algorithm to do this, for example. Or, you can manually determine what the best fulfillment provider is based on how close their warehouses are to your core customer base.

4. Adopt End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility

Capture and analyze data across your entire supply chain to increase efficiency. End-to-end visibility like this means you can improve processes, reduce costs, and make better business decisions.

It also ensures information about your inventory, orders, and shipping is accurate at every step of the ecommerce fulfillment process. Data and information are centralized, so everyone involved has the same, up-to-date information.

Technology is a game changer here. Industry experts say the aspects of the fulfillment operation ecommerce companies want to advance most in the next year are mechanization, automation, and robotics.

You can use a platform focused on supply chain analysis to increase visibility. Another option is to use technology such as devices equipped with GPS to accurately track the whereabouts of products and shipments while en route. Also, automating processes at each stage of the fulfillment process helps you track inventory accurately.

5. Reduce the Number of Returns

Returns are a natural part of running an ecommerce business, but they cost a lot of money. In 2021, returns accounted for $218 billion in lost sales for ecommerce stores around the world.

Assessing the quality of your supply chain can help you reduce the number of returns your customers make. 

First, robust inventory management is key. For instance, the information on packing slips must be accurate to ensure the customer receives the right items. Automation reduces the possibility of human error here.

Naturally, products must also be stored in a safe and secure environment to reduce the likelihood of damage. And don’t cut costs when it comes to packaging. You’ll lose more money if an item is damaged in transit due to insufficient packaging.

Also, make sure to only work with credible shipping services. Naturally, customers are more likely to return an item if it’s damaged in transit or they don’t receive it on time.

5 Ecommerce Fulfillment Trends to Look Out For

It pays to stay on the cutting edge in the world of ecommerce fulfillment and supply chain management. Gain a competitive advantage by taking note of these trends:

Eco-conscious consumers: Customers care more about the environmental impact of their shopping habits. This means ecommerce companies should invest more in eco-friendly packaging and make sustainable values a part of their branding.

Predictive logistics: Using behavioral data, companies can predict what shoppers will buy and when. This means brands can have their inventory ready in the right warehouse at the right time, making fulfillment even faster and more efficient.

Real-time tracking: Companies can track their inventory and keep tabs on any order’s status in real-time by using a robust warehouse management system. This allows the brand to adjust any shipping details right up until it’s due to leave the fulfillment center.

Return to retail: Customers are increasingly shopping in-store as they crave authentic, in-person experiences that virtual stores have trouble replicating. Shipping delays, costs, and other missteps from brands are also driving people back to stores. For this reason, companies should place a greater emphasis on retail fulfillment—alongside ecommerce—than they may have previously.

Collect-in-store: Similar to the previous point, this is a smart fulfillment strategy that benefits both brands and consumers. By shipping to brick-and-mortar stores in bulk, companies are able to reduce shipping times and costs, leading to greater profits for the brand and better customer satisfaction. However, keep in mind that this won’t always be feasible for customers who may live in more remote areas.

Final Thoughts About Ecommerce Fulfillment

Ecommerce fulfillment is an important competitive differentiator nowadays. Fast, cheap, stress-free delivery is high on the list of customer expectations. Businesses must make that happen while keeping costs low.

Using a third-party ecommerce fulfillment solution is the best choice. They have the infrastructure, systems, and software to keep processes manageable, streamlined, and cost-effective. And they adapt to the ever-changing ecommerce environment well.

Automation, optimal locations, and end-to-end visibility are key to improving your ecommerce fulfillment process. This is also true of staying on top of logistics, supply chain, and fulfillment trends to ensure your company’s fulfillment strategy remains effective which contributes to the success of your online store.

Intermedia services small to medium-sized businesses by providing them with cloud IT solutions, including email hosting. If you need to improve web property, email, or other internet-related performance, Intermedia can support your business ventures without requiring you to acquire on-premise servers. 

Intermedia’s hosted exchange email can help you transform how you send and receive business emails through high-quality security, compliance, and onboarding. Read on to find out what this offering from Intermedia can do for your business.

Intermedia Compared

Intermedia made our top list for its powerful email security options, but it’s not the only excellent option on the market today for business email hosting. DreamHost is our best all-around pick for its versatility, user-friendliness, and affordability. Sign up for a DreamHost mailbox for just $1.67 per month. 

• DreamHost — Best All-Around Email Hosting Provider
• Hostinger — Best Budget-Friendly Provider
• Intermedia — Best for Email Security
• Scala Hosting — Best for Significant Storage
• Google Workspace — Best for Google-Centric Users
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard — Best for Microsoft-Centric Users
• Amazon WorkMail — Best for AWS-Centric Users

Want to get all the details on these options? Read the full Quick Sprout post reviewing the best email hosting providers.

About Intermedia

Intermedia offers comprehensive cloud-based technology solutions for businesses of any size. The products and features they offer make it easier to scale while remaining productive and help you create unified communication channels that your whole team can benefit from. 

• Intermedia Email Hosting Review

Alongside Intermedia’s hosted exchange email service, its vast array of offerings includes file backup and management, security and compliance tools, and unified communications platforms with voice and video calling and conferencing. 

Intermedia Health and Stability

Intermedia was founded in 1991 as a privately traded company with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Intermedia has two main investors, including Madison Dearborn Partners and NGP Capital. 

Since then, Intermedia has helped more than 130,000 businesses and has hired nearly 1,000 employees across the United States. With a 4.6-star rating on Glassdoor, it seems that most Intermedia employees—past and present—are satisfied with the company’s work-life balance, remote work opportunities, and benefits. That, combined with having been in business for over 30 years, paints an encouraging portrait of Intermedia’s continued success.

Intermedia Pricing

Intermedia has separate pricing for each of the services they offer. For the sake of this post, I will be discussing just the pricing for Intermedia’s hosted exchange email platform, which has four different pricing tiers. 

Intermedia Pricing Structure

You’ll find four packages for Intermedia exchange email, each charged per user per month. However, pricing is somewhat customized based on user needs, so you’ll need to get a quote from Intermedia for a precise price point.

For the most basic email plan, plans start at just under $8 monthly for each user, with higher-priced plans stretching up to a bit over $15 per user per month. Plans above the basic tier add features like archiving, additional protection, and even free access to Microsoft 365’s applications.

You can also build a plan a la carte, adding Microsoft 365, archiving, backups, encryption, or enhanced security to the basic email package for an extra fee. Intermedia also allows you to get hosted email as a part of their unified communications platform, Intermedia Unite.

Intermedia Pricing Comparison

Intermedia’s hosted exchange email service ranges from $7.94 per user per month for unlimited mailbox storage and basic email protection to as high as $15.44 per user per month to include all the bells and whistles. Mid-range plans run between $10 and $12 per user per month.

Compared to other email hosting providers, Intermedia offers decent functionality per mailbox, but that comes with a higher price tag. For example, with DreamHost, you only get 25 GB of storage (as opposed to Intermedia’s unlimited cloud storage on any plan), but you’ll only have to pay $1.67 per mailbox per month. On the other hand, Hostinger’s plans are even cheaper, starting at $0.99 per month, and grant you more than 14 powerful email features. 

And, if you want to find an email hosting provider with more flexible pricing options, Scala Hosting starts at $2.95 per month and scales up to $14.95 per month for unlimited accounts and domains. 

Intermedia Trials and Guarantees

Intermedia offers a 30-day risk-free trial on select plans. You can request a quote for most of its products and services or create a custom pricing package based on your needs by reaching out to an Intermedia sales representative. 

Intermedia Email Hosting Review

Intermedia’s email hosting plans stand out for their powerful security features that help to provide an incredibly secure and worry-free hosted email experience. You’re also getting unlimited storage on any email plan and a 99.999% uptime guarantee via their service-level agreement. 

You could benefit from Intermedia’s email hosting service if you are looking for a reliable exchange email platform that will improve the reliability and efficacy of how your business sends and receives emails. If you want to scope out other excellent alternatives, make sure to check out our reviews of all of the best email hosting providers. 

What Makes Intermedia Email Hosting Great

Powerful security comes standard: Intermedia covers security by conducting SOC 3 audits of its data centers and offers PCI-DSS and general privacy protection and secure data networks. In fact, Intermedia has a security philosophy that covers seven critical facets: data security, server-side backups, endpoint protection, identity protection, infrastructure security, privacy over data, and security management. They take this seriously so your organization can have peace of mind.

Unlimited storage: Many email hosting providers don’t provide unlimited email storage unless you pay for the highest-priced plan. And if they do offer it for more budget-conscious packages, you’ll usually have to pay an additional fee for more storage space.

Fortunately, that isn’t the case with Intermedia, as it offers unlimited email storage on any plan, including its entry-level package that costs around $8 per user per month. Intermedia’s unlimited email storage ensures you don’t need to worry about the size of your inbox or the heft of attachments you’re sending and receiving. 

Managed onboarding: It can be complicated to onboard your team to an entirely new email platform and migrate existing data, but that’s an issue of the past with Intermedia’s cloud concierge onboarding feature. Their expert team will work with you to create a process for implementation and onboarding that fits your business schedule and minimizes the impact migration might have on your users. Intermedia migrates over 15,000 mailboxes and 5,000 phone numbers each month, so you can rest assured that they can support your website without losing data or experiencing downtime. 

99.999% uptime: One of Intermedia’s mottos is “the five nines make all the difference,” which is at the heart of their uptime-related service-level agreement (SLA). Intermedia’s 99.999% uptime SLA means you can expect less than 26 seconds of downtime per month and only a hair over five minutes of downtime per year (if you even experience that much). Intermedia helps meet this lofty standard by allowing its Microsoft-certified architects and engineers to build and customize its tech infrastructure and world-class data centers. 

Compliance features: If you are looking for an email hosting provider that understands and supports your need to meet certain regulatory requirements, Intermedia will impress you. With Intermedia’s hosted exchange email, you can maintain financial regulatory compliance and HIPAA compliance for protected health information. Not only that, but Intermedia can help you comply with additional regulations, including GDPR, FINRA, NASD, and SEC, to name a few.

Where Intermedia Email Hosting Falls Short

Not user-friendly: The bulk of Intermedia’s criticisms involve its interface not being as user-friendly as other email hosting providers. Many users found the UI clunky and hard to navigate. And, not having access to shortcuts within the inbox makes it difficult to find files and data when you need them in a snap. 

Poor customer service: While it’s excellent that Intermedia offers 24/7 technical support, many of its users felt that their customer service didn’t live up to the claims on its website. Many reviewers found that the customer representatives were slow to respond, unhelpful, and some were even rude. It’s worth putting their service team through its paces on the 30-day trial period to make sure you won’t experience the same underwhelming support.

Slow mobile app: Intermedia’s mobile app is heavily outdated, with its 3.3-star rating on the Google Play Store showing that a lot of users aren’t happy with the product. Many reviewers claim that the app is slow and often lags when you attempt to complete a task. More inconveniently, the app lacks many of the basic features included in Intermedia’s email plans, such as notifications and group messages. 

Intermedia Email Hosting Compared

While Intermedia offers powerful security regulations and unlimited email storage, the best email hosting provider on the market today is DreamHost because of its versatility and affordability.

• DreamHost — Best All-Around Email Hosting Provider
• Hostinger — Best Budget-Friendly Provider
• Intermedia — Best for Email Security
• Scala Hosting — Best for Significant Storage
• Google Workspace — Best for Google-Centric Users
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard — Best for Microsoft-Centric Users
• Amazon WorkMail — Best for AWS-Centric Users

Final Verdict

Intermedia is a decent email hosting provider that services small to medium-sized businesses with cloud-based technology. With powerful security regulations, unlimited email storage, and a concierge onboarding feature, Intermedia can help you build a stable email network and business structure.

With more than 30 years in the industry and helping more than 130,000 businesses across the globe, it’s clear that Intermedia is a reliable company that aims to provide cloud-based solutions for easier communication. 

Form design is often an afterthought when it comes to building a website. But it shouldn’t be. Sales can be lost, leads can disappear, and site visitors can walk away with a negative impression of your brand when you roll out poorly designed or otherwise ineffective forms.

The best design principles for site forms put the user front and center, incorporating critical user experience (UX) standards into the format, functionality, and content. Let’s go over 31 key UX principles that lead to great form design.

1. Welcome Your Form Visitor

To create the best conditions for users to complete your form, you want them to feel good about the process from the start. You wouldn’t jump straight into a conversation with a stranger without first introducing yourself, and you don’t want your visitor’s first impression of a form to be abrupt, either.

Effective form design starts by welcoming users to the form completion experience and making them feel at ease. Sephora, the makeup retailer, does this really well by including a video that walks the user through the process of joining the Sephora Beauty Insider Community.

2. Show What’s In It for Them

To gain user buy-in, you need to ensure they know the value of completing your form. Tell them the benefits they will gain. Reinforce the item they’ll receive, like a downloadable PDF. Whatever it is, be sure the user knows the why behind the form submission.

ServiceNow does a great job of explaining to users the benefits they’ll enjoy once they submit the form.

3. Keep Track of User Progress

Keep users informed about how far along they are in the form completion process, so they stay motivated to finish and submit the form. The best way to do this is with a progress bar or similar visual at the top of the page. This keeps users aware of how many steps they’ve completed, how many are still to come, and, most importantly, prevents them from burning out before they finish.

Lululemon Studio does this nicely with its simplified progress bar in the shopping cart.

4. Use a Compelling Call-to-Action

Whether you use a call-to-action (CTA) button to engage a user to visit your form or to submit a completed form, don’t bore them with a bland button labeled “Submit.” Leverage the power of that tiny piece of online real estate by labeling it in a more informative and engaging way. Tease the user. Tell the user what will happen. Let the personality of your business shine.

Check out Hulu’s creative use of the CTA, which asks the site visitor, “why not have it all?”

5. Thank the User

Never leave a user hanging after they click the button to submit their form. Show your gratitude by thanking them for taking the time on your page and explaining the next steps. It’s all part of building relationships with page visitors and nurturing them to become loyal customers. 

Xcubelabs demonstrates a simple and effective way to do this, showing it doesn’t have to be a cutesy, exclamatory sentiment to work. No frills, just the information the user needs to know that the form submission was successful.

6. Include Social Proof

Ensure your visitors understand how credible you are. This can be accomplished with testimonials or other forms of social proof. One very persuasive technique is to include eye-catching statistics or numbers somewhere on the page close to your form CTA.

There are many ways to do this, but one of our favorites is by Thrive Market.

7. Provide Examples To Minimize Data Entry Error

Anyone who has filled out an online form knows the frustration of typing a response into an empty field only to be told their information is incorrect. Reduce the likelihood of these errors by including an example of the correct format for data in the field.

The most common places users make mistakes are the email and phone number fields. When there is a generic example of the right way to enter data in these fields, users know exactly how to proceed. Here’s an example from the Dribbble website we like.

8. Highlight Required Fields

Make sure it is clear which fields are obligatory so that visitors don’t have to redo the form because they skipped something essential. The most common way of doing this is with an asterisk next to the field label, but you can also add a second visual layer. 

Eddie Bauer uses a common and effective technique here, highlighting the required boxes in red.

9. Provide Clear Directions for Data Entry

Password creation is another field that is ripe for errors and entry issues. To avoid mistakes, be sure to explicitly describe the parameters for fields like this. Don’t just leave it to chance or guesswork. If users get frustrated trying to fill in a form, they’re likely to abandon the process—and your site—altogether.

Workday does a nice job of explaining how to create a user password when setting up a new account on this job application site.

10. Notify Users Immediately When Errors Are Made

Nothing is as frustrating as trying to submit a form only to find out you made an error somewhere. Rather than making a user scroll up and search for potential issues, it is more effective to alert them as soon as the error is made (before they even click the “submit” button). They can quickly fix the problem and move along in the form submission process.

Here’s how Asana manages it simply and effectively, without needing a click.

11. Provide Positive Feedback

Positive reinforcement is a great way to keep users engaged in the form submission process. One area where this works really well is in the password creation field. There will be criteria to meet, and a user should get real-time visual confirmation of meeting those requirements.

Starbucks includes this type of feedback in their new member sign-up form, turning the red Xs into green checkmarks when each criterion is met.

12. Include Headers and Subheaders

It won’t surprise anyone to learn that users rarely read everything on their screens. The online world is a scan-and-go experience, and nowhere is this more true than in online forms. 

Manage this tendency by including headers and subheaders to guide users through each section of your form, as Tiffany & Co. does.

13. Dividers Make the Difference

Small graphic elements can make or break form design. Incorporating dividers to group similar fields on your form helps readers tackle smaller chunks of information. It also visually breaks up the form in a helpful way.

One example of effectively using dividers is on the SurveyMonkey site (with the bonus of keeping sections that the visitor hasn’t gotten to yet collapsed).

14. Keep Field Options Intuitively Easy

When users must choose only one of several options, use radio buttons. When more than one option can be selected, use checkboxes. These are conventions users are familiar with and intuitively understand how to use. Avoid dropdown menus whenever possible. According to research, this type of selection can cause cognitive overload.

Ford does a nice job keeping form option selection simple when building your dream car.

15. Order Fields From Easy to Hard

Gain user buy-in by building success from the start, especially if you are designing forms that will eventually ask users to type longer answers into text fields. Momentum builds when you put the easiest responses at the start of your form. By the time users get to the more complicated or time-consuming fields, they’re on a roll and more likely to complete the form.

Here’s a great example from Metropolis Moving.

16. Make It Easy for Users

Keep in mind that not every visitor to your site wants to make a lifelong commitment to doing business with you. This is especially true for ecommerce sites. Provide the option to check out as a guest to keep users moving through the process, rather than seeing them abandon their cart in the face of some form of commitment (like creating an account for a one-time purchase).

Office Depot gives customers this option, so buying printer paper doesn’t have to turn into a long-term thing—unless the customer wants it to be.

17. Align Labels to the Top and Left of Fields

Form design has incorporated field names to the top and left of fields for a very long time. Why? Because it works. Users have come to expect the field label text to appear there. Don’t be tempted to think outside the box for the sake of being creative on this one. 

Keep your field labels above and left aligned with your fields for the best user experience, as Best Buy does.

18. Keep Field Length Relative to the Input

Don’t confuse users by making the zip code field as long as the address field. Each field should be proportionate to the type of data entered in it. Proper field length provides a visual cue to users what they should input, helping avoid errors.

Frontgate does a nice job applying this principle, fitting all the contact information fields elegantly into three lines by using proportional fields. 

19. Include Only Necessary Fields

Users are generally hesitant to provide too much information in an online form, even if some fields aren’t required to complete the form. Alleviate this concern by only asking for the bare minimum data you need to process their submission. 

Mailchimp gets this principle with their simplified sign-up form that only asks for three pieces of information. There’s no overreach in what they’re asking interested visitors to submit.

20. Make Clear What Data Is Optional

While some users won’t hesitate to provide an email address, those same users may be far less willing to give up their phone number or physical address. If you need that detailed information to fulfill your side of the equation, ask for it. But if it is just a nice-to-have piece of info, make sure the user knows it is optional to provide.

Here’s a great example of that by the cosmetics company Ulta, taking this inverse approach to highlighting mandatory fields.

21. Help a User Out

A user completing your form might not always have the information they need at their fingertips. If you can anticipate common hurdles and build solutions into your form, your customers will thank you.

MoneySuperMarket does this well, providing resources for users to access throughout the form when it comes to specific bits of information like a car registration number.

22. Give Users Shortcuts

Speed up the form completion process by incorporating helpful hacks like address lookup autofills. When you do, users only have to enter a few characters, then choose the right response. It saves time, eliminating the need to individually type in a full street address, city, state, and zip code.

Here’s how the jewelry company Pura Vida does it.

23. Keep Users Focused

Walk users through form completion by using autofocus. This helps visually guide users from field to field, so they can more quickly enter the necessary information. 

ServiceNow includes a red box to direct the user to where to begin.

24. Maintain Form Integrity by Restricting Actions

Avoid the annoyance of having users submit incomplete forms by eliminating the CTA button’s functionality until the form has all the necessary information entered. 

The Atlantic does this in an unobtrusive way by keeping the “Start my Subscription” button unclickable until all required fields are completed.

25. Preemptively Address User Concerns

Users are already hesitant to give personal information on an online form. Make it easier for them to get past any hurdles by explaining why you are asking for certain data, like a birthdate or other sensitive information. Explaining why you need that particular info builds user confidence.

The way Security Journey does it makes their rationale crystal clear.

26. Use Short, Engaging Copy

Online form design is not the place to wax poetic. Saying what you need to say in as few words as possible wins over users and keeps them focused on completing the form. Keep the copy personal and friendly, and use an active voice. Talk to users the way you’d talk to someone you know.

Here’s a great example from Duolingo. They traded out copy almost entirely for colorful icons that keep the form completion process flowing and fun.

27. Consider Colors Carefully

Great form design keeps things as simple as possible, and this includes readability and visual appeal. Fewer colors are better than more. Avoiding text colors not easily seen by the colorblind—like red/green or blue/yellow— is also a good practice.

Here’s a simple, streamlined approach that really works from the payment processing giant Stripe. Minimal colors are used (just little pops of the brand’s trademark blue and purple), and there is a drop shadow on the form to subtly call it out.

28. Emphasize the Good Stuff

I mentioned earlier the need to show visitors what’s in it for them if they complete the form. Beyond that, make sure site visitors are immediately aware of special offers, free trials, or discounts designed by making the incentive unmissable in your form’s design. There are many ways to do this, and how you approach that callout should flow from your brand identity.

Here’s a great example from Hydrow. Its $100 savings offer is big, bold, and front and center.

29. Design Your Form for Your Ideal Buyer Persona

Keep your perfect customer in mind when designing your online forms. An athleisure website’s shopping cart will have a far different look than an accounting firm offering a downloadable form or software platform. Design to appeal to your ideal customer and build credibility into the process.

Like their brand, Pottery Barn understands this concept and keeps its customer checkout clean and minimalist.

30. Stick to a One-Column Layout

Keeping forms short and sweet is the goal, and nothing is more streamlined than a single-column form. Users are accustomed to seeing them, and that layout is easier to process. If you need to cram multiple columns onto a single page of your form, re-evaluate the information you want and consider a multi-screen form instead that uses a one-column approach on each screen.

Take a cue from Apple, an industry leader in simplifying and streamlining the user experience.

31. Design Mobile-Friendly Forms, Too

According to Shopify, almost one-third of internet users in the United States bought something every week in 2021 using their smartphone. Make sure the user experience you give your customers is as good on their smartphone or tablet as it is on their desktop.

Murat Mutlu’s design on Dribbble does a nice job of optimizing the mobile shopping experience, including the option to scan a credit card for payment.

Final Thoughts

Designing great forms is about more than just making things look nice. Many important elements must be considered before any form goes live on your website.

The great news is that this is easy to do. When you follow the key principles of UX design listed here, you’ll have killer forms that easily convert users into customers.

From Facebook and Instagram to Yelp and Google Business, there are a dozen ways for organizations to maintain an online presence. But no matter how many profiles you create across these popular social media and review sites, your audience will want to visit your real home. The one not hosted by Google, Facebook, or Yelp. 

I’m talking about your website. A website gives your business credibility. It’s a place to show off your brand, relay important information, answer FAQs, and publish SEO-rich articles to increase your visibility and value. But you only get a few seconds to make a positive impression when visitors arrive, so make sure it’s effective by using some of these nine modern website design trends.  

1. Accessibility

Website accessibility—that is, making sure site elements like images, links, and even color schemes are kind to visitors with visual or other impairments—is more of a need than a trend. But it’s something that many businesses are only now starting to incorporate into their websites. The CDC estimates that one in four adults in the United States lives with a disability. That’s a quarter of your potential website audience!

How do you make your website more accessible to people with disabilities? Think about high-contrast viewing modes, keyboard navigation options, ARIA labels to provide invisible text descriptions on clickable fields for screen readers to read, meaningful alt text for screen readers describing your images, focus indicators, and video descriptions. 

Patagonia

With high-contrast fonts and colors, descriptive links, and focus indicators on most buttons, the Patagonia website is already accessible to many. But if visitors need additional support, they can navigate to Patagonia’s Accessibility Statement page and Level Access page to download assistive technology.

Scope

One of our favorite examples of an accessible website is Scope, a non-profit organization that promotes disability equality in the UK. The website features bold colors, focus indicators, high-contrast fonts, and an accessibility button on the page’s top-left corner, where it’s easy for screen readers and people to find. According to its accessibility page, Scope scans its site for accessibility issues every four months and provides transparency about problem areas and recent updates. 

2. Custom Illustrations

It’s not hard to find a website that features unique illustrations these days. Even SaaS companies like Notion, Todoist, GitHub, and Salesforce use custom imagery to highlight their brand and products. Custom graphics give websites a personal touch. They can be whatever you need to fit your brand’s personality: playful, somber, simple, or complex. 

And they’ve never been easier to make. Tools like Adobe Illustrator help artists and graphic designers create custom vector-based illustrations, drawings, cartoons, and just about any type of artwork a website designer could want. Even those of us with limited design skills can try Adobe Illustrator. Or, you can hire professionals through sites like 99Designs and get something one-of-a-kind from an experienced designer.

Duolingo

Duolingo’s adorable illustrations make learning a new language seem easy and fun. Who wouldn’t want to follow the cute little owl on a new adventure? The images work to make the concept of learning another language much less intimidating.

Notion

Illustrations don’t have to be colorful to look good, though. The project management software company, Notion, embraces a black-and-white color scheme as part of its brand identity. The web illustrations reflect that choice. 

3. Full-Page Hero Images

Gone are the days of limiting your hero image to the upper marquee of a website. Countless websites use full-page hero images that make us want to enter the world on the other side of our screens. The best full-page hero images are layered with just enough text to get the viewer to scroll down or select a menu option. 

Too much text, and the hero image gets obscured. Too little, and a viewer might not know what action the website wants them to take. As smartphone cameras continue to get more powerful and loading speeds keep improving, we predict this 2023 website trend will hold strong for years to come.

Ocean Conservancy

Full-page hero images should support your brand. In other words, avoid stock photos if you can. Take a look at the Ocean Conservancy’s captivating hero image. It makes you feel like you’re underwater with the sea turtle. Who wouldn’t want to help keep oceans healthy after viewing it?

Yelp

Yelp is another example of full-page hero images put to good use. Known for its local retailer and restaurant reviews, the company also wants to promote automotive, housekeeping, and painting services. Its rotating carousel of full-page header images showcases photos from business owners in each of these fields. 

4. Playful Fonts

After three difficult years of pandemic-related stress, modern website design is leaning resolutely into an era of playfulness and personality. Fonts are no longer purely functional. With more font choices now than ever, people are picking typefaces that evoke a range of bold, beautiful feelings. 

And with tools like Adobe Illustrator, it’s never been easier to create custom fonts if you’re up for the challenge. Either way, you can employ creative but still readable fonts to give your website a unique look.

CatScarf

CatScarf provides custom, comfortable, high-fashion scarves…for cats. It’s quirky. It’s fun. It’s a little bit serious. The fonts on the CatScarf website reflect these brand characteristics, striking a clever balance of elegance and playfulness.

The Met

Even though conventional wisdom says to use a maximum of three fonts on a single webpage, The Metropolitan Museum of Art ignores this. Instead, it proudly displays a variety of wildly different fonts. The Met is all about art, and art is bold, diverse, and complex all at once–just like the font choices on The Met’s website. 

5. Card Layouts

2023 is the year of cards…at least when it comes to modern website design. Website cards are UI (user interface) units that come in square or rectangular shapes and contain bite-sized pieces of information. A website card can include several elements to display this information, such as a title, image, descriptive text, call-to-action button, link, or hashtag. 

Sites like Pinterest have been using card layouts for a while, but more websites are adopting the trend for themselves these days. And why not? Cards are an easy way to fit lots of information on a page without overwhelming the viewer and provide a level of interactivity with your website. 

The Met

As the nation’s most-visited museum and the largest art museum in the Americas, The Met has an overwhelming amount of information to share with its website visitors. But the site is anything but cluttered. Every bit of information is broken into image-centric cards, and each card is a link that leads the viewer to a whole new webpage.  

SurveyMonkey

On the SurveyMonkey website, cards act as buttons that guide web visitors to the perfect survey template. Each card has a simple illustration that helps you quickly understand what type of survey it links to. It’s a clean way of presenting several options to a site visitor without creating clutter or confusion.

6. Background Videos 

Modern website design is really embracing background videos instead of classic hero images since so many visitors have better internet connections or data transfer speeds via cell service. Have you noticed that a video will automatically start to play when you navigate to some sites? This puts you right in the center of the action and keeps you on the page. You can’t look away. 

So, you stay on the site and keep watching the video—and then click on the text to learn more. It’s genius. A couple of years ago, background videos were limited to desktop versions of websites. But in 2023, most smartphones have the mobile network capacity they need to quickly load and play automatic background videos. 

Playa Grande 

I could stare at the automatic background video loop on the Playa Grande Golf & Ocean Club website for hours. The club is in the Dominican Republic. Each video clip showcases the activities you can do at the club while surrounded by the gorgeous turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea.

Beyond Indigo Pets

Beyond Indigo Pets, a content agency for veterinary websites, also uses a loop of background videos to highlight its services. Each clip shows a different animal turning its head to look at the camera. The overlaid text highlights the services Beyond Indigo offers, which are designed—you guessed it—to turn heads.

7. Creative Cursors

Many web designers are embracing unique cursors to add value to their websites. Instead of featuring tiny arrows, hands, or magnifying glasses that we barely see because we’re so used to them, designers are choosing bold, creative cursors. 

Some contain images or text that enrich the viewer’s experience. Others activate fascinating visual and UX effects. When done well, creative cursors keep web visitors on a page just a little bit longer—and make a page unforgettable. 

Kite Festival

When you hover over the name of one of the musicians performing in the UK’s Kite Festival, your cursor will turn into a bright circle with a photograph of the musician inside. This helps personalize an otherwise unremarkable-looking list of names and gives each artist a slice of the spotlight. 

Advanced Team

Advanced Team is a boutique website design agency, and its creative cursor showcases the best of its design abilities by leaving a pattern in the wake of cursor movements. It’s so cool that I just want to sit at my laptop and create swirl patterns all day. Yes, that green swirl you see is the cursor moving across the page! 

8. Augmented and Virtual Reality 

From face filters on Instagram to Home Depot’s 3D Augmented Reality feature, we’ve been using AR for a while. But the trend is only getting stronger in 2023, with sites refining and adding to their AR capabilities. Websites are also starting to implement Web VR, a type of virtual reality that allows you to step into immersive experiences with or without a VR headset.

Augmented and virtual reality can help us decide which paint colors to choose, which furniture to buy, and find places to explore. And it’s only going to get more sophisticated from here. 

Google Earth

Google continues to add features and updates to Google Earth VR, a mixed-reality experience that lets you walk through Florence or fly through the Grand Canyon. You can enjoy some of the magic on your computer screen or strap on your headset for the full experience. 

The Home Depot

The Home Depot introduced AR in 2015, but the technology gets better every year. You can now use the Home Depot app to visualize every detail of a build or remodel before making a single purchase. 

9. Chatbots

Chatbots are popping up—literally—on more and more websites every day. They’re particularly helpful on ecommerce or SaaS sites, where the friendly little AI-powered conversational agents can answer questions or connect you with a real human. 

Whether you find them annoying or helpful, they’re here to stay. And they’re getting more capable, too. Instead of only being activated when you respond to them by typing a question, chatbot developers are starting to adopt voice-enabled technology. 

Slack

Chatbot developers got smart. It’s harder than ever to make a chatbot say silly things by asking it random questions. The Slack chatbot, for example, asks you questions and provides a range of answers for you to choose from. You can’t just type a question, and you won’t need to.

Snatchbot

Tools like Snatchbot are making it easier for people who aren’t chatbot developers or experienced coders to include chatbots on their websites to field questions from visitors and connect them with salespeople. You can even create a Snatchbot chatbot that speaks in one of 60 languages. 

Final Thoughts About Modern Website Design 

If you’re designing a new website or reimagining a site you haven’t touched in years, consider incorporating some of these trends to bring it into the modern ages and vie for the attention of visitors better than your competitors. 

Voice-activated chatbots can increase your website’s accessibility level. Background videos showcase the best things about your brand. Playful fonts and cursors help your content stick in the mind of your web visitors. And those are just a few basic examples of how to utilize the trends we’ve spotlighted in this article. 

Our guide to designing your website can help you get started more confidently. You can also take a look at the 13 best design practices for 2023 to help you create the coolest and most modern website around. 

The best domain registrar service for most people is GoDaddy. You can get started for as low as $0.01 now. 

There are a lot of reasons you might change your domain name, including rebranding a business, resolving a copyright complaint, or changing industries. Whatever the reason, it can be hard to migrate sites and set up your new domain without losing your web data or customer base. 

In this guide, I’ll walk through the steps you should take to make your domain name change as painless as possible and how to avoid losing your site in the process and starting again from scratch. 

The 7 Best Domain Registrars For Changing a Domain Name

When changing your domain name, you’ll need to use a reliable domain registrar to find and buy your new domain. These are our favorites based on hours of research and testing: 

• GoDaddy — Best for domain protection and privacy
• Hostinger — Best for bundling domain registration and web hosting
• Porkbun — Best for creative domain extensions
• Domain.com — Best for fast and simple domain purchasing
• Network Solutions — Best for long-term domain registrations
• Namecheap — Best for affordable domain registration
• NameSilo — Best for buying domains in bulk

Read our guide to the seven best domain registrars for a full review of what we loved about each one. 

Change Your Domain Name in 8 Easy Steps

Changing your domain name can feel overwhelming, but with the right steps and tools, it’s actually a lot easier than most people expect it to be. Here’re the eight steps I’ll be breaking down in this guide: 

1. Check The Domain Change Rules For Your Host Provider
2. Backup Your Current Site
3. Choose A New Domain Name
4. Purchase Your New Domain Name
5. Set Up Migration
6. Set Up Redirects
7. Update Google Tools
8. Contact Any Customers Or Clients Via Email

When you change your domain name, you’ll probably want to use whichever host you’re already working with, but for the purposes of this guide, we’ll be using GoDaddy. GoDaddy is one of the most popular and trusted domain registrars, and it’s straightforward to access new domains and change your domain name. You can get started for just $0.01.

Step 1: Check The Domain Change Rules For Your Host Provider

The first thing you’ll want to do when you’re getting ready to change your domain name is to check the specific rules for your host provider about domains. 

Every host will have different regulations about changing your domain and which processes you need to use, especially when transferring a domain or adding a second domain. 

It’s worth mentioning here that when talking about “changing” a domain, we’re really talking about migrating a site by purchasing a new domain and using that to replace your primary domain. There’s no real way to “change” a domain that’s not expired, so you’ll have to buy a new domain and keep the old one until it expires or sell it. 

Depending on who your host provider is and your plan with them, you may be able to add websites to your account for free, like if you’re using GoDaddy’s deluxe plan. If not, then you’ll have to buy another domain and either upgrade your account or set up hosting with another company. 

Step 2: Backup Your Current Site

Before you can buy a new domain or migrate your content, you need to back up your site. This is very important because many things can go wrong when migrating sites, and having to set up your site all over again will set you back hours or even weeks. 

Again, whichever hosting provider you use will have different ways of doing this, but most offer an easy download option for backing up your site and saving it to both the cloud and a device. For example, GoDaddy has a built-in tool to back up your site directly to your account. 

You can also use a backup plugin, like Updraft Plus or All In One WordPress Migration, to make a copy of your site and download it to an external source, like your computer or dropbox. This is a better option if you are moving to a new host provider and changing your domain name. If you’re staying with the same host (for example, you’re migrating your site from your main domain to a new domain in GoDaddy), you don’t have to worry about this as much. 

I recommend backing your site up in multiple locations, like your computer and a cloud tool, so you’ll have the peace of mind that your site is safe. It will also make the process of changing a domain name much faster and easier instead of feeling like you’re launching a new site from scratch again. 

Step 3: Choose A New Domain Name

Before you can change your domain name, you need to choose the new domain you’ll be sending traffic to.  

This is the easy part because if you’re thinking about changing your domain name, you probably already have a new one in mind. When you are choosing a new name, it’s important to consider the same things you would when purchasing your first domain, like: 

• Availability: You can use a tool like GoDaddy’s domain name search bar to see if your domain is available for purchase 
• Originality: Is it close enough to someone else’s business name, domain, or social media that you could risk being accused of copyright infringement?
• Relevance: Is your domain relevant to your business? Is it recognizable as being related to your brand and memorable for customers?
• Accessibility: Is your domain easy to spell? Is it short and easy for anyone to type?

Although this is an easy step, I want to stress how important it is to get this right. You don’t want to spend money on a new domain and go through the process of changing your brand’s name, only to have to do it all again in a few months. Take your time with this step and make sure that if you’re going to change your domain name, it’s worth it. You can then look for your domain using GoDaddy’s domain search tool. 

Step 4: Purchase Your New Domain Name

Once you’ve chosen your domain name, you can purchase it. You can do this in three main ways, although the last is a little more complicated than the other. 

If you’re using GoDaddy and have a plan that supports multiple sites, the easiest way is to purchase your domain directly as you set up your new site. To do this, go to your GoDaddy product page. Click on Websites + Marketing and select Manage next to your website. Then, click Edit Website to access your site builder and select Settings, and click Manage next to your domain name. You’ll then see the option to Get a New Domain. From here, you’ll be able to purchase your new domain name from GoDaddy and connect it to your site directly. 

The second option is to purchase your new domain name through your current host provider as a second domain. For example, with the GoDaddy Deluxe plan, you can simply set up a second site and buy a new domain within one account. 

The third option is to set up your domain with a new hosting provider. This is more expensive and will make migrating your site more difficult, but it might make sense for you if you want to move hosts for financial or technical reasons. When you sign up for a new hosting plan, you’ll probably get a free domain included in your plan, so you can make your new domain name your main one. 

Step 5: Set Up Migration

Once you’ve purchased your new domain name and have it set up as a secondary or main domain, you need to migrate your old site to the new domain. 

If you are using a secondary domain, this is pretty easy. With GoDaddy, you only need to go to your GoDaddy product page. From there, go to Websites + Marketing, then click on Manage next to your website to access your site. 

Then choose Edit Website to open your website builder, and click Select Settings. Then, click on Manage next to your domain name. Select I Already Own The Domain. Then click on Choose a Domain and select the new domain you’ve added to your account. Once you’ve checked that you’ve selected the correct domain, click save and publish. 

If, for any reason, something goes wrong, or if you are moving to a new hosting provider entirely, you might want to migrate your site manually using a plugin. For this, you must first check that your website DNS (found in your settings under your hosting account) is updated to your new site. 

Then, you can import your website backup to your new site. Make sure you have created a basic new site first (using a template theme, for example) before uploading your site backup and importing your old content using your downloaded files and the instructions from your plugin. 

Both these options can take a couple of days to kick in, so be patient if your hosting provider takes a little time to update these changes and reflect them on your new site. This is why it’s a good idea to keep your old domain active for a few days while you complete the necessary changes to your new site. 

Step 6: Set Up Redirects

Once you’ve set up your domain name and the accompanying site, you need to ensure all your old URLs redirect traffic to your new site. You can do this easily from your domain dashboard on your hosting site. 

In GoDaddy, you just need to go to Account Settings and go into your domains. From there, choose the domain that you will be forwarding (your old domain) and click Manage DNS. If you scroll down this page, you’ll see a section that says Forwarding. From here, you can set up forwarding for both your domain and subdomains. 

After choosing Forward Domain next to your old domain, you can add your new domain name URL and choose a type of redirect link. You can choose between a 301 or a 302 redirect. Although they both work, I’d recommend using a 301 permanent redirect as it’s faster and preserves the most SEO value generated by your original site.

By setting up redirects, you’ll minimize your chances of losing traffic and make it easier for both new and old site visitors to find your new domain.  

Step 7: Update Google Tools

Once your new domain name is set up, you need to update Google Console and Google Analytics. 

For Google Console, you only need to log in to your account and select the gear icon. This will take you to your Settings, where you’ll select Change of Address. Then, add your new domain, and Google can send redirects to your new site. 

With Google Analytics, you just need to go to Admin, choose the property you want to edit (in this case, your old domain), and then edit the default URL to your new one. 

Step 8: Contact Any Customers Or Clients Via Email

The last step for changing your domain name is to let your users, customers, or audience know that you’ve changed your domain name. 

This is optional, but if you have a blog or an online store, it’s a good idea to reduce the amount of traffic you’ll lose from your domain change and make sure that people know it’s happening. 

All you need to do is send out a short announcement via social media or email, letting your audience know that you’ve changed the domain name and rebranded your site. A smart move here is to invite them to visit or bookmark the new site to improve your SEO and get your traffic numbers up from the start. 

Final Thoughts About Changing Your Domain Name

Changing your domain name is a necessary but daunting process. Getting it wrong can waste a lot of your time, but by following this simple step-by-step guide, you can see how easy it is to change your domain name without losing traffic or customers along the way.

We recommend that most people use WordPress with Hostinger because it’s easy to set up, and there are no limits to what you can do. Get started with Hostinger today for just $1.99 per month.

Beauty is one of the most popular niches for content creation. For years, bloggers and vloggers have succeeded in a saturated niche as the demand for new beauty content continues to rise. So, it follows that if you’re interested in starting a beauty blog, you’re making a smart choice.

However, given that it is such a popular niche, you must also be strategic about how you start your blog and plan content. In this guide, we’ll break down the steps you need to take to do successful market research and start a beauty blog that has a chance of standing out in a competitive landscape.  

The 5 Best Best Blogging Platforms For Starting a Beauty Blog

When starting a blog, you’ll need to use a good blogging platform with good pricing and intuitive features. We’ve put together a list of our top picks based on how beginner-friendly and feature-rich they are: 

• WordPress with Hostinger – Best Overall
• Wix – Best for Beginners Building a Professional Blog
• Squarespace – Best Blog Builder for Artists and Designers
• LinkedIn – Best for Networking
• Medium – Best for Writing to a Built-In Audience

To find out the pros and cons of each platform in detail, read our full review of the best blogging platforms.  

Start a Beauty Blog in 9 Easy Steps

Starting any blog involves a mix of technical steps and research, but with a niche as competitive as beauty, you need to be intentional when setting up your site to get traffic. In this guide, we’ll break down the nine steps you should take to set up a beauty blog that has a chance of success without becoming overwhelmed by the process. 

1. Sign Up For Hostinger
2. Get Organized
3. Choose a Domain Name
4. Set Up Your Social Media
5. Choose A Theme
6. Add Plugins To Your Site
7.  Set Up Google Analytics
8. Write Your First Few Posts
9. Officially Launch Your Blog

For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll be using Hostinger with WordPress because it’s beginner friendly and doesn’t have much of a learning curve. It already has WordPress connected, making the technical side of setting up a blog easier, which gives you more time to focus on the research and writing. You can get started with Hostinger today for just $1.99 per month.

Step 1: Sign Up For Hostinger

Before doing anything else, you must sign up for Hostinger as your blogging platform. 

Head over to Hostinger’s home page, and go to Hosting, then WordPress Hosting. Scroll down and select a plan that works best for you. I would recommend starting with the WordPress Starter Plan because you get a free domain and a lot of really versatile features, but it’s still very affordable for new bloggers. You can always upgrade in the future. 

Once you’ve selected your plan, add it to your cart. You then need to select your hosting period. You get a lower rate the longer your plan, but 12 months is a good place to start for most people. From there, you just create your account by filling in your details. 

Add your payment details and purchase your site. You can then go to your dashboard to view your new account. This will come with a free domain we’ll choose later and WordPress integrated into your site. 

Step 2: Get Organized

Before you actually get started with your blog, you need to do some market research. Beauty is a very competitive niche in the blogging and vlogging world. 

Unless you have a clear idea of your target audience and what type of content you’ll create, you will struggle to succeed or get noticed. Before you do anything, make a list of your favorite beauty blogs and make notes on what you like. What makes them so appealing? Why do you keep coming back? How do they structure their content? 

Then, do some research into your niche and target audience. What kinds of people will consume your content? Who is going to be interested in natural makeup or drugstore products (or whichever niche you choose)? Where do those people hang out, shop, and look for new trends? 

Once you’ve gotten clear on who will read your blog and how you will market your content to them, you’re ready to move onto the technical stages of starting a blog. 

Step 3: Choose a Domain Name

Your domain name is going to be the same as your blog name. When choosing one, you want something memorable and related to your niche that your audience can easily find and one that can’t be reported for copyright infringement. 

Here are some key things you want to keep in mind when choosing a domain name: 

• Is your domain relevant to your niche? 
• Will people be able to spell it easily? 
• Is it memorable? 
• Is it unique? 
• Is it available on social media as a handle? 

When in doubt, sometimes the best strategy is to combine your name with a beauty term to keep it relevant, personal, and unique. For example, if your name is Jane, you could use the domain: janeMUA.com. 

Once you’ve decided on a domain, you can search for it in Hostinger’s domain search tool, and if it’s available, add it to your account as your free domain.   

Step 4: Set Up Your Social Media

Once you’ve chosen a domain name, you can secure social media handles. Even if you’re not ready to launch your blog, you’ll want to claim your name so no one else can take it. 

Social media platforms let you set up a business account for free if you’re a blogger, where you’ll get access to a suite of business tools like analytics and post links. These can be great for measuring how much traffic is coming to your site from socials and setting up future partnerships with brands. 

You can add your site directly to your bio as a link and even add a coming soon post with some branded hashtags if you want to build a little suspense while setting up your blog.  

Step 5: Choose A Theme

Once you’ve chosen a name for your site, you can set it up in Hostinger. This includes selecting a theme. 

You can use one of the free themes offered by Hostinger, or you can get your own from a different source. For a beauty blog, people will care about the aesthetic and the overall look of a blog in a way they wouldn’t if it was a business or finance blog. 

If you don’t like the Hostinger themes, I recommend using a third party like Etsy or Hello You Designs to get a theme because even though you will have to pay a little for them, you won’t need to deal with any complicated coding, and you’ll have a beautiful, unique site that your audience is excited to visit. 

Etsy has very good WordPress themes for low prices, so this is your best bet if budget is an issue. Otherwise, a boutique site will offer you more in the range of customer support and better designs. 

Either way, your designer will give you a set of instructions when you purchase your theme that will explain how to import and edit the theme. Usually, it’s as easy as downloading the theme, then going to Appearance in your WordPress dashboard, then Themes, and then uploading your theme.

Your theme will also come with some copy, but it’s usually gibberish. You’ll need to add your own writing, including your home page content, about page info, and copy for your blog pages and menus. You can take inspiration from other sites to help you write your content, but do not copy and paste! Plagiarism is serious and could get your blog shut down. 

Step 6: Add Plugins To Your Site

Before launching your blog, you should get your plugins uploaded and activated. 

Plugins are tools you add to your WordPress site that complete tasks or help solve problems, like speeding up your site or removing spam comments. There’s no set rule as to which plugins you should include, but a few are essential. 

WordPress will usually activate these essential ones for you, and your theme may come with added plugins to run certain features, like social media banners. But if you don’t have any added or uploaded, these are the main ones I suggest you use: 

• A cache plugin like WP Fastest Cache. 
• A spam blocker like Akismet Anti-Spam
• A backup plugin like Updraft
• An SEO optimization plugin like Yoast SEO
• A compliance plugin like Ibuenda to help you create a privacy policy and cookie notice 

You can add any other plugins you like but make sure you read the reviews before adding them so you’re not clogging up your site with slow-loading plugins or ones that may cause glitches. Other plugins you might want could be social media share buttons, adding an Instagram carousel to your site, a better contact form, and more. Review the options available and see what you like.

Step 7: Set Up Google Analytics

Before you launch your blog, you should set up Google Analytics for your site. 

This will help you keep track of your traffic, including what demographic is visiting your blog and how they are finding you. 

You need a Google account to set up analytics, preferably one you’ll use to run your blog. After that, all you need to do is go to Google Analytics and sign in. Then, you need to fill in all the details about your site, including your industry, website name, URL, and time zone. 

You’ll then be given a tracking code to copy and paste into your site. 

The easiest way to do this is by downloading the MonsterInsights plugin. If you go to Plugins under Appearance in WordPress, you can easily find and install the plugin. Once you activate the plugin, all you need to do is fill in some details and connect Monster Insights to your Google account. 

It will then connect your Google Analytics to your site so you can start tracking data from traffic and website visitors. 

Step 8: Write Your First Few Posts

Finally, before you launch your blog, you need to have some content ready. 

While there’s no set rule as to how many posts you should have ready, people generally start with five or more because a big part of growing a blog and improving SEO is being able to keep people on the blog and move them from post to post. 

The more content you have, the longer people will stay on your site, which is good for your traffic, and, if you host ads on your site, your revenue. A good strategy for keeping people on your site longer is to have posts that link to each other. 

For example, if you write one post about your top five favorite mascaras, your next post might be about your favorite makeup removers. You can then link these posts together, so readers have a natural journey when they move through your posts. 

Plan out at least five posts and write the content. It doesn’t matter how long this takes, but you do need to add high-quality pictures. With some blogs, this isn’t a big deal, but for beauty blogs, visuals are essential. Don’t forget that you will be competing with Youtube and TikTok beauty gurus as well as other bloggers. 

Don’t forget to insert your personality into your posts. Beauty is a saturated niche, so your personality and voice will keep people coming back to your blog. 

Step 9: Officially Launch Your Blog

Once you’ve finished creating content and uploaded it to your site, you’re ready to officially launch your beauty blog. 

It’s not easy to get traffic to your site initially because you will have to wait a few months before seeing any results from SEO or search engines. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t get any traffic; it just means you’ll have to look for it from other sources. 

Launch your social media and start posting about your blog and directing people to it. Share posts in Facebook groups or Reddit communities to get some attention. Ask your family and friends to share posts so you can reach a bigger audience. 

Then, sit back and focus on writing great content while your traffic grows.

Final Thoughts About How to Start A Beauty Blog 

If you follow this guide, it should be easy to set up a successful, profitable blog in no time. Starting a beauty blog can feel intimidating with all the competition, but with the right steps and tools, there’s no reason you can’t succeed in one of the most popular niches.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) WorkMail is a managed business email and calendaring service launched in 2015. The AWS cloud platform offers over 200 fully-featured services, so a business email product fits perfectly in its expansive ecosystem.

WorkMail is a stand-alone product allowing enterprise users to send and receive emails, manage contacts, and share calendars. WorkMail also integrates with other AWS value-added cloud products like Directory Service and Simple Email Service to expand its capabilities.

Amazon WorkMail Compared 

Amazon WorkMail made it to our top list of the best email hosting providers because of its seamless integration with other AWS cloud services. Still, DreamHost is the best email hosting provider for most users due to its excellent reputation, low prices, and ease of use. Save 16% on DreamHost when you signup for the annual subscription. 

• DreamHost – Best All-Around Email Hosting Provider 
• Hostinger – Best Budget-Friendly Provider 
• Intermedia – Best for Email Security 
• ScalaHosting – Best for Significant Storage 
• Google Workspace – Best for Google-Centric Users 
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard – Best for Microsoft-Centric Users
• Amazon WorkMail – Best for AWS-Centric Users 

Check out our full review of the best email hosting providers for valuable insights into what alternative providers offer. 

About Amazon WorkMail 

Amazon WorkMail is just one of over 200 cloud solutions from Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS solutions are famous for their affordable pricing and robust security, covering numerous use cases and industries. Amazon WorkMail falls under the provider’s business application products. 

• Amazon WorkMail Business Email Hosting Review

AWS offers at least a dozen other business applications for video conferencing, multichannel marketing communication, document storage and sharing, and supply chain management. The platform also offers complementary products to use with WorkMail. For example, you can connect the email service to a directory service, an identity and access management application, or a key management service. 

Amazon Web Services Health and Stability 

AWS is an Amazon subsidiary offering numerous cloud services spanning remote computing, networking, storage, mobile development, security, and email. AWS has captured up to a third of the cloud computing market share, ahead of competitors like Microsoft Azure and Google. AWS has a presence in more than 245 countries and territories. 

AWS has been around since early 2000 and is one of the pioneers of public cloud services. AWS is also immensely profitable, generating $62.2 billion in 2021. In addition, AWS has reported growth every year since its inception. 

More than 3 million companies rely on AWS cloud computing services. The platform’s client list includes big brands like Twitter, Tata Motors, General Electric (GE), Unilever, and Netflix. Notably, the U.S. and Canadian federal governments also use AWS services. 

AWS has been in business for more than two decades and is expected to continue to grow its products, services, and features in the coming years. 

Amazon WorkMail Pricing 

Amazon WorkMail has one base product, its email hosting solution. You get all the available features and capabilities in one package. AWS also offers add-on products that you can bundle with the WorkMail solution. The add-on solutions cost extra. 

Amazon WorkMail Pricing Structure 

WorkMail has one of the most straightforward pricing structures. You don’t have to worry about pricing tiers or bundled services. Instead, the company charges a standard per-inbox rate, meaning you only pay for the number of people that use the service. 

However, the pricing structure may differ for any add-on product or service you choose. For example, AWS offers a key management service to create and manage cryptographic keys for data protection. The AWS Key Management Service charges according to your usage, such as $1 per month for each KMS key you create. 

Amazon WorkMail Pricing Comparison 

Amazon WorkMail costs $4 per user per month. The subscription gives you access to all WorkMail features, including a 50 GB mailbox, spam and virus protection, administrative SDK, web client, and email flow rules. I like the straightforward pricing where I don’t have to consider which features are worth paying for and which ones I can leave out. 

But how does WorkMail’s price compare to others in the space? 

Google Work Space and Microsoft 365 entry-level prices start at $6 per user per month. So there’s a small saving if you choose WorkMail. The only problem is you may be giving up too much to save just $2 per user per month. 

For example, Microsoft 365’s cheapest plan offers 1 TB of cloud storage per user, compared to WorkMail’s 50 GB. It’s a massive difference if you send and receive large attachments regularly. Similarly, Google Workspace offers Docs, team chat messaging, and form and website builders in its entry-level plan. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a basic email hosting service without additional applications and productivity features. DreamHost email hosting starts at $1.67 per user per month, billed annually. It has a smaller inbox than WorkMail at 25 GB, but the low price justifies the limited storage. Unfortunately, WorkMail doesn’t offer the best value for money, whichever way you look at it. 

Amazon Trials and Guarantees 

Fortunately, Amazon WorkMail has a 30-day free trial for up to 25 users. Other providers like DreamHost don’t have a free trial, so testing the service before committing to a contract is welcome. Amazon WorkMail also has a 99.9% uptime guarantee in its service level agreement (SLA). 

AWS applies service credits to future WorkMail payments if you experience downtime or errors during the billing cycle. Of course, the guarantee only covers errors under AWS’s responsibilities and terms of service. The credits can cover anywhere from 10% to 100% of your monthly payment. 

Amazon WorkMail Business Email Hosting Review

The email provider supports diverse use cases for small business and enterprise applications. WorkMail is also a managed service, so you don’t have to maintain on-premise servers, complex software or hardware, or update security patches. The AWS ecosystem is also famous for its robust security, which is crucial for businesses bound by data privacy laws and regulations. 

Amazon WorkMail is a natural choice for people already in the AWS ecosystem. The business email integrates seamlessly with the AWS service you already use. It’s also a low-cost and scalable solution for small businesses and startups. Check out our review comparing the best email providers to see how WorkMail compares to similar services. 

What Makes Amazon WorkMail Great 

Integration with other AWS products: The best thing about WorkMail is its effortless integration with other AWS solutions. For example, you can integrate WorkMail with AWS Directory Service so users can access their inbox using their current corporate credentials. Similarly, WorkMail integrates with AWS Key Management Service to get complete control of encryption keys.

Native support for alternative email clients: Microsoft Outlook is a popular business email client. WorkMail offers native support, so you don’t need additional software or plugins to use your favorite email client. The integration extends to Windows and Mac OS X desktop clients. WorkMail also integrates with most other email clients that use the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol, such as Apple Mail. 

Enterprise-grade security: Amazon WorkMail lets you choose where to store your data. The platform is available in three regions: U.S. East (North Virginia), U.S. West (Oregon), and Europe (Ireland). This control is important for complying with relevant data protection laws and regulations. 

AWS confines your data to your chosen region. WorkMail also lets you set security policies for mobile device access. In addition, AWS encrypts data in transit and applies other enterprise-grade security features to its ecosystem. 

Free migration: WorkMail lets you migrate from your current provider with no technical expertise or software required. AWS partners with email migration tools Audriga and Transcend. You can easily transfer emails, contacts, meetings, and notes using Audriga or Transcend. AWS will cover the migration cost in most cases. 

Manage resources: WorkMail lets you manage business resources from its console. For example, you can create resources like projectors, cars, and meeting rooms. Then, users can book the needed equipment from the WorkMail console ahead of meetings. 

Access control rules: The platform allows you considerable control over what happens in WorkMail. You can set up granular access control rules to limit WorkMail access and bolster security. For example, you can create a rule to block IP addresses outside a predetermined IP range. 

The access control rules also cover sufficient criteria to minimize the risk of unauthorized access or data misuse. For example, you can allow or deny access based on IP addresses, protocols, impersonation roles, and Amazon WorkMail users. 

Integrated calendaring service: WorkMail lets you easily create and manage meetings and appointments with its built-in calendar. You can make a personal appointment that’s only visible to you. Alternatively, you can create meetings, send invitations, and share your calendar with others. 

It’s a flexible tool that’s useful for business users. For example, you can delegate another user to schedule meetings on your behalf. You can also set reminders for meetings planned and move, cancel, or decline meetings.  

Where Amazon WorkMail Falls Short 

Basic email hosting prices: There’s nothing wrong with providing a barebones email hosting service if that’s what customers want. Competitors like DreamHost do this well. However, Amazon WorkMail prices are slightly lower than Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace for far fewer features. 

For example, Google Workspace offers critical productivity apps like Drive Storage, Docs editors, and an App Maker. Likewise, Microsoft 365 Business Standard provides Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Excel, Word, and OneDrive. On the other hand, WorkMail offers little more than managed email hosting and calendaring service at a premium price. 

Expensive to scale: WorkMail’s meager base product means spending more money than necessary for extra business applications. For instance, WorkMail offers stand-alone video, chat, meetings, cloud storage, and document editor products. So, it makes sense for AWS to bundle these products into a comprehensive email suite. 

However, you’ll need to purchase them separately. It’s expensive and adds more productivity tools to manage and maintain. The upside, AWS is a tightly-knit software ecosystem, so managing these tools together isn’t as difficult as purchasing each solution from a different vendor. 

Irregular feature updates: Unlike Google’s Gmail, email hosting isn’t a core AWS service. AWS’s core competency lies in public cloud services like storage and computing. As a result, you’ll notice a significant quality difference between WorkMail and other core products like Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Lightsail. 

WorkMail is also slow to update features and functionality. Besides claiming to be an alternative for either platform, the product needs to catch up to Google and Microsoft. 

Spam filter needs improving: WorkMail offers a built-in spam filter. However, it’s not as good as Gmail, which claims to block 99.9% of spam. Gmail uses machine learning to identify spam patterns. Given the platform’s enormous user base, it’s no wonder it has the best spam filtering system. 

You can work around WorkMail’s poor spam filtering by changing your filtering settings. You can also enable DMARC enforcement. However, WorkMail may not be the best option for organizations that receive bulk mail. 

Complex migration from WorkMail: WorkMail makes migrating to a different service difficult. There needs to be more documentation to help you change service providers easily. Given how easy it is to migrate to WorkMail from a different provider, it is strange. 

Amazon WorkMail Email Hosting Service Compared 

Amazon WorkMail is a good option if you already use other AWS products, but DreamHost is the best email hosting service for most users for its low prices and reliable uptime. 

• DreamHost – Best All-Around Email Hosting Provider 
• Hostinger – Best Budget-Friendly Provider 
• Intermedia – Best for Email Security 
• ScalaHosting – Best for Significant Storage 
• Google Workspace – Best for Google-Centric Users 
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard – Best for Microsoft-Centric Users
• Amazon WorkMail – Best for AWS-Centric Users 

Final Verdict 

Amazon WorkMail is the go-to email hosting provider for users familiar with AWS services. The provider offers enterprise-grade security, is compatible with Microsoft Outlook, provides a feature-rich web client, and lets you choose where to store your data. WorkMail is also affordable and reliable, with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. 

The main downside of WorkMail is it doesn’t offer as much value for money as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. AWS missed a terrific opportunity to create an email suite with integrated office applications like document editing, video conferencing, and presentations. We hope AWS will rethink its strategy for this otherwise commendable email hosting service. 

Shipwire is a third-party logistics (3PL) provider offering end-to-end order fulfillment services. Many growing and established ecommerce brands rely on Shipwire for outsourcing logistics like storage, transport, distribution, and fulfillment. 

The company also provides additional services that help you optimize your online sales, from parcel and freight contract negotiation to logistics consulting, procurement, and invoice reconciliation. Shipwire sounds good on paper, but how does it compare against the best ecommerce fulfillment services? Read on to find out. 

Shipwire Compared

Shipwire didn’t make our top list of the best ecommerce fulfillment services, though it is a solid service. Instead, our favorite fulfillment service is ShipBob for its high fulfillment accuracy, same-day and two-day express shipping options, and intuitive dashboard for order management. Contact ShipBob for a custom quote based on your unique fulfillment needs. 

• ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform 
• Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
• ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
• Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
• Easyship – Best for international fulfillment 

Check out our full post on the best ecommerce fulfillment services for more details on these platforms, including what ecommerce use case each company is best suited for. 

About Shipwire 

Shipwire didn’t make our top list, but we still think the brand is established and valuable enough to warrant a standalone, in-depth review. Shipwire is likely to be a viable option for some ecommerce store owners. 

• Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Services Review

Shipwire offers the typical fulfillment services you’d expect from a 3PL provider. The company connects its platform to your sales channel, stores your inventory, and picks, packs, and ships orders to your customers as they come in. Shipwire also offers value-added services, including product inspection, retail partner management, serial scanning, labeling, and ticketing. 

Shipwire Health and Stability 

Ideally, you want a long-term fulfillment partner that will stick with you. Few things are worse than something disrupting your supply chain during peak season or when you’ve scaled your operation. Fortunately, Shipwire has been around since 2006, with every indication that the company will continue to thrive. 

Ingram Micro, a leading ecommerce logistics and supply chain management provider with over 50 global offices, acquired Shipwire in 2013 for an undisclosed amount. Shipwire was successful as a stand-alone company before the acquisition and has continued to be a leading option for the growing ecommerce sector. 

Shipwire is truly among the first pioneers of providing ecommerce fulfillment services, previously attracting venture capital from well-known brands like eBay and Newell Rubbermaid. The company has also appeared four times on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States. 

Shipwire Pricing 

Shipwire offers two ways to pay for its service: prepaid and postpaid accounts. Prepaid customers must have sufficient funds in their accounts to cover the cost of shipping orders, with Shipwire deducting the shipping charges of each order from the account’s prepaid balance. 

The company also offers Net Terms for postpaid accounts. Here, the company extends a credit limit for shipping orders. Shipwire only ships orders up to the prepaid account’s approved credit limit. 

Reach out to Shipwire today to grab a custom quote and discuss your payment options.

Shipwire Pricing Structure 

Shipwire uses a standard rate card to charge for its services, with separate pricing for each of its services you can tap into. You can view the charges you’ve incurred in real time in the Shipwire dashboard. 

Shipwire charges per item, carton, or container via a receiving fee. However, you’ll pay an hourly rate for non-standard receiving. Non-standard receiving refers to items that don’t match your advanced shipping notice (ASN) description. 

Similarly, Shipwire charges a per-unit rate for order returns or rejected orders. Shipwire refers to these chargeable actions as reverse logistics. Shipwire also charges a standard inventory storage fee, and you can also expect additional expenses for long-term storage beyond six months. 

Finally, Shipwire may charge miscellaneous fees depending on your shipment or other needs. These can include: 

• Outbound serial capture
• Third-party packing slips and labels
• Package inserts 
• International preparation fees 
• Non-conveyable packages 
• Non-compliance fees 

Shipwire Pricing Comparison 

Unlike some competitors, Shipwire doesn’t provide any pricing details on its website. I had to dig around to find the company’s rate card. Unfortunately, even the rate card offers the bare minimum in terms of the pricing information. You’ll need to contact Shipwire for an accurate pricing estimate. 

The public information is sufficient to compare Shipwire receiving rates with close competitors like ShipBob, Red Stag Fulfillment, and ShipMonk. 

Shipwire’s receiving costs start at $0.59 per unit or $2.69 per carton. ShipMonk is slightly cheaper at a $2.50 per-carton receiving fee. ShipBob charges a $25 flat fee for the first two hours of receiving and $40 per hour after that. Shipwire’s receiving fee is slightly more expensive than the competition. 

Returns at Shipwire start at $3.50 per unit, while ShipBob costs $3 per item. Additionally, Shipwire has a $500 monthly minimum pick and pack fee, while ShipBob’s threshold is just $250. Overall, Shipwire doesn’t offer the most competitive pricing on the market from what I can find. 

Shipwire Trials and Guarantees  

Shipwire’s software is free for all customers; it’s simply the usage of its facilities and labor that incurs charges. The Shipwire platform’s dashboard can monitor and manage inventory levels, fulfillment locations, order statuses, and sales. You only start paying when your goods arrive at a Shipwire warehouse. 

Fortunately, Shipwire offers volume-based discounts. The company also compares rates for each order to find the lowest shipping fees for you during fulfillment. On top of that, Shipwire offers free onboarding to its new users, including assistance with connecting your sales channel to its platform. 

Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Review

Shipwire is a renowned third-party logistics provider that leverages its proprietary technology to optimize fulfillment. The platform automatically routes each order based on the fastest delivery route analyzed from over 200 carriers, aided by Shipwire’s partnerships with most of the world’s top carriers, including USPS, UPS, and FedEx. 

Shipwire has over 30 fulfillment centers across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Pacific Asia. Its platform supports over 100 retail channels and integrates with over 200 ecommerce connectors. Check out our review of the best ecommerce fulfillment services to compare Shipwire to other popular alternatives. 

What Makes Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Great  

Global fulfillment centers: Shipwire boasts more than 10 million square feet of fulfillment space. In the United States, the company has warehouses in 14 different states. Shipwire also has centers in Great Britain, Sweden, China, the Netherlands, Australia, and Germany. The company can ship orders to more than 160 countries and is a terrific partner for ecommerce businesses set for global expansion. 

Fast shipping: Shipwire offers same-day and next-day shipping, plus other service levels. Orders that arrive at the warehouse by 5.30 a.m. local warehouse time are shipped the same day, no questions asked. There’s also expedited same-day shipping available for a small fee, where Shipwire promises to fulfill your order if it arrives after the cut-off time or credit the extra fees to your account. 

The company also offers best-effort same-day shipping even if you miss the cut-off time. For instance, Shipwire may still ship orders that arrive by 1:30 p.m. local warehouse time, it’s just not fully guaranteed. Finally, the company offers guaranteed next-day shipping if your order doesn’t qualify for same-day shipping, meaning you’re never waiting more than 36 hours for something to get shipped out. 

Shipwire Anywhere: Shipwire allows you to integrate your ship-from locations such as warehouses, retail stores, or garages with its platform with ease. You can manage multiple fulfillment locations from the same dashboard, including your dropshipping vendors. Shipwire still follows up with your clients and updates your store inventory and tracking regardless of the fulfillment location. It’s a valuable service for businesses that don’t outsource 100% of their fulfillment or use multiple fulfillment channels. 

Comprehensive marketplace coverage: Speaking of integrations, Shipwire provides you with connections to more than 200 marketplaces and shopping carts on its platform. You can easily connect with eBay, Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Etsy, to name a few. Shipwire also seamlessly connects to your marketing, CRM, and customer support tech stack, including software platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and Oracle. 

Robust developer toolset: Shipwire offers an API for almost anything, including orders, rates, webhooks, stock, locations, vendors, receiving, and products. The platform also provides a sandbox account available on request to test your custom-built integrations. It’s a terrific platform for developers who want to customize how Shipwire connects to their business to match their specifications. 

Easy to use: You’ll get expert assistance when first connecting your store to Shipwire and plenty of extra support thereafter. The platform uses artificial intelligence to calculate the most cost-effective shipping strategy based on your settings. The software also has an intuitive dashboard to manage work orders and track order information and transactions. You can generate customized reports for essential metrics like order inventory count, status, cost, carriers, and more. 

Custom enterprise solutions: Shipwire offers bespoke services for nearly every aspect of supply chain management and logistics, hence the lack of a clear pricing structure. For example, Shipwire offers experts, technology, and insider knowledge to some users who want to improve transit times, boost customer satisfaction, or reduce shipping costs. 

Some of these helpful solutions are an invoice consolidation platform called Parcel Pay, UPS parcel and freight audit software, and a spend management portal. In addition, you don’t have to change your fulfillment company to work with Shipwire. Shipwire can audit your current provider and renegotiate your contract for better rates, terms, and service level agreements. 

Where Shipwire Fulfillment Service Falls Short 

Inconsistent customer experience: Shipwire has many happy customers and more than 40 years of experience in the logistics industry. Unfortunately, there are a good number of customer complaints regarding incorrectly fulfilled shipments. Curiously, the company doesn’t advertise its fulfillment accuracy on its website. Many fulfillment services, including ShipBob and Red Stag Fulfillment, proudly publicize this information. 

Additionally, Shipwire doesn’t provide guarantees beyond helping you claim insurance in case your products are lost or damaged. On the other hand,  Red Stag Fulfillment offers to pay the wholesale cost of lost or damaged items. Red Stag also waives the shipping fees and pays you an extra $50 if your orders aren’t shipped according to your service level. 

High monthly minimum: Most fulfillment services have a monthly order minimum. However, Shipwire requires you to ship at least $500 per month, or else the company may charge you the difference. It’s not a problem for established businesses, but pre-launch brands and startups may struggle to meet this requirement. While ShipBob has a $250 monthly minimum, it also has a growth plan with no minimum monthly order requirement. 

Opaque pricing: Unfortunately, Shipwire isn’t transparent with its pricing information. You’ll need to contact a company representative for complete pricing information. It’s frustrating if you are comparison shopping with other potential solutions. Similarly, Shipwire doesn’t offer a pricing calculator to compare prices with competitors. However, you can request no-commitment access to the platform to compare prices and confirm if Shipwire meets your requirements. In addition, you don’t have to pay until you send inventory to a Shipwire warehouse. 

Miscellaneous fees: Shipwire charges multiple discretionary fees, including fines, interest, and various charges. So, read the contract thoroughly and agree to the company’s terms. Also, keep an eye on service fees and shipping charges. 

Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Compared 

Shipwire is an established logistics brand, but ShipBob is our first pick for the best ecommerce fulfillment service because of its transparent pricing, affordable rates, and no monthly order minimums. 

• ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform 
• Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
• ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
• Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
• Easyship – Best for international fulfillment 

Final Verdict 

Shipwire is one of the original ecommerce fulfillment pioneers and has been in business for nearly 20 years. The company’s strategic partnership with logistics giant Ingram Micro offers businesses easy access to international markets with a streamlined supply chain and logistics management. In addition, larger enterprises expanding to new markets will benefit from Shipwire services and presence in more than 160 countries. 

Shipwire also offers invoice audit software and services and claims refunds on your behalf. Furthermore, the company helps with carrier contract optimization and transportation intelligence for companies that want to manage logistics costs. However, Shipwire may be too expensive for startups and small businesses that might fare better with a local or smaller ecommerce fulfillment company. 

Our recommendation for the best free email provider is Gmail because it’s easy to use, offers flexible organization, and connects to other frequently used Google tools. Create a Gmail account for free today.

You already pay for phone service, internet service, and other tools that help you communicate, so you shouldn’t need to pay for your email, too. Fortunately, many free email providers have just about everything you need for personal or business use. The Quick Sprout team researched over 20 of them to bring you the top five best options for different needs.

The Top 5 Best Free Email Providers

The five free email providers below stand out in their ease of use, security, storage, and communication features. Our top pick is Gmail because of its numerous tools to organize your inbox, filter out spam, and manage communications. Set up a free Gmail account for you or your business.

• Gmail – Best for simple email organization
• Outlook – Best for combining email with productivity tools
• Proton Mail – Best for securing confidential data
• Titan Mail – Best for sales teams
• Yahoo Mail – Best for massive storage

Continue reading as I break down each of these five products into their top use cases and detailed reviews.

Match Your Scenario to the Right Free Email Provider Solution

There are dozens of free email providers on the internet, which makes it difficult to know where to look for your best options. If you need a personal email account, you’d look for something different than you would for a business account. Based on our research and experience, I came up with five common use cases for seeking a free email provider:

• You need a lot of storage space
• Your company emails confidential data that needs to be protected
• You want the best protection from spam and malicious emails
• You want to keep your team collaborating
• You want different email addresses for individual marketing campaigns

You need a lot of storage space

Best Option: Yahoo Mail

Yahoo Mail has an impressive 1 TB of space, even for free accounts. This amount of storage is especially helpful for businesses receiving frequent or hefty attachments or anyone needing to save their emails for a long period of time for future reference or legal reasons.

Another great choice: Gmail

Gmail has 15 GB of free space, the same as Outlook. However, Gmail has more options for upgrading in the future, if needed, with the potential for unlimited storage between Gmail and other Google Workspace tools.

If you usually run out of email storage space, consider:

• Amount of free storage: Some free email services only offer 1 GB of storage, making their free plan less valuable than others.
• Upgrade options: Research how much space a company is willing to give you if you plan on upgrading to a paid plan or adding extra storage space a la carte. For instance, some might cap their storage at 50 GB, while others offer unlimited space on select plans. 

Your company emails confidential data

Best Option: Proton Mail

Proton Mail encrypts email data for all of its users. As an open-source platform, its coding is 100% transparent, so you can feel safe about what you send and receive. It also complies with Swiss privacy laws, which are some of the strictest in the world.

Another great choice: Titan Mail

Titan Mail also locks down email inboxes with enterprise-level encryption, real-time IP blacklist checks, and spam detection. Users can also set up two-factor authentication for extra protection.

When email security is a top priority, think about:

• Encryption: End-to-end encryption and password protection can keep any information you send safe from falling into the wrong hands. 
• Filters: Look for providers with sophisticated spam detection and options to filter out junk mail, phishing attempts, and other unwanted messages.
• Secure storage: Just as sent and received emails should be encrypted, so should anything stored in your inbox or other email folders. Industry-standard encryption is 128-bit. 

You want the best protection from spam

Best Option: Gmail

Gmail reigns supreme in its spam detection and blocking capabilities. The provider uses Google’s own AI-powered technology to catch about 99.9% of spam and other problematic emails. Free account holders can also set up filters to block emails with specific words, phrases, subjects, or from specific senders. 

Another great choice: Titan Mail

Titan Mail automatically checks each incoming message for spam elements, rejecting it if it shows indications of a phishing attempt or malicious intent. Any email that Titan Mail detects as suspicious but not automatically rejected as spam will be flagged, so you can make the final call.

If catching spam before it hits your inbox is important to you, look for:

• Spam filtering features: The best providers strike a balance between automatic email rejection and flagging potentially malicious messages so your inbox can learn what messages are and aren’t important to you (and which ones are outright dangerous).
• Configuration options: Spam filters and settings can be helpful for letting you determine what makes it through to your inbox and what gets automatically sent to a spam folder. 
• Allowing and blocking emails: Many email providers let you allow and block specific email addresses to ensure you don’t miss anything important, and known junk mail senders go where they belong.

You want to keep your team collaborating

Best Option: Outlook

Outlook taps into the Microsoft suite of products, giving users access to its cloud storage, calendar, contact management, online meetings, and more. It also syncs with To Do, where your team can manage and organize their tasks in one convenient place.

Another great choice: Gmail

Like Outlook, Gmail connects to the Google family of products, including Google Drive, Calendar, and Keep. You can find easy access to connected tools on the right-hand pane of your email interface. Gmail can also boost team collaboration and productivity by syncing with tools like Zoom, Hiver, and Slack.

Teams that need help with productivity should look for an email client with:

• Meetings: In-app meetings or the ability to add an extension for video conferencing can make it easy for team members to connect.
• Calendars: Calendars within an email client can notify you when a new appointment or task is coming up from within your inbox.
• Mobile apps: Help team members stay in communication even when working remotely by using an email provider with a quality mobile app.
• Contact management: The ability to organize contacts into organizations, departments, clients, and other categories can keep team members on track with their regular communication tasks.

You want different email addresses for marketing campaigns

Best Option: Gmail

Gmail lets account holders have up to 30 email aliases for free. This can come in handy when you want a different email address for each marketing campaign to help your team keep track of and segment their communications. If you do decide to upgrade to a paid plan later, each member of your organization can have 30 aliases attached to their main account. 

Another great choice: Outlook

Outlook also allows email aliases, but it has a limit of 10 per user and does not let you create multiple aliases on the same day. Still, if you’re using the feature for simple marketing campaigns, you can probably get by with the limitations.

If you want multiple email addresses under one account, consider:

• Number of email aliases: Some email providers are more restrictive than others when it comes to creating and using aliases, so be sure the one you choose doesn’t limit you too much.
• Inbox organization: The ability to create separate folders for responses you get to each email alias allows for better tracking, segmentation, and personalization when communicating with prospects or other contacts.

Free Email Provider Reviews

After analyzing more than 20 free email providers, the Quick Sprout team ultimately landed on the following five services as the best options available. Each can fit multiple needs, whether you’re looking for an email provider for personal or business use. Continue to learn what we like best about them and who can get the greatest benefits from each provider.

Gmail – Best for Simple Email Organization

There’s a reason Gmail has been one of, if not the most popular, email providers for years: its simplicity. From its auto-sorted inbox that filters promotional messages from regular emails to its colored labeling system, there are numerous ways to set up an inbox that’s uncluttered, organized, and easy to work within. 

Personally, I find it hard to break away from Gmail. I use it for business and personal email because it has everything I need from an email service in one interface. I appreciate that I can also change how the interface shows my mail, like sorting by starred emails first or customizing multiple inbox sections. I use the latter feature to organize my work emails, with Scheduled and Important messages at the top.

Gmail does organization exceptionally well, especially for a free email service. With its massive amount of configuration settings and add-ons for your inbox, it can transform into precisely what you need in an email provider.

What Makes Gmail Great

Gmail is super organized right out of the box, so you won’t need to do much tweaking of its settings to get a clean, user-friendly experience. It even has default spam filters to weed out junk and suspicious emails as soon as you’re registered.

Gmail’s labels are great for customizing your inbox further to meet your needs. For instance, create labels on your personal email account for bills, family members, or communication about an upcoming vacation to easily find what you need when you need it.

When setting up your account, you can start marking important emails by clicking the flag or star icons next to each message. Over time, Gmail learns what emails are important to you and will begin automatically marking them for you, giving you yet another way to stay organized and avoid missing must-see emails.

A free Gmail account gives users 15 GB of space shared between the inbox and other Google tools, like Google Drive and Google Photos. A paid plan transitions to Google Workspace for between $6 and $18 per user per month, with up to 5 TB of storage per user.

Outlook – Best for Combining Email with Productivity Tools

Outlook by Microsoft is an excellent option for anyone already using and familiar with other Microsoft products. Just like the company’s other tools, Outlook really moves beyond email to provide more of an all-in-one solution for collaboration and productivity.

Outlook connects with other Microsoft tools, like To Do and Skype. Plus, a calendar is built into the Outlook software, giving you quick access to switch between your email and calendar views so that messages and appointments are never out of sight.

Even more important for businesses is that Outlook keeps teams in contact with each other. Team members can tag one another in email messages or calendar invites to make sure they see essential messages and tasks. They can also send attachments from OneDrive or share OneDrive links directly in messages.

What Makes Outlook Great

Outlook makes it easy to get to any other Microsoft tools you or your team use daily, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive. Icons for the most-used apps are on the left panel of the interface, or you can open the App Launcher to head to any unlisted ones.

Outlook also features productivity-focused links on the top pane of your inbox. If you added several tasks to your to-do list, you could pull them up in one spot with the ‘My Day’ feature. Or, view your OneNote feed or jump over to your next Skype meeting with one click.

If you use Outlook for your team at work, each team member can sign up for their own free account with 15 GB of mail storage, 5 GB of OneDrive space, and access to other free Microsoft apps. An upgrade switches you to Microsoft 365 for Business, which will cost you between $6 and $22 per user per month, with up to 1 TB of storage per user, marketing tools, and cyber threat protection included, depending on the plan you choose.

Proton Mail – Best for Securing Confidential Data

With the amount of data we send back and forth to others through email, it’s more important than ever to keep that information protected. Proton Mail is all about email security. The tool comes from Proton, the creators of a VPN service and secure cloud and calendar tools, and it offers the same line of protection for its email solution that you’d expect from such a company.

A unique feature of Proton Mail is that it uses stringent Switzerland security laws to guide its security practices. Not only do you get end-to-end encryption—protection that prevents Proton Mail and any unauthorized person from reading your emails’ contents—but you can also password-protect emails when sending them to anyone off the Proton platform.

Proton Mail really goes above and beyond the usual call for email security with additional protections, like two-factor authentication, link transparency, and built-in guards against phishing schemes. It even stops tracking codes from using your actions and preferences to use you as a target for marketing campaigns.

What Makes Proton Mail Great

I’m confident that both business and personal users of Proton Mail can see all the benefits of using an email provider that’s as locked down as this one. The tool is available on Android and iOS devices as well as the web, and each version comes with device-level security settings to bring you the most guarded email platform possible.

Proton Mail secures your messages in ways that other email providers don’t even think about, like using a secondary “onion” site—a hidden site on the web—for you to send emails through. This prevents hackers from seeing where your emails are coming from, eliminating a key vulnerability in your data and email account.

I think businesses that routinely send confidential emails will get the most value out of using Proton Mail. Because it’s an open-source platform, you can have your technical team check its coding before registering to ensure there are no potential threats to your data. 

A free Proton Mail account gives you up to 150 messages per day, so if you have high-volume email needs, you might need to switch to a paid plan. These start at $4.99 per month and go as high as $11.99 per month but are lower in terms of monthly rates if you pay annually or every 24 months.

Titan Mail – Best for Sales Teams

A few months ago, someone in my network told me about their switch to Titan Mail and how it significantly boosted the productivity of their sales team. Titan Mail provides quick and easy email scheduling, follow-ups, and reminders within its email platform to keep sales representatives on track with client communications. 

After trying it myself, I see why it’s becoming popular for this purpose. First, Titan Mail lets users create templates to save time when sending sales emails. Second, users can set reminders for themselves on an email-by-email basis to follow up after a day, three days, or whenever it makes sense for their sales funnel.

I also think Titan Mail’s built-in email signature creator is one of the best I’ve tried. Although other services, like Gmail, let you create signatures inside their clients, Titan Mail’s signature builder enables you to craft a professional-looking signature with several tools and settings. Plus, you can have multiple signatures to use for different purposes, which is great for contacting segmented client lists.

What Makes Titan Mail Great

Individuals and business owners who don’t specialize in sales can still take advantage of everything Titan Mail offers, like high-level encryption and advanced spam protection. It’s actually relatively similar to Gmail in terms of its clean user interface, email scheduling options, and mobile accessibility.

If you need to hone email communications for better customer relationships, though, Titan Mail positively excels in this area. Its WordPress plugin lets website visitors enter their email to subscribe to your list, placing their information directly into your Titan Mail account, turning it into somewhat of an email marketing tool, too.

Titan Mail also comes with vacation responders, industry-leading deliverability assurance, and the ability to create your own email rules and filters to ensure incoming emails go to the right place.

One caveat is that Titan Mail requires you to have a domain of your own to set it up. Some hosting providers may offer a free plan for using Titan Mail (NameSilo is one such domain provider), but you may need to pay for the service with other hosts. 

Yahoo Mail – Best for Massive Email Storage Needs

Yahoo Mail delivers 1 TB of space to everyone who signs up for one of its email accounts, even free ones. That’s significantly more than other email providers offer, especially on their free plans. For reference, our list’s next highest amount of free storage goes to Gmail and Outlook, with a comparatively meager 15 GB each.

Some people may use less than 10 GB of email storage in their entire lifetime if they only send basic emails to family and friends. Others require a lot more space if they routinely send or receive emails with attachments or need to save most emails for reference later. The heaviest storage needs are usually reserved for businesses that are constantly sending large files (such as contracts or design drafts) back and forth.

Yahoo Mail allows up to 5 TB of storage on their paid plan, so you can always expand your inbox’s storage even further if necessary. 

What Makes Yahoo Mail Great

With so much space in your inbox, it could be tempting to skirt around regular inbox cleanouts to free up storage. That’s not really a problem with Yahoo Mail, thanks to its filter feature. In the settings is a filter setup to add up to 500 filters for an organized dashboard allowing you to hang onto every email you want without cluttering your primary inbox.

Aside from its storage capabilities, Yahoo Mail also contends with other big email players by adding a few productivity tools, like a built-in calendar and notebook. It also automatically scans incoming emails and any files you attach to outgoing emails for viruses to protect you and your recipients. 

A Yahoo Mail Plus account is $5 per month for the extra storage space, an ad-free inbox, and up to 500 email aliases. If you’re considering a paid plan solely for the storage space, it could be worth it. But if you want additional email and productivity features, Outlook or Gmail might be better options.

Quick Sprout Free Email Provider-Related Content

Because there are so many free email providers on the web, I want to make sure you have all the information you need to find the best one for you. Although the five options I’ve outlined in this guide are among the best for a wide range of needs or situations, they may not fit your specific requirements. Browse the following guides to learn more about using email providers and what other products offer.

Free Email Provider Guides and How-Tos

• How to Create a Free Business Email
• Why Emails Still Matter

Free Email Provider Comparisons

• Compare the Best Business Communication Tools

Free Email Provider Related Top Lists

• Best Office Suites Software
• Compare The Best Email Hosting Providers

The Top Free Email Providers in Summary

Several free email providers might have everything you need for quick and simple email communications. We highly recommend Gmail as an all-in-one solution for most people, whether you need an email account for business or personal use. It’s easy to organize, and its connectivity to other Google apps makes it a smart move for productivity and collaboration between teams. 

Not interested in Gmail? Yahoo Mail‘s 1 TB of storage might be best for heavy email users, while Proton Mail is the top choice for a rock-solid secure email platform. 

Formerly 3dcart, Shift4Shop offers free, enterprise-grade ecommerce functionality to help you build your online store and start selling. You get nearly all the features to start and grow your online business, including powerful tools like a robust website builder, product and order management functionalities, customer marketing tools, and round-the-clock technical support. 

The biggest catch is that the free end-to-end ecommerce plan is only available to US merchants. Moreover, you have to use the in-house payment processor, Shift4 Payment, to get paid, which isn’t too bad as it’s one of the leading payment processing providers. Plus Shift4Shop doesn’t charge you any monthly fees to use its ecommerce platform.

Shift4Shop Compared

Shift4Shop made it on my top list for the best value. While it’s a great option, the best ecommerce website builder is Shopify because of its robust features and tools that provide you with everything to build an online store. Get started with a three-day free trial today.

• Shopify — Best all-around ecommerce website builder
• Wix — Best for launching an online store in minutes
• Hostinger — Best for simple online stores
• BigCommerce — Best site builder for multichannel selling
• Squarespace — Best for social
• Square Online — Best for physical retailers
• Weebly — Best for small sellers who don’t want to grow
• Shift4Shop — Best value

See our top picks for the best ecommerce website builders.

About Shift4Shop

Shift4Shop is a comprehensive ecommerce website builder that caters to businesses of all sizes and industries. Using its innovative turnkey solution, you can easily build a secure website and leverage various customer marketing tools to boost sales. The company also offers a range of top-notch features, including social media marketing, SEO, and an extensive marketplace with third-party devs, affiliates, and experts.

• Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Builder Review
• Shift4Shop Shopping Cart Software Review

A global leader in financial technology, Shift4 acquired 3dcart and rebranded it as Shift4Shop. Along with the powerful ecommerce solution, Shift4 also offers Shift4Shop users a seamless online payments platform that makes it easier for them to get paid.

Shift4Shop Health and Stability 

Shift4Shop is a private company with hundreds of employees and a stable customer base. And while it may be less popular than its counterparts like Shopify and Wix, you can be sure this company isn’t going anywhere.

One of the main reasons behind this is its parent company, Shift4 Payments. A publicly listed company with over $13.7 million in funding, Shift4 Payments has been doing consistently well in the market. 

Keeping all this in mind, I firmly believe Shift4Shop is an ecommerce website builder you can trust.

Shift4Shop Pricing

Shift4Shop’s unlimited, enterprise-grade plan costs an impressive $0. It includes the feature-packed ecommerce platform, an SSL certificate, a domain name, and a huge selection of customizable themes. However, you need to process a minimum of $500 per month with Shift4 Payments through your Shift4Shop store to waive the SaaS fee.

Get started with Shift4Shop for free.

Shift4Shop Pricing Structure 

Shift4Shop has conditional pricing, under which you won’t need to pay any charges if you meet their monthly minimum of ecommerce sales ($500 with Shift4 Payments). Otherwise, you need to pay a monthly SaaS fee. Shift4Shop hasn’t published information on its website about how much this costs, so you’ll have to contact its sales team for more information.

Shift4Shop Pricing Comparison

Compared to Shopify, Shift4Shop can be free (if you meet the stated requirements), but you must be based in the United States and agree to use Shift4 Payments to process payments. On the other hand, Shopify has no free plan, and you have to pay monthly or yearly to continue using it. 

Wix is another popular ecommerce web builder that offers a free plan and incredibly affordable paid plans. The biggest advantage of Wix over Shift4Shop is its predictability and affordability. Sure, Shift4Shop is free upfront, but if you don’t process at least $500 through Shift4 Payments, you’ll have to pay a monthly SaaS fee.

Shift4Shop Trials and Guarantees

Being a free ecommerce website builder, it makes sense that Shift4Shop doesn’t offer any free trial or refund guarantee. 

Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Builder Review

Shift4Shop’s biggest advantage as an ecommerce website builder is the generous feature offering despite being free. You get an enterprise-level website builder, over hundred themes, tons of SEO tools, unlimited product listings, and more. 

The software is also customizable, where you can add products to your store, choose themes, and select payment methods. Even from the buyer’s perspective, the Shift4Shop storefront is easy to navigate, right from product browsing to checking out. 

As for the caveats, you should know the zero-cost version of Shift4Shop is only available to US customers, and you’ll need many add-ons to run your store effectively, among a few others.

See my top picks for the best ecommerce website builders to find the right fit for your needs.

What Makes Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Great

Large selection of features: Shift4Shop has one of the most generous feature selections, despite the affordable price tag. Ecommerce tools include single-page checkouts, digital downloads, two-factor authentication, recurring orders, and unlimited product variations. 

You can also leverage the built-in marketing and SEO tools, discount codes and coupons, affiliate programs, loyalty reward programs, and back-in-stock alerts to drive sales. While the reporting and analytics aren’t as advanced as that of Shift4Shop’s competitors, they get the job done.

Higher level of customization: Shift4Shop makes creating a fully customizable and responsive website easier than ever. Thanks to its design software, you get access to its core template engine, where you can create your own themes, plus all Shift4Shop themes have Google AMP-enabled product pages, deferred JavaScript and CSS, and a conversion-optimized checkout, among other benefits, which is another plus. 

Let’s also not forget the flexible drag-and-drop HTML editor and the core theme editor that lets you customize your theme design to your needs, from colors to topography to buttons. Moreover, you can preview every change in real-time, which won’t be visible to your shoppers until you ‘Save’ them, confirming the changes.

Excellent management functionalities: Another benefit of Shift4Shop is its comprehensive management software that allows you to manage orders and products from a centralized place. You get a complete toolset comprising a convenient dashboard, new order notifications, status updates for customers, and advanced automation rules to better manage orders. Further, you can see your new inventory catalog by organizing each product into a list format. Other tools include bulk import and export, videos and dynamic zoom, detailed project reports, and unlimited categorization.

Reliable ecommerce hosting: Shift4Shop’s web hosting is an excellent addition to its ecommerce website builder platform, thanks to a 99.9% uptime guarantee and PCI certification and security. Other features include a free domain name with yearly renewals, monthly transparent upgrades, FTP access to files, daily backups, and a 256 Bit SSL certificate. 

Currently, Cloudflare powers all Shift4Shop online stores, which gives you the benefits of its global content delivery network, DDOS attack protection and mitigation, and faster loading speeds by extension.

Mobile-friendly: Shift4Shop makes your online stores mobile-responsive, meaning your website can adapt and adjust to different screen sizes and resolutions. This is necessary to provide shoppers with a seamless shopping experience, regardless of the device they use to visit your site. With an increasing number of people using mobiles for shopping, having a mobile-optimized store can work wonders to secure more sales.

Where Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Builder Falls Short 

Unpredictable pricing: Shift4Shop markets itself as a free ecommerce website builder, but this can change quickly if you don’t meet the $500 monthly payment requirement. Moreover, its modules are expensive, and the free themes are limited. To design a stunning and optimized website, you may find yourself investing in paid themes. Additionally, the zero-cost version of the platform is only available to US users.

Poor customer support: Several customer reviews have found Shift4Shop’s customer support severely lacking, especially for users outside the United States. One user pointed out they didn’t receive a response for days, while another expressed disappointment with a customer service representative’s unhelpful and rude behavior.

Minimal reporting capabilities: Shift4Shop’s reporting capabilities are lacking. While it offers detailed profit reports, specialty customers and inventory reports, and rewards use, you’ll likely need additional reporting tools for more strategic operations reviews and decision-making.

Requires multiple add-ons: When building your online stores through Shift4Shop, be prepared to install multiple add-ons (similar to WordPress plugins) to maximize functionality. For example, if you want to add a shopping cart to your online store, you must install software to make this happen. Similarly, you’ll need to install a ‘Buy’ button on your website’s backend to allow shoppers to check out more conveniently. 

Don’t get me wrong—it’s great that Shift4Shop offers these capabilities, but installing too many add-ons can cause your website to run slower than usual or even crash entirely.

Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Builder Compared

Where Shift4Shop makes a great choice, it does have a few hard-to-ignore caveats. Keeping this in mind, the best ecommerce website builder is Shopify simply because it offers everything you may need to build and run an ecommerce website—all in a single platform. 

• Shopify — Best all-around ecommerce website builder
• Wix — Best for launching an online store in minutes
• Hostinger — Best for simple online stores
• BigCommerce — Best site builder for multichannel selling
• Squarespace — Best for social
• Square Online — Best for physical retailers
• Weebly — Best for small sellers who don’t want to grow
• Shift4Shop — Best value

Shift4Shop Shopping Cart Software Review

Shift4Shop has one of the most customizable and flexible shopping cart solutions that lets you optimize your checkout to offer seamless, hassle-free experiences to shoppers. They can view, edit, and save carts to purchase later, helping drive sales.

Create single-page or multi-page checkouts, each personalized to your liking. The fact that you don’t need to pay any transaction fees is another cost-saving advantage. Shift4Shop will also auto-calculate shipping and taxes in your customer’s cart to avoid total surprises.

Aside from these, everything we broke down above for ecommerce website building is also relevant to shopping cart experiences.

Here’s a quick look at how Shift4Shop stacks against other shopping cart software solutions on the market:

• Shopify — Best for one-click checkout
• Ecwid — Best for high security
• Shift4Shop — Best for customizable checkout
• Shopaccino — Best for rewarding customers
• OpenCart — Best free shopping cart software
• X-Cart — Best for high-volume sales

Final Verdict

Keeping in mind the pros and cons, I believe Shift4Shop is an excellent choice for ecommerce website building and adding a shopping cart—provided you’re a US resident. Thanks to its excellent feature offering, customization capabilities, and management functionalities, it really stands out from its competitors. But if you’re an international user, you may want to check out other solutions like Shopify and Wix.

If you want to set up a new website, the first step is your domain. GoDaddy and Hostinger are the two best domain registrars out there. You can start with GoDaddy for as low as $0.99 or claim your free domain by setting up a Hostinger web hosting plan.

If you know anything about me, you know I’m all for starting a website. It’s one of the most critical aspects of your business, and most of your customer interactions will happen online.

But before you can get your site going, you need to know about business domain names and how to get a good one.

This article tells you everything you need to know about business domains.

The 7 Best Domain Registrars for Recovering a Domain Name

Managing your domain is pretty straightforward, but having the right tool for the job can make all the difference. We’ve developed a list of the seven best domain registrars to help you avoid getting burned by scammers, save money on renewals, and get the most out of your online presence.

If you need to set up a domain name quickly, here are the best places to do it:

1. GoDaddy — Best for domain protection and privacy
2. Hostinger — Best for bundling domain registration and web hosting
3. Porkbun — Best for creative domain extensions
4. Domain.com — Best for fast and simple domain purchasing
5. Network Solutions — Best for long-term domain registrations
6. Namecheap — Best for affordable domain registration
7. NameSilo — Best for buying domains in bulk

What is a business domain name?

A business domain name is a specific address used to identify websites and other online resources. It is usually the first thing someone types in to access a website or online service.

These unique domain names can be used to reflect a company’s brand, making it easier for customers to find and contact them online. 

There are many different types of business domain names, including .com, .org, and .net, but .com is the most common by a considerable margin.

How Business Domain Names Work

A business domain name consists of two main parts: the second-level domain and the top-level domain (TLD). The second-level domain is the part before the final dot, and it identifies your website or online service, while the top-level domain is the part after that last dot, which indicates what type of website it is (e.g., .com for commercial websites).

After you have found the ideal domain name for your business website, you must register it with an accredited registrar such as GoDaddy or Hostinger. After you’ve registered it, your domain will become active within 24 hours (for most applications), and you can begin setting up servers and configuring DNS settings so customers can access your site through the web address you’ve chosen.

You’ll need to provide contact information when you register a domain name. This is so that anyone can learn who owns the domain and how to contact them in case of any problems or questions.

You’ll also be asked to provide a list of nameservers. These servers act as the link between your domain and your web hosting provider.

Use Cases of Business Domain Names

Business domain names are used for everything from personal blogs to large corporate websites. Here are a few of the most common types of business websites:

• Corporate Websites: Sites owned by companies, organizations, and universities. These sites provide a wide range of information about the organization’s products and services, contact details, staff members, and other relevant data.
• Online Stores: Ecommerce websites that allow customers to purchase products or services online using their credit cards or other payment methods.
• Personal Websites: These are websites owned by individuals and feature information about the person, their hobbies, and interests. Personal websites are used for consulting, coaching, and other services.
• Blogs: These websites are used for sharing opinions, insights, and experiences. They can be used to promote a business or generate income from advertising and affiliate revenue.
• Portfolios: Freelancers and other professionals use portfolios to showcase their work and skills. A website is a centralized place to provide this information without needing multiple resumes and other documents. It also allows users to scroll through the website owner’s work at their own pace rather than ask for it directly.

The use case for your specific business website will vary depending on your business.

For example, someone who wants to sell products online would open an ecommerce store, while a local brick-and-mortar business might have their site set up just as a local directory.

There are also more complex use cases for business domain names, such as lead conversion funnels, interactive elements, and complete software products like ChatGPT. These sites are generally subsets of a business domain—they may have the same domain name and branding of the overarching business, but they aren’t the main source of revenue or traffic in most cases. 

Steps for Using a Business Domain Name

When you set up a business domain name, the process is straightforward. Still, there are several things you need to know to get the most out of your domain and make sure it’s working as intended.

1. Decide on a Domain Name

The first step is to choose an appropriate domain name that reflects your brand, products, or services. Make sure you select something memorable, easy to spell, and brandable.

This is often the step that business owners spend the most time on. For instance, if you have an idea for a brand name, but the preferred domain name is already taken, you might need to go back to the drawing board and come up with another name for your company and its website.

Finding a name that is easy to spell, recognizable, and not similar to another domain name in your space is trickier than it sounds—there are tons of companies out there, and you want to distinguish yours from others.

2. Research TLDs

Next, you’ll want to research which top-level domains are best for your business needs. .com is usually the one people go with, but there are plenty of others.

For example:

• Lots of new tech companies use .io
• AI-based and digital transformation companies often use .ai
• Startups and small businesses might use .co
• Nonprofits often use .org

There’s a common misconception that .com domains are the only ones worth having, but that’s simply not true.

3. Register and Purchase Your Domain Name

Once you’ve decided on the best TLD for your business domain, it’s time to purchase a domain name from a domain registration provider.

Many providers offer discounts and deals on domains but might also jack up the prices after the initial purchase. Make sure to compare the costs of the different providers and go with the one that offers the best deal.

4. Set Up Email Accounts

Email is still a major form of communication, and having a way for others to communicate with your business is more professional than using a personal email account.

You can easily create professional-looking email accounts with your domain name (e.g., name@yourdomain.com). Most bigger hosting companies offer this option as part of their package deals.

5. Configure DNS Settings

Once you’ve purchased and set up your domain name, you’ll want to configure the DNS settings.

Your hosting provider will usually provide instructions on how to do this. Alternatively, if you’re using a third-party DNS provider like Cloudflare or Amazon Route 53, you can set up the records yourself.

Common Misconceptions About Business Domain Names

There are plenty of myths surrounding business domain names, and while they may have been true in the past, they’re no longer relevant today.

One common misconception is that you need to purchase multiple domains for SEO purposes—this isn’t necessary. Your website will be ranked based on its content, not the number of domains you own.

Instead of buying many domains, focus on getting the right domain name and setting up your website and sitemap correctly.

Another common misconception is that .com domains are the only ones worth having. While .com is often the default choice, plenty of other TLDs can be just as effective for SEO purposes.

Google has not indicated that .com domains are preferential, so you should be open to looking at other TLDs when selecting a domain name for your business.

That said, .com domains are the oldest, and domain age is a ranking factor. But it shouldn’t be the deciding factor for your business, especially if you plan to market your business, its services, or its products through another channel (which you should).

One of the biggest misconceptions about business domain names is that they are only for websites. In reality, you can use your domain name for a variety of things, including email accounts and other forms of communication.

Some freelancers, contractors, and other business professionals use their domain for the sole purpose of separating their communications, business dealings, and other activities from their personal ones.

It’s also common for people to avoid setting up a domain name and website because they believe it to be difficult. Although a little bit of technical know-how is involved, coding, web design, and technical SEO knowledge are “nice-to-haves” at this point—most web platforms have software components that handle these automatically. 

Benefits of Business Domain Names

A business domain name provides multiple advantages, from helping build a brand to increasing website traffic.

• Increased Brand Recognition: A unique domain name can help to establish your business as an authority and increase brand recognition online.
• Trust and Credibility: Domain names give customers confidence that they are dealing with a legitimate and established business.
• Easy to Remember and Share: A memorable and original domain name helps potential customers easily find and remember your website, making it easier for them to spread the word about your products or services.
• Enhances SEO Efforts: Domain names with keywords can help to optimize SEO performance, improving visibility for your business in search engine results page rankings (SERPs).
• Better Security: When you own your domain, you can benefit from added security measures such as setting up extra authentication protocols or secure socket layers (SSL).
• Professional Email Address: By owning a domain name, businesses can create professional email addresses (e.g., name@yourcompany.com) which look more professional than a generic email address from a free provider such as Gmail or Yahoo.
• Website Customization: With multiple web hosting services available for different needs, you have the creative flexibility to choose the one that best suits your requirements and customize your website accordingly.
• Flexible Ownership: You retain complete ownership of your domain name, so it is completely under your control – even if it is registered with an external web host provider.

Is a business domain name right for you?

A business domain name can be a great asset for your business, providing increased brand recognition, more trust and credibility among customers, easier sharing, and SEO optimization, to name a few benefits.

Ultimately, however, it comes down to your individual needs and how well the domain name fits your online presence.

Here’s a quick checklist to determine whether or not a business domain name is a good idea:

• Do you plan on setting up a website?
• Are you looking for a professional email address to use?
• Is SEO optimization important to your business?
• Would you benefit from increased brand recognition and trust among your customers?
• Do existing customers ask you where to find you online?
• Does your competition use a domain name?

If the answer is yes to any of the above questions (which it probably is), then you should either set up a domain name for your existing business or start your new one with a domain name in mind.

Final Thoughts About Business Domain Names

It’s important to remember that a domain name is only one small piece of the puzzle when it comes to building an online presence–you also need website hosting, content marketing, SEO efforts, and other digital marketing strategies depending on your goals.

Still, having a well-thought-out domain name can help to boost your online presence and build customer trust. And it only takes a few minutes to set up, making it a great first step to kick-start your digital marketing initiatives.

From the technical side of things, coding, web design, and technical SEO knowledge are essential for creating a professional-looking website on top of your domain name. With that said, most web platforms have software components that handle the majority of these technicalities, giving you plenty of freedom to customize your website and add features as needed.

Jimdo lets you create a decent website easily and affordably, thanks to its WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), drag-and-drop builder, and automatic site creation features. But the lack of a few key features like all-in-one versatility, additional ecommerce options, and design flexibility make the website builder slightly less desirable than its competitors. 

Alongside building a professional-looking website, you can also count on Jimdo to create your own online store, get personalized domains and logos, and promote your business on Facebook and Instagram.

Jimdo Compared

Unfortunately, Jimdo hasn’t made it on my best website builders list because it has some seriously strong competition offering best-in-class features. Instead, I recommend Shopify, which allows you to create a high-quality website and start selling products as quickly as possible. Start your free three-day trial with Shopify today.

• Shopify – Best for selling products and services
• Wix – Best website builder for your first website
• Hostinger – Best for keeping website costs low
• Bluehost – Best for WordPress websites
• Squarespace – Best website builder for creators of all stripes
• Weebly – Best for solopreneurs
• GoDaddy – Best for building your website from your phone

Learn more about my top picks.

About Jimdo

Jimdo is a one-stop solution for building a website or an online store. It was founded in Germany in 2007; since then, over 32 million websites have been built using the platform. It offers a bunch of digital tools to help you design professional and mobile-optimized websites per your preferences.

• Jimdo Website Builder Review
• Jimdo Free Website Builder Review

You can also use Jimdo to create personalized domains and custom logos and promote your business on Facebook and Instagram. 

Jimdo Health and Stability

Jimdo‘s main priority is to provide users with an intuitive interface that allows them to create websites on any device, be it a computer, tablet, or smartphone. While it’s a privately-owned company, it has managed to raise a total of €25.5 million in funding over three rounds. 

According to Built With, over 900K websites are powered by Jimdo. It’s safe to say Jimdo is easily one of the most reliable website builders to build a digital presence for your business.

Jimdo Pricing

Jimdo has a free plan with all the base features and a subdomain so that you can play around to get a feel of the website builder. The paid plans start at $9, are mobile-optimized, and can be connected to your own domain.

Get started with a free Jimdo plan today.

Jimdo Pricing Structure

When signing up for Jimdo, you can pay by the month or save money by opting for a 12-month or 24-month contract. There’s no information regarding the discount, so you’ll have to speak with a Jimdo representative to get more information.

Another important thing to note is that Jimdo has different pricing for websites and online shops. Be sure you know what you’re signing up for to avoid misunderstandings. The website builder also offers a personalized domain for your website (.com, .org, .info, and a .store) with its premium plan and is free of charge in the first year.

Note: Jimdo doesn’t sell domains separately. You must sign up for a website or online store plan to get one.

Jimdo Pricing Comparison

Jimdo is certainly one of the cheaper website builders on the market, but you need to go beyond pricing and look at the value you’re getting when looking for a website builder. For instance, Shopify is more expensive than Jimdo, but it also gives you tons of advanced features to help you efficiently run your website. Nevertheless, compared to other options, both have reasonable pricing.

Wix is another cost-effective website builder. Its subscription plans are more flexible and reasonable than Jimdo’s, offering two groups of subscriptions to cover your needs. Comparatively, using Jimdo is more expensive in the long run.

Jimdo Trials and Guarantees

Jimdo offers a 14-day money-back guarantee but no free trial. Get started with a free Jimdo plan today.

Jimdo Website Builder Review

Jimdo didn’t make our list of the top website builders, which features brands like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace, but it’s a decent choice for people on a tight budget.

For starters, it comes with two different editors—an AI editor for beginners who need extra guidance and another drag-and-drop one that gives you free rein over your website’s design. The freemium plan, mobile-optimized templates, and good site speeds are other reasons to consider Jimdo.

What Makes Jimdo Website Builder Great

Generous free plan: Jimdo has one of the most generous freemium plans with access to all its base features. This includes top-notch security, the ability to add galleries, videos, and content, expert tips for streamlined digital housekeeping, and 100% GDPR-compliant legal pages. You can also set up calls with support executives to get expert guidance and run your website more efficiently.

Straightforward signup process: It’s incredibly easy to get started with Jimdo. All you have to do is create an account, verify your details through your email, and choose the website builder you like to use, i.e., whether you want to make a website, shop, or blog. You can also select the type of website your building is, after which Jimdo will automatically add necessary pages and blocks and walk you through a ‘style selector’ to let you choose your color palette and typography. And that’s it—you have a Jimdo website ready to go.

Greater ease of use: If you’re looking for a super user-friendly and simple website builder, Jimdo might be the website builder of your dreams. Once you answer a few questions about yourself, your business, and the colors you like, its AI-driven Dolphin editor will do all the legwork for you. 

To edit the website, you’ll only need a few minutes to figure out how to customize it. Jimdo also has a drag-and-drop editor that’s equally easy and intuitive. Unlike the Dolphin editor, this one lets you modify and style each element of your website to your liking. Remember, you cannot switch between the builders unless you start a new site, so be entirely sure of what you want before proceeding.

Customizable templates: If you decide to use the Dolphin editor, the AI will do the job for you, so you don’t have the option to choose from templates. Your only task is to pick the appropriate color palette. But if you select the drag-and-drop editor, you can choose from 21 attractive templates for your website design. Admittedly, the selection isn’t too extensive, but it’s better than nothing, plus you can customize it to better meet your needs. Also, you can always switch them up later, so there is no need to agonize over making the right choice before clicking the ‘Next’ button.

Mobile site optimization: Jimdo provides reviews to let you see how your website looks on desktop and mobile devices. While you cannot modify the mobile version of your Jimdo website, all the templates automatically adapt to the different screen sizes. In other words, your site will be ready for any smartphone, tablet, or desktop by default. 

Greater suitability for European audience: For users in the EU, Jimdo’s European presence is a strong advantage. Being a German company with operating data centers in Europe means Jimdo’s data protection and privacy standards are much stronger, thanks to the EU’s new laws on data and privacy. This is also an advantage for US companies who need an EU microsite for their EU audience. Using Jimdo makes complying with GDPR a bit easier than other website builders focusing solely on the US market.

Where Jimdo Website Builder Falls Short

SEO features: If you know anything about SEO, you likely understand its importance in organically ranking higher in the SERPs. Most website builders offer built-in SEO features to help you optimize your website, but not Jimdo. While the website builder does offer SEO settings, the options are barebones. All you can do is change the page title and description and modify the URL for each post. If you want more features, you’ll have to switch to a paid plan—and the offering is still very basic. 

Very limited feature selection: Jimdo has extremely limited options, be it when choosing website templates or payment gateways. It also doesn’t have an official app store, so you cannot add additional desired functionality. Even the ecommerce functionality isn’t as professional as that of other website builders, especially where taxes and dropshipping are concerned, plus you cannot add blog authors or contributors to a Jimdo site.

Few extensions: Another issue with Jimdo is the lack of extensions and elements, like having buttons to share content on social media platforms. While Jimdo does support Smart Apps that can integrate with a handful of external tools like YouTube and Calendly, their functionality within a Jimdo website is very limited. Another disadvantage is that Jimdo doesn’t offer an HTML embed tool, scheme, open graph settings, and sitemaps like most other website builders.

Jimdo Website Builder Compared

If you’re looking for feature-rich and advanced solutions to build your website, check out our best website builder list, especially our top recommendation, Shopify, which makes it easier than ever to create high-quality websites.

• Shopify – Best for selling products and services
• Wix – Best website builder for your first website
• Hostinger – Best for keeping website costs low
• Bluehost – Best for WordPress websites
• Squarespace – Best website builder for creators of all stripes
• Weebly – Best for solopreneurs
• GoDaddy – Best for building your website from your phone

Jimdo Free Website Builder Review

Despite a generous free plan, Jimdo doesn’t feature on our list of the best free website builders.

Jimdo’s free plan is great but only has basic features to help you build a barebones website. Comparatively, Wix gives you hundreds of customizable templates and superior storage, and Square Online offers unlimited bandwidth and powerful analytics and store management tools—all on their respective free plans.

Additionally, Jimdo‘s competitors are faster and can give you a professional and functional website in a few hours.

Jimdo Free Website Builder Compared

While Jimdo has a decent free plan to build a professional website, it simply isn’t at par with our top picks for the best free websites builders:

• Wix – Best for creating a polished site this evening
• Square Online – Best for building a free online store
• GoDaddy – Best for businesses that don’t need an online store
• Mozello – Best for building a multilingual site
• WordPress.com – Best for growing an audience with your site

Final Verdict

Jimdo is an attractive and user-friendly website builder. While it’s less full-featured and intuitive than its competitors, it still provides enough to get the job done, especially if you want a generous free plan. I would also recommend it for users based in the EU to make GDPR compliance easier.

We recommend GoDaddy or Hostinger for researching and registering your chosen domain name. Get a free domain name when you sign up with Hostinger.

A domain sticks with you and represents your online identity. It pays to get your domain name right the first time, as you likely won’t change it in the future unless you want to go through an entire rebrand.

This guide is for ecommerce newcomers. You’ll learn the most useful methods for developing a strong domain name, the best practices to stick to, and the faux pas to avoid.

The 7 Best Domain Registrars for Choosing an Ecommerce Domain Name

Collectively we’ve purchased hundreds of domain names over the years. We used our experience and in-depth research to come up with the best domain registrars to help you choose a domain name. Take a look:

• GoDaddy — Best for domain protection and privacy
• Hostinger — Best for bundling domain registration and web hosting
• Porkbun — Best for creative domain extensions
• Domain.com — Best for fast and simple domain purchasing
• Network Solutions — Best for long-term domain registrations
• Namecheap — Best for affordable domain registration
• NameSilo — Best for buying domains in bulk

Choose an Ecommerce Domain Name in 10 Simple Steps

Choosing a domain name seems like a simple task on the surface, but you need to carefully consider choosing a name that reflects your brand and that customers appreciate. Here are our top tips, along with the dos and don’ts of choosing a domain name for your online store:

1. Sign Up for Hostinger

2. Align Your Domain Name with Your Branding

3. Think About the Meaning Behind Your Domain Name

4. Consider Using SEO Keywords

5. Come Up with Unique Domain Name Ideas

6. Use a Domain Name Generator if You’re Stuck

7. Opt for a Short and Simple Domain Name

8. Search for Trademarks

9. Research Your Domain Name Across the Web

10. Come Up with Alternative Domain Names if Yours is Taken

Step 1: Sign Up for Hostinger

If you’re ready to get a domain name for your ecommerce store, we recommend you sign up for Hostinger. It has the best deal out there – you get a free domain name for a year when you sign up for hosting at just $2.59 per month.

Another good thing about Hostinger is you get a free SSL certificate for your domain. SSL makes your domain “https” rather than “http,” which is necessary to rank well on Google and keep your site secure.

You also get free privacy protection when you register a domain with Hostinger. It prevents internet users from looking up the details attached to your domain using the WHOIS database.

When you have a domain name in mind, go to Hostinger’s Domain Name Search to see if it’s available.

If the domain name is taken, Hostinger will show you other available options, such as .co or .store.

Step 2: Align Your Domain Name with Your Branding

Your domain name is synonymous with your brand. It’ll be at least part of your domain name, if not the whole thing. As such, it’s how people will recognize and remember your online store.

If you don’t already have a name for your ecommerce business, choose one that reflects your brand’s values, the atmosphere you hope to generate, or how you want to be seen online. That’s what good branding is all about.

To give you an example, “4ocean.com” is an ethical brand where customer purchases fund ocean clean-up initiatives.

The domain/store name makes complete sense, representing what the company does and what they stand for.

Another way to hint at your branding with your domain or company name is to choose an adjective that reflects what you’re all about. Happysocks.com is a great example–they sell quirky socks that make people happy.

Step 3: Think About the Meaning Behind Your Domain Name

Your domain name should have meaning. Tell a story with it and use it to represent what you stand for. 

Plus, when there’s meaning behind your domain/online store name, you humanize your brand. Modern consumers care about this as they increasingly want to shop with more authentic, smaller brands than big corporations.

Peloton at onepeloton.com has a deep and interesting reason for its name.

The word “peloton” is a cycling term, which makes sense for a brand that sells exercise bikes. But there’s more to it–a peloton is a group of riders that work together in a race to reduce drag, save energy, and make winning more likely. 

Thus, the name evokes ideas of using teamwork to succeed in a sport that is usually considered quite solitary.

Step 4: Consider Using SEO Keywords

You can use a keyword describing what you sell in your domain name. This signals to Google and users about the kind of store you operate. So, it helps get your web pages to rank higher on the search engine results pages.

Use just one keyword alongside your brand name. Otherwise, your domain name would look spammy and less like it’s for a credible company, e.g., “shoesandsneakers.com.”

You can use your niche as the keyword. For example, “herocosmetics.us” works well for this skincare brand. 

Another option is to use the primary type of product you sell, as in “chubbiesshorts.com.”

Step 5: Come Up with Unique Domain Name Ideas

Your domain name should distinguish your brand from others in your niche. Unique domain names are memorable, and that’s the goal. You want customers to remember and visit your online store, after all.

One way to come up with a unique domain name is to opt for a portmanteau or made-up word. Adidas, for example, isn’t a real word; it’s a portmanteau of the founder’s name Adolf Dassler. 

Or go for a play on words. One fantastic example of this is Lettucegrow.com, an online shop that sells seeds and accessories for growing your own vegetables:

Another way to generate a unique domain name is to use an acronym. ASOS, at asos.com, is actually short for “As Seen On Screen.” But most people don’t know this; they just think of ASOS as a distinct word.

Step 6: Use a Domain Name Generator if You’re Stuck

If you’re struggling to come up with a creative domain name idea, there are many domain name generators on the web. Most ask you to enter one or two keywords to generate a domain name and check its availability. But this isn’t particularly useful for coming up with a unique domain name idea.

Instead, go to NameStation. Enter the type of business you’re starting and create an account. Type in a list of preferred words and/or keywords, then hit Generate Names. The tool generates thousands of domain name ideas and separates them into handy lists.

First, there are the domain names that are the closest match to the words you entered. Then there’s a list that brings context into account. It combines your preferred words with keywords related to your business.

The hand-picked section generates the most unique, available domain names. 

There are also lists with broad keyword matches, popular affixes, alliterations, one-word domains, and more.

Step 7: Opt for a Short and Simple Domain Name

Short, simple domain names are easier for customers to retain. Make your domain name too complex, and it’s harder for people to find you online.

Make sure your domain name is no longer than 15 characters. Also, it needs to be easy to spell and say out loud. You don’t want people to get frustrated and give up on trying to find your store. 

Avoiding hyphens and numbers is also a good idea, as these just complicate the domain name. Note that no other special characters are allowed in a domain name.

Step 8: Search for Trademarks

When you have a domain or online store name in mind, you’ll need to research to ensure that other companies aren’t using it. 

Naturally, you don’t want to be slapped with a fine for copyright infringement. But more than that, you need to establish a distinct brand of your own.

Check if the name is trademarked. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website has a trademark search tool.

If there’s a company selling the same kinds of products as you with the same or a similar name, head back to the drawing board. Your name is likely fine if there’s a trademark for a similar name, but they sell something different, e.g., you’re “Unicorn Stationery,” and they’re “Unicorn Coffee”.

Step 9: Research Your Domain Name Across the Web

Search Google for brands that may have a similar name to yours. Even if it’s not trademarked, the online store may still exist. Your online store must stand out among the crowd.

If the domain or store name is indeed taken, that’s not good for your business. Imagine doing a ton of promotion for your product and store, only for the customer to go ahead and buy from a competitor with a similar name.

If you’re sure you have a unique domain/brand name, check the domain’s availability with Hostinger’s Domain Name Search tool.

It’s also a good idea at this point to see if your brand name is available on social media channels. If not, you can always add a word or phrase such as “store” or “official” to your username. 

Remember, this should be consistent across channels, i.e., if you have @unicornstore on Instagram, you should ideally have @unicornstore on TikTok, and so on. This ensures users can find you easily across all channels.

Step 10: Come Up with Alternative Domain Names if Yours is Taken

If your chosen domain name isn’t available, we recommend you develop a new name. You must set yourself apart from other companies.

However, if you’re dead set on your chosen brand name, there are a few things you can do. First, combine your brand name with an SEO keyword as in “brand” + “keyword” + “.com,” e.g., this made-up web address, “terraformplants.com.”

Alternatively, add a phrase or word before your brand name, such as “wear,” “this is,” “I love,” “official,” and so on. Take the brand Lively’s domain name “wearlively.com,” for instance.

Another option is to choose a different top-level domain (TLD), i.e., .store, .net, .co and so on. However, this isn’t ideal, as .com is the most credible TLD you can acquire.

Final Thoughts About Choosing a Domain Name

Your domain name represents your identity on the web. It must reflect your branding and distinguish your ecommerce store from others. The best domain names are simple, unique, and memorable.

You may choose to come up with a domain name that’s meaningful for your brand and reflects your values. Or perhaps you’ll add an SEO keyword to make what you sell even more explicit and contribute to a higher ranking on the search engines. Be sure to check that your domain is available to avoid copyright issues and ensure you have a clearly defined online presence.

For most people, the best domain registrar service is GoDaddy. You can start for as low as $0.01 now. 

Sometimes, people let go of domains attached to websites with lots of traffic. It could be that they don’t want to use a domain anymore and let it expire. Or perhaps a company has dissolved or the credit card on the domain expired. Either way, traffic on a website means potential for revenue, which makes these domains valuable and attractive to buyers.

If you’re thinking about buying an expired domain with traffic, know that there will be some research involved, as well as a process of methodically trying to get the domain. In this guide, we break down the six steps you need to take to stand a chance of beating out the competition to buy domains with high traffic and earning potential. 

The 7 Best Domain Registrars For Changing a Domain Name

When buying an expired domain, you want access to a reliable domain registrar, particularly if it has access to an auction house. Here are our seven favorites based on extensive research and testing: 

• GoDaddy — Best for domain protection and privacy
• Hostinger — Best for bundling domain registration and web hosting
• Porkbun — Best for creative domain extensions
• Domain.com — Best for fast and simple domain purchasing
• Network Solutions — Best for long-term domain registrations
• Namecheap — Best for affordable domain registration
• NameSilo — Best for buying domains in bulk

For the full review of what we loved about each one, read our guide to the seven best domain registrars. 

Buy Expired Domains With Traffic in 6 Easy Steps

Buying domains with traffic is actually pretty easy when you know how to do it and where to find high-quality domains. Here are the six steps we’ll be following in this tutorial: 

1. Sign Up for GoDaddy
2. Identify Sites With Traffic 
3. Buy the Domain with an Auction
4. Buy from the Registrar
5. Use a Backorder Service
6. Buy the Domain from the Owner

For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll be using GoDaddy because not only is it one of the leading domain registrars in the world, but it also has its own auction house and a backorder service, which we’ll be using in this tutorial. It’s also very affordable and beginner friendly. You can get started for just $0.01.

Step 1: Sign Up For GoDaddy

Before you do anything else, sign up with GoDaddy. It is one of the biggest domain registrars in the world and has loads of cool features to help you buy expired domains, such as its own domain auction house, a registrar, and a backorder service. 

To get signed up, go to the home page. Then, click Sign In. In the drop-down list, you can select Create an Account. 

Add your personal details, then head over to your dashboard. 

Step 2: Identify Sites With Traffic

While you might think that buying an expired domain is the complicated part, identifying those with traffic is actually the most challenging step. 

You need to spend quite a lot of time researching and utilizing different tools to find domains that have traffic and are going to expire. The only way this step is easy is if you don’t care what type of site it is, as long as it’s expired with high traffic. 

If that’s your only criterion, you can simply go to an auction house, like GoDaddy auctions, and look at the expired domains and their stats. Another site you can use for this is Spamzilla, but be warned that you only get a set number of domain searches with their free plan. 

This may be a little more difficult if you have a specific niche you want to find sites in. You may have to monitor sites in your niche on Semrush or Ahrefs for traffic, then search those sites separately on Spamzilla or a domain checker tool like Website Planet to see when the domain expires. 

Doing the research to identify sites with traffic that have expired isn’t hard, but it is time-consuming. However, once you’ve completed this step and found at least one good domain you’re interested in buying, know that the process is pretty easy from now on. 

Step 3: Buy the Domain with an Auction

Once you’ve identified which domains you want to buy, you need to find a way to buy them when they expire. 

There are a few ways to do this, but buying them directly at auction is the easiest. 

When you buy a domain at auction, you have a better chance of actually getting it and buying it at a reasonable price. 

There are a few different auction houses for domains, including Namecheap, Flippa, and Sedo. However, the best-known one is GoDaddy, so let’s break down how you can buy a name in a GoDaddy auction. 

Go to your GoDaddy dashboard, then to Domain Names, and select Auction for Domain Names. You’ll be taken to the auction page for GoDaddy. The list there is for trending domains, but you can use the search bar to find the specific one you’re looking for. 

Then, you can either bid or make an offer. Which one depends on the person selling the domain–if they want to allow a traditional auction, you’re more likely to be able to buy the domain for a good price. If they have set a price, like the top domains you can see on the list, your only option is to pay the full amount for the domain. 

If your bid is successful, or you make an offer and the seller accepts, you’ll then be able to discuss payment and transfer terms with the owner. GoDaddy usually encourages users to use escrow for this as it’s safest, but it’s something you’ll have to negotiate with the owner. 

After negotiations and payment, the domain owner will unlock it and transfer it over to you using their hosting provider. 

Step 4: Buy from the Registrar

Once a domain is expired and the owner doesn’t renew it, you may have the chance to buy the expired domain directly from the registrar. 

This can be cheaper than buying at auction, but it’s also competitive and relies somewhat on luck. If it’s a valuable domain, there’s a good chance it will be bought either at auction or on backorder, but if neither happens, you’ll be able to buy the expired domain when it becomes available to the public. 

In that case, you can buy the domain the way you would any other. If you go to your GoDaddy dashboard, you can type the domain you want in the main search bar and search for it. If it’s available, you can buy it and register it to your account. 

Step 5: Use A Backorder Service

If you can’t buy an expired domain at auction and it’s not available to purchase from a registrar, your next best option is to use a backorder service. 

That is a service that helps you buy a domain or at least stand a chance of buying one. These function a little like buying concert tickets. You can buy a space in the queue for a particular domain, and the backorder service will notify you if the domain owner changes in the WHOIS or when the domain goes to auction and will give you an auction credit when that happens. 

But, more importantly, when you use a backorder service, the company will monitor when the name goes back into a registrar and try to register it on your behalf when it does. 

This isn’t a surefire way of getting a domain, as other people will be trying to backorder the domain at the same time, but it does mean that you don’t have to watch a registrar day and night in case your domain becomes available. 

GoDaddy offers a backorder service for as low as $26.98, and it’s a great choice because it has direct access to one of the most popular registrars in the world. If you do choose to use a backorder service, it’s important to note that you won’t be refunded the money you pay, but will instead be given credit to use on another domain if you don’t get the one you want. 

Step 6: Buy the Domain from the Owner

If you’re unlucky in all the other steps and can’t get your hands on your domain through auction or registrar, your last option is to try to purchase your domain directly from the owner. 

This will probably be a lot more expensive because if you are soliciting the domain from someone, they’ll know it has value and will sell it accordingly. But if you really want a specific domain, it could be worth it. 

If you look at the WHOIS registry, you may be able to find the domain owner and their contact details. If not, you may have to just reach out to them directly through the contact form on the website or by using the contact information in their privacy policy. 

Be prepared for them to say no. If it’s a valuable domain with a lot of traffic, even a high offer might not tempt them to give it up. If you can’t get the domain through this method, you might have to accept that it’s not meant for you and set your sights on a different domain instead. 

Final Thoughts About Buying Expired Domains With Traffic

By following this guide and using a domain registrar like GoDaddy, you can boost your chances of buying a valuable domain and launching a profitable site immediately without spending years growing an audience. And you can see that once you’ve done the research and found the domains, the rest of the process is easy, so you can repeat it every time you find a valuable domain to add to your portfolio. 

Big Cartel is an ecommerce website builder for small businesses and creatives. Known for being affordable and easy to use, Big Cartel’s templates help your artwork and handmade products shine. You can sell anywhere from 5 to 500 products, depending on your monthly plan. 

Big Cartel doesn’t take a cut of your sales, which is music to many starving artists’ ears. Read on to find out what we love about Big Cartel—and where it falls short. 

Big Cartel Compared

Big Cartel is a good choice for some, but it didn’t make the list of our favorite ecommerce platforms. Shopify can do everything Big Cartel does for artists—and much more. Try Shopify for free for three days and get your first three months for $1/month. 

• Shopify – Best all-around ecommerce platform
• Wix – Best for stores with fewer than 100 products
• BigCommerce – Best for large inventories
• Squarespace – Best for cornering a niche market
• Hostinger – Best price for a full online store

Explore these five winners in our review of the best ecommerce platforms. 

About Big Cartel

Big Cartel offers an affordable ecommerce platform for artists, boutique shops, and startups. For $0 a month, you can set up an ecommerce storefront with free, customizable templates. This low price lets you sell five products with one product image each. The free plan also allows you to use a custom domain, offer discounts, run promos, track shipments, and calculate sales tax. 

• Big Cartel Ecommerce Platforms Review

The paid plans build on these features. Built by artists and makers for artists and makers, Big Cartel is the small indie business of ecommerce platforms. In turn, it’s an ideal choice for indie businesses with in-person sales channels who want to bring their products online. 

Big Cartel Health and Stability

An independently owned ecommerce platform, Big Cartel has been serving customers since 2005. The company says it has helped customers earn over $2.5 billion worth of products. The two co-founders are still part of the team that runs everyday operations. 

In a 2018 profile in Forbes, it was reported that Big Cartel made $10.3 million in revenue the previous year. It doesn’t seem like this ecommerce platform is going anywhere. 

Even though Big Cartel has a loyal group of customers, the Reddit forum for the site is a ghost town–especially when you compare it to competitors like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Squarespace. Not only does it have far fewer members, but questions rarely get answered. 

And in ecommerce forums, Big Cartel gets mixed feedback. You’ll also have to wade through posts about actual drug cartels to find what you’re looking for. I can’t help but wonder why the founders of an artist-first platform chose a name that brings to mind approximately zero artsy thoughts.

Big Cartel Pricing

Big Cartel offers three pricing plans. True to its commitment to artists, creatives, and makers, it doesn’t come with an enterprise option. 

Big Cartel Pricing Structure

You can choose from three Big Cartel plans: Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. The Gold plan is free of charge, but you can only sell 5 products. Each product gets one image to help you show it off. You’ll get free, customizable themes, shipping and order tracking for your customers, and the ability to offer discounts. 

Platinum gives you 50 products to sell, and with Diamond, you can list 500 products. Both the Platinum and Diamond plans come with five product images per product. You’ll also get theme code editing, Google Analytics, inventory tracking, and everything offered in the Gold plan. 

Big Cartel Pricing Comparison

Big Cartel is less expensive than its main competitors, Shopify and Wix. But even Big Cartel’s most expensive plan, which is just $20 a month, has limits that Shopify and Wix do not. 

Shopify’s basic plan lets you sell unlimited products—none of Big Cartel’s plans allow that. If you pay monthly for Shopify Basic, you’ll shell out $39 a month but get some of the most powerful ecommerce features. 

These include everything you’d get with Big Cartel’s most expensive plan. But you’ll also get tools for customer segmentation, shopping cart recovery, and shipping discounts. And you can sell from 1,000 inventory locations and offer language translation for customers around the globe. 

Wix is Big Cartel’s biggest competitor when it comes to selling art and other creations. Its basic and mid-tier plans give you specific tools for monetizing music, videos, digital prints, and physical prints. And that’s on top of an impressive suite of ecommerce tools—plus unlimited product listings and abandoned cart recovery. 

Big Cartel Trials and Guarantees

Big Cartel’s Gold plan is free forever. If you’re only selling a few products, it’ll work just fine—without costing you a dime. You don’t even need to enter credit card information to use it. If you want to upgrade to a paid plan, you can do so at any time. 

Big Cartel Ecommerce Platforms Review

Big Cartel is devoted to being the best ecommerce platform around for artists and small businesses. Still, it’s missing some of the features you can find in Wix, Squarespace, and even Shopify. These three platforms aren’t solely dedicated to artists, but they do make it a priority to offer services tailored to creatives. 

You can see how Big Cartel stacks up by checking out our list of the best ecommerce platforms. 

What Makes the Big Cartel Ecommerce Platform Great

Dedication to Creatives: Artists may not have tons of extra time to spend configuring an ecommerce website. They want something quick and easy to set up, and that’s exactly what Big Cartel is for. In some ways, the website’s limits make life simpler for artists, many of whom are also working a day job while trying to make money with their art. 

Affordability: Making money as an artist, small business, or musician is notoriously difficult. I really appreciate Big Cartel’s freemium plan and low pricing for its other two tiers. There’s no enterprise plan, hidden fees, or high-priced add-ons to make your monthly costs skyrocket.

Versatility: For a small and inexpensive product, Big Cartel is the little engine that could. You can put your shop into vacation mode, choose how to price your shipping, and even offer coupons and sales.

Intuitive Dashboard: Big Cartel users praise the user-friendly, intuitive dashboard. When you’re short on time, nothing is worse than glitchy software or confusing interfaces. Big Cartel has neither. 

Marketing Integrations: Just like with the bigger ecommerce platforms, you can integrate powerful marketing tools with your Big Cartel storefront. The options are limited compared to competitors, but you’ll still find favorites like Instagram, LiveChat, MailChimp, and Lucky Orange. 

Where Big Cartel Ecommerce Platform Falls Short

Limited Scope: Big Cartel’s competitors—particularly Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace—offer services to big and small businesses. Ecommerce reselling giants and small artists. Not Big Cartel. While I admire the platform’s commitment to creatives, I have to point out that scaling isn’t easy with Big Cartel. If your art shop blows up, you’ll outgrow Big Cartel quickly.

Product Restrictions: Most ecommerce platforms allow you to sell unlimited products. This isn’t true of Big Cartel. Even with the highest-paid plan, you’re capped at 500. Ouch! 

Templates: Big Cartel only offers 18 templates. You can customize them with code, but still—18 is a low number compared to Wix’s 800+. And Shopify’s 100+ included templates. And Squarespace’s 150. 

Limited Product Presentation Options: A good first impression of your product is worth its weight in gold. Unfortunately, Big Cartel offers minimal customization options for product presentation. The Gold (free) plan allows just one product image per product, which is less than what customers expect these days. Even the Diamond (most expensive) plan only offers five product images. Shopify gives you a whopping 250. Wix gives you 15. 

CSV Export: If you want to switch from Big Cartel to BigCommerce or Etsy somewhere down the line, it’ll be a laborious process. There’s no CSV export tool to help you transfer your product catalog to a different site. You can export orders, but that’s it. 

Big Cartel Ecommerce Platform Compared

Big Cartel didn’t earn a spot in our pool of favorites, but Shopify did, and you can read all about it on our list of the top ecommerce platforms. 

• Shopify – Best all-around ecommerce platform
• Wix – Best for stores with fewer than 100 products
• BigCommerce – Best for large inventories
• Squarespace – Best for cornering a niche market
• Hostinger – Best price for a full online store

Final Verdict

Big Cartel can be a good choice for musicians, artists, and creatives. This is especially true if these sellers don’t want to host their product catalog on another company’s storefront, as they’d have to if they used Etsy or eBay. 

But because Big Cartel doesn’t make it easy to export your product catalog or scale up to more than 500 products, it’s not the best choice for most sellers. You can get everything Big Cartel offers and more on sites like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace.