Articles - Page 128

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

It's usually a good sign, when a product emerges from a team which would otherwise be part of the intended target market.
<a href="http://mbsy.co/webydo/cmscritic" target="_blank"> Webydo</a> was unveiled in 2012, crafted by a web design agency who confess that, “we needed Webydo ourselves”. The cloud-hosted solution works on a WYSIWYG basis, giving users a browser based and completely codeless website builder.
<a href="http://mbsy.co/webydo/cmscritic" target="_blank"> <img style="max-width:144px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-logo.png" /> </a>
The platform powers thousands of websites, and boasts a wide range of user-friendly features. Here's an introductory video to get started with.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vFrMO-InkiU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>Drag, Drop, Animate</h2>
Let's now take a look at some of Webydo's core features.
As with most website builders, Webydo is designed from the ground up to be accessible to everybody. That means there's no code to worry about, and features like drag-and-drop page building are deeply rooted in the user experience.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/193-10c737f4-3698-4fd1-95cf-0801294c8d60.jpg" />
Users can drag-and-drop page elements like images, text, flash, forms, galleries, and so forth. Elements can then be resized, relocated and edited accordingly.
Webydo also gives its user base animation options, through its Parallax Scrolling Animator.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/193-0f04f419-2a08-4cd0-84b7-58252cc890e5.gif" />
The Animator enables users to animate any element on a page with unique motion paths, transitions and speed using a simple, codeless visual interface. It's the type of tool which can bring a website to life in ways that many other website builders don't allow.
Further features include eCommerce capabilities, responsive design, custom domains, automatic backups, as well as blogging and article management.
Webydo as a whole portrays itself with a sense of minimalism. Black and white interfaces are everywhere, with pretty much no clutter for the sake of beauty. It's a platform aimed at serious web designers looking for a serious website builder.
<h2>A Community Effort</h2>
As previously mentioned, Webydo sprung from a web design agency in need. Today though, it's a community effort.
Webydo's CMO Yam Regev explains.
<blockquote>“Webydo was founded as an internal solution, but quickly grew into a product after we witnessed a massive demand within the web design agency industry.
We quickly generated huge interest and now we have over 150k users in our community. These days professional designers don't have an independent SaaS solution and Webydo plans to be the solution that empowers designers to take full control of the web publishing space.
Our community is fully involved with the development of the product and will ultimately determine the success of the product.”</blockquote>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/weby.png" />
The Webydo forum is where the community congregates.
Users are encouraged to share suggestions and even vote on popular ideas. It's a system rarely embraced by top-tier CMS, and it's nothing less than refreshing to see in action at Webydo.
To find out more about Webydo, <a href="http://mbsy.co/webydo/cmscritic" target="_blank"> visit their website</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of Webydo via our CMS Directory.

Webydo: SaaS Design Canvas for Web Design Professionals

mike-johnston

Following the recent success of Metrics for iPhone, Squarespace have now released <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/squarespace-metrics/id730533177?mt=8" target="_blank"> Squarespace Metrics for iPad </a>  as a universal download.
<a href="http://www.squarespace.com/?channel=pp&amp;subchannel=general&amp;source=cmscritic" target="_blank">Squarespace</a> is a hosted website builder which powers millions of websites around the web. The platform was also named the winner of our 2012 Critic’s Choice Awards for <a href="/critics-choice-for-best-website-builder-goes-to/">Best Website Builder</a>.
With Squarespace Metrics, iPad users can now monitor key performance indicators and interactive charts for their Squarespace sites and connected social accounts.
<h2>Handcrafted for the iPad</h2>
Squarespace have taken care to bring iPad users a unique experience with this release, claiming that the app has, “a beautiful new interface that was handcrafted for the iPad.”
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen480x480.jpeg" alt="Squarespace Metrics for iPad" /> 
Here are three of the main features found within the new Squarespace Metrics iPad app:
<ul>
<li> Auto-play:  A new feature that automatically scrolls through each page of your data, allowing you to monitor all of your website analytics completely hands-free. All data is automatically refreshed, making the app a great dashboard to showcase your website performance.</li>
<li> Multi-column Layouts:  Want to change the way your data is presented? This layout option allows you to visualize all of your key performance metrics at once, and order them in a way that makes the most sense to you.</li>
<li> Multiple View Options:  Sparklines, pie charts, and lists all display seamlessly on your tiles to give you insight into each dimension of your website data. Natural, smooth animations guide you as you select each tile for expanded, detailed information.</li>
</ul>
You can download Squarespace Metrics for iPad for free from the Apple App Store. A Squarespace 6 account is required.
Squarespace offer a <a href="http://www.squarespace.com/?channel=pp&amp;subchannel=general&amp;source=cmscritic" target="_blank">14-day free trial</a>, and can also be further explored through our <a href="/products/squarespace/" target="_blank">CMS Directory</a>.

Squarespace Metrics Released for iPad

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/a91b86f3f17e37ae14daedf22edb071c333x0-is.png" /><a href="https://www.surrealcms.com/" target="_blank">Surreal CMS</a> is a platform that integrates with existing websites to bring you inline editing and other content management functionality. It has been designed for web designers with clients who wish to modify their websites quickly and easily. 
Until now, there was no way to demo Surreal CMS without hooking it up to an existing website. But that just changed.
As of today, you can test the features of Surreal CMS on a demo website before you commit to bringing it to your own web property.
That’s not to say the integration process was ever too bad, though. The addition of some simple code into your website’s header does the trick. However, this update certainly makes things easier for prospective users. 
<h2>An Intro to Surreal CMS</h2>
Manage all your websites and clients from one account. Surreal CMS connects to your websites using FTP, SFTP, or Amazon S3.
You can then give clients access to specific pages or page areas, allowing them to edit their content inline. It's pretty sleek.
Surreal CMS also boasts:
<ul>
<li>User management</li>
<li>White labelling</li>
<li>Responsive templates</li>
<li>Revision tracking</li>
<li>File management</li>
<li>Google Analytics integration</li>
<li>And a developer API</li>
</ul>
I think the inclusion of a demo website will benefit Surreal CMS a tonne. It's a type of website builder (in a way, at least), and all website builders should provide some form of demonstration.
Oh, and the CEO of Surreal CMS has promised 25% off all new subscriptions that come in before September 24th – not too shabby!

Surreal CMS Now Offers Demo Websites

Recently, I had a chance to mess around with Webydo, the website builder that is targeted towards designers who want design code free websites. The results of my time using Webydo are documented in my Webydo Review video which you will be able to watch below.For those of you who are considering using Webydo for a future project, I'd strongly recommend watching my video below to hear my thoughts on this platform and whether it's a good option to consider for your next (or existing!) website.Webydo offers both a free website plan and paid options from $11 and up. They offer a unique interface that they market as professional cloud software for graphic and web designers. Does it do the job? Watch the Webydo Review video to find out.http://youtu.be/yvGwRciWSRY<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo.jpg" />Interesting in checking it out? Visit them on the web at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.webydo.com">https://www.webydo.com</a>What did you think of my assessment? Do you agree? What are your experiences? I'd love to hear your comments below.

Video Webydo Review

LightCMS Developer Program users will be excited to hear about a newly improved pricing feature, making it easier to bill clients according to differing resource needs.
<a href="https://www.websitebuilderscritic.com/website_builders/reviews/lightcms/" target="_blank">As demonstrated on Website Builders Critic</a>, LightCMS, is a website builder suited for building blogs, business websites, and online stores in a matter of minutes. LightCMS is a growing force in the website builder niche thanks to over 275,000 users and a recent <a href="/the-winner-of-the-2014-peoples-choice-cms-award-for-best-cloud-cms-for-smb/" target="_blank">People's Choice Award for Best Cloud CMS for SMB</a>.
This latest update focused on a new pricing plan for Developer Program users, as well as featured images for blog posts.
<h2>Price Plans &amp; Featured Images</h2>
Developer Program users can use the newly introduced Price Plan Builder to make up to 5 unique pricing plans for their clients.
The Price Plan Builder lets user set; Plan Names, Maximum number of pages, Maximum GB of storage, Maximum number of products and of course an actual price for the plan(s).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pricingplans.jpg" />
For the bloggers out there, LightCMS now allows for each blog post to be given a featured image.
A new image can be uploaded, or an existing one can be used.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blogpostwithfeaturedimage1079x0.jpg" />
To find out more about this release, check out the official announcement.
And of course, be sure to explore more of LightCMS via our CMS Directory.

LightCMS Gives Greater Pricing Power to Developer Program Users

WordPress, <a href="/wordpress-is-a-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/" target="_blank">the world's most popular CMS bar none</a>, has rolled out its latest update.
In keeping with WordPress' tradition of naming their updates after musicians, version 4.3 has been called “Billie”, after Billie Holiday.
Here's a video detailing all the latest WordPress features.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WECBz7-MC3c?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Customizer Menus, Icon Management &amp; Better Passwords</h2>
First up, WordPress users can now manage their menus directly from the Customizer interface.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/menu-customizer727x0-is.png" /> It's now easy to build a menu, update it, and assign it, all while live-previewing in Customizer. The newly streamlined Customizer design provides a mobile-friendly and accessible interface.
The Customizer tool also now boasts a site icon manager.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/site-icon-customizer727x0-is.png" /> This enables users to adjust icons for browser tabs, bookmark menus, and on the home screen of mobile devices. A nifty little branding feature.
And finally, passwords are now far more secure out of the box.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/better-passwords727x0-is.png" /> When resetting a password, users will no longer receive passwords via email. Instead, they’ll get a password reset link. Furthermore, WordPress will automatically generate a secure password when new user are added.
To find out more about WordPress 4.3 Billie, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2015/08/billie/" target="_blank">check out the official blog announcement</a>.

WordPress 4.3 "Billie" Brings Improvements to Customizer, Passwords & More

Offiria today announced its release of its enterprise social network program Offiria Enterprise 3.0 for download.
Offiria is an advanced, fully-featured enterprise social networking software that offer a flexible, collaborative workspace for teams to get work done. What’s unique about Offiria is, instead of offering it as SaaS software, we focus on delivering a self-hosted, highly customizable solution for organizations with modern collaboration requirements.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/offiria913x0.png" alt="offiria" />
That reputation has been further strengthened by the release of Offiria Enterprise 3.0.
Key updates in this release:
<ol>
<li>Fresh, updated design</li>
<li>(New) Wiki pages</li>
<li>(New) Advanced file management system</li>
<li>(New) Photos and videos gallery</li>
<li>(New) New poll module</li>
</ol>
<h2>New features highlight – Wiki document and robust file management support</h2>
Among the new features on Offiria 3.0 is wiki document support, which allows a team to collaboratively share information on a document.
Offiria stores a history of all the changes made to a wiki page and allows all users with access to the page to update it. It also uses a modern wysiwyg editor instead of cryptic wiki syntax.
File management in this latest version has also been massively improved. We introduced a more intuitive folder structure and an “Official Files” feature where common files can easily be shared across the whole organization
<h2>Photo and Video Gallery</h2>
Support for photo and video gallery has also been added in this latest version.  Although it is not strictly a collaborative feature, support for photos and videos gallery has proved to be useful in a work environment. 
This makes the feature an added benefit for those who frequently use and share photos and videos in the workplace. User can organize these photos and videos within categories, creating an extremely structured content that is easy to search.
<h2>Pricing and Enterprise Edition</h2>
Offiria Enterprise 3.0 (self-hosted) is now available with two support package options.
The first and cheapest option is a 6-month support package at a highly affordable price of $249. The second and more comprehensive option is the 12-month package at $350 for an unlimited number of users.
In-line with Offiria’s open source commitment, the software will continue to operate even after the support package has expired.
Community vs Enterprise Edition
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Features
</td>
<td>
Community
</td>
<td>
Enterprise
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Social stream
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Work groups
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Event Management
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Task/Milestones
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Employee Directory
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
File management
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Advance file management
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Poll and survey
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Wiki pages
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Photo gallery
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Video gallery
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
MS SQL Server support
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
MS Active Directory integration
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Dropbox integration
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Support
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Pricing
</td>
<td>
FREE
</td>
<td>
FROM $249
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2>About Offiria</h2>
Offiria is an open source, enterprise social networking software that focuses on providing tools for companies to deploy internal collaborative workspace within their own secure technological infrastructure.
Unlike other companies who increase SaaS deployment costs as more users are added, Offiria offers a fixed cost to its customers.
For more information please contact <a href="mailto:email@offiria.com">email@offiria.com</a>

Offiria 3.0 released – Open Source, self-managed, enterprise social network software

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

#ffffff

Squarespace 6 was released to the public last year on July 17th and was the winner of our 2012 Critics Choice Awards for <a href="/peoples-choice-winner-for-best-website-builder-is/" target="_blank">Best Website Builder</a>. Over 50 new features were added in the Squarespace 6 release, but there was one outstanding feature that everyone was waiting for: Squarespace Commerce. On Valentine's day 2013 they finally released it so we decided to do a new Squarespace Review.
<blockquote>“The ability to sell goods from Squarespace has been the most consistently requested feature throughout our history. We’re thrilled to be able to release a commerce offering we’re proud of.” – Anthony Casalena, CEO and Founder of Squarespace.</blockquote>
In light of all these recent changes since our last Squarespace review back in 2010 we have prepared an updated review, but first of all here is the current demo video for you to get a basic idea of what it can do:
<h2>Introduction Video</h2>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/45734056?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>System Requirements</h2>
Unlike some other CMS reviews, like our WordPress or Drupal ones, for example, for this review, there was no need to download any applications to install on our servers. In fact they stated that they do not plan to release such a service. Instead they have streamlined their code to work efficiently with their own high performance cloud system and you do everything via your browser. Say goodbye to maintenance and updates taking up your time, Squarespace does that for you. You will, however, need to make sure your browser is compatible with Squarespace, which by the looks of things just means keeping it up-to-date (although at the moment they support both IE 9 and 10 for both viewing and editing). You can use Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer or Firefox to work with Squarespace 6.
However for editing there are some additional system requirements:
<ol>
<li>Cookies must be enabled for login purposes.</li>
<li>JavaScript must be enabled for the site manager.</li>
<li>Avoid running JavaScript blocking programs, such as anti-virus software.</li>
</ol>
<h2>New Features in version 6</h2>
I want to cover some of the new features that came with the Squarespace 6 release before I move onto the commerce piece of this review.  I'm not going over the reporting feature as they are hard to demonstrate when you are the only one viewing the page. The option is available on the main menu and looking through it is fairly self explanatory, so I'll move on.
<h3>The Blogging &amp; Layout Engine</h3>
In Squarespace 6 they did an overhaul of the blogging engine, along with a new commenting system and multiple author support. You can change the way your blog is set-up via the ‘Blog Settings' button, such as changing the name of the blog (we called it ‘Journal'). This is a very intuitive feature that I really like about Squarespace 6. There are also 20 new templates you can use for your blog in this latest release. When I first tried creating a blog post it took me a moment to understand how to add images. My screen is quite big and I didn't see the plus symbol at the bottom of the big text box, or realise what it meant. This button lets you add ‘Blocks' from images to quotes, to video and code; you get a lot of handy options to build your post quickly. Once I figured this out it was fairly self explanatory exploring the rest of the block options listed below.
<h4>Editing a Post and Adding a Block:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-blocks.png" alt="squarespace-review-blocks" />
The new LayoutEngine lets you drop images onto your image blocks and once they are embedded you can drag them around to rearrange them in your post. The only thing I will say is that I was expecting their Media Management to be separate. I found myself looking for it in the menu structure and I couldn't find what I had seen in the videos until I tried adding an image block to a blog post.
<h4>Editing a Post and Adding Images:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-layoutengine.png" alt="squarespace-review-layoutengine" />
<h3>Social Network Integration </h3>
The other great thing about Squarespace is the social integration. There are again a wide variety social media you can tap into as you can see below. Whilst you build your website you are offered many ways to integrate your site into the social networks you connect to your Squarespace account.
<h4>Adding Social Network Accounts:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-social-networks.png" alt="squarespace-review-social-networks" />
<h3>The Commerce Engine</h3>
To get to the Commerce section of Squarespace 6 you click on the dollar symbol on the left-hand side menu. This gives you a 4 step ‘Getting Started' process to get your store up and running quickly with options to: add products, select shipping options for physical products, connecting your Stripe account so you can accept payments and making your store live to the public.
<h4>Getting Started with the Commerce Engine:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-commerce-start.png" alt="squarespace-review-commerce-start" />
Getting Started is just the first item in the Commerce sub-menu. This gives you a way to manage your store and track your orders, inventory, shipping details, coupons for special offers, tax details, handling notifications and other settings. Everything you need to run your store effectively. So lets start with creating products. Before we can add products we need a product page to hold them. I didn't realise this and so got the following error when I tried to just add a product under Inventory.
<h4>Inventory (Before Adding Products):</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-no-product-page-error.png" alt="squarespace-review-no-product-page-error" />
To do this we need to go back to the content manager. Squarespace even provides you with a content specific tip when you over your mouse over the big ‘a' representing the content manger on the main menu. This is an unexpected but appreciated way to help you navigate the process of setting up your store.
<h4>Inventory Screen:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-add-product-page-tip.png" alt="squarespace-review-add-product-page-tip" />
When you click on the content manager icon you then need to click on the ‘Add Page' option under the ‘Top Navigation' list. This will give you a range of page types and in this case we want to click on the ‘Product' option.
<h4>Creating a new Page:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-create-new-page.png" alt="squarespace-review-create-new-page" />
You will be asked to enter a name for the page, which will correspond to the search friendly URL it will create for the page, although if you wish you can alter this to be different than the page's title if you want. It also gives you the option to set this page as the homepage of your website.
<h4>Configuring Products:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-page-title.png" alt="squarespace-review-page-title" />
Now that we have the product page in place we can create products. When the products page is created is creates a new option under the Top Navigation in the Content Manager called ‘Products', which has similar options to the Inventory page in the Commerce section.
<h4>Adding a Product:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-content-add-product.png" alt="squarespace-review-content-add-product" />
Since you are taken to this page immediately after creating the Products Page you might as well create your products from there, but you could equally go back into Commerce menu to do the same. Whatever menu you choose however, you will see on the top right a button called ‘Add Product', that is what you need to click.
<h4>Adding Products into Inventory:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-inventory-empty.png" alt="squarespace-review-inventory-empty" />
You will then be given a choice between creating a physical product that has to be shipped, or a digital product. With a digital product the customer will get a download link sent to them via email that is valid for 24 hours. In this review I'm going to create a physical product so I can cover the shipping options as well. You then get a screen where you can edit all the details of your product. Across the top on the right there are a number of different steps, the first of which ‘Item' lets you describe your product, add images, add categories for your product (see bottom left) and an options to make the product visible or not in your store.
<h4>Editing a Product:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-edit-product-complete.png" alt="squarespace-review-edit-product-complete" />
You can set the price here as well, but if you plan to have more than one variant, in size or colour for example, you might want to wait until the next step. When you hit save you go to the ‘Pricing &amp; Variants' step. In the example below I added a column called ‘Colour' as my example product comes in black and Mahogany. You can do this by clicking the ‘+' symbol on the right of the column headers. I then set the price and stock details for each variant by clicking on the ‘+' on the bottom left underneath the headers and filling out the different colour variants.
<h4>Editing a Product Variant:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-edit-product-variants.png" alt="squarespace-review-edit-product-variants" />
The next stage just lets you add rich text notes for additional information., there isn't much more to say so I'll skip over this stage. Next comes the step to set the URL address of the product. This seems to have an issue because it is set to ‘new-product' by default and you can't seem to edit this, regardless of what you set your product page URL to be. I had removed the ‘new' from ‘new-product' in my product page, but found I could not do this here. I was able to type something after ‘new-product' but it wasn't ideal. It also seemed to put a space between ‘new-product' and what I entered but it is just a display issue (when I later checked the product once it was live, the space was gone and ‘new-products' was replaced with just ‘products', as I had set it up on the products page, which could cause some confusion).
<h4>Adding a URL and Image to your Products:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-edit-product-url.png" alt="squarespace-review-edit-product-url" />
You then have the option to publish your product via your social connections, and if you haven't set any up it gives you the option to do so. You will need to make sure your product is saved before you navigate away from this product wizard. When you have completed filling out the product details hit ‘Save and Publish'. You can then go to your inventory to view the product.
<h4>Inventory with added products:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-inventory-products.png" alt="squarespace-review-inventory-products" />
If you made it available so people can find it on your store then it will also show on your products page. If you click on the product it will look like this:
<h4>The End Result:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-live-product.png" alt="squarespace-review-live-product" />
Now we want to move onto shipping options. Click on the Commerce symbol on the main menu and then select Shipping. On the top right is a button you want to click called ‘Add Shipping Method'.
<h4>The Shipping Portion of the Commerce Engine:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-shipping-empty.png" alt="squarespace-review-shipping-empty" />
You then get two options for shipping: ‘Flat Rate' whch lets you set a single price for shipping costs, or ‘Depending on Weight' that will determine the cost based on how heavy a product is.
<h4>Adding shipping options:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-shipping-types1.png" alt="squarespace-review-shipping-types1" />
I've chosen the second shipping option, as the flat rate option is pretty straight forward and most of it's functionally is the same as the weight based shipping option. You get the option to set weight ranges and the rate each one will cost. You can add more option by clicking the ‘+' symbol below the first two weight ranges it creates for you by default. You have to set a name to determine what postal method this delivery option will use, such as FedEx. This is a mandatory field.
<h4>Editing the weight range rates for shipping:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-shipping-formular.png" alt="squarespace-review-shipping-formula" />
Then there is another step at the top right called ‘Country Restrictions' which lets you say which countries you will deliver too. Remember that you can create more than one shipping method, so you could create different rates this way for USA, europe and worldwide, for example, if you need different pricing for each of them. Once you have saved all your option is will show up in a list under the Commerce Shipping menu.
<h4>Setting Country restrictions:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-shipping-country.png" alt="squarespace-review-shipping-country" />
I want to briefly cover the rest of the options under Commerce. You have the option to make your own coupons for special promotions and sales etc. They actually give you a vast range of types to choose from, that gives you a lot of power to promote your  products. They then give you even more choices, whether you want to offer free shipping, a percentage discount or a flat dollar discount.
<h4>Creating Coupons in the Commerce Engine:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-add-coupons.png" alt="squarespace-review-add-coupons" />
Moving onto to Commerce Taxes. You can set how much tax will be charged for your products on a state-by-state basis (and is therefore limited to the USA only). They also give you the option to charge sales tax on the shipping costs.
<h4>Tax Rule Editing:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-add-taxes.png" alt="squarespace-review-add-taxes" />
We now come to Email Notifications. This is where you can customise the text that will be sent out to customers, including header and footer options. There are two message templates you can tweak for emails that are sent to the customer regarding order confirmation and shipping. I did notice a little issue here. If I click on email notifications and then cancel without doing anything, and error will pop up asking to save or discard changes when none had been made. I found discarding didn't do anything untoward as far as I could tell so I just used that.
<h4>Setting up Email Notifications:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-email-notifications.png" alt="squarespace-review-email-notifications" />
The last menu under Commerce is Settings. From here you can configure the setup of your Stripe payment account, support email address, express checkout option and setting the shopping cart to a dark or light style, depending on what colour scheme the reset of your website is using. You can integrate your MailChip newsletter account, get stock level alerts to remind you when to stock up on physical goods. Lastly it lets you write your own terms of service, as well as privacy and returns policies. If you judge your settings and notifications just right, you can communicate your style and values in a more interesting way.
<h3>The Final verdict:</h3>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-support.png" alt="squarespace-review-support" />
This was my first time using Squarespace so I had a fresh eye that had not been accustomed to earlier releases. I can see why millions have flocked to Squarespace, because you can create any kind of website regardless of technical ability.  The only downside for me was that the payment option they use for Commerce is restricted to the USA only. It's not clear if this is because of limitations in Squarespace 6 itself, or due to <a href="http://stripe.com" target="_blank">Stripe</a>, the payment vendor they are using. I also can't get <a href="http://lastpass.com/" target="_blank">LastPass</a> to work with the login form whilst using Chrome, my preferred browser. This has me going back and forth to my emails to find the password each time I want to login. However I think the issues I've found are minor details that are possible to address in the future, so I'm willing enough to over look them until they broaden the scope of Commerce to include payments to Denmark, which is where I live.
Squarespace caters to developers too, so you can delve deeper into it to get even more functionality and customization. As a developer, you can build your site for free until you go live. Whether you are a developer or not after the trial the monthly subscription cost varies from $8/month up to $30/month, depending on which of the 3 plans you choose and if you pay monthly or annually. So for the same monthly cost of a low bandwidth Virtual Private Server, which you would have to administer yourself, you really can have your cake and eat it with Squarespace 6.

Squarespace Review - the Long Awaited Commerce Solution

niam-brown

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/selz_logo595x0-is.png" />
<a href="http://selz.com/a?tap_a=8735-a5f61e&amp;tap_s=54870-f521b3" target="_blank">Selz</a> is an eCommerce solution with barrels of charm. With it, you can deploy a store or add buy buttons to existing websites and social channels.
Selz was born in 2013, and today boasts over 100,000 users. For the better part of a year, I've admired Selz from afar. It has been busy releasing small, regular updates that have all contributed to the impressive growth of the platform.
As well as being able to embed into any website, Selz boasts a range of payment gateways, built-in analytics, native apps, a WordPress plugin, and more.
Let's take a look at what the most recent set of updates brought to the eCommerce platform.
<h2>Broader Product Variations &amp; License Keys</h2>
Selz now enables you to easily sell products with varying characteristics. So, if you’re selling t-shirts in different colors, different styles, and different sizes, each of those variants can be represented in your Selz store.
You can even assign different prices to each variant if you charge more for different styles or sizes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2016-08-12-at-10_37_01-am-1600x932657x0-is.png" />
If you’re selling proprietary software, apps, themes or any other digital product, you can now use license keys to let your customers “unlock” their product.
This will prevent your products from being shared by multiple people or illegally used by unauthorized users. Thus, your intellectual property is protected by the license key generated by Selz.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2016-08-24-at-12_37_49-pm-1600x673911x0-is.png" />
To find out more about these two new features, <a href="https://selz.com/blog/2-major-features-released-august/" target="_blank">check out the Selz blog</a>.
<h2>Earn 200% Commission With The Selz Affiliate Program</h2>
Selz can make you money from the products you sell via an existing website or social media handle. But now, you can make money by selling Selz itself.
For any one person you refer to Selz, you'll receive 200% of their monthly plan price. Which is not too shabby.
You can become a Selz affiliate <a href="https://selz.com/affiliates" target="_blank">here</a>.
As I said, I've had my eye on <a href="http://selz.com/a?tap_a=8735-a5f61e&amp;tap_s=54870-f521b3" target="_blank">Selz</a> for a while now, and I like the way they handle business. For that reason, I think I'll delve into Selz a little deeper during the next episode of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdYIRZAO8llwAipfWWujTHsqH-2x3Qwwu" target="_blank">Software Explorer</a>.

Selz Grows Further With Product Variants, License Keys, Affiliate Scheme

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/djangocms_green-1_400x0.png" /><a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en" target="_blank">django CMS 3.4</a> is here, and it's the first release of the free and open source CMS that comes with long-term support (LTS).
In my <a href="/django-cms-review/" target="_blank">django CMS review</a> which I published a few months back, I remarked that:
<blockquote>
“There's no doubt about it, <a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en" target="_blank">Django CMS</a> is an excellent platform for projects large and small. It's simple enough for anybody to approach, although its true potential will need to be unlocked by a developer familiar with Python.”
</blockquote>
Matteo Larghi, the CXO at Divio and member of the django CMS technical board, gave CMS Critic an exclusive comment as he and the rest of the django CMS team released version 3.4. He claimed that, “this is a historic date [for django CMS], since it's the first Long-Term Support version.”
<h2>django CMS 3.4: What's New?</h2>
<iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/182752360"></iframe>
The video above does a good job of explaining the new features that can be found within django CMS 3.4, but here are the highlights:
<ul>
<li>An Improved editing experience: 	The Edit page view now displays complex content better. We've removed some extraneous markup and made some fundamental changes to the editing model to eliminate differences in appearance between draft and published views.</li>
<li>More editing shortcuts: 	Keyboard navigation has been improved and extended. An overview of keyboard shortcuts in editing mode is available by pressing “?”. Especially useful is a new “Shift + Space” command to switch between structure and content mode while highlighting the current plugin, revealing its position.</li>
<li>Revamped user permissions: 	The content permissions system has been significantly reworked. During this process a number of issues were discovered and addressed. The system now behaves now as expected. We recommend that owners of sites using permissions upgrade to 3.4, as some of these issues represent potential security problems.</li>
<li>Speed: 	The rendering speed of plugins in the structure view has been significantly increased.</li>
</ul>
For a complete summary of all updates, see the <a href="http://docs.django-cms.org/en/latest/upgrade/3.4.html">django CMS 3.4 release notes</a>.
<h2>It's Finally Here: Long Term Support for django CMS</h2>
All previous versions of django CMS came with no promise of long-term support. Which was a bummer.
But with django CMS 3.4, the django CMS team has proudly announced long-term support, meaning that security patches and bug fixes will roll out until at least the end of 2018.
This is an important milestone in the history of django CMS, which was voted in at the <a href="/announcing-the-2015-winner-for-best-open-source-cms/" target="_blank">Best Open Source CMS of 2015</a> not too long ago.

django CMS 3.4 Released With Long Term Support

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pexels-photo-106341_11280x761-cropx0y64-is577x0-is.jpeg" /> Nowadays, the average small or medium sized business owner will know about <a href="https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo" target="_blank">the importance of SEO (search engine optimization)</a> even before they begin building their website.
Website builders like <a href="http://www.wix.com/" target="_blank">www.wix.com</a> are of course ideal for such businesses, and thanks to the platform’s global success, they have had the luxury of honing their SEO features alongside their innovative page building functionality. 
In fact, Wix offers up seven simple ways to nail your website’s SEO campaign:
<h2>1. Blogging</h2>
That’s right, blogging is still the most important ingredient in an SEO campaign – and Wix has it covered.
With Wix, you can add a blog to your website with ease, just like any other page element. Then, you can begin publishing blog posts that will contribute towards to quality of your website’s search engine optimization through keywords and social sharing. 
Learn more about the <a href="https://www.wix.com/support/html5/article/wix-blog-and-seo">benefits of blogging with Wix</a>.
<h2>2. Page Meta Tags</h2>
Meta tags aren’t visible to your website visitors, but they are visible to those savvy robots that report back to search engines.
Page meta tags are made up of two parts:
<ul>
<li>
Page Title
</li>
<li>
Page Description
</li>
</ul>
By applying the right keywords to these meta tags, you can communicate with search engines about the content on your pages, which gives you a better chance of being ranked high in their search results for that particular piece of content.
Learn more about <a href="https://www.wix.com/support/html5/article/meta-tags">how to add page meta tags with Wix</a>.
<h2>3. Alt Text</h2>
Search engine robots can’t see images, but by adding alt text to images on your website, you have the chance to tell search engines exactly what the image is all about.
By keeping your alt text keyword rich, you can positively impact your SEO – plus, you’ll go a long way to helping your website’s visually impaired visitors.
Thankfully, adding alt text to Wix images can be done quickly and easily, because it’s all part of the process of inserting images into your content.
Learn more about <a href="https://www.wix.com/support/html5/article/adding-alt-text-to-an-image">how to add alt text to images with Wix</a>.
<h2>4. Heading Tags</h2>
Search engines places a fair amount of importance on the headers on a page. 
Headers come in a few different varieties, including H1, H2, and H3. H1 is typically being used for the main header of a page, while H2 and H3 are used as sub-headers. For example, the seven headers used to make this list are in fact H2 headers.
To make it easy to insert such headers into your page, Wix has a fully fledged text editor brimming with formatting options. Once such option enables you to highlight any text and turn it onto a header with just two clicks. 
Learn more about <a href="https://www.wix.com/support/html5/article/adding-a-heading-tag">how to use heading tags with Wix</a>.
<h2>5. 301 Redirects</h2>
If you need to change the location of a page on your website, you need to handle the entire process in a way that won’t confuse the search engine’s robots when they next come around. Or else, the seemingly deleted content may become a cause for concern for them. 
301 redirects allow you to redirect search engine robots to a page’s new destination, so they don’t end up getting lost when accessing content that has been moved. 
Wix gives you the ability to use 301 redirects between domains, platforms, and within Wix websites.
Learn more about <a href="https://www.wix.com/support/html5/article/getting-the-most-out-of-your-301-redirects">how to do 301 redirects using Wix</a>.
<h2>6. Google Analytics</h2>
Attracting visitors to your website is the primary objective of an SEO campaign. But what happens when they finally visit your web property?
Google Analytics helps you monitor your traffic so you can see where visitors are coming from, how they found you, and what areas of your website they respond best to. This will help you hone your content to convert more visitors, and it will also tell you what parts of your SEO campaign are starting to work. 
Wix makes it simple to get going with Google Analytics by giving you a dedicated area to paste your Google Analytics tracking code. 
Learn more about <a href="https://www.wix.com/support/html5/article/google-analytics-8399675">how to add Google Analytics to your Wix site</a>.
<h2>7. Simple Site Verification</h2>
By verifying your website with a few third party services and apps, your website’s SEO score will be all the healthier.
For example, it’s a good idea to get verified with:
<ul>
<li>
Google Webmaster Tools
</li>
<li>
Google+
</li>
<li>
Bing Webmaster Tools
</li>
<li>
Pinterest
</li>
</ul>
Thankfully for Wix users, Wix makes it easy to add site verification codes directly into site headers, so you can connect with all the apps above, and more. 
Learn more about how to <a href="https://www.wix.com/support/html5/article/verifying-your-site-using-header-codes">verify your Wix site with header codes</a>.
<h2>Wix: SEO A High Priority</h2>
In an exclusive interview, Wix told CMS Critic that:
“One of our highest priorities is SEO – making sure that Wix sites are built in accordance with the guidelines set forth by search engines, for example the improvement of loading time, and the provision of user friendly URLs.”
So, further to the seven points above, it’s also important to realize that Wix takes it upon itself to make sure your website is speedy and search engine friendly right out of the box. 
Plus, the <a href="http://www.wix.com/app-market/seo-wizard/overview">Wix SEO Wizard</a> gives you step-by-step help in the backend to ensure you have all your bases covered.
Not bad Wix, not bad!
For more insights into how Wix handles search engine optimization, check out the <a href="https://www.wix.com/" target="_blank">Wix website</a>.

7 Ways Wix Nails Search Engine Optimization

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.boonex.com/">Boonex Dolphin</a> has been on the online community building scene for a while. Since 2001, to be exact.Today, via it's flagship open source product Dolphin.Pro, Boonex powers over 150,000 social networking websites, providing all the features needed for a community to come together, communicate, collaborate, share experiences, and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dolphin-transparent520x0-is.png" />Dolphin.Pro can be used in a self-hosted environment, or users can take advantage of Boonex's hosted solution with automatic backups, automatic installation and assisted updates.I’ve made it no secret in the past that the social networking space is lacking in quality content management systems, especially when compared to, say, the eCommerce industry.Is Boonex Dolphin.Pro an exception? Let’s find out.<h2>First Impressions</h2>Their website is impressive, which is always a good sign.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2864x0-is.png" /> Examples of finished websites are presented well, as are the platform’s features and price plans. It’s all very sleek and professional.It's easy to find out about the ins and outs of the product, and it's easy to jump right into the demo, too.<h2>Getting Started</h2>I was making use of the extensive demo that Boonex offers, which gives you a good impression of what Dolphin.Pro is capable of right off the bat.The demo showcases a fully fledged Dolphin.Pro powered website. It looks good, and all the trimmings work very, very well. The sleekness certainly carries over into the end product, that's for sure.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3864x0-is.png" />Moving to the back end, which is the more important bit, things looked a little less spectacular.Don't get me wrong, I like the simplicity of it, but I think it could use a bit of sprucing up.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-4866x0-is.png" /> The “Initial Steps” (which is misspelt as “Initiall”) window is helpful, as it sets out ten things which the user will need to do in order to launch their community.But it feels a little rigid. Perhaps if the list updated as you carried out each step, to give the user a sense of progression. Plus, I felt the “DONT SHOW IT ANYMORE” button was a little in your face. A “Close Initial Steps” button would suffice.It's little things like that which make the difference between an enjoyable experience and an average one. Especially when those little things are the first thing a new user sees.Further down the dashboard, I found some analytical data in the form of graphs and charts. You can toggle between a long list of measurables, including members, subscribers, messages, files, shoutbox messages, photos, transactions and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-21793x0-is.png" />But the ones you'd expect to find, like, visitors, page views, interactions, and so forth, are nowhere to be found. I thought that was odd.Even further down the page was the Boonex News Feed, followed by a short list of featured modules. Nothing wrong with having that stuff on display, but perhaps the sidebar is a better location for it all.<h3>Members</h3>First up on the side menu, is Members.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5581x0-is.png" /> This section gives you some stats relating to your members, tags used, and also gives you a search option. However, to get to the search function, you need to click on a button. Again, the sidebar would make more sense.And of course, you can see all of your community members listed.You can order them by username, join date and last activity. Plus, there are three display options to help you find out more about each member; simple, extended and geeky.You can select a member or a group of members, and choose from options which include; activate, deactivate, ban, unban and confirm email.<h3>Modules</h3>The Modules section handles all of the core features of Dolphin.Pro. And there are a lot of them.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6573x0-is.png" />Ads, articles, blog posts, RSS, photos, videos, audio, store, forum, timeline, world map, simple messenger, Facebook connect, polls, groups, events, online desktops, page access control and much more.There really is a wealth of features to help piece together your online community. Kudos to Boonex, I'm impressed.I tinkered with many of them, and they were pretty straight forward in terms of set up. However, I noticed once again that the back end design was lacking slightly.There are no menus or tabs to organize the inner-workings of these modules. Like the dashboard, you'll need to scroll down the page in order to access different settings. This, paired with the fact that text and page elements seem to be quite large on the Dolphin.Pro admin panel, makes for a cumbersome experience.Clicking “Add + Manage” enables you to update installed modules, see featured uninstalled modules and upload module packages from your computer.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-22416x0-is.png" />Here are a few select modules which are worth talking about.eCommerceDolphin.Pro lets you sell stuff.Under the Modules section in the back end, is the option to add products and configure some settings to do with product listings and sales.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-14586x0-is.png" /> You can also add tags, categories, restrict it to be seen only by members, and so forth. It's not going to compete with any actual eCommerce platforms, but it's a nice integrated option to have.TimelineThe timeline is the lifeblood of any online community.The timeline module lets you configure all the settings to do with the timelines in your community. That includes the ones on the homepage, profile pages, and elsewhere.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15614x0-is.png" />You can configure the amount of events that are displayed, maximum number of characters in a text post, hide and show particular events, and so on.Flash AppsThe Flash Apps section offers up a set of additional features, including; messenger, desktop, music player, video player, whiteboard, and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-16477x0-is.png" />I'm not sure why these features aren't just includes with the rest of the modules, but nevertheless, they each have their settings which are easy enough to configure. That includes enabling and disabling them, setting refresh times, and so forth.Once again, there's a lot to choose from, and there are a lot of settings as a result. But they are quite easy to adjust. Plus, it's another show of just how feature-rich Dolphin.Pro is.<h3>Tools</h3>The Tools section encompasses some of the extra features offered out of the box by Dolphin.Pro.This includes; mass mailing, banners, IP blacklists, database backups, anti-spam tools, caching and sitemaps.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7475x0-is.png" /> All of the features seemed to work well, with arguably the most important one, the mass mailer, being very simple to use.It lets you write up your email with a rich text editor, manage subscribers, and set the amount of emails that should be sent out at configurable intervals. The only thing it's missing is the option to import subscribers.The rest of the features worked exactly as you would expect them to. Which is a good sign.<h3>Builders</h3>The Builders section lets you handle menus. All the menus. Everywhere.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-9873x0-is.png" />Navigation menus, admin menus, mobile pages, profile fields, and more. Menu options come in the form of blocks which can be dragged and dropped into position. Menus display in such a way to help the user visualize them as they would appear on the front end.Inactive blocks are displayed below, where they can be selected and dragged into place.It's not exciting, but it's an effective interface.<h3>Page Builder</h3>The page builder is as essential as it sounds. You'll need it to build your pages.Thankfully, Dolphin.Pro does a pretty good job of making it easy. It has a similar interface to the menu builder, allowing you to drag and drop elements into place.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-10613x0-is.png" />Such elements include ads, world maps, forum posts, blogs, and all the other modules offered up by Dolphin.Pro. You can also adjust the width of each page to allow for more modules if you so wish.It's not a visual WYSIWYG builder, which would be nice, but it is a visual representation of how things will look. It's a halfway house, and that's acceptable.It's also very responsive and easy to use. No complaints from me here.<h3>Settings</h3>The settings section handles the more technical side of things. It's the less exciting bit, yet holds all of the most important information about your community.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-11585x0-is.png" />That includes admin passwords, membership levels, language settings, email templates for mass mailing, website templates and more.Some basic settings include uploading and resizing a logo, setting a site title, configuring permalinks,<h2>Apps &amp; Extras</h2>As for extras, Boonex Dolphin.Pro has a few.<h3>Market</h3>The marketplace for example, is home to templates, modules, integrations, language packs and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-171306x0-is.png" /> There are over 3,200 products to choose from, and I suppose the quality is about the same as you can expect from any third-party plugin marketplace. It's not always going to be of the highest quality, but it makes up for it by providing a whole lot of extra functionality.All one can ask for is a wide range of options, and that's exactly what's on offer.<h3>Templates</h3>When it comes to templates, Dolphin.Pro is a little disappointing.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-18755x0-is.png" />You can choose between three bundled templates from the back end, before having to go to the market and purchase more.But the market only gives you seven more templates to choose from, none of which are free. Ten templates, most of which require payment, is quite poor. The only up side is that the bundled templates are of a high quality.<h3>iOS &amp; Android Apps</h3>Dolphin.Pro users also get to make use of native iOS and Android apps to give community members another way of interacting with the community.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-19471x0-is.png" /> The app lets administrators manage their communities and add multiple sites to be handled from the same app. Registered members can also add sites and participate in the community from the comfort of their iPhone, iPad or Android device.<h2>Getting Help</h2>For help and support, Boonex offers a busy forum, detailed documentation, and an email address. But that’s pretty much it.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-20917x0-is.png" /> The forum is a good resource, with a lot of users asking and answering questions. As for the documentation, everything from the beginners guide to the Development FAQ is written about at length.But if you exhaust those two support options, Boonex only provides a simple email address for you to reach out to them on. There’s no searchable FAQ hub, no ticketing system, and no live chat.For me, all of those missing support options need to be there for a product that’s so widely used.<h2>Pricing</h2>Boonex Dolphin isn’t the cheapest product on the market. And many would argue that that’s justified.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-12758x0-is.png" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-13763x0-is.png" />The lowest plan starts at $49 per month for a hosted solution, and $29 per month for a self-hosted solution. Pricing doesn't stop there, though.Dolphin.Pro is equipped to handle large scale projects thanks to its massive set of features, and thus, pricing is offered to reflect that. We're talking $1,980 per month for the network license with unlimited sites, bigger servers and extended dedicated support hours, to a $29,800 one-time fee to buy the network license outright.PHPfox offer their Neutron platform for a one-off fee of $348, which works out to $29 per month for a year, self-hosted. SocialEngine Cloud also comes in at $29 per month, which included hosting.<h2>The Verdict</h2>I like Dolphin.Pro. The more I used it, the more it grew on me.The backend isn't going to win any beauty contests, but it's easy to navigate, very responsive, and it's rammed full of features that are relatively easy to configure.The Boonex market is also well populated, with a number of modules, integrations and more. Together with the long list of features that come out of the box, Dolphin.Pro is a seriously powerful platform.It's not the cheapest option out there, but there's no doubting that Dolphin.Pro is one of the leading products in online community builder market. It's not perfect, but I don't see many other platforms matching it.<h3>Pros</h3><ul><li>Boonex Dolphin.Pro is capable of building a genuinely beautiful online community.</li><li>Feature galore; including; ads, blogs, payments, eCommerce, Chat, events, forums, memberships, polls, groups, page access control, and a whole lot more.</li><li>The user interface is a bit dated and clunky, but it's also simple and well functioning.</li><li>The Market offers a fair amount of modules, integrations and language packs.</li><li>A busy community is always a good thing, and Dolphin.Pro has one in the form of a discussion forum.</li><li>Native iOS &amp; Android apps.</li></ul><h3>Cons</h3><ul><li>Support options are limited.</li><li>The backend could do with a re-design.</li><li>Not enough templates.</li></ul><h2>Final Remarks</h2>The sleekness that Dolphin.Pro can offer from its bundled templates is enough to sway you.The backend needs some work, but it's neat and tidy for the most part, and there's nothing I can criticize when it comes to the quantity and quality of features.As I mentioned earlier, I have my concerns over the lack of stellar community builders on the market, and I think now is a good time to reiterate that. When compared to, say, the eCommerce industry, the quality of products on offer for building social networks is nothing short of disappointing.Boonex Dolphin.Pro though, is one of the few platforms that are holding their own. It's powerful, it has a broad community behind it, and it's capable of being beautiful.All in all, it's a thumbs up from me.

Boonex Dolphin.Pro Review

Write.as is a no-frills ad-free publishing platform that lets you write down your thoughts, even if you don’t have an audience in mind. You can keep your posts private or share them anonymously, but you can also create a public blog. That being said, Write.as isn’t suitable for more complex blogging, content marketing, or building a website. Read on for our full review on Write.as below.<h2>Getting Started</h2>Getting started with Write.as is easy. You don’t even need to register for a member account. Simply click on the “Start Writing” button on the homepage to create a blog post without an actual blog.When you publish your post, it will open up in a web browser with a unique and anonymous URL. You can keep this URL to yourself or share it with others. Write.as automatically saves everything that you write, regardless of whether you have an account with them or not.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/write-1691172472611.png" />When you’re ready to start a blog, select “Get Started” to begin your free trial or buy the Pro plan. Either way, you don’t have to give your email address (but you can if you want to). Once you sign up, you can sync your anonymous posts to your account.<h2>Design</h2>Write.as has a clean design and interface, with zero unnecessary features. The text editor lets you write in plain text only, and you can choose from just three different fonts (serif, sans-serif, monospace). There’s also a word count function and a light/dark toggle.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/write-1691172472698.png" />To format your text, you need to use <a target="_blank" href="https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">Markdown</a>, a plain text formatting syntax that lets you add headers, bold text, links, images, and so on. There’s no way to preview the post, which is annoying.Write.as is committed to simplicity, but it still lets you customize your blog. With Write.as, you can:<ul><li>Change the title of your blog.</li><li>Add a blog description.</li><li>Pick a preferred URL (write.as/username/, username.writeas.com, or your own domain if you’re on the Pro plan).</li><li>Add static pages like an “About Me” or “Contact”.</li><li>Group your posts with hashtags.</li><li>Select your desired publicity level (unlisted, private, password-protected, or public).</li><li>Customize how plain text renders on your blog (Markdown or MathJax).</li><li>Enable custom CSS and Javascript.</li></ul>Change the format of your site from a blog to novel (oldest posts, with no dates, are shown first) or notebook (latest posts, with no dates, are shown first).<h2>Usability and Support</h2>Write.as is minimalist in design and is therefore super easy to navigate. When you log into your account, Write.as brings you to a blank page so that you can start writing immediately.In terms of support, Write.as has detailed writing guides that cover everything from sharing your posts to formatting quotes to adding images to your blog. There’s also a Write.as <a target="_blank" href="https://discuss.write.as/">community forum</a>.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/write-1691172472758.png" />You can also ask for help on social media (Write.as is on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn) or via email (Write.as support hours are Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern US time). Customer support representatives typically respond very promptly — I received a reply to my query within four hours on a Monday morning.<h2>Key Features</h2>Write.as focuses heavily on privacy and security, which is why all blogs are unlisted by default. However, you can make your blog public and cross-post your posts to other social media sites (like Twitter or Tumblr) or read.write.as, a separate “read stream”.You can also see the number of people that visit your blog and where they come from, as well as determine your most popular posts, via the statistics function.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/write-1691172472813.png" />With Write.as, you can write a post via email and then send it to your blog. In this case, the subject line becomes the title of the post, and the body of the email becomes the post. This feature, which is only available to paying members, is useful if you want to post to your blog from your phone (Write.as has an app for Android and iOS, but they don’t support blogging).Speaking of email, Pro users get access to Write.as Letters, a beta feature that lets readers subscribe to your blog updates. New posts are sent out in the form of a beautiful email 15 minutes after publishing or when scheduled.Pro members can also host their photos via Snap.as, a Chrome and Firefox browser extension. The extension pops up a window to drag a photo to, irrespective of where on the web you are.When the photo is uploaded, the Markdown for it is copied to your clipboard. You can then paste it wherever you want the photo to appear.Additionally, <a target="_blank" href="https://snap.as/">Snap.as</a> lets you create shareable photo galleries and photo essays. Here is an example from Write.as founder’s, Matt Baer’s Snap.as account:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/write.png" />Write.as also offers <a target="_blank" href="https://submit.as/">Submit.as</a>, a paid add-on that enables you to collect submissions, review them, and then publish them straight onto an online publication.<h2>Pricing</h2>Write.as has three pricing tiers:<ul><li>Free</li><li>Pro</li><li>Teams.</li></ul>The free plan brings with it basic publishing features, total anonymity, and unlimited monthly views. It supports Markdown and MathJax and lets you publish three Write.as posts per month to social media channels like Twitter and Tumblr. However, you only get one free blog (you can purchase as many additional blogs as you want for just $12 a year).Write.as Pro ($5 per month when billed annually or $6 month-to-month) comes with a built-in audience, full customization features, and Snap.as image hosting. It also gets you three free blogs and early access to new features.Teams ($9 per user per month) supports unlimited writers and group publishing. It also comes with priority support. However, it doesn’t let you add extra blogs, cross-post to social media sites, or publish to read.write.as. If you have multiple teams, Write.as can create a custom enterprise plan for you.Payment options include credit card, PayPal, and cryptocurrencies. There’s a 14-day refund policy.<h2>Final Verdict</h2>Write.as is a distraction-free publishing platform that is less about the social media aspect of writing (the likes and follows that we all inadvertently seek) and more about getting your thoughts down fast. The platform’s simplicity is refreshing, but not ideal for complex blogging, especially if you don’t know any code. On the other hand, because <a target="_blank" href="https://write.as/">Write.as</a> is open source, technically-minded individuals can change it to suit their needs.

Write.as Review - No Frills, Ad-Free Publishing

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