Articles - Page 57

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

matt-garrepy

<p></p>
<p>You might have heard of Ghost — an open-source blogging platform that launched in 2013. Ghost was founded by John O’Nolan, a former WordPress employee who grew frustrated with the complexities of the traditional blogging platform and decided to do something about it.</p>
<p>Today, more than a million people and businesses use Ghost, including Apple, Tinder, and Mozilla. This number is likely to increase now that the company has rolled out Ghost 3.0 — its biggest release since the first version of Ghost. Here is a comprehensive look at Ghost’s latest update, Ghost 3.0.</p>
<h2>New and Improved Features</h2>
<p>The core idea behind this latest release is to help publishers build and maintain engaged audiences. The new and exciting features introduced as part of Ghost 3.0 reflect this thinking.</p>
<h3>Members &amp; Subscriptions</h3>
<p>The most significant feature introduced by Ghost 3.0 is support for memberships and subscriptions. The feature is still in beta but is fully functioning.</p>
<p>A simple member signup system turns anonymous visitors into registered members, helping you grow a community of like-minded individuals. Ghost 3.0 allows you to set three different access levels:</p>
<ul>
<li>Public content</li>
<li>Members-only content</li>
<li>Paid members-only content.</li>
</ul>
<p>This is what a post with members-only access looks like on Nolan’s own blog:</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot1-1_josxry.png" alt="Ghost 3.0 - 1" /></p>
<p>You can have a combination of all three access levels, as long as your theme supports it. If you already have an audience elsewhere, you can give it access to your new site via Ghost’s imports and integrations function.</p>
<p>Ghost 3.0 has a Stripe integration, so taking payments for premium-membership benefits is effortless. Members can pay for your content via credit card or Apple Pay. You can create your own pricing structure. For example, these are the pricing tiers that Nolan chose for his blog:</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot2-1_ka9xit.png" alt="Ghost 3.0 - 2" /></p>
<p>The billing features are integrated with Stripe Billing API, not Stripe Connect. That means that if Ghost the company were to fold, your site and billing would still work as usual.</p>
<h3>Full-Featured Headless CMS</h3>
<p>Ghost worked tirelessly on improving its APIs (application program interface, a set of protocols for building software applications) and Webhooks (HTTP callbacks that let you create or set up integrations). The company’s efforts have paid off — you can run Ghost 3.0 as a decoupled headless CMS.</p>
<h3>Images</h3>
<p>Working with images on Ghost 3.0 is much easier than before. When you insert an image into a post, it automatically resizes and optimizes it for your theme. This new feature saves you a ton of time and ensures that pages with a lot of images load faster.</p>
<p>You can also add an image gallery with up to nine images at a time. Ghost 3.0 automatically organizes the photos to look their best.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot3-1_vkx3cg.png" alt="Ghost 3.0 Image Galleries" /></p>
<h3>Drag and Drop Capabilities</h3>
<p>Changing the layout of a post with Ghost 3.0 is a breeze. You can drag and drop any card, whether it’s text-based or image-based, within a post. The editor auto-scrolls as you move the cards up and down.</p>
<h3>Bookmark Cards</h3>
<p>Ghost 3.0 lets you add a bookmark card into your post, which simplifies the process of sharing links from sites with no automatic embeds.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot4-1_xra7k5.png" alt="Ghost 3.0 - Cards" /></p>
<p>As long as you use a URL with the correct meta information, the bookmark card will show:</p>
<ul>
<li>Page title</li>
<li>Preview image</li>
<li>Excerpt</li>
<li>Author</li>
<li>Publisher.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Admin Dashboard Updates</h3>
<p>Ghost 3.0 also updated the admin dashboard. There’s a new site preview feature as well as an option to filter drafts and published posts depending on:</p>
<ul>
<li>Author</li>
<li>Status</li>
<li>Date</li>
<li>Tag.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Themes</h3>
<p>The default Ghost theme has been improved, with added support for dark mode. Also, Ghost added three open-source magazine-style themes and a new starter theme for developers to its marketplace.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot_5_ppuumt.png" alt="Ghost 3.0 - themes" /></p>
<h3>WordPress Importer</h3>
<p>Ghost 3.0 has a migration plugin for WordPress, which allows you to export posts, pages, tags, and images into a set of files. Importing these files into Ghost 3.0 is a quick and painless process.</p>
<p>Ghost 3.0 doesn’t have built-in comments, but it integrates with many popular comment platforms so that you can migrate your WordPress comments easily.</p>
<h3>New Integrations</h3>
<p>Ghost makes it easy to set up integrations with multiple apps and tools. New integrations include Ulysses, iA Writer, and <a href="https://write.as/" target="_blank">Write.as</a>, whereas <a href="https://zapier.com" target="_blank">Zapier</a> integration has seen an update.</p>
<h3>That’s Not All!</h3>
<p>On top of the features mentioned above, Ghost 3.0 comes with new developer documentation. The company also launched a weekly newsletter that focuses on important stories, ideas, and publishing resources. If you want to see the full list of updates, take a look at <a href="https://gist.github.com/allouis/aae9e45748da87a6928ac814a04413bb" target="_blank">Ghost 3.0 changelog</a>.</p>
<p></p>


Ghost 3.0 Brings Subscriptions, Memberships and More

laura-martisiute

<p></p>
<p>Whether your business has 10 customers or 100, it’s essential to have the right CRM in place. The most important thing to know about this CRM system is that it’s not just a piece of software; it’s a key component in building a strong relationship with your customers.</p>
<p>So, you need to get it right.</p>
<p>The implementation process is crucial to the success of your CRM system and it’s important to get your team on board from Day 1. After all, what good is an amazing CRM tool that nobody actually uses?</p>
<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigstock-checklist-on-notebook-109688111_1469x0-is.jpg" /></p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/smallbusinesscenter/resources/quickbooks-crm-business-accounting-software.jsp">recent studies</a>, a fully utilized CRM system can increase company sales by 29%. But the key is in the term ‘fully utilized’. A CRM tool that’s sitting gathering dust isn’t going to do much for your business.</p>
<p>Follow this 10 Step CRM Implementation Checklist For SMEs to ensure that your CRM is utilized to its full potential.</p>
<h2>1. Define Your CRM Strategy And Develop Clear Objectives</h2>
<p>Before you even start using your CRM, it’s important to know what exactly you want to achieve with it and how you intend to do so. This is where you also need to identify your KPI’s, so that you can continue to measure the success of your CRM and make adjustments where needed.</p>
<p>For more on how to build a winning CRM strategy, <a href="/how-to-build-a-winning-crm-strategy/">click here</a>.</p>
<p>Once you’ve developed some clear objectives, you should share them with your employees to ensure that everyone is working towards the same end goal.</p>
<h2>2. Choose The Right CRM For Your Business</h2>
<p>There are tons of CRM systems out there designed to meet various requirements and budgets. So, once you’ve identified what you need in a CRM system, it’s time sit down and do some research.</p>
<p>For some extra help, check out my post with <a href="/7-free-crm-systems-that-prove-customer-relationship-management-is-easy/">7 Free CRM Systems</a> for small/medium sized businesses.</p>
<h2>3. Make It Easy</h2>
<p>If you want your employees to use your CRM on a regular basis, then you’re going to have to make the process as easy as possible. If this means training them over and over again, then so be it. Keep at it until the new system become ‘routine’ rather than a chore. You need to create a CRM ‘culture’ rather than simply adding it to their to-do lists.</p>
<p>Sure, they might hate you for a few weeks as you eat into their schedules with training sessions, but they’ll be all the happier at the end of it when the CRM system is helping them with their work, rather than derailing it.</p>
<p>You can give out a few ‘gold stars’ too, if that’s your thing. Or a few reward vouchers, whatever works. Is someone on your team particularly adept with the new system? Great, make them your CRM advocate. They’ll be essential in getting everyone else motivated and using the system.</p>
<p>Has someone else really pushed themselves to get on board, despite being the least tech-savvy individual on the planet? Don’t ignore that, reward them for it. Once you acknowledge that your employees are adjusting well and recognize their hard work, they’ll be even more encouraged to stick with it.</p>
<h2>4. Listen To Your Customers</h2>
<p>You don’t have to create a survey or anything like that, you simply have to listen to what your customers are saying about your company. Assess the complaints you’ve had recently and how they’ve been resolved. Is there anything your new CRM can do to avoid these grievances in the future?</p>
<p>This kind of customer intel is crucial in identifying what areas to focus on with your CRM system.</p>
<h2>5. Integrate Your CRM With Other Systems</h2>
<p>No man is an island, and your CRM shouldn't be one either. Not unless you want it to be less effective. It needs company, i.e. the other systems that you use on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Is it complementary to these systems? And what about data import/export – has this process been streamlined? Once you’ve successfully integrated your CRM with your other commonly used systems/tools, you’ll save yourself and your team a lot of time and resources.</p>
<h2>6. Create An Internal Guidelines Document</h2>
<p>Regardless of the size of your business, you’re still going to need a place to lay out some common guidelines about your CRM. For example, how to input data or register a new sale on the system. Your company intranet is one of the best places to store this document for easy access.</p>
<h2>7. Use The Features You Actually Need</h2>
<p>Your new CRM system might have 100s of features, but that doesn’t mean that you have to use all of them. It’s more important to focus on the features that will work for your business and help you to streamline the current processes within your organization.</p>
<p>Talk to your team and figure out what to prioritize first. You can look at all of the fancy ‘extras’ later on in the game, when you’ve everything else set-up and running perfectly.</p>
<h2>8. Stick With Essential Fields</h2>
<p>It’s important to gain the customer data you need from your CRM, but it’s also important not to overwhelm your team. If your sales team are working hard to hit targets, the last thing they’ll want to do is update a client contact form with about 20 different fields to fill in.</p>
<p>Would you rather they were on the phone to prospective leads or stuck typing irrelevant details into your CRM?</p>
<h2>9. Make Sure Your Hardware Can Keep Up</h2>
<p>It’s important to ensure that your staff are updating their PC’s on a regular basis; if your software isn’t upgraded then it’s going to slow down your new CRM system and frustrate your team. This kind of team is not a happy team.</p>
<h2>10. Evaluate</h2>
<p>Even if your CRM system is working fine, it’s important to keep evaluating it and assessing how it’s benefiting your business. Organise a chat with your team every month or so to see how they’re getting on with it and to discuss any issues that might arise. This will ensure that they keep using the CRM to the best of its potential.</p>
<h2>Successful Implementation = Results</h2>
<p>Remember, your CRM implementation is something that you really need to invest in if you want to see results. By following this checklist, you can ensure that you get the most out of your CRM tool and continue to do so.</p>
<p>Have you recently implemented a new CRM system in your business? Is there anything you’d add to this checklist? Let us know in the comments section below.</p>
<p></p>


10 Step CRM Implementation Checklist For SMEs

grainne-logue

<p></p>
<p>Recently, we spoke with Bryan Cheung, CEO of Liferay about the future of the Liferay platform and his thoughts on the future. Liferay has been expanding rapidly and experiencing a large increase in interest thanks to a tough economy and a need for companies and organizations to find low cost, efficient solutions. Here is the interview in full, enjoy.</p>
<p><strong>CC:</strong> Recently, you announced a <a href="/liferay-to-ship-mulesoft-tcat-server-bundle-new-offering-makes-web-deployment-faster-and-easier/" target="_blank">partnership with Mulesoft</a> to provide an alternative method of packaging Liferay, do you think this is going to change the dynamic of Liferay in the market?</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bryanweb.jpg" alt="Bryan Cheung" /></p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>I think the larger story here Mike is our emphasis on Liferay as a platform. Really moving beyond just the software to Liferay and you know, some of the adjacent technologies all working together to provide solutions for businesses. So a big part of that story for example is our developer tools that we've been building over the last couple of years, some of the presentation layer frameworks that we've been building like Alloy but then on the deployment front, we want to make sure it's as easy as possible for people to get Liferay running in a number of different environments. We've already been doing that and I think it's been one of the more defining differentiators for Liferay since the inception of the product. So, the Mulesoft offering is really just an extension of that. Liferay's always been able to run in all of these different application servers and now we're targeting the Mulesoft offering as well.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>What prompted your decision to go with Mulesoft? Were there specific reasons for its selection?</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>We had a number of customers in Europe who were interested in obtaining official professional support for Tomcat in addition to Liferay. It was something that we had offered unofficially as part of our support subscription but for those who wanted a little bit more assurance there, we thought that having this relationship would be helpful.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>Since the release of Liferay 6 back at the West Coast Symposium, it seems to have put more focus on Liferay as a multi purpose platform. I think prior to it, most people including myself thought of it specifically as a portal and now people are seeing it more as an all purpose tool for multiple deployments. Have you seen a growth in enterprise deployments since 6 came out in a significant number?</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>We had momentum prior to the release of 6 itself and it's hard for me to separate out Liferay 6 itself versus the overall momentum of the company but we're definitely seeing a lot of growth and momentum overall. I would like to think that Liferay 6 has a good deal to do with it just because we introduced so many aspects of the product that enterprises need, workflow obviously being one of them, some of the auditing capabilities and then the overall ease of use.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>What changes have you seen from your customers since the release of 6? Have they had more unique requirements that they now feel they are more easily able to adapt to now with Liferay?</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>We're seeing a lot of hype around the whole concept of social these days and I think people are adding the social moniker to whatever their existing application category is sort of making a big marketing push for it. It's interesting because portals have always really been about connecting the right people to the right information and the right applications, getting them in touch with other people and I think the social element is now broadening and deepening that where it's not just about personalization anymore but it's also community and context.</p>
<p>When you add that social dimension to all of these traditional solutions: intranets, portals, websites, online marketing presences, Liferay or a platform like Liferay, really makes it easy to bring all those things together and to put that social context around it.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>We've been hearing a lot more about Liferay than we did about a year ago or so, what do you think is contributing to this momentum and to your growth?</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>I think it's a combination of the arrival of the product at a certain stage of convergence, bringing a lot of the features into a cohesive whole and then it's also the larger industry trends and economic trends that are going on. On the industry trends side, I think we are seeing a convergence and consolidation among a lot of these adjacent technologies so people aren't really thinking so much in terms of “I need a content management system” or “I need web publishing” or “I need collaboration” but more like “I need to put a lot of these things together and build this thing that I have a vision for and it involves people, it involves stuff, it involves getting people into groups and teams” and Liferay just does a lot of this well. On the financial side obviously with the prices we've been dealing with since 2008, that was really a driver for people to explore more cost efficient solutions like Liferay. More efficient not only from the perspective of the initial costs and the subscription costs but also, as companies are being shaken up, they need to move quickly, they need to bring great ideas to market more quickly. When you use a more flexible and all inclusive platform like Liferay, you are going to be able to response more quickly.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>Do you attribute that flexibility to the fact that Liferay is an open source platform or do you think thats more of a combination of that factor and the fact that your team has been able to develop with a decent turn around?</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>Well, it's definitely both. Open source is a huge part of it and I think our team is also a huge part of it. On the open source side, when you have that kind of scrutiny across such a large number of customers and community members, you really are forced to build a leaner, better product. You can't have bloated code and you are constantly improving the code so thats definitely a factor. Another part is just not having the legacy that some of the other bigger software vendors might have of being older products and being less agile. Of course, huge kudos to my engineering team who are able to spot all of the upcoming trends and respond to them so quickly.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>Does Liferay have any plans to expand integration capabilities with any other platforms such as ERP solutions or any other vendors?</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>Our general strategy is two fold. I think there are some major software packages that its in our interest to develop integrations for. For me personally, things like Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange and Outlook would make a lot of sense to have some preconfigured integrations for. Not intending to replace those systems but really to work alongside them. I think one of the reasons that SharePoint was so popular is because of the way that it works nicely with office and outlook and so we want to look at some of that. There are a whole lot of Lotus Notes customers out there, maybe not as much as on the Microsoft side but it's still a good 30-40% of the market that have so much legacy information in their Notes installations that they are not going to be able to migrate out so having a good solution for bringing that content into a Liferay deployment and then putting social and other contexts around that content will give customers the best of both worlds where they've still got all of their content but we're modernizing it and adapting it for the 21st century.</p>
<p>The other major thing, and you will definitely hear about this in the coming months, is the Liferay marketplace. The marketplace is really going to enable people to have integrations with some of these systems that our partners are going to be able to build for us and deliver to a Liferay audience really quickly through and online presence on the website.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>Is Liferay capable of functioning within a cloud deployment?</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>Yes, Liferay has been designed to deploy to any number of environments. You know, that covers a number of considerations. One is obviously if you've already got some infrastructure pieces then we don't want to force you to swap that out for other stuff. If you've already got IT folks that are well versed in those environments, then you don't want to swap out that expertise. This makes Liferay as widely addressable as possible as far as the different environments it can run on. We do have some customers that have deployed Liferay into cloud environments.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>What is the next major packaging project you are working on?</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>Our next major project is Social Office. Our first real attempt at a solution within the Liferay platform and then we've got some other ideas as well as to some other packaged solutions we can build.</p>
<p><strong>CC: </strong>Great, well thanks for taking the time to speak with us Bryan!</p>
<p><strong>BC: </strong>Ok thanks a lot Mike.</p>
<p>Do you want to learn more about Liferay? You can read the rest of the <a href="/tag/liferay">Liferay news</a> or <a href="http://www.liferay.com" target="_blank">visit their website</a>.</p>
<p></p>


Interview with Bryan Cheung, CEO of Liferay

mike-johnston

<p></p>
<p>Everywhere you look these days, there are experts and articles talking about the importance of social media for business. Whether it’s discussing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, I could point you to 100 articles which offer 100 reasons why each one should be a crucial element of your marketing campaign.</p>
<p>So, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’re probably pretty clear on the importance of integrating social media into your gameplan for success.</p>
<p>But what’s the next step?</p>
<p><a href="/social-engine">SocialEngine</a> have answered that question with a social media network that is designed specifically for your customers or employees, and managed by you.</p>
<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-02-19_at_18_53_16.png" /></p>
<p>SocialEngine has been around for a while now, and the company have continuously upped their game to meet consumer demands. For that very reason, they’ve been hugely successful with their latest offering.</p>
<p>Available as a PHP download (starting with a one of payment of $299 for their Starter package), or as a cloud-based subscription service for $39 a month, SocialEngine claims to provide the best solution for creating your own social network.</p>
<h2>Getting Set Up</h2>
<p>Everything about the initial online setup is easy and intuitive. Name your site, choose your URL, fill out a few questions (or don’t, it’s up to you), and you’re ready to roll.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-02-19_at_19_03_43.png" /></p>
<p>When you first log-in, you’re greeted with an incredibly simple layout which allows you to control billing, account information, subscriptions, and support tickets from one screen. A clearly labeled button takes you to your site’s control panel, and I thought this created a nice separation between the overall controls of the site and the visual control of the front end.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-02-19_at_19_07_03.png" /></p>
<p>The layout is simple, cleanly designed, and offers a ton of options. With SocialEngine, it seems that intuition is the name of the game.</p>
<h2>Excellent Design</h2>
<p>This kind of complex site could have been a design nightmare, but the team at SocialEngine have made their design and admin interface extremely easy to use. Every single thing you need to manage this site is just a click away.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-02-19_at_19_12_56.png" /></p>
<p>The interface is drag-and-drop based and clearly labeled. From here, you can set your email templates, add Google Adsense or Analytics, manage members, and manage themes and add-ons.</p>
<p>It’s incredibly powerful and all encompassing.</p>
<h2>Price Comparison</h2>
<h3>PHP Download</h3>
<p>The PHP download option is a pricey option, but it allows full control over the source files – which may appeal to some businesses. The Starter package ($299) doesn’t include the option for forums, video sharing, blogs, or instant messaging. So, if you’d like these included, you need the Professional pack which costs $449.</p>
<p>Both Starter and Professional packs come with only 30 days of free support and the option to pay for an installation service for $30 extra.</p>
<p>To get free installation and up to 60 free days of technical support, you need the Advanced download which costs $699. For that price, you can avail of additional features such as music sharing. It’s pricey, but probably worth it if you want complete control of the source code.</p>
<p>Personally, I thought the support packages for the Starter and Professional packs could have offered a bit more, given the price point. Just 30 days of free support doesn’t seem like anything near enough for launching a PHP package of this complexity.</p>
<h3>Cloud-Based Service</h3>
<p>SocialEngine’s cloud-based subscription might be a good option for those with a stricter budget and less technical expertise. <a href="/social-enginesign-up" target="_blank">Pricing</a> runs at $39 a month or the equivalent of $29 a month if you pay a year in advance.</p>
<p>This price includes full access to their customer support service, where you can get in touch via a contact form, email them directly, or use the live chat option. All of these are 24/7.</p>
<p>You get the exact same features as with the PHP download, with the exception that all the information is stored on SocialEngine’s servers.</p>
<p>The yearly service for $348 seems to be a no-brainer. It offers practically all the features the PHP download version does, with customer service included for just $50 more than the Starter package. Sure, it’s a yearly payment versus a one-off payment but it’s seems like money well spent to me.</p>
<p>Both price choices offer a generous 14 day trial to assess their service in full.</p>
<h2>Feature Rich</h2>
<p>Make no mistake, SocialEngine provides all of the tools you could ever need to match <a href="http://www.facebook.com" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="http://www.reddit.com" target="_blank">Reddit,</a> or <a href="http://www.pinterest.com" target="_blank">Pinterest </a> – feature for feature. It’s incredibly comprehensive and even lets you pick a theme to match these sites in style and feel.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-02-19_at_19_15_04.png" /></p>
<p>The extensive gallery of plug-ins will allow you to mix and match all the best features of the social networks to your own preference, so that you can create a completely unique site.</p>
<p>Both download and cloud options have a wide range of privacy options that are incredibly easy to control.</p>
<h2>No Branding</h2>
<p>The SocialEngine team have resisted the urge to allow branding on their build, which allows you to completely control the branding of your site from top to bottom. None of your members will ever know that SocialEngine powers your site. You control the logos, the colors, and the content. It’s a great feature for large companies who want to have a custom build, without the investing the megabucks it would cost to build and maintain this kind of project from scratch.</p>
<h2>Pros:</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>One of the most comprehensive community building apps on the market.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>White label feature lets you brand it exactly as you like.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Tons of features and customizable options.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Excellent UI &amp; UX design.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Cons:</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Price-point for the source code download is a little steep and feels like a railroad to their subscription model.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Customer service options limited on the cheaper subscriptions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The Basic packages feel a little sparse on features like HD video and audio.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>So What’s The Verdict?</h2>
<p>Whether you’re trying to create the next Reddit or simply make an internal social network for your employees or customers – SocialEngine gives you the power to do it.</p>
<p>Do I have any issues with it? Sure – the PHP download is incredibly pricey and doesn’t offer enough free support, unless you want to drop nearly $700. Having to pay extra for support after the 30 or 60 days expire is a bit cheeky when you consider the hefty download fee.</p>
<p>However, outside of my price concerns for the PHP download, this is a superb product. It has tons of features, an intuitive design, excellent support on the cloud-based version, and extensive free trials. If you’re in the market for something like this, I definitely recommend giving Social Engine a try.</p>
<p>You might not end up as the next Mark Zuckerberg, but SocialEngine will get you as close as you could hope to get on the technical side.</p>
<p>To sign up for a free trial with SocialEngine, just <a href="/social-enginesign-up" target="_blank">click here</a>. And don't forget to let us know what you think the comments section below.</p>
<p></p>


Social Engine Review

<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sitesupra.com/" target="_blank">SiteSupra</a> has announced significant price cuts for its Standard and Business packages.</p>
<p>Fresh after announcing new templates and features, SiteSupra has made this move, “in response to market demand”. </p>
<p> From here on out, the website builder will be charging just $4.99 per month for its Standard plan, rather than the $9.99 in previously charged. Further to this price drop, SiteSupra has improved its drag-and-drop interface and “liquid” page grid.</p>
<h2>Following Their Vision</h2>
<p>SiteSupra now offers one of the lowest pricing plans for website builders on the market. Their plan is to make SiteSupra more available to students, bloggers, small businesses, and other clients who previously may not have been able to afford a professional website.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitesupra700x0.png" alt="SiteSupra" /></p>
<p>The Standard package will now cost $4.99 for 2GB of space and 5GB traffic. The Business package includes e-commerce, unlimited traffic and unlimited space, and will now cost $12.99.</p>
<p>Regarding the price drop, Anton Sulsky, SiteSupra CEO, made these comments:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We have faced a dilemma for the last six months, but have decided to follow our vision and stay committed to providing the maximum support for small businesses that do not have bottomless pockets. These new prices are valid with immediate effect, and have increased SiteSupra's own web traffic by 35%”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For more information on SiteSupra, <a href="http://www.sitesupra.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>, or check out my <a href="/sitesupra-review/" target="_blank">full review of their platform</a>.</p>
<p></p>


SiteSupra Announces Major Price Drop

<p></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Update: It has come to my attention that this software was actually forked from a free product called Offiria and is almost a complete copy (aside from a logo change). Offiria is free and available from <a href="https://offiria.com/">https://offiria.com/</a> for those interested in getting the software from the original source and for free!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are plenty of products out there that add social networking functionality on top of Joomla via plugins but to date, there haven't been any that have used Joomla as a framework to develop something uniquely different. Today, this changes. We recently were contacted by developers of a new social networking platform built upon Joomla called <em> Undiscuss It </em>  who have done just that.</p>
<p>While the name of the product might be a bit odd and confusing, the product itself looks quite promising.</p>
<p>Here are some screenshots of the system in action:</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/undiscuss-it1010x0.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/undiscuss-it-21010x0.jpg" /></p>
<p>As you can see, the system is quite the departure from what we normally see from Joomla and we think there's definitely potential (with enough interest and support from users) for this system to evolve nicely.</p>
<p>Interested? Check it out at <a href="http://www.undiscuss.it">http://www.undiscuss.it</a> and let us know what you think in the comments! </p>
<p></p>


Social Networking with Joomla just got better

<p><a href="https://www.ecwid.com/" target="_blank">Ecwid</a> has taken steps to improve their order status listings, making them more descriptive.</p>
<p>Powering over 500,000 online stores across 175 countries, Ecwid is a popular eCommerce platform with a growing user base.</p>
<p>The new order status system will help existing and new Ecwid merchants by making order management easier for them and their customers. Let's take a look at how Ecwid hope to achieve that.</p>
<h2>Five Order Status Improvements</h2>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/statuses_header_1700x0.png" alt="Ecwid" /></p>
<p>Ecwid have implemented five changes to their order status system, covering more bases and making situations easier to understand for both merchant and customer. Here they all are:</p>
<h3>1. Two New Statuses</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Refunded</strong> in the Payment statuses list</li>
<li><strong>Returned</strong> in the Fulfillment statuses list</li>
</ul>
<p>Ecwid have decided that ‘refunded’ and ‘returned’ each deserve their own status to allow merchants to better track their sales and react to any possible issues.</p>
<h3>2. “<strong>Queued”</strong> &amp; “Accepted” Statuses Renamed to “<strong>Awaiting Payment”</strong> &amp; “<strong>Paid”</strong></h3>
<p>These two new names better describe whether the money has been received from customer or not. This update is sure to clarify each status for both the merchant and the customer.</p>
<h3>3. “<strong>Declined”</strong> has merged with “<strong>Canceled”</strong></h3>
<p>Although an order becomes Declined or Canceled under different conditions (declined is set by the payment gateway while Canceled is set manually by store administrator), the store owner sees both as a canceled order. Now, the formerly independent Declined status appears as Canceled.</p>
<h3>4. “<strong>Chargeable”</strong> Replaced with “<strong>Awaiting Payment”</strong></h3>
<p>Ecwid have claimed that the Chargeable status became redundant because it is either Queued or Awaiting Payment. To eliminate unnecessary complexity, Chargeable no longer exists as a separate status.</p>
<h3>5. “<strong>New”</strong> Renamed to “<strong>Awaiting Processing”</strong></h3>
<p>Similar to Awaiting Payment in the payment status list, Awaiting Processing will say much more to merchants and customers about state of the order rather than New.</p>
<p>And that's it. Subtle changes for some, but they will come in very handy for merchants – especially for those with large amounts of orders.</p>
<p>To learn more about these Ecwid changes, check out the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ecwid-introduces-improved-order-statuses/" target="_blank">official blog announcement</a>.</p>
<p></p>


Ecwid Introduces Improved Order Statuses

CMS Summit 26

Find out at Open Source CMS 26, October 20-21 in Utrecht, Netherlands

What's ahead for Open Source CMS?

#ffffff

<p>Drupal has long been known for it's incredible extensibility and today we're focusing on two projects that make the best use of this strength. What follows are two of the best Drupal based projects we've seen so far.  Let's get started.</p>
<h2>OpenPublish</h2>
<p>First up comes an incredibly good project for those looking to use Drupal as a publishing platform and is called OpenPublish. OpenPublish is a project created by <a href="http://www.phase2technology.com/">Phase2 Technology</a> and is geared towards publishers looking to take advantage of Drupal's flexibility to create a unique and powerful publishing site.</p>
<p>OpenPublish works with:</p>
<ul>
<li>Apache Solr (faceted search index)</li>
<li>Pressflow (Drupal performance enhancement)</li>
<li>Open source cache technologies for performance (e.g. Memecached and Varnish)</li>
<li>Content Delivery Networks like Akamai</li>
</ul>
<p>Some key features include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Semantic Tools like: Content autotagging, geotagging and map integration, topic hubs and content suggestions.</li>
<li>Monetization with: In-stream advertising and gated content,</li>
<li>Engagement options such as: Facebook integration, topic hubs, comments and talkback, multimedia and contextual highlights with apture.</li>
<li>Syndication and Promotion with: Featured Content, Social Bookmarking and Email forwarding and RSS Feeds.</li>
<li>Asset Management using: Source Documents and Image Management.</li>
</ul>
<p>What does it look like?</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/imcreatorxx_bh2psk.jpg" alt="OpenPublish" /></p>
<p>More info: <a href="http://openpublishapp.com/" target="_blank">OpenPublish</a></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>MediaMosa</h2>
<p>Next in line comes MediaMosa. This projects is best described as software to build a Full Featured, Webservice Oriented Media Management and Distribution platform.</p>
<p>The main features of a MediaMosa platform are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Delivery platform for audio, video (and in fact any other content)</li>
<li>Streaming of any format (e.g. Flash, H.264 MPEG-4 and WindowsMedia)</li>
<li>Transcoding based on FFmpeg</li>
<li>Flexible Metadata Element Sets</li>
<li>Access management functions on Media</li>
<li>Enhanced Still functions</li>
<li>Open Source under GPLv2 license</li>
</ul>
<p>For more information, visit <a href="http://mediamosa.org/" target="_blank">MediaMosa</a></p>
<p>Do you have a project that you think should be listed here? Let us know in the comments.</p>
<p>Keep checking back for the latest updates or join our newsletter to win prizes and stay up to speed once a month.</p>


Best Drupal based Projects

<p></p>
<p>Last week, our focus was on <a href="http://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">Solodev CMS 8</a>, as we made our way through yet another featured week.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/soldodev-logo-1_400x0.png" /></a><br />I got to <a href="/exploring-solodev-cms-8/" target="_blank">explore the enterprise platform’s core features</a>, its <a href="/solodev-cms-bringing-multi-site-management-to-healthcare-organizations/" target="_blank">presence within the healthcare industry</a>, the role it plays for <a href="/solodev-cms-powering-next-generation-local-government-websites-to-improve-constituent-services/" target="_blank">numerous local government bodies throughout the United States</a>, and the <a href="/solodev-cms-facilitating-successful-project-launches/" target="_blank">Solodev team's willingness to help launch large scale projects</a>.</p>
<p>As usual, the featured week gave me, and all our readers, an intriguing glimpse into a capable CMS.</p>
<h2>A Walkthrough of Solodev CMS 8</h2>
<p>To garnish that glimpse, here's a video walkthrough of Solodev CMS 8's features, led by Joe Forgét, Chief Innovation Officer at Solodev.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ws5LzRTK77g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>To find out more about Solodev CMS, <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a></p>
<p></p>


A Video Overview of Solodev CMS 8

<p></p>
<p>To a cheering audience at Sitecore's North American Symposium (#SYMNA), Coveo announced they will now be offering a free edition of their popular search solution for Sitecore.</p>
<p>Coveo for Sitecore – Free Edition helps marketers harness the power of search to drive visitor engagement, by enabling them to build and manage compelling search experiences using their familiar Sitecore management console &amp; tools. Dynamic search pages and search-driven content can be quickly configured, delivering an engaging, consistent visitor experience across all browsers and mobile devices.</p>
<p>The Coveo solution ships with a rich JavaScript user interface, enabling Sitecore developers to build custom search experiences using Coveo’s framework and components. Coveo technology can also be applied to existing CRM and knowledge management platforms for a more effective search experience. To ensure each site visitor is always exposed to the site’s most relevant content, messaging and product offers, Coveo for Sitecore – Free Edition provides administrators with an actionable analytics dashboard and tools to easily tune the solution’s relevance engine.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitecore-coveo.png" /></p>
<p>I asked Coveo’s Chairman and CEO, Louis Têtu to explain why they chose Sitecore as their platform partner of choice and this was his reply:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Sitecore to us has been a great bet, they are well positioned in the space with their offering and have a great platform for web content management and from a technology fit perspective they fit well with us. Coveo is both competent in the cloud but also in the .NET environment and Sitecore architecture worked well with our product from the get go.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For additional details on Sitecore for Coveo, check out the video below:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yPTLKR2jvTc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.coveo.com/en/sitecore-search">Coveo for Sitecore</a> today.</p>
<p></p>


Coveo Announces Free Edition of Coveo Search for Sitecore #SYMNA

<p>The fine folks at Telerik just released Sitefinity CMS 4.1 and with this release, they bring about a ton of cool new features and enhancements. Here is a breakdown of what you can expect from this release.</p>
<h3>Ready for the cloud.</h3>
<p>Sitefinity 4.1 now offers native support for Windows Azure and SQL Azure.  What does this mean to you? It means that all websites created with 4.1 are ready for the cloud. Since the Azure operating system runs on virtualized hardware, there are no hardware specific dependencies.</p>
<h3>Faster than a speeding bullet (by about 35%)</h3>
<p>This new version also offers a 35% boost in speed! This is a part of an ongoing initiative to refine and optimize the product with each new release. Furthermore, 4.1 includes several important improvements that enable non-technical end-users to automatically take advantage of Sitefinity’s existing performance engineering. All pages are now cached by default and Sitefinity’s Cache Expiration Monitor will automatically &amp; intelligently refresh the page cache when required.</p>
<h3>New flavours!</h3>
<p>Now you can enjoy Sitefinity in the following languages with the new language pack that has been introduced.</p>
<p>These new language packs enable content creators to be more productive by interacting with fully localized user-interface. The languages available out of the box are:</p>
<ol>
<li>English</li>
<li>German</li>
<li>Dutch</li>
<li>Italian</li>
<li>French</li>
<li>Spanish</li>
<li>Portuguese</li>
<li>Turkish</li>
<li>Arabic</li>
</ol>
<h3>Reusable Content = More bang with less duplication</h3>
<p>In order to avoid content duplication (which can have negative impacts on both speed, consistency and SEO performance), you can now use Share Content. Using Sitefinity Shared Content this text can be typed once and shared everywhere. If the content ever changes, it can be modified effortlessly in a single location.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webstarts11-620x433_k4mvwy.jpg" alt="SharedContent" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>But that's not all! For a full list of new features, visit <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/asp-net-cms-features/whats-new.aspx">http://www.sitefinity.com/asp-net-cms-features/whats-new.aspx</a></p>


Sitefinity 4.1 - Ready for the cloud and a lot faster!

<p></p>
<p>Jimdo, the widely popular website builder, has <a href="http://blog.jimdo.com/introducing-the-new-jimdo-experience-2014/" target="_blank">recently unveiled</a> a newer, sleeker version of itself.</p>
<p>Originally founded in 2004 under the name “NorthClick”, Jimdo has grown into one of the most user-friendly website builders on the market. Now, with the arrival of this “New Jimdo Experience”, the platform is pushing itself even further up the website builder ladder.</p>
<p>This new and improved Jimdo brings about a revamped user interface, modern templates, and much more. Let's take a look.</p>
<h2>New Templates, More Design Features &amp; Smoother Editing</h2>
<p>Along with this update, Jimdo released 30 new templates, with more being prepared. Plus, each new template comes in numerous pre-styled variations, which you can preview with your page’s content before making the change official.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/design_variations700x0.gif" alt="Jimdo" /></p>
<p>Plus, this reformed version of Jimdo allows you to insert and edit text directly on your page, rather than having to open up a separate window or pop-up box. This inline editing feature naturally makes building web pages faster, and a little more fun, too.</p>
<p>To further enhance the design process, Jimdo’s new style editor gives you access to hundreds of customization settings. All you have to do is click on a piece of text, a header image, or a background, before making it look exactly how you want. There's a full colour palette and hundreds of Google Fonts to experiment with.</p>
<p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/fonts700x0.png" alt="Jimdo" /></p>
<p>But that's not all. Jimdo has sprinkled this update with a range of smaller enhancements.</p>
<p>These include an improved shopping basket, new social buttons, improved widget/HTML elements, and even an opacity option for coloured areas.</p>
<p>For some more information on the all new Jimdo, check out their <a href="http://blog.jimdo.com/introducing-the-new-jimdo-experience-2014/" target="_blank">official announcement</a>, plus their <a href="http://blog.jimdo.com/8-jimdo-updates-youll-want-to-try-today/" target="_blank">coverage of the eight notable features</a> that Jimdo users can now enjoy.</p>
<p>Also,be sure to check out <a href="/products/jimdo/" target="_blank">Jimdo via our CMS Directory</a>.</p>
<p></p>


A Look Inside the New Jimdo Experience

<p></p>
<p>Photoshop is the first word in graphic design software and like most leading software products, it demands a fee from anyone who wants to use it. In fact, to access Photoshop, you'll need to fork out about $19.99 every month. Personally, I don't have an issue with this given how powerful Photoshop is but there are those who do.</p>
<p>Thankfully, there is a solution to this price problem.</p>
<p>Free alternatives to Photoshop do exist, and they hold their own in terms of quality, too. Here they all are. You can check here for non-free <a href="/paid-photoshop-alternatives/">Photoshop alternatives</a>).</p>
<p></p>
<h1>1. GIMP</h1>
<p>Announced to the public in 1995, GIMP is one of the most popular free Photoshop alternatives on the market. It's also likely to be the most powerful graphic design tool on this list. It's free and open source, but packs a professional punch nonetheless.</p>
<p></p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/free-photoshop-alternatives---gimp.jpg" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - GIMP" /><figcaption>GIMP Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>There are big similarities between Photoshop and GIMP in terms of  functionality and user interface, so many find migration from one to the  other to be easy. GIMP is also capable of opening and working with PSD files, which are Photoshop specific.</p>
<p>GIMP has a number of high quality features which definitely hold their own against those of Photoshop. The  professional features available in GIMP such as color adjustment tools, customizable brushes, gradients, and auto image enhancement tools, make it easy for users to create artwork from scratch and edit  photos/images.</p>
<p>The in-depth tutorials cater for all users from beginners to advanced level. This makes it super accessible to everyone, including users who aren’t familiar with the open-source application</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="http://www.gimp.org/">GIMP website</a></p>
<h2>2. Inkscape</h2>
<p>Inkscape is a free and open source  vector graphics editor. It’s perfect for creating icons for apps and  websites, cartoon illustrations, and logos. Despite being free, Inkscape  looks and feels incredibly advanced. Some of its many features include  intelligent drawing tools, the ability to import and export multiple  file types, add-ons, and multilingual support. These powerful tools and  its intuitive UI make it an excellent option for beginners.</p>
<p>Although it’s probably a little more  comparable to Illustrator, Inkscape is a great free Photoshop  alternative, especially if you want to save some $$$ (since it’s free).</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/free-photoshop-alternative-inkscape.png" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - Inkscape" /><figcaption>Inkscape Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>It's also one of the few options on the list compatible with Linux (along with GIMP that is).</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="https://inkscape.org/en/">Inkscape website.</a></p>
<h2>3. Pixia</h2>
<p>Pixia is a raster painting program and graphics editor specifically well–suited for many forms of digital painting.</p>
<p>It offers a lightweight painting environment for digital painting and artwork of all types! Unlike other digital painting and editing tools, Pixia strips the bloatware features away, leaving a fast, focused environment that ensures you can paint without any distraction.</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/free-photoshop-alternatives---pixia.jpg" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - Pixia" /><figcaption>Pixia Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>It is also freeware making it a great free Photoshop alternative.</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mighty/knight/index.html">Pixia website</a>.</p>
<h2>4. exPhoto</h2>
<p>exPhoto is another application by the same developer that created Pixia and is more geared towards photo editing and print graphics. The advantage is that you can choose which application best suits your needs at the time. </p>
<p>Doing some digital painting? Load up Pixia. Looking to touch up a photo? Time for exPhoto. Sure you have to install two apps but it keeps the features geared towards the task at hand, which is smart.</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/free-photoshop-alternative---exphoto.jpg" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - exPhoto" /><figcaption>exPhoto Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>exPhoto is also capable of handling and saving as PSD, just like GIMP.</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mighty/knight/exphoto.html">exPhoto website.</a></p>
<h2>5. Pixlr</h2>
<p>Pixlr comes in two distinct flavours.  Pixlr Express is ideal for quick fixes and simple edits, while Pixlr  Editor is for power users. Both are both free, and both are  browser-based web apps, so there's never any need to download the  software. This makes it ideal for Chromebook users, too.</p>
<p>Pixlr is feature-packed but has a clean UI that makes it easy to navigate these features without seeming  “cluttered” or overwhelming the users with the number of options  available.</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/free-photoshop-alternative---pixlr.png" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - Pixlr" /><figcaption>Pixlr Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>One super useful benefit to Pixlr is that it runs free Android and iOS apps that allow you to edit right from your smartphone.</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="https://pixlr.com/">Pixlr website.</a></p>
<h2>6. Krita</h2>
<p>Krita was created by artists with the  aim of making art tools affordable to everyone. This is an open source digital sketching and painting studio that is geared towards concept artists. illustrators, and designers who want to sketch from scratch. So, if you want to edit existing imagery, this one isn't for you. Krita  also offers training material to kickstart your illustration career (or  hobby), and can open PSD files, too.</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/krita_animation2_pssib7.gif" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - Krita" /><figcaption>Krita Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>There is a bit of a learning curve to software and the UI isn’t too user-friendly, so its best suited to users with some experience. But once you get the hang of it this is an excellent Photoshop alternative that’s full of great features for  painting and design.</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="https://krita.org/en/">Krita website.</a></p>
<h2>7. Canva</h2>
<p>Canva is a browser-based web app that provides everything a graphic designer needs. For those who like to work on their phones or tablets, there are apps for iOS and Android as well.</p>
<p>Used by over 10 million people, Canva  serves up millions of stock images, hundreds of fonts, and a wide range  of filters, icons, and shapes. With their resources to hand, you can  drag and drop images into place before editing them. The simplicity of Canva makes sophisticated design accessible to everyone with a diverse range of templates available, and even the most amateur of users will get decent design outcomes with the help of this app.</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/canva_hepqwn.png" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - Canva" /><figcaption>Canva Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>Seasoned graphic designers may find Canva to be a little lightweight, but it’s a useful app to have on hand when you need to take a few shortcuts and don’t want to sacrifice quality in the process. This is a freemium app and more experienced designers will definitely want the paid version, but pricing is nowhere near Photoshop territory. Check out our <a href="/canva-review/">Canva Review</a> to learn more.</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="https://canva.7eqqol.net/c/12549/647168/10068?adcampaigngroup=Pro_LP">Canva website.</a></p>
<h2>8. Paint.NET</h2>
<p>Thanks to its image based tabs system  which makes it easy to work on multiple projects at once, Paint.Net is a great free alternative to Photoshop. Also, the inclusion of layers – a feature normally reserved for expensive professional software – makes Paint.Net tough to beat. The UI will feel familiar to Photoshop users but it’s also very easy to pick up for newbies.</p>
<p>I see it as a halfway house between Microsoft Paint and Photoshop, making it easy for graphic design newbies  to grasp. And it's for that reason – among others – that I've personally been using Paint.NET for all my image editing needs over the  last few years. It’s simplicity combined with the advanced features  available makes it a tough one to beat and also a great option for users  that have difficulty with software that’s geared more towards  experienced users. Features include a number of special effects that can  sharpen, blur, emboss, distort, and eliminate red-eye from photos in a  few clicks.</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pdn40_kirkland_y8gqzp.jpg" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - Paint.NET" /><figcaption>Paint.NET Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>It's bad news for Mac users though, as Paint.NET is available only for Windows.</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="http://www.getpaint.net/">Paint.NET website.</a></p>
<h2>9. Seashore</h2>
<p>If you're a dedicated Mac user, Seashore may be for you. Available only for Mac OS X's Cocoa framework, Seashore takes inspiration from GIMP (number one on this list) by serving up similar functionality and using the same native file format.</p>
<p>However, unlike the GIMP, Seashore is  aimed at a broader audience who just want to do some basic image editing. It’s ideal for new users who with little experience in this area, although the UI is pretty basic and definitely leaves room for improvement.</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1_tdzwny.jpg" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - Seashore" /><figcaption>Seashore Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>If you’re an amateur photographer or just need to perform some basic image editing, Seashore will do the trick.</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.html">Seashore website.</a></p>
<h2>10. SumoPaint</h2>
<p>SumoPaint's slogan is, ‘Photoshopping  in your browser' – which is pretty self-explanatory. It's an incredibly powerful web app with an answer to most if not all of Photoshop's best features.</p>
<p>It’s also super fast to navigate and  the interface is definitely pleasing to the eye. All of the standard  features are accessible for free, such as gradient fill, blur, smudge, line tools, and other features you’d expect to find in Photoshop.</p>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sumopaint.jpg" alt="Free Photoshop Alternative - SumoPaint" /><figcaption>SumoPaint Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
<p>You can use it through your browser and tolerate the ads, or upgrade to SumoPaint Pro to use it without ads and utilize more features.users to access all the basic image manipulation features for free. SumoPaint Pro also allows you to download the software so you can use it offline.</p>
<p>Learn more at the <a href="https://www.sumopaint.com/">SumoPaint website.</a></p>
<h2>Free Graphic Design Software That Doesn't Suck</h2>
<p>Photoshop is a powerhouse, but if you're struggling to justify its  rather heavy price-tag, then the eight Photoshop alternatives listed  above should tide you over.</p>
<p>If you are curious as to what options exist with a price tag, check out our list of <a href="/paid-photoshop-alternatives/">Paid Photoshop Alternatives</a>.</p>
<p>Do you know of any other free Photoshop alternatives? Share them with us in the comments section below!</p>


10 Free Photoshop Alternatives

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