Articles - Page 93

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

matt-garrepy

A growing number of content management systems today either are themselves a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), or offer a SaaS in one way, shape or form.
Today, <a href="http://www.instartlogic.com/" target="_blank">Instart Logic</a> – creators of the world’s first Web Application Streaming Network™, have introduced a new vertical product line into the world of SaaS providers, making it easier than ever before to deliver premium, zero-wait web experiences to their customers on any device, and any network.
The aim of Instart Logic has always been to empower web publishers to deliver current and next-generation web applications that dramatically boost user engagement, customer loyalty and drive new revenue streams. So, let's take a close look at what they now have in store for SaaS providers.
<h2>Boosting the Performance of Browser-Based Applications</h2>
The SaaS market is growing at rapid speeds. In fact, technology researchers <a href="http://www.gartner.com/technology/home.jsp" target="_blank">Gartner</a> has forecast the global value of SaaS spending to hit $45 billion in 2017, up from $15 billion in 2012.
To help capture that growth, web-based SaaS providers such as New Relic, VersionOne, IFTTT and RelateIQ are increasingly turning to Instart Logic to help them accelerate premium “native-like” application experiences for their browser-based applications.
David Peterson, VP of Site Operations at New Relic had this to say of Instart Logic's service:
<blockquote>“We deliver an application performance tool as a service so we needed to make sure that our own web-based application performed at the highest levels of performance for our tens of thousands of customers from Australia to Austin, Texas. We selected Instart Logic because of their innovative approach, their company wide focus on performance and the great support we've received.”</blockquote>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/8700x0.png" alt="Instart Logic" />
Additionally, Ian Cullin, CTO of VersionOne explains how Instart Logic improved their platform's performance by a staggering 50%:
<blockquote>“We provide an entirely web-based system to over 50,000 agile development teams worldwide building mission critical code with our agile project management software. Our customers are largely developers. They are extremely intolerant of poor application performance. So we need to make sure that our own application performs at the highest level no matter where our customers are. Instart Logic’s innovative services give VersionOne users fast, fresh updates from constantly-changing projects and improved our performance by 50% – something CDNs could never do.”</blockquote>
To get a better understanding of just how much Instart Logic's service can improve performance, take a look at the video below, where VersionOne SaaS application can be seen loading both with and without Instart Logic in place. You can also view <a href="http://go.instartlogic.com/Case_Study_VersionOne.html" target="_blank">Instart Logic's detailed VersionOne case study</a>.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMTh-IxM1cs
<h2>Unique Web-Performance Technology</h2>
In a constantly evolving world of web-technology, where users and platforms rely more heavily upon cloud services and mobile devices, CDNs are stuggling to serve highly dynamic web applications.
Previously, WAN optimization controllers could provide some point-to-point relief for internally hosted applications, but even their efficacy has slowly but surely wavered due to application backends moving to the cloud and users continue to become more mobile orientated.
In response, Instart Logic has focused on building unique web-performance technology not available anywhere else. Instart Logic’s performance advantage is based on two new and improved technology offerings, as detailed below.
<ul>
<li> Global Network Accelerator (GNA) uses a new purpose-built binary middle-mile protocol for intra-proxy transmissions. This new protocol, called IPTP (Inter Proxy Transfer Protocol), sets up a persistent matrix of connections between Instart Logic’s global serving locations, and then efficiently frames and multiplexes dynamic transfers through it to erase network bottlenecks caused by distance and congestion. IPTP has been built using Google’s protobuf technology. Google, which uses protobuf extensively for implementing its own internal communication protocols, has open-sourced the technology.</li>
<li> Dynamic HTML Streaming is a new application-intelligent technology that distinguishes between unique and non-unique dynamic HTML. This solution automatically sends non-personalized portions of the application from the closest server so the user can start being productive with the web application much sooner. In this latest iteration the system has been expanded to leverage Instart Logic’s transparent client-side virtualization layer, the NanoVisor™, to allow use with even completely personalized HTML code.</li>
</ul>
Manav Mital, CEO and co-founder of Instart Logic, had this to say about his company's newly enhanced features:
<blockquote>“We are responding to strong demand from SaaS providers with a genuinely disruptive solution that gives them a new class of web application acceleration tools. With these technologies, SaaS vendors are better able to give their end customers exceptionally high performance and data freshness on any device and any type of network.”</blockquote>
To find out more about Instart Logic's newly implemented SaaS acceleration features, <a href="http://instartlogic.com/solutions/saas/" target="_blank"> check out their SaaS Solutions page</a>.

Instart Logic Launches New Web Acceleration Service for SaaS Providers‏

mike-johnston

Top Headless Commerce Platforms

cms-critic-staff

Headless commerce image of headless horseman and shopping bag

The popular eCommerce solution <a href="https://selz.com/" target="_blank">Selz</a> has just given its users a new way to sell online.
Previously, Selz could only be integrated with existing websites, Facebook, WordPress and other platforms. Now though, with <a href="https://selz.com/blog/new-store-pro-app-make-store-even-beautiful/" target="_blank">Store Pro</a>, Selz has expanded its functional scope, giving users a fully functioning stand-alone store with its own domain name. 
The Selz team have been busy recently. The launch of Store Pro is the latest in a mini-flurry of updates. Recently, Selz announced <a href="/selz-gives-users-more-uploading-power/" target="_blank">more uploading power</a> for users, <a href="/selz-steps-up-google-analytics-integration/" target="_blank">Google Analytics integration</a>, and the launch of a new <a href="/selz-releases-new-shopping-cart-app/" target="_blank">Shopping Cart App</a>. Let's take a look at what Store Pro brings.
<h2>Stand-alone Selling &amp; Enhanced Customization</h2>
Store Pro gives you a fully customizable online store with pages, categories and everything you need for professional online sales. Users can use Store Pro as a stand-alone website with our stunning ready made <a href="https://selz.com/support/use-themes-selz/" target="_blank">Themes</a> or <a href="https://selz.com/support/customise-store-advanced/" target="_blank">customize the theme </a>to integrate seamlessly with your WordPress, Tumblr or Blogger site.
Here are some of the highlights:
<ul>
<li>Fully customizable store design, navigation and pages</li>
<li>Add a custom domain for a stand-alone store or link it to your blog or website</li>
<li>Choose one of our professionally designed store templates or create your own</li>
<li>Set SEO title and description for your store to increase search rankings</li>
<li>Professional theme editor to create your own themes</li>
</ul>
There's a big focus on aesthetics with this release too. Selz are pushing their responsive and customizable themes as a core feature.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2e466334-3ff4-48e5-ba75-785fb35e6c86.png" alt="Selz" />
This move is undoubtedly an interesting one. It brings Selz into the fold of standard eCommerce platforms, and takes it away fom just being an extension for existing websites. It will be interesting to see how Selz develops from here on out.
Selz are also offering a free 14-day trial of Store Pro. You can sign up to that right <a href="https://selz.com/apps/detail/5386dc985a6fba8336c4ad64" target="_blank">here</a>.

Selz Launches Store Pro App

<h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/simple-intranet636x0-is.jpg" /></h2>
<h2>Ready In No Time At All</h2>
You’ve got enough on your plate without delving into the fickle details of intranet design. The beauty of using an intranet template is its pre-designed nature, which inherently brings speed and convenience of deployment. These templates have an extensive range of business modules and tools, all of which have been designed and tested for usability and functionality already. Pick and choose which features your organization will benefit from and include these while chopping off any unneeded ones. As an example, if your business does not need a shared documents function, then it’s as simple as selecting not to have this function included. It’s a fallacy that the use of a template means mandated features and a rigorous structure. In fact, you can even go as far as customizing color and font to reflect your organization’s unique identity! An intranet template makes deploying intranet incredibly convenient, and enjoyable.
As well as this, managing a <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/simple-intranet/">simple intranet</a> on an ongoing basis is a straightforward process with an intranet template. Even the non-technical person will find it a breeze to navigate, adding and deleting users, creating content and updating pages. Familiar file faces and intuitive administration tools mean you’ll be able to hit the ground running, and your people will love you for it!
<h2>No More Signing A Blank Check</h2>
Everyone wants to get the right bang for their buck. The trouble is, often when organizations try to build their own intranet from scratch or attempt some similar do-it-yourself solution, this can be the same as signing a blank check. Unless you have an intranet professional in your business, then as confident as your team may be heading into the project, there’s a good chance they’ll run into unforeseen issues. More often than not, companies find themselves sinking more and more resource into the design of their own intranet, when the use of an intranet template deployed by a professional could have had the job done for a fraction of the time and price.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/intranet-blank-check636x0-is.png" />
The only way to truly guarantee a strong return on your investment, with upfront, controlled costs, is to partner with an intranet provider. A good provider will sit down and map out the process with you on day one, so you can clearly understand at your end what to expect from your investment. For example, at MyHub they offer a fixed monthly fee which covers unlimited data and number of users, as well as ongoing support. No more escalating costs when you find out an additional feature needs to be updated! The end result is a very affordable, cost-effective solution.
<h2>Why Not Get The Best?</h2>
Partnering with an intranet provider keeps your business ahead. Chances are, your intranet provider will have worked with organizations similar to yours, and know which features and tools add the most value for your specific needs. Instead of spending the time yourself, making decision after decision on various features, your intranet provider will ensure you get the right solution to keep your business moving forward. An intranet template means taking advantage of best practice in the industry — it’s your provider’s job to keep you abreast of the latest developments in intranet design so that you can focus your energies elsewhere. The specialist knowledge that comes from using an external professional is immensely valuable. At the end of the day, running your business is what you do best—why not leave the technical stuff to those who do it every day? This way, you can be out there focusing on your operations, while we focus on keeping you winning behind the scenes.
Great, simple intranet has a strong structure and intuitive navigation. Intranet templates make achieving this incredibly easy, and ensure you get the best framework for your platform. Built-in signposts, widgets, iframes and menus guarantee that your employees will be able to quickly find their way around your intranet and enjoy it too. Again, experienced intranet providers know all the best techniques to creating a well-structured intranet, and already have the templates for this. Templates are pre-tested for ease of use and are optimized with the perspective of the end user in mind. It’s this kind of focus that means an intranet template ensures your organization gets the best solution possible. Unless you have the expertise in-house, and a lot of time to burn to develop the appropriate site map, main menu and navigation, then perhaps an intranet template will be a great choice.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/intranet-software621x0-is.jpg" />Another reason intranet templates may be the simple, high quality solution you’re after is their advanced search capability. It’s all well and good having a zany, aesthetically pleasing intranet… But if your people can’t find what they want in a few clicks, disengagement is just around the corner. Pre-designed, simple intranet templates make this challenge simple. They’ve already tested and created the appropriate functionality with businesses like yours, and have a great search capability extending to key words, themes, tags, names, titles — the list goes on! No fumbling around, just the data you want in an instant.
<h2>Peace Of Mind</h2>
Imagine your competitor scrolling through documents, conversations and posts from your company’s intranet? Not a pleasant thought and one that a cloud-based intranet provider ensures will never happen. All security matters are taken care of, from updates to back-ups, secure document filing, SSL encryption and file permissions. Internally and externally, your security concerns are handled by professionals using the latest industry best practice. No need to train someone internally to keep abreast of this, or spend the time designing a robust system up front. Simple, convenient, and most of all, safe.
<h2>Roll Out A Simple Intranet… Now!</h2>
There’s no need to reinvent the steering wheel. Sure, there are some circumstances where you may have the time, energy and expertise necessary to roll out a fantastic intranet, in which case, great! Chances are, like most other business owners and executives, time is of the essence, and intranet isn’t something you can afford to sink vast amounts of resource into. Using an intranet template is a very easy and cost-effective way to implement a premium, professionally designed and delivered, simple intranet.
If you’re struggling with the design for your intranet and you’d like some expert advice, get in touch with the friendly team at <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com">MyHub Intranet</a> today. Take advantage of our free trial offer and see for yourself how easy it is to deploy a simple intranet design template.

A Simple Intranet: It's Here!

It's competition time here on CMS Critic, and anybody can take part.
How would you like the chance to get your thoughts, ideas, product, name and face in front of thousands of readers?
Well, if you enjoy talking about content management systems and related topics (which, as a CMS Critic reader, you probably do), then there's now a good chance of that happening. Read on to find out how to enter, how to win, and what the prizes are.
<h2>CMS Critic Forum Competition</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/speech-35342_640cms13.jpg" />
The CMS Critic Forum has been recently relaunched, with the aim of becoming a hub for the CMS, web design and web development community.
To enter the competition, all you need to do it head over to the forum, sign up , and start posting. The aim is to achieve as many “Likes” on your contributions as possible.
Each post can be liked by other forum members, and they all get tallied up on the sidebar, under “Likes Earned”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1.jpg" /> 
The person with most “Likes” by December 1st 2014 will be offered the chance to write an article for publication on CMS Critic. The two runners-up will also be rewarded when I eventually write up a competition summary, where a (do-follow) link to their website and a short bio will be published.
<h2>Terms &amp; Cons (Or the Lack Thereof)</h2>
We aren't setting any restrictions on who can take part in this competition. Whether you work for a vendor large or small, are launching your own project, or are simply a fan of CMS &amp; website design in general, we'd be happy to have you on the forum.
We do however, reserve the right to reject articles from the winner which are irrelevant and/or inappropriate to CMS Critic.

Competiton: Get Published on CMS Critic

There are way too many extensions in the Joomla directory to truly make a Top 10 list since so many of them are excellent.
We do, however, have some favourite we thought we'd share in order to help them get some more exposure.
Here they are in no particular order or ranking:
#1 – JomSocial 
JomSocial is an excellent addon reminiscent of Community Builder in that it provides some very cool add on functionality that turns Joomla! into a more social environment. JomSocial has quite a few options and we find it a bit more attractive in that it seems to blend well into the system and provide for a more attractive look.
<img style="max-width:489px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/splash_image_2.png" alt="jomsocial" />

Our Top 10 Favourite Joomla Extensions

<a href="http://modxcms.com">MODx CMS</a> has continually been gaining in popularity over the years and we thought it would be interesting to touch base with the founder of this great CMS and get his thoughts on the project, how it started and where it's going. Read on!
Please tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/ryan_400x400.jpg" alt="Ryan Thrash" />
I grew up in Tyler, a small East Texas town with my parents and younger brother. In 1994 I moved to Dallas, TX, where I went to college to get a business degree at SMU. Years after graduating I was set up on a blind date with the gorgeous woman that I managed to convince to marry me, now happily so for 11 years. I am fortunate to have an incredibly supportive partner that keeps a crazy entrepreneur of 20+ years in line when needed. We have a daughter (4), a son (8) and our new puppy that arrived this Christmas.
Professionally, I come from the print world having started a pre-press and ad production shop which I owned for roughly a dozen years. While I love amazing typography, white space and beautiful proportions, I definitely don’t miss the CMYK world.
People often ask how the print-world translated into the CMS software business. My first introduction to programming was when I began hacking on mainframes in the in 4th grade at a summer class for kids at a nearby community college. While I am certainly not a developer in the true sense of the word—especially since CSS actually makes sense to me—I do know what can be accomplished. I’ve always been the lead tech at my business and, starting in the mid-90s, I started poking around with what was then PHP-FI at my pre-press shop.
My first taste of open source was osCommerce, where I was involved in that community for a while. I followed that by being part of the original 10 or so early people with ZenCart, dabbled with Mambo and Etomite, and finally started what turned out to be MODX. It was certainly not a plan, but it’s been my career for the last 7+ years.
How did MODX come to be?
In 2004 I was looking for a CMS that would let me escape the then prevalent table-based layouts and style sites with lean markup and CSS. Back then bandwidth mattered and I had ported osCommerce to output semantic markup and saw huge reductions in rendering times; from then on I was sold.
I also wanted a platform that made creating login-protected content straightforward, that my clients could pick up and use to manage their sites without breaking things and that they could learn within an hour. Needless to say, it didn’t exist. As such, I teamed up with a small group of people including Raymond Irving and Jason Coward who had similar goals and we started our journey to achieve some very specific goals:
<ul>
<li>Provide a simple template system that used standards-based (X)HTML/CSS and that didn’t inhibit design or site structures in any way.</li>
<li>Let users quickly build login-protected site content.</li>
<li>Create a sensible, robust and extensible API that developers could use to extend or override the platform without having to hack the core.</li>
<li>Allow people to organize content in a logical and understandable manner.</li>
<li>Avoid the tortuous or extended learning curves found in many other CMSes.</li>
<li>Work equally as well for basic marketing websites as it would for more complex applications.</li>
</ul>
We first released MODX in the wild in 2005, and it was exhilarating to watch people resonate with our work. Our first Packt Award for Most Promising Open Source CMS came in 2007, a big encouragement for turning a passion into a profession.
In 2010 we formed a company around MODX to give it our full-time attention. This past year I hired our CEO to focus on strategic business issues, freeing the rest of the team to focus on three key areas: Community, MODX Complete (support &amp; maintenance for businesses) and MODX Cloud, which is simply going to be an incredible platform—and which I’d love to talk about with you more at a later date.
We’re looking forward to meeting lots of people at CMS Expo this year, which we consider our first big launch. It’s kind of funny given that we already have hundreds of thousands of sites powered by MODX, amazing partners and some great traction.
Why the name MODX?
MODular and eXtendable. Or something like that … really it was a working name that originally was going to be Tattoo CMS with the tagline of “Make Your Mark” and a hand print logo, but that got shelved and the MODX moniker stuck. We love it now.
What are the distinct differentiators between Evolution and Revolution for those unaware?
MODX Revolution, “Revo” for short, is the newer, completely rewritten version of our classic code base. Revo kept the same paradigms from MODX Evolution, but executed in Object Oriented PHP using a database layer that enables MODX to also run on Microsoft SQL Server. It gives developers the ability to override and extend Revo to achieve the exact functionality any project requires, without requiring upgrade-blocking “hacks” to the core.
Not only do you get both custom functionality and an upgrade path to the next version, but this new version also offers more control, the ability to create complex applications and integrations that would have been impossible with Evo. Scaling to hundreds of millions of page views is entirely possible with Revo, for instance. You can extend the caching layer to use Memcache or Membase, sessions to use Redis or some other highly-perfomant flavor du jour of the latest technology hotness.
MODX Evolution is perfect for small marketing-dominated websites or on an inexpensive, resource-constrained shared server without too many pages. Revolution can still be used for smaller sites but allows significantly more complex development, integrations and virtually unlimited content. MODX Revolution is where the focus of development activity is for us, however, we will continue to provide guidance, patches and releases for Evolution as needed.
What makes MODX unique?
MODX makes it incredibly easy to use any design one can dream up for their website and do so without having to code—in fact we can confidently claim MODX support HTML7 and CSS5 already today. It does so while separating how a site looks from how it functions. Users of all backgrounds find MODX easy to publish their content with confidence. What further sets it apart is that the MODX management interface can be completely customized for the users and tailored to the content. This ensures that people who use MODX daily to manage a site can easily use the tool and train others quickly as needed.
What do you feel is the main reason people use it as their CMS?
MODX truly empowers creative people to have 100%, pixel-perfect control of how sites look without ever having to write a single line of PHP. You can use any flavor of HTML/CSS/JS you want and you don’t have to worry about diving into a theming system, mixed templates/code or coming to grips with taxonomies or limited categories. We also have a great track record for security, with very few critical issues surfacing since inception.
Can you direct to any significant sized implementations that you are aware of?
Complex.com currently serves about 100-million page views a month and is tracking towards 150-million by December 2012. MODX.com also serves quite a bit of traffic with a ton of complex back end infrastructure supporting all our sites. We are firm believers that our main marketing site should run on our software, constantly pushing to make it a better solution.
Which site do you feel makes the best use of MODX’s features?
MODX.com itself has many custom integrations and components. Our custom single sign on application is tied to a Mongo DB store. Our forums are built using the MODX API and handle tens of thousands of users with about half a million posts. We use our native blogging Extra called “Articles” for our news, announcements and blogging, and we have eCommerce transactions tied to FoxyCart and to Recurly.
We also have the back-end infrastructure in place for a MODX leaderboards platform that we’ve been testing for months, an internal dashboard, a live map showing when users download something or post in the forums (or anything else that will move them up the leaderboard), integration with Redmine for product management, and a lot more. We’re also working on a Certified MODX Professional program which will use another MODX Extra to handle exams and dynamically generating completion certificates PDF.
Is there a commercial offering of the CMS? How does the organization bring in funding?
MODX software is open source and will always remain free for anyone to download and to use—we’re 100% committed to open source. MODX the company offers turn key post-launch support and maintenance as well professional services working collaboratively with MODX Partners and large organizations to complete any phase of a MODX based project.
Later this year we will launch a new platform for web developers—anchored by MODX Revolution—called “MODX Cloud”. It’s a major game changer for people that build or manage websites, especially for creative or marketing organizations.
Who are the key contributors to the project? Can you tell us a bit about them?
Jason Coward and Shaun McCormick have done the majority of the development on MODX Revolution, and they both work for MODX. In the community there are hundreds of contributors who report bugs and submit pull requests to our GitHub repository. Highlights that immediately come to mind include Bob Ray, author of MODX: The Official Guide, Susan Otwell in Israel, and Stephane Boulard in France who improved the back-end Manager UI tremendously.
For MODX Evolution, the Russian and Japanese communities do a tremendous job of maintaining the software. Mike Schell, another one of our Senior Developers at MODX, vets the contributions and handles the releases.
If people want to get involved in the project, how can they do so?
There are many ways to get involved with MODX for people of all skill levels and from any location. The most basic thing people can do to contribute to MODX is let us know when something needs to be fixed or improved upon, or by requesting new features in our project tracker. This isn’t limited to just our software, if people find issues on our forums, in the documentation or anywhere on modx.com we love to hear about it so we can make it better. On that note, we can always use help improving our documentation. Developers and designers can contribute code through GitHub. To get involved contributing code don’t forget to sign a Contributor License Agreement first.
The MODX community forums of over 38,000 users is a welcoming, positive and supportive place to dig into MODX. Answering even the simplest of questions is an incredible way to master MODX, make friends and find collaborators. Most of the team at MODX came to our attention from the forums.
Finally, this past year there have been over a dozen meet-ups all over the world. We are committed to seeing our International interaction grow exponentially this year and we’re going to dedicate time and money to this. It’s a great way for MODXers to share experiences and find collaborators.
Final thoughts you may have or parting comments.
Thanks for giving us a chance to talk about MODX. We’ve been hiding in plain sight for a few years now and it’s time to change that!
I think what is truly special about MODX compared to most open source projects is that we are very friendly to commercial interests. In other words, while we are ardent proponents of open source, we are certainly not zealots. In fact I wrote a blog post on this a while ago. We certainly encourage people to license their work under an OS licence at MODX, but we also don’t hold it against them if they chose to do otherwise.
In other words, we don’t view open source as an all-or-nothing proposition. If you don’t modify the core application or use the public APIs to create something cool on top of MODX—like an amazing template or an Extra that enhances how MODX works—we think you should be able to license that however you wish. We don’t think MODX’s GPL license should “virally infect” everything that touches it and in turn dictate the license under which you release your IP. As such we’re in a great position to build an incredible commercial ecosystem around MODX Extras and Themes that is incredibly developer/designer-friendly. More on that in late 2012!

Interview with Ryan Thrash of MODx CMS

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

#ffffff

Whether you're looking to create your very own version of Facebook, a fan site, an education project or even a formal company social network, Oxwall has all the tools you need.
Oxwall was crowned the winner of our <a href="/peoples-choice-winner-for-best-social-networking-solution-is/#.UnbSBvkvlyU" target="_blank">2012 People's Choice for Best Social Networking Solution </a> , and was also nominated within the same category for our most <a href="/2013-people-s-choice-winner-for-best-social-networking-solution/#.UnbaJ_kvlyU" target="_blank"> recent CMS awards</a>.
Their platform offers a sleek solution to social networking, and also enables you to add functionality via various plugins, which compliment the powerful admin panel already in place. Let's take a close look.
<h2>Take Charge of Your Community</h2>
With Oxwall, you can build an online community from the ground upwards, just the way you want it. You can then exercise complete control across a number of a different areas of the website and community.
Things like menus, pages, blogs and forums can call be customized to your liking, simply by using Oxwall's drag-and-drop system to create navigation menus and organise different social modules on each of your pages.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/33.png" alt="Oxwall" />
Oxwall even enables you to create user types, giving each one specific privileges and restrictions. This opens the door to paid membership schemes, where users of your social network can pay a fee to access more content, or even to share their own.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2.png" alt="Oxwall" /> 
What's more is, your Oxwall admin panel comes bundled with built-in Google Analytics, an advert manager, access to your website's code, and much more.
<h2>Connect in Style</h2>
When it comes to socializing, Oxwall provides some pretty useful features. You can set up your own pages and modules to encourage users to interact, or even give those same users the freedom to submit content themselves.
For example, groups can be created by users which revolve around specific subjects. Different users can then come together and join these groups, and discuss the topic at hand. Groups can be listed by both popularity and age, whilst owners of the group can send out invitations.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/5700x0.png" alt="Oxwall" />
Additionally, and perhaps most impressively, your Oxwall website can have a main dashboard, where things like user uploaded photos, videos and blog posts are all displayed together in modules, alongside upcoming events, and even a list of all other users currently online.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/6700x0.png" alt="Oxwall" /> 
To top off the social integration features offered by Oxwall, a built-in chat feature also exists, allowing users to talk in privately if they wish, away from the eyes of other users.
<h2>Develop, Customize &amp; Grow</h2>
Making your social network unique will be your toughest job, but thankfully, Oxwall has it all covered once again.
You can start to customize your website by browsing through the <a href="http://www.oxwall.org/store/themes" target="_blank">Oxwall Themes Store</a>, where you can find a healthy number of themes, the vast majority of which are free. Each theme appears professionally polished, and have been built with Oxwall's social features in mind.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4700x0.png" alt="Oxwall" />
If you would like to delve into the code of your chosen theme, you can. This allows you to customize and even expand your website even further, in any way you like. That unrestricted ability to add your own personal touch to your online community is precisely what Oxwall is all about. Simply put, you're in control – all the time.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/7700x0.png" alt="Oxwall" />
The icing on the socially shared cake is most certainly Oxwall's plugins. Found within the <a href="http://www.oxwall.org/store" target="_blank">Oxwall Plugin Store</a>, you can search through a vast array of extensions and applications which can enable your website to mimic the functions of other popular social networks, add functionality to existing modules, automate maintenance, and so forth.
All in all, Oxwall offers a pretty extensive approach to building online communities, giving you complete freedom thanks to it's free and open-source nature.
If you're interested in Oxwall, you can find out more about the community building platform <a href="http://www.oxwall.org/" target="_blank"> via their website</a>. Or, you can skip right to their <a href="http://www.oxwall.org/download" target="_blank">official download page</a>.
Additionally, you can check out some information about <a href="/products/oxwall/" target="_blank"> Oxwall via our CMS Directory</a>.

Grow a Thriving Online Community with Oxwall

When it comes to eCommerce solutions, they need to be able to handle high load, a high number of transactions and do it all without flinching. This is where powerful enterprise ecommerce solutions come into play.
Today, we're going to announce the winner of the 2014 People's Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise eCommerce Solution.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best_ecommerce_solution_for_enterprise200x0.png" />
Contenders this year were <a href="/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a>, Shopify and Prestashop.
The winner this year was Prestashop.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/prestashop-logo_400x100_2.png" />
They took the lead early on and refused to let it go, which makes this a double whammy this year with their other win as <a href="/the-winner-of-the-2014-peoples-choice-cms-award-for-best-ecommerce-solution-for-smb/">Best eCommerce Solution for SMB</a>
The runner up this year was <a href="/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a>.
Congratulations to the team at Prestashop on their double win. Obviously your customers love you and so do our readers!

The Winner of the 2014 People's Choice CMS Award for  Best eCommerce Solution for Enterprise

With the number of website building applications available, it can be hard to trim down the fat so to speak to get to the ones that offer the best value for the buck. <a href="/sitekreator">SiteKreator</a> is one of these website builders and today, we're going to take a look at how well it does this job in our SiteKreator review and determine whether it's worth the $20-80/ month investment (depends on the package you choose).
SiteKreator claims to have over 100,000 business websites running on their platform which is a pretty impressive number. Does it offer enough to make it valuable for you? Read on to find out.
When you first are set up with an account on SiteKreator.com, you are given a default website to begin the design process with. Here's a look at one of the templates available:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2012-03-03-at-9_08_53-am-450x318.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
Notice that at the top of the screenshot above, there is a toolbar with options such as Add Content, New Page, Page Options, Control Panel and Help.
The Add Content option pops up a menu that provides a variety of content types you can insert into your website such as Text, Image Galleries, File Areas, forms and much more. (see shot below)
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2012-03-03-at-9_17_19-am.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
As you can see, there is a great selection of items available, but this isn't all there is.. you can add more via the Applications Catalog in the Control Panel. Some of the available applications you can add to the system include:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ss-usability-form-builder_loyw78.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
There's no question that SiteKreator offers an impressive array of functionality so far… most users introduced to this system will find it offers more than enough for their needs. It's not just the applications being available that's important, it's how well they work and I can say with confidence that after trying a number of these apps, they are very intuitive and functional. I was quite impressed with the “keep it simple” concept that SiteKreator has gone with here.
To edit any of the available content areas, you simply click on the wrench icon in the top left corner of the content block. (You can see this in the first screenshot above. This brings up an editor specific to that type of content. For instance, assuming you wanted to change the navigation,  clicking on the wrench would bring up this window:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ss-usability-inline-editing_l1q5cq.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
Need to change some text? Click the wrench and you'll be presented with a slick WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editor.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2012-03-03-at-9_11_00-am-450x188.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
This is a great editor and I was impressed to find the ability to add not only text and images but also full tables, video and there's even a quick date insertion button. Well done guys!
Maybe you like slideshows and want to make a few modifications to the one included with this template? Just click the wrench for an easy configuration window:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/multi-everything_cpgqmq.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
You can tell by the screenshot how straight forward making changes to the slideshow is. This should give you a pretty good idea as to how easy to use this system is for adding / modifying content. The features don't stop there, however.
On the far right there's a control panel drop-down that gives you access to more options such as page appearance (where you can change settings such as the structure, page elements, columns and color scheme.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gears2_jixfnb.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
Perhaps you aren't a fan of the default theme? You can change that too. Here's a shot of some of the many available choices:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phone-bg-g4-1_rinjog.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
Not enough control for you? Want to delve in deeper? You can change the color pallette, fonts and more as well.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cloud-banner_qcsawu.png" alt="SiteKreator Review" />
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
I'm a big fan of ease of use and SiteKreator has to be one of the easiest website builder applications I've ever had the pleasure of testing out. Not only is it simple and easy to use but it's also incredibly versatile and offers functionality far and above my expectations going into this review. Normally, I'd have no problem recommending this to those looking for a slick, easy to use system that's fast and functional.
*Note: When I first wrote this review, I declined recommending SiteKreator due to a high number of validation errors. Since then, the team at SiteKreator have worked hard to address them and resolve this problem and I'm comfortable saying that this solution now is a safe bet. It speaks volumes when a company reacts to concerns by taking action instead of making promises but not correcting the problem. Kudos to the SK team for being the exception to the rule.  It's important to note that not all solutions will come back with zero validation errors (in fact it's quite rare). The previous #'s that came back were too high to recommend and have since fallen under the “reasonable” category. Feel free to go check out <a href="/sitekreator">SiteKreator</a>.

SiteKreator Review

With all of the buzz encircling Acquia lately, we thought it prudent to share our Acquia Drupal review with our readers since we've never truly delved in to see what Acquia's rendition of Drupal is made of.
To get started, we decided to test the Acquia Drupal Installer stack which is available from the Acquia website and is a packaged of Apache, PHP, MySQL, PHPMyadmin and the Acquia Drupal version. The stack installer installs them all and allows you to quickly get to the nitty gritty and start playing.
The Install Process
To start with, we downloaded the latest stack from the<a href="http://acquia.com/downloads" target="_blank"> Acquia website</a> and launched the install process:
<dl>
<dt><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/acquia1.jpg" alt="Acquia Drupal Review" /></dt>
</dl>
Here you can see the included modules for this installation. The release we are using is two days old so it's nice and fresh.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/acquia2.jpg" alt="Acquia Drupal Review" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/acquia4.jpg" alt="Acquia Drupal Review" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/acquia7.jpg" alt="Acquia Drupal Review" />
Now it's time to launch the stack and see if everything works as expected.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/acquia9.jpg" alt="Acquia Drupal Review" />
What the Acquia team have done here is include a large number of modules that integrate well and expand the functionality of Drupal which essentially gives you an almost complete Drupal installation with the most commonly used modules all preconfigured for your use. It also provides integration with the Acquia network which is not unlike the RHN that Redhat offers for it's linux distribution product line (well, same concept anyways).
The included modules are:
<h4>Standard Drupal 6.x Modules</h4>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Aggregator</td>
<td>Aggregates syndicated content (RSS, RDF, and Atom feeds).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Blog</td>
<td>Enables keeping easily and regularly updated user web pages or blogs.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Blog API</td>
<td>Allows users to post content using applications that support XML-RPC blog APIs.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Book</td>
<td>Allows users to structure site pages in a hierarchy or outline.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Comment</td>
<td>Allows users to comment on and discuss published content.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Contact</td>
<td>Enables the use of both personal and site-wide contact forms.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Content translation</td>
<td>Allows content to be translated into different languages.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Forum</td>
<td>Enables threaded discussions about general topics.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Menu</td>
<td>Allows administrators to customize the site navigation menu.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>OpenID</td>
<td>Allows users to log into your site using OpenID.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Path</td>
<td>Allows users to rename URLs for improved SEO.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Poll</td>
<td>Allows your site to capture votes on different topics in the form of multiple choice questions.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Profile</td>
<td>Supports configurable user profiles.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Search</td>
<td>Enables site-wide keyword searching.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Statistics</td>
<td>Logs access statistics for your site.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Taxonomy</td>
<td>Enables the categorization of content.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tracker</td>
<td>Enables tracking of recent posts for users.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Trigger</td>
<td>Enables actions to be fired on certain system events, such as when new content is created.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h4>Community Modules</h4>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Administration Menu</td>
<td>Renders a menu tree for administrative purposes as dropdown menu at the top of window.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Advanced Help</td>
<td>Provides context sensitive online help for modules, including Views.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Calendar</td>
<td>Displays any Views or CCK date fields in calendar formats.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>CCK (Content Construction Kit)</td>
<td>Enables the creation of custom content types without programming.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Content</td>
<td>Allows administrators to define new content types.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Content Copy</td>
<td>Enables ability to import/export field definitions.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Content Permissions</td>
<td>Set field-level permissions for CCK fields.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Date</td>
<td>Define date/time field type.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Fieldgroup</td>
<td>Create field groups for CCK fields.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Filefield</td>
<td>Defines a file field type.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>ImageField</td>
<td>Defines an image field type.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Link</td>
<td>Defines a URL field type.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Node Reference</td>
<td>Defines a field type for referencing one node from another.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Number</td>
<td>Defines numeric field types.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Option Widgets</td>
<td>Defines selection, check box and radio button widgets for text and numeric fields.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Text</td>
<td>Defines simple text field types.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>User Reference</td>
<td>Defines a field type for referencing a user from a node.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Comment notify</td>
<td>Sends notification e-mails to visitors about new comments on pages where they have commented.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Fivestar</td>
<td>A simple five-star voting widget for nodes.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Google Analytics</td>
<td>Adds Google Analytics javascript tracking code to all your site's pages.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Image</td>
<td>Allows uploading, resizing and viewing of images.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Image Attach</td>
<td>Allows easy attaching of image nodes to other content types.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Image Gallery</td>
<td>Allows sorting and displaying of image galleries based on categories.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Image Import</td>
<td>Allows batches of images to be imported from a directory on the server.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>ImageMagick Advanced Options</td>
<td>Adds advanced options to the ImageMagick image toolkit.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Image Assist</td>
<td>Enables users to upload and insert inline images into posts.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ImageAPI</td>
<td>Provides ImageAPI supporting multiple toolkits.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ImageCache</td>
<td>Allows you to dynamically manipulate and cache images.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lightbox</td>
<td>Used to overlay images on the current page.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Markdown filter</td>
<td>Allows content to be submitted using Markdown syntax.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mollom</td>
<td>Protects against comment and contact form spam.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Pathauto</td>
<td>Provides a mechanism for modules to automatically generate aliases for the content they manage.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Printer, e-mail and PDF versions</td>
<td>Generates printer-friendly and PDF versions of pages, and “send to a friend” email functionality.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tagadelic</td>
<td>Makes weighted tag clouds from your taxonomy terms.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Token</td>
<td>Provides a shared API for replacement of textual placeholders with actual data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Views</td>
<td>Create customized lists and queries from your database.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Views Exporter</td>
<td>Allows exporting multiple views at once.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Views UI</td>
<td>Administrative interface to create and edit views.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Voting API</td>
<td>Provides a shared voting API for other modules.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Webform</td>
<td>Enables creation of questionnaires, contact or request/register forms, surveys, and polls.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h4>Acquia Network Modules</h4>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Acquia Agent</td>
<td>Allows Acquia Drupal to securely communicate with the Acquia Network and check for updates.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Acquia Site Information</td>
<td>Sends site profile including platform, module, and theme information to the Acquia Network to facilitate support and update notifications.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<dl>
<dt><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/acquia11.jpg" alt="Acquia Drupal Review" /></dt>
</dl>
Acquia have also provided two great starter themes from TopNotchThemes that are included with their distribution.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/acquia12.jpg" alt="Acquia Drupal Review" />
Acquia is really designed to make the best use of Drupal and the Acquia Network which monitors the site, incorporates spam protection functionality and incorporates Acquia Search functionality to the site. Rates are quite reasonable and range from $199/yr to $8000/yr depending on your requirements. More details on the pricing and what you get with each package is available here:<a href="https://acquia.com/product-matrix" target="_blank"> https://acquia.com/product-matrix</a>
There is also a free trial available at the same location that allows you to test out the Acquia Network fully for 30 days.
<div class="mceTemp">
<dl>
<dt><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/acquia14.jpg" alt="Acquia Drupal Review" /></dt>
<dd></dd>
</dl>
Acquia is a great step forward for Drupal and seems to fit in well with a common trend that open source projects are starting to lean towards. It's always a great idea to offer more than one option for people. WordPress has AutoMattic, Elgg has their commercial venture and Acquia has theirs. We're sure that we're bound to see more and more projects starting to follow suit as these types of ventures allow open source projects to offer additional income generating services to those interested while still staying true to the open source model.
For the cost that Acquia runs, it's really rather silly to not go this route if you are planning to run a site that expects to draw any reasonable amount of traffic. While it's true that you can make it happen on your own if you really want to, for the price Acquia charges, you get experts and the services the network offers really can't be beat.
Check out Acquia here: <a href="http://acquia.com" target="_blank">Acquia Website</a>

</div>

Acquia Drupal Review

.NET and Java based CMS typically rule the roost when it comes to the enterprise but that doesn't mean there aren't powerful PHP based content management systems out there that can do just as good a job.
Today, we're going to announce the winner of the 2014 People's Choice CMS award for Best Enterprise PHP CMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best_enterprise_php_cms-1200x0.png" />
This year the contenders were Drupal, Typo3 and eZ Publish.
The winner this year was none other than <a href="http://www.drupal.org">Drupal</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/drupal_logo-blue200x0.png" />
The runner up this year was <a href="http://www.typo3.org">Typo3</a>.
Drupal has been used in thousands (if not millions) of websites around the world for all kinds of implementations and most certainly in enterprises as well. As one of the most powerful content management frameworks on the market, it's not a surprise they took this award.
Congratulations to the Drupal community and everyone at Drupal on their win.

The Winner of the 2014 People's Choice CMS Award for  Best Enterprise PHP CMS

The more your business grows, the more tools you rely on to get things done. This little guide will give a list of the ten more important online tools for small business owners.
Let’s get started.

<img alt="access, close-up, computer" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pexels-photo-306198.jpeg" />

<h2>1: Google Docs / Google Drive </h2>
What It Is: 
<a href="https://www.google.com/docs/about/">Google Docs</a> is an online word processor that makes it easy to create a variety of different types of documents. These documents can be shared with your team through a shareable link or directly through email, with options to allow them to either just view it or to edit it. This makes collaboration simple and immediate, as everything is done in real-time. All changes are also saved immediately, and the documents are stored directly.
<a href="https://www.google.com/drive/">Google Drive</a> is a lot like <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a> in that it stores all of your Google documents (and any other files you wish to share) in one place. It also syncs all of your devices with the cloud for easy access, no matter where you are.
Considering how easy it is for systems to crash, or for files to accidentally be deleted from a computer, these tools are absolute must-haves for any business owner.
Pricing: 
Google Docs is free, and Google Drive offers its users 15 GB of storage space for free.
<h2>2: Slack </h2>
What It Is: 
<a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a> is a cloud-based collaboration tool that makes it possible to share messages, documents / files, and images with your team. It works on any device, so users are not restricted to just their phone or just their PC.
Rather than having to gather in a meeting room, spend hours playing “phone tag”, or waiting for important emails to arrive, business owners can collaborate with their team in real-time.
Pricing: 
Small teams can use it for an unlimited amount of time for free. There are two upgrade packages available for $6.67 and $12.50.
<h2><img alt="Grayscale Photo of Computer Laptop Near White Notebook and Ceramic Mug on Table" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pexels-photo-169573.jpeg" /></h2>
<h2>3: Website Builders </h2>
What It Is: 
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-website-builders/">Website builders</a> are key online tools for small business owners, allowing them to create stunning websites without having to be a designer. Most of them are easy to use and affordable, with numerous design templates and options available. Whether you need a static page or are looking to build your eCommerce store, there are plenty of website builders available for every need, purpose, and industry.
Pricing: 
Pricing varies considerably, as it depends on the company and the pricing package you choose. The link provided within this section will take you to an overview of some of the best website builders available, and each description includes pricing information.
<h2> </h2>
<h2>4: Canva </h2>
What It Is: 
<a href="https://www.canva.com/">Canva</a> is an incredibly versatile online tool that makes it possible for users to create eye-catching images for their website, blog posts, social media posts, business cards, and any other type of marketing collateral.
Pricing: 
The very basic plan is completely free for an unlimited amount of time. If you don’t need to create anything super fancy, this will work just fine. The next plan up allows users to collaborate on designs with their team, and this plan costs $12.95 per month. Finally, the most expensive package offers far more than the others do, but the prices are not listed on the website. Instead, users must contact Canva to get their quote. This is the best option for large businesses with large marketing teams.
<h2>5: Hootsuite </h2>
What It Is: 
<a href="https://hootsuite.com/">Hootsuite </a>is one of the best social media management tools available, letting users manage all of their profiles from just one dashboard. Users can easily find and schedule content for their profiles, as well as use the built-in analytics to measure their ROI and other metrics. As a business owner, time is incredibly valuable. Hootsuite saves time.
Pricing: 
The very basic plan is limited, but free. The others range from $19 per month to $99 per month, to $499 per month. There is also an Enterprise package but, like Canva, users must contact the company to receive a quote.
<h2><img alt="coaching, coders, coding" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/startup-photos.jpg" /></h2>
<h2>6: Google Analytics </h2>
What It Is: 
If you’re serious about driving traffic to your business’ website, and want to know where your traffic is coming from, then <a href="https://analytics.google.com/">Google Analytics </a>is a must-have tool. It can be a bit overwhelming when you first use it, but it gets easier as you spend some time navigating around it. Through Google Analytics, you can see how many sessions your website has, where your traffic is coming from, and what your most popular content is. Additionally, you can set up milestones/goals and eCommerce tracking. This helps you focus on the channels or platforms that produce the best results.
Pricing: 
Users who have fewer than 5 million impressions per month can use Google Analytics free of charge. This is typically not a problem for most small business owners, or for those who use it for a personal website. That monthly limit is removed if you have a current AdWords campaign running, assuming your AdWords account is neither suspended nor disabled.
<h2>7: Pardot </h2>
What It Is: 
<a href="http://www.pardot.com">Pardot</a> is a B2B marketing automation tool that strengthens the marketing efforts of small business owners and their marketing team. It offers a wide array of tools that help businesses establish meaningful and lasting connections with their customers and other companies within their industry, generate more pipeline, and helps the sales team to close more deals. Business owners can generate and nurture more leads, getting them through the pipeline quickly and efficiently.
Pricing: 
Pardot has pricing plans that range from $50 per month/ per user to $300 per month / per 5 users, on up to $3,000 per month. No matter what your needs are, there is a pricing plan that fits your budget and brand.
<h2>8: Mailchimp </h2>
What It Is: 
<a href="https://mailchimp.com">Mailchimp</a> is one of the most trusted and widely used email marketing tools, used for sending out e-newsletters and promotions. It makes it possible to expand your business by sending out stunning emails, advertising, building your brand, and connecting with an eCommerce store.
Pricing 
The most basic plan, intended for completely new users, is free. The upgrade starts at $10 per month, and the other plan is an additional $199 per month.
<h2>9: Intuit Quickbooks </h2>
What It Is: 
<a href="https://quickbooks.intuit.com/online/">Quickbooks by Intuit</a> is an online accounting tool that organizes all of your finances in one place. It’s easy to navigate, makes the basic accounting tasks easier to complete, and offers advanced tools for when you need them. With this tool, business owners can send invoices that accept cards, take payments with free bank transfers, and set up invoices with payment notifications. Users can also record what they spend and what they earn, as well as separate earnings and expenses by categories for better records.
Pricing: 
The most basic plan is $10 per month, the next one up is $24 per month, and the most expensive package is $35 per month.
<h2>10: Buzzsumo </h2>
What It Is: 
A strong content marketing strategy is one of the most salient aspects of any small business, and <a href="http://buzzsumo.com/">Buzzsumo</a> helps users create that. This tool helps you find trending content within your industry, as well as influencers who are most likely to share your content and increase its reach. It has analytics built in that shows how well your content is received and where it is being shared.
Pricing: 
There is a free trial available, and then it costs $99 per month after that. It’s not cheap, but it’s definitely a must-have tool for strong content marketing.
<h3>What are your favorite online tools? Share in the comments below! </h3>

Top 10 Online Tools for Small Business Owners

Semrush - Be an SEO hero

Be found everywhere search happens

Explore a wide range of informative articles, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. Page - 93

News

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

Be found everywhere search happens