Reviews - Page 2

Zorin OS Lite is a new XFCE edition of the popular Linux distribution. The main desktop environment we're accustomed to seeing with Zorin OS is Gnome but recently, they decided to start offering a Lite edition as well - a smart move that is sure to expand their install base.For this review, I'll take you through Zorin OS Lite and show you around. If you want to see what the Gnome edition, read my <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/zorin-os-review/">Zorin OS Review</a>, which I just just updated for 15.1 Ultimate and Core.Installation of Zorin OS hasn't changed with the Lite edition and there's not much to see other than the standard stuff so I won't focus on that aspect, just know that it went off without a hitch.<h2>The Desktop</h2>Zorin OS Lite uses the <a target="_blank" href="https://xfce.org/">XFCE desktop environment</a> and the developers have definitely done a great job of keeping the look and feel of Zorin OS pretty consistent. It's almost hard to tell it's not Gnome.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-review-1.png" />Zorin OS Lite Review - The XFCE DesktopJust like Zorin OS Core and Ultimate, there are also a number of desktop layout options included, which we'll take a look at in a moment.The menu, which you'll find in the bottom left, is well laid out and shows the default applications. The third party apps installed are the same ones you'd find in any other edition of Zorin OS. The only difference here are the DE specific ones (ie: Gnome desktop comes with it's own set of default apps as does XFCE).  In other word's, you'll find differences in the terminal, file manager and settings but apps like Firefox, etc are all standard in each edition.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-1.png" />Zorin OS Lite Review - The Menu<h2>Zorin Appearance</h2>Just like the Ultimate and Core editions, Zorin OS Lite includes the Zorin Appearance app which allows you to modify the theme, fonts and desktop layouts.<h3>Desktop Layouts</h3>Let's take a look at the different desktop layouts offered in the Lite edition now. I've put together a gallery below for you showing them all off.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-3-1.png" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-4-1.png" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-5-1.png" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-6-1.png" />Zorin OS Lite Review - Desktop Layouts<h3>Theme Options</h3>In addition to the desktop layouts, you can also select between light and dark themes as well as a new option which allows your desktop to automatically switch between light and dark modes depending on the time of day (which you can set). This is intended to be easy on the eyes and reduce eye strain.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-7.png" />Zorin OS Lite Review - Zorin Appearance<h2>File Management</h2>The included file manager is Thunar which is the default for XFCE. It's themed nicely (I particularly like it in dark mode) and is a fantastic file manager.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-8.png" />Zorin OS Lite - File Management<h2>Settings</h2>Settings for your system can be found within the Settings tool. Here's you'll find everything from display and bluetooth options to wifi and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-9.png" />Zorin OS Lite Review - SettingsThere are also a number of nice included backgrounds for your desktop should you wish to change it to something other than the default. You can find these by right clicking on the desktop and choosing desktop settings.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-12.png" />Zorin OS Lite Review - Backgrounds<h2>Oops, found a mistake!</h2>I did find one mistake but chance while I was exploring Zorin OS Lite. When I went to click on the XFCE Terminal within the menu, it launched the XFCE terminal preferences instead.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-10.png" />Zorin OS Lite Review - XFCE Terminal PreferencesThis is due to a misplaced --preferences flag that has been added by mistake within the menu as you can see below. It's a minor mistake but one to be aware of and it's easy to change. Just remove --prefern<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zorin-os-lite-review-11.png" />Zorin OS Lite Review - XFCE Terminal - Minor Bug<h2>Conclusion</h2>Overall, this new Lite edition is very slick and well put together. It's definitely one of the better looking XFCE desktops I've seen and I'm impressed with how the devs managed to match it up with the other edition's look and feel.Performance wise, I found everything fast, even when running multiple apps at a time with numerous tabs open in Firefox. It just works well and I highly suggest giving it a try if you love XFCE.You can download your own copy of Zorin OS Lite here: <a target="_blank" href="https://zorinos.com/">https://zorinos.com/</a>Don't forget to check out our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/zorin-os-review/">Zorin OS Review</a> to see what the Gnome edition looks like.

Zorin OS Lite Review - 15.1 Lite Edition

techcto2

Notepin (Notepin.co) is a note taking and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/minimalist-blogging-platforms/">blogging platform</a> that launched in 2017, and has been growing in popularity. The web-based system has a minimalist approach, which provides for a distraction free platform for users to enjoy. For such a simple service, it is really able to offer a lot to its users. Whether you are looking for an easy place to take notes that you can access from anywhere, or you want to launch your own blog, this is a good option to consider.The founder of Notepin, Osman Ahmed, said this about his platform, “it is a note-taking platform which comes with the optional ability to transform your notebook into a public blog.” Quite an interesting concept, and one that many people have been taking advantage of.<h3>Getting Started with Notepin</h3>One of the biggest perks of using Notepin is that you don’t need to make an account to use the service. When you browse to the site, you simply click the ‘or write anonymously’ to begin taking notes, writing a blog post, or just having fun. It will generate a random notepin.co URL that you can then access from anywhere.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/notepin-get-started.png" />If you want something more memorable, you can create your own notepin.co URL using any available word or phrase. Even taking this route does not require you to create an account, verify an email, or take any other action. If you want to make sure that you’re the only one who can read or edit your page, you simply add a password (which still doesn’t require an account). To put it simply, this is the fastest and easiest way to start typing up notes or blogging you’ll find.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/notepin-create-url.png" /><h3>Extremely Minimalist Approach</h3>As soon as you access the Notepin site you’ll see that it is a distraction-free environment, and that continues on to the writing &amp; editing pages as well. There are virtually no menus, very few editing features, and nothing to get in the way of your focusing on the writing. This is ideal for people who want to create quick posts, take notes for themselves, or quickly publish content to their site.When browsing a page as a viewer there won’t be much besides the text that was posted by the author. There can also be basic images but most pages don’t even have that. The full focus of this platform is on the content and making it as easy as possible to access.<h3>Free Features</h3>Anyone can use the Notepin system free of charge. The free plan comes with just one theme. Free users will also be restricted to posting text only with no images or video. All users, including those on the free plan, will have the option for visitors to share the posts on Twitter and like the posts on the site itself. These options can be disabled by the author if they don’t want this type of social interaction.Free users can create a unique custom URL where their content will be posted. The URL to access content will be formatted like this: <a target="_blank" href="http://notepin.co/ExampleNotes">http://notepin.co/ExampleNotes</a>. Users can choose whatever they want (as long as it is unused) to replace the ‘ExampleNotes’ portion of the URL. This not only makes it very easy to remember, but also allows authors to have some level of branding. Authors who want to have their content published to their own domain will have to upgrade to one of the two premium plans.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/notepin-create-unique-url.png" /><h3>Premium Features</h3>If you want to take your page to the next level, you can sign up for one of the two premium feature packs. The ‘Pro’ plan is just $11 per year, and the blogging plan is $19 per year. Both of these plans add multiple different themes to help improve the look of your page. The themes are still relatively basic, which goes well with the overall minimalist approach to the service. The premium services also allow higher quality images to be used, ambient sounds to be added to the site, text to speech options, and more.The benefit of using the blogging plan is that you can have email subscriptions, a custom domain, Google Analytics information, custom SEO options, private posts, and the branding from Notepin is removed. Given the fact that both of these premium packages are quite inexpensive, it is a great deal for those who want to start their own blog.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/notepin-premium-features.png" /><h3>Is Notepin a Good Platform?</h3>While Notepin is certainly not for everyone, it has some unique features that make it a really interesting platform that many people love. If you’re looking for a fast and easy way to get started with publishing your content, or you just need a convenient place to take notes, this is clearly an excellent choice. For those who want to run a minimalist blog, <a target="_blank" href="https://notepin.co/">Notepin </a>may be the ideal solution. It really is extremely fast and extremely easy not just to get started, but to continue publishing long into the future.

Notepin Review

michael-levanduski

BrowserStack Review: Make Your Website and App Testing Simple and Scalable

paris-tuzun

Linux Mint is one of the most popular Linux distributions on the planet. It was originally started back in 2006 and is based on Ubuntu. It retains compatibility with Ubuntu to this day but has surpassed Ubuntu when it comes to ease of use. You'll be hard pressed to find a Linux user that doesn't agree that Linux Mint is a great option for new users and those who love the Cinnamon Desktop. Let's dig a little deeper in this Linux Mint Review.Installing Linux Mint is very easy to do so I'm going to bypass that in this review. You can however, read my <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/how-to-install-linux-mint/">How to Install Linux Mint</a> article if you want to see the process in depth.<h2>The Cinnamon Desktop</h2>No Linux Mint review is complete without screenshots and this one is no exception. My goal is to show you the basics and explore some of the functionality to help you make a decision as to whether it's something you want to try. The Cinnamon desktop is a very well put together desktop environment that is in version 4.0 as of the latest Linux Mint release.Here's how it looks post-install:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-review-welcome-screen_q4n5d2.png" />Linux Mint Review – Welcome ScreenYou'll notice that the first thing to pop-up is a welcome screen introducing you to the system. This is also present in several other Linux distributions such as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ubuntu-mate-review/">Ubuntu Mate</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mx-linux-review/">MX Linux</a>.<h2>The Welcome Screen</h2>The welcome screen is intended to provide you with quick shortcuts to useful information as well as some things you should consider exploring after installation. Clicking on First Steps showcases some of the post-install tasks to explore.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-review-welcome-screen-first-steps_qcdhib.png" />Welcome Screen – First Steps – Linux Mint ReviewHere's a quick summary of each of the sections:<ul><li>System Snapshots – this app is intended to help you set up automatic backups of your system that you can restore if something breaks.</li><li>Driver Manager – this driver manager provides you with a means of scanning your system to see if any drivers are available for any of your hardware.</li><li>Update Manager – this one speaks for itself, it checks for updated software in the repositories and initiates the updates.</li><li>Desktop Layout – New in 19.1 is a layout tool that allows you to choose between two different panel layouts; traditional and modern.</li><li>System Settings – Offers quick access to all of the settings for items such as appearance settings, preferences, hardware and administrative tools.</li><li>Software Manager – This allows you to manage software on your system and install new software from a massive repository.</li></ul>Now that we've explored the welcome screen, which I feel is one of the best ones out there. Let's take a look at some of the individual components available to Linux Mint users.<h2>System Snapshots</h2>With system snapshots, you can choose either RSYNC or BTRFS for snapshots. If you aren't sure which one to choose, click the HELP drop-down for more information on each option. I typically choose RSYNC but if you formatted your partitions with BTRFS, then feel free to choose it. The choice is yours.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/system-snapshots-linux-mint-review_dyssyt.jpg" />System Snapshots – Linux Mint ReviewOnce you've made a selection, Timeshift will load allowing you to configure your snapshots. For more information on using Timeshift, visit <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift">this link</a>. The inclusion of Timeshift is a smart one. It's a very useful tool and given that Linux Mint is geared towards new users, it's a good idea to offer some sort of recovery option. This will not only bolster the confidence of new users to try new things with the system without fear of breakage but also offers peace of mind overall.<h2>Driver Manager</h2>The Driver Manager, as mentioned, will scan your hardware and check to see if there are any hardware drivers (third party Nvidia for example) that may be required. It will then let you choose whether you want to install them or not.Opening the driver manager will kick off an update of the cache so that Linux Mint knows what's available.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-review-driver-manager_iphi5c.jpg" />Linux Mint Review – Driver ManagerOnce the cache update is complete, the Driver Manager will load and present you with the available drivers, if any.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-review-driver-manager-2_qgyzea.jpg" />Linux Mint Review – Available DriversThe driver manager is an essential app for Linux Mint and is similar to the one included with most Ubuntu derived distros. This simple offering helps make Ubuntu and related distributions such as Linux Mint stand out when it comes to ease of use for those being introduced to Linux for the first time.<h2>Update Manager</h2>The update manager allows you to check the Linux Mint repositories for updated software and security fixes. Launching it, you'll be presented with the following screen:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/update-manager-linux-mint-review_jh3blc.jpg" />Update Manager – Linux Mint ReviewOnce you click OK on this screen, the update manager will do a scan of the repositories to see if there are any security or version updates that are available to install. You'll then be presented with a list of updates which you can either choose to install all of or select individually.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/update-manager-available-updates-linux-mint-review_e7c6ls.jpg" />Update Manager – Available updates – Linux Mint ReviewLike any good distro, there's multiple ways to perform system updates and Linux Mint is no exception. While the hardcore user will likely end up using apt commands in the terminal, the new user has an interface that's easy to understand and use until they begin to discover the wonders of the console.<h2>Desktop Layout</h2>This is where you can choose between either the modern layout which Linux Mint has by default or the traditional layout from older releases. Here's what the Traditional Layout looks like in comparison to the Modern Layout.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/traditional-panel-layout-linux-mint-review_lgjdn9.png" />Traditional Panel Layout – Linux Mint ReviewI like that the devs chose to include the previous panel layout as an option. For those who are old school Mint users, this keeps them happy and choice is never a bad thing. While I personally thing the new panel look and feel is better overall, I'm pleased to see that they are offering the choice to switch if desired.<h2>System Settings</h2>System settings is where you get access to all of the, well, settings that are available in Linux Mint. Launching it will present you with the following window:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/system-settings-linux-mint_lsuvyd.png" />System Settings – Linux Mint ReviewWe won't get into every single option here as that would be very time consuming but what I will do is touch on some of the key items within this window that I think are worth pointing out in this Linux Mint review.<h3>Effects</h3>Cinnamon comes with numerous options for desktop effects. Within the Effects icon, you'll find two tabs.The first tab presents you with ability to enable or disable effects for individual components of the desktop as well as choose from some pre-defined effect styles.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-review-effects_oiqmwp.png" />Linux Mint Review – EffectsThe second tab offers you more granular control over your settings by allowing you to customize them individually.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-review-effects-2_gyqoje-1.png" />Linux Mint Review – Effects-2<h3>Themes</h3>While Linux Mint does offer a slick default look and feel, you can also change individual components of your theme or download new ones. Clicking on Themes will launch the related window so you can do this.The first tab lets you customize the themes for individual areas of the desktop.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-themes-individual-settings_e17gec.jpg" />Linux Mint – Themes – Individual SettingsThe second tab gives you the ability to add or remove themes that are available for download. Once you download a new one, switch back to the first tab to make your customizations.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-themes-add-and-remove_aiokpu.jpg" />Linux Mint – Themes – Add and Remove<h3>Applets</h3>Applets are small apps that run inside the Cinnamon panel and offer additional capabilities or information. You can manage them by clicking on Applets inside the Settings Manager.The first tab lets you manage your applets – functions such as adding and removing them from the panel, etc.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-review-applets_jk4pbq.jpg" />AppletsThe second tab gives you the ability to download additional applets from the Linux Mint applet repository.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-review-applet-download_q5ltgc.jpg" />Applet DownloadExtensions functions similarly to these as well, allowing you to customize and download additional extensions for Linux Mint.The remaining settings dialogs are all pretty self explanatory and I encourage you to explore them each individually to ensure you have a solid understanding of what Linux Mint is capable of and what can be configured.<h2>Applications</h2>Be default, Linux Mint comes with numerous applications installed by default such as Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP, Rhythmbox, VLC and LibreOffice.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-applications_xq3nzr.png" />ApplicationsYou can always download more via the Software Manager app.<h3>Nemo</h3>The file manager, Nemo, is excellent as well and offers more than just basic file management capabilities. You can also connect to servers and mount locations via various protocols.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-nemo_toqpdq.png" />NemoThere are also numerous plugins that can be used with Nemo, which you can access from the Edit menu.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-nemo-customizations_tobcnr.jpg" />Nemo Customizations<h2>Performance</h2>Performance wise, Linux Mint is pretty good. With Firefox, Calculator, GIMP, Terminal and Nemo running, memory usage was pretty reasonable. The CPU usage was pretty high but I was also running all of this under a limited VirtualBox session.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/linux-mint-system-monitor_yf0y8j.png" />Linux Mint – System Monitor<h2>Conclusions</h2>Overall, it's easy to see why Linux Mint is so popular. It's visually appealing and highly customizable use of the Cinnamon Desktop lends itself well to new and old users alike. The choice of applications and ease of installing new ones is broad and well thought out. Little things such as an app for backups make it easy to recommend. I'm giving it a 5/5. What do you think? Are you a fan of Linux Mint?

Linux Mint Review

mike-johnston

<a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">Kinsta</a> is a popular hosting provider that provides managed WordPress hosting to the public. Today, I'm going to review their system and hosting setup to see whether it's a good option for those of you looking for a solid, trustworthy provider with a good set of tools for your WordPress website.What makes Kinsta a unique beast is that their entire infrastructure uses <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cloud_Platform">Google Cloud Platform</a> which differs from the traditional shared, VPS, or dedicated infrastructures you see with most providers.Kinsta was kind enough to provide me with a test account for the purposes of this review so I'll be using that for the screenshots and to take a look through everything.<h2>The Dashboard</h2>Once you've <a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">signed up for an account with Kinsta</a>, you'll be given access to your Kinsta Dashboard which is where you'll manage your sites, migrations and a whole lot more.Your dashboard, once you get access and sign-up, will look like this:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-1_ws7yhd.png" />Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting DashboardThere are numerous graphs on the Dashboard for you to review such as Resource Usage, Data Transfer and Unique Visits. You can also see a full list of your sites from one location (if you have multiple).<h2>Sites</h2>To add new sites and manage existing ones, you'll use the Sites tab. When you move a site over to Kinsta, you are given the option to choose from one of their <a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/google-cloud-data-center-locations/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">18 data centers</a> for your site. Each of your sites can have a different data center as Kinsta uses multi-regional deployments.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-2_qmmhyx.png" />The Sites TabIn the Info section, you can see everything you need to know about your site from your IP information to your Data Center location, sFTP and SSH details and more.Most of the other sections are pretty self explanatory and I won't go through all of them because that would likely bore you to tears but what I will tell you is that there is plenty of information and functionality here. One of the sections I especially found useful is the Tools section. Here you can clear site cache, restart PHP and do a database Search and Replace quickly and easily.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-9_v1tcl7.png" />The Tools Section<h2>Migrations</h2>The Migrations tab is where you'll initiate any migrations from your previous hosting provider to Kinsta. As you can see in the screenshot below, I've got 1 free migration that I haven't used yet so to kick off a site move, I'd do so here.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-4_lspgkw.png" />The Migration Tab<h2>Kinsta DNS</h2>Kinsta also offers a service called Kinsta DNS which allows you to manage your own zone records and use Amazon Route 53 to speed up DNS resolution for faster domain name resolving.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-5_fz2pm7.png" />Kinsta DNS<h2>Analytics</h2>The  tab is exactly what it claims to be, analytics for your site. While it does offer you a quick peek into how your site is performing, most of you should make sure you also have Google Analytics as that's what everyone uses and it provides far more in-depth detail. Having said that, this doesn't mean this section is useless as it does provide quick insight without having to leave the dashboard so I can appreciate that.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-6_ecfwrv.png" />Analytics<h2>Activity</h2>Skipping now to the Activity tab now, this is where you'll find a log of all activity that has happened within your Dashboard such as adding new sites, making changes and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-7_vbeols.png" />ActivityThat about does it for the Dashboard tour but does all of this mean Kinsta is the right managed WordPress hosting provider for you?<h2>My Thoughts</h2>Kinsta provides some pretty amazing features / services that go along with each and every plan so they are definitely good bang for your buck. One of the most interesting ones is the Free hack fix meaning that if your website gets hacked (which is always a fear for every website owner) they will fix it with immediate priority.Additional features include:<ul><li>Free CDN, free Letsencrypt SSL, staging environments, automatic daily backups and the option to create manual backup points anytime.</li><li>Full page caching at the server-level to deliver content almost instantaneously to visitors. We also pair that with our Kinsta MU plugin, developed in-house, to provide even more granular control over caching.</li><li>PHP 7, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3.</li><li>Server-level rules and optimizations for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Download sites to ensure a smoother checkout experience for customers.</li><li>Multi-user access with fine-grained permissions. Add any number of users to your team. Give them access to all your sites, just billing or add them as developers or administrators to a subset of your sites.</li><li>SSH access, Git, and WP-CLI.</li><li>At least one free migration, completed by our expert support team. There are a certain number of migrations included depending on which plan you choose.</li></ul>There's another good reason I'd consider Kinsta that most people aren't aware of. AdThrive, one of the largest ad networks in the world for bloggers, recently recommended Kinsta in an email sent out to their publishers (I know this because my wife's site is with them). This nod from a company that takes things into deep consideration before making recommendations is a good sign for those thinking of choosing Kinsta for their own websites.<a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">You can learn more or sign up with Kinsta here.</a>

Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review

<a target="_blank" href="https://flextype.org/">Flextype</a> is an open source flat file CMS that was developed in 2018 by <a target="_blank" href="https://romanenko.digital/">Sergey Romanenko</a>. It's purpose is to provide a lean, open source solution without the complexities found in many other content management systems. Today, we're going to take a look at Flextype and see what it's made of and what the administrative interface looks like.Before I get started, let me just explain a bit more about Flextype for those who are unfamiliar. If you aren't familiar with the concept of a flat file CMS, what it means is that this system does not require a database but rather stores everything in files within a directory structure. This may not be suitable for every type of website; such as one with thousands of complex pages; but it does work for the majority of them. To learn more about flat file CMS and how they work, read my <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/static-site-generators-vs-flat-file-cms-is-there-a-difference/">Static Site Generators vs Flat File CMS post</a>.The advantage, of course, is that should you need to change hosting providers, it simply requires you to zip up the contents of your website and extract them somewhere else. No messy database exports to deal with. There are numerous flat file CMS out there (see our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/flat-file-cms/">Flat File CMS list</a> for instance) and Flextype is simply one of the options.Flextype uses a number of technologies to achieve it's simplicity and overall functionality.Some of these key technologies include:<ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.slimframework.com/">Slim PHP</a>: Framework for powerful web applications and APIs.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://twig.symfony.com/">Twig Templating</a>: Flexible, fast, and secure template engine for PHP.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.doctrine-project.org/">Doctrine Project</a>: A set of decoupled and reusable PHP libraries for powerful web applications.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://thephpleague.com/">The PHP League</a>: The League of Extraordinary PHP Packages well tested and using modern coding standards.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://respect-validation.readthedocs.io/">Respect Validation</a>: The most awesome validation engine ever created for PHP.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/thunderer/Shortcode">Thunderer Shortcode</a>: Advanced shortcode (BBCode) parser and engine for PHP.</li></ul>Now that we've covered that, let's move on with the review.<h2>Getting Started with Flextype</h2>To get started with Flextype, you'll need to download the latest release from their <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/flextype/flextype/releases">GitHub repository</a>. Once downloaded, simply upload the zipped file to your web host and extract it. Copy the files and directories within the extracted directory to /public_html/ if you want everything accessible on your root domain and visit the domain to get started.You should see something like this:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-review---1.png" />The initial welcome pageIf for some reason you don't see this, you may want to check out their <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.flextype.org/en/basics/requirements">requirements page</a> to make sure your server is compatible and / or has the right requirements installed.<h3>Creating an admin user</h3>Once you've managed to sort things out and are ready, visit the admin panel by following the link on the homepage. This will prompt you to create a user account for the CMS.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-review---create-a-user-account.png" />Creating a user account<h2>The Flextype Admin Panel</h2>Once you've created your user account and logged in, you'll be greeted with the admin panel.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-review---the-admin-panel.png" />Flextype Admin PanelAs you can see, the admin panel has been designed to minimize complexity. It's very simple, straight forward and easy to navigate within. Let's check out some of it's functionality.First, we'll take a look at Entries.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-admin---entries.png" />Flextype EntriesClicking on the three dots to the right of the Home entry, you'll get a context menu where you can add, edit, preview, delete, etc. Clicking on edit will launch the editor.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-editor.png" />Flextype EditorFrom here, you can make modifications to the individual entries (in this case the home page) and change some of it's settings. The integrated editor works well and provides plenty of functionality to do the job.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-entry-settings.png" />Flextype Entry SettingsWithin the settings you can modify pretty much everything about your entry, from the meta description to the template that's being used for it, visibility, the Url and more.The next tab in line is the media tab which, you guessed it, let's you upload media to be used with your entry. The odd part here, however, is that once you upload it and go back to the editor to insert it, there's no means to select the image.Instead, you have to copy the URL from the media upload tab to your clipboard, switch to the editor tab, click the image insert button and paste it in.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-editor---inserting-media.png" />Flextype Editor - Inserting an Image into the editorPersonally, I feel that this method is a bit cumbersome and can be improved on and I'd recommend the developers take it into consideration. It's a minor inconvenience, but since Flextype is focused improving productivity and ease of use, it's definitely something that needs correcting.Moving along. On the source tab you'll fine the source for the entry which you can modify and save if you prefer working with the code rather than a WYSIWYG editor.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype---source.png" />Flextype Entries - Viewing the sourceNext up are Fieldsets. According to the <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.flextype.org/en/fieldsets/fieldsets">Flextype documentation</a>, fieldsets can best be described as configuration files written in YAML for Admin Panel to  create publish forms. They establish your content model. Essentially, a  schema that defines your fields, data types, and the interface used to  manage them.You can create new fieldsets and modify their source just as you would an entry. Here's a look at the structure:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-fieldsets.png" />Flextype FieldsetsSnippets are rather self explanatory. You use them for certain things such as inserting your Google Analytics code into your website and other types of code that you'd typically find within your websites' header.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-snippets.png" />Flextype SnippetsUnder the Tools menu you will find three items; information about your server, a cache tab where you can clear your cache and a registry tab showing all of the keys that Flextype uses. I won't get into all of them but here's what the cache page looks like. As you can see, it's very simple and just lets you clear your cache should you need to. Cache settings themselves are a bit further on and I'll show you those in a moment.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-tools---cache.png" />Flextype ToolsUnder the Settings tab is where you'll find the main settings for your CMS (and website). Everything from your site title and description to managing your robots.txt file are done from within this page.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-settings.png" />Flextype SettingsYou can also manage your cache settings from the cache section of the settings tab. Here's how it looks:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-cache-settings.png" />Flextype Cache SettingsLast but not least, there's one killer feature that you won't want to miss. Dark Mode.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flextype-dark-mode.png" /><h2>Conclusion</h2>A solid new entry into the Flat File CMS space, Flextype accomplishes what it set out to do; offer simplicity and ease of use to users. Where it's lacking at the moment is in themes and plugins. While I'm sure most developers won't require them for the majority of websites, they do make life easier for non-developers that are interested in using the CMS.There are links to a plugins page on the Flextype website but it's a bit weird how they have it organized. Plugins are listed under issues for some reason instead of just in an organized manner on homepage itself. I'm sure there was some logic to it but it's not super obvious unless you are stubborn and tend to click through every link like I am. You can find them here: https://github.com/flextype/plugins/issuesThemes are organized in a similar manner and you can find them here: https://github.com/flextype/themes/issues. I'd recommend a restructuring to make these easier to locate in the future.I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings for Flextype. There is no doubt the development team is on the right path, they just need to keep plugging away and hopefully, expanding their community as the word spreads.You can check out Flextype yourself on their website: <a target="_blank" href="https://flextype.org/">https://flextype.org/</a>

Flextype Review

MX Linux is a popular and fast Linux distribution based on Debian stable that is currently in version 18.2. Today, I'm going to take you through my MX Linux Review to see why this distribution is so popular.One of the best things about MX Linux is the variety of custom tools that have been built to make the life of the user easier. The team of developers at MX Linux have really outdone themselves making every single possible need as easy as possible with their MX apps.This review has been updated and is now based on the most recent MX Linux 18.2 release.<h2>What is MX Linux?</h2>According to the MX Linux website:MX Linux is a cooperative venture between the antiX and former MEPIS communities, using the best tools and talents from each distro. It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint.Installation is super smooth using their custom installer and I experienced no issues whatsoever with the process. From my experience, there were also no hardware issues but I'd be curious to know the experiences of others as well so please let me know in the comments.<h2>The MX Linux Desktop</h2>Upon first boot-up, you are presented with their customized XFCE desktop.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-linux-the-desktop_tkvgyo.png" />MX Linux – The DesktopOne of the first things you'll notice about MX Linux is that the panel is assigned to the left side of the screen. This may initially seem a bit weird but I found that once you got used to it, it actually works quite well. Having said that, moving the panel to another location is quick and easy.<h2>MX Apps</h2>The developers at MX Linux have built a number of apps to allow you to do everything from tweaking your desktop, managing repositories and users and more. I won't go through them all here but I will focus on some of the key ones.<h3>MX Welcome</h3>The welcome screen that pops open offers links to the various resources on the web for support, discussions and video tutorials as well as their tools, tweak panel and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-linux-welcome-screen_eoycpt.jpg" />MX Linux Welcome Screen<h3>MX Tweak</h3>MX Tweak is a simple tweak tool built by the developers to make modifying the desktop quick and easy.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-tweak_qs8vow.jpg" />MX TweakThe tweak tool allows you to make adjustments to the panel positioning, changing the desktop theme and adjusting the compositor and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-tweak-theme-selection_twifv6.jpg" />MX Tweak – Theme Selection<h3>MX Tools</h3>Next up is the MX Tools menu. This is where the magic happens people! There's an app for almost everything you could want / need and they all work wonderfully to get the job done. Check it out:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-tools_w6ovip.jpg" />MX Tools<h3>MX Conky</h3>One such tool that does a great job of making things easy is MX conky. With it, you can quickly load a Conky and position it, change the colors and format without ever having to touch a conky.rc file.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-conky_bstoke.jpg" />MX Conky<h3>MX Package Installer</h3>One particularly good (and super fast) app that I'm a huge fan of is the MX Package Installer. Here you can easily manage installed apps and search for new ones with ease. Results are returned very quickly.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-package-installer_xadpgd.jpg" />MX Package InstallerYou can explore even further into the application catalog by switching repositories between Debian Stable, MX Testing and the Debian Backports.What's even cooler is the recent addition of FlatPaks to the package installer. Now, if you click on the tab, you'll see an imported list of available FlatPak applications!<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-package-installer-flatpaks_pdiz2g.jpg" /><h2>MX Linux Review – Performance</h2>From a performance perspective, when running the full desktop environment as well as a file manager, GIMP image editor, Firefox and a game, MX was showing less than half of the ram on a 2G system and minimal CPU usage. From my point of view, that's an impressive result.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mx-linux-review-performance_crizd2.webp" />MX Linux Review – Performance <h2>MX Linux Review – Final Thoughts</h2>Overall, <a target="_blank" href="https://mxlinux.org/">MX Linux</a> 18.2 is a fast, responsive, and well put together distribution. It includes tons of tools to help users and administrators get things done and it's built on a rock solid base with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. While it's may not be as beautiful as a desktop-like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/reviews/solus-review/">Budgie</a> (in my humble opinion) it's definitely benefiting from a much larger selection of software than even the large Ubuntu repositories and is certainly chock full of useful applications and functionality.Don't forget to also check out our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/reviews/solus-review/">Solus Review – Budgie Edition</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ubuntu-mate-review/">Ubuntu MATE Review</a> as well.Have you tried it? What are your thoughts?

MX Linux Review

Quintype can be best described in three alliterative words; the “publisher’s publishing platform”. Everything in this headless CMS is directed at the dedicated content creator, and all aspects from the design to the UI to the UX are focused on the content.<h2>Getting Started</h2>Getting started couldn’t be easier. You can get a free trial from the homepage and from there you’re taken to your Workspace. The Workspace is the hub from which all of your content can be created, pushed and managed to any scale.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/q1_b9rpsg.png" />It really is very simple but it’s far from basic. The Workspace places top priority on posts and the content management, which isn’t as common in a CMS as you’d think.Getting into the application was incredibly easy and well designed. There were just a few short clicks between signing up and getting right into the central hub of the site.<h2>Design</h2>The design you’re met with when you enter the Workspace is reflective Quintype’s entire aesthetic – simple, easy to use, and content focused.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/q2a_kaasrn.png" />Quintype is incredibly intuitive to use and everything follows a WYSIWYG formula that never feels clunky or under-utilized. Everything just seems to flow. Want to change the header? The steps are clear. Want to add a hero image? Two clicks and you’re in.The basic template I saw on the trial I used was eminently readable and well put together.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/q2_yuwylb.png" />Quintype have more expansive design features available once you subscribe to their service, which they say will help you establish your brand guidelines and “deliver custom design templates”. The templates shown on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.quintype.com/">their site</a> are of a high quality with a design aesthetic that could suit any size of business and any style of content. Simplicity and a content-first approach sums up the approach of this CMS to their templates and layouts.The backend, where all the real hard work takes place, is focused entirely on managing your content and making it as easy as possible to get your stories in place.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/q3_hfuyum.png" />Their text editor is clean and easy to use, with an ability to layer in different images, hyperlinks, quotes, tables, slideshows, and question and answer sections. All of these are tool tipped and easy to use with clear instructions. It makes creating and polishing content incredibly easy and it comes out in a lovely, crisp layout that’s very easy to read. From a design perspective, Quintype is really sharp.As Quintype is a headless / decoupled CMS. clients also have complete control over their front end development.<h2>Usability and Support</h2>Quintype is one of the easiest to use sites I’ve tried in quite a while. It’s intuitive without losing finesse. It’s a powerful CMS that places a lot of focus on the articles and stories. In my opinion, the placement of the content as the primary focus on the homepage of the Workspace offers a key differential from the likes of WordPress. Everything felt like it was in easy reach or just a short click away.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/q4_n5sdsr.png" />Everything you could want to access is clearly labelled and presented with as little jargon or proprietary language as possible. Do you want to add Facebook or Twitter integration? Just go to Settings and Social Sharing. Within three clicks, you’ll be ready to set yourself up.Quintype has an extensive FAQ and Help section that covers everything you could need when you get started. I had an extensive look through everything and it seemed to cover every base you could reasonably expect to query. The answers were detailed and clear.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/q5_qlr87r.png" />If the Help Section isn’t doing it for you then they have multiple support languages and online chat support. In addition, you’ll receive regular emails with helpful tips and tricks for using Quintype after signing up and you can also book a free demo to run through how to get started. These aren’t like those annoying emails you often get when you sign up to an app either; you know the kind that basically just want you to level up to a pro plan? Nope. The emails I received from Quintype offered genuine and quality support and really helped to enhance my user experience and motivate me to use the app.The readily available free help and support and the effort that these guys put into making sure you know exactly what you’re doing from the get-go is commendable.<h2>Key Features</h2>Quintype’s scalable server capacity is a key feature of their offering. Sometimes a viral article or piece of content can stretch your web server to breaking point and beyond. Quintype’s scalable servers react to large traffic events by increasing your bandwidth as and when you need it.Their custom ad monetization service looks really interesting too. They have a mix of native advertising and custom ads that are in line with your branding, with the overall aesthetic being key.I also really liked their different product offerings. There really is something for every content vehicle, large or small. Their AccessType feature is heavily geared towards reader subscriptions with metered paywalls, pay per article, recurring payments, multiple levels of access, coupon codes, gift subscriptions, and more.It’s a spectacularly powerful service that immediately puts them in the same sphere as a service like Patreon, except with better fee structures and more control. It’s a massive potential upside for them.<h2>Pricing</h2>Packages start from $99 depending on your needs.<h3>Pros</h3><ul><li>Easy to use.</li><li>Clean design and intuitive UI structure.</li><li>Very clean and professional templates with potential for custom development.</li><li>Different site-packages for different website needs such as Bold, MeType, AccessType and Ahead.</li><li>All with their own styles and individual features.</li><li>Scalable server capacity to handle viral stories without changing your entire hosting package and all the costs associated with it.</li></ul><h3>Cons</h3><ul><li>The pricing structure isn’t viewable on the site for understandable reasons this early in their business but it may put off some potential clients.</li><li>The templates aren’t endlessly customizable in the same way as WordPress which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion but might not suit some.</li></ul><h2>Final Verdict</h2><figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXzlMw8Zfk4"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mXzlMw8Zfk4" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure><a target="_blank" href="https://www.quintype.com/">Quintype</a> is an excellent, powerfully built CMS that scales to any business’s needs. It’s clean design and content focused aesthetic is perfect for companies with multiple editors and writers who need one place to manage their workflow and production. It’s one of the best content management systems I’ve seen of this type and it has the potential to make a big splash as it grows its user base.Other great articles to read:<ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/superdesk-digital-newsroom-review/">Superdesk Digital Newsroom Review</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/9-essentials-your-enterprise-cms-should-deliver-in-2019/">9 Essentials Your Enterprise CMS Should Deliver in 2019</a></li></ul>

Quintype Review - A True Digital Publishing Platform

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If you’re a child of the 1980s – or just a fan of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80057281">Stranger Things</a> – you might remember the directory sign at your local mall. It was the one place you could find exactly what you were looking for in a sea of stores, and they’re still a fixture to this day.Unfortunately, most site searches can’t even get you to the food court. In many cases, you’re left sifting through a morass of results, wondering if you’ll ever find your way to that rad new pair of acid-washed jeans.Like malls, site search has been around for a long time. But now, it’s becoming an even more vital part of the digital experience. After all, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/search-and-you-may-find/">more than half of people are now “search dominant</a>”, meaning they will use a website’s search over the navigation to find what they’re looking for.From an SEO perspective, navigation is key. But modern search tools can add a complementary layer of insights and analytics. These cutting-edge, AI-driven technologies can energize your marketing by understanding how your customers are searching – not just what they’re searching for.One of the best site search tools we’ve seen is Swiftype, which was <a target="_blank" href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/09/elastic-acquires-swiftype/">purchased by Elastic in 2017</a>. This powerful SaaS platform has positioned itself as a clear leader in the site search landscape and has evolved to include app search and a host of other features.In this article, we’ll take a close look at Swiftype’s features and explore how you can customize your search results, leverage analytics, and even build marketing strategies within the platform. It’s like a mall for best-of-breed site search capabilities – and we’ll show you exactly where to shop.<h3>Goodbye, Google Search</h3>Back in the day, Google Site Search was the defacto standard. Not only was it easy to implement, but it brought the world's leading search technology down to the website level. Unfortunately, Google deprecated the service in 2018, forcing thousands of websites to scramble for a new solution.Quite a few niche players answered the call, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.algolia.com/">Algolia</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cludo.com/">Cludo</a>, and others. Enterprise brands also muscled their way into the game, with <a target="_blank" href="https://aws.amazon.com/cloudsearch/">Amazon CloudSearch</a> and Google Search Console offering alternatives.What was missing was the best of both worlds – a cost-effective, cloud-based service that offered core site search with scalable enterprise features. That’s where Swiftype comes in.<h3>What is Swiftype?</h3>Swiftype is a cloud-based SaaS platform that enables organizations of all sizes to create and manage a tailored search experience with real-time feedback, user insight, and search trend analytics. Users are able to monitor which content visitors are searching for and which results they’re engaging with as they browse your website.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-analytics-dashboard.png" />Swiftype is incredibly easy to install and customize. Once you sign up and enter your website’s address, Swiftype automatically indexes your site and renders your custom search engine in real-time. In addition to providing a “marketer friendly” no-code experience, Swiftype also gives advanced developers access to resources including their API.Swiftype offers two main products – Site Search and App Search – which can be added to websites and CMS platforms. We’ve explored both in more detail below.<h3>Swiftype Site Search</h3>Swiftype Site Search provides all the tools you need to deliver more relevant search results for your website users. It's simple to set up and use, and has some dynamite out-of-the-box features, including:<ul><li>Autocomplete: Guide users to the content, answers, or products that matter most with real-time results – right as they type.</li><li>Search Refinements: Dynamically expand on simple search, allowing your users to refine results by attributes such as date, price, author, location, or content type.</li><li>Comprehensive Documentation: Swiftype has clear and simple guides that can help you build the perfect search experience. You'll have all the materials you need to become a master of high value search experiences.</li><li>Advanced Search Algorithm: Powered by AI/ML, Swiftype Site Search is built on an advanced search algorithm that delivers relevant results for even the most complicated queries.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-site-search-features.png" /><ul><li>Search Controls and Analytics: Site Search surfaces the most important data points and performance indicators for your search. It also gives you the tools to take action and improve performance, including patented technologies that allow you to tweak your search engine’s output globally or on a per-query basis.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/search-controls-and-swiftype-analytics.png" /><ul><li>Developer Tools: One of Swiftype’s strengths is its ability to appeal to marketers with a no-code experience. But it also provides a robust, developer-friendly API for creating custom record schemas, indexing data in real-time, embedding search into any user interface (such as a website or CMS), and programmatically tracking events. You can view the API documentation <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/documentation/site-search/overview">here</a>.</li><li>Real-time Search Analytics: Swiftype allows you to see what your users are searching for, clicking on, and engaging with as it happens – so you have more actionable insight about their behaviors. With its powerful real-time search analytics, you can track the highest performing content on your website or app, assess which autocomplete queries are most popular, and learn what content was most commonly chosen from autocomplete suggestions.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/real-time-search-analytics.png" /><ul><li>Tracking conversions and autocompletes: Search conversions tell you where your users go after performing a search.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/tracking-conversions-and-autocompletes.png" /><ul><li>Find out What Users Aren’t Finding: Swiftype shows you common searches that return no results – so you can optimize your content strategy. Swiftype’s custom result ranking feature lets you add results to these search terms to help visitors find more of what they’re looking for.</li></ul><h3>Swiftype App Search</h3><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-app-search.jpg" />While Site Search provides a powerful solution without a steep learning curve, Swiftype App Search goes deep with developers. You get access to a robust set of APIs that allow you to customize your search experience – all backed by the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.elastic.co/elastic-stack">Elastic Stack</a>.Swiftype App Search harnesses the power of Elasticsearch, built on the constantly improving foundation that Elastic provides. It includes features like typo-tolerance, stemming, bigram and phrase matching – as well as search customization capabilities like Curations, Weights, Boosts and Synonyms.Together, these tools help you fine-tune relevance based on your business objectives in conjunction with data from App Search’s Analytics platform.Other key features include:<ul><li>Real-time Analytics: Measure how users interact with your search engine and track everything in real-time, revealing unique insights into user behavior.</li><li>Relevance Tuning: The App Search Dashboard makes relevance tuning as simple as point-and-click. Make customizations in the web-based interface and preview their impact in real-time – all with no code.</li><li>Schemaless Indexing: App Search supports dynamic schemas and real-time reindexing. Simply send JSON to the API and Swiftype analyzes it for whatever search application you build.</li></ul>You can see the full list of App Search features <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/app-search/features">here</a>.<h3>How to Add Swiftype Site Search to Your Website</h3>One of Swiftype’s main selling points is its ease of installation – and based on our experience, it delivers as billed.Swiftype’s website claims it takes as little as five minutes, and for the essentials, that was pretty much spot on. The tools were a quick study, and the interface is clean and lightweight, making it pleasant to work in.To set up Swiftype on your website, you first need to <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/users/sign_up">create your account</a>, then an Engine (short for “Search Engine”). After beginning your Site Search trial, enter your website's URL when prompted.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-create-engine.png" />Once the scan is successful, provide your Engine with a name and select its default language. You can choose from over 13 different languages, including English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and German. For the full list, see Swiftype’s documents on <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/documentation/site-search/crawler-configuration/language-optimization">language support</a>.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-choose-engine-language.png" />The final step is adding the search experience to your website. Once you click on the Installation button, you’ll need to configure the design of your Search Field and Result Container. From there, you can choose how to style your results, configure autocomplete, and tune an array of options.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-style-your-results-and-other-configurations.png" />Once you have the basic configuration in place, you’ll receive an embeddable JavaScript snippet. Place that snippet on each webpage to enable the search. The snippet will look like this:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-javascript-snippet.png" />And that’s it. If you’re savvy and committed, it can take just a few minutes – and that’s pretty slick.<h3>How to Add Swiftype Site Search to Your CMS</h3>Content management systems often miss the mark on their own search capabilities. By adding Swiftype, you can instantly improve a CMS experience and add your CMS content automatically using Swiftype’s <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/documentation/site-search/tutorials/add_search_to_any_cms">Site Crawler</a>.On the more advanced end, you can even set up callbacks that can be used to hook into content, alerting Swiftype that new content is available to index.While the installation process is relatively straight-forward – and works well for most CMS platforms based on their documentation – there are a few more steps involved. But Swiftype offers some great <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/documentation/site-search/tutorials/add_search_to_any_cms">step-by-step guidance</a> to build out the experience.<h3>Customer Support</h3>Swiftype offers broad customer support, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.g2.com/products/swiftype/reviews">according to the reviews</a>, it offers one of the best experiences around.Swiftype Standard and Pro support is focused on making sure your Swiftype Engine is working as expected – and is fully available. To that end, they offer:<ul><li>Analysis of the state of your engine</li><li>Actions you can perform to stabilize or tune your engine</li><li>Pointers to Swiftype documentation or forums if your question is outside the scope of the platform itself</li></ul>Elastic reported their response time and hours below:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-customer-support-plans.png" />In addition, they provide a lively community of support for Swiftype users. With the community forums, you can get your more in-depth questions answered.<h3>Pricing</h3>Swiftype has two separate plans for Site Search and App Search. The Site Search plan starts at $79/month and App Search starts at $49/month.Site Search:There are three plans for site search: Standard, Pro, and Premium.The standard plan gives you all the core search features and analytics, as well as multilingual support.With the Pro plan, your website gets crawled twice a day instead of once per week. Additionally, you get cross-domain search and PDF/document indexing.The Premium plan is their enterprise-level search and security.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-site-search-plans.png" />App Search:Just like the Site Search plans, Swiftype’s App Search plans offer Standard, Pro, and Premium Packages.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-app-search-plans.png" /><h3>Conclusion</h3>While good navigation is important, people always seek the path of least resistance. That’s why site search is so essential: it enables more control over intent, allowing a user to search for specific content quickly and easily – and even discovering new stuff along the way. In that sense, it’s another layer in your personalization strategy.While Swiftype is easy to set up, marketer- and developer-friendly, and offers a broad range of tools, it’s not the cheapest solution on the market. But if you’re looking for a platform that makes search a more strategic part of your experience, Swiftype is at the top of the list. It offers unmatched control and scalability, and brings more power and presence to site search as a strategic asset. With world-class customer support to boot, it’s really a solid platform on every level.You can start a <a target="_blank" href="https://app.swiftype.com/signup?product=ss">free</a> trial today. Acid-washed jeans not included.<h3>About Swiftype</h3><a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/">Swiftype</a> is a search and index company based in San Francisco, California, that provides search software for organizations, websites, and computer programs. Notable customers include AT&amp;T, Dr. Pepper, Hubspot and TechCrunch. Swiftype's site search can be used for faceted search, full text search, real-time search, and concept search queries. The company's plans offer on-demand and live recrawls and indexing of websites. Other features include drag-and-drop result customization, real-time analytics and adjustable weights. In an effort to further grow outside of site search, Swiftype introduced an enterprise search service in February 2017.<h3>About Elastic</h3><a target="_blank" href="https://www.elastic.co/">Elastic</a> builds software to make data usable in real time and at scale for search, logging, security, and analytics use cases. Founded in 2012, the company develops the open source Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash), X-Pack (commercial features), and Elastic Cloud (a SaaS offering). Elastic is used by organizations including Cisco, eBay, Goldman Sachs, NASA, Microsoft, Mayo Clinic, The New York Times, Wikipedia, and Verizon to power mission-critical systems.

Swiftype Review: Add Powerful Elastic Search to Websites, Apps and CMS Platforms

Ubuntu MATE is a powerful desktop operating system that is based on the popular <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> Linux distribution. What makes Ubuntu MATE unique is that it comes with the advanced <a target="_blank" href="https://mate-desktop.org/">MATE</a> desktop environment which was originally created as a continuation of GNOME 2.  Given it's popularity in the Linux world, I've written this Ubuntu MATE Review to help show you what it's all about and decide if it's the right OS for you.This review has been updated and is now based on the most recent Ubuntu MATE 19.04 (Disco) release.<h2>What are the goals of the Ubuntu MATE project?</h2>According to the website, the following are the objectives / goals for the project:<ul><li>Accessible to all, regardless of language and physical ability.</li><li>Increase both Ubuntu and MATE Desktop user adoption.</li><li>Ubuntu alternative for computers that aren’t powerful enough to run a composited desktop.</li><li>First choice Ubuntu platform for remote workstation solutions such as <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://x2go.org/">X2Go</a>.</li><li>Recreate the halcyon days of Ubuntu for users who prefer a traditional desktop metaphor.</li><li>Use themes and artwork similar to Ubuntu so that Ubuntu MATE is immediately familiar.</li><li>When possible contribute to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> so both the Debian and Ubuntu communities benefit.</li><li>Software selection will favor functionality and stability over lightness and whimsy.</li></ul><h2>Ubuntu Mate Hardware Requirements</h2>Most users will meet these requirement without issue as most modern computers are far past the minimum hardware requirements but when it comes to Linux, lots of people enjoy revitalizing old hardware with Linux distributions. I recommend reviewing this briefly to make sure that your hardware meets the minimums.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-review-hardware-requirements_riwfap.jpg" />Hardware Requirements for Ubuntu Mate<h2>What has changed in the most recent Ubuntu MATE release?</h2>Numerous things have changed with 19.04. One thing that I found quite intriguing is that with this release, if you have an NVIDIA GPU connected to your computer and select Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware during installation, the NVIDIA proprietary drivers will be installed automatically. That's pretty slick and makes the experience more desirable for new users to Linux as installing these drivers could (at times) be overlooked by new users if they are unaware of the need.There are some other changes, of course, but it's always best to read about them from the source so if desired, you can read about everything new with this release here: <a target="_blank" href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-disco-final-release/">https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-disco-final-release/</a><h2>Installation</h2>Installation of Ubuntu MATE is no different than any other Ubuntu distribution. Since it has pretty much unchanged in the past several releases, I'm not going to go through the process here but what I do want to point out, that's a relatively new(ish) addition is that you can now choose either a normal installation which includes the default selections of software chosen by the Ubuntu MATE developers or a minimal install for those who want more control over what is installed with their OS.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-review-1_db3bhh.png" />Ubuntu Mate review – Choosing the installation type<h2>The MATE Desktop – Your First Look</h2>Upon booting into the desktop for the first time, you'll be greeted with a themed wallpaper as well as a few simple icons.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-review-2-the-desktop_nx1fjo.png" />The MATE DesktopI also was prompted by a Software Updater pop-up to install the latest updates. Now, one thing that's a bit odd here is that I chose to have these installed during the installation so why I am having to update even further now is beyond me. I assume the “Download updates while installing” feature either doesn't work period or doesn't work properly in a virtual machine environment (which I'm using for this review). Either way, just something to keep in mind.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-review-2-software-updater_vdcdeh.png" />Software Updater doing it's job.Another trend that you'll see more and more with large distributions nowadays is the introduction of a Welcome Screen of some kind to give new users a quick overview of how to use their new environment / distribution. This is something the developers of Ubuntu MATE have had for quite some time and they've done an excellent job of making it super useful.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-the-welcome-screen_bigxxt.png" />The Welcome ScreenWith this (and more previous) releases, the Getting Started button followed Updates and Extras is super handy as it includes quick install buttons for codecs, screensavers, themes and more. Under Getting Started and Optional Tasks you can configure various things such as Backups, Network Shares, Users and Firewall Settings as well.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-additional-options_mcu8jh.png" />Another Configuration Screen in the Welcome Dialog<h2>Tweaking your Ubuntu MATE Desktop</h2>Under the MATE menu in the top left (by default) you can access the menu which contains all of the software, preferences and system tools installed with the distribution. You can easily access a handy app called MATE Tweak which, if you click on the Panel tab once launched, lets you choose between numerous included panel layouts.What these do is basically change the structure of the desktop, sometimes moving the menu to the bottom left (similar to Windows) or adding a Mac style layout to the desktop. There are several options to try, I recommend checking them all out before coming to a conclusion as to which is best.The default panel layout is called Familiar so if you make changes here and decide you don't like them, you can revert back to that layout to get the default look and feel. To get a breakdown of what each of these panel layouts looks like (and the differences between them) read this article on the official website: <a target="_blank" href="https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/choosing-and-changing-panel-layouts-ubuntu-mate-18-04/16502">Choosing and Changing panel layouts.</a>You can also tweak your Window Options from within MATE Tweak. This allows you to change things such as the compositor, window decorations, animations and even where the window controls (minimize, maximize and close) are located in the window (left or right side basically).<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-window-options_ornof7.png" />Ubuntu MATE – Window OptionsIn most layouts, you can also choose to add extra applets which are basically small apps that run inside your panel and expand the functionality. To manage them, and add more, simply right click on a panel and click Add to Panel and the following dialog will be presented:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/adding-applets-to-the-panel_zkmpgj.jpg" />Adding applets to the panelFrom here, you can choose from a growing list of applets that you can add to your panels to give you even more capabilities. Try some and find your favorites!<h2>Adding Software to your Linux Distribution</h2>By default, Ubuntu MATE comes with the usual software such as Firefox, Thunderbird, Transmission, LibreOffice and more but installing others is very simple.As I'm sure most of you know, there is always more than one way to add software to Linux but assuming you aren't a console person and you prefer to avoid the traditional apt commands, you can also use the Software Boutique app which can be found in your menu under Administration.Software Boutique allows you to browse available software that you can install quickly and easily.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-software-boutique_adfocp.png" />Ubuntu MATE software boutiqueClicking on the icons along the top (scissors, gamepad, etc) will take you to the applicable categories and present  you with a list of available software to install. Keep in mind, however, that one of the strengths of Linux; and specifically Ubuntu; is the breadth of repositories out there so if you don't find what you are looking for here, you can learn more about repositories and how to add more here: <a target="_blank" href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu</a><h2>Ubuntu MATE Performance</h2>Let's take a quick look at how well Ubuntu MATE performs in general when it comes to CPU and RAM usage. To be fair, this is going to vary widely and can be different given the fact that I am performing this review within a Virtual machine environment, however, it's still relevant.With nothing but the Software Boutique running and the default desktop itself, performance is quite good as you can see from the System Monitor:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/system-monitor_fmlqls.png" />System MonitorFor more advanced testing, I recommend installing the distro and running tests with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.phoronix-test-suite.com/">Phoronix Test Suite</a> or check out some existing benchmarks on <a target="_blank" href="https://openbenchmarking.org/s/ubuntu%2019.04">OpenBenchmark.org</a> as results can vary widely depending on software installed, hardware capabilities and other variables.In my usage and from experience running Ubuntu MATE for several months, it's still one of the fastest and leanest distros out there.<h2>The Control Center</h2>The control center is where you'll find most of the system settings for Ubuntu MATE. You'll find this in the menu labeled the same.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ubuntu-mate-control-center_vpqrmn.jpg" />Ubuntu MATE control centerYou'll find everything from power management to printer installation in the control center and I advise you to explore it thoroughly so you are aware of how to modify your system as needed.<h2>Conclusions</h2>I've always found Ubuntu MATE to be a reliable distribution. The layout and functionality of the system is easy to use and zippy and everything feels well put together. I highly recommend giving it a try if you aren't a fan of the current Gnome desktop and are looking for an alternative. It's also a great choice for older hardware as it's less resource hungry than the default Ubuntu desktop. I personally feel as though MATE is a more functional desktop than Gnome itself so perhaps I'm a bit jaded there.What do you think? Are you an Ubuntu MATE fan? If not, what do you prefer?

Ubuntu MATE Review

<a target="_blank" href="https://flodesk.com/c/2FQH39">Flodesk</a> says they’re “the world’s most intuitive email builder,” and they’re not exaggerating. With Flodesk, you can create beautiful emails that match the overall style of your brand in minutes, even if you have no technical, design, or marketing skills. But because Flodesk is still so new, it can’t quite match its competitors in terms of power. Read our full Flodesk Review below.<h2>Getting Started</h2>Setting up an account with Flodesk is easy. Every new user gets a 30-day free trial, which is available via the homepage. Once you fill out the sign-up form, Flodesk sends you an email verification link. Click on the link — and you’re in!<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot1_b0gn4a.png" />The dashboard is clean and extremely easy to navigate. However, you still might not necessarily know where to start, especially if you’re new to email marketing.Luckily, Flodesk understands that mastering a new site takes time, which is why it sends you a helpful email telling you how to make the most of your account. The email comes with instructions on how to:<ul><li>Set up your logo and brand.</li><li>Design a welcome email.</li><li>Embed a form.</li><li>Put it all together with a workflow (a series of automated emails).</li></ul><h2>Design</h2>Flodesk uses a visual builder, so you don’t need to know HTML code to craft an eye-catching email. In fact, the best thing about Flodesk is the variety of stunning email templates available. You can choose a pre-formatted template based on your “goal,” such as “Share News” or “Make Money.”<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot2_il3ujd.png" />Customizing your chosen template is a breeze. Simply click on any part of the email to duplicate and delete blocks and tweak things such as:<ul><li>Email layout</li><li>Backdrop and canvas color</li><li>Font type, size, and color</li><li>Line height and letter spacing</li><li>Link color</li><li>Border color and thickness</li><li>Padding thickness.</li></ul>You can save your brand’s logo and colors, further simplifying the process of adjusting templates to suit your needs. You can also upload PDFs, as long as they’re under 10 MB, and include your real-time Instagram feed at the bottom of your emails.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot3_m7cnrp.png" />If none of the templates do it for you, you can start your email from scratch, adding text (Flodesk has more than 100 fonts available, but doesn’t let you upload your own) and images as you see fit. Flodesk integrates photos seamlessly, without asking you to compress or resize them.Before you send an email, you can preview it on desktop and mobile, ensuring that it displays smoothly across all devices.<h2>Usability and Support</h2>Flodesk has a minimalist user interface. At the top of the page, you have four categories: “Emails,” “Audience,” “Forms,” and “Workflows.” These are the four features that you’re most likely to use daily.More functions, including domain authentication and brand preferences, can be found under your username icon on the top right-hand corner of the page.Flodesk has an extensive Help Center with detailed answers to commonly asked questions as well as technical how-to’s. A search button ensures that you don’t have to sift through countless articles to find a solution to your problem.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot4_lvl9op.png" />If you can’t find an answer to your question using the Help Center, you can message Flodesk on Facebook. I got a response to my query in less than three hours on a Sunday. Alternatively, you can join the Flodesk Insiders Facebook page to start a discussion with other users or email the customer support team, which promises to respond within 48 hours.<h2>Key Features</h2>In addition to pre-made emails, Flodesk is also great for making forms. Flodesk offers its users a range of form templates, from pop-ups to inline forms to full-page landing pages. Embedding the code into your website is straightforward, but you can also publish the form URL directly to the web.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot5_jyszuc.png" />Flodesk’s “Workflows” feature lets you send a series of emails to your subscribers automatically. You can set a “Time Delay” specifying the amount of time (whether minutes or hours) that should pass before Flodesk sends the next email, but there’s no option to choose a specific date or time.You can also set a “Condition.” In this case, Flodesk will only send an email if a subscriber opens a previously sent email.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot6_fdlrvy.png" />Segmenting your email list is simple, perfect for those who have several sign-up lists.Flodesk has a comprehensive statistics area, with details on each subscriber, including when and how you acquired them and their device preference. You can also see how many emails they opened, but not which ones. Also, you can’t resend an email to a subscriber that didn’t open it the first time. (Editors note: I reached out to Flodesk via Facebook to comment on this as it seemed like an odd thing to restrict. Here's their response:We do offer workflows that allow you to send to unopens after a period of time you specify—so we do offer it, just not in the one-off campaign area.)<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot7_nu5rob.png" />Email statistics are available via the “Email” section. Here, you can see the open rate, click-through rate, and the number of email addresses that bounced among other things.One big feature that Flodesk is currently missing is A/B testing. There’s no way that I could find to test several subject lines or email types. Other email marketing services, such as ConvertKit, Mailchimp, and Mailerlite, include this function.Another negative is Flodesk’s lack of integrations. At the moment, it only supports <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/shopify">Shopify</a> integration, although <a target="_blank" href="https://zapier.com/">Zapier</a> should be added within a month as well.<h2>Pricing – This is where Flodesk Shines</h2>Flodesk’s pricing is simple. There’s just one plan which costs $38 per month. It gets you unlimited emails and subscribers, as well as access to every feature. This is unusual as most email marketing platforms increase your bill as soon as you grow your subscriber list. The ability to scale up without extra cost makes Flodesk great value for fast-growing businesses.Editor's Note:<blockquote>“As you no doubt know, email marketing can get incredibly expensive as you grow in subscribers. Flodesk's model of one flat (and reasonable) price regardless of how many subscribers you have is not only excellent, it's the best value out there in my opinion.” ~ Mike Johnston</blockquote><h2>Pros</h2><ul><li>Price doesn’t change even if your subscriber list grows</li><li>30-day free trial</li><li>Gorgeous templates for emails, pop-ups, inline forms, and landing pages.</li><li>User-friendly interface.</li><li>Great customer support.</li><li>Email automation.</li><li>Email segmentation.</li><li>In-depth statistics.</li><li>Coding knowledge isn’t necessary.</li><li>Easy Instagram integration.</li></ul><h2>Cons</h2><ul><li>No way to perform A/B testing.</li><li>You can’t resend an email to a subscriber that didn’t open.</li><li>Lacking in integrations (although Zapier is due within a month) but this can be attributed to how new the platform is.</li></ul><h2>Final Verdict</h2>Flodesk has a lot going for it. It has an intuitive user interface, a vast range of stunning templates, and friendly customer service. While it’s a little behind its competitors in terms of features — it doesn’t have A/B testing and integrates with Shopify only — it’s still in the early stages of development. If you’re a small business owner with growing ambitions but no coding knowledge, then using Flodesk is a no brainer.<a target="_blank" href="https://flodesk.com/c/2FQH39">Try Flodesk for yourself.</a>

Flodesk Review - Email Marketing at an Unbeatable Price

laura-martisiute

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

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

<a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/cc-sitejet">Sitejet</a> is a comprehensive website builder that combines web design, content management, and project management into one complete platform. The brains behind the operation are a group of friends from Germany who initially developed the product as an in-house tool to support their own web design agency before deciding to launch it to the public in 2018.In this review, we will give you an overview of how Sitejet actually works so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.<h2>Getting Started</h2>Setting up your Sitejet account is a simple process of filling in a few fields with your name, email, and company details. It’s as easy as that. You’ll start off with a 14 day free trial which gives you full access to “try before you buy”.<h2>Usability</h2>As soon as you log into Sitejet you’ll notice that it appears much more advanced than the standard website builder. This indicative of its primary market of designers and agencies.There are an extensive range of customization options available which could be overwhelming for newbies and the WYSIWYG editor uses some technical terms that may initially confuse the less experienced user. However this shouldn’t be an issue for the professional market that Sitejet is targeting.For the web design pros who aren’t interested in the drag-and-drop feature, manual coding is also available with HTML, CSS, or Javascript coding options.It’s also worth noting that new users are presented with a checklist guide to help navigate the website creation process step-by-step, so the learning curve is manageable regardless of your level of experience.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2019-02-11-at-12.png" />Editing the website is pretty intuitive once you get started and everything is very cleanly laid out. When you’ve chosen your template (see next section below), its added to a list in your dashboard where you select the “edit” button to view your site. At this point you can add/replace images and/or text blocks, move elements, change backgrounds, and more, in just one click.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2019-02-11-at-13.png" />I did notice one particular issue with usability which was the menu font size. The font is very small and might be difficult to read for some users.<h2>Templates</h2>To begin building your site, you can select a template out of the selection available or choose a blank template to work from. I’ve heard people say that the range of templates isn’t great, but I thought there was a good selection of high quality options. Personally, I’d rather be given the option of 70+ top-notch templates than have to navigate through 1000s of often dubious options on WordPress.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitejet-review---5.png" />If you’re not happy with the selection available or need help with building your own custom site, you can work with one of the Sitejet design team by contacting them directly.<h2>Dashboard</h2>The Sitejet dashboard will take you from start to finish on each of your website design projects. This is an impressive system that facilitates collaboration, project management, and site maintenance all in the same place.You can work with multiple websites at once, manage the status of each project, create a to-do list that checks off each stage of development, and monitor the progress of each project you’re working on.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitejet-review---3.png" /><h2>Collaboration Features</h2>Sitejet makes client management a breeze for web designers. There are three collaboration options available depending on your requirements:Collaborate With Colleagues: This function is allows design teams to work together on projects by leaving notes for each other, etc. without the need for individual logins.Collaborate With Customers: With this function, customers can follow your workflow through each stage and leave project feedback as needed during construction.Customer Self-Service Portal: Using the self-service portal, designers can hand the website off to the client whilst retaining control of the account and limiting any potential damage by restricting the access the client has to site elements.<h2>Customer Support</h2>The customer support available to users is better than I’ve seen in many other website builders. The Sitejet support system includes a wide range of tutorials (including video), a comprehensive FAQ section, and a step-by-step onboarding system. The support team is also on hand 24/7 on live chat.<h2>Pricing</h2>There are three plans to choose from after your 14 day free trial has ended: Professional, Team, and Agency.Professional: Manage 1 website with free hosting and an automatic website generator. $5 p/mTeam: White label tools, all professional features, and multi-user permissions for up to 3 users. $19 p/mAgency: White label tools, all professional features, multi-user permissions for up to 10 users, and an additional website export option. $89 p/mThe Professional plan is a good starting point but you’ll need to upgrade to the Team or Agency plan if you want to avail of the collaborative features available.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitejet-review---4.png" /><h2>The Final Verdict</h2>Score: 4/5<a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/cc-sitejet">Sitejet</a> is a refreshing alternative to WordPress and an excellent tool for any designer or agency to have in their kit. The interface is clearly designed with its target market in mind and offers powerful customization tools that really set it apart from the rest. The high quality templates also demonstrate that this product was developed by designers for designers.Sure, there’s a bit of a learning curve in comparison to less comprehensive website builders on the market. But this is more than just a website builder. It’s a CMS, website builder, and project management system combined. So the extra bit of time it takes to get used to navigating the platform is definitely worth it.I highly recommend <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/cc-sitejet">checking out Sitejet</a> if you’re in the web design game. Have you tried it out yet? Let us know in the comments section below.

Sitejet Review - A Website Builder for Designers

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