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Website Builders vs. Custom Web Design

Website Builders vs. Custom Web Design

When a business or individual decides to take on a website, there are two main options to choose from. First, you can use a website builder like Wix or Shopify, which means using a web page or set of web pages that are already designed. Your only task is to load your own content and photos into the pages

Secondly, you can choose to commission a custom web design. This option requires you to hire a professional developer to create your site from scratch. A template offers you a faster and cheaper way to build your site, however, one disadvantage is it is not as flexible as a custom design. A custom design allows you to create a site that is unique, tailored to your business, targeted to your customers, and is more likely to be profitable.

Cost

In comparison to custom web design, website builders tend to be less expensive in the short-term, but they will quickly add up in hosting fees, SSL certificates, and package upgrades. Furthermore, your website will be hosted on a shared server.

Because it requires more time and expertise, custom web design usually costs more than a web site builder. For this type of web development, you hire a developer to build your website from the ground up. Oftentimes, you will also receive maintenance and support for your site after it has been built. A typical fee for this service ranges on your budget and the type of website you need

Despite the importance of the cost of your website, you also need to consider the benefits you receive. While a builder may appear cheaper, you don’t get the same features and customization as a web developer. Additionally, there are times when a builder might not be the cheapest. Unexpected costs (such as hiring someone to customize your site, or paying for ongoing support) can raise the total amount you pay.

Time Investment

A website builder may be the best choice if you want your website up and running quickly. Because the templates are pre-designed and do not need much customization, they are usually relatively easy to set up.

Custom web design, on the other hand, typically takes longer time to complete. The reason for this is that you’ll need to collaborate with a web development company to build a design from the bottom up. The more planning and design that goes into the site, the more time it takes to complete the job.

However, as with cost, time is not the only consideration. You may get your website running faster with a builder, but the finished product may not be as effective as you want. When it comes to getting features such as customization and scalability, taking a little extra time for a custom web design may be the best choice.

Customization

Website builders and custom web design also differ when it comes to the level of customization they offer. As its name implies, custom web design provides significantly more options for customizing your site than do builders.

Custom web design offers you almost unlimited options for customizing your website. Because this type of site is built from the ground up, you can work with your web development company to choose the features that will work best for your business. Your web developer will design the solution around you and your needs, instead of trying to fit you into a box. As a result, they give you the chance to create a site that accurately reflects your unique business.

Summary

Choosing a website builder or custom web design to serve your business well means knowing what you’re getting. Generally, a builder’s fees are less up front, and their setup takes less time. However, the greater customization, scalability, and maintenance available through a custom site make this option a more appealing and profitable choice for many businesses.

 

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What is cPanel?


What is cPanel? Web Hosting Control Panel

What Is cPanel?

First things first, what is it? cPanel is essentially a dashboard or control panel full of easy to use tools to make web management easier. There are lots of things that can be achieved inside it, from installing WordPress to creating staging sites and much more.

Most shared hosting servers use cPanel as their management dashboard. Web developers with dedicated servers or their own servers can also use it as their management system. The interface can be customized to match the look and feel of a hosting server. They can also manage what features to add or take away according to their own preferences for clients.

Before we get into what you can do with cPanel, let’s see how to access it.

Where is Your cPanel?

You can access the dashboard in a couple of different ways. The easiest way is through your hosting server platform. 512 Hosting has a direct link from your account dashboard to make it easy to get your site up and running! 

Another way of accessing it is to use your secure domain URL and add:2083 at the end. Like this:

https://www.yourwebsitename.com:2083

The login details have been sent to you  via email from 512 Hosting when check out is completed. If you can’t find your login details you can always reach out to us at support@512hosting.com!

What does cPanel look like?

cPanel is a dashboard organized into sections. Depending on your hosting server, the interface can look different from another you’ve seen in the past. That’s because each host can apply their own branding and design to how the dashboard looks.

 

 

Your Main Information

On the left-hand column of your cPanel is your account information. Here you will find things like:

  • Your account (hosting) expiration date
  • Your IP address
  • The name servers for your domains
  • Your server’s hostname
  • A search bar to find the cPanel features you need
  • Stats about your domains, email, and storage

Then on the right is the larger area where all the features are found. Read on to learn what all those features are for.

What Can You Do In cPanel?

There are lots of things you can do inside cPanel. Some are more common than others, while others are more granular and not something everyone will need. Below is a list of the most common features.

Web Application / Content Management System Installations

Some of the most common features are the CMS and Web app installers. These include installers for CMS like WordPress, Joomla among others. With the help of tools like Softaculous, you can use cPanel to install lots of different web applications that will help build and manage your website.

Managing Domains

Inside cPanel, you can manage all your domains and subdomains. The domain manager lets you do the following actions:

  • Add new domains
  • Create subdomains
  • Add parked domains
  • Manage domains
  • Protect domain IDs
  • Edit DNS zones

CMS Tools

Depending on what CMS you are using, cPanel offers tools specific to it. These include things like WordPress auto-installers, staging sites, migration tools, and cache controls. Depending on the hosting service, there are tools for other CMS like Joomla, etc. Depending on the hosting service, there will be different CMS tools available to you.

Email Addresses and Webmail

cPanel is where all new email addresses are added and managed. From here you can control passwords, storage capacities, forwarding functions, and POP controls to add emails to your office productivity suite.

File Manager

With cPanel you can also control the files within each domain you manage. Through the file manager, you can access your home directory, your web root directory, the public FTP root directory, and document root directory. Inside the file manager, you can also choose to see the hidden files that give you access to files like .htaccess.

Everything inside your sites is inside the file manager. You can access it all by choosing the domain you want to look at specifically or look at it globally and navigate from there.

PHP Controls

The cPanel is also the place where you can add PHP extensions or change PHP settings like image upload size and memory limit.

Creating and Managing Backups

Backup management is an important aspect of web management. cPanel makes it easy to handle. Some CMS tools inside the dashboard have backup management systems, but you can also do it straight through cPanel with the backup tool.

Security Features

Through cPanel you can manage your security metrics for your different domains. Add encrypt features to make a domain safe with https, add password protection to the file directories, and manage the IP address deny features. Use the cPanel security features to do a security check on any of your sites and domains.

Managing Databases

You can also manage your databases with cPanel. With the database feature, you can manage your MyQSL databases, PHP databases and any other database you might have depending on your CMS.

Visitor Metrics

In some cases, you can also access visitor metrics analytics through cPanel. This will depend on your host server and what applications you use with cPanel if it’s on dedicated hosting.

 

We hope this blog helped you better understand cPanel and how it’s an important part of your website management and development. 

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WordPress Maintenance

The Importance of WordPress Maintenance

WordPress is a popular platform for a massive number of websites out there. Many of you have WordPress websites and you conduct basic maintenance from time to time. So the purpose of a dedicated WordPress website maintenance may sound unnecessary. That is why today’s article will talk about why the WordPress maintenance process is so important and how you can benefit from consistent maintenance. 

According to many studies, many website owners don’t use a dedicated WordPress maintenance plan thinking of it as a waste of time, money, end effort. But the reality is different. Most of them can’t move forward with their website due to various issues. This article will show you how having a dedicated and wise maintenance plan can help you overcome all those problems effortlessly. So without any further ado, let’s get started. 

To Ensure Security 

Nowadays, a massive number of websites are using WordPress as their power engine. Though there are a bunch of benefits, there are some downsides as well. Open source content management systems like WordPress is a bit prone to different kind of cyberattacks. WordPress is a common target for hackers, viruses, bots, and other bad actors in cyberspace. That is why securing your website is a must. And how do we do that? 

Maintaining the WordPress of course. That is why WordPress releases new security patches and updates on a regular basis. This not only improves the user experience but also fixes security issues so that you don’t have to face consequences like hackers defaming your site,  fill your site with malware, or making part of your website unreachable. So keep your WordPress updated and focus on the business instead of worrying about your security breaches on your website.  

To Keep Your Website Updated 

Updates are not only about getting new and enhanced features, it also improves the performance of your website. Just like your smartphone and PC, WordPress also needs maintenance and regular updates to reach its full potential. The core functionalities need to be checked and updated. Once you subscribe to a maintenance plan, your website will be under regular maintenance and you’ll be able to use your website at its maximum efficiency. This is the only way to turn your website into a well-maintained site. 

But there is a catch. If your website design/construction is poor, there is a chance that you’ll face issues like broken links/pages. To avoid that, you need to make sure that you perform manual /automatic backups before your move forward with the version updates. One other thing, regular maintenance will make your website fast and remove any poor user experience your visitors are facing. 

To Protect Your Database

A database is the most important asset to every website owner. But many don’t know how to properly take care of the database they are using. There might be vulnerabilities in plugins, unauthorized access issues, or unexpected system failure that can seriously hamper your business and website. That is why only updating the core files/features isn’t enough. You need to make sure that you have a proper backup plan. Though many providers offer regular backups, they place the assets backup file in the same server your website is.

That is a risk. Quality maintenance services will let you perform offsite backups on a secured and optimized data center so that you can restore your website effortlessly. This will make your website more dynamic and failsafe, creating a positive experience for users, and fixing misconfiguration issues. You’ll also be able to enjoy peace of mind knowing you got this. Plus, it’s easier to switch between a newer and previous version when you have the right setup. 

The Optimize Your Website’s Performance

Neither the users nor Google likes a slow website. That is another reason you need quality performance optimization in your website. This will not only reduce bad user experience but also improve your search engine rankings, meaning you’ll get more and more visitors. As you regularly upload content and install third-party plugins on your website, it tends to become heavier. And the heavier a website is, the slower it will load. That’s why WordPress maintenance is such a crucial aspect. 

Quality maintenance services will optimize your website and make it lightning fast so that your visitors don’t get bounced due to slow loading speed. this way you can get rid of your unused software/plugins and malicious software that may be slowing down your performance. This also includes search engine optimization. So if you want to increase your website’s reputation with search engines and your visitors, a quality maintenance plan is essential. 

To Save Time, Money, And Effort

Running a website may sound like a trivial task, but let me assure you that it’s not. You hardly know when you need to channel your money, time, and effort to keep your website up and running. This may hamper the very thing you created the website for, running your business smoothly. On the other hand, having a quality WordPress maintenance plan will make sure that you can give your full effort to what’s most important. 

Even if your website falls under attack or becomes unable to stay online, restoring your website is effortless with the help of regular maintenance tasks. Your dedicated and wise maintenance experts will take care of all the heavy works for you while you focus on your business. This will ultimately not only help you earn more revenue, but also reduce your time, money, and effort. That’s why WordPress website maintenance is so important. 

To Build A Brand Reputation 

Last but not least, consistent maintenance of your WordPress website will also help you to create a positive brand image for your company. Even a 1-minute downtime can cost you thousands of dollars. Now imagine what will happen in an hour, or even a day if your visitors can’t reach your website. Not only this will hamper your business, but your brand value will take a serious hit as well. And people don’t tend to buy from a source that isn’t reliable. This is why your prime target should be making sure that your website is well-maintained. 

A website isn’t just a bunch of files online. It is much more intricate and entangled than you think. The only way to build a positive brand image is to provide your peak performance through the website. Remember, waiting for an emergency situation doesn’t count as a plan. Quality WordPress maintenance brings benefits for business owners and customers alike. 

Over To You

I hope by now you have a clear understanding of why you need active maintenance on your WordPress website. The maintenance process will help you move forward in the competitions and

provide your visitors with a pleasant user experience. Whether you want to reach your website’s optimal performance, protect your database, or provide a better environment for your visitors, WordPress Maintenance is crucial everywhere. I strongly suggest that you take the necessary measures to ensure your website can handle potential security threats and becomes the favorite website to your visitors. 

No More today. I hope this article proves to be helpful for those who need the right motivation to take their WordPress websites to the next level. If you have any opinion or dispute, please don’t forget to share with us in the comment section below. I wish you all a very productive week. Thanks for reading this far. 

 
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Cloud Webhosting

Cloud Web Hosting

Cloud hosting is quickly becoming the first choice across many different market segments for web applications of all sizes — from startups to enterprises. Instead of purchasing, configuring, installing, and maintaining your own server hardware, you can rent capacity on a cloud hosting service. Developers are beginning to select their cloud hosting services based on maturity of technology, geographical location (to keep latency times to a minimum,) and support for popular software packages.

 Advantages of Cloud Hosting:

 

Cloud hosting services offer many benefits: some of the more obvious include: lower upfront costs, no hardware to install and maintain, pay-as-you-go (PAYG), access to excess capacity (on some services) that you can use free of charge when your site is not being used, and the rapid elasticity that allows cloud hosting services to scale capacity up or down as demand changes.

 

Cloud hosting is always the best choice for:

 

  • Business agility 

  • Cost savings

  • Scalability and elasticity

 

Cloud hosting also makes it possible to take advantage of the benefits of “the cloud” — including efficient provisioning, reduced cost through economies of scale, resiliency, collaboration & agility.

 

Although cloud hosting is a newer technology and has its benefits (like most new technologies), there are some disadvantages: 

 

Disadvantages of Cloud Hosting: 

 

Although cloud hosting is a newer technology and has its benefits (like most new technologies), there are some disadvantages: 

 

  • Lack of control regarding where data is stored. 

  • Applications that require custom servers may not work as well with cloud hosting. 

  • limited experience for small businesses.

  • Data may be more difficult to recover in case of a disaster, but this has become less of an issue since the disaster recovery services have been improved.

 

Final Words

 

Overall, cloud hosting is a definite improvement over traditional hosting and has many benefits that will help small businesses grow.The article explains how cloud hosting provides business agility, cost savings, scalability, enterprise architecture standards to limit reliance on proprietary hardware or software. It then summarizes with support that “cloud is quickly becoming an integral component of not just business strategy, but also business architecture”.