Among the huge number of web design resources and tools on the market there are probably one or two you either badly need or would simply like to have.
Since you mostly read or hear about similar web design tool & resource types over and over again, the problem is having to separate the wheat from the chaff to find the one you want.
This list was built as an alternative to your having to put up with that. The big names have enough exposure and did not make the cut.
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What we did instead was to pick 15 top-of-the-line free and premium web design tools and resources you seldom hear about. They can be divided into the following categories:
- Tools for building websites and pages that include a promising free AI website builder. And several free and premium WordPress themes that will have everything you need.
- Tools for building ecommerce stores that include a first-rate Shopify theme along with several top selling WordPress themes that have been developed specifically for WooCommerce applications.
- Tools for adding animations & special effects to enable your website to charm its visitors into buying a product or service rather than boring them to death.
- Tools that add popular website functionalities, one of the most popular being booking. We have included two booking solutions that are easy to use along with a premium table and chart builder.
- Resources for visually improving websites that include a resource for acquiring unique illustrations and icons. And a font identifier you can use to identify any font you may come across.
At least 50% of the following web design tools and resources are free for you to use:
- Trafft
- WpDataTables
- Amelia
- LayerSlider
- Uncode
- Mobirise AI
- Slider Revolution
- WhatFontIs
- Essential Grid
- Blocksy
- Litho
- GetIllustrations
- XStore
- Woodmart
- Hongo Shopify
These Web Design Tools & Resources have a few things in common.
- Most are free or have a free version that can save you money.
- They are aesthetically and functionally top-of-the-line web design tools and resources and are known for their excellent level of customer support.
- They can make your day by turning a bland website or page into one that is appealing and exciting.
1. Trafft – Brandable Booking Platform
Short description: Trafft White Label is a perfect solution if your agency and business clients need a powerful booking system.
Want to see Trafft usage live? Click on the video.
Trafft enables you or your clients to offer online appointment bookings, organize team schedules, accept payments, send reminders, and more. If you are a developer, its White Label Option allows you to rebrand and sell the Trafft solution as your own.
Whether you make use of the While Label option or not, there is a great deal to like about Trafft including:
- the innovativeness of its interfaces and ease of navigation.
- the depth of customization you can achieve.
- your ability to schedule virtual meetings via Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
- Trafft’s library of time-saving prebuilt websites.
With respect to the latter, the Premantura Health Clinic pre-built website illustrates how to manage bookings for a range of different health services, but can be customized to fit almost any range of services.
Client average score: 5 stars on Capterra, 4.7 (Excellent) on Trustpilot.
Key customer insight: “Beyond the ease of use of the software, their customer support has been really good. Their whole set up is great. There’s a well-organized dashboard that is easy to navigate. …. It is very easy on the client end to sign up for appointments.”
Speedy help is available through: Support manual, YouTube videos and social networks.
2. wpDataTables -The #1 Tables & Charts WordPress Solution
Short description: The wpDataTables best-selling WordPress plugin can make working with complex tables and charts relatively easy for you.
Want to see wpDataTables usage live? Click on the video.
The wpDataTables plugin makes it relatively easy to create natively responsive and informative tables/charts when faced with challenging data management circumstances.
Its top feature, Multiple Database Connections, enables any table you create to establish an independent connection to MySQL, MS SQL, or PostgreSQL databases, making your table a virtual data hub capable of seamlessly integrating data from dissimilar sources.
Other advantages this plugin offers includes an intuitive user interface that can help streamline your data management tasks along with your ability to skillfully handle complex data structures with help from the separate database connections, 4 chart building engines, single cell shortcodes, etc.
You may also find templates helpful. The Responsive Table Catalog of Books template for example can be customized to address to a range of different cataloging uses.
Client average score: 4.5/5 on WordPress.org
Key customer insight: “I can’t say enough wonderful things about this plugin. It is so versatile, so well thought-out, does EXACTLY what we needed it to do, and what’s even more incredible is that when questions do arise, their support team treats you with such care and respect… I really couldn’t ask for more. THANK YOU!”
Readily accessible support materials: Support Manual, YouTube videos, Facebook Community
3. Amelia – Booking Plugin for Automating Appointments and Events
The Short description: Amelia is a comprehensive easy-to-use plugin that helps you create and manage bookings and events.
Want to see this Amelia usage live? Click on the video.
The automated multilingual notifications system, a favorite of 70+% of its users, is Amelia’s most notable feature. The system keeps you informed about the status of appointments or events and fosters efficient communication between your customers and employees. The system offers custom notifications, allowing you to tailor alerts for specific services or events.
When triggered by specific actions or scheduled alerts, Amelia gives you timely and hassle-free management of appointments and events.
Your choice of a template can help you set customize your website to make booking easier for your clients and serve to attract potential clients. Home Lab is an example.
You will quickly come to appreciate Amelia’s ease of navigation and depth of customization options.
Client average score: 4.8 on Capterra.
Key customer insight: “Here are some of the things I like about Amelia: It’s easy to use, both for me and for my clients. It’s very customizable, so I can make it look and work exactly the way I want. It’s reliable and has never let me down. The support team is responsive and helpful.”
Speedy help available through: Support Manual, YouTube Videos, Discord Group, and Amelia’s detailed documentation on plugin functionalities.
4. LayerSlider- Ultimate WordPress Slider Plugin
The Short description: LayerSlider is the essential WordPress plugin for crafting captivating animations and graphics for your website.
Click on the video to see LayerSlider in action.
LayerSlider provides a perfect solution to bring creativity and very satisfied website visitors to your life.
Much more than being a simple slider maker, this versatile tool can boast some remarkable features, the most important of which is its ability, with its wide range of connected online services, to seamlessly integrate special effects and graphics into your websites and to take your web content to the next level
It’s also worth noting that adding jaw-dropping animations to a website that visitors can’t help but notice is great for marketing purposes or for promoting your business online.
You can also put LayerSlider’s pre-made, downloadable, and visually stunning professional templates to effective use. You can easily customize them by incorporating your own content while at the same time taking full advantage of impressive features like scroll effects. See what happens as you scroll down the FAIRY website template.
With LayerSlider, everything you need is at your fingertips – where it should be. LayerSlider can be used with any website, regardless of its content.
Key customer insight: “Powerful features and a flexible slider for many effects. Makes a very professional looking slider.”
Speedy help available through: ticket system, email, and the editor’s guided product tour.
5. Uncode – Popular WooCommerce WordPress Theme
Short description: With the Uncode WordPress theme you can create stunning WooCommerce websites with zero coding knowledge.
Want to see Uncode usage live? Click on the video.
Uncode’s users without hesitation will point to the theme’s WooCommerce demo library as their favorite feature. Pick any demo and you’ll be impressed by the exceptional attention to detail you’ll note together with the inspirational characteristics.
It would be impossible to say which demo is the absolute favorite since the choice would depend entirely on the needs of an individual Uncode user. The Shop Crafter demo is one of the five most widely used and is one you could easily customize to fit a large number of different uses.
As an Uncode user, you’ll quickly take note of the deep level of customization available to you, with the value the demos and wireframes offer, and the first-class customer support.
If you are a freelance designer, a developer, or represent an agency, Uncode’s advanced customization options will prove valuable.
If, on the other hand, creating a shop is your thing, you could easily and quickly put Uncode’s advanced WooCommerce features to effective use.
Client average score: 4.89/5
Key customer insight: “I have used Uncode on 6+ websites now, and it’s absolutely my go-to theme! The features, quality, and customer support are outstanding.”
Speedy help available through: Support manual, YouTube videos, Facebook Group
6. Mobirise AI Website Builder
Short description: An easy–to-use free AI-powered website builder you can use for building a page, small website, or blog.
Want to see Mobirise AI usage live? Click on the video.
When you come across a system that claims to enable you to accomplish a lot by doing little, it may be worthwhile to look into it further. The Mobirise AI Website Builder’s top feature does exactly that with its ability to create a page or small website with a single prompt.
It also gives you the chance to see what AI can do for you if you haven’t yet had the opportunity to try it out.
Give Mobirise a description of your website’s purpose. You can do so in any language. Follow up with a prompt and let the AI engine do its thing. It will produce a content-rich website.
Although Mobirise AI will meticulously generate your new website’s content, images, and layout, the result will probably not be exactly what you want; but it may be close. You will still have to make some additions or adjustments to attain perfection and you can do so with the Mobirise AL website builder app.
AI saves you time, ensures your content is engaging, can be tailored to address your site’s overall message, and is optimized for SEO.
Speedy help available through: Support manual, YouTube Videos, and the User Forum.
Use the Mobirise AI Builder for free
7. Slider Revolution – Versatile WordPress Slider Plugin
Short description: Use the Slider Revolution WordPress plugin to create stunning visuals you can use to build responsive sliders, hero sections and even complete websites.
Want to see Slider Revolution usage live? Click on the video.
Slider Revolution’s top feature, its visual no-code WOW effects, gives you the ability to easily design stunning website content sections and home pages, highlight special products, and much more. You can either create your designs from scratch, borrow content from other sources, or both.
Slider Revolution plugin used to be limited to the simple creation of sliders. Back then, people were happy with that. That’s no longer the case. With Slider Revolution in your design toolkit, you can do much more, like:
- creating home pages guaranteed to grab and hold a viewer’s attention.
- creating eye-catching portfolios that will not be unseen.
- designing jaw-dropping sections anywhere on any website page.
The OakGrove Wine slider template can easily be customized. It also gives some tips as to how you might go about it.
Slider Revolution is especially well tailored for web shops, small agencies, and individual web designers.
Client average score: 4.65/5 on Trustpilot
Key customer insight: “Love the features and professional look we can create using slider revolution on our site. Highly recommend.”
Speedy help available through: Support Manual and YouTube Videos
8. WhatFontis – the Best Font Finder Tool
Short description: A free font finder that helps you to identify a font from an image you submit.
Want to see WhatFontis usage live? Click on the video.
WhatFontis has many features you will like. Its top feature, the one you will probably like best, is simply this. It is best at doing what it was designed for, which is to identify uploaded font images correctly and accurately.
It is the only system that can claim a font identification accuracy of 90% or greater. A result that is true whether the font in question is free or commercially licensed.
If WhatFontis fails to identify a font you have submitted, you should check the quality of the image you uploaded. Misses are mainly attributed to substandard image uploads.
How WhatFontis identifies a font you’ve uploaded:
- It has a database of 990K+ free and commercially licensed fonts to work with, a database that is nearly 5 times the size of its nearest competitor.
- Its AI-powered search engine is capable of quickly responding to your query.
- In addition to identifying your font image, WhatFontis gives you 60 close matches and also lets you know where you can download a free font or who to contact to purchase a licensed one.
Key customer insight: “The site works well at finding out what font is in an image. I use it often.”
Speedy help available through: Font Identifier Forum
Use the WhatFontis font identifier for free
9. Essential Grid – Impressive WordPress Gallery Plugin
Short description: With Essential Grid, you can easily create any gallery layout you can envision.
Want to see Essential Grid usage live? Click on the video.
It should not come as a surprise that Essential Grid’s top feature is its library of 50+ unique grid skins, because that is what this gallery-building plugin is all about.
Check out Essential Grid’s gallery skins and you’ll likely come across more than one grid format you’ve never seen before. Don’t worry if you don’t find exactly the layout you want. The visual skin editor, adjustable rows/columns/spacings, and other customizing options can take care of that.
Scroll through the Dark Portfolio Grid for WordPress and you’ll find a new and quite different take on what a gallery layout might look like. It may not be what you need, or it may be exactly what you want but could not quite envision.
You will also find that Essential Grid can be a real time saver, as well as how effectively it can help you organize your content streams.
Client average score4.7/5 on Trustpilot
Key customer insight: ”I highly recommend this plugin which offers a lot of customization features. The support is very reactive and always finds solutions.”
Speedy help available through: Support Manual, YouTube Videos
10. Blocksy – Innovative Free WordPress Theme
Short description: Blocksy is a fast, lightweight WordPress theme that places the latest web technologies at your fingertips.
Want to see Blocksy usage live? Click on the video.
Ask Blocksy users what its top feature is, and they can’t come to a consensus. What you get instead is a list. Not to worry; you will find out for yourself. It might be Blocksy’s White Label module, the Custom Blocks Module, Blocksy’s Advanced WooCommerce integration capability, or the way in which Blocksy supports Custom Post Types and Dynamic Data.
Or maybe the top feature for you is that Blocksy is free.
Whatever you decide, you’ll find Blocksy is lighter and faster than most similar WordPress themes, it is simple to use, and it features granular controls that give you access control over all aspects of your design.
Blocksy’s stunning demos can also serve as great website building aids. The Car Service demo is one of the 5 most commonly used. Its straightforward layout can give you a head start and lends itself to a wide variety of uses.
Client average score: 5/5 on WordPress.org
Key customer insight: “I’ve been very happy with my switch over to Blocksy. The theme is coded well with regular updates. Also happy with my interactions with their support team.”
Speedy help available through: Support manual documentation section, YouTube videos, and Facebook Group
Use the Blocksy WordPress Theme for free
11. Litho Multipurpose Elementor WordPress Theme
Short description: Litho is an eCommerce multipurpose Elementor WordPress theme that gives you a remarkable set of page and website building options.
Want to see Litho usage live? Click on the video.
Litho’s top feature lies in an integration with Elementor that accounts for its remarkable page building options and capabilities. Litho serves a variety of user types that range from freelancers and artists to digital agencies and shop owners.
You will have no problem at all putting Litho’s capabilities to use. You can customize most page items using Elementor-like header, footer, mini header, archive page / post template, page title and promo popups.
Litho’s demos can be imported either individually or en masse and can be mixed and matched. Litho’s Home Restaurant demo is one of its most popular. The visual search and hover features are impressive, as is the over layout. (The images will probably make you hungry!) You can of course customize it to meet almost any need.
Client average score:4.94/5
Key customer insight: “Perfect! The theme is so full of options, I love it. And I’m so happy with the support, they are always ready to help. 5 stars both to the templates and the support team!”
Speedy help is available through: Support manual, YouTube videos, and the Litho support portal.
12. GetIllustrations -Vector Illustrations Stock Library
Short description: Your #1 resource for top quality vector illustrations with terrific attention to detail.
Want to see this GetIllustrations icon pack live? Click on the video.
GetIllustrations’ top feature is not hard to identify. It’s actually threefold:
- 23,000+ vector human-drawn illustrations,
- free updates for 1 year,
- new illustration packs added every week.
What’s even better is that each vector illustration includes the original vector design files and are fully editable, so you can customize them to fir your brand colors or needs. They come in .Ai, .SVG. .PNG, and .Figma formats.
Amazingly, every single illustration carries a message. They are not random designs, but reflect what corporations, systems analysts, and UI designers use and look for. The ColorWave pack of 9 illustrations featuring vibrant color patterns gives you a good idea of what you can expect to find, and if you can’t find what you have in mind the GetIllustrations team can create a custom illustration for you.
Each purchase includes a standard commercial license, and once you purchase an illustration it’s yours to keep.
Key customer insight: “I really like the different styles available in this library. I used it to illustrate some of my blog posts. Since you get vector files, you can also recolor them to have them match your brand and product identity!”
Speedy help available through: twitter.com/Ramy Waffa, designer and curator
13. XStore – Feature Rich WooCommerce WordPress Theme
Short description: With XStore you can build online stores that positively rock!
Want to see XStore usage live? Click on the video.
While XStore is perhaps best known for its selection of pre-built online stores, a relatively new feature, a selection of Sales Booster Features, has replaced the pre-built store selection as XStore’s top feature.
XStore has the highest number of these Sales Booster features in the WordPress marketplace. They include Frequently Bought Together, a Free Shipping progress bar, Cross sells after “Add to Cart,” a sticky ad to cart bar, and more.
XStore also features a Single Product Builder, an Archive Products Builder, a Checkout Builder, and a Cart Builder for shop owners.
The XStore Control Panel and XStore Builders Panel are easy to work with and you will find the online stores (demos) can be a tremendous help in getting a project off to a rapid start. The XStore eCommerce Elementor Demo is one of the most widely used as it can easily be put to a wide variety of uses.
Client average score:4.88/5
Key customer insight: “One of the best support I ever had, they answered me quickly and resolve the problems in my website. Thank you!”
Speedy help available through: Support Manual, YouTube Videos
14. WoodMart – All-in-One Solution for WooCommerce Theme
Short description: WoodMart is a premium WordPress theme you can use to create any kind of fast and responsive WooCommerce store.
Want to see WoodMart usage live? Click on the video.
A glance at WoodMart’s website is all it takes for its top feature, its realism, to jump right out at you. There is certainly plenty for you to like about this premium WooCommerce theme with its highly customizable product page layouts.
You can prototype a website with a few clicks by uploading a demo from the pre-made templates library. Demo Electronics, with its easily customizable layout, is one of the most popular. You can even combine different templates to create your own pages.
Other things that can work in your favor when building your store include:
- popular customer-centric features that include “Frequently Bought Together,” and “Dynamic Discounts”.
- the social integrations options for marketers.
- the Theme Settings Search capability and Theme Settings performance optimization features.
If you are a developer, you will be happy to see that WoodMart also features a White Label option.
Client average score:4.93/5
Key customer insight: “My favorite theme for WooCommerce by a longshot. Incredibly flexible, fully customizable, stable, and full support/integration for Elementor as a page builder. Support staff is super-fast and helpful. I’ve set up Woodmart on multiple websites now and it just keeps getting better with every update. Can’t recommend it enough.”
Speedy help available through: Support Manual, YouTube Videos
15. Hongo – Creative Multipurpose Shopify Theme
Short description: Hongo is a highly flexible Shopify theme you can use to create Shopify online stores, websites, and blogs.
Want to see Hongo usage live? Click on the video
Hongo’s most outstanding feature is the overall quality of its design, a feature that is passed on to the Shopify-type websites you can create. Also noteworthy is the money you can save by using Hongo’s custom eCommerce features rather than using Shopify apps.
Hongo is built for speed, and it is fully responsive. Hongo adapts beautifully to all device to provide a seamless experience for your users. Its carefully crafted 19 demo stores (with more to come) address a variety of popular eCommerce niches. Give the Watch Demo a look. It could serve admirably as a starter site.
You can also mix sections from other demos to achieve just the right look, plus you will have 150+ sections, and 100+ pre-built pages at your fingertips to work with.
Although Hongo was built using the latest design trends you will find it user-friendly and easy to navigate, as will your website’s customers.
Client average score:4.87/5
Key customer insight: “Excellent design, customization, and support! Will surely be buying more licenses for future projects. My favorite theme so far.”
Speedy help available through: Support Manual, YouTube Videos, and 150+ online articles
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We set out to create a list of lesser-known web design resources and tools of top quality you can use to deliver websites that can engage visitors through the use of aesthetically superior designs and visuals that include:
- Ecommerce store layouts that can effectively convert visitors into clients,
- high demand website functionalities.
We believe we have succeeded and that we have provided you with the information you need to make an informed decision to try a tool or resource or to skip it.
You will find:
- a promising free AI page and website builder
- tools for building eCommerce stores. Including a Shopify theme and a selection of WooCommerce-oriented themes.
- excellent free and premium WordPress themes.
- two appointment booking plugins that are easy to use and will do an excellent job.
- a plugin that makes managing complex data less stressful.
- dynamic animation tools to help your website charm its visitors into making purchases and are fun to work with.
Most are free or have a free version, all are of high quality, and several can be used to spice up a bland website, home page, or landing page.