We are often asked by users about what is headless WordPress and should they use it?

Headless WordPress separates WordPress’s back-end admin area from the front-end that visitors see. This allows developers to use different technologies for the front-end part of a website while still keeping the stability and security of WordPress.

In this article, we’ll explain what is headless WordPress and if should you use it. We’ll also talk about the pros and cons of a headless WordPress website.

Here is a quick overview of the topics we’ll cover in this guide:

What is Headless WordPress?

Headless WordPress is a term for any website that uses WordPress as the back-end software to manage data and content, but uses separate technologies to display the data on the front-end.

The back-end is the term used for the admin area of a website. This is where you create content like posts and pages, install plugins, manage comments, and more.

Front-end is the publicly visible area of your website.

This is what the users see when they visit your site their browsers.

WordPress normally takes care of both components in one robust software. You can simply use any WordPress theme to display your website.

However, some developers and website owners may have different requirements where they may need to use others technologies such as React.js, Angular.js, Faust.js, and others to create a custom front-end for their website.

Headless WordPress allows them to use those technologies while still using WordPress in the backend for easier content management.

How Headless WordPress Works?

WordPress comes with an easy-to-use admin area where you create content and manage your website. It also includes a templating engine to display the front-end of your site using themes.

For more details, see our article on how WordPress works behind the scenes.

WordPress also ships with an API called WordPress REST API.

This API provides a programming interface for developers to access WordPress website data in JSON format.

When making a headless WordPress website, developers use the REST API to fetch data from WordPress. After that, they can use it in their apps or other front-end technologies like React.js, Angular.js, Faust.js, and more to create a custom website.

What Are the Advantages of Using Headless WordPress?

Headless WordPress can be beneficial in some specific scenarios. We’ll talk about some of the advantages of using headless WordPress in those.

1. Headless WordPress Can Be Faster Than Regular WordPress Website

Many developers believe that headless WordPress can be used to create a much faster WordPress website.

By separating the front end of the site using technology such as React.js, many developers try to deliver more efficient code than most WordPress themes.

However, in our experience simpler WordPress performance optimization techniques work just as good as headless WordPress for most small business websites and use-cases.

2. Integrate Headless WordPress Data into Other Apps

Let’s say you have a mobile app and now you want to integrate your blog or other section from your WordPress website into that app.

Headless WordPress can help you bring your WordPress data into other apps, and you can use different technologies to create a seamless user experience.

Similarly, if you have a static website, and you need a dynamic section only for a specific section like a blog, reviews, or online store. Then headless WordPress can integrate WordPress data into your static website.

3. Publish on Multiple Platforms via Headless WordPress

Headless WordPress makes your WordPress data portable, so that you can take it anywhere.

You can use the data in your marketing campaigns, post on social media platforms, use it on IoT devices such as smart speakers, feed an artificial intelligence tool, connect to virtual assistants, and more.

4. Headless WordPress is far more affordable than proprietary headless CMS

Headless WordPress is far more affordable and powerful than proprietary “enterprise CMS” solutions like Contentful which will easily cost you tens of thousands in hosting alone (not including development costs).

What Are the Disadvantages of a Headless WordPress Website?

Creating a headless WordPress website may also put your website at certain disadvantages. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

1. Headless WordPress is More Expensive compared to Traditional WordPress sites

You’ll need to hire a developer to make a custom front end for your website. This could easily get into the range of tens of thousands of dollars.

If you are a developer, then you’ll be spending valuable time making a custom front end.

Even if you are using a front-end development framework, it would take more time and effort than using a ready-made WordPress theme with proper caching on server / DNS level.

2. Some WordPress Plugins May Not Work

Plugins are like apps for your WordPress website, and they allow you to add new features to your site and extend its functionality.

A headless WordPress website may not be able to take advantage of some of the WordPress plugins.

For instance, some WordPress plugin data may not be accessible using the REST API, or plugin features may require a WordPress theme to function properly.

With that said, popular WordPress plugins like AIOSEO have a REST API extension that lets you create SEO friendly headless WordPress sites.

3. Maintainance Headaches

You’ll basically be using separate platforms for the front and back end of your site, and you will need to maintain both of them separately.

Occasionally, things may break down on either side. You will need to rely on developers to sort out these issues. Or you will spend your own valuable time fixing them.

The additional complexity will make it harder as your business grows.

Should You Use a Headless WordPress Website?

In our opinion, most WordPress users don’t need to use a headless WordPress website or other types of headless framework.

It is expensive, needlessly complicated, and not suitable for vast majority of website owners, bloggers, small businesses, or online stores.

For instance, if speed and performance is your main concern, then your existing WordPress website can easily beat any headless WordPress website.

All top WordPress caching plugins come with page caching, cache preloading, object caching, and gzip compression features.

Turning on these features can significantly boost your website speed without hiring any developers.

Combine that with a powerful CDN and web application firewall like Cloudflare or Sucuri, and your website will be even faster.

See the case study of how we made WPBeginner load faster than headless websites.

As for integrations, there are more than 59,000+ WordPress plugins offering integrations with almost every third-party platform available.

There are even tools like Uncanny Automator that allow integrations with WordPress websites and third-party tools using Zapier.

If you need an integration that is not available via an existing WordPress plugin, then perhaps you should hire a developer to write a custom plugin.

This will cost a lot less, and you can even make money online by selling it as a digital download to other WordPress users.

Who Should Use Headless WordPress?

We believe that headless WordPress should only be used in very specific scenarios.

First, you need to evaluate if there is a genuine need for headless CMS.

For instance, a company that has built a custom website or an app. They might need WordPress for easier content management features, and in that scenario it makes sense to use headless WordPress.

Secondly, you should either have the budget to hire & retain developers or have the skillset required to maintain a headless CMS.

Remember, a headless WordPress CMS is used for creating a new custom app, or one that uses WordPress for easier content creation and management.

Important Thing to Watch Out for with Headless WordPress

As a non-techy business owner, sometimes it’s hard to know if you truly need headless WordPress.

Some WordPress developers and agencies will try to push headless websites on you, and you must know what you’re getting yourself into. Remember their incentives are to charge you more money.

If the only reason why they propose headless WordPress is speed or SEO, then you must ask them what have they already done to optimize the speed of your website, and how big of the impact will switching to headless WordPress may have. If you don’t get a concrete answer, then you should look for a second opinion.

You will be surprised that for vast majority of websites, the improvements are negligible, but the cost to develop & maintain headless WordPress websites are much higher.

Whatever you do, definitely do not let anyone talk you into switching away from WordPress to something like Contentful because you’ll be highly disappointed.

We have heard numerous business owners switching only to realize what a mistake they had made, and then converting back to WordPress.

What that said, if you’re 100% convinced that you need a headless WordPress website, then below is a quick step by step guide.

How to Make a Headless WordPress Website?

There are many ways to make a headless WordPress website depending on what tools you want to use for the front end.

For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create a headless WordPress website using only the static pages generated by WordPress. This is NOT the most flexible way to create a headless WordPress website, but it is the easiest way for beginners.

First, you need to make a WordPress website that you want to use as your headless CMS.

This needs to be a live website on its own domain name and web hosting account.

We recommend using SiteGround. They are one of the fastest WordPress hosting companies and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

SiteGround servers are powered by Google Cloud and they have many built-in performance optimization tools.

Alternatively if you can spend a little more, then take a look at WP Engine. Their Atlas plan is made for large headless WordPress websites and is targeted towards developers.

Atlas comes with a free sandbox account, custom content modular, pre-configured blueprints to speed up your workflow, and a deeper integration with WPGraphQL plugin.

You can also make a local WordPress website on your own computer.

After that, you can start working on your website by adding posts and pages. You can also choose a WordPress theme for your website and design your website.

Once your website is ready, you need to install and activate the Simply Static plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Simply Static » Settings page to configure the plugin.

From here, you can choose the URL path you want to use in your static files.

For instance, if you know the URL or domain name where you will host your static files, then you can provide that URL under the ‘Absolute URLs’ field.

If you are unsure, then you can use the ‘Relative URLs’ option.

Next, switch to the ‘Include/Exclude’ tab. From here, you can add additional pages that you want to include or add pages that you want to exclude.

You can also use regex expressions to exclude URLs that match a specific pattern.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Now, you are ready to generate static files for your headless website. Simply go to the Simply Static » Generate page and click on the ‘Generate Static Files’ button.

The plugin will then start crawling your website and storing static files in a temporary folder. It may take a while depending on how many pages your website has.

Once finished, you will see a success notification with a link to download files to your computer in a zip archive format.

After downloading the zip file, you will need to extract it.

You are now ready to upload the extracted files to your website or the server where you want to host your headless website.

Simply connect to your website using an FTP client or use the file manager app in the hosting control panel.

Once connected, upload the extracted static files you downloaded earlier to your website.

After that, you can visit your static website to see it in action.

Note: To update your static website, you will need to create new content in your WordPress installation and then repeat the whole process again to replace the static files being served to your users.

It’s important to note that this is not the most flexible way to create a static WordPress website.

When you’re using a headless WordPress solution like WP Engine Atlas, it comes with better developer tooling, starter site blueprints, how-to guides, smarter production deployment solutions, and more.

For larger websites and enterprise solutions, we would recommend using WP Engine Atlas along with WPGraphQL to unlock the full power of headless WordPress CMS.

With that said, if you’re a small business owner and read somewhere that you need a headless WordPress site to improve your SEO rankings, that’s just wrong advice. You can get similar results by just improving your website performance by following our guide on how to speed up WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn what is headless WordPress and if should you use it for your website. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme without coding, or see our comparison of best smtp services to improve email deliverability.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post What is Headless WordPress and Should You Use It? (Pros & Cons) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to create a client portal in WordPress?

A client portal is a dedicated area where clients can login and access exclusive documents, files, support, and more.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a client portal in WordPress.

Why Create a Client Portal in WordPress?

A client portal makes it easier to manage client resources online. This can reduce the number of support requests you receive, allow clients to help themselves, and provide them with a better user experience.

For example, if you run a photography website then you might create a dashboard where clients can upload and download images.

Similarly, if you run a graphic design or web design business, then you might create a customer portal where clients can download all the resources you’ve designed for them.

Without a client portal, the customer would need to contact you directly and wait for a response. This is time-consuming and frustrating for both you and the client.

With that being said, let’s see how to reduce your workload and keep your customers happy by creating a client portal in WordPress.

How to Create a Client Portal in WordPress

Each business will need something different from their client portal, so you need a solution that’s flexible, customizable, and works well with other plugins.

For this guide, we will be using MemberPress.

It is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market and allows you to easily create a members-only section for your clients. MemberPress also has powerful display rules so you create exclusive posts, pages, and other content for your clients.

First, you need to install and activate the MemberPress plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go head and visit MemberPress » Settings and enter your license key.

You’ll find this information under your account on the MemberPress website. It’s also in the email you got when you purchased MemberPress.

After entering the key, click on ‘Activate License Key.’

Next, you need to add at least one payment gateway so you can easily accept credit card payments in your client portal.

MemberPress supports PayPal and Stripe. If you purchase a MemberPress Pro plan, then you can also accept payments using Authorize.net. 

Note: If you plan to add existing clients to your portal without charging a fee, then you can skip this step.

To add a payment method, switch to the ‘Payments’ tab and click on ‘Add Payment Method.’

You can now chose a payment method from the ‘Gateway’ dropdown.

MemberPress will then show all the settings you need to configure before using this payment gateway. For example, in the following image we’re adding PayPal payment to WordPress.

After choosing a gateway, you’ll need to enter some information to configure your account. Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Update Options’ button to save your changes.

You can add multiple payment gateways to your corporate portal simply by following the same process described above.

After adding one or more payment methods, you’re ready to create a membership plan.

To get started, simply go to the MemberPress » Memberships page and click on the Add New button.

On the next screen, you can type a title for the membership level and set the price. If you’re planning to add clients manually, then you can leave the ‘Price’ field at ‘0.’

However, if you want to make money by selling subscriptions to your client portal, then you can type in a price.

Next, use the ‘Billing Type’ dropdown to create a billing cycle, for example you might charge clients a one-time fee for lifetime access or set up a recurring monthly subscription.

In the following image, we’re charging clients $100 every 6 months.

Next, you need to create access rules. This allows you to create an exclusive, client-only area of your WordPress website.

Simply go to the MemberPress » Rules page and then click on the ‘Add New’ button.

On the next screen, you first need to choose what content you want to restrict.

The ‘Protected Content’ section offers different options. To start, you can restrict access to specific pages and posts, although this may be time-consuming if you have lots of content.

Another option is to restrict access to all child pages of a particular parent page. For example, you might create a ‘Client Portal’ parent page and then restrict access to all its child pages. This can save you lots of time and effort.

Similarly, you can restrict access to all the posts that have a specific category or tag.

Below that, you can specify who can access this content by opening the ‘Access Conditions’ dropdown and choosing ‘Membership.’

In the second dropdown menu, select the membership level you created earlier.

When you’re happy with how the access rule is set up, click on the Save Rule button to store your settings.

You can create more content restriction rules by following the same process described above.

Creating a Client Account Page in MemberPress

Next, you’ll want to create an Account page, which is the page that clients will see then they log into your portal.

First, go to MemberPress » Settings and click on the ‘Pages’ tab.

MemberPress will create an Account page automatically.

To preview the page, click on the ‘View’ button next to ‘MemberPress Account Page.’

The default Account page has a few different tabs where clients can edit their profile, check their subscriptions, and log out of their account.

The Account page is also designed to perfectly integrate with your WordPress theme, as you can see in the following image.

The default Account page should be a good fit for most client portals. However you can edit the page just like you would any other WordPress page.

To make some changes, click on the ‘Edit’ button.

This launches the standard WordPress page editor, so you can do ahead and make your changes. Just be aware that any content you add here will be visible to everyone and not just the client.

When you’re happy with how the account page looks, just scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Update Options.’

MemberPress will now go ahead and create the Account page.

You can see this page live on your website by adding /account/ to the end of your domain, for example www.example.com/account/.

You can also find this page in your WordPress dashboard by going to Pages » All Pages.

Although MemberPress creates this page automatically, you can also add the Account content to any page or post using the [mepr-account-form] shortcode.

For more details on how to place the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Customizing Client Account Page in MemberPress

Content protection rules are one way to create exclusive content for your clients. However, sometimes you may want to hide specific content within a page or post, such as the index to your members-only bbPress forum or some bonus documentation you created using a WordPress knowledge base plugin.

In this case, you can wrap the content in shortcode. MemberPress will then hide or show the content inside the shortcode, based on whether the person is logged into your client portal.

To start, you’ll need to know the ID for the client membership level. To get this, simply go to MemberPress » Memberships and look at the value in the ‘ID’ column.

Once you have the ID, go the page or post where you want to hide some content.

You can then create a shortcode block above the content and a block below the content.

In the top block, add the following: [mepr-active membership=’162′]. Make sure you replace the number with the client membership ID.

Next, add the following in the bottom block: [/mepr-active].

Then, simply update or publish the page and visit your site in incognito mode, or when logged out of your WordPress account.

MemberPress should hide the content inside your shortcode blocks. To see the content, simply log into any client membership account.

Adding Tabs to The Accounts Page in MemberPress

By default, the Account page has Home, Subscriptions, Payments, and Logout tabs.

You may want to add more tabs to help members find content in your client portal. For example, you could create tabs for customer service software such as HelpDesk.com or HelpScout, to help clients contact your support team.

The easiest way to add more tabs to the Account page is by using the MemberPress Nav Tabs add-on.

Simply go to MemberPress » Add-ons and then click on the ‘Install Add-on’ button next to ‘Nav Tabs.’

After that, go to MemberPress » Settings.

Here, click on the ‘Account’ tab.

Next, just scroll to ‘Account Nav Tabs Settings’ and check the ‘Enable Account Nav Tabs’ box.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll see a new editor where you can select either ‘Content’ or ‘URL.’

If you choose ‘Content,’ then you can add images, text, audio, shortcodes, and other content.

This content will appear inside the new tab, as you can see in the following image.

The other option is ‘URL,’ which will take the client to a different page, similar to clicking an item in the navigation menu.

If you do select ‘URL,’ then you can type in a title and the URL that the tab will link to. By default, the link will open in the same tab but you can open it in a new tab by checking the ‘Open URL…’ box.

To add more tabs to the Account page, simply click on ‘Add New Tab’ and repeat the process described above.

After adding all your custom tabs, click on the ‘Update Options’ button to save your changes.

Adding Custom Content for an Individual Client

MemberPress also allows you to show a different message to each client in their Account page. This message is included in the ‘Home’ tab.

By creating a personal greeting, you can make your clients feel more appreciated and valued. You might also include links to resources that the client may find helpful, such as the documentation for a new product they’ve just bought.

To add a custom message, go to MemberPress » Members. You can then hover over any client and click on the ‘Edit’ link when it appears.

After that, scroll to the ‘Custom MemberPress Account Message’ section and add the content that you want to show to this particular client.

This area works like the regular WordPress post editor so you can add images, shortcodes, image galleries, video, audio files, and any other resources that the client may field useful.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update User’ button to save your changes.

Adding a Link to Client Area using MemberPress

Next, you need to make it easy for clients to access the portal by adding it to your menu.

Simply go to Appearance » Menus and click to expand the ‘Pages’ section, if it isn’t expanded already.

You can then check the box next to the ‘Account’ page and click on ‘Add to Menu.’

Once you’ve done that, you can change where the Account page appears in the menu using drag and drop.

You can also change the label that’s used for the ‘Account’ page in the menu. The default is ‘Account’ but you may want to use ‘Client Portal’ or similar.

To do this, click to expand the ‘Account’ section and then type a new title into the ‘Navigation Label’ field.

Don’t forget to click on ‘Save Menu’ to store your settings.

Now if you visit your site, you’ll see a link to the Account page in your menu.

Extending Client Portal with MemberPress

By this point, you’ve created a client portal with exclusive, members-only content and even a custom welcome message.

That’s a great start, but let’s look at some other features that you can add to the client portal using MemberPress.

1. File Downloads

Want to allow clients to download files from your site? This might be anything from copies of your invoices, to reports and studies, or the stock images you’ve created for the client.

MemberPress comes with a File Downloads add-on that allows you to offer downloadable content to your clients. After creating the download, you can add it to any page or post using a shortcode.

MemberPress will then show a link that visitors can use to download the file.

You can use content protection to make the file exclusive to your clients, or even create different downloadable files for each client.

For step by step details, please see our guide on how to manage file downloads in WordPress.

2. Training Courses

You may want to offer courses, workshops, and other training materials to your clients.

The good news is that MemberPress is also the best WordPress LMS plugin on the market.

The MemberPress course builder is built on top of the WordPress block editor. This means you can add lessons, topics, categories, embed videos, images, and more using the WordPress tools that you’re already familiar with.

By publishing courses to the client portal, you can add more value for your customers and encourage them to renew their membership.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to easily create online courses in WordPress.

3. Add Forms to Clients Area

No matter whether it’s a contact form, feedback form, customer testimonial form, or a customer survey, forms are an important way to communicate with your clients.

They can help you get feedback and improve the member experience, while also giving clients a way to ask questions and get support.

MemberPress integrates perfectly with WPForms, which is the best WordPress form builder plugin on the market.

Sometimes, clients may need to upload files to your portal, such as a contract that you need to sign or photographs that you plan to publish to your client portfolio.

You can easily create file upload forms using WPForms. You can then embed the form on the Account page, or any members-only page on your website.

4. Selling More Products and Services

As a business owner, you may want to promote other products and services to your clients.

MemberPress works with many of the email marketing services that you may already be using to keep your audience engaged and promote your other products and services. This includes SendinBlue, Constant Contact, Drip, and 1000+ others.

You can also add an online store to your portal using WooCommerce and sell other products to your customers.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a client portal in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best business phone services, and our guide on how to create an email newsletter.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Client Portal in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking for the best team communication tools for your small business?

As businesses move to remote work, they need tools to communicate with team members. Choosing the right tools can boost productivity, enhance morale, build community, and enhance efficiency among your team.

In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best team communication tools for small businesses.

These tools are based on our hands-on experience because we have been a remote company since we started in 2009, and now we have over 200+ team members across 45 different countries. As a remote company, our teams use several of these tools to collaborate.

How to Choose The Best Team Communication Tool for Your Business?

There is a growing need for better team communication tools as more and more businesses adapt remote and hybrid work culture.

For a small business website, these tools improve employee communication and enable them to work more efficiently.

However, there are just so many different communication tools available that it becomes hard to decide which one to choose without spending too much money.

First, you need to decide what kind of tools your team needs to work better.

For instance, if your sales team needs to make calls and follow up on leads, then you need a virtual business phone system like Nextiva and RingCentral.

Similarly, if you need to make sure that teams can collaborate on different projects, track progress, and get work done, then Slack + Asana may be the right tools for your business

You can save money by not opting for separate tools for the same tasks.

For instance, if you are using Google Workspace, then Google Meet is the perfect alternative to Zoom. Similarly, Office 365 with Microsoft Teams will save money on Slack + Zoom.

Tip: See our comparison of Google Workspace vs Office 365 to see how they stack up against each other.

1. Nextiva

Nextiva is the best omnichannel communication toolkit for businesses. It combines phone, chat, audio/video meetings, contact management, and more in one communication suite.

Employees can collaborate via chat, SMS, and video calls. Their business phone service offers toll-free numbers and teams can share the same phone numbers to easily manage contacts and leads.

Nextiva offers easy-to-use automated reminders for teams and customers around forgotten tasks, follow-ups, or check-ins to increase workplace productivity.

Plus, it integrates with popular calendars, email, Google Workspace, Microsoft teams, and many more.

We use Nextiva in our own business because it helps us get a virtual business phone number that can be shared across our team members, so we can help our customers. The auto-attendant feature helps guide the call to the right person.

Pricing: $18.95 per user per month

2. Slack

Slack is the most popular small business team communication tool on the market right now.

It is used by many Fortune 500 companies like IBM, T-Mobile, NASA, Target, and more.

Slack offers a digital HQ for businesses and teams. You can organize your virtual workspace in channels. These are chatrooms where your teams can collaborate and post updates. Team members can also do 1:1 chats.

Slack also comes with audio calls, video updates, and integration with almost all top productivity tools, CRM software, virtual phone services, and more.

We use Slack in our management company, Awesome Motive, because it allows for asynchronous communication across teams. Slack has notification features that respect timezones considering we have team members in 45 different countries.

Pricing: Paid plans start from $7.25 per user per month.

3. Google Workspace

Google Workspace is Google’s business productivity suite of applications. It includes Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Google Meet, Chat, Forms, Sites, and more.

You can use your own domain name for your Google Workspace account and create a professional business email address for yourself, your teams, and your employees.

Your team space will be hosted on Google’s cloud infrastructure which makes it very fast, reliable, and an extremely secure internal communication tool.

We have been using Google Workspace for over a decade for our business email address. It gives you the familiar Gmail and Google calendar interface which your team will love. We use the Shared Drive feature for cloud storage which is really good for access control on documents & files.

This year the quality of Google Meet calls have improved drastically, so we have cancelled our Zoom subscription and are using Google Meet for our group meetings.

Pricing: Starting at $6 per user per month

4. HubSpot

HubSpot is a business communication suite that offers a Sales platform, marketing tools, CRM software, and more.

It allows your teams to easily manage leads and customers using a robust dashboard. Improving communications between team members and customers to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.

Unlike other communication tools on the list, HubSpot doesn’t offer team chat, audio, or video calls. However, as sales software it allows sales and marketing teams to communicate and work together more efficiently.

We use HubSpot to organize our partnership contacts, and it acts as a single source for our various teams.

Pricing: Limited free account, paid plans for marketing, sales, and customer services software with different pricing for each.

5. Asana

Asana is the best project management software for remote teams on the market.

For remote teams, keeping up with their projects and goals is where most communication takes place. Asana makes it super easy for teams of all shapes, sizes, and industries to collaborate and communicate.

Asana doesn’t have chat, SMS, or video conferencing features. All team communication takes place in comments, tasks, projects, and forms. Each task can have its own thread and nothing slips through the cracks.

You can organize work among teams and projects, set long-term goals, add tasks, and then view them in lists, timeline, or card views.

It comes with brilliant tools like templates, rules, forms, and approvals to automate the workflow.

Plus, it integrates beautifully with other popular productivity tools your organization may already be using.

In our business, Asana is an absolute must have. We have tried many other project management solutions like Basecamp, Trello, etc and nothing comes close to Asana. It has provided us with a great way to streamline our internal workflows while giving greater visibility on the progress of each project.

Pricing: Free and paid plans start at $10.99 per user per month.

6. RingCentral

RingCentral is one of the top business team communication toolkits available that offers virtual phone numbers, phone calls, and SMS for teams.

Their business communication suite includes phone, SMS, Fax, Messaging for internal team communications, and video meetings.

For sales and marketing teams they offer rich insights, quality of service reports, comprehensive alerts, and customizable dashboards.

Integrations are also available for Google Workspace, Office 365, popular CRM software, and marketing platformss.

Pricing: Starts at $19.99 per user per month.

7. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is the Slack alternative created by Microsoft. It supportss multiple teams, channels, one on one chats, private channels, audio/video calls, and video conferencing features.

It works well with Office 365 and you can get it with Office 365 subscription as well. Team members can open, edit, and view files within teams and projects.

Microsoft Teams have superior video conferencing features baked in. Each team member can view that a video conference is happening with an icon on the top and can join in if they are invited.

Teams also have shift management feature which allows managers to create shift, manage time-offs, assign members to shifts, and more.

Pricing: Free and paid plans start $4 per user per month or $6 per user per month with Office 365.

8. Zoom

Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing software on the market. It allows you to run video meetings with chat feature.

It is widely used in business, education, government, and finance sector. Zoom also offers business phone services, mail, and calendar to connect your teams under one platform.

We were big users of Zoom, but as the quality of Google Meet has improved, we have switched away from Zoom to reduce costs in our business.

The cost of Zoom really adds up once you go above 10 users in your organization, and then again when your organization grows to 100+ users.

What Zoom is really good for is large 100+ people meeting especially if you want to do random breakout rooms. It’s also really good for customer webinars because Zoom calls are very reliable and quality is top-notch.

Pricing: Limited Free plan, paid plans start at $149 per user per year but the per user pricing increases after 10 users.

9. Chanty

Chanty is another excellent employee communication platform with video conferencing, chat, and project management features.

You can create chatrooms or channels for your teams and view all things happening across your organization under the teambook.

For task management you can create tasks on the fly, view them in lists or kanban view, assign them to team members, and more.

Pricing: Limited free forever plan, paid plans start at $3 per user per month.

10. Ryver

Ryver is another business communication platform that combines various functionalities into one app.

It comes with messaging, task management, and audio/video calls under one roof. It comes with SSO Single Sign-on which allows team members to sign in with the single account used by your organization.

Integrations are also available for many popular productivity and CRM software.

Pricing: Starting at $69 per month for up to 12 users.

11. Flock

Flock is another good alternative to Slack. It offers voice / video conferencing, chat, to-dos, file-sharing, and more.

Teams can be organized into groups with their own to-dos, video conference, and in-line file sharing.

It has integrations available for all top producivity suites so you can collaborate in real-time in channels.

Pricing: Limited free plan, and paid plans start at $4.50 per user per month.

12. Zoho Cliq

Zoho Cliq is the Slack interactive created by the folks behind Zoho software suite. The company offers Zoho CRM, Notes, Calendar, Email, and several other tools for businesses.

Zoho Cliq offers team chat for real-time collaboration. It includes chats, group chats, project management, video conferencing, voice calls, and more.

It integrates well with other Zoho applications as well as many other third-party software.

Pricing: Limited free plan, paid plans start from $2.7 per user per month.

13. Dialpad

Dialpad offers a collaboration platform for teams and customer support. It includes VoIP service for calls, messaging, group chat, and video conferencing.

It offers omni-channel customer engagement platform as well. Which comes in handy for sales teams to follow up with leads.

It supports Google Workspace and Office 365 integrations. If you operate in multiple countries then Dialpad offerss local number for upto 70 countries.

Pricing: Starting from $15 per user per month.

14. GoTo Meeting

GoTo Meeting is a popular webinar software and video conferencing platform. It makes it super easy to conduct video meetings with teams, clients, and customers.

Their GoTo Connect suite provides phone, text, and meetings. It allows teams to follow up with leads, offer customer support, and stay in touch with chat and text.

The company offers several addon solutions for businesses particularly those providing remote IT support to customers.

Pricing: Free trial for some products, for paid plans you’ll have to contact sales.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Unlike most other businesses in the world, we have been remote since we started in 2009. This means we have 13+ years of experience running a distributed team and managing team communication. Over this period, we have helped thousands of users choose the best team communication tools.

Below are the answer to some of the most frequently asked questions.

What communication tools are most effective in working closely with the team?

Whether you’re working closely with a remote-team or an in-house team, here are the best team communication tools.

Google Workspace – Email is essential for working closely with a team. Google gives you gmail, calendar, and Google Drive for file sharing.Nextiva – Essential for phone calls and SMS.Slack – Best for group chat. Although for smaller groups, you can get away with just a simple WhatsApp group.Asana – Great for project management.

What is the most effective communication method for remote teams?

For remote teams, the most effective communication method is a combination of written communication along with verbal face-to-face communication over video calls.

For remote team check-ins, the most effective method is virtual check-in software like Standuply that integrates seamlessly with Slack, and it’s completely asynchronous.

What is the best team communication tool for online collaboration?

For online collaboration, the best team communication tools are Google Workspace and Zoom. With Google Suite, you get Google Doc, Spreadsheet, and Slides all of which allow for collaborative work, and their built-in comment feature is really good.

You can also use Zoom whiteboard which is an excellent virtual communication tool for collaboration.

What is the best team communication tool for asynchronous communication?

The best asynchronous communication tool are:

Slack – great for instant messages and group messages. It gives users full control over their time zones and notification preferences. You can also schedule messages to send at certain time in different team member’s timezone.Email – great for asynchronous communication.Loom – allows you to easily record videos and screencasts that can be watched by your team members.Droplr – allows you to create screenshots or quick screen recording to communicate with team members.

Which is the best team communication tool for small business?

In our opinion, the best team communication tool for small business are Nextiva, Google Workspace, Asana, and Slack.

We hope this article helped you find the best team communication tools for your business. You may also want to see our guide on must have tools to manage and grow your business and follow our guide on how to grow a small business on a shoe-string budget.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 14 Best Team Communication Tools for Small Business (2022) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to add a services section to your WordPress website?

When potential customers arrive at your site, they want to know what services you offer. A services section can communicate this information in a quick and easy way, so visitors can decide whether they want to learn more about your business.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a services section in WordPress. We’ll also share how to get more leads by adding a quote request form to your services section.

Why Create a Services Section in WordPress?

To get more sales, it’s important to give visitors all the information they need to understand what services you offer.

This can include everything from prices and benefits to detailed technical specifications, depending on the services you sell.

That’s a lot of information, so we recommend creating a custom page in WordPress for each service you offer.

You can then add a services section to your homepage or landing page, which will provide a brief overview of all your services, in a compact area.

That way, visitors can quickly decide whether they want to learn more about your services.

You can then include links to the different service pages, so visitors can explore each service in more detail.

Another option is to include a strong call to action, such as requesting a callback or filling out a form to get a personalized quote.

The following image shows an example of a call to action, which appears directly beneath a services section.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily create a services section in WordPress and then add it to any page on your website. Simply use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use.

Method 1. How to create a services section with SeedProd (Recommended)Method 2. Creating a services section in WordPress using the block editor

Method 1. How to Create a Services Section with SeedProd (Recommended)

The best way to create a services section is by using a page builder.

A good page builder plugin will allow you to add as many services as you want, and arrange those services in a nice layout. You can also encourage visitors to learn more about your services by adding CTAs, links, buttons, and more.

SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress. It comes with more than 180 professionally-designed templates and ready-made sections that are perfect for promoting your services.

SeedProd also works with many popular third-party tools that you may already be using to get and manage conversions. This includes top email marketing services, WooCommerce, Google Analytics, and more.

First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: There’s also a free version of SeedProd but we’ll be using SeedProd Pro since it has more templates and blocks. It also works with all the best email marketing services.

After activating the plugin, SeedProd will ask for your license key.

You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website. After entering the license key, go ahead and click on ‘Verify Key.’

The next step is creating a new page where you will add the services section. To do this, go to SeedProd » Landing Pages in your WordPress dashboard.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.

You can now choose any of SeedProd’s ready-made templates.

To help you find the perfect template, SeedProd’s designs are organized into different campaign types, such as ‘squeeze,’ ‘ead,’ and ‘coming soon.’

You can click the tabs at the top of the screen to filter the templates based on campaign type.

If you prefer to start from scratch, then SeedProd also has a Blank Template, which doesn’t have any default content or design elements.

To take a closer look at a design, simply hover your mouse over the template and then click on the little magnifying glass icon.

When you find a layout that you want to use, click on ‘Choose This Template.’ We’re using the ‘Masterclass Sales Page’ template in all our images, but you can use any template you want.

After choosing a template, type in a name for your custom page. SeedProd will create a URL automatically using the title, but you can change this if you want.

A descriptive URL helps search engines understand what a page is about, so they can deliver that page to people who are searching for content just like yours.

To give your page the best chance of appearing in relevant search results, you may want to add some relevant keywords to the URL. When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button.

This loads the SeedProd drag-and-drop page builder. It shows a live preview of your page to the right, and some settings on the left.

Most SeedProd templates already contain some blocks, which are a core part of any SeedProd layout.

To customize any block, simply click to select it. The left-hand menu will then show all the settings you can use to edit the block, such as changing the font size or replacing a stock image.

If you want to remove a block from the design, then simply click on that block.

Next, go ahead and click on the small trash icon in the menu bar that appears.

To add new blocks to your design, just click on the block in the left-hand menu and drag it onto the editor.

You can then click to select the block and make any changes in the left-hand menu.

You can repeat these steps to create any kind of page, such as a homepage or Google Ad landing page. The possibilities are endless.

SeedProd also comes with ‘Sections.’ These are rows and block templates for common web design elements. For example, SeedProd has sections for frequently asked questions, footers, and customer testimonials.

It also has various sections that are perfect for creating a services section in WordPress. To take a look at the different sections, go ahead and click on the ‘Sections’ tab.

These mini templates are organized into different categories, but since we want to create a services section, we recommend taking a look at the ‘Features’ category.

Here, you’ll find sections that use paragraphs, subheadings, and images in a nice layout.

In the following image, you can see the ‘Features 3’ section. To turn this into a services section, you simply need to add your own text and images.

You may also want to look at the ‘Call To Action’ category. This category has lots of different sections, including a few that you can use to advertise your services.

In the following image, you can see the ‘Call To Action 6’ section, which already has space for three services.

To preview a section, just hover your mouse over it and then click on the magnifying glass icon that appears.

When you find a section that you want to use, simply move your mouse over that section and click on the little ‘+’ icon.

This adds the section to the bottom of your page, but you can move sections and blocks around your design using the drag-and-drop feature.

After adding a section, simply can click on any block inside that section to customize it. To start, you’ll typically want to type in some information about your services.

To do this, just click on any ‘Text,’ ‘Headline,’ or similar section. Then type into the text field that appears to the left of the builder.

You can format the text, similar to how you style text in the standard WordPress post editor.

It’s also a good idea to add links to pages where visitors can learn more about each service.

Another option is to use a ‘Call to Action’ button. Even if the section doesn’t come with buttons, it’s easy to add them.

In the left-hand menu, just click on the ‘Blocks’ icon, which looks like a square of small dots.

You can then drag and drop a ‘Button’ block into your section.

If you do ‘Button’ blocks, then you can customize them in exactly the same way you edit any block. Just click on it, and then make your changes in the left-hand menu.

You can add more blocks by following the same process described above.

For example, you might add photos showing each service in action using an ‘Image’ block.

When you’re happy with how the page looks, it’s time to publish it by clicking on the dropdown arrow next to the ‘Save’ button.

Then, select the ‘Publish’ option.

Your page will now go live on your WordPress website and visitors can see all your services at a glance.

Method 2. Creating a Services Section in WordPress using Block Editor

You can also build a services section using the free Service Box Showcase plugin, and then add it to any page or post using shortcode.

You will need to use one of the plugin’s pre-made service section layouts, so this isn’t the most customizable method.

However, the plugin does let you create a service section using the familiar WordPress content editor tools, so it’s quick and easy.

First, you need to install and activate the free Service Box Showcase plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to Service Box » Add New Service Box in your WordPress admin panel.

To start, you’ll need to type in a title for your services section. This will only appear in the dashboard and not on your website, so this title is for your reference only.

After that, find the layout that you want to use and click on its ‘Select’ button.

Next, scroll to ‘Add Service Box,’ which has two services by default.

To add more services to the section, go ahead and click on ‘Add New Service Box.’

Once you’ve done that, you can type in a title for each service and add a description.

This is the text that will appear on the front end of your site, so make sure you give visitors all the information they need.

By default, the plugin adds the same icon to each service. It’s a good idea to change these icons to something that’s unique to each service.

To see the different icons that you can use, click on the ‘Service Icon’ field. This opens a popup where you can scroll through the different pictures and click the one you want to use.

It’s also a good idea to add a link to a page where visitors can learn more about each service, or even a page that has a contact form.

To do this, simply type the link into the ‘Add Your Service Or Read More Link Here’ field.

After adding all this information, you can change how your service section looks using the ‘Service Box Settings.’

Most of these settings are fairly straightforward. For example, you can change the font size and style. You can also change the link color, plus the color of the title, description, and more.

If you don’t want to use any icons in the services section, then you can remove them by clicking on the ‘Display Icon’ switch.

There are lots of different settings and what looks good may vary depending on your WordPress theme. With that being said, you can always come back to the ‘Service Box Settings’ and make some changes if you’re unhappy with how the services section looks on your website.

When you’re happy with how the services box is set up, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button at the top of the page to save your changes.

You can now add the services section to your WordPress blog using a shortcode. Simply scroll to ‘ServiceBox Shortcode’ and copy the code.

You’re now ready to add the services box to any post or page. For more details on how to place the shortcode, you can see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Once you’ve pasted the shortcode, just click ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to push changes live. Then, if you visit your site you’ll see the services section in action.

At this point, you may realize that you want to make some changes such as using a different background color or adding more columns.

To make these changes, simply go to Service Box » All Service Box. You can then hover your mouse over the service box and click on the ‘Edit’ link when it appears.

Now, make your changes using the ‘Service Box Settings’ and other sections.

When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, don’t forget to click on ‘Update.’

Now, if you visit the page or post where you added the services box, you’ll see your changes on the site.

BONUS: Creating Request a Quote Form For your Services

A services section gives visitors an overview of your company and what you offer, so they can decide whether they want to learn more.

Once you’ve caught the visitor’s attention, the next step is turning them into leads and customers. You can do this by adding a ‘Quote Request Form’ to your site.

This is similar to a contact form, but it has an extra area where visitors can type in some information about themselves or what they’re looking for.

This can help you sell more services. For example, you might recommend a particular service, create a unique package for that customer, or send them a personalized email based on the information they’ve entered.

The easiest way to create a quote request form is by using WPForms. It is the best WordPress forms plugin and allows you to add any type of form to your website using a simple drag-and-drop editor.

WPForms even has a ready-made ‘Request a Quote Form’ that has everything you need to turn visitors into leads.

First, you need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: There is a free version of the WPForms plugin, but we will be using the Pro version because it comes with the ‘Request a Quote’ form template.

Upon activation, head over to WPForms » Settings and enter your license key.

You can find the license key under your account on the WPForms website. It’s also in the email you got when you purchased WPForms.

After entering the license key, click on the ‘Verify Key’ button. After a few moments, you will see a message confirming that you’ve entered the right license key.

Once you’ve done that, go to WPForms » Add New.

Here, type in a name for your form. This is just for your reference so you can go ahead and use any title you want.

Next, type ‘request a quote’ into the search field. This will bring up the ‘Request a Quote Form’ in the results.

You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Use Template’ button.

This will load the WPForms editor, with the form on the right and all of the different settings on the left.

The ‘Request a Quote Form’ template has fields where the visitor can enter their information, such as their name, email address, and phone number.

There’s also a section where they can type in their specific request.

The default form should work well for most websites, but it’s easy to customize the form if you need to.

To edit a field, simply click to select it. The left-hand menu will then show all the settings you can use to customize this field.

For example, you can change the text that appears above any field by changing the text in the ‘Label’ field.

You can also add more fields by selecting the ‘Add Fields’ tab.

Then, simply drag and drop any field block onto the form.

You can also change the order that the fields appear in your form using drag and drop.

When you’re happy with how the form looks, go ahead and click on the ‘Save’ button.

You can now add this form to any WordPress post or page using the WordPress content editor.

Simply open the page where you want to add the form and then click on the ‘+’ button.

Next, type ‘WPForms’ and click on the block to add it to your page.

Finally, open the dropdown menu and select the quote request form.

WPForms will show a preview of the form on the screen. If you’re happy with how the form looks, then you can go ahead and save or publish the page.

The quote request form will now be live for your visitors to use.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a services section in WordPress. You might also like to check out our article on the best live chat software and how to create an email newsletter.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Are you looking for a way to hide certain WordPress blocks from a user role?

The WordPress content editor offers a lot of flexibility in creating content using blocks. However, you may want to disable some blocks for different user roles. This is helpful if you run a multi-author website or don’t want others to access specific blocks.

In this article, we’ll show you how to hide blocks from specific users in the WordPress content editor.

Why Hide Blocks from Specific Users in the Content Editor?

WordPress blocks are content elements you add to your blog post or page. You can add blocks for images, videos, paragraphs, galleries, and more. Many WordPress plugins also add blocks to the content editor.

Since each block lets you edit your article or landing page, it is a good idea to hide or disable some of the blocks based on WordPress user roles. This way, your website content will remain consistent and won’t have unwanted blocks and layouts.

Let’s say you have a multi-author website. You can hide the tables block in the WordPress content editor for author and contributor user roles. This helps streamline your editorial workflow.

Similarly, you can also prevent different user roles from using blocks added by different plugins.

For instance, WPForms lets you embed forms in the content editor using the WPForms block. Stopping other users from accessing the block can help you stay in control and only display forms where you think is necessary.

That said, let’s see how to hide or disable blocks for specific users in WordPress.

Hiding Blocks for Specific Users in WordPress Editor

The best way to hide blocks based on user roles is by using the PublishPress Blocks plugin. It gives you more control over the WordPress block editor and adds more blocks like an image slider, search bar, pricing table, and more.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the PublishPress Blocks plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can head to the Blocks item in your WordPress dashboard and click on the ‘License’ tab.

Next, you can enter your license key and click the ‘Activate License’ button. You can find the license key in your PublishPress account area.

After that, head to the ‘Block Access’ tab in the plugin. Here, you can choose a user profile from the dropdown menu at the top.

To hide any WordPress block from the selected user role, simply click the toggle to disable it.

For example, in the image below, we’ll disable the ‘table’ and ‘quote’ blocks for any user iwth the Author role.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Block Access’ button when you’re done.

That’s it! You’ve successfully disabled the WordPress block for a user role on your website. Now, you can repeat this to hide blocks for other user roles.

We hope this article helped you learn how to hide blocks from specific users in WordPress editor. You may also want to see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic, and our comparison of the best-managed WordPress hosting.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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