market | The Blog Pros

March 19, 2023

Shipwire Review

Shipwire is a third-party logistics (3PL) provider offering end-to-end order fulfillment services. Many growing and established ecommerce brands rely on Shipwire for outsourcing logistics like storage, transport, distribution, and fulfillment.

The company also provides additional services that help you optimize your online sales, from parcel and freight contract negotiation to logistics consulting, procurement, and invoice reconciliation. Shipwire sounds good on paper, but how does it compare against the best ecommerce fulfillment services? Read on to find out.

Shipwire Compared

Shipwire didn’t make our top list of the best ecommerce fulfillment services, though it is a solid service. Instead, our favorite fulfillment service is ShipBob for its high fulfillment accuracy, same-day and two-day express shipping options, and intuitive dashboard for order management. Contact ShipBob for a custom quote based on your unique fulfillment needs.

ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform
Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
Easyship – Best for international fulfillment

Check out our full post on the best ecommerce fulfillment services for more details on these platforms, including what ecommerce use case each company is best suited for.

About Shipwire

Shipwire didn’t make our top list, but we still think the brand is established and valuable enough to warrant a standalone, in-depth review. Shipwire is likely to be a viable option for some ecommerce store owners.

Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Services Review

Shipwire offers the typical fulfillment services you’d expect from a 3PL provider. The company connects its platform to your sales channel, stores your inventory, and picks, packs, and ships orders to your customers as they come in. Shipwire also offers value-added services, including product inspection, retail partner management, serial scanning, labeling, and ticketing.

Shipwire Health and Stability

Ideally, you want a long-term fulfillment partner that will stick with you. Few things are worse than something disrupting your supply chain during peak season or when you’ve scaled your operation. Fortunately, Shipwire has been around since 2006, with every indication that the company will continue to thrive.

Ingram Micro, a leading ecommerce logistics and supply chain management provider with over 50 global offices, acquired Shipwire in 2013 for an undisclosed amount. Shipwire was successful as a stand-alone company before the acquisition and has continued to be a leading option for the growing ecommerce sector.

Shipwire is truly among the first pioneers of providing ecommerce fulfillment services, previously attracting venture capital from well-known brands like eBay and Newell Rubbermaid. The company has also appeared four times on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States.

Shipwire Pricing

Shipwire offers two ways to pay for its service: prepaid and postpaid accounts. Prepaid customers must have sufficient funds in their accounts to cover the cost of shipping orders, with Shipwire deducting the shipping charges of each order from the account’s prepaid balance.

The company also offers Net Terms for postpaid accounts. Here, the company extends a credit limit for shipping orders. Shipwire only ships orders up to the prepaid account’s approved credit limit.

Reach out to Shipwire today to grab a custom quote and discuss your payment options.

Shipwire Pricing Structure

Shipwire uses a standard rate card to charge for its services, with separate pricing for each of its services you can tap into. You can view the charges you’ve incurred in real time in the Shipwire dashboard.

Shipwire charges per item, carton, or container via a receiving fee. However, you’ll pay an hourly rate for non-standard receiving. Non-standard receiving refers to items that don’t match your advanced shipping notice (ASN) description.

Similarly, Shipwire charges a per-unit rate for order returns or rejected orders. Shipwire refers to these chargeable actions as reverse logistics. Shipwire also charges a standard inventory storage fee, and you can also expect additional expenses for long-term storage beyond six months.

Finally, Shipwire may charge miscellaneous fees depending on your shipment or other needs. These can include:

Outbound serial capture
Third-party packing slips and labels
Package inserts
International preparation fees
Non-conveyable packages
Non-compliance fees

Shipwire Pricing Comparison

Unlike some competitors, Shipwire doesn’t provide any pricing details on its website. I had to dig around to find the company’s rate card. Unfortunately, even the rate card offers the bare minimum in terms of the pricing information. You’ll need to contact Shipwire for an accurate pricing estimate.

The public information is sufficient to compare Shipwire receiving rates with close competitors like ShipBob, Red Stag Fulfillment, and ShipMonk.

Shipwire’s receiving costs start at $0.59 per unit or $2.69 per carton. ShipMonk is slightly cheaper at a $2.50 per-carton receiving fee. ShipBob charges a $25 flat fee for the first two hours of receiving and $40 per hour after that. Shipwire’s receiving fee is slightly more expensive than the competition.

Returns at Shipwire start at $3.50 per unit, while ShipBob costs $3 per item. Additionally, Shipwire has a $500 monthly minimum pick and pack fee, while ShipBob’s threshold is just $250. Overall, Shipwire doesn’t offer the most competitive pricing on the market from what I can find.

Shipwire Trials and Guarantees

Shipwire’s software is free for all customers; it’s simply the usage of its facilities and labor that incurs charges. The Shipwire platform’s dashboard can monitor and manage inventory levels, fulfillment locations, order statuses, and sales. You only start paying when your goods arrive at a Shipwire warehouse.

Fortunately, Shipwire offers volume-based discounts. The company also compares rates for each order to find the lowest shipping fees for you during fulfillment. On top of that, Shipwire offers free onboarding to its new users, including assistance with connecting your sales channel to its platform.

Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Review

Shipwire is a renowned third-party logistics provider that leverages its proprietary technology to optimize fulfillment. The platform automatically routes each order based on the fastest delivery route analyzed from over 200 carriers, aided by Shipwire’s partnerships with most of the world’s top carriers, including USPS, UPS, and FedEx.

Shipwire has over 30 fulfillment centers across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Pacific Asia. Its platform supports over 100 retail channels and integrates with over 200 ecommerce connectors. Check out our review of the best ecommerce fulfillment services to compare Shipwire to other popular alternatives.

What Makes Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Great

A screenshot of Shipwire's dashboard. — Shipwire’s dashboard is intuitive and easy to use.

Global fulfillment centers: Shipwire boasts more than 10 million square feet of fulfillment space. In the United States, the company has warehouses in 14 different states. Shipwire also has centers in Great Britain, Sweden, China, the Netherlands, Australia, and Germany. The company can ship orders to more than 160 countries and is a terrific partner for ecommerce businesses set for global expansion.

Fast shipping: Shipwire offers same-day and next-day shipping, plus other service levels. Orders that arrive at the warehouse by 5.30 a.m. local warehouse time are shipped the same day, no questions asked. There’s also expedited same-day shipping available for a small fee, where Shipwire promises to fulfill your order if it arrives after the cut-off time or credit the extra fees to your account.

The company also offers best-effort same-day shipping even if you miss the cut-off time. For instance, Shipwire may still ship orders that arrive by 1:30 p.m. local warehouse time, it’s just not fully guaranteed. Finally, the company offers guaranteed next-day shipping if your order doesn’t qualify for same-day shipping, meaning you’re never waiting more than 36 hours for something to get shipped out.

Shipwire Anywhere: Shipwire allows you to integrate your ship-from locations such as warehouses, retail stores, or garages with its platform with ease. You can manage multiple fulfillment locations from the same dashboard, including your dropshipping vendors. Shipwire still follows up with your clients and updates your store inventory and tracking regardless of the fulfillment location. It’s a valuable service for businesses that don’t outsource 100% of their fulfillment or use multiple fulfillment channels.

Comprehensive marketplace coverage: Speaking of integrations, Shipwire provides you with connections to more than 200 marketplaces and shopping carts on its platform. You can easily connect with eBay, Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Etsy, to name a few. Shipwire also seamlessly connects to your marketing, CRM, and customer support tech stack, including software platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and Oracle.

Robust developer toolset: Shipwire offers an API for almost anything, including orders, rates, webhooks, stock, locations, vendors, receiving, and products. The platform also provides a sandbox account available on request to test your custom-built integrations. It’s a terrific platform for developers who want to customize how Shipwire connects to their business to match their specifications.

Easy to use: You’ll get expert assistance when first connecting your store to Shipwire and plenty of extra support thereafter. The platform uses artificial intelligence to calculate the most cost-effective shipping strategy based on your settings. The software also has an intuitive dashboard to manage work orders and track order information and transactions. You can generate customized reports for essential metrics like order inventory count, status, cost, carriers, and more.

Custom enterprise solutions: Shipwire offers bespoke services for nearly every aspect of supply chain management and logistics, hence the lack of a clear pricing structure. For example, Shipwire offers experts, technology, and insider knowledge to some users who want to improve transit times, boost customer satisfaction, or reduce shipping costs.

Some of these helpful solutions are an invoice consolidation platform called Parcel Pay, UPS parcel and freight audit software, and a spend management portal. In addition, you don’t have to change your fulfillment company to work with Shipwire. Shipwire can audit your current provider and renegotiate your contract for better rates, terms, and service level agreements.

Where Shipwire Fulfillment Service Falls Short

A screenshot of an infographic describing how Shipwire service works. — Shipwire will develop a personalized fulfillment plan for your ecommerce business.

Inconsistent customer experience: Shipwire has many happy customers and more than 40 years of experience in the logistics industry. Unfortunately, there are a good number of customer complaints regarding incorrectly fulfilled shipments. Curiously, the company doesn’t advertise its fulfillment accuracy on its website. Many fulfillment services, including ShipBob and Red Stag Fulfillment, proudly publicize this information.

Additionally, Shipwire doesn’t provide guarantees beyond helping you claim insurance in case your products are lost or damaged. On the other hand, Red Stag Fulfillment offers to pay the wholesale cost of lost or damaged items. Red Stag also waives the shipping fees and pays you an extra $50 if your orders aren’t shipped according to your service level.

High monthly minimum: Most fulfillment services have a monthly order minimum. However, Shipwire requires you to ship at least $500 per month, or else the company may charge you the difference. It’s not a problem for established businesses, but pre-launch brands and startups may struggle to meet this requirement. While ShipBob has a $250 monthly minimum, it also has a growth plan with no minimum monthly order requirement.

Opaque pricing: Unfortunately, Shipwire isn’t transparent with its pricing information. You’ll need to contact a company representative for complete pricing information. It’s frustrating if you are comparison shopping with other potential solutions. Similarly, Shipwire doesn’t offer a pricing calculator to compare prices with competitors. However, you can request no-commitment access to the platform to compare prices and confirm if Shipwire meets your requirements. In addition, you don’t have to pay until you send inventory to a Shipwire warehouse.

Miscellaneous fees: Shipwire charges multiple discretionary fees, including fines, interest, and various charges. So, read the contract thoroughly and agree to the company’s terms. Also, keep an eye on service fees and shipping charges.

Shipwire Ecommerce Fulfillment Service Compared

Shipwire is an established logistics brand, but ShipBob is our first pick for the best ecommerce fulfillment service because of its transparent pricing, affordable rates, and no monthly order minimums.

ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform
Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
Easyship – Best for international fulfillment

Final Verdict

Shipwire is one of the original ecommerce fulfillment pioneers and has been in business for nearly 20 years. The company’s strategic partnership with logistics giant Ingram Micro offers businesses easy access to international markets with a streamlined supply chain and logistics management. In addition, larger enterprises expanding to new markets will benefit from Shipwire services and presence in more than 160 countries.

Shipwire also offers invoice audit software and services and claims refunds on your behalf. Furthermore, the company helps with carrier contract optimization and transportation intelligence for companies that want to manage logistics costs. However, Shipwire may be too expensive for startups and small businesses that might fare better with a local or smaller ecommerce fulfillment company.

March 18, 2023

Shift4Shop Review

Formerly 3dcart, Shift4Shop offers free, enterprise-grade ecommerce functionality to help you build your online store and start selling. You get nearly all the features to start and grow your online business, including powerful tools like a robust website builder, product and order management functionalities, customer marketing tools, and round-the-clock technical support.

The biggest catch is that the free end-to-end ecommerce plan is only available to US merchants. Moreover, you have to use the in-house payment processor, Shift4 Payment, to get paid, which isn’t too bad as it’s one of the leading payment processing providers. Plus Shift4Shop doesn’t charge you any monthly fees to use its ecommerce platform.

Shift4Shop Compared

Shift4Shop made it on my top list for the best value. While it’s a great option, the best ecommerce website builder is Shopify because of its robust features and tools that provide you with everything to build an online store. Get started with a three-day free trial today.

Shopify — Best all-around ecommerce website builder
Wix — Best for launching an online store in minutes
Hostinger — Best for simple online stores
BigCommerce — Best site builder for multichannel selling
Squarespace — Best for social
Square Online — Best for physical retailers
Weebly — Best for small sellers who don’t want to grow
Shift4Shop — Best value

See our top picks for the best ecommerce website builders.

About Shift4Shop

Shift4Shop is a comprehensive ecommerce website builder that caters to businesses of all sizes and industries. Using its innovative turnkey solution, you can easily build a secure website and leverage various customer marketing tools to boost sales. The company also offers a range of top-notch features, including social media marketing, SEO, and an extensive marketplace with third-party devs, affiliates, and experts.

Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Builder Review
Shift4Shop Shopping Cart Software Review

A global leader in financial technology, Shift4 acquired 3dcart and rebranded it as Shift4Shop. Along with the powerful ecommerce solution, Shift4 also offers Shift4Shop users a seamless online payments platform that makes it easier for them to get paid.

Shift4Shop Health and Stability

Shift4Shop is a private company with hundreds of employees and a stable customer base. And while it may be less popular than its counterparts like Shopify and Wix, you can be sure this company isn’t going anywhere.

One of the main reasons behind this is its parent company, Shift4 Payments. A publicly listed company with over $13.7 million in funding, Shift4 Payments has been doing consistently well in the market.

Keeping all this in mind, I firmly believe Shift4Shop is an ecommerce website builder you can trust.

Shift4Shop Pricing

Shift4Shop’s unlimited, enterprise-grade plan costs an impressive $0. It includes the feature-packed ecommerce platform, an SSL certificate, a domain name, and a huge selection of customizable themes. However, you need to process a minimum of $500 per month with Shift4 Payments through your Shift4Shop store to waive the SaaS fee.

Get started with Shift4Shop for free.

Shift4Shop Pricing Structure

Shift4Shop has conditional pricing, under which you won’t need to pay any charges if you meet their monthly minimum of ecommerce sales ($500 with Shift4 Payments). Otherwise, you need to pay a monthly SaaS fee. Shift4Shop hasn’t published information on its website about how much this costs, so you’ll have to contact its sales team for more information.

Shift4Shop Pricing Comparison

Compared to Shopify, Shift4Shop can be free (if you meet the stated requirements), but you must be based in the United States and agree to use Shift4 Payments to process payments. On the other hand, Shopify has no free plan, and you have to pay monthly or yearly to continue using it.

Wix is another popular ecommerce web builder that offers a free plan and incredibly affordable paid plans. The biggest advantage of Wix over Shift4Shop is its predictability and affordability. Sure, Shift4Shop is free upfront, but if you don’t process at least $500 through Shift4 Payments, you’ll have to pay a monthly SaaS fee.

Shift4Shop Trials and Guarantees

Being a free ecommerce website builder, it makes sense that Shift4Shop doesn’t offer any free trial or refund guarantee.

Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Builder Review

Shift4Shop’s biggest advantage as an ecommerce website builder is the generous feature offering despite being free. You get an enterprise-level website builder, over hundred themes, tons of SEO tools, unlimited product listings, and more.

The software is also customizable, where you can add products to your store, choose themes, and select payment methods. Even from the buyer’s perspective, the Shift4Shop storefront is easy to navigate, right from product browsing to checking out.

As for the caveats, you should know the zero-cost version of Shift4Shop is only available to US customers, and you’ll need many add-ons to run your store effectively, among a few others.

See my top picks for the best ecommerce website builders to find the right fit for your needs.

What Makes Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Great

A screenshot of Shift4Shop's ecommerce features and functionality. — Shift4Shop offers enterprise-grade ecommerce functionality and features for free.

Large selection of features: Shift4Shop has one of the most generous feature selections, despite the affordable price tag. Ecommerce tools include single-page checkouts, digital downloads, two-factor authentication, recurring orders, and unlimited product variations.

You can also leverage the built-in marketing and SEO tools, discount codes and coupons, affiliate programs, loyalty reward programs, and back-in-stock alerts to drive sales. While the reporting and analytics aren’t as advanced as that of Shift4Shop’s competitors, they get the job done.

Higher level of customization: Shift4Shop makes creating a fully customizable and responsive website easier than ever. Thanks to its design software, you get access to its core template engine, where you can create your own themes, plus all Shift4Shop themes have Google AMP-enabled product pages, deferred JavaScript and CSS, and a conversion-optimized checkout, among other benefits, which is another plus.

Let’s also not forget the flexible drag-and-drop HTML editor and the core theme editor that lets you customize your theme design to your needs, from colors to topography to buttons. Moreover, you can preview every change in real-time, which won’t be visible to your shoppers until you ‘Save’ them, confirming the changes.

Excellent management functionalities: Another benefit of Shift4Shop is its comprehensive management software that allows you to manage orders and products from a centralized place. You get a complete toolset comprising a convenient dashboard, new order notifications, status updates for customers, and advanced automation rules to better manage orders. Further, you can see your new inventory catalog by organizing each product into a list format. Other tools include bulk import and export, videos and dynamic zoom, detailed project reports, and unlimited categorization.

Reliable ecommerce hosting: Shift4Shop’s web hosting is an excellent addition to its ecommerce website builder platform, thanks to a 99.9% uptime guarantee and PCI certification and security. Other features include a free domain name with yearly renewals, monthly transparent upgrades, FTP access to files, daily backups, and a 256 Bit SSL certificate.

Currently, Cloudflare powers all Shift4Shop online stores, which gives you the benefits of its global content delivery network, DDOS attack protection and mitigation, and faster loading speeds by extension.

Mobile-friendly: Shift4Shop makes your online stores mobile-responsive, meaning your website can adapt and adjust to different screen sizes and resolutions. This is necessary to provide shoppers with a seamless shopping experience, regardless of the device they use to visit your site. With an increasing number of people using mobiles for shopping, having a mobile-optimized store can work wonders to secure more sales.

Where Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Builder Falls Short

A screenshot from Shift4Shop warning to international merchants notifying them that the ecommerce plan is only available to United States merchants. — Shift4Shop’s end-to-end ecommerce plan is only available to United States merchants currently

Unpredictable pricing: Shift4Shop markets itself as a free ecommerce website builder, but this can change quickly if you don’t meet the $500 monthly payment requirement. Moreover, its modules are expensive, and the free themes are limited. To design a stunning and optimized website, you may find yourself investing in paid themes. Additionally, the zero-cost version of the platform is only available to US users.

Poor customer support: Several customer reviews have found Shift4Shop’s customer support severely lacking, especially for users outside the United States. One user pointed out they didn’t receive a response for days, while another expressed disappointment with a customer service representative’s unhelpful and rude behavior.

Minimal reporting capabilities: Shift4Shop’s reporting capabilities are lacking. While it offers detailed profit reports, specialty customers and inventory reports, and rewards use, you’ll likely need additional reporting tools for more strategic operations reviews and decision-making.

Requires multiple add-ons: When building your online stores through Shift4Shop, be prepared to install multiple add-ons (similar to WordPress plugins) to maximize functionality. For example, if you want to add a shopping cart to your online store, you must install software to make this happen. Similarly, you’ll need to install a ‘Buy’ button on your website’s backend to allow shoppers to check out more conveniently.

Don’t get me wrong—it’s great that Shift4Shop offers these capabilities, but installing too many add-ons can cause your website to run slower than usual or even crash entirely.

Shift4Shop Ecommerce Website Builder Compared

Where Shift4Shop makes a great choice, it does have a few hard-to-ignore caveats. Keeping this in mind, the best ecommerce website builder is Shopify simply because it offers everything you may need to build and run an ecommerce website—all in a single platform.

Shopify — Best all-around ecommerce website builder
Wix — Best for launching an online store in minutes
Hostinger — Best for simple online stores
BigCommerce — Best site builder for multichannel selling
Squarespace — Best for social
Square Online — Best for physical retailers
Weebly — Best for small sellers who don’t want to grow
Shift4Shop — Best value

Shift4Shop Shopping Cart Software Review

A screenshot from Shift4Shop detailing the customizable features and settings for the cart and checkout process. — Shift4Shop offers tons of customization features for its checkout system.

Shift4Shop has one of the most customizable and flexible shopping cart solutions that lets you optimize your checkout to offer seamless, hassle-free experiences to shoppers. They can view, edit, and save carts to purchase later, helping drive sales.

Create single-page or multi-page checkouts, each personalized to your liking. The fact that you don’t need to pay any transaction fees is another cost-saving advantage. Shift4Shop will also auto-calculate shipping and taxes in your customer’s cart to avoid total surprises.

Aside from these, everything we broke down above for ecommerce website building is also relevant to shopping cart experiences.

Here’s a quick look at how Shift4Shop stacks against other shopping cart software solutions on the market:

Shopify — Best for one-click checkout
Ecwid — Best for high security
Shift4Shop — Best for customizable checkout
Shopaccino — Best for rewarding customers
OpenCart — Best free shopping cart software
X-Cart — Best for high-volume sales

Final Verdict

Keeping in mind the pros and cons, I believe Shift4Shop is an excellent choice for ecommerce website building and adding a shopping cart—provided you’re a US resident. Thanks to its excellent feature offering, customization capabilities, and management functionalities, it really stands out from its competitors. But if you’re an international user, you may want to check out other solutions like Shopify and Wix.

March 17, 2023

8 Best Online Content Optimization Tools for WordPress (in 2023)

Are you looking for the best online content optimization tools for WordPress?

You can increase the search traffic to your WordPress website or blog by optimizing your online content. Luckily, there are plenty of easy-to-use tools you can use to make your content more readable and rank higher on search engine results pages.

In this article, we’ll share the very best online content optimization tools that experts use to grow their website traffic.

8 Best Online Content Optimization Tools for WordPress

What Is a Content Optimization Tool?

When you optimize your posts for SEO, you can improve your search engine rankings and consistently get more traffic to your WordPress website.

That’s why we created a handy checklist of tips to optimize your blog posts for SEO. This is a list of all the steps we use on our own blogs, such as keyword research, crafting effective titles, internal linking, improving readability, and much more.

But even using our checklist, optimizing your content is a lot of work. Luckily, there are handy online tools that can recommend specific steps you should take to improve your content so it ranks higher on search engine results pages.

That being said, let’s take a look at the best online content optimization tools for WordPress.

1. All in One SEO

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best SEO plugin for WordPress websites. It’s beginner-friendly and at the same time, comes with advanced optimization features, and gives you SEO insights from your WordPress dashboard.

Once you finish setting up All in One SEO, it will automatically perform an SEO audit so you can see the overall SEO health score for your website.

It will also give you a detailed report with practical suggestions to improve your SEO score.

AIOSEO will also help you find semantic keywords for your focus keyword, and the headline analyzer tool will give your headline a score and offer tips to make your headline even better.

The plugin’s Link Assistant offers suggestions for relevant posts you can link to and the anchor text to use. Simply click the ‘Add Link’ button, and the link will automatically be added to your post.

All in One SEO will also automatically analyze readability issues and make suggestions for you in the analysis section. It also lets you take your XML sitemaps to the next level and allows you to add schema markup for your WordPress website.

Pricing: Starts at $49.50 for the Basic plan that supports one site. You can also get started using the free plugin which offers fewer features.

2. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant

SEO Writing Assistant is a content optimization tool created by Semrush, one of the best SEO tools on the market. You can use it to check your content in real-time for SEO suggestions and improve the overall SEO score of the content on your WordPress website.

You start by entering a focus keyword to generate content templates based on the top 10 results for that phrase. After that, you will be given scores on readability, SEO, originality, and tone based on rival results.

Next, you look for ways to improve your content. For example, you can use Writing Assistant to optimize your article headline, include recommended keywords, adjust the article length, make sure the tone sounds natural and casual, and check for plagiarism.

We show you how to do all of this step-by-step in our guide on how to use the SEO Writing Assistant in WordPress to improve SEO.

Pricing: Starts at $119.95/month for a Pro account. A free trial is available.

3. Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO helps you write articles that read well and rank high. It helps you structure your posts, provides a list of relevant keywords you should include, and offers a content score and real-time feedback on how to optimize your content.

This software offers many of Clearscope’s features at a more affordable price. For example, when you paste your content into the app, it will give you a content score, show you which keywords you are using and which you aren’t, and display an outline of the post’s structure.

Surfer SEO also offers an audit showing actionable steps to improve your content, a keyword research tool, and a page speed comparison so you know whether you need to improve your page’s load time.

Pricing: Starts at $49/month for the Basic plan when paid annually. This plan supports two users. There is a 7-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied.

4. Clearscope

Clearscope offers a wide range of tools that helps you optimize your online content. For example, it can show you the keywords you should use, the questions you need to answer, how to structure the article, how long the post should be, and how to improve readability.

You create a report by typing in a query such as a post title, and Clearscope will analyze relevant content from your competitors to determine which keywords should be included in the post and much more.

Next, you can paste the contents of your article to see how it can be improved. This will show you the length of your post compared with the typical length of your competitors’ posts and the readability level.

You’ll see a list of important keywords, and those you have already included will have a checkmark next to them. In the top left of the screen, you will see a content grade, and you can improve your grade by adding keywords that are not already in the post.

Clearscope also has a Keyword Discover tool. After typing in a keyword, you will see related keywords, questions that are asked related to that keyword, and which keywords are trending.

Pricing: Starts at $170/month for the Essentials plan which is for one user. Business and Enterprise plans have custom pricing. You can request a free demonstration of the software.

5. Frase

Frase is an affordable content optimization tool that identifies relevant content you should include in your post and provides a smart outline for your content.

Once you write or paste your content, smart insights will pop up on the right of the screen. It will also be given a content score so you can see how much it needs to be improved.

The app can autocomplete or rewrite sentences for you using artificial intelligence, suggest transition words that add interest to your writing, and recommend topics to include in your post by analyzing the most popular Google search results.

Pricing: Starts at $12.66/month for the Solo plan when paid annually. A 7-day free trial is available.

6. MarketMuse

MarketMuse is another excellent content optimization tool, but its pricing makes it more suitable for enterprise-level companies than small businesses. It offers applications to help you research, compete, optimize, and more.

You’ll see a personalized difficulty score of your existing content so you can see how your content competes with articles on other sites. It uses natural language rather than keywords to suggest content you should add to your post.

It also offers tools that perform keyword research and competitive content analysis.

This will show you the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ content in a chart so you can add content that they are missing.

Pricing: Starts at $600/month for the Standard plan, which supports one user. You can add additional users for $99/month each. The Premium plan costs $12,000/year, and there is also a limited free plan for one user so you can test the software.

7. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an excellent keyword explorer and rank tracker tool and comes with a site audit tool to optimize your entire website.

Using the Keyword Explorer, you can come up with keyword ideas by simply typing a keyword into the search box. You’ll then see a whole list of keyword suggestions.

Its Rank Tracker feature lets you add the keywords you want to track to your Ahrefs dashboard. It shows you an overview of your search engine rankings. You can see your visibility percentage, average position, traffic, SERP features, and changes in position.

You can also use Ahrefs to see the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, so you can create new content pieces targeting keywords related to those subjects.

The Content Explorer feature finds the most popular content for any keyword or topic. You can see why those posts rank higher and replicate their strategy in your own content.

Pricing: Starts at $99/month for the Lite plan. Pay annually and get two months free.

8. Headline Analyzer (Free)

Headline Analyzer is a free tool that helps you evaluate your headlines and improve the copy to make it more engaging and click-worthy. It provides data-driven insights and suggestions for creating irresistible SEO titles.

It can be tricky for beginners to come up with a headline that instantly captures your users’ attention and gets them to click your website link. This is where you can use the headline analyzer tool.

All you have to do is enter your blog title, and the Headline Analyzer will give it an overall content score along with suggestions on how to improve it.

The tool will also tell you if your title needs to be longer or shorter to make sure it displays properly on SERPs (search engine results pages). It even shows you a preview of how your blog will appear in Google search results.

Pricing: Absolutely free.

We hope this tutorial helped you find the best online content optimization tools for WordPress. You may also want to learn how to increase your blog traffic, or check out our list of the best WordPress landing page plugins.

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 8 Best Online Content Optimization Tools for WordPress (in 2023) first appeared on WPBeginner.

March 6, 2023

Building Custom Solutions vs. Buy-and-Build Software

The Challenges of Building a FIX Protocol

The first day I was introduced to FIX was when I worked at an investment bank in London as a developer, I was told to write a feed handler to retrieve market data. Bear in mind that at this time, I knew nothing about FIX, apart from googling it for about 10 mins on the internet. With a touch of overconfidence and slight arrogance, I set to work coding a direct socket connection to the remote FIX endpoint, thinking, “How hard could it be?”

So, What Is FIX?

Financial Information eXchange (FIX) is both a market data format and a protocol: it is used by investment banks to place orders and receive market data and has become a global language in financial trading. The format of a FIX message controls how it is encoded. All FIX messages start with 8=FIX, which denotes the start of a FIX message. They then go on to list key and value pairs. The keys are represented as numbers (known as TagNumbers) followed by a = delimiter to delimit the values. Each key=value combination is then delimited by the \u0001 character, which is sometimes visually represented as either ^ or |. The value is often written in a semi-human-readable format. I say semi-human readable because most of the time it is human-readable, but all too often, FIX will use a single character to denote a state or type of message. These characters are not always that obvious. I agree that the character B for "Buy" and S for "Sell" makes sense, but other characters are used that make no sense. For example, D denotes a "New Order Single" message, which is a message that is often used when you wish to place an order with your counterparty.

March 1, 2023

How to Start a Commercial Cleaning Business in 6 Simple Steps

Are you looking to start a new business that has minimal overhead?

There may be several businesses that come to mind when you think about that, but today we are here to present you with an option that you may or may not have considered before: a commercial cleaning business.

This is one type of business that has much lower up-front costs than others and also is one that you can start quickly and fairly easily without the need for a bunch of capital.

It is also one that doesn’t require a bunch of experience or previous knowledge. Even if you don’t yet have connections, that doesn’t mean you can’t find success in this industry.

However, commercial cleaning is also a type of business that requires working hard and understanding that profit growth will likely happen slowly.

If this sounds like something you may be up for, continue reading to find out how you can start a commercial cleaning business today.

6 Steps to Start a Commercial Cleaning Business

This is the blueprint to start a successful commercial cleaning company:

Register your business
Get insurance
Organize the flow
Plan your budget
Find clients
Set your prices

How to start a commercial cleaning business in 6 easy steps.

The Easy Parts of Starting a Commerical Cleaning Business

Let’s start with the easy stuff so that you can get the ball rolling on your idea.

Register your business

Though not necessarily the fun parts of a commercial cleaning business, there are some things that you can get out of the way that help you take steps in the right direction.

One of those things is registering your business with the state. You have a few different options when it comes to choosing the type of business you want to register as.

Sole proprietorship. This type of business is best for those who are starting the business on their own and want to have as much control as possible. However, note that a sole proprietorship does not separate your business assets from your personal assets. So, in the case that something goes wrong with your company, your personal assets are at risk.
Limited liability company (LLC). This is the most common type of business that people choose for commercial cleaning companies, and it’s primarily because, unlike a sole proprietorship, it separates personal assets from business assets. With this type of business, however, you are self-employed so you still have to pay self-employment taxes such as Medicare and Social Security.
Partnership. This is the type of registration you want to choose if you are getting into your commercial cleaning business with another person. You can either opt for a limited partnership or a limited liability partnership.
Corporation. If you are looking for maximum protection, this is the type of business to register as. The only downside is that corporations are the most expensive to create. You must pay income tax on your profits, and you are taxed separately.

Implement cleaning business software

It may feel overwhelming at first to keep everything organized with your commercial cleaning business, and that feeling may grow as your business expands and as you hire more employees and gain more clients.

To help you keep things organized no matter what stage of your business you’re in, we suggest investing in software that can help make things easier, specifically work order software.

One such tool to start using is Jobber.

This software works best for field service, like what you’ll be doing with your commercial cleaning business. It helps you and your team organize and schedule cleanings as well as invoice clients easily so that everything runs smoothly in your business.

Jobber offers all sorts of tools that we will go into more detail about down below, but you can access them all from a user-friendly dashboard that optimizes efficiency.

Prices for Jobber start at $49 per month for an annual subscription.

The Difficult Parts of Starting a Commercial Cleaning Business

To find success in a commercial cleaning business, you’ve got to get your hands dirty, both literally and figuratively. That means pushing through the hard parts of starting this kind of company.

To help you in this, we are sharing one of the things you should know will present a challenge when starting your commercial cleaning business.

Market research

Before you dive too deep into building your business, you need to make sure that there is a market for your business.

How many companies in your area need commercial cleaning? Why should they hire you as opposed to someone else?

Here are some of the best ways you can start market research.

Create an online survey that you send to businesses in your area that may need cleaning services. You can send them via email or LinkedIn.
Pick up your phone and call business owners in your area. Offer to take them to coffee to chat about how you can help them.
Hop on review sites such as Yelp and Google to see what businesses may need cleaning services.
Consider offering free cleaning products to potential customers to try out for themselves.

When doing all of the above, you also want to think about competitors in the area. What are they missing from the services that you can offer?

In addition to that, know your limits when doing your market research. In the beginning, you are likely starting small so be realistic about what projects you can take on. Try to research markets where massive multiple-story office buildings are looking for professional cleaners is not something you may be able to tackle from the get-go.

Step 1: Register Your Business

The first step you want to take in your commercial cleaning business is to make it official. That requires registering your business in the state that you’ll be performing your work.

As mentioned above, there are a few options to choose from when deciding what type of business entity to start. It may be a good idea for you to talk to a lawyer about the pros and cons of each and which one is the best option for you for now, and also for the future.

Step 2: Get Insurance

One of the most important things you need to do when starting your commercial cleaning business is to make sure you are protected.

You do this by purchasing commercial cleaning business insurance. This covers you if any sort of accident or injury occurs on the job. Without this, you run the risk of paying out a large sum of money in damage, which may cause your business to go under.

To avoid this from happening, get yourself insurance from the beginning. Below are the different types you may want to look into getting.

General Liability Insurance

This insurance protects your business from any third-party accidents as well as property damage, injuries on the job, and more.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

If you are looking to hire employees to help you with your commercial cleaning business, then you need to get workers’ compensation insurance. This protects your employees if they get hurt on the job or sick.

Commercial Auto Insurance

If you plan to have company cars for your cleaning business (which is typical in this industry), you also need commercial auto insurance.

Step 3: Organize the Flow

It is important that from the start, you get a good flow going with your commercial cleaning business. Rather than being disorganized and using archaic systems to schedule cleanings for clients, invoice clients, and more, adopt a tool that will make all of these things easy for you and easy for your customers.

The best way to do this is by using work order software like Jobber.

This software is ideal for on-the-go field services like you’re providing in your commercial cleaning business.

One of the biggest bonuses of this tool is the mobile app.

Jobber work order software features page.

You can do nearly everything from your phone with Jobber including:

Track your team
Communicate with customers
Know where things are at with your business
Schedule cleanings
See job details
Invoice

Between the app and the desktop version of Jobber, you gain access to all sorts of features that will make running your commercial cleaning business a smooth process. Some of the features you’ll love include:

Automatic follow-ups with customers
Real-time scheduling
Real-time dispatching
Batch invoicing
Online booking for clients
Custom checklists
Branded professional quotes that can be sent via text message
Email and postcard marketing
Online payments
Reporting
“On my way” text messages

By bringing this software into your company, you will find that things go much more smoothly and your clients are much happier.

There are a few different package options for Jobber depending upon your specific needs.

Core. $49 per month with an annual subscription or $69 per month with a monthly subscription. 1 user. Provides the basics for organizing your business.
Connect. $149 per month with an annual subscription or $169 per month with a monthly subscription. Up to 5 users. Provides tools to help you connect your team and create strong customer relationships.
Grow. $249 per month with an annual subscription or $349 per month with a monthly subscription. Up to 15 users. Provides tools to help you scale your business and automate processes.

Step 4: Plan Your Budget

Though the overhead and startup costs of a commercial cleaning business are not nearly as large as other businesses, there are some expenses involved.

The two biggest expenses with your cleaning business are supplies and transportation. The amount you pour into these things depends on the size of your business. Chances are, you won’t need to allot a massive budget as you are just starting with very few (if any) employees besides yourself and minimal clients. However, as you grow, this will change.

Here is a breakdown of the things you need to consider with your budget.

Transportation

It is up to the cleaner to get to the client’s place of business, so if you plan to hire employees, it is your responsibility to get them to and from cleaning gigs. Thus, you need to plan a budget for transportation, whether that is providing them with company cars or giving them a gas stipend.

Supplies

To do your job well, you need the right cleaning supplies. Some clients may allow you to get your own cleaning supplies, which are best bought in bulk. Other clients may prefer that you use specific products that they provide. Determine which is best for you, and plan a budget accordingly.

Equipment

Part of the cleaning job may require you to have access to or purchase your own equipment or machines for things such as cleaning carpets, specialty flooring, upholstery, and more. Take the time to sit down and calculate whether you should rent this machinery and equipment, or whether it makes more sense for you to outright purchase the equipment to have on-hand whenever you need it.

Step 5: Find Clients

Your commercial cleaning business won’t be a success unless you find clients to clean for. This may be one of the more challenging parts of starting your business, thus you must focus your efforts on this once you’ve got all the other business details sorted out.

There are a few different ways that you can go about finding clients to keep your business going.

References

When reaching out cold to new clients, it is best to have on-hand references from past jobs that you can provide. Showing your previous work to potential clients is pretty hard when it comes to cleaning services, so you’ll need to rely on references from previous or current clients to show your work.

You can either provide those references via email or put them on your website for any potential client to see.

Referrals

Once you have a more established client base, referrals will be the best way to get new clients. This is one of the reasons why it is so important for you to establish strong relationships with current clients – not only so that they continue to be clients of yours, but also so they spread the word about your good work.

Step 6: Set Your Prices

To get clients and keep them coming back, your pricing needs to be competitive. To find competitive pricing, you need to take into account a few different things:

Location
Services
How much competition there is

Once you’ve done your research on those things, you want to decide whether you want to charge your clients by the hour, by the square footage, or by using a flat rate.

Whatever you do, do not just pick random prices. Take the time to research the market and see what other commercial cleaning businesses are charging, and how your rates should compare.

February 26, 2023

The Dos and Don’ts of Domain Registration

When it comes to domain registration, there are some dos and don’ts of how to go about it properly. This article shows you what you need to know to lead you to a good domain name.

It goes without saying, choosing a domain name is a crucial decision. After all, it’s your website’s calling card that you want to be attractive, relevant, and effective. It can boost SEO, increase your brand awareness, and raise the number of site visitors when created well.

A good domain establishes authority and credibility, reinforces brand identity, and promotes your business. On top of that, you want to ensure it’s safe!

This article covers the Dos and Don’ts of domain registration to help ensure your domain name is top-notch and sets up your site for success.

We’ll cover:

Dos
Don’ts

After reading this article, you should know… wait for it… what to do.

Dos

Pick Correct Domain Extension

Deciding upon the perfect Domain Extensions, aka TLDs (top-level domains), will affect your online presence and overall business.

Beyond .com, there are numerous other domain extensions available. Everything from .edu, .gov, .blog – and plenty more. Each extension can be used to associate with your brand (e.g. .org is great for organizations).

Pick a domain extension related to your business, organization, or personal site – whatever it may be. This lets readers know what your website is about from the very beginning.

A safe bet is typically .com if you can’t decide on other extensions that might be more beneficial. It’s the most popular extension and is recognized universally.

However, go with your niche if you want to be more specific.

Make It Easy and Foolproof

Don’t go crazy and make a domain that’s hard to type or not easy to remember. Be sure to make it foolproof because, well, typos happen to the best of us.

If you choose a domain that’s different or painful to type, it will hurt your business and brand.

Misspelled domains lead visitors to the wrong site, 404 errors, and frustration. If you’re lucky, they may try again to find your website. But, chances are, they’ll give up and you lose a visitor.

Avoid slang (“4” instead of “for”), and don’t use words with numerous spelling options. Don’t mix numbers with words, avoid abbreviations, and don’t use homonyms (e.g. “write” and “right”).

In a nutshell, use common vocabulary, and make it easy to spell and type – without the user having to think about it too much.

Make Sure It’s Registered In Your Name or Business

When registering domain names, you often don’t second guess the registration process and may overthink what name to put it under. However, it’s essential to put it under your name or business — depending on your purpose.

This ensures that you’ll have control over it for the long term. You can keep or sell it as long as you want.

If it’s under someone else, you may have to buy it from an individual or company. It’s best to ensure you’re in control right from the start.

Make a Memorable Impression

Making a good first impression is important and easy to do with a good domain. There are just a few things you should do. After all, your domain will be out there in the ether with millions of others, so it’s important to be seen amongst the competition.

One is to make it unique – so it stands out. Whatever your domain is, having it be unique and memorable is a key factor. Something catchy is especially important (e.g. boredpanda, JoeKnowsCoffee).

Think of one of your favorite websites. Does it have a catchy title? Chances are, it does.

Also, it’s best to keep a domain as short as possible; however, if a longer domain makes yours stick out and “pop”, it may be worth doing.

Use Keywords

Like domain extensions, Keywords in your domain name help tell visitors what your website is about.

An example might be if you run a WordPress development agency, insert ‘agency’ and ‘WordPress’ (or ‘wp’) somewhere in the name.

If you need assistance with coming up with a domain name, there are tools like Zyro or NameStudio to help generate a name for you. They work by simply inputting keywords and then coming up with names.

Also, a lot of domain providers offer ideas for a new domain. For example, when you enter a new domain with us, we give you some suggestions for what you might want to use.

Domain suggestions — These are just a few examples.

Whatever name you choose, keep in mind that keywords can help show what type of website you are, making it more likely that a visitor will be interested in stopping by.

Make It Long-Term

Considering your website and domain are for the long-term, it’s important to contemplate a domain name and not rush it.

After all, you’ll use this for your brand and SEO for years! So, choose something relevant to your business that will continue to work down the road.

A good example of what NOT to do would be to name your company BobsFurniture2023.com or something with a specific time stamp.

Your domain should define your business, so ensure your domain has lasting appeal.

Know Your Market

If you know your target market, coming up with a domain name is easier.

This is another example of keywords – choose words that relate to your audience. For example, do you have a pet shop in Palm Springs? Maybe PalmSpringsPets.com. It’s relatable for the audience you’re after, memorable, and simple.

And the more specific, the better.

Be Creative

Get creative when choosing a domain. Why? Because you’ll be more memorable and attract visitors.

Wordplay, synonyms, and catchy combinations can do a lot to make your website stand out. Think of some of the most popular websites – like YouTube, TikTok, or DuckDuckGo. Each one has a creative edge to it that is memorable.

So, get creative and create unique words, phrases, and ideas when deciding on your catchy domain.

Keep It Safe

Finally, in our Dos — when registering a domain, use a reliable domain provider, lock your domain name, and activate domain privacy. Be safe.

You can do much to keep your domain protected from being hijacked and taken over. Read our Ultimate Guide to Domain Name Security for more information.

Now that you know what to do, it’s time for the…

Don’ts

Use Certain Characters

Using unnecessary characters, such as hyphens, symbols, and numbers is a death knell for some websites.

These often make for a sloppy longer address that doesn’t come across as professional. Also, they’re hard to type and pronounce. So, don’t use certain characters (like the ones mentioned).

That said, IF you need to use a special character, try to limit it (one would be best).

If you’re using numbers, try to make them sequential (e.g. 123) or recognizable so that it’s easy on the eyes of visitors.

Special characters, complicated numbers, and symbols can frustrate a user trying to type it in, and they may bail on getting to your website sooner rather than later.

Be Complex, Long, Bland, or Hard to Type

We mentioned long domain names could be okay if they’re relevant but don’t make them complex, bland, or hard to type (which we also touched on).

A good example is if you’re, let’s say, a physicist. “Physicist” isn’t exactly an easy word to spell if you’re not used to doing so, so you’d probably want to avoid a domain name like “localphysicist.com” or something like that.

If it’s not clear by now – the easier, the better. Long domains can work but have a good reason if going that route.

Be Trendy

It might be tempting to use buzzwords, but they often don’t have staying power. Things can rapidly go from the hottest trend to nothing tomorrow. Just think about viral videos, songs, shows, etc. One minute they’re hot – the next, they’re not.

So, don’t be too trendy with your domain, even though it might seem cool and mainstream at the time.

Try to Be Like Someone Else

Once in a while, someone tries to make their domain similar to a popular one to ride on their success.

This tactic is usually pretty obvious (e.g. if you name your site Bamazon.com – or something like this) and it will ultimately hurt your reputation and brand. Plus, it gets old – fast.

This is your time to shine with your unique domain, so don’t try to ride someone else’s coattails.

Buy All of the Extensions

Owners of businesses want to protect their brand, and buying up almost any combination of extensions for a domain can be tempting. It helps ensure no one else will grab them.

But don’t buy all the extensions. As enticing as that is, it’s not necessary.

This can cost you thousands of dollars, and the benefits are few. There is practically no way you can buy up all the extensions, so you might as well not even attempt it.

Your brand will be fine with your chosen domain, and, more than likely, no schmuck will steal your thunder by choosing another TLD with your name attached.

Skip On Checking Backlink History

If you’re buying a new domain name or one used before, you should check out the backlink history completely. The backlink history of a domain is important because it can affect how it will rank.

If there are hesitant backlinks in the past, search engines might remember them and negatively impact rankings. The backlinks could’ve been blocklisted for spam or other bad activity.

There are backlink checkers, like Majestic, that can ensure you have a solid domain with no unsavory history.

Doing the Dos and Don’ts for Domains

When it comes to domain registration, these Dos and Don’ts can help ensure you have success. Whether picking the right TLD, excluding special characters, or security, there’s a lot to consider. After all, this domain is in it for the long haul.

Consider registering a domain with us for security, selection, and wholesale price. You have domain management in The Hub, 24/7 support, client billing options, resell capabilities, and more!

Be aware of what to do when deciding on a domain, and you’ll be domain-ate online.

February 24, 2023

Compare the Best Streaming Software

Our recommendation for the best streaming software is OneStream because it offers multistreaming and both live and pre-recorded streaming at an affordable price. Get started for free today.

With live video skyrocketing in popularity, content creators are always looking for new ways to stream content, scale their audiences, and generate more revenue. But going live natively on a single platform like Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook is extremely limiting.

Streaming software helps add professionalism to your streams with on-screen overlays, personal branding, and improved audience engagement. These tools make it easy to stream on multiple networks simultaneously, pre-record your streams, and invite friends to join you on screen.

The Top 5 Best Streaming Software

Our research team has identified five top streaming tools that are each great for different reasons. The best streaming software for most people is OneStream because of its affordable price point and versatility for beginners and seasoned streamers alike. Try OneStream for free today—no credit card required.

OneStream – Best multistreaming capabilities
Restream – Best for managing audience interactions
Gamecaster – Best for gamers
Streamlabs – Best for mobile streaming
Wirecast – Best for professional streaming quality and live events

The reviews in this guide contain everything you need to know to find the best streaming software for you.

Company logos for our best streaming software

Match Your Scenario to the Right Streaming Software Solution

During our extensive research process, our team identified the five common scenarios that most people face when they’re looking for streaming software. If you see a scenario below that best fits your needs, you can jump straight to the section and view our top recommendations for that specific category.

You want to make money from your streams
You need to go live on multiple platforms simultaneously
You want to pre-record videos before broadcasting
You broadcast content with other live streamers
You stream yourself playing games online

You want to make money from your streams

Best Option: Wirecast

If you’re going to charge users to watch your stream, you need to make sure that the quality is top-notch. No software on our list beats Wirecast when it comes to quality. You can add an unlimited number of video and audio inputs to capture every angle of an event or product launch.

In addition to the software, Wirecast also sells all-in-one live video streaming production systems. So you can have everything you need to stream like the pros. Start charging your fans for live concert access, live sports, premium interviews, and more. You can even add QR codes to the screen as an overlay to direct your guests to a page where they can make a purchase.

Another Great Choice: OneStream

The OneStream Professional plan has a live sales feature. This lets you connect with your Amazon store and displays selected products on the screen during your stream so your viewers can make impulse purchases. This works really well if you’re offering special promotions to your audiences.

If you’re monetizing your streams, consider the following:

Production quality: People aren’t going to pay for streams that look like they’re filmed on an old camcorder.
Production features: Adding live scoreboards, instant replies, countdown timers, live previews, and premium transitions can really elevate the quality of your streams.
In-stream purchasing: It should be easy for users to buy something by taking an action directly from the stream, either as an overlay product or QR code.

You need to go live on multiple platforms simultaneously

Best Option: OneStream

OneStream lets you go live on over 40 channels at once. All you need to do is configure your connected social channels from your settings, and then it’s just a matter of selecting which ones you want to use for each stream.

The cool part about OneStream is that it also lets you manage all of your audience messages from one screen. So if you’re getting live comments from viewers on Facebook, Twitch, and Instagram, you’ll see them all on OneStream—eliminating the need to bounce back and forth between different platforms.

Another Great Choice: Restream

Restream supports simultaneous live broadcasts on over 30 channels. It also has an integrated chat feature that brings all of your messages from each platform to one chat box. This chat box can be added as an overlay to your stream, so viewers on different platforms can interact with each other.

If you’re going live on multiple channels at the same time, pay attention to:

Supported platforms: Make sure the software supports all of the channels you currently use and plan to use for future streams.
Connected account restrictions: It’s common for plan tiers to have a maximum amount of connected accounts, such as five, 25, and 50 with OneStream.
Chat integration: So all of your messages from each channel appear on one screen.

You want to pre-record videos before broadcasting

Best Option: OneStream

With OneStream, you can pre-record and upload videos either directly from your computer or through a cloud storage tool like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and more. There is no file size limit when you’re importing videos directly from the cloud.

You can schedule your pre-recorded videos to go live up to 60 days in advance on over 40 different channels. OneStream also lets you add captions to your pre-recorded content and set up playlists to customize the order of your pre-recorded content.

Another Great Choice: Restream

Restream lets you upload videos up to four hours long and 10 GB. You can store up to 50 videos in your library and schedule them in advance. Even if the video recording isn’t technically live, you can still enter the live chat with your audience to answer their questions and engage in real time.

If you’re pre-recording videos, keep an eye on:

File size uploads: Make sure your plan can accommodate the size of the videos you’re uploading to the software or see if it’s compatible with cloud imports.
Built-in editing tools: If the software doesn’t have built-in editing options, you’ll need to edit your videos on a third-party tool before uploading.
Scheduling capabilities: To control when your pre-recorded videos will go live and where they’ll be broadcasted.
Live recordings: This feature will let you record a live video and then repurpose it later on.

You broadcast content with other live streamers

Best Option: Wirecast

Wirecast supports up to seven remote guests with its Rendezvous Conferencing feature. With a 17-slot multiviewer output capability, everyone can be on the screen at the same time and still have room to share whatever else you’re broadcasting.

The platform also supports virtual sets and backgrounds. So you can imitate the look and feel of a real studio—adding even more professionalism to your streams.

Another Great Choice: Streamlabs

Streamlabs lets you collaborate with one additional streamer on its 100% free software, which includes smartphone and tablet streaming. If you sign up for Streamlabs Ultra, you can add up to four guests and four simultaneous cameras on the screen.

If you’re going live with others, keep an eye on:

Participants invited: Each software and plan tier will have a maximum number of guests that you can invite to join you.
Participants on screen: Just because you can invite a set amount of guests to your stream, it doesn’t mean that everyone will be able to appear on-screen at the same time.

You stream yourself playing games online

Best Option: Gamecaster

Gamecaster is the standout streaming solution for gamers. It’s perfect for gamers who want to just focus on playing without having to worry about lag problems or streaming quality. The software uses the latest technology advancements to ensure high-quality video and audio—even if that audio is coming from multiple sources.

You can choose from one of Gamecaster’s hundreds of overlays to add more personality and visual enhancements to your streams. The built-in chat box lets viewers interact with you in real time while you’re playing.

Another Great Choice: Streamlabs

If you want to stream games from your smartphone or tablet, Streamlabs will be your best option. It’s free, easy to use, and works seamlessly with your existing mobile hardware when you download the app. You can even add guests to your stream if you’re playing with or against your friends.

If you’re a gamer, make sure you prioritize:

Lag and performance: A lag-free streaming experience is crucial for gamers, as any lag time will hinder the stream for viewers.
Audio quality: Find a tool with built-in balancers to give you more control over audio from multiple sources.
OS compatibility: The software must seamlessly integrate with the operating system that you’re gaming on.

Streaming Software Company Reviews

Below you’ll find in-depth reviews of each streaming software on our list. All of these are high-quality streaming tools, but each one stands apart from the crowd for a specific use case, feature, or niche streaming need.

As you continue through these reviews, you’ll learn more about the features, benefits, pricing, and even the potential downsides of the best streaming software. You’ll be able to narrow down your top contender after reading the following reviews:

OneStream – Best multistreaming capabilities

OneStream is a cloud-based streaming tool that caters to businesses, influencers, and content creators alike. It’s a feature-packed solution that offers all of the essentials you need to stream high-quality content.

But OneStream really stands out from alternatives with its ability to multistream both live and recorded videos to over 40 platforms simultaneously. This is the most of any software on our list, with the next-closest being Restream, which offers 30 different streaming destinations.

It’s worth noting that you will need an external streaming tool to use OneStream. It works well with XSplit, Zoom, OBS, Ecamm, Webex, and more. You just need to copy your server URL and stream key from the OneStream dashboard to get started. Then it’s just a matter of selecting your streaming destinations to multicast from a single stream.

What Makes OneStream Great

OneStream lets you broadcast content to every channel that you could imagine—all at the same time. It connects with Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more.

The software also comes with a unified chat feature, so you can seamlessly manage all of the incoming comments from each platform on a single screen.

For pre-recorded videos, you can set up playlists and schedule them to go live up to 60 days in advance on different platforms. This allows you to record a month or two worth of content now and drip it to your audience over time.

Example of the OneStream dashboard — You can easily manage all of your profile connections from your OneStream dashboard.

OneStream starts at $10 per month with a chance to save 20% on annual contracts and a limited free plan to try it out. The Standard package, at $39 per month, will be the best fit for most of you—as it supports up to 25 social accounts and four-hour streams.

Restream – Best for managing audience interactions

Restream is a simple yet powerful live video platform that integrates with the most popular streaming channels. For streamers who are currently struggling to engage with their audiences as they’re broadcasting on multiple streams simultaneously, Restream is the ultimate solution.

That’s because Restream has an integrated chat feature that eliminates tab switching. Not only does it bring the live chat box from all of your channels to one location, but it also lets you reply to each channel simultaneously with a single message.

Some users report that it can take some time to fully integrate a new platform. So you may not be able to instantly connect with a new social channel and integrate the chat feature. But once it’s up and running, things tend to be pretty smooth.

While Restream has a free forever plan, you’ll need to upgrade to paid a subscription to eliminate the Restreaming branding from your broadcasts.

What Makes Restream Great

Another standout feature of Restream is the ability to display the integrated chat box directly on your stream. Other streaming tools that support live messages from multiple channels don’t always let you add the chat to your broadcast. But with Restream, your audiences on every channel can engage with you and each other from the same chat thread.

For streamers with a large audience, managing these messages from every channel can be overwhelming. But Restream lets you filter messages like profanity and can even hide chatter from bots.

Since the chat box is semi-transparent, it won’t interfere with your broadcast or take up the entire screen. So you can continue with your demonstrations or whatever else you’re doing live without having to adjust for the chat box.

Restream chat box features — Restream’s chat box feature is the best way to manage audience interactions on multiple platforms.

Plans start at $16 per month, which supports five streaming platforms and six hours of streams at the entry level. Restream chat is available on every plan, including the free Basic package.

Gamecaster – Best for gamers

There’s a huge market for viewers who want to watch people play games online—especially via Twitch. Gamecaster fills this demand better than any other streaming software on our list. As the name implies, it’s designed specifically for gamers.

The platform has hundreds of different overlay packs to add professionalism to your streams. You can customize the color schemes and layouts, add animations, and more. Gamecaster lets you add goals to your stream, include a live chat box, and include copyright-free music to your broadcasts.

It’s worth noting that the software only works on Windows machines. But this shouldn’t be a problem, as most gamers are already using Windows 10. Certain features are still in beta, like the ability to clip highlights from a longer stream into a shorter, curated video.

What Makes Gamecaster Great

Gamecaster stands out above similar streaming software for gaming because of its quality. With its intuitive audio mixer, you have granular control over everything to ensure the balance is mixed perfectly for your viewers. So nothing is drowned out or inaudible if you’re playing music, gaming, and talking at the same time.

Another area where Gamecaster shines is its lag-free streaming experience. Gaming is an area where other streaming tools struggle, as lag can really hinder production. But Gamecaster uses the latest AMD and NVIDIA technology optimizations to ensure everything is smooth.

Gamecaster has an extensive list of widgets as well to extend its functionality. So you won’t need to use any third-party tools. Gamecaster is truly an all-in-one streaming solution.

View of a game in Gamecaster — Gamecaster is the #1 live streaming software for gamers.

Pricing starts at just $3.95 per month or $29.95 per year for a Gamecaster Pro license. This supports streaming on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook.

Streamlabs – Best for mobile streaming

Streamlabs is a free and open-source streaming solution with a suite of different products that will take your live streams to the next level. It’s arguably the simplest tool on our list, making it easy for you to get started and go live within minutes—all without paying a dime.

One standout product from this developer is Streamlabs Mobile—the iOS and Android app that makes it easy to stream directly from your smartphone or tablet. The app uses your device’s native camera and is versatile enough to stream both on-screen actions as well as what you’re doing in real life.

So whether you want to stream yourself playing a game on your phone or just want more customized options for streaming on the go to your favorite social platforms, Streamlabs has you covered.

While Streamlabs is an exceptional free tool, there are some limitations. For example, you can’t access multistream on the free plan, and there will be a Streamlabs watermark on all of your videos. So for those of you who want to get the most out of this platform, you’ll likely need to upgrade to the paid version.

What Makes Streamlabs Great

In terms of mobile streaming, there is nothing easier than Streamlabs. Just download the app, connect your channels, and start streaming immediately.

Streamlabs has a ton of different widgets that you can add to your streams. If you’re using the desktop version of Streamlabs, all of your settings will automatically be synced to your mobile streams when you’re going live from a smartphone.

You’ll love the custom themes and overlays that are specifically designed for mobile devices. Mobile streamers can also earn points from Streamlab through mobile streaming, and those points can be redeemed for in-app perks like disconnect protection and premium themes.

Streamlabs mobile app landing page — Download the Streamlabs mobile app, and you can start streaming from your phone today.

Streamlabs is always free to download and use. But for premium features like multistream, adding four guests, 10 GB of storage, and eliminating the Streamlabs watermark, you’ll need to upgrade to Streamlabs Ultra—starting at $19 per month or $149 per year.

Wirecast – Best for professional streaming quality and live events

Wirecast by Telestream is the most advanced live-streaming solution for professional production quality. It’s perfect for businesses or any streamer that wants to provide their viewers with the highest quality video and audio content.

The software is versatile enough to accommodate live events, corporate meetings, church services, live sports, educational institutions, government communications, and more. So whether you need a better solution to broadcast your local town hall meetings or you want to incorporate live video with a radio broadcast, Wirecast has you covered.

All of these premium features do come at a premium price point. Wirecast is the most expensive tool on our list, so it’s probably not necessary for the solo user who just wants a few on-screen enhancements to Facebook Live. You also may need to upgrade your hardware to ensure compatibility with Wirecast.

What Makes Wirecast Great

Wirecast supports multiple live video inputs simultaneously. So if you’re broadcasting a live sports game, you can have multiple camera angles and switch between them with ease. The platform even supports instant replay, which is another feature that’s ideal for live events.

Every Wirecast license comes with a library of over 500,000 media assets that can be used to enhance your streams. This includes backgrounds, overlays, royalty-free videos, and more.

The platform has multistreaming capabilities with presets for Facebook, YouTube, RTMP, and more. You can use it to add up to seven remote guests, meaning you and your co-hosts can broadcast an event from multiple locations. Or you can use the guest feature to facilitate a panel of speakers for your business event without having to get those speakers in the same room together.

Use Wirecast to produce TV-quality streams to multiple channels.

The entry-level Wirecast license starts at $599. Download your free trial to test a fully functional version of Wirecast today.

Quick Sprout Streaming Software Related Content

In addition to the software reviews above, we have some additional resources that will help you get the most out of your streams. Check out these useful guides, how-to articles, and other reviews related to streaming software that we’ve covered here at Quick Sprout:

Streaming Software Guides and How-Tos

Streaming Software Related Top Lists

The Top Streaming Software in Summary

The best streaming software makes it easy for you to broadcast content on multiple platforms simultaneously. These tools can help you engage with your audience through integrated live chat and can even help you monetize your streams.

OneStream is the best streaming software for most people because it’s so versatile and supports multicast on over 40 different channels. You can try it for free today and get up to 20% off your subscription.

February 22, 2023

Compare the Best Broker to Sell Your Ecommerce Business

Our recommendation for the best broker to sell your ecommerce business is Dealflow Brokerage because of its high success rate, extensive investor network, and exit planning expertise. Get your free valuation today.

Selling an ecommerce business on your own is a complex and time-consuming task. You need to find a buyer, negotiate the deal, and go through the legal steps associated with selling a business.

Ecommerce business brokers simplify this process by doing all the heavy lifting for you. From finding qualified buyers to escrow services, exit planning, and more, they’ll ensure you get maximum value on the sale.

The Top 5 Best Brokers to Sell Your Ecommerce Business

We’ve identified the five best ecommerce brokers on the market today. Dealflow Brokerage is our top recommendation for most ecommerce sites because they help you plan your exit and find buyers willing to pay top dollar for your business. Find out what your online store is worth today.

Dealflow Brokerage – Best for ecommerce exit planning
Flippa – Best online marketplace to sell your ecommerce business
FE International – Best for ecommerce sites that also do wholesale and retail
Website Properties – Best for selling Amazon and Shopify businesses
Empire Flippers – Best for selling ecommerce sites with multiple revenue models

Company logos for our best broker to sell your ecommerce business reviews

Continue reading to find the best broker to sell your ecommerce company.

Match Your Scenario to the Right Broker For Selling Your Ecommerce Business

During our extensive research process, our team at Quick Sprout identified the most common scenarios for people wanting to sell their ecommerce business. If you see a scenario below that best fits your needs, you can jump straight to that section to see the best brokers for your specific needs. This is the fastest and easiest way to find the right ecommerce broker.

You’re ready to sell your ecommerce business right now
You need some help with exit planning for a future sale
You want to manage the deal on your own through a DIY brokerage
You’re looking for access to qualified and motivated buyers
You want an accurate valuation to ensure you’re getting maximum value

You’re ready to sell your ecommerce business right now

Best Option: Flippa

If you’re ready to sell and want to get your ecommerce business listed immediately, Flippa is the fastest and easiest way to get exposure. The average sale time is one month, and your business will be on an open marketplace of over 300,000 buyers, increasing your chance to sell sooner than later. Flippa also offers free escrow services and negotiation tools so you can manage everything through a single platform.

Another Great Choice: Website Properties

The average time to sell an ecommerce business with Website Properties is six to eight weeks. This is very fast compared to alternatives on the market, especially since you get such high-quality service throughout the process. This broker doesn’t cut corners and still knows how to get your online business sold quickly.

If you’re ready to sell now, consider brokers with:

High success rates: High success rates typically mean you won’t have to switch brokers or platforms and further extend the process.
Quality buyer pools: Fast access to qualified buyers is one of the best ways to sell your ecommerce store quickly.
Average sale time: While every listing differs, the average will give you a good idea of how long your ecommerce store might be on the market.
Streamlined sales process: See how many steps you need to go through to get your store listed and in front of buyers.

You need some help with exit planning for a future sale

Best Option: Dealflow Brokerage

Dealflow Brokerage has several different exit planning options, each with a higher level of involvement from a dedicated mergers and acquisitions advisor. They provide monthly coaching services to ensure you do everything possible to set your online store up for maximum value.

This is a great way to identify both risks and opportunities in the market. The services also include a full exit plan audit, a detailed list of action items, and exit roadmapping—all leading up to the official listing and sales process.

Another Great Choice: FE International

As an M&A firm, FE International specializes in maximizing the value of your online store. They’ll handle all of this for you, so you can continue running your business while they work behind the scenes to prepare for the sale. FE International provides exit planning services along with legal structure, due diligence, strategic negotiations, and everything else you need to get ready to sell.

If you need exit planning help, pay attention to:

Coaching: Sometimes exit planning comes in the form of a report or checklist, but the best services provide ongoing coaching.
Timelines: It can be a red flag if the broker wants you to sell immediately instead of planning a proper exit strategy.
Fine print: If you’re going to use a broker’s exit planning services, you may also need to use them when it’s time to sell.

You want to manage the deal on your own through a DIY brokerage

Best Option: Flippa

Not everyone wants to work with a dedicated advisor to sell their ecommerce business. This is especially true for smaller ecommerce stores and owners who don’t want to pay higher commission fees. If you fall into this category, Flippa is the best marketplace option for your ecommerce store.

The commission fees start at 10%, even for ecommerce sites sold for under $50,000. Other brokerages take 15% for similar sales prices. You can also access free escrow services with your Flippa listing package.

Another Great Choice: Empire Flippers

Empire Flippers is another excellent DIY solution for ecommerce businesses that want to go through a marketplace. They’re great at vetting buyers, so you’ll never hear from people who are just window shopping and aren’t actually interested. Beyond the DIY approach, Empire Flippers provides you with different ideas and unique deal structures to help finalize the sale. They’ll even contact your web host on your behalf once the deal goes through to ease the transition.

If you prefer a DIY approach to selling your ecommerce business, keep an eye on:

Marketplace listings: Check the existing ecommerce listings on the marketplace to see how other businesses are positioned for success.
Listing process: There should be a clear and guided step-by-step process for you to follow as you’re entering the information.
Valuation tool: If you’re doing this on your own, you want to make sure you get a good valuation to ensure you’re not overpriced or leaving money on the table.
Services: While you may want to do some of the work on your own, it’s nice to know your broker is there for support if you have questions or need help.

You’re looking for access to qualified and motivated buyers

Best Option: Dealflow Brokerage

Dealflow Brokerage has an investor network of more than one million buyers, and they’ll list your business for sale on their own platform and third-party networks. But what really separates Dealflow Brokerage from the crowd is how they actively reach out to qualified candidates instead of just letting your listing sit dormant online for people to find.

Another Great Choice: FE International

FE International has a global network of more than 80,000 pre-qualified buyers. These buyers represent more than $41 billion in capital. This broker boasts an impressive 94.1% sales success rate, so you know that they’re connecting clients with the right buyers.

If you need help finding qualified buyers, consider:

Total exposure: Assess how many total buyers the broker has access to.
Listing platforms: Find out how many networks and websites your site will be listed on.
Confidentiality: If you don’t want employees, customers, or competitors to find out you’re selling, you must evaluate how the broker keeps your information private while still gaining exposure and interest.
Success rate: The success rate speaks for itself, as it’s an excellent indication of how well a broker can actually find buyers for you.

You want an accurate valuation to ensure you’re getting maximum value

Best Option: Dealflow Brokerage

Deaflow Brokerages provides free business valuations for ecommerce sites. There’s no commitment and zero upfront cost to see how much your business is worth. In addition to getting an accurate valuation of your business today, Dealflow Brokerage will also let you know if it’s the right time to sell based on the stage of your online store and the overall market conditions. They can help you get maximum value by telling you when it’s the right time to sell.

Another Great Choice: Empire Flippers

Empire Flippers has a free and simple valuation tool to help you discover what your business is worth. They use a proven formula based on net profit and a specific multiple that varies based on other factors you provide. The cool part about Empire Flippers is the valuation tool accounts for all of your revenue channels and monetization models. But you will need to create an Empire Flippers account to get the valuation.

When you’re getting a valuation for your ecommerce business, look for:

Methodology: Some brokers use the same formula for all valuations, while others take the time to run comprehensive audits to ensure the valuation is more precise.
External factors: Looking at market behavior and other business sales is important, as it’s more accurate than simply looking at your company’s revenue.
Consultation vs. DIY: You can get a valuation using a free online calculator or by scheduling a consultation with a dedicated advisor.

Brokers for Selling Ecommerce Business Company Reviews

Continue to read our in-depth reviews of the best brokers for selling your ecommerce business. Every option on our list is a quality candidate to consider, but each one stands out for a specific reason or scenario. As you read these reviews, you’ll learn more about each broker’s strengths, as well as any potential drawbacks. We’ll also cover the costs associated with each ecommerce broker.

Dealflow Brokerage – Best for ecommerce exit planning

Dealflow Brokerage is an experienced mergers and acquisitions advisory company specializing in online businesses. They boast a 93% success rate and have access to more than one million potential buyers within their investor network.

Its white-glove service makes Dealflow Brokerage stand out from the crowd. Unlike other brokers that just want to sell your business as quickly as possible to earn a commission, Dealflow Brokerage will advise you on whether or not this is the right time to sell.

If it’s not the best time to sell, Dealflow Brokerage will actively work with you to find ways to improve the value of your ecommerce business—helping ensure maximum sales value.

It’s worth noting that Dealflow Brokerage is typically a better option for well-established ecommerce sites looking to sell for millions of dollars. While they work with smaller sites, it’s probably unnecessary for you to go through this process if you’re only trying to get a couple hundred thousand for the sale. It’s also worth noting that if you do sign up for the exit planning service, Dealflow Brokerage has the first right of refusal when you decide to officially sell.

What Makes Dealflow Brokerage Great

The exit planning services at Dealflow Brokerage are second to none in this industry. So if you’re not quite ready to sell today but want to position your ecommerce business for maximum value over the next year or so, Dealflow Brokerage has you covered.

They offer three different exit planning packages for ecommerce businesses in different stages. The first option is more of a DIY approach that helps walk you through the steps for your exit plan. The second tier is a two-page exit plan that includes your existing business valuation and a checklist of action items to complete.

Dealflow’s top-tier exit planning service comes with a 20-page report and a dedicated senior advisor that will coach you through the process on a monthly basis until it’s time to sell. Once the business is ready, Dealflow Brokerage can take the reins and actively find buyers in their network.

Dealflow landing page for selling your website with an explanation of how Dealflow Brokerage is different from other brokers — Work directly with a mergers and acquisition specialist from Dealflow to plan your exit to perfection.

The full exit planning service starts at $3,500 for your 20-page report and $600 per month for ongoing coaching. They’ll also take a commission when your business sells, and the percentage depends on the sales price.

Flippa – Best online marketplace to sell your ecommerce business

Flippa is arguably the most popular and well-recognized marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. It stands out from alternative marketplaces for its simplicity, reputation, and low fee structure.

For those of you who are ready to sell and want to get your ecommerce business listed ASAP, Flippa is undoubtedly the way to go.

Any online store, regardless of revenue or asking price, can list on Flippa. So whether you’re a small shop that just wants to cash out for $250,000 or you’re a big player selling for $10 million, you can use Flippa as your brokerage.

In addition to the marketplace, Flippa offers free escrow services and other useful tools, including NDAs, confidentiality agreements, legal templates, and more. The downside of using an online marketplace alone is that nobody is actively finding buyers for your business. The hand-picked buyer service is only available if your business is worth over $10 million.

What Makes Flippa Great

Flippa has become such a reliable source for buyers who want to purchase online businesses. This popularity and strong reputation are great news for sellers—since you’ll be listing your online store where buyers come first.

The marketplace has over 313,000 buyers, and nearly 275,000 online businesses have been sold through Flippa. Ecommerce is one of the most popular categories on the platform.

While nobody is actively reaching out to buyers on your behalf, Flippa’s unique algorithm does make it easier for buyers to find your listing based on what they’re looking for. You can negotiate with buyers directly through the platform as well.

Flipps business valuation tool — Flippa’s industry-leading marketplace makes it easy to sell your ecommerce business online.

Listing packages start at $39, and Flippa’s success fees range from 4% to 10%, depending on the sale price. If you find a comparable platform offering a lower success fee, Flippa will beat it by 1%.

FE International – Best for ecommerce sites that also do wholesale and retail

FE International is a global mergers and acquisitions advisor that has successfully brokered over $1 billion in acquisitions. They provide all of the accounting, valuation, and technical expertise in-house to ensure you can successfully sell your ecommerce store in a timely and efficient manner.

This is an excellent option for ecommerce sites that have complex operations or want to sell for high prices. But one unique standout of FE International compared to every other brokerage we reviewed is its ability to accommodate online stores that also operate offline.

As long as 50% of your sales are online, FE International will qualify you as an ecommerce store. If the rest of your revenue is coming from retail, wholesale, or another revenue stream, they’ll know how to position your listing to target the right buyer pool.

FE International is better suited for larger ecommerce operations that are well-established and flowing cash. If you’re a small startup or not ready to list for more than $2 million, you’ll probably find other solutions on our list a bit more fitting for your needs.

What Makes FE International Great

FE International has different buyer pools willing to invest and purchase ecommerce businesses. They know what types of businesses their buyers want and what their strengths are.

So let’s say you specialize in wholesale but also operate a DTC online store. For some buyers, those are two different businesses. But FE International can help you position yourself appropriately, appealing to the right type of buyer who knows how to handle both ends of the operation.

They can even work with you if your operation is a mix of B2B ecommerce, DTC ecommerce, consumer retail, and wholesale B2B retail. So if part of your business sells online through Amazon and Walmart and the other part is a storefront chain, FE International can still broker the deal and manage all of the complexities associated with it.

FE International landing page for selling an ecommerce business — FE International has more than a decade of experience selling ecommerce businesses for maximum value.

Pricing for services and commissions is not available online. But you can reach out to FE International for a free valuation and consultation and inquire about those rates during your call.

Website Properties – Best for Selling Amazon and Shopify Businesses

Website Properties has over 20 years of experience brokering online businesses. They boast an impressive 90% deal closure rate and have facilitated over $550 million in gross sales.

While Website Properties is a great broker for selling any type of online store, this brokerage specializes in Amazon and Shopify businesses. They’ve learned through years of experience that these types of businesses are in high demand from investors, and they know how to facilitate those sales.

It’s worth noting that the list of buyers they work with is a bit smaller compared to other brokerages. However, the list is much more targeted. So don’t let that throw you off if you’re just comparing those numbers side by side.

What Makes Website Properties Great

When you work with Website Properties, you’ll get a white-glove touch from their team of experts. Their small team approach takes the time to understand your needs so they can find qualified buyers.

Website Properties has a private list of 35,000 buyers that they deal with. So when they see an Amazon or Shopify business, they know exactly who to pick up the phone and contact.

This starts with a free evaluation. From there, they’ll prepare a narrative that introduces your company to prospective buyers. Then Website Properties will market the listing, find buyers, and manage the entire sales process—all while maintaining confidentiality for you and your business.

Website Properties landing page for selling websites online — Website Properties knows how to capitalize on the high demand of Shopify and Amazon businesses.

You can get a free valuation from Website Properties to find out how much your ecommerce business is worth. Commissions are based on successful sales, and rates vary based on the sales price.

Empire Flippers – Best for selling ecommerce sites with multiple revenue models

Empire Flippers is an online marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. More than $400 million in sales have been brokered through this company.

What makes Empire Flippers unique compared to similar marketplaces is its ability to provide accurate valuations for online stores with unique revenue models.

For example, maybe you’re selling products through a traditional online store, but you also make money through affiliate marketing and advertisements. Or maybe you sell subscription box services online but also sell one-off items through Amazon. Empire Flippers takes all of this into consideration when they’re coming up with a valuation and positioning your business for sale on the marketplace.

Just note that Empire Flippers does have other listings for online businesses that fall outside the scope of ecommerce. So ecommerce isn’t their only area of focus. It’s also worth noting that at 72%, Empire Flippers has a lower success rate than other options on our list.

What Makes Empire Flippers Great

When you’re going through the valuation and listing process on Empire Flippers, you’ll be walked through a series of questions related to your online store. But unlike similar tools on the market, Empire Flippers lets you account for all of your revenue models in a DIY approach.

So you’re not forced to pick just one area of your online business. All of your online sales channels and monetization methods are included.

This includes traditional ecommerce, Amazon FBA, Amazon associates, display advertising, subscription services, subscription boxes, dropshipping, and more. Maybe you offer software, SaaS, or digital products too. Empire Flippers is perfect for anyone who falls into one or more than one of these unique categories.

A list of monetization methods to select when selling your website with Empire Flippers — Selecting all of your revenue models is the first step to selling an ecommerce business through Empire Flippers.

Commissions start at 15% for sales under $700,000. They drop to 8% between $700,000 to $5 million and are further reduced to 2.5% if your ecommerce business sells for over $5 million.

Quick Sprout Broker to Sell Your Ecommerce Business Related Content

To help assist you even further, we have some additional resources related to ecommerce brokers, business brokerages, and selling your business. Check out these guides and reviews below:

Brokers to Sell Your Ecommerce Business Guides and How-Tos

Brokers to Sell Your Ecommerce Business Related Top Lists

The Top Brokers to Sell Your Ecommerce Business in Summary

The best business brokers to sell your ecommerce business help simplify the sales process and set you up for success. Some are great for simple marketplace listings, while others are better for guided exit planning and buyer outreach. You’ll even find some that specialize in specific types of online stores, like Shopify or Amazon.

Dealflow Brokerage will be the best ecommerce business broker for most sellers. They have a high success rate and offer a range of exit planning solutions to ensure you get top dollar for the sale.

February 16, 2023

Amazon FBA vs. Dropshipping: 6 Key Differences

ShipBob simplifies ecommerce fulfillment as it supports dropshipping from multiple channels and integrates with Amazon. Request a free quote and unlock two-day free shipping today.

Amazon FBA and dropshipping are two of the most popular fulfillment options for online sellers. While the two may seem similar at first glance, they’re actually very different. So whether you’re new to ecommerce or simply looking for an alternative fulfillment option, this guide has you covered. We’ll compare the key differences between Amazon FBA and dropshipping so you can determine which one is right for your business.

The 5 Best Ecommerce Fulfillment Services For Selling Online

Our team here at Quick Sprout has researched and identified the best fulfillment solutions for ecommerce. Here’s a quick summary of our top recommendations:

ShipBob – Best ecommerce fulfillment platform
Red Stag Fulfillment – Best for high-value and large products
ShipMonk – Best for subscription boxes
Dot Foods – Best for food and beverage ecommerce
Easyship – Best for international fulfillment

1. Costs

The upfront investment cost is the first thing you need to consider when evaluating Amazon FBA vs. dropshipping.

Amazon FBA requires a significantly larger investment than dropshipping. That’s why this option is typically better for existing businesses that are already profitable and have cash in the bank to buy inventory.

Amazon FBA is more expensive than dropshipping because it requires you to purchase your inventory in advance. With dropshipping, you’re not paying for any inventory upfront—you only pay for items once a customer makes a purchase.

Getting the lowest possible rate per unit on your inventory typically requires bulk purchases. So you may need to purchase hundreds or thousands of items at once, which can cost you thousands or tens of thousands, depending on what you’re selling.

In addition to purchasing inventory, Amazon FBA charges for inventory storage, fulfillment fees, return processing fees, and more. There’s also a $39.99 monthly fee for the Professional seller plan.

List of Amazon FBA storage and fulfillment fees — Use the FBA revenue calculator to estimate your fees from your Seller Central dashboard.

So right off the bat, if you don’t have the funds to purchase inventory in bulk, then Amazon FBA may not be right for you.

You’re also capped at 1,000 units of storage with Amazon FBA, meaning you may need to find a secondary storage facility to keep your overflow.

The overhead costs associated with dropshipping are significantly lower. You just need to pay for the website expenses and ecommerce platform. You can get all of this set up for less than a couple hundred dollars, and the ongoing costs will likely be under $100 per month.

Dropshipping doesn’t require any pre-payments for inventory. When someone buys something from your ecommerce shop, you just get charged for the items sold by your supplier.

2. Logistics

With dropshipping, you never need to touch your products. You don’t own or stock the inventory; you’re simply a middleman between the supplier and the customer.

After an item is purchased from your site, you need to notify the supplier of the order details, and they’ll ship directly to your customer. This process can be automated, so you won’t have to manually notify your supplier after every order.

The logistics for dropshipping are very simple, and the effort is minimal compared to alternative fulfillment solutions.

With Amazon FBA, there’s an extra step in the process that does require a little more legwork.

Your supplier isn’t shipping directly to the end customer. Instead, you need to purchase the inventory and then send that inventory to an Amazon fulfillment center.

It’s your responsibility to ensure all products are packed, shipped, and routed to the fulfillment centers per Amazon’s guidelines. Products must be labeled correctly, have the right barcodes, and adhere to dozens of other strict rules and requirements. This can be tedious when you’re first starting out, but you’ll get the hang of it as time goes on.

If the Amazon FBA requirements don’t work well for your products or business, there are other fulfillment services that you can consider. ShipBob is an omnichannel fulfillment solution that offers two-day free shipping and simple inventory storage.

How ShipBob fulfillment works in three steps — ShipBob is an alternative ecommerce fulfillment solution to consider vs. Amazon FBA.

The logistics are straightforward, and ShipBob syncs with your sales channels. So, whether you’re selling through your website, Facebook, or Amazon, they’ll be notified of the details and ship directly to your customers.

3. Returns and Customer Support

Dealing with customers is an important aspect of running any ecommerce business, and returns are just part of the game when you’re selling online. Both of these elements are handled differently for Amazon FBA and dropshipping.

Amazon FBA manages returns and customer support for you. If customers have questions about the status of an order or need to set up a return, everything is handled directly through Amazon.

An explanation of how customers get Amazon's trusted customer service and returns with FBA — Support and returns are handled for you with Amazon FBA.

Will you have to answer any questions sent to your seller profile? Sure. But that’s relatively easy and doesn’t require too much work. It barely falls under the scope of “customer support.”

As a dropshipper, you’ll have to handle all returns and support on your own. This may require you to get customer service software for your website to manage tickets, returns, and live chat. You’ll also have to figure out how you’ll handle return logistics.

Return arrangements can vary based on different suppliers and the types of products you’re selling. In some cases, the cost associated with a return isn’t worth it for sellers, and you might be better off just refunding your customers or shipping them a brand-new item.

You’ll have to crunch the numbers and see what kind of offers or guarantees you’re getting from your suppliers. But for low-ticket items, you may ultimately choose not to accept the items back to save money and avoid logistical headaches.

4. Profitability

Dropshipping offers a faster path to profitability. Since your overhead costs are so low and you’re not paying for inventory, you can potentially turn a profit with your first sale. At worst, it will take you a handful of conversions to cover the costs of running your website.

With that said, dropshipping profits might be slim. This all depends on how well you can find suppliers offering good prices and how well you do with pricing and marketing. But generally speaking, the profit margins are lower with dropshipping because you’re not getting bulk inventory prices.

Amazon FBA allows you to earn higher margins per item sold, but it may take longer to break even.

For example, let’s say 1,000 units at an Amazon warehouse that you’re selling via Amazon FBA. Your breakeven point might be 600 units. This could take months for you to reach, but the total profit on your 1,000 units can be high once you break even—potentially higher than selling the same 1,000 units via dropshipping.

5. Competition

There’s always going to be competition when you’re selling online, regardless of the method. But the type of competition you’ll have will vary depending on your fulfillment method.

If you’re using Amazon FBA, there’s a good chance you’ll want to be selling on Amazon. Depending on your products, you could have high competition here. That’s because people won’t necessarily be searching directly for your specific brand and product. Instead, they’ll search for broad terms and then compare the options.

This means that your products will be showcased side-by-side with your competitors. Customers will have a quick, at-a-glance view of what you’re selling, along with the price and rating. So if you’re not competitively priced or your ratings are subpar, it could be difficult to stand out from other options on the platform.

You might also find yourself in direct competition with Amazon, as Amazon has its own brand of products. It’s common for these Amazon-branded products to appear first in the search results, right alongside the sponsored products.

Some products have lots of competition in Amazon’s marketplace.

If you’re dropshipping, you’re still going to have competition. But you’ll be competing with other brands on different channels. To gain the edge here, you need to be good at SEO and learn how to market your products to prospects.

One method isn’t necessarily easier than the other. It’s just all about the path you prefer to take.

The cool part about using an omnichannel fulfillment option like ShipBob is that your fulfillment can be handled regardless of where you’re selling. So if you want to sell through Amazon, ShipBob can still handle your fulfillment.

But if you also want to sell on your website or through third-party channels like Facebook or Walmart, everything can be handled from a single fulfillment service. This helps you stand out from competitors on every channel and benefit from ShipBob’s two-day shipping.

How to drive revenue through two-day express fulfillment with ShipBob — ShipBob offers fast two-day shipping options across the US.

In short, Amazon FBA isn’t the only way to provide fast shipping. So you can stay competitive no matter where you’re selling.

6. Brand Control

Dropshipping gives you much more control over your brand. If you’re not selling on Amazon, you can essentially do whatever you want with your website and sales channels.

This takes a bit more work than simply having an Amazon seller profile, but it’s great for businesses that want to be unique.

Since Amazon FBA has such strict packaging requirements, shipping products to customers in custom-branded boxes is harder. It’s possible, but it’s likely in your best interest to let Amazon handle this for you, and your products will be delivered in Amazon’s packaging. Otherwise, you’ll have to do more legwork before shipping your inventory to an Amazon fulfillment center.

Alternatively, other fulfillment solutions on the market have better brand customization options than Amazon FBA. ShipBob gives you full control over your boxing and packaging, so customers are immersed in your brand image when deliveries arrive at their doors.

How branded packaging works using ShipBob — ShipBob is an excellent solution for ecommerce fulfillment with branded packaging.

ShipBob also offers customized kitting, marketing inserts, custom notes, and other enhancements to truly make your packages unique. Custom order labels and custom-branded boxes are offered at no additional cost.

If you care about the unboxing experience for your customers, this will likely be a better option than Amazon FBA.

The Similarities Between Amazon FBA and Dropshipping

Contrary to popular belief, you can use Amazon FBA even if you’re not selling through Amazon’s marketplace. So one similarity between Amazon FBA and dropshipping is that both can be used for omnichannel ecommerce, including sales directly from your website.

Amazon FBA multi-channel fulfillment landing page — Amazon FBA also offers multi-channel ecommerce fulfillment.

It’s also possible to sell products via Amazon using dropshipping—without having to go through Amazon FBA.

Both Amazon FBA and dropshipping give you total control over your customer price points. So while your costs may vary based on your logistics, you still have the final say over the sales price of your products.

You don’t fulfill orders or ship products to customers with either of these methods. If you’re using Amazon FBA, the shipment is coming from an Amazon fulfillment center. If you’re using dropshipping, fulfillment and shipping are handled by your supplier.

Final Thoughts About Amazon FBA vs. Dropshipping

Amazon FBA and dropshipping can both be lucrative options for online sellers. Generally speaking, Amazon FBA is better for brands that already have cash flow and either want to expand sales channels or improve fulfillment processes. Dropshipping is a safer and more cost-effective alternative for people new to selling online.

Dropshipping offers more flexibility for those who want more control over their brand. Just remember that you’d need to handle customer service independently if you go this route, whereas Amazon FBA would handle support and returns for you.

If it sounds like dropshipping is right for you, check out our step-by-step guide to starting a dropshipping business. For help finding suppliers and managing your operations, we also have in-depth reviews of the best dropshipping companies. These resources will help set your business up for success.

February 16, 2023

6 Key Web Developer Trends to Watch in 2023

If you’re in the field of web development, you might want to pay attention to these industry-predicted trends.

There are a lot of design and development trends floating around the internet. Researching this topic, I came across articles that listed upwards of 50. While many of these are legitimate topics of interest, most of them weren’t headline worthy.

So how did I land on a top 6? First and foremost, the topic had to be relevant and prevalent (after all, that is the definition of trendy). In addition, they had to strike me as important and valuable when it comes to web development specifically.

If these aren’t already on your radar, chances are they will be soon. Getting a good grasp on these noteworthy topics can really help you elevate your web development business.

Here’s a quick overview of what we’ll cover:

A Primer on AI
The Top 6 Trends in Web Development
Trends or Tools of the Trade?

Since AI is a common denominator in all of the burgeoning tech we’ll look at in this article, it seemed a brief history on the topic would be in order.

A Primer on AI

The very first notions of AI came in the form of myths and rumors; artificial beings endowed with intelligence or consciousness by some master craftsmen. You know, your typical origins story.

Philosophers and thought leaders in other disciplines continued to discuss the essence of what would become AI, and in the 1940s the first programmable digital computer was created. However, with the ability only to execute commands (not store them), it lacked the prerequisite for intelligence: formal reasoning.

The ’50s saw mathematician Alan Turing’s Theory of Computation, suggesting it might be possible to construct an electronic brain. He postulated that machines could use information to solve problems and make decisions, much like humans, and in 1956, the field of artificial intelligence research was founded as an academic discipline.

Through the ’60s and ’70s, AI thrived, with computers able to store more information while simultaneously becoming faster, cheaper, and more accessible.

AI continued to pick up speed in the ’80s and ’90s. Learning techniques and expert systems were introduced and popularized, while governments and industries poured billions of dollars into revolutionizing AI. Alas, the loftiest goals didn’t come to fruition, and investors withdrew funding.

During the ’90s and 2000s, many of AI’s landmark achievements were met, despite government funding and public interest taking a backseat. In 1997, IBM’s chess playing computer program, Deep Blue, defeated the reigning world chess champion grandmaster. Later that same year, Windows implemented speech recognition software.

Since the turn of the century, AI has continued to prosper. By 2016, AI-related hardware and software surpassed the $8 billion mark, and the New York Times deemed the interest in AI “a frenzy”.

In today’s era of “Big Data” (characterized by volume, velocity, variety, value, and veracity), AI continues to propel forward, at times its capabilities not only reaching but surpassing computational power. (See Moore’s Law.)

With AI at the forefront of almost any tech you can think of, the possibilities seem endless, and the opportunities exciting.

So, without further ado…

The Top 6 Trends in Web Development

Let’s get straight to the heart of the matter. Here are the top 6 trends in web development for 2023, starting with…

AI Chatbots

AI Chatbots, or AI Assistants, are extremely prevalent in today’s world, and expected to grow substantially. In fact, SEMRush predicts a 33.2% year-on-year growth rate from 2020 to 2027.

chatbot stats — Revealing AI Chatbot stats. Image Source.

AI chatbots help millions of people and businesses perform operations faster by using text or voice prompts. They also offer 24/7/365 availability, which is crucial to providing ready access to customers around the world in every time zone.

Considered to be one of the most influential technologies that will shape the future of web development, AI chatbots are smarter than regular chatbots. Due to use of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies, they better understand what the user wants, then tailor that experience to the individual.

AI chatbots can engage in complex conversations easily without the human intervention quotient. Because they analyze behavior and solve problems, their AI learning algorithms become smarter with every query they handle.

The impact of AI chatbots is substantial. Simply put: Chatbots enhance and streamline the customer experience. More specifically, they’ve been shown to lower customer complaints (i.e., improve satisfaction), improve lead capture and contact flow, and increase sales. And it goes with saying that the more customers enjoy an online experience, the more likely they are to purchase from the company providing it.

Web developers can benefit from AI-powered chatbots in a couple of ways, like replacing navigational elements on websites to make development easier, or integrating chatbots with messengers, so fewer applications need to be developed.

With customer engagement being a key indicator of business success, you really can’t afford to ignore the benefits of AI chatbots, especially as they become even more sophisticated in the near future.

Voice Assistant

We are currently in the midst of the voice search era. Every smartphone is equipped with digital voice assistants, while their home-bound counterparts (smart speakers) are skyrocketing in popularity.

The most common ways to interact with voice assistants is through smartphones, smart cars, and smart speakers – in that order. The four biggest providers of voice assistants are Apple’s Siri, the eponymous Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana.

Though there are a vast number of reasons that people use voice assistants, top tasks include making calls (or sending texts), getting directions, playing music, and finding nearby businesses.

Recent data in The Global State of Digital 2022 reveals that 22.5% of users worldwide use voice assistants each week on the internet, spanning a vast range of ages (16-64 years).

percentage worldwide use voice assistants — Key voice assistant stats from The Global State of Digital report.

Additionally, the voice assistant application market size is projected to grow from 2.8 billion in 2021 to 11.2 billion USD by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 32.4%.

How did voice assistants become so popular? Partly due to ease of use; basic communication skills are already present in humans, so both kids and seniors can adapt to voice interfaces with a minimal learning curve. Secondly, digital voice assistants are commonplace on smartphones, so the tech is within easy reach at no additional cost.

Voice Assistant technology is also being implemented to make sites more accessible for those who are hearing and sight-impaired.

Because of their massive use, voice search results will start to rank higher and more prominently on search engine result pages. Which means companies will place emphasis on optimizing their products and services with voice search at the forefront.

This provides a good deal of opportunity for web developers when it comes to voice assistant technology and incorporating it into the development process.

A good place to start taking advantage of this trend is by optimizing structured data for voice search in WordPress.

Progressive Web Applications (PWAs)

Progressive Web Applications (aka PWAs) are web applications that run independently of a browser and interact with the customer as a native app. Some prime examples are Google Maps, Starbucks, and Spotify.

pwa dev preferable — Indications that PWA is preferrable. Image Source.

PWAs are currently among the top trends in web development, and expected to fully replace traditional web apps in the near future.

Using a single codebase, developers can code Progressive Web Apps to work with modern APIs, delivering enhanced capabilities and reliability that can reach anyone – regardless of their location or what device they’re on.

PWAs improve the overall user experience because of these key benefits:

fast
relatively low cost
quick to launch/distribute on the market
install quickly and automatically update
save on device power and storage
work well offline (or with bad connections)
boost website engagement/conversion
maintenance and updating is seamless
fully immersive experience

Another plus for PWAs is that Google prioritizes web apps that load quickly on mobile devices. Because they reduce page load time, PWAs dramatically improve search result rankings.

According to Statista, mobile sales in the global market are projected to reach $8.1 billion in 2026. That means people will likely choose their mobile devices over their non-mobile counterparts for most of their purchasing needs, leaning directly into what PWAs provide.

PWAs are responsive, secure, easy to install, scalable, and reliably connected, making them a perfect fit for many B2B and B2C uses.

Tip: Do you use the Avada theme on client sites? Then check out our article on how to speed up and optimize Avada using our Smush and Hummingbird plugins with Avada’s own PWA plugin.

Single-page Applications (SPA)

Single-page applications (or SPAs) are one of the most critical technology trends in web development today.

SPA architecture — Architecture of an SPA. Image source.

An SPA is a JavaScript-based web application. Instead of loading separate HTML pages from a server, it loads a single, specific page to visitors, dynamically updating its content without refreshing the page.

Social media sites (think Facebook and Twitter), as well as Gmail and Google Drive, are among the most well-known SPAs.

Since most devices support it, SPA technology is cross-platform in nature. They even perform well with a slow internet connection or when offline, loading cached content when users launch the site. SPAs are also better equipped to work without server-side codes infused with API technology.

All of this means that SPAs operate fast and keep users attention, leading to greater engagement and reduced bounce rates.

SPAs are easy to create, cost-effective, and consume less server space, making them practical for both end users and developers.

Tip: Feel like getting into SPA and reading some relaxing articles to get you in the mood? Then check out these bubbly tutorials:

Internet of Things (IoT)

Long foreshadowed as the wave of the future, the Internet of Things (or IoT) is a movement where objects are given network connectivity that didn’t historically have it, in order to send and receive data.

IoT is one of the most rapidly emerging technologies in web development, with Statista indicating the number of IoT-connected devices will reach more than 29 billion by 2030.

IoT connected devices chart — IoT-connected devices worldwide by year. Image source.

IoT objects can range from home devices, to appliances, and wearable technology, as well as cameras, sensors, and signaling equipment – all helping to meet user needs more quickly.

Furthermore, IoT can make many otherwise non-connected devices accessible from your phone.

A popular example would be the Google Nest package of products, which provides users with features like media, alarms, lights, and more, simply by using their voice.

IoT-connected devices have constant data transfers, allowing companies to engage users with their services at incredible speeds, while creating a personalized experience.

IoT is scalable, as it distributes and collects data but isn’t dependent on the volume of data. It is also reliable, providing accurate results in an expedited fashion. Additionally, it employs powerful security tech to protect business and user data.

IoT’s smart ecosystem provides a wide range of benefits that can be incorporated into websites and mobile apps, analyzing customer behavior to improve the user experience while providing developers with insights.

Motion UI

Motion UI, under the umbrella of motion design, is expected to be a major web design trend in the coming year. The principle is minimalistic design coupled with sophisticated interactions that look amazing and draw the user’s attention.

Motion UI in its glory. Source: Taras Migulko for emote_agency on Dribbble.

Motion UI is a powerful front-end technology that can create customizable, animated UI elements and CSS transitions using SASS libraries.

Popular motions include background animations, animated charts, and modular scrolling, and transition actions like sliding, spinning, bouncing, etc. All of these can cater to individual styles, and aim to catch and keep users’ attention.

Motion UI is generally compatible with all web technologies, and allows flexibility in placement on websites. You can apply these transitions to overlays, off-canvas menus, modals, and more.

Humans are instinctively compelled to follow motion and look for visual clues. It’s also been proven that motion makes a greater impact than static images, meaning we’re much more likely to remember content displayed through movement.

Motion UI is best used to tell a story and invoke emotion, making it a powerful tool in driving user engagement.

Tip: Looking for Motion design in UI inspiration? Check out these websites with great examples. Also, see this moving article for a Motion UI plugin you can use to make your WordPress sites jump.

Trends or Tools of the Trade?

We’ve been following trends like AI chatbots, voice assistants, PWAs, SPAs, IoT, and Motion UI for years; see how they’ve picked up steam since 2018, 2019, and 2020.

2023 will witness a lot of advancements in the field of web development, and will transform the way the world does business – including the way you interact with your clients.

Adopting the latest web dev trends will allow you to stay competitive, by offering the most popular and cutting-edge designs and services.

If you are looking to build your WordPress sites on the sturdiest foundation, sign up for our newsletter to hear about the latest and greatest developments in the world of WordPress, and consider membership and hosting with WPMU DEV. With our suite of pro plugins, 5-star support, and a money-back guarantee, you’re sure to stay ahead of the curve.

February 8, 2023

How to Set Up a Virtual Phone System in 5 Simple Steps

After reviewing the top options in the market, we found Nextiva to be the best cloud-based phone system because of its superior UCaaS offerings and high call volume management capacity. Get started with Nextiva today.

Virtual phone systems have revolutionized traditional phone communication. What was originally rigid and expensive has become convenient and cost-effective. If you plan to swap your traditional phone line with a cloud-based phone service, you‘re in the right place. Read on to learn how to set up a virtual phone system for your business.

How to Set Up a Virtual Phone System In 5 Simple Steps

The Best 15 Cloud-Based Phone Systems for Setting Up a Virtual Phone System

You’re likely wondering which phone system is worth its weight in gold. Check out our list of the best cloud-based phone systems to make communications more effective.

Nextiva — Best All-Around Cloud-Based Phone System
RingCentral — Best for Hybrid or Remote Work
Ooma — Easiest Setup for Small Businesses
Zoom — Affordable Call Monitoring
Dialpad — Most Flexible
GoTo Connect — Easiest Call Flow Manager
8×8 — Best for Global Companies
Avaya — Best for Toll-Free Phone Calls
Google Voice — Best for Solopreneurs
Grasshopper — Best for the Basics
OpenPhone — Best for Multiple Numbers
Aircall — Most Unique Call Management Features
11Sight — Best for Sales and Marketing Teams
Net2Phone — Best for Reception Management
Webex — Best for Hardware Integration

Set Up a Virtual Phone System in 5 Easy Steps

Before setting up your virtual phone system, ensure you have a strong internet connection. This will help you determine whether your connection is providing crystal-clear call quality without issues during the final testing stage.

Once your internet is sorted, simply follow these steps to start making and receiving calls virtually:

Pick a reliable cloud-based phone system provider
Choose a business phone number
Set up your virtual phone line
Test phone call system quality and features
Familiarize your staff with the phone system

Nextiva is a great option for setting up a virtual phone system, especially considering its high uptime of 99.999%. From reliable internet connectivity and IVR to video conferences and mobile MMS/SMS, it offers a host of useful functionalities so you can stay connected with your customers and team members. Get started with Nextiva today.

Step 1: Pick a Reliable Cloud-Based Phone System Provider

Every business has unique needs—yours, too. It’s why we advise against signing up with a provider simply because your competitor uses it. Instead, conduct in-depth research and choose the best cloud-based phone system that meets your needs.

Here are a few questions to help you narrow down your choices:

Are you looking for a virtual phone system that’s scalable? If you plan to grow your business, look for options that allow you to add more employees without overstepping your budget, as well as offer advanced features like call analytics to give you insights into your efforts and campaigns.
Can a virtual phone system provider fit with other tools your team currently uses to perform daily operations? Ideally, your prospective solution should integrate with existing software systems in your tech stack—for example, a CRM like Workbooks or a sales productivity tool like Oracle Sales Cloud.
Is the virtual phone system user-friendly? This one’s a no-brainer. Any cloud-based communication tool you pick or consider should be something your employees can use with little to no training and onboarding.
What kind of features does the virtual phone system offer? Consider the feature set on offer. Are you getting the basics, such as call forwarding, voicemail, chat functionality, and conference calling? While robust features are great, ensure they can actually help you run your business better and faster. Prompt and efficient customer support is also important so you can get the required help if something doesn’t work as it should.
Is the virtual phone system reliable? Reliability is the most important. You don’t want to deal with drop calls or inference. It’s why we recommend selecting phone systems that seamlessly transition your calls from cellular to Wi-Fi networks and back again without any hassle.

Admittedly, this long list of considerations can be overwhelming. To help you choose the right option, we recommend Nextiva.

Nextiva cloud-based phone system landing page — Nextiva is a reliable and feature-packed cloud-based phone system for teams of all sizes.

It offers several excellent business phone features (auto-attendant, IVR, and call screening), as well as various collaborative features (unlimited video conferences, mobile MMS/SMS, and screen sharing). Nextiva also provides 99.999% uptime, thanks to its eight points of presence and carrier-grade data centers.

If this sounds up your alley, sign up for Nextiva today.

Step 2: Choose a Business Phone Number

Next, you’ll decide the kind of phone number you need for your business.

Generally speaking, your prospective VoIP provider should offer at least one option for a custom phone number. Others even allow picking up vanity numbers (for instance, XXX-YOUR-COMPANYNAME). Similarly, local businesses can set up a phone number with an area code that your customers are familiar with.

Toll-free numbers or another professional and prestigious option if your business is entitled to a specific location.

Each of the above phone numbers is tied to your virtual phone system and will allow customers to connect with you regardless of their location. The only requirement is a stable internet connection on both your and their side.

In case you already have a business number, find out if you can port it, so your customer doesn’t have to learn a new number.

Step 3: Set Up Your Virtual Phone Line

Ideally, your cloud-based phone system provider will walk you through this step, but the setup will differ depending on your provider and the equipment you have (hardware or softphone).

For example, setting up a headset connected to a computer will have a different setup than setting up softphone apps on employee devices. Similarly, a hardwired phone that needs an adapter to work with VoIP will have a totally different setup.

Be prepared that each setup will involve some degree of time to get everything ready for use.

Step 4: Test Phone System Call Quality and Features

In this step, you’ll be testing your virtual phone system equipment and features to ensure a successful transition. This includes:

Audio Quality: Are you hearing any crackling sound or feedback? Is your voice cutting in and out? If you or the caller are having trouble communicating, you have an inferior audio quality issue. Your best bet is to contact the virtual phone system provider’s customer support.
Call Lag: Are you experiencing a delay between when you speak and when the call recipient hears your voice or vice versa? If yes, you’re facing latency issues and should connect with the customer support team.
Stable Connection: Is it taking unreasonably long to connect after making a call to your phone number? Are your calls dropping? If yes, run a speed test on your internet. You may also have to troubleshoot connectivity, so you may need to contact customer support.

In addition to the above, you should also test phone system functionalities. Ensure all the necessary features you need are working fine so that when you do go live, you don’t face any issues.

Step 5: Familiarize Your Staff With the Phone System

Virtual phone systems often have robust feature sets. To take full advantage of them, you have to train your staff to use them correctly.

Walk your staff through all the features you want them to be proficient in. We also recommend making and taking mock calls and performing crucial feature-related actions. Follow this up by sending out a survey to gauge their familiarity with the tool and whether they would benefit from more training.

Staff training is important to make your employees comfortable with the phone system. Some of them may be intimidated, as many are when learning new software, but work with them to overcome this hurdle.

In case the provider doesn’t have a 24/7 tech support team, consider building a knowledge base for your team to resolve doubts.

Final Thoughts About How to Set Up a Virtual Phone System

To set up a virtual phone system, you need to sign up with a reliable virtual phone service provider, choose a business phone number, and set up your phone line. Once everything is set, test the audio call quality and train your staff to ensure there are no issues when communicating with the system.

February 6, 2023

Direct Inward Dialing Starter Guide: Learn the Basics

Want to get started with direct inward dialing right away? The best VoIP phone services for most are Nextiva and RingCentral. Save up to 40% when you start an annual plan with Nextiva today.

Have you ever tried to call a company’s customer support line but had trouble getting to the right person?

Sometimes, rerouting phone calls can take forever, and reaching the right person can be a cumbersome task.

That’s where direct inward dialing (DID) comes in. DID is a service that makes it easier for your staff to access customers’ phone numbers without searching through contact databases or directories. This reduces the amount of time spent on manual outbound calls and ensures that customer inquiries are attended to promptly.

The 12 Best VoIP Providers For Direct Inward Dialing

As a digital marketing resource, it’s safe to say that we’ve done our share of research on what it takes to streamline communication and customer service. We rounded up the 12 best VoIP providers for direct inward dialing based on their features, pricing plans, customer support, and more.

Nextiva — Best Overall VoIP Provider
RingCentral — Best for Hybrid and Remote Work Environments
Ooma — Best for Small Businesses That Want Simple Setups
8×8 — Best VoIP Provider for International Calling
Dialpad — Best AI Functionality for VoIP Phone Systems
GoTo Connect — Best Feature-Packed Entry-Level VoIP Plan
Phone.com — Best For Businesses on a Tight Budget
Google Voice — Best Simple and Lightweight VoIP Phone Service
Aircall — Best Built-In Call Management Tools
CallHippo — Best VoIP Phone System for Industry-Specific Compliance
11Sight — Best One-Click Audio and Video Calling for Sales and Marketing Teams
Zoom — Best Call Monitoring Features For Business Users

The 9 Best VoIP Providers For Direct Inward Dialing

What Is Direct Inward Dialing (DID)?

A DID service connects an incoming call to the appropriate person without having to go through directory searches or operators. This process is completed by assigning a unique phone number for each staff member so that customers can reach that person directly when they dial in.

With a DID line, users can make virtual calls that are able to bypass the traditional phone system and go directly to the person who is responsible for answering calls. Additionally, customers do not need to remember an extension or PIN code, as these virtual numbers can be programmed to route automatically without any manual intervention.

What is a Direct Inward Dialing Number?

A DID number is a virtual number that allows customers to contact your business without dialing multiple extensions or pins. It’s a 10 or 11-digit number that routes the caller directly to the person or department they are trying to reach. DID numbers can be set up as local, toll-free, international, or for specific area codes.

Essentially, a DID number is a shortcut for callers, connecting the customer directly with the intended contact. It eliminates the need for customers to search for a directory or call an operator to get the right person on the line.

How Does Direct Inward Dialing Work?

There are two main ways that DID works:

Through Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN): This is the traditional method of setting up a DID line. The provider will establish a set of numbers to be directed through the PSTN to your Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system.
Through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): VoIP allows users to set up virtual phone lines using an IP address or cloud-hosted service. This allows for a wider variety of features, such as automated attendant functionality, call forwarding, and recording.

Regardless of which method you choose, setting up DID is easy. Once the numbers have been assigned to your organization or individual, they are ready to be used immediately.

Direct Dialing Using VoIP

VoIP is the most popular option for direct dialing because it offers various features and benefits. With VoIP, you can easily pick a plan that suits your needs without worrying about installation or setup fees. Additionally, VoIP services are typically more affordable and faster than PSTN lines.

Some of the features that VoIP services offer include:

Automated attendant functionality
Unified Communications (UC) integration
Cloud-based call routing
Voicemail transcription and forwarding
Advanced call monitoring capabilities
HD audio quality

VoIP phone providers use SIP trunking to connect the lines to your PBX system, meaning that the virtual numbers are connected directly to your internal phone system. This allows each call to be routed directly to the right person or department without needing manual intervention.

Thanks to this, the most essential benefit of using VoIP is its scalability—you can easily set up a virtual team of experts and ensure that each customer call is answered promptly.

Direct Dialing Using PSTN

PSTN is the traditional method of establishing direct inward dialing. It’s a reliable telephone line that allows customers to dial directly into your company’s PBX system without needing to call an operator or directory.

Traditional phone systems functioned with analog circuitry that was directly dialed, which was both expensive and time-consuming to set up. Furthermore, the hardware invariably created low-voltage signals for the phones so they would work.

The telephone company checked every now and then to see if the line was still in service. If it wasn’t used, they deactivated the circuit. But with the introduction of digital signals, direct dialing has become more accessible and dependable. The customer’s phone still sends low voltages, but these are now converted into bits in order to be transmitted over the phone lines.

Trunks used for DID services can only send, not receive, calls. So, it’s commonplace to also use direct outward dialing (DOD) trunks. Doing so means the direct-dial line can make outbound calls and still retain its allocated DID phone number.

The main benefit of using PSTN for direct dialing is its reliability and stability, as it does not rely on an internet connection. This makes it ideal for businesses that need a nonstop service and are unwilling to take on the risk of poor call quality or dropped calls. Additionally, PSTN lines can be used in tandem with VoIP lines, allowing you to combine the features of both services.

Do I Really Need Direct Inward Dialing Software?

DID services are essential for businesses looking to grow their customer base and ensure that each call is answered promptly. Moreover, they eliminate the need for manual intervention when routing calls, which can be time-consuming and inefficient.

You do not need DID services if:

You want to use a traditional PBX system.
You only have a few lines and don’t require complex call routing functionalities.
Your team doesn’t need to be available 24/7.

But if you want to ensure that your customers can reach you whenever they need and have their calls routed directly to the right person or department, then DID is a must-have. And if you have more than a few employees, direct dialing can help you manage calls more efficiently without needing to hire a dedicated operator.

There are several DID software packages available on the market, ranging from basic to enterprise-level solutions. Depending on your requirements, you can choose a software package that best fits your needs.

VoIP vs. PSTN: Which Is Better for Direct Inward Dialing?

When it comes to direct inward dialing, both VoIP and PSTN lines have their own benefits.

VoIP is the best choice for businesses that need a scalable and cost-effective solution because it offers various features and benefits. With VoIP, you can easily pick up additional lines when needed and enjoy advanced features such as voicemail transcription, automated attendant functionality, and HD audio quality.

With VoIP software, calls take place both on your network and virtually. This means that you won’t need to purchase extra hardware, further saving you money.

PSTN is usually seen as the more reliable and secure option. It’s ideal for businesses that need uninterrupted service without worrying about call quality or dropped connections. This makes it the perfect choice for establishments that require nonstop services, such as hospitals and banks.

That said, VoIP providers are continuously improving their software, and many of the latency and quality issues have been resolved.

Ultimately, the decision between VoIP and PSTN rests on your individual needs. Since VoIP offers a convenient, lightweight, scalable, and cost-effective solution, it is the best option for most. But if you need the reliability and security that some industries require, PSTN might be the better choice.

Benefits of Direct Inward Dialing Tools

You might not see it immediately, but DID services offer several benefits you may not have even considered.

Easy Call Management and Routing: Direct-dialing solutions make it easier to manage calls and ensure that they reach the right person or department. This makes it easier for customers to address their inquiries without needing multiple transfers or waiting on hold.
Reduced Wait Times: DID services also reduce wait times and the amount of time it takes to transfer calls. This helps establish a better customer experience and strengthens your brand reputation.
Cost Savings: DID tools can help you save money in the long run by reducing your need for additional staff and resources. Instead of needing to hire an operator or use a manual system, calls are routed and managed automatically.
Advanced Features: Many direct dialing solutions offer advanced features such as automated attendants, call forwarding, and voicemail transcription. These features help streamline the whole process and maximize efficiency.
Fits Into Existing Equipment: You don’t need to purchase additional hardware with VoIP. The DID software integrates with existing equipment, so you can start immediately without extra expenses.
Flexible Software Solutions: When you combine the power of VoIP, DID, and SIP trunking with smartphone functionalities, you get a flexible and highly customizable software solution that fits any budget.

Improving the customer experience in any way—including easy call routing—comes with a wealth of other benefits as well, including increased customer satisfaction, improved brand loyalty, and higher retention rates.

Getting Set Up With Direct Inward Dialing

Now that you know the basics of direct inward dialing, it’s time to start setting up your own system. From choosing the right provider to selecting the right features, a lot of preparation is involved.

To make things easier, follow these steps:

Decide between VoIP and PSTN: The first decision you need to make is what type of technology you’re going to use for your DID system. VoIP is best for most, but if you’re looking for a more secure and reliable option, then go with PSTN.
Choose a DID service provider: Your next step is to pick out the right DID service provider. Research different providers and compare services, features, pricing plans, and customer support before deciding. Our guide to VoIP providers includes a comprehensive overview of the best DID providers.
Select Your Features: Once you’ve chosen a DID provider, it’s time to choose the features you need. Think about the type of calls you get and how many lines you need for your business. You can also opt for additional features such as voicemail transcription, automated attendants, and call forwarding.
Set Up Your System: After you choose a DID service, you’ll need to set it up. If you choose a VoIP provider, this process will be fairly straightforward. They might even handle the setup and onboarding for you.
Test Your System: Once everything is set up, testing your system is essential. Make sure all the features are working properly, and that calls are routed correctly. This will help ensure a smooth customer experience when you go live.

If you run into any problems along the way, reach out to your DID provider for help. They can usually provide helpful advice and walk you through the setup process.

Final Thoughts About Direct Inward Dialing

Direct inward dialing is an excellent solution if you want to provide a more efficient and cost-effective way of handling customer calls. It offers automated call routing, advanced features, and cost savings that can help you reduce operational costs without compromising quality.

To get started with DID, follow our step-by-step guide and choose the right provider for your business. Then, you can set up your system and start enjoying the benefits of an advanced call routing solution.

Want to know more about VoIP? Check out our guides on optimizing your VoIP network and conducting a VoIP speed test for more information.

February 2, 2023March 1, 2023

HelloFax Review

Faxing seems outdated to most people, but many businesses still rely on online faxing even today. Online fax services help receive and send crucial communications from anywhere, allowing users to retrieve old faxes with a simple search.

HelloFax provides an easy, reliable, and seamless online faxing experience. It is an ideal solution for small businesses with cloud storage needs. HelloFax is one of our top recommendations for online fax services. Read on to find out why.

HelloFax Compared

HelloFax did make it to our top list of the best fax services. While it is an excellent option to consider, the best online fax service for the majority of our readers is RingCentral Fax because it is easy to set up and simple to use. Try its Fax 1500 Package for free to make an informed decision for your business.

RingCentral Fax — Best overall
eFax — The most popular online fax service
Ooma — Best online fax and phone service bundle
MetroFax — A best mobile app for online faxing
Nextiva — Best standalone online fax service
iFax — Best enterprise fax solution
FAX.PLUS — Best for offices that fax occasionally
MyFax — Best online fax service for personal use
HelloFax — Best for small teams and cloud storage integration
FaxZero — Best for faxing a few pages
Sfax — Best HIPAA-compliant online fax service
Biscom 123 — Best email-to-fax service

For more info, read our in-depth analysis of these platforms.

About HelloFax

HelloFax offers exceptional fax services to businesses in various industries. It has a smooth and easy-to-follow user interface that even beginners can intuitively use. The unique feature that helps it stand out among the other online fax services available in the market is the cloud storage integration feature. Additionally, its teamwork feature makes it especially ideal for small business owners.

The service works really well with OneDrive, Box, Google Drive, and Evernote. It offers users seamless access to files irrespective of where they are.

Moreover, it has a built-in editor that makes dealing with extensions or attachments easier. The Free Plan, with five fax pages, several integrations, international coverage, and secure cloud storage, is beneficial for small businesses with limited faxing needs looking for an affordable solution. It offers a few paid plans starting at $8 per month.

HelloFax Health and Stability

Even though HelloFax was created recently and is one of the newest companies to enter the online fax market, it has made its mark and stacks up really well against its competitors. It was founded in 2010 by Joseph Walla and was launched inside of Y Combinator but received special attention after investment from Google Ventures. The modern design of its website and the backing of Google has made HelloFax a popular and go-to company in the online fax industry.

Another unique feature of HelloFax that helped it gain significant visibility in a short span of time is the electronic signature process. To expand its e-signature services, HelloFax launched a sister company called HelloSign.

Previously, it claimed to be HIPAA compliant. However, in 2013 it took the claim off of its benefits pages. So, it’s unclear whether it now complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Since the launch of HelloFax, its user base has continued to grow and is predicted to grow even further. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that HelloFax is here to stay for a long time as a unique online fax service.

HelloFax Pricing

HelloFax has various pricing plans, each offering slightly different features. Unlike other online fax service providers, HelloFax groups ‘sent’ and ‘received’ faxes count together in the monthly allowance. Many users believe it is better than counting the sent and received faxes separately in a month.

HelloFax provides various payment plans, each with a different number of fax pages per month. All paid plans come with a 30-day free trial and discounted rates for annual contracts. Moreover, all its plans also offer several integrations, international coverage, secure cloud storage, and the freedom to edit and sign faxes. Each paid plan provides an additional feature at a slightly higher cost.

Contact its sales team and learn about additional plans and features before making your final decision.

HelloFax Pricing Structure

For HelloFax, the pricing of each plan depends upon the number of features or services offered in each package. The company also has regular limited-time offers and discounts, so keep an eye out for them. Some primary services provided in all the plans include integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft Word. Not to mention, users can also edit and sign specific faxes and get cloud storage and security.

Each pricing plan has a different fee based on the number of fax pages and the number of senders. Moreover, each progressive plan offers a few additional advanced features. Users also offered a free trial of each package before making a paid commitment.

The three paid plans offered by HelloFax include:

Home Office Plan costing $9 per month
Professional Plan costing $19 a month
Small Business Plan costing $39 per month

HelloFax gives a slight discount to users billed annually. If the featured services don’t fulfill the requirements of your business, you can always request a custom plan with additional benefits at a slightly higher cost. The final price quote depends on the number of services you request. Overall, each service can provide more value to your business. You may request a discount for a bundle of services.

HelloFax also offers a Free Plan, but it is a limited plan and is only beneficial for users planning to send a five-page, one-time fax. You’ll need to invest in a Home Office Plan to access greater fax capacity and some advanced features.

HelloFax Pricing Comparison

HelloFax offers many services to its clients, individuals or small businesses. However, its pricing plan is mid-tier, and other fax services offer similar features at a lower price or provide more features at a similar cost.

For example, Nextiva is regarded as the best stand-alone online fax service provider. Its most basic Essentials Plan costs only $10 per month on an annual payment and provides 550 fax pages.

Almost all fax service providers offer a discounted rate on annual payments, and the discount percentage varies from platform to platform. For example, eFax and MetroFax provide a 17% discount on yearly costs for a plan.

FAX.PLUS has one of the most affordable Basic Plans, costing only $6.99 a month and providing 200 monthly fax pages and unlimited secure fax storage. MyFax offers 100 fax pages per month for $10, and it provides unlimited lifetime fax storage and 24/7 dedicated customer support.

Every service has a unique and specifically designed plan for its users. There is a considerable variation in the prices of different subscription plans offered by various services. The features provided in the Basic Plan of one platform are often different from the features offered by another platform’s Basic Plan. Therefore, the price also varies based on the number of services or features being offered.

HelloFax Trials and Guarantees

HelloFax is a strong platform with various integrations and cloud storage options. It has an easy-to-use interface that helps send occasional faxes without any problem. Many businesses trust HelloFax to fulfill their faxing needs, proving that several businesses still actively utilize fax for communication.

HelloFax offers secure cloud storage and electronic signature in its Free Plan. It gives users the space to get the hang of the platform and helps them decide whether they want to continue using it.

The company also runs different limited-time discount offers throughout the year. So, keep checking to get a higher discount for trying out their paid plans. Moreover, you can contact the customer support service to understand the purpose and benefits of provided services.

Get started today with a free trial.

HelloFax Online Fax Service Review

There are several better online fax service providers present in the market today. However, HelloFax is only fractionally behind them in terms of services, which it compensates for by offering a Free Plan, a one-of-a-kind electronic signature, and many other advanced features and services.

Our research also suggests that HelloFax is ideal for small teams and businesses. Enterprises can manage teams of users, convert their existing fax numbers, and utilize robust integration with cloud storage services like Dropbox, OneDrive, and similar services. To see how HelloFax’s online fax services stack up against some of its top competitors, read our comparison of the best online fax services.

What Makes HelloFax Online Fax Service Great

Screenshot from HelloFax webpage with header that says "Faxing, evolved" and descriptions of the following features: Confidential and secure, Customizable, Paperless, Access from anywhere — HelloFax provides top-notch security by ensuring your fax transmissions are encrypted and confidential.

Strong security: Technological advancement and hacking has increased the importance of software security more than ever. HelloFax fulfills this demand and provides top-notch security. It offers 256-bit AES encryption on its platform servers.

Moreover, HelloFax doesn’t collect user data; even if it collects limited information, it doesn’t store it. It also doesn’t store the contents of the fax. It offers transport layer security that secures faxes in transit and allows users to contact customer service anytime to delete all stored data.

User-friendly interface: HelloFax has a simple and easy user interface. Its login displays a simple menu with various options allowing you to see your fax history. It also enables you to invite additional users and create a team from the dashboard in a few clicks.

Cloud storage integration: This unique feature is rarely offered by other fax services. It allows integration with cloud storage services, including Evernote, Google Drive, and DropBox. Moreover, its add-on for Google Docs makes sending a fax from within a document easier.

Where HelloFax Online Fax Service Falls Short

Screenshot from HelloFax webpage with header that says "Send and receive faxes online" with a box showing how you can add a recipient to your faxes — HelloFax’s intuitive interface makes it easy to start sending faxes today.

Limited customer service: HelloFax offers customer support over email but only during specific hours. The company’s website has excellent video guides to help users deal with any problems. However, these resources don’t compensate for the lack of phone and live chat support.

No mobile app: HelloFax doesn’t have a mobile app for either iOS or Android, and most of its competitors have an app that lets users edit, sign, send, or simply view faxes on the go. Keeping modern user expectations, a mobile app is a crucial functionality, and the lack of one can significantly reduce the usability of a company’s services.

Lack of cover sheet customization: The fax cover sheet is a sheet of paper attached to a fax document for sharing confidential information. This sheet is used for professional purposes and mostly contains the user name, fax number, and a few other details. HelloFax doesn’t allow users to customize or edit these sheets, which is a drawback.

HelloFax Online Fax Service Compared

While HelloFax is an excellent option, the best online fax service provider for most of our readers is RingCentral Fax because it’s easy to set up, affordable, and simple to use. Moreover, it offers the feature to schedule faxes and allows users to send faxes from all types of devices.

RingCentral Fax — Best overall
eFax — The most popular online fax service
Ooma — Best online fax and phone service bundle
MetroFax — A best mobile app for online faxing
Nextiva — Best standalone online fax service
iFax — Best enterprise fax solution
FAX.PLUS — Best for offices that fax occasionally
MyFax — Best online fax service for personal use
HelloFax — Best for small teams and cloud storage integration
FaxZero — Best for faxing a few pages
Sfax — Best HIPAA-compliant online fax service
Biscom 123 — Best email-to-fax service

Final Verdict

Fax continues to be an important communication tool for many businesses today. Online fax service providers offer businesses a more convenient alternative to traditional fax machines. These services allow users to send faxes from phones, desktops, and tablets. There is an ideal fax service for the specific needs of each type of business.

HelloFax has been in the market for a relatively short time but has shown exceptional performance and potential for growth. It stands out from the crowd because of its unique features, user-friendly interface, robust security, and cloud storage integration. Therefore, HelloFax is here to stay for a long time.

January 27, 2023

9 Best Google Optimize Alternatives (Free and Paid)

Recently one of our readers asked us for our suggestion on the best Google Optimize alternative?

Google Optimize is a tool that lets you conduct experiments on your website. However, Google recently announced that the Optimize tool will be sunset in September 2023, and your experiments will stop after this date.

This has left many business owners and marketers scrambling to quickly find a Google Optimize alternative for their A/B testing needs.

In this article, we will share the best Google Optimize alternatives, so you can choose the solution that works for your needs. We will also share what we’re going to be switching to as well.

What is Google Optimize and Why Use an Alternative?

Google Optimize is a free tool by Google that allows you to split test pages on your WordPress website and improve user experience.

You can set up conversion experiments using the tool and see if making changes to a landing page increases conversions. For example, you can A/B split-test two versions of a sales page, use different headlines, or change the color of the call to action (CTA) buttons to see which one works the best.

However, Google announced that they will sunset Google Optimize on September 30, 2023. After this date, the tool will no longer be available, and all your experiments and personalizations will end on that date. Besides that, you won’t be able to access data after the sunset date.

You can use a Google Optimize alternative to continue experimenting and testing your site. There are many tools in the market that let you conduct A/B tests with ease, require no coding to set up, and offer powerful features.

Let’s look at the best Google Optimize alternatives especially the ones that works seamlessly with WordPress websites, but several of these Google Optimize competitors will work on all website platforms.

1. Thrive Optimize

Thrive Optimize is the best Google Optimize alternative for WordPress that is super easy to use. It is part of the Thrive Theme suite, which includes an ecosystem of WordPress plugins focused on boosting conversions on your site.

With Thrive Optimize, you can conduct experiments and A/B test landing pages without editing code. Unlike Google Optimize, the plugin is beginner friendly, as there is no need to add code snippets to your site.

You can get started in no time. Simply create a landing page using the visual builder and then create a variant. After that, pick a conversion goal, which includes page visits, opt-in form submissions, and revenue. Once that’s done, go ahead and run the test.

Thrive Optimize Visual Split Testing for WordPress

The best part is that you don’t have to switch between tabs or windows to view the results of your experiments. If you’re using Google Optimize, then you’d have to jump back and forth between tabs to see the results.

Instead, Thrive Optimize shows a report inside your WordPress dashboard. You can quickly view which variant is converting the best. Besides that, you can create as many variations of a landing page for testing as you want. The plugin also picks a winner and shows the best variant.

Pricing: Thrive Optimize is part of the Thrive Themes suite which costs $299 per year and includes 9 other powerful conversion tools. You can also purchase Thrive Optimize bundle for $199 / year.

2. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best WordPress popup plugin and lead generation software in the market. You can create campaigns like floating bars, welcome screen mats, and popups to grow your email list, increase conversions, and get more leads.

OptinMonster offers an A/B testing tool that lets you test different popup and modal campaigns. It makes a great Google Optimize alternative because it’s very easy to use. You can customize and create different variants using the drag-and-drop campaign builder.

Once you’ve created a split test, OptinMonster will randomly show the variations to your visitors and pick a clear winner. You can then see in-depth stats about conversions inside your WordPress dashboard and find out which campaign performs the best.

Pricing: You will need the OptinMonster Plus or higher plan to use the A/B testing feature, with prices starting from $19 per month.

3. VWO Testing

VWO Testing is a popular A/B testing tool and a great alternative to Google Optimize. You get more features than Google Optimize, as it allows you to run multiple experiments on your website, products, apps, and server side.

It comes with a visual builder to change different elements on your webpage, like text, images, shapes, backgrounds, and more. After making the changes, you can run split tests and see which variant performs the best.

VWO Testing offers an AI-power copywriting tool. This way, you can automatically select different headlines, CTA copies, and product descriptions to test.

It also lets you run tests based on user segments and behavior. For instance, you can select a target audience based on time spent on a page, scroll depth, exit intent, and when someone clicks on elements.

Pricing: VWO offers a free plan that you can use for up to 50 thousand users per month. If you have more users, then you can upgrade to their premium plans.

4. FunnelKit

FunnelKit, formerly known as WooFunnels, is the best WordPress and WooCommerce sales funnel plugin. You can use the plugin to create funnels to generate leads, offer seamless checkouts, 1-click upsells, and more.

FunnelKit is another Google Optimize alternative that comes with an A/B testing feature specially for WooCommerce. You can split-test your product prices, page layouts, messages, designs, and funnels without editing code.

The plugin is beginner friendly and helps you set up experiments within minutes. You can test headings, images, prices, product descriptions, and every other component on a page. FunnelKit also helps declare a winner once there’s enough data to see which funnel converts the best.

Besides that, FunnelKit also offers other features. For example, it offers FunnelKit Automation which allows you to set up automated emails and SMS campaigns.

Pricing: FunnelKit offers multiple pricing plans. To use the A/B Testing feature, you’ll need the Plus plan. It will cost you $179.5 per year.

5. Convert.com

Convert.com is a proven A/B testing tool to help you boost conversions. It provides fast & flicker free A/B testing experience and is known for their speed.

They are a perfect Google Optimize alternative because it gives you access to all the features you’re accustomed to with Google Optimize and then some more.

Convert also let you seamlessly integrate your tests with Google Analytics as well as other tools like Hotjar, Heap, Segment, HubSpot, and more.

Their onboarding is a bit slow, but once you’re up and running, you can create unlimited tests and quickly deploy changes.

Pricing: Convert.com prices start from $99 per month, and you get a 14-day free trial.

6. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is a popular heatmap tool in the market. You can use heatmaps to see how users behave on your website, where they click, and how they move the mouse cursor and scroll through pages.

Crazy Egg offers an A/B testing tool that you can use to run experiments on your website and boost conversions. What makes it a great Google Optimize alternative is the features it offers along with A/B testing.

You get heatmaps, recordings of visitors using your website, error tracking, surveys, and traffic analytics. Plus, you can configure it without editing code, which isn’t possible if you’re Google Optimize.

Crazy Egg offers a multivariate engine where all you need to do is choose the elements you want to test and add your ideas. The engine then does the heavy lifting and conducts the test for you.

The best part is that it is easily integrated with website builders, including WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and more.

Pricing: Crazy Egg offers different pricing plans starting from $29 per month. You get unlimited A/B tests in each pricing plan, and there is also a 30-day free trial to get started.

7. Adobe Target

Adobe Target is an enterprise-level solution to run split tests on their website and is part of Adobe Marketing Cloud. It is more powerful than Google Optimize and offers an omnichannel approach to the A/B test.

What this means is that instead of running isolated experiments, Adobe Target lets you run tests on every channel. This way, you get to see how users behave with different variants coming from other channels, like social media, organic traffic, paid search, and more.

The software is easy to use and set up. Plus, its AI-powered automation helps you test multiple experiences and then personalize them for each visitor.

On the downside, Adobe Analytics is only available for users that have Adobe Analytics. If you’re looking for a complete marketing solution with an A/B testing feature, then you can use Thrive Optimize instead.

Pricing: You will need to request a quote and get Adobe Target pricing according to your business needs.

8. Optimizely

Optimizely is one of the most popular Google Optimize alternatives in the market. Their digital experience platform allows you to create every kind of A/B testing experiment for your website.

You can use their visual editor along with advanced targeting features to optimize your A/B testing campaigns. Optimizely works on all website platforms and is a platform of choice by many large brands.

We have used Optimizely in the past when they had a free plan, and it’s an extremely powerful tool for what it does, however the prices are no longer small business friendly.

Pricing: Optimizely does not reveal it’s prices anymore and require that you submit a form to request a quote.

9. Kameleoon

Kameleoon is the next Google Optimize alternative on our list. It offers powerful solutions and lets you conduct different types of experiments.

For starters, you can run web experiments and A/B test your website and mobile apps. You can assign a business goal to your tests and see which variant is increasing conversions, retention, or engagement.

Kameleoon also offers A/B testing features to advanced users and developers. You can run server-side experiments to improve your product. It easily works in different development languages and frameworks, like PHP, Java, Ruby, Flutter, and more.

Besides that, it offers AI-power personalization. You can provide unique experiences to each visitor, target different segments for testing, and comply with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA.

Pricing: You will need to request a demo and get a quote for Kameleoon pricing.

Which is the Best Google Optimize Alternative (Expert Pick)

The best Google Optimize alternatives are Thrive Optimize, VWO Testing, and FunnelKit.

If you’re looking for a WordPress A/B testing tool, then Thrive Optimize is our first pick. It gives you all the powerful features, and it’s very affordable. Since it’s part of the Thrive Suite, you also get other solutions like a quiz builder, popup form builder, WordPress page builder, and more.

If you’re looking for an all-around SaaS alternative for Google Optimize that works on all platforms, then we recommend using VWO Testing. They have a generous free plan that should work for most small business owners.

And if you are an eCommerce store owner looking for the best Google Optimize alternative for WooCommerce, then we recommend using FunnelKit. They have deep integration with WooCommerce and allow you to customize every step of the funnel including adding custom 1-click upsells, order bumps, and more to help boost your average order value.

We hope this article helped you find the best Google Optimize alternative. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your SEO ranking, and see our comparison of the best push notification software with A/B testing features to boost your traffic.

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 9 Best Google Optimize Alternatives (Free and Paid) first appeared on WPBeginner.

January 26, 2023

TextMarks Review

Although email marketing is thriving, SMS marketing has swiftly become just about as popular. TextMarks provides a simple way to send out mass text messages to generate leads, share information, or offer promotions to customers.

TextMarks assists various industries with its easy-to-use mass text marketing tool, including nonprofits, education, and healthcare. Depending on your plan, you can send unlimited messages with as many custom keywords as needed per month.

TextMarks Compared

TextMarks did not make our top list of the best business text messaging services. SimpleTexting is our top suggestion for most businesses because of its versatility, allowing for everything from mass marketing to two-way texting. Try SimpleTexting free for 14 days.

SimpleTexting – Best texting service for marketing and sales
Textedly – Best for bulk texting
OpenPhone – Best for unlimited calling and texting
Podium – Best for text-to-pay
Sendinblue – Best for texting combined with email services

Learn more about our picks for the best business text messaging services.

About TextMarks

TextMarks is a text messaging marketing platform prioritizing mass SMS communications. It also lets businesses create text campaigns for customers to text for more information or text keywords to garner a specific SMS action from your business.

TextMarks Business Text Messaging Service Review

TextMarks’ offerings are suited for businesses in a wide range of industries, like real estate or event planning. Whether you want to enhance customer communications or build a solid lead generation system, TextMarks software could bridge the gap between your business and your audience.

TextMarks Health and Stability

TextMarks Inc. is a California-based company founded in 2007. It’s holding firm in the business texting market 15 years later, although its website still appears to be that old. Still, appearances aside, TextMarks earns over $206,000 of revenue per employee, with an impressive $6.5 million of annual revenue, according to Kona Equity data.

The company’s downfall is that it lacks the transparency today’s customers rely on to make sound business decisions. There’s virtually no information about TextMarks as a company on its website, including who’s behind it and how it came to be, which differs significantly from competitors like SimpleTexting and Textedly.

Still, TextMarks’ overwhelmingly positive customer reviews and solid revenue data lead us to believe that its immediate future still looks promising. However, we aren’t 100% confident that longevity will be on its side as similar services edge ahead in transparency and modernity.

TextMarks Pricing

One thing you may notice right away about TextMarks’ pricing is that it’s significantly more expensive than other services. However, it’s also designed for high-volume texting, so you won’t find more affordable options for modest business texting needs.

Get free setup for your TextMarks plan when you buy an annual subscription.

TextMarks Pricing Structure

TextMarks offers two prepackaged plans and one custom plan. The prepackaged plans will likely include what most businesses need, like lead captures, mass texting, and SMS marketing. The primary differences between the tiers include the number of texts and keywords allowed, customized SMS flows, premium support, and custom reporting.

Prepackaged plans cost $549 per month for 35,000 messages and 20 custom keywords or $1,099 per month for 100,000 messages and 30 custom keywords. Large businesses might opt for a custom plan if they want dedicated support and onboarding to set up their accounts and access to unlimited messages and custom keywords.

Plans also require a $199 setup fee before activating.

Subscribers can also contact the support team if they need to purchase additional message credits or custom keywords at any time.

TextMarks Pricing Comparison

At a minimum, TextMarks charges $549 per month, and this pricing is likely out-of-budget for many small to mid-sized companies. Other services fit better into more modest budgets, like Textedly, with its lowest-tier paid plan costing just $24 per month when billed annually.

Of course, this Textedly plan includes only 1,200 messages compared with TextMarks’ 35,000, making it best for smaller companies with intimate customer bases. Still, a Textedly plan with 30,000 messages is close to $200 less than TextMarks at $350 per month, billed annually.

Alternatively, Sendinblue has a pay-as-you-go approach that might suit some companies better. A plan gets you 1,000 text credits free per month, but you can pay for up to 10,000 more for as little as $109. These credits roll over month-by-month without expiring.

TextMarks Trials and Guarantees

TextMarks does not currently offer a free plan or free trial to test the system before buying. However, you can request a demo by contacting the support team.

Waive the $199 setup fee when you subscribe to an annual TextMarks contract.

TextMarks Business Text Messaging Service Review

TextMarks gives businesses plenty of ways to get information into customers’ hands through convenient texting. Instant text responses and text-for-information campaigns can help you build a solid text marketing strategy to connect with customers.

TextMarks could be a good fit for businesses with mass text marketing needs, but smaller businesses may find it too costly. Read our review of the best business text messaging services to see how TextMarks compares.

What Makes TextMarks Business Text Messaging Service Great

TextMarks SMS API lets businesses send outgoing and receive incoming text messages from customers through a speedy connection.

Relatively smooth learning curve: TextMarks is a simple system to set up and navigate, whether you use its cloud-based platform or set up your own API. The documentation included with your subscription is easy to follow, and customer support is readily available and responsive for extra assistance if needed.
Customer segmentation: TextMarks allows list segmentation so that you can target specific customer groups when needed. For example, you might want to track two different marketing campaigns using two keywords to evaluate their performances for optimization purposes. Segment your customers into two lists based on who signed up with each keyword to track your text marketing with those campaigns.
Helpful customer service: A common theme in TextMarks reviews is the excellent customer support users receive when they need help setting up or using their service. This includes thorough explanations and walk-throughs to navigate the system if needed. TextMarks is available through multiple contact methods, too, including phone, mail, email, and social media.
Works with virtually any industry: Businesses that use TextMarks are in various industries, from food and beverage to senior living, proving that virtually any business can benefit from using the service to connect with their customers. According to TextMarks, internal and external communications, construction, manufacturing, and healthcare are among the top industries that use the service.
Scheduled texts: Schedule texts ahead of time to send when you need them to send automatically. With this feature, you can easily plan out your mass text marketing campaigns days or weeks in advance to prepare for upcoming events and promotions you want your subscribers to know about.
Options for unlimited messaging: Even with the lowest TextMarks tier, subscribers can get up to 35,000 texts and 20 custom keywords per month. However, unlimited texts are available with a custom enterprise plan, differing from other services that cap you at a maximum number of texts each month.
Lead generation: Businesses can use TextMarks to gather customer information for lead generation purposes through simple texting with keywords. For example, you can advertise something like, “Text ‘INFO’ to 12121 to learn more” on your business card or billboard. When someone texts this keyword to the number, an automated response can ask for additional information to capture customer data. Or, send a link via text to prompt the person to fill out a form.
Automatic responses: Set automatic responders with the TextMarks auto-responder feature. When someone texts you with a specific keyword, the auto-responder sends your premade message to the texter in response to that keyword. This feature saves your team from having to personally respond to texts that the system can handle.
Mass texting: Whether you want to send a mass promotional text to customers or alert your team of company news or events, TextMarks’ mass texting system makes it happen. The feature allows you to send texts to a whole group or single out specific people from that group, ensuring that you only send texts to the right people. When recipients respond, they can respond only to you rather than the whole group, depending on your mass texting settings.

Where TextMarks Business Text Messaging Service Falls Short

TextMarks mass text messaging — TextMarks helps businesses create massive text campaigns to better support their customers and marketing.

Lacks built-in integrations: TextMarks customers can build their own API using the TextMarks platform to integrate other third-party apps and tools. However, TextMarks doesn’t include many integrations on its own. To truly customize your TextMarks experience, you’ll need to have a developer on your team who knows how to customize the SMS API to your company’s requirements.
No online ordering: To start using TextMarks, you must contact the sales team by emailing or calling. Currently, there’s no way to order the package you want online on your own, which could be a turn-off for company owners who know what they want and don’t want to waste time speaking with sales representatives. Also, if you run out of monthly texting credits or shortcodes and want to add some to your plan, there’s no way to do so via your online dashboard. Again, you’ll need to contact sales.
Not best for small businesses: Small businesses can find much more modest texting packages elsewhere than with TextMarks. This company is designed for massive texting needs, with its smallest subscription package including 35,000 messages. In contrast, alternatives allow for as little as 500 messages per month.
Pricey: Because it targets significant texting needs, TextMarks’ packages are much pricier than others, with a minimum subscription of $549 per month. When compared to other services with a similar number of texts, the cost is still more than average.
Outdated website: A company’s website doesn’t necessarily have an impact on how its service works. However, TextMarks largely misses the mark on having a modern, user-friendly website that’s appealing to customers. It lacks the transparency that a lot of other companies have, including skipping out on information about the company and pricing details that could help business owners decide whether it’s the right choice for them.

TextMarks Business Text Messaging Service Compared

SimpleTexting is our top suggestion for a business text messaging service for most businesses because of its simple interface that facilitates quick and convenient customer support and connections.

SimpleTexting – Best texting service for marketing and sales
Textedly – Best for bulk texting
OpenPhone – Best for unlimited calling and texting
Podium – Best for text-to-pay
Sendinblue – Best for texting combined with email services

Final Verdict

TextMarks could be a possible solution for large businesses with high-demand SMS marketing and communication needs. With plans that support unlimited messages, subscribers, and keywords, you don’t need to feel limited in your marketing efforts.

With that said, expect to pay for the service. TextMarks is pricier than other options, like SimpleTexting, which offers similar features and texting packages for more affordable pricing.

January 26, 2023

EZ Texting Review

EZ Texting is a business text messaging service for many industries, from construction and home services to government and real estate. With its marketing, customer service, and HR solutions, you can use EZ Texting to increase workflow across every area of your business and ensure a high ROI.

EZ Texting also has extensive text messaging tools, templates, and contact management, so you can segment your contacts and make automation a breeze.

EZ Texting Compared

EZ Texting did not make our top list of the best business text messaging services, though it is still a solid option. SimpleTexting is the most versatile on the list, as it can be used for sales, marketing, mass messaging, and one-on-one texting. Try it free for 14 days.

SimpleTexting – Best texting service for marketing and sales
Textedly – Best for bulk texting
OpenPhone – Best for unlimited calling and texting
Podium – Best for text-to-pay
Sendinblue – Best for texting combined with email services

About EZ Texting

EZ Texting offers comprehensive solutions for business text messaging services in various industries. EZ Texting’s features make it easier to manage contacts and drive engagement.

EZ Texting’s comprehensive suite of products includes text messaging, contact management, templates and design tools, analytics and reporting, text campaigns, and list growth tools.

EZ Texting Health and Stability

EZ Texting was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in California as a privately traded company. EZ Texting has five investors, with one lead investor being CIBC Innovation Banking, which has raised $51 million across four funding rounds.

As of 2022, EZ Texting employs 100-250 people across the United States. With a 3-star rating on Glassdoor, it seems that EZ Texting has been a consistently good place to work, with excellent leadership in every location.

EZ Texting Pricing

EZ Texting currently offers four different pricing tiers for its text messaging services. Each tier increases in price depending on the number of users, keywords, and textable numbers you want.

EZ Texting Pricing Structure

EZ Texting has a simple pricing structure across its services, with a per month per message credits foundation. Because EZ Texting is primarily a business messaging service, you will have to pay more for additional message credits.

EZ Texting Pricing Comparison

EZ Texting’s pricing packages are decently priced, starting at $20 per month for 200 message credits and increasing depending on the number of credits, users, keywords, and textable numbers you need. For 200 credits across the board, you can get EZ Texting for $20, $29, $49, or $299 per month, with additional functionalities as the pricing increases. With EZ Texting’s $299 tier, you get a custom and an unlimited number of keywords and managed accounts.

Compared to other business text messaging services, Ez Texting offers you less functionality for a higher price. For example, SimpleTexting starts at $29 per month for 500 credits, giving you an extra 300 credits for $9. On the other hand, OpenPhone services start at a low $13 per user per month, with unlimited calling and messaging capabilities.

And you can even find lower pricing with Sendinblue’s free plan, which comes with unlimited contacts, 300 emails per day, and SMS campaigns.

EZ Texting Trials and Guarantees

EZ Texting offers a free trial for its Essentials plan, which starts at $29 per month, with no credit card required. Every EZ Texting user is also guaranteed free two-way texting on all plans.

EZ Texting Best Business Text Messaging Services Review

EZ Texting stands out because of the number of areas it covers as a text messaging service. You could benefit from EZ Texting if you are looking for bulk texting features that increase automation and make it easier to communicate via SMS.

What Makes EZ Texting Business Text Messaging Services Great

EZ Texting interface and a list of features — EZ Texting makes it easier to drive engagement and increase your email open rates.

Text messaging tools: EZ Texting offers a powerful suite of messaging tools that can completely transform your business communication. Not only do you get access to the usual SMS and MMS picture texts, but EZ Texting takes it a step further with group texting, two-way texting, safeSTOP opt-out, and text forwarding. With these features, you can create communication lines with business teams, receive inbound messages, text one-on-one in one inbox, eliminate compliance risk, and easily forward texts for the ultimate convenience.
Extensive text campaigns: Creating a successful text campaign is a simple way to engage with your audience, and with EZ Texting, it has never been easier. EZ Texting allows you to determine which campaign strategy is right for your business through several options, including text automation, text scheduling, reminder campaigns, recurring texts, and drip campaigns. Whether you need to promote a product or service, send periodic reminders, or send general information requests, EZ Texting can help you easily nurture those leads.
Contact management: With EZ Texting, you can import, customize, and segment your contacts list for easy customization and personalization. EZ Texting utilizes a CSV template to make it simple for you to upload contacts quickly, and with thousands of free integrations, you can also sync your contacts from popular apps instead. Not only can you import contacts, but you can manage them too, with EZ Texting’s unlimited contacts and custom fields feature. With groups and segments, you can create targeted notifications and minimize opt-outs by reducing unnecessary contacts.
Analytics and reporting: With text campaigning comes campaign monitoring, and what better way to monitor your campaigns than with EZ Texting’s intuitive analytics and reporting dashboard? With EZ Texting’s analytics and reporting feature, you can optimize SMS strategies, view contact-level activity, and track contact behavior through source data and web traffic. You also get access to a link shortener with tracking, so you can shorten text links and track them more efficiently to view how often visitors click on them.
SMS solutions: EZ Texting offers some of the broadest SMS solutions on the market today for industries of all kinds. For example, EZ Texting has solutions for marketing and sales, customer service, and employee operations—making it easier for you to either promote sales and drive traffic, confirm orders and deliveries, or recruit new hires and streamline onboarding. In fact, EZ Texting covers more than 20 different industries, so you can find a solution that suits your business needs.

Where EZ Texting Business Text Messaging Services Falls Short

EZ Texting free mobile app features, including review delivery reports, simplify B2C conversations, and add contacts from anywhere — EZ Texting offers a free mobile app for more convenient business messaging.

Poor customer service: The bulk of EZ Texting’s poor user reviews involved its customer service team. Many reviewers claimed that the email and live chat representatives took a long time to respond to queries—if they responded at all.
Pricing structure: Many reviewers felt that EZ Texting’s pricing structure was too expensive and complicated. Many small business owners, in particular, felt that EZ Texting’s pricing structure became too expensive for them as their message credits accumulated over time.
Lackluster mobile app: While it’s excellent that EZ Texting offers a free mobile app, many users aren’t happy with its service. For example, a few reviewers have said that the app forces you to use up all your credits, meaning you will have to pay for more credits in the long run. Other reviewers experienced errors with the app, to the point where they could no longer receive texts or calls.

EZ Texting Business Text Messaging Services Compared

While EZ Texting provides extensive text campaigns, contact management solutions, and reporting tools, the best business text messaging service company is SimpleTexting because of its flexible marketing and sales features.

SimpleTexting – Best texting service for marketing and sales
Textedly – Best for bulk texting
OpenPhone – Best for unlimited calling and texting
Podium – Best for text-to-pay
Sendinblue – Best for texting combined with email services

Final Verdict

EZ Texting is a decent business text messaging service that offers a range of solutions for various industries. With extensive text messaging tools, campaign options, and reporting features, you can transform the way your business communicates both internally and externally.

With more than 17 years in the industry and $50 million in funding, it’s safe to say that EZ Texting is a reliable company that aims to provide businesses with a seamless way to communicate via SMS.

January 23, 2023March 1, 2023

SRFax Review

It’s a common notion that faxing has become obsolete. However, many businesses still rely on online faxing even today, in part because faxing takes care of some very specific aspects of business management. Online fax services facilitate receiving and sending crucial faxes from anywhere and can help retrieve old faxes with just a simple search.

SRFax provides a smooth, secure, and HIPAA-compliant online faxing experience, ideal for healthcare providers. While it’s not in our top recommendations for online fax services, SRFax offers plenty and can be the right fit for several organizations. Read on to find out why.

SRFax Compared

Even though SRFax is an excellent option to consider, it did not make it to our top list of the best fax services. The best online fax service for most of our readers is RingCentral Fax because it’s easy to set up and has a user-friendly interface. Try its Fax 1500 Package for free to make an informed decision for your business.

RingCentral Fax — Best overall
eFax — The most popular online fax service
Ooma — Best online fax and phone service bundle
MetroFax — A best mobile app for online faxing
Nextiva — Best standalone online fax service
iFax — Best enterprise fax solution
FAX.PLUS — Best for offices that fax occasionally
MyFax — Best online fax service for personal use
HelloFax — Best for small teams and cloud storage integration
FaxZero — Best for faxing a few pages
Sfax — Best HIPAA-compliant online fax service
Biscom 123 — Best email-to-fax service

You can read the in-depth analysis of these platforms here.

About SRFax

SRFax is an excellent online fax service for many businesses. It is end-to-end encrypted and has a top-notch web interface. It also offers two-factor authentication logins that further increase its security. It is the only online fax service willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement with its users. The BAA is an important document that details the responsibilities of both parties in compliance with legal rules and regulations.

SRFax also integrates with a user’s email account, making sending a fax directly from the email inbox easier. The website is exceptionally well-designed and follows a responsive design principle. All subscription plans offered by SRFax provide unlimited storage, allow scheduling of outgoing faxes, and integration with internet fax API in your application.

With SRFax, users can keep their existing number or get a local number. It also provides one of the best 24/7 customer support, charges no hidden fees or startup fees, and allows you to cancel your plan anytime.

SRFax Health and Stability

SRFax was launched in 2004 in British Columbia, Canada. It was the first platform to introduce email-to-fax service in a rapidly growing SaaS industry. Its selling point was its commitment to providing cyber security. Moreover, the company is also committed to delivering gold-standard customer service to all its users.

After its creation in 2004, SRFax gained considerable attention from businesses of all sizes from different industries and in multiple locations in Canada and the US. Moreover, people working remotely from home or elsewhere also preferred using SRFax. So far, it has thousands of positive reviews from regular clients.

Since SRFax is HIPAA compliant and SSL encrypted, many medical professionals and people working in industries with sensitive information, like law firms, hospitals, and pharmacies, trust its services to communicate sensitive information.

SRFax is suitable for the healthcare industry, small businesses, and large enterprises. Ever since the creation of SRFax, its users have continued to grow and are predicted to grow even further. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that SRFax is here to stay for a long time as a secure online fax service.

SRFax Pricing

SRFax has various pricing plans, and each plan offers some new advanced features. Unlike other online fax service providers, SRFax prioritizes security and encryption above all other features. Therefore, all its plans provide robust application security, hardware safeguards, automated backups, organizational safeguards, and more.

Based on the pricing plan, SRFax provides different fax pages per month. All paid plans allow a trial run before users commit to a plan, and a 15% discount is provided to all users on annual payments.

All paid plans offer unlimited storage, unlimited outbound users, additional fax numbers, and consolidated billing. Each paid plan offers additional fax pages and advanced features at a slightly higher cost.

Apart from the paid plans, you can contact the sales staff to explore more features and get a custom plan made specifically to meet the needs of your business.

SRFax Pricing Structure

The price of each subscription plan offered by SRFax depends upon the number of features or services offered in each package. It also keeps coming up with new limited-time offers and discounts from time to time, so keep an eye out for them. Some of the primary services provided in all the plans include unlimited storage, unlimited outbound users, multiple users with a unique fax number, and consolidated billing.

Each of its pricing plans has a different fee based on the number of fax pages and other features. Moreover, each progressive plan offers a few additional advanced features. Users can also try a free trial of each package before committing to it.

The five standard paid plans offered by HelloFax include:

Basic Plus Plan costs $9.95 per month
Standard Lite Plan costs $12.95 per month
Standard Plan costs $18.95 per month
Standard Plus Plan costs 32.95 per month
Customized Larger Plan has a custom quote based on the features that you avail

It gives a 15% discount to users who are billed annually. If the featured services and features don’t fulfill the requirements of your business, you can always request a custom plan with additional benefits at a higher cost. The final price quote is always based on the number of services you request. Overall, each service provides more value to your business. You can request a discount if you take a bundle of services.

SRFax also offers separate healthcare plans as follows:

Healthcare Lite Plan costs $10.95 a month
Healthcare Basic Plan costs $13.95 a month
Healthcare Basic Plus Plan costs $19.95 a month
Healthcare Standard Plan costs $35.95 a month
Custom Plans has a customized fee per month based on availed services

The healthcare plans are specifically designed to fulfill the faxing needs of physicians, healthcare workers, and medical facilities.

SRFax Pricing Comparison

SRFax offers many services to its clients, be they healthcare facilities or other small businesses. However, some other fax services offer similar features at a lower price or provide more features at a similar cost.

Nextiva is one such example. It is considered the best standalone online fax service provider, and its most basic Essentials Plan provides 550 fax pages at only $10 per month on an annual payment.

Almost all fax service providers offer a discounted rate on annual payments, and each service provider offers a different discount percentage. For example, eFax and MetroFax provide a 17% discount on annual payments for a plan, but SRFax offers a 15% discount on annual payments.

FAX.PLUS offers one of the most affordable basic plans, which costs only $6.99 a month and provides 200 fax pages in addition to some other unique features. MyFax also offers 100 fax pages per month for only $10, but it also provides unlimited lifetime fax storage and 24/7 dedicated customer support.

There is a considerable variation in the prices of different subscription plans offered by various services. Every service has a unique and specifically designed plan for its users. The features offered in one platform’s basic plans often differ from those offered by another platform’s similar-looking plan. Therefore, the price also varies based on the number of services or features being offered.

SRFax Trials and Guarantees

SRFax is a secure platform with various features like a user-friendly interface and optional optical character recognition. Its easy-to-use interface makes it easier for even beginners to send faxes. Many healthcare institutes trust SRFax to fax confidential data securely. Some small businesses actively utilize fax for communication and rely on SRFax to fulfill their needs.

Each SRFax subscription plan offers security, compliance with local data-related laws, and a free trial. Free trials can help users get the hang of the platform and decide whether they want to continue using it. However, it doesn’t offer free trials for its healthcare subscription plans.

The company also runs different limited-time discount offers throughout the year. So, keep checking to get a higher discount if you want to subscribe to a paid plan. Moreover, you can contact the customer support service to understand the purpose and benefits of various services and features being offered.

Get started today to understand how the standard plans of SRFax work.

SRFax Online Fax Service Review

There are several better online fax service providers present in the market today. Those platforms outperform SRFax in different aspects. However, SRFax is only slightly lesser than them in terms of features and quality of service. If you are on the lookout for a fax service that is highly secure and provides excellent client support, consider SRFax.

Our research also suggests that SRFax is ideal for healthcare providers. Healthcare professionals can seamlessly set up their accounts and automate the deletion of fax data after delivery to prevent leaks. To see how SRFax’s online fax services stack up against some of its top competitors, read our comparison of the best online fax services.

What Makes SRFax Online Fax Service Great

SRFax webpage with headline that says "How to Send an Email to Fax" and directions to complete Step 1 of the process — SRFax makes it easy to send a fax using your email account.

Responsive interface: SRFax has a simple, easy-to-use, modern and responsive interface. It has a lighter color scheme, and the website loads quickly even though it reloads whenever a new section is clicked. The menu has five main categories that further open up more sections. It is easily navigable for beginners and is loved by all users. Additionally, it offers two-factor authentication, further strengthening its security—a feature not offered by many other similar platforms.
Multi-step security: With technological advancement, hackers have also become sophisticated, and the importance of cyber security has increased more than ever before. SRFax fulfills this demand and provides top-notch security features, including two-factor authentication and end-to-end encryption on platform servers. Moreover, it allows users to delete faxes right after sending them to protect against data leaks.
Affordable pricing: The pricing tiers offered by SRFax provide good value for the money invested. All plans are fairly priced based on the features and services offered. Many users believe that the services provided by this platform are pretty affordable compared to other online fax service providers.

Where SRFax Online Fax Service Falls Short

SRFax webpage illustrating Steps 2 and 3 for how to send an email to fax — With SRFax, you can quickly send a fax in three simple steps.

No mobile app: Mobile apps for any service are crucial to connect with users on the go. The lack of a mobile app can significantly reduce the usability of an application. SRFax, like a few other fax service providers, doesn’t have a mobile app for iOS or Android. Whereas most of its competitors have an app that allows users to view, sign, edit, and send faxes from anywhere at any time.
Lack of digital signature tools: A significant drawback of SRFax is that it doesn’t allow users to sign documents digitally. Therefore, users often have to print, sign, and then scan the documents just to put a signature on a document. The lack of digital signature tools puts it behind its competitors like HelloFax, which offers this feature.
International faxing fees: SRFax charges an additional fee per page to send a fax to an international destination. For example, sending a fax to someone in Norway will cost you five additional cents per page. Many users find these additional costs unfair and prefer other platforms like FAX.PLUS, which, instead of charging a fee, deducts a specific number of extra pages from the user’s monthly limit.

SRFax Online Fax Service Compared

While SRFax is an excellent option for many businesses, the best online fax service provider for most of our readers is RingCentral Fax because it’s easy to set up, affordable, and simple to use. Moreover, it offers the feature to schedule faxes and allows users to send faxes from all types of devices.

RingCentral Fax — Best overall
eFax — The most popular online fax service
Ooma — Best online fax and phone service bundle
MetroFax — A best mobile app for online faxing
Nextiva — Best standalone online fax service
iFax — Best enterprise fax solution
FAX.PLUS — Best for offices that fax occasionally
MyFax — Best online fax service for personal use
HelloFax — Best for small teams and cloud storage integration
FaxZero — Best for faxing a few pages
Sfax — Best HIPAA-compliant online fax service
Biscom 123 — Best email-to-fax service

Final Verdict

Even today, businesses require an online fax service to send and receive faxes. Online fax service providers offer businesses a more convenient alternative to traditional fax machines. They allow you to send faxes from phones, desktops, and tablets. There is an ideal fax service for every specific need of each type of business.

SRFax has been in the market since 2004 and has provided secure online fax services to several businesses. Its affordable pricing packages, robust security, and responsive interface have helped it stand out among its competitors. Therefore, SRFax is here to stay.

January 19, 2023

Call Center Metrics Starter Guide: Learn the Basics

Want to start giving your customers the best support possible? The best call center software on the market is Nextiva or RingCentral, depending on your needs. Click here to get started for as low as $50 per month.

Call centers are for more than just issue resolution—they’re also used to measure customer satisfaction, agent performance, and other key metrics. And because they play such an integral role in customer service, it’s critical to understand how to measure your call center’s performance.

So how exactly do you measure call center performance? Here’s a quick overview of the key metrics you should track to ensure your team is providing the best support possible.

The 9 Best Call Center Software of 2022

Depending on your needs, these are the nine best call center software solutions. To read in-depth reviews on our whole list, click here.

Nextiva — Best overall (For a limited time, get 25% off, plus a free phone, when you sign up!)
RingCentral — Easiest deployment for SMBs
Cloudtalk — Best call center software for remote teams
8×8 — Best contact center software for enterprise-grade security
Zendesk Talk — Best call center software for support and automated ticketing
Freshdesk Contact Center — Simple contact center software for teams of all sizes
Five9 — Best all-in-one contact center software
CrazyCall — Best call center software for outbound sales
Talkdesk — Best call center software for end-to-end customer experience

What Is Call Center Software, and What Metrics Does It Measure?

Call center software is software used to track, manage, and measure customer support and sales interactions. It can be deployed in-house or remotely, enabling teams to work together and access customer records more quickly.

With call center software, companies can better monitor agent performance and track key customer service metrics like average handle time, first contact resolution rate, customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, and more. It also helps you track big-picture metrics like overall customer satisfaction, issue resolution time, and more.

These metrics can help organizations identify areas for improvement and drive better customer service.

Screenshot of LiveAgent software user dashboard. — Call center software in action.

The Benefits of Measuring Call Center Software Metrics

There are many clear benefits to using call center software. Here are just a few:

Enhanced Customer Service

Customers expect personalization every step of the way. McKinsey research found that 71% of customers expect companies they buy from or do business with to know their preferences and deliver personalized experiences.

Screenshot from McKinsey's website showing data for the importance of personalization. — McKinsey research shows how important personalization is in a business’s customer service strategy.

While there are a few ways to do this, call center software fits into the picture by helping you track customer interactions and preferences in real time. This makes it easier to deliver tailored support that meets customer expectations.

Improved Productivity

Call center software can help managers identify areas where agents need more training or additional support by tracking metrics like average handle time and first contact resolution rate. That way, they can make sure their team is operating at maximum efficiency.

In addition, the automated ticketing and routing features can help save time by quickly connecting customers with the right agents and departments.

Better Security

Finally, call center software provides enhanced security for your customer service data. It has a number of built-in features to protect confidential customer information and ensure compliance standards are met.

Especially if your company is in an industry where data security is of utmost importance (e.g., healthcare, finance), this is an invaluable benefit.

What Are the Most Important Call Center Metrics to Track?

No matter the vertical you operate in, there are a few universal call center metrics that should always be monitored.

Here are the most important ones.

Average Handle Time (AHT)

Average handle time (AHT) is the average amount of time it takes agents to resolve customer issues. It’s measured from when a call is received until it’s resolved and marked as “closed.”

AHT is so important because it’s a great indicator of agent productivity. Keeping AHT low helps to ensure your customers are receiving timely service and that agents aren’t overloaded with work.

For example, if you find that your AHT is increasing, it could be a sign that agents need additional training or support. In this instance, you would likely want to talk to your employees about how you could help reduce AHT, such as automation or additional staff.

First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate

First contact resolution rate is the percentage of customer service inquiries that are resolved on the first try. It’s a measure of how well agents are able to resolve customer issues quickly, efficiently, and with minimal effort from the customer.

A high FCR rate indicates that agents are doing a great job of answering inquiries and resolving issues the first time. If you find your FCR rate to be low, it could indicate that there’s an issue with agent training or customer service processes.

By optimizing your customer service strategy in the areas where FCR is low, you can help reduce customer effort and improve their overall experience.

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Score

Companies can measure their customer satisfaction in a number of ways, but one of the most popular is through CSAT scores. This metric measures how satisfied customers are with their experience by asking them to rate certain aspects on a scale from 1-10 (or another variation).

With this data, businesses can see exactly what areas customers are happy and unhappy with so they can make improvements accordingly.

Call Abandonment Rate

The call abandonment rate is the percentage of customer service calls that are terminated before being answered by an agent. This metric provides valuable insight into how long customers are willing to wait for assistance.

By tracking call abandonment, businesses can identify areas where they need to improve their customer experience, such as reducing hold times or adding more agents during peak hours.

Average Time In Queue

If your customers are waiting for a long time to get the help they need, they won’t be happy. We’ve all been there, and it definitely isn’t any fun.

According to 83% of consumers, one of the most important factors in customer service is how quickly they can be connected to an agent. By monitoring this key metric, companies can ensure that their customers aren’t waiting too long.

Service Level

This metric lets you know how productive your agents are based on the percentage of calls they answer within a certain time period (usually a number of seconds). If you find that your agents are failing to meet the predetermined service level, it could indicate a need for additional training or support.

It’s also important to note that having too high of a service level can be damaging as well. When agents rush to answer calls in time, they could be overlooking important steps or neglecting customer needs.

Agent Productivity

Agent productivity can be measured in a few different ways:

The number of calls they take, the number of emails they respond to, or their sales conversions
The amount of time they spend on each call or task
How often they handle customer inquiries without needing to escalate them

What’s important here is to measure the outcome of their efforts, not just the effort itself. This way, you’ll know if your agents are being productive or just going through the motions.

How to Track Call Center Metrics

Most call center software solutions have built-in reporting and analytics capabilities that can help you track and monitor all of these metrics. The reports will provide valuable insight into how your agents are performing, so you can make decisions to improve the customer experience.

That said, some metrics cannot be tracked through software. For example, you’ll need to measure customer satisfaction through surveys or interviews manually. Software can help automate the process by prompting customers to leave a review or feedback after being helped, but you may still need to manually tally up the responses.

Screenshot of Datapine's call center dashboard with example data. — Call center dashboard reveals key insights for customer support teams.

Other metrics like AHT and first contact resolution rate are a bit more straightforward, as they’re based on call data that can be collected in the software and visualized quickly.

Best Practices for Tracking Call Center Metrics

Of course, tracking these metrics is only half the battle. You’ll need to use them the right way if you want to make meaningful changes that will benefit customers and improve your business operations.

Here are a few best practices to keep in mind.

Set realistic goals for your call center

Your call center metrics should be based on concrete goals that you can hold your agents accountable for, such as reducing the average time in queue or increasing customer satisfaction.

But they should also be realistic—don’t set the bar too high or you risk burning out your agents.

To determine what goals are realistic for your call center, the best thing to do is to get feedback from your customers and your agents. Collaborate with your agents on what they think is achievable, cross-reference the feedback you get with industry standards and business-specific data, and use this data to set realistic goals.

Don’t forget to look at the big picture

At the end of the day, metrics are just numbers. They’re numbers that should be used to inform your decisions, but they aren’t the only thing you should consider.

When evaluating metrics, take a holistic approach. Consider how all of the data points interact with each other and what kind of impact these interactions have on your call center operations.

For example, increasing agent productivity might come at the expense of customer service—this is common in contact centers where agents are expected to take more calls or handle more emails in less time.

One call center employee might end up taking more calls, but the customer experience could suffer as a result. Or you might find that agents are spending too much time on each call and not enough time helping customers.

By looking at the big picture, you can identify these issues before they become major problems.

Talk with your contact center support team regularly

We’re all human, and since your contact center team will be in a human-facing role, it’s important to talk with them regularly.

This will give you a better understanding of what agents are experiencing on the job, which can help inform your decisions in terms of call center metrics and goals. It also gives your agents an opportunity to voice any issues they may have and helps create an open line of communication between managers and agents.

Have a clear onboarding process that outlines your metrics and expectations

Your call center’s success is determined by the quality of your agents, and training plays a major role in that quality.

By having a clear and consistent training program, you can ensure that all agents are receiving the same level of instruction on how to handle customer inquiries. This will help them become more productive and efficient over time, which will have a positive impact on your call center metrics.

Here are a few tips for creating a solid training program:

Start by creating a comprehensive onboarding process that outlines the basic expectations for customer service agents.
Create a detailed training plan to teach your agents about call center operations and technology. Include classes on customer service best practices and the use of call center software.
Educate your team on the company’s core values, customer service policies, and any relevant tools or technologies that are being used.
Show your customers what some of the common call center metrics are, such as average call length or customer satisfaction scores.
Give them the opportunity to shadow current employees and ask questions about their experience.
Encourage them to practice on the job by simulating customer interactions in a safe environment.

By taking the time to create an effective onboarding process, you can ensure that your agents are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in their roles.

Track and analyze call center metrics over time

Call center metrics such as customer satisfaction scores, average call length, and the number of calls handled per hour can be used to measure the performance of your agents.

But it’s important to track and analyze these numbers over time in order to gain a better understanding of how your contact center is performing.

For instance, noticing a sudden dip in customer satisfaction scores means that something has changed—you might find that the underlying issue was something within your control, such as an unclear onboarding process or a lack of training.

By tracking and analyzing call center metrics over time, you can make informed decisions that will help improve the overall performance of your contact center support team.

Final Thoughts About Call Center Metrics

When it comes to creating a personalized customer experience and optimizing your contact center operations, tracking and analyzing call center metrics is a key part of the process.

By looking at the big picture, regularly talking with your agents, having a clear onboarding process that outlines expectations, and tracking data over time, you can make sure your team is equipped to provide efficient customer support and reach those high-level goals.

So don’t fear the numbers—embrace them and use them to your advantage!