If you’ve ever dabbled in e-commerce, then you know that WooCommerce is one of the best platforms for creating an online shop.

This open-source WordPress plugin is easy to install and super flexible. It’s great for beginners, and powerful enough for website owners who want full control.

Many developers now offer specialized WooCommerce themes, allowing you to set up a professional storefront in minutes and easily customize it. If you’re thinking about building an online store, these templates can save a lot of time.

Not sure which one to choose? With some expert insights from top developers, we’ve identified 10 WooCommerce themes that will increase your traffic and drum up more sales.

The 10 Best WooCommerce Themes You Can Get Today

With the e-commerce industry projected to generate a staggering $6.3 trillion worldwide this year, now is a great time to get your online shop up and running. Perhaps the easiest way to achieve this is by setting up a WordPress site, installing WooCommerce, and grabbing a great theme.

Here are 10 WooCommerce themes we recommend for your e-commerce store:

1. Neve

Over time, more and more websites are built using page builders. Elementor alone can be found on 14% of WordPress sites. It’s easy to see why — these plugins allow you to create the perfect design without writing any custom CSS.

Neve is a lightweight, modern theme made for drag-and-drop editing. It offers impressive integrations with popular page builders like Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, Divi Builder, and Thrive Architect— so you can choose your favorite tool and get to work!

Just as importantly, Neve has a very close relationship with WooCommerce.

The pro version of this theme offers quick-view pop-ups, floating mini carts, product sliders, and multiple catalog layouts. Off-canvas sidebar menus help customers find what they’re looking for, and you can maximize conversions by switching up your checkout layout. The list of features matches that of any dedicated WooCommerce theme.

The beauty of Neve is that you don’t need a page builder to use it. The theme provides plenty of design options, from alternative blog layouts and custom header designs to typography and theme colors. You also have over 100 starter templates to choose from.

Under the hood, the code is super clean. This theme hits 100% on Google PageSpeed, and it weighs only 28KB on a default WordPress install.

No wonder Neve has been installed on over 30,000 sites to date.

Key features:

• Works with multiple drag-and-drop builders.
• Deep integration with WooCommerce.
• Good speed optimization.

Price: Freemium; WooCommerce features require a premium license starting at $69/year.

2. Make

Not yet fluent in code? That’s not a problem with Make, a highly customizable theme that’s user-friendly for website owners of all technical abilities.

“E-commerce is super easy with Make,” says Scott Rollo, a designer from The Theme Foundry. “We don’t just support popular e-commerce plugins, we’ve actually designed fully integrated WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads builder sections. Make users just install their favorite plugin, and a new e-commerce section appears which they can tweak and drag and drop into place.”

Convenient, right? Better still, Make comes pre-installed for DreamPress customers. Score!

Make’s ease of use allows even beginners to create and maintain an attractive online store. And you can count on the quality of this theme — After all, it’s been refined more than 5,000 times.

“Make is different from a lot of ‘page builders’ out there,” says Rollo. “It’s completely free and open source. And we’ve seen nearly 800,000 makers start their business sites with it.”

It’s an impressive record, built on some excellent work behind the scenes. “We like to think that’s because we make a point of writing rock-solid code that lives up to the high expectations of the WordPress community,” says Rollo. “We don’t use shortcodes, and we keep the design of Make as close to WordPress’ core styles as possible. We really want Make users to feel right at home from the get-go.”

Along with being easy to use, Make is mobile-friendly. The theme features a responsive design, with a grid-based structure that renders perfectly on all screens.

This could be really important for your business.

Mobile e-commerce generated $2.2 trillion in 2023, accounting for around 60% of all online sales. Given the importance of smartphone shopping, it’s no surprise that 40% of consumers say they would switch to a competitor if they had a bad experience. In fact, 84% of shoppers say they have struggled to make purchases on their phones.

Choosing a theme like Make can help you avoid the pitfalls and capitalize on rival sites’ shortcomings.

Key features:

• Very easy to set up.
• Open source with over 5,000 iterations.
• Mobile-first design.

Price: Freemium

3. Flatsome

Branding is super important in e-commerce. Research shows that 62% of consumers factor brand values into their purchase decisions, outweighing discounts (26%) considerably.

If you want your online brand to attract customers, it’s key to create a visually distinctive store. With a remarkable selection of customization options, Flatsome is a premium WooCommerce theme that helps you achieve the perfect look.

From the extensive theme options panel to the header builder tool, this theme allows WooCommerce store owners to tweak every part of their site.

For site owners who want to get creative, Flatsome offers a raft of elegant e-commerce design elements. For instance, you can choose from various product gallery styles, set up a mini shopping cart so customers can see what they’re buying, and work with section dividers in multiple shapes.

All of these shop elements can be added and rearranged using UX Builder — a front-end page builder made by UX Themes, the team behind Flatsome.

If that sounds like too much work, take heart. There’s a low-effort route — Flatsome comes with a library of over 300 custom layouts, covering a range of different store styles.

Even with all these features, Flatsome is a very lightweight theme. It hits 98/100 on Google PageSpeed, meaning visitors shouldn’t have to wait long to shop. That’s big news, considering that e-commerce conversion rates drop by up to 4.42% with every extra second of loading time.

When you add up the benefits, it’s easy to see why Flatsome lays claim to the title of best-selling WooCommerce theme on ThemeForest.

Key features:

• Proprietary page builder tool.
• Over 300 layout templates.
• Excellent performance.

Price: $59 one-time payment, including free lifetime updates.

4. Astra

Here’s a secret: you don’t actually need a dedicated WooCommerce design to set up a slick online store. The e-commerce plugin works just fine with most multipurpose themes.

Astra is one of our favorite themes in this category. It’s as fast as Usain Bolt on a Harley Davidson, versatile enough to handle pretty much any website build, and is fully compatible with WooCommerce. Plus, the base version is completely free.

Astra was designed to be used with popular page builders, like Beaver Builder and Elementor. As such, the base template is very clean and simple. With a brand new WordPress site, the theme will load in just 0.5 seconds.

That said, you have plenty of theme customization options to play with. You don’t need to mess with any code to choose custom colors and fonts. With the premium version of the theme, Astra Pro, you can also unlock multiple header and footer layouts, extended gallery options, and one-step checkouts.

For aspiring store owners on a time budget, Astra also provides a vast library of starter site templates. With a couple of clicks, you can install a complete layout that suits your style.

The pedigree of this theme is important, too. Astra was made by Brainstorm Force, a team of developers who’ve been creating popular WordPress plugins since 2009.

The company built Astra back in 2017 to solve their own problems, and it shows. Thanks to that extra TLC, the theme is now being used for 1,200 new websites every day, with over 1.6 million total active installs.

Key features:

• Very, very lightweight base theme.
• Great built-in theme options.
• Deep integration with major page builders.

Price: Freemium

5. Botiga

They say good things come in threes: musketeers, primary colors, Lord of the Rings movies…the list goes on.

The Botiga theme proves no exception to the rule.

This feature-packed WooCommerce template hits the trifecta: blazing performance, extensive customization options, and seamless integration with popular page builders. It’s basically the Swiss Army knife of WordPress themes.

Botiga absolutely excels in terms of speed. We’re talking lightning-fast loading that’ll have customers zipping through your digital aisles with reckless abandon.

But impressive load times are just the opening salvo.

Where Botiga truly flexes its muscles is with its suite of customization controls that put you squarely in the driver’s seat of your e-commerce empire.

We particularly like the variety of product card styles and checkout designs, but you can also fiddle with fonts, shuffle between custom layouts, and use the built-in header and footer builders. All these options are neatly organized within the theme options panel.

And for website owners who are hungry for control, there’s more. Botiga plays nicely with page builders like Elementor and the WordPress Block Editor, making it easy to whip up an e-commerce masterpiece.

The free version of Botiga includes all of the above. Purchase a premium license, and you can unlock wishlists, color swatches, size charts, and many other useful features that shoppers will love.

Key features:

• Impressive performance (loads in <0.5 seconds).
• Endless customization options.
• Works well with Elementor.

Price: Freemium

6. Woostroid

You can have too much of a good thing — like chocolate, or Netflix. However, in the business of e-commerce, having too many sales-boosting features is never a bad thing.

And that’s what you get with Woostroid, a WooCommerce-friendly template from Template Monster. Now in version two, this theme is adaptable, simple, and paired with 24/7 user support. “It is easy to use, even as a beginner,” says Max Deep of Jetimpex. “Almost anyone will be able to add content and create different page layouts with the intuitive drag-and-drop page builder.”

And that’s not all.

“The Woostroid template comes SEO optimized, providing smooth promotion for online store and business websites,” says Deep. “And considerable attention is given to user experience. Our team equipped Woostroid with a classy design, and flexible appearance settings, to give the users the true power of choice.”

This mix of features means you can put your best foot forward to potential customers.

“A website is a kind of calling card that represents its owner,” says Deep. “And in our case, the owner has all the means to make his or her online store stand out from the others and attract tons of attention. One of the most important factors in choosing a template is its wide functionality, as well as its efficiency. All these features can be found in Woostroid.”

Key features:

• Easy setup with drag-and-drop.
• SEO-optimized for visibility.
• Flexible and sophisticated design.

Price: One-time fee of $84.

7. Avalon

From boutique WordPress theme development firm Anariel Design comes the WooCommerce block theme Avalon.

Something we appreciate about Avalon is that it prioritizes accessibility for folks who may not have tons of time or tech savvy — all without skimping on power or customizability.

We say that because of how easy its builders have made it to start working with Avalon. A built-in import wizard means you can add the entire demo right to your site in a few clicks, content, layouts, and all.

Once you’re up and running with Avalon, you’ll be able to take advantage of lots of other features. Of course, there’s nearly endless flexibility in the colors, button design, type choices, and every other element of the overall look. Accessibility and translatability are core to the theme’s design, so you don’t ever have to worry about alienating any part of your audience. On top of that, Avalon was created with mobile users in mind, making it highly responsive no matter what kind of device your target consumer is using.

Bloat-busting design means you can also expect quick performance. If anything does go wrong, Anariel Design is equipped with tons of documentation for each theme, along with helpful videos, answers to their most common FAQs, and a support system that promises an answer within 24 hours during the business week.

Key features:

• Easy-to-import demo template.
• Robust documentation and support (especially for a small agency).
• Unique focus on accessibility and translation.

Price: $79/year subscription or a one-time purchase of $179.

8. Woostify

Imagine heading to your local hardware store with a list in hand.

The items you need are spread throughout the store. Unfortunately, the lack of signage makes it really hard to navigate. You wander around for 15 minutes, searching for your items in vain. It’s a frustrating experience, and likely to make you think twice about returning.

The same principle applies to your website. A whopping 88% of shoppers are less likely to visit after a bad user experience, and mobile users are 62% less likely to make a future purchase.If you want to avoid these pitfalls, Woostify might be the right theme for your store.

This lightweight theme is built for performance, boasting impressive load times and minimal resource usage. That means your customers won’t be left drumming their fingers while your pages load.

But don’t let the trimmed-down footprint fool you. Woostify hasn’t achieved its slender physique by skimping on gym time. Beneath that minimalist exterior, this e-commerce theme has plenty of power.

As a store owner, you can choose from multiple product page styles, listing layouts, and checkout workflows. You can also configure different cart layouts, set up video galleries, and use the live theme customizer to select color options. All of these features are included in the free theme.

The premium version of Woostify provides plenty more: mega menus, smart product filters, Elementor integration, cross-selling, custom widgets, and more. If you don’t fancy setting up these features yourself, you can just use one of the provided starter sites instead.

To top it off, Woostify is ready to go global. The theme supports translations and RTL scripts, so you can create a welcoming site for customers around the globe.

Key features:

• Modern design for excellent user experience.
• Almost endless e-commerce features.
• Supports translations for worldwide selling.

Price: Freemium

9. Divi

No list of WordPress themes would be complete without mentioning Divi.

Used on 3.8 million sites, this highly flexible theme set the scene for the page builders we see today. It truly is the granddaddy of drag-and-drop templates.

As you might expect, the modern version of Divi offers plenty of customization options. The live front-end editor allows you to tweak every aspect of your site, and see the changes in real-time. That includes spacing, animations, image effects, and much more.

The same kind of granular control extends to WooCommerce setups. Divi offers tight integration, with hundreds of design elements to play with.

You can also add extra functionality through modules. These add-ons allow you to introduce product listings, cart pages, checkout processes, and more. You can drag and drop these modules into place to build your store piece by piece, or use Divi’s pre-built layouts and templates as a starting point.

Beyond the design of your store, Divi offers some great tools for sellers. The theme comes with built-in marketing and lead generation features, such as split testing, conditional display, email list building, and social sharing integrations.

All this bulk means you might sacrifice a little speed. But much like a monster truck, this theme could help you flatten the competition.

Key features:

• Powerful visual editor with hundreds of elements.
• Live editor for styling.
• Built-in marketing and lead gen tools.

Price: $89/year

10. Porto

When you’re just starting out, keeping things simple makes sense. But for established sellers, it’s worth choosing a theme that’s loaded with useful features. This means you can scale your store using the tools already baked into your chosen template, rather than relying on plugins.

That is what you can expect from Porto, one of the top-selling WooCommerce themes on ThemeForest.

This premium theme is loaded with a mind-boggling array of features, covering both the basic design of your site and other e-commerce aspects.

The foundation of Porto is the WPBakery page builder and is also compatible with Elementor, which offers powerful drag-and-drop editing. This tool comes with a huge selection of elements, from social media icons to image carousels.

As you construct your site, you have the option to start from scratch or install one of the many pre-built demos. The latter option is particularly useful if your store fits one of the starter sites, which include fashion clothing stores, jewelry brands, and gadget stores.

Phew, that’s a lot of features. And we haven’t even talked about WooCommerce yet!

Porto offers tight integration with our favorite e-commerce plugin. You can adjust pretty much every aspect of the shopping experience, from how product details are presented to shipment tracking. Live product search is a standout option here, allowing your customers to find exactly what they want.

It’s also cool to see artificial intelligence in a WordPress theme. Porto can now generate SEO-optimized content for you, which should help you to start selling faster.

The downside of all this functionality is extra complexity behind the scenes. Thankfully, we’re glad to note that Porto comes with extensive theme documentation and good technical support.

While it might take a while to understand this theme, it should provide a return on your time investment in the long run.

Key features:

• Vast array of customization options.
• Strong WooCommerce integrations.
• Extensive theme documentation.

Price: $59 one-time payment, including updates.

Choosing The Right WooCommerce Theme For Your Store

All of the themes mentioned above are capable of powering a successful online store. The question is, which one is right for your e-commerce project?

Here are the key factors to think about when making your final decision:

• Your niche: Think about the main audience you are targeting with your online store. Are you selling physical products or digital products? Will you need features like product filters, wishlists, or pre-orders? Some themes cater better to certain types of stores.
• Design and branding: Customization options are crucial for creating a site that resonates with your audience. Consider the style, layout options, color schemes, and whether the template feels like a good fit.
• Performance: Site speed and mobile optimization are essential for delivering a good user experience. Look for lightweight, fast-loading themes with responsive designs that work well on any device.
• Ease of use: If you’re not technically inclined, look for a user-friendly theme that has a drag-and-drop editor or simple theme options. With freemium themes, you can install the free version to test the backend yourself.
• Features: Make a list of must-have features like product galleries, mini-carts, custom checkouts, and page builders. Ensure your chosen theme has those capabilities covered, or you can add them via plugins.
• Support: Reliable support and regular updates are vital for keeping your site working properly. Check each theme’s ratings and documentation, along with reviews of the developer.
• Cost: Finally, consider your budget. Many great free themes exist, but premium themes often unlock more advanced features. This can be a worthwhile investment in the longer term.

With these principles in mind, here’s a recap of the top WooCommerce themes mentioned in our guide:

Ready To Woo?

Whether you’re new to the e-commerce game or just setting up yet another store, WooCommerce provides a great foundation.

Part of the appeal is the range of Woo-optimized themes available today. Choose wisely, and you should have everything you need to deliver a great online shopping experience.

Just remember that even the best themes rely on solid hosting. If you’re looking for a reliable home for your online business, DreamHost can help.

Our dedicated WordPress hosting plans make it child’s play to set up and maintain your store, with servers that are optimized for speed. You also get one-click staging, powerful caching, managed updates, and 24/7 expert support. Sign up today to see how easy it can be to build a thriving online storefront!

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The post The 10 Best WooCommerce Themes For Your Online Store (Reviewed) appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

You know exactly how you want it to look, and since WordPress is used by 43.2% of websites, you choose to start with WordPress.

But you notice some limitations to the existing layouts.

What if you could:

• Customize the layout to be exactly what you like
• Update and customize your website on the fly without relying on someone else
• Create engaging content that stands out from the competition
• Troubleshoot issues and make quick fixes, saving time and money
• Communicate more effectively with your technical team or collaborators

HTML and responsive web design techniques allow you to do all this and more while ensuring your website adapts to all device screens.

You may not have the time to learn complex coding languages or the budget to hire a web developer for every small task — But HTML is way easier than you might think!

In this guide, we’ll explore the many benefits of learning HTML, break down who can benefit from this skill (spoiler alert: everyone!), and look at the best free resources to help you learn HTML starting today.

An Introduction To HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language), a standard markup language created by Tim Berners-Lee, is the foundation of every website and one of the most popular programming languages.

The code tells browsers how to structure and display content like text, images, and links.

Since HTML is the foundation for online content, it’s a valuable skill to learn. 

Although you can fully design a website without code, knowing HTML can help you customize web pages from scratch. You can use it to organize every website element, including dynamic elements like images, text, and tables.

Why You Should Consider Learning HTML

HTML is the fundamental building block of the web. All websites use HTML or a derivative of it. Understanding HTML will give you superpowers when using tools like Divi or Gutenberg in WordPress, or when creating email templates for marketing campaigns.

HTML “marks up” words and gives them meaning. HTML is important for accessibility because it provides the semantic structure that assistive technologies rely on to navigate and interpret web content effectively for users with disabilities.

HTML is important for SEO as search engines also use this semantic structure to easily crawl and index your website, helping improve a site’s visibility and ranking in search results.

Understanding HTML opens the door to numerous career opportunities in the tech industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for web developers is projected to grow 16% between 2022-2032, much faster than the average across all occupations. This fundamental skill is essential not only for web development but also for roles in digital marketing, UX/UI design, and content management.

Familiarity with HTML helps you create, modify, and fix your website without depending on professional developers for every change or issue. This saves you time and money while giving you greater control over your website’s appearance and functionality.

Understanding HTML also prepares you for learning other essential programming languages, such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and JavaScript.

These languages work hand-in-hand with HTML to create dynamic, interactive websites.

A strong command of HTML sets you apart from others in your field, especially those in which coding is not a required skill set. You’ll stand out as a founder, marketer, or non-tech employee who can create and modify web content.

Getting Started With HTML

Now that you know the benefits of learning HTML, you might wonder where to begin. The good news is that you don’t need fancy software or expensive courses to start.

All you need is a basic software setup, including a computer with a web browser and an online code editor like Notepad or TextEdit, and you’re ready to start your development journey.

Step 1: Understand The Basics Of Html Structure

HTML documents comprise a series of elements, each surrounded by opening and closing tags that tell the browser what content it contains.

• Opening tags are written with the element name inside angle brackets, like this: <p>.
• Content exists within the tags, like a paragraph or some text.
• Closing tags are similar but include a forward slash before the element name, like this: </p>.

Here’s an example of how a basic block-level element in an HTML structure displays paragraphs on a webpage.

When you open a tag in HTML code, you must close it similarly.

As you learn HTML, it’s essential to understand how common and complex elements work together to create a webpage’s structure.

A typical HTML document will include:

• A <!DOCTYPE html> declaration at the top to specify the version of HTML you’re using
• An <html> element that contains the entire document
• A <head> element for metadata like the page title and stylesheet links
• A <body> element that holds all the visible content on the page

Here’s a simple code snippet of an HTML document structure:

Notice how each element has an opening tag and a corresponding closing tag and how the components are nested inside each other to create the document structure.

Step 2: Learn The Basic HTML Elements For Structure And Content

Focus on mastering the foundational elements that form most web pages. These elements help you structure your content logically, making it easier for humans and search engines to understand.

Some basic HTML elements to master include anchor elements, which can help with creating interactive tutorials and linking to online tutorials:

• Headings (<h1> to <h6>): Headings are essential block-level elements that help create a hierarchical structure for your content.
• Paragraphs (<p>): Paragraphs break your text into readable chunks, like the spaced-out text you see on this page.
• Types of Lists (<ul> and <ol>): An unordered list (<ul>) is a type of bulleted list (or unnumbered list) for creating bullet points and ordered lists (<ol>) are for numbered lists. Enclose an item within these lists in <li></li> tags.
• Links (<a>): The anchor element, one of the core interactive elements, creates dynamic links to other pages or websites. To add links, use the href attribute like this href = "link" which is one of the basic link attributes.
• Tables (<th> <tr><td>): These elements help you create basic tables where the ‘th’ stands for table header, ‘tr’ stands for table row, and ‘td’ stands for table data. You can create as many of these as necessary and the browser will automatically create the table on screen.
• Images (<img>): The image element adds visual interest and supports your content. Include meaningful alt text for accessibility.

Some common attributes added to HTML tags are class attribute, id attribute, and src attribute. These identify HTML elements on a page that can appear in multiple places.

For instance, if you want to identify a paragraph on the page that has the author’s name, you could write something like:

When styling elements, you can use this ID to select a single element and add the required styles. 

These core elements, along with some complex elements and class attributes, will help you create well-structured, meaningful HTML pages that are easy to read and navigate.

How To Learn HTML For Free Online?

You can easily learn how to code through guided practice. This can involve signing up for in-person lectures or taking an online course with modules.

These modules typically contain a combination of videos, lectures, and practice exercises.

With many different ways to learn HTML, we’ve compiled a list of some free resources. This way, you can choose the best learning experience for you.

1. Watch YouTube Tutorials

One of the simplest ways to learn HTML as a complete beginner is by following online tutorials. Many websites offer step-by-step guides that cover HTML basics and help you gain basic familiarity with the language.

Check out the quick HTML Tutorial for Beginners video by Programming with Mosh on YouTube for a quick overview. In just one hour, this video explains key concepts like tags, attributes, and how to structure a webpage.

If you want to go more in-depth, the HTML Crash Course For Absolute Beginners by Traversy Media is a great option. This series of videos thoroughly covers HTML elements and shows you how to create page content like headings, paragraphs, and lists.

You could also watch the free HTML tutorials from free CodeCamp.

The variety of free HTML tutorials available on YouTube makes it easy to find ones that match your learning style and skill level and help you get up and running with practical skills.

2. Take Free Online HTML Courses

While tutorials help learn HTML basics, online courses offer detailed tutorials. They provide structured lessons, hands-on exercises, and the ability to track your progress.

Below are some excellent free HTML resources for your studies:

Codecademy

Codecademy offers several free programs to teach you the technical skills you need. Over 50 million students have used Codecademy to learn basic HTML and coding. While the name says “basic,” this course can easily help you start building websites with HTML.

The program focuses on three main ideas: learning by doing, getting instant feedback, and putting your learning into practice. These will help you learn HTML through hands-on, guided practice. Codecademy also provides forums, chats, chapters, and events for extra help during your learning process.

Learn-HTML.org

Learn-HTML.org is a helpful source for everything related to HTML. The site has much to explore, including a free online course that guides you through coding. The site provides tutorials for HTML beginners, demonstrating how to create HTML and CSS sites from the ground up.

The tutorials begin with the fundamentals and gradually increase in complexity as the lessons progress. They cover essential elements, links, images, buttons, navigation bars, forms, video, responsive web design, app cache, local storage, drag-and-drop, and more.

General Assembly Dash

General Assembly Dash is a well-known site where you can learn HTML basics. This free online course uses projects to help you grasp HTML concepts. The program works well for beginners who want an overview of HTML fundamentals or intermediates who need a refresher.

Within the same course, you’ll also learn HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript. This will allow you to create impressive websites with various layouts and user interactions. If you want to further your education beyond this introductory course, you can with General Assembly.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice

As with any new skill, hands-on practice is the best way to learn HTML and build these foundational skills. Once you’ve gone through some introductory tutorials and feel comfortable with the basics, challenge yourself to start building simple websites from scratch.

Platforms like CodePen provide a basic work environment for experimenting with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.

CodePen also has built-in tools for formatting your code and checking for errors by clicking on Analyze HTML:

In the simple online editor, you can write HTML, CSS, and JS and see your output in the preview pane.

Here are a few practice ideas using dynamic and multimedia elements in your projects:

1. Create a personal profile page: Build an “About Me” page using headings, paragraphs, lists, and images. Include links to your social media profiles or other relevant websites.
2. Structure a blog post: Take a sample blog post and mark it up with appropriate HTML elements like headings, paragraphs, lists, and blockquotes. Add links to related content or external sources.
3. Build modern navigation elements: Create a menu using an unordered list and anchor elements. Experiment with nesting lists to create drop-down menus.

Once you feel comfortable with individual elements, build small projects that combine multiple elements and require you to consider a page’s overall structure and layout. For example:

• Build a recipe page with ingredients, instructions, and an image of the finished dish.
• Create an online store product page with images, descriptions, and a “Buy Now” button.
• Design a portfolio page showcasing your projects, skills, and contact information.

For a more realistic experience, consider setting up a local development environment on your computer. This involves installing a web server (like Apache or Nginx), a database (like MySQL), and a server-side scripting language (like PHP) — collectively known as a “stack.”

Once your local environment is ready, you can start building websites from scratch or by modifying existing code. This hands-on practice is invaluable for applying your HTML knowledge to real-world scenarios.

At this stage, the goal is to practice using HTML to structure and present content effectively without worrying about visual design or advanced functionality. Focus on writing clean, semantic HTML and organizing your code logically.

Related: Want to Learn WordPress? Start Here.

What Jobs Can You Get With HTML?

So, knowing HTML can also open many doors to higher-paying jobs. With a thorough or even basic knowledge of HTML, you can pursue employment as a:

• Email marketing manager: Knowing HTML helps you create beautiful templates and customize them per your company’s requirements.
• Social media manager: It becomes easy to modify social cards, HTML meta, and other tags that may sometimes get messed up during updates.
• Front-end developer: While basic HTML will not land you this role, you will have an excellent foundation to learn the other required languages to get started.
• Back-end developer: Back-end development doesn’t require HTML, but it can be handy for testing a small change yourself and deploying it live to the backend.

What Are Some Other Reasons To Learn HTML

There are a few additional reasons why learning HTML is valuable:

1. Customize your website: With HTML knowledge, you can tweak your site’s layout, fonts, colors, and more to match your exact vision. No more settling for cookie-cutter templates.
2. Fix issues quickly: When something breaks on your website, understanding HTML makes diagnosing and fixing the problem much easier, saving time and money.
3. Learn other web languages: HTML, the standard markup language, is the perfect starting point for learning essential programming languages like CSS and JavaScript, which together form the backbone of dynamic websites.

After learning HTML, you can add some projects to your portfolio, and then you can begin applying for freelance work on a site like Toptal:

Learning HTML, like any new skill, takes time and patience. While you can develop a basic understanding in just a few days, becoming an expert may take much longer, considering HTML is just one piece of web dev.

Become An HTML Expert

Anyone can build a website without coding experience. However, learning HTML is a valuable skill that can help you customize different elements of your website. Plus, it can open doors to many forms of employment.

To review, here are three easy ways you can start learning HTML:

• Watch a YouTube tutorial from creators like Programming with Mosh.
• Take an HTML course on Codecademy or Learn-html.org.
• Practice HTML coding on a platform like CodePen.

If you’re just starting to design a website, you don’t want poor webhosting to slow down your development journey! With DreamHost’s shared hosting, you can use a fast, secure platform to experiment with your new HTML coding skills.

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There’s more to it than people liking or disliking your design.

46.1% of users judge the credibility of your brand based on your website’s visual appeal alone.

The bottom line? You need a visually appealing website — there’s just no way around it. This is where CSS frameworks help.

These powerful tools can help you create stunning, responsive designs quickly and efficiently. Among the sea of options, two frameworks stand out: Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap.

But which one should you choose for your next project?

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the world of Tailwind vs. Bootstrap, exploring their strengths, weaknesses, and unique features.

By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of which framework best suits your needs, empowering you to create websites that not only captivate users but also establish your brand’s credibility.

What Are CSS Frameworks?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Tailwind vs. Bootstrap, let’s take a step back and remind ourselves what CSS frameworks are all about.

Essentially, CSS frameworks are pre-written collections of CSS code that simplify and speed up website development.

Instead of starting from scratch every time, you can use these frameworks to create beautiful, responsive designs with minimal effort. We can’t overstate how important responsive design is. In fact, according to a study by GoodFirms, non-responsive design is the primary reason why people may be leaving your website.

Think of it like having a toolbox filled with all the essentials you need to build a house. You could always go out and buy each tool individually, but why not save yourself the hassle and get everything in one convenient package?

That’s what CSS frameworks do for web development.

Bootstrap: The Reliable Classic

First up, let’s talk about Bootstrap.

Bootstrap has been around since 2011 and has become a staple in the web development world. It’s like the comfort food of CSS frameworks: reliable, familiar, and always satisfying.

One of the biggest advantages of Bootstrap is its extensive library of pre-built components.

From navbars and buttons to carousels and modals, Bootstrap has you covered. These components are designed to work seamlessly together, so you can create a cohesive, professional-looking website in no time.

But wait, there’s more! Bootstrap also comes with a powerful grid system that makes it easy to create responsive layouts. With just a few classes, your website can look fantastic on any device, whether it’s a desktop computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.

Another reason Bootstrap is so popular is its extensive documentation and community support. If you ever get stuck or have a question, chances are someone else has already asked (and answered) it on Stack Overflow or the Bootstrap forums. Plus, with so many developers using Bootstrap, you’ll find plenty of tutorials, templates, and plugins to help you along the way.

Of course, no tool is perfect, and Bootstrap has its limitations. Some developers argue that it’s too opinionated, meaning that it can be difficult to customize if you want to stray too far from the default styles. Others point out that Bootstrap’s file size can be rather large, which can slow down your website’s loading times.

Tailwind CSS: The New Kid On The Block

Now, let’s move on to Tailwind CSS. This relatively new framework has been making waves in the web development community — and for good reason.

Unlike Bootstrap, which relies heavily on pre-built components, Tailwind takes a different approach. It provides a set of low-level utility classes that you can use to build your own custom designs.

This means you have complete control over the look and feel of your website, without being constrained by someone else’s design decisions. However, you won’t find a lot of pre-built templates for page sections.

So, Tailwind’s utility classes might seem a bit overwhelming.

Instead of using semantic class names like btn-primary, you’ll see things like bg-blue-500 and px-4. As you get used to it, you’ll start to appreciate the flexibility and power that comes with this approach.

One of the biggest advantages of Tailwind is its ability to create responsive designs with ease. You can easily specify different styles for different screen sizes, all without leaving your HTML. This makes it incredibly easy to create complex, adaptive layouts that look great on any device.

Another thing that sets Tailwind apart is its focus on performance. The framework is designed to be as lightweight as possible, with a minimal footprint that won’t slow down your website. Plus, with features like tree-shaking and purging, you can make sure that only the classes you actually use end up in your final CSS file.

Then again, like Bootstrap, Tailwind too, isn’t perfect.

Some developers find the learning curve to be a bit steeper, especially if they’re used to more traditional CSS frameworks. And because Tailwind relies so heavily on utility classes, your HTML can start to feel a bit cluttered and harder to read.

How do you then select the right framework?

Choosing The Right Framework For Your Project

Let’s dive a little deeper into how to choose the right framework for your project. Based on what we discussed earlier, the decision depends on your specific needs and goals. To help you make the right decision, let’s explore a few key factors.

Project Complexity And Scalability

One of the first things to consider is the complexity and scalability of your project. If you’re building a simple, one-page website or a small personal blog, Bootstrap might be the way to go. Its pre-built components and straightforward grid system make it easy to get up and running quickly.

However, if you’re working on a more complex application or a large-scale website with a lot of custom functionality, Tailwind might be a better fit. Its utility-first approach allows you to create highly customized designs that can scale as your project grows.

Here’s an example of how you might create a simple button in Bootstrap vs.Tailwind:

Bootstrap:

<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary">Click Me!</button>

Tailwind:

<button type="button" class="bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded">
  Click Me!
</button>

Notice the Bootstrap example is more concise and relies on a pre-defined class (btn-primary), while the Tailwind example uses a combination of utility classes to achieve the same result.

This flexibility can be especially valuable as your project becomes more complex and requires more granular control over styles.

Note: While you can customize Bootstrap styles, it’s more work and you might just write the CSS yourself. Tailwind is quite nice in this case because of its built-in flexibility.

Design Flexibility And Consistency

If you’re working with a design team or following strict brand guidelines, Tailwind’s utility-first approach can be a great fit for you.

It allows you to create custom designs that match your exact specifications, without being limited by pre-defined components or styles.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a more standardized, consistent look and feel across your site, Bootstrap’s pre-built components can be a good choice. They provide a solid foundation that you can customize as needed, while still maintaining a cohesive overall design.

Here’s an example of how you might create a card component with a button in Bootstrap vs. Tailwind:

Bootstrap:

<div class="card" style="width: 18rem;">
  <img src="https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/assets/brand/bootstrap-logo-shadow.png" class="card-img-top">
  <div class="card-body">
    <h5 class="card-title">Card title</h5>
    <p class="card-text">Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content.</p>
    <a href="#" class="btn btn-primary">Go somewhere</a>
  </div>
</div>

Tailwind:

<div class="m-6">
<div class="max-w-sm rounded overflow-hidden shadow-lg">
   <div class="flex justify-center">
      <img class="h-16 mt-4" src="https://tailwindcss.com/_next/static/media/tailwindcss-mark.3c5441fc7a190fb1800d4a5c7f07ba4b1345a9c8.svg" alt="Tailwind CSS Logo">
   </div>
   <div class="px-6 py-4">
      <div class="font-bold text-xl mb-2">Card title</div>
      <p class="text-gray-700 text-base">
         Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content.
      </p>
   </div>
   <div class="px-6 py-4 flex justify-center">
      <a href="#" class="inline-block bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded">
      Go somewhere
      </a>
   </div>
</div>
</div>

Above, you’ll see that the Bootstrap example uses the pre-defined card class and its associated sub-components (card-img-top, card-body, etc.) to create a consistent card layout.

The Tailwind example, on the other hand, uses a combination of utility classes to achieve a similar result, but with more fine-grained control over the specific styles applied.

Our take: Tailwind takes this round for its out-of-the-box customizability. If you’re just starting with designing, you may not take much notice of the design nuances when using Bootstrap. But as you start creating more complex components, the limitations start to show, and here’s where Tailwind’s utility classes can make things much easier in the long run.

Learning Curve And Developer Experience

It’s also worth considering the learning curve and developer experience associated with each framework. If you or your team are already familiar with Bootstrap, it might make sense to stick with what you know.

Bootstrap has a large community and a wealth of resources available, which can make it easier to get started and find answers to common questions.

Tailwind, on the other hand, has a bit of an uphill learning curve, especially if you’re not used to thinking in terms of utility classes. However, once you get the hang of it, many developers find that Tailwind’s approach is more intuitive and efficient in the long run.

Here’s an example of how you might create a responsive navigation bar in Bootstrap vs. Tailwind:

Bootstrap:

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarSupportedContent" aria-controls="navbarSupportedContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarSupportedContent">
      <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item dropdown">
          <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdown" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
            Dropdown
          </a>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown">
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
            <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
        </li>
      </ul>
      <form class="d-flex">
        <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
        <button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
      </form>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

Tailwind:

<nav class="flex flex-wrap items-center justify-between bg-teal-500 p-6">
  <div class="mr-6 flex flex-shrink-0 items-center text-white">
    <img class="mt-1 h-5" src="https://tailwindcss.com/_next/static/media/tailwindcss-mark.3c5441fc7a190fb1800d4a5c7f07ba4b1345a9c8.svg" alt="Tailwind CSS Logo" />
    <span class="text-xl">Tailwind</span>
  </div>
  <div class="block lg:hidden">
    <button class="flex items-center rounded border border-teal-400 px-3 py-2 text-teal-200 hover:border-white hover:text-white">
      <svg class="h-3 w-3 fill-current" viewBox="0 0 20 20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
        <title>Menu</title>
        <path d="M0 3h20v2H0V3zm0 6h20v2H0V9zm0 6h20v2H0v-2z" />
      </svg>
    </button>
  </div>
  <div class="block w-full flex-grow lg:flex lg:w-auto lg:items-center">
    <div class="text-sm lg:flex-grow">
      <a href="#responsive-header" class="mr-4 mt-4 block text-teal-200 hover:text-white lg:mt-0 lg:inline-block"> Docs </a>
      <a href="#responsive-header" class="mr-4 mt-4 block text-teal-200 hover:text-white lg:mt-0 lg:inline-block"> Examples </a>
      <a href="#responsive-header" class="mt-4 block text-teal-200 hover:text-white lg:mt-0 lg:inline-block"> Blog </a>
    </div>
    <div>
      <a href="#" class="mt-4 inline-block rounded border border-white px-4 py-2 text-sm leading-none text-white hover:border-transparent hover:bg-white hover:text-teal-500 lg:mt-0">Download</a>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

The Bootstrap example uses a combination of pre-defined classes (navbar, navbar-expand, navbar-light, etc.) to create a responsive navigation bar with a toggler button for smaller screens. The Tailwind example, in contrast, uses a combination of utility classes for similar results, but with a greater level of control over style and layout.

Our take: Bootstrap is much easier for beginners to pick up. The only downside to using Bootstrap is that you may create websites that look similar to others without customizing the styles. With Tailwind, the styles are independent of the components, which provides a lot more flexibility; meaning, you end up with fairly unique layouts just by combining the existing classes.

Performance Considerations

Considering that a load time of one second to three seconds increases bounce rates by 32%, it makes sense to choose the fastest framework possible.

The default Tailwind configuration comes with 36.4KB minified and g-zipped. Compared to Bootstrap at 22.1KB ,  Tailwind is 14.3KB heavier.

You may think, ”Well, it seems we already have a winner, right?”

Not so fast.

Tailwind generates your styles based on the specific utility classes you use in your HTML, rather than including a large set of pre-defined styles that may or may not be used.

So, while Tailwind is heavier by default, it offers excellent performance optimization techniques that help it perform with fewer lines of CSS code and a much smaller file size.

Also, Tailwind lets you pre-select the number of screen sizes you want to cater to. For instance, if all you want to properly cater to is a laptop screen and mobile users, just pick those.

Here’s how screen sizes can further affect your stylesheet file size:

• 5 screen sizes (default): 36.4KB
• 4 screen sizes: 29.4KB
• 3 screen sizes: 22.4KB
• 2 screen sizes: 15.4KB
• 1 screen size: 8.4KB

To further improve this, Tailwind offers PurgeCSS. This tool scans the specified files (HTML, Vue, JSX, etc.) and removes any unused Tailwind classes from the final CSS build. The result? A smaller file size and better performance.

Our take: Without optimizations, Bootstrap does load faster. But Tailwind’s designers handle this problem very effectively and the additional optimization strategies can make your overall page extremely lightweight. We have to give this round to Tailwind.

So, Why Not Both Frameworks?

“Why do I have to choose just one? Can’t I use both, Bootstrap and Tailwind, in the same project?”

The short answer is: yes, you absolutely can! In fact, many developers find that combining the two frameworks gives them the best of both worlds.

For example, you might use Bootstrap’s grid system and pre-built components for the overall structure and layout of your site, but then use Tailwind’s utility classes to fine-tune the styles and create custom elements. This approach can help you strike a balance between rapid development and granular control.

Of course, mixing frameworks can also introduce some complexity and potential conflicts. So you need to know both frameworks thoroughly before knowing what parts of each framework work well together.

For instance, since both frameworks have the same CSS classes, you may see visual glitches on different browsers and devices.

The Future Of CSS Frameworks

Being in the front-end web dev space, it’s quite exciting to see these CSS frameworks coming in and making things easy to build. Between Bootstrap and Tailwind, Google Trends shows that Bootstrap has been dropping in popularity from its peaks in 2017 and Tailwind is starting to pick up.

However, these CSS frameworks are just the beginning.

We’re also seeing other frameworks that translate JavaScript to CSS, like Emotion.sh. This helps you to write your styles directly in your JavaScript code, which can make it easier to create reusable, modular components. They’re not quite the same as traditional CSS frameworks but they’re definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Wrapping Up

Phew, that was a lot to take in! But hopefully, by now, you have a better understanding of what Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap are all about, and how they can help you create amazing websites.

At the end of the day, the choice between these two frameworks (or any others) comes down to your specific needs and preferences. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and what works for one project might not be the best fit for another.

The important thing is to keep learning, experimenting, and pushing yourself to try new things. Whether you’re a die-hard Bootstrap fan or a Tailwind convert, there’s always room to grow and improve as a web developer.

So go forth and build something awesome! And remember, no matter which framework you choose, the most important thing is to have fun and enjoy the process. Happy coding!

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The good news is that you can design accessible websites without sacrificing visual impact. In fact, some of the most stunning websites out there are designed specifically to be more accessible to people with disabilities — and we could all learn a thing or two from them.

In this post, we’ll start by showing you what strong web accessibility looks like, and cover some web accessibility standards designed to help democratize access to websites. Then we’ll show you 12 of the best web accessibility examples on the internet, including some popular websites that have committed to accessibility, and see what they can teach us.

Let’s get started!

What Great Web Accessibility Looks Like

According to The World Bank, around a billion people, or 15% of the global population, have some form of disability. These can include:

• Visual impairments: Some users have a visual disability that inhibits their ability to see clearly or perceive color contrast ratios. A range of people may fall into this category, including blind users or those with color blindness. For users with visual impairments, you might use audio descriptions or accessible color combinations (for example, avoid using dark text on dark background colors).
• Hearing impairments: Users with hearing impairments may include D/deaf people and those with partial hearing loss (hard of hearing/HoH). Captions for audio content can provide these users with a more accessible experience.
• Physical disabilities: Some people have mobility impairments that can impact their dexterity and ability to make precise movements, possibly making using a mouse difficult. Those with physical disabilities may be assistive technology users. Ensure your site is properly coded for assistive devices to provide accessible content for users with physical disabilities.
• Cognitive disabilities: Some users may have cognitive impairments like dyslexia, dementia, or an auditory processing disorder. You may consider using a specific font, like Dyslexie. You should also ensure that any audio content has a transcript available for those with auditory processing impairments.

It’s important to keep all of these different abilities in mind when creating your website to make sure there aren’t barriers for disabled users. To help web designers with this, W3C has developed a set of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Solid web accessibility means adhering to these guidelines and carefully following the four guiding principles of accessible design. These guiding principles state that all websites should be:

1. Perceivable
2. Operable
3. Understandable
4. Robust

Ensuring that your website is “operable” might mean implementing keyboard-friendly navigation for people who can’t use a mouse. “Perceivable” could mean using high-contrast colors for people with visual impairments.

Ready to see what these principles look like in practice? Below, we have 12 examples of websites that are doing accessible design right.

12 Great Web Accessibility Examples To Inspire You

Here, you’ll find some of our favorite web accessibility examples. These 12 websites are examples of accessible web design at its best.

1. Scope

Scope is a disability equality charity based in England and Wales dedicated to creating a fairer, more equal society. As a champion of disability equality, you’d expect that this organization’s website would be as accessible as possible — and it is.

Not only does it fully adhere to WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1 guidelines, but the site is even customizable for individual users. For example, users can change the site’s colors, increase the text size, or even turn on text narration to have the content read aloud.

If you look at the top-left section of the home page, you’ll see an Accessibility tab. Click on this, and the site will bring you to its accessibility page, which includes instructions on how to adapt the experience to your needs, links to assistive technologies, and a list of known accessibility issues that are being worked on.

Scope uses short sentences and large, clean fonts throughout the site for maximum readability. Plus, the site is fully compatible with screen reader software.

Despite already being a fantastic example of website accessibility, the team at Scope continues to make improvements. Every four months, they test the website for accessibility and make updates wherever necessary.

2. Harvard University

Harvard’s education isn’t its only strong suit. The world-renowned university’s website also stands out for its accessibility, offering an army of reading tools, multilingual video subtitles, and carefully curated color schemes that meet the needs of color-blind visitors.

Harvard’s navigation menu also gets points for accessibility. It’s simple but effective, with large, easy-to-read text in a high-contrast color. It’s also clear and easy to find.

3. Paralympic.org

Paralympic.org is the official website of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The IPC is a powerful advocate of social inclusion, and its website is a testament to that.

It features keyboard-friendly tab navigation and an instant “scroll-to-top” arrow button to make it easy to move around the page. Images and videos are large and prominently visible, and there’s plenty of white space to make visual elements stand out.

If you go to the home page, you’ll notice a text size adjuster in the top-right corner of the screen. This is easily visible and allows users with visual impairments to quickly customize the size of the text to meet their needs.

4. Walmart

One of the WCAG’s requirements for accessible websites is that they need to be “focus visible,” meaning that the part of the site that is in use is highlighted. Walmart’s website is a great example of this. It has a ton of interactive elements like buttons, links, and form fields — but visitors can only focus on one at a time, and the one they’re interacting with is distinctly highlighted for maximum visibility.

It’s also easy to navigate between different interactive elements, from the navigation menu to different buttons, the search bar, links to your account page and shopping cart, and more, whether you use mouse or keyboard navigation.

5. KidsWish

KidsWish is an organization that provides therapy, support services, and an annual Christmas party for children who are disadvantaged or have a disability. It caters to many people with different disabilities, so naturally, their developers built a website that was as accessible as possible.

And guess what? They nailed it. The KidsWish website is wonderfully designed, with a logical structure, keyboard-friendly navigation, high-contrast colors, and large text. Plus, it’s easy to browse with prominent, clickable elements.

The design is also very child-friendly. It boasts a bright, bold color scheme and tons of fun graphics.

6. Nomensa

Nomensa is a strategic user experience (UX) design agency based in London. They put such a focus on accessible design, that they offer a web accessibility test that their current and prospective customers can take to see how their sites measure up against international standards.

The agency then offers design services to help customers correct any issues discovered by the accessibility testing tool.

Get this: the firm’s co-founder is a co-chair of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and helped write the WCAG guidelines that direct web accessibility best practices. It’s no wonder Nomensa takes accessibility solutions so seriously!

7. Ovo Energy

Ovo Energy is a UK-based energy company. Its website features information about tariffs and bundles and includes a main login portal for customers to service their accounts.

The company has done a wonderful job of making the site accessible to all by using large readable text and a clear interface. It also incorporates keyboard navigation to make it easy to get around the site.

The designers went above and beyond to ensure that the site is accessible to visually- and hearing-impaired users. There are SignVideo services for British Sign Language users, and the color contrast meets WCAG guidelines.

Customers can also request bills in Braille and larger formats. In addition to all of this, the site is compatible with assistive technology.

8. Bleacher Report

Sports news site Bleacher Report does something different that’s extremely helpful for users who access their site using screen readers or keyboard controls. The first focus points are the cookies notification, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Use, and if you click on the external link for these, they open in a new window.

To users without disabilities, this may not seem like a big deal, but this gives all visitors to Bleacher Report’s site access to important legal information. On most sites, the legal and cookies alerts are at the bottom of the page, which means visitors who use keyboard controls or screen readers get to them at the end of their visit, after browsing through the rest of the site. This is a small change with a big impact for people with disabilities.

9. BBC iPlayer

BBC iPlayer is the BBC’s online streaming service. Users watch programs online on its website. It’s also another fantastic web accessibility example that we can all learn from.

First, the website is both very easy to navigate and compatible with assistive technology. You can move around the page by clicking on the Tab button. Navigating over the iPlayer logo brings up an option for Accessibility help, which links to a resource page with a lot of useful information for users with disabilities.

The content is logically laid out, and all buttons use a clear visual design with high-contrast colors. There are also keyboard and mouse-accessible tooltips that provide extra information for users and descriptive alt text for all images.

The video content is also accessible. All shows on BBC iPlayer feature subtitles. There are also audio-described and signed content categories.

10. Metropolitan Transportation Authority

In addition to having a responsive site that’s easy to use on devices with screens of all sizes, New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority also has a built-in search experience that helps users find the information they’re looking for more quickly and easily. How? The search function still provides results even if users misspell words or provide inputs in the wrong formats.

For example, if a user inputs an address or neighborhood into the MTA’s trip planner with a typo, the search bar will still suggest addresses based on its best guess of what the user was looking for.

11. NSW Government

The NSW Government website is the government hub for the New South Wales area of Australia. The website is designed to be user-friendly for residents from all backgrounds and abilities.

The website features tab navigation, making it simple to navigate pages using a keyboard or screen reader. Thanks to large fonts and contrasting colors, it’s also extremely readable and gets points for being compatible with assistive technology.

12. GOV.UK

GOV.UK is the central hub for all U.K. government web pages. The site provides information about everything from disability aid and benefits to visa and immigration support.

The U.K. Government has done an amazing job of making its site accessible for everyone who needs it. The website features keyboard navigation and ARIA attributes, so you can find pages easily. Furthermore, it’s designed to support 300% zoom for visually-impaired readers.

Make An Accessibility Statement

Making sure your website is as accessible as possible is both a moral and a professional obligation. It might seem like a challenge, but we promise you — it’s worth it. The examples above will guide you in creating an inclusive website that will be accessible to all users.

Ready to build your accessible website? Let us take care of the technical side for you, so you can focus more of your time and energy on what matters: the design. Sign up for our Shared Unlimited Hosting Plan and get unlimited, secure hosting for all of your websites.

Note: We do extensive research on disability-inclusive language for our articles. Remember to utilize your resources when creating accessible content, and when in doubt, always ask. 

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You need one that looks professional and works well on different devices, but you don’t have a lot of time to design everything from scratch.

This is where a framework like Bootstrap comes in. It gives you a head start on building responsive websites. Instead of staring at a blank page, you start with a grid and pre-built components. It’s like having a bunch of Legos. You’ve still got to put them together, but the hard part of making all the individual pieces is already done.

If Bootstrap sounds like a good fit for your project, this guide is for you. We’ll take you through everything you need to know to start building websites with Bootstrap.

Let’s get started!

What Is Bootstrap?

Bootstrap is a free, open-source CSS framework that provides a collection of pre-built components, styles, and tools for creating responsive and consistent web designs. Developed by Twitter engineers Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton in 2011, it has since become one of the go-to frameworks for web developers worldwide.

Bootstrap is currently the sixth most popular framework in the top million sites in the JavaScript libraries category.

While jQuery and React have received much attention in recent years, over 1.2 million websites worldwide still use Bootstrap.

This framework is mobile-first, meaning it prioritizes the layout and styling for smaller screens and progressively enhances the design for larger screens. Because of this approach, all websites built using Bootstrap are responsive across screen sizes by default.

What Makes Bootstrap Different?

Bootstrap stands out from other CSS frameworks in a few key ways.

Its pre-made components, such as navbars, buttons, forms, and cards, save developers a lot of time. Bootstrap’s responsive grid system makes it easy to create layouts that look good on different screen sizes, from big desktop monitors to small phone screens.

Every component of Bootstrap is customizable, so you can change colors and sizes to fit your specific design. This approach offers several advantages:

1. Rapid development: With a wide range of pre-built components and utility classes, developers can quickly prototype and build web pages without spending excessive time on custom CSS.
2. Consistent design: Bootstrap enforces a consistent design language across projects, ensuring a cohesive and professional look and feel.
3. Responsive by default: Bootstrap’s components and grid system are designed to be responsive, adapting to different screen sizes and devices without the need for extensive custom media queries.
4. Cross-browser compatibility: Bootstrap takes care of cross-browser compatibility issues, allowing developers to focus on building functionality rather than worrying about browser inconsistencies.

However, Bootstrap, like any framework, isn’t one size fits all.

Websites built with Bootstrap look similar with different layouts simply because the UI elements are reused. The framework also comes with a lot of CSS and JavaScript that you might not use, which can slow down your website if you’re not careful. There’s also a learning curve in adopting the classes in the framework.

Despite these potential drawbacks, Bootstrap is still a powerful and popular tool for web development, especially if you want to start quickly. Let’s take a look at how to do just that.

Getting Started With Bootstrap

Before we talk about the basics, here are three ways to import the framework:

1. Download the compiled CSS and JavaScript files from the official Bootstrap website and link to them in your HTML file.
2. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to load Bootstrap from a remote server.
3. Install Bootstrap via a package manager like npm if you’re using a build tool.

For simplicity, let’s use the CDN method. Add the following lines inside the <head> tag of your HTML file:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.3/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css">

Then, add the following line just before the closing </body> tag.

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.3/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js"></script>

Note: You need to add these lines for all the following code examples to work.

The Bootstrap Grid System

The Bootstrap grid system is one of its core features, enabling the creation of responsive layouts that adapt effortlessly to different screen sizes.

It is based on a 12-column layout and uses predefined classes to specify how elements should behave at various breakpoints.

Basic Grid

The basic grid is a simple frame with equal-width columns that get taller when the content inside is longer. To create a basic one, start with a container <div> and add rows and columns. Here’s an example:

<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col">
      <div class="bg-light border p-3 text-center">
        <h3>Column 1</h3>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col">
      <div class="bg-light border p-3 text-center">
        <h3>Column 2</h3>
        <p>Pellentesque euismod dapibus odio, at volutpat sapien.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col">
      <div class="bg-light border p-3 text-center">
        <h3>Column 3</h3>
        <p>Sed tincidunt neque vel risus faucibus fringilla.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

As you see, we’ve created three equal-width columns. Bootstrap handles the padding, spacing between columns, and the alignment.

Grid Column Length

What if you want to control the length of the column? Bootstrap has 12 unit settings that let you decide how wide or how narrow a column can be.  For example, to create a row with two columns where the first column takes up eight units and the second column takes up four units, you can do the following:

<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-8">
      <div class="bg-light border p-3 text-center">
        <h3>Wider Column</h3>
        <p>Nunc vitae metus non velit aliquam rhoncus vel in leo.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col-4">
      <div class="bg-light border p-3 text-center">
        <h3>Narrower Column</h3>
        <p>Fusce nec tellus sed augue semper porta.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

As you may note, there’s a difference in the column classes where the wider column has class col-8 and the narrower column is col-4.

Responsive Column Width

Bootstrap also provides responsive classes that allow you to specify different column widths for different screen sizes. These classes are based on breakpoints, which are predefined screen widths. The available breakpoints are:

• xs (extra small): Less than 576px
• sm (small): 576px and up
• md (medium): 768px and up
• lg (large): 992px and up
• xl (extra large): 1200px and up
• xxl (extra extra large): 1400px and up

To use responsive classes, append the breakpoint abbreviation to the col- prefix. For example:

<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-6">
      <div class="bg-light border p-3 text-center">
        <h3>Column 1</h3>
        <p>Maecenas sed diam eget risus varius blandit sit amet non magna.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col-md-6">
      <div class="bg-light border p-3 text-center">
        <h3>Column 2</h3>
        <p>Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

We’ve added the col-md-6 width here, so the columns will automatically resize whenever the screen size is 768px and above.

Bootstrap Components

Bootstrap offers a wide range of pre-built components for assembling user interfaces quickly. These components are responsive and customizable. Let’s explore some commonly used ones.

Buttons

Bootstrap provides well-designed button styles out of the box. To create a button, add the btn class to a <button> or <a> element.

Customize it by adding classes like btn-primary, btn-secondary, btn-success, etc.

<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary">Primary Button</button>
<button type="button" class="btn btn-secondary">Secondary Button</button>
<a href="#" class="btn btn-success">Success Link Button</a>

Cards

Cards are versatile containers for content like images, text, and buttons. They provide a structured way to present information.

<div class="card">
  <img src="https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.5/assets/img/bootstrap-icons.png" class="card-img-top" alt="Card Image">
  <div class="card-body">
    <h5 class="card-title">Card Title</h5>
    <p class="card-text">Some quick example text to build on the card title.</p>
    <a href="#" class="btn btn-primary">Go somewhere</a>
  </div>
</div>

Here, you can see a card with an image at the top, followed by a title, some text, and a button. The card-img-top class positions the image at the top of the card, while the card-body class provides padding and spacing for the content inside the card.

Navbar

The navbar component is a responsive navigation header with branding, links, forms, and more. It automatically collapses on smaller screens and provides a toggler button to expand the menu.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">My Website</a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNav" aria-controls="navbarNav" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNav">
      <ul class="navbar-nav">
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

With this simple code snippet, we created a toggle menu button for small screens and a list of navigation links.

The navbar-expand-lg class specifies that the navbar should expand on large screens and collapse on smaller ones. The navbar-light and bg-light classes set the color scheme for the navbar. Compare that to creating the menu with plain CSS, and you’ll understand how many steps Bootstrap saved us.

Forms

Moving on to forms, Bootstrap has a range of form controls and layout options to create interactive and accessible forms.

You can easily style form elements like input fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and more.

<form>
  <div class="mb-3">
    <label for="exampleInputEmail1" class="form-label">Email address</label>
    <input type="email" class="form-control" id="exampleInputEmail1" aria-describedby="emailHelp">
    <div id="emailHelp" class="form-text">We'll never share your email with anyone else.</div>
  </div>
  <div class="mb-3">
    <label for="exampleInputPassword1" class="form-label">Password</label>
    <input type="password" class="form-control" id="exampleInputPassword1">
  </div>
  <div class="mb-3 form-check">
    <input type="checkbox" class="form-check-input" id="exampleCheck1">
    <label class="form-check-label" for="exampleCheck1">Check me out</label>
  </div>
  <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
</form>

Bootstrap styling has auto-aligned and beautified this form layout from behind the scenes.

This form example includes an email input field, a password input field, a checkbox, and a submit button. The form-label class styles the labels, while the form-control class styles the input fields. The mb-3 class adds a bottom margin to the form groups for spacing.

Creating A Simple Analytics Dashboard With Bootstrap

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s put it all together and build a real-world example: an analytics dashboard.

Imagine you’re building a web application that displays analytics data for a business. The dashboard will include a header with a logo and navigation, a main content area with data, and a footer with additional links.

Let’s break this down into manageable sections using plain language that’s easy to follow.

Setting Up The HTML

First things first, we need to set up our HTML file.

Start by creating a new file and adding the basic structure, like the <!DOCTYPE html> declaration and the <html>, <head>, and <body> tags. In the <head> section, remember to specify the character encoding, viewport, and page title.

Here’s what your HTML should look like so far, including the Bootstrap.css (imported in the <head>) and the Bootstrap.js (imported right before closing <body>) files called into the HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>Analytics Dashboard</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.0/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>
  <!-- Your content will go here -->

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.0/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js"></script>

</body>
</html>

Adding The Header Navigation

Next up, let’s create a header with a navigation bar. Use the <header> tag, and add a <nav> element inside it. Bootstrap’s navbar component is perfect for this. Then, include a logo and some navigation links, like “Overview,” “Reports,” and “Settings.”

Paste this header code inside the <body> tags

<header>
  <nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
    <div class="container">
      <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Analytics Dashboard</a>
      <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNav" aria-controls="navbarNav" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
        <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
      </button>
      <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNav">
        <ul class="navbar-nav ms-auto">
          <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link active" href="#">Overview</a>
          </li>
          <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Reports</a>
          </li>
          <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Settings</a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </div>
    </div>
  </nav>
</header>

Here’s what the navigation bar will look like:

The navbar-expand-lg class makes the navigation responsive, collapsing on smaller screens.

We used navbar-dark and bg-dark to give it a sleek, dark appearance. The navigation links are in an unordered list, and ms-auto pushes them to the right side of the navbar.

Creating The Main Content Area

Time to tackle the main content! Let’s use the <main> tag and create a two-column layout with Bootstrap’s grid system.

The left column will hold cards for displaying charts or graphs, and the right column will have a card showing key metrics. Paste this code right below the </header> closing tag.

To make this example more interactive, let’s add Chart.js to show user metrics. Add this script to your <head>.

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js"></script>

Remember, you can skip adding this script and the sample data if you just want to see how Bootstrap works. We’re adding it so the boxes aren’t empty.

Now, let’s write the bootstrap columns to give space for the charts and the data metrics.

<main class="container my-5">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-8">
        <div class="card mb-4">
          <div class="card-body">
            <h5 class="card-title">Website Traffic</h5>
            <canvas id="trafficChart"></canvas>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div class="card mb-4">
          <div class="card-body">
            <h5 class="card-title">User Acquisition</h5>
            <canvas id="userChart"></canvas>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="col-md-4">
        <div class="card mb-4">
          <div class="card-body">
            <h5 class="card-title">Key Metrics</h5>
            <ul class="list-group list-group-flush">
              <li class="list-group-item">Total Users: 10,000</li>
              <li class="list-group-item">New Users: 500</li>
              <li class="list-group-item">Bounce Rate: 25%</li>
            </ul>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </main>

Finally, paste this sample data right before the closing body </body> tag. Again, this is not necessary if you only want to see Bootstrap columns in action. We’re adding this sample data for Chart.js to pick up the information and show it on an interactive chart.

<script>
    // Website Traffic Line Chart
    var trafficCtx = document.getElementById('trafficChart').getContext('2d');
    var trafficChart = new Chart(trafficCtx, {
      type: 'line',
      data: {
        labels: ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun'],
        datasets: [{
          label: 'Unique Visitors',
          data: [8000, 9500, 10200, 9800, 11000, 12500],
          borderColor: 'rgba(75, 192, 192, 1)',
          fill: false
        }]
      },
      options: {
        responsive: true,
        scales: {
          y: {
            beginAtZero: true
          }
        }
      }
    });

    // User Acquisition Bar Chart
    var userCtx = document.getElementById('userChart').getContext('2d');
    var userChart = new Chart(userCtx, {
      type: 'bar',
      data: {
        labels: ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun'],
        datasets: [{
          label: 'New Users',
          data: [400, 450, 500, 450, 550, 600],
          backgroundColor: 'rgba(54, 162, 235, 0.6)'
        }]
      },
      options: {
        responsive: true,
        scales: {
          y: {
            beginAtZero: true
          }
        }
      }
    });
  </script>

Putting it all together, you’ll see a beautiful dashboard with a line chart and a bar chart showing growth in our key metrics. The key metrics are also visible on the right side in table format.

We’ve used the container class to center the content and add some padding. The row class creates a row, and col-md-* classes define the column widths.

The left column (col-md-8) has two cards for charts, while the right column (col-md-4) has a card with key metrics in a list group.

Adding The Footer

Almost there!

Let’s add a footer with some copyright info and links. We’ll use the <footer> tag and Bootstrap’s grid system and spacing utilities to control the layout and padding.

<footer class="bg-light py-3">
  <div class="container">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-6">
        <p>&copy; 2023 Analytics Dashboard. All rights reserved.</p>
      </div>
      <div class="col-md-6 text-md-end">
        <a href="#">Privacy Policy</a>
        <a href="#" class="ms-3">Terms of Service</a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</footer>

You should now see this footer added to the button of your dashboard.

The bg-light class gives the footer a light background color, and py-3 adds vertical padding. We’ve split the footer into two columns: one for the copyright notice and one for the links. The text-md-end class aligns the links to the right on medium-sized screens and larger ones.

Putting It All Together

Let’s combine the code now so you can see the complete picture.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>Analytics Dashboard</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.0/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css">
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js"></script>
  
</head>
<body>
<header>
  <nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
    <div class="container">
      <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Analytics Dashboard</a>
      <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNav" aria-controls="navbarNav" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
        <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
      </button>
      <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNav">
        <ul class="navbar-nav ms-auto">
          <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link active" href="#">Overview</a>
          </li>
          <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Reports</a>
          </li>
          <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Settings</a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </div>
    </div>
  </nav>
</header>
  <main class="container my-5">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-8">
        <div class="card mb-4">
          <div class="card-body">
            <h5 class="card-title">Website Traffic</h5>
            <canvas id="trafficChart"></canvas>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div class="card mb-4">
          <div class="card-body">
            <h5 class="card-title">User Acquisition</h5>
            <canvas id="userChart"></canvas>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="col-md-4">
        <div class="card mb-4">
          <div class="card-body">
            <h5 class="card-title">Key Metrics</h5>
            <ul class="list-group list-group-flush">
              <li class="list-group-item">Total Users: 10,000</li>
              <li class="list-group-item">New Users: 500</li>
              <li class="list-group-item">Bounce Rate: 25%</li>
            </ul>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </main>
<script>
    // Website Traffic Line Chart
    var trafficCtx = document.getElementById('trafficChart').getContext('2d');
    var trafficChart = new Chart(trafficCtx, {
      type: 'line',
      data: {
        labels: ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun'],
        datasets: [{
          label: 'Unique Visitors',
          data: [8000, 9500, 10200, 9800, 11000, 12500],
          borderColor: 'rgba(75, 192, 192, 1)',
          fill: false
        }]
      },
      options: {
        responsive: true,
        scales: {
          y: {
            beginAtZero: true
          }
        }
      }
    });

    // User Acquisition Bar Chart
    var userCtx = document.getElementById('userChart').getContext('2d');
    var userChart = new Chart(userCtx, {
      type: 'bar',
      data: {
        labels: ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun'],
        datasets: [{
          label: 'New Users',
          data: [400, 450, 500, 450, 550, 600],
          backgroundColor: 'rgba(54, 162, 235, 0.6)'
        }]
      },
      options: {
        responsive: true,
        scales: {
          y: {
            beginAtZero: true
          }
        }
      }
    });
  </script>
</body>
<footer class="bg-light py-3">
  <div class="container">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-6">
        <p>&copy; 2023 Analytics Dashboard. All rights reserved.</p>
      </div>
      <div class="col-md-6 text-md-end">
        <a href="#">Privacy Policy</a>
        <a href="#" class="ms-3">Terms of Service</a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</footer>
</html>

As you can see, the responsive navigation bar is at the top, with the charts directly below it. Bootstrap handles the padding and spacing between grid items, which you can see on your dashboard metrics.

At the bottom of the screen is the footer with the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service links.

You’ve just created a simple analytics dashboard using Bootstrap. But Bootstrap has tons of components we haven’t even touched upon yet. Be sure to explore the Bootstrap components library to find reusable components for your future projects.

A Toolkit For Responsive Web Design

Bootstrap is a popular framework that helps web developers quickly create responsive websites. It has a grid system, pre-built components, and customization options, making it easier to develop websites that look good on different devices.

Developers with all levels of experience use Bootstrap. It’s pretty easy to learn, but it’s powerful enough to handle big projects. There’s a big community of Bootstrap users for support and lots of resources to help you learn the framework.

When you build a Bootstrap site, you need a good hosting company, too. DreamHost has a virtual private server (VPS) option that works perfectly. It’s flexible and can handle different needs as your Bootstrap site grows.

Why not give Bootstrap a shot and see what you can create? With the right tools and a hosting plan from a company like Dreamhost, you can make responsive websites in no time.

Create a Website for All

We make sure your website is fast and secure so you can focus on the important stuff.

Choose Your Plan

The post Your Complete Bootstrap Primer appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

Tailwind CSS takes a different approach. As a utility-first CSS framework, it provides low-level utility classes that allow developers to build custom designs without being constrained by pre-defined components.

With over 675,375 websites using Tailwind CSS and over 8.61 million dependent repositories, Tailwind has become more than just another CSS framework.

In this article, we’ll go over understanding the concepts of Tailwind CSS, the setup process, and practical usage so you can start building your beautiful custom UIs without learning CSS.

Let’s get started!

What Is Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind CSS is a highly customizable, low-level CSS framework that provides a set of utility classes to rapidly build custom user interfaces. It was first developed and released by Adam Wathan in 2017.

Since then, Tailwind has seen an upward trajectory in websites being built using the Tailwind library.

While the growth currently seems to have slowed as per the BuiltWith charts, the framework itself is regularly updated with new features, classes, and more.

According to BuiltWith’s tech stack data, over 100,000 websites in the US alone use Tailwind to build their user interfaces along with the UK, Indonesia, Germany, and other countries making it to the top 10 users of this library.

The core philosophy behind Tailwind CSS is to provide developers with a set of building blocks rather than pre-built components. These building blocks are small, single-purpose utility classes that can be combined to create complex and responsive layouts.

This approach allows for greater flexibility and control over the design, as you can customize every aspect of your UI without being limited by the framework’s opinionated styles.

What Makes Tailwind CSS Different?

Traditionally, when working with CSS, developers write custom classes in separate stylesheets to style their HTML elements. This approach can lead to large CSS files and make maintaining and updating styles across a project challenging.

Tailwind provides a comprehensive set of utility classes that can be applied directly to HTML elements. These classes are highly composable, allowing developers to build complex, custom designs without writing a single line of custom CSS.

For example, instead of writing a custom CSS class to style a button, you can use Tailwind’s pre-defined classes like this:

<button class="bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded">
  Button
</button>

This approach has several benefits:

1. Faster development: The pre-defined classes help developers rapidly build and iterate on designs without constantly switching between HTML and CSS files.
2. Consistent styling: Tailwind provides a standardized set of classes, which helps maintain consistency in design across a project.
3. Smaller CSS files: Because styles are applied directly in the HTML, there’s no need for large, custom CSS files.
4. Easier maintenance: With styles defined in the HTML, it’s easier to see how changes will affect a specific element without hunting through separate CSS files.
5. Better performance: Many modern styling systems like Emotion or Styled Components rely on javascript (usually during run-time, slower performance) to render your css. Tailwind is just CSS at the end of the day.

Tailwind turned me into a complete stack developer 🤝”
— Boris Lepikhin

Getting Started With Tailwind CSS

Before we jump into examples, let’s set up a basic project with Tailwind CSS. We’ll assume you have some familiarity with HTML and CSS. Also, you need to have npm installed on your system. Once you’re done, you’re good to go ahead!

Create a new directory for your project and navigate into it:

mkdir my-tailwind-project
cd my-tailwind-project

Initialize a new npm project and install Tailwind CSS:

npm init -y
npm install -D tailwindcss

Create a tailwind.config.js file:

npx tailwindcss init

Create an input.css file and add the following:

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

Update your tailwind.config.js file to process your input.css:

module.exports = {
  content: ["./src/**/*.{html,js}"],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
}

Create an index.html file in a src directory and add the following:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <link href="/dist/output.css" rel="stylesheet">
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1 class="text-3xl font-bold text-center mt-4">Welcome to Tailwind CSS!</h1>
  </body>
</html>

Build your CSS:

npx tailwindcss -i ./src/input.css -o ./src/output.css --watch

Now, when you open index.html in your browser, you should see a large, bold heading that says Welcome to Tailwind CSS!

Congratulations, you’ve set up your first Tailwind project!

Tailwind CSS Utility Classes

Tailwind CSS provides a wide range of utility classes that cover various aspects of styling, such as layout, spacing, typography, colors, and more. These classes follow a naming convention that makes it intuitive to understand their purpose.

Let’s explore some commonly used utility classes in Tailwind CSS.

Tailwind Layout Classes

• flex: Applies a flex container.
• grid: Applies a grid container.
• block: Displays an element as a block-level element.
• inline: Displays an element as an inline-level element.

Example:

<div class="flex">
  <div>Item 1</div>
  <div>Item 2</div>
</div>

Tailwind Spacing Classes

• m-{size}: Applies margin on all sides.
• p-{size}: Applies padding on all sides.
• mx-{size}: Applies margin on the left and right.
• py-{size}: Applies padding on the top and bottom.

Example:

<div class="m-4 p-2">
  Content with margin and padding
</div>

Tailwind Typography Classes

• text-{size}: Sets the font size.
• font-{weight}: Sets the font weight.
• text-{color}: Sets the text color.
• uppercase, lowercase, capitalize: Transforms text case.

Example:

<p class="text-lg font-bold text-blue-500 uppercase">
  Styled text
</p>

Tailwind Colors

Tailwind CSS provides a default color palette that can be customized. Colors are defined using a combination of the color name and shade.

• bg-{color}-{shade}: Sets the background color.
• text-{color}-{shade}: Sets the text color.
• border-{color}-{shade}: Sets the border color.

Example:

<button class="bg-blue-500 text-white border-2 border-blue-700">
  Button
</button>

Tailwind Classes For Responsive Design

Tailwind makes it easy to create responsive designs by providing responsive variants for most of its utility classes. These variants allow you to specify different styles for different screen sizes.

Tailwind uses a mobile-first approach, where the base styles are applied to all screen sizes, and then larger screen sizes are targeted using responsive prefixes:

• sm: Applies styles to small screens and up (640px and up).
• md: Applies styles to medium screens and up (768px and up).
• lg: Applies styles to large screens and up (1024px and up).
• xl: Applies styles to extra-large screens and up (1280px and up).
• 2xl: Applies styles to extra-extra-large screens and up (1536px and up).

To use these responsive variants, simply prefix the utility class with the desired screen size:

<div class="bg-blue-500 md:bg-green-500 lg:bg-red-500">
  <!-- Content -->
</div>

In this example, the div will have a blue background on small screens, a green background on medium screens, and a red background on large screens.

You can also use responsive variants to control the layout of your elements:

<div class="flex flex-col md:flex-row">
  <div class="w-full md:w-1/2 lg:w-1/3">Column 1</div>
  <div class="w-full md:w-1/2 lg:w-1/3">Column 2</div>
  <div class="w-full md:w-1/2 lg:w-1/3">Column 3</div>
</div>

Here, the columns will stack vertically on small screens, display in two columns on medium screens, and three columns on large screens.

Customizing The Default Classes Of Tailwind CSS

One of the strengths of Tailwind CSS is its customization options. You can easily customize the default configuration to match your project’s design requirements. The tailwind.config.js file allows you to extend or override the default settings.

Here are a few common customization options. You can totally customize every part of Tailwind, so this isn’t an exhaustive list by any means.

Colors

Tailwind CSS provides a rich color palette out of the box, but you can easily customize it to match your project’s branding or design requirements. The tailwind.config.js file allows you to extend or override the default color palette. To add custom colors, you can use the extend property within the colors object:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        'brand-primary': '#ff5a5f',
        'brand-secondary': '#484848',
        'brand-accent': '#ffcc00',
      },
    },
  },
}

In this example, we’ve added three custom colors: brand-primary, brand-secondary, and brand-accent.

These colors can now be used with utility classes like bg-brand-primary, text-brand-secondary, border-brand-accent, etc. You can also modify existing color shades or add new shades to the default color palette like so:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        blue: {
          '100': '#e6f0ff',
          '200': '#c3d9ff',
          '300': '#a1c2ff',
          '400': '#7eabff',
          … and so on …
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Font Family

Tailwind CSS uses a default font family stack, but similar to colors, you can change these defaults to match your project’s typography style.

In the tailwind.config.js file, you can extend or replace the default font family. To add custom font families, use the extend property within the fontFamily object:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      fontFamily: {
        sans: ['Poppins', 'sans-serif'],
        serif: ['Merriweather', 'serif'],
        mono: ['Fira Code', 'monospace'],
      },
    },
  },
}

You can also completely replace the default font family by omitting the extend property:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    fontFamily: {
      'body': ['Open Sans', 'sans-serif'],
      'heading': ['Montserrat', 'sans-serif'],
    },
  },
}

Responsive Breakpoints

Tailwind CSS provides a responsive design system out of the box, but you can further customize it to match your project’s specific breakpoints and responsive requirements.

By modifying the screens object in the tailwind.config.js file, you can define custom breakpoints and apply different styles based on screen sizes.

For example, let’s say you have a unique breakpoint at 1440px where you want to apply specific styles:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    screens: {
      'xs': '480px',
      'sm': '640px',
      'md': '768px',
      'lg': '1024px',
      'xl': '1440px',
    },
  },
}

With this custom breakpoint defined, you can use responsive utility classes like xl:text-lg, xl:flex, xl:w-1/2, etc., to apply styles specifically for screens wider than 1440px.

Spacing

Tailwind CSS provides a comprehensive set of spacing values for margins, paddings, and other spacing-related utilities. You can customize these values to match your project’s layout requirements. To add custom spacing values, use the extend property within the spacing object:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      spacing: {
        '13': '3.25rem',
        '15': '3.75rem',
        '128': '32rem',
        '144': '36rem',
      },
    },
  },
}

Integrating Third-Party Libraries

Tailwind CSS integrates with popular front-end libraries and frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular. When working with these libraries, you can leverage Tailwind’s utility classes to style your components to create consistent and maintainable user interfaces. For example, in a React component, you can apply Tailwind utility classes directly to the JSX elements:

import React from 'react';

const Card = () => {
  return (
    <div className="bg-white shadow-md rounded-lg p-6">
      <h2 className="text-2xl font-bold mb-4">Card Title</h2>
      <p className="text-gray-600">Card content goes here...</p>
    </div>
  );
};

export default Card;

This multi-framework approach makes it really easy to bring together the best of all worlds, helping you create a beautiful app with almost no effort.

Building A Simple Application In Tailwind CSS

Let’s say you’re building a simple landing page for a fictional online course platform called LearnHub using Tailwind to style the entire page.

Step 1: Setting Up The HTML Structure

First, let’s create the basic HTML structure for our landing page:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <link href="output.css" rel="stylesheet">
  <title>LearnHub - Online Course Platform</title>
</head>
<body>
  <header>
    <!-- Navigation menu will go here -->
  </header>

  <main>
    <!-- Main content will go here -->
  </main>

  <footer>
    <!-- Footer content will go here -->
  </footer>
</body>
</html>

In this step, we’ve set up the basic structure of our HTML document. We have the <head> section where we include the necessary meta tags and link to our CSS file (output.css). Inside the <body>, we have the <header>, <main>, and <footer> sections where we’ll add our content.

Step 2: Creating The Navigation Menu

Now, let’s add a simple navigation menu to the <header> section using Tailwind CSS utility classes:

<header class="bg-blue-600 text-white py-4">
  <nav class="container mx-auto flex justify-between items-center">
    <a href="#" class="text-2xl font-bold">LearnHub</a>
    <ul class="flex space-x-4">
      <li><a href="#" class="hover:text-blue-200">Courses</a></li>
      <li><a href="#" class="hover:text-blue-200">Pricing</a></li>
      <li><a href="#" class="hover:text-blue-200">About</a></li>
    </ul>
  </nav>
</header>

Here’s what each class does:

• bg-blue-600: Sets the background color of the header to a shade of blue.
• text-white: Sets the text color to white.
• py-4: Adds padding to the top and bottom of the header.
• container mx-auto: Centers the navigation menu horizontally.
• flex justify-between items-center: Uses flexbox to space out the logo and menu items evenly and align them vertically.
• text-2xl font-bold: Makes the logo text larger and bold.
• flex space-x-4: Adds spacing between the menu items using flexbox.
• hover:text-blue-200: Changes the text color to a lighter shade of blue when hovering over the menu items.

Step 3: Adding The Main Content

Let’s add some content to the <main> section of our landing page:

<main class="container mx-auto mt-8">
  <section class="bg-gray-100 rounded-lg p-6">
    <h1 class="text-3xl font-bold mb-4">Welcome to LearnHub</h1>
    <p class="text-gray-700 mb-6">Discover a world of knowledge with our online courses.</p>
    <a href="#" class="bg-blue-600 text-white px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-blue-700">Start Learning</a>
  </section>

  <section class="mt-8">
    <h2 class="text-2xl font-bold mb-4">Featured Courses</h2>
    <div class="grid grid-cols-1 sm:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-4">
      <!-- Course cards will go here -->
    </div>
  </section>
</main>

Here’s what each class does:

• container mx-auto: Centers the main content horizontally.
• mt-8: Adds margin to the top of the main content.
• bg-gray-100 rounded-lg p-6: Adds a light gray background, rounds the corners, and adds padding to the welcome section.
• text-3xl font-bold mb-4: Makes the heading text larger, bold, and adds margin at the bottom.
• text-gray-700 mb-6: Sets the text color to a darker gray and adds a margin at the bottom for the paragraph.
• bg-blue-600 text-white px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-blue-700: Styles the Start Learning button with a blue background, white text, padding, rounded corners, and a darker blue background on hover.
• text-2xl font-bold mb-4: Makes the Featured Courses heading larger, bold, and adds margin at the bottom.
• grid grid-cols-1 sm:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-4: Creates a responsive grid layout for the course cards. It shows one column on small screens, two columns on medium screens, and three columns on large screens, with a gap between the cards.

Putting the header and main code together you should have the following output:

Step 4: Adding The Footer

Finally, let’s add a simple footer to our landing page:

<footer class="bg-gray-800 text-white py-4 mt-8">
  <div class="container mx-auto text-center">
    <p>&copy; 2023 LearnHub. All rights reserved.</p>
  </div>
</footer>

Here’s what each class does:

• bg-gray-800 text-white: Sets the background color of the footer to a dark gray and the text color to white.
• py-4: Adds padding to the top and bottom of the footer.
• mt-8: Adds margin to the top of the footer.
• container mx-auto: Centers the footer content horizontally.
• text-center: Centers the text within the footer.

Putting It All Together

Here’s the final code put together:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
 <head>
   <meta charset="UTF-8" />
   <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
   <link href="output.css" rel="stylesheet" />
   <title>LearnHub - Online Course Platform</title>
 </head>
 <body>
   <header class="bg-blue-600 py-4 text-white">
     <nav class="container mx-auto flex items-center justify-between">
       <a href="#" class="text-2xl font-bold">LearnHub</a>
       <ul class="flex space-x-4">
         <li><a href="#" class="hover:text-blue-200">Courses</a></li>
         <li><a href="#" class="hover:text-blue-200">Pricing</a></li>
         <li><a href="#" class="hover:text-blue-200">About</a></li>
       </ul>
     </nav>
   </header>

   <main class="container mx-auto mt-8">
     <section class="rounded-lg bg-gray-100 p-6">
       <h1 class="mb-4 text-3xl font-bold">Welcome to LearnHub</h1>
       <p class="mb-6 text-gray-700">Discover a world of knowledge with our online courses.</p>
       <a href="#" class="rounded bg-blue-600 px-4 py-2 text-white hover:bg-blue-700">Start Learning</a>
     </section>

     <section class="mt-8">
       <h2 class="mb-4 text-2xl font-bold">Featured Courses</h2>
       <div class="grid grid-cols-1 gap-4 sm:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3">
         <!-- Course cards will go here -->
       </div>
     </section>
   </main>

   <footer class="mt-8 bg-gray-800 py-4 text-white">
     <div class="container mx-auto text-center">
       <p>&copy; 2023 LearnHub. All rights reserved.</p>
     </div>
   </footer>
 </body>
</html>

To display the output to users, you’ll need to have Tailwind CSS properly set up in your project. Make sure you have followed the installation steps mentioned earlier, including creating the tailwind.config.js file and processing your CSS with Tailwind.

Once you have Tailwind CSS set up, you can save this code in an HTML file (e.g., index.html) and open it in a web browser. The browser will render the landing page with the styles applied using Tailwind CSS utility classes. If you simply want to test Tailwind, you can always use Tailwind Play, a nifty little tool by Tailwind where you can play with the different classes.

And there you have it! We’ve created a simple landing page for our fictional online course platform using Tailwind CSS utility classes.

Where To Go From Here?

Now that you’ve seen the power and flexibility of Tailwind CSS, you know the possibilities are endless here. Its flexible and customizable nature can help you build anything from simple landing pages to complex web applications while maintaining a clean and consistent design.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Build a portfolio website: Show your skills and projects with a stunning portfolio.
• Create a blog: Share your thoughts and ideas with the world using a beautiful and functional blog designed with Tailwind.
• Develop a web application: Tailwind CSS is perfect for building user interfaces for web applications of all kinds.

No matter what you build, Tailwind CSS can help you create a stunning and well-functioning website.

And when it comes to hosting your creation, consider a reliable and scalable solution like DreamHost’s VPS services to ensure your website runs smoothly and efficiently.

Start building beautiful user interfaces with minimal CSS know-how!

Create a Website for All

We make sure your website is fast and secure so you can focus on the important stuff.

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The post Your Complete Tailwind CSS Primer appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

Selecting your site’s color scheme might seem like one of the smaller decisions. It’s just the finishing touch, right?

Well, actually, no. Website color schemes are important in conversions, brand identity, and visitors’ feelings about your site.

In this guide, we’ll explore the freshest color schemes on the planet and learn why they work. Let’s get started!

What Exactly Is A Website Color Scheme?

Every dash of color you can find on your website is part of the overall color scheme or color palette. That includes every link, graphic, icon, button, and variety of text. It even includes the logo of your site.

When designing your website, it’s important to consider how these colors fit together. You can do this by planning out a color scheme from scratch or adapting the default color scheme of your chosen template.

Why The Color Scheme Of Your Website Matters

A well-crafted color scheme will make your site visually appealing to visitors. But that’s not all. Colors can help to guide visitors through the website, create a specific vibe, and support your branding.

Here’s a closer look at the real-world impact of your color scheme:

It Helps To Define Your Online Brand

Visitors to your site are more likely to purchase or subscribe to your newsletter if your site seems professional. It’s a matter of trust and credibility.

Color has a part to play here. Playful primary colors would work well on a nursery school website. Meanwhile, a kaleidoscope look will have you laughed out of court for a legal services firm.

The color scheme of your website should also play nicely with the rest of your brand. We would recommend avoiding colors that clash with your logo!

It Can Improve Usability

On a more practical note, your choice of color scheme can make it easier (or harder) for visitors to use your website.

Imagine you created a site with a blue background and purple text. Visitors would find reading your blog posts and product descriptions almost impossible. In this example, changing to a color palette with better contrast would massively improve the overall user experience.

Colors can help visitors to navigate, as well. For instance, you can use brighter shades to highlight certain parts of your site, such as links.

It Can Increase Conversions

Speaking of important elements, here’s a fact that might surprise you: the color of buttons on your site affects how many people click them.

Obviously, brighter colors tend to stand out more. And it turns out that certain hues have a psychological effect.

One study of 2,000 visits found that a red CTA (call-to-action) button attracted 20% more clicks than the same button in green. In the context of running a business, that is a pretty massive jump.

We will look deeper into the psychology of color (yes, that’s a thing) a bit later.

40 Beautiful Website Color Schemes To Try

Professional designers often create the color scheme for big projects for each website from scratch, but this isn’t always necessary.

If you’re new to design or looking for inspiration, we recommend choosing a tried-and-tested color combination as a starting point. You can always adjust it later.

To point you in the right direction, we have curated some of the best color schemes on the planet.

Classic And Professional Color Schemes

Let’s start with the basics. You can’t really go wrong with these timeless color schemes:

1. White, Black, And Gray (The All-Time Classic)

This simple combination might not win any awards for creativity, but it comes with a guarantee of readability and professional polish. Adding gray to the monotone look gives you more freedom in design. Best used on professional sites and personal blogs.

2. Navy And Gold (Sophisticated Authority)

Gold highlights sparkle on a cool navy blue background in this color combination. It’s a palette that engenders authority with a touch of luxury. Use it for finance and premium e-commerce.

3. Monochromatic Blue With White (Calm And Classy)

Using lighter and darker versions of the same blue creates a harmonious palette that radiates calming energy. Adding a white background helps to maintain strong usability. It would work well for health and wellness sites and water-related brands.

4. White And Blue-Gray (A Twist On Minimalism)

Even though we’re back to two colors, this scheme provides more interest than straight black and white. The slightly reduced contrast and cool hues create a relaxed yet polished user experience suited to spas and hotels.

5. Forest Green And Cream (Elegant And Organic)

Forest green adds a natural feel to designs and works well as a background for cream-colored content. This color scheme has an organic feel but is still elegant enough for lifestyle websites and sustainable living blogs.

Modern And Bold Color Schemes

While the classics never age, new ideas are worth exploring. If you want to embrace cutting-edge design and make a statement with your site, these attention-grabbing color schemes are worth exploring:

6. Coral And Teal (An Eye-Catching Duo)

The vibrant pink of coral and the blue-green tones of teal combine to make an eye-catching combination. It can work well for brands in the design space and other sites devoted to creativity.

7. Yellow, Black, And White (High Contrast, High Impact)

This high-viz color scheme injects life into your website while maintaining some white space for solid usability. It’s a favorite with tech startups and manufacturers of energy drinks and sports equipment.

8. Fuchsia Fading Into Purple (For Trend Setters)

Much like a creative haircut, a color palette that extends from fuchsia through to deep purple is sure to turn heads. Consider using this scheme if you’re trying to attract a younger, fashion-conscious audience.

9. Orange Fading Into Yellow (Sunset Vibes)

This attractive selection of warm hues is vibrant enough to hold the attention yet somehow quite calming. It suits the younger target market and works well for a wide range of brands — from sleep apps to beach bars.

10. Neon Accents (Make It Pop!)

If you’re looking for something a little more edgy, try adding hints of neon green or pink in a white and black design. It creates a futuristic, night-time look that would suit video games and entertainment venues.

Earthy And Natural Color Schemes

While colors like teal and fuchsia grab the attention, they can seem artificial — like lime green soda. If you’re trying to promote an organic or natural brand, these earthy color schemes might be a better fit:

11. Brown, Beige, And Forest Green (Woodland Tones)

Mimicking the hues of an evergreen forest, this color combo instantly transports your visitors to a shady woodland valley. You can use dark green or brown as the background color; choose this scheme for eco-friendly, organic products and gardening blogs.

12. Terracotta, Sand, And Sky Blue: (Warm Southwestern Vibe)

This collection of colors takes visitors to a warmer, drier environment. The earthy tones provide an excellent backdrop for handmade products or warm negative space around the content on travel blogs.

13. Sage Green, White, And Brown (Calm And Grounding)

This color palette is very pure and elemental, making it well-suited to the wellness and mindfulness space. The green color would also sync nicely with houseplants or all-natural skincare.

14. Muted Green And Tan (Organic Yet Sophisticated)

While this color scheme definitely has an organic vibe, it’s not quite “made from the earth.” Muted green and tan appear more sophisticated, like something you would expect to see on a home décor magazine site or slow-living blog.

15. Monochromatic Coffee With White (The Independent Café)

If you love those earthy tones, try playing with coffee-based colors. This color combo is obviously perfect for cafés. You could also use it to promote chocolates, baking, and leather goods.

Pastel And Playful Color Schemes

Light, breezy color schemes are a common choice in the lifestyle and home décor space. If you’re building a site in this niche, here are some color palettes to try:

16. Mint Green, Blush Pink, And Cream (Soft And Inviting)

This is a very common color combination in modern home décor, and it’s now appearing online. Blush pink adds softness, while mint green seems lush. Use them together with cream on a lifestyle blog or bakery business website.

17. Lilac, Light Yellow, And Gray (Cheerful Spring Colors)

This selection of colors is sure to remind visitors of vibrant spring blooms. At the same time, the lilac provides a sense of calm. You could use this color scheme for blogs on creative hobbies or parenting.

18. Pastel Rainbow (Lighthearted And Playful)

Combining multiple subtle hues, this color combination gives your website a playful, dreamy vibe. It works nicely for sites aimed at younger kids and other brands that want to evoke that carefree feeling.

19. Peach And Turquoise (Vintage-Inspired Fun)

Faded festival T-shirts, 1970s furniture, and hippy album covers — that’s the style you get with peach and turquoise. It’s a relaxed mix that can work well for summery fashion websites and music blogs.

20. Red And Yellow (Pure Fun)

You know when the paint starts flying in kindergarten? You can get that same kind of energy from combining strong red and yellow on your website. This one is definitely for the kids!

Dark And Dramatic Color Schemes

Of course, not everyone likes sunshine and rainbows. If you’re more of a dark and brooding type, these color schemes will better suit your style:

21. Deep Purple And Gold (True Opulence)

You can take the luxurious navy and gold color scheme to the next level by switching royal blue for dark purple. This creates an almost regal look, providing the perfect background for high-end e-commerce and exclusive services.

22. Black And Red (Pure Power)

These two very strong colors can be combined to powerful effect. Black provides the background, while hints of red create eye-catching highlights. Use this scheme if you want your website to feel edgy.

23. Dark Gray, Black, And Neon Accent (Modern Tech)

Drawing on Blade Runner influences, the combination of dark gray, black, and streaks of neon feels sleek and modern. It comes with the implication of futuristic technology, making it well-suited to tech-focused business sites and gaming blogs.

24. Dark Teal And Gold (Exotic Elegance)

You often see the gold leaf and turquoise pairing often in modern jewelry. Using the same colors on your site can introduce exotic elegance; use it for your lifestyle blog or handmade brand.

25. Dark Blue, Beige, And Coral Red (Sleek Yet Vibrant)

Switching out black for deep blue makes your site a little less brooding while maintaining a sleek feel. Coral red provides a nice color contrast for buttons and links. Try this scheme if you’re selling professional services or grooming products.

Fresh And Vibrant Color Schemes

Vibrant color doesn’t have to be child-like. These fresh color schemes should boost your site with a hint of warm midday breeze and a squeeze of zesty lemon:

26. Mustard Yellow, Teal, And White (Upbeat Mood)

Summery yellow and cooling teal work together like chili and sour cream — it’s the perfect match. This cheerful palette would look great on your personal blog. It would also work nicely for creative brands.

27. Aqua, Coral, And Navy (Tropical Cocktail)

If you want your visitors to feel like they’re sipping on a piña colada, this trio of tropical colors should fit the bill. It’s often used by travel bloggers and outdoor brands, but it can bring the sunshine to any site.

28. Turquoise, Magenta, And Gold (Bold Color Contrast)

The contrast between these three strong colors doesn’t suit every project, but it can make your site visually distinctive. Consider using it within your art portfolio website, or for promoting live events online.

29. Burnt Orange, Olive Green, And Cream (Cozy Fall Look)

Like falling leaves, these autumnal colors conjure up the feeling of sipping hot cocoa by an open fire. It’s a cozy vibe that will invite readers into your food blog or have them shopping for home décor in your online store.

30. Bright Yellow And Blue (Instant Impact)

If you’re aiming for maximum impact, you could try pairing together these primary colors. The contrast is intense, but it feels fresh — like blue sea and hot sand. Use it for any project where you’re promoting a new way of doing things.

Soft And Sophisticated Color Schemes

You don’t always have to use powerful colors to catch the attention of your audience. These beautiful color schemes combine subtle colors to great effect:

31. Lavender, Blush Pink, And Light Gray (Delicate Femininity)

This color scheme combines delicate floral notes to turn your website into one big bouquet. The light gray background also makes a great backdrop for photos. Use this scheme for wedding services, planning and photography, or for your cosmetics brand.

32. Dusty Rose, Pale Blue, And Cream (Soothing Tones)

Rather than contrasting, the colors in this palette blend together. It produces a soothing, delicate look that would be great for baby products, mindfulness coaching, and wedding dressmakers.

33. Beige, Tan, And Soft Teal (Understated Sophistication)

Another appearance for teal? Yes, because it’s awesome. Pairing it with neutral colors like beige and tan creates a sophisticated look that perfectly suits premium cosmetics, interior design, and fashion.

34. Mauve, Cream, And Gold (Refined Luxury)

Everything about this color scheme feels luxurious. It’s the palette you would expect to see on the packaging of high-end moisturizer. You can use it for the same purpose — pretty much any premium lifestyle brand.

35. Pastel Pink And Navy Blue (Subtle Strength)

Although this color scheme is still relatively muted, using dark blue as a background or accent color helps to inject some power. It best promotes strong femininity, such as for fragrance and cosmetics brands.

Unique And Eye-Catching Color Schemes

Sometimes, going with the grain means blending in. If you want your website to stand out from the crowd, try exploring these unique color schemes:

36. Electric Blue, Hot Pink, And Black (Rebellious Energy)

This zingy, super-bright color scheme pumps your website design full of energy. It’s also quite lighthearted, making it perfect for quirky café sites, music blogs, and indie fashion shops.

37. Lime Green, Purple, And Black (Unexpected Contrast)

Purple and green in the same design? Controversial. But also, very engaging. This unusual color combo hints at an alternative approach — great for showing off technical innovation or cutting-edge gaming products.

38. Yellow, Brown, And Purple (Comic Strip Style)

This might look like an unlikely match on paper, but it actually works. The end result looks a bit like a comic book, with all the associated visual punch. Consider using this color scheme for a creative portfolio.

39. Vermilion, Russian Green, And Black (3D Movies)

With a black background and contrasting green and red, this color scheme reminds us of old-school 3D movie glasses. It’s a surprisingly appealing palette, with enough polish for promoting professional services and events.

40. Mountain Green, Purple, And Burgundy (Contemporary Apps)

Finishing up our roundup, this color scheme offers an interesting mix of hues. There’s significant color contrast here, but each part fits together nicely. It’s perfect for showing off your brand-new app or online service.

How To Choose Your Website Color Scheme

Taking inspiration from proven color schemes is a smart move. It gives you an idea of what is likely to work. Plus, you can use an existing palette as the basis for your design.

That said, we wouldn’t recommend grabbing a template straight off the shelf. Why? Because every brand is different. If you want your website to have a unique identity, it needs custom colors.

Creating the color scheme for your website starts with selecting a base color. This provides the primary theme for your design. You then build your color scheme by selecting other colors that work well with the base color.

And how do you choose a base color? By studying a little psychology.

Picking Your Base Color With Psychology

For as long as we have been creating art and building civilizations, humankind has assigned symbolic meanings to colors and explored how our brains perceive them.

The ancient Egyptians mixed mineral-based pigments to infuse their art with color-based meanings. The 19th-century German poet and statesman Goethe, conducted a philosophical exploration of the color wheel, opening the door for enduring scientific color studies in the emerging field of Western psychology.

Even today, color plays an important role in how we perceive the world. Research indicates that color alone can enhance brand recognition by up to 80%.

The way people react to any given color depends partly on their age, gender, and cultural upbringing.

Consider the way purple is perceived around the world. While most people in Western countries associate purple with luxury and wealth, this color represents mourning and sorrow in India and Thailand.

Similarly, the yellow in the McDonald’s logo is associated with happiness virtually worldwide. But the company adapts its color scheme to fit the cultural preferences of customers in different nations.

It’s not worth agonizing over whether your blog should be accented with teal or lilac. But do keep in mind how your target audience may perceive those color choices.

For instance, blues and greens are widely accepted as safe choices, while reds and oranges can evoke more emotion. Younger folks tend to prefer brighter colors, but people’s preferred palettes tend to become more muted with age.

Understanding Color Theory

Once you’ve chosen a dominant color that captures the character of your website, it’s time to zero in on the secondary color to round out your scheme. Here are the options laid out on the color wheel:

• Monochromatic color schemes are based around a single color, with different variants of light and saturation. While monochromatic schemes are considered easiest on the eyes, they run the risk of being bland. A well-placed splash of complementary yellow or an analogous purple can accomplish a lot on a page awash with blue tones.
• Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel, and they generally create combinations that are visually appealing. Analogous color schemes are often found in nature, and they typically have a harmonious effect.
• Complementary colors appear opposite each other on the color wheel, creating high contrast, vibrant, attention-grabbing schemes when used together. Use them sparingly to emphasize details you want to stand out (cough *call-to-action buttons* cough).
• Triadic color schemes use colors that are spaced evenly apart on a color wheel, like the points of a triangle. Purple, green, and orange is a classic example of a triad scheme — which is best applied when one color dominates and the other two are used as bold feature colors.

Choosing color schemes can feel overwhelming, especially when delving into more complex combinations like split-complementary and tetradic schemes. But just remember — some of the most visually pleasing and effective color schemes keep it really simple.

Color Scheme FAQs

If you’re still keen to learn more about color schemes, check out these frequently asked questions:

What are the 7 major color schemes?

The seven major color schemes include the four we mentioned earlier: monochromatic, analogous, complementary, and triadic.

The lineup also covers:

• Split Complementary — One base color matched with two colors on either side of the complementary choice on the color wheel.
• Square — Four colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel.
• Rectangle or Tetradic — A base color, along with three more colors placed at 60 degrees, 180 degrees, and 240 degrees on the wheel.

Which color catches the eye first?

Studies into human behavior suggest that red is the clear winner here. It’s the color associated with blood, love, anger, danger, and all things passionate. Given these connections, we just can’t ignore a little crimson.

What is the 60-30-10 color rule?

It’s like a rule of thumb for creating color schemes. The framework is based on percentages, where:

• 60% of your design should be the primary color.
• 30% should be the secondary color.
• 10% is devoted to the accent color.

It’s a useful starting point. Just remember that rules were made to be broken…

What is the best color scheme for readability?

Scientific research over a long period has established that black text on a white background is the optimum color scheme for readability. But you can definitely deviate from this combination and still maintain clear text. The key is to maintain a good contrast between the background and your content.

Upgrade Your Website Today

Creating a website color scheme isn’t just about picking out your favorite shades. As we have discovered, top brands use color psychology and color theory to find the perfect combination.

If you’re planning to build a new site or revamp your online presence, try using the same principles when you pick your colors. Think about:

• What mood you want to set.
• How colors fit together.
• And how your color scheme will affect usability.

Break it down into these small chunks, and the choice won’t seem so overwhelming.

Once you decide on your color scheme, make sure to test it on your website. To configure your perfect color scheme in WordPress, try using our WP Website Builder. It’s super easy to use, and it works on all our hosting plans.

(Don’t fancy doing it yourself? Our professional web design team is always on standby!)

When you’re ready to launch your new design, make sure you have the hosting to match. At DreamHost, we offer sizzling performance and 99.9% uptime on all hosting plans, starting from just $2.59/month. Sign up today to try it for yourself!

Create a Website for All

With automatic updates and strong security defenses, DreamPress takes server management off your hands so you can focus on what really matters: creating a site that can be enjoyed by every user.

Choose Your Plan

The post 40 Website Color Schemes So Good, You’ll Want To Steal Them appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

Finding the right design for your website can feel like a magical journey from vision to reality, shaping and refining ideas until they shine. In reality, there are certain principles of modern web design that, when applied, significantly enhance the chance that your site will not just succeed but will transform into digital gold.

Here’s where it gets complicated though: Modern website design is more than just visual elements and aesthetics. Your site’s design affects your search engine optimization (SEO), how your audience perceives your brand, and how visitors behave when they land on the page. It’s not really overstating it to say your site’s design and layout can impact your entire online presence.

So whether you’re starting from scratch or redesigning an existing site, you’ve come to the right place. Read on as we explore some of the basic elements of web design, from modern design trends to ways non-designers can get involved in the design process. Through it all, we’ll learn more about how a well-designed website can be a golden ticket for your online business.

First, Take Care Of The Tech Stuff (Or Have Your Host Do It For You)

You thought effective website design was all about choosing the right color palette and imagery, right? Well, you’re not wrong, per se. We’re just taking a more comprehensive look at using design to create a positive user experience for your site’s visitors.

Here are a few of the technical issues you’ll want to make sure you address before moving on to the prettier parts of your website design:

• Site loading time: No matter your audience, internet consumers are a somewhat impatient bunch. 47 percent expect a site to load in two seconds or less, while 40 percent abandon a site entirely if it takes more than three seconds to load. Faster site loading speeds, on the other hand, reduce your bounce rates (the number of visitors who click away after only seeing one page). If you need to speed up load times for your site, check out our guide.
• Uptime: The same can be said for sites that don’t load at all. Data center outages can cost a business an average of $9,000 per minute its website is unavailable, according to the Ponemon Institute. Signing up with a reliable web hosting provider can help ensure your site stays up as much as possible. For example, DreamHost uses high-performance solid-state drives in our servers, which are at least 200 percent faster than traditional hard disk drives. Uptime guarantees are another vital measurement to consider when evaluating reliability. DreamHost is one of the few providers that promise your site will be online 100 percent of the time. We’ll even reimburse you for an entire day’s worth of hosting for every hour your site is unavailable.
• Cross-browser compatibility: Your site should render properly across all major browsers and operating systems. Cross-browser testing before your site goes live can help you make sure users won’t run into compatibility issues with different browsers.
• Accessibility: Accessibility means every person can access and use your site–even if they have disabilities. Learn how to design an accessible website with our ultimate guide.

7 Key Components Of Web Design

Now we can get into the fun stuff, like colors, typography, call-to-action buttons, white space, navigation, and other web design elements!

Below, we’ll explore seven basic elements, but remember that web design is an art form, not a science. You can always take risks with your website if they’re calculated and reversible. You may even start the next big web design trend.

1. Overall Layout And Visual Appearance

Your site’s overall look is, of course, a crucial component of design. First impressions are critical, so you want to wow visitors as soon as the page loads. Users take only 50 milliseconds to form an opinion of your website or business, which will help determine whether they stay or leave.

Below, we’ll cover a few specific elements of your site’s layout and visual appearance that you may want to spend more time on.

Minimalistic Design

Minimalistic design (or minimal design) means placing only necessary elements on your home or landing page. Its visual design should be simple, familiar, intuitive, clean, and accessible. Minimalistic web design utilizes negative or white space to make the page skimmable and draw visitors’ eyes to what’s most important.

A trendy and effective way to use minimalism on your site is with card design. This is a popular web design style where you group text and images together on individual cards, giving visitors bite-sized pieces of content that they can absorb quickly without becoming overwhelmed.

Hero Images

Hero images have become trendy in modern web design. Just keep in mind that if you’re going to use a hero image (one large image that dominates the page), high-quality images are a must–as are modern compression tools to reduce the file size so having a large image doesn’t slow down your page load times.

E-commerce Elements

If your site is for e-commerce, you have a lot more visual elements to think about, but we’ll focus on two of the most important: product images and calls-to-action (CTA).

For e-commerce sites, the design elements need to not only look great, but also help motivate and facilitate purchases. High-quality product images help shoppers see a detailed and appealing view of the products you have on offer, making them absolutely essential for any site that includes online shopping.

Call-to-action buttons are another critical element for e-commerce sites. Buttons should be designed to stand out, prominently placed, and clearly labeled to help shoppers move smoothly through the entire purchasing experience.

Iconography

Icons can be helpful for providing supplementary information, but how they’re designed needs to match the rest of your site and branding. There are two main types of graphic design for icons:

• Skeuomorphic design: When icons are designed with details, shadows, 3-D effects, etc.
• Flat or semi-flat design: When icons are designed more minimally or cartoonishly, without details

In the past, skeuomorphic icons were more trendy. In recent years, though, we’ve seen design trends move toward flat and semi-flat design. However, trends aren’t all you should consider when designing your icons; consider what fits best with your branding and overall site design.

2. Color Scheme

When choosing a color scheme, there are quite a few factors you can consider: your brand, your industry, your target audience and demographics, just to name a few. And with roughly 7 million hues detectable by the human eye, you have a lot to choose from.

Think about how your color choices might represent you. For example, navy blue or forest green is a professional color often used by lawyers and doctors. Photographers often use black and white because it helps their images stand out.

But more than just your industry, think about your audience and their expectations. If your primary audience is young children, they may gravitate toward bright colors like red and yellow. If your primary customers are teens and young adults, bold colors might be the best choice. If you work with older adults, something more muted and refined might speak to them.

Once you choose a primary color, that can inform the rest of your color palette. When designing elements like navigation buttons and icons, it’s important to use a complementary color combination with your site’s background, text colors, etc.

Need more help? Check out our ultimate guide to website color choices.

3. Typography

As you think about how your website’s color palette will represent you and your business, you should ask the same questions about your site’s typography. Are you a professional who should use a distinguished serif font? Or is your business more casual and better represented by a light and airy sans serif?

No matter what you choose, your site’s text must be easily readable, which means the body copy should be at least 16 pixels, you should use a complementary font for headings and accents, and you’ll need plenty of contrast between the text and background (no red fonts on green backgrounds unless you want to give your visitors headaches).

Other than that, though, there’s some freedom here. You can play around with your font, as long as it’s readable. Feel free to balance normalcy with freshness and try something a little different from Arial or Times New Roman. You can mix fonts as long as they complement each other.

Just stay away from Comic Sans.

4. Navigation

Your site’s navigation is not a space where you can be creative.

Don’t fall into the trap of animated hover effects and complex, multi-tiered subnavs. Navigational elements–which can exist in a site’s header, body, and footer–are there to direct your visitors to the information they desire as quickly as possible. Period.

The first navigation menu should be at the top of the page, and here, you have a polarizing design decision to make: do you use a vertical navigation menu, or a hamburger menu? Hamburger menus, which collapse a vertical menu into three parallel, horizontal lines, provide an economical way to save space by hiding your navigation menu off-site (plus, they’re mobile-friendly). However, a hamburger button can obscure vital information–and they tend to have lower click rates, which means they’re less effective for visitors.

Smooth navigation extends past your site’s header. For long, scroll-heavy, or one-page designs, you may want to include directional arrows to help users navigate through each section. These types of sites can also benefit from a sticky “Back to Top” button that quickly delivers visitors back to the top of the page.

And finally, don’t forget to include a navigation bar in your site’s footer. An optimized footer can lead to up to 50% more conversions–especially if you include a contact form or a CTA like a signup link for your email list.

5. Content

Just like interior designers don’t stop once the walls are painted, your website isn’t done once the layout, color scheme, typefaces, and other aesthetic elements are picked out. It’s time to bring in the sofa and hang family photos on the wall–by paying attention to how your messaging interacts with your design.

Your site’s visitors might notice its design, but they’re there for its content. Is your brand trustworthy? Experienced? Capable of delivering top-notch products and services? Communicating clearly is critical; information should be easy for visitors to find, read, and digest–and that’s where content comes in.

Use headings and display text to organize content into sections so readers can skim and quickly find the information they need. Remove any information that doesn’t need to be there. Break up long content into lists–remember that content-heavy websites will compete with the design elements you’ve worked so hard on.

Apply the same content strategy to each page. For example, even your “About” and “Contact” pages should have the same branding and tone and convey the right information quickly.

6. Videos

Video can be a great way to engage site visitors, keeping them on your site longer, reducing bounce rates and even increasing conversions. Videos can transform static web pages into vibrant spaces, giving you a new medium to tell your brand’s story. Video content not only enhances the user experience by providing visual and auditory stimuli but also serves as an effective tool for improving dwell time and SEO rankings. Here are a few ways adding video can improve your site design:

• Increased visitor engagement: By presenting information through visual channels, videos hold the viewer’s attention longer than text or static images alone. Whether it’s an explainer video, a product demonstration, or a compelling brand story, video content has the unique ability to engage visitors, encouraging them to spend more time exploring your site.
• Improved SEO: Search engines favor websites with video content, as it indicates a higher quality of information and user engagement. Embedding videos relevant to your content can improve your site’s SEO rankings, making it more visible to potential visitors. Additionally, videos encourage sharing across social media platforms, further increasing your website’s reach and visibility. By optimizing video titles, descriptions, and tags with targeted keywords, you can enhance your SEO strategy and attract more traffic to your site.
• More conversions: Videos can also play a critical role in converting visitors into customers or subscribers. Product videos, for example, allow potential buyers to see items in action, addressing questions and concerns in a way that product descriptions cannot. Testimonial videos add a layer of trust and credibility, showcasing real-life experiences with your brand or products. By incorporating clear call to action prompts within or after videos, you can guide viewers towards making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or engaging with your brand in other meaningful ways.

7. Don’t Forget About Mobile

Phew! Finally, we’re nearing the end of our web design journey with a sleek, compact, user-friendly website. Ready to do it all again–but smaller?

The amount of mobile web traffic overtook desktop traffic years ago and shows no signs of slowing down. Additionally, Google now uses mobile-first indexing to rank sites in search results, and since 2021, the search engine has used Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics to measure how well your site delivers a quality user experience (including on mobile devices), to help determine which sites should get a rankings boost.

In other words, mobile-friendly websites aren’t just a nice-to-have feature anymore. They’re a necessity.

Most WordPress themes or templates are already primed for mobile traffic. But if you design a custom look or hire a web designer, you need to make sure your site works equally well when accessed from all device types.

Responsive Design Vs. Mobile-Friendly Layout

It’s also important to understand the difference between responsive website design and mobile-friendly or mobile-first design.

When a website is responsive, that means that when a mobile user accesses it, it scales down to fit the screen size.

On the other hand, a mobile-friendly design might change the layout to be more ideal for each screen size, changing column layouts or button sizes to make them easier to see and use for different types of devices.

While a responsive design is better than a site that doesn’t adjust at all for mobile users, it’s not as ideal as a mobile-first design that adjusts for every screen size and device type. Take this into consideration when choosing your template or working with a web designer.

Get A Stunning Website Designed From Scratch

Now that you’ve learned about the key elements of modern web design, it’s time to build your website!

At DreamHost, we make it easy for DIYers to launch a website fast with our drag-and-drop WordPress Website Builder. But if you’re looking for a polished, custom WordPress website that’s 100% unique to your brand, consider our Custom Website Design service.

Here’s how the process works: You’ll start with a one-on-one call with your project manager, who will discuss your requirements, content, and goals. Then, we’ll gather your existing logo and branding materials into a simple, one-page reference sheet to ensure your website design accurately reflects your brand.

Next, our pro designers will create a custom prototype of your new website. You can offer feedback, and once you’ve approved the design, we’ll code it into a high-performance WordPress site. We ensure you’re satisfied with the final product by including revisions from the get-go; you’ll get two rounds of design and code revisions for every page on your site.

Your finished website will be search engine optimized, mobile-friendly, and loaded with features like a custom blog, contact forms, analytics, and e-commerce tools. We can even upload products to your online store for you, if needed.

If you’re ready to move beyond WordPress templates, check out our Custom Website Design service today.

DreamHost Makes Web Design Easy

Our designers can create a gorgeous website from SCRATCH to perfectly match your brand and vision — all coded with WordPress so you can manage your content going forward.

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Actually, it’s critical to:

• Being found on search engines when potential customers are looking for products or services you offer.
• Converting that search engine traffic into happy customers who make purchases, come back time and time again, and — if you’re lucky — even refer you to others!
• And perhaps most importantly of all, a well-executed website is critical to helping you stay sane and productive when you have approximately 4,873 business-related tasks to attend to.

So whether you are creating a new website, updating your current one, or looking for help with maintenance or a troublesome bug, hiring a developer who knows what the heck they’re doing can save you a lot of time and brain cells and ensure your site runs smoothly.

Which is exactly why we created this article that’ll guide you through how to hire web developers for any size and type of website project.

Keep reading if you want to dive deep into how to outline your project, identify the type of developer you need, determine your budget, find and hire developers, and more.

Step 1: Determine The Scope Of Your Project

In the tech world, “scope” refers to the boundaries you set around a project to ensure it meets your needs without endlessly expanding beyond your budget or planned timeline.

Knowing your scope will help you choose the right web developer and budget appropriately. It’ll also help you communicate exactly what you need, which helps build a more positive working relationship with the developer.

There are various elements to consider when figuring out and shaping the scope of a web project.

What Does The Project Entail?

Before you even begin to reach out to professionals, one of the biggest things to consider is whether the project relates to the website’s design, coding and functionality, or both.

Here’s how to break it down:

• Design projects: These are normally tied to branding and user experience. Perhaps you need guidance on a homepage layout, a new logo, updated colors to improve website accessibility, or refreshed web-safe fonts.
• Coding and functionality projects: These typically relate to your website’s features and the way they function. Maybe you want to integrate chat, build a more phone-friendly flow, or create a way less time-consuming way to add new products to your online store on the back end.

Sometimes, projects require both design work and coding. Your new homepage layout, for example, might need new code to embed videos or collapse and expand text.

It all depends on how it needs to be built to hit your goals or how it was already built in the case of a redesign.

Dates And Deliverables

Once you define the project’s parameters and have a better idea of the kind of talent you’re looking for (more on specific developer types in the next step) it’s time to put the second-biggest piece of the scope into place: deliverables and their delivery dates.

It starts with thinking of the goals you want to achieve with your web project. Let’s say it’s a redesign to make your website more modern, mobile-friendly, and fast. What big chunks of work must be delivered for this to feel complete?

At least an initial wireframe (like a blueprint) that shows the new map of your website, a design layout that helps imagine what it’ll eventually look like, a speed test comparing the new site to the old, and a final walkthrough of your new website on desktop and mobile devices.

Each of these deliverables should have a due date attached so that you and your development partner can stay on track and on the same page. We recommend working closely with your chosen partner to ensure your deliverables are detailed enough and each due date is realistic.

Custom Build Or Start With Store-Bought?

We wanted to quickly address that, yes, you can absolutely build and maintain a website on your own using a website builder or a WordPress theme and plugins.

And that has its upsides — you get to do it on your own schedule, learn the ins and outs of your website, and it’s typically the approach that will cost you the least in cash (but not in time). The only limiting factors could be your availability and skill level.

On the flip side, working with a developer also has many advantages, especially for business owners.

You’ll likely be able to pull off more advanced website functionality, rest assured that everything will function as it should, and cut down on your own workload. The biggest downsides are typically the time required to find the right person and the cost.

If you find yourself on the fence between DIY-ing vs. hiring out for your website project, now’s the time to weigh both options before moving forward.

Related: Learn To Code With These (Mostly Free) Resources

Breaking: Can I Use AI Instead Of A Web Developer?

Another important consideration not to skip over here in step one — artificial intelligence (AI)!

AI is so rampant in the development world that you may wonder: Can AI replace developers, and more importantly, can I use it to fully create or redesign my website?

At the time of this writing, no. AI isn’t at the point where you can rely on it to build a working website from scratch. Today, AI is mostly useful for automating simple development tasks, bug detection, and code optimization.

It’s a good helper but isn’t precise enough to generate thoughtful, creative code solutions. While it is getting better all the time, many AI tools can barely create fully correct and working code!

At this point, you should only use AI in tandem with a skilled developer and consider that, unless you have pretty sharp dev chops, you won’t be able to use it on its own to create a functional website.

Learn more: Will AI Replace Developers? Examining The Future Of Coding

Step 2: Decide Which Kind Of Developer Is Best

With the scope of your project in hand, you can start searching for a skilled web developer that fits your needs. Let’s compare and look at what each type of developer has to offer.

Graphic Designer Vs. Web Designer Vs. Developer

Whether you’ve determined that your project is purely visual work or that it’s all about functionality, you already know who to hire.

As we touched on earlier, some projects include a little bit of both design and development work.

You can handle these projects in a few ways:

• Hire a designer and a developer (straightforward).
• Work with an agency that offers both services (more on that in step four).
• Find a single individual who bridges the gap.

That individual may be a web designer. Graphic designers typically excel at branding and in the marketing and print space. That said, web designers are also skilled at creating visuals, but they’re typically trained in additional things like CSS, HTML, user experience, and speed optimization.

That means they consider accessibility for screen readers, SEO-friendly website structures, and what your website will look like on different screens and systems.

If the technical details of your projects aren’t particularly deep, a graphic designer may be a good fit for your project vs. a web developer.

Because this is somewhat of a gray area in the web development world, we recommend being very clear about your project scope when reaching out to web designers so that they can accurately assess if they have the best skillset for your project.

Front-End Vs. Back-End Developers

The front end of your website is the visible part the reader interacts with. The back end is the part you use to upload new content, conduct security updates, and more. Sometimes, these are also called client side (front end) and server side (back end).

These two parts of your website are built with different programming languages, so many developers specialize in one or the other.

Before speaking to developers, you’ll want to work out if this is a front-end or back-end project — or both. If you aren’t quite sure yet, rest assured the development details of your project will solidify with each development candidate you talk to.

Full-Stack Developer

Let’s say the project involves your site’s front and back end. You have two options: work with two developers or hire a full-stack developer.

A full-stack developer can work on both ends of the website because they are proficient in all the main languages and frameworks. We’ll show you what to expect as far as pricing and how to ensure a dev’s full-stack skills are up to snuff in the next few steps.

It’s an excellent idea to work with a full-stack developer when you are planning a completely new website build because they can advise you on the bigger picture.

Freelancer Vs. Full-Time Employee

Depending on the complexity and duration of your project, you might find it best to work with a freelancer or hire a full-time web developer. Both options have pros and cons, but working out what’s best for you or your company shouldn’t be too hard.

For one-off projects with no maintenance required, a freelance website developer will likely suit your needs best. Similarly, if only minimal maintenance is required, you can usually retain an agency or freelancer to help you keep your website running smoothly and your costs low.

However, if you think you’ll need regular, time-consuming website maintenance or updates, hiring a full-time employee may be better. At the time of this writing, the average full-stack web developer runs over $123,000/year.

Yes, it’s a hefty investment. But it means you’ll have someone on deck who’s already up to speed on your needs and ready to act if something goes wrong. If you’re running a larger business or have a complex website critical to your cash flow, keeping someone in-house may actually be a money and stress saver.

An interesting combination approach would be to bring on an independent contractor full-time just for the project’s duration. This works well when the project is unusually large or urgent, but you don’t foresee significant long-term maintenance.

You benefit from having a dedicated web developer on the team while you need them most, and they benefit from guaranteed pay for the duration of the project. In many cases, it’s a win-win agreement!

Step 3: Figure Out Web Dev Costs & Define Your Budget

You’ve identified your goals and who to work with to reach them. Now, let’s talk about what you should be working with — aka, moolah.

Freelance web designers normally charge by the project or the hour, though some use day rates. Whatever the unit of measure, we recommend researching rates to get at least a loose estimate of the timeline or project cost upfront before you begin.

A professional web developer’s hourly rate can vary dramatically based on their skills and experience. According to Upwork, the rates for full-stack developers, who tend to be the most senior, currently sit at around $55/hour. Typical front-end devs may run about $25/hour and back-end devs about $30/hour.

Although we trust these data-backed estimates, based on our own experience, we find them a little low.

Expect to spend more, especially if hiring within the U.S. After all, many freelance web developers on Upwork’s platform charge over $100/hour (and we don’t blame them; it’s hard work!)

And be warned: These numbers can change and rise significantly based on location, experience, and how quickly you want your project completed. Often, you can get a discount if you sign up for a retainer through a freelancer, which means you agree to pay for a set number of hours per week or month.

If full-time is more your jam, remember that a full-stack dev comes in over $123,000/year, front end can cost around $113,000/year, and back end close to $160,000/year.

That said, if you prefer to think of expenses in project terms, data suggests that the cost of developing a lightweight website can range from $3,000 to $8,000, a more robust website from $10,000 to $16,000, and a functional e-commerce website from $20,000 to $40,000.

Whether you’re on the higher or lower end of the spectrum depends on the number of pages, depth of features, level of customization, timeline, and, of course, who you hire (e.g., freelancer, agency, etc.).

We don’t intend to overwhelm you with these numbers. We just want to help you understand the costs associated with web development so you can go into the next step — finally, it’s time to source developers! — with a realistic budget in mind.

Step 4: Consider Various Sources For Hiring Web Developers

There are lots of places where you can hire professional developers online. The best option for you will depend on your priorities and the time you can devote to finding the right fit.

Here are some of the best places to begin your search.

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Hire An Agency

If you prefer to stay pretty hands-off and need lots of design and development support, an agency is a good place to access a full team of digital experts (including experienced developers) who can fully handle your website project.

Unlike individual website developers, agencies don’t tend to be on the freelance platforms we’ll cover next, so you usually have to find them by searching online or via word of mouth.

Turn To Freelance Marketplaces And Forums

Want to get in the weeds finding the just-right freelancer for your job? There are lots of online platforms that will empower you to do just that:

• Freelancer marketplaces: Such as Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, Guru, and lemon.io (which puts a unique “matching” spin on the hiring process).
• Social media forums: For example, Discord servers where freelance web developers hang out, such as Devs For Hire & Jobs, subreddits like r/hireaprogrammer or r/freelance_forhire, and boards like Hacker News — which sometimes has threads inviting freelancers to introduce themselves and people who post freelance gigs.

Figuring out the best language to describe the job’s requirements and keeping up with notifications across these resources can take some work. However, these outlets are the best way to contact devs — both new and exceptional talent.

Ask For Recommendations

If you’ve been poking around all of the above sources and are still unsure who to work with, try asking your professional network, friends, and even LinkedIn contacts for recommendations.

You’ll get a shortlist of developers who impressed people you know, and you’ll also be able to ask questions about their working style and view their previous work.

Step 5: Assess Your Web Development Candidates

You’ve done a lot of work until now, so it’s worth taking your time in this last step to decide if the people you’re interested in fit the job.

You want to work with someone within your budget who understands the vision for your website and is equipped with the soft skills and technical capabilities to provide quality service.

Here are several factors to consider when making the final call.

Technical Requirements

If you aren’t familiar with development languages, ensuring any freelancer you’re talking to has the chops to complete your project can be tough.

However, if you just get familiar with the basics, you can weed out folks who don’t have the experience you’re looking for and make sure you’re only talking to professionals — who will usually point you in the right direction if they’re not quite the right fit.

Currently, a basic rule for front-end developers is that they should understand CSS and HTML and be able to work in popular front-end languages, which include JavaScript, Elm, and TypeScript. Front-end devs are also typically familiar with best practices for website accessibility and SEO.

Back-end developers should be familiar with at least JavaScript, Python, and Ruby. Bear in mind that some back-end developers describe themselves by the programming languages they specialize in (e.g., PHP developers or Ruby developers). If you’re looking for a back-end developer online and know what language you need, try searching based on that.

Full-stack developers should also know CSS and HTML as they’re foundational to development, as well as JavaScript, TypeScript, and Python.

If you’re more familiar with the content management system (CMS) where you want to host your website, such as WordPress or Shopify, you may also want to seek out developers who highlight their skills within these specific platforms.

And remember: the languages that are in vogue for each type of developer change over time. So, it may be wise to brush up on which code languages are popular when you start your technical proficiency audit of a candidate.

Related: How To Hire A Developer To Create A Custom WordPress Theme

Response Time

It’s not just a website developer’s technical skills that matter. Response time is also important, especially if you are bringing them on at the creative planning stage or to fix bugs.

Pay attention to how quickly the developer responds when you first contact them and then negotiate the details. While freelancers generally don’t reply as quickly as employees, you want to ensure they can respond within a timeframe that makes sense for your project timeline.

Communication Skills

Good communication isn’t only about quick response times. After interviewing each candidate, ask yourself:

• Did they seem to understand what you want and clarify and confirm as needed?
• When negotiating, were they direct and professional?
• Did they explain what you can expect, and were they transparent about their ability to commit to timelines, their pricing, and their willingness to communicate any potential complications?
• Did they tell you what they will need from you to complete the work?
• Were they flexible and willing to adapt?
• When you expressed preferences or uncertainty, did they listen?

You’re hiring a web developer, not a marketing manager, but communication skills are still critical. They will help the project run smoothly and ensure there are no unpleasant surprises due to miscommunication.

Experience

Yes, a more experienced web developer typically has higher rates. However, they might cost less than you think because they tend to work more efficiently and produce cleaner, better code than inexperienced developers.

Experience comes down to more than just the number of years or projects. Pay attention to the type of work the developer has previously taken on and the companies they have worked with. Ideally, they will have experience in your niche and with clients like yourself, making executing your website project much more efficient and pleasant.

Previous Projects

Looking at the work a web developer has done previously will give you an idea of their skill, style, and preferences.

Most professional website developers will have an online portfolio, but you can also ask to see samples similar to your project.

Typically, developers carefully curate their portfolios to show only their most impressive work. So, if you let them know what you are looking for, you might be surprised by how many extra samples they can show you.

Don’t be afraid to ask if you have any questions about their previous projects, but remember that some details may be confidential.

Customer Ratings And Testimonials

There is no better way to see what a developer is like to work with than by reading customer ratings and testimonials. Most developers will have some on their websites, and many freelancing platforms feature customer reviews.

When reading reviews, especially public ones, try to read between the lines. Someone else’s ideal developer might not be a good fit for you. However, paying attention to what reviewers praise will give you an idea of their work quality and communication style.

What Are You Waiting For? Let’s Get Your Website Started!

Working with a developer can get and keep your website looking professional and running smoothly.

Whether starting from scratch with a business website, boosting security measures, or modernizing your accessibility and mobile features, a developer can help you achieve your goals quickly and easily. Meaning you can focus on the business you love instead of the code that makes it all tick.

There are plenty of options for bringing a developer into the fold. You can hire a full-on agency, or you can source an individual from a freelancer marketplace or social media.

Either way, part of this process should include carefully vetting their billing structure, technical expertise, experience, communication style, and availability to make sure they align with your needs.

Don’t have the time to do all that? Consider DreamHost’s web development services instead.

Access our comprehensive team of professional developers and designers by simply submitting your request here. We’ll provide an estimate, and with your approval, we’ll quickly get to work safely implementing the changes — working with you along the way to ensure you’re happy with every decision we make.

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