In October 2016 DNS provider Dyn was hit by a major DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack by an army of IoT devices which had been hacked specially for the purpose. Over 14,000 domains using Dyn's services were overwhlemed and became unreachable including big names like Amazon, HBO, and PayPal.
According to research by Cloudflare the average cost of infrastructure failure to businesses is $100,000 (£75,000) per hour. How then can you make sure that your organization doesn't fall victim to this kind of attack. In this guide you'll discover major infrastructure providers who have the necessary digital muscle to protect against attacks designed to flood your network capacity.
You'll also discover which providers can offer protection against more sophisticated application (layer 7) attacks, which can be carried out without a huge number of hacked computers (sometimes known as a botnet).
Project Shield is the creation of Jigsaw, an offshoot Google's parent company Alphabet. Development began several years ago under George Conard in the wake of attacks on election monitoring and human rights related websites in the Ukraine.
Project Shield is able to filter potential malicious traffic by acting as a reverse proxy which sits between a website and the internet at large, filtering connection requests. If a connection seems to be from a legitimate visitor Project Shield permits the connection request. If a connection request is determined to be bad e.g. multiple connection attempts from the same IP address, then it is blocked. This system makes Project Shield extremely easy to implement simply by changing your servers DNS settings.
Any power users reading may wonder how filtering traffic via a proxy will work with SSL. Fortunately, Jigsaw has thought of this and has put together a comprehensive tutorial to make sure secure connections to your site work seamlessly. Several other tutorials are also available in the support section.
Currently Project Shield is only available for media, election monitoring and human rights related websites. The primary focus is also on small under resourced websites which cannot afford expensive hosting solutions to protect themselves for DDoS. If your organization doesn't match these requirements you may have to consider an alternative solution such as Cloudflare.
Anyone who has used the Internet in the last few years will be familiar with Cloudflare as many major websites make use of its protection. Although Cloudflare is based in the US it maintains over 180 data centers around the world: an infrastructure to rival Google's. This maximizes your sites chances of staying online.
Every Cloudflare user can choose to activate the 'I'm under attack' mode which can protect against even the most sophisticated of DoS attacks by presenting a Javascript challenge. As a matter of routine Cloudflare also acts as a reverse proxy sitting between visitors and your site host to filter traffic in much the same way as Jigsaw's Project Shield. In March 2019, Cloudflare introduced Spectrum for UDP, which provides DDoS protection and firewalling for unreliable protocols.
Visitors making connection requests have to run a gauntlet of sophisticated filters including site reputation, whether their IP has been Blacklisted and if the HTTP header seems suspicious. HTTP requests are finger printed to protect against known Botnets. As an industry giant, Cloudflare can easily leverage its position by sharing intel across the 7+ million websites it manages.
Cloudflare offers a free basic package which includes unmetered DDoS mitigation. For those who are willing to pay for a Cloudflare business subscription (prices start at $200 or £149 a month), more advanced protection is available such as custom SSL certificate uploads.
AWS Shield protection is provided by the good people of Amazon web services. The 'Standard' tier is available to all AWS customers at no extra charge. This is ideal as many small businesses choose to host their websites with Amazon. AWS Shield Standard is available to all customers at no extra charge. It protects against more typical network (layer 3) and transport (layer 4) attacks when used Amazon's Cloud Front and Route 53 services.
This should put off all but the most determined hackers. However, your bandwidth e.g. 15Gbp/s will still be limited by the size of you Amazon instance making it feasible for hackers to carry out a DoS attack if they have sufficient resources. Worse still you remain responsible for paying for the extra traffic to your instance.
To mitigate this Amazon also offers AWS Shield Advanced. A Subscription include DDoS cost protection, which can save you from a huge spike in your monthly usage bill if you are the victim of an attack. AWS Shield Advanced can also deploy your ACL's (Access Control Lists) to the border of the AWS network itself giving you protection against even the largest of attacks.
Advanced Subscribers also benefit from a round the clock DRT (DDoS response team) as well as detailed metrics on any attacks on your instances. The piece of mind afforded by AWS Shield Advanced is expensive however. You must be willing to subscribe for a minimum of one year for a price of $3,000 (£2,200) a month. This is in addition to data transfer usage costs which you can cover on a 'pay as you go' basis.
Like Amazon, Microsoft offers the option to rent service space via their service Azure. All members benefit from basic DDoS protection. Features include always on traffic monitoring and real time mitigation of network (layer 3) attacks for any public IP addresses you use. This is the very same type of protection afforded to Microsoft's own online services and the entire resources of Azure's network can be used to absorb DDoS attacks.
For organisations in need of more sophisticated protection Azure also offers a 'Standard' tier. This has been widely praised for being very easy to enable, requiring just a few clicks of your mouse. Crucially Azure does not require you to make any changes to your apps although the standard tier does offer protection against application (layer 7) DDoS attacks via the app gateway web app firewall. Azure monitor can show you real time metrics if an attack does take place. These are retained for 30 days and can be exported for further study if you wish.
Azure constantly checks web traffic to your resources. If these exceed a pre-defined threshold, DDoS mitigation is automatically launched. This includes inspecting packets to make sure they aren't malformed or spoofed as well as using rate limiting.
Standard protection is currently $2,944 (£2,204) per month plus data charges for up to 100 resources. Protection applies equally to all resources. In other words you cannot tailor DDoS mitigation for individual ones.
Update: Verisign's security services are transferred to Neustar, but the features and functionality mentioned in the review stayed relatively the same.
Verisign is almost as old as the Internet itself. Since 1995 it has grown from a simple Certificate Authority to a major player in the Network Services industry.
Verisign DDoS protection operates in the Cloud. Users can choose to redirect connection attempts with a simple change of their DNS (Domain Name Server) settings. Traffic is sent to Verisign for checking to prevent network attacks. Verisign analysis all traffic thoroughly before redirecting.
As Verisign operates two of the thirteen global route name servers it should come as no surprise that the organization also maintains several dedicated DDoS "scrubbing centers". These analyze traffic and filter out bad connection requests. The combined infrastructure runs to almost 2TB/s and can block even the most overwhelming DDoS attacks.
This is largely achieved via Athena, Verisign's threat mitigation platform. Athena is broadly divided into three elements. The 'Shield' filters network (layer 3) and transport (layer 4) attacks via DPI (Deep Packet Inspection), blacklists & whitelists and site reputation management. The Athena 'proxy' inspects HTTP headers for bad traffic during initial connection attempts. The 'proxy' and 'shield' are supported by Athena's 'load balancer' which helps to prevent application (layer 7) attacks.
The customer portal displays detailed reports on traffic and allows you to configure your threat management, for example by creating connection blacklists. For users who are reluctant to deploy everything to the Cloud, Verisign also offers OpenHybrid which can be installed onsite.
While there are thousands of free WordPress themes available, these are mostly suitable for hobbyists and small-time websites.
Whether you are a food lover looking to monetize your passion or a business owner who wants to raise your company's profile, WordPress can help.
In this guide, you’ll discover five premium WordPress themes suitable for a wide range of professional users. By paying a few dollars, you’ll benefit from extra features such as displaying pictures in a slideshow or ecommerce compatibility.
X is a paid WordPress theme suitable for all types of websites.
The theme comes with four categories of built-in demos. Each of these themes cover a wide variety of potential projects. This means that no matter what you have in mind, X more than likely has a design suited to your needs.
X comes with Cornerstone, one of the most popular WordPress web page builders. The drag and drop feature is easy to use. Users are able to see exactly what their page will look like live as they are building. This enables users to change and edit while building their site.
There are a huge number of customization options, with which users can build a unique webpage.
X comes with a feature called ‘the customizer’. This is a handy tool as many premium themes come with their own theme options page that are not entirely compatible with WordPress. ‘The Customizer’ is highly intuitive. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress. It will help you to customize the look and feel of your website. There is also Dynamic Content, which comes in handy when building out content throughout your site.
The regular license for X is $35 (£28.4) which includes future updates and 6 months customer support. Users can opt to extend support to 12-months for an additional $8.63 (£7).
Divi is a multi-purpose theme. It has website options for most users and is highly customizable.
The theme comes with WooCommerce functionality. The drag and drop feature allows users to include pricing tables, video sliders, tabs and videos. A rating module is also available.
Users can access a variety of pre-built layouts. These range from creating a sales page, multiple blog layouts and a variety of portfolio types.
Divi is one of the few WordPress themes to include a front-end page builder tool with point and click editing. This gives users instant feedback on any editing that takes place.
Users can upload logos, choose a new color palette, decide how many posts are displayed on a page and setup social media integrations amongst others.
Newer users will find Divi particularly simple to use as you don’t need any coding skill or any former experience building websites. The user-friendly interface makes this process seamless. You can also optimize any page element to your liking with various CSS options.
Divi allows you to use multiple rows, columns and content elements. All layouts are fully responsive.
The theme comes with an impressive array of content elements which include audio player, bar counter, blog, number counter, shop, testimonial and contact form amongst others.
Divi can also be translated into more than 30 languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Czech, Russian and Spanish.
Users can try a demo version of Divi for free. Users can also purchase a one-year subscription to all of Elegant Themes’ products for $89 (£67.69). There is also a Lifetime option for $249 (£187.4).
Uncode is a multi-purpose theme suitable for most users.
The theme offers users a huge variety of website demos. These include classic, portfolio, blog and ecommerce layouts.
Uncode’s images are fully adaptive so that they adjust automatically to whatever screen size they are being viewed on.
Users can edit their demos through the WPBakery Page Builder Plugin. They can also access to the handy drag and drop content editor. Uncode is compatible with most third-party plugins.
The themes large media library makes it easier for users to embed any type of media to your WordPress site.
Uncode has over 6 different menu types with advanced options. These include top right, justify, left, center, overlay, offcanvas and lateral.
The theme is WPML certified and offers RTL (Right to Left) support. The premium themes included are VC Page Builder, VC Clipboard, VC Particles, LayerSlider, Slider Revolution and iLightBox. In the recent updates, new features are available like animated headlines, highlighting effects and frontend editor, among other things.
You can purchase for $59 (£44.87) and includes future updates and 6 months support. If you want to extend support to 12 months, an additional $17.63 (£13.3) is needed.
Some online commentators have expressed frustration over difficulties with customization.
The Core is a multi-purpose theme which requires no coding skills.
The theme has been built on the Unyson network to aid with customization. Users have access to the fully featured page builder. This allows you to edit the demos that are included or create new layouts to suit your needs.
The Core theme includes demo content install. Users can choose from three different sliders: Slider Revolution, Layers Slider and its own custom-built slider.
The theme is retina ready and fully responsive. Users can edit the colors of their theme using simple color pickers. The Core is also fully compatible with the WooCommerce plugin.
Users have access to Google’s free collection of fonts. You can also choose to use the sticky header to ensure your menu bar always remains visible no matter how far down you scroll.
The Core is translation ready and is compatible with WPML. Support is available through live chat 24/7 or email. There are also over 100 support articles.
The Core and all other ThemeFuse themes have been moved in the Brizy plugin, so you'll need to download the Brizy plugin if you want to use this theme. Brizy has a free version but if you want something more there are also paid versions, with the cheapest being $49 a year. This gets you over 250 premium designs, 1-year updates and support, and a few other things.
Foodie Pro helps users to create a beautiful blog based around all sorts of culinary delights.
It is created by the Genesis Framework. This means your website will have a solid combination of this Framework along with WordPress. The theme comes with a huge amount of typography and color options.
Users can build their site using up to 3 homepage and 5 site wide widget areas. These can be customized to fit around your brand.
The theme allows users to upload their own logo with one click. There is also full support for text-based logos.
Foodie Pro’s ‘Theme Customizer’ allows users to customize the theme’s settings, colors and backgrounds images.
The ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ can be purchased for $129.95 (£98.85) for one year. This includes the Genesis Framework, Foodie Pro Theme, instant access, unlimited updates, supports, sites and access to detailed tutorials.
If this is not enough, users can avail of the ‘Pro Plus Membership’ for $499.95 (£380.22). This includes all the ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ has to offer plus access to every theme the company makes including future themes.
The days of printing your business portfolio and placing it in a cardboard folder are long since past.
By placing your portfolio online you can advertise your brand by search engines, which will hugely raise your profile. It's also much easier to update your portfolio as you introduce new products or services.
One of the easiest ways to get started with your online portfolio is to use a bespoke theme for WordPress. In this guide, you’ll explore five such themes which have been created with portfolios in mind.
Grand Portfolio is designed to cater for those users involved in most areas of visual design. It works best for photographers, fashion designers and architects.
The theme has a variety of gallery and portfolio modules. There are also choices for those interested in blogs and creating magazines. It’s useful for musicians as it has support for biographies along with event reservation support.
Grand Portfolio themes can be viewed in split screen along with a full screen option for users who want to show off all their designs in their full glory. Users can utilize the infinite scroll option so that designs keep loading as you come to the end of each page.
Users can customize elements color, background and typography with the built-in live customizer. Revolution Slider and iLightbox are included with the theme. These two premium themes usually cost around $34 (£25.87) each.
Users gain access to the built-in ‘Content Builder’. This comes with a handy drag and drop feature.
Grand Portfolio is fully responsive. It has also passed Google’s mobile compatibility check meaning that it is SEO optimized.
Users can purchase the regular license for $59 (£44.89) which includes future updates and 6-months support. An additional 12-months of support can be added for $17.63 (£13.41).
Some online commentators have noted there is not a huge variety in demo layouts.
There are multiple styles available. Each of which can be edited with the Visual Composer, Revolution Slider and LayerSlider plugins. These are all premium plugins and usually cost around $25 (£18.8). Users can customize fonts, colors, footer styles and opt to integrate with social media.
Kalium is compatible with WPML and Multilingual Plugin. It has been translated into over 16 languages. It includes support for RTL languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Persian.
Users can customize their portfolio on the ‘Theme Option’s area. They can also choose some of the premade layouts. Users can select from over 100 portfolio types with options to align images, spacing and text options.
Kalium is straight forward and easy to use. Newer users need not worry as no coding knowledge or experience is needed to start working on this theme.
The theme is fully responsive and retina ready. It also comes fully documented making it simple to find the information you need to build your website.
Users can purchase Kalium for $60(£49.5). This includes future updates and 6-months support. This can be extended to 12-months for an additional $18 (£14.8). At the time of writing, you can get 50% off for both regular license and additional support.
Portfolio is designed by ‘MyThemeShop’. It is a multipurpose portfolio theme.
Users can use the options panel to customize their theme, make their own code edits, or design edits using the Photoshop PSD files. These are included in the extended plan.
Users can utilize the advanced portfolio filters to organize their work the way they see fit. Users can also show as little or as much of their work as they want by controlling how many columns of images are displayed. You can also edit image sizes.
Portfolio comes with more than 600 Google Fonts. Social media integration is also included. There are unlimited color, background and sidebars options. Users can also customize widgets for their page.
The theme is translation ready and supports RTL. The main source of support is through the theme’s forum. If an answer can’t be found, email support is also available.
Portfolio can be purchased for $45 (£34.23) and is SEO ready, speed optimized and responsive. The company also offer a 30-day money back guarantee.
Furion is a portfolio theme which will display your work with a stylish twist.
The theme includes several different portfolio layouts. These include grid and masonry with different column choices along with six hover animation styles.
Each item on your chosen page includes 6 layouts, options to display gallery images in a slider, a media gallery and sticky information.
Furion uses over 600 icons in Font Awesome along with the latest Google Fonts. The theme is also fully compatible with plugins such as Yoast which will help boost your SEO
Support is available through a ticket system along with full documentation. Furion is also fully responsive so it will look just as good on your tablet or smartphone as it does on your desktop.
Users can build responsive pages with no need for coding with Visual Composer. Furion is fully integrated with Slider Revolution. This means users with no experience will be able to create beautiful presentations.
Users can purchase a regular license for $33 (£24.8) which includes future updates.
Online commentators have noted that support can be slow to respond to tickets.
Collective is best suited for graphic designers, architects, photographers, interior designers and web designers.
There are many homepage designs available. Most of these can be viewed in fullscreen and include descriptive overlay and vertical sliders.
Users can customize their forms with Contact Form 7. There is a collection of four sets of icons with over 2000 available to users.
Collective is fully responsive and translation ready. It is also fully compatible with WooCommerce. Widgets can be used on sidebars, footers and through WooCommerce.
Users can customize their page with the page builder included with the theme. There are four demos and over 12 layouts available. Users can access page templates and a huge variety of portfolio layouts.
Users can purchase Collective for $39 (£30.2) which includes future updates and 6 months support. Support can be extended to 12-months for a further $10.13 (£8). There’s also a live demo.
WordPress is far more than a simple platform for blogging enthusiasts. Many WordPress themes are devoted to e-commerce, meaning that if you want to monetize your skills and/or start a small business, you can set up a payment processing site with little or no coding knowledge.
Not all e-commerce platforms are created equal, though. Some may require advanced technical skills, or they might not display well on tablets and smartphones.
In this guide, we’ve rounded up five of the very best e-commerce WordPress themes. These all represent a good balance between value for money and useful features such as being able to display product slideshows.
Each of these themes also has a free demo, so feel free to test drive them before you buy.
Shopkeeper is a user-friendly WordPress e-commerce platform. The homepage consists mainly of one large slider, designed to catch the eye of any potential clients. This is part of the Slider Revolution plugin which is included. Various optional plugins like "Shopkeeper Portfolio Addon" can also be installed.
The theme integrates completely with WooCommerce, and translation is supported with the WPML plugin. Shopkeeper is Retina-ready and fully responsive, making it perfect to view on both tablets and smartphones as well as your desktop computer.
The theme is easily customizable. Users do not need knowledge of complex codes in order to use it. There are a huge array of pre-built layouts to suit your needs, but failing this, users can create their own layout from scratch.
Users can also upload their own logo, change fonts and colors. Visual Slider and Revolution Slider plugins are included with the Shopkeeper theme; these cost around $26 (£19.5) each. Shopkeeper itself sells at $59 (£45.5) for a regular license. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $17.63 (£13.6).
Some online commentators have noted that the huge amount of customizable settings contained within Shopkeeper can be overwhelming for newer users.
Bazar Shop is a slightly more complex e-commerce platform. To be precise, it’s a multi-purpose theme which offers a variety of ways in which to build your website.
The theme is fully responsive making it perfect to view on platforms other than a desktop PC. Users can choose from several different sliders and there are no restrictions to the number of sliders you can have on your page.
There are two custom checkout pages to choose from. The ‘zoom’ effect is included in these so there is no need to bother with a third-party plugin. Users can also add multiple images of a product, similar to what you see on eBay and Amazon.
The homepage includes social media sharing, email subscription forms, featured products and contact information.
Bazar Shop has over 300 ready-to-use shortcodes, which are perfect for users who do not have any coding knowledge.
Users can utilize the option panel to change layouts, edit headers and footers, create a sitemap, change the colors, turn on responsive, and customize blog pages.
Bazar Shop costs $64 (£49) for a regular license and includes 6-months of support. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $19.5 (£14.65).
Online commentators have noted that it is inconvenient to be forced to pay for support after the initial half-year period.
Divi is a multi-purpose theme featuring website options to cater for most users, plus it’s highly customizable.
The theme comes with WooCommerce functionality. The drag and drop feature allows users to include pricing tables, video sliders, tabs and videos. A rating module is also available.
Users can access a variety of pre-built layouts. These include creating a sales page, multiple blog layouts and a variety of portfolio types.
Divi is one of the few WordPress themes to include a frontend page builder tool with point and click editing. This gives users instant feedback on any editing that takes place.
Users can upload logos, choose a new color palette, decide how many posts are displayed on a page, set up social media integrations and more.
Newer users will find Divi particularly handy as you don’t need any coding skills or any former experience building websites. The user-friendly interface makes the whole process seamless. Furthermore, with various CSS transform options, users can offset the position of any page element with ease.
Divi allows you to use multiple rows, columns and content elements. All layouts are fully responsive.
The theme comes with an impressive array of content elements which include an audio player, bar counter, blog, number counter, shop, testimonial and contact form amongst others.
Divi can also be translated into more than 30 languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Czech, Russian and Spanish to name but a few.
Users can try a demo version of Divi for free, and there’s the option to purchase a one-year subscription to all of Elegant Themes’ products for $89 (£68) or $249(£187) for a Lifetime access.
Halena is the perfect choice for users with a minimalist philosophy, as its design is clean and simple, meaning that any web page you build will load almost immediately.
Users can employ the custom-built product quick view mode to get a better view of their items, and the AJAX filtering tool makes inventory searches simple.
Halena comes with a large variety of pre-built layouts. These include options for product display, shopping cart, checkout and customer accounts.
The theme also includes WPBakery Page Builder, a drag and drop content editor. This can be used to customize templates as well as creating unique web pages. The Builder also come with its own selection of templates.
Halena costs $49 (£36.8) for a regular license which includes 6-months of support, future updates and quality checks. Users can extend support for a further 12-months for $13.88 (£10.4).
Artemis is aimed at those wanting a stylish and classy look for their website. It’s a multi-purpose WordPress WooCommerce theme which includes a variety of online shop demos. All the demos are laid out on the Artemis homepage, making it easier for users to find the right one for them.
Designs are easily imported onto your WordPress site. Artemis comes with Visual Composer included – a drag and drop page builder plugin which will save you time when building your site.
Slider Revolution is also part of Artemis. Users have a large variety of number options to choose from, and even novice users will have no trouble creating their perfect website.
The whole theme is built around WooCommerce. Users can choose to have a full width shop or add left or right sidebars to their web page. Artemis is fully responsive, making it perfect for viewing on tablets and smartphones.
A regular license costs $59 (£45) with 6-months support and future updates included. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $17.63 (£13.32). Many online commentators have praised the customer support provided.
If you have a passion for travel, food, gadgets, or simply enjoy ranting, you may already have discovered the benefits of blogging. Recording your forays into food or experimentation with radical communists allows you to share your news and views with the internet community.
WordPress has thousands of templates to help you get started. In this guide, you’ll explore five of the very best themes specifically for hobbyists and bloggers. Some of these such as ‘Writing’ also incorporate SEO features meaning people searching online will be more likely to stumble across your blog.
If you’re starting on a shoe-string budget, consider using one of the free themes we’ve listed here, such as Morning Time Lite.
TheBlogger is a WordPress theme suitable for storytelling and writing. It comes with a responsive design and multiple gallery features. TheBlogger also comes with a live customizer which helps you to tweak every part of your theme.
It is Retina-ready and can be optimized for tablets and smartphones. Users can try the theme before buying. They can test drive the customizer to see if it meets their needs.
There are a wide variety of widgets and sliders available to showcase your posts in image or video format.
TheBlogger comes with helpful documentation that is straightforward and easy to follow. MailChimp for WordPress is also included. This allows you to send out newletters to blog subscribers.
The theme integrates with Ninja Forms. Users can easily create and add forms with the drag and drop feature.
A regular license costs $59 (£44.58) which includes future updates and 6-months support. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $17.63 (£13.6).
Foodie Pro helps users to create a beautiful blog based around all sorts of culinary delights.
It is created by the Genesis Framework. This means your website will have a solid combination of this Framework along with WordPress. The theme comes with a huge amount of typography and color options.
Users can build their site using up to 3 homepage and 5 site wide widget areas. These can be customized to fit around your brand.
The theme allows users to upload their own logo with one click. There is also full support for text-based logos.
Foodie Pro’s ‘Theme Customizer’ allows users to customize the theme’s settings, colours and backgrounds images.
The ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ can be purchased for $129.95 (£98.23) for one year. This includes the Genesis Framework, Foodie Pro Theme, instant access, unlimited updates, supports, sites and access to detailed tutorials.
If this is not enough, users can avail of the ‘Pro Plus Membership’ for $499.95 (£377.81). This includes all the ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ has to offer plus access to every theme the company makes including future themes.
Soledad was created as a website builder for all skill types. It is geared towards users who want to run blogs or create magazines.
The theme is highly customizable with multiple homepage layout models available. Users can also change the appearance of the ‘Category’, ‘Tag’, ‘Search’ and ‘Archive Layout’.
Soledad is an SEO responsive WordPress multipurpose blog and magazine theme. It’s compatible with BBPress and BuddyPress. The theme is fully responsive and displays well on all screens.
Soledad has over 4000 real homepage demos which can be installed with just one click. There are also a number of single post templates for different stories.
The theme can be purchased for $59 (£44.58) which includes future updates and 6 months support which can be upgraded to 12-months for an extra $17.63 (£13.32). At the time of writing, you can get 50% on both the regular license and extended support.
Some online commentators have lamented the lack of a search feature when it comes to support documentation.
Morning Time is a highly functional WordPress theme suitable for journalists, family blogs or personal blogs.
Users can purchase the theme directly or they can test the demo the site offers. The theme is highly responsive so adapts well to tablets and smartphones.
Morning Time is fully compatible with Gutenberg. Users can create blocks to insert, rearrange and style multimedia content without needing to have a lot of technical knowledge.
Users can create and customize different aspects of their site including portfolio and Google maps amongst others.
Morning Time is compatible with WooCommerce allowing you to turn your blog into an online store if needed.
Users can make their older posts available with the ‘Blog Archive Feature’. Older posts will not disappear as you create new blogs.
Users can also download ‘Morning Time Lite’ for free or subscribe to their premium tiers.
Morning Time has three paid packages available. Users can avail of the ‘Yearly Access’ package for $97 (£74) per year. This includes access to all themes, child themes, PSD, HTML files, Support, updates, theme documentation and multiple site usage.
Alternatively, users can purchase the ‘Lifetime’ package for $247 (£200) which includes all the ‘Yearly Access’ has to offer but with a one-off payment.
Writing is the perfect theme for those trying to create a minimalist effect.
The theme uses 24 Social Share Icons along with Facebook Open Graph Tags and multiple Social Icon Widgets. It is WPML compatible. Writing can be translated into any language. RTL support is also available for Hebrew, Arabic and Japanese.
Writing is retina ready and is fully responsive making it adaptable to screens of all size and resolution. Also, images are neatly optimized with features like lazy load.
The whole setup is easy and geared towards users of any skill level. The theme is built according to the most recent rules of Search Engines. This means using this theme will help boost your SEO results maximizing traffic to your blog.
Users can purchase Writing for $39 (£29.47) which includes future updates and 6-months support. 12-months support can be bought for a further $10.13 (£7.65).
The WordPress platform is one of the simplest ways to create colorful and well laid out webpages. Setup is usually performed with a few mouse clicks, so no coding knowledge is required.
The platform supports thousands of various designs known as themes, some of which are suited to specific users such as small businesses, whilst others have a more general appeal.
Many Wordpress themes are designed for blogs, but there are more specialist ones, such as for art and photography portfolios. There are also premium Wordpress themes available for those who want to invest extra in their website, and there are also ecommerce themes for business users.
When starting out you may feel overwhelmed by the choices available, especially if you’re not sure if a theme is worth buying. Also, do check that any theme you do consider will work properly with any Wordpress plugins you have also installed.
In this guide, you’ll discover five of our very favorite free and paid WordPress themes. Whether you’re a freelancer on a tight budget or an established business, rest assured there’s a theme for you.
Hestia is the perfect theme for those with small businesses, startups, online agencies and firms due to its multi-purpose functionality. Users do not have to pay to download this theme. Installation and setup is designed to be user friendly.
This theme is best suited to users who want to setup an ecommerce platform. Hestia integrates with WooCommerce, allowing users access to beautifully designed product listings. There is an easy to use drag and drop feature suitable.
This theme comes with custom background settings which aid in adding photos to your site and making it your own. It has a multi-purpose one page design, a widget designed footer and a blog or news section.
It integrates with Travel Map, Photo Gallery, Flat Parallax Slider and Elementor Page Builder. Hestia is responsive and uses Material Kit for design.
As with most WordPress themes, there is a demo for users to sample before downloading.
X is a paid WordPress theme suitable for all types of websites.
The theme comes with four categories of built-in demos. Each of these themes cover a wide variety of potential projects. This means that no matter what you have in mind, X more than likely has a design suited to your needs.
Cornerstone is included with X. This is one of the most popular WordPress web page builders. The drag and drop feature is easy to use. Users are able to see exactly what their page will look like live as they are building. This enables users to change and edit while building their site.
There are a huge number of customization options, with which users can build a unique webpage. It's also constantly updated and you get features like the custom font or inline editing. In the early 2019, X introduced Dynamic Content which helps a lot when building out content throughout your site.
X comes with a feature called ‘the customizer’. This is a handy tool as many premium themes come with their own theme options page that is not entirely compatible with WordPress. ‘The Customizer’ is highly intuitive. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress. It will help you to customize the look and feel of your website.
The regular license for X is $35 which includes future updates and 6 months customer support. Users can opt to extend support to 12-months for an additional $8.63.
Allegiant is a highly customizable WordPress theme that is most suited for small businesses that are just starting out.
The theme itself is simple and well laid out. Across the top there is a large header to highlight your most popular services or products. The slides on the homepage can be displayed in any order.
The theme offers several feature blocks which can be easily inserted onto your page with details about your business team or your past endeavours amongst others. These blocks come with the theme’s plugin ‘CPO Content Types’. The plugin is free and installs very quickly.
These pre-built blocks also come with testimonial section. It is very easy to copy and paste information into the blocks.
Allegiant integrates with other free popular WordPress themes such as WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, WPML and Contact Form 7.
It’s also free to download from the WordPress website.
Some online commentators mention that while the theme is customizable it is not easy to figure out how to do so. They don’t recommend Allegiant for newer users.
Astrid is the perfect choice theme for most businesses.
The theme has an impressive array of built-in widgets that users can take advantage of. Widgets and page templates are available for services and employees amongst others.
Astrid comes with a huge variety of fonts and color options. Users can easily edit the full width header to whatever they see fit. Users can also use a ‘call to action’ button with a message over it.
The theme is translation ready meaning that it can still be accessed by those users who do not speak the same language as your business.
Users can use visual graphs and displays to show their past work and experience. WooCommerce support is provided for selling products on your website. Astrid helps to make your site look well on tablets and smartphones.
Astrid is free to download but those users who want more out of their theme can ‘Go Pro’, which costs $60 for a licence. All packages offer a 30-day money back guarantee.
Sydney works well for freelancers and companies who want to create a strong online presence.
It is highly customizable with many options to choose from such as Google Fonts and logo uploads. The theme has more than 600 Google fonts to choose from.
For users who want to show off, there is a full screen promotional banner that can be edited to suit your needs.
The custom elementor blocks can be designed as you see fit and to suit your promotional needs. Sydney can also display social media icons at the bottom of your page.
The theme is translation ready and provides the necessary tools for a smooth translation process.
Users have access to full color control, sticky navigation, header image and a full screen slider. Sydney also offers Parallax background affects. Users can add this to any row in the theme layout.
The theme is free to download, and costs $59 for a Pro licence.
Uncode is a multi-purpose theme suitable for most users.
The theme offers users a huge variety of website demos. These include classic, portfolio, blog and ecommerce layouts.
Uncode’s images are fully adaptive so that they adjust automatically to whatever screen size they are being viewed on.
Users can edit their demos through the WPBakery Page Builder Plugin. They can also access to the handy drag and drop content editor. Uncode is compatible with most third-party plugins.
The themes large media library makes it easier for users to embed any type of media to your WordPress site.
Uncode has over 6 different menu types with advanced options. These include top right, justify, left, center, overlay, offcanvas and lateral.
The theme is WPML certified and offers RTL (Right to Left) support. The premium themes included are VC Page Builder, VC Clipboard, VC Particles, LayerSlider, Slider Revolution and iLightBox. In the recent updates, new features are available like animated headlines, highlighting effects and frontend editor, among other things.
You can purchase for $59 and includes future updates and 6 months support. If you want to extend support to 12 months, an additional $17.63 is needed.
Foodie Pro helps users to create a beautiful blog based around all sorts of culinary delights.
It is created by the Genesis Framework. This means your website will have a solid combination of this Framework along with WordPress. The theme comes with a huge amount of typography and color options.
Users can build their site using up to 3 homepage and 5 site wide widget areas. These can be customized to fit around your brand.
The theme allows users to upload their own logo with one click. There is also full support for text-based logos.
Foodie Pro’s ‘Theme Customizer’ allows users to customize the theme’s settings, colours and backgrounds images.
The ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ can be purchased for $129.95 for one year. This includes the Genesis Framework, Foodie Pro Theme, instant access, unlimited updates, supports, sites and access to detailed tutorials.
If this is not enough, users can avail of the ‘Pro Plus Membership’ for $499.95 (£377.81). This includes all the ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ has to offer plus access to every theme the company makes including future themes.
TheBlogger is a WordPress theme suitable for storytelling and writing. It comes with a responsive design and multiple gallery features. TheBlogger also comes with a live customizer which helps you to tweak every part of your theme.
It is Retina-ready and can be optimized for tablets and smartphones. Users can try the theme before buying. They can test drive the customizer to see if it meets their needs.
There are a wide variety of widgets and sliders available to showcase your posts in image or video format.
TheBlogger comes with helpful documentation that is straightforward and easy to follow. MailChimp for WordPress is also included. This allows you to send out newletters to blog subscribers.
The theme integrates with Ninja Forms. Users can easily create and add forms with the drag and drop feature.
A regular license costs $59 which includes future updates and 6-months support. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $17.63 (£13.6).
Grand Portfolio is designed to cater for those users involved in most areas of visual design. It works best for photographers, fashion designers and architects.
The theme has a variety of gallery and portfolio modules. There are also choices for those interested in blogs and creating magazines. It’s useful for musicians as it has support for biographies along with event reservation support.
Grand Portfolio themes can be viewed in split screen along with a full screen option for users who want to show off all their designs in their full glory. Users can utilize the infinite scroll option so that designs keep loading as you come to the end of each page.
Users can customize elements color, background and typography with the built-in live customizer. Revolution Slider and iLightbox are included with the theme. These two premium themes usually cost around $34 (£25.87) each.
Users gain access to the built-in ‘Content Builder’. This comes with a handy drag and drop feature.
Grand Portfolio is fully responsive. It has also passed Google’s mobile compatibility check meaning that it is SEO optimized.
Users can purchase the regular license for $59 which includes future updates and 6-months support. An additional 12-months of support can be added for $17.63.
Shopkeeper is a user-friendly WordPress e-commerce platform. The homepage consists mainly of one large slider, designed to catch the eye of any potential clients. This is part of the Slider Revolution plugin which is included. Various optional plugins like "Shopkeeper Portfolio Addon" can also be installed.
The theme integrates completely with WooCommerce, and translation is supported with the WPML plugin. Shopkeeper is Retina-ready and fully responsive, making it perfect to view on both tablets and smartphones as well as your desktop computer.
The theme is easily customizable. Users do not need knowledge of complex codes in order to use it. There are a huge array of pre-built layouts to suit your needs, but failing this, users can create their own layout from scratch.
Users can also upload their own logo, change fonts and colors. Visual Slider and Revolution Slider plugins are included with the Shopkeeper theme; these cost around $26 (£19.5) each. Shopkeeper itself sells at $59 for a regular license. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $17.63.
Some online commentators have noted that the huge amount of customizable settings contained within Shopkeeper can be overwhelming for newer users.
In July 2001, the Code Red worm infected over 359,000 hosts which were running a vulnerable implementation of Windows NT. Visitors to compromised websites were greeted with the message: "HELLO! Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked By Chinese!"
Code Red and the phrase "Hacked by Chinese!" have long since passed into internet legend but the danger of website defacement is clear and present. Hackers can target your site at any time, so unless you are viewing a page as its been changed, it's hard to respond quickly.
In this guide, you'll discover an elegant solution to the issue of website defacement in the form of the very best security tools on the web today. These automate the task of regularly checking your domains for anomalies and make sure to notify you if any unauthorised changes are detected.
There are options to match all budgets from free services suitable for the occasional blogger to premium platforms for large business owners.
We've also highlighted the best web hosting services
Visualping is a deceptively simple tool which offers powerful protection against website defacement. Users of the website or iOS/Android mobile apps need only enter a URL and their email address to receive regular updates of any changes made.
The tool works by making regular snapshots of the page in question then comparing these on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. It can also be customized to trigger an alert for tiny, medium or significant changes.
Visualping is not designed specifically for website defacement. As the developers' website mentions, it will work equally well for checking on the release on concert tickets or a new product launch. However its ability to display superposed 'images' as well as the fact you can control the frequency Visualping checks for changes means it's certainly fit for purpose.
The basic free version of Visualping allows you up to 2 free checks per day. Costs vary after this on a very reasonable sliding scale depending on the number of checks required. For instance, to have Visualping check your site 40 times a day (every 36 minutes) would cost just $13 (£9.72) a month.
If you need to monitor multiple domains consider installing the Visualping Chrome web extension. Once installed just click the Visualping button to start monitoring the current page.
Through to its name Visualping may not be able to detect invisible to changes to pages such as modifications of source code. If malware is a concern consider one of the other tools in this guide.
StatusCake is a many-layered treat for webmasters. This British-based site offers a way to check your pages for defacement and downtime from a variety of locations: the project maintains 48 monitoring centers in 28 countries around the world. Many centers support the more recent IPv6 protocol.
This offers subscribers a much more refined experience over simpler competitors. Not only can you adjust the frequency of checks but you can also specify the location from which you want to monitor pages. StatusCake even offers a speed test to show how quickly a page loads when checked.
There is a free package which can perform up to 10 checks at 5-minute intervals. This is fine for hobby bloggers and those with very monolithic websites but business owners can benefit more from a paid subscription.
These are very competitively priced compared to other monitoring services. StatusCake's 'superior' subscription, for instance, costs only $24.49 (£18.50) a month and performs up to 100 checks at 1-minute intervals. You can lower that to $20.41 per month with annual billing.
Regardless of which package you choose, StatusCake includes multiple notification options including email, text message and even push notifications via Android/iOS. This service also works with some third party apps such as PagerDuty.
Sucuri began in 2010 under the guiding hand of developer Daniel Cid who envisioned a tool which could give webmasters better insight into the security status of their websites.
It's safe to say that Mr. Cid has been successful. The cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) Sucuri works not only as a monitoring platform but contains many tools to help prevent malicious attacks by hackers such as a Firewall, anti-virus and DDoS protection. This may be why Sucuri was acquired by legendary hosting provider GoDaddy in March 2018.
The Sucuri Website Firewall can handle malware prevention through use of a dedicated whitelist, so that only authorised parties can connect to your site. Sucuri also regularly monitors changes to your pages and can display appropriate warnings. Furthermore, there is a free website malware and security scanner that you can use at sitecheck.sucuri.net.
The service also maintains a dedicated incident response team, who work 365 days a year to assist you with restoring your site if anything goes wrong. Subscribers to the 'basic' Sucuri package for $199 (£149.46) per year are guaranteed a response within 12 hours to all support requests of this kind. The basic tier also includes features such as the firewall (with support for whitelists and blacklists), continuous scanning for defacement and malware cleanup.
Sadly, there is no free trial for Sucuri, however the main site offers a money back guarantee within 30 days if users aren't satisfied.
OnWebChange is one of the most versatile and useful tools when it comes to defacement protection. Since it was originally developed by Briton Tom Carnell in 2009 the service has exploded and can boast tens of thousands of users. This is due in part to the sophisticated monitoring features. In the first instance, users can select one or more areas to monitor within a web page. This is ideal if you maintain pages with dynamic content.
OnWebChange will notify you each time a change takes place, either via email or via push notifications in Android/iOS. Power Users can also use a HTTP CallBacks with their own login data to adjust website content automatically e.g. to restore a defaced page. Furthermore, users can use multi-region tracking which allows you to visit the web pages as if you were visiting them from different geographic regions around the world.
The generous free tier offers subscribers advanced CSS (Page Content Selection) as well as the ability to scan both PDF and plain text files for changes. Free tier users are permitted a maximum of 3 tracked sites a month. Checks are made up to 30 times (roughly once a day).
Premium subscribers such as those who opt for the 'Standard' package for $3.10 (£2.55) a month, benefit from advanced features such as unlimited trackers and checks every 60 minutes. The highest tier of subscription called "Turbo-100", enables 5 minute tracking with some additional features.
Fluxguard offers various powerful features in addition to defacement monitoring and as such attracts a variety of customers. Its website change monitoring is quite effective with full browser page crawls and other functions depending on what you paid for.
The service provides multiple levels of web change detection. Every page is screenshotted and any pixel changes are detected. The HTML is compared and the text is extracted and checked for changes, and the complete network change analysis is done. The service also runs Google Lighthouse audits. The already mentioned full browser page crawls include complete network activity logging, multiple screenshots, rendered DOM capture, and a few other things.
The pricing is versatile with several plans available, including the free plan. The free plan gives you 50 credits per month, and 1 credit equals one full page crawl, so you can crawl and monitor 50 pages per month. The plan includes visual, HTML, and text change detection, as well as 100% dynamic page monitoring. You also get Google Chrome crawler, Google Lighthouse audits, and instant email alerts.
The cheapest paid plan is priced at $25 per month and gives you 1000 credits per month and the ability to crawl every 5 minutes, in addition to some other features. There is also a 7-day free trial for all paid plans.
All things considered, Fluxguard is a good choice for all your defacement monitoring needs and their free plan offers a good starting point in exploring what the service can do.
As a content management system, WordPress offers one of the easiest and quickest ways to set up your own blog or website. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can select from one of hundreds of templates, as well as create interactive content such as contact forms.
The usefulness of WordPress has not been lost on web hosting providers. In this guide, you’ll discover some of the very best vendors on the market today who offer managed WordPress hosting. This is a great way to avoid the time and trouble of hosting your content from scratch as they take the trouble of creating and maintaining your website away from you. Don't underestimate the importance of managing an online property. Between SEO, admin, content and social marketing, there's more than enough work for a small business.
WP Engine is the leading WordPress digital platform. It hosts excellent uptime, WordPress specific security and unlimited monthly transfers.
WP Engine includes many great tools needed for web hosting. These range from automated backups to 24/7 support (phone support on Growth and Scale packages).
You can use WP Engine’s ‘actionable intelligence’ to gain insight into the performance of your pages, content and applications.
WP Engine has four different price plans. All include free migration and free page performance. If you pay for a year’s subscription upfront, you get three months free.
Prices start off at $30 per month ($20 per month if you choose annual billing) which includes a 60-day risk free guarantee. WP Engine also has a ‘Custom’ tier for larger businesses that want a plan more tailored for their individual needs.
Some users have asked for a mid-range pricing option between the $30 and $115 tiers with the most expensive tier, Scale, costing $290 per month and offering support for up to 15 sites.
GoDaddy Pro is part of GoDaddy Inc, founded in 1997. It offers users a more robust, wider range of tools for developers and businesses. While it doesn't mention WordPress in the opening few introductory phrases, GDP is actually wholly focused on WordPress installs.
GoDaddy Pro offers client management tools and advanced support. This solution allows developers to add multiple clients and manages their accounts from one single dashboard.
GoDaddy gives users access to a management dashboard. From here all products and clients can be viewed. The dashboard can alert the user via SMS and email to any issues the client may have.
As GoDaddy Pro has been designed to make developer’s lives easier, the platform is user-friendly and everything is at your fingertips via the dashboard.
Access to the dashboard is free and includes reporting and basic maintenance for as many WordPress sites as needed. Paid services include cloud backups, migration, uptime monitoring and automated security checks. These can be purchased as add-ons to your free plan.
Users have noted that bandwidth monitoring is not included.
Bluehost is a web hosting company owned by Endurance International Group. It was founded in 2003. It’s part of a web hosting family that includes HostMonster, FastDomain and iPage.
Bluehost tries to make the daunting task of starting a new web site easy. It offers plenty of options to those new to web hosting while still offering tools for the more experienced user.
All new subscribers can set up a WordPress site with a single click of their mouse. Also, newbies can rely on Blue Spark, a specialized service that helps new users with everything WordPress related.
Bluehost are currently offering all their WordPress plans at a reduced rate. Prices start at $2.75 (£2.2) a month for a single WordPress site complete with 50GB of website space. The ‘Plus’ and ‘Premium’ packages are on offer for $5.45 (£4.4) per month. These both include unlimited WordPress sites and unlimited website space. The ‘Premium’ package includes domain privacy and SiteBackup Pro. Furthermore, WP Pro plans are available, which bring additional improvements and features with prices starting at $17.95.
More inexperienced users have reported that the dashboard can be difficult to navigate if you do not know all the terminology.
WordPress VIP is a fully managed cloud platform. Users of VIP have access to expert guidance, code review and around the clock support.
Users get their own Git repository and ZenDesk account. Once your code is ready, you send it to the VIP team. Experts at VIP go through each line of code in your repository. This can take 4-6 weeks. If any issues are found, they’re raised on GitHub. Once these have been removed the code is transferred to your project and you are online. VIP adhere to strict coding standards.
One of the main attractions of VIP, is their ‘always on’ support. VIP engineers watch for any issues that may arise and fix them proactively on behalf of the client. Once rectified, a report will be sent to you explaining what occurred.
Users will need to contact VIP directly in order to get a quote.
Some users have reported delays with setting up and building sites.
SiteGround was founded in 2004. It provides shared hosting, cloud hosting and dedicated servers.
SiteGround lets you choose from one of their four data centers on which to host your website. These are based in the US, Amsterdam, Singapore and the UK.
SiteGround offers users CloudFlare CDN, free SSL certificates and daily backups of their website’s data. All of their shared hosting plans include managed WordPress.
The platform’s customer support includes live chat as well as a phone in option. All support services are available 24/7.
The ‘StartUp’ plan begins at $11.95 (£9.28) per month ($3.95 for initial payment) which includes one website, 10GB web space and is suitable for 10,000 visits monthly. The ‘GrowBig’ plan for $19.95 (£15.47) monthly ($5.95 for initial payment) allows for multiple websites, 20GB of web space and is suitable for 25,000 visits. SiteGround’s ‘GoGeek’ plan starts at $34.95 (£27.08) per month ($11.95 for initial payment) which includes 40GB of web space and is suitable for 100,000 visits monthly. SiteGround do not offer a free trial but do have a 30-day money back guarantee.
Some users reported issues with being automatically logged out when signing in on multiple devices.
DreamHost is owned by New Dream Network, LLC which was founded in 1996. It’s both a web hosting provider and a domain name registrar.
DreamHost’s ‘Shared Starter’ plan starts at $2.59 (£2) per month. This includes a shared hosting server, 1 WordPress website, unlimited traffic, 1-click SSL certificate, fast SSD storage, 24/7 support and an upgrade to add email.
The ‘DreamPress’ (the managed WP plan) package starts at $16.95 (£12.8). This includes all of what the ‘Shared Starter’ plan has to offer along with 30GB SSD storage, JetPack free preinstalled, daily backups and a few other things.
All of DreamHost’s hosting solutions are a fully managed service.
Inexperienced users have reported issues with getting started.
InMotion Hosting is an employee-owned and -operated domain name and web hosting company founded in 2001.
InMotion offers dedicated, shared, virtual private server and WordPress hosting along with several Ecommerce tools.
Their WordPress hosting plans start off at $5.99 (£4.8) per month (for the initial payment and for the 1-year plan) and include one website, 50GB SSD storage and is suitable for 20,000 visitors a month. InMotion have three price plans available and all of them offer unlimited data transfers.
Besides having numerous price plans for each of their hosting options, InMotion have numerous free add-ons, free ecommerce tools and unlimited emails. While they do not have a free trial, they do include a 90-day money back guarantee.
Some users have complained that InMotion is not as competitively priced as other hosting providers.
HostGator was founded in 2002. It provides shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated web hosting.
HostGator’s Website Builder comes with a handy drag and drop feature. The builder includes a wide range of themes. Some of the features are pre-built to help make the process easier and faster.
HostGator claims that load times for WordPress sites are up to 2.5 times faster when compared to its own shared hosting due to the superior server architecture of its managed WordPress hosting.
The utility offers a WordPress Cloud Interface where you can manage backups, access all your email accounts and other hosting options. You can also allocate server bandwidth from here.
HostGator offer three WordPress cloud hosting plans. The ‘Starter’ plan is currently priced from $5.95 per month for 1 site, 100,000 visits per month, 1GB free backups and a free SSL certificate. The ‘Standard’ plan is on offer from $7.95 per month for 2 sites, 200,000 visits per month, 2GB backups and a free SSL certificate.
HostGator’s ‘Business’ plan is also on offer at $9.95 per month. This includes 3 sites, 500,000 visits, 3GB backups and a free SSL certificate. However, do note that the prices quoted are based on multi-year subscriptions.
According to online commentators, the purchase price for additional domains can be quite steep.
1&1 (called 1&1 IONOS since October 2018) is owned by German company, United Internet. It was founded in 1988. It offers domain registration, cloud servers, virtual private servers and dedicated servers.
1&1 boasts excellent customer support and easy to use web creation tools. More inexperienced users might find this provider more suitable to their needs.
1&1’s packages start at $3 (£2 for UK) per month, renews at the same price. This includes 1 WordPress project, 25GB SSD storage, unlimited visitors and managed WordPress. Upon registration, you are offered a domain name free for 12 months. This is only valid upon purchase of any of their plans.
Users that sign up for the ‘Business’ plan receive 2 WordPress projects, 100GB SSD storage and unlimited visitors. This plan starts at $1 (£1 for UK) for the first month and then $7 (£7 for UK) per month thereafter.
The ‘Unlimited’ has a price of $18 (£18 for UK) per month with renewal being the same. It includes unlimited projects and unlimited SSD storage, unlimited databases and email accounts, as well as SiteLock malware protection and RailGun CDN.
Online commentators have complained about long periods of downtime.
For many businesses, online cloud storage solutions has come to replace traditional on-premise storage hardware. Instead of storing files and folders on a single server, cloud storage distributes data across someone else's infrastructure (data center, server, hard drive etc.)
Ever since Amazon popularized storage online with S3 (Simple Storage Service), 13 years ago, Google data shows that interest for "Cloud Storage" alone has increased by 40x.
Given the multitude of cloud storage providers out there, one has to wisely choose a provider who will offer the maximum amount of low-cost storage and bandwidth, while still keeping your data safe.
This list represents our top picks for cloud storage: most offer a free tier allowing you to see if they're right for you before handing over any hard-earned cash. And it's iDrive that leads the way thanks to how fast, thorough and easy to use it is.
Business users will need to consider carefully what their needs are as terms and conditions as well as quality of service is likely to differ significantly from their consumer alter ego.
Go straight to your desired option through the jump links below:
IDrive offers continuous syncing of your files, even those on network drives. The web interface supports sharing files by email, Facebook and Twitter. Cautious or click-happy users will be pleased to hear that files deleted from your computer are not automatically deleted from the server, so there's less danger of removing something important by accident. Up to 30 previous versions of all files backed to your account are retained.
Another thing to note is that IT admins have access to IDrive Thin Client application, which allows them to backup/restore, manage settings, and more for all their connected computers via a centralized dashboard.
For photos, you have a neat facial recognition feature that helps you to automatically organize them as well as syncing them across all your linked devices. IDrive also offers IDrive Express which sends you a physical hard disk drive if you lose all your data, allowing for the swift restoration of all your backed up files. That applies to the newly introduced disk image backup feature.
A business version exists and offers priority support, single sign-on as well as unlimited users and server backup. Furthermore, IDrive Cloud, an enterprise-class cloud object storage is also available.
While some bandwidth limits apply, there seems to be no limit to the size of files you can upload, so feel free to sync large media files with pCloud. The service is available for all desktop and mobile platforms – users can also log in via the website. The company itself is registered in Switzerland which has strong privacy laws and you can also pay a premium of $4.99 a month for pCloud Crypto to lock (and unlock) individual files with passwords.
Note that it is one of the very few cloud services that offer lifetime subscriptions. The latter come with 30 days trash history and unlimited remote upload traffic (you only need the URL of the file); you are - as expected - limited on the download link traffic: 500GB for the Premium package and 2TB for the Premium Plus package.
There are lots of things to like about Zoolz Cloud Backup for both personal use and business deployment. It offers an easy to follow interface with excellent web management options, and the ability to combine cloud operations with local external storage.
This UK-based company leverages Amazon’s Glacier infrastructure to deliver a compelling price/performance ratio, with prices far cheaper than the competition. With 20PB of data stored for three million users for more than a decade, Zoolz is also not as ephemeral as some of its rivals.
Swedish outfit Degoo is not a household name, and therefore it comes as a surprise that it has managed to carve itself a niche inside the ultra-competitive cloud storage market.
With only two offerings, this outfit has managed to attract more than 15 million users globally since its inception earlier in 2019 – an estimated 20,000 people join Degoo every day. It is one of the few cloud storage companies worldwide that encrypts stored files and disperses them across four different continents. It also supports two-factor authentication via the Google sign-in.
With an insanely generous free tier and a simple drag-and-drop interface, New Zealand-based Mega is one of the cloud storage heavyweights. There's a handy mobile app to allow you to upload files and photos, as well as sync clients with desktop machines. The company also has business tailored plans.
Mega claims that all data stored in its cloud is encrypted on your device before it reaches the firm’s servers. As the company has released the source code to its sync client, experts can check that there are no vulnerabilities.
Price: 50GB free. 400GB for $6 a month (£4.50, €4.99, around AU$7.50). 2TB for $12 a month (£9, €9.99, around AU$16). 8TB for $23 a month (£17, €19.99, around AU$30). 16TB for $35 a month (£26, €29.99, around AU$46).
OneDrive is integrated into Windows 10's File Explorer. You don't have to download an additional app – it's there to use out of the box, which is obviously very convenient for those who have made the jump to Microsoft’s newest operating system.
Microsoft's Photos app can also use OneDrive to sync pictures across all your devices. As of late March, Autodesk AutoCAD has been integrated with OneDrive which is good news for anyone using the software's drafting tools. In addition, you have a feature called Personal Vault, which gives you an added layer of protection. There's an app for Android and iOS devices, and there's even one in the App Store for Mac users (although it has received mixed reviews).
Price: 5GB free. 100GB for $1.99 a month (£1.50, around AU$2.9). 1TB for $7 a month (£5.99, around AU$11). Unlimited (as part of Onedrive for Business) for $10 a month (£7.99, around AU$14)
If you want to back up your iPhone to iCloud, you'll need more than the free 5GB allowance Apple gives you, but compared to rivals iCloud prices are very reasonable.
The Mac Finder app integrates iCloud Drive, where you can store any files you wish. Documents created in the iWork office suite are also saved to iCloud and can sync across your devices. Windows users can also sync their files with iCloud Drive using the official client, and access the iWork apps on the iCloud website.
Price: 5GB free. 50GB for $0.99 a month (£0.79, AU$1.49). 200GB for $2.99 (£2.24, AU$4). 2TB for $9.99 (£8, AU$13)
Google Drive is a natural choice for owners of Android devices as it's already integrated, but users of other platforms may appreciate the generous free storage too. You can also store high definition photos on your mobile phone with companion app Google Photos, and make use of Google's own office suite (now known as G Suite). Also, upgrading to paid Google Drive plans is now called Google One (although it might not yet be available, depending on the region).
Downsides include the fact that the web interface isn't very easy-to-use, although Windows and Mac users can download a desktop app to drag-and-drop files easily.
Price: 15GB free. 100GB for $1.99 a month (£1.59, around AU$2.50). 200GB for $2.99 a month (£2.35, around AU$4.10). 2TB for $9.99 a month (£8, around AU$13). 10TB for $99.99 a month (£74, around AU$130). 20TB for $199.99 a month (£148, around AU$260). 30TB for $299.99 a month (£236, around AU$426).
NextCloud isn’t an online cloud storage provider itself, but offers free software to download and install a cloud storage service on your own server. Using a server on your home network for cloud storage is much faster. You can also enable encryption and make sure the information never leaves your home network, which is far safer.
If you've no server or IT experience, you can even purchase a preconfigured NextCloud Box (if you can find one) which comes with a 1TB hard drive and will work with an inexpensive Raspberry Pi board to keep your data synced. Unfortunately, NextCloud Box is sold out but you can check out the alternatives on their website
Price: Free to install and use. Self-hosting so storage costs vary.
SpiderOak is part of a new trend of zero knowledge cloud storage providers. The website claims that after installing the client your data is encrypted before syncing. Unfortunately since SpiderOak hasn’t made the client source code public, there's no way to confirm this.
The SpiderOakOne client is available for Windows, Mac and Linux as well as Android and iOS (although, both Android and iOS are read-only apps, meaning you can only view files, and can't upload or sync anything). You can also log in via the web interface but privacy lovers may prefer not to as it exposes your password to SpiderOak employees.
Price: 21-day free trial.150GB for $6 a month (around £4.5, AU$8.25). 400GB for $11 a month (around £8.4, AU$15). 2TB for $14 a month (around £10.7, AU$19.25). 5TB for $29 a month (around £22.1, AU$39.9)
If you're a Google user, you already benefit from Google Drive integration, such as the ability to save email attachments from Gmail. However, anyone can sign up for the free cloud storage, even if they don't have a Gmail address, by creating a new Google account. Google is also in a process of releasing Google One as a sort of substitution for Google Drive, although depending on your region it might not be available yet.
With 15GB of space for new users, Google Drive is one of the more generous cloud offerings, and there are occasional ways to boost this capacity free of charge. The catch is that this Google storage space is also shared with a user’s other Google services including Gmail and Google Photos.
Mobile apps are available to allow easy access for iOS and Android users, and Google’s Backup and Sync desktop app lets you synchronize files from your PC to the cloud. Google Drive also includes online office tools for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations which can makes sharing files with others effortless.
Like Google Drive's appeal to Google users, OneDrive will be a good fit for anyone who is committed to using Microsoft's services. There's neat integration with Outlook.com, for instance. It's also integrated with non-Microsoft services like AutoCAD. OneDrive also ties in nicely with Windows 10, and there is a selection of reasonable mobile apps to facilitate access on the move.
It's possible to share files with other people even if they aren't OneDrive users (complete with customizable permissions), and the ability to edit files online without downloading them is a welcome touch.
Free storage allowance: 5GB
Coming from Microsoft – a company with plenty of money to throw at the cloud – it's a little disappointing to find that OneDrive doesn’t include more space free of charge. Free users get a mere 5GB of storage, although it's relatively inexpensive to increase this to 50GB.
If you have Office 365, you'll automatically get boosted to 1TB of space, but not everyone wants an Office subscription.
Free storage allowance: 10GB (expandable)
You might not recognize the name, but if you're looking for a decent chunk of cloud storage free of charge, pCloud could be just the ticket. To kick things off, you're given a fairly generous 10GB to play with, and there's a bandwidth allowance of 50GB of downlink traffic per month.
While we're primarily interested in the free version of pCloud, note that you can upgrade to 500GB of space for a monthly plan of $4.99 (£3.70), or 2TB for $9.99 (£7.50) a month – both of which are great deals for storage. You also have annual and lifetime plans, which are a cheaper option in the long run.
The initial 10GB free offering can also be expanded up to 20GB via an additional 4GB for completion of offers, as well as referrals that add 1GB each. It’s also worth noting that pCloud offers well-designed desktop and mobile apps that supplement the website for seamless integration into a user’s workflow.
With no limit on file sizes, and simple sharing options, pCloud is a great way to send large files to friends and colleagues – it's even possible to share with people who aren't using the service themselves. Add in decent streaming options and a neat online interface, and pCloud is well worth a look.
Dropbox is a stalwart of the free cloud storage world, with a web interface that remains streamlined and easy-to-use.
Despite its popularity, Dropbox actually has one of the least generous free packages for new users (just 2GB), but there are various ways to boost this space without paying, including inviting friends to join (you get 500MB per referral up to 16GB), completing the Getting Started guide (250MB) and contributing to the Dropbox forum (which elicits 1GB per 'Mighty Answer' provided).
DropBox really comes into its own when you start delving into the service’s extra features. There's a great collaborative working tool called Dropbox Paper that acts as a group workspace, and – if you install the desktop app – you can back up photos automatically. The File Requests feature also allows you to request another user to upload a file to your Dropbox account. Additionally, a feature called Dropbox Rewind lets you restore folders or your entire account to a specific point in time.
There are desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, and mobile apps including Android, iOS and even Kindle. This gives Dropbox broad appeal, as does the support for third-party apps and services.
The web version of Dropbox lets you edit files without needing to download them, and really the only thing that counts against the cloud storage service is that most alternatives offer more space to free users.
MediaFire has been around for over a decade, and those years of experience really show. You're given 10GB of free space initially, but you can boost this by an extra 40GB through activities like referring friends and following MediaFire's social media accounts. Few people would disagree that 50GB of free cloud storage is impressive. Free accounts carry ads, but this is a small sacrifice to make.
There's support for large files up to 20GB, and the sharing options are very impressive, even allowing sharing with non-users.
The web-based interface is excellent too, and MediaFire offers mobile apps for convenient uploading and downloading on iOS and Android. These make it easy to access files you're storing in the cloud, and include convenient features such as automatic photo syncing.
SpiderOak is a collaboration tool, online backup and file hosting service founded in 2007. The platform allows users to access, synchronize and share data using a cloud-based server.
The company places a strong emphasis on data security and privacy. They offer a cloud storage, online backup and sharing service which they claim uses a ‘zero knowledge’ privacy environment. This means the client is the only one who can view all stored data. Not even SpiderOak themselves have access to your data.
SpiderOak’s main focus is on privacy and security. As a result, the tool itself has a very basic design. This makes the admin console and all central device management very straightforward to use. They also include a handy drag and drop feature for organising files.
From the centralized device management dashboard, users can access settings for all applications such as backup selection and sharing. The dashboard also allows users to manage their accounts, set group permissions and gain insight into usage.
Prospective business clients will need to contact SpiderOak’s Sales Team directly to obtain a quote. 500 users minimum is required.
Online commentators have observed that SpiderOak lacks many of the collaboration tools available from other cloud storage providers.
Tresorit is a cloud storage provider based in Hungary and Switzerland. It was founded in 2011. The provider emphasizes enhanced security and data encryption for businesses and personal users alike.
If you are concerned with ensuring that your stored data is kept safe online then Tresorit is the service for you. This provider allows you to keep control of your files through ‘zero-knowledge encryption’ meaning that only you and the chosen few you decide to share with can ever see your data. Your Tresorit account can also be secured by two-factor authentication login and you can choose where to keep company data with Data Residency Options. Furthermore, you also have features like Document Scanner which securely scans and uploads documents directly to Tresorit.
Tresorit’s ‘Small Business’ Packages starts at $25 (£19.60) per month (or $20 monthly for the annual plan) for teams with 2-9 users. This includes 1000GB encrypted storage, secure access on up to 10 devices and synching of existing folder structure.
Tresorit’s ‘Business’ plan begins at $30 (£23.30) per month (or $24 monthly for the annual plan) for businesses with over 10 users. This comes with extras such as digital rights management, remote wipe and phone support. At the time of writing there is a 50% discount on "Business plan", so you can pay as low as $12 (£9.4) per month
For Enterprise solutions, users will need to contact Tresorit directly. Extras included in this are personalized staff training, admin API and on-premises deployment.
All tiers come with a 14-day free trial.
The extra security offered by Tresorit makes it relatively expensive compared to other cloud backup solutions. However, most users will probably appreciate the greater piece of mind and extra features offered by Tresorit.
Egnyte was founded in 2007. The company provides software for enterprise file synchronization and sharing.
Egnyte allows businesses to store their data locally and online. All types of data can be stored in the cloud, whilst data of a more sensitive nature can be stored on servers on-premise. This makes for better security.
Business teams can work how and where they want with an easy to use collaboration system through Egnyte’s content services platform.
Egnyte integrates with popular industry applications such as Office 365 or Gmail. This allows both remote and internal employees to access all files with ease.
Egnyte’s ‘Office’ plan starts at $8 (£6.21) per employee per month. This covers 5-25 employees, 5TB of storage and 10GB max file size.
The ‘Business’ packages starts at $20 (£15.7) per employee per month. This includes 25-100 employees, 10TB online storage and 10GB max file size.
In order to take advantage of their ‘Enterprise tier’, which includes over 100 employees, 25GB max file size and unlimited storage, you will need to contact Egnyte directly.
Egnyte offer a 15-day free trial for all packages.
Users have observed that some files, such as photos, can take a long time to load.
Dropbox is one of the oldest cloud storage providers. It was founded in 2007.
To date it is one of the simplest storage providers to use. Dropbox can be installed on most computers or devices and syncs easily between apps. The app can store almost any kind of file while never having any issues with compatibility. You can drag and drop files into the desktop app with ease.
You can also share files with other users easily through links. These can be shared with users who don’t have a Dropbox account. Also, teams can make use out of Dropbox spaces, which transforms folders into collaborative workspaces. Furthermore, with Dropbox Transfer you can send up to 100 GB of files in just a few clicks.
As Dropbox has been around for a long time it integrates with most other apps such as MS Office and Slack.
All files and folders can be shared with other users even if they are not part of your account. These users will be limited to their own plan's storage limits.
Dropbox Business can be connected to your personal account so you can access all your files in once place. Personal account feature "automatic camera upload" is now also available to Business accounts, as of November 2018.
The dashboard is simple and easy to use. From here, admins can see how many team members they have as well as any pending invites. You can restrict sharing, and allow/block commenting as you see fit. The dashboard allows you to access settings and to monitor usage.
Dropbox offers a 30-day free trial which asks for your payment details. Your plan will automatically upgrade after the trial at which point your card is charged.
The ‘Standard’ plan starts at $12.50 (£9.71) per user per month starting at 3 users and includes 3TB storage.
The ‘Advanced’ package begins at $20 (£15.70) per user per month with unlimited storage.
In order to subscribe to the ‘Enterprise’ tier, users will need to contact Dropbox directly.
Some users have commented on the lack of online editing tools.
Privacy and security have become increasing concerns for internet users, not least with increased government monitoring and corporate collection of user data, and a long string of well-publicized hack attacked in which this user data has been stolen and mis-used.
While Windows and macOS machines have some protections in place, and there are additional options such as using a VPN or Tor browser, a number of Linux distros are now available that put privacy and security at their core.
For some of these Linux distros it's a case of building in privacy protection by default using a variety of tools. For others, it's a matter of including security software as standard for those who need to do penetration testing.
Each of these distros has a different focus on privacy and/or security according to user interests and needs. Here we'll list the best 10 for you to consider.
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Best Linux distro for privacy and security - at a glance
While definitely not for novice users, Qubes is one of the top privacy-conscious distros. The graphical installer must be used to install the OS to your hard drive, which will be encrypted.
Qubes OS uses the Xen Hypervisor to run a number of virtual machines, compartmentalising your life into ‘personal’, ‘work’, ‘internet’ and so on for the sake of security. This means if you accidentally download malware on your work machine for instance, your personal files won’t be compromised.
The main desktop uses colour-coded windows to show different virtual machines, making it easy for you to tell them apart.
Tails (which stands for ‘The Amnesiac Incognito Live System’) is probably the most well-known privacy-focused distro. It can be run from a DVD in Live mode whereby it loads entirely into your system RAM and will leave no trace of its activity. The OS can also be used in ‘persistent’ mode where your settings can be stored on an encrypted USB stick.
All connections are routed through the anonymity network Tor, which conceals your location. The applications in Tails have also been carefully selected to enhance your privacy – for example, there’s the KeePassX password manager and Paperkey, a command line tool used to export OpenPGP secret keys to print on paper. There are also a small number of productivity apps such as Mozilla Thunderbird and the powerful LibreOffice suite.
You can install more applications from Debian repositories via the command line, but they will take some time to download as they pass through the Tor network.
Do note that vulnerabilities are constantly discovered with Tails so be sure to check for updates (as you should do with any OS, of course).
This pen-testing distro is based on Arch Linux, which may be good or bad news depending on how familiar you are with its parent operating system. While relatively new, this OS contains over 2,000 different hacking tools, saving you the trouble of having to download what you need each time.
The BlackArch distro is constantly updated, with new ISO images being released on a quarterly basis. These are very large in size (currently 14 GB) due to the amount of pre-installed programs, but note that there's also a much smaller Netinstall version which is only around 491 MB.
BlackArch can be run live from a USB stick or CD, or installed onto a computer or virtual machine. It can even be installed onto a Raspberry Pi to give you a portable pen-testing computer that you can carry anywhere.
The ‘anti-forensics’ category is particularly worth mentioning as it contains tools to scan your memory for passwords to encrypted devices. This helps protect your machine from a ‘cold boot’ attack.
Named after the Hindu goddess, Kali is one of the oldest and most well-known pen-testing Linux distros. The Kali download page offers ISOs that are updated weekly, which can be run in live mode or installed to a drive. Kali will also happily run on ARM devices like the Raspberry Pi.
Kali’s reputation is so formidable that its creators offer training through the Kali Linux Dojo. Lessons include customising your own Kali Linux ISO and learning the fundamentals of pen-testing. For those unable to attend the training, all educational resources from the classes are available on Kali’s website free of charge.
Anyone interested in a career in Information Security can also take on Kali's paid penetration testing courses which take place online and are self-paced. There's a 24-hour certification exam which if passed will make you a qualified penetration tester.
IprediaOS is a privacy-oriented operating system based on Fedora Linux and can be run in Live mode or installed to your hard drive. Just as Tails OS routes all your connections through the Tor network to anonymise your connection, Ipredia routes all your network traffic through the anonymous I2P network.
This is known as 'garlic routing', a process whereby I2P establishes one-directional encrypted tunnels to protect your data. This is theoretically much safer than Tor's 'onion routing' which transmits data over established 'circuits', meaning they can be targeted for surveillance.
Features include anonymous email, BitTorrent client, and the ability to browse eepsites (special domains with the extension .i2p). Unlike Tor, I2P doesn’t act as a gateway to the normal internet, so Ipredia cannot safely access regular websites.
The advantage of only accessing eepsites is that your connection is truly untraceable. As I2P is designed specifically for 'hidden' services, connection and download speeds are generally much faster than routing through Tor as TAILS does.
Booting a Live operating system is a nuisance as you have to restart your machine, while installing it to a hard drive means there’s a risk of it being compromised. Whonix offers an elegant compromise by being designed to work as a virtual machine inside the free program Virtualbox.
Whonix is split into two parts. The first ‘Gateway’ routes all connections to the Tor network for the second ‘Workstation’ part. This hugely reduces the chance of DNS leaks which can be used to monitor what websites you visit.
The OS has a number of privacy-conscious features. These include bundled apps such as the Tor Browser and Tox instant messenger.
As it runs in a virtual machine, Whonix is compatible with all operating systems that can run Virtualbox. Virtual machines can only use a portion of your real system's resources, so Whonix will not necessarily perform as fast as an OS that has been installed to a local hard drive.
This Parrot Security distro comes to us from the Italian team Frozenbox. Like Kali and BlackArch it categorises tools for easy access and even has a section for the ones you most commonly use.
Parrot is based on Debian 10 (Buster), the testing branch of this OS, so you might encounter stability issues. However, note that Parrot has much more colorful backgrounds and menus than its parent OS. As such, its hardware requirements are rather more demanding than other pen-testing distros such as Kali.
There are four different versions available, Parrot Home, Parrot Security, and Parrot Netinstall. The first two require a minimum of 2 GB of RAM, while the third can run from 512 MB of RAM. However do note that Parrot Security recommend 8 GB as best.
Our final offering is TENS (Trusted End Node Security). Formerly known as LPS (Lightweight Portable Security), this Linux distro has been designed by none other than the US Air Force and is NSA approved [PDF].
The public version of TENS is specifically designed to be run in Live mode, meaning that any malware is removed on shutdown. It includes a minimal set of applications but there is also a ‘Public Deluxe’ version which comes with Adobe Reader and LibreOffice. All versions include a customisable firewall, and it’s also worth noting that this operating system supports logging in via Smart Card.
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