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It’s done – it has been nearly four years now since we began our work, and now we are proud to present our brand-new layout. It was a fair deal of work – after all, we started working on it in May!
Why the change?
Our old website, which was based on Webnode, had been showing some signs of aging for a while now, and the design in particular was unlikely to garner critical praise anymore. Even more important than the design, however, was the fact that we couldn’t offer features we wanted to provide for you, our readers. First and foremost, this includes improved filtering and comparison options.
What else has improved?
- If you are used to navigating websites with a search function, you’ll enjoy our Google-powered search engine (top right). It’s now a lot easier to find what you are looking for. (We have a tutorial for this here.)
- Our reviews now feature a lot more information that is organized in a way that is easily digestible. You can simply expand or collapse certain areas of our pages so nothing will distract you.
- Our blog is also a lot cleaner and we’ve updated the categories. It’s easier to find the topics you enjoy most, for example, our collection of articles on making websites.
Not all features have been completed yet, but our switch is the first step towards all the new possibilities in store for you.
Why WordPress?
As our website deals primarily with website builders, the question why we would choose WordPress is perfectly valid. Since 2009, our website has grown significantly, and quite frankly, its growth extends well beyond what a website builder can handle. We now need a data base system which will enable us to keep our reviews up to date more easily.
Before switching over, I had not worked with WordPress very much. Armin, however, had been working with WP for a long time, and ultimately convinced me that it would the right choice for us.
I ended up being surprised in more than one way:
- For one, how powerful WordPress can be, thanks to all the plug-in options,
- And for another, how complicated WordPress is.
If I had been forced to use WordPress back in the day to build up WebsiteToolTester, I’m not sure it would have happened at all. I was always comforted by the fact that I completely and thoroughly understood Webnode (our old system). I can’t say the same of WP, which means that I often have to trust our programmer completely and unquestioningly.
We absolutely remain committed to recommending website builders for smaller and mid-sized projects. Which is why our other ToolTester websites (EmailToolTester.com and ChatToolTester.com) continue to run on a website builder.
Who created the design?
This design, which we both like a lot, 
came from 99Designs.com. On 99Designs.com, you can advertise a project and invite designers to pitch their ideas.
Many design suggestions were great, and ultimately, we chose a Polish designer, with whom we will continue to collaborate. The contest ran us around $650, which is an excellent price for an individual design. A programmer specialized in WordPress then converted the design into a template.
Where is the website hosted?
Since we appreciate good support and want to have as little as possible to do with hosting issues, we chose WPEngine.com. It isn’t the least expensive WordPress hosting solution out there, but the high quality is well worth the price.
For instance, customer support usually responds within four hours (and if not, apologies are in order). Backups are made daily, loading times are extremely fast, and, something of incredible importance for WordPress: WPEngine checks the website for hacking and malware attacks. We have documented our experiences with WPEngine in this review.
But now, take a spin on the brand new WebsiteToolTester.com! This video comes from our little celebration last week (Armin, Céline and myself): Cheers!
Leave us a comment and let us know what you think of the new design!
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