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Recent Posts
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- Why Is Google Indexing New Blog Posts So Much Slower in 2026?
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- What Happened to Reddit? API Changes, Shadowbans, Bots, and Community Decline
- What’s Going On with the Etch WP Team? (Digital Gravy Drama Explained)
- Why is the Discover tab missing now from Google Search Console?
- Big Tech’s New Excuse: The AI Smoke Screen
- WooCommerce Subscriptions Cost: Avoid the $279 Add-On Trap
- The Dogfooding Test: What Happens When Web Platforms Don’t Use Their Own Tools?
- Webflow’s 2026 Layoffs Exposed the SaaS Illusion
- The 2026 Kadence WP Corporate Takeover: What Liquid Web’s Consolidation Means for Your WordPress Website
- Why Windows Suddenly Says “Activate Windows” – And How to Fix It Easily
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- The Right Way vs. The Wrong Way to Do Programmatic SEO (pSEO)
- Stop Fighting Your Website: Absolute Positioning vs. Fluid Design
- Is Your Google Search Console “Average Position” Lying to You?
- Webflow’s 2026 Price Hike: When “Premium” Means Less Bandwidth
- The WordPress Events Calendar Pro Price Hike – and the Alternative
- How can I avoid “AI SEO sludge”?
- What is the difference between advertising and marketing?
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Tag Archives: open-source
WooCommerce Subscriptions Cost: Avoid the $279 Add-On Trap
If you are building an online shop with WordPress, the initial pitch sounds incredible: the core software is open-source, and WooCommerce is "completely" free.
But there is a catch that catches almost every small business owner off guard.
The exact moment you try to move away from simple, one-time checkouts and add a recurring revenue stream - like a monthly subscription box, a premium membership, or a repeat service plan - you hit a major financial wall.
Suddenly,
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Posted in Compare Website Builders, E-commerce
Tagged bloat, core web vitals, e-commerce, hacked, open-source, pagespeed insights, performance, plugin vulnerabilities, plugins, stability, subscriptions, third-party plugins, vulnerabilities, woocommerce, WooCommerce subscriptions, WordPress
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GIMP: A Powerful, Free Image Editor for Your Website
Recently, we discussed DIY logo design in our blog post, How to Create Your Own Logo? A DIY Guide. One of the recommended tools is GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program - a free and open-source raster graphics editor that can be a valuable tool for anyone who needs to edit images for their website. With its wide range of features, GIMP can be used to create, edit, and manipulate images in a variety of ways. Let's learn
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Posted in Website Design
Tagged custom graphics, file formats, free, GIMP, graphic design, image editing tools, image editor, image manipulation, image manipulation techniques, infographics, layers and masks, open-source, painting and drawing, product images, raster graphics, website design, website elements
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WordPress.org Faces Turmoil Over ACF Plugin Controversy: A Battle for Control
The WordPress community is in an uproar following a controversial move by Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic (owner of WordPress.com) and a key figure behind WordPress.org. On October 12th, Mullenweg took an unprecedented step by forcibly replacing the popular Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin and its listing on WordPress.org with a new "Secure Custom Fields" plugin. This action has sparked concerns about stability, trust, and the future of WordPress.
The ACF Controversy: What Happened?
The Advanced Custom Fields plugin,
... Continue readingWhich is the best platform to build an online community on?
Great "Ask David!" question. The short answer: If you want a self-hosted platform that gives you full control and comes with social networking features built in - such as member profiles, activity feeds, forums, messaging, and media sharing - UltimateWB is one of the best options available. It allows you to launch
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Posted in Ask David!, Compare Website Builders
Tagged admin controls, build an online community, community building tools, community engagement features, community software comparison, community website builder, engagement, flexibility, forum vs social network, hosted platform, hosted platforms vs self-hosted, media sharing, member app, member profiles, membership community platform, moderation, online community, online community platform, online community software, open-source, plugin-based, plugins, private messaging, scalability, self hosted platforms, self-hosted community, social network, social networking platform, social networking website, social networking website builder, social networking website builder comparison, spam control, templates generator, third-party plugins, website platform comparison, WordPress
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How come Joomla is so complicated? Is it worth it to learn?
Many people choose Joomla because it’s a well-known name, but fame doesn’t always equal a good user experience. In reality, Joomla often comes with a “complexity tax” - it forces you to work much harder than necessary to get basic results.
To understand why it feels so “clunky,” and if it’s worth the effort, we have to look at why it was built this way in the first place and how that “legacy logic” affects you today.
The History: Born
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Posted in Ask David!, Compare Website Builders
Tagged bloat, cms, compatibility, compatibility issues, contact form, fast website, html, image galleries, joomla, joomla alternative, Mambo, Miro International, open source, open-source, security issues, seo, slow website, third-party plugins, web development
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How can you overcome the basic limitations of using Shopify?
Shopify is popular for its convenience and all-in-one hosting, but that simplicity comes with trade-offs. Many users quickly run into limitations such as:
- Restricted customization without paid apps
- Limited control over hosting and server resources
- Extra costs for advanced features and scalability
- Constraints on SEO, page speed, and integrations
At some point, many site owners start asking whether Shopify’s ease of use is worth the long-term limitations. These constraints can slow growth or force compromises - especially if you want
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Posted in Ask David!, Compare Website Builders
Tagged bloat, e-commerce, flexibility, hosting control, maintenance, online store, open-source, page speed, scalability, security risks, Shopify, shopify alternative, Shopify alternatives, shopify limitations, shopify vs woocommerce, website builder comparison, website customization, WordPress, WordPress vs Shopify
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Why are website builders SaaS?
Not all website builders are SaaS.
“SaaS” (Software as a Service) is a business model where software is accessed through a subscription instead of a one-time purchase. In most SaaS website builders, your website is also hosted on the provider’s servers and runs only while your subscription is active.
But SaaS is not a technical requirement for building websites - it is a business model choice. Some platforms are open-source, others are self-hosted, and some, like UltimateWB, provide
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