Web design requires skills. Yet, even with the best skills, it is extremely hard to create good web product with your bare hands. You need software. You also need a code that can make everything work perfectly. In addition, you need images and design effects to decorate your web project and so on. You can, of course, create a website from scratch and fill it with your own design elements. In this case, you are a genius. A real professional. A real professional who spent a huge amount of time learning and improving special skills.
And this is really good personal quality if web development is your main source of income. Yet, even in this case, you can save a lot of time using pre-made web development tools. As for me, and my colleagues we can hardly imagine our life now without drag and drop. This is why I decided to tell you more about my favorite stocks and tools.
And when we talk about web design than it is obvious that you need various types of resources. Any website, for example, needs a code, images, icons, UI elements and so on. I believe it is wise to have a reliable source of such items. I tried many free and paid website design sources and made my own list of products. I hope this list can enlarge your website design sources library.
Of course, it is my personal opinion and you may not agree with me. This post is my chance to share the experience and website design tips with you. All of the listed sources have their own pros and cons. But I assure you it is important to try them all before you make a judgment. In the end, any developer is a bit tester.
ONE Membership
ONE is basically a subscription service that right now includes more than 11300 website templates. And this number constantly grows. You can subscribe and use any of these templates. Beside website templates, it also provides clients with plugins, graphics and presentation templates.
It is a subscription service and obviously, it costs money. Yet, it has a fair price, to be honest. There are two subscription plans. Yearly access that costs $19 per month. Yet, it will be billed yearly for $229. And a Lifetime plan for $849.
It is an extremely useful source for beginners. And experienced web designers can use it to make their life easier. Basically, all you have to do is to download the website theme and customize it.
Canva
You have probably heard about Canva before. It is quite a popular design development tool. I think we can call it a design editor. Canva provides you with many photos, images, logos and so on. Yet, the main feature of this platform is the ability to drag and drop all elements. Or you can add some effects to your images. You can also change image sizes to fit your social media posts. I like to play with design when I use Canva.
You can get Canva Pro for $95 per month (billed yearly).
In my opinion, Canva will be a great tool for any web designer. Yet, it allows you to work only with design. You have to check for other features elsewhere.
NOVI
I found Novi when I was looking for a visual editor. Anyone can use it to create an original template. It allows you to work with code, structure, and design. Great option in case you have an idea for your own website template. Moreover, you can use a pre-developed template if you sign up for a subscription plan.
And about prices. There are three subscription plans. You can purchase the Startup plan for $24, Advanced for $49 and Developer plan for $149 (it provides you with lifetime subscription). You can find more about how different these plans are on the Novi website.
Novi is a multipurpose tool and any web developer can find it useful. Moreover, you can develop your web projects only with Novi. However, I do not recommend it.
PSD templates
Photoshop is one of the most important designer tools. Yet, it may be hard to find a suitable design. And if you do not want to waste your time on the creation of new items then I recommend you purchase them from marketplace or stock. I like the fact there are many of them.
Each template comes at a different price and you should surf the PSD category to see more options.
Here you can find PSD templates for websites and social media. Such a product can save a lot of time for web designers or web developers. And you can edit templates as you wish.
VISME
In my work, I often use presentation if I need to tell the client something or to convene them work with me. And VISME will be your reliable source of presentations and infographics. Moreover, it also provides you with graphics and charts separately too. It is user-friendly and allows you to create a presentation online. You can download it and share it.
When it comes to subscribing to plan the first thing you can mention is billing options. You can choose among monthly billing and yearly billing. Jumping ahead, yearly billing is cheaper. There are Single and Team subscription plans with fixed prices. And if you need an Enterprise plan than you should contact VISME support.
VISME will be useful for anyone who needs to present some data. As for me, it is the simplest way to do so.
Webflow
Webflow is a drag-and-drop website builder. It is easy to use and requires no coding for website development. Due to CMS, you can develop fully customized websites. You can play with design, change color sizes and structure. You can also create an e-commerce website powered with Amazon Web Service.
You can start building your website for free. Yet, in order to go live, you have to purchase a subscription plan. There are three subscription plans on Webflow: Basic, CMS, and Business. Yet they come at a different price for websites with e-commerce features and without.
It is an extremely simple website builder. Anyone can use it to create a website. Yet, for some development functions, Webflow is not enough.
Freepik
Now let us talk about web design freebies. And as the name implies Freepik image stock is full of freebies. It includes a huge amount of free photos, images, PSD elements and so on. However, not all images are free and you can get access to paid ones with the Premium subscription. It is a great place to find free pictures.
Thousands of design elements on Freepik are free. Yet, if you want more then you can get the Premium subscription plan. It costs 9.99 EUR for a single month and 7.50 EUR per month if you purchase a yearly subscription.
This stock will be useful for any designer, not only for web designers. It is handy to have such a huge image library in one place.
Free web templates
As I previously mentioned, I believe it is important to save your time. And the free website template is a great option in this case. You can use them as a ready product for a simple website. Or it can be a base for your project. You can edit it, change the code and edit design. And there are thousands of website templates on marketplaces. No matter how you use it will be free edition to your collection.
There are free and all you have to do is to download them.
Web design templates can be used by web developers and web designers with different levels of knowledge.
Crocoblock
On the Crocoblock website you can find FREE web design tools that allow you to create an original and reliable contact form and custom queries. Developed with Elementor page builder this is an easy-to-use tool. They also have a drag and drop features and require no coding skills. Moreover, on this website, you can find more than 50 Free Elementor PRO templates. The whole Crocoblock toolkit includes plugins, layouts, design features and many more. Yet, it is not free.
Contact form and custom queries features are free. And Elementor PRO templates too. Yet, if you wish to get fool Crocoblock pack you need a subscription plan. There are four of them and the price varies from $39 to $299.
Crocoblock allows you to create any website use wish and boost it with Jet plugins. It will be useful for any web developer.
Draftium
Draftium is a new platform that allows you to build a website together with other team members and clients. You can gather all the necessary data in one place and use it for development. You can also assign commands to test your website prototype. And if you do not want to create a website from scratch then you will like that Draftium includes more than 200 prototype templates.
Draftium includes two subscription plans. The free version allows you to use up to 3 prototypes and 50 generic templates. And the Pro version with many more options.
Again this toll will be interesting for anyone who develops websites. Especially if you work in a team.
Paaatterns
As the name implies this stock website is all about patterns. There are 22 carefully developed designs that are compatible with ketch, Figma, Adobe XD or Illustrator. Paaatterns from Lstore provides you with great background options. All you have to do is to find the best option for your website and use it.
All Paaatterns are free and you can simply download them. At the same time, they will be handy for any designer.
55 free elements UI kits
Thomson is ready to provide you with 55 elements free UI kit. This kit is a pack of web page design and structure elements. And you can use them to decorate your website. You can use them to boost your website design and make it user-friendly. All of them come in a minimalistic style and include navigation, slider, widget, statistics, and other features. You can check it on the product page. Personally I like the minimalistic style of this product.
This kit includes freebies and there is no need to pay for them. Yet, other Thomson products cost much more. If you develop a website by yourself then these 55 elements are must-have items for you. But even if you use some website template as your base you can insert any of the included elements.
Conclusion
In this list, I gathered tools and resources that were really helpful for me and became my personal web design library. And as you could mention most of them are free. I made an accent on free products in order to save your money. Yet, do not forget that paid services bring more options and features. But of course, I recommend you to check them all.
In any case, this list includes products I believe are good options for a web designer. And if you think otherwise it is ok because this list includes my personal opinion.
