Tools

Recommended Tools, Themes, and Plugins

Surelutions was founded in 2004, and we've been using WordPress since 2008. Needless to say, we have tested and implemented hundreds of tools along the way. Our biggest takeaways:

  1. Invest wisely in premium tools, instead of trying to get everything for free. Your investment now will save you time and aggravation later.
  2. When you find something that works, stick with it as long as it's working for you. Don't jump from tool to tool just because something else looks shiny and new.

Here's a hand-picked list of some of our favorite WordPress themes and plugins and business tools. This list only includes software we have personally used on our own projects and would confidently recommend to friends and clients.

  • All
  • Included in Care Plan
  • Nonprofit Discount Available
  • Special Pricing via Surelutions
  • Tools We Use

1Password

Password management

Adobe Creative Suite

The industry standard for professional print, branding, and digital design. Adobe products can be purchased at a deep discount for nonprofits.

Advanced Custom Fields Pro

ACF extends the native functionality in WordPress so you can create custom fields beyond the standard pages and posts.

Advanced Sidebar Menu Pro

WordPress plugin for customizing the content in the sidebars of pages and posts.

Astra Pro Theme

WordPress Theme by Brainstorm Force.

Backup Buddy

Automated and on-demand website backups for WordPress

Beaver Builder Pro

Page builder plugin for WordPress. We use the Agency version for our project. If you are looking to purchase 1 license, you should be good to go with Standard or Pro version, depending on whether or not you also want the BB theme.

Beaver Themer

Theme builder plugin that works in conjunction with Beaver Builder to allow you to create highly customized layouts

Canva

Design tool for digital graphics such as social media banners and similar. Canva has a free option for nonprofits.

ClickUp

Project and task management software

EWWW

Image optimization plugin for WordPress.

Go to EWWW website

Generate Press Premium

WordPress Theme

Google Workplace (Gsuite)

Get in touch with us if you'd like to sign up for Gsuite. Nonprofits can apply for a free account, and if you are a small business we occasionally have coupon codes for new sign ups.

Gravity Forms Pro

Advanced form builder that can create simple or complex forms in WordPress

iThemes Security

Security and monitoring plugin

Kinsta

Kinsta is Surelutions' preferred WordPress website hosting provider

Namecheap

Domain registrar

Short Pixel

Optimizes the file size of photos on your website so they don't cause performance issues

The Events Calendar Pro and Add-Ons

Our Favorite Calendar Plugin for WordPress

The Events Calendar (free) and The Events Calendar Pro (premium) plugins are our first choice for creating imple or advanced calendars on WordPress websites. Created by StellarWP, who also have a suite of high quality professional tools for WordPress sites.

The premium Events Calendar Pro plugin is highly customizable, and integrates well with numerous other advanced functionaity like Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), WooCommerce, Membership plugins, and countless more.

The free version of the TEC plugin is easy to set up and has excellent functionality and reliability, and is a great place to start if you have simple needs and don't need recurring events feature.

We also highly recommend The Events Calendar add-on extensions to further customize and enhance your calendars:

  • The Events Calendar Pro (core plugin) – easy to use and highly customizable events calendar plugin for WordPress
  • Community Event Submissions (add-on) – allow people to submit events to  your calendar, and even sell tickets via your website
  • Event Ticketing and RSVPs (add-on) – free and premium options available
  • Event Aggregator (add-on) –  import events from other sources, or set up automated syncing from Google calendar, iCal, Eventbrite, and others
  • Event Promoter* (add-on) – set up personalized campaigns and automations to promote your events and keep in touch with attendees

*Note from Leslie: Event Promoter is the only one of The Event Calendar Pro add-ons we have not used extensively. Based on our 10+ years experience with every other plugin in this suite of tools, I'm confident recommending this one as well!

WooCommerce and Add-Ons

Ecommerce and online sales plugins and add-ons for WordPress.

WordPress.org

WordPress.org is our preferred platform for website design and development.

WP Rocket

Plugin to assiste with site performance and loading speeds

* Surelutions Care Plans include annual license renewal for themes and plugins marked with an asterisk. Not all client websites use all these tools.

 

 

NOTE: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. We may get a small commission or software credit if you decide to make a purchase after clicking through to it. We only share links to products that we personally use and have found to be reliable and high quality.