Best WordPress Backup Plugin – (Review Updated for 2020)

Imagine waking up one morning only to discover an error with your WordPress administrative dashboard.

You contact your web hosting company, and they inform you that the website crashed — the handiwork of a hacker.

In addition to missing out on website traffic and sales, you also lost your databases and website content.

Now what?

This hypothetical example might be a bit on the extreme side, but it’s not completely implausible. Things happen. Your website could become the victim of user errors, vicious attacks, or malware.

If this happens, you need to get your site back up and running as soon as possible. Failure to do so will crush your SEO ranking, and damage your relationship with customers and website visitors. On top of rebuilding your website, you’ll also need to run campaigns to improve your online reputation.

But there’s a way for you to avoid this catastrophic scenario in the first place: backup plugins.

A backup plugin can restore all of your WordPress website content if you ever have any problems.

So what’s the best WordPress backup plugin?

There are tons of options to choose from. The last thing you want is to install a backup plugin as a fail-safe and have it cause more problems. That’s why I narrowed down the list to the six best WordPress backup plugins for you to consider. Use this guide as a reference to help you find the right one for your website.

1. BlogVault

BlogVault is trusted by 400,000+ websites for their backup needs—and for good reason. In between its affordable pricing ($7.40 / month) and it’s great features, it’s sure to give you everything you would need out of a WordPress backup plugin.

On top of being very easy to use, it also comes with equally easy migration for if you ever want to change hosts.

One other very nice feature is the fact that BlogVault backs up your website even if your website is down. You’ll be able to access any backups via your BlogVault dashboard while you wait for your site to go back up.

BlogVault also creates multiple backup copies of your website, allowing you to upload them into a third-party storage site like Google Drive or DropBox for even more protection against lost data. And with daily automatic backups, you’re sure to have the most up-to-date backups as possible.

Recovering your website is a snap too. With just one click, you’ll be able to restore your backed up website and return it to what it was the day before the hack or loss of information occurs.

BlogVault allows you to add sites to their service to. You’ll be able to manage all of your website backups on one dashboard, and generate reports and analytics for each one.

Pricing for BlogVault starts at $7.4 / month and includes real-time backups, a 90-day backup archive, and one site. Try BlogVault now.

2. BackupBuddy

The BackupBuddy WordPress plugin has been around for nearly a decade. Other backup plugins on the market only backup your database, but BackupBuddy covers the entire WordPress installation.

• Website pages
• Posts
• Comments
• Widgets
• Users
• Database
• Core files
• Custom posts
• Categories
• Tags
• Images
• Videos
• Plugin files
• Settings
• Themes

All of these components will be backed up with this plugin. The files are backed up and stored off-site in a location that’s safe and secure. Each time a backup is completed, you can download a zip file to have another copy on your hard drive. You can also send backups to remote storage locations such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and BackupBuddy Stash.

If you ever have a problem and need to recover content, BackupBuddy makes it easy to quickly restore your entire WordPress site.

While this plugin can back up nearly every element of your WordPress site, that doesn’t mean you have to do so. For one reason or another, you may only want to backup certain components, like a database or specific files. You can completely customize the backups to fit your needs.

Another reason why BackupBuddy is a top choice is because you can schedule automatic backups, so you won’t have to remember to do this manually.

BackupBuddy is extremely helpful when it comes to user error as well. If you accidentally delete a post, you can restore the content in just a few clicks.

If you ever need to change domains or hosts for your WordPress site, the BackupBuddy plugin will help you do so with ease. The WordPress migration tool makes this plugin a popular choice for developers who create custom websites for clients on a temporary domain before moving the site over to a domain that’s live.

BackupBuddy also runs malware scans, which can potentially identify any problems before they happen.

All of these features make BackupBuddy one of the best WordPress backup plugins available.

3. VaultPress

For those of you who are looking for backups, migrations, and security features all in one plugin, VaultPress will likely be your best bet. It’s built by the same team that builds WordPress itself, Autommatic.

We use VaultPress on Quick Sprout and have since 2011.

Once you install this plugin, you can easily set up automated backups. Everything is stored in a digital off-site vault. In addition to backups, you can use VaultPress for site migrations, file repairs, and restores.

VaultPress also has a calendar view option, making it easy to locate, view, and restore content from previous backups. But the dashboard of VaultPress is different from what you’re used to with other WordPress plugins. This minor navigation flaw doesn’t affect the performance and usage of the plugin itself.

I also like the built-in security features. The file scanning and spam defense will help you identify and eliminate malware, spammers, viruses, and other security vulnerabilities. The added security reduces the chances that you’ll actually have to use the restore functions due to an outside threat, but it’s nice to have the backups available just to be safe.

Pricing plans for VaultPress start at $39 per year, so it’s a cost-effective way to back up your WordPress website.

4. UpdraftPlus

Over two million active websites have installed UpdraftPlus as a WordPress backup.

UpdraftPlus gets my vote of confidence because it’s so easy to use. Even if you don’t have much technical experience, the interface is very straightforward. The simplicity allows you to backup and restore content in just a click or two.

The free version of UpdraftPlus lets you run full backups, manual backups, and scheduled backups. You can also back up and restore your plugins, themes, and database with the free version.

Automatic backup options range anywhere from hourly to monthly. If you want to manually manage UpdraftPlus, you’ll clearly see the restore, clone, and migrate options in addition to the backup buttons. You can access all of your current backups directly from the dashboard. It’s easy for you to restore or delete older versions that you no longer need.

Like other backup plugins, UpdraftPlus gives you remote storage options to places such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and many more.

UpdraftPlus is fast. So it uses up fewer server resources. This is a great feature for those of you who are using shared web hosting services.

It’s comforting knowing that there are free WordPress backup plugins out there with so much functionality. With that said, you can upgrade to a premium plan that’s extremely affordable, starting at $42 per year to get these additional features and reports:

• Incremental backups
• Migrator
• Multisite/multi-network compatible
• Backs up non WP files and databases to multiple remote destinations
• OneDrive, BackBlaze, Azure, SFTP storage destinations
• Database encryption
• Advanced reporting
• Dedicated expert support

The incremental backup feature is one of the best reasons to upgrade this plugin. Instead of having to back up your entire site when you make a change, such as adding an image, this option only backs up those new files.

If you have any issues with this plugin, the customer support team is exceptional.

You can tell that UpdraftPlus is a reliable plugin just by the sheer number of active installs on other websites. The plugin wouldn’t be so popular if all of those people had problems.

5. Duplicator

With over one million active installations, Duplicator is another popular choice. As the name implies, the primary function of this plugin is to migrate, move, or clone a WordPress website between domains. This can be accomplished without any downtime, which can’t be said for other plugins out there. You can also use Duplicator to transfer your WordPress website between hosts.

This plugin lets you duplicate a live website to a staging area, or duplicate your staging area to a live site. Duplicator allows you to execute a full migration in WordPress without having to import and export SQL scripts.

This plugin is a great option, but I can’t say I’d recommend it to beginners. It’s definitely better for those of you who have some technical knowledge. Don’t get me wrong; you don’t need to be a coding expert, but you should have a basic understanding of how things work before you attempt to use the Duplicator plugin on your website.

It’s great for developers who are tired of manually configuring themes and sets of plugins each time they build a new site. You can just do this once and bundle it with Duplicator, then just use that as your template by migrating it over to different locations for each client.

Here’s how it works: All of your website content, plugins, themes, and database get bundled into a zip file, which is referred to as a “package” by Duplicator.

In addition to these features, you can also benefit from scheduled backups by upgrading to Duplicator Pro. The pricing is pretty affordable; it starts at $79 per year.

Backups can be stored locally, or in remote locations. You can also set up email notifications for updates on the status of your backups.

I’d say this WordPress plugin is more suitable for developers who have the need for migrations and things of that nature. So if that’s what you’re looking for, Duplicator can fulfill the requirements. It’s great for developers who are tired of manually configuring themes and sets of plugins each time they build a new site. You can do this once and bundle it with Duplicator, then just use that as your template by migrating it over to a different locations for each client.

But if you just want a basic backup plugin, you’ll probably be better off with one of the other choices on our list.

6. WP Time Capsule

WP Time Capsule seamlessly integrates with your cloud storage applications. This WordPress backup plugin is definitely one of the easiest options available. So unlike other options that we’ve seen, even a novice user can handle all of the features. Once the plugin is installed and set up, it’s pretty hands-off moving forward.

After you install this plugin, the first thing you’ll need to do is connect it with one of the cloud storage locations:

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Amazon S3
• Wasabi

Once that happens, the plugin will automatically start creating your first backup.

Next, you just simply have to set your backup schedule and the WP Time Capsule plugin will take care of the rest.

Another great feature of the WP Time Capsule is the calendar view option. This is extremely helpful if you want to restore content from a specific date.

As you can see, this is very straightforward. All you have to do is click on the date, and decide if you want to view or restore files from your selection.

Since WP Time Capsule backs up your site incrementally, you won’t have multiple copies of files. This means less disk space will be used. WP Time Capsule doesn’t create zip files either, so fewer server resources are used compared to other backup methods.

If you want a backup plugin that’s simple, straightforward, user-friendly, and easy to use, WP Time Capsule is a top choice to consider.

Conclusion

What’s the best WordPress backup plugin?

I narrowed down the top six options for you to consider. Each of these plugins is slightly different from the others, so what’s best for your site will depend on what you’re looking for.

For those of you who want to go with a popular choice for WordPress backups, then you should take a closer look at BackupBuddy and BlogVault.

If you’re a developer, a bit more tech-savvy, and plan to use a backup plugin for cloning, migrations, and moving content between servers, you’ll want to consider Duplicator.

Maybe you just want a simple backup plugin that’s easy to use, has automatic backups, and stores content in your personal remote storage accounts. In this case, you’ll want to go with WP Time Capsule.

If you want added security functionality in addition to WordPress backups, VaultPress has what you’re looking for.

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Best WordPress Security Plugin – (Review Updated for 2020)

You wouldn’t buy a brick and mortar business without getting a lock for the front door, right? I imagine you’d probably even get an alarm system and install some cameras.

These security measures are taken to prevent break-ins, from losing money, sustaining property damage, or putting sensitive information at risk.

Your internet business is at risk for these very same things. It may even be at greater risk — the Internet makes it possible for cybercriminals to break into your website without having to leave their couch: On average, 18.5 million websites are infected with malware at any given time. The average website gets attacked 44 times per day. Of the roughly 90,000 websites that get hacked each day, 83% of them are using WordPress.

That’s why you need to take as many precautions as possible when it comes to properly securing your website.

Don’t have the “it won’t happen to me” mentality. Nobody is immune to vicious attacks. Even retail giants like Target have had data breaches that affected more than 41 million customers. That one security breach cost the company over $18 million in settlements. Something like this can be extremely damaging to your company’s online reputation.

I could go on and on all day about why your website needs to be secure, but I think I’ve made my point.

So how can you do install the security you need?

To start, WordPress has some built-in security features. It’s also crucial for you to choose a secure web hosting company — with a host like WP Engine a lot of the security features are built into your hosting plan. Beyond these steps, you can take additional measures to beef up your protections with a WordPress security plugin.

There are so many different security plugins available for your website. How can you know which one is the best WordPress security plugin?

Rather than taking weeks to go through and research all of them, you can just review the ones that I’ve listed in this guide. I’ve identified the top five WordPress security plugins of 2020. Use this information to increase your WordPress security and add credibility to your website.

1. Wordfence Security — Firewall & Malware Scan

With over two million active installs, Wordfence Security — Firewall & Malware Scan is one of the most popular WordPress security plugins available. It fights spam, malware, and other threats in real time. Unlike other plugins, Wordfence Security offers a dashboard that’s extremely user friendly. You don’t have to be a tech wizard, have a background in IT, or study cybersecurity to use this plugin.

One of my favorite parts of this plugin is the ability to see data about your overall website traffic trends. These reports will show you any attempted hacks on your site. You’ll be able to tell if traffic is coming from humans, Google crawlers, or potentially malicious bots.

Another great feature of this plugin is the country blocking option. You can block attacks that come from specific geographic regions known for high rates of cybercrime.

The free version of Wordfence Security offers plenty of features that will keep your website safe. They definitely give you more out of the box than other free security plugins. You’ll get firewall blocks and brute force attack protection.

Premium pricing starts at $99 per year. The premium version comes with added features like two-factor authentication, direct customer support assistance, and real-time IP blacklisting. The real-time IP blacklist feature blocks requests from any IP address that has attacked another WordPress website that is also using Wordfence Security. When it comes to the safety and security of your website, that’s a pretty good deal in my opinion.

2. Sucuri Security — Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening

The name of this plugin alone shows all of the extensive security features it offers. When you install Sucuri Security, you’ll benefit from things like:

• Firewall integrity monitoring
• Malware scanning
• Blacklist monitoring
• Security audits
• Security hardening
• Notifications
• Post-hack security procedures
• Website firewall

All of these features, except for the website firewall, come with the free version of Sucuri Security. If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to protect your WordPress website, Sucuri Security is a top choice. For most sites, you don’t necessarily need the website firewall offered in the premium version.

In the event of a hack or attack, Sucuri Security offers actionable steps to help you proceed with repairing any damage. Now, some of you might not love the idea of hearing something like this. But in all reality, it’s nearly impossible for any website to be 100% impenetrable. There is always the chance of something going wrong. When something goes wrong, you’ll instantly receive a notification about it so you can act immediately.

Sucuri Security is upfront about that. They aren’t going to sit there and promise that the plugin is 100% effective. Rather than making false promises, this plugin has added a feature to assist you if your site is compromised in any way. I really like that.

The security hardening provided by Sucuri Security is exceptional. It’s easy to go through and check the status of the different elements of your website to add additional security.

If you have questions, problems, or run into any trouble when you’re using the Sucuri Security plugin, you can reach the customer service team via live chat or email.

3. iThemes Security

Formerly known as Better WP Security, the iThemes Security plugin is another popular choice for WordPress users. Unlike the other plugins we’ve looked at so far, iThemes Security doesn’t offer as many free benefits, so it’s in your best interest to upgrade to the pro version if you’re going to install this plugin. The free version comes with basic security, but you won’t have access to the pro features, such as:

• Two-factor authentication
• Scheduled malware scans
• Google reCAPTCHA
• User action logs
• WordPress security keys
• Importing and exporting capabilities
• Dashboard widgets
• File comparisons
• Password security and expiration

As you can see from this list, it’s definitely worth upgrading to iThemes Security Pro, which starts at $52 per year.

With iThemes Security, users will automatically be banned after attempting too many invalid logins, which will help prevent a brute force attack on your site.

There is also a scanning feature that will identify any potential vulnerabilities for an attack. Once those areas have been identified, the plugin shows you how to repair the problems in a matter of seconds. iThemes Security even helps strengthen the security of your server. The plugin forces SSL for admin pages, posts, and other pages on supporting servers. The plugin will hide the most common WordPress security vulnerabilities that are usually targeted by hackers. You’ll receive a notification via email anytime there is a problem or potential security threat on your WordPress site.

This plugin fully integrates with your WordPress dashboard as well, which is a nice touch. It doesn’t feel like it’s intrusive, and you don’t need to navigate to any third-party platforms to add security to your site. iThemes Security also offers extensive video tutorials, which I found to be extremely helpful.

4. All In One WP Security & Firewall

All In One WP Security & Firewall is packed with free features. The interface is extremely easy to use, and you don’t need to be a technology or security expert to figure things out.

One of the reasons why this plugin made my list is because of the visual elements on the dashboard. You can get reports with graphs that explain all of the metrics related to your website’s security. Furthermore, the plugin tells you which actions you can take to improve the security of your WordPress website.

Each security feature is segmented into three categories:

• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced

You have the ability to apply certain firewall rules progressively in a way that won’t hinder the functionality of your website. As a result, the speed of your website won’t be slowed at all.

The plugin scans your WordPress website for vulnerabilities. After these vulnerabilities have been checked, the plugin will assist you in implementing changes to enhance your security. Everything is measured by a grading system. The grades are based on different levels of security for each element on your website.

Another top feature offered by All In One WP Security & Firewall is spam security for your comments section. Getting lots of comments on your blog posts or other website pages can be extremely beneficial for SEO purposes, but not if those comments are spam. Instead of manually checking all of your comments and deleting spam on your own, this plugin can do the work for you. It automatically detects IP addresses that are known for producing spam and blocks them from commenting. If certain addresses have exceeded a specific number of spam comments, they will even be blocked from accessing your site altogether.

I haven’t even mentioned the best part of all. This plugin is free. That’s right, 100% free. Unlike free versions of other plugins, All In One WP Security & Firewall doesn’t withhold top features and pitch upsells. It’s completely free to all WordPress users.

5. BulletProof Security

The BulletProof Security WordPress plugin isn’t necessarily as popular as some of the other plugins out there, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider it as a top choice for your website.

It claims that in the last seven years, none of the 45,000 websites that installed BulletProof Security Pro have been hacked. Impressive, though this number has some contingencies and doesn’t account for things like server hacks.

This plugin is extremely easy to install and get up and running in just a couple of clicks. The free version of BulletProof Security gives you access to features like:

• Security logs
• Security monitoring
• Malware scans
• Database backups
• Database restores
• Anti-spam tools
• Anti-hacking tools

I really like BulletProof Security’s maintenance mode. It will keep your site secure while you’re going through front-end as well as back-end updates and maintenance, times when your site would normally be more vulnerable to hacks or breaches.

While the installation and setup wizard is easy for anyone to do, overall I’d say this security plugin is geared more toward advanced WordPress developers. BulletProof Security allows you to customize so many different security settings. So, I’d say start with that version before you decide if you want to upgrade. That will at least give you a feel of the interface and navigation. If you go with the paid version, BulletProof Security offers a 30-day guarantee, so there’s no risk there either.\

6. MalCare

The MalCare  security plugin is trusted by the likes of GoWP, WPBuffs, and Cloudways — so you know you’re in good company with them.

This is a security plugin you should get if you want to save time and energy. Their malware removal is fully automated, removing viruses and bad actors in less than a minute. They also protect your website from their own servers. That means you’ll never experience a slowdown on your site when they scan for viruses.

MalCare also comes with a powerful firewall to protect your website 24/7. It’ll also block any IP addresses that have been flagged for malicious intent from the thousands of sites on their network, according to their website.

Though it might not be for everyone, I really appreciate the fact that they have a host of features aside from security like their WordPress management plugin. It helps you manage multiple sites on WordPress and allows you to manage permissions so your team can collaborate on all fo them. This service also allows you to make 90 day backups of your websites so you never have to worry about losing data.

Pricing for MalCare is also relatively affordable for the features you’ll be receiving. It starts at $99 / year for one site and includes automatic malware removal, a website firewall, and complete website management.

Conclusion

What’s the best WordPress security plugin?

It’s tough to name one as the definitive best, but I’ve been able to narrow down the top five for you to consider in 2020. It all depends on what you’re looking for.

Some of these plugins have more advanced features than others, which aren’t always necessary for all websites. Some plugins are easier for beginners, while others are better for advanced developers.

Do you want a free WordPress security plugin? Or do you want a pro version with annual charges?

All of this needs to be taken into consideration when you’re picking the best security plugin for your website. I’m confident you’ll find what you need on the list above.

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Best Recruiting Software

Recruiting software is the modern way to source and hire top-level talent. These tools help businesses, hiring managers, HR teams, and staffing firms streamline the recruiting process.

Without recruiting software, you’re forced to complete extra steps, which is inefficient. You’ll have to manually post open positions on multiple job boards. Then you’ll have to schedule interviews from various sources individually.

It ends up being a headache, and you might not even find the most qualified applicants. This leads to higher employee churn, and potentially tens of thousands of dollars wasted.

Whether you’re a small business that hires a handful of employees per year, a large company that hires dozens of applicants at scale, or a recruiting agency that matches qualified candidates with various organizations, recruiting software will make your life easier.

The Top 8 Best Recruiting Software

• Workable
• Bullhorn
• Breezy HR
• Greenhouse
• Recruiterflow
• Recooty
• JazzHR
• Teamtailor

Continue below for our in-depth reviews on the top eight recruiting tools on the market today. You’ll learn more about the features, benefits, prices, and how to find the best recruiting software for your specific needs.

#1 – Workable — Best Overall Recruiting Software

Visit Workable

• Starts at $99
• 200+ job boards
• Automate tasks
• 15 day free trial
• Get started for free

Workable is the best recruiting software on the market today. It has the unique ability to accommodate businesses that hire infrequently, as well as organizations that hire candidates at scale.

More than 20,000 companies trust Workable for recruitment. The platform has screened 85+ million candidates and facilitated 1.3+ million hires since launching in 2012.

The software has everything you need to manage the complete life cycle of recruitment. From the initial open position to evaluating the best possible candidates and onboarding them, Workable has it all.

Workable also automation tools. It’s easy to automate certain processes and manual tasks, such as scheduling interviews or sending offer letters.

Some of the top features, benefits, and highlights of Workable include:

• 200+ job boards
• 700+ open job templates
• Offer letters with e-sign
• 70+ integrations (for things like background checks and more)
• Branded careers page
• GDPR and EEO/OFCCP compliant
• 400+ million searchable candidate pool
• iOS and Android mobile app
• Email, phone, and live chat support

Workable does offer an external recruiter portal. But in most cases, the software is designed to be used in-house.

Pricing starts at $99 per job per month with the “hire as needed” plan, which is designed for infrequent hiring. To access all of Workable’s features and benefits, request a demo and custom pricing for hiring at scale. Try it free for 15 days.

#2 – Bullhorn — Best Recruiting Software For Agencies

Visit Bullhorn

• Built-in CRM
• Manage client billing
• LinkedIn integration
• Advanced reporting
• Request free quote

Bullhorn is our top pick for staffing agencies. If you have a recruiting firm that sources candidates for different businesses, this software will be the best option for you and your team.

In addition to applicant tracking, Bullhorn also has a built-in CRM, which allows you to manage and win more clients in one place. You’ll also be able to track time, send invoices, manage bills, and monitor your gross margins directly within Bullhorn.

The software is built to scale. You’ll be able to increase your job orders while simultaneously reducing the time-to-fill. Once you’ve found the best candidates for your clients, you can seamlessly manage the onboarding process for new hires.

Bullhorn offers advanced reporting as well. You can create any type of report that will give you greater insight and visibility into the current condition of your staffing firm.

Other top features of Bullhorn include:

• Job management and publishing
• Resume parsing
• Email integration
• Custom workflows
• LinkedIn integration
• Lead tracking
• Pipeline management
• Interview management

Pricing is not available online. But Bullhorn does have multiple plans to accommodate small teams, enterprise firms, and everything in between. Request a free quote to learn more.

#3 – Breezy HR — Best For Unlimited Job Listings

Visit Breezy HR

• Free for 1 open job
• Starts at $143
• Visual pipeline
• Automated interview scheduling
• Start for free

Breezy HR is an end-to-end recruiting solution. The software is designed to help you attract and hire top-level talent in the most efficient way possible.

Thousands of businesses rely on Breezy HR to fulfill their recruitment needs.

With Breezy HR, you’ll benefit from features and functionality like:

• Custom hiring pipelines
• Automated scheduling, messaging, and candidate screening
• Team collaboration tools
• Built-in scheduling links
• Email and SMS scheduling tools
• Advanced candidate sourcing
• Employer branded career site
• Reporting and analytics
• GDPR, EEOC, and OFCCP compliance

The name “Breezy HR” is a bit deceiving. It’s not really an all-in-one HR tool, meaning you won’t be using it to manage your applicants after they’ve been onboarded.

Pricing for Breezy HR starts at $143 per month, with an annual contract. Month-to-month rates are available, but you’ll get two months free if you subscribe for a year. All paid plans come with unlimited positions and unlimited candidate pools.

Breezy HR has a free plan for one active position. So if you’re not hiring often or you want to test the software out before committing, you’ll be able to do so.

#4 – Greenhouse — Best Recruiting Software For Enterprises

Visit Greenhouse

• Recruiting and onboarding software
• 300+ integrations
• 30+ reports
• Built to scale
• Request free demo

Greenhouse is a recruiting solution for enterprises and SMEs. The software goes beyond basic applicant tracking and helps larger organizations manage the complete hiring process at scale.

With Greenhouse, you’ll be able to classify and nurture talent in a fully integrated CRM database to filter exactly what you need. Collaborate with hiring teams, empower company stakeholders, and track candidate relationships.

Greenhouse is perfect for companies that want to ensure fair and equitable hiring, without bias. You can create a scorecard with key attributes for each candidate, so everyone is evaluated consistently.

Connect with candidates through career pages, custom email templates, and meaningful interviews. You can automate surveys and manage 30+ reports to monitor efficiencies.

Greenhouse integrates with over 300 third-party applications. The software is designed to scale with sophisticated global enterprises.

In addition to recruiting, Greenhouse also has onboarding tools. Some of those features and benefits include:

• Personalized welcome experience
• Company resources
• Automated administrative tasks
• New hire feedback
• Onboarding performance evaluations

Overall, Greenhouse has everything a large organization needs to recruit and onboard at scale. It’s made for in-house usage, as opposed to staffing agencies.

Like most enterprise software, pricing for Greenhouse isn’t available online. You’ll need to request a demo to get a custom quote.

#5 – Recruiterflow — Best Complete Recruiting CRM For Agencies

Visit Recruiterflow

• Starts at $69
• Built-in CRM tools
• Automate pipeline management
• 14 day free trial
• Start for free

Recruiterflow is another top agency tool. It’s a great option for staffing firms and even individual recruiters.

The software is essentially a one-stop-shop for all of your recruiting and client management needs. It has a built-in recruiting CRM to help you land more clients and manage those relationships.

If you want a feature-rich software that’s easy to use, look no further than Recruiterflow.

• Increasing sourcing efficiency
• Automate recurring tasks
• Pipeline management tools
• Calendar and email syncing
• Visual reporting

All candidate data can be managed directly from your inbox. Simply drag and drop files to candidate profiles to add information. The context of every conversation will always be at your fingertips.

There are two Recruiterflow plans—Growth and Enterprise. These start at $69 and $99 per user per month, respectively.

It’s worth noting that Recruiterflow is not exclusively designed for agencies. The software does have company-specific tools, starting at $99 per month. But the agency CRM is definitely Recruiterflow’s best feature.

Try Recruiterflow free for 14 days.

#6 – Recooty — Best Recruiting Software For Small Business

Visit Recooty

• Starts at $29
• Free for 3 active jobs
• Easy to use
• 15 day free trial
• Start for free

Recooty is arguably the simplest recruiting tool on the market today. Even if it’s your first time using recruiting software, it’s easy for anyone to use. That’s probably why it’s such a popular choice for small businesses.

4,000+ companies trust Recooty for hiring and applicant tracking. The software helps you post open job listings on 20+ popular job boards, like CareerJet and ZipRecruiter.

With Recooty, your business can appeal to top-level talent using a beautifully designed career page with your company branding.

Use the software to review applications, schedule interviews, and manage your entire hiring process with a visual pipeline.

Here’s a quick overview of the Recooty plans and price points:

• Basic — $0
• Pro — $29 per month
• Ultra — $49 per user per month

For up to three active jobs, you can use Recooty for free. The Pro plan is designed for single users, and the Ultra tier is made for teams. Those plans support up to 10 and 25 active jobs, respectively.

Save 20% on your Recooty plan with an annual subscription. Try it free for 15 days.

#7 – JazzHR — Best For Applicant Tracking Software (ATS)

Visit JazzHR

• Starts at $39 per month
• Great for HR teams
• Automated onboarding
• 21 day free trial
• Get 3 weeks free

The terms “recruiting software” and “applicant tracking software (ATS)” are often used interchangeably. While the two go hand-in-hand, they technically aren’t the same thing.

So if you’re looking for a complete applicant tracking tool, JazzHR will be your best bet.

As the name implies, this tool is perfect for in-house HR teams. In addition to the ATS software, top features and benefits of JazzHR include:

• Employer branding tools
• Candidate sourcing
• Collaborative hiring with teams
• Offer letters
• E-sign
• Automated onboarding
• Compliance tools
• Data-driven reporting

Unlike other recruiting software, JazzHR doesn’t charge you on a per-user basis. Every plan comes with unlimited users.

• Hero — $39 per month
• Plus — $219 per month
• Pro — $329 per month

The Hero package limits you to just three active job listings. Both higher-tier plans offer unlimited open jobs.

You can try JazzHR free for 21 days before committing; no credit card required.

#8 – Teamtailor — Best Recruiting Software For Employer Branding

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• Career websites
• Campaign and lead pages
• Candidate chat
• 14 day free trial
• Try for free

Lots of the tools on our list offer some form of branding tools to attract candidates. But Teamtailor takes this recruiting software feature to the next level.

They are the only recruiting tool and ATS software that specializes in employer branding—at least the only one that I’d recommend.

More than 2,500 organizations and 100,000+ users trust Teamtailor. The software accommodates small teams to mid-market enterprises and everything in between.

Use Teamtailor for features like:

• Career websites
• Campaign pages
• Lead pages
• Blogging
• Candidate chat
• Social media outreach
• Job board postings
• Team collaboration tools

The software is designed to help you improve the candidate experience while allowing you to manage multiple hiring processes with detailed analytics.

Teamtailor is easy to use, with no technical knowledge required.

While the Teamtailor pricing is not available online, you’ll get all of the features and unlimited users with your subscription. Rates are based on your hiring needs and company size. So contact the sales team to request a quote. Try Teamtailor free for 14 days.

How to Find the Best Recruiting Software For You

What’s the best recruiting software? Generally speaking, there is no “best for everyone” solution. There are certain factors that must be considered as you’re evaluating different tools.

This is the methodology that we used to narrow down the top choices on our list. You can use it at as well to find the best recruiting software for your business.

In-House vs. Agency Solutions

Who is going to be using the recruiting software?

Some tools are designed for in-house hiring managers and HR teams. Other solutions are made for third-party staffing agencies or recruitment firms.

As an agency, you’ll definitely want to look for features that help you manage your clients in addition to recruiting applicants. Some of the best agency recruiting tools have functionality for invoicing, time tracking, and CRM.

Hiring Volume

A business that hires one or two employees per year does not have the same recruiting needs as an organization that hires 10-20+ people per month.

Some software will actually restrict how many open job postings you can have within a plan. So for hiring at scale, you need to make sure that you find a tool that fits your needs.

On the flip side, companies that hire infrequently can benefit from cheap or even free recruiting software. You can look for pay as you go pricing as opposed to long-term contracts.

Onboarding Tools

What happens once you’ve found the right applicant using recruiting software or ATS? That’s only half the battle. You’ll still need to hire that employee and onboard them.

Whether you’re using the software in-house or as a third-party staffing agency, look for a solution with onboarding tools such as offer letters, e-signature, and more. Some of the best options will automate these types of processes for you.

Employer Branding

In addition to posting open positions on various job boards, you’ll want to attract top-level candidates using your own website and other tools.

Some recruiting software solutions have specific tools designed for career pages and other campaigns to make your company more appealing to prospective hires. This feature isn’t important for everyone, but it’s definitely more than just a “nice-to-have.”

Conclusion

Workable is the best recruiting software on the market today. It’s our top pick and will accommodate the needs for the vast majority of you.

If you have a staffing and recruitment agency, try Bullhorn or Recruiterflow instead. JazzHR has the top overall ATS (applicant tracking software). Enterprises and SMEs should use Greenhouse. Small businesses would be better off with Recooty.

Do you want unlimited job listings? Breezy HR has a plan for you. If you want to prioritize a beautiful career page and employer branding tools, use Teamtailor.

Regardless of hiring needs, you can find the best recruiting software for your unique situation using this guide.

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Best WordPress Popup Plugin – (Review Updated For 2020)

Looking for a good way to collect more leads? Or maybe draw in newsletter subscribers? Or maybe you just need some customers to participate in a survey?

A WordPress popup plugin helps get you there.

According to a study from Sumo that analyzed nearly two billion popups, the average conversion rate for a website popup is 3.09%. The top 10% of high-performing popups convert at an average rate of 9.28%. Some websites saw conversion rates that topped 50%.

According to a recent study from Impact, the average conversion rate for any website landing page is 2.35%. The top 10% of websites have an average conversion rate of 11.45%.

Bottom line: The average popup outperforms the average traditional landing page. And, the average conversion rate of the highest performing popups are still in the ballpark of the highest performing landing pages.

I created this guide to help you choose the right popup plugin for your WordPress site. I’ve narrowed down the top seven options. Let’s dive right in.

1. Ninja Popups

Ninja Popups is definitely one of the most popular WordPress popup plugins on the market. I’m not saying you should always follow the crowd, popularity is usually a telling sign when it comes to quality.

Of the reason why Ninja Popups is one of my favorite plugins is because they offer an extensive list of features, the popups are extremely responsive and work well on mobile devices in addition to desktop browsers and it’s easy for anyone to configure this plugin, even if you don’t have any coding experience.

With Ninja Popups, you can customize the design of your popups to match your trending website color schemes. Ninja Popups also lets you customize things like the size of your popups and colors of the buttons. This is important because this plugin also offers A/B testing. You can try different variations of your popups to see which is the most effective and yields the highest conversions. In addition to the A/B tests, Ninja Popups has a detailed analytics page. You can see other KPIs with charts to help you improve your popups. This plugin has page level targeting as well, so you can have different popups for each page on your site depending on your goals.

The regular license for a single website starts at $26, making this plugin extremely affordable. It’s ideal for nearly any type of popup campaign you want to run.

2. Getsitecontrol

Getsitecontrol is a powerful popup plugin for WordPress. It comes with a variety of different widgets to help you generate leads effortlessly and seamlessly.

You’ll also be able to manage all of your widgets in a single, powerful dashboard that lets you manage your popups across multiple different websites. It also allows you to manage the popups’ appearance, target audience, and integrations.

Speaking of, with integrations to apps and software such as Google Analytics, Hubspot, AWeber, ConvertKit, and SendGrid, you can rest easy knowing that Getsitecontrol will play nice with your business’s existing workflow.

Along with popups, you’ll also get:

• Template galleries
• Mobile popups
• CSS editor
• Direct links to widgets
• Picture and GIF search
• A/B testing
• Segmentation
• Multi-page widgets
• Unlimited users

Pricing starts at $7 a month that includes 10,000 monthly widget views. Getsitecontrol also comes with a 7-day free trial with no commitment or credit card needed.

3. Popups by OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a popular lead generation software. Some of you might even be using this platform to help you with other marketing strategies. More than 700,000 websites have used OptinMonster for something. In addition to its standard lead generation solutions, OptinMonster also has a WordPress plugin called Popups by OptinMonster.

I like this plugin because the drag and drop builder is easy for anyone to use, regardless of their technical skill level. In addition to popups, this plugin allows you to create other campaigns like:

• Slide-in forms, or scroll triggered boxes
• In-line forms
• Mobile-specific forms
• Floating headers
• Footer bars
• Welcome gates

OptinMonster has advanced targeting based on personalized behavior for each unique website visitor. This technology is made to trigger popups at the most optimal time to drive conversions. They specialize in popups with exit intent technology. The software can determine when a website visitor is going to leave your page based on their browsing behavior. For example, if they open a new tab, there’s a good chance they are going to navigate to that tab. So that’s a time when an exit intent popup would be triggered. This is great because you don’t want popups to be intrusive to a user’s browsing experience, but you do want to catch visitors before they leave.

OptinMonster claims that this plugin has helped some websites boost conversion rates by up to 785%. While I can’t guarantee you’ll get those same results, I’d definitely say it’s worth a try.

All of the campaigns built with the Popups by OptinMonster plugin are mobile friendly and highly responsive. The plugin integrates with your email marketing software as well. You can run A/B tests with this plugin. And you’ll have access to Google Analytics data for all of your campaigns.

4. Layered Popups

The Layered Popups plugin lets you create popups that are, you guessed it — layered. Basically, these popups can have multiple layers, which can attract the attention of website visitors and let you get creative. I’d recommend this to anyone who wants to implement website popups that are far from boring and separate themselves from the crowd.

This plugin has a visual editor, which makes it easy for anyone to create and make changes to the design of these popups. Layered Popups has several options for display modes as well. These are some of the options for triggering a popup:

• Exit intent
• Scrolling
• Idle pages
• Once per session
• Once every specified number of days
• Every visit
• HTML element click
• Specified delays

These options make it easy for you to get more email subscribers without annoying your website visitors.

Layered Popups is also compatible with some of the top email marketing platforms on the market. As a matter of fact, the plugin supports 56 of these email systems, but some of the biggest names include:

• MailChimp
• Constant Contact
• GetResponse
• AWeber
• Campaign Monitor
• Active Campaign

So it’s safe to assume that whatever software you’re using for email is on this list.

When you install Layered Popups to your WordPress site, you’ll have access to more than 150 templates. You can also create an unlimited amount of A/B tests for different elements of your popups. With pricing starting at just $21, this is definitely one of the best WordPress popup plugins available.

5. ConvertPlus

The ConvertPlus WordPress plugin is designed for driving conversions with popups. Here’s what the plugin offers

• Popups, of course
• Fullscreen popups
• Top bar information
• Bottom bar information
• Slide-ins
• Sticky boxes

One of my favorite features of ConvertPlus is the template selection. You can take one of the 100+ templates and make slight tweaks to personalize it for your own website content.

ConvertPlus has more than 700 fonts that will make your popups stand out. They offer custom CSS, animations, and background settings as well. You’ll also benefit from real-time analytics for your popups and other campaigns. This information will help you track KPIs like views, clicks, and conversions.

This plugin integrates with email marketing software, as well as other CRM solutions such as:

• WooCommerce
• Contact Form 7
• Zapier
• WP Registration Form

6. Bloom

The Bloom WordPress plugin is designed specifically for email opt-ins. There are six different ways to display these opt-in forms on your website.

• Automatic popups
• Automatic fly-ins
• Inline opt-in forms
• Below content forms
• Widget area forms
• Required opt-in for content unlock

The last option is something that’s unique, and makes this plugin stand apart from other available options. Here’s how it works: Depending on what your website is offering, you can restrict content to the average user. This is a great way to entice opt-ins or registrations. In order for a website visitor to gain access to premium content, they’ll need to opt-in first.

Popups can be triggered based on a number of different actions.

• Delay based on time
• Triggered based on scrolling
• After comment popups
• Post-purchase popups
• Inactivity popups

Bloom also works with 16 different email marketing platforms, including:

• Campaign Monitor
• AWeber
• MailChimp
• GetResponse
• SalesForce
• HubSpot
• iContact
• ActiveCampaign

Bloom has hundreds of templates for your popups. You can also customize things like the borders and edges of your popups. The color options are virtually unlimited, so you won’t have to worry about finding a color scheme to match your website design.

7. Elementor Pro

With Elementor Pro, you can build any type of website popup from scratch. Like some of the other plugins we’ve seen, Elementor Pro has other features that will benefit your website.

You can create popups for specific reasons like:

• Capturing leads
• Making announcements
• Keeping users on the page with exit intent notifications
• Growing your email list
• Content lock and upgrades
• Full screen welcome mats
• Generate sales by showcasing products and upsells
• Build login forms

Elementor Pro offers advanced targeting options as well. For example, you can trigger a popup after a specified number of page views or a specified number of sessions. You can even control popups by the device a user is browsing from.

Popups are triggered based on actions such as scrolling, clicks, page loading, inactivity, and exit intent. You can show certain popups on posts with specific tags, authors, or categories. This plugin also offers WooCommerce integration.

I like this plugin because it allows you to hide popups for users who are logged in. That way you won’t be asking for an email address that’s already been added to your subscriber list.

Subscriptions start at $49 per year for Elementor Pro, which is a bargain, in my opinion, considering all of the advanced features you’ll get for that price, plus design elements that are second to none. You can create beautiful popups that are visually appealing and attractive to your audience.

Conclusion

Do popups work? That’s a conversation for another day.

For those of you who are ready to add popups to your website, you’ll need to install a WordPress plugin that will make this process much easier for you.

So what’s the best WordPress popup plugin?

It all depends on what you’re looking for. I’ve narrowed down the top seven options for you to consider.

You’ll want to install a plugin that lets you create the type of popups you want, but also integrates smoothly with any other software you are using.

Some plugins have more templates and custom design features than others. While other popup plugins offer better analytics, A/B tests, and advanced targeting options. You’ll even find some options with all in one features.

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