Turn Your kids Bedrooms into Interactive Game Rooms with Lumo projector

Via:MyTutorialGuru.com

Kids love using their imaginations to envision lava on the bedroom floor and the park as a jungle. And now, a new device called the Lumo takes these visions and projects them onto the floor, turning just about anywhere into an interactive play space.

The Lumo, which is attracting attention on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, is a pico projector that shines animated scenes and games onto flat 4 feet by 6 feet surfaces.

Kids can then use their feet, for example, to play a virtual game of Greedy Greedy Hippos (i.e. Hungry Hungry Hippos) and air hockey or tip-toe across the room on tiny projected rocks in a bubbling volcanic landscape. The scenes respond to jumping, kicking, stomping and hand waving.

Image: Lumo

While the Lumo projector comes with a set of games, it’s also possible for kids to design their own — they can draw a moat, add sharks to the water and project a castle onto the floor. The custom designs are made via Lumo’s online game template tool and can be tailored for kids ages 2 to 12.

Lumo will launch with more than 100 games, but the company said it will be opening up a software development kit (SDK) to developers who could potentially make their own games and apps available for projection.

The device itself runs on Android software, but the games can be controlled via iOS devices, as well. It’s not a cheap toy. It will set you back $549. The Lumo ships this December.

Via: mashable.com

Easily Monitor Your Website Uptime and Downtime with these WordPress Plugins

Via:MyTutorialGuru.com

A lot of WordPress users are enticed to use the software because it’s free, highly customizable, and highly extendible. We tend to get caught up on the design and functionality of our sites–since that is primarily what we have control over.

However, just as important as our site’s functionality and design may be, knowing that it is actually available to those looking for it is just as important–but not easy to do by yourself. After all, you can’t sit at your computer simply refreshing your website all day and night to make sure it’s still there.

That’s why in today’s post we’re going to talk about some easy ways you can monitor your WordPress site’s uptime using outside services, plugins, or a combination of both.

First: What, Exactly, is Uptime Monitoring & How Does It Work?

First, let’s make sure we all know what uptime monitoring is. Uptime monitoring is simply the act of checking regularly with your server to make sure your website is up and functioning as it should. This is typically accomplished by having a plugin or service “ping” your server and share the results with you.

Each plugin or service that does this tends to offer their own twist on the service (beyond just telling you if your site is up or not) in order to add the most value, as they see it. But we’ll get into that more when reviewing the service and plugin options below.

The Importance of Monitoring Your WordPress Site’s Uptime

Even if we spend a considerable amount of time in front of our computer, looking at our website, that doesn’t mean its always up when we’re not there or that everyone else is seeing it. Obviously if that is happening, especially on a regular basis, it can become a fairly large problem.

There are a few ways this can damage your brand and business:

1. You will be seen as unreliable. If you can’t keep your own website up and running, why should your customers or clients trust you with their business?

2. You will lose potential clients/customers. If they can’t see your products or services, how can they buy?

3. You will lose the trust of search engines, resulting in poorer SEO rankings. If every time they index your site it is down (or simply too many times) then they will give your search results less priority.

Obviously, site uptime is important. And it is not as if hosting companies don’t know it. Uptime is usually one of their top selling points. So I can see how some of you might be wondering why this is necessary. Don’t most hosting services offer a 99% uptime guarantee?

Yes, it’s true that most hosting providers do offer this guarantee, but without monitoring it is impossible to tell whether or not they follow through on that guarantee. That’s where uptime monitoring tools and services come in quite handy. They insure that you’re getting the service you’re paying for and help protect you from the unfortunate consequences of an unreliable host.

Easy WordPress Website Uptime Monitoring with Third Party Services

The services below are a handful of the top third party services recommended for website uptime monitoring. They work with all kinds of sites, not just those running WordPress. These services may  be the preferred choice for someone not looking to add another plugin to their install, but still want solid uptime monitoring.

Pingdom

Pingdom is probably the most popular service for monitoring website uptime. They are 100% free and offer several key features and benefits. Obviously the first is that they will monitor your websites uptime and notify you if it goes down. They do this via email and SMS. They also provide detailed performance reports, help you analyze key interactions, and share that data with others on your team. Price: FREE | More Information

Site24x7

Site24x7 can help you monitor servers, apps, and websites. They can track your uptime, downtime, performance and more. Their key features include email, SMS, RSS, or Twitter notifications for site downtime or unavailability. They will also track response times and other performance metrics; along with the tools you need to analyze them. All in all, this will work for any operation large or small but it is definitely designed to be scalable for larger sites and companies. Price: $4.50/month | More Information

Service Uptime

Service Uptime offers much the same as the options above: Uptime monitoring, performance monitoring, data analysis, and notifications. Where their service seems to differ is that they drill down a bit and monitor the uptime/availability/performance of different sections of content on your site–making sure your visitors are getting the experience you’ve created. Price: Freemium Plan (Full feature package starts at $4.95/month) | More Information

Monitor.us

Monitor.us is a one stop shop for all your site monitoring needs. Their product/service is meant to be a replacement for the complex monitoring software typically used by IT professionals. They offer website monitoring, network monitoring, open API monitoring, and more. For the average WordPress users, this may be a bit overkill. Thankfully you can choose to use just the website monitoring and forget about the rest (unless you want/need it.). When used this way, it really is a free and easy solution that may will enjoy. Price: FREE | More Information

DownNotifier

DownNotifier is all about simplicity. It’s free and they cut out even the process of having to create an account in order to get right down to the business of monitoring your uptime. All you have to do is enter your domain, email, and optional phone number so that in the event of your site going down they can notify you via email or SMS. It’s a super simple free tool with a premium upgrade available for those who are interested. Price: FREE | More Information

Are My Sites Up?

Are My Sites Up is designed to be an extremely easy and simplified version of uptime monitoring. Their focus, as opposed to a lot of features, is speed. They want to detect and notify you of a downed site as soon as it happens. Or, as they promise, within one minute. Which is pretty great! Price: $8/month | More Information

Easy WordPress Website Uptime Monitoring with Plugins

The WordPress plugins below are all ways in which you can monitor your site’s uptime. For the most part, they bring the notification and analysis process into the WordPress dashboard, which will probably be preferred by those who don’t want to be jumping around a lot.

Jetpack

The Jetpack plugin by WordPress.com (Automattic) is an extremely popular plugin with a lot of features/extensions bundled together. One of those is uptime monitoring. You can activate the Monitor feature to begin receiving this free service. Notifications are sent via email. Price: FREE | More Information

SensorPress

SensorPress is another extremely simple plugin. Once installed all you have to do is activate it and provide contact details. The plugin will check your site ever 15 minutes (or faster) and immediately notify you if any uptime problems are detected. Price: FREE | More Information

ManageWP

ManageWP is the first of what I’m calling the “‘hybrid” plugin options. The larger ManageWP services–which is designed to help you manage a large number of separately hosted WordPress installs from one dashboard–requires a plugin to work. But its universal dashboard is at ManageWP.com instead of the backend of your WordPress site.

Website uptime monitoring is just one of the many features offered by ManageWP. If that is the only thing you are looking for then I wouldn’t suggest using ManageWP. But, if its core service is valuable to you then its monitoring feature is sure to be helpful as well–since it will monitor all of your websites, not just one. Price: $2.40/website/month | More Information

Real User Monitoring by Pingdom

And finally, we have our last plugin option; the second “hybrid”. This plugin is by the first service we mentioned in the section above–Pingdom. The advantage of using this plugin over just the third party service is that it brings everything into your WordPress dashboard, saving you the hassle of going to other websites to monitor activity. And it’s still free, which is nice. Price: FREE | More Information

In Conclusion

It’s never fun to log into your email or social channels to find that people are talking to you and about you because your website is down. Neither is it fun to attempt pulling up your website only to realize it has been down and inoperable for who knows how long, potentially costing you new business, search engine rankings, and dings to your brand reliability.

Thankfully, any of the tools featured above can take care of this by making it easy to monitor your WordPress website’s uptime and downtime. Many of them even offer tools for analysis–both of site uptime and performance.

What I like about the tools showcased in this post are not that you can have your choice between third party and WordPress plugin options–which is nice–but within those there is another scale or spectrum ranging from feature rich to bare bones simplicity.

Personally, as a blogger and content creator, I think I’m a fan of bare bone simplicity. I just want a notification as soon as my site goes down and a recommendation on how to fix it. But I like knowing that more robust options are out there if I ever need them.

What is your preference and how to do you monitor your website’s uptime and downtime? Please take a moment or two to share any thoughts or tips in the comment section below.

Via: elegantthemes.com/blog/

Want to save Meerkat videos to YouTube? Katch's hashtag wants to help

Via:MyTutorialGuru.com

The meteoric rise in popularity of mobile video streaming app Meerkat has already resulted in the creation of a companion app called Katch that saves your streams to YouTube.

Most Meerkat users are aware that the app offers an option to save their video streams on their mobile devices, but Katch allows you to simplify the process of preserving your memories while passing off the storage and distribution concerns to YouTube’s servers.

By adding “#Katch” to your Meerkat video stream description, you’ll immediately alert Katch, which will then save your video, upload it to YouTube and then send you the link via your Meerkat comments. Calling itself “the record button for Meerkat,” the service apparently includes long form videos as well, with some Meerkat videos running up to 50 minutes long on the Katch YouTube account.

So far, the Meerkat videos being uploaded to the Katch YouTube account are unlisted, so it’s unlikely you’ll stumble across any during a random search on the video site. But it will be interesting to see how this plays out with regards to privacy and unforeseen incidents, for example, if an accident occurs during the stream and the user wants the YouTube upload deleted. (Katch did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding this potential issue.)

Another issue is the fact that Katch removes the ephemeral nature of Meerkat videos by automatically archiving them, thus reducing the need for viewers to tune into a stream as it’s happening. It’s clever, but it’s a kind of virality killer when trying to snag real-time attention.

Of course, the appearance of this app, along with Meerkat, has happened so quickly that the rules and parameters around all these services are likely in day-to-day flux.

Nevertheless, with this new addition to Meerkat, it’s likely the service — despite Twitter’s competing Periscope tool – will be more than just a fleeting star within the upstart app ecosystem.

Via: mashable.com

How to Set Up Firewalls for WordPress Blog

Via:MyTutorialGuru.com

WordPress is insanely popular. It is widely used by large corporations and small DIY bloggers alike. All in all, WordPress websites make up more of the web than any other platform. This fact makes WordPress an attractive target for security attacks of all kinds.

In past posts here on Elegant Themes we have discussed WordPress security in detail and if you follow the advice in those posts you will be well on your way to making your WordPress website as secure as it can be. However, in this post, we’re going to discuss something that the other posts only mentioned indirectly or not at all–firewalls.

How Firewalls Work

A firewall, contrary to popular opinion, is not just something that keeps you from getting on all of the best websites at work or school. It is actually a valuable network security measure that places a set of rules on incoming and outgoing traffic in order to protect networks, servers, websites, and individual computers.

These rules are meant to place a wall between a trusted source (say, the server your WordPress website is hosted on) and an untrusted source (the internet) in which only trusted data is allowed entry. One, two, or all three of the methods below are implemented to make this happen.

Filtering: all of the packets of data coming in contact with your firewall are analyzed against a set of filters.

Proxy: a “middleman” is established between your website and the internet. This middleman, or proxy, passes along the good traffic while stopping the rest before it can get to your site.

Inspection: instead of analyzing all data coming at your site, key elements are identified and compared to a database of trusted information. If the data is a match then it’s allowed through.

Why You Should Use a Firewall with WordPress

When it comes to WordPress security there is no such thing as a perfect setup. No perfectly secure websites. Instead, the idea behind WordPress security is “hardening”. You want to harden your website against the inevitable possibility of attack by taking a wide variety of security measures–just one of which is a firewall.

Many of today’s top WordPress security plugins and features offer an extensive array of tools that cover the full breadth of security hardening options available to WordPress users. So at least you don’t have to worry about needing to manage a lot of different security options, each with their own plugin or service.

However, even within these tools and services you may choose to only use some of the security measures available. This will no doubt be for personal reasons based on the specific needs of your website. But there are some good reasons you may want to make a firewall one of those measures.

First, you can never have too many appropriate measures in place to secure your website. And the only inappropriate kind are those so stringent that they keep good data/traffic from reaching you.

Secondly, once you set up the rules that govern your firewall, it manages itself. You do not need to do anything afterwards.

And finally, there’s a reason firewalls have been around for so long (from the beginning of network security). They work.

So what I would recommend is that if you’re running a WordPress website (which you probably are, since you’re here) is that you pick out a tool or service from the list below and harden the security of your WordPress website with a firewall.

Tools for Hardening WordPress with Firewalls

For the vast majority of WordPress users setting up a WordPress firewall “manually” would be extremely impractical. Not to mention require technical chops possessed by a bare few. Thankfully though, some of those bare few within the WordPress community have created tools and services that the rest of us can use to establish firewalls that help harden the security of our WordPress website.

I’ve listed the highest rated and most recommended WordPress firewall tools and services below. If I missed any, please let me know in the comments below.

Sucuri Firewall

Price: from $9.99/month | More Information

Sucuri may be the most trusted name in WordPress security. Their firewall service creates a proxy that essentially makes the Sucuri network a middleman between your website and the rest of the web. They take care of all the malicious attacks and traffic, sending only legitimate traffic to your website.

While other options below have premium upgrades available, this is the only strictly premium option I’ve featured on this list. Based on my personal experience and the research for this post, Sucuri is a a trusted brand many bloggers and other WordPress professionals trust to handle their security.

If you’re interested in this service, I’d recommend thinking big picture before buying though. For example, many managed WordPress hosts already partner with Sucuri and if you buy their service the Sucuri service is included.

WordPress Simple Security Firewall

Price: FREE | More Information

WordPress Simple Security Firewall is a new WordPress security plugin growing in popularity. Their reason for creating the plugin grew out of a frustration with the current WordPress Security Plugin status quo. Particularly the way other such plugins deal with WordPress’ .htaccess file.

WordPress Simple Security Firewall promises to keep your site as safe as possible without “frying it” due to unnecessarily altering of your .htaccess file. So far, users really seem to be liking it. If you’re interested in learning more about their approach you should check out their post series “Why We Built It”.

All In One WP Security & Firewall

Price: FREE | More Information

All In One WP Security & Firewall is has definitely grown in the last few years to be one of a handful of top, dominating, WordPress Security Plugins. They offer a comprehensive array of features that are all designed to help harden your WordPress security as much as possible; a primary one being their firewall feature.

The All In One firewall has features ranging from basic, to intermediate, to advanced. All of which are designed to stop malicious code from ever being processed by your site. Once installed you will be able to easily configure them from the WP Admin menu options.

NinjaFirewall

Price: FREE | More Information

NinjaFirewall is a web application firewall designed to sit between the web and your WordPress installation. It will “hook, scan, sanitize or reject any HTTP / HTTPS request sent to a PHP script before it reaches WordPress or any of its plugins”.

Wordfence

Price: FREE | More Information

Wordfence has proven itself over the last few years to be a complete WordPress Security Monster. And I mean that in the best way possible. As a free WordPress Security Plugin it offers an outstanding service with a wide array of features. Of which, a great firewall is but one.

The Wordfence firewall is designed to block common security threats like fake Googlebots, malicious scans from hackers and botnets–all which can cause major headaches and (even if they don’t take down your website) hurt its search rankings and more.

BulletProof Security

 

Price: FREE | More Information

Another popular WordPress Security plugin is BulletProof Security. Again, like a few of the others above, they offer a wide variety of security options. BulletProof proudly states that their plugin will protect you from “100,000’s” of different WordPress attacks–which is nice, you know, since that many exist in the first place.

Based on their description of it, the BulletProof security firewall takes the inspection route we defined above. It has a database of attack patterns that it matches against incoming data. When malicious patterns are detected it blocks that data from reaching your WordPress site.

In Conclusion

WordPress security is not to be taken lightly. Firewalls are a great way to add an extra layer of hardening to your security efforts. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools and/or services to help the average WordPress user in terms of both broad security and specific actions–like enacting an effective firewall.

Any of the tools/services above should serve to protect your WordPress site well, but of course everyone will have their own needs and preferences to consider. If you’ve used one or another of these tools/services we would love to hear about your experiences in the comments below and help the rest of the community here make the most informed decisions possible.

[via]

First Look on with Microsoft's next browser, Project Spartan

Via:MyTutorialGuru.com

We’re finally getting a real taste of Microsoft’s new Web browser Project Spartan. That’s just a codename for now, but based on my recent experience with the online surfing tool, which I downloaded with the latest Windows 10 Preview Build, the name fits.

It would be easy to describe Project Spartan as a boiled-down version of Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s legacy browser that will live on with less frequent updates. But that description would also be wrong. Spartan, which arrives alongside Windows 10 later this year, has a new browsing engine, one that IE will not share.

In practice, Spartan feels whip-fast. It may also be that there’s little else that comes along with the web pages — in the form of icons, menus or other surrounding clutter — to slow down page loads.

Project Spartan is still recognizable as a web browser. But Microsoft dispensed with things like color (beyond white and gray) and text, leaving a very simplistic interface. You have to intuit what the icons mean and where to type in your URL.

If that sounds like a bad thing, it’s not. Project Spartan delivers Microsoft’s goal: a browser where everything but the website fades into the background.

There are still tabs, of course and a simple plus sign lets you add more. Forward, back and reload buttons exist, too. There’s an icon for storing your favorite site URLs, and a smiley face button that lets you offer feedback and report bugs. There are also some more interesting features, such as the ability to mark up and share page elements (under a simple pen and paper icon).

Project Spartan lets you markup web pages with text and art. You can also clip and share portions.

Page markup works well. I could draw on any website, and highlight and clip any portion of a page. I could then paste the clip into a Paint file, email or social media account.

Spartan is also the first Microsoft browser to integrate Cortana, Microsoft’s voice assistant. When I typed “weather” into the address bar, Cortana jumped into action and showed the weather for my location in a large box below the address bar (where I typed the original query). I know it’s Cortana because of the red circle next to it. I was also able to select a topic on any web page and right click to access Cortana, which offers up topic details in a large pane on the right.

Pretty much anywhere Cortana could find extra information on my subject or desired page, it did. The one thing it didn’t do: talk to me. Cortana in Windows 10 is a voice assistant. In Spartan, it’s more like a silent assistant. Even so, I was impressed with this early look at Cortana integration in Spartan.

Project Spartan integrates Microsoft’s Cortana. It knew where I was and delivered the weather forecast.

Microsoft promises more stability with Project Spartan. So I tried to open a bunch of YouTube pages to see if I could overload it with as many videos running simultaneously as possible, but I couldn’t crash it. Not bad for beta software.

Project Spartan had no problem with YouTube video.

I checked Task Manager to see if Spartan is using resources more efficiently. But just like Google’s Chrome, it has separate processes for each page (Internet Explorer uses a lot of resources, too, but tends to group them together).

Adding them all up, it looked like Spartan was eating roughly the same amount of computing resources as other Web browsers. So, yes, it’s stable. I can’t say yet if it’s more efficient.

This is the first public beta of Spartan. By the time you use it with Windows 10, I expect the interface will have changed, Cortana will be even more visible and Project Spartan will most certainly have a new name. Though I wouldn’t mind if Microsoft decided to keep the Spartan moniker, which is fairly apt.

If you want to try out Project Spartan yourself, join the Windows Insider program and opt for “Fast Ring” downloads. This essentially gives you access to new Microsoft Windows Code as soon as Microsoft is ready to share it. Regular Insiders usually get these updates a few weeks later.

Via: mashable.com

7 Year Old Girl Gets 3D Printed Robohand

Via:MyTutorialGuru.com

When Faith Lennox was nine months old, she lost her left hand. Now at age seven, she’s getting one custom made by a 3D printer. It’s called a ‘robohand’. She got to pick the colors and watch the printing process firsthand at Build It Workspace, a 3D printer studio in California.

Build It’s Mark Lengsfeld thinks the technology will revolutionize prosthetics, especially in children who outgrow prosthetic limbs or have trouble using them due to size and weight.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Via: mashable.com

Top Time Tracking Applications For Web Designers

Via:MyTutorialGuru.com

Time is one of those commodities that we tend to take for granted. When you’re a kid, it feels like time is so slow and then one day you’re a grown up and time flies past you faster than you can keep up with.

When you stop to think that the seconds and minutes that tick by every day is time that you can never get back and that there are bills to pay and mouths to feed (even if it is just your own), time suddenly becomes precious. Especially is that the case for the entrepreneurial Web Designer.

When you’re working for yourself or even if you’re freelancing with a team on a project, every minute you spend on said project is less money in your pocket one way or another. Even if you’re not being paid by an hourly rate, tracking and managing your time is still important if you are ever going to get anywhere with your business.

Why Tracking Your Time Is Important

There are a few reasons why you should track your time. Even if you’re not billing a client by the hour, tracking where you’re spending your time on a project can be eye opening.

Perhaps what you thought was only taking you a couple of hours is actually taking you more time than you would like to see. When you start to see discrepancies in your workflow, you can then start to tweak what is working and what isn’t in order to increase your profit.

Another reason for keeping track of your time is because some clients will request it when they are billing you by the hour. Many people like to know just how your time is being spent on something that they are paying you for. When you are able to turn over an orderly timesheet, they are usually more than happy to keep coming back to you.

Keeping track of time can also keep you more productive. Not only does it help you stay focused, but it is also a great motivator when you start to see how much more efficient your time is spent when you’re mentally on track.

Below is a list of some of the best time tracking apps that you can use when working on your own and even when you need to collaborate to create something amazing.

Best Time Tracking Applications for Web Designers

Toggl

One of the best tools I’ve personally come across and use from time to time is Toggl. Not only does it have some great features, but it is also free to use. The software offers a one-click time tracking option so that it’s simple to keep track of when you start and stop a project and helps you keep an accurate time sheet. However, the application is more intuitive that that.

Toggl has the following features:

• An easy to understand and intuitive dashboard


• Create an unlimited amount of project and clients


• Color-code your projects to help with your own personal organization method


• Add sub-projects


• Set billable rates


• Export your timesheet to Excel, CVS and PDF files

Toggl also has iPhone and Android apps, as well as desktop applications for Windows and Mac and has the feature of tracking your time when you’re offline so that you can literally keep tabs of your time no matter where you are. There is also a handy Google Chrome tab that you can use to track and sync your time when you’re working on something in your browser.

To add to that, it’s also expandable meaning that if you’re working with a team you can still use Toggl in a team setting and integrate into other management helpers like Trello or Asana.

For something that is free, it is seriously impressive and would be the first place I’d recommend when looking for a solid time tracking software.

TimeCamp 

TimeCamp is another promising application that works great for both the solo designer and large teams collaborating on a project. The software is full of features and integrations that you may not even know you needed but would be happy to find out was there.

TimeCamp has many similarities to what Toggl offers including apps for iOS and Android, desktops applications, Google Chrome extensions and the ability to work offline. However, as a premium service, TimeCamp offers quite a bit more than just that:

• TimeCamp integrates with other popular tools like Trello, Asana, Wunderlist, Zendesk and Insightly


• Create roles and permissions for people in your team


• Supports multi-currency


• Set Goals and Categories


• Measure productivity


• Custom tax integration


• Billing rates and invoice creation


• and more

The TimeCamp’s dashboard is clean and rather easy to use when you’re not trying to dive into deep. Learning the ins and outs of everything the application has to offer will take a bit of time to get the hang of and setup if you’re working with a larger team.

At that price and with so many features packed into a single app, TimeCamp may be better suited for you if you’re going to be expanding your projects into team collaborations.

CloudTimr 

If you’re looking for something with fewer bells and whistles, then CloudTimr may be more on track with what you’re looking for. The free cloud-based time tracking application can be accessed and easily used on your desktop or mobile device so that you can track your daily activated no matter where you are.

The dashboard is very simple and creating your tasks is also easy. You can create Groups using a hashtag, add things in the built in to-do list, and receive notifications. As I mentioned before, CloudTimr is free to use and is a simple, straightforward way to keep tabs on your time and activity.

Clockodo 

This is another nice and intuitive time tracker that works well if you’re tracking time for yourself or if you’re working with a team. The dashboard has a zen meets tech feel to it and has some nice features:

• Easy Accessibility | Use in a browser tab, download the desktop application and use it there, or track your time while you’re on the go with the mobile app.


• Customized and Flexible Report Analysis | You can create reports based around the custom structure that you built and then save those reports into templates for you to quickly and easily access.


• Local and Server Backups | This is another great feature. Not only does Clockodo backup to its own servers, but you can also create a local backup of what you’re working on so that you don’t lose everything in glitch (you know they happen to everyone sooner or later.)

Pricing for Clockodo is set at $8 per month to unlock everything the application has to offer. If you’re going to be adding users/team members, then you’ll be looking to tack on an additional $5 per extra member you have on Clockodo. To use this just for yourself would make sense and would be rather affordable, but if you’re going to be working with more than a few people on a design project, it would make more sense to use another software that offered a bit more for less.

GetChime 

Personally, I really like the sleek design and feel of the GetChime tracking application. But all design aspects aside, this free app has some great features that make it easy to work with.

• Easy to use interface


• Track billable and unbillable hours


• Easily start and pause timer


• Built in messaging system so that you can stay in touch with teammates


• Reports and analytics to help you gauge which milestones are costing you the most money, to see how much you’ve earned and allow you to track the ongoing progress of a project


• Give permissions to who can view and edit time entires

GetChime also has a few other products in its family to help boost overall productivity and which also happen to be free. This app looks like it would be great to work with if you’re going solo and easy to work with when collaborating.

Tick 

To wrap up our list of the best time tracking applications for web designers is Tick. Tick offers many of the same features of the other apps, but with one really cool add-on called Time Budgeting.

This feature lets you set a time budget — the amount of time you allow yourself to work on a given task and/or project. The time tracker dashboard makes it easy to create projects and tasks and with the Chrome Extension, mobile app and desktop app you can track your time anytime, any place.

Tick also has the ability to generate reports that can be grouped and sorted together by client and then export them to programs like FreshBooks, QuickBooks, and Excel.

Price for Tick starts at $19 for 10 open projects and goes up from there depending on the amount of projects you have going on at once.

Wrapping It Up

Time tracking is a great way to help your be more productive and tighten up in areas where you’re spending too much time. If you’re working with a team on a project, then using one of these dashboard can help consolidate a lot of your work for you.

Weather you bill by the hour or the project, tracking your time could just be one of the best things you started doing for your business. Do you guys have any experience with tracking your time? Are there are applications that you use and want to share with the rest of the community? Let us know in your comments below.

Via: elegantthemes.com