About Me and BloggingNote

Madushan Bandara

Hi, my name is Madushan Bandara – a WordPress speed enthusiast. I’m the creator of Bloggingnote.com, which shares WordPress and other web-related articles, tips, tutorials, and how-tos.

I have designed and developed several websites and freelanced on Fiverr. I started doing this in 2014 when WordPress had limited development resources. Today, there are plenty of web development tools and resources. I used to rely on unreliable affiliate recommendations, so I don’t recommend anything I don’t trust now. You’ll see a few affiliate links that won’t lead you to unreliable stuff.

Throughout my recommendations, I will only share my first-hand experience, so you will not find crap providers, themes, plugins, or any other service. Whenever I recommend products, I only suggest the ones I use myself.

Because of that, I don’t recommend crap hosts like Bluehost, Kinsta, Hostinger, etc., nor third-party themes and plugins. Throughout this journey, I’ve received many free resources. I entered the CloudFlare Startup Program, received enterprise plans, and received free credits despite not actually using them.

Blogging/WordPress Tools And Resources I Use (Recommend)

Having built multiple websites, I found some really cool resources. These are the tools and resources I use most often. Without any affiliate links, I highly recommend these…

Web Hosting

  • Vultr High-Frequency: A popular cloud host and is truly fine for all kinds of sites. Featuring faster NVMe and 3 GHz CPUs. Use it with the Vultr control panel or third-party control panels, such as xCloud and RunCloud.
  • Webdock: A Danish VPS—it’s cheap. You can try VPS for free for 24 hours. There’s only one data center in Denmark.
  • Rocket.net: The only fully WP-managed web host I recommend. It is ideal for sites with high traffic and dynamic content. With Cloudflare Enterprise and Object Cache Pro, the average TTFB is under 100 ms. The disadvantage is low bandwidth, but they have more visits without PHP limits.
  • RunCloud: A powerful cloud server control panel has more options and works better than others. If you’ve never managed servers, you might not like it—ideal for developers who want to handle everything themselves.
  • xCloud: It allows you to manage WordPress on any cloud server at a low cost. The free version allows you to run up to ten websites on a single server. Additionally, they offer more affordable servers (from Vultr). The lack of support and the buggy UI can make it unstable for serious users. Currently, xCloud is the ideal way to manage VPS.

There are thousands of web hosts out there… ranging in quality from some of the best to the worst.

Popular web hosts are usually rubbish, and they’re just marketing to make money instead of providing quality hosting. Some hosts (usually shared ones) offer better discounts when you sign up for multiple years.

If you exceed your plan’s limits (CPU, RAM, disk space, inodes, and database size), your account could become stuck or suspended. Old and shared hosts use SATA instead of NVMe, and they typically lack modern server stacks, often relying on Apache servers. Some are less popular but have better specs and faster loading times.

WordPress Themes

  • Blocksy: My current favorite theme is ideal for beginners and developers alike. It’s got a powerful header and menu builder. Even the free version is better than most paid themes, and the paid version has robust hook features, too.
  • GeneratePress: The free version has limited features, but it is my second favorite theme. The paid version is impressive, and it’s not a drag-and-drop theme, so you might not be able to use it immediately. However, GP is the best option for developers and average users who like to mess with design.
  • Kadence: It is similar to Blocksy, which offers a robust free version and extensive demo content. If you don’t like Blocksy but need a theme of that type, Kadence may be a suitable alternative.

WordPress Plugins

  • FlyingPress: The best speed optimization plugin for WordPress right now.
  • LiteSpeed Cache: If you’re using LiteSpeed hosting, consider installing LiteSpeed Cache. It’s fast, free, and has unique server-side caching. It can be a bit confusing for first-time users, but it’s ideal for medium to high-traffic sites.
  • Swift Performance: Despite many negative ratings, this is an ideal cache plugin for advanced users. Even though it’s free, it works better than some paid plugins. It is essential to study the settings and not expect support.
  • Fluent and Everest Forms: Better than big contact form plugins like Contact Form 7 and WPForms. The free version also allows you to store completed forms. Enables users to upload images.
  • WPS Hide Login: Change your login URL and prevent access to the wp-login.php page and admin directory.
  • RankMath/SEOPress: If you’re using RankMath, just use the free version. It does all the required things; no need for a paid version, especially at that price. SEOPress is less cluttered and has all the functions RankMath does.

CDN

  • Cloudflare: Cloudflare is obviously fast, reliable, and effective for website security. I have used all their plans, from free to enterprise, and for the best results, I recommend using them with Argo Routing and APO.
  • FlyingCDN: Powered by Cloudflare Enterprise, the official CDN for FlyingPress users.
  • BunnyCDN: Still no EDGE caching, but it’s a cheap, fast, and effective CDN for static content. You can also use BunnyOptimizer for automatic optimization. Suitable if you have high traffic or bandwidth requirements.

Writing Tools

  • Grammarly: Besides spell-checking, Grammarly does a lot more. It’s not 100 percent accurate, but it helps me make content easier to read. You can use it if you’re not fluent in English like I am.
  • Wordtune: A writing assistant that fixes grammar and spelling problems and rewrites sentences. The free version is limited to 10 rewrites per day. I like the unlimited version, but it’s pricey.
  • QuillBot: Known as a paraphrasing tool, but it can be used as summarizer, AI detector, plagiarism checker, etc.

Others

  • Plausible Analytics: I prefer Plausible Analytics over Google Analytics. Using it means that your site has become another part of their data collection process. There is simply no other reason why Google Analytics is free. I also dislike the bloated and complicated interface. For these reasons, I use Plausible Analytics, which is a user-friendly tool.

I’m sure I’ll add more tools and resources to this list. I wouldn’t try to list brands with fancy markings; test them yourself and go with them if you like them.

Get In Touch

I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn OR the Contact page.