• Original review date: July 2021
• Still the latest hair dryer from GHD
• Launch price: $279.00 / £159 / AU$280
• Official price now: The same
Updated: February 2024. Rejoice, the GHD Helios is now available in the US and Australia, and remains the best hair dryer we've tested. That should come as no surprise to those familiar with the brand; in the UK, certainly, GHD has long been the champion of haircare. However, next-generation hair technology is getting better, with many companies opting for the Dyson Supersonic-esque technology, utilizing far faster and more powerful motors. The jury's out on if that technology is really worth the lofty price tag; in our opinion, the still relatively expensive GHD Helios offers better value for money. The rest of this review remains as previously published.
It’s been eight years since GHD first entered the hair dryer game – one of the original brands to bring a salon-style, professional hair dryer to the masses with the GHD Air – and a lot has changed.
There are now dozens of professional dryers from both traditional hair companies and non-traditional firms, which are more well known for vacuums than styling products (Dyson, we’re looking at you). In our GHD Air review, we explained that despite a rise in competition and an improvement in drying technology, GHD’s original hair dryer still more than holds its own and is one of best hair dryers you can buy. Yet, it was starting to show its age. A point that appears to have not gone unnoticed at GHD.
(Image credit: Future)
Taking what we loved about the GHD Air and fixing a number of the points we didn't, the hair giant has launched the GHD Helios. We’ve been using the £159 hair dryer exclusively for the past fortnight and we’d be as bold to say that we have a new favorite hair dryer – it's high price tag notwithstanding.
Design
Hair dryers have largely moved away from the black (read: boring) designs that are popular in hairdressers. They have become an accessory, rather than just a tool, and come in a range of colors from bright red to “Fuschia” and beyond. The Helios follows suit, but in a classy, elegant way that we’ve come to expect from GHD.
(Image credit: Future)
We tested the white and rose gold model and it’s absolutely stunning. It also comes in maroon and gold, black and silver, and navy and black. The different colored versions of GHD Helios’ plastic shell are additionally covered in a thin coating that feels almost like silicone to the touch and this gives the dryer a smooth, luxurious feel.
Weight-wise, the Helios is lighter than the Air tipping the scales at 780g compared to its predecessor’s 1.54kg. What’s more, where – on paper – it’s heavier than other dryers we’ve tested, the Helios is incredibly well-balanced so it doesn’t feel any more bulky and it isn’t any more difficult to use. There is a downside to this, however. The extra weight on the GHD Air made it feel expensive and sturdy, which helped us to rationalise its high price. The Helios’ light weight, by contrast, feels just like many of the other cheaper hair dryers on the market. A feeling that even its elegant colorways and smooth shell can’t quite counteract.
(Image credit: Future)
Everything else, including the placement of the two-speed and dual-temperature switches, the cold shot button and the branded grille are almost an exact copy and paste from the Air.
Performance
GHD claims its Helios is “faster, lighter and quieter” than the Air. We’ve already confirmed it’s lighter, but does it live up to the other claims? Yes – very much so! Its motor is marginally more powerful – up from 2,100w on the Air to 2,200w – and the holes in its grille have apparently been redesigned to reduce noise. It is noticeably less loud in real-world use, and when measured with a decibel meter, it’s a whole two decibels quieter than the Air.
When it comes to speed, the Helios similarly smashed it out of the park. Not just in comparison to the Air, but when pitted against the drying speeds of every hair dryer we’ve ever tested. Until the Helios, the Dyson Supersonic was the fastest dryer – taking our hair from wet from a shower to completely dry in 2 minutes 6 seconds. The Helios took an entire minute off this time. This meant our hair was rough dried in 1 minute and 6 seconds and is an absolute game changer.
(Image credit: Future)
The Helios was similarly a minute and eight seconds faster than the Supersonic at drying our hair after a swim, offering a total dry time of 1 minute and 50 seconds. With the concentrator nozzle attached to the Helios – a nozzle which has been made thinner with a curved edge designed to reduce turbulence – it took us just two minutes and 20 seconds to style our hair. Again, a minute faster than the Dyson Supersonic.
We didn’t even have to sacrifice hair quality and shine for this improved speed, either. After every use, our hair was almost frizz-free with only minimal flyaways and we never once had to resort to running straighteners over it to complete the look. Two weeks into testing and our hair definitely feels stronger and we’re seeing fewer breakages and less hair loss in the shower.
There is a but, though. Helios’ lightning speed and precision, which made our hair so smooth and shiny, left it lacking volume. It’s almost as if the flow of air is so powerful, it beats the hair into submission. This was disappointing, particularly when everything else was going so well.
Verdict
Just as cheaper rivals were starting to catch up on, and overtake, the power and performance of the original Air hair dryer, GHD has come out swinging with the Helios. A dryer that surpassed most of our, already high, expectations and one that we’ve found ourselves gravitating towards over every other hair dryer in our collection. Until the release of the GHD Helios, our go-to dryer was the Dyson Supersonic. This is now in second place.
Sadly, £159 for a hair dryer will be out of the reach of many people meaning its superior performance is out of reach, too. As a result, the Helios is unlikely to be an impulse buy and will be considered an investment. An investment we highly recommend you make.
Best hair dryer: luscious locks in seconds with these great hair dryers
CareCloud focuses on cloud based practice management, serving doctors in fifty different specialties across the US. It started back in 2009, with a headquarters in Miami, Florida, and over 240 employees.
Growth has been strong with a product entry into the remote area, and record bookings in 2022.E. It is currently used by over 40,000 medical providers, across 70+ specialties in all 50 states.
CareCloud offers their medical practice management solution under the ‘Practice Management’ banner, designed from the ground up to provide automation from routine activities, which frees up the office manager to do more important things at the practice . While it does provide a medical billing solution which can produce ‘Cleaner claims,’ and also enhances the efficiency of the workflow. It also provides real time analytics to provide information on the productivity of the practice as a business.
It starts with a comprehensive scheduling module that has a simple to use online drag-and-drop interface for patient scheduling of appointments. Incorporated is a multi-view calendar, that is designed to handle the complexities of a modern practice’s workflow in a way that a venerable Day Runner could only dream of, such as insurance verification, automated patient reminders, confirmation of appointments across multiple practice locations, and streamlined check in and out of patients- all to enhance front office staff efficiency. The views are powerful, and flexible, making it simple to see a provider’s appointments- for today, the future, or for prior dates- by the day, week or month. Insurance eligibility can be checked prior to the scheduled appointment, including the details of deductibles, copays and coinsurance, to ensure cash flow to the practice remains steady.
A significant issue at any practice is the denial of claims, which then delays payments, and takes precious time for staff to resubmit. CareCloud incorporates in their CollectiveIQ module, a comprehensive set of advanced, automated billing rules, that ensures submitted claims are ‘Clean claims,’ making them far more likely to not get rejected. Even when claims do inevitably get rejected, CareCloud has your practice covered with collections, so the practice can get paid for its work. In the Collections app, each rejected claim gets listed for the reason of denial, and even claims that were submitted and no action was taken by the payer get listed here as a reminder to followup. By listing denied claims by payer, age, and reason, trends emerge into actionable intelligence to minimize further issues, such as seeing an insurance company that takes an excessive amount to pay, and a decision can be made by the practice to no longer participate when the contract expires.
The Financial workflow app also makes things simpler for the office staff. Claims can be submitted without needing to re enter all the information, as the patient’s demographic information is used to auto-populate fields, which significantly reduces the workload. In addition, there is the ability to lookup codes by both diagnosis and CPT.
Drawbacks
In terms of medical practice management, CareCloud does cover plenty of needs. One deficit is it lacks the ability to handle inventory management. The medical scheduling function is missing scheduling for on call providers, and has issues with setting up recurring appointments, such as for an annual physical.
User reviews list some issues, which can be frustrating. They include frequent downtimes, and when customer support is contacted they read off a script. Others complain that the analytic reports cannot be customized, that labs are not integrated, and that some feel stuck with a multi-year contract they feel that they were pushed into.
Support
Support for CareCloud is listed on their website via a single toll free number for phone support. The hours and days of operation are not listed anymore; it was previously business hours on weekdays It is stated elsewhere that the tech support is US based.
Unfortunately, there is no listed option for an online portal or chat, which can be useful as options for communication is preferred without waiting on hold There is also an email, and a fax number.
(Image credit: CareCloud)
Pricing
CareCloud used to provide pricing for their solution, but that is no longer the case. There are no prices listed on the CareCloud website unfortunately, but rather a custom quote can be generated. While we can appreciate this stance, to customize the price to the solution, we still prefer some pricing upfront, with an idea of the tiers and the additional options available, but there is none to be found here.
The closest that we could find (and not on the website) is that for both the EMR and the Patient Experience Management the cost is $628 per month. While that may not be the current pricing, this still makes it a higher priced option than some other competing solutions.
Also realize that this is not a complete solution, with additional modules available to build this out, and that also will increase the cost. These include Telehealth, Revenue Cycle Management, and on demand remote workers via Workforce Extension.
Finally, keep in mind that it is a free demo, but there is no free tier or free trial to better test drive it prior to purchase.
Final verdict
For a medical practice management service, CareCloud ticks many of the right boxes, with robust scheduling, automated claims scrubbing, and upfront pricing. The higher price, lack of support hours and options, and user issues in reaching their support representative are some areas to be aware of. In summary, CareCloud overall is worthy of a close look, and the free demo is worth investigating how this can serve your practice’s needs.
Ally Financial is a leading U.S digital financial services company, and is also ranked 19th among the largest banks in the United States. Ally Invest is their investment trading arm, though the name is considerably new in the stockbroker space. In 2016, a service called TradeKing was bought over by the parent company and was rebranded as Ally Invest. Ever since then, new features and benefits have been added to it along with the rebranding, turning it into a professional and reliable investment services platform.
What to expect from Ally Invest?
Since Ally Invest is a full-service firm, it provides diverse options to meet the requirements of investors and industry standards.
Among the key products that it offers are:
Stocks
ETFs
Mutual funds
Bonds
Options
It also offers managed investments (robo-advice) through a service called Ally Invest Managed Portfolios. Going with the trend in the industry, Ally Invest has removed commissions from most of the U.S exchange-listed stock, options and ETF trades.
(Image credit: Future)
Mobile platform
Ally Invest comes with a browser-based trading platform and does not require you to download any application. This works best for users who work from different locations. Both bank and brokerage can be operated using a single cloud-based application.
Ally also offers apps to trade via mobile devices. These apps are known as Ally Mobile or Ally Forex. These apps are custom mobile trading platform and are available for both Android and iOS. The apps offer similar features compared to the web-based platform.
While these apps offer most of the functionalities, they are not the among the best available in the business.
Tools
Ally Invest provides a range of different tools to help traders, such as:
Streaming Charts
Market and Company Snapshots
Watch lists
Profit and loss calculator
Probability calculator
Market data and Options Chains
Accounts
As of now Ally Invest only allows users from the United States to sign up on the platform While the required minimum deposit to open an account at Ally Invest is $0, minimum deposit for various accounts can be found below:
Brokerage account $0
Managed Portfolio: $100
Forex Account $250
Margin account $2000
Ally Invest doesn't charge for trading in stocks and ETFs. For Options Trading, they have the tiered commission plans which can be availed at a slightly lesser fee based on the volume.
(Image credit: Future)
Signing up for an Ally Invest Account is easy - just go to their homepage and click Open Account. The process of signup requires that a user makes a decision on what type of account they need. The system takes you through an automated process once you decide.
The different account types that are offered include:
Accounts can be funded via check, ACH or wire transfer. Ally Invest doesn’t charge for funding an account and doesn’t offer an option of funding through wallets, credit cards or debit cards. ACH withdrawals are free but wire transfers are chargeable at $30.
Talking about trading charges, while online stock options and ETF trades are available at zero commission, Options Trades are available at $0.50 per contract. The $9.95 mutual fund trades from Ally Invest are lower when compared to any other full-service brokerage. Because of its charges, Ally Invest is not a ideal for penny stock trading.
Support
One of the highlights is that Ally Invest provides 24/7 customer support via a telephone helpline, email or live chat.
Final verdict
Since Ally Invest is a full-service online brokerage platform, you can use it as a regular trading platform or even use it’s Enhanced Managed Portfolio to manage your funds.
A wide range of services and zero fees makes Ally Invest one of the better platforms to trade on. However, negatives include that it only allows trading in US markets, and the lack of physical offices might put some users off.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is designed to crawl websites and gather crucial SEO data efficiently. This powerful software simulates how search engines crawl a site and lets you identify key SEO elements that impact website visibility and performance. It further enables the analysis of meta tags, response codes, keyword elements, and much more. Whether it's finding broken links, generating XML sitemaps, or analyzing page titles and meta descriptions, Screaming Frog offers a detailed insight into the website's architecture from an SEO perspective.
Ideal for SEO experts and digital marketers, Screaming Frog is a critical tool for enhancing website searchability and performance. In this review, we will be covering the detailed features, specifications, and offerings of Screaming Frog SEO Spider. From its advanced crawling capabilities to its integration options and reporting features, we will explore how this tool can be leveraged to conduct comprehensive SEO audits, improve website performance, and ultimately drive better search engine rankings.
The Free Plan is ideal for small-scale SEO tasks that allow up to 500 URL crawls. It includes basic features like finding broken links, errors, redirects, analyzing page titles, meta data, and generating XML sitemaps. This plan is a great starting point for beginners or small websites.
Priced at £199 /year per license, the Paid Plan offers unlimited URL crawls, subject to available memory and storage. It builds upon the Free Plan with advanced features such as JavaScript rendering for crawling complex websites, custom extraction using CSS Path, XPath, or regex, and integration with Google Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights for deeper insights. This plan also includes AMP crawling and validation, structured data analysis, spelling and grammar checks, and the ability to crawl password-protected areas. It's designed for SEO professionals and larger websites needing comprehensive analysis and reporting tools.
Licenses are individual, meaning each user needs a separate one. Screaming Frog offers discounts for bulk purchases, making it cost-effective for teams. The licenses are valid for one year, requiring renewal thereafter. The Paid Plan is particularly beneficial for agencies and larger teams due to its advanced features and scalability.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider stands out for its ability to efficiently crawl websites of any size, from small blogs to large e-commerce sites, and provides real-time analysis of your results. This feature is crucial for identifying broken links, server errors, redirects, and security vulnerabilities, thus ensuring the site’s integrity and performance. The tool goes beyond simple error detection and offers deep insights into page titles and metadata that help spot issues, such as duplicate content or poorly optimized tags. Additionally, Screaming Frog extracts specific site data using CSS Path, XPath, or regex. This comprehensive approach to website crawling and analysis lets you pinpoint and address issues efficiently and further optimizes the site for both search engines and users.
SEO Auditing and Optimization
(Image credit: Screaming Frog SEO Spider)
We found that Screaming Frog’s auditing capabilities are equally robust and focus on redirects, robots.txt, and meta-robots directives, among other elements. It can audit temporary and permanent redirects and identify complex redirect chains and loops that can harm search engine visibility and user experience. Screaming Frog also reviews robots.txt, meta robots, or X-Robots-Tag directives and delivers insights into how search engines are directed to crawl and index pages or not. This includes identifying pages blocked from indexing, which could inadvertently hide valuable content from search engines. Another key feature is the validation of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) which makes sure that these pages are free from issues and optimized for performance in mobile search results.
Integration with Google Services
Screaming Frog SEO Spider boosts its capabilities through integration with various Google services, including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights. This synergy improves the crawl data with crucial user behavior insights, search query data, and vital performance metrics. By combining these datasets, the tool allows for a holistic analysis that spans visibility, speed, and usability. This integration helps SEO professionals access a comprehensive overview of how users interact with their site, identify performance bottlenecks, and understand the site's presence in search results, all within a single platform. This feature underscores the importance of leveraging Google's vast data resources to inform and refine SEO strategies.
Content and Structure Analysis
If you wish to explore the structural aspects of your site, Screaming Frog offers powerful tools for site architecture analysis. It provides detailed visualizations of a site's architecture, internal linking patterns, and URL structure, making assessing and optimizing the site hierarchy easier. These visual tools help in identifying areas for improvement in site navigation, deliver a seamless user experience, and facilitate search engines' understanding of site content and relevance. You can make informed decisions to enhance the site's navigational efficiency and SEO performance by spotlighting how content is interconnected and how authority flows through internal links. This aspect of Screaming Frog is instrumental in developing a site structure that supports both user engagement and search engine indexing.
Advanced Features and Customization
Screaming Frog SEO Spider goes beyond standard SEO tools by offering advanced features and customization options. During our tests, we noticed that it generated XML Sitemaps and Image XML Sitemaps with detailed configurations that help search engines efficiently discover and index website content. Additionally, the custom source code search feature gives the precise location of specific elements or code snippets across a website which is a boon for technical SEO audits and site maintenance. Plus, Screaming Frog is available as a desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is renowned for its comprehensive suite of features, user-friendly interface, and ease of use. This is what makes it accessible to experts and novices alike. The interface is designed to be intuitive, with a clear and organized layout that lets you easily navigate through its various features and toolset. Upon launching the tool, you see a dashboard that presents all critical functionalities at a glance, which lets you quick access to start new crawls, view reports, and analyze data.
The tool's main window displays a wealth of information in a tabulated format and categorizes data into easily digestible sections such as response codes, page titles, meta descriptions, and more. This helps you to identify areas of interest or concern swiftly and facilitates a streamlined workflow for auditing and optimization tasks. Additionally, Screaming Frog offers extensive customization options. This lets you tailor your crawl sessions based on specific needs or objectives. Even the settings can be adjusted to focus on particular aspects of a site, such as link depth, subdomains, or specific file types, giving users complete control over the scope of the analysis.
Screaming Frog has a well-structured support system to assist you in resolving any type of technical issue. You can start by utilizing self-support resources. These guides include the latest version of the SEO Spider, a starter guide, FAQs, and a user guide, available for addressing common problems and queries.
For more complex or specific issues, Screaming Frog has direct technical support. For this, you are advised to save your log files through the app ('Help > Debug > Save logs') and include detailed information about the site, the issue at hand, and any relevant screenshots or videos. This can be done by emailing support@screamingfrog.co.uk or using the 'open a support ticket' option on their website. The support team at Screaming Frog is committed to responding to queries within 24 hours during standard business hours. This dual approach to support paired with self-help resources reflects Screaming Frog's dedication to user satisfaction and problem resolution.
Screaming Frog: The competition
Priced at £149 annually, it is a cost-effective option compared to other tools. For example, SerpStat starts at $69/month, which totals over $800 annually, and it makes Screaming Frog a more budget-friendly choice. However, Screaming Frong’s alternate competitor, Yoast SEO is known for its user-friendly interface and integration with WordPress and it might turn out to be a better option for those who prioritize ease of use and immediate feedback.
However, Screaming Frog's manual configuration for tracking changes in page rankings may be a drawback for some users. This is because tools like Ahrefs offer automated alerts. It starts at $99/month and provides a range of tools in a user-friendly interface. Furthermore, its other competitor Semrush offers a variety of SEO, content marketing, competitor analysis, and PPC tools and starts at $119.95/month.
Screaming Frog: Final verdict
The Screaming Frog SEO Spider stands out in the market because of its thorough analysis and cost-effectiveness. It costs £149/year and provides a wide range of features for detailed SEO audits. This makes it a valuable asset for in-depth website analysis as it can crawl large sites and identify various issues like broken links, duplicate content, and security issues.
However, its technical interface may be challenging for those who prefer simpler, more automated tools. Competitors like Serpstat, Yoast SEO, Ahrefs, and Semrush deliver more user-friendly interfaces and a wider range of marketing tools. However, the cost of these tools is comparatively higher than Screaming Frog. In conclusion, Screaming Frog is ideal for you if you need detailed data and thorough site audits. Overall, it is particularly suitable for individuals, small teams, and agencies who want multi-functional SEO tools without a high investment.
TD Ameritrade is one of the prominent brokerages – no matter whether you are a beginner in the investment arena or even an advanced investor. It recently eliminated the commissions and has become one of the highly prominent choices for online stock, ETF trading, and other trading instruments.
Some of the features that it offers you include zero commission, an exceptional set of tools and products, comprehensive research, and a no account minimum.
What is TD Ameritrade all about?
TD Ameritrade is an online brokerage platform based out of Omaha, Nebraska. The company has grown into a considerable investment portal with a wide range of acquisitions and mergers. It does offer investments in just about every type of vehicle, and that includes stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs.
It provides a combination for both online and mobile trading platform for investors. It also has a comprehensive set of research tools that can be helpful enough in building confidence for the least experienced investors. The tool provides you access to a host of investment analysis tools.
TD Ameritrade aims to work just as well for both new investors and established ones, because of both the zero minimum account as well as the extensive array of research and guidance on how to build your portfolio.
(Image credit: Future)
Features
Some of the features offered by the AD Ameritrade include the following –
Commission-free trading – TD Ameritrade provides commission-free trading for a host of trading instruments. In 2019, the company decided to cut down the commission. Some trades, however, come under a fee format of $0.65. There are over 4100 mutual funds, and all ETFs are available for free.
Investor Education – The digital education offerings available through the service are comprehensive. There is plenty of educational content in the form of videos, articles, slideshows, and quizzes. The platform also offers you reports from resources such as Morningstar, Credit Suisse, CFRA, The Street, and many others.
Visual Trading Simulator – This is basically designed for use for the likes of advanced and frequent traders. The service is available through the mobile trader app and the other platforms offered by TD Ameritrade.
Portfolio analysis and reports – Ameritrade provides you access to highly customizable portfolio analysis. The service is available both on its trading platform and the thinkorswim platform. You can even consolidate external accounts for a good look at your assets.
Mobile Trading – TD Ameritrade offers not one, but two specialized mobile apps in tune with its two trading platforms. This can go a long way in enhancing your experience in terms of improved trading experience. Mobile trading made simple; the apps work as a perfect extension of the online platform.
The platform offers you tradability across the following securities –
Stocks
Bonds
Mutual funds
ETFs
Futures
Forex
Foreign ADRs
IPOs for qualified accounts
(Image credit: Future)
The customer support offered by TD Ameritrade is comprehensive. Being one of the promising investment organizations in the US, it has set up an extensive customer support network.
The customer service can be reached through the chat option on mobile and online platforms. The 300 branches across all states will ensure the option of in-person assistance in case your issues are not addressed by the phone, email, or chat support. Support is also available on the following channels Monday to Friday 7 am to 6 pm: text, Facebook Messenger, Twitter direct message, Apple Business Chat, and Amazon Alexa.
As stated before, TD Ameritrade provides you access to two mobile apps – the TD Ameritrade Mobile app and TD Ameritrade Trader app. These are designed for standard and thinkorswim platforms. However, note that TD Ameritrade Mobile apps are only available on iOS. The mobile apps mimic each of the desktop features and offer practical functionality on the go.
(Image credit: Future)
You can opt for a multiplicity of accounts with the platform. Each of the account types is formatted for your exact requirements
Standard accounts – You can have both individual and joint accounts with TD Ameritrade and gain access to comprehensive products
Retirement accounts – These would include IRA, Roth IRA, or Rollover IRA accounts. They can be well suited for taking care of your retirement goals
Education Accounts – Want to save for education? You can opt for state qualified 529 plans and similar
Managed Portfolios – A highly tailored investment portfolio managed by the professionals. The plans are backed by the experience of TD Ameritrade Investment Management
The above accounts apart, you can also have access to Specialty accounts and margin trading as well.
Who is TD Ameritrade suitable for?
Well, the online brokerage platform is suitable for a wide range of investors. No matter what level of experience you have, the platform offers something for you :
Beginner investors
Advanced traders
Investor education/advice
Commission-free trades
Fund investors
Final verdict
With no commission on stock, ETF, and other trades, it does offer an impressive set of tools for investors. The portfolio building guidance, courses, and high-end research are a few great features that should make it especially useful to learn the basics of investment.
AVG Antivirus is easily one of the most popular antivirus software platforms in the world that not only has an impressive collection of tools in its entirely free product (though there might be some gentle pushing to upgrade here) but stands shoulder-to-shoulder with other industry heavyweights when it comes to its paid tier.
Indeed, the free version of the software offers access to important features like virus detection, PC performance checks, a firewall and network guard, as well as expedient security updates.
That said, upgrading to a paid AVG product will get you a few very handy extras, such as protection against webcam snoopers, increased firewall capabilities, and a shield against fake e-commerce websites. Pay a tad more, and AVG will throw in its Secure VPN and TuneUp options (also available as separate purchases) for an ultimate antivirus, privacy, and performance experience.
(Image credit: AVG)
Pricing
As mentioned, in addition to its free tier, AVG has the Internet Security subscription, which unlocks some of the features unavailable in the free version, starting at $46.68 ($3.89/month) for the first year, renewing at $77.99, if you need it for just one PC, or at $59.88/year ($4.99/month), renewing at $99.99/year for up to 10 devices.
If you’re still on the fence about AVG Internet Security, you can give it a test drive during a 30-day free trial.
The Ultimate subscription, which also offers 10-device antivirus protection, includes Internet Security, AVG Secure VPN, AVG TuneUp computer performance booster, and anti-tracking protections. The pricing of AVG Ultimate starts at $79.99 for the first year ($6.67/month), after which it renews at $129.99/year.
Not happy with your purchase? No worries, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee there to help you.
(Image credit: AVG)
Antivirus
In the Basic protection settings, you can the level of sensitivity for the real-time core defense against malware (low, medium, or high), decide what the app should do with malware or potentially unwanted programs (resolve automatically or ask), disable or enable CyberCapture (on by default), which refers to sending a file to AVG’s Threat Labs for deeper analysis (automatically or with permission), or turn on scanning for tools that can be used for accessing controlling, or potentially harming computers (resolve automatically or ask).
You can also enable the Hardened Mode (off by default) to additionally lock down the security of your device, disable Anti-Rootkit Shield or Anti-Exploit Shield (both are on by default), as well as choose whether or not the platform should automatically generate a report file in a specific location on your device.
As for File Shield scans, you can choose to auto-run items when removable media is attached (not something you’ll often find in free antivirus), select which file types to scan (all or those with recommended extensions), decide if you want programs scanned when executing, files scanned when opening, or files scanned when writing.
The Web Shield options you can tinker with include HTTPS scanning, web traffic checkups for uncommon applications, QUIC/HTTP3 scanning, WebSocket protocol scanning, DNS/DoH scanning, protection against botnets, script scanning, and specific website blocking.
Meanwhile, in the Email Shield area, you can choose whether to scan inbound (POP3, IMAP4) or outbound (SMTP) emails, add a signature at the end of sent emails, or place a particular tag in the subject of a message containing a virus (for instance *** VIRUS ***, which is by default, or you can think of your own).
(Image credit: AVG)
Scans
Additionally, the Smart Scan options allow you to continue the Smart Scan automatically to the next scan if no issues are found, as well as schedule Smart Scan in terms of frequency, day of the week, and time of the day.
The Scan settings let you select desired options in terms of various supported scans (deep scan, file or folder scan, explorer scan, USB/DVD scan, performance scan, or boot-time scan).
For example, you can opt to get notifications about potentially unwanted programs, set post-scan behavior, generate report files, select file types, archives, automatic actions, part of your PC to scan, removable media and rootkit options, and more.
(Image credit: AVG)
Ransomware Protection
Then, the Ransomware Protection portion of the settings lets you pick your preferred mode (smart or strict) and specify file types and folders to secure. There aren’t any additional options for the Behavior Shield, other than turning it off or on, which can be done for all the other various shields here.
(Image credit: AVG)
Network Inspector
The Network Inspector scans new networks each time your device connects to one, lets you decide if you want to do it automatically, whether you want to rescan known networks occasionally, test network devices for weak passwords, and lists all of the networks you’ve visited so you can adjust them individually.
(Image credit: AVG)
Enhanced Firewall
Finally, the Enhanced Firewall section enables you to turn on Internet Connection Sharing mode, decide how the Firewall should treat new apps (judge them automatically, block/allow all internet connections for new apps, or ask you to allow or prevent internet connections for new apps) and new networks (assess automatically, add notifications, or adhere to your Windows Firewall settings).
(Image credit: AVG)
Webcam protection
Switch up to the AVG Internet Security package, and you’re getting a handful of useful features, one of which has to be webcam protection, preventing applications from turning on your PC’s webcam without your permission. It is on by default, but you can choose to turn it off for 10 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours, until you restart your device, or until you turn on this option again.
Additionally, you can turn off or on the option to shield your microphone at the same time, as well as select the level of protection you deem best, like allowing trusted apps access, blocking any app until you approve it, or blocking all apps and effectively disabling your camera and microphone.
(Image credit: AVG)
Sensitive Data Shield
Another cool feature exclusive to AVG’s paid Internet Security tier is the Sensitive Data Shield, which allows you to protect documents containing your banking information, passwords, IDs, social security numbers, payslips, and other sensitive data.
Click on the button to ‘Scan for sensitive documents’ and the tool will check your computer for any documents that might contain the above-mentioned information, and offer you the option to protect these, either all of them at the same time or only the selected ones.
The listed files have their basic information shown - file name, location, and type. There’s a handy little magnifying glass icon next to each file, allowing you to see the contents of the document before making your decision. Once you decide to secure any of the files on the list, they will become inaccessible to anyone but you.
Like the webcam protection option, this one can also be paused for a set period of time or until you want it back.
Fake Website Shield
AVG Internet Security also automatically turns on its Fake Website Shield to protect your personal information from being stolen by fake websites when browsing the World Wide Web. Again, this option can too be turned off for a certain period of time or until you decide to turn it back on.
This option also allows you to decide how you want it to treat trusted or untrusted networks - disable protection, enable smart routing (sending unprotected DNS traffic through AVG’s secured DNS), or direct all DNS traffic through AVG’s secured DNS servers.
Anti-hacking tools
Paid users are also getting access to anti-hacking tools that include Browser Defense which secures your browser-stored passwords and cookies containing your personal information (supports Chrome, Firefox, and Edge), and Remote Access Shield blocking unwanted remote connections to your device. Both can be turned off at your convenience.
You may select IP addresses you trust enough to connect to your device remotely, enable particular types of protection tools (RDP, Samba, brute-force, Remote Desktop exploits, malicious IP addresses), as well as block all connections except the ones from IP addresses of your choice.
(Image credit: AVG)
Other features
Other extras you may or may not want to play with include the Do Not Disturb Mode, deciding which apps can circumvent it, the Quarantine, where you can decide how much space on your disk it may use in MBs, as well as a File Shredder, which permanently deletes sensitive files once you’re done with them, and its settings let you decide if you want to show it in the Windows context menu or prioritize it at the expense of other apps, select the algorithm, and number of passes.
(Image credit: AV-Comparatives)
Performance
AVG Internet Security consistently receives the highest marks from independent antivirus testing labs, including AV-Test, which gave it a 6/6 score in terms of protection, performance, and usability, for the Q4 2024 testing period, granting it the ‘Top Product’ certification.
Meanwhile, in AV-Comparatives’ Real-World Protection Test for July-October 2024, AVG rated eighth in terms of false positives, with a score of 10 (16 files falsely identified), which is better than Norton’s 22 or Trend Micro’s 76, but worse off than Avira’s 7 or Kaspersky’s 1. That said, it scored an enviable 99.6% in protection, earning an Advanced+ award.
At the same time, AVG also scored a 99.92% online protection rate in the independent lab’s Malware Protection Test in September 2024, achieving 94.3% in offline detection rates, and 95.8% in online detection rate, with 4 false flags raised on perfectly legitimate files.
AV-Comparatives also measures the effect antivirus solutions have on users’ devices and has placed AVG in fifth place in this regard for the period of September 2024, giving it an impact score of 7.5, which is among the best in the industry. Better performers were McAfee, Kaspersky, ESET, and Avast, while it did better than Norton, Panda, Trend Micro, Avira, and some others.
(Image credit: AVG)
System impact
Smart Scan took mere seconds, Deep Scan took about 20 minutes to scan 460 GB of our test system, running faster each subsequent time. There was no noticeable impact on our test device’s performance as it did so, although it did create quite a few background processes in our Task Manager.
(Image credit: AVG)
Interface
Visit the General settings section, and you’ll uncover quite a few interesting and capable extras and customization features. For instance, you can select a desired interface language among the 26 supported options, check for app and virus updates, manage scan and shield exceptions and notifications.
The notification settings cover system tray icon, animated icon, sounds, pop-ups, incorrect date and time settings, external storage options - ask to scan, scan automatically, don’t ask; and other notification modes, like behaviors when the app detects an attack - smart mode (shows alerts and offers actions), limited mode (shows alerts but no suggested actions), and silent mode (blocks all alerts).
Furthermore, you can decide which apps you want to allow or block with the ransomware protection, sensitive data shield, webcam protection, and/or browser defense - manually or by selecting the apps from the list populated by the application itself.
A handy extra is that you can block specific devices from connecting to your computer, which means you can’t find or use those devices until you unblock them. Having said that, they can still connect to the network and other devices.
You can even protect AVG with a password in the app’s settings to prevent others from making any unwanted changes.
Other options in the General section include those related to personal privacy, allowing you to check off the ways in which you can contribute to making AVG better for you and everyone else. This includes sharing suspicious file samples with AVG, enabling app-usage data analysis in third-party tools, and sharing app-usage data with AVG so the company can offer you third-party products.
(Image credit: AVG)
Installation and support
AVG boasts an extremely lightweight installer and installation customization options that allow you to (de)select file shield, behavior shield, ransomware protection, the new password protection function (in Internet Security), web shield, email shield, remote access shield and fake website shield (both in Internet Security) enhanced firewall, browser cleanup, rescue disk, network inspector, file shredder, sensitive data shield and webcam shield (both Internet Security), cleanup and updates, as well as the Do Not Disturb Mode.
Don’t need much protection? Just click on the ‘minimal protection’ option and the installation customization will deselect everything except for the file, behavior, and web shield. The ‘recommended protection’ selects everything on offer.
AVG Secure Browser is automatically selected for installation and it’s a rather small print, so it’s easy to overlook it and you may inadvertently end up with a browser you didn’t want, and now it’s the default one for your system. It’s secure and great but it feels a bit sneaky just forcing it on you like this.
The installation itself took about 9 minutes on our testing device.
Final verdict
All things considered, AVG is a capable antivirus platform that performs great in its free tier and even better when you upgrade to the paid Internet Security version. That said, the price might be steep, and there are some false positive alerts, but high detection rates and customization options certainly make it worthwhile.
Robinhood was the first mobile-investing app to offer commission-free investment in the US. Almost every other company followed them to make the investment process easier and affordable for all.
Even though it was founded in 2013, Robinhood has been able to create a solid base of over 10 million users transacting on its platform. Its biggest USP is the fact that it allows free trading in stocks, options and ETFs via a smartphone-based platform.
It allows users to trade in over 3500 US stocks including the likes of Apple, Nike, Coca Cola, Netflix and many more. It has access to stocks listed on Nasdaq and NYSE.
Robinhood also plans to offer savings accounts to the customers along with a higher interest rate, all this again for free.
While Robinhood aims to be a mobile-first company, investors can use the web platform as well to invest in their preferred options. It offers a wide variety of investment options such as stocks, ETFs, Gold and Crypto. The best part is that trading in all these options is absolutely free, including Options trading, which normally is chargeable with other platforms. However, you cannot invest in mutual funds, bonds or even futures trading at the moment.
Among other features, Robinhood doesn’t charge you for selling your investments or even transferring the money to your bank account. It does, however, charge a fee of $75 to let you transfer your account to some other broker or platform. This fee is not uncommon and most brokers levy such a charge to demotivate you from switching.
Adding funds to your Robinhood account is simple and quick too. You can add funds the moment your account is activated. It offers instant verification with the bank to facilitate quicker transfer of funds. Up to $1000 can be added to your account instantly while any amount more than that takes a few days to process.
Since the service is targeted at digital natives, there is no limitation of minimum amount to get started with. To open a margin trading account, you need to have a minimum portfolio of $2000, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority regulation applicable on all traders.
One of the most unique parts here is that Robinhood offers yield on the amount lying in your account. This can be compared to the interest offered by the banks in savings accounts. Although the rate fluctuates based on the interest rates, it is indeed a bonus for keeping some extra funds in your account.
(Image credit: RobinHood)
As mentioned earlier, Robinhood offers Options trading without any fees or contracts or any commissions. This is generally for experienced traders and Robinhood offers filters and trade strategies to help traders.
Another program that the company offers is called Robinhood Gold. It allows you to invest in securities using borrowed money or margin. Under this program, the broker offers research and exclusive quotes on over 1700 companies and access to margin loans. This is a paid-for service and is available at a monthly fee of $5.
This fee includes the interest of the first $1000 borrowed from Robinhood. Any loan amount beyond $1000 is charged at 5% annual interest rate. To get upgraded to Robinhood Gold you need to have a deposit of minimum $2000 in your account.
Since Robinhood offers almost every thing for free, it does cut some corners which might impact users, especially the ones who are just starting. Limited research information or investor education is one such factor which might be a big trade-off for a starter. Though an experienced investor might not have to worry much about self education.
Robinhood Snack is the company blog that you can subscribe to in case you want to read some interesting editorials, which have some easy to understand daily market summaries.
Trading on Robinhood
The Robinhood mobile app is easy to use and offers everything that you need from any basic trading application. You get a watch list, charts, quotes, charts and analyst rating apart from news. Since this is a no-frills trading option, the features are fairly simple and offers you very limited information like last price and change in percentage, etc. Unlike other platforms, users are allowed to create just one watch list.
The mobile app does not support horizontal layout, thus limiting the information available to you in one glance while using it in a vertical layout. The next biggest drawback of the application is that until you put money into a particular stock, you can’t set price alerts for that stock. This is not the most ideal way to monitor stocks.
Users will find similar options on both the mobile app or the website. Since the service targets young users, the layout is minimal and easy to understand.
(Image credit: Future)
Support
Robinhood offers support via email only. Users are expected to use the self-help resources that are available via the FAQs listed on the website. Should you still need a human response to a query, then you can send an email to the support team. The lack of telephone support is almost certainly because of the service being free.
However, on that point, one way Robinhood does make money includes selling some of your data, as well as paid gold membership, rebates from market makers and trading venues, income generated from cash and other mediums like a stock loan, and Interchange fees. Many seasoned traders may have an issue with their information getting sold to companies.
Final verdict
Robinhood is able to attract the young and new investors with its zero-charge model. However, like all no-frills service come with some compromises, and Robinhood is no exception.
Netpeak Spider is an SEO tool that performs SEO audits and website analysis. During this, it highlights many critical errors, such as broken links, duplicate content, and issues with titles and meta descriptions. Plus, its comprehensive reporting capabilities make it an essential tool for SEO audits, competitor analysis, and routine website maintenance.
Netpeak has distinguished its services in two broad categories. First, the Netpeak Spider is responsible for running SEO audits and generating crawling results within minutes. Next, the Netpeak Crawler does an in-depth check on any given URL. It runs various parameters on the website by integrating different industry services, including Moz, SimilarWeb, Ahrefs, Serpstat, Google Analytics, and many more.
But is it going to help you during your SEO studies? Will it justify its cost? Does it stand tall against its competitors in the crowded SEO market? Don’t worry. We’ll answer all of these and many more queries in this detailed review of Netpeak Spider. So, let’s get started.
Netpeak Spider’s paid plans provide powerful instruments for SEO audit, crawling, scraping, sitemap validation, research, analysis, and more, making it a valuable tool for a wide range of SEO tasks and projects. It offers three main subscription plans to meet the needs and budgets of different users. These plans are available for both Windows and macOS (currently in beta).
Starter Plan
This plan starts from $7 per month (billed annually at $84) and is ideal for freelancers and marketers working with small websites. This plan allows you to crawl websites and check for over 100 technical issues, delivering comprehensive SEO audits. It supports JavaScript rendering for accurate page analysis, quick search for efficient data navigation, and data filtering & segmentation for detailed analysis. You can even save and copy data for reporting purposes, utilize a multi-window mode for multitasking, and access built-in tools for custom website scraping and data extraction.
Advanced Plan
Next up is the advanced plan which starts at $12 per month (billed annually at $144) and is ideal for SEO professionals working with larger websites. The Advanced Plan includes everything present in the starter plan. It further increases the number of crawling threads to 20, which significantly boosts your website audit speed. Plus, it supports unlimited URLs that would help you conduct extensive SEO analysis across larger websites.
Pro Bundle
The Pro bundle is $22 per month (billed annually at $264) and is ideal for SEO agencies and in-house teams. The Pro Bundle maximizes SEO analysis and crawling capabilities with up to 200 crawling threads that give you rapid audits of very large websites or multiple projects simultaneously. It also offers usage on two devices for a single user account, improving the flexibility of the package and making collaborations easier during analysis. This bundle includes all the features available in the Advanced plan, such as unlimited URL support, comprehensive SEO audit tools, custom scraping, and data extraction capabilities, making it the most comprehensive package for SEO agencies and in-house teams.
Netpeak Spider: Features
Netpeak Spider offers many valuable features for website auditing and crawling. Let’s examine them in more detail.
Integration with Google
The integration of Netpeak Spider with Google Analytics and Search Console is an impressive feature. It adds valuable user behavior metrics from Google Analytics to website audit data. This means that you not only identify technical SEO issues but also gain insights into traffic, goals, and conversions. Plus, if you run an e-commerce store, it even includes dedicated parameters that can help you audit such websites.
Similarly, its integration with Google Drive and Sheets lets you effortlessly export reports directly to Google Sheets. This is very useful if you wish to share them with your team members or clients. For this, conduct a website audit, export the report as a PDF to Google Drive, and then simply share its link. This feature simplifies the report-sharing process, eliminates unnecessary steps, and enhances collaboration, as team members can access and edit the data in real-time.
Simplified Source Code and HTTP Headers Check-Up
Netpeak makes it much easier to inspect a page's backend details. Generally, users had to open a page in a browser to examine its source code. But with Netpeak Spider's built-in feature, you can now check a link's HTTP request and response headers, redirects, and extracted text without HTML code, and that too with just a few clicks. This is especially useful for quickly identifying redirect chains or server response issues, all of which are vital for SEO.
Enhanced Internal PageRank Calculator
Another impressive feature of Netpeak is its internal PageRank calculator. It provides in-depth insights into a website's internal linking structure. You can analyze how link equity is distributed among pages, identify pages with high link value, and find those that are being overlooked. This will help you optimize your internal linking strategies.
PDF Optimization Quality Audit
The SEO audit software from Netpeak Spider is highly effective. It quickly analyzes a website's optimization quality and presents the results in a clear and easy-to-read PDF format. The software goes beyond just providing raw data; it also visualizes the data through diagrams and charts, making it easy to understand the report at a glance.
SEO Audit Reports with White Labelling
The white-label reporting feature lets you generate comprehensive SEO audit reports with a personalized touch. These reports can include your company's logo, contact details, and even customized recommendations from experts. This feature is powerful for pre-sales, as it not only demonstrates your analytical capabilities but also strengthens your brand identity. It adds a level of professionalism and customization to your service offering, making it perfect for client presentations and reports.
Personalized Website Data Scraping and Extraction
The website scraping tool in Netpeak Spider is highly adaptable, letting you extract specific data from websites. You can set up to 15 different conditions and choose from four search types, including contains, Regexp, XPath, and CSS. You can customize the scraper to gather various data, such as contact details, social media metrics, competitor prices, and content. This feature is beneficial for market analysis, competitor research, and content strategy.
Complex Site Structure Analysis
Netpeak Spider provides a comprehensive breakdown of the site's structure based on link segments, giving valuable insights into the distribution of URLs across different levels. What sets this tool apart is its ability to filter data by specific site areas, enabling targeted analysis. Plus, it’s extremely useful for identifying structural issues or opportunities within a website. Whether the site is small or a complex multi-level platform, Netpeak offers a clear overview of the architectural layout, which is crucial for strategic planning.
Working with Heavy Data and Export
Netpeak Spider excels in using RAM efficiently. With JavaScript rendering turned on, it uses 3x less RAM than other tools, and without rendering, it uses an impressive 8x less RAM. This efficiency is crucial for handling huge datasets without slowing down your system. Likewise, the process of exporting data is simple and flexible. After crawling a website, you can export the reports in various formats like CSV, XLSX, and PDF with just a few clicks. This feature provides versatility and ease for analyzing or presenting data to clients.
Furthermore, the tool's internal database manages a large number of URLs, making it ideal for SEO professionals working with extensive websites. You can even analyze links, redirects, images, and more directly within the tool, eliminating the need for external exports. This will save you time and enhance the tool's ability to handle heavy data loads effectively.
Netpeak Spider: Interface and in-use
(Image credit: Netpeak Software)
Netpeak Spider is designed to make SEO analysis efficient and customizable. Its data filters and segmentation capabilities are exceptional and let you analyze large amounts of data with accuracy. This segmentation is vital for targeted analysis and makes the tool adaptable to different SEO needs. Additionally, the real-time interactive dashboard provides a dynamic overview of crawling data, keeping you informed and engaged.
Plus, the crawling settings management feature gives you full control over the crawling process, allowing you to optimize each crawl according to specific site requirements. Lastly, the inclusion of templates for filters, parameters, and segments saves a significant amount of time and ensures consistent standards across projects. Overall, Netspeak’s interface is super user-friendly and is quite efficient in delivering its toolset in a very neat layout.
Netpeak Spider: Support
(Image credit: Netpeak Spider)
Unfortunately, you don’t get any call support or live chat support with Netpeak. All you get is a chatbot that simply googles your queries and is not very useful. However, they have ticket support where you can raise your query, and Netspeak’s team will revert with a solution. During our tests, we got a response from their team after a couple of hours. However, if you want instant support, you can contact their team via mail at customercare@netpeaksoftware.com. Moreover, they have an extensive Knowledge Base that has plenty of information about Netpeak Spider. It covers everything from basic functions to advanced features, making it an essential resource for both beginners and experienced users.
Netpeak Spider: The competition
As an SEO crawler, Netpeak Spider faces tough competition from established agencies. Screaming Frog, for example, provides many of the same features in its free plan, while its Premium plan is still more affordable than the cheapest Netpeak Spider subscription at £149 (roughly $195) per year.
Data segmentation is the main advantage of Netpeak Spider over similar applications. It’s one of the only SEO crawlers with powerful segmentation tools that narrow down reporting and gather more valuable data.
Netspeak Spider: Final verdict
The thing we love about Netpeak Spider is that it keeps updating its suite. The users can now own a lifetime license, apart from their subscription plans. Plus, now it supports both Mac (Beta) and Windows. Moreover, it also integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics and Search Console. And, even after adaptability and UI issues, features like organized data display and customization options remain a plus point. Similarly, despite being a bit pricier, its ability to provide detailed competitor analysis and compare backlink statistics in a single glance impressed us. Overall, we find Netpeak Spider a solid choice for individuals looking to enhance their SEO toolkit with advanced website auditing and crawling.
Shopify is one of the most dominant ecommerce platforms globally, powering millions of online stores. The platform has evolved significantly in 2025 with its AI design tools and a revamped pricing structure.
We rigorously test the best ecommerce platforms across many criteria. All together, our reviewers have hands-on experience with more than 80 of the best website builders.
Read my full Shopify review to see why I still rate it as the best website builder for online stores.
Shopify pricing and plans
Shopify's pricing strikes me as reasonable for what you get, though the value proposition varies significantly across tiers. I appreciate the 25% discount when paying annually, but the jump between plans feels steep. Transaction fees on third-party payment processors can also eat into margins, especially on the lower tiers.
Plan
$/mo (paid monthly)
$/mo (paid annually)
Basic
$39
$29
Grow
$105
$79
Advanced
$399
$299
Plus
$2,300+
$2,300+
Shopify plans: Explained
Best for solo entrepreneurs Starting at: $29/mo
The Basic plan gives you everything needed to launch your first store . You get 10 inventory locations, 24/7 chat support, and up to 77% shipping discounts .
However, you won't get any staff accounts, which surprised me.View Deal
Best for small teams Starting at: $79/mo
I found the Grow plan offers the sweet spot for growing businesses. You get 5 staff accounts, better transaction rates (2.7% + 30¢), and enhanced shipping discounts up to 88%.
The lower transaction fees on third-party processors (1% vs 2%) make a real difference.View Deal
Best for scaling operations Starting at $299/mo
The Advanced plan targets businesses hitting capacity limits on Grow. You get 15 staff accounts, 10x checkout capacity, and third-party calculated shipping rates.
The price jump feels justified only when you're consistently bumping against Grow's limitations.View Deal
Best for enterprise businesses Starting at $2,300+/mo
Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month on a 3-year commitment . You get 200 inventory locations, unlimited staff accounts, fully customizable checkout, and B2B capabilities.
I'd only recommend this for businesses exceeding $5 million in monthly revenue.View Deal
Getting started with Shopify: Reviewer's experience
Step 1: Onboarding
You can pick from and email, Google, Apple, or Facebook login. (Image credit: Shopify)
Creating my Shopify account took less than two minutes. I entered my email, created a password, and chose a store name. This launched a Setup guide that guided me through initial configurations.
It asked about my business goals upfront, which helped tailor subsequent recommendations.
Step 2: Store dashboard
Shopify's dashboard utilizes plenty of white space, making it simple to navigate. (Image credit: Shopify)
Everything felt logically organized with clear navigation paths in the dashboard. The left sidebar grouped related functions together, with options like Products, Orders, Customers, and Analytics.
I never felt lost during my testing, which speaks volumes about the interface design.
Step 3: Adding products
Uploading products is a breeze. For bulk uploading you can use a CSV file, saving you a bunch of time. (Image credit: Shopify)
Setting up my first product took about five minutes.
The product creation form included all necessary fields with tooltips explaining each option. I could add multiple images, set inventory levels, and configure variants among other things.
Step 4: Themes, design, and customization
Shopify comes with plenty of free themes, but serious stores may want to opt for a paid theme to get that premium look. These cost in the region of $140 to $500. (Image credit: Shopify)
Choosing and customizing a theme was straightforward because I wasn't looking to build anything fancy. Shopify's Theme Store offers both free and premium options.
I selected the free Horizon theme and launched into the theme editor. It let me rearrange sections, change colors, and upload my logo without touching code.
Step 5: AI content generator
Shopify's AI helper 'Sidekick' can help you create new pages and content with just a short prompt. (Image credit: Shopify)
Then, I tested the AI layout builder by describing a product page I wanted. Within seconds, Shopify generated a complete layout that I could customize further. The AI content generator helped me draft product descriptions quickly, though the output needed refining.
Shopify's business tools
Shopify offers the following business tools:
Point of Sale (POS) system
Inventory management and tracking
Order processing and fulfillment
Payment processing via Shopify Payments
Multi-location warehouse management
Tax and duty calculator
Shopify's business toolkit is vast yet practical. I found most essentials built right in, but for everything that isn't, you have third-party apps.
Read more about Shopify's business tools ▼
Point Of Sale (POS) system
Shopify makes it easy to integrate online and in person sales with its POS system. (Image credit: Shopify)
Setting up Shopify POS on an iPad takes about 10 minutes.
According to Shopify, POS sales grew 31% year-over-year globally over the most recent Black Friday, leading to the platform launching a host of new POS features in early 2025.
The interface syncs up with your online inventory, centralizing all data. However, the POS Lite plan feels limited. You don't get detailed reports or staff permissions. POS Pro costs $89/month per location.
Inventory management
Inventory management is crucial to online store success, especially for those with multiple locations or a large volume of products. Shopify's built in inventory management tool can help with this. (Image credit: Shopify)
The inventory system tracks stock across multiple locations in real-time. I could monitor 10 locations on the Basic plan, which seems generous. The interface shows stock levels clearly with color-coded alerts.
If I sold a product through POS, my online storefront would update instantly. However, advanced forecasting requires either the Stocky app or third-party solutions.
Order processing and fulfilment
Order processing is straight forward on Shopify, reducing potential stress and saving time on fulfilment. (Image credit: Shopify)
Processing felt snappy throughout my testing. Shopify’s dashboard displays orders chronologically with clear status indicators. I could fulfill orders, print shipping labels, and send tracking info without leaving the platform.
Shopify's pre-negotiated carrier rates claim it saves up to 77% on shipping. Label printing works smoothly with both desktop and mobile. But carrier-calculated rates at checkout cost extra on Basic.
Shopify Payments
Alongside its own dedicated Shopify Payments option, you can pick from over 100 payment providers, helping you offer customers easier ways to pay. (Image credit: Shopify)
Setting up Shopify Payments took less than five minutes. It supports credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay.
I'd recommend sticking with Shopify Payments unless you have specific needs. Transaction fees are competitive: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic. But using third-party processors adds 2% extra, which quickly eats profits.
Multi-location warehouse management
Businesses with multiple locations can benefit from this dedicated tool, helping better manage stock and reduce friction. (Image credit: Shopify)
I set up three test warehouses and assigned inventory to each.
Shopify automatically routes orders to optimal locations based on proximity. Stock transfers between locations happen through a simple interface. However, automated transfer recommendations require third-party apps.
Tax and duty calculator
For online stores managing tax is dull, time consuming, but essential. This tools can take a lot of the leg work, minimizing the time you spend on calculating tax. (Image credit: Shopify)
Shopify's tax calculator now works across all plans, which is new for 2025. I tested international orders and found the duty calculations accurate. The system displays full costs at checkout, preventing surprise fees for customers.
One caveat: Shopify charges a 0.5% transaction fee when duties are calculated. You'll also need duty-prepaid labels from third parties to avoid double-charging customers.
Shopify's marketing tools
Shopify offers the following marketing tools:
Email marketing via Shopify Email
Abandoned cart recovery
SEO optimization tools
Social media integration
Discount and coupon creation
Marketing automation with Shopify Flow
Analytics and reporting
Shopify's marketing features cover the basics well. I appreciated the email, workflow automation, and SEO tools. But advanced automation requires add-ons, which was a bit disappointing.
Read more about Shopify's marketing tools ▼
Shopify Email
Built in email marketing can help you re-engage potential customers, bringing them back to your site and driving sales. (Image credit: Shopify)
Shopify Email integrates into your admin panel. I created my first campaign in 15 minutes using pre-built templates. The editor lets you drag product images straight from your catalog.
You get 10,000 free emails monthly, which helps small businesses. Beyond that, it's $1 per 1,000 emails sent. The segmentation options felt basic compared to Klaviyo, but adequate for simple campaigns.
Abandoned cart recovery
Abandoned carts offer a prime opportunity to close a sale. (Image credit: Shopify)
Abandoned cart emails work automatically once enabled.
I set mine to send 10 hours after checkout abandonment. The system includes the cart contents and a direct checkout link. Setup took less than five minutes. I also liked how Shopify checks for email consent before sending to avoid compliance issues.
SEO tools
Optimizing your site and product pages for search engines is essential in helping customers find you, but can also take up a lot of time. Shopify's built in SEO tools can help speed this process up. (Image credit: Shopify)
The built-in SEO features cover fundamentals well. I could edit meta titles, descriptions, and URLs for each product. It also generates a sitemap automatically and submits it to Google.
However, I noticed some limitations during testing. URL structures aren't fully customizable, which bothered me. Duplicate content issues can occur with product variants. Blog functionality also feels basic. Advanced SEO work requires apps like Booster SEO or TinyIMG.
Social media integration
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram help you sell your products in spaces where your customers are already active. Shopify lets you easily sell via these on one central platform. (Image credit: Shopify)
Connecting Facebook and Instagram took about three minutes. I synced my product catalog and created shoppable posts directly from Shopify.
Orders from social platforms flow into the same dashboard as web orders. The integration supports TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube Shopping too. But what I missed was native social media scheduling.
Discount and coupon creation
Discounts and coupons can drastically increase sales. However, monitoring and managing them can be tricky. This is where Shopify's dedicated discount tool comes in handy. (Image credit: Shopify)
Creating discounts felt straightforward throughout my testing. I set up percentage discounts, fixed amounts, free shipping, and buy-one-get-one offers. The interface also lets you set start/end dates and usage limits.
You can also create unique codes for specific customers or campaigns. But advanced features like tiered discounts require apps. The native system handles basics well but won't satisfy complex promotional strategies.
Shopify Flow
Shopify Flow takes some time to set up and master, but can automate many repetitive tasks, saving considerable resources in the long run. (Image credit: Shopify)
Shopify Flow was a pleasant surprise for a native automation tool.
I created workflows that trigger based on inventory levels, customer tags, and order values. I set up a workflow that notified me via Slack when inventory dropped below 20 units. It then automatically drafted a purchase order and offered to email my supplier. However, mastering it requires time.
Analytics and reporting
Shopify's analytics give excellent insight into what is and isn't working. Use the data here to shape your strategy for products, marketing, and website improvements. (Image credit: Shopify)
The analytics dashboard provides a clear sales overview.
I could track revenue, traffic sources, and customer behavior at a glance. The real-time data updates helped me make quick decisions during testing. Basic reporting felt adequate, but advanced reports like customer cohorts and forecasting lock behind higher tiers.
Reviewer's experience: Shopify support
Shopify support is comprehensive, but can be a little slow. Our testing found support agent's to be knowledgeable enough to answer basic questions, although help for more advanced issues needed to be escalated. (Image credit: Shopify)
Shopify offers 24/7 support via live chat across all plans. Phone support is reserved for Shopify Plus customers. Email responses typically take 2-4 days.
I tested the live chat during my review. The initial wait time was about 14 minutes, despite a 5-minute estimate. Once connected, the agent was polite and helpful, though responses felt somewhat scripted. They resolved my basic question about inventory management but couldn't address a more technical theme-related issue without escalation.
That said, user opinion on support is decidedly mixed.
On Capterra, Shopify scores 4.5/5 from over 6,500 reviews, with many praising ease of use. G2 shows a similar 4.4/5 rating from nearly 4,500 business users. However, Trustpilot tells a different story with a 1.3/5 rating from over 4,000 reviews.
Common complaints include billing disputes, payment holds, and difficulty reaching knowledgeable support staff. Reddit users frequently mention that support quality has declined, with offshore teams providing inconsistent answers and reluctance to escalate issues.
Test results: Shopify
Attribute
Notes
Rating
Value for money
Solid pricing for what you get, but app costs add up quickly. Third-party payment fees hurt margins. Similar entry-level price to other website builder ecommerce plans.
★★★★☆
Ease of use
Intuitive dashboard and setup process. Minimal learning curve for beginners.
★★★★★
Design
Professional themes with decent customization. Limited free options require premium purchases.
★★★★☆
Business tools
Comprehensive POS, inventory, and payment systems. Advanced features need higher plans.
★★★★☆
Marketing tools
Covers basics well but lacks depth. Advanced automation requires third-party solutions.
★★★☆☆
Support
24/7 chat available, but wait times vary. Quality inconsistent based on user feedback.
★★★☆☆
Competitor comparison: Shopify
Below we show you how Shopify compares to BigCommerce and Wix, two of its closest competitors:
Platform
Best for
Our overall rating
Free plan
Paid plans start at
Ease of use
Support
Shopify
Growing online stores
★★★★☆
Trial only
$29.00 USD/month
★★★★☆
Live chat, email, community
BigCommerce
Large product catalogs
★★★★☆
Trial only
$29.00 USD/month
★★★★☆
Live chat, phone, email
Wix
Beginners and hobbyists
★★★★½
Yes
$17.00 USD/month
★★★★★
Live chat, phone, tickets
You can read our Shopify vs BigCommerce comparison to learn more about how the two stack up. To see how it compares to Wix you can check out our Wix vs Shopify guide.
I built multiple test stores on Shopify to evaluate every aspect of the platform. My hands-on testing covered setup speed, design flexibility, business tools, marketing capabilities, and support quality. I assessed how well Shopify performs for different user types, from solo entrepreneurs to scaling businesses.
At TechRadar, we conduct thorough, real-world testing of every website builder we review. We build actual websites, test features extensively, and compare our findings against marketing claims.
Yes, Shopify is accessible for beginners, though simpler platforms exist.
You get an intuitive dashboard, guided setup wizard, and drag-and-drop design tools. You don't need coding knowledge to launch a professional store. AI-powered features help generate layouts and content quickly.
However, costs can escalate as you add apps and upgrade plans.
How much does Shopify really cost?
Shopify starts at $29/month when paid annually. However, total costs vary significantly based on your needs.
You'll face transaction fees (2.7% + 30¢ on Basic), app subscriptions, and potentially theme purchases. Third-party payment processors add extra 2% fees. Budget $50-150/month realistically for a functional store with essential apps.
Can I sell on Shopify without inventory?
Yes, Shopify supports dropshipping and print-on-demand business models.
You can connect with suppliers through apps like DSers, Printful, or Spocket. Digital product sales work seamlessly too.
The platform handles order routing to suppliers automatically. This eliminates upfront inventory costs and storage concerns.
Does Shopify take a percentage of sales?
Yes, if you use third-party payment processors, Shopify charges 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, and 0.6% on Advanced.
Using Shopify Payments eliminates these fees. Standard credit card rates apply: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow, and 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced. The duty calculator adds 0.5% when calculating international taxes.
What are Shopify's biggest limitations?
Shopify's main limitations include limited free themes, restrictive URL structures, and plan-locked features. Basic plans restrict staff accounts severely. Advanced customization requires liquid coding knowledge.
Transaction fees on third-party processors hurt margins. App costs accumulate quickly, inflating monthly expenses beyond base subscription rates.
Its robust ecommerce platform offers a wide range of features and customization options, making it suitable for building and managing online stores for clients. Additionally, Shopify's partner program provides agencies with resources and tools to streamline client management and boost their businesses.
E*TRADE is a New York-based financial corporation which was founded in 1982 and is one of the first firms to set up online trading.
E*TRADE offers multiple platforms for quick and easy trading. It lets you trade in a wide variety of financial assets including common stocks, preferred stocks, futures contracts, exchange-traded funds, options, mutual funds, and fixed-income investments. There are Android and iOS apps as well as a fully featured website, too.
Morgan Stanley has announced that it is acquiring E*TRADE for an amount of $13 billion by the end of the year 2020. While the deal is subject to regulatory approvals, E*TRADE will continue to serve new and existing users in the interim.
E*TRADE gives several choices after logging into their website. It offers you a variety of options, such as to launch Power E*TRADE or download the E*TRADE Pro app, among other things.
The main website is aimed at users who are just getting started, whereas E*TRADE Pro is designed for experienced traders. The website offers real-time streaming data, as well as chart and track your investments.
E*TRADE also offers a library of helpful educational resources for investors of all levels to reference. There are also advanced tools to manage risk expectations.
Also, E*TRADE doesn't charge any commission for all company stock, ETFs and other options trades performed through the platform.
Users based in the U.S. open an account with E*TRADE directly via the website. However, users from Australia, China or Western Europe must open the account via a paper-based application form.
(Image credit: Future)
Trading platforms
E*TRADE offers three different trading platforms on the web. Namely:
E*TRADE Web: Runs live market commentary. Offers free real time quotes and market trends, Analyst predictions, etc which allows users to create watch lists and track their preferred trades;
Power E*TRADE: Fully functional desktop platform which comes with special tools like Strategy Scanner and more;
E*TRADE Pro: This is for the active users users and offers them with tools to help improve their trading experiences. These tools include real-time data, technical studies, trade tickets, drawing tools, customizable options chain views, trading ladders and more.
(Image credit: E*TRADE)
The users who maintain an account balance of $250,000 or more or place at least 30 stock/options trades each quarter, are eligible to get upgraded to E*TRADE Pro. The PRO version rewards active users with timely bonuses as well.
E*TRADE does not have a minimum amount to open an account. However, once opened, you need to fund your account within 30 days.
Platforms
E*TRADE has a great and robust trading platform for active trading. It offers a full-featured web-based trading dashboard, as well as iOS and Android mobile applications, in case you prefer trading on the go.
The website may be slightly tricky at times when it comes to searching basic information, and FAQ's are not always so easy to find.
(Image credit: E*TRADE)
The mobile app offers a simple yet a clean layout. It lets you quickly, manage the account, get stock quotes, place trades, view charts and trade while you're on the move. There are multiple apps .i.e. E*TRADE Mobile and Power E*TRADE, each offering a customized trading experience based on your account type
Charges
E*TRADE offers you a zero commission model for line stock, options and ETF trades. It does charge for Options, where the user is billed at $.065 per contract. There is a discount for volume traders, and this fee can come down to $0.50 per contract.
It also doesn't charge a management fee or an annual charge. Unlike other platforms, it doesn't even penalize users for inactivity. However, they do bill you $25 for a partial transfer and $75 in the case of an account transfer.
(Image credit: E*TRADE)
Support
The company has 30 support branches where staff can help users with their queries. Apart from these brick and mortar offices, it offers multiple point of contacts for customers which include 24/7 phone, email and live chat support.
Final verdict
E*TRADE is an industry-leading trading service brand in its mobile and options trading offerings. Power E*TRADE is rich in features for almost all kinds of traders, and the mobile apps are easy to use. The lack of a minimum opening balance is welcome, as is the 24/7 support.
