The Prystine blog.
Honest, jargon-free thoughts on WordPress, hosting, performance and running a small business online — written by the team who actually do the work.
WPForms vs Ninja Forms: which WordPress form plugin should you use?
Two of the most popular WordPress form plugins, aimed at different people. The honest answer to which one you should…
Josh Cox 16 July 2026 4 min read 
If AI can build a website, why pay a professional?
AI will build you a website in four minutes. So why hire someone like me? The honest answer, from a developer who uses…
LiteSpeed Cache vs WP Fastest Cache: which free caching plugin should you use?
Two of the most popular free WordPress caching plugins, built for different worlds. The honest answer to which one you…
Why I'd rather meet you for a coffee than email a proposal
I've never sent a forty-page proposal in my life, and I'm not about to start. Here's why a coffee genuinely gets you a…
How much does a website actually cost? An honest 2026 answer
Most web designers answer 'it depends' and leave it there. Here's a real number instead: what a website costs, what dri…
Case study: reviving Lifting Times, a legacy weightlifting magazine
A five-year archive locked inside a page builder, a dated site that had gone quiet, and nowhere to grow. Here's how we…
Is content marketing dead in the age of AI?
Nine dollars in eighteen months. That's my affiliate income, and I never really pushed it. So is content marketing dead…
OPcache: the WordPress speed setting nobody talks about
A client's WooCommerce site was taking five seconds to respond, despite a CDN and every image lazy-loaded. The culprit…
Is it safe to use outdated WordPress plugins?
Short answer: it depends on why it's outdated. Here's how to tell the difference between a stable plugin and a risky on…
From next month, you'll see exactly what your website is doing for you
You've trusted us with your website. From July, you'll actually be able to see what it's up to: a short monthly report…
The tech stack behind every website I build
“What do you actually use?” is the question I get most. Here’s the honest, complete answer: the real toolkit behind eve…
The cookie banner that didn't try to fleece me
Most free cookie banners lock the one feature you actually need behind a subscription, and it is almost always Google C…
I Rebuilt My Own Website On Astro (And It's Properly Fast Now)
The cobbler's kids finally got some shoes. I rebuilt prystine.co.uk from the ground up on Astro: static site generation…
Plugin security vs plugin maintenance: what's the real difference?
Site owners often conflate plugin security with plugin maintenance — but they're asking different questions. Here's why…
I’m Rubbish at Account Management, So I Built a Tool to Do It for Me
This is a bit of a follow on rant from my previous blog post, but it’s top of mind at the minute and very relevant as a…
Your hosting now tells you how your site’s actually doing
For years, “hosting” has meant one thing: your site is up, and you’re paying for the privilege. That’s it. Once a year…
How to read WordPress plugin reviews and spot misleading ratings
A high star average on a WordPress plugin means less than you think. Here's how to read reviews properly and spot the p…
It took me 7 years to admit WordPress isn’t the answer to everything
For the best part of seven years, WordPress was my hammer and every project was a nail. New client? WordPress. Brochure…
Two Things I Added to My Own Product That I Wish More Forms Did
My day job is running Prystine Web Solutions, a WordPress web agency, and on the side I build a web tools. One such too…
How many active installs make a WordPress plugin safe enough?
Active installs signal how battle-tested a plugin is — but the number is widely misread. Here's what the thresholds act…
I got fed up of writing client reports. So I built SendTidings.
Most agencies are quietly rubbish at client reporting. I should know. For years I was one of them. Sites would be ticki…
Why I Didn’t Use WordPress for My Own Site
I build WordPress sites for a living. It’s what Prystine does. It’s what I’ve spent most of the last decade doing. So w…
New Tool: Plugin Risk Score
WordPress plugins are brilliant until they aren’t. One dodgy install and suddenly you’re explaining to a client why the…
Free vs premium WordPress plugins: does it change the risk?
Does paying for a WordPress plugin make it safer? Here's the honest breakdown of what actually changes when you pay — a…
WordPress Is Brilliant. It’s Just Not Always the Answer.
WordPress is brilliant. But, and this is a big but, it’s not always the right tool for the job. And as someone who’s sp…
Quotify: 9 months after the relaunch, here’s where things stand
It’s been a tough several months for Quotify. Granted, marketing is not my strong suit, but here’s a roundup of where Q…
What "tested up to" really means for WordPress plugin compatibility
The "tested up to" badge on every WordPress plugin page is widely misread. Here's what it actually tells you — and what…
Abandoned WordPress plugins: how to spot and replace them
Abandoned plugins are the leading cause of WordPress security trouble. Here's how to identify the dead weight on your s…
Sometimes, All You Need is a Landing Page (and a Little Marketing)
Imagine The Hollies playing in the background while you read that title. Or don’t, the song’s been stuck in my head for…
How to safely replace a WordPress plugin without breaking your site
Swapping WordPress plugins on a live site without preparation leads to breakage. Here's the step-by-step sequence to re…
How to check if a WordPress plugin is safe (2026)
A practical, no-jargon guide to vetting any WordPress plugin before you install it — the five signals that actually pre…
How to tell if a WordPress plugin developer actually responds to support
Support responsiveness predicts your experience when things go wrong. Here's exactly where to look and what the signals…
How often should you audit the plugins on your WordPress site?
A quarterly audit catches most plugin risk before it becomes a problem. Here's how often to check, what to look for, an…
What’s one one more plugin…
Plugins are a wonderful part of the WordPress ecosystem. They enhance the functionality of WordPress by letting you add…
How to Optimise Your WordPress Site for Speed, Stability & Scalability
Slow or unstable WordPress sites aren’t just frustrating, they cost you customers, SEO rankings, and revenue. The good…
Reflecting on Quotify’s first month: from idea to execution
Quotify has been live for just over a month now, and I wanted to take a step back from the marketing pushes and develop…
Function Over Features: Why a Stable Website Always Wins
When it comes to building a website or app, it’s tempting to chase the latest features, flashy animations, and trendy a…
X’s sign up process – a poor example of UX (User eXperience)
A couple of days ago I tried to create an account on X (formerly Twitter), and I must have aged a decade. Apparently, s…
Quotify has landed
Today we’ve launched our upgraded and rebranded Quotify. It takes the same concepts as we had with the beta product bac…
Revamping Quotify: the next generation of quote estimation
For a long time we’ve battled for more transparency in pricing and costing. Always advocating our clients to share pric…
Why Your Business Needs a Custom Dashboard for Better Management
In today’s fast-paced business world, keeping track of data is more important than ever. However, let’s be honest—diggi…
The Role of Web Development in the Rise of AI-Driven Websites
As technology evolves, the web development world is witnessing a transformative shift with the rise of AI-driven websit…
Sustainable Web Development: Why It Matters More Than Ever
As web developers, we’re often focused on creating innovative, user-friendly, and visually stunning websites. But in to…
What Is Web Accessibility and Why Does It Matter?
As a web developer, I frequently encounter the question: “What is web accessibility, and why is it important?”. Web acc…
Custom Web Development vs. Website Builders: Which is Right for You?
When creating a website, one of the most important decisions is choosing between a website builder, WordPress, or a cus…
E-Commerce Website Development: WooCommerce vs. Shopify
As a website developer with years of experience in e-commerce development, one of the most frequent questions I encount…
Security Best Practices: Keeping Your Website and User Data Safe
As a web development company, we understand the importance of creating a beautiful and functional website. But just as…
The Future of Web Development: A Playground of Innovation
The web development landscape is a constantly evolving playground, brimming with exciting new technologies. As a leadin…
Catching fish: a guide to improving search ranking visibility through content marketing
Often we get asked about SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. While it’s not an area of huge expertise and we can’t guar…
Mobile First: Why Your Website Needs To Be Responsive In Today’s Digital World
The way we access the internet has undergone a dramatic shift. Gone are the days of bulky desktops dominating the digit…
The Wayback Machine: A Digital Lifeline
Recently, we had a potential customer reach out to us, excited about our web development services. But their story quic…
The power of an MVP
When we talk to our clients, we often suggest creating an MVP and grow the product as the business grows. But what is a…
Pricing: To Share Or Not To Share
In the dynamic world of business, one aspect often remains shrouded in mystery: pricing. While some companies prefer to…
The future of e-commerce: Latest trends and innovations in online shopping experiences
Is your business facing the constant struggle to keep pace with ever-changing trends and consumer expectations? The eve…
Core Website Vitals And Why They Are So Important
Is your website ranking lower than you would like on search results? Are the pages slow to load? Are you looking to try…
Build Your Human Firewall
Did you know 95% of cyber security breaches are from human error? 66% of UK businesses have experienced a successful ph…
The Green Widget
Let’s talk about ‘The Green Widget’. The latest plugin, framework, library, or CMS that people are talking about. It’s…
Peace of mind with our Managed WordPress Hosting
Does your website suffer from intermittent downtime? Are you afraid to hit the update button on plugins? Do you find yo…
It’s an investment, not a cost
When we talk to perspective clients, one of the first questions that comes up is “how much does a website cost?”. While…
Supercharge your WooCommerce Website
Recently we migrated a client’s WooCommerce website to our Managed eCommerce hosting platform. It’s safe to say the res…
Our shiny new client dashboard
Always innovating and improving our service, we’ve been developing a custom dashboard for our clients these last few we…
Is your site running on the latest stable version of PHP?
According to W3 Tech, around 29.9% of websites are still running on PHP v5.6 and lower. That’s a scary thought consider…
We’re now a climate friendly workforce
Following on from our pledge to support tree planting projects when new customers come onboard, we’ve taken our climate…
Mo plugins, mo problems
Taking inspiration from Puff Daddy’s “Mo Money, Mo Problems”, today we’re talking about the over-use of plugins on Word…
Our partnership with Termageddon
For a long time, we’ve shied away from providing privacy policies, terms of use and other legal policies that a website…
We’ve signed up to Ecologi!
As well as our recent news about our green hosting, we wanted to take our environmental efforts further. There’s only o…
The VAT person is calling
Dear customer (or future customer), This is an advance notice to make you aware that Prystine Web Solutions Ltd will b…
We’re now Cyber Essentials certified
Great news, as of the 24th August 2022, Prystine Web Solutions Ltd is Cyber Essentials Certified! It’s been an interest…
I feel the need, the need for speed
We’ve been working with Ox Vape for along time. Recently, we’ve been going through some optimisation work on their webs…
High demanding websites need high performance hosting
Our standard hosting is great. It’s fast, reliable and comes with a lot of bells and whistles. However, there’s always…
The WordPress mobile app review
I downloaded the WordPress app for my iOS device a few weeks ago as a fun thing to try out. I haven’t paid it too much…
Don’t get hooked! Our new Phishing Security platform
Gone are the days when the types of scam emails you’d receive were about some prince that has left you $50,000,000 and…
Why we love WordPress
We’ve been building with WordPress since 2016. All our client’s websites are built on WordPress. From a developer’s poi…
Are sliders dead? Mostly, yes!
“Sliders are cool, they’re modern, trendy and give a dynamic edge to your website” – says a lot of designers, including…
Our hosting is powered by 100% renewable energy
It’s official, our 20i hosting platform is now powered exclusively by renewable energy. Our data centre has partnered w…
You can now register Domains directly with us!
We’ve made some big strides since our blog post in 2020 where we introduced our humble “domain availability checker” to…
You have your car serviced, but is your website maintained?
Short blog post today. We just wanted to highlight why website maintenance is a lot like servicing a car. We talk about…
2FA – 2 Factor Authentication and Why It Matters
You may or may not have heard of 2 Factor Authentication (2FA). If you have, then you can find out a bit more about wha…
The ideal password
In this blog article, we’re going to be looking at the ideal password conditions, as well as other authentication metho…
Advanced website reporting for our clients
We’ve just added a new tool to our arsenal… A tailored monthly website care report. There are four parts to the report:…
Introducing our new webapp – Quotify
Over the past few months we’ve been building a neat little tool that will help streamline and automate your customer qu…
The elephant in the room – sharing your pricing on your website
Today we’re asking the question and discussing should you put your prices (or at least estimates) on your website? It’s…
The honeycomb model
In this blog article, we wanted to take a look at some proven methods that help support your social media strategy. The…
If you build it, they will come…
The classic saying from Field of Dreams! You’ve built a website. Check. But no calls, no emails, no enquiries. What’s u…
Have you been pwned?
Today, we’ll be sharing a nifty tool that recently came to our attention. It identifies if your email address or teleph…
Our experience with Microsoft Clarity
Everyone’s heard of Google Search Console and Google Analytics, but not so much Bing Webmaster and even less so their n…
Prystine webinars
From this month we will be running regular webinars for anyone who wants to join, these are intended for beginners look…
Integrating a client’s website with a POS system
Introduction We consulted with OX Vape on how to streamline their stock management, we wanted to find a way to give the…
Started a business during lockdown?
Have you started a business during lockdown? Or set up a side hustle? In this blog post we discuss 4 top tips that you…
Why we do face to face meetings
We pride ourselves on being very dedicated to our clients; we always want to ensure we deliver the highest quality serv…
The importance of Digital Marketing in the current environment
One thing we have all learnt from 2020 is that our work/industry environment is currently undergoing pressures we have…
How do you know which web designer to trust?
Trust is a very important factor in all businesses. It’s one of the main reasons we choose to do business with the peop…
Introducing our new online tool: a domain name checker
We’ve been working hard over the past couple of weeks building a new tool for our website. So, without further ado, we’…
Our knowledge base
Over the past few weeks we’ve transformed our standard, old ‘FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)’ to a ‘knowledge base‘.…
Local Business? Make Sure You Say It!
In this article we’re discussing something quite drastic that’s often overlooked when building a website. If you are lo…
Stay safe from pharming and phishing emails
Cybercrime is ever increasing. In this article we’re looking at phishing and pharming, which are email techniques emplo…
How social media helps your website
We all know the positive impact, when done correctly, that social media can have on your business… brand awareness, cos…
5 Insane Stats About Websites & Web Design You Need To Know
Web design can make or break a business. A good website attracts and helps customers while putting out the right compan…
How To Increase Traffic Without Spending Money
Traffic is the life blood of any website, for without it, what’s the point in having a website? Here are our top three…
The Difference Between Mobile Friendly & Mobile Responsive Design
The meaning of ‘mobile friendly design’ and ‘mobile responsive design’ are often thrown together like they are the same…
Why You Should Regularly Backup Your Site
Backing up your website regularly means that in the event of a site-wide disaster, you can easily get your site up and…
3 Reasons You Should Invest In A New Website Design
Before we launch into why you should invest in a new website. First, how often should you redesign your website? For ma…
4 Steps to a Successful Website Launch
It can be a stressful time going through a rebrand or launch. So, to help manage the stress, here are our top 4 steps t…
3 Top Tips For Providing Your Designer With Helpful Feedback
Going through a website design or redesign can be a long process. Here are our top three tips to make sure you’re clear…
How Do You Know When To Redesign?
We’ve been asked a couple of times recently "when is the best time to re-design your website?" and, the answer is not q…
How To Run A Good Blog
This is our compacted guide to running a good blog. Good that is, that generates traffic and leads. So, here are our to…
How & Why You Pay More For Bad Design
You may have guessed that we won’t be talking about the actual cost of the web development in this article. When thinki…
The Importance of Proper Site Maintenance
Not perhaps the most glamorous part of the job but certainly ranks high in terms of importance. What is web maintenance…
The Importance of Mobile Responsive Websites
Mobile Responsive websites are websites that collapse to fit beautifully on a mobile phone or tablet. With mobile phone…
Improve Your Search Ranking Without Coding
Our Three Top Tips For SEO If you are looking to bump up your website’s Google Rankings, here are a few easy, and we me…
The key elements of a website
In this article we’ll look at a few vital parts that often get overlooked when designing a website. 1) Mobile Responsiv…
Top 3 Tips To Improve Your Website Load Speed
Nobody likes a slow website. Nearly half of all web users expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less. 4 out 10 of p…
Web Design That Doesn’t Cost The Earth… IT SAVES IT!
Yes, you read correctly, not only will we design an amazing website for your business but we can host it on our carbon…
Website Down – Here’s What To Do
Here’s what to in the event that your website goes down. Step 1 How long has it been down? If it’s only a matter of sec…
Business Starter Kit
Have you recently set up in business? Or, been going a while now and realise you need to update/upgrade from your free…
What Is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. SEO is used to increase your website’s search engine ranking i.e. for your w…
What You Can Do To Help Protect Your Website
In no particular order, here are our top 6 tips to keep your website safe and secure. 1) Get an SSL We wrote about the…
Why Choose A Local Web Designer
With thousands of agencies around the country, and indeed the world, what are the benefits of choosing to work with a l…
Why Use A Landing Page?
A landing page is used to increase the conversion rate of promotions/ads that have a specific objective. This is done b…
Why We Build With WordPress
The majority of the websites we design, build, host & maintain are done so in WordPress. Why WordPress? WordPress is a…
Is Your Website Keeping Pace With Your Business
Technology changes rapidly, websites built 3 years ago, or even two years ago can be considered out of date. But, not o…
Is Blogging Good For Your Website?
Yes and No. If blogging is done correctly (more on that later), it can generate a nice source of traffic to your websit…
5 Awesome Facts About The Web
(1) A commmon misconception The Internet and the Web are commonly mistaken for the same thing. The words seem interchan…
What To Consider When You’re Getting A New Website
Will the time soon come that you’ll be getting your website re-designed? Or perhaps you’ve just started out and this is…
Why Your Website Is An Investment & Not A Cost
When we speak to potential clients, naturally, a key question is "how much does it cost?" While that is a very valid qu…
What To Avoid When Designing A Website
Over the years we’ve been designing websites, we’d like to think we’ve learnt a thing a two. Here are our top 5 element…
Are You Getting Too Much Spam?
A hot topic on the web and no, it’s not the meat. Spam emails are annoying and can be dangerous. They fill up your mail…
Our Monthly Solution Explained: Combining Web Design, Hosting & Maintenance
Recently we launched an ‘All-In-One’ Complete Web Solution that combines our web design, hosting & site maintenance int…
Everyone ‘Googles It’ – What You Can Do To Get On Page 1
Apart from taking out Google Ads to reach page 1, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming to get there organically. He…
Our Eco Efforts So Far (2019)
Like a lot of companies around the globe, we’re committed to saving the environment. Here’s two key methods we’re doing…
An SSL – All You Need To Know
We implemented an important change to ALL our hosted websites a good few months ago. That being, adding a FREE SSL to a…
Why You Need A Website
Everyone needs a website, right? It’s 2018, of course. But why? Here are a few reasons why your business needs a websit…
Oxford Half Marathon
Josh will be running in the Oxford Half Marathon on the 7th October on behalf of Play2Give (P2G). Why Play2Give They ar…