Online calculators are particularly interesting for me, as founders and self-employed people always have questions and are interested in specific figures.
I have therefore done a little research and now present a few options for creating such online calculators for your own website.
Why install an online computer at all?
First of all, that's a good question. Articles, pictures, videos and the like are enough to be successful online.
In itself, yes, but there are still good reasons to integrate online calculators on your own website. For one, it's because interacting with your website visitors is a very good thing. Anyone who uses an online computer has a longer dwell time and this increases, among other things, the loyalty of readers to their own website.
In addition, online computers can complement the text very well and, depending on which type of computer you use, it is also unique content.
I myself have had the idea of implementing various own online computers for a long time, but so far it has failed both because of the time and the type of implementation. Programming something like this yourself is not so trivial, especially since maintenance takes time.
So I checked out the options.
5 ways to integrate online calculators on your own website
The following 5 options are basically available to website operators to integrate one (or more) online calculators .
These options differ in various aspects, such as necessary know-how, flexibility and costs.
Program yourself
The already mentioned possibility of programming such a computer yourself is of course only useful for those who can program.
With PHP and JavaScript you can of course implement online computers completely freely and exactly according to your own ideas. I used to create an online calculator for my web design website. It wasn't particularly complicated, but the visitors were able to enter some basic information and an estimate was given.
Of course, the complete flexibility stands in the way of the know-how that you have to have. Alternatively, you can give the programming to a web developer, but that costs money.
And the maintenance of the computer (updates etc.) should not be underestimated either.
WordPress plugin
In the English-speaking area there are some ready-made online computers as WordPress plugins. However, due to the US issue, these are often not relevant for German website operators.
The free EZ Form Calculator plug-in for WordPress is a great way to create your own online calculator . With it you can create quite extensive forms and then carry out complicated calculations with them.
The free version is somewhat limited, however. The Pro version offers a lot more options.
In general, the plugin is primarily intended for price calculation on company websites. But you can also use it for other purposes, even if there are limits.
Use online service
Many different online computers have already been created in SeCalcula. There are currently around 400 and the good thing is that you can integrate the created online calculator into your own website using code.
The range of online computers that have already been created is very large, which shows the flexibility of the tool. The tool seems to be suitable for both hobby topics and extensive business computers.
Try this percentage calculator.
Use finished calculators
Another possibility is to use ready-made online computers. For example, on smart-rechner.de there are really many ready-made computers that are divided into different categories. If you are looking for a specific calculators , you will probably find it here. However, their use costs money.
You can also find many online calculators at de.calculatestuff.com . Here, too, you can use many standard calculators for your own website. However, the integration costs money and there is even a usage limit.
Whether it is worth using such ready-made calculators depends a lot on your own website.
Affiliate programs
Last but not least, many affiliate programs offer their own online calculators, which you can integrate into your own website as an affiliate. For example financeads.net .
These calculators are of course geared towards the respective partner program and cannot be adapted.
The advantage here is that you can earn money with these calculators yourself . The online calculators should of course match the content of your own website, but then it can be very worthwhile.
