Is WordPress Still the Best Web Builder Choice?

Is WordPress still the best web builder choice?

It wasn’t all that long ago that WordPress was considered to be the best website building platform out there. WordPress was and still is the most popular world wide! For many the only way to go was WordPress. But now, with the advancements of other website builders, such as Squarespace or Wix, many are questioning whether WordPress is still the best option for building a website. So let’s look at the pros and cons of WordPress verses other web builders.

The main difference between WordPress and web builders is that website builders are all-in-one solutions, where WordPress is a content management system that requires separate hosting, installation, and customization. WordPress has lots of pros. It’s powerful and versatile, and is supported by a large community of developers and users responsible for crating a wide range of themes and plugins that can be used to customize and enhance the functionality of your website.

Cost

One pro to Wordpress is that it is free to use. However, you are still required to provide your website hosting and domain, which is not included in Wordpress, so you will still have to spend money on that. Web builders do have a cost to use, but they are usually pretty low. And with that one small fee you will get your website domain (that is your web address), the website builder and all its tools, and the hosting of your website all together. And that is pretty helpful.

Flexibility

With WordPress you are able to create just about anything. Thanks to these little things called plugins all of the options are available. You want a contact form? There is a plugin for that. You want a chat bot to pop-up and ask how it can help your visitors? There is a plugin for that. You want to make sure your website is SEO friendly? There is a plugin to help with that! With these features there is so much you can do with your website. Just know that while many of these plugins are free, there are some that require you to pay to use them. Something to keep in mind. And as you know, all websites need to be mobile friendly as well as look good on a computer, it’s just an absolute must now. Thankfully, WordPress is great at that. You can bounce between what your pages would look like on computer, laptop, tablet, and phone screens and adjust your content accordingly. WordPress has great flexibility!

But website builders are not without options and flexibility! While the options may not be as extensive as with WordPress, most of the more popular add ons and items that typically get used are still going to be available for use. Contact forms, adding Google Maps and YouTube videos, allowing a visitor to book, schedule, or even checkout, are all also available on most website builders. Most website builders also include SEO options like image alt text, custom post slugs, meta tags and support for Google Analytics, among other tools, helping to make these websites SEO friendly as well. And as for being mobile friendly, most web builders will give you the ability to see what your website would look like on multiple screen types as well, allowing you to adjust the layout of your pages per screen size. So depending on what you are wanting to do with your website, website builders might have everything you are looking for.

Ease of Use

Ease of use, meaning how well are the options explained, are the menus easy to navigate, how intuitive to use is it? There can be a bit of a learning curve with WordPress if you’re not used to working with it. It can take some time to get familiar with how to work it. And sometimes a bit of coding is necessary. Some people find it to just make sense to them, and that it’s very intuitive, while others not so much and have a harder time understanding it. It really depends on you.

This is the website builders first selling point. Website builders have many templates that are already created and put together, so all you have to do is pick the one that works best for you and modify it to reflect your brand. Saving you that much more time and work. Or you can create your website from scratch if you’ve got something more specific in mind. And their drag-and-drop building features make it easy to create a beautiful website with.

Maintenance

Maintenance is important for a website. It not only unlocks new features, potentially growing your feature-set, but updates can also give performance boosts that help SEO and user experiences. In WordPress you need to manually stay on top of the updates. There are updates to the WordPress core it’s self, and the plugins regularly. And you always have to check if the new version supports your version of WordPress. And believe me, these updates happen frequently! Doing a complete website backup at certain times is often recommended as well. Securing your WordPress website is something you need to do yourself, and scanning for malware is essential. So yes, there are some things you have to stay on top of for the maintenance of your WordPress website.

Maintenance on website builders such as Squarespace or Wix is not needed. As I said before, they are all-in-one solutions, you build it and can forget it, as the they will do all the work making sure everything is up to date and working smoothly as a whole. Which, does give you more time as a business owner to focus on running your own business.

Security

A website built on WordPress generally requires more active security management. WordPress, due to its open source nature and extensive plugin ecosystem, can be more vulnerable to attacks. And it’s hard to come back to the top regarding your SEO once your website has been attacked.

With a website builder, since they are also your host, they will take care of most security aspects. Website builders use proprietary software and don’t open the code to the public to minimize vulnerabilities. If a bug or vulnerability is detected, their developer team will be responsible for fixing it. While they are relatively secure platforms, you should still ensure that you have an SSL installed on your domain and use TLS encryption for transactions.

Conclusion

By now you most likely would have figured out which method of building your website is best for you. There are pros to both, and there are some drawbacks to both. But only you know what you need for yourself and your business. Website builders are best suited for beginners who don’t have coding knowledge or web development skills as they are easy to use, thanks to their all-in-one approach, as well as being easier to customize thanks to the drag-and-drop editor. However, WordPress has more customization options, and is a better choice for experienced developers, who can use the platform’s full potential. Or, of course, you can hire a website designer (like me) to build your website for you! You definitely have options, so happy website building!

Until next time,

Corri Gidden :)