It’s simple to see why millions of individuals use WordPress to create their websites. WordPress allows users and their web design company of all skill levels to quickly and simply create bespoke sites thanks to its frictional pressure block builder and thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes.
Because of WordPress’s built-in flexibility and extensibility, you can add live chat or surveys to your site, modify the appearance of each of your category pages by hiring a web design company, use multiple themes on separate pages, and much more.
However, WordPress will not be able to suit the expectations of every website owner. A WordPress alternative will appeal to those searching for all of their website development tools and hosting in one location, as well as those who prefer less control over their site maintenance.
What To Look For When Choosing A WordPress Alternative
When it comes to WordPress alternatives, you have a number of choices. Another open-source content management system is available. You may also choose a proprietary CMS if you want hosting and website creation tools all in one spot. A customized CMS would often include additional features such as built-in SEO tools and improved security.
If you don’t have time to study, investigate, or use all of a CMS’s built-in capabilities and add-ons, a website builder like Wix or Weebly may be a better option. You’ll receive website construction tools and hosting all in one location without having to pay for stuff you don’t need from a web design company.
You may also register a free account on a publishing platform like Tumblr or Medium if you don’t want to worry about site upkeep. That way, you may continue to post multimedia content and develop your audience without having to pay for features and services that you aren’t using.
It’s vital to keep in mind that none of the platforms are easier or better than the others; they’re just created for various reasons. Ask yourself the following questions to figure out which tool is best for your site:
- What is your financial plan?
- How frequently will you update your website with new pages?
- How much do you want to be able to customize the look of your website?
- About your site’s speed, security, and performance?
- Should you have numerous users assisting you in the operation of your website?
- Would you prefer to utilize a hosted platform or pick your own hosting company?
- Are you planning to include a blog on your website?
Let’s look at the benefits and drawbacks of adopting a free WordPress competitor below, bearing these questions.
Related: What is website maintenance?
Alternatives to WordPress For Free
A publication system or a free online builder are two sorts of free WordPress alternatives to examine.
Bloggers and content writers who are more concerned with producing material than with developing or modifying a website can benefit from using a publishing platform or hiring a web design company. Let’s imagine you want to promote yourself as an inbound marketing thought leader. You don’t need several pages or a site that is totally personalized. All you have to do now is concentrate on creating content and determining which themes and sorts of posts are most popular with your viewers. By creating a site on a free publishing platform like Medium, you may achieve both of these objectives.
CMS Alternatives To WordPress
We’ve gone over a few scenarios when a solution other than a CMS could be a better fit for you and your site. However, since a CMS is used to build more than 50% of all websites, we know that this has been the platform of choice for the majority of individuals, even a web design company.
A content management system (CMS) is a platform that allows numerous people to construct and manage a website without having to write it from scratch or even knowing how to code. You can simply change your site’s style, include multimedia in your postings, organize your material using tags and groups, manage numerous users, edit the source code, and much more.
Alternatives To WordPress
To start your online company, you may choose to utilize a CMS, a site constructor, or a publishing platform, or even a web design company depending on the needs and ambitions. We’ll go through a list of WordPress competitors below, along with examples of each platform. That way, whatever your aim is, you’ll be able to discover a method to attract, connect, and delight customers online.
Alternative To WordPress In The CMS
A CMS will provide you the most flexibility over your site. You may change the basic code, install any design or plugin, or write and deploy your own.
Of all, significant control entails bigger responsibility. With an accessible CMS, you’ll have had to handle your own backups, management, and security, as well as locate a hosting provider who can assist you with these tasks. Although a proprietary CMS will handle the day-to-day maintenance of your site, you’ll still need to devote time and effort to learning about the platform’s infrastructural development and extension choices to guarantee you get the most out of it.
You or your web design company can create a site that accomplishes precisely what you want if you take the time to understand how to use all of the functionality and customization choices available with a CMS.
1. Hub For Content Management Systems
CMS Hub, HubSpot’s cmss, is a fully integrated web content system that maintains all of your team’s tools and data in one place. It’s also completely hosted, which means HubSpot takes care of all technical parts of maintaining your website, such as updates, revisions, security concerns, and bugs, so you can concentrate on your content and consumers.
Many of the capabilities you’d expect to find in a CMS are included in HubSpot’s CMS, including a domain manager, file management, drag-and-drop text editor, staging environments, designing and weblog tools, and etc.
Additional Inbound products that may assist fuel your inbound marketing approach include CTAs, lead forms, digital marketing, interactive advertising software, international support, list division, live chat, email, and reporting, in addition to these location tools. To add these capabilities to your site on many other CMS systems, you’d have to use third-party software.
CMS Hub differs from other solutions in that it can be used in conjunction with the HubSpot CRM, allowing you to quickly manage and develop your connections with your contacts by having all of your customer data in the same location as your website. You can utilize the location of a visitor.
Important Points to Remember
- Marketing automation, SEO advice, and a CRM are all built-in features.
- Ideal for small and medium-sized enterprises as well as large corporations.
Related: What is web design and development?
2. Drupal
Drupal is a powerful content management system with practically limitless customization options. It’s great for developers or other people who are already comfortable with HTML, CSS, and PHP.
You may choose from 46,000 modules in Drupal’s directory to expand and personalize the capabilities of your Drupal site. To change the look of your site, you may select from lots of free designs in Drupal’s original theme repository or paid themes on WordPress themes.
Important Points To Remember
- Modules with a lot of configuration options provide you a lot of control over your website.
- Ideal for businesses, government bodies, and educational institutions.
3. Joomla
Joomla was created to blend some of Drupal’s strength and flexibility with WordPress’s user-friendliness.
Joomla comes with much more functionality out of the box than Blogger. On the back, you may change many of your site’s settings, including articles, ads, menu, media, redirection, and SEO configurations. You may download any of the 6,000 renewed in the official directory for more functionality and control over your site. These, like your settings, must be installed from the backend.
Important Points To Remember
- Bilingual support is built-in, and extensive user and content control features are available.
- It’s perfect for social media, community, and subscription websites.
4. Shopify
You’ll need a hosted online marketplace like Shopify if you want to start selling items or services online.
Shopify allows you to create and manage a full store. Choose from over 70 ecommerce themes before utilizing Shopify’s drag-and-drop website builder to create articles and pages.
Constructed blog, user reviews, ready-to-go payments for your clients, abandoned cart recovery, and statistics on your site traffic and merchandise are all included in Shopify’s most basic plan, which costs $29 per month.
Important Points to Remember
- Customer reviews and abandoned cart recovery are examples of advanced ecommerce functionality.
- Ideal for new company owners and store operators.
5. Prestashop
PrestaShop is a sophisticated ecommerce platform for running a successful online store, but it varies from Shopify in two important ways: it is self-hosted and open-source. That implies you may tweak the main software’s code and use it for free. That implies you’ll have to pick your own hosting company.
PrestaShop is also more feature-rich than Shopify. So, while the dashboard may appear cumbersome and the setup procedure is more difficult than with Shopify, you’ll be able to design a more customized site straight away.
Important Points To Remember
- Extensible and rich in features.
- Large ecommerce firms will benefit from this.
6. Magento
Magento Open Source, like Prestashop, is an ego platform. You could use the basic program for free, though you’ll have to pay for hosting and Magento extensions, which might be costly.
Magento is similar to Drupal in that it is a very configurable & secure system with a big learning curve. If you know how to code, you can make your store look however you want. However, before you could even set up your business, you’ll need to learn about all of the system’s out-of-the-box capabilities, as well as its expansions and integrations.
When you visit Magento’s Accessories Market, you’ll find over 3000 add-ons and applications to install and connect with your website. Want to use a CRM to track and categorize consumers, or have up-to-date supply and delivery information on the website? Adding this sort of feature to your site is simple using extensions.
Important Points To Remember
- Highly adaptable and safe
- Ideal for large and developing ecommerce enterprises.
Related: What Is Lead Nurturing And What Are The Right Tactics?
7. Webflow
Webflow is a “visual” document management system that lets designers build fully customized websites without worrying about infrastructure, security, or speed.
You have total control over the look of your site with Webflow. You can choose from hundreds of pre-made frameworks and create custom themes, or you can start from scratch and styling every detail yourself.
You can click and drag HTML components onto a canvas and style CSS settings to create a totally bespoke site with the Webflow Designer (which appears like Picasso in a browser).
You had two alternatives for extending the function of your site, none of which is as straightforward as installing a plugin on WordPress. To begin, create a connection among your site and other sites (steps will vary according to the platform). Let’s imagine you want to keep track of and manage all of the people who have filled out a form on your Webflow site. By creating a Zapier account to handle the connection, you may link your Webflow forms to your HubSpot CRM.
Another alternative is to enhance the functionality of your site by embedding third-party software or your own custom code on a webpage. Append custom HTML code blocks to your WebFlow site by watching this video.
Important Points To Remember
- Gives you total control over the look and feel of your website.
- It’s ideal for freelancers and agencies.
8. TYPO3
Typo3 is a scalable and adaptable open-source business content management system. You can construct and manage hundreds of sites in many countries with this CMS.
TYPO3 comes with over 9,000 features out of the box, but you’ll probably wind up adding a few of the 6,000 extensions available in the TYPO3 Extension Repository to fill in some gaps. You’ll need to interface with third-party tools and services if you wish to incorporate videos on your site or optimize your website for search engines, for example.
Important Points to Remember
- Hundreds of sites in many languages may be created and managed.
- Ideal for large companies and organizations.
9. Concrete5
Usually referenced is an open-source content management system that was designed to become as simple to use as a word processor. You can easily add text, video, image sliders, cultural communicative, and questionnaires to your site using Concrete 5’s block editor. No coding is necessary; simply drag & drop the module anywhere on the page.
Concrete5 has many of the features you’ll need to get started right away, including responsive layouts, configurable form fields, and an integrated commenting system. You may install add-ons directly from the concrete5 marketplace if you believe your site is lacking functionality.
10. Ghost
WordPress started off as a basic blogging platform in 2003, but it has since grown into a multi-purpose content management system with hundreds of plugins and themes. If all you want to do is create a blog, WordPress may end up costing you money for features and services you don’t need. You can instead use Ghost.
Ghost is a blogging platform built using NodeJS. It’s intended to be a simple and lightweight CMS for building and selling subscription-based websites. In return for this simplicity, you’ll have to give up the majority of WordPress’ versatility.
Important Points to Remember
- Ideal for agencies that work with big businesses.
- Designed to make using a word processor as simple as possible
Approaches to WordPress Website Builder
You can use a website builder if you want website creating tools and hosting all in one spot.
Website builders are private-label applications that can only be used on the builder’s own hosting platforms. Management, protection, backups, analytics, training, and support are all included in their hosting options.
You could believe that website builders and a web design company are similar to content management systems (CMS), but the primary distinction is that website builders lack content management tools. As a result, website builders are a suitable choice for creating sites that don’t require a lot of dynamic material, extensive functionality, or highly personalized branding. Consider eateries and advertising companies.
11. Squarespace
Squarespace is a sophisticated platform that includes domain name, hosting, theme and designs, commerce, and support, as well as all you need to establish a website. It’s one of the most costly website builders or a web design company on the market, with monthly rates beginning at $12.
Squarespace has over 25 mobile-friendly layouts that you can alter to get your site up and running quickly. You may utilize Squarespace’s blogging and SEO tools to develop and optimize content while you construct your sites. Once your site is up, you can use the built-in analytics tool to find out where our visitors come from, what they’re searching for, and how they’re interacting with it.
Main Points
- Award-winning templates with built-in blogging, SEO, and analytics capabilities
- Portfolios and image-heavy websites benefit greatly from this style.
12. Wix
Wix is a hosted website builder that provides free, dependable web hosting, advanced security measures, SEO tools, and a dedicated support team to assist you in creating and managing your site.
You may rapidly construct your site by modifying over 500 pre-designed templates using the Wix editor, which is simple to use and drag-and-drop. To make these pages more interactive, you may use video backdrops, scroll effects, and animation or even hire a web design company to assist you. Alternatively, if you’re familiar with HTML and CSS, you may start from scratch and design every single detail of the page.
Important Points to Remember
- The construction process is made easier with 500+ templates and a drag-and-drop editor.
- Provides a restricted free plan.Ideal for small enterprises and agencies.
13. Weebly
Weebly is a hosted website builder that allows anybody, regardless of skill level, to construct a bespoke website using pre-designed templates and a drag-and-drop editor. In addition to its paid plans, it offers a free, ad-supported version, similar to Wix.
Weebly is the superior choice for larger sites for a few reasons, despite having a lower range of themes and out-of-the-box capabilities than Wix.
To begin, you may use the Weebly editor to add items to blog posts, like forms and picture galleries, to construct complicated layouts. Wix is the only platform that has everything.
Important Points to Remember
- Hundreds of applications and mobile-friendly templates
- Provides a restricted free plan.
- Ideal for simple pages with a lot of information.
14. Jimdo
Jimdo is a one-stop site solution that includes hosting, domain name, and a personal email, as well as a simple editing tool.
While WordPress.com does offer a free plan, browsers will not index sites produced on this plan. You should upgrade to one of its premium plans, which start at $9 a month, just for that reason. Main characteristics such as an SSL certification and SEO tools are included on these levels.
Important Points to Remember
- There are two design options for rapidly and easily creating a website.
- Provides a restricted free plan.
- Ideal for freelancers, small enterprises, and entrepreneurs
15. IONOS
IONOS is a website builder that aims to make it easier for small companies to go online. It includes a one-year free domain, a personal email account, built-in email marketing, social media integration, and SEO tools.
IONOS, like most website builders, offers pre-made themes that users may edit. It’s simple to add items to these templates. To add text, videos, social icons, maps, contact forms, and much more, just drag and drop gadgets from the panel on the left side of any dashboard.
However, many users may find arranging these pieces to be difficult. Because the editing tool only enables you to move components inside a certain portion of the page, not everywhere on the page, this is the case.
Other users can have a hard time adding functionality to their sites. You may extend the functionality of your IONOS site by integrating with 3rd apps and tools, but the procedure is far more complicated than adding a WordPress plugin.
Important Points To Remember
- Email marketing, social network integration, and SEO tools are all built-in.
- Bloggers and small companies will love it.
16. WebNode
WebNode is used by millions of people to create websites. WebNode is a simple site generator with over a hundred customisable templates and an easy-to-use editor.
You may use WebNode to construct websites and ecommerce storefronts that work on Android, Mac, and iOS devices. As a result, your website will be optimized for every device that your visitors use.
WebNode is a popular choice among companies and entrepreneurs because of its adaptable design, built-in analytics, and economical pricing.
Important Points To Remember
- The frictional pressure editor and themes make creating a website or store simple.
- Provides a restricted free plan.
- Entrepreneurs and small businesses will love it.
17. Mozello
Mozello is a one-stop shop that integrates site design tools, domain registration, and web hosting into one package.
Mozello is used by entrepreneurs, bloggers, and activists all around the world to create their websites. Why? Because, unlike many hosting companies, Mozello provides a free multinational web site.
If you choose the free plan, you should be aware that a link to Mozello will appear in the footer of your website. You’ll also have to relinquish some control over your site’s design. You may still customize your style, colors, photos, fonts, and layouts, but your personalization choices are restricted beyond that.
As a result, Mozello is an excellent alternative for beginners who want to build a basic company website, blog, or online store.
Important Points To Remember
- The platform includes marketing, SEO, and multilingual functionality.
- Provides a restricted free plan.
- It’s ideal for novices who want to build multilingual websites.
18. SITE123
SITE123 is regarded as one of the most adaptable and simple-to-use website builders available.
You can utilize all of SITE123’s out-of-the-box capabilities whether you’re on the free or premium plan. SITE123 offers more complex capabilities such as building a site inside another language, accepting online reservations, publishing audio files, and more, in contrast to the blogging, SEO, and web design company tools you’d expect from a page builder.
While premium customers may utilize an embed code to install a limited number of third-party plugins, you’re primarily confined to the functionality that SITE123 gives out of the box.
Important Points to Remember
- Multilingual, online booking, and audio file support are just a few of the advanced features.
- Provides a restricted free plan.
- People and company owners that are creative will love this.
Alternative To WordPress As A Blogging Platform
While a blogging platform won’t help you interact or convert visitors, it will assist you in attracting them. A blogging platform is ideal for creating content while cultivating an audience if your main objective is to raise brand recognition. You may then quickly transition to a hosted website builder or CMS as your material and audience grows.
Related: Lead Generation: Can It Be Useful For Your Products?
19. Tumblr
Tumblr is an online social and blogging website with a strong visual component.
Tumblr allows you to create an expert site with numerous pages, sidebars, “ share ” buttons, comment pages, and more by choosing from lots of free and commercial theme skins. To change the default URL, which looks like yourusername.tumblr.com, you can purchase a custom domain name from a domain name registrar. Users who know how to code in HTML can further modify their site.
Important Points To Remember
- Blogging and social media are combined in this program.
- Individuals and large corporations wishing to develop highly graphic material may find this tool useful.
20. Medium
Medium has a reputation for being a high-quality publishing platform. Medium is a good medium for getting your content in front of new audiences because of its high link building and built-in audience of approximately 100 million monthly active users.
Important Points To Remember
- In the Medium dashboard, you can easily generate content and track its success.
- Individuals, publications, and companies wishing to expand their audience would benefit from our service.
21. Blogger
Blogger is a Google-provided free blog hosting service that includes everything you need to easily establish and start a blog, such as hosting, an SSL certificate, and layouts. Blogger is a popular platform for novices to establish basic blogs and business sites due to its ease of use and inexpensive fees.
However, you’ll have to relinquish almost all control over your website. If you violate Blogger’s community standards, your blog can be suspended at any moment, much like on Tumblr and Medium.
Important Points To Remember
- Hosting, an SSL certificate, themes, and gadgets are all available.
- Beginners who want to develop basic blogs and company websites will love it.
Identifying A Solution That Is Right For You
Any of the tools listed above can assist you in bringing your business online, whether you’re seeking to raise brand recognition or convert visitors. The key to choosing the correct one for your company is determining what you want to accomplish.
While publishing platforms and website builders and web design company can help you quickly develop content and expand your audience, a content management system (CMS) will allow you to construct and maintain a site that matches your business’s demands and goals over time.
