WordPress is undoubtedly one of the world’s most popular content management systems. It’s not a coincidence that 38% of websites on the internet run on this platform.  

The primary reason why people use WordPress is because of its user-friendly interface. The platform has an easy to use drag-and-drop editor and thousands of plugins, themes and widgets that allow you to customise your site to your liking.  

Some of the custom features you can add to your site include your forms and live chat functions, blogs, change the style of product categories, themes for each page, etc. Moreover, WordPress constantly updates these features, another quality that makes it more appealing to personal and commercial clients.

Despite its numerous advantages, WordPress has a fair share of shortcomings. For instance, it has thousands of customisable templates, but you need to be proficient at coding to edit them to suit your preferences. Furthermore, editing also increases the risk of incompatibility, as some plugins exclusively work with particular versions of the WordPress engine. If you try to update some tempates, you are likely to lose content, and even worse, it will not be recoverable. 

For the reasons mentioned above, you might want to consider alternative solutions when designing your website. These platforms are suited for everyone, whether you are experienced or not. You can choose a solution that allows you to build a site from scratch, or one that has readymade themes that you can choose. 

Here are the best alternatives to WordPress that can help you achieve your business goals.

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• Wix

As mentioned above, you need to be familiar with coding to customise most of WordPress themes and plugins. This is not only tedious, but it’s also time-consuming. However, this isn’t the case when you use Wix. 

Thanks to its powerful drag-and-drop functionality, Wix allows you to build a site using a mouse. This is a straightforward process, even if you don’t have any experience in programming. Notably, all plans have the same design options, including the free ones. 

Additionally, you can create video animations and backgrounds easily. The website builder is also SEO-friendly. You can effortlessly design an e-commerce site, as the platform has hundreds of business-oriented templates.

On the downside, you can’t change your template once you chose one. This is because the source files are inaccessible. Also, you have to upgrade to the premium version to enjoy an ad-free experience.

Pros

• Easy to use drag-and-drop website builder
• A limited free plan
•  Hundreds of templates and themes
•  Ideal for agencies and small businesses
• Several SEO tools
• Excellent security features

Cons

• Free plans come with a lot of obtrusive ads
• It’s impossible to change templates

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• Squarespace

Squarespace offers all you need to create a website – domain name registration, web hosting, templates, themes, and customer support. However, it’s relatively expensive than other options in the market, as its cheapest plan costs $12 monthly. 

You can never run out options when using Squarespace – the platform has several mobile-responsive templates that you can use to build your site. This enables you to reach a broader audience, as a majority of people use mobile devices to access the internet nowadays. 

Even better, this platform has blogging and SEO tools that you can use to increase your site’s visibility. After publishing the website, you can leverage the inbuilt analytics tool to get better insights about your website traffic, including their location, age, visiting times, and other demographics. 

The problem, however, is that you have to make do with limited functionality. You can’t install third party modules and plugins, meaning that you can only use whet the platform offers.

Furthermore, Squarespace doesn’t support automatic saving, and you can’t insert tables either. While these aren’t important to everybody, it would be better if they were available, as some users need them.

Because of its limited functionality, Squarespace is better suited for small portfolio sites, rather than complex platforms that have lots of content.

Pros

• Several templates with attractive design and an easy to use interface
• Free web hosting
• Inbuilt analytics platform
• E-commerce integration
• Customisable CSS

Cons

• Coding knowledge is required to modify templates
• No support for third party apps and plugins – troubleshooting apps and plugins is on you
• Integrating Google Analytics is challenging

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• Weebly

Weebly is an online website builder with several pre-designed templates and a powerful drag-and-drop editor that is easy to use, regardless of your level of experience. You can choose between free and premium plans, but the former has multiple ads. 

Although it has fewer themes and other features than most of its competitors, Weebly works well with bigger sites. It allows you to create complex webpages containing forms, image galleries and other on-page elements.  You can also create complex navigation menus. 

Furthermore, all templates on Weebly are mobile-friendly, ensuring that every visitor has a seamless browsing experience on whatever device they use. The platform also has an App Centre with lots of customisation features for your website.

As of today, Weebly is among the easiest platforms to use. It also comes with a web hosting service so that you don’t go looking elsewhere. 

Pros

• Multiple templates that are easy to modify
• A simplified drag-and-drop editor
• Compatibility with third party analytics tools

Cons 

• Slow update intervals
• Basic blogging features
• Coding experience is needed to change templates

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• Joomla

Joomla is a content management system that has some similarities with WordPress. It is mostly used by people experienced in web design and development. The platform has an intuitive management interface that grants you control over all features and functionality of your site’s framework. 

With Joomla, there are several customisation options than WordPress. The backend allows you to configure your site to suit your preferences. Specifically, you can modify SEO settings, menus, banners, redirects, and articles. What’s more, you can add functionality to your website by downloading extensions from the platform’s official directory. 

Many novices find it challenging to use Joomla, and understandably so. You need to be good at web development to make the most of Joomla’s flexibility and rich features to develop a website. 

It’s worth noting that Joomla supports multiple languages and offers advanced content and user management options. This allows you to create custom content, manage several users and publish in your preferred language. For these reasons, Joomla is perfect for creating community, membership and social networking website. 

Pros

• Simple installation process
• Open source plugins and modules
• Thousands of modifiable templates that are free to download
• Inbuilt two-factor authentication

Cons

• You need to learn how to use Joomla because it is open source

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• Shopify

If you want to start an online business, you might want to use a specialised platform like Shopify.

Shopify allows you to create and manage an online shop, regardless of size. It has a wide range of themes that you can choose, and an easy to use editor that allows you to further customise your site before you start adding content. 

The cheapest plan for $29 monthly. Considering that it supports blogging, multiple payment options, customer retargeting, web traffic analytics, and client reviews, it is a worthwhile investment. 

You can pay more for additional features, but ensure that you check out the Shopify marketplace before subscribing to a more expensive plan. This library has several resources that offer the features provided in costlier packages at lower prices.

Shopify is particularly appealing to first-time e-commerce business owners because most functions are automated. Updates and backups are automatic, and the platform also comes with reliable security features. 

Pros

• Customised templates and a large theme store
• Free e-commerce management tools
• Payment processors integration
• Excellent security features

Cons

• Most add-ons are expensive
• No support for one-page checkouts
• No multilingual support

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• Drupal

Drupal is a free open source content management system made for developers since it requires you to download assets and develop a site based on its framework. Notably, it doesn’t have a drag-and-drop editor, although you can download readymade themes from external sites. You have to be proficient in HTML, CSS and PHP to use this platform effectively.

That said, you customise and add more functions to your site by downloading modules from the Drupal directory. There’s also a theme repository with thousands of options to modify your website.

The best thing about Drupal is that its themes and modules are easy to modify. This you to customise the functionality and appearance of your website to the finest detail.  

However, the availability of many customisation options means that it takes more time to set up a Drupal website. The end result is a website that is highly customised and guarantees data security. This makes Drupal ideal for governmental agencies, large corporations and institutions with a designated team of developers. 

Pros 

• Suitable for small and large website
• Dedicate support community in case you experience any problems
• Allows you to develop complex websites
• Extensive documentation on the API

Cons

• It needs a lot of third party plugins to function optimally
• It’s difficult to use for people with little coding knowledge
• Occasional slowness due to third party apps and modules

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• Magento

Magento shares several features with Drupal, with the most significant exception being that it is tailored for e-commerce websites. Although the core software is free, you have to pay for extensions and web hosting.

Currently, Magento powers over 200,000 retail e-commerce stores worldwide. Most of these users can attest that the platform offers unparalleled customisation features that allow you to choose your website’s look and feel. More importantly, it has inbuilt tools that enable you track your site’s performance and optimise your SEO campaign for better results. 

Experienced coders will love the features offered on this platform. For instance, the Magento Extensions Marketplace has thousands of add-ons and apps that can add more features to our website. Such functions include CRM software that tracks customer behaviour and a stick management system that updates your inventory continually.

Magento supports multiple languages and currencies. Other benefits that make this platform suitable for multinational corporations are its ability to transact in many currencies and connections with several shipping companies.  

Pros

• Ideal for large online businesses
• Highly flexible and secure
• Easy to use backend
• Unrivalled scalability
• A community dedicated to developing extensions and plugins
• Multilingual support

Cons

• Expensiveness – it costs at least $4,00 annually to customise a site
• Complexity makes it difficult to find developers
• Incompatibility with most hosting services

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• Jimdo

Jimdo is different from other website builders in that it has a What You See IS What You Get (WYSIWIG) edition tool. So far, the platform powers over 20 million websites and has several useful features that are easy to use.

Despite having a simple interface, Jimdo can help you design complex websites. Their business and pro plans come with domain name registration and email hosting, sparing you of the time that you have otherwise looking for these services. 

WordPress enthusiasts will be disappointed that Jimdo doesn’t offer the same level of flexibility when it comes to customising templates. Moreover, the blogging function is more suitable for beginners rather than experienced bloggers.

Pros

• Beginner-friendly website builder
• Ad-free browsing experience
• SEO customisation with alerts on how changes impact your search ranking

Cons

• Moving sections is occasionally challenging
• No credit card support for e-commerce websites

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• BigCommerce

BigCommerce is useful to people looking to build medium to large online shops. Its standout features include multi-currency support and built SEO tools. 

Unlike other e-commerce platforms BigCommerce doesn’t levy transaction fees for every sale you make. However, you will have to upgrade to paid plan if you exceed the set yearly sales threshold. This why it is vital to understand all prices and plans before signing up on this platform.

BigCommerce has its shortcomings. First, it isn’t easy to create a multilingual online store, even if you are a premium subscriber or download third party apps. Secondly, most of the designs have an outdated look and feel, and the platform is more complicated than its largest competitors, like Shopify and Weebly. 

Pros

• Zero transaction fee if you haven’t exceeded yearly sales threshold
• Multi-currency support
• In-built SEO tools

Cons

• No multilingual support
• Outdated themes and designs

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• Tumblr

Visual content is a highly effective marketing tool, and Tumblr allows you to make the most of it. Precisely, this platforms offers the perfect blend of blogging and social networking. 

Tumblr has a vast library of themes, free and paid, that allow you to create a professional site with several webpages, interactive menus, comment sections, and social sharing buttons. Upon registration, you get a free domain name (example.tumblr.com) but you can change it at a fee. 

Further customisation is possible if you are proficient in HTML. Once you like with your site’s organisation and look, you can start publishing different types of posts, such as text, links, images, GIFs, videos, etc. using their dashboards, other users can like, repost, reply and share your posts to other social networks. 

Ideally, most of your posts on Tumblr should have visual content. This is because content that goes viral on the platform is also likely to attract considerable attention when shared on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Reddit. 

Unfortunately, free users don’t have much control over the appearance and functionality of their websites. Also, your website can be suspended instantly if you fail to adhere to community guidelines. Regardless, this is still among the best options if your websites focuses heavily on visual content. 

Pros

• Ideal for image and video-oriented websites
• Combines blogging with social networking
• Vast library of themes

Cons

• Limited customisation options
• Accounts are susceptible to suspensions

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• Medium

For people who want to increase content visibility, Medium is a viable option. It’s regarded as an authority site and receives at least 100 million users monthly. 

However, these perks come at cost – the platform is stricter than most of its competitors. For instance, you can’t install custom themes or purchase a custom design. This means that your address looks like https://medium.com/example, where example is your preferred name. Other than your logo and cover photo, your site will be similar to other sites on Medium.

By default, all posts have a minimalist outlook. That said, you can use the inbuilt editor to add block quotes, headings and visuals to improve engagement rates. 

The Medium Dashboard allows you track several crucial metrics. You can monitor the number of views, reads, and recommends that a posts has received over the past 30 days. There’s also an option of tracking how your site performed on specific days. 

Pros

• Easy to use
• A massive and active audience
• Performance tracking tools
• Free to use

Cons

• Strict posting restrictions
• Limited customisation options

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• Webflow

Webflow is an excellent alternative to WordPress, as it offers a wider range of customisation options. It also comes with reliable hosting and security features. You might experience some difficulties as a beginner, but it gets easier with time. 

An impressive quality of this platform us that it gives you total control over your site’s design. In this regard, you can choose between pre-built templates and starting from scratch. The Webflow Designer resembles Adobe Photoshop and has a powerful drag-and-drop function that also supports HTML and CSS for detailed customisation.

Compared to WordPress it is more complicated to enhance website functionality using Webflow. You can integrate your site with other platforms or embed a custom code to add more features to your site. In the first option, the steps used vary with the platform. 

Building a site on Webflow is free. You are only required to subscribe to a plan when launching a website, and this starts at $12 monthly. 

Pros

• Unlimited free trial
• Several customisation options
• Reliable security features
• Google Fonts integration

Cons

• Challenging for beginners
• Expensive than the competition

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• SITE123

Are you looking for a website with a user-friendly interface and unmatched flexibility? Well, you might want to consider SITE123. 

Besides ease of use, the most significant benefit of using this platform is free web hosting. The only cost you incur after developing your site is purchasing a domain name. However, most users often subscribe to the paid plains sin e they offer more bandwidth and storage. 

Interestingly, all of the out-of-the-box features offered by SITE123 are available to free and premium subscribers. Apart from the standard features found in most website builders, this platform allows you to build multilingual websites, publish audio files, accept online reservations, and so on. 

Pros

• Multilingual support
• User-friendly interface
• Free web hosting
• Unparalleled flexibility

Cons

• Limited storage and bandwidth on the free plan

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• Webydo

Like Webflow, Webydo has an interface that’s similar to Adobe Photoshop. This platform targets beginners, as its website builder is focused on graphics instead of coding. Simply put, you don’t have to be experienced in programming to use it. 

The drag-and-drop editors allows you to create interactive and feature-rich websites that support animations and parallax scrolling. It also supports on-page content edits if you want to update the appearance of your webpages.

Additionally, Webydo is compatible with Ecwid. This is an e-commerce widget that simplifies the management of online stores, particularly shipping of consumer goods. 

Pros

• Hundreds of pre-existing templates
• Vast customisation options
•  Easy to use interface
• Interactive and informative tutorials

Cons

• Limited number of widgets than competing platforms
• No built-in analytics tool

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• Blogger

Blogger is a free blogging platform developed by Google. It has a comprehensive set of feature that allow you to create a website with minimal effort, including templates, web hosting and an SSL certificate. It’s especially popular among beginners because it is affordable and easy to use. 

The low running costs, however, mean that you have to compromise. With blogger, you don’t have any control over your site. It can get suspended at any time if your breach community guidelines. 

The homepage of your website will have a list of your most recent posts arranged reversely according to the time of publishing. It’s worth noting that this can’t be changed. Moreover, you cannot create custom posts and webpages. 

Users will find comfort in the fact that Blogger supports third party widgets that you can install by adding HTML to the source code or directly into your website content. However, the platform is against this. Instead, it recommends using widgets developed by Google (called gadgets), some of which are active by default. 

While choices are extremely limited, the templates availed by Blogger are easy to install and highly customisable. Blogger also allows you to filter who can see your content, share posts to social networks, monetise your contenting using AdSense, and organise posts with labels. 

Pros

• Easy to use
• Advanced filtering and organisation functions
• Potential monetisation opportunities

Cons

• Limited customisation options
• Little control over your website

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• HubSpot

HubSpot is a renowned name in the digital marketing industry with an equally impressive website building platform. It is user-friendly and enables you to create high-performing websites with inbuilt tracking tools that monitor your performance. 

If you like blogging, you can use HubSpot’s blogging software to create, format and edit engaging blog posts. As you type, this tool will generate keyword suggestions and on-page SEO advice that guarantee higher ranking on search engine result pages.

You can also add forms to your site and create a mailing list. Whenever you publish a new post, every person subscribed to your list will get an email notification. You can then track how recipients interact with the emails you send, from opening to click-through rates. 

Pros

• Comprehensive set of features
• Several tutorials on how to use the platform
• SEO-friendly and mobile-responsive templates
• Compatibility with many third-party platforms
• Performance monitoring tools

Cons

• No PHP support
• No e-commerce integration
• It takes time to master 

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• Mozello

Mozello is an all-encompassing platform that has a website builder and offers domain registration and web hosting services. The primary reasons behinds this platform’s popularity is that allows you to create a multilingual site without spending a penny. 

Suppose you choose the free plan, you will have to live with a link to the Mozello website on your site’s footer section. Customisation will also suffer, as you can only modify colours, images, fonts and site layout. This is why Mozello isn’t suitable for established businesses – rather, it is perfect for start-ups looking to create an online presence.

Pros

• Multilingual support
• Free trial plan
• Inbuilt SEO tools
• User-friendly interface

Cons

• Limited customisation on free plans

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• Ghost

As scary as the name sounds, Ghost is an effective alternative to WordPress. Its best use case is blogging.

 

Ghost runs on Node-JS, one of the many variants of JavaScript. It’s a simple and lightweight platform aimed at monetising website through recurring subscriptions. The simplicity has its disadvantages, though – you won’t have total control over your website’s design and functionality. 

Pros

• Free web hosting
• SEO tools and social sharing buttons
• Compatibility with external customisation templates
• Inbuilt email subscriptions
• Open source software

Cons

• Unsuitable for e-commerce websites
• Manipulative plugins and templates

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• IONOS

Due to the competitive nature of the global market space, it is challenging for small and medium-sized businesses to attract new customers and boost sales. Luckily, IONOS is there to help such enterprises in creating an online presence. 

When you create an account on this platform, you get a domain name for free for one year. Other benefits include a personal email address, social media integration, email marketing, and SEO tools. 

Plus, you can access a vast collection of pre-built templates to help you improve your website’s design. To add elements to these templates, all you need to do is drag widgets from the dashboard. 

Arranging these elements can be frustrating at times, as you don’t have complete freedom over their positioning. You can only move them to specific sections of the webpage, not anywhere you want. 

It’s also difficult for novices to add features to a site created using IONOS. Comparably, WordPress by far easier to use.

 Although it has limited functionality, IONOS makes up for it through its affordability. With as little as $7 monthly, you can access their website builder. 

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• WebNode

Intuitiveness and ease of use are undoubtedly the biggest selling points for WebNode, an online website building platform. Moreover, this services allows you to create sites that renders seamlessly on Android and iOS devices. This ensures that every visitor has a smooth browsing experience, regardless of the device they are using. 

You can add as many pages as you like to your site, but they will have adverts. For an ad-free browsing experience, you need to subscribe to premium plans. 

Pros

• Easy to use drag-and-drop editor
• Limited free plan
• Built-in analytics tools
• Responsive design

Cons

• Obtrusive adverts

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• Concrete5

Concrete5 is as simple to use as word processors. This platform allows you to add text, images, forms and video using its drag-and drop function. You don’t need any experience in coding to do it.

Furthermore. Concrete5 has all tools needed for building a website, such as a comments section, customisable forms and responsive templates. You can more functionality to your website by downloading add-ons from the marketplace that is accessible from the dashboard. 

It’s advisable to start with simple designs then go to more complicated outlooks when using Concrete5. This is because the platform has a steep learning curve, making it more suitable for experienced. 

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Wrapping Up

Despites its widespread usage, you aren’t limited to WordPress when it comes to website development. As seen above, there are several excellent alternatives to this content management system. 

When choosing a platform that can help you build a website, look at its features. Preferably, choose a services that offers a comprehensive solution – one that covers web hosting, domain name registration and all things needed for a website to function optimally. This is often cheaper and saves the time you would have otherwise spent looking for these services. 

Finally, it’s worth noting that switching from one website builder to another can be challenging. This is because most of these platforms aren’t compatible with each other. This further reiterates the importance of allocating more time to research and find the service provide that suits your need best. There’s no need to rush – this is a decision that will affect your business for years! 

For quality and scalable website design and website development solutions, get in touch with MediaOne Marketing today. Our team has years of experience and will build a custom website that matches your business needs and aspirations.