When you Google “website builder”, most likely you will see Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, and Webflow as the most popular website builders on the search. All these are drag-and-drop website builders.
Drag and Drop website builders allow you to create websites without knowing any coding/programming. This is the main reason these are getting popular in every coming year.
Different website builders come with different sets of features. So selecting the right website builder is crucial for creating a successful website. Once you’ve chosen any platform, it’s important to fully utilize its features to meet the website’s needs and objectives.
In this article, You will learn When and Why to choose WordPress.
We can’t discuss and compare every website builder here but somehow we can figure out When to choose WordPress over Online Website Builders.
As mentioned in the starting all these are drag-and-drop website builders but WordPress is much more than a drag-and-drop website builder.
Below we are mentioning the most important and advanced features offered by WordPress. This will help you understand if WordPress is the right choice for your needs.
Why and When to Choose WordPress Over Other Website Builders
There are many reasons we would prefer to go with WordPress for website development and we have prepared a list of the most advanced features offered by WordPress.
1. Blogging – The first reason to choose WordPress is its blogging feature. Initially, WordPress core was developed for blogging websites. WordPress offers far more features for bloggers to publish their articles on a WordPress-based website. Although a platform like Squarespace also offers blogging features, those are limited in functionality.
Features offered by WordPress are specifically for online content writing and publishing. No other platform stands near WordPress for developing a blogging website.
So, If You want to develop a good feature-rich blogging website then WordPress should be Your Choice.
2. SEO – Publishing content or launching a website is not enough. We are in a time when thousands of websites are launching every day.
If you have launched your website then You must want it to reach the audience. You will want your website to show on the 1st page of Google search for your content-related keywords.
This is where SEO comes into the picture. No matter what kind of website you create and publish, using WordPress, it can be SEO optimized more than any other platform. There are free and paid WordPress plugins that you can install and use to SEO optimize every page and article of your website efficiently. A few popular SEO plugins are Yoast SEO, Rank Math, AIOSEO, and WP Rocket.
WordPress is better if you want your website to rank higher on Google. WordPress offers better SEO options.
3. Customization – WordPress follows a theme structure. Due to its popularity, developers across the world develop themes for WordPress and sell it online.
These themes offer different types of design and features. Like the XStore theme is an e-commerce theme, the NewsPaper Theme is a content publishing theme that can be for media houses, Astra Theme is for content writing/blogging.
Different WordPress themes for different types of websites.
Once these themes are installed in WordPress, then you can customize the colors, fonts, and even design elements of your website to your liking. Other website builders don’t offer so much flexibility in terms of these customizations.
If you want to super customize your website to your specific needs or liking, then WordPress has a lot to offer. Online Website builders offer limited customization options in compare to WordPress.
You would love WordPress for its customization capabilities.
4. Self-Hosted Website – WordPress is a free CMS and you need hosting to run WordPress. There are so many hosting companies offering hosting packages to run a WordPress website.
You can start with a starter hosting plan which is usually very economical. Let’s say You want to develop a corporate website of 6-10 pages with few visitors (A Website for your locals). Well in this case you can choose cheaper hosting offered by Hostinger and many others. So now you can have a self-hosted WordPress website. Further, if You want to grow your website and increase traffic on it then you can easily switch to another Hosting based on your requirements. This won’t affect your WordPress website. You can easily transfer your website from one hosting to another and even hosting companies also offer free WordPress website transfer.
When it comes to other online website builders you won’t get this much freedom. Platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix won’t allow you to self-host your website. They manage your hosting and provide a drag-and-drop website builder to create the website.
So if you want to try different hosting environments and want to scale your website with time then definitely make your website in WordPress.
5. Scalability – Today WordPress can be used for many different zoners of websites. For example, You can develop affiliated marketing websites, Corporate Websites, Blog Websites, and many other different kinds of websites. Adding Content, Removing Content, Adding pages, and even adding more functionality to a WordPress Website is quite handy/easy. You can easily turn a simple website into a small-sized e-commerce website using the plugin WooCommerce. You can easily add more and more different types of pages to your WordPress Website.
So in terms of scalability, WordPress is a better option than other website builders. You can easily scale and add on features if required in the future.
6. WordPress Repository & Community Support – WordPress is a free CMS so there is no official support from WordPress Team. But the WordPress community is way more bigger and global than any other online website builder. WordPress is loved by Website designers & developers. Daily thousands of websites are launched using WordPress. Around 43% of all websites running today are using WordPress. So you can understand how much WordPress is used and appreciated all around the world. This has led to the biggest repository and community supporting WordPress over other website builders.
Even if you don’t have official WordPress Team Support then also You will easily find someone to resolve your WordPress website issues.
Almost every Popular Hosting Company provides you one-click WordPress installation option through their control panel. From this, you can understand how popular is WordPress worldwide. So you can confidently choose WordPress over other website builders for your Website. You will easily find a WordPress developer and you have the biggest repository from where you can find free and paid WordPress themes/plugins.
Conclusion Why & When to Choose WordPress
In Short, WordPress is the most popular CMS out there and it has the biggest community support. So You may get support for WordPress from anywhere in the world. If you want a scalable website with a lot of features then you must opt for WordPress over WIX, Squarespace, and other online website builders. For Blogging Purposes or News Websites, there is no better option than WordPress.
Now let’s also compare WordPress vs. other website builders
Above we have mentioned WordPress highlights and now it’s time to understand WordPress vs Other Website Builders. What is the difference and when you should choose other website builders over WordPress?
1. Hosting WordPress needs to be installed on a web server and then further you will install a theme, then plugins, and then you will develop your website.
But with other online website builders like WIX, Squarespace, and Shopify all you need to do is sign up, pay the price, choose the theme, and set up your website.
So for WordPress, you have to buy hosting whereas other online website builders come with one package means once you sign up all you need to do is set up your content and you are ready to launch your website.
2. Maintenance – WordPress website requires regular maintenance. WordPress developers and WordPress theme developers regularly release relevant updates that one should opt-in and implement to their WordPress website. It’s not difficult but still, at least you have to look in for updates and keep maintenance work up to date.
Whereas other online Website builders are managed by their teams. They will implement everything. You won’t have to manage anything other than your content on the website.
So if you want a small website that can be built with these website builders then you can consider these online website builders for launching your website.
3. Security – Security is the main concern for WordPress Websites. WordPress is free and owns the largest share of online websites on the internet. These websites are easy targets for hackers. So you have to be careful and keep your website up to date with this CMS.
Other online Website Builders are less vulnerable in terms of security. These website builders maintain all backend tasks and only allow you to manage your content from the front end. They manage all security tasks of your website.
So WordPress security is a real concern whereas online website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify are almost free from hackers.
4. Drag And Drop Website Builder and Ease of Use – WordPress offers the same functionality but that is more advanced and takes some time if you want better customizations. Whereas these popular online website builders are known for drag-and-drop content creation features. These website builders are hassle-free and easy to use and anyone can easily manage content on these builders.
Remember that WordPress gives more control and options to customize the content of your website than any other online website builder and these online website builders are easy to use but come with less functionality.
Which one to choose? WordPress or A Website Builder
WordPress is a powerful tool for website creation whereas online website builders are the easiest way to launch a website. WordPress offers far more customization options than any other online website builder.
if you want a simple small website like 5-10 pages then you can use these online website builders.
But if you want a robust full-featured website builder/CMS then use WordPress.
If you don’t want to update your website or don’t want to post content regularly then you can use these online website builders but if you want a dynamic website with tons of customization options and want to update regularly then use WordPress.
If You want to start a blog, online magazine, or news website then WordPress is the best option.
If you want a small e-commerce website use WordPress but if you want to launch a hassle-free e-commerce website then use Shopify or Squarespace.
We hope that this article will be useful for understanding Why to use WordPress and when to use Other Online Website Builders.
