5 Best Alternatives to WordPress for Beginners
If you want to try something besides WordPress then consider using Weebly, Wix, Ghost, Jekyll, or Squarespace to meet your blogging and content management needs.
WordPress is one of the most popular website builders favored by almost every budding blogger and entrepreneur. The open source platform is can be customized and is compatible with almost every device, offering users a wide range of plugins and extensions for powerful content management and website development. However, WordPress is not always the best option for the websites build on a basic framework. For all its user-friendliness, WordPress does require a degree of technical expertise and coding skills. The extensive blogs and technical support though helpful can be quite exhausting to understand and implement.
Luckily, there are much better and simpler alternatives to WordPress out there which are more comprehensive and competent in handling the functionalities of your start-up. Listed below are five such alternatives to WordPress that you can check out:
Weebly
Weebly is one of the oldest and most well-known website building platforms that support both growing businesses and established enterprises. An easy to use and customizable platform, Weebly has a very minimalistic interface, very different from WordPress UI that’s crowded with widgets and tools. The intuitive drag and drop framework can be operated by almost anyone as it requires no coding knowledge. If you are looking for a simple yet powerful blog creation software then Weebly is your go-to site builder. Sure it lacks the complex technical features of WordPress or the extensive template collection of Wix and Squarespace, but the platform makes up for all that with its robust and solid solutions.
Weebly has grown to be a huge platform that is currently hosting over 40 million domains worldwide. The free plans offer the most amazing features and editing tools that every budding blogger will absolutely love. You can create all sorts of layouts using the inbuilt themes, add videos, insert graphics create portfolios and contact forms all in one place. You can explore the more advanced features by upgrading to the paid Pro plan that includes an integrated audio and video player.
Weebly is a smart option for all web developers who want to pursue blogging as a hobby. The more serious entrepreneurs and designers can opt for the Pro and Business packages that offer free web hosting, domain registration services, and SEO tools. Even coders and professionals will like working on the platform as Weebly allows users to tweak the HTML codes and CSS as well.
Wix
Wix happens to be one of the easiest and most reliable of website builders out there and has hosted over seventy-seven million websites worldwide. The platform is built on a powerful ADI or artificial design intelligence platform that takes care of all the tasks associated with web development and e-commerce, giving you ample time to focus on creating quality content. The open source canvas editor also offers free CMS solutions and web hosting services to start-ups and growing establishments. Choose from a wide range of over 500 premium quality templates that are compatible with your smartphone and other Android, iOS and Windows devices. Also, the intuitive user interface comes with a wide range of widgets and editing options for tweaking the content.
The designs, graphics, and themes are regularly updated every year. Wix also offers developers over 200 applications for performing the different operations and enhance the productivity of your website. These apps have business-specific tools and features that make the job even simpler for you. The point and click operation are pretty easy and flexible. The animations and video graphics are especially amazing and up-to-date with the latest technology. Even the SEO tools and e-commerce solutions are solid boosting the visibility and reach of the page immensely.
Wix is great for creating portfolios and customs forms. It is a good free website building software for amateurs; however, you will have no control over the website as it is hosted by Wix. Even the customization options are quite limited.
Ghost
Ghost is an easy website builder that’s slowly gaining popularity as one of the best alternatives to WordPress. Looking back on WordPress’s story we can see how the platform started out as blogging software that soon became a full-fledged CMS solution that is capable of running any type of website or web store. However, first-time users and amateur developers don’t really need any of the complex technical features and tools for their website. What they need is a simple and functional website builder for creating the basic layout of their store/blog. This is where Ghost comes into the picture.
Described in its Kickstarter video as a powerful competitor to WordPress, Ghost focuses only on blogging, unlike its counterpart that has now ventured in almost every sphere of website development. The platform is armed with an interactive and intuitive user interface that’s well organized and devoid of the complicated widgets, settings, and tools. The no-nonsense UI excludes all tools and features that aren’t directly related to writing or content creation. It is built with JavaScript on a Node.js framework that is well-known for its scalability as a no I/O model. Ghost is also a lot faster than the PHP-based WordPress.
Ghost is still very new in the market and slowly growing to be a household name among web developers and professionals. Users who are using a VPS shared or dedicated hosting with Node framework will absolutely love Ghost. It is highly probable that the platform might be an even bigger phenomenon than WordPress in the near future.
Jekyll
Jekyll is a static site generator that was built using Ruby and requires Node.js framework for functioning. A static page generator is a platform that takes your content and creates an HTML page for your site without any database support. The plain text HTML pages are extremely fast and functional when compared to the complex dynamic pages developed by WordPress. Jekyll is sure a smart option for users who want to publish all their content online and develop fast-loading web pages in a matter of minutes. Created by Tom Preston - Werner the co-founder of GitHub, Jekyll is the best choice for users who are well versed in coding and want a safer alternative to WordPress that is susceptible to hackers.
The websites created via Jekyll can be hosted online for free using the GitHub pages. As the platform is a static page developer, it doesn’t really require any server side scripting and programming unlike WordPress and other platforms. When it comes to creating functional and powerful websites using HTML code then Jekyll is your go-to platform. Here, you don’t have to deal with any of the complexities involved in drag and drop UIs. With Jekyll, you can even host your site for free and have complete control over the content that is published online.
Jekyll is perfect for coders and professional web developers who are well versed with SVN, Markdown, Git, and command line. You’ll be able to set up a website in almost no time using Jekyll as it takes your content and automatically stitches it together to create an HTML website.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a huge e-commerce website builder that though not as user-friendly as Wix or Weebly is still a better alternative to the complicated and cluttered WordPress interface. With Squarespace, you can create beautiful, robust and very responsive websites and stores for your business. The best thing about Squarespace is its extensive range of customized templates, themes and preset layouts that are all mobile-friendly and easy to load. All the editing tools are also very flexible and assist you in creating minimalistic yet functional websites in a matter of minutes.
The drag and drop interface is pretty interactive featuring many widgets, settings, and tools for creating powerful stores and blogs. Squarespace is design-focused website builder that is a good option for designers, photographers, bloggers, artists and budding entrepreneurs. All the free and paid packages offer free web hosting, domain registration services, e-commerce solutions, and SEO tools that boost your page’s reach and online ranking considerably.
The wide tech-support community offered by Squarespace though not as robust as WordPress is still very responsive and helpful. Users can reach professionals via live chat, video calls, phone calls and emails. Moreover, the tech-support here is available for free, unlike WordPress where you have to pay an expert to guide you through the entire process. First-time users can check out the 14-day free trial version of Squarespace before opting for the more advanced payable packages.
The Bottom Line
There is a lot of talk about the flat-file CMS, micro CMS solutions, and static site generators that renovate the old and obsolete content management features. Editing a website with WordPress is fairly easy for a user who’s familiar with website development and coding. Moreover, the one-click installation system allows you to setup the platform in your smartphones. But if you have a website or blog that requires minimum customization and technical expertise then maybe WordPress might not be the best option for you out there. Also, your website will be more susceptible to online threats if you ignore the WP updates. Choose these alternatives instead.