Best WordPress Alternatives

Best WordPress Alternatives. We know that WordPress has millions of fans. It offers a great variety of themes and plugins. These are great for their flexibility and comparatively easy-to-use features. That’s why a whopping 42.9% of all websites get built on WordPress. 

But, the free Open Source platform WordPress.org isn’t for everyone. It has some disadvantages. In this article, we will take a look at areas where a WordPress site may not be an ideal option, and suggest some alternative tools.

The 5 Best WordPress Alternatives

Here’s the list of website builders that we found as useful alternatives in comparison with WordPress:

1. Wix (Known for the most flexible designs)
2. Squarespace (Known as the best alternative for bloggers)
3. Webflow (Best for designers)
4. Weebly (It is extremely easy to use)
5. Jimdo (It’s an AI-powered site)

1. Wix: Known for the most flexible designs

Let’s make it clear that WordPress provides an unbelievably wide range of designs. Customizing these designs to match your needs implies that you have to do a load of tedious work and custom code. However, if you build a Wix site, you’ll get to discover a different experience. 

You can move the elements around with just a click of your mouse and drop them right where you want them to. All plans (including the free ones) have the same design options. Wix is an excellent tool to create smaller websites with less than 50 individual pages.

Animations and video backgrounds and animations don’t create problems whatsoever. Wix is a website builder that gets SEO right. Portfolio Pages turn out really good, acknowledging the fact that they are easy to create. Wix has many business-focused apps for example hotels or restaurants. This will make your life easier if your business falls into that category. Wix is also known for offering dedicated support via email and live chat. This becomes very useful for beginners.

However, you can’t go to a completely new template after selecting one. Also, you will have limited access to the main or source files. In comparison with WordPress, you don’t have many options to optimize your site’s loading speed.

Pros of Wix

• Easy to use: It is much easier to set up and use compared to WordPress. Even the free plans offer hosting, domain name, and support. 
• Great support team: Unlike WordPress, Wix provides excellent customer support, even via telephone.
• SEO: Wix is highly well-equipped when it comes to SEO and you have great chance of ranking highly on Google
• Backup and Restore: Wix comes with an integrated Backup and Restore facility, which gets activated by default. It is perfect especially if you want to take your site back to an earlier version. 
• Themes: Wix provides a ton of completely free modern designs. 

Cons of Wix

• Large Websites: WordPress allows you to build an enormous website, but Wix is ideal for websites with no more than 50 pages. 
• Blogging: The blogging feature of Wix isn’t bad but if blogging is your main objective then Squarespace would be considered a better WordPress alternative for you. 
• Pricing: There are much cheaper alternatives available compared to Wix.

2. Squarespace: Known as the best alternative for bloggers

Squarespace is a great website creator that has popularity among creative users. The designs are known as very stylish and responsive; it means that they automatically adjust according to the screen size of every visitor.

You have the option to import your WordPress blog to Squarespace which we prefer a lot. In general, Squarespace’s blog is the most potent among the WordPress alternatives that we’ve listed here. It has all the necessary SEO options that you need right out of the gate. You don’t have to install any plugins like WordPress. However, you need to be aware that Squarespace is more difficult to use compared to Wix or Weebly, for instance, due to its convoluted interface.

The limited depth of navigation is the downside (only two levels) and along with the missing features for multilingual websites. The cost of the least expensive plan is $14 per month – which is quite acceptable in comparison with competing offers. 

Pros of Squarespace 

• Easy to use: Though Squarespace is a bit more complicated compared to the average website builder, it’s still easier to use compared to WordPress
• Blog: The blogging platform of Squarespace is top-notch. The only missing thing is the wide range of plugins that you can find in WordPress.
• Support: The customer support of Squarespace has always been great. Squarespace also provides great documentation and tutorials.
• Themes: The website templates of Squarespace are all free and are really stylish

Cons of Squarespace 

• Large websites: like Wix, Squarespace isn’t really big websites (50+ pages)
• No free plan: WordPress gives the opportunity to use it entirely for free. However, Squarespace only offers a free trial.
• Plugins: WordPress has the best plugins. Squarespace’s Extensions do not offer the same range of functionality.
• Multilingual websites: It is not a website builder for multiple languages

3. Webflow: Best for designers

If you feel WordPress is too limited, then you should choose Webflow. The editor gives a feeling like using Photoshop and offers a lot of options. However, those who are new may find it not easy to use. 

It definitely helps to acknowledge the underlying code that Webflow’s visual editor creates. Their templates are brilliant and once you are able to understand them, you can do magical things with them. There are both free and paid plans. From $12 per month paid plans to start. 

Pros of Webflow

• Design options: If you love designing then you’ll enjoy Webflow’s editor. It provides easy access to all styling features.
• Client work: You have the option to bill your clients directly through Webflow
• Documentation: You can learn about Webflow for free at Webflow University
• Loading speed and uptime: Webflow allows you to optimize the loading speeds quite easily and takes care of the marvelous uptime (99.99% guaranteed)

Cons of Webflow

• Not an easy tool to use 
• Pricing: Pricing of Webflow is pretty confusing as there are different tiers
• Blogging: Though you can set up a blog, the process is quite cumbersome. 

4. Weebly: It’s extremely easy to use

Weebly is known as an intuitive website builder. It has already created around 40 million sites. If you’re looking for a tool that won’t charge you, Weebly can become an excellent choice. The free plan offers a small, gray Weebly banner at the footer of your website. Personal plan upward, costing just $6 per month, can be used as individual domains. 

The blog feature is really flexible. You get the option of creating layouts and using all the available elements such as galleries, video integration, contact forms, etc. You can also have blogging features such as tags, comments, categories, etc. The Pro plan has an integrated video and audio player. One disadvantage of using Weebly is that their parent company Square doesn’t update it anymore. 

Pros of Weebly

• Super easy: It is really easy to use because of the drag-drop functionality
• Feature-rich: It has all the important functions like blogging, membership areas, analytics, responsive themes, etc.

Cons of Weebly

• No development: The problem is that the website builder of Weebly is completely stagnant. No major feature has been included in recent years
• Choice of themes: The designs of Weebly don’t look particularly great. You won’t get much choice as they aren’t adding anything new
• Multilingual website: It is more like Squarespace. Weebly isn’t a good tool to develop a multi-language website

5. Jimdo: It’s an AI-powered Site

Building a site using Jimdo is a good choice if you’re in search of an assisted site builder. To date, Jimdo has created over  20 million websites. It has a free basic plan you can try out. The paid plans include the web editor along with images, text, and a simple online store.

However, you need to be aware of the fact that Jimdo is not as feature-packed in comparison to other website builders.

If you like WordPress, you can be disappointed seeing that the templates aren’t flexible in Jimdo, and also it doesn’t have a blogging feature. It is created for beginners who desire to have their website online fast and don’t bother too much about the features of the website.

Pros of Jimdo

• AI Assistant: Jimdo creates a personalized website within a few minutes of time using pictures from your Instagram and Google My Business accounts
• Designs: The designs of the building block that Jimdo uses are actually look pretty good
• Fast and fully responsive: Jimdo’s website builder works perfectly on mobile devices and the websites it creates are mobile-responsive

Cons of Jimdo

• Feature set: Jimdo is the weakest candidate in terms of features. It doesn’t have a blogging platform. It has no option for creating multilingual websites. It has a limited contact form and no way you can add external apps.
• SEO: Jimdo is not the place if you’re into search engine optimization
• Page limits: START, Jimdo’s cheapest premium plan, can only add up to 10 subpages.

WordPress Alternatives: Conclusion 

WordPress is definitely a good tool and touted as the right choice for many users: The scalability factor is excellent along with an impressive number of extensions. On the other hand, a newbie will have a tough time getting everything set up without facing problems- unless they get help from outside to set up this popular CMS. 

But even if you aren’t accustomed to technology, you don’t have to start without a website of your own. Website builders like Wix, Squarespace, or Webflow come with a wide range of advantages, but you need to choose the right provider!