Photo by Souvik Banerjee from Unsplash
Summary: If you want to own your site, which allows you total control and greater flexibility in features and design, WordPress is the way to go. If your aim is to set up something fast, proprietary software may be for you but at the cost of uniformity and renting your site instead of owning it.
I write a blog about WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com), so of course I love this content management system (CMS) and recommend it. When I started using WordPress back in 2006, proprietary platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and Shopify didn’t exist. But even today, after test-driving some of these newer options, I still choose WordPress to power all the sites I create. Here’s why.
Table of contents
Advantages of WordPress.org
WordPress.org is free and open source software (FOSS).
What does free and open source mean exactly?
Anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.
Source: Wikipedia
Why should you care? Well, some of the advantages of FOSS include:
- low cost
- reliability
- security
- stability
- transparency
- privacy
And in the case of WordPress, it is not only free—that is, accessible to all—it is also free as in no cost. This means that when you choose WordPress, you are not tied down to a company the way you are with Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and Shopify. Of course, you can and most likely will buy WordPress themes and plugins, and you need to host your website somewhere, but the core software remains 100% free of any fees.
WordPress is supported by thousands of users and developers.
Powering over 40% of websites and available in 200+ languages, WordPress is made up of a large community of users, developers, and teachers. Chances are, if you run into an issue, someone before you has run into the same issue, so that great community is there to help you when you need it. While it’s true that WordPress has a somewhat steeper learning curve than say, Wix, it is still accessible to most, and there are hundreds of online and in-person tutorials to get you started, not to mention WordCamps and WordPress.tv.
WordPress offers more flexibility in terms of designs and features.
The WordPress ecosystem comprises 50,000+ plugins and 50,000+ themes. Granted, not all are top quality, but there are countless awesome ones in the lot. No proprietary platform even comes close to offering so many quality themes and plugins. From portfolios to online stores to government websites, membership sites, forums, social networks, or blogs, WordPress can do it all. With Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and Shopify, you are limited to a few types of websites—generally a blog, an ecommerce site and a portfolio—and to the features included in your plan.
With WordPress, not only can you choose from all those existing themes and plugins, but you can also work with layout artists and developers to create custom themes and plugins.
With WordPress, you have total control of your site.
- You own your website.
This may sound like a no-brainer, but when you create a WordPress site, you own it. By contrast, when you use Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, or Shopify, you rent your site from that company, so if you are not satisfied with their services and features, you can’t leave and take your site with you. You can only leave and create a new site elsewhere. - You can pick and choose your web host.
With WordPress, you have hundreds of web hosts to choose from, so you can research which ones offer more space, more speed, better support, a staging area, etc. However, if you opt for Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, or Shopify, your site is hosted by them. If you find your site loads too slowly and it’s costing you customers, your options are either to accept it or to leave their service (and lose your site). - You can edit your theme’s and plugins’ code.
With WordPress, you have full access to your theme’s and plugins’ code to customize it or have someone else customize it for you. You may need to hire a developer if you want something truly unique, but there are thousands of WordPress developers out there, so you can readily find one within your budget. With proprietary platforms, adjustments to the code are limited. Some of them, such as Shopify, even use their own coding language (Liquid) which makes it harder to find a developer at an affordable price, let alone edit the code yourself. - You’re in charge of search engine optimization (SEO).
WordPress has SEO features out of the box, which you can improve with free SEO plugins and a lightweight SEO-friendly theme. Although proprietary platforms are getting better at this, WordPress sites still seem to do better in search engine result pages.
What about pricing?
This is a bit of a toss-up. Plans offered by the proprietary platforms range from 5 USD to 299 USD per month (or 60 USD to 3,600 USD per year), based on the features you choose.
Depending on the type of site you create and hosting option selected, your WordPress site can vary across a range of pricing. For example, hosting can cost from around 5 USD to 300 USD per month, though most people will do just fine with a 10 to 25 USD per month hosting plan. A theme can be free, 100 USD, or custom made by a layout artist. Plugins can also be free, require a one-time or yearly fee, or be custom made. So a WordPress site could cost you nothing but a cheap hosting plan and domain name (that is, as low as 60–70 USD per year), or it could have higher yearly fees if you opt for a better host (say 250 USD per year) and premium plugins. It may also have higher upfront fees if you have it custom-made. But rarely will a WordPress site cost you thousands of dollars year after year like an Advanced Shopify one will. And one thing to keep in mind, as mentioned before, is that when you pay for your WordPress site, you truly own it.
Disadvantages of WordPress.org
There must be some disadvantages to WordPress, right? Those proprietary platforms must have the upper hand in some areas. Well, yes. If you have no knowledge of WordPress, it will be quicker to launch a site with Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, or Shopify. And if your main focus is e-commerce, signing up for a Shopify store is much easier than setting up a WordPress site, installing WooCommerce, and multiple plugins for store customization.
Coding skills are not required to launch a WordPress site, and many non-tech savvy people do it every day, but more configuration is needed, and there is a learning curve for those who know nothing about websites, web hosts, and domain names.
Conclusion
WordPress offers many advantages over proprietary platforms. It is free and open source; it is supported by a large community of users, developers, and teachers; it is highly flexible and customizable; and it allows you to own and have full control of your site.
It does have a couple of downsides: 1) there is a learning curve for beginners, and 2) an e-commerce store is definitely more complex to setup with WordPress than with Shopify.
Considering all the advantages WordPress provides, my take is that it’s worth following a WordPress crash course to familiarize yourself with the platform instead of opting for a quick but more rigid rental solution such as Squarespace, Wix or Weebly. For e-commerce, if customization is your top priority, WordPress is the way to go. But if you prefer round-the-clock support, don’t mind not owning your site and want to avoid dealing with multiple plugins, then Shopify is your best choice.
Your turn
Now it’s your turn: Why have you chosen WordPress or a proprietary platform? Or do you use both and, if so, why? Thanks for sharing!
