EDITS.WS

Author: B.J. Keeton

  • 7 Best CRM Software Options for Your Business in 2023 (Compared)

    Online marketing can be a pretty cutthroat world, so developing a good marketing strategy is crucial. There are just so many data points, metrics, analytics, and hard numbers that you have to deal with that it’s hard to keep them all straight and remember that data isn’t just data. With so many choices available, it can be hard to determine what tools to use. In this post, we’ll outline the best CRM software to keep you ahead of the curve.

    Let’s get to it.

    What is CRM Software, and Why Do You Need It?

    Okay, so in its most basic, most fundamental, most simplistic form, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an address book with detailed fields about each entry. In practice, however, it’s a whole lot more than that. The best CRM software has contact storage, lead tracking, email templating, lead generation, message coordination, team integrations, Omnichannel Marketing, and ways to keep them all separate but connected.

    CRM software gives you a cheat sheet for everyone your business has ever run into. Let’s say you get an email from Jimmy Whizbang asking about your cheapest web design packages. You go into your nifty CRM dashboard, type in his name, and you get a complete rundown of everything you know about him, from the time he called your team about how his WordPress installation wasn’t working right, what social media platforms he uses, down to the notes on the account that say “give him what he wants just to get him off the phone.”

    And then there are the automation tools that come with the best CRM software suites, where you can track folks who halfway complete purchases and send out reminder emails their shopping cart is still full and waiting on them. You can also use conditional logic workflows for internal task delegation, and your team can track entire histories of their interactions with clients or potential customers of certain products. You can also generally funnel leads using variable split testing.

    The 7 Best CRM Software Tools

    If you’re running a business online today, you need a CRM to help organize your stuff. But there are many options out there for different business models, so we’ve sorted through a bunch of them to help you figure out which is the best CRM software for you. You’re welcome.

    1.HubSpot

    HubSpot CRM

    HubSpot is just about as ubiquitous in the CRM world as Salesforce. There’s a reason for that, too. It’s good stuff. Not to mention that it’s free. Well, the base CRM is free. You have to pay for additional tools and features, but you do get a pretty good set of features to start with.

    More than anything, the free integration extensions are a great way to see if something like HubSpot is the best CRM software for you and your business. You can connect everything from Eventbrite to Zapier to WordPress to even Salesforce itself to your account. While the free tier doesn’t give you access to any of the automation tools that make HubSpot shine, but you do get all the cross-indexed lead generation and user tracking that can set your business up for success.

    HubSpot Divi Integration

    If you’re a Divi user, you’re in luck – HubSpot’s powerful feature set is now available right inside the Divi Builder. With just a few clicks, you can integrate your HubSpot account using either the email opt-in module or the user-friendly Bloom plugin, and start building your email list with a range of customizable popups, fly-ins, and other triggerable elements.

    But that’s not all – the HubSpot CRM WordPress plugin integrates seamlessly with Divi to give you full control over your HubSpot account, so you can manage every aspect of your customer interactions with ease. It’s a match made in heaven for Divi users looking to take their email marketing and customer management to the next level.

    Pricing: Starting at $18 per month for individual and small teams.

    Get HubSpot

    2. Zoho

    zoho best crm software

    Not only does Zoho have a logo that makes you happier when you see it, the CRM has pretty much that effect on you when you use it. Zoho stands out for many reasons, but primarily for the Zia AI that powers its data processing. It is unique among CRMs. Zia will point out data anomalies to you that you might miss on your own or take some time to see, such as sales spikes or slumps that are not within your company’s typical flow (if you get a Black Friday-style bump on a Sunday afternoon, for instance).

    There are also automations within Zoho CRM that keep the sales pipeline clear, email and phone tracking through telephony, and honestly what I think is a huge feature, social media tracking for campaign analytics (plus in-CRM interaction with leads). These automations are pre-set up through the Zia feature. You can always set your own.

    Pricing: Starting at $14 per month.

    Get Zoho

    3. Keap

    Keap CRM

    Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is designed specifically around email marketing for small businesses. That means it handles segmentation, contact organization, lead generation, and managing/reporting on our data. One of the more notable features that make Keap one of the best CRM software choices is what they call lead scoring. The feature takes a look at all the leads you get, and it rates them for you based on behavior, demographics, and interactions (with your team and your site) to give you a score on the likelihood of you being able to close a deal with them. It’s a nice way to help you and your team prioritize where to focus your efforts.

    Pricing: Starting at $189 per user per month.

    Get Keap

    4. Freshsales CRM

    FreshSales CRM

    Freshsales CRM is a cloud-based CRM that specializes in contact management. It offers a range of features to streamline and automate sales processes, including lead and deal management, contact management, email tracking, pipeline management, and reporting.

    Freshsales CRM also integrates with other business tools, such as email, phone, and social media, to provide a comprehensive view of customer interactions. It uses Predictive Contact Scoring – a method to identify your company’s hottest leads based on how much a person engages with your business. As an added bonus, Freshsales offers a risk-free 21-day free trial, so you can decide if it’s right for you. Plus, their pricing isn’t bad, either.

    Pricing: Starting at $15 per user per month.

    Get Freshsales CRM

    5. Less Annoying CRM

    Less Annoying CRM

    Less Annoying CRM offers a refreshing alternative to the complicated and cluttered customer management platforms out there. With its simple and intuitive interface, the platform helps small businesses easily manage their customer interactions, from tracking leads and managing tasks to scheduling events and tracking emails. And for those on the go, Less Annoying CRM offers a convenient mobile app for iOS and Android, making it easy to keep track of customers no matter where you are.

    Less Annoying CRM offers a standout feature that sets it apart from other CRM platforms: the ability to create unlimited custom fields. This means that you’re not limited to standard fields for customer management, and can tailor the CRM specifically to your business model. Additionally, the platform fosters transparency among team members, allowing everyone to see what others are working on and making collaborating easier. And to make task and event scheduling a breeze, Less Annoying CRM comes equipped with a handy appointment scheduler that lets you assign tasks, set up events, and even sync them with your Google or Outlook calendar.

    Pricing: Starting at $15 per user per month.

    Get Less Annoying CRM

    6. SuiteCRM

    open source crm soft ware - Suite CRM

    Next on our list is SuiteCRM, the open-source option I’m sure some of you crave. (Here’s the GitHub page for you, too.) First off, the product is completely free. It’s open-source, after all. SalesAgility, the company that maintains the project, does offer premium support and onboarding for it. There is a store for add-ons if you need just a little extra functionality.

    You should know, however, that SuiteCRM is not cloud-based. You will need to download it and install it locally before sending your data around and connecting all your services. That’s a big difference from other CRMs, and it could be a deal-breaker for some people. Also, because it’s free, open-source software, you can set up an unlimited number of folks on your team. That’s awesome.

    Because it’s also open-source, the CRM is ridiculously extensible. It does pretty much everything that the biggest CRMs do – track leads, provide customer support, and automate your data tracking and workflow delegation. And if it’s not built into the primary software, there’s a module or add-on for it (or you can write your own). If you’re not sure if this is the best CRM software to integrate with your company or workflow, you can’t go wrong with trying it since it’s free.

    Pricing: FREE! (paid add-ons available)

    Get SuiteCRM

    7. Salesforce

    Salesforce CRM software

    Salesforce is the grandpappy of all CRM software. Launched in 1999, it’s hard to go wrong with a product that has nearly twenty years of history, updates, and satisfied customers. Now, over two decades later, Salesforce has so many options that it’s impossible to list every one of them here. Their services are split across different individualized products, rather than trying to be the best CRM software for everyone all the time.

    If you’re in sales, you get B2B marketing integration, price configuration tools, and personalized customer quoting software. Marketers get customer journey tracking, messaging across multiple platforms (social, mobile, email), and data analytics and sharing platforms. And the service also has a knowledge base, live chat, video calling, and remote issue monitoring.

    Pricing: Starting at $25 per month for standalone products.

    Get Salesforce

    Which is the Best CRM Software for You?

    There are many CRM options available, and this list only covers a few. However, we’ve done the research and selected the top 7 CRM software tools.

    CRM Software Price Free Option
    🥇 HubSpot Starting at $18 per month ✔️ Visit
    🥈 Zoho Starting at $14 per month ❌ Visit
    🥉 Keap Starting at $189 per user per month ❌ Visit
    4 Freshsales CRM Starting at $15 per user per month ❌ Visit
    5 Less Annoying CRM
    		 Starting at $15 per user per month ❌ Visit
    6 SuiteCRM Free
    (with paid add-ons)    		 ✔️ Visit
    7 Salesforce Starting at $25 per month for standalone products ❌ Visit

    Our top pick is HubSpot, which is a comprehensive and easily integrated solution, despite its high price tag. It offers the most features and even has a free option for managing smaller contact lists. Plus, if you’re a Divi user, you’ll be able to easily integrate your WordPress website with HubSpot to build your email list.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    Before we wrap up, let’s answer some of your most common questions regarding CRM software. Did we miss one? Leave a question below and we will respond!

    Article featured image by TaErma / Shutterstock.com

    The post 7 Best CRM Software Options for Your Business in 2023 (Compared) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • 5 Best WordPress Podcast Plugins in 2023

    Podcasting is big business. Everyone and their uncle and their uncle’s uncle has a podcast. The best way to succeed is for the right person at the right time to notice you. For a lot of people, that can mean showcasing your podcast on your website in a simple, non-intrusive way that invites and entices your audience to press that Play button. With these WordPress podcast plugins, we think you will have the best chance of that happening while enhancing your users’ experience all around.

    Subscribe To Our Youtube Channel

    Why Would You Need a Podcast Plugin?

    A podcast plugin can be a valuable asset for anyone looking to create and promote a podcast on their WordPress website. By simplifying the process of publishing podcasts, a podcast plugin can save time and effort for podcasters while improving the listening experience for their audience.

    With a good podcast plugin, podcasters can easily create and schedule episodes, making it easier to keep their content organized and on schedule. In addition, many podcast plugins offer built-in social sharing tools, allowing podcasters to easily promote their content on popular social media platforms.

    Moreover, podcast plugins often come with email opt-in forms, which enable podcasters to collect email addresses from their listeners and grow their email list. This can be a powerful tool for building and nurturing relationships with listeners and promoting new episodes.

    Best Podcast Plugins for WordPress

    To be ranked among the best, a podcast plugin should provide podcasters with the ability to easily and effectively create, publish, and promote their podcasts. Our top five podcast plugins offer a range of features, including customizable options, integrations, and analytics, among others. In addition to these features, we also considered factors such as reviews, longevity, and the number of installs when ranking these plugins.

    So without delay, let’s dive in.

    1. Blubrry PowerPress

    blubrry powerpress podcast plugin

    Blubrry PowerPress is probably the number one podcasting plugin for WordPress based on name recognition alone. On top of that, it is also one of the best WordPress podcasting plugins in terms of reliability and feature sets, as well as how easy it is to set it up. So in every way possible, PowerPress earns the top spot in our list. Whether you’re a Blubrry paid member or just use their free membership, you can make use of this plugin, so don’t worry if your podcasting budget is either nonexistent or if you’re using a different host.

    podcast seo with powerpress

    A major benefit to using PowerPress is the built-in SEO settings, where it sets up your podcast posts in much the same way that plugins like RankMath and Yoast SEO do for your typical WordPress posts. Blubrry PowerPress will handle your schema and adjust your RSS feed prefixes and episode metadata, meaning that listeners will be able to come across your podcast episodes and posts more easily via a search engine.

    different podcast players

    One of the major draws to PowerPress these days is its inclusion of multiple podcast players. Whether you use audio or video to deliver your podcast, this WordPress plugin has you covered. With their audio options, you can choose between a plain, no-frills player or a robust, rich player that lets users see your show notes, download the episode, and even subscribe to various services right on your WordPress site. In terms of video, PowerPress offers much, too. Whether you host the video locally on your server, on your Blubrry account, or even on YouTube, you can use their dedicated player to get your content out.

    Key Features for Blubrry PowerPress:

    • Multiple player styles and options
    • Simple media import
    • Use with most podcast hosts, not just Blubrry
    • Great podcast SEO settings

    Price: FREE, with premium plans starting at $10 per month (billed annually).

    Get Blubrry PowerPress

    2. Fusebox Podcast Player

    wordpress podcast plugin player

    Formerly known as the Smart Podcast Player, Fusebox is the evolution of not only the player but also the business model. This is a premium plugin that you’ll need to pay for to get the most features. You can use it for free in a limited capacity which is pretty perfect for smaller shows. The free version of the plugin allows for up to 10k listens for up to 3 different shows. So if you’re not averaging more than that per month, you can get a lot of mileage out of the free version.

    podcast player by fusebox fm

    The best feature about using the Fusebox podcast plugin on your WordPress site is the enormous amount of customization that you get, even in the free version. You can choose brand colors, and the episode artwork, whether or not the listeners can download the episode, share it, or subscribe. You even get to choose if your listeners can speed up their listening (the answer is always yes).

    Key Features for Fusebox Podcast Player:

    • up to 10k listens per month for up to 3 shows for free
    • up to 100k listens per show with premium
    • fully customizable player
    • sticky, archive, or individual track players available
    • fast-loading and visually striking

    Price: FREE with premium upgrade starting at $7.50 per month (billed annually).

    Get Fusebox Podcast Player

    3. Seriously Simple Podcasting

    seriously simple podcasting plugin for wordpress

    Deserving of its name, Seriously Simple Podcasting by Castos provides users with a no-nonsense way to post their podcasts to the public. Castos offers its own podcast hosting service. But this plugin is designed to make any podcaster’s life easier, hosting platform agnostic.

    seriously simple podcasting extensions

    Part of this ease of use comes through its extensions and add-ons. Users can access transcripts and statistics for the service with just a few clicks. Plus you can set up different hosts for different posts (or guests), and while the podcast plugin works with any WordPress theme, Castos does have a Genesis extension to ease StudioPress users into usage.

    We also have a full rundown of the Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin if you’re interested in seeing a more in-depth look at how it works.

    Key Features for Seriously Simple Podcasting:

    • Complete control over podcast post categorization and descriptions
    • Can be used to podcast from your WordPress dashboard or simply let users listen there
    • Manage multiple podcast series and create multiple feeds using the plugin
    • Individual selection of where your podcast is distributed

    Price: FREE, with premium licenses starting at $19 per month.

    Get Seriously Simple Podcasting

    4. SimplePodcastPress

    SimplePodcastPress plugin

    SimplePodcastPress is a premium podcasting solution for WordPress. While there isn’t a free version of the plugin, you’ll find that the features included are worth the cost. It comes with a customizable audio player that can be embedded in your website or blog post, allowing your listeners to listen to your podcast directly from your site.

    SimplePodcastPress demo

    Plus, social sharing buttons make it easy for your listeners to share your podcast on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Additionally, it provides a built-in email opt-in form that integrates with popular email providers and can be used to collect email addresses from your listeners. Another great feature is the ability to add timestamps to your podcast episodes, providing your listeners with a convenient way to jump to a desired point in your podcast.

    Moreover, it provides detailed analytics and statistics about your podcast, including the number of plays and downloads, as well as engagement metrics like social shares and email opt-ins. It integrates with popular podcast hosting platforms like Libsyn, Blubrry, and Podbean, making it easy to manage and publish your podcast episodes directly from your WordPress site.

    Key Features for SimplePodcastPress:

    • Display iTunes reviews on any page or sidebar
    • Clickable timestamps for easy audio navigation
    • Create playlists
    • Collapsible space-saving transcripts
    • Create Tweets from podcasts with one click
    • Email optin integration with MailChimp and other email providers
    • Custom styling to match your branding

    Price: Premium licenses start at $67 per year.

    Get SimplePodcastPress

    5. Podlove Podcast Publisher

    Podlove Podcast Publisher

    Podlove deserves all the pod love it can get. A delightfully simple plugin (or rather, plugins), Podlove can be used to publish your content or simply use their player to listen. The Podlove Publisher plugin is what you use to get your audio into your users’ feeds. You can also use it to get your video there, too. The Publisher plugin comes bundled with the Web Player plugin, which is a clean and lightweight HTML5 player that you can use to display any feed content you want, no matter where it’s hosted.

    wordpress podacst plugin web player

    Podlove offers plenty of customization options. In the backend, you can go with any default options or you can head into Expert Settings and configure items like combining your blog and podcast feeds (on your site, that is). You can set podcast landing pages and decide on a permalink structure for your episodes. (And it can be different from your blogs!)

    podlove options

    On top of that, the web player is compatible with the Gutenberg block editor, so no matter how you build your site, your podcast can be displayed anywhere.

    Key Features for Podlove Podcast Publisher:

    • Gutenberg block editor integration
    • Use the web player separately from the publishing plugin
    • Player supports WebM, MP3, MP4, AAC, H.264, and more file formats for audio and video
    • Publish in multiple formats so your listeners and viewers get the content delivered in the way that works best for them

    Price: FREE

    Get Podlove Podcast Publisher

    Final Thoughts on WordPress Podcasting Plugins

    The podcasting industry is only going to continue to grow. If you have your own show (or shows), these podcasting plugins are definitely the top ways to integrate that content with your WordPress website. Whether you host and publish externally or right within your WP dashboard, we have an option for you.

    Plugin Price Free Option
    🥇 Blubrry PowerPress Free, $10 per month (billed annually) ✔️ Visit
    🥈 Fusebox Podcast Player Free, $7.50 per mont (billed annually) ✔️ Visit
    🥉 Seriously Simple Podcasting Free, $19 per month ✔️ Visit
    4 SimplePodcastPress $67 per year ❌ Visit
    5 Podlove Podcast Publisher Free ✔️ Visit

    As for our top pick, you can’t get any better than Blubrry PowerPress. It’s easy to install, set up, and customize, making it an excellent choice for beginners or those who do not want to spend a lot of time on the technical aspects of podcasting. Plus, easy to share your episodes with easy social media sharing options.

    What is your favorite WordPress podcasting plugin?

    Article featured image illustration by lenapolll / shutterstock.com

    The post 5 Best WordPress Podcast Plugins in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WordPress vs Weebly (2023) — Which Is Better?

    Website builders are everywhere these days. WordPress is the dominant platform with well over 1/3 of the internet having been built with it. A slew of other site builders has popped up to demand their fair share of the market though. One of the big players is Weebly, a free service that made a name for itself by being fast, reliable, and easy to use. Square is one of the top e-commerce payment gateways. They bought Weebly to use as an e-commerce platform. They can give WordPress a run for its money. But what features make each platform uniquely appealing? To assist you in determining which is more suitable for your business, we will compare WordPress vs Weebly.

    WordPress vs Weebly: Who Are They For?

    To be a little hyperbolic, WordPress is for everyone. What we mean is that no matter what kind of site you want to run, WordPress can create it. From portfolios to e-commerce shops to prolific magazines, WordPress has the capability and features to make it happen. The catch is that because it can do nearly anything, the setup can be a little more difficult. You, as a site owner, need to either hire a developer or find the plugins, themes, and features you need for your site, yourself. But if you can dream it, WordPress can do it. There is room for beginners and coders in the WP space.

    Weebly, on the other hand, started as a quick-and-easy builder that gave users fast access to static/informational sites, and it has since been acquired by Square and become an incredibly robust e-commerce platform. While the platform can still function as a quick-and-easy free website for you, the focus has shifted to being an e-commerce platform that has a full range of features built right in. If your main goal is to get an e-commerce site up and running as quickly as possible, Weebly may be what you’re looking for.

    Weebly Makes Building a Website Easy

    A major factor for anyone looking to build a website is how easy the platform is to learn and use daily. WordPress does not have the best new-user experience. But that has somewhat improved over the years. Weebly has always attracted users who wanted a nicely designed website. One that wasn’t hard to maintain, and Square’s acquisition hasn’t changed that at all. Both platforms are relatively easy to use, and each has quirks that make the learning curve about even between them.

    WordPress

    The hardest part about learning WordPress is figuring out where all of the options are located and what they do. To new users, learning what’s in Settings vs Tools vs Customize can be frustrating. Why are Menu options under Appearance? What’s the difference between the Theme Editor vs the Theme Customizer?

    These are very easy-to-solve frustrations, but the messaging for new users isn’t always clear. In terms of actual utility, using WordPress has never been easier. You create Posts and Pages using the new Gutenberg block editor. The new editor gives you drag-and-drop functionality for each element on the page. From images to paragraphs to lists and even rating stars, you have full control over each thing separate from everything else.

    WordPress vs Weebly page builder

    Editing the site and posts are incredibly easy, and as of WordPress 5.8, these blocks can also be used in nearly every editable space on your site. The ease with which you can customize WordPress has never been greater. Or easier.

    As we said, the dashboard can be a little confusing at times to navigate. However, you can overcome that with just a little use and practice. Additionally, themes such as Divi and plugins by companies such as 10Web can make the experience of using WordPress much easier to learn. It does, however, take external research or recommendations to find out which ones those are.

    Weebly

    Weebly is a fairly easy platform to use. Setting up your website and then running it on a day-to-day basis is pretty simple. Though there are some quirks with the software that put it on about equal footing to WordPress in terms of the learning curve.

    Weebly page editor

    The editor screen works almost exactly like the Gutenberg editor. You have different blocks available for elements such as text, images, lists, videos, and so on. (Some of these are available to premium users.) Editing each of these is a matter of clicking and selecting options from a pop-out.

    The quirkiness can come in with adding new top-level pages and product categories, blog posts, and individual products. The menus aren’t intuitive to use, but they’re not difficult to learn. To create a blog post, you will need to navigate to the blog feed page itself, edit it, and then press the New Post button.

    weebly blog post vs wordpress

    This isn’t hard or complicated, but when compared to WordPress and other blogging platforms, it’s pretty obtuse. On the other hand, consider that Weebly is not a blogging platform. In that context, the entire experience is easy to learn and use and is perfectly passable.

    WordPress Weebly
    Ease of Use Figuring out where the options are and what they do can take time. Learning what’s in Settings vs Tools vs Customizer can be difficult. 🥇 Winner

    Set up is easy, but adding top-level pages has a bit of a learning curve. That being said, it is a bit more user-friendly for beginners.
    Choose WordPress Choose Weebly

    When it Comes to eCommerce, Weebly Has the Edge

    WordPress has WooCommerce, a free e-commerce plugin that is used by hundreds of thousands of websites. Over time, an ecosystem of extensions and add-ons has sprung up around it, giving users access to any feature they could ever need. For example, companies such as Yith have a great list of plugins to expand WooCommerce capabilities. Weebly doesn’t need that level of ecosystem and plugin extensibility. It integrates fully with the Square e-commerce system. For quick setup and a few hassles, Weebly stores are great options. WordPress and WooCommerce are the better options for those who want the most customization and control over store options.

    WordPress

    Creating stores and adding products to WordPress using WooCommerce is a straightforward process. Installing the plugin adds new menu items to your WP admin dashboard. Creating a product and categorizing it is as easy as creating or editing a Post or creating a new Page. WooCommerce builds products on WordPress custom post types, which can be extended with plugins like Toolset. This can both help and hinder WP users because the process is known to them. The extra e-commerce meta boxes for product information does make things a bit more complex than before.

    WordPress vs Weebly eCommerce

    WooCommerce comes with various payment gateways by default, including EFT, PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, and the proprietary WooCommerce Payments. You can also purchase extensions that allow even more payment gateways to be used, including the Weebly-owner Square.

    WooCommerce payment gateways

    Some of these options are free, and some are premium. Using any and/or all of the options is up to the website owner. Which is going into one of WordPress’s most noteworthy features: freedom of customization.

    That customization and many options are also available to your product lineup. You can sell digital goods and physical merchandise from the beginning. If you want advanced analytics and in-depth management utilities, additional plugins or extensions may be necessary.

    Weebly

    Weebly, in stark contrast to WordPress, comes with all e-commerce tools built in because of its association with Square. We should note, however, that each of these options is not available to all users. Weebly restricts some behind different tiers of paid membership.

    Also, we want to note that while WooCommerce can be free, most users will be spending money on extensions and other costs. We have a complete rundown on what you can expect, and it is comparable to a paid membership with Weebly.

    WordPress vs Weebly products

    The strongest feature Weebly offers is that you can sell anything to anyone from the beginning. Even as a free user, you can populate your store with inventory. While some of the actual sales (such as for digital goods) are limited to paid users, you can get started with your site and store immediately. With WooCommerce and WordPress, you have to use different extensions to offer memberships, donations, and events.

    This inclusion, even for premium members only, makes using Weebly just a bit more accessible than WooCommerce. Users in WordPress would need to individually seek out methods to sell any additional product types.

    Weebly also has a much smoother interface for entering product information (as you can see above) than WordPress. This is because Square is actively developing Weebly as an e-commerce platform. WordPress is a CMS that can function as an e-commerce platform. In Weebly, products are their own thing, separate from blog posts and all other features. Learning how to use them may take more time for Weebly users. But in the end, they’re more intuitive than customizing WooCommerce products.

    Perhaps WooCommerce can be extended and eventually provide a more powerful and custom e-commerce experience. For those who want a no-hassle platform that’s relatively easy to learn, Weebly’s Square integration provides that.

    WordPress Weebly
    eCommerce WordPress is a CMS first, and an eCommerce platform only through extensions and plugins. 🥇 Winner

    You’re given everything you need to set up an eCommerce platform thanks to integration with Square.
    Choose WordPress Choose Weebly

    WordPress is King in Customization

    Both WordPress and Weebly use themes and layouts that change the design and apparent utility of the site. With WordPress that can go deep into the site’s code. With Weebly, though, it’s skin-deep and is based on how the information is presented. WordPress offers much more customization than is possible with Weebly in almost every way, but you do get a decent amount of choice with Weebly, similar to Squarespace in that it’s curated customization.

    WordPress

    Themes are the fundamental draw to WordPress. They give users the most control over their sites, offering both functionality and design. Some themes, such as Divi, come with page builders included so that editing your WordPress site can be as simple as using the block editor (or the Weebly builder itself, which is built around blocks and curated designs).

    You can find any number of free themes on the WordPress.org theme repository, as well as additional plugins on that repository, too. Both of these offer major customization. Some through design and layout, others through utility and additional features and function. Very few website platforms can compete with the total control (and ease of control) that WordPress gives its users.

    Weebly

    In terms of customization, Weebly users do have options. Just not as many as WordPress. There is a well-stocked theme repository of curated designs they can choose from. Many of them are optimized for e-commerce (again, a good thing because of Square’s integration).

    Weebly theme gallery

    They’re cleanly designed and put together. You should have no trouble customizing them. The options you get for each block and element are comparable to any basic page builder you could find in WordPress.

    wordpress vs weebly builder

    The downside is that some customization and elements are locked behind paid subscriptions. However, this is offset by taking into consideration that the most advanced page builders in WordPress are also premium subscriptions or licenses. If you’re a free user expecting full customization, however, that won’t be possible.

    Very little can compare to WordPress’s innate customization. However, Weebly competes well enough with WP that using its builder and having access to its options won’t feel cumbersome or a burden like some other builders.

    WordPress Weebly
    Customization 🥇 Winner

    WordPress shines with its unlimited customization options to make sites stand out from the crowd.

    		 There are a few themes to choose from, but Weebly is limited to those choices.
    Choose WordPress Choose Weebly

    WordPress vs Weebly Wrap Up

    In the end, Weebly is a very solid e-commerce platform but doesn’t have a lot of draw for people who want a blog or publishing website. If you need a fast, free, decently designed static website, sure. However, Weebly has very clearly moved toward targeting those who plan on selling things being the primary function of their website.

    WordPress comes in solid in this regard, too, simply because it was built as a blogging platform first and has since evolved into a CMS capable of most kinds of sites. With the sheer amount of customization options with plugins by third-party vendors such as Yith, Toolset, and 10Web, you simply can’t beat what WordPress can offer.

    But the WooCommerce and other e-commerce solutions can be a bit more cumbersome than using something like Weebly that is built for that specifically.

    WordPress Wix
    Ease of Use Figuring out where the options are and what they do can take time. Learning what’s in Settings vs Tools vs Customizer can be difficult. 🥇 Winner

    Set up is easy, but adding top-level pages has a bit of a learning curve. That being said, it is a bit more user-friendly for beginners.

    eCommerce WordPress is a CMS first, and an eCommerce platform only through extensions and plugins. 🥇 Winner

    You’re given everything you need to set up an eCommerce platform thanks to integration with Square.
    Customization 🥇 Winner

    WordPress shines with its unlimited customization options to make sites stand out from the crowd.

    		There are a few themes to choose from, but Weebly is limited to those choices.
    Choose WordPress Choose Weebly

    One more thing. Before you make your final decision on your website platform…are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs everything else so that you don’t have to!

    What have your experiences been with WordPress vs Weebly?

    The post WordPress vs Weebly (2023) — Which Is Better? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WordPress vs. Drupal (2023) — Which One is Better?

    You have a lot of options when it comes to deciding on a website platform. There’s Squarespace and Wix and Weebly and Joomla and WordPress and Drupal and…lots more. While that choice can be overwhelming, two of the main contenders for a content management system (CMS) for a lot of people seem to be WordPress vs Drupal. Both were released pretty concurrently around two decades ago, but WordPress was a blogging platform versus Drupal beginning its life as a CMS. Over time, WordPress has moved into overlapping a great deal with Drupal, and we want to help you choose between the two platforms by comparing them head-to-head.

    WordPress vs Drupal: Who are They For?

    When it comes to WordPress, the platform is easily accessible to anyone. Between the WordPress.com version where you can get a free site with limited functionality and a yoursite.wordpress.com domain, it takes very little effort to get started. Even the self-hosted WordPress.org that we’re going to be discussing in this article has a quick install from most hosting companies.

    Drupal hits this same demographic, only without the .com version. It’s a free, open-source platform like WordPress, and most hosting companies have a quick installer within their site tools. It’s very easy for anyone to get set up. But while WordPress’s interface and messaging help many new users acclimate to their new dashboard, Drupal doesn’t have great messaging.

    Both platforms, however, offer a modular experience that grants users the flexibility to create the site they want by extending features and design through plugins and add-ons. WordPress does this in a slightly more user-friendly way, while Drupal tends to be more aimed at users who are experienced in web design in some capacity.

    Which Platform is Easier to Use?

    Over the past few years, WordPress has come a long way in terms of user-friendly design and experience. Drupal, despite a lack of initial messaging on how to navigate and make use of the platform, has a fairly low learning curve for anyone who has a bit of experience administrating a website backend.

    WordPress

    Learning WordPress is much easier than it once was. With the plethora of blogs and tutorials out there, users who are confused about any aspect can learn quickly and easily about any topic. This is great because when opening up the dashboard for the very first time might be a tad overwhelming.

    In general, the dashboard is easy to navigate and relatively self-explanatory. However, it can take some time to get a feel for where things are and under which heading certain settings and options live. It can be a little frustrating to figure out which settings are under the Settings tab, which functions live under Tools, which options are in the Theme Customizer and which are contained within the theme or plugin settings themselves.

    Eventually, those confusions work themselves out as you use the platform. But on initial use, you might occasionally be a little flustered.

    Of course, the real question regarding WordPress’s ease of use is dependent on what kind of site you intend to create. Because WordPress can create any kind of site, the theme and plugin suite you choose will drastically affect usability. If you use WooCommerce, lots of extensions, and various forums and user-management plugins to run a membership site, your learning curve and ease of use dramatically increase over a more simplified website focused on simple content creation.

    For the most part, though, WordPress has a low-to-moderate learning curve and even those without lots of technical expertise can find user-friendly themes and plugins to walk them through the process of creating and managing their sites.

    Drupal

    Users just get kind of dropped into Drupal. Luckily, the interface is rather intuitive and well-labeled, though there is no initial messaging on where to go to begin.

    wordpress vs drupal dashboard

    However, even from the first time you log in, there are Add Content links. And, like WordPress, a menu invites you to Extend via modules and customize with different themes. Users have access to the Structure tab. This solves one of WordPress’s biggest stepping stones for new users. It consolidates the various options and settings for site construction in one place instead of having them spread out and compartmentalized.

    The downside to this consolidation is that using any of these settings is a bit more technical than in WordPress. If you’re coming into Drupal with no web experience, both the interface and terminology used can be a little off-putting. However, if you’re used to various web admin back-ends, learning and using Drupal is a big step up from other platforms such as Joomla.

    WordPress Drupal
    Ease of Use 🥇 Winner

    WordPress has a low-to-moderate learning curve and even those without lots of technical expertise can good tutorials to help them along the way.

    		 If you’re coming into Drupal with no web experience, both the interface and terminology used can be a little off-putting.
    Choose WordPress Choose Drupal

    WordPress Allows for Ultimate Customization

    Everyone wants a nice-looking website. That goes without saying. So the customization options for design are something to take into consideration when looking at WordPress vs Drupal. You also have to think about the customization of features, too. And how easily you can create, launch, and then modify the kind of site that you want. Be that publishing, e-commerce, membership, or anything else you might need.

    WordPress

    WordPress vs Drupal is about customization from the ground up. With plugins being a major part of adding features and design elements, you can create (or download and install) all features your website could ever need. Additionally, the theme-based structure for design gives designers and developers free rein on their creations.

    With the whole industry having sprung up around the plugins and themes in WordPress, you can be sure that someone has created the perfect theme and plugin for you. You just have to find it. Some of them are free (or freemium) through the WordPress repository, while others are premium products you can license directly from the developers or through marketplaces like Divi Marketplace.

    Either way, there are no limitations in the WordPress world. Users with zero technical experience can create amazingly designed websites using page builder themes/plugins like Divi and add any functionality they can think of through plugins like WooCommerce, Paid Memberships Pro, GiveWP, PublishPress, GamiPress, or literally thousands of others.

    Drupal

    Like WordPress, Drupal is a modular CMS that relies on external developers to help provide what users need. With that in mind, it’s incredibly easy for users of pretty much any skill level to extend Drupal to fit their needs.

    wordpress vs drupal extend

    With a large Add New Module button dead center of the page that takes you directly to the Modules tab in the extension library, Drupal makes it easy on you to find what you need.

    wordpress vs drupal customize

    The Themes tab is directly beside the one for Modules, and it works in much the same way. The themes that developers have created for Drupal are great, but many of them do require a lot of technical knowledge of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML to get in and make them shine. While page builders and drag-and-drop editors are becoming standard among WordPress sites, Drupal themes generally take a more manual process.

    That said, the installation process is the same for both WP and Drupal. You download an archive file, go back to the dashboard, upload it, and activate it. You can’t do this automatically from the repository in Drupal, but if you’re a command line user, each page has an installation command you can paste in using Composer.

    It comes down to how comfortable you are with the design and knowing what you need for your site. If you go in with a clear design and functionality plan, Drupal is pretty simple to handle. But if you’re piecing it together as you go, the interfaces and community in WordPress may be better suited for you.

    WordPress Drupal
    Customizations 🥇 Winner

    There are no limitations in the WordPress world. Users with zero technical experience can create amazingly designed websites using page builder themes/plugins like Divi.

    		 Drupal requires quite a bit of CSS, JS, and HTML to truly customize it. If you’re piecing it together as you go, the interfaces and community in WordPress may be better suited for you.
    Choose WordPress Choose Drupal

    WordPress Publishing is Unmatched

    You can’t have a website without content. And in some way or another, you’re going to be creating content for your website. Even the most barebones sites have pages and pages of content that has to get there somehow. WordPress always has an advantage in publishing content because of its roots as a blogging platform. However, Drupal isn’t that far behind because of how easy and well-designed the publishing tools are.

    WordPress

    WordPress vs Drupal is all about publishing. Over the past few years, the buzzwords from Automattic and the WordPress foundation have been “democratizing publishing,” which pretty much sums up their stance. While WP is absolutely a capable and well-crafted CMS that can handle any sort of site, all the functionality used on those sites comes down to being based on posts and pages.

    Publishing in WordPress, be it a post or a page, or even a product in your e-commerce store, comes down to using either the Classic Editor or the Block Editor and any number of meta-boxes and custom fields in a custom post type. All of which can be extended with the help of plugins such as Toolset.

    Additionally, you can separate and categorize your content in WordPress using parent/child taxonomies and tags. No matter how you want to display your content, you can. Different themes such as Divi, come with the ability to create templates, too, so you can often set your content to look different based on what focus it has. You might have specific templates for posts with audio or video players, for instance.

    And the publishing options only expand when you introduce advanced themes and plugins. It’s very hard to get lost in publishing with WordPress because it is very simple. That said, the Block Editor that comes in WordPress by default after version 5.0 is not a WYSIWYG editor with an interface like a word processor. That is a bit of a bump in the publishing workflow until you figure out how it works.

    wordpress vs drupal

    After that, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

    Drupal

    Drupal uses a WYSIWYG editor for its content, and it works great. You will find a Content menu item in the main dashboard. The next page is well-messaged. and you know exactly what kinds of content you can make. The same as WordPress: posts and pages.

    wordpress vs drupal

    The editing pages are clean and concise, and writing content is no problem. We ran into no issues in pasting from Google Docs, either, which can be a pain in WordPress.

    drupal 10 page editor wordpress vs drupal

    All of your options are available on one screen, and they’re easily navigable. If you need to customize the categories and taxonomies on your site, you can do that under the Structure menu, as we mentioned above.

    Drupal’s publishing tools are less-advanced than WordPress. WP makes creating specialized and highly formatted content a cinch. But Drupal gives you a quick, clean, and painless writing and publishing experience. And that means a lot.

    WordPress vs Drupal Publishing Comparison

    WordPress Drupal
    Publishing 🥇 Winner

    The Block Editor that comes in WordPress by default after version 5.0 is not as simple as the classic editor, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll find it to be very powerful.

    		 Drupal gives you a quick, clean, and painless writing and publishing experience. However, it’s not nearly as advanced as the block editor in WordPress.
    Choose WordPress Choose Drupal

    WordPress and Drupal Alternatives

    Before you make your final decision on your website platform…are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs everything else so that you don’t have to! One of those posts compares WordPress vs Wix, and I think you will be interested to see the results!

    So Which Platform is Better?

    WordPress vs Drupal is beginner-friendly, with a less steep learning curve and user-friendly tools. It offers many options for customization, with themes like Divi and plugins like Toolset, and is a powerful SEO platform, especially with tools like Rank Math.

    WordPress Drupal
    Ease of use 🥇 Winner

    WordPress has a low-to-moderate learning curve and even those without lots of technical expertise can good tutorials to help them along the way.

    		 If you’re coming into Drupal with no web experience, both the interface and terminology used can be a little off-putting.
    Customization 🥇 Winner

    There are no limitations in the WordPress world. Users with zero technical experience can create amazingly designed websites using page builder themes/plugins like Divi.

    		 Drupal requires quite a bit of CSS, JS, and HTML to truly customize it. If you’re piecing it together as you go, the interfaces and community in WordPress may be better suited for you.
    Publishing 🥇 Winner

    The Block Editor that comes in WordPress by default after version 5.0 is not as simple as the classic editor, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll find it to be very powerful.

    		 Drupal gives you a quick, clean, and painless writing and publishing experience. However, it’s not nearly as advanced as the block editor in WordPress.
    Choose WordPress Choose Drupal

    Drupal has a steeper learning curve due to its technical nature, but experienced website managers should find it easy to use. It requires more design and development skills than WordPress but has a powerful platform that can meet your needs with the right expertise.

    The post WordPress vs. Drupal (2023) — Which One is Better? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (2023) — Which One to Pick?

    WordPress now makes up well over 1/3 of all internet sites. That’s a lot of websites. However, when we say “WordPress,” that could mean more than one thing. The base WordPress software is the same. But when you decide between WordPress.org vs WordPress.com, you are choosing a very specific set of features over another. While WordPress itself doesn’t change, the day-to-day usage can be pretty different. We want to walk you through both sides of WP so that you can decide which version works best for you and your site.

    Subscribe To Our Youtube Channel

    What is WordPress?

    First off, let’s take a look at WordPress itself. Many see WordPress as a blogging platform, and it is. But over the past couple of decades, it has also become a full content management system (CMS) that can manage every kind of site you could want. Even if you’re not writing and publishing content regularly, you can still easily use WordPress for your website. As a landing page, portfolio, learning management system (LMS), membership site, or even an ecommerce shop.

    wordpress.com vs wordpress.org features

    In a nutshell (an admittedly big one), WordPress does a lot of things.

    WordPress Features, Perks, and Details:

    • It is open-source software, through the GPL license, and receives consistent and regular updates that add new features and polish and enhance old ones.
    • Simple-to-use interface, both as an administrator and content creator.
    • The Gutenberg block editor is intuitive and allows full-site customization immediately on installation.
      • Additionally, content can be designed around various structures. Custom post types, possess unique metadata, various taxonomies, and more. These allow for impressive organization.
    • WordPress is a full CMS:
      • Content creation (blogging, podcasting, video, streaming, etc.)
      • Static landing pages
      • Media management
      • User management built into the base software which can be utilized for membership sites or e-commerce shops.
    • The WordPress themes system gives 100% customization of every aspect of your site.
    • Themes do more than just alter the design, but also add and adjust functionality.
      • Thousands of free and premium themes (such as Divi) out there for you to choose from, many available and hosted by WordPress itself.
    • WP can be hosted anywhere. It is near-universally supported by web hosts, with some excellent choices including Pressable and WPEngine.
    • WordPress domain and URL customization within the dashboard
    • Built for speed and page-load times
    • Custom widgets provide page-by-page customization in almost any area such as sidebars, footers, and headers.
    • WordPress is extensible, meaning that anyone can create a plugin to hook into the CMS and add a feature or change how something works.
    • Developers can do so much through the WordPress APIs, from the REST API to HTTP requests, URL routing, and MySQL databases, WordPress is ready for translation, user management, data manipulation, and whatever features they can dream up.

    Don’t Forget the People!

    On top of all the technical things that WordPress can do, the community that surrounds the software is tight-knit and welcoming. You can attend WordCamps to learn about it, go to Meetups in your town, or even just participate in social media groups and forums to meet people who can help you, work with you, and even become your friends.

    You get all of these with both versions of WordPress. With all that in mind, both technical and social, let’s look at WordPress.org vs WordPress.com individually to consider their strengths and weaknesses.

    WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Pricing

    WordPress.com offers a variety of plans, ranging from a free plan with basic features to a business plan with advanced features. The free plan allows you to create a website with limited features and includes a WordPress.com subdomain. The paid plans range in price from roughly $4 per month (billed annually) for a personal plan to $45 per month for an e-commerce plan. The more expensive plans offer more advanced features and customization options.

    With WordPress.org, the cost of web hosting can vary depending on the provider and the plan you choose. For example, some popular hosting providers like SiteGround and Green Geeks offer starter WordPress plans that start at $2.95 per month, while other premium providers like WPEngine might start at $20 per month.

    Additionally, you will need to pay for a domain name, which typically costs around $10 to $15 per year. Providers such as GoDaddy and HostGator offer both domains and hosting plans, but it’s generally recommended that you purchase a domain separately from a provider such as NameCheap.

    By purchasing your domain from a separate domain registrar, you can have more control over your domain and avoid potential issues that may arise from having your domain and hosting with the same provider. Additionally, using a separate domain registrar may give you more flexibility to switch web hosting providers in the future, without having to transfer your domain to a new provider.

    WordPress.com WordPress.org
    Hosting $4-45 per month $2 – $20 per month for starter plans
    Domain FREE $10-$15 per year

    What is WordPress.org?

    WordPress.org is very likely the software you mean when discussing generic “WordPress.” The version put out by .org is the self-hosted, independent, open-source version of the WordPress CMS.

    wordpress.com vs wordpress.org

    Backed by The WordPress Foundation, WordPress.org is free to install and use in whatever way you see fit. Obviously, there are some catches to that, but if you want to use WordPress in its most open and available way possible, head to WordPress.org and download it.

    You may also see the .org version of WordPress referred to as “self-hosted WordPress,” meaning that the software itself is free, but as previously mentioned, you must have a web host (such as SiteGround or Flywheel) to install it on. (Technically, you can run WP on your local machine, too, but that’s generally done for development and troubleshooting.)

    The Pros for WordPress.org Installations

    There are quite a few drawbacks to WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. The biggest and most prominent benefit of using .org installations of WordPress come with the total freedom to do what you want. Outside of your hosting provider, you are not bound by any terms of service, content limitations, or what kinds of development, themes, or plugins you can use on your site.

    You always own your content, too. You do not grant any services or platforms even the slightest consideration for what you write or put up. The absolute freedom of building and content production is the hallmark of WordPress and was one of the reasons it was created and released as open-source software.

    As we mentioned, you can use any theme, and any plugin, and do any kind of development that you want on your site. With WordPress.com (which we will get to below), you are limited to using approved plugins and themes, meaning that the freedom to have exactly the site that you want is impossible. You can get the exact site you want with .com, but you have to pay for the ability piecemeal. That isn’t the case with .org installations.

    Additionally, you can run any ads you want on your site, use any sort of monetization you want, paywall anything you desire, and sell any kind of products in your WooCommerce store. Only the terms of use for the ad networks and services you choose to use will limit what you can and can’t do.

    The Cons for WordPress.org Installations

    As with anything, there are downsides to WordPress.org installations, too. The most prominent of which is that same freedom that is its primary draw. By being fully in control of your site, you are also fully in control of maintenance, purchase of themes and plugins, additional development, and any hosting issues that might come up.

    Additionally, you have to sort through web hosts, making sure that the one you choose offers everything you need. (For instance, Pressable is a fantastic host for WordPress, but they don’t offer email service.)

    PROS CONS
    FREE to use Must maintain on your own
    Self-hosted Premium themes and plugins cost extra $$$
    Freedom to choose plugins, themes, and hosting provider Sift through choices of hosting provider
    Owning your content May have to pay for domain
    Paywall content
    Host ads, sell unlimited products

    Who is WordPress.org For?

    WordPress.org is for anyone who wants a website. Really. If you want a website of any sort, WordPress.org can create it for you. With full freedom and ownership of your site, design, and content, there is no reason not to give it a shot. With having responsibility for your site one of the only real drawbacks to using WordPress.org, it is a fantastic option for anyone who wants a website.

    What is WordPress.com?

    wordpress.com vs wordpress.org

    To start with, WordPress.org vs WordPress.com is comparing software to a service/platform. WordPress.com is a free website service, not a free website software like .org. You don’t have to download anything or install it. You sign up for an account and create a site that is hosted by WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, where self-hosting is required. To do so is free. You will be given a choice of templates and suggested plugins and a yoursite.wordpress.com URL.

    Essentially, everything is handled for you from the moment you sign up. Which, like .org‘s freedom, is .com‘s primary benefit and detriment.

    The Pros of a WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Website

    If you’re looking for a free, no-frills, no-hassle website, WordPress.com vs WordPress.org can give you that. From the moment you sign up, you’re walked through the process of setting up the site. Pick a name and URL and theme. Then you’re free to start publishing content immediately.

    You don’t have to find a host because WordPress.com is your host. They give you a decent, albeit limited, amount of space per site (3 GB) before requiring you to pay for a plan. If you are looking for a 100% free site where you can get started from nothing in essentially moments, you can do that here. No hosting costs, and no domain registration, just sign up and go.

    They also handle backups and maintenance and upgrades for you. Meaning that you won’t have to worry about your site getting security holes in it from not having X, Y, or Z plugin at its newest version.

    The hosting is the same that powers Pressable, and it’s top-notch. You won’t have to worry about your site’s stability when using WordPress.com.

    The Cons of a WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Website

    The limitations that come with a WordPress.com vs WordPress.org site tend to be the main things that drive people away from the platform. Because .com is a platform and not just software, the company that runs it (Automattic) is out to make a profit. So like any free service on the internet, you only get the most basic elements for free.

    If you want a custom URL (mysite.com instead of mysite.wordpress.com), you have to pay extra. To use any theme you want (from their approved list), you have to pay extra. Same for plugins. Want a run an e-commerce site? Yup, upgrade your plan. Do you see the pattern here?

    WordPress.com also shows ads on your site and doesn’t pay you for them. At least, if you’re a free member. The saying “if you’re not paying for a product, you are the product” holds very true here. Automattic definitely profits off your use of their service, whether you pay or not. (And in this case, at the expense of your users’ experiences.)

    You cannot use external services such as Google Analytics or Google AdSense, but you can apply for their proprietary ad system and use Jetpack stats. Unless, of course, you upgrade to a higher plan.

    And finally, you are bound by the WordPress.com EULA and ToS. Which means that they have the right to do with your site what they want. While you own the content there, they may choose to use it in advertising. And if they decide your content violates their terms, they can take your site offline without your consent (or knowledge, sometimes).

    Who is WordPress.com For?

    In its free version, WordPress.com websites are for people who want a no-frills publishing experience that doesn’t require any upkeep. Using the .com version of WordPress means that you can get your work out to the world with zero upfront cost and very little effort and almost no maintenance.

    If you need a temporary site or a demo or just a place to blog as a diary/journal, .com can certainly be what you want.

    Also, WordPress.com is an option for people who run high-revenue businesses and high-traffic sites who also want a hassle-free experience. The WordPress.com VIP packages (starting at $2,000 per month) are about as hands-off as any website can get that’s WordPress-based, but it’s priced out of nearly everyone’s reach. The VIP portion of WordPress.com is targeting Fortune 500-level companies, not every other person who needs a free website for a bit.

    PROS CONS
    FREE to use Only basic elements are free
    Easy set up Certain plugins are prohibited
    Hosting is provided Ads are shown that you don’t get paid for
    Free domain Custom domain costs extra
    JetPack provided No Google Analytics integration
    Security is provided You don’t own your content

    WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Alternatives

    If you are interested in checking out alternatives to WordPress.com or WordPress.org, check out our comparison of WordPress vs HighLevel, WordPress vs Wix, and WordPress vs Weebly. They are all somewhat similar to WordPress and can give you insiintot on comparable platforms for your consideration.

    The Verdict: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

    Overall, our verdict is that WordPress.org is by far the superior product. While you do have a little more to handle on your end as a site owner and user, the freedom you get (for free) is just too much of an incentive. Not being upsold to use whatever plugins or themes you want (even if you’ve purchased them) alone is worth using .org.

    WordPress.com WordPress.org
    Pricing Free – $45 per month Free + hosting fee
    Domain Free $10 – $15 per year
    Monetization allowed Selling products, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts and ads visible on site Unlimited
    Allows plugins With business or eCommerce plans Yes
    Own your own content No Yes
    Google Analytics With premium plan and above Yes
    Backup and storage Yes With plugin
    eCommerce Must purchase premium plan With plugin
    WordPress.com WordPress.org

    WordPress.com is an absolutely solid platform. If you decide to host your website through their service, it will be stable, easy to use, and it will have very little trouble. But if you want anything else, it will cost you. If you have the budget for it and don’t want the responsibility, consider a .com site. However, even though you have to pay separately for .org hosting, the cost is generally lower and you can run more sites than just one on that hosting service.

    In the end, whether you go with WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, you still get to use WordPress. And that’s a win, no matter which side you’re on.

    What are your thoughts on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org? Let us know in the comments!

    The post WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (2023) — Which One to Pick? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WordPress vs Tumblr (2023) — Which One is The Best?

    On the surface, the blogging platform landscape looks the same as it did 10 years ago. The same big names still dominate it: Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress. Beneath the surface, however, almost everything has changed. All three platforms have grown up and transformed into something unique.

    WordPress has outgrown its blogging roots and has become the dominant content management system and website-building software on the web. It’s largely considered the platform for “serious” bloggers and website owners. Blogger (a free Google add-on service) has remained focused strictly on facilitating the act of blogging. It continues to target a general audience who wants a free and extremely easy way to publish blog posts. One that requires the bare minimum of technical know-how. As a result, it remains popular with that audience. Tumblr, on the other hand, has had a more interesting journey.

    Tumblr’s Content and Monetization Woes

    When it launched in 2007, Tumblr was more than a blogging platform. It was a blogging platform designed for a specific type of blogging called tumblelogging or microblogging. Much like Twitter with “tweets”, the unique formatting of Tumblr posts and feeds is essential to the experience.  Tumblr was both hosted and free, which meant monetization was tied to how people behaved once on the platform. This is instead of charging users for access to it or features/content on it.

    Naturally, advertising was meant to make all this possible. And at first, it did. Unfortunately, liability around adult content forced a tug-of-war between advertisers, Tumblr, and Tumblr users that would nearly destroy the platform.

    The content policy demand made it impossible for some of Tumblr’s most active users to keep content on the platform. This triggered a mass exit of users. Tumblr’s value plummeted, and it changed hands from Yahoo!, which had purchased it in 2013, to Verizon Communications in 2017, when they acquired Yahoo! After a few lackluster years as part of Verizon, Tumblr was sold again in 2019. This time to none other than Automattic, the company behind their direct competitor, WordPress.com.

    The Repercussions of Tumblr’s Acquisition by Automattic

    In a very real sense, the acquisition of Tumblr by Automattic meant the end of Tumblr as an active competitor in the blogging arena. However, it also seems to have meant the salvation of a type of blogging experience that only Tumblr provides. Up to a point at least.

    Right now, there is no plan to roll back the “no adult content” policy originally implemented under Yahoo!. However, there are other changes ahead that may cure the platform’s monetization woes and allow it to become more valuable for its remaining users.

    The long-term plan for Tumblr seems to be for Automattic to convert the backend of Tumblr to WordPress while maintaining the unique user experience Tumblr has already established. While this may seem like a change designed to make things easier on the parent company, what this actually means is that all of the ways WordPress.com has been able to monetize over the years will be available to the Tumblr platform. It is unlikely to result in Tumblr becoming a market share competitor of WordPress in terms of blogs or websites, but it will make the long-term viability of tumblelogging a reality for users and content consumers who prefer that experience.

    WordPress vs. Tumblr: as Blogging Platforms

    In this article, we’ll be comparing WordPress and Tumblr in a slightly different light than we might normally compare competing companies. Since they’re both owned by Automattic, they’re no longer competitors but rather complimentary products that offer different user experiences. We’ll do our best to highlight those differences so you can choose the best platform for your blog.

    WordPress vs. Tumblr: Ease of Use

    When looking for blogging software that you will be using regularly, making sure that you like (or at least don’t mind) how it feels is pretty important. Both Tumblr and WordPress have drastically different user experiences (UX), but outside of their individual quirks and unique features, neither platform has a terribly high learning curve.

    WordPress

    Learning WordPress can be intimidating. While the world’s #1 CMS is decently user-friendly, the learning curve is somewhere in the middle. The user interface (UI) is functional but not always intuitive. And the number of features at your disposal from the beginning can be overwhelming (especially with onboarding messaging being pretty sparse).

    However, after some trial, error, and various Google searches, you will be flying through the WordPress admin dashboard like a pro.

    The post editor for WordPress has changed over the years, but the most recent version is the Gutenberg Block Editor. It gives you full control of your content, with each element being its own block that you can manipulate individually.

    wordpress vs tumblr

    You can also adjust the Post Format in the right sidebar, which will alter the composition and design of your post to adequately match whether it is primarily an audio post, video, gallery, and so on.

    wordpress vs tumblr post format

    Keep in mind, however, that because of the ultra-customizable nature of WordPress, these post formats will differ based on the theme you have chosen. Some themes may use the video in place of the featured image or use a pre-styled audio player. Some themes may not even make use of this feature, meaning every post uses the same template regardless.

    All of this to say, once you learn how to use WordPress to create the content that you want and find the right theme for your style of content, the creation is a breeze. You get tons of control, and as many options as your theme and plugin setup allow for. But it comes at the price of a slightly cumbersome dashboard that takes a bit of time to get used to.

    Tumblr

    Tumblr, on the other hand, is the epitome of intuitive. From the moment you log into your dashboard, the options for publishing are all right there. While the editor and platform may be a bit less powerful overall than WordPress, the ease of use and learning curve are certainly better.

    wordpress vs tumblr dashboard

    Because Tumblr is as much a social network as it is blogging software, the top nav bar contains notifications and messaging links. As well as a New Post button. And just below that, a series of icons gives you immediate access to each kind of post that you can make. It doesn’t get a lot easier than that, really.

    For a head-to-head comparison, the text-post editor in Tumblr is much simpler than the one in WordPress. It can’t do quite everything the WP editor can, though.

    tumblr post editor

    That said, you can do a lot with a simple Tumblr post. In the image below, you can see each paragraph is separate, images are put in-line, and then each new line break has the full media insertion list of icons, where you can also include audio, video, links, etc. in the post.

    wordpress vs tumblr editor

    This is the traditional blog post creation. Notice at the bottom where it says #add tags. This is where you would choose the tags that allow the post to show up in other people’s feeds. Maybe the steepest learning curve on Tumblr is figuring out the right tags to meet the right people. And how to reblog and become a part of the community. But the actual act of doing so is easy to do.

    WordPress Tumblr
    Ease of Use WordPress can take some time to learn, plus the seemingly endless features might be overwhelming at first. 🥇 Winner
    Tumblr is ultra intuitive, anyone with experience with social media will be able to pick it up instantly.
    Choose WordPress Choose Tumblr

    WordPress vs. Tumblr: Customization

    WordPress has made its name by being customizable. Tumblr, on the other hand, doesn’t really come to mind when you think of custom websites. And for good reason, the customization options on WordPress vs. Tumblr are night-and-day different. However limited they are, Tumblr gives you many more options as, say, Medium. To be fair to the platform, however, very few services offer as much customization and control over your site as WordPress.

    WordPress

    There really isn’t any doubt that WordPress is the victor in a head-to-head comparison of customization options. Between the WordPress.org theme and plugin repositories, the open-source code itself, and the thriving third-party extension industry, if you want something on your WordPress site, you can get it.

    Or maybe, more importantly, you can do it. Users can implement any changes they want on their site. You can dig into the code and alter anything you want (given you have the experience and skill to do so). You can choose what theme you use and how it works. Any feature can be added through plugins, of which you have thousands of choices.

    The main challenge in learning WordPress is discovering the ideal themes and plugins. Thankfully, we can help you with that. We have an exhaustive library of posts to help you choose the best form plugins, some great options for social media integration, popular SEO plugins, as well as WooCommerce and blogging themes to help get you started.

    Depending on the theme you use, however, the ease of customization differs. The default way to adjust themes is in what’s called the Theme Customizer. The options contained there differ from theme to theme, but in general, you get basic color and typography settings, as well as a space for custom CSS.

    wordpress theme customizer

    Themes such as Divi and other popular page builders give even more granular control over customizations. Rather than digging into PHP files to create templates or write them in HTML, visual builders give real-time adjustments and settings and feature drag-and-drop placement of elements.

    divi theme builder

    Divi and some other builders also give you the option to fully customize each and every aspect of your site, even allowing for individual templates for specific categories, post types, search results, and anything else. All of this is built into the WordPress core. But you need requires JavaScript and PHP knowledge to take advantage of that.

    But because of the healthy development industry around WordPress, customizing your site can be limitless. You just have to find the theme and plugin combination that suits you the best.

    Tumblr

    Tumblr, on the other hand, is a far more limited platform for customization. And that’s okay. As a platform, Tumblr isn’t designed for customization. Nor would having major site customization increase usability. Unsurprisingly, you can find an Edit Appearance entry on the main menu, and it looks not dissimilar to the WordPress theme customizer.

    tumblr customization options

    You can change header images, show avatars, update the title and description, and add/remove features such as endless scrolling, visible navigation, sliding header, and so on. You can also add a new page to the site from here, which can be useful if you need an About Me page or something similar. Your primary URL is going to be a feed of your posts, but Tumblr blogs do have nav menus built in.

    If you want a different look, you can always head to the Tumblr theme repository, which is very useful. It isn’t nearly as robust as the WordPress one, but again, it’s not meant to be. If, however, you want your Tumblr blog to appear more traditionally (such as with a feed and sidebar, and author bio), these themes are the best way to do it.

    Finally, you can also adjust how the user dashboard appears, too. In the dropdown for your account settings in the header bar, a Change Palette link will cycle between 12 different color schemes for your dashboard.

    color palette changes

    From a Matrix-style green-black computer theme called “Cybernetic” to the pictured “Goth Rave”, you’ll be able to find some combination that works for you.

    WordPress Tumblr
    Customization 🥇 Winner
    WordPress is the clear winner in customization due its vast library of plugins and themes.    		 You can make some minor customization changes easily, but Tumblr just doesn’t compare to WordPress.
    Choose WordPress Choose Tumblr

    WordPress vs. Tumblr: Social

    We would be remiss if we didn’t touch on the social aspect of these platforms. Whether it’s integration with social media and community building or maintaining a close network of contacts and readers, both WordPress and Tumblr have big social aspects. They’re just very, very different.

    WordPress

    As we mentioned in the above section on Customization, you can find a plugin or theme that integrates any feature you can think of. In terms of social experiences, some of the standouts in the WordPress ecosystem are membership sites and forums using plugins such as MemberPress, bbPress, or BuddyPress. You can even build community by gamifying your content and bringing people together through bite-sized dopamine hits.

    You can also use the Jetpack plugin to tie into WordPress.com accounts which will allow users to Follow and Like your blog posts. Though, to be honest, this is a very underutilized feature by most people. It’s a pale competitor to the blogging/reblogging system on Tumblr. But the “Following” option is great for those who want a built-in contact/email list.

    wordpress follows

    Additionally, the block editor will use any connection you’ve made to social networks and automate sharing whenever you make a new post.

    wordpress social

    By default, you can make this a final check to customize before scheduling or publishing. And none of this includes the typical WordPress comment system, where people can simply leave messages on your content. And even that can be customized with other, more social systems such as Disqus.

    Tumblr

    Within a short time of your beginning to use Tumblr, you will definitely see the social aspects baked into the platform. As we’ve said, Tumblr is as much a social network as it is a blogging platform. On each and every post, four icons appear.

    tumblr icons

    They’re relatively universal in what they do, making using Tumblr’s social tools very easy.

    • Message
    • Comment
    • Reblog
    • Like

    On top of that ease, each post within a feed or on a page has this same collection of icons to make sharing and reblogging incredibly easy.

    tumblr icons in the feed

    Reblogging is simply putting someone else’s content on your page, sometimes with a comment and sometimes not. It’s the precursor to Twitter’s Retweeting and Quote Tweeting. When reblogging content, it’s important to note that your content, as well as the original content, will show up in any tag feeds included. So you can add your own, which will increase the viral spread of the content.

    social network sharing

    If you just want to share your content or anyone else’s, the Message arrow also includes the most popular social networks. All of this combine to make Tumblr an incredibly social platform that’s built on the premise of sharing content freely among a community. You can absolutely do a traditional blog using Tumblr, but if you do, keep in mind that the social aspect is still important. Your audience will come primarily from the community of other Tumblr users.

    WordPress Tumblr
    Social WordPress can be made into an effective social media platform with a few plugins or setting changes. 🥇 Winner
    Tumblr is designed to be a social platform as much as a blogging platform.
    Choose WordPress Choose Tumblr

    Wrapping Up WordPress vs. Tumblr

    WordPress and Tumblr are two very different products in the end. WordPress is an amazing content management system and blogging platform. It is best used by those who want complete control over their sites. Tumblr works more like a traditional social platform but can’t function as a CMS. Both are suited for long-form content as well as short.

    WordPress Tumblr
    Ease of Use WordPress can take some time to learn, plus the seemingly endless features might be overwhelming at first. 🥇 Winner
    Tumblr is ultra intuitive, anyone with experience with social media will be able to pick it up instantly.
    Customization 🥇 Winner
    WordPress is the clear winner in customization due its vast library of plugins and themes.    		 You can make some minor customization changes easily, but Tumblr just doesn’t compare to WordPress.
    Social WordPress can be made into an effective social media platform with a few plugins or setting changes. 🥇 Winner
    Tumblr is designed to be a social platform as much as a blogging platform.
    Choose WordPress Choose Tumblr

    However, in the end, the choice between the two platforms comes down to audience and intent. If you’re about social sharing and being part of a community, Tumblr is the way to go. If you’re more traditional in use and need e-commerce or massive search traffic, it’s WordPress.

    WordPress Deep Dive

    One more thing. Before you make your final decision on your website platform…are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs. everything else so that you don’t have to! We, for instance, compare WordPress vs. Google Sites, and I think you will be interested to see the results.

    If you’re looking for a way to integrate social media with WordPress, we recommend spotlight or 10Web to help you get started.

    What do you think about WordPress vs. Tumblr? What have been your experiences?

    The post WordPress vs Tumblr (2023) — Which One is The Best? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WordPress vs Joomla (2023) — Which is Better?

    WordPress isn’t the only modular content management system (CMS) that has an established base and active community. Joomla is also a free-to-install, open-source platform that thrives on its third-party support. Many developers work to extend their capabilities beyond what comes built into the base software. When taking a look at WordPress vs. Joomla, you will see several functionality differences, as well as user experience and technical requirement differences.

    In this post, we’ll compare WordPress to Joomla, so you can decide which one will work best for you!

    WordPress vs. Joomla: Who Are They For?

    WordPress does its very best to be the jack-of-all-trades CMS. What we mean is that anyone who needs a website can build it with WordPress. And generally, with minimal experience. It might not be the most advanced website out there, but the tools are easily accessible and understandable by anyone through various third-party plugins and themes.

    Users will find a mild learning curve with WordPress, but it doesn’t take long to get beyond that. You will quickly find yourself using posts, pages, themes, plugins, and widgets like a pro. Users who have never had a website before can feel relatively confident in having a nice-enough WordPress site built without too much trouble.

    Joomla, too, is a be-everything-to-everyone CMS. Its development history is much different than that of WordPress, especially in that it was created to be a full-site CMS from the beginning. WordPress began as blogging software, so features and updates are still built on that foundation. Both are built on PHP, but Joomla users (especially developers) have a much more traditional foundation in that Joomla can be used out of the box with straight HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP without having to learn the “WordPress way” of doing things.

    That said, Joomla does feel like a CMS that beginners would have a good time using. The backend interface is clunky, and the terminology and messaging for new users (inside Joomla itself) are barebones. Installing modules and getting things in working order is far more technical than WordPress. For those with tech and website experience, though, there’s a lot of freedom to be had in Joomla.

    WordPress vs. Joomla: Ease-of-Use

    While WordPress has a moderate learning curve for new users, the core of the experience is based on blogging. This means that nearly every feature can be boiled down to creating a post or page in some manner. Themes and plugins simply expand on that functionality. Joomla has always been a CMS meant for site developers, meaning that new (non-technical) users would have a greater learning curve. For those with a background in traditional computer science and web development, Joomla may even have a smoother learning curve than WordPress.

    WordPress

    WordPress is easy to use. The admin dashboard is straightforward in most ways, highlighting the main areas of focus (Pages, Posts, Media, and so on) in the left-hand sidebar.

    wordpress vs joomla

    You do have to learn where certain elements are, such as various settings, tools, and menu editing. But in general, once you learn where those are and how to access them, the interface is relatively intuitive.

    One of the more difficult aspects of using WordPress is making sure that you have the right suite of plugins to complement your theme. There are thousands of free themes and plugins in the WordPress.org repositories and even more premium options, such as Divi, available from third-party developers.

    Making the right choices—and even knowing which choices are necessary—can take a little figuring out. If you’re just getting a feel for WordPress, you might not know what features your site needs and which plugins and themes can provide those. All of that becomes much clearer and simpler once you’ve spent just a little time using the platform and doing some outside research.

    For typical users, most WordPress features can be carried out with just a few clicks. Since the base of the platform is based around posts and pages, the basic workflow becomes familiar very quickly, with only a few variations depending on the task.

    Joomla

    We’d like to say that Joomla has the kind of quick-to-learn workflow that WordPress offers. But that’s just not the case. At least for many users. If you’re an average web user who is looking to set up a new website, Joomla might not make a whole lot of sense at first. (And for a good while after that.) If you’ve built and/or coded websites before, Joomla shouldn’t be that hard to pick up.

    The backend, though, is not intuitively put together. Joomla’s admin panel does have a quick-menu sidebar to the left, like WordPress. But most of the features and utilities live on the top menu, and you access those via dropdown.

    joomla admin

    Additionally, on installation, you will be asked if you would like to import blog sample data. We recommend that you do. That’s where you will find most of the new-user orientation material set up as content on your new site.

    joomla content

    Having any new-user content being an optional import as sample data is just weird. It is not an intuitive way to introduce someone to the Joomla platform. At all. However, the Joomla community has some fantastic training content with which you can learn Joomla.

    With the time we’ve spent learning and exploring Joomla, it never really became smooth and second nature to perform any tasks. The menus in Joomla do make sense (unlike WordPress), but navigating through them is frustrating. You can’t click a new menu item until you’ve closed the current one.

    All-in-all, Joomla’s not that easy to use. It is developer-friendly, for sure, but not end-user friendly at all.

    Ease-of-Use Comparison

    WordPress
    Ease-of-Use 🏳 Draw

    WordPress is relatively easy to use and most users will be acclimated within just a few minutes. However, the advanced features will take much longer to master.

    		 🏳 Draw

    Joomla’s primary focus is on more advanced technical user, so it has a larger learning curve.

    Choose WordPress Choose Joomla

    WordPress vs. Joomla: Customization

    WordPress thrives on customization. Extensibility via plugins and themes allows for unlimited choices in terms of design and feature sets. Even a user with no technical experience can start a WordPress website and have it look more or less professional without a lot of hassle. Joomla, too, is built around customization. But not for the end-user. If you’re a content creator or site owner without a great deal of technical expertise or design experience, Joomla’s customization options may be both confusing and near-impossible to decode.

    WordPress

    Through plugins and themes, WordPress can be whatever you need it to be. You can add e-commerce features with a few clicks. You can install a new page-builder tool for more advanced options over the Gutenberg editor. And each theme you install comes with its own unique set of customization options. Most of the time, these are consolidated into the built-in Theme Customizer.

    wordpress customize

    Users with more advanced skills can add CSS through this page, or they can delve into the core WordPress files and edit the PHP directly. The file structure is designed so that any customizations are held separately in a child theme so that the base you’re customizing is always there to go back to.

    In that way (and many others), WordPress encourages poking and prodding and seeing what is the best fit for your site. Try on different themes, widgets, and plugins to add features and design to see what works and what doesn’t. Resetting things back to as they were only taking a few clicks, regardless.

    Joomla

    Joomla is also an incredibly customizable platform. It, too, has hundreds of templates and themes, and extensions to install to customize your site. You can download them from the official Joomla repo that is directly accessible from the dashboard. Both design and functionality add-ons can be found in the same place, separated by category.

    joomla customization

    Installing them doesn’t take more than a few clicks. You can then navigate back to the admin dashboard to enable and adjust their settings.

    And while you do have every bit as much freedom as you do in WordPress, the Joomla options and customizations are generally less user-friendly and more complicated to get right. Placing them on the site often has you choosing a “position” number that has no human-readable name. With that and because of how the content on the site is displayed, it takes some real time to get things displayed where you want. Not to mention actually testing and implementing features and utilities.

    Joomla has a ton of power under the hood, and you can customize it however you want. But you will definitely work for it using Joomla vs. WordPress.

    Customization Comparison

    WordPress
    Customization 🥇 Winner
    You can’t really compare to WordPress when it comes to customization. It’s what they’ve built their platform on and it requires little technical knowledge to integrate.    		 Joomla has a lot going for it in terms of customizability. But, it takes more technical experience to fully take advantage of the options available.
    Choose WordPress Choose Joomla

    WordPress vs. Joomla: Publishing

    The internet is about content. And your website is about displaying your content. So we have to touch on what your experience will be in terms of content creation and publishing using WordPress vs. Joomla.

    WordPress is a blogging platform at heart. It’s built to win this head-to-head from the beginning. It’s simple and intuitive. Anyone can publish to their site’s feed without hassle or add a static page just as easily. Joomla, on the other hand, isn’t made solely for publishing regular content. And it shows. Every page, post, and note on your Joomla site is contained under the header of Articles. This kind of obfuscates the publishing process enough that it’s just not a pleasant experience.

    WordPress

    WordPress 5.0 introduced the block editor. Replacing the classic WYSIWYG editor, content creators can now control options and settings for every paragraph (even sentence if they so choose), image, gallery, or embed on the site. While the block editor is not everyone in the WordPress community’s favorite new feature, the interface is slick, simple, and new and old users tend to like using it to create content. Both in terms of blog posts and static pages.

    wordpress editor

    With various post types delineated in function and separated within the interface, it’s easy to understand what you’re creating and how to use it. Posts are for regular content. Pages are for static content that won’t enter the feed. You can use Custom Post Types to add features like Products to plugins like WooCommerce.

    The entire process is simple and understandable within WordPress itself. The Add New button under Posts brings you to the editor, in which the placeholder text explains what to do, and a big, blue Publish button sits up top. In that same window, you have the option to adjust that content’s permalink and meta information.

    Joomla

    In Joomla, creating content is technically as easy as it is in WordPress. The publishing editor Joomla uses is TinyMCE, which is the same editor that WordPress used until version 5.0. So anyone with familiarity there (or with other WYSIWYG editors) will feel right at home.

    Joomla editor

    Like WordPress, you can edit your permalink here (called an Alias in Joomla), tags for your article, whether the article shows up as featured on your site, and various other permissions and options such as access levels and meta-data display.

    One of the more confusing and confounding parts of the Joomla publishing process is that you press the same button (Add New Article) in the header menu to be taken to this same editor to create both regularly updated blog content (such as Posts in WordPress) and static pages (Pages in WP). The Category feature in Joomla is what keeps these separate.

    Depending on the modules and extensions your site has installed (which we mentioned in the Customization section above), the category you choose dictates where this content appears.  And they’re all created and managed from this single tool. This is incredibly powerful. And it’s actually pretty simple. But it’s a headache to use in practice, as setting up a site with the right categories to match all the content to match all the modules is not as simple as, for instance, WordPress taxonomies.

    For sites that aren’t publishing regular content (or using a different platform for that), Joomla’s publishing tools may be just what you need to keep things organized.

    Publishing Comparison

    WordPress
    Publishing 🥇 Winner
    WordPress is built for bloggers and content creators to publish their work quickly. Their interface is tried and true.     		Joomla’s main goal isn’t centered around writing, so it’s no wonder that their publishing work flow isn’t as well-rounded as WordPress. Still, once you get used to it, it’s not a bad solution.
    Choose WordPress Choose Joomla

    The Verdict

    In the end, we feel that WordPress vs. Joomla comes down to the tech experience of the end user and what kind of site they need. For new site owners with no website experience, WordPress is by far the winner of this head-to-head. It does everything, and the learning curve is much lower. Plus, the ecosystem and third-party support are phenomenal. Everyone, from new users to veteran developers, can dig into WordPress and find their niche.

    Final Comparison

    WordPress
    Ease-of-Use 🏳 Draw

    WordPress is relatively easy to use and most users will be acclimated within just a few minutes. However, the advanced features will take much longer to master.

    		 🏳 Draw

    Joomla’s primary focus is on more advanced technical user, so it has a larger learning curve.

    Customization 🥇 Winner
    You can’t really compare to WordPress when it comes to customization. It’s what they’ve built their platform on and it requires little technical knowledge to integrate.    		 Joomla has a lot going for it in terms of customizability. But, it takes more technical experience to fully take advantage of the options available.
    Publishing 🥇 Winner
    WordPress is built for bloggers and content creators to publish their work quickly. Their interface is tried and true.     		Joomla’s main goal isn’t centered around writing, so it’s no wonder that their publishing work flow isn’t as well-rounded as WordPress. Still, once you get used to it, it’s not a bad solution.
    Choose WordPress Choose Joomla

    Joomla, on the other hand, caters very heavily to the experienced developer. Nowhere near as user-friendly as WordPress, Joomla gives you complete control over the entirety of your site. And it does so in the standard way, not the “WordPress Way.” For someone coming out of a boot camp or computer science program, Joomla may be where you feel more comfortable because it is definitely a more utilitarian platform. For content creators who will be using it daily to push out news or blogs, Joomla isn’t the best. But for sites not using it to create new content and run by developers, Joomla has a lot to offer. If you can find out how to do it.

    WordPress Deep Dive

    One more thing. Before you make your final decision on your website platform…are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs. everything else so that you don’t have to! One of the comparisons we’ve done is WordPress vs. Drupal, and I think you will be interested to see the results.

    If you’re looking for specific plugins to help WordPress become even more powerful, we recommend the following:

    What have been your experiences with WordPress vs. Joomla?

    The post WordPress vs Joomla (2023) — Which is Better? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WordPress vs Blogger (2023) — What Are The Key Differences?

    Blogging isn’t what it used to be. When WordPress and Blogger both started out, most people saw blogging as an online journal of personal thoughts. MySpace blogs were the rage, and Google apps weren’t nearly as ubiquitous as they are now (or advanced). Fast forward a couple of decades, and blogs have gained legitimacy and become a major part of marketing for brands and individuals. With that in mind, we want to take a look at the current state of two leading blog platforms–WordPress vs. Blogger–to see which is the better option for you.

    WordPress vs. Blogger: Who Are They For?

    WordPress comes in two varieties: .com and .org. The .com version is a hosted SaaS (software as a service) platform with a popular free option, while .org is the open-source, self-hosted version where you handle and control things yourself. That choice is indicative of the freedom that WordPress offers; whatever kind of website you need or want, you can build it with WordPress. If you need a full e-commerce website to sell your products? Done. WooCommerce has you covered. Membership site? Yep. Personal blog? Of course. Want to monetize? No limits.

    On basically anything. WordPress has evolved into a fully developed CMS (content management system) that has options for any and all kinds of websites. WordPress does its best to be everything for everyone, even if that takes a bit of tweaking and customization.

    Blogger has far more akin to WordPress.com than .org, being a free service from Google that, like everything else from Google, Blogger is hosted and managed within your Google account. The first major difference that you will note with Blogger is that it’s not a full CMS. It is definitely blogging software (as per the name). You won’t be running a shop from Blogger or managing an online course or school. But for those looking to create content and get it out to their audience relatively seamlessly, Blogger works great.

    Writing Comparison

    Given that Blogger is primarily a blogging platform, we are going to focus on the features that most closely go head-to-head. WordPress vs. Blogger would be an unfair competition if we were comparing e-commerce and CMS features, but as blogging platforms for content creators, it’s a much more even playing field.

    Writing in WordPress

    WP got a new page and post editor in version 5.0. Called Gutenberg, the new block editor is a pseudo-page builder where each paragraph and element are individual blocks that can be placed, rearranged, and styled individually. This is a big departure from the previous editor, which was a traditional WYSIWYG (like Blogger is).

    wordpress block editor

    In terms of user experience, writing in the Gutenberg block editor is fast and smooth. You get options for each block as well as the overall post itself. Plus, you get access to individual blocks for different elements, such as videos, Spotify playlists, rows, and Twitter threads.

    If you’re not a designer, you can totally use Gutenberg to lay out your site and customize your theme. Though, if you want full site editing capabilities, you’re going to want to grab a page-builder theme or plugin like Divi.

    Overall, if you’re going to use WordPress as a blogging platform, the content creation experience has never been better.

    Writing in Blogger

    While Blogger’s user interface has evolved over the years, if you’ve ever used the platform before, it will still be familiar to you. Or if you’ve ever used Microsoft Word. Or Google Docs. The post editor for Blogger is a traditional WYSIWYG document.

    wordpress vs blogger editor

    You can create engaging content with no hassle using Blogger. If that’s what you’re looking for, this platform has you covered. In the right sidebar, you can adjust various options for the post. You can change the permalink and date, apply labels (Blogger’s form of Tags on WordPress), and allow/disallow comments.

    But other than that, you’re locked into what you see. There aren’t options for “featured images” or “excerpts/meta descriptions” because Blogger tends to pull the first image in the post to feature and the first part of the post as the excerpt (like the WordPress default, so that part is the same).

    wordpress vs blogger post appearance

    In general, writing posts in Blogger is painless and easy, and straightforward. You don’t get nearly the customization options that you do in WordPress these days. For pure blogging and content creation, though, it’s fast, intuitive,  and stable. You can’t ask for a lot more than that when writing.

    WordPress Blogger
    Writing 🏳️ Draw
    The WordPress block editor is intuitive and will let you get writing immediatly.    		 🏳️ Draw
    Blogger comes with a standard word editor that will be familiar to most users.
    Choose WordPress Choose Blogger

    Who’s the King of Customization?

    Anyone who has ever started a blog has probably switched themes and layouts half a dozen times. Finding just the right look for your site is important, and both of these platforms give you some level of customization options (unlike something like Medium).

    Customizing WordPress

    At the heart of WordPress is the idea that you have complete control over every aspect of your site. From features to design, if you want to customize it, you can. This is done with a robust theme and plugin system based on PHP, HTML, and CSS, where you can simply create anything you want to extend and customize WordPress.

    You don’t have to be a coder to take advantage of this, though. The WordPress.org theme and plugin repositories contain a plethora of free options for WordPress users.

    wordpress theme repository

    There is also a huge industry based entirely around premium WordPress themes like Divi, and plugins, so if you can’t find just the right thing on the repos, and you can’t code it yourself, there’s most likely a developer who has already created the theme or plugin themselves.

    The specific customizations depend entirely on your theme and plugin combination, but WordPress has a built-in Theme Customizer that developers can tie into so that you can poke and prod at not only the WordPress defaults but the theme features and designs as well. In addition, WordPress lets you use custom CSS (handily through the Theme Customizer itself) so that you won’t have to deal with custom.css files.

    theme customizer

    And none of that even touches on the site settings you can customize, from user roles, permalinks, comment structure, menus and navigation, taxonomies, and even custom post types to make organizing your content easier.

    Customizing Blogger

    Here’s the biggest hit to Blogger of them all. It’s barely customizable. Sure, it’s a lot more customizable than a site like Substack or Medium, but that’s not saying a lot. Blogger is a no-frills blogging platform, but you can still do a little to make your corner of the internet a little cozier.

    wordpress vs blogger themes

    Blogger also has a theme repository, but it isn’t nearly as robust as WP’s. In general, you will find a few designs (such as the one called Contempo in the image above) and then palette variations of it. While there are choices, those choices are limited to only 12 different themes at the time of this writing (though the color variants increase that number significantly).

    When the theme is installed, you can also customize how it will look by adding menus, gadgets (Blogger’s version of what WordPress calls widgets), and adjusting colors, fonts, and content spacing. But that’s really it.

    You do have the option of adding custom CSS in the Blogger theme customizer. And, if you choose, you can always write up a theme in HTML or adjust the HTML of the one you install from the provided list.

    You can make some very aesthetically pleasing blogs using this platform, for sure. But there’s not nearly the support for customization as in WordPress, and writing a theme in HTML isn’t something most people can or will do (but that’s still easier than writing a WordPress theme in PHP, so there’s that).

    Blogger also has a layout editor, which works similarly to a WP page-builder plugin, but it is pretty limited.

    wordpress vs blogger

    You can drag elements from your theme around to new places, choose ad locations, and adjust other basic options. But you can’t actually design the page.

    WordPress Blogger
    Customization 🥇 Winner
    WordPress gives you complete control of all aspects of your site.    		 Blogger is barely customizable, you can adjust the layout of your blog, but not much else.
    Choose WordPress Choose Blogger

    Which Platform Has Superior Integrations?

    A blog isn’t an island. The internet is a connected ecosystem of APIs and services talking back and forth, and your blog is going to be part of that. Considering that, we’re going to take a look at how WordPress vs. Blogger handles connecting to external services such as CRMs, advertising networks, and analytics tools.

    WordPress Integrations

    Because of the customization possible in WordPress, connecting to external services is a breeze. The platform is designed from the ground up to be used this way. You can search the repository and find hundreds of plugins that help you connect things like HubSpot to your site, MailChimp to WooCommerce, WordPress posts to Zapier, podcast players to your RSS feed, ad networks to the right places in your pages, and so on.

    Additionally, themes often have their own places to insert code so that you don’t have to dig into PHP files. Divi, for instance, has an Integration tab in its theme options where you can add any header, footer, or body code that you may have. Such as Facebook pixels, AdSense code, Pinterest buttons, site verification scripts, and whatever else.

    wordpress vs blogger integrations

    Because WordPress is an open-source project that is designed for freedom, you won’t be limited in what apps and integrations you can use. The integrations themselves might charge a fee or not support WordPress, but as a platform, WP is neutral. You can choose to use a plugin for Amazon affiliate links, set up a WooCommerce membership site, use Taboola ads, and plaster your site with Patreon and use plugins for donations and pledges. Whatever you want to associate with your site is your choice. And there’s probably already a way to make it happen.

    Blogger Integrations

    Blogger is the exact opposite of WordPress in this regard. But don’t let us scare you away by saying that. Blogger is a Google product, so by policy and tradition, you’re going to be locked into the Google ecosystem. That’s just the way it is. As we said above, Blogger sites are tied to a Google account.

    google analytics on blogger

    Similarly, analytics and site stats are integrated with (and limited to) Google Analytics. More than likely, you’ll be using GA anyway, so this isn’t a huge deal. Same for Google AdSense. If you want to run ads on your site, Blogger requires that you use AdSense because it’s a Google product. Same for comments. No Disqus for you. You’re using Blogger comments that can be tied to Google accounts.

    Again, none of this is a bad thing. These pieces of software are excellent and the leaders in what they do for a reason. Well, reasons. One is that they work well, and the other is that they’re owned by Google, and we can’t escape them. The lack of external integrations is only a bad thing if you need those to set up something outside of the straight “blogging” parameters set by Blogger.

    If you want full choice for your site, Blogger is definitely not the way to go. However, if you want easy integrations with apps you’re probably going to be using anyway, it’s great.

    WordPress Blogger
    External Integrations 🥇 Winner
    WordPress lets you connect to external services with ease.    		 Blogger has you locked into the Google suite of products.
    Choose WordPress Choose Blogger

    WordPress and Blogger Alternatives

    Still not convinced that one of these platforms is right for you? No worries. We have other comparison posts for you to peruse. Check out WordPress vs Medium or WordPress vs Ghost. If you’re looking for a wider comparison, check out WordPress vs Everything Else to really take a look at all of your options.

    WordPress vs Blogger: The Final Verdict

    It’s hard to compare WordPress vs. Blogger these days because the platforms have evolved to be two very different pieces of software for different people. WordPress is a general CMS now, while Blogger has stayed the course and remains a content creation platform.

    WordPress Blogger
    Writing 🏳️ Draw
    The WordPress block editor is intuitive and will let you get writing immediatly.    		 🏳️ Draw
    Blogger comes with a standard word editor that will be familiar to most users.
    Customization 🥇 Winner
    WordPress gives you complete control of all aspects of your site.    		 Blogger is barely customizable, you can adjust the layout of your blog, but not much else.
    External Integrations 🥇 Winner
    WordPress lets you connect to external services with ease.    		 Blogger has you locked into the Google suite of products.
    Choose WordPress Choose Blogger

    Blogger is an excellent option for those who want a quick-and-easy blog where they can write and post easily within an ecosystem they already know. Site setup is minimal, and there are almost zero barriers to entry. With services such as AdSense and Analytics built-in, you can have a fully operational blog in under 10 minutes. And from there, it just works. It doesn’t feel quite as polished as a publishing platform such as Ghost, but again, that’s offset by it just working.

    WordPress, on the other hand, is an excellent option for people who want more options. Customization is the WP’s claim to fame, and they have certainly earned it. Themes and plugins allow you to do anything you want with your site. From digging into the code itself or just within the dashboard options provided, you can tweak anything at all in WordPress. Under that same umbrella, there is nearly unlimited support in WordPress for external service integration.

    For blogging and writing, WordPress has the more modern experience with the Gutenberg editor, but Blogger’s WYSIWYG is fast and light, and easy to use. It’s a matter of preference, really, as to how you prefer writing your content.

    WordPress Deep Dive

    One more thing. Before you make your final decision on your website platform…are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs. everything else so that you don’t have to! Most recently, we reviewed WordPress vs. Ghost, and I think you will be interested to see the results.

    If you’re looking for specific plugins to help WordPress become even more powerful, we recommend the following:

    What have been your experiences with WordPress vs. Blogger?

    The post WordPress vs Blogger (2023) — What Are The Key Differences? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WordPress vs GoDaddy Website Builder (2023) — Let’s Compare!

    If there is a more ubiquitous and well-known name on websites than GoDaddy, then it’s at the top of a very, very short list. GoDaddy has made a name for itself by being the Everything For Everybody web service, from web hosting to domain registration to website selling and now template-based, WYSIWYG website building. In comparison to that, WordPress is also filling that Everything for Everybody niche, but only in terms of website building. To help you decide which builder-centric web software you should use, we’re taking a look at WordPress vs the GoDaddy Website Builder, showing you the head-to-head comparisons of their most important features.

    WordPress vs GoDaddy Website Builder: Who Are They For?

    As we said above, both of these platforms do their very best to be everything for everyone. Not by being a one-size-fits-all solution but by having options available for whatever kind of site or service you might need. They handle this in very different ways, however.

    WordPress is free, open-source software that you can install on virtually any web host out there. Having evolved from its roots as blogging software, WP is now a full-fledged content management system (CMS). That means that any kind of website that you need to run with WordPress can be run with WordPress. From blogs, news sites, magazines, stores, portfolios, ticket vendors, event booking, and so much more. If you can conceive the site, WordPress has a way to do it.

    GoDaddy, on the other hand, isn’t solely based on the website itself but rather the entire suite of services anyone might need. Including the website software itself. Within the GoDaddy platform, you can buy a domain name, purchase hosting, and build your website with their site builder (which also then offers add-ons for functionality and utilities). Whatever particular service a user needs, they can find it at GoDaddy.

    But in terms of the site builders themselves, how does WordPress vs GoDaddy go?

    Ease of Use

    The first thing most people consider when looking at WordPress vs GoDaddy is how easy they are to use. The steeper the learning curve, the longer it takes to build a site, and the more frustrating it can be to use daily. While WordPress does have a slightly higher learning curve, it’s not enough to penalize it, and the entire head-to-head here seems comparable.

    WordPress

    Your first login to your WordPress website can be startling. The left side of your screen has a large menu of options, and the primary dashboard space is full of widgets with information and tools that you may not need now (or ever).

    wordpress vs godaddy website builder

    You may take a while It doesn’t take long to learn the software, as most things are laid out relatively intuitively. Posts, Pages, Plugins, etc., are easy to find and understand, but some features, such as Menus and Themes, are hidden away in submenus, and the difference between Settings, Tools, and the Theme Customizer isn’t documented anywhere, which causes headaches for many new users.

    The Page and Post editor itself is called Gutenberg. And it utilizes blocks of content (such as an image, gallery, or single paragraph) that you can manipulate individually. These blocks are the basis of site customization in WordPress now, and the themes that you purchase or grab from the WordPress.org theme repository are likely to support them for customization.

    wordpress vs godaddy website builder

    Using the editor is very simple once you get used to it. It may take a few Posts or Pages to feel it out. But the gist is that you click a + button that brings up a menu of available blocks. Then you simply add the content and place it in the document where you need it. Each block has a separate options panel you can edit. And you can even set some as global/reusable blocks that can be used to template posts and pages later on.

    You can learn more advanced site creation techniques such as taxonomies and custom post types, which do have a very steep learning curve initially. However, they are huge (yet advanced) factors in tweaking your WordPress site to be perfect. They are, though, in no way necessary to use or manage a WordPress site for years.

    GoDaddy Website Builder

    When looking at GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress, it has a very low learning curve. Which is great. But the reason the learning curve is so low is that the amount of customization you get is significantly lower than with WordPress. It lines up even with Wix or Squarespace in that regard.

    wordpress vs godaddy website builder first login

    The GoDaddy Website Builder starts you off with a 3-step introduction to how to use it.

    1. Choose a theme
    2. Click on any image or text to edit
    3. Publish your site

    And…it is about that easy. GoDaddy made their website builder for people who want a professional-looking site without needing a professional designer. You can choose from several different themes (really, templates) and then manipulate the elements involved exactly like you can in the WordPress block editor.

    godaddy theme gallery

    When the intro says to click an image or text to edit, it means it. You can either edit the page itself, typing in the front end of the site itself or the sidebar textbox. Whatever is more comfortable for you.

    wordpress vs godaddy website builder text edit

    Additionally, you can use the service formerly known as Over (now GoDaddy Studio) to edit photos and add text and other effects directly in the browser.

    wordpress vs godaddy website builder image editing

    This integration is fantastic, and if you haven’t tried the mobile app, we highly suggest it for quick image editing.

    You also get easy access to site analytics and tracking features under the settings gear, including the cookie warning for GDPR consent, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and more.

    wordpress vs godaddy website builder basic options

    However, some of them, like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), only offer basic tools (naming the site and including a meta description. To take advantage of the more advanced features, you will pay for them individually as premium access.

    WordPress Weebly
    Ease of Use The interface take a bit to get used to, but most will be acclimated in a matter of minutes. 🥇 Winner
    It’s bare bones, and simple, made for people who don’t want to put a lot of time hand crafting their website.
    Choose WordPress Choose GoDaddy

    Which Platform is the Better E-commerce Solution?

    Setting up an e-commerce shop is a top priority for many website owners. Physical merch and digital goods are one of the major selling points (pun intended) for setting up a website in the first place. But how does WordPress vs GoDaddy’s website builder compare in this commonplace battleground? We think WordPress has a solid advantage here, and GoDaddy can’t quite compete.

    WordPress

    WooCommerce is WordPress’s premier e-commerce plugin. Free to download and start selling immediately, WooCommerce is amazingly extensible.

    wocommerce dashboard

    Being based on custom post types, adding products and variations in WooCommerce is as simple as creating a new post or page. The same process applies to everything in WordPress (pretty much).

    making a product page

    There is a huge ecosystem of plugins, add-ons, and extensions for WooCommerce to wade through, both free and premium. And while there is a learning curve to perfecting your WooCommerce shop, you can get it off the ground and sell items within just a few hours.

    The cost of running a WooCommerce store differs based on what you want, but we have a full rundown of what you can expect. For a fully featured store, stacked to the roof with all the features you could need, you’re running around $1,200 to $1,500 for the first year, with it recurring approximately $500 depending on your suite of extensions and hosting and other miscellaneous costs.

    GoDaddy

    E-commerce using the GoDaddy site builder is a bit different. From the outset, everything about the e-commerce options is premium. You don’t get the free options to launch a store and accept payments from the beginning as with WooCommerce.

    godaddy ecommerce

    For the first year, you can expect to pay $16.99 per month, and after that, it’s $24.99 per mo. That doesn’t quite even out to the base $500 we estimated you’d need for WooCommerce at its most expensive, but that is also only a single extra feature in GoDaddy, each of which you must purchase separately.

    E-Commerce

    WordPress Weebly
    E-Commerce 🥇 Winner
    WooCommerce makes it simple, cheap, and efficient to create an online store.    		 It has less customization features available and is much more expensive.
    Choose WordPress Choose GoDaddy

    Publishing Tools Breakdown

    WordPress has grown into a full CMS over the years, but at its heart, it is still a blogging program. Most features are tied into Posts and Pages. Though you can have an entirely custom, static site that never publishes any content to its feed. The sites you make using the GoDaddy site builder are generally not great at publishing regular content like a blog but rather information for products, brands, individuals, or companies. Both platforms can excel at creating easy, beautiful static pages, but if you want to write articles and post regular updates, WordPress is the clear victor.

    WordPress

    It should come as no surprise that WordPress is the clear victor here, either. The software is decades old and designed from the ground up with publishing of all kinds at its heart. The redesign of the post editor (the Gutenberg block editor that we showcased earlier) is a further indication that WP is staying true to its roots, giving you a universal tool to create and publish any kind of content you want, dynamic and updating or static.

    The WordPress editor has multiple templates to highlight audio, photos, links, videos, and more. You can use these templates on static Pages as well as Posts. And you can use that same editor to design your site as well as publish new content.

    Additionally, themes such as Divi exist to increase the options and functionality of WordPress publishing, giving you the ability to create entire templates for various types of posts or pages, depending on what categories, tags, and other criteria you may set.

    divi theme builder

    WordPress is built around this kind of extensibility and highlights what you can do with publishing on the platform. Whatever kind of publishing features you need, there are plugins for them. You can get editorial calendars, comments on posts, templates, themes, notifications, and more from a wide array of third-party developers.

    Regardless of what and how you want to publish, you’re going to be able to do it with WordPress. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what WordPress was built for.

    GoDaddy

    The GoDaddy website builder, on the other hand, was built for creating business sites. Or informational pages. Any site that is going to exist without needing a lot of maintenance after launch. Sites where the owner may come in occasionally to adjust information or add new sections (or delete them later). But not sites where new content is published daily.

    godaddy site builder

    You can create a blank page and add any elements you need, such as timers, text blocks, images, and so on. Or you can choose from their pre-designed templates for About pages, Galleries, Contact, Lists, and the storefront itself.

    Adding and publishing content is simple and easy. As we showed above, learning and using the software is quite straightforward. The main concern regarding the builder is that it’s not set up to easily create a blog. You can access the blogging dashboard from the menu in the top left, selecting My Blog.

    godaddy blog

    On the next page, you will see that your site isn’t set up for a blog. You have to create a new blog page before any of your content will be visible to the public.

    godaddy

    To do so, you must add a new blank page, then add a new blog section from the menu. Then navigate back to the dashboard and click Create Post to start. The editor itself is basic but functional. The elements you can work with are images, dividers, and text. You can categorize and add a featured image, too.

    godaddy builder blogs

    Using the GoDaddy blogging tool to create content isn’t particularly nice. It’s serviceable, and it does what it does without issue. It’s just nothing special. And that’s why it loses in this particular category. It doesn’t do anything noteworthy, but that may be fine for some people. If you need a simple website that displays information and/or sells products, the GoDaddy site builder works pretty well. But if you’re creating regular content for user consumption, it’s just not set up for that.

    WordPress Weebly
    Publishing 🥇 Winner
    WordPress is the go to platform for bloggers and content creators.     		GoDaddy functions primarily as a place to display products or show off your brand rather than for bloggers.
    Choose WordPress Choose GoDaddy

    Final Verdict on WordPress vs GoDaddy

    WordPress Weebly
    Ease of Use The interface take a bit to get used to, but most will be acclimated in a matter of minutes. 🥇 Winner
    It’s bare bones, and simple, made for people who don’t want to put a lot of time hand crafting their website.
    E-Commerce 🥇 Winner
    WooCommerce makes it simple, cheap, and efficient to create an online store.    		 It has less customization features available and is much more expensive.
    Publishing 🥇 Winner
    WordPress is the go to platform for bloggers and content creators.     		GoDaddy functions primarily as a place to display products or show off your brand rather than for bloggers.
    Choose WordPress Choose GoDaddy

    The GoDaddy site builder is a pretty nice piece of software, and it works quickly and smoothly. We didn’t run into any issues during the creative process that limited us in any way. But it’s very much not a publishing platform for regularly updated content. You can write updates and blogs and articles, but the feature seems like it was implemented as an afterthought. Creating a static site, however, is painless, and the templates look good enough to use on a public-facing site. Especially after you tweak the options and fine-tune the templates to your liking.

    WordPress, though, is the better platform for publishing content. After all, it’s a content publishing platform. It is a lot more than that, too. Using built-in and third-party tools, you can create any kind of static site you want, complete with landing pages, squeeze pages, special event registration, and more. It takes a little more time to learn WordPress than using the GoDaddy builder, but if you are creating a site that you intend to stick with for the long term, WP is just a stronger platform in nearly every way.

    WordPress Deep Dive

    Especially when you consider the quality of page builder plugins and themes that exist. The GoDaddy builder is fine, but some of the builders you can get with WP are phenomenal. If you are already using Godaddy and want to make the switch to WordPress, you’re in luck. It’s easy to move your website from the Godaddy Website Builder to WordPress in 6 simple steps.

    One more thing. Are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs everything else so that you don’t have to! Most recently, we reviewed WordPress vs Duda, and I think you will be interested to see the results.

    If you’re looking for specific plugins to help WordPress become even more powerful, we recommend the following:

    What have been your experiences with WordPress vs the GoDaddy website builder?

    The post WordPress vs GoDaddy Website Builder (2023) — Let’s Compare! appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • WordPress vs Medium (2023) — Where Should You Blog?

    If there is one question that goes back to the very beginning of blogging, it’s “what blogging platform should I use?” Everyone asks this question (to Google, most likely), and everyone gets bombarded with a thousand different answers. That’s primarily because there are so many choices. In this post, we’ll discuss the WordPress vs Medium debate. Both are fantastic platforms with a lot to offer bloggers. When considering where your blog should live, you need to know there is no wrong choice here.

    You would do fine with either, but hopefully, we can guide you through some of the more stand-out features for both to help make your decision a little easier.

    Look Inside Yourself (or Your Blog)

    When considering whether to go with Medium or WordPress (.com or .org), you need to think about what you need out of your blog or publication. Is it a personal blog you’re doing as a hobby, or are you going to monetize it eventually? Are you going to sell products on your blog, and how much discussion will take place on your articles themselves versus social media? How much static content will you have?

    Once you’ve got a few answers rattling around in your head, read onward.

    What is WordPress?

    WordPress vs Medium

    Ahhh, WordPress. You delightful beast, you. Obviously, here at Elegant Themes, we love WordPress. We use WordPress, and we promote WordPress as much as we can. Now, that doesn’t mean that WordPress is the best choice for everything all the time, but here are some of the reasons it might the right one for you.

    Manage that Content, Y’all

    WordPress isn’t just a blogging platform. It started that way, but since 2002, it has expanded into so much more than that. With nearly half of all websites running on WordPress, you can use the platform even if you don’t have a blog! (Blasphemy, I know.)

    If your website is more than just a home to your blog, or your blog is perhaps not the primary focus of your website, WordPress may be the best bet for you. Selling your products, taking reservations and planning events, WP has you covered.

    The downside to WP being a fully realized content management system (CMS) is that it can have a learning curve. For you to blow all its whistles, ring its bells, and get it to jump through hoops, you have to put in a bit more time than you do with Medium.

    If you need more, you can do more. And if you need less, you don’t have to use it all. As I said in the beginning, it’s up to you and what your needs are now (and what they’ll be in the future, too).

    What is Medium?

    WordPress vs Medium

    Medium is a relatively new publishing platform, launched in August 2012. That’s a full 10 years behind WordPress – at least when you consider how long WordPress has been around – but it’s become a staple among the internet’s blogging scene.

    Medium Series (on Mobile)

    Medium is an experimental platform in a lot of ways. It’s not beholden to any precedent, so the company can try new things and see what works. One of their neater features is called Series, which is a mobile-only publishing tool.

    Similar to Instagram or Facebook stories, Medium’s series gives writers the ability to publish serialized content in a card-based magazine. You add photos and text to the cards, and as the story, you’re telling progresses over time, you continually update the same Series.

    The selling point of this being mobile-only is that it’s bite-sized, easy to read and navigate, and unlike other social platforms where this type of content disappears after a while, any Series you publish remains live – just like any other blogs you’ve written.

    Not everyone will care or take advantage of Series, but if you’re up for trying new formats, WordPress doesn’t have anything even similar to this.

    Medium vs WordPress

    Cleanliness is Next To…

    Medium is clean. No, not in terms of content rating, but in terms of design, style, and UX. It just works.

    Medium is a writer’s platform if there ever was one. Sure, you can embed images and videos. But they are kept to a functional minimum. They aren’t the focus. The words are.

    A white background with black text in a single column in the center of the screen. That’s all you need to get your point across. Heck, sometimes there isn’t even a menu bar at the top.

    When you use Medium for your blog, you’re saying that yes, content is king and words are his bannermen.

    Social Media is King

    Social Media is a huge aspect of blogging these days. Without a social media presence, your blog is dead in the water. Which platform gives you the most reach on social media? Let’s explore.

    WordPress is Semi-Social

    One downside to WordPress vs Medium is that because it does so much so well, it doesn’t automatically have a focus on certain features like Medium. One aspect where WordPress is lacking in comparison is social networking.

    Yes, you can share your posts to any network you’re a member of, and your readers can leave comments at the bottom of posts in threads, there’s not a lot of interactivity between users within WordPress itself.

    Some plugins like Blog2Social and Social Wall by Smash Balloon do a good job in addressing that shortcoming, giving WordPress a bit more power in social settings. This is especially true in the last few years when third-party vendors have begun to bridge the gap from blogs to social media platforms.

    While WordPress is not specifically made for social, it can hold its own with a little help from some stellar plugins.

    Medium is Social-Friendly

    Medium was started by the same fella who helped start Twitter, Ev Williams. His involvement is important because more than anything (well, outside of being a publishing platform), Medium is about social connections and people. The content is important, of course, but the number of ways that writers and their audience are fundamental to the experience.

    You can clap for articles you like, share with friends and followers, and even highlight portions of text to comment directly on instead of starting a thread after everything is said and done (though that is possible, too). Then, those comments are linked back to your profile, where your followers can see them and join in on the conversation.

    Pretty cool.

    WordPress vs Medium social sharing

    Unlike WordPress, there aren’t any social media plugins to install to share content. That being said, you can’t change the way it looks, either.

    WordPress Medium
    Social Media Out of the box, WordPress isn’t known for being a social media platform. That being said, there are some good plugins that can get you there. 🥇 Winner

    Medium is all about social interaction. You can clap, share, and boost your posts on social media platforms easily.
    Choose WordPress Choose Medium

    Which Platform Gives You the Most Content Control?

    There’s the age-old argument of who controls your content. If a platform goes kaput, what happens to your content? Let’s delve into the depths of content control on both platforms and see who has the edge.

    WordPress Content Control

    With WordPress, you get direct access to your followers. They subscribe via email, and then you can interact with them as you wish. You can segment, group, A/B test, individually reach out, whatever. You’re in control of that list, and you always know who those people are.

    It may not sound like a big deal (or a lot of difference), but your audience is your bread and butter. They’re the jam on your biscuit, the avocado on your toast. They’re the…

    Right. You get it.

    My point is that if you’re blogging, you’re building a community. Not only that, you’re building a relationship with each person who reads your stuff.

    Combine these two issues of control (both for content and for followers), and you have a big reason folks go with WordPress over Medium for blogging. Being one with the final say over everything has a lot of appeals.

    It’s one of the reasons people love Divi so much when there are other hosted site-builders out there.

    Medium Content Control

    What do you do if Medium goes belly up? Where do your blogs go? If they live over there on Medium’s cloud, what happens when it’s all rained out?

    Well, that’s kind of a big reason that folks go with WordPress. Maybe the main reason. If you’re using self-hosted WordPress (the .org version), you have total control of your files, WP installations, words, and everything. Unless something catastrophic happens or you decide it’s time to close up shop, your blog and its content will be there.

    Most likely, Medium isn’t going anywhere. Even the old workhorses of blogging such as TypePad, LiveJournal, and Blogspot are still trotting along. But there will come a day when it goes the way of Friendster.

    If you don’t have a backup, you lose that content. And that’s a worry. But it’s not the worry.

    The real issue of control here isn’t with content. It’s with an audience. On Medium, you only have access to them via their Medium accounts. (Which does, admittedly, have links to their social profiles if they enter them.)

    WordPress Medium
    Content Control 🥇 Winner

    No other blogging platform gives you ultimate control over you content like WordPress. You get direct access to followers.

    		 Medium only gives you access to your contacts via their Medium accounts, which severely limits interaction. Plus, if the platform goes kaput, your content goes with it.
    Choose WordPress Choose Medium

    Which Platform Has Better Performance?

    WordPress is Fast..Sometimes

    WordPress website speed depends on various factors such as hosting provider, installed theme and plugins, and content optimization. You can make your WordPress website faster by using a good caching plugin such as W3 Total Cache, which can help speed up your website.

    When using a default WordPress theme and a few plugins, WordPress is quite fast. That being said, to keep a WordPress site fast, choose a optimized theme like Divi, and limit plugins. Consider CSS, JavaScript, and HTML file handling for faster loading times.

    To maintain site speed, be careful when selecting plugins from the thousands of options available. Using too many unreliable plugins can slow your site down. Stick with reputable third-party developers like 10Web to ensure your site stays speedy.

    Medium is Made For Speed In Mind

    Pretty much hand-in-hand with the clean, minimal style, Medium is a hot rod. Performance-wise, your blog is fast and furious and ready to win whatever street race you put it in.

    From posting to browsing to reading to connecting with friends and sharing content, everything you do on Medium is pretty blazing. Because the platform is focused on one thing – publishing – it removes much of the bloat that can slow down other blogging platforms.

    With Medium, writers can write, and they can write fast. Because Medium is made for writing. Fast.

    WordPress Medium
    Performance WordPress is fast if you’re using a default theme and limited plugins. That being said, the more you add, the more steps you need to take to keep it fast. 🥇 Winner

    Out of the box, Medium is lightning fast. That’s primarily because the platform is based on one thing – publishing – it removes much of the bloat found on other platforms.
    Choose WordPress Choose Medium

    WordPress vs Medium: Customization

    What if blogging is important, but so is how your site looks? Read on to learn more about who’s the fairest of them all.

    WordPress is Completely and Totally Customizable

    Where Medium takes away your ability to choose a lot about the design of your blog, WordPress gives you unprecedented control. With themes, plugins, and widgets at your command, there’s nothing you can’t do (website-wise, that is. Cold fusion and perpetual motion are still out of WP’s orbit).

    If you’re the kind of person who tweaks stuff constantly, adds elements, takes them away, and changes the user experience all the time, then WordPress gives you what you want. Medium might be constraining for you, but WordPress will free you from those shackles. If they’re shackles at all.

    Plus, if you’re an Elegant Themes member, Divi makes it incredibly easy to build a Medium-clone that runs just as quickly. Just sayin’.

    Medium Customization? What Customization?

    Not everything is sunshine and lollipops in Mediumville. If you’re the kind of person who tweaks their blog all the time, working on font pairings, colors, and header images…you just might hate it.

    Because you can’t do any of that. You get to upload your avatar, pick your bio, and if you have a publication (basically a collaborative blog multiple people write), you set a color scheme and a logo, that kind of thing.

    WordPress vs Medium

    But you’re not changing anything else. Medium is Medium is Medium.

    You either live with it, or you’ll decide that WordPress is much more to your liking…

    WordPress Medium
    Customization 🥇 Winner

    WordPress is the clear winner in customization due it’s vast library of plugins and themes at its disposal.

    		 Medium’s minimalist styling and customization options may not be suitable for those who like to tweak settings and colors.
    Choose WordPress Choose Medium

    At the End of the Day…

    I don’t think there’s a clear winner. There are enough benefits to both platforms that choosing one over the other leaves some nagging doubts.

    So use both of them. Put your articles on both platforms!

    “But B.J.,” you say, “Google will penalize me for having duplicate content! I can’t just copy and paste my articles on both WordPress and Medium!”

    To which I reply: “True, friendo. But you can use Medium’s import tool!” (And here‘s why!)

    When you use their import tool, your site keeps its canonical link juice, and you get access to pretty much everything Medium has to offer. It is the best of both worlds. See, it doesn’t have to be WordPress vs Medium at all.

    WordPress vs Medium Alternatives

    If you’re looking to compare other options besides WordPress vs Medium, take a look at some of our other head-to-head posts such as WordPress vs HubSpot, WordPress vs Wix, or our ultimate showdown post, WordPress vs Everything Else.

    WordPress vs Medium: Which One Is Better?

    But if your blog has to live somewhere, I do think that WordPress vs Medium is the better option, simply for the customization aspect alone.

    WordPress Medium
    Social Media Out of the box, WordPress isn’t known for being a social media platform. That being said, there are some good plugins that can get you there. 🥇 Winner

    Medium is all about social interaction. You can clap, share, and boost your posts on social media platforms easily.
    Content Control 🥇 Winner

    No other blogging platform gives you ultimate control over you content like WordPress. You get direct access to followers.

    		 Medium only gives you access to your contacts via their Medium accounts, which severely limits interaction. Plus, if the platform goes kaput, your content goes with it.
    Performance WordPress is fast if you’re using a default theme and limited plugins. That being said, the more you add, the more steps you need to take to keep it fast. 🥇 Winner

    Out of the box, Medium is lightning fast. That’s primarily because the platform is based on one thing – publishing – it removes much of the bloat found on other platforms.
    Customization 🥇 Winner

    WordPress is the clear winner in customization due it’s vast library of plugins and themes at its disposal.

    		 Medium’s minimalist styling and customization options may not be suitable for those who like to tweak settings and colors.
    Choose WordPress Choose Medium

    With a quality theme such as Divi, as well as killer social media plugins like Social Wall by Smash Balloon, your WordPress site can be a speedy, social media powerhouse where you can share your thoughts with the world in a beautiful way.

    The post WordPress vs Medium (2023) — Where Should You Blog? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.