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There has never been so many options for starting a website or blog. Hosting WordPress on your own server is not only the most popular ways – it has been completely revolutionary. As a free, open-source, community-maintained content management system – WordPress software has allowed millions of people to start & fully control their own website.
Self-hosted WordPress hosting relies on software from WordPress.org that is typically configured via a streamlined one-click installation script. What’s more, the best WordPress hosts include upgraded infrastructure and security measures optimized to run and protect the world’s most popular content management system. To be self-hosted you will need to be on any hosting platform other then WordPress.com. You can learn the difference in WordPress.com vs WordPress.org from our earlier post. This is a easy move and here are the step you will.
But what if you want an alternative to WordPress? After all – there is no such thing as a “best website builder” or “best website software” – only the best for your project. And if anything has truly changed in the past decade – it is choice. Website owners can not only forego a developer/designer – they can go right to the DIY setup that fits their needs, expertise and focus.
In my career as a marketing consultant, I’ve been able to use and consult on a full range of website builders, software & platforms for both my in-house projects and client projects. While WordPress is great for most projects, I also thought it would be useful to have a list of WordPress alternatives along with what they do well & who they focus on.
Here’s a brief summary along with an extended explanation below.
Summary of Best Self-hosted WordPress (.org) Alternatives
Disclosure – I receive customer referral fees from companies listed on this website. All data & opinion is based on my professional experience as a customer or consultant to a customer. Read my full reviews of various website builders here.
Guide to Self-hosted WordPress Alternatives
Here’s an extended guide to each, along with other WordPress alternatives for specific use cases.
Weebly
Weebly is known as a drag and drop website builder. It is a hosted platform, which means that you don’t have to worry about hosting, speed or security like you do with self-hosted WordPress.
I wrote a full Weebly review here & compared Weebly to WordPress here.
Go check out Weebly’s Plans here.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is the commercial provider of the open-source & community-supported WordPress software. They provide a managed platform where they provide a limited version of WordPress software in exchange for taking care of all the technical considerations. You can make use of the versatility of WordPress without worrying about HTML/CSS, security, speed or hosting.
I wrote a full explanation of WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org here.
Go check out WordPress.com’s Plans here.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a major brand in the website builder industry, thanks to their heavy ad spend on podcasts & Super Bowl ads. They do not have drag & drop, but do offer a user-friendly platform with a focus on design. They are pricier than other options (and have inherent hosted platform limitations), but serve as an excellent name-brand, hosted WordPress alternative.
I wrote a Squarespace review and compared Squarespace to WordPress here.
Go checkout Squarespace’s plans here.
Shopify
Shopify is a name-brand ecommerce platform. Unlike WordPress – Shopify focuses exclusively on online storeowners. They offer drag and drop, along with templated designs in addition to features that fit all types of online stores.
I wrote a review of Shopify here and compared WordPress to Shopify here.
Go check out Shopify’s plans here.
Drupal
Drupal is WordPress’ most direct competitor in the general open-source CMS market. Unlike WordPress, it did not start out as a blogging solution, so some developers argue that it has less baggage. For a while, the Drupal’s community was not as active. But with a recent release, Drupal has a re-growing fan base. Not as user-friendly as WordPress, but worth a look if you want a good, self-hosted CMS.
Explore hosting options here.
Go check out Drupal here.
Joomla
Joomla is the “3rd sister CMS” along with WordPress and Drupal. It has a new release due in 2017, but has been losing momentum for several years. That said, it has a devoted community with many strengths over WordPress. I personally don’t think it is as user-friendly, but is a very interesting alternative.
Explore Joomla hosting here.
Go check out Joomla here.
Ghost
Ghost is a rapidly growing WordPress alternative, that in some ways, actually started as a reaction to WordPress’ movement away from its publishing roots towards a general content management system. Ghost is lean, open-source, fast and focused on modern web publishers.
Go check out Ghost here.
Jekyll
Jekyll is also a fast-growing alternative that has caught on as reaction to WordPress’ recent product features. Jekyll is a “static website generator” – like the old-school Movable Type. This topic gets complicated, but basically static website technology fell out of favor to database-driven software like WordPress due its lack of functionality and flexibility. But – due to speed & security concerns (and feature-bloat) – static website generators are coming back. Jekyll is one of many that is growing in popularity.
Wordpress Free Website Builder
Go check out Jekyll here.
Other WordPress Alternatives
There are, of course, tons of other alternatives including options that either have a specific use case, I haven’t used enough to fully judge or don’t quite have features/benefits that the alternatives listed above already cover.
That said, I’ve had managers compiling a list for internal evaluation ask for more. Here’s the list that I usually provide.
- HTML/CSS – it’s OK not to use tools! Sometimes you just need to write your own HTML and upload it to a server (or a cloud – which are near free nowadays). I love to look at onepagelove – where I got starter code to build this small project on Google’s Cloud. Bootstrap also has a whole suite of starter snippets for custom coded sites.
- GoDaddy GoCentral Website Builder – a pre-packaged website product from GoDaddy. Not nearly as flexible as WordPress, but very straightforward. I reviewed GoDaddy’s website builder here.
- BoldGrid – software offered by some hosting companies that installs with WordPress so that you get all the benefits of self-hosted WordPress in addition to drag & drop design and simplified setup.
- Wix – a name-brand website builder. It has drag & drop design with many integrated features. I compared Wix to WordPress here.
Related Resources
I’ve written a lot about website builders – and have been able to consult with a variety of clients from small shops to household brands. Here’s related resources that I’ve written.
Related Reviews
Related Guides
All the best on your project!
Like many prospective clients, Lee contacted me about troubleshooting issues on her self-hosted WordPress site.
Her consulting website was set up years ago by a designer who was no longer involved with the site.
Lee paid the monthly hosting and annual domain registration fees for her site.
But she hadn’t added new content to the site in over a year.
Lee is a technical person, but not a designer or developer.
When she asked me to review her site, troubleshoot spam comments, and set up analytics, I asked questions about her business and website to learn about her goals.
Read on to learn why I moved Lee’s existing self-hosted WordPress site to hosted WordPress.com.
Clients With Existing Websites
For my new clients who already have a self-hosted WordPress website, it feels like I’m solving puzzles.
Often my new client has no background on how the site was created, no documentation from the designer/developer, and in rare cases, no login credentials to access the site.
Over the years, I’ve developed strategies for learning about sites, conducting dozens of site reviews and providing recommendations on next steps.
I check the site setup with Sucuri Security online Site Check tool as well as other online tools to learn about the website.
What I’ve noticed over the years: many sites had the same issues in common:
- Out-of-date plugins, theme, and WordPress core
- Multiple users with admin access to the site, people who hadn’t worked on the site for years
- No SSL certificate. Or if the SSL certificate is installed, it’s not installed correctly
- No site backups
- Outdated PHP version
In addition, many sites were hosted with providers who didn’t provide a free SSL certificate. Each year, site owners would pay an annual fee for an SSL certificate.
These aren’t sites with a lot of functionality. Most are brochure sites or blogs, without a lot of custom features or functionality.
Site Owners Focus on Their Organization
I’ve noticed many site owners aren’t aware of the underlying technologies needed to run a website.
Nor should they be, if they have someone who regularly maintains and updates their site.
But that’s not the case for most of my new clients.
They’re consultants, business owners, or nonprofits who understand the importance of a website.
My clients’ focus is on their business or organization, not on managing website infrastructure.
Which is why after I conduct a site review I suggest an alternative approach for their website.
Why Move a Self-Hosted WordPress Site to Hosted WordPress.com?
While self-hosted WordPress sites offer control over your site design and functionality, with that control comes a lot of responsibility.
To keep your WordPress site running in tip-top condition, you need to ensure the infrastructure is updated, your content is secure, and you have backups in case something goes wrong.
As the site owner, you need to invest your own time or pay someone on your staff (or a designer/developer) to maintain your site.
For clients with existing sites who don’t want the worry, moving to hosted WordPress.com is an excellent choice.
It takes away a lot of the headaches involved with maintaining and managing a website.
By moving your site to hosted WordPress.com, you no longer have to worry about the infrastructure for your site.
Hosted WordPress takes care of it for you.
No need to do any updates, it’s all automatically done for you.
And the SSL certificate is provided at no extra charge.
With the Premium plan (which is the plan I typically recommend for my clients), you can:
- Use your own custom domain
- Choose from dozens of premium themes, if your theme isn’t already offered in the Premium plan
- No ads
- Customize styles and colors
- Accept one-time, monthly, or annual payments online
- Provide subscriber-only content
- Create paid newsletters
- Set up Stripe, to provide another option for payments to you
Note: the Premium plan doesn’t offer the ability to install plugins.
Which isn’t an issue for the majority of my clients with existing sites, since functionality like online payments, contact form, etc, are features offered with the Premium plan.
For the dozen+ clients I’ve moved to WordPress.com, the annual cost of the Premium plan has been less than what my client was paying for web hosting and their SSL certificate.
What You Need to Know About WordPress.com
When you move your site to hosted WordPress.com, you no longer have to worry about the technical infrastructure.
WordPress.com handles it all for you, along with providing spam protection and ensuring your site displays quickly for website visitors.
You’ll log into WordPress.com to access your site, make changes, update content.
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For people with the Premium plan, customer support is live chat or email support, 24/7. There is no phone support for the Premium plan.
Sometimes I’ve noticed delays in support requests at the end of the week.
But overall, support is quick and helpful.
While WordPress.com offers a free domain for one year, I still recommend you keep your domain name registration and hosting at separate companies.
Summary
Depending on your personal/organization goals and requirements, moving your self-hosted WordPress site to hosted WordPress.com can remove the headache of constant maintaining and updating your WordPress site.
Which reduces your cost and investment in your website.
Self Hosted Wordpress Blog
So you can focus on your organization/business as well as writing new content for your site.
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After I moved Lee’s site to WordPress.com, she sent me a quick message saying how happy she was to no longer worry about spam comments and dealing with website technology.
That’s a win!