Developers use a Content Management System (CMS) when they need to create and publish a website and maintain all its components and content. Despite the variety of CMS platforms, a rare one can compete with WordPress in popularity. And this is for a good reason.
The open-source platform, with a choice of free options, integrated extensions, and professional tools, WordPress remains the number one site-building solution for many users. However, there are workable alternatives to WordPress, and your project may benefit from them in certain cases. Let’s observe the best CMS and site-building apps you can use instead of WordPress.
Joomla – For Secure Website Building
| Product Name: | Joomla |
| Official Website: | joomla.org |
| Founded: | 2005 |
| Number of Websites: | 4,076,550 |
| Complexity: | Complex |
| Free plan: | Free system |
| Paid plan: | Plugins, hosting, domain |
Joomla – is an excellent CMS similar to WordPress with almost the same functions as this far-famed competitor. Many hosting companies also allow Joomla installation with one click. Joomla has a code editor, pro themes, and plugins. It is as powerful as WordPress in terms of SEO and marketing tools.
What Is Better in Joomla
Although Joomla may seem like a less popular twin CMS of WordPress, the platform has several advantages:
- Security. Joomla has built-in security tools so you can create a website without worrying about protecting your content. WordPress entrusts the whole job to you, and your website’s safety is within your responsibility.
- Ease of Use. Both WordPress and Joomla are rather addressed to web developers who have certain knowledge in site building. Still, Joomla has easier editors and a more convenient control panel for further content management.
- Multi-language sites. Joomla offers great tools for organizing a website available in several languages. 76 of them are supported on Joomla.
- Extensions. Joomla has enough add-ons for eCommerce, businesses, or blogs. The platform supports smart integrations with major social networks, too.
Plans
Like its counterpart, Joomla is a free, open-source platform. You build a website for free and possess it forever. Surely, you’ll have to purchase a domain name and find a host. Some of the extensions might also require certain investments.
Who Is Joomla Best For?
Joomla offers a flexible and powerful platform for web developers who focus on professional creation/customization of web projects. The software guarantees extensive control over website design and functionality, making it a great pick choice for niche expertise.
Thus, the platform is a great option for small to medium-sized businesses that require a robust and feature-rich website without the need for significant upfront costs. It makes it possible to effectively set up and manage your web presence.
As a community-oriented system that comes with the ability to handle diverse content types, Joomla can be quite a good solution for non-profit organizations that face the need to publish news, events, posts and multimedia content.
This is also a worthy pick for educational institutions, online magazines and publications, web stores, freelancers, government and public sector websites as well as community and social networking projects.
Magento – For eCommerce
| Product Name: | Magento |
| Official Website: | magento.com |
| Founded: | 2008 |
| Number of Websites: | 708,941 |
| Complexity: | Complex |
| Free plan: | Yes |
| Paid plan: | Hosting - from $2.95/mo |
Another open-source platform with advanced tools for site development is Magento. This CMS addresses large companies, online stores, and professional developers. A total beginner will need to hire a specialist to create their website on Magento.
What Is Better in Magento
With the main focus on eCommerce, Magento has the following benefits:
- Complete Equipment for Online Stores. Magento offers truly powerful tools for running an online shop of any level of complexity. The number of available features exceeds several hundred, and many of them are unique.
- Customization Freedom. On Magento, you define every aspect of your website’s design, feature supply, rules for maintenance, etc.
- Fast Sites. The Magento platform allows you to create fast-loading business and eCommerce sites, no matter how content-heavy they are.
- Advanced Reports. In your management interface, you’ll be able to monitor about two dozen insights about your customers’ activities, separate products’ popularity, etc.
- Extended SEO tools. Although Magento generates SEO-friendly URLs, you are free to edit them and all the other meta elements of your pages. Magento also offers a variety of powerful SEO add-ons to make Google, Yahoo, and other search engines love your website.
Plans
Magento is an ultra-expensive solution. You can access a Magento Open Source version for free, but you will have to pay for hosting, a domain, an SSL certificate, the most basic extensions, design features, and so on. Be ready to pay at least $12,000 per year. The Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud solutions will require minimum investments of at least $43,000 and $60,000 per year, respectively.
Who Is Magento Best For?
Magento is a solely open-source eCommerce platform primarily focusing on complex eCommerce projects. It can handle a high volume of products, orders and website traffic, making it suitable for businesses with a notable online presence.
Magento’s Enterprise Edition is specifically designed to cater to large enterprises with extensive product catalogs and complex business requirements. It comes with advanced features, performance optimization solutions and dedicated support.
Does your business require highly customized and tailored eCommerce performance? Magento offers enough flexibility to let you create unique and feature-laden web stores that comply with specific business needs of users.
What’s important, the software supports multiple languages, currencies and tax rates, thus being suitable for businesses targeting customers worldwide. Such features as customer-specific pricing, negotiated quotes and bulk order processing allow for professional B2B eCommerce project development and further management.
Adobe Dreamweaver – For Adobe-Oriented Users
| Product Name: | Adobe Dreamweaver |
| Official Website: | adobe.com |
| Founded: | 1997 |
| Number of Websites: | 4,654,223 |
| Complexity: | Complex |
| Free plan: | Free 7-day trial |
| Paid plan: | From $14.99/mo |
Dreamweaver – is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud platform. The app is usually preferred by web designers who need to use other Adobe products like Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator. The software is rather for creating professionally designed web pages. The platform can be integrated with WordPress to provide your website with enough content management tools.
What Is Better in Dreamweaver
Besides smooth integration with Adobe applications, Dreamweaver has such advantages over WordPress:
- Easy-to-use Code Editor. Dreamweaver’s editor is very simple. It contains auto-correction and auto-completion tools. You can easily edit HTML, Javascript, and CSS codes.
- Ready Templates. For coding amateurs, there’s a collection of predesigned templates with fine-tuned pages.
- Advanced Customization. Adobe Dreamweaver will give you more freedom in customizing your website than WordPress.
- Side Service Integration. Dreamweaver perfectly cooperates with Adobe apps and fully integrates with such systems as Business Catalyst or GitHub.
- HTML5 supported. You can bring to reality HTML5-based projects when using the latest version of Dreamweaver.
Plans
The subscription fee for Dreamweaver uniquely is $20.99 a month. You can also subscribe to it together with other top Adobe products for $54.99 a month.
Who Is Adobe Dreamweaver Best For?
As a professional web development software developed by Adobe Systems, Dreamweaver works best for various groups of individuals and professionals involved in custom web design. Its visual interface and code editor cater to both visual designers and those who prefer to work with code directly.
Dreamweaver grants access to tools and features useful for front-end developers who work on the visual and interactive elements of websites. Its visual built-in CSS designer and responsive design tools make it possible to set up responsive and mobile-friendly web projects.
Although Dreamweaver primarily focuses on front-end design, back-end developers can also benefit from its code editor and integration with server-side technologies like PHP, ASP.NET, and ColdFusion.
UX and UI designers can also use Dreamweaver’s visual tools to create prototypes and mockups of websites before proceeding to the web development phase.
Wix – For Easy Website Building
| Product Name: | Wix |
| Official Website: | wix.com |
| Founded: | 2006 |
| Number of Websites: | 10,839,692 |
| Complexity: | Very easy |
| Free plan: | Yes |
| Paid plan: | From $22/mo |
Take Wix into account when looking for a reliable equivalent to WordPress with beginner-friendly options. This platform is not as rich in features and integration capabilities as WordPress, but it is designed to help non-coders create professional sites with an easy-manageable interface.
What Is Better in Wix
Wix can be seen as a simpler analog of WordPress. You do not have as many customization options as in WordPress, but you cannot spoil anything while creating your website. The key benefits of Wix include the following:
- Ease of use. Wix offers a much easier website editor. Not a line of code is needed to build a fully functional online site. Pick a template and drag-drop all the necessary elements into it. You can edit the structure and watch how each page will look in the end. Moreover, Wix-based sites are easier to keep updated and well-maintained in the long run.
- Responsive Templates. Subscribe to a Wix plan, and you’ll get access to over 800 ready templates. Each of them has a professional design and ideally integrates with smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
- AI assistance. The Wix ADI tool can build you a website with a minimum of actions on your part. This method is extremely easy to use.
- Online Store. Wix is ideal for creating a small online store – it can be fully equipped with payment gateways, tax management, shipping tools, POS, CRM instruments, etc. It will be easier to organize and maintain a Wix store than its analog build on WordPress.
Plans
Wix currently offers two groups of plans – Website and Business/eCommerce subscriptions. Each of them includes more detailed packages that differ in terms, toolset, features etc. The cheapest subscription from the Website group of plans costs $22 per month. All plans come with a 1-year free domain, custom domain name and free SSL certificate connection as well as the Remove Wix ads instrument. There is a 14-day full-refund guarantee for users who decide to cancel the selected plan for some reason.
Who Is Wix Best For?
Wix is ideal for individuals who wish to create personal blogs, portfolios or informational websites as well as for entrepreneurs and startups who need feature-rich business projects.
Artists, photographers, musicians, designers, musicians and other creatives can use Wix to showcase their work and services in the best way possible.
What’s more, Wix offers extensive eCommerce capabilities, which allows creating small to medium web stores. There is a separate group of plans for these projects here as well as a collection of pre-designed eCommerce templates.
Wix’s event management features and availability of niche widgets/apps allow organizers to create event websites, sell tickets, and manage RSVPs for conferences, workshops, weddings, and other gatherings.
Finally, the website builder can be used by educators and students to create educational and class projects as well as online portfolios to showcase their work and achievements.
Mobirise – For Smaller Websites & Landing Pages
| Product Name: | Mobirise |
| Official Website: | mobirise.com |
| Founded: | 2003 |
| Number of Websites: | 293, 247 |
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Free plan: | Free Software |
| Paid plan: | Hosting and extensions |
Mobirise – is an app that you need to download and install on your computer. The software download and usage are 100% free, but you will need to pay for extensions. Now, access to Mobirise Kit is more affordable.
What Is Better in Mobirise
Consider the following benefits of Mobirise:
- Offline access. Once installed on your desktop, Mobirise will be available even without an Internet connection.
- Simple interface. It is extremely easy to use the Mobirise editor. Its main mechanism is Drag & Drop, and the whole process of site construction runs almost intuitively. The code editor is also beginner-friendly.
- Built-in SEO tools. When using Mobirise, be sure to create websites initially appealing to major search engines like Google or Yahoo.
- Quality Templates and Blocks. Over 7,000 blocks and 200+ themes will be at your disposal in Mobirise. Their main benefit is their enhanced, professional design.
- Mobile Optimization. Mobirise is a mobile-friendly platform. You do not need to do anything manually – all the necessary options are initially built-in.
Plans
The Mobirise website builder itself is free. But bringing your project to perfection will require the usage of certain extensions. They are paid on Mobirise. Most add-ons cost $39 or $49 a year. When planning to supply your website with multiple features, it is sensible to subscribe to Mobirise Kit with all premium themes, blocks, and extensions accessible for $149 a year.
Webflow – For Web Designers
| Product Name: | Webflow |
| Official Website: | webflow.com |
| Founded: | 2013 |
| Number of Websites: | 703,388 |
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Free plan: | Yes |
| Paid plan: | From $14/mo |
Webflow – has been in service for about a decade, but this CMS and site builder’s functionality looks modern and a cut above the other similar products, including WordPress. Over three million web designers have chosen Webflow to build and publish their projects.
What Is Better in Webflow
Webflow is a SaaS platform that has all instruments for creating, launching, and maintaining a professional website. Its benefits are as follows:
- Exceptional Website Builder. Webflow gives you a complete set of instruments for building your website just as you have planned. While you use these instruments, Webflow codes in HTML, CSS, or Javascript and does the whole job instead of you. The results are immediately on your screen.
- Plugin-free Websites. There’s a collection of over 70 plugins at Webflow. However, you can do without them when working with such essentials as SEO, security, forms creation, etc. This means your website will be less dependent on updates and plugin crashes.
- Webflow hosting. Powered by Amazon Cloud front and Fastly, Webflow hosting is one of the most reliable hosting solutions in the industry. So you won’t need to go elsewhere to host your website. Webflow uptime is 99.99%.
- Fast Loading. Webflow employs the HTTP/2 protocol, so expect lightning-fast working from your website.
- Ease of Use for Your Clients. When working out projects for clients with Webflow, be sure to produce unique but fully controlled websites. Your clients will enjoy the ease of updating their content, adding products, launching landing pages, and so on.
Plans
There are four plans at Webflow, one of which is free. It is ideal for trying how the Webflow environment works. The cheapest paid solution will cost you $14 per month. The CMS plan is $23, and the Business plan is $39 per month.
Who Is Webflow Best For?
If you are a web designer expecting to have full control over your project, then Webflow has much to offer. The system makes it possible to set up custom responsive websites without the need to write code manually.
The platform is also used by web design agencies and freelancers to build projects for their clients. Its design capabilities and easy-to-use CMS make it a preferred solution for delivering high-quality websites.
Webflow is also suitable for small to medium-sized businesses, eCommerce projects, design-driven websites and other similar projects with a strong focus on creating unique and visually stunning websites/portfolios.
Creative professionals will also appreciate the platform’s functionality due to the availability of design tools and portfolio templates.
Squarespace – For Small Businesses
| Product Name: | Squarespace |
| Official Website: | squarespace.com |
| Founded: | 2003 |
| Number of Websites: | 5,011,314 |
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Free plan: | No, free 14-day trial |
| Paid plan: | From $16/mo |
Searching for a quick and reliable solution? Squarespace is the one. It has a big set of useful eCommerce features, so Squarespace may be the optimal solution for an online store, with all the needed options ready.
What Is Better in Squarespace
While WordPress beats Squarespace in functional richness for blogging, Squarespace is an absolute winner in eCommerce:
- Gorgeous Templates. Squarespace is unbeaten when comparing its professional templates with those offered by other CMS. Each of the 140+ available templates is 100% responsive and will suit any screen.
- Ease of use. The Squarespace editor is easier than the WordPress one. It is made with a non-coder and site-building starter in mind.
- eCommerce Features. Squarespace offers a solid set of tools for selling goods online. Your online store will be beautifully designed and capable of selling an unlimited number of products, be it physical or digital goods, a service, or a subscription. Be sure to have such instruments as a Shopping cart, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Gift Cards, Discount Management tools, basic POS, and more.
- Enhanced Security. Squarespace ensures security for your website without handing over the issues to third parties. So, be ready for consistent management of all the necessary updates.
Plans
You may start with Squarespace’s cheapest plan at $16 per month (annual billing). At your disposal are three other plans for more sophisticated management of your website available, which will cost you $23, $27, and $49 per month, respectively. All plans go with a 14-day free trial.
Who Is Squarespace Best For?
Squarespace is well-suited for small businesses, entrepreneurs, web store owners and startups looking for professional brand presentation on the web. It offers a range of business-specific designs, eCommerce tools, online booking and appointment scheduling solutions.
Individuals and creatives willing to showcase their talent will also find multiple advantages when using the website builder. Along with beautiful templates and design tools that let users create impressive portfolios and online presentations, there is access to visual interactive and parallax effects, animations, engaging integrations etc.
Squarespace offers blogging capabilities that make it suitable for content creators and freelancers. Its integrated content management system makes it possible for users to publish and manage blog posts with ease.
Finally, the platform has much to offer to the owners of event websites. There are multiple templates and features designed specifically for creating elegant wedding/restaurant/cafe websites as well as quality event pages.
Drupal – For Web Developers
| Product Name: | Drupal |
| Official Website: | drupal.org |
| Founded: | 2009 |
| Number of Websites: | 1,725,840 |
| Complexity: | Complex |
| Free plan: | Free system |
| Paid plan: | Plugins, hosting, domain |
Drupal – is an open-source CMS on which many celebrated companies have built their websites. The software allows fluent customization and easy management of large volumes of content.
What Is Better in Drupal
Addressed to developers, Drupal gives much more freedom in customizing a website’s design, structure, and functional kitting. So, its key advantages are as follows:
- Access Permissions. Drupal goes with a built-in access control system that will let you create roles and assign individual permissions to users.
- More Flexible Architecture. Drupal is more consistent in terms of maintaining content. It will suit you more than WordPress when needing to handle loads of data.
- Plugins & Themes. WordPress is unrivaled in this respect. However, Drupal might be the second-best CMS here, with its 39,000+ plugins and over 2,500 themes.
- Advanced SEO. With the help of the PathAuto module, you can modify SEO settings for meta tags, page titles, XML sitemaps, etc.
- Strong eCommerce. Drupal is ready to supply your online store with everything it needs for seamless selling. The key advantage here is a high level of scalability, so the soft will equally suit small, medium, and large eCommerce companies.
Plans
Drupal is a fully free platform. However, you will need to pay for hosting and premium extensions to button up your website. The cost varies dramatically: you may spend from $60 up to $40,000+.
Who Is Drupal Best For?
While Drupal can be a powerful solution for various types of websites, its complexity and the need for technical expertise make it a better pick for large-scale projects and organizations with specific requirements.
The software is frequently used by enterprises and organizations with high-traffic websites that require advanced security, scalability, and performance.
Its ability to handle complex content structures, accessibility requirements and flexibility in building custom features also make it a popular solution for government websites and public sector organizations.
If you plan to set up and manage community and social networking websites or projects of non-profit organizations, Drupal will let you do that with ease as well.
The platform is also commonly used by educational institutions as it offers extensive opportunities for educational content management.
Mind, however, that its learning curve can be steep for newbies, but it is highly valued by web design pros looking for a powerful and extensible CMS to work on complex projects.
Weebly – For Any Budget eCommerce
| Product Name: | Weebly |
| Official Website: | weebly.com |
| Founded: | 2007 |
| Number of Websites: | 1,718,762 |
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Free plan: | Yes |
| Paid plan: | From $10/mo |
Weebly – is a simple but powerful tool used by millions of sites. This is a great solution for businesses with limited budgets. It is ideal for a beginner.
What Is Better in Weebly
Weebly is easier to use and more affordable in terms of pricing, so among its benefits, you are sure to find:
- Ultra Easy-to-Use Editor. Based on Drag & Drop, the Weebly website editor is beginner-friendly. It offers guides on every stage of creating a site.
- Pricing. For as much as $5, you can launch a website with its custom domain and basic features. On WordPress, the same equipment will require extra cost.
- Support. Expect 24×7 technical support with phone and online chat options from Weebly.
- Simple Code Editor. A coding specialist may also benefit from Weebly – this platform’s code editor has an intuitive interface.
- Plugins. Weebly is far behind WordPress in terms of plugin quantity. However, the quality of some of them beats WordPress. You may connect your website to about 250 modules and be sure that they actually work for your project’s productivity.
- eCommerce Features. When ready to subscribe to a premium package for Weebly, you’ll be able to provide your site with all important online store features. Again, it will cost you less than WordPress solutions.
Plans
There’s a free plan with a Weebly-branding domain, but this can be a workable solution for a low-budget entrepreneur or company. The cheapest package is $10 per month. The other two solutions are Professional ($12 per month) and Performance ($26 per month), and they have an excellent price/money value ratio. There’s a 14-day free trial for all paid plans.
Who Is Weebly Best For?
Weebly’s blogging features are powerful and advanced. This is no wonder as the software was initially created with blogging focus in mind. Thus, building a full-featured blog to share your ideas and stories online is quite easy and fast here.
Small business owners who need a straightforward and cost-effective platform to establish an online presence will also appreciate the system’s functionality. It offers easy-to-use tools for creating professional-looking websites without the need for coding.
Weebly’s integration with Square has made it possible to set up, manage and customize small-to-large online stores. The eCommerce features the platform offers are extensive and versatile.
Creating personal websites, portfolios and online resumes is possible here as well, which is essential for creatives and job seekers.
Finally, Weebly’s straightforward interface and educational resources make it a valuable tool for educators and students to create websites for class projects, assignments, or digital portfolios.
Shopify – For Online Stores
| Product Name: | Shopify |
| Official Website: | shopify.com |
| Founded: | 2004 |
| Number of Websites: | 6,812,366 |
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Free plan: | No, free 14-day trial |
| Paid plan: | From $9/mo |
Shopify – is initially designed for eCommerce. It allows the creation of ready-to-use online stores with all the necessary functions switched on. You do not need a host and integrate your website with piles of useful extensions.
What Is Better in Shopify
Shopify is all about online selling, so the main advantages are related to this characteristic of the software:
- Drag & Drop Functionality. It’s easy to create an online store with the help of Shopify. WordPress requires certain knowledge in web development, while Shopify doesn’t.
- Automated Updates/Backups. You won’t have to manage things like this yourself on Shopify.
- The Abundance of Payment Options. Shopify will let you connect your website with major payment gateways and conduct transactions in a bigger number of currencies.
- Support. Like WordPress, Shopify has online forums where you can find solutions to every problem occurring during website creation or maintenance. But you can also expect responsive customer support via Online Chat, email, or phone.
Plans
You are free to start with Shopify for $9 a month. For more sophisticated eCommerce, you might need more powerful solutions from Shopify, available for $29, $79, and $299 a month. All of them go with free trials valid for 14 days.
Who Is Shopify Best For?
If you’re looking for professional eCommerce software, then Shopify will certainly get you covered. This is because the platform is focused on web store creation only, offering an extensive feature set to do that.
You can set up, customize and promote all types of online stores, from small and medium shops and up to large-scale hypermarkets.
Shopify offers various apps and integrations that facilitate dropshipping, making it a popular platform for businesses that rely on third-party suppliers to fulfill customer orders.
Retail businesses looking to expand their reach by selling online can benefit from Shopify’s integration with point-of-sale systems and inventory management.
Whatever niche you specialize in, Shopify will offer plenty of tools, features, templates and integrations to make its creation seamless and hassle-free. Its multilingual and multi-currency support make it suitable for businesses looking to sell internationally and reach a global customer base.
Conclusion
To sum up, you should definitely upgrade your idea of website building and controlling if you think WordPress is the only solution for these purposes. In this article, we introduced the most reliable control management systems and site constructors which can boost your website’s growth better than WordPress – in certain circumstances or in general. So, extend your boundaries and provide your project with the very solution it needs for fast and stable development.
