9 Simple Alternatives to WordPress [For Blogs and Websites]

WordPress (WP) is by far the most popular Content Management System on the planet.

However, despite its widespread use, there are many cases where WordPress is not the best option for blogs and websites.

The majority of people looking to replace WP are searching for a simpler tool where they:

• can customize the look of their website or blog without having to rely on code;
• can view their website as they work on it, without having to go back and forth between their admin panel and their website (a problem solved by WYSIWYG builders);
• don’t need to worry about hosting, security, backups, updating plugins, and all the other activities that come with setting up a WP site.

To help you choose the best WordPress alternative for your specific needs, we’ve split up the different tools into the following categories:

• Blog Alternatives
• Website Alternatives
• CMS Alternatives

Note: WordPress offers two options for building a website: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

The main difference is that WordPress dot com offers hosting, support, and a basic site builder for between $0 to $33 per month while WordPress dot org provides you with free software that you must download and install on your self-hosted server.

We will refer to both these versions throughout the article.

Wordpress Blog Alternatives

Because WordPress is most commonly used for blogging, this is where we will begin. 

Medium

Medium is an online publishing platform that makes it easy to write, publish, and share your content online.

Unlike most blogging platforms, Medium’s goal is to build a community of content creators that share their content within the platform. With over 60 million monthly readers, this community aspect provides added visibility for beginner writers who are not comfortable promoting their blog through traditional marketing tactics.

Combined with an incredibly easy-to-use post-editing experience, Medium is by far the simplest WordPress alternative for someone looking to blog online.

Price: 

• FREE (access to premium blog content is $5/month or $50/year)

Pros:

• The Medium community provides additional visibility to your blog content
• Everything is easy (onboarding, writing, sharing, etc)
• Medium’s high authority on search engines can make it easier to rank your content
• Ability to import existing stories (using URL importer)

Cons:

• You blog’s design is limited in terms of customizations
• You can’t add a custom domain
• General website limitations (eg. you can’t add Google Analytics to your blog)

Ghost

Ghost is an open source platform that’s made it easier than ever to publish great looking articles for blogs and magazines.

Although Ghost comes with a slightly higher base price than WordPress, their fully managed services model can be very affordable when compared to certain Managed WP Hosts. 

Source: Ghost VS WordPress 

Ghost’s main appeal is its simple dashboard and post editor that looks almost identical to the one provided by Medium. However, unlike Medium, you are free to customize everything on your blog to match your own unique brand. You can choose from their collection of beautiful themes or design your own blog if you know how to code.

If you’re a serious blogger that is looking for a simple yet powerful alternative to WordPress, look no further than Ghost.

Price:

• Basic - $36/month or $348/year
• Standard - $99/month or $948/year
• Business - $249/month or $2,388/year

Pros:

• Powerful and easy to use interface
• Affordable for large organisations
• Can be easily integrated into any website
• Established platform used by some of the world’s biggest brands

Cons:

• Expensive for small blogs with minimal requirements
• Does not include a way to build a website (like WP does)
• Small marketplace compared to WP - no plugins available yet

Wordpress Website Alternatives

All in-one website builders can be a great alternative to WP as they offer dozens of pre-built features that make it easy to build a custom website, blog, or online store without code.

PageCloud

If you’re looking for a visual alternative to WordPress, PageCloud is for you. PageCloud’s unique editing experience has set a new standard for WYSIWYG and drag & drop editing. With PageCloud, you can add and reposition just about anything on your pages and then style it in any way.

Although it might not be best choice for sites with hundreds of pages, PageCloud gives website owners full control over their website without having to write any code.

Price:

• Website - $19/month ($228/year) to $29/month ($348/year)
• Online stores - $29/month ($348/year) to $89/month ($1,068/year)

Pros:

• Unmatched visual editing (drag & drop, WYSIWYG, and shortcuts)
• 100+ easy-to-use app integrations
• Full source code access for pros (html, CSS, JavaScript)
• WordPress blog importer
• High performance websites (speed, security, SEO, reliability, etc)

Cons:

• Blogging tool has design limitations
• Not ideal for large websites with hundreds of pages

Wix

Wix is another well-known WordPress alternative offering a WYSIWYG editor. 

Although the editor doesn’t offer as much freedom or design appeal as PageCloud, Wix makes up for it with a deep feature set that caters to hundreds of website needs. For example, if you need to set up a website with user logins, Wix has you covered. Combined with their growing Wix App Market, you can build just about any website with Wix.

Price:

• Website - $16/month ($144/year) to $26/month ($216/year)
• Online stores - $30/month ($312/year) to $46/month ($480/year)

Pros:

• Easy-to-use visual editor
• Deep feature set for all types of businesses
• Wix Market to help integrate third party web apps
• Wix Code for advanced users

Cons:

• Cluttered design, which can be difficult or overwhelming for beginner users
• History of poor SEO performance
• Design limitations on mobile site

Squarespace

Squarespace is best known for its collection of stunning templates that offer you a great starting point for your website’s design. 

Although Squarespace is considered a WYSIWYG builder, design is somewhat limited to replacing content, styling it, and moving it around into predetermined boxes based on your template’s prebuilt layout. 

On the other hand, if you know how to code, you can create your own custom website using Squarespace’s Developer Platform. 

For people without coding experience, Squarespace can act like a happy medium between visual designers like PageCloud and template-based solutions like WP.

Price:

• Website plans - $7/month ($60/year) to $35/month ($348/year)
• Business & e-commerce plans - $25/month ($240/year) to $40/month ($420/year)

Pros:

• Stunning templates and websites
• Beginner-friendly layout editing, making it hard to break a design
• Powerful, easy-to-use e-commerce and business tools
• WordPress blog import option

Cons:

• Limited layout control without knowing how to code
• Poor website speed performance
• Limited features, limiting the type of website that can be built (eg. membership sites)

Shopify

Shopify is the best WordPress alternative if you’re looking for an easy way to set up an online store and don’t want to use WooCommerce. 

Shopify comes jam packed with everything you need to sell online as well as the essential tools to help promote your business. Combined with an expert support team, Shopify has become the world leading e-commerce platform. 

However, if your main focus is building a website that sells a few products, Shopify might not be the best solution for you. Think of it this way, Shopify is a store management tool that gives you the ability to have a website.

Related: Shopify vs WooCommerce: Which One is the Absolute Best

Price:

• Basic Shopify - $29/month ($313.20/year) + credit card rate
• Shopify - $79/month ($853.20/year) + credit card rate
• Advanced Shopify - $299/month ($3,229.20/year) + credit card rate
• Shopify Plus - $2,000/month ($24,000/year) + credit card rate

Full Shopify pricing breakdown

Pros:

• Powerful all-in-one e-commerce solution
• Complete suite of marketing tools (email, landing pages, blog, etc)
• High performance SEO
• Easy to set up and great support team

Cons:

• Limited design control: not really a website builder
• Pricing: expensive when you consider the transactions fees
• Liquid theme setup: less commonly used than PHP (WP)
• Blogging is not the best on Shopify

Weebly

Since being acquired by Square in early 2018, Weebly has shifted its focus to e-commerce. Unlike Shopify, Weebly is a website builder with e-commerce capabilities. This makes it much easier to build and design a website without requiring any code. Weebly’s designer is slightly more flexible than Squarespace but definitely less than PageCloud and Wix. Weebly is much more affordable than Shopify, but doesn’t have the same number of features. So, if you’re looking for an easy way to sell a few simple product online, Weebly may be for you.

Price:

• For Websites - From $0 to $360/year (monthly billing not listed)
• For Online Stores - From $120 to $552/year (monthly billing not listed)

Full Weebly pricing breakdown

Pros:

• Straightforward, easy-to-use website builder
• Affordable e-commerce solution
• Access to Weebly App Center
• Membership websites

Cons:

• Limited design options for people without coding experience
• SEO customizations can be confusing for beginners and feel limited for pros
• Pricing can be confusing (eg using Weebly Promote for email campaigns)

Overview of Website Builders

Contrary to some popular perception, the website building options presented above are all quite different from one another. Whether it’s the unique design experiences or core functionalities offered, each one caters to very different use cases:

Visual designers

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use platform that gives you complete control over the look of your website, choose PageCloud. If PageCloud doesn’t meet your feature requirements, choose Wix.

Online stores

If you’re looking to build a serious online store and your main focus is selling (not designing a website), choose Shopify.

Websites with e-commerce capabilities

If you want something really easy right out of the box that lets you customize the design of your website, choose Weebly. If you want to rely on a stunning template and not change it too much, choose Squarespace.

Related: Weebly vs Squarepsace head-to-head comparison

Wordpress CMS Alternatives

If you’re building larger, more complex websites or applications, Joomla and Drupal can be great alternatives to WordPress.

As both options are open source and use the same technology stack (PHP and MySQL), the learning curve is typically pretty short for experienced WP developers. Furthermore, because both tools leverage a large community of developers, there is no shortage of plugins, extensions, and templates to get your project done faster.

Joomla

Joomla is the second-most popular content management system behind WordPress. Similar to WP, it can be used to build a variety of websites and applications for businesses, schools, non-profits, online stores, and so much more. Because Joomla doesn’t offer a paid option like WP and is geared towards a more experienced user, your only means of support is searching through their forums and developer communities for help.

If you haven’t built a website before, Joomla probably isn’t the best place to start.

Price:

• Free (open source software)

Pros:

• Powerful even without advanced technical skills
• Multilingual platform with features baked into the core
• Numerous extensions (themes, libraries, languages, and more)

Cons:

• Without design and code experience, it’s hard to build a beautiful website
• Longer learning curve than WP
• No centralized store for templates

Drupal

Drupal comes third in the list of most popular content management systems. Unlike WordPress, Drupal is geared towards a technically savvy audience. Although it’s complex, Drupal comes with a high level of flexibility and security that make it a popular solution for enterprise, education, and government websites.

If you’re considering Drupal to replace WP, you are probably already aware of its benefits. On the other hand, if you don’t have a technical background, we’d recommend talking with an experienced developer to see if Drupal is right for your website.

Price:

• Free (open source software)

Pros:

• High reliability and security
• Gives users the ability to create extremely complex websites and applications
• Strong multi-language website modules
• Rapid prototyping abilities and highly extensible

Cons:

• Complex to use, requires high level of technical ability
• Can be very time consuming and require a lot of resources
• Blogging modules are not as good as WP

Final Thoughts

In reality, there are hundreds of WordPress alternatives. Because WP powers so many different websites, any tool you use to publish content online could be considered an alternative to the world’s most popular CMS.

The keys to choosing the right option are understanding:

• your website needs (short term and long term);
• your experience level with code;
• how much control you want over your site (design, content, and functionality);
• and your available resources and budget.

If you’re new to building websites and are looking for a simple WP alternative where you’re in full control of your design and content, give the PageCloud website builder a try.

Their experienced support team will be happy to let you know if it’s the right platform for you.