WordPress vs DYI Websites

Which Is Better? WordPress or DIY Sites?

For many business start-ups, getting a website is just another thing that needs to be checked off the list, but taking this approach can cost you down the road. After all, we’re talking about the digital front door to your business. For some, it’s all they’ll ever see of your company.

When it comes to getting a business website, you’ll either spend time or money. You’ll invest time building it yourself or you’ll spend money paying a web designer. Either way, a bad website only serves to chase potential customers straight to your competition. That’s why getting it right is so important.

Both WordPress and drag-and-drop website builders (Wix, Squarespace, etc.) can be great options for those looking to build their own site on the cheap. They both provide an easy way of creating content, managing it with ease throughout the lifespan of the site as well as providing powerful features such as background images or contact forms.

The one difference between these two approaches? WordPress requires some technical know-how, and you can simply click away in frustration if you don’t quite understand how things work.

With any website, there are two basic aspects- the web building platform and the hosting. With DIY sites, these two things are combined into one whereas, with WordPress, you get the platform and have to buy hosting elsewhere.

Either way, you’ll pay for hosting to keep the site live on the internet for the lifespan of that website.

Here are some things to consider when choosing between WordPress and the DIY websites:

Type of Website

WordPress is one of the most versatile platforms in existence— it can power anything from your personal blog to a full-blown corporate website, and even an online store.

With most of the boxed website builders, they are more suited for the brochure websites with limited functionality and almost no integration capabilities. Plus, there are often additional fees involved if you want to add an e-commerce store whereas, with WordPress, all you need to do is add a plugin and start setting up your products, pricing and shipping information.

Customizability

With Wix or Squarespace, you essentially pick a template and work within the context of that template. If you want to rearrange aspects of that template, you probably aren’t going to be able to do that much.

While there are definite walls to run into with website builders, WordPress is more of a platform without walls. With all the tools built for the WordPress platform, your imagination is your only real limitation. Since you have direct access to the source code, it is completely customizable.

Add-ons and Plug-ins

WordPress has an extensive community of developers who have created thousands of plugins and themes to extend your site’s functionality beyond what you would be able to do on website builders which is one of its many strengths.

Website builders don’t have as many plugins and themes, but because all their add-ons are built in-house, they will work just fine without you having to tweak them. The downside is that sometimes a plugin may not be available for your needs which can cause some problems when designing or developing your website.

The great advantage that WordPress has over website builders is the availability of free plugins. The majority of plugins are free. While you may have to pay for more powerful plugins or certain features, the free plugins are generally adequate for everyone. However, the majority of website builder plugins are either paid or subscription-based.

Hosting

All website builders include their own hosting. There’s no setup required. Simply purchase a domain name from a domain registrar like GoDaddy or NameCheap. Connect your domain with a website builder and you’re done.

WordPress is separate from hosting. This means, that you would need a hosting package and you would need to install WordPress on your hosting in order to begin building your site. We handle all that for you, so you don’t have to.

Limitations

Website builders are useful for creating your online presence, but they come with certain limitations. For example, some will only allow you so much traffic or bandwidth. Some also display ads on your site at low cost-paid plans which can be distracting when you want the focus on your site.

With WordPress, there are no limits on the amount of traffic your site can bring in and handle.