[ad_1] Building your website needs a stellar solution at the base. Squarespace vs WordPress is often a point of comparison for many users. In short, both platforms are user-focused, and easy to use. Even so, there’s a bit more you need to consider when weighing up both solutions. For example, price is often a prime consideration. It’s not something you should focus on too much though. Given this, we’ll compare Squarespace vs WordPress on a few different yet common aspects. By the end, you’ll have the information you need to make a decision. Introducing Both Platforms You’ll have heard of both Squarespace and WordPress even before reading this article. They are two of the most popular platforms for creating your website. Even so, they both have their differences. First, we’ll offer an introduction to each platform, before getting onto the comparison itself. Squarespace Squarespace will be familiar if you’ve watched educational or other learning videos on YouTube. It seems as though every channel is sponsored by Squarespace. What this shows is how well Squarespace promotes itself compared to WordPress – and for good reason. It’s an all-in-one website builder platform. In other words, it looks to offer everything you need to build a site out of the box. This is great news if you need to get up and running in a flash. You’re able to apply a template to your site to control its look, and add essential functionality such as contact forms, email marketing, and much more besides. The pricing is competitive too, and Squarespace offers a free trial to entice would-be converts. The whole package is tempting for both new and experienced users. WordPress Of course, WordPress should be familiar to you if you’re a regular WPKube reader. It’s the Content Management System (CMS) that has a 40 percent market share. It’s an open-source solution for publishing your website, and aims to give you the core functionality you need out of the box. In contrast to Squarespace, the idea is to extend the platform using selected themes and plugins. As such, WordPress isn’t as easy to get up and running with, but the power under your fingertips belies its modest visuals. How You Should Compare Squarespace vs WordPress Because your choice of site platform impacts almost every other decision you make, there are a few consideration to keep in mind. Here are some of the main ones: Does the platform let me take my site elsewhere? Am I able to build on top of the platform? What can I achieve with my chosen platform? How much does everything cost? The answers you find here will determine what you’ll need to look for in each solution. It could also bring up more question – always a good thing. Our advice is to test out each platform as much as you can. We’ll get onto pricing later, although both Squarespace and WordPress are available for free (which is an oversimplification). Once you’ve road tested both platforms, set your plans aside for a week or two, then come back. At this point, you can make a rational decision about which solution is best for you. Squarespace vs WordPress: A Comparison of 2 Site Publishing Giants Over the next few sections, we’ll look at Squarespace vs WordPress. We have four key areas that should tell you a lot about each platform: As we said, this won’t cover every question you have, but it’s a great starting point for your own research. As such, let’s tackle the UX of both platforms first. 1. Squarespace vs WordPress: Ease of Use The UX of any app or tool is vital for attracting users. Given this, it makes sense to take a look at this first. The good news is that both Squarespace and WordPress have a well-designed experience. This makes sense, given how popular both platforms are. Once you open a Squarespace account, you’re presented with a selection of templates. It’s clear what you should be doing, and it’s a productivity marker: Hovering over your chosen template lets you begin using it straight away: There’s a helpful Assistant to get you started, and it includes a checklist of essential ‘first site’ tasks: In contrast, WordPress has more of an ‘aged’ look, despite work over time on the CMS’ visuals: The main dashboard is full of screen elements to help you get an overview of your site. While it may look overwhelming, having all of the admin panels visible in a left-hand menu lets you navigate to pages in a snap. It’s a similar case with Squarespace, but it’s more of a singular page than a bunch of separate ones. Winner: We’d say Squarespace takes the point on this one, although WordPress is no slouch when it comes to UX. 2. Squarespace vs WordPress: Features and Functionality Neither platform is going to fail this comparison, although they both take a different approach to what’s included by default. Squarespace is an all-in-one builder. In other words, it’s a closed-source solution with an ecosystem to match. This is great for getting started and productive site management. In contrast, it’s poor if you want to take your site to another platform, or can’t find the functionality you need (more of which later). Even so, there’s plenty to get your teeth into. You’re able to create pages, design them using a stellar editor, and more: On the flip side, WordPress has the Block Editor. It’s under constant development, although we’d say that it’s not yet ready to tackle Full Site Editing (FSE). A cross-over aspect of Squarespace is that it offers much more by default than WordPress. For example, you have powerful email marketing, eCommerce, and analytics built into the platform: In fact, there’s so much here that we can’t do it justice. On the flip side, WordPress is lean. Out of the box, it lets you create posts and pages, edit them with the Block Editor, and not much more: While on the surface this might seem
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WordPress vs Blogger: Which One Is Better? 2021 Comparison
[ad_1] Trying to decide between WordPress vs Blogger to make a blog in 2021 or beyond? That’s the question we’re going to answer in depth in this post. But first, a spoiler alert – in 2021, WordPress is almost always a better choice to start a blog or website. But to understand why we say that and how each platform works, you should still read our full WordPress vs Blogger comparison. Keep reading for all the gory details when it comes to Blogger vs WordPress… 👋 WordPress vs Blogger: Introductions To start our comparison, let’s quickly introduce these two tools and clear up some potentially confusing details about WordPress. WordPress WordPress is open-source software that helps you create a blog or website. It’s by far the most popular way to create any type of website – the WordPress software powers over 41% of all the websites on the Internet. Yes – that number is as crazy as it sounds! Part of the reason why WordPress is so popular is that it’s incredibly flexible. It makes a great option for a blog, but you can also extend its functionality to create portfolios, eCommerce stores, online courses, directories, and lots more. WordPress can be a little tricky, though, because there are actually two “versions” of WordPress: WordPress.org/self-hosted WordPress – this is the home of the free open-source WordPress software. You can install WordPress on your own web hosting for free. However, while WordPress itself is free, your web hosting will usually cost around $5 per month. WordPress.com – this is one specific implementation of the WordPress software. WordPress.com lets you make a blog for free just by signing up for an account. However, the free version has some limitations. When most people say “WordPress”, they mean the open-source WordPress software. If they mean WordPress.com, they’ll specifically say “WordPress.com”. If you want to learn more about the differences, you can read our full WordPress.com vs WordPress.org comparison. But for this post, here’s all you really need to know: WordPress.com – lets you create a blog for free but doesn’t let you use AdSense or install WordPress plugins to add more features (unless you pay for the expensive plans). WordPress.org/self-hosted WordPress – requires a little money to set up, but is incredibly flexible. You can install WordPress themes and plugins and monetize your site however you want. For this comparison, we’ll focus mostly on how WordPress.org/self-hosted WordPress compares to Blogger, but we will bring up WordPress.com a few times. Blogger Blogger is a free blogging service owned by Google. It lets you easily create a blog using your existing Google account. It’s not software – it’s just a service that lets you create a blog by registering for an account. Whereas WordPress powers over 41% of all websites, Blogger powers a little under 1% of websites. So WordPress is definitely the more popular option in this comparison. The main reason Blogger isn’t more popular is because Blogger is quite limited in comparison. It’s really just for simple blogs – it doesn’t allow for any of the flexibility that WordPress offers. But if all you need is a simple blog, Blogger can definitely get the job done! 👐 WordPress vs Blogger Ease of Use In terms of ease of use, both Blogger and WordPress are quite beginner-friendly. Even if you’ve never made any type of website before, you should be able to easily set up both platforms. This applies to both self-hosted WordPress and WordPress.com. WordPress To create a self-hosted WordPress website, you’ll need to do two things: Purchase WordPress hosting to power the WordPress software. Again, this costs around $5 per month for a simple site. Install the WordPress software. Installing software might sound a little complicated, but it really isn’t. Because WordPress is so popular, most web hosts offer user-friendly setup tools that let you install WordPress with just a few clicks. For example, at Bluehost (one beginner-friendly host that we’ve reviewed), installing WordPress is as simple as filling out this form: Once you install WordPress, you can manage your site from a simple dashboard like this: To create content, you can use the WordPress block editor, which makes it easy to include both text and media (like embedded videos). The block editor also gives you more flexibility, letting you easily create multi-column layouts: To control the design of your site, you can install WordPress themes. There are thousands of free themes available, many of which are free. If you want even more control, you can use a visual, drag-and-drop page builder plugin to design every single aspect of your site. For example, the Divi theme gives you full code-free control over your site. At WordPress.com, it’s even simpler – you can just register for an account to create your site. Blogger Blogger is also super simple. To create a blog, you can use your existing Google account and follow a simple prompt to create your blog. To create content, you can use Blogger’s simple text editor, which works a lot like Google Docs. You can easily format text and insert images/videos, but you don’t get as nearly many options as WordPress. For example, there’s no easy way to create multi-column designs: To control the layout of your blog, you can use the drag-and-drop layout builder: You also get a separate theme builder that lets you control basic colors and fonts. In general, though, WordPress gives you a lot more options for controlling the design of your blog. ⚙️ WordPress vs Blogger Flexibility In terms of flexibility, there’s no contest between WordPress and Blogger – WordPress is 100X more flexible than Blogger*. Blogger is just for blogging. WordPress is great at blogging, but you can also use it for lots of other stuff, too. In addition to your blog, you can use WordPress to create the following: Portfolio eCommerce store Online course Membership site Forum Knowledge base Directory …lots more – this is just a partial list You can also mix and
Continue readingWP Engine vs SiteGround for WordPress Hosting: An Honest Comparison
[ad_1] Trying to choose between WP Engine vs SiteGround to host your WordPress site? WP Engine and SiteGround are two of the bigger names in the WordPress hosting space and both offer quality hosting products. However, they do so at different price points and with slightly different features, so you’ll want to make sure you’re picking the right host for your situation. That’s what we’ll help you understand in this post – both hosts can be a good pick; it’s just about matching the right host to your needs and budget. Keep reading to learn whether SiteGround or WP Engine is better for you… WP Engine vs SiteGround Comparison Summary If you’re in a rush, here are the basic conclusions of our comparison: Taking price out of the equation, WP Engine is the overall best host out of these two. However, SiteGround is still a good bit cheaper than WP Engine (though some recent changes have made the gap smaller). Because of its lower prices (and still quality service), SiteGround is probably still the better option for most “regular” WordPress sites including low-traffic blogs, portfolio sites, brochure websites, etc. SiteGround is also better if you’re just launching your first WordPress site because you’ll get everything you need for a cheaper price. For “serious” websites like high-traffic blogs, eCommerce stores, or membership sites, then WP Engine is probably the better choice because it can better stand up to resource-heavy sites and offers useful features that SiteGround doesn’t. Detailed WP Engine vs SiteGround Comparison Now, let’s go more in-depth by comparing SiteGround vs WP Engine in five key areas: Customer satisfaction Features Performance Support Pricing 😊 Customer Satisfaction Let’s kick things off with a basic question – which host has more satisfied customers? When in doubt, the wisdom of the crowds is usually a pretty good starting point. To get a good understanding of how people feel about a host, we aggregated reviews from several different platforms/surveys including Trustpilot, WhoIsHostingThis, CodeinWP’s hosting survey, and Review Signal. We then averaged out the overall rating from each site (this data is current as of April 2021). The idea is to get an overall picture of how people feel about each host. Here’s the overall satisfaction for each host, standardized to a score of 100: Overall ⭐ CodeinWP WhoIsHosting Trustpilot Review Signal WP Engine 84 ⭐ 89 82 88 77 SiteGround 86 ⭐ 86 96 94 68 Overall, that’s pretty dang close, and you can see that customers are about equally as satisfied with WP Engine as they are with SiteGround. The scores are also pretty good in general, which shows that customers at both hosts are pretty happy. Interestingly, though, the scores are moving in opposite directions from when we first collected this data in early 2020. That is, WP Engine has improved from its older 75% while SiteGround has dropped a bit from its older 89% (perhaps because of its pricing changes). ⚙️ Features Now, let’s compare some key features in a table: Feature WP Engine SiteGround Custom hosting dashboard ✅ ✅ WordPress autoinstaller ✅ ✅ Automatic WordPress core updates ✅ ✅ Server-level caching ✅ ✅ Free SSL certificates ✅ ✅ Staging ✅ ✅ Email hosting ❌ ✅ Automatic daily backups ✅ ✅ On-demand backups ✅ ✅ Built-in CDN ✅ ❌ (has a Cloudflare integration) Free migrations ✅ ✅ Safe automatic plugin updates ✅ (higher-tier plans) ❌ Elasticsearch ✅ (eCommerce plans) ❌ Multisite support ✅ (higher-tier plans) ✅ Local development tool ✅ ❌ Pre-installed WP-CLI ✅ ✅ As you can see, the main “feature” advantage that SiteGround has over WP Engine is that SiteGround offers free and unlimited email hosting (e.g. create a you@yoursite.com email address). WP Engine does not offer email hosting, so you’d need to use a third-party service like Google Workspace or MXroute to add email hosting, which is a small added fee. Other than that, WP Engine is the winner in terms of advanced features because it has some useful options such as: A built-in CDN (SiteGround advertises a CDN, but it’s really just a Cloudflare integration). AI-powered safe plugin updates with automatic rollbacks. Elasticsearch, which is great for WooCommerce stores or other search-heavy sites. Multiple staging environments (Staging & Development). Easy local development and push to live hosting with Local. * Not all of these features are available on the entry-level WP Engine plan – more on pricing later. Additionally, one thing that I didn’t add above is that all WP Engine customers get free access to the Genesis Framework and all StudioPress child themes, which is a nice little bonus. 🏎️ Performance To assess a host’s performance, we like to rely on Review Signal’s performance benchmarks as they implement rigorous testing in several different areas. SiteGround is a regular participant in the benchmarks, but WP Engine has unfortunately not participated in the past couple of years. In the 2020 benchmarks, Siteground earned Top Tier status (the highest designation) in both the <$25 and $25-$50 per month tiers. WP Engine last participated in 2018 and only with its enterprise plan, but it also earned Top Tier status in the 2018 benchmarks. Anecdotally, I’ve also tested these hosts several times myself and found that SiteGround offers excellent performance for the money, but WP Engine holds up better in load test situations. Based on their prices, this is kind of what you’d expect. So I would sum it up like this: SiteGround offers good performance for its price and will be plenty fast for most “regular” WordPress sites. For example, low-traffic blogs, portfolio websites, simple brochure websites, etc…all of those will load fast on SiteGround and you won’t benefit that much from WP Engine. WP Engine is better for high-traffic and/or high-resource sites. For example, high-traffic blogs, eCommerce stores, membership sites, etc. 💬 Support Both WP Engine and SiteGround offer 24/7 support on all plans. For WP Engine, you can get support via: Live chat and ticket on all plans. Phone support on the Professional plan and above. SiteGround
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