WordPress’s endless combinations of themes and plugins make it possible to create the exact website you envision. However, it’s not the most beginner-friendly way to build a small business website. The best alternatives to WordPress are easy to use, affordable, and full of features, ranging from built-in SEO tools and appointment booking systems to third-party applications that you can download and integrate.
Here are the six best WordPress alternatives for small businesses in 2021:
- Squarespace: Best overall for an intuitive interface, sleek templates, and useful features
- Bluehost: Best for those who need an easy to use drag-and-drop editor with WordPress features
- Wix: Best for extreme customizable design capability and a true drag-and-drop editor
- Weebly: Best for casual sellers who need a reliable ecommerce plan
- GoDaddy: Best for businesses who need a solid online booking appointment system
- Shopify: Best for larger ecommerce sellers, especially dropshippers
Our top alternative to WordPress is Squarespace. It’s overall extremely intuitive, with a great drag-and-drop editor and tons of built-in features and third-party plugins. Although not as customizable as WordPress, Squarespace’s services make it easy for anyone to build a professional and sleek website for an affordable price.
How We Evaluated WordPress Alternatives
In looking at alternatives to WordPress, we considered the customization capabilities that each site builder offers for both design and functionality. We also took a look at the ease-of-use of each of these site builders and the affordability of their pricing. The best WordPress alternative will have a good combination of the three.
Here’s the criteria for our evaluation:
35% of Overall Score
Affordable pricing is important, especially for small businesses with limited budgets. The six WordPress alternatives below were rated for the services they offer on each of their plans. Not only did we look at their basic prices, but we also took into account additional costs like premium integrations, extra features, and other expenses not included in each plan.
40% of Overall Score
Features like unlimited storage and bandwidth are important to note when it comes to choosing the best website builder for your business. We also took a look at built-in features, such as SEO and analytics tools, as well as if these site builders offer anything extra like free domain names.
5% of Overall Score
The six site builders below are not built equally. A few have specific features that aren’t present in the competition: features like ecommerce tools, booking systems, and payment options need to be considered depending on the nature of your business.
10% of Overall Score
Good developer and community support is always a bonus when it comes to choosing the right site builder for your business. To determine the best, we compared support hours, the different channels where you can reach out for help, and the quality of support you get.
10% of Overall Score
With tons of first-hand experience in building websites, we judged each of the site builders based on how easy and intuitive we found them, how useful we think their features are, their prices, the quality of the services they offer, and reviews from real customers online.
Squarespace: Best Overall WordPress Alternative
Squarespace’s templates and Editor
Squarespace
What We Like
- Large selection of sleek, modern templates
- User-friendly drag-and-drop builder
- Good built-in tools
- Variety of third-party applications
- Great support
- Mobile-optimized templates
What's Missing
- Not the cheapest plans
- Slower page loading speeds than average
- Expensive ecommerce plans
How It Compares to WordPress
- Less customizable in both design and features
- Fewer templates
- More expensive regular plans, but cheaper ecommerce plans
- Much easier to set up and use
Squarespace is a leading all-in-one website builder that offers more than 100 sleek templates, an easy drag-and-drop editor, and tons of useful built-in tools like an SEO guide. In case Squarespace’s tools are still lacking for your business’s needs, it also has an extensive third-party application marketplace. It’s a terrific WordPress alternative for beginners who need a professional and beautiful website up quickly, with enough customization in both design and features.
Squarespace Pricing
Personal | Basic | Commerce Basic | |
|---|---|---|---|
*Price per Month | $12/month | $18/month | $26/month |
Free Custom Domain | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year |
Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Built-in SEO | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Advanced Analytics | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Third-party Integrations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Premium Integrations | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Custom Code | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
eCommerce Features | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
eCommerce Tools | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
*On an annual billing cycle
Bluehost Builder: Best Alternative for Easy Customization
Start building a website by purchasing a Bluehost hosting plan.
Bluehost Builder
What We Like
- Easy drag-and-drop builder
- Almost full WordPress integration
- Extremely customizable features with WordPress plugins
- Price range varies and can fit a lot of budgets; purchase one of their hosting plans to be able to build your website
What's Missing
- Not a wide selection of templates, although you can use WordPress templates and integrate it with Bluehost
- No native ecommerce and blogging feature
- Plans are not all-inclusive; you’ll need to pay extra for most features that you want
How It Compares to WordPress
- Drag-and-drop website builder for easier customization ability, although Bluehost still lacks the customization options WordPress offers
- Bluehost lacks features like blogging and ecommerce; instead, these are available for download as plugins through WordPress
As a popular web hosting provider that’s on WordPress’s recommended list, not many people are aware that Bluehost comes with a site builder as well. Bluehost’s new website builder isn’t exactly a direct WordPress alternative. Instead, it works hand-in-hand with WordPress to give you the best of both worlds: its website builder integrates with WordPress, so you get the customization that WordPress gives, with the ease-of-use of a drag-and-drop website builder that Bluehost Builder employs.
Bluehost Builder Pricing
Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
*Price per Month | $9.99/month | $13.99/month | $18.99/month |
Free custom domain | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year |
Storage | 50GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Built-in SEO | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Advanced Analytics | N/A | N/A | N/A |
**Third-party Integrations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
***eCommerce Features | N/A | N/A | N/A |
***eCommerce Tools | N/A | N/A | N/A |
*On an annual billing cycle
**Through WordPress
***Not on Bluehost itself, but these are available through WordPress
Wix: Best Alternative for Advanced Customization
Wix’s template selection screen and drag-and-drop interface
Wix
What We Like
- Extreme customization ability with a true drag-and-drop builder
- Free plan available
- Good, sleek templates
What's Missing
- Too much customization can sometimes be a hindrance to design beginners
- Limited website storage
- Regular plans are on the pricier side
- eCommerce plans are expensive
How It Compares to WordPress
- Still not as fully customizable as WordPress, but it’s a great all-in-one builder option
- Fewer template options
- More expensive plans
- Fewer third-party plugins available
Wix is a beginner-friendly site builder with extremely flexible design thanks to its true drag-and-drop builder. It also has a robust third-party app marketplace with hundreds of plugins for customizing your website’s features. Although its prices are on the steeper side, Wix’s design capabilities are more than worth it if you want an alternative that’s nearly as customizable as WordPress without having to learn how to do it yourself.
Wix Pricing
Combo | Unlimited | Pro | VIP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
*Price per Month | $14/month | $18/month | $23/month | $39/month |
Free Custom Domain | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year |
Storage | 3GB | 10GB | 20GB | 35GB |
Bandwidth | 2GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Built-in SEO | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Third-party Integrations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
**eCommerce Features | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
**eCommerce Tools | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
*On an annual billing cycle
*Available on Wix’s Business/ecommerce plans
Weebly: Best Alternative for Retail & Basic eCommerce
Weebly’s themes and its drag-and-drop editor
Weebly
What We Like
- Easy to use
- Free ecommerce feature
- Drag-and-drop editor for good design customization
- Mobile-optimized templates
- Large third-party app marketplace
What's Missing
- Not a wide selection of themes
- Limited blog formats
- Expensive ecommerce plans (Business plans)
How It Compares to WordPress
- Not as customizable in both design and features, especially on the Square Editor
- Themes are repetitive and the selection is small, unlike with WordPress
- Less freedom with the formats of the content you post on Weebly
- Weebly offers a very beginner-friendly and free ecommerce plan, unlike WordPress where you have to download separate plugins
- Similar in pricing plus Weebly has a free ecommerce feature that WordPress doesn’t offer
Weebly is another popular and beginner-friendly website builder. It currently has two editors: a drag-and-drop editor and the Square Editor. Both are intuitive and make it easy for anyone to build a sleek website. What sets Weebly apart from the competition is its free ecommerce feature. It’s a great WordPress alternative for small sellers looking to expand their offerings online.
Weebly Pricing
Connect | Pro | Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
*Price per Month | $5/month | $12/month | $25/month |
Free Domain | N/A | 1 year | 1 year |
Storage | 500MB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Inventory Management | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Built-in SEO | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
**Third-party Integrations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
eCommerce Tools | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
*On an annual billing cycle
**Only available on Weebly’s original editor and not on the Square Editor
GoDaddy: Best Alternative for Online Bookings
GoDaddy’s Editor.
GoDaddy
What We Like
- Intuitive interface and builder
- Well-rounded online booking system
- Budget-friendly regular plans
- Free builder available
- Sleek templates
What's Missing
- Limited customization with no drag-and-drop editor
- Pricey ecommerce plan
- Plans are not all-inclusive, basics, such as secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates, cost extra
- No template selection; GoDaddy picks one for you based on your industry
- You’ll need to upgrade to keep your website after the free trial expires
How It Compares to WordPress
- Not as customizable in both design and features
- Easier to use with its intuitive editor
- Limited built-in features like blogging SEO
- Fewer templates offered
GoDaddy’s all-in-one website builder is intuitive and suited for beginners. Unlike many other website builders on this list, GoDaddy doesn’t have a drag-and-drop editor, making it much less customizable than WordPress or even Wix and Squarespace. However, it stands out for its online appointment and booking system, making it a great WordPress alternative for small businesses offering services online.
GoDaddy Pricing
Basic | Standard | Premium | eCommerce | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
*Price per Month | $9.99/month | $14.99/month | $19.99/month | $24.99/month |
Free Custom Domain | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year |
Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Built-in SEO | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Third-party Integrations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
One-time Appointments | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
eCommerce Features | N/A | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
*On an annual billing cycle
Shopify: Best Alternative for Dropshippers Needing Heavy eCommerce Support
Shopify’s editing interface.
Shopify
What We Like
- Great ecommerce features―both basic and advanced like international selling services
- Extremely large and varied third-party app marketplace with a ton of dropshipping integrations
- Useful SEO features to help your store rank
- Can be integrated with most online platforms
What's Missing
- Mediocre design capabilities
- Limited free templates
- Expensive plans
- Not a great option for those not looking to sell online
How It Compares to WordPress
- Shopify was built specifically for online sellers, so its features are catered mainly toward ecommerce unlike WordPress
- Easier to set up, especially for customers who need ecommerce features like shipping integrations and inventory management
- Very few templates offered
- Much more expensive plans
Shopify is one of the world’s leading ecommerce platforms. Not only can you integrate Shopify into an existing website, but you can also use its website builder to build a storefront for your products. While its design abilities are mediocre at best, Shopify has the best ecommerce features out of all the options on this list. It integrates with leading sales platforms, like Amazon, Etsy, Facebook, Instagram, and more, making it the best WordPress alternative for serious ecommerce sellers.
Shopify Pricing
Basic Shopify | Shopify | Advanced Shopify | |
|---|---|---|---|
*Price per Month | $29/month | $79/month | $299/month |
Free custom domain | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Built-in SEO | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Third-party Integrations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
eCommerce Features | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
eCommerce Tools | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Inventory Locations | 4 | 5 | 8 |
*Billed monthly
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is there a reason not to use WordPress?
WordPress is popular for a reason: it gives you unlimited customization options for both the design and the functionality of your website. Depending on the plugins you add and the plan that you choose, WordPress is also suited to a variety of budgets. However, it’s not the easiest to use if you’re new to building websites. It also takes some time to get used to WordPress’s interface. Fortunately, there are great all-in-one website builders out there to help you build a website easily.
What’s the best hosting provider to use with WordPress.org?
The best hosting providers out there are affordable while offering services that make it easy for anyone to set up a website. An extremely popular hosting provider is GoDaddy—its hosting plans are all-inclusive and affordable. There are also many other GoDaddy alternatives in the market, so see which one offers what you need for your business.
Should I use regular hosting or WordPress hosting?
Regular web hosting from any reputable hosting provider should run WordPress websites with no problems at all. However, dedicated WordPress hosting comes with services like easy WordPress installation, automatic updates, servers that are designed specifically to host WordPress websites, and more—making it especially easy for WordPress beginners to set up and launch their own websites.
Bottom Line
WordPress is still the gold standard when it comes to building a fully customized small business website. However, it’s steep learning curve makes it difficult to build a website quickly if you don’t have experience in doing so. As a beginner, an all-in-one site builder can help you set up a small business website quickly and easily. We recommend Squarespace for its overall great design capabilities, robust third-party plugins, useful built-in features, and fairly affordable pricing.
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