If you were making a website up until a few years ago, it always worked the same way — you bought a domain name and hosting, installed a framework of your choice, and voila! Then, a few different services came out that offer simplified way of doing things — services like SquareSpace and Wix allow the user to buy a domain and create a website using a simple, browser-based website design tool that allows the user to move things around with a few mouse clicks. These services have been quite popular with people who want a website but have no design experience.
Still, there is a benefit to the traditional system of purchasing a domain name and hosting and going with a traditional website framework like WordPress. Here are three reasons to go that route.
1. Design Options
Website providers like Squarespace and Wix are designed for the novice who doesn’t want to spend any time learning how to design a website. They do offer some flexibility, but the thing that makes them easy to use is also their limiting factor. Which means that, if you want your website to have any unique features or a unique design, the templates offered by these service providers may not allow for that much freedom. WordPress, on the other hand, is infinitely adjustable, though it requires more effort to learn how to use the website.
2. Flexibility in Hosting
Is your host not reliable enough? Do you need to upgrade your hosting to dedicated servers? Need to renegotiate your hosting costs? With website solutions like SquareSpace and Wix, you’re stuck with them for as long as you want to keep your website. They do not allow you to export your website in any fashion.
Going the traditional hosting route, meanwhile, allows you to keep these services separate, and there’s a value in that. Plainly put, the design of your website has nothing to do with where to choose host your site. Because when you start a website, you don’t know where that website will be in 5 years time, it makes sense to future-proof your site by giving yourself the flexibility to switch hosts down the road.
3. Going with the industry leader
WordPress is by far the most popular website platform in the world, with 34% market share. https://kinsta.com/wordpress-market-share/. Combined, Wix and SquareSpace make up a quarter of that.
So, while all three options offer great features, with WordPress you’re talking about a platform that is orders of magnitude larger on a variety of levels:
Designs offered — want to create your website by starting off with a pre-designed WordPress theme and modifying it to your needs. There is an entire online industry of these types of designs, and the options are nearly endless.
Plugins and other add-ons — SquareSpace and Wix have some handy features, and they’re easy to install. WordPress, meanwhile, has over 100,000 different plugins (of varying degrees of quality). So, if you have some custom needs for your site, chances are a WordPress plugin exists that either already does what you need, or will get you most of the way there and can be modified to your needs.
Security and new features — WordPress’s ubiquity in the industry means that they are constantly rolling out updates and running security patches. When it comes to being up to date on the latest threats and features, it makes sense to go with the industry leader.
At CanSpace Solutions, we offer extremely easy WordPress installs for all our hosted sites. Register your domain name and get started today!
