Does WordPress outshine website builder platforms?

In the world of website creation there are a lot of decisions to make and many platforms to choose from. Website builder solutions like Squarespace and Wix have simplified the process for many however these platforms come with many hidden limitations and put restrictions that may hinder you and your website long term. In this insight we’ll explore the pros and cons of using such a solution versus hosting with purely.website.

Breaking Free from Platform Lock-in

The biggest and perhaps less obvious problem when using a site builder platform is the inherent provider lock-in. Once you have invested your valuable time and effort into building your website within their confines, you are bound to their ecosystem. Switching to a different provider is near impossible without direct access to your website files, requiring you create your website from scratch.

Having customers tied to a platform means the company could increase their prices or change their terms knowing the majority of their customers don’t have any choice but to accept the change and pay the increased cost.

At purely.website we believe in giving you full access to your website files, giving you complete control. Not only does this mean you have the flexibility to download your entire website and upload it to another host but it also means you’re not restricted to a set number of website templates or page layouts, allowing you much greater creative freedom.

Unleashing the Power of WordPress

If creating your website from scratch without an online builder sounds like a daunting task then take a look at WordPress, the most popular website content management system. WordPress was initially released over 20 years ago as a way to create an online blog, over the years it has evolved to supporting numerous types of content, from personal websites and media galleries to online stores and learning management systems.

Being such a widely used tool means there are endless themes, plugins, online support and tutorials available, giving you everything you need to easily build your own unique website, exactly as you envision with little to no web design or development experience.

Email? That’s an addon!

It may come as a surprise that something as basic as an email address is normally a paid addon with most popular website builder providers and is almost always outsourced to a third-party. In comparison we provide as many email addresses and forwarders as you need at no additional cost. As we operate our own servers we also have full access to log information to effectively provide support to our customers, a key difference to an outsourced service.

Conclusion

While a website builder hosting service seems like the easier way to get a website online it may actually be the most troublesome and time consuming in the long run. With no access to download a copy of your website files and being tied to their proprietary template system you are fully reliant on that single company to keep you online.

In comparison hosting WordPress with purely.website gives you peace of mind knowing you can download a full backup of your website at any time and have a website created exactly how you want it created, not how a site-builder template has defined it.

What’s more, for the price of one month at a site-builder host, you can get a whole year of web hosting from purely.website! Give us a try now, from just £2 per month.

Author: Daniel Knights
Daniel is the purely.website Product Manager, with a career spanning over two decades, at the forefront of the web hosting industry and has represented a variety of leading web hosting companies. Daniel has the core responsibility of delivering the most superior customer experience for purely.website members. His knowledge of industry standards comes through his extensive experience that includes advising companies on infrastructure strategy and architecting and delivering advanced hosting and domain name management services that are easy to use though innovative tools and UX initiatives.