Best WordPress Alternatives to Build a Better Online Store

Millions of people use WordPress to build their websites, and it's easy to see why. WordPress allows users of all skill levels to build custom websites quickly and easily thanks to its drag-and-drop block editor and thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes.

Unfortunately, WordPress is not suitable for everyone. WordPress requires some level of coding skill - something not everyone has because they're too busy growing their business or following their passions that don't involve coding.

You don't have to worry if you happen to be among them. The good news is that you don't have to bump your head against a wall when it comes to creating and managing a website because you don't know which plugin to use to do design changes, make a contact form, or add analytics tools.

There are a variety of WordPress alternatives available - from platforms for publishing writings to business websites. You will find one that will work for you.

Best WordPress Alternatives

1. Zyro

In addition to being an affordable alternative to WordPress, Zyro offers an all-in-one web builder platform built by the same folks who provide Hostinger web hosting.

You can create websites with their website builder without any coding or design experience. Besides a logo maker, useful AI tools, and pre-made website templates, it also comes with a logo maker. It also comes with more than 1 million free stock images.

You get more powerful features with each Zyro plan. As an example, the Unleashed plan includes marketing integrations such as Google Analytics, Facebook retargeting, and visitor remarketing.

Additionally, they offer eCommerce plans that enable you to add unlimited products, accept payments online, offer discount coupons, manage orders, manage inventory, and even connect your store to Amazon, Instagram, and Shopify.

• Powered by managed cloud hosting, Zyro is fast and reliable.
• It has a simple interface and intuitive editor, making it easy to navigate.
• A useful AI tool for accomplishing a variety of tasks.
• 24/7 customer service is available via live chat, email, and a contact form.
• As the website grows, the storage and bandwidth automatically increase.

• The process of changing the design of a website template involves duplicating the site and importing the content into a new template.
• There aren't as many advanced features as other website builders.

2. Wix

Even though WordPress offers an exceedingly wide range of designs, customizing these to meet our needs had to be a lot of tedious work and custom coding. Wix builds sites differently.

The elements can be moved around by clicking and dragging them. Every plan has the same design options. If your website has fewer than 50 pages, Wix is a good alternative.

There are no problems with video backgrounds or animations. Moreover, this website builder does SEO correctly. Portfolio pages, in particular, turn out well, and the best part is that they are not difficult to put together.

If you work in one of these industries, they have many business-oriented apps (e.g. for hotels and restaurants) that can help make your life easier. Besides offering dedicated support via live chat and email, Wix also offers email support.

Once you select a template, you cannot change it, and you will only have limited access to the source files. Furthermore, you can't do much to optimize the loading speed of your site like you can with WordPress.

• You do not need to know how to code.
• Hosting is included for free.
• Small online stores can benefit from powerful eCommerce features.
• With more than 800 customizable templates, there is a vast library of design options.
• Search engine optimization tools are built-in to help your site rank higher.

• A Wix subdomain and Wix ads are included in its free plan.
• You can't change the template once the site goes live unless you start from scratch.
• There is no live chat customer support.

3. Joomla

This is a good place to stop if WordPress seems too complicated to you. Try Joomla! CMS comes with some nifty features, most importantly multilingual web page management - but it's complicated! In contrast to WordPress, Joomla! feels more like a website builder for professionals.

WordPress generally isn't as secure as Joomla. Hackers are generally drawn to the biggest platforms, and WordPress has become that.

Joomla also has two-factor authentication built right in, which makes it much more difficult for unauthorized visitors to gain access to your site.

• Controls for managing users are built-in.
• Non-technical users can easily edit content using the WYSIWYG editor.
• A multilingual system, SEO tools, and security functions are all included.
• Despite the lack of an official template library, Joomla templates can be found on third-party sites.

• Customer service is unavailable. Also, there are fewer members on the community portal and forum than on WordPress.
• The learning curve is steep.

4. Squarespace

Squarespace offers several useful tools for building attractive, functional websites for personal use or small businesses. In addition to domain registration, web hosting, themes, designed templates, online stores, and support, Squarespace offers everything you need to start a site.

You can find out where your website traffic comes from by using the built-in analytics tool after publishing your site.

With this website builder, you can create landing pages, eCommerce stores, and even eCommerce stores with drag-and-drop. It comes with several responsive templates that can be easily adapted to mobile devices, just like other WordPress alternatives.

• Free, clean, modern, responsive templates.
• Unlimited bandwidth and storage are included in all plans.
• A free domain name and web hosting are included.
• You can edit your pages while on the go with its mobile apps.
• Live chat on business days, as well as Twitter and email support 24/7.

• In the drag-and-drop editor, the elements can't simply be dragged anywhere. Getting to grips with this tool may take a little while.
• There are fewer templates and plugins.
• Content versioning and auto-saving are not supported, so you will have to manually save changes.

5. Shopify

You'll want a hosted eCommerce platform, like Shopify, if you want to sell products or services online.

A Shopify store can be set up and managed from one place. The Shopify drag-and-drop website builder lets you create posts and pages by choosing from more than 70 eCommerce themes.

Shopify's lowest-priced plan is $29 per month, and it includes blogging, customer reviews, and payment options. It also includes an abandoned cart recovery feature and analytics for your business traffic and products.

There are also two other plans with resources that scale up at different price points, but before upgrading, be sure to check out Shopify's app marketplace. Shopify can be integrated with various platforms, including HubSpot, to fill in any gaps you might have in running your business.

• Easy-to-use interface and editor.
• Hosting plans include a domain name and a hosting plan.
• Fraud analysis is one of the most powerful eCommerce security tools.
• Live chat, email, and phone support are available 24/7.
• Over 100 payment gateways are supported, including Shopify Payments.

• Payments made via third-party processors are subject to a transaction fee.
• There is no archive functionality or blogging analytics.

6. Weebly

The website builder Weebly is another fully hosted website builder. You can use pre-designed templates and a drag-and-drop page builder to design your website.

The eCommerce functionality on Weebly is limited, but you can use custom domain names. You can compare WordPress vs Weebly in our comparison.

• Offers a complete solution by providing hosting, a domain name, and many built-in features users may need to create a simple website.
• Even after a site has been published, themes can be changed.
• Email support is available 24/7. Phone and live chat support are available during standard business hours.
• Using Weebly's mobile app, you can manage your website on the go.
• It's a handy guide to SEO.

• Weebly branding and ads appear in the free version.
• Users with coding knowledge can use Weebly's Code Editor, but customization options are limited.
• Your site will only be restored by the Weebly support team if it goes down.

7. Blogger

With Blogger, you can easily create and launch a blog, along with installing an SSL certificate, hosting, and templates. The simplicity and low cost of Blogger make it a popular platform for beginners to start blogs and business websites.

Your site will, however, lose practically all of its control. If you violate Blogger's community guidelines, your site will be suspended at any time.

Your site's appearance and functionality are also limited. You cannot change the page layout or the order of your content for the default homepage of your blog, for example. It is also not possible to create custom post types or pages, like portfolio pages.

You can install third-party widgets in Blogger by adding HTML to your site's source code or directly in the body of your post.

• A free SSL certificate and web hosting service.
• A blog creation tool specifically designed for bloggers.
• A WYSIWYG editor that is user-friendly for beginners.
• Because Google manages this platform, security is reliable and updates are constant.

• By default, uses a Blogspot subdomain.
• There are very few customization options.
• These themes and gadgets are a small selection. WordPress plugins are the equivalent of Blogger themes and gadgets.

8. Site123

Site123 is a hosted solution that offers useful features for creating single-page and multi-page websites.

Free plans with limited features are available from Site123. For its premium subscription plans - Basic at $7.80/month, Advanced at $13.80/month, Professional at $19.80/month, and Gold at $25.80/month - it offers a 14-day money-back guarantee. Plans range from three to 36 months in length, and prices depend on how long the plan is.

Website123 is a reliable alternative to WordPress for creating a simple website, such as a one-page website. You can easily set it up.

• The website editor is intuitive and easy to use.
• All of its plans include a free SSL certificate and a free hosting service.
• Support is available 24/7 via live chat.
• There is a mobile-friendly version of every template.

• A Site123 subdomain and ads are included in its free plan. For custom domain names, purchase a premium plan.
• Once the site goes live, the template cannot be changed.

9. Ghost

Some WordPress users who wanted to focus on blogging felt that WordPress was heading in a different direction. Ghost was born out of this, a blogging software based on NodeJS.

Ghost, however, is entirely focused on blogging and keeping clutter to a minimum. It provides bloggers and readers with a clean writing and browsing experience.

• Analyzing member data to find out which content is most attractive to the most active audience.
• Premium content sales are not subject to a payment fee.
• There are many tools integrated, including social sharing, payment gateways, and referral programs.
• Node.js allows for faster loading times.
• Members can be imported from external platforms and vice versa.

• Support for the self-hosted Ghost can only be found on the community forum.
• A few themes.

10. OpenCart

In addition to offering a variety of built-in features, OpenCart specializes in creating eCommerce websites. You will need to find a hosting service and domain name if you want to use Opencart for free.

You can create an eCommerce website with OpenCart, a reliable WordPress alternative. Due to its multi-currency and multilingual features, as well as several other advanced features, OpenCart may be a good fit for medium to large businesses looking to sell internationally.

• You won't need to spend your budget on too many add-ons because there are many built-in features.
• Visitors to the website can shop without creating an account by using the Guest Checkout feature.
• Display of unlimited products.
• Payment methods are diverse.
• By default, the site is mobile-friendly.

• Some coding skills may be required for store customization.
• There is no live chat customer support, and phone support is only available Monday through Friday.

How a Website Builder Works

The past few years have seen website builders become powerful tools. Mostly, they create classic websites, whether or not they have a blog. You can also create a visual and intuitive online store with most of them.

One advantage is the one-stop-shop concept - hosting, domains, and website editors are all handled by the same company. You can also create an online store using these tools intuitively and visually.

Website builders typically allow you to create a website in the following steps:

• Register for a free trial or a free account
• Choose a design that you like
• Make your site's content more personalized

It doesn't require any software to be installed on your computer (let alone on a web server), nor does it require the use of an FTP client. Domain names can be registered through the same provider as the website builder.

Web builders also offer individual support, which is particularly useful for beginners. So you won't have to sift through web forums looking for solutions.

Aside from that, the tools themselves are very user-friendly. Because you work on the site directly, you can see the result immediately. A website builder shows you what you get right away as opposed to WordPress, where you use an abstract editor.

Conclusion

It is important to choose the right tool when it comes to building an excellent online store.

WordPress offers several fantastic features, ranging from highly effective search engine optimization to state-of-the-art blogging capabilities - which is why it is so popular among companies. While WordPress is one of the best options available, not everyone will find it ideal.

Depending on your needs, one of the WordPress alternatives we outlined above may be a better solution for you. They may provide you with more design control, a smaller learning curve, or even better data and analytics.

You now have the final say. We have given you all the information we could find about some of the best WordPress alternatives out there. If you are interested in trying out free trials, we recommend going out and trying them yourself. You can ensure that you're getting what you need by doing so.