You might be thinking of reaching a wide audience for your personal or business use by setting up a website. However, the never-ending debate about the best website builder is giving you a dilemma about which one to choose—and two of the most popular options are WordPress and Shopify.
Ringing a bell when you heard of these two platforms? If you’re entering the digital arena, it’s impossible not to hear about these two powerhouses but the real issue boils down to which one is better. Don’t worry, because we are here to break down this issue and shine a spotlight on WordPress.
As the best domain hosting for WordPress, 4GoodHosting continues to provide superior hosting packages that suit any user’s requirements and budget. To give you a better idea of why WordPress is ideal for you, we summon the top 6 reasons why this platform has an advantage over its greatest foe, Shopify.
It Offers Cost-Effective Solutions for Any User
While many say that Shopify is a cheap and budget-friendly website builder, WordPress is still considered more cost-effective than the former platform. Let’s break down the factors that make this builder a roll of your money.
First, WordPress offers a free version (WordPress.com), where you can build websites without spending any amount of money. The catch is that you cannot customize your domain name under this version. Plus, you’ll be restricted in personalizing your plugins and other features.
The good news is you can opt for the second version, WordPress.org, which allows you to do whatever you want with your website. However, you will need to find an affordable WordPress hosting provider, like 4GoodHosting, that will make your website accessible on the internet. Compared to the monthly subscriptions of Shopify, we offer top-tier plans and additional perks that are much more ideal for individuals and businesses seeking freedom in their online ventures.
Next, its cost-effectiveness lies in its overall offerings, including a plethora of catchy themes and empowering plugins, full access to configurations, and e-commerce functionality. You can entirely create your brand, whether you’re a blogger, online merchant, or enterprise, without breaking the bank.
It Gives You Full Control of Content Management
WordPress shines the best when it comes to site control as it gives users the ability to manage and update both the content and the website seamlessly. In short, you have the freedom to do anything you think is best for your brand.
Shopify, on the other hand, does the web hosting for you. While this feature is ideal for beginners or users without extensive technical knowledge, this means that your website will function within the Shopify framework. Thus, leaving WordPress a better option, if you want flexibility and full control in terms of layout, design, content updates, and pricing plans.
It’s no doubt that WordPress can be more complicated than its competitors, but it still boasts a user-friendly interface that allows any user to work their way around it, (with practice, of course, you’ll have no problem navigating this platform).
Although it has instances where a little coding comes into play, such as advanced theme customization, form integration, and building custom plugins, you can easily edit and update any content of your pages in as easy as 1-2-3. With just a click of a few buttons and a data entry skill, you’ll be done implementing the changes you want for your page. It reduces the errors effortlessly in the process rather than relying on complicated codes to make it work. You can even organize your content by creating categories and tags to enhance your website visitors’ overall experiences.
Not only that, but you can also control your website’s security, specifically when you have a hosting provider. If you’re not well-versed in a website’s safety and security measures, it’s best to look for a WordPress hosting provider to do the job for you. As a premier web host in Canada, we offer the ease of SSL certificates to ensure secure data encryption. Additionally, this platform allows you to back up your database, set up Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), and customize user roles based on their responsibilities.
It Has a Wide Range of Design & Templates
Here comes the favorite part of many users—the wide array of design options and templates that Shopify cannot surpass. WordPress recognizes the importance of a website’s visual appeal. That’s why it offers thousands of themes and templates that you can customize according to your website requirements.
Unlike Shopify, it caters to diverse industries and aesthetics, from professional and minimalist to creative and sleek. In a simpler explanation, your website can be anything you need it to look like. Moreover, you can customize each template, like changing colors, adding sections, using striking fonts, and inserting elements, to make sure that your website aligns with your brand’s identity. It’s like having your own molder and cookie-cutter shapes for baking.
Furthermore, its designs and templates cover the responsiveness of your website for all devices. It enables you to optimize each page for mobiles, tablets, and desktops. Picture this: your website looks visually appealing on a mobile but it looks unorganized and scattered on a wide desktop. As a result, desktop users will exit your website and look at your competitor instead. So, this adaptability helps your website reach a greater audience by targeting various devices.
It Boosts Your SEO Dominance
Search engines love websites that are SEO-optimized, making WordPress a game-changer in the digital landscape. It has features and tools that elevate your website’s SEO and readability, which puts it ahead of its primary competitor, Shopify.
It has a built-in SEO tool, Yoast, that lets you keep a solid foundation for optimizing your content and improving your website’s search engine rankings. There’s a section where you can see your SEO score or status, and it also provides a list of what needs to be improved—this includes a need to change your meta titles and descriptions, and even put your key phrases to help boost your page’s rankings. Without the need for coding, you can optimize your content’s SEO, readability, and schema markups effortlessly (And you can’t find Technical SEO configurations on Shopify).
In addition, it has numerous SEO plugins that you can use to fine-tune your website’s SEO aspects, such as Yoast SEO, Rank Math, SEOPress, and Ahrefs SEO. You can link these plugins to this platform to make your website prominent in your desired keywords or services. However, if you don’t have the knowledge or time to do this stuff, you can opt for the Managed WordPress Hosting at a reliable Canadian hosting provider.
At 4GoodHosting, we have an experienced team of WordPress experts who will do the work for you. We can manage your site as well as your technical and on-page SEO to attract and retain organic traffic, ensuring a competitive edge in online visibility.
It is Widely Known as a Plugin Paradise
As built-in and custom plugins are concerned, WordPress is a cut above the rest. This platform remains unrivaled when it comes to a seamless integration of various plugins for any website. This feature allows users to adapt quickly to the evolving and diverse needs of your website. You can even tailor your plugins according to your niche or industry, unlike Shopify.
Users can choose from a wide range of plugins, from real estate and education, post types and fields, to non-profit and wellness, making it a plugin powerhouse for different website requirements. What’s more, it allows users to integrate third-party plugins without the need to undergo technical complexities and time-consuming coding.
If you’re into online selling, you can even use a popular plugin, WooCommerce. This is specifically designed for WordPress, where you can transform your website into a fully functional online store. What’s interesting is you can use this plugin for free with an option to upgrade to premium for advanced configurations. That said, you can still achieve impressive results with only the basic version.
This e-commerce plugin allows website owners to customize their platforms for selling products and services by adding features like product listings, secure checkout gateways like PayPal, Stripe, or major credit cards, and shopping cart aspects. This extension lets you achieve your e-commerce store dreams and is scalable, flexible, and easy to use.
It Goes Beyond Technicalities
Choosing WordPress as your website platform means you’re stepping into a thriving and reliable community. It’s not just a builder but also a dynamic reservoir of knowledge and support. While many choose this platform because of its technical features, one must not overlook the importance of its diverse and active community.
With its large user base, you can find a number of developers, business owners, and individuals, who can answer your questions in times of need. You can deepen your knowledge and widen your interests by interacting with different users, engaging in discussions, and finding solutions to common issues in web hosting. While Shopify also has a support ecosystem, it’s not as expansive as the one you can find in WordPress.
Besides extensive forums and resources, there are also global events and meetups from time to time. This offers opportunities for learning, networking, and collaboration, where users can benefit and help each other in navigating the digital landscape.
When it comes to website creation, WordPress outshines Shopify in multiple aspects. This has been a hot debate over the years, but choosing what’s best for you depends on your overall digital landscape goals. If you want flexibility, cost-effective solutions, and unrivaled support, WordPress is your way to go. With its numerous advantages, like wide-ranging designs, templates, and plugins, and an emphasis on SEO principles, WordPress remains a strong foundation for your digital venture.
