WordPress Alternatives: 10 Free Platforms for Website Development

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, and for a good reason. It’s easy to use, has a ton of templates (called themes) to choose from, and has a lot of more than useful add-ons (called WordPress plugins).

These allow you to easily customize your website’s look, feel, and functionality to fit your needs, making it great to build new web pages or update existing ones.

WordPress is free, but you’ll need hosting — a paid service that stores your site’s files and makes them accessible over the internet.

But some may find WP’s interface and user experience not enough for their personal needs. No need to worry then - there are countless WP alternatives out there, each offering similar services with different ways of helping you create the page of your dreams.

And just think about it - without web page building, we would lack so much knowledge and diversity on the internet, including the WritePaper site. WritePaper provides affordable paper help; in other words, the professionals there write your papers for you! 

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Now, let’s get into 10 best WordPress alternatives that are out there for you to try out.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website-building platform that allows users to create beautiful pages and blogs. The Squarespace interface is very intuitive and user-friendly, and it's quick for people to pick up.

When you sign up for Squarespace, you get access to its template library, which you can customize using drag-and-drop features. If you want to use your design, Squarespace also helps you build a responsive page.

What Squarespace lacks is some WordPress-specific functionality, such as support for plugins, but that's no big deal - its features are more than enough for starting a beautiful functional page.

Drupal

Drupal is an excellent WordPress alternative — not only because of its many similarities but also because of its many differences! Drupal is a content management system that is quickly becoming a popular alternative to WordPress.

This CMS is also completely customizable. There are hundreds of Drupal modules and themes, so it's easy to create a website that looks and works the way you want. Drupal's popularity means plenty of resources to help you get started with the platform, so make sure to check those out before starting.

Wix

Wix is one of the best WordPress alternatives out there. It is professional, easy to use and open source. It has countless features that help you create the page you want without coding. One of the most exciting things is how easy it is to create a responsive design.

In other words, Wix is fast, responsive, and easy to use. You can edit elements on the web page without waiting for it to refresh - and you can browse hundreds of templates to pick the one you like. To get the site you love, you can sort these templates according to categories, popularity, and price.

Shopify

Shopify is an excellent WordPress alternative, and this can be a big help to business owners who don't want to deal with the hassles of hosting and managing a website on their own. However, Shopify is only for e-commerce websites, and if you're looking to set up a blog, or a personal site, you may need to look somewhere else.

There are no transaction fees, and Shopify takes care of everything for you — from marketing to shipping.

Joomla!

Joomla!  has all the basic features you'd expect from CMS software, such as the ability to easily add different kinds of content to a web page, both text and multimedia. On the other hand, WordPress and Joomla! are more focused on blogs, so they don’t have the flexibility that some CMS software (Drupal, for example) has.

Though Joomla was originally created as a blogging platform, it has evolved over the years. Now, it is used by businesses of all sizes for everything from simple blogs to complex e-commerce storefronts.

Weebly

Weebly is an open-source website builder that makes it easy to create beautiful websites. You can build your website without any coding skills using many high-quality templates. 

Weebly offers a simple website builder that caters to both individuals and businesses. It offers a wide selection of responsive templates that are easy to customize. The website builder was recently updated to include new functionality, such as drag-and-drop, mobile-ready, and an app for iOS and Android devices.

While Weebly doesn't offer the same level of customization and functionality as WordPress, it offers similar ease of use. You can build your website in mere minutes, even if you're a beginner.

Webnode

A free WordPress alternative is Webnode, a self-hosted, open-source content management system that can be used to create beautiful websites. Webnode offers many of the same features as WordPress but with less overhead.

You can use Webnode to create blogs, photo galleries, portfolios, online stores and more. Webnode prides itself in being a user-friendly web page creation tool. It’s ideal for beginners, and it’s easy to navigate.

It’s also lightweight, so you don’t have to worry about it taking up too much of your bandwidth. It’s compatible with the latest versions of major web browsers, and you can access its code if you feel like tweaking it.

Site 123

If you already have some experience with WP, Site123 may be your best bet. It's a simple, intuitive builder that's also compatible with many third-party plugins. The dashboard is well-organized, and the tools to create content are easy to find. Site123 offers a variety of templates and customization options that make it easy to create a professional-looking page.

In other words, it's a simple, intuitive web page builder that's also compatible with many third-party plugins.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a well-known name in commerce, so it's no surprise that it's also an extremely popular platform for running e-commerce stores. As its name implies, BigCommerce is "big," offering a wide variety of features. It is designed for e-commerce, but it's more than that.

BigCommerce is an all-inclusive platform with shipping, inventory management, marketing, analytics, and customer management features. The platform can handle everything from one product to tens of thousands of products, and it's flexible enough to meet a wide range of business needs.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is an excellent WordPress alternative. It's much easier to set up and maintain than WordPress, and it lets you do a lot more:

  1. Setup. GoDaddy is ridiculously easy to use. You log in to your GoDaddy account, click a few buttons, and you're up and running!
  1. Hosting. GoDaddy's shared hosting plans are more than enough for small and medium-sized blogs. They're fast, reliable and come with all the software and tools you need to get started.
  2. Security. GoDaddy's security is top-notch. Their servers also automatically block malicious IP addresses.
  1. Backups. You can backup your entire page with a single click, as easy as that.