It is by far the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world, and for good reason. However, if you don’t like the interface, or are annoyed by having to constantly download plugins to achieve the functionality you want, you might want to learn about alternative CMSs and here are the ones.
List of alternatives to WordPress
In this article we will explore 15 of the best WordPress alternative platforms. We’ll look at their respective strengths, explore what types of sites they’re best suited for, and discuss their pricing plans. By the end of this article, you will have the knowledge you need to make the right decision for your website development project. So let’s get started!
Joomla is an award winning open source CMS. It features an extremely flexible interface, an intuitive menu building system, and many powerful search engine optimization (SEO) tools. You can also extend the functionality of your Joomla site with many extensions, which work similarly to WordPress plugins.
Joomla is one of the most popular alternatives to WordPress, and it’s easy to see why. The platform gives you great control over content workflows and template layouts, which dictate the look and feel of your Joomla site in a similar way to WordPress templates. Another popular Joomla feature is its built-in ACL, which makes site administration and contributor access easy.
Main features:
- Includes a powerful .
- It offers a built-in cache management feature, which can increase the speed and performance of your Joomla site.
- It has 15 custom field types, allowing you to quickly create specific types of content for your site.
- Provides extremely strict.
Prices:
This CMS is completely free, although you may have to purchase some premium extensions.
Summary:
Joomla is ideal if you are looking to build a large scale or complex site, without the need for excessive coding. The default platform has a slight advantage over WordPress when it comes to group management and development. For example, there’s even a dedicated messaging feature for . If you are interested in creating a Joomla! website, check out our .
Ghost is another popular open source CMS, geared more towards creating stylish blogs or online posts (as opposed to complex websites). It comes with versatile features to customize page layouts, schedule posts, embed analytics code, and more, all from a streamlined interface. Ghost also makes it easy to optimize and produce content across multiple distribution channels (maximizing readership in the process).
Another great advantage of Ghost is that the platform is extremely developer friendly. In addition to allowing you full control over API integration and theme development, Ghost has an automatic content backup system (so you don’t have to worry about your content disappearing in the event of an outage or crash). ).
Main features:
- Includes subscription management and RSS feed integration features.
- It uses , an advanced plain text formatting syntax that converts content to well-structured HTML.
- It offers simple user management tools to assign roles and permissions.
- Provides built-in AMP support, for faster load times on mobile devices and better search engine rankings.
Prices:
Plans for Ghost range from option Staff basic (you can have a blog for USD 19) up to the plan Business (which includes up to 50 sites for $199).
Summary:
If you value a powerful yet minimalist interface for creating content and don’t want to worry about overloading your site with plugins, Ghost is an alternative to WordPress worth considering. It’s also great if you’re looking for a powerful yet simple blogging CMS with lots of built-in SEO features.
Despite being one of the more lightweight WordPress alternatives on this list, Textpattern is still a solid option. Created with a simple yet robust, Textpattern offers a wide variety of ways to structure your content. The interface is easy for beginners, and the platform is well supported with .
Like WordPress, Textpattern can be easily extended with the use of plugins, which are regularly updated by contributors. There are also a variety of front-end and back-end themes available to choose from, all of which can be easily adjusted to meet your specific requirements.
Main features:
- It offers a wide selection of free platform mods, themes, and plugins.
- It incorporates optimized comment management and visitor registration features.
- It has customizable subscription features that allow your site visitors to customize a content feed according to their preferences.
Prices:
Despite being one of the most powerful, well-supported and versatile WordPress alternatives, Textpattern is completely free.
Summary:
Whether you’re a developer looking for a simple platform to code HTML and CSS, or just a blogger who wants something less cluttered than the default WordPress interface, Textpattern is worth considering. It’s also a good solution if you’re looking for a platform you can master quickly, as it’s backed by a .
Unlike many other WordPress alternatives, Tiki Wiki focuses less on third-party extensions and more on maintaining a high-performing core feature set. Due to this focus on a powerful and easy to update framework, Tiki Wiki is perfect for collaborative projects or sites with a strong social media component.
Tiki Wiki is easy to install, extremely rich, and backed by one of the largest open source teams in the world. The platform is also highly secure and built using the most trusted underlying technologies (including MySQL and Bootstrap). These features make Tiki Wiki a solid choice for any web developer.
Main features:
- Use a single, streamlined interface to generate a variety of content types—from wiki pages and event calendars to online surveys and quizzes.
- It offers a handy database tracking system, which is great for generating reports and spotting bugs.
- It offers a wide variety of administrative and content editing functions.
- Includes membership management and payment facilitation features.
Price:
Tiki Wiki can be counted among the most trusted free and open source WordPress alternatives.
Summary:
If you’re looking for an easy-to-manage CMS platform for a collaborative project or online learning site, Tiki Wiki might be the one for you. While it doesn’t offer as many appearance-focused customization options as WordPress, it does eliminate the possibility of plugin compatibility issues.
WebsiteBaker is a great CMS solution for developers and designers. Its simple interface makes it easy to create custom design templates, using XHTML, CSS, and jQuery. There’s also a built-in WYSIWYG editor, which helps you instantly see how changes you make to your site’s code will display.
WebsiteBaker’s functionality can be extended through downloadable modules. There are modules for adding image galleries, subscription forms, event calendars, and more. You also have the option to edit the modules you download, using a variety of management tools. Additionally, WebsiteBaker offers a number of downloadable templates to design your site.
Main features:
- It offers a portable version, allowing developers to create a stable local test environment with just one click.
- It includes a simplified file management system, which allows you to batch upload files to your site.
- It incorporates secure user management and administration systems.
- Provides multi-language support.
Prices:
Although WebsiteBaker is one of the free alternatives to WordPress, users have the option to donate to the platform.
Summary:
Although not as feature-rich as WordPress, WebsiteBaker’s default platform has a slight edge in terms of speed. Additionally, WebsiteBaker’s revolutionary ‘droplet’ system, a method of adding PHP code to any area of your site, presents a more flexible option than the core WordPress platform offers.
What sets Jekyll apart as one of the most viable WordPress alternatives is its simplicity. It trades the need for plugins, themes, and database management with a basic terminal window interface. However, if you’re not interested in coding too much, Jekyll may not be the WordPress alternative you’re looking for.
Jekyll is a static site generator, which allows you to create content as text files that can then be inserted into folders. Once your files are created, Jekyll allows you to build the shell of your site using the Liquid template language. Jekyll stitches the content with the shell, creating a static site that can be easily uploaded to all types of servers.
Main features:
- It provides excellent blog migration capabilities.
- Includes a variety of template options.
- It offers one to help you master the basics of the platform.
Prices:
This alternative to WordPress is completely free.
Summary:
Jekyll is ideal for quickly building a fast, secure, and scalable site, without the need to spend time downloading extensions from third-party providers. However, it is not as intuitive as many other WordPress alternatives.
This versatile CMS ranks high among WordPress alternatives as it offers great design freedom along with a highly extensible framework. Built with the Smarty template system, CMS Made Simple is also extremely developer-friendly, making it easy to create custom modules for virtually any type of site.
In addition to having a simplified drag and drop interface, CMS Made Simple makes dividing and managing tasks a breeze. This platform differs significantly from WordPress in that its database templates allow developers more control over the appearance of website designs (no plugins required).
Main features:
- It offers many modules and plugins to extend the functionality.
- Allows customization of your websites through shortcodes.
- It is extremely and developer friendly.
Prices:
CMS Made…
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