CMS vs. Website Builder: The Best Place For Your Website
Those who are new to website building often face a major problem and that is choosing the right website building platform. Since your website is important for your business, you should perform extensive research and careful thinking before finalizing a perfect website building solution for your site. We see most of the people often get confused between a modern website builder and traditional CMS. If you are one of them, we have put together everything that you should know about CMS vs Website Builder, all here in one place.
Since we don’t want to get involved in the never-ending debates regarding the best solution, we will just differentiate the specifications and features, so that you can better decide yourself, which is the best place for your website.
Let’s get started!
The Difference Between Website Builder And CMS
Website Builder
A website builder is any tool that has been designed to help users build their websites using pre-built templates. Nowadays, most of the website builders use a drag-and-drop feature that makes it exceptionally easy to create a professional blog or site within a few minutes.
CMS
In comparison to website builder, CMS is a much more fleshed-out platform. It offers direct code access via FTP and liberty to use extra plugins. The popular WordPress platform is the biggest example of CMS. This platform has reached the point where it can power almost all types of websites you can imagine.
CMS vs. Website Builder Comparison Chart
User-Friendliness
CMS
For non-technical users, this platform can be a little overwhelming. The process of using a CMS involves downloading, installing and the setup of the CMS system. In addition to this, you will need to choose a hosting partner that will manage your website database. After that, you can start working on your site. With most CMS, you get a website dashboard, from where you take control over different aspects of your site.
Website Builder
On the other hand, with a Website builder, users don’t need to tweak any code. Hosting is usually set up by the provider itself. Sometimes, you get the freedom to buy a domain name from outside. As we said above, website builders majorly support drag and drop features, they don’t need manipulation of HTML or CSS.
Winner
Website builder looks more convenient and user-friendly, especially for newbies.
Pricing
CMS
Pricing of CMS depends on several factors such as a type of hosting plan, themes, plugins, and other tools. CMS platforms like WordPress, Magento come with a large number of free themes and plugins that you can use.
Since CMS platforms are open source, you can use them free of cost.
If you are running a small blog or website, a shared hosting plan would be sufficient for you that costs somewhere around $3 to $8 for a month.
Website Builder
As mentioned above, website builders are easy to use and less time taking, but they can be costly. Platforms like Wix, Squarespace cost you somewhere between $15 to $20 for a month. It may be hard for startups and individuals to bear this cost.
Winner
CMS has an upper hand in this section.
Flexibility
CMS
Of course, with CMS you need more technical skills but this is not without any award. Along with the basic set of features, CMS comes with some extra components such as applications, scripts, plugins that you can use to bring different features to your site. CMS platform is far more customizable.
Website Builder
Since website builders come with preloaded templates there is a very little scope for customization.
Winner
CMS is more flexible than a website builder.
Customer Support
CMS
Most of the free CMS platforms lack online chat support and ticket support. You will have to rely only on their open forum and users’ community support. However, your hosting partner can help you come out of different technical issues.
Website Builder
Most website builders come with tech support like live chat support, ticket support and sometimes phone support too. They have offices. Therefore, you can contact them whenever needed.
Winner
It is the biggest advantage of choosing the website builder that you get strong customer support.
What Is The Best Place For Your Website
It is up to you to decide which platform will be a better match for your particular needs. If you want to build your website right now and don’t want to hassle yourself learning every step of creating a site, you can go for a website builder. And through my knowledge, I would like to prefer you the HostGator Website Builder which is best for any startup planners.
However, if you are ready to delegate time and want to create a feature-rich site that offers adequate flexibility of customization, you can go for CMS platforms like WordPress.
Still can’t decide on which platform to choose for your website? Check out this GoDaddy vs Wix ultimate showdown.
Just take a note that whichever platform you pick, make sure it is valuable to your site and eventually your business.
Also Read: 5 Best Wix Website Builder Alternative