Since the event, there has been a lot of conversations happening around the topic of Contributing to WordPress, so I wanted to share my perspective as an observer and participant of this community software movement that is WordPress.

I accidentally discovered WordPress in 2006 when I was 16 years old. Over the last 18 years, I have seen WordPress evolve and grow to power well over 43% of all websites on the internet.

That is remarkable growth. But what’s even more incredible is how it all came to be, and what we can all do to keep it growing.

Many WordPress users and beginners don’t realize that WordPress is a free open source software. It’s built by the amazing WordPress community that consists of thousands of developers, designers, and website builders who volunteer their time to make WordPress the best website operating system on the planet.

When I explain this to a normal business person or investor, it blows their mind to learn that the WordPress movement is entirely community driven (Open Source + Open Hearts).

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” ~ African Proverb

Our WordPress community is truly special, and I’m forever grateful for the impact WordPress has made on my family’s life.

Today, I want to share my WordPress contribution journey, why we choose to giveback, and how you can support WordPress as well.

What Does it Mean to Contribute to WordPress?

I personally believe that anything you do to help grow the WordPress community & ecosystem forward is a contribution.

Here are some ways to contribute to WordPress:

• Tell others about WordPress – write a blog post about your experience, help someone else start a WordPress site, share your WordPress story.
• Wear a WordPress shirt or hoodie – we need more WP swags.
• Attend a local WordPress meetup or WordCamp (see all events). If you’re a parent of a high school or college student, encourage them to attend as well.
• When purchasing premium plugins, hosting, themes, or services for your WordPress site, support companies that give back to WordPress. I wish there were some sort of badges that WordPress could offer to display which would bring more awareness to the cause.
• Leave a review for your favorite plugins & themes on WordPress.org
• Help others in the official WordPress forum, or even in unofficial communities like Facebook groups, Reddit groups like /r/WordPress or the WPBeginner subreddit, etc.
• Make a Donation to WordPress Foundation – even $10 per year goes a long way.
• Help translate WordPress in your language – see translation handbook.
• Help with WordPress documentation – see documentation handbook.
• Help organize your local WordPress meetup or event.
• Help with testing new releases, writing code, fixing bugs, and more. See how to become a WordPress contributor.
• Create a free plugin or tool for WordPress.
• Create a business around WordPress (i.e agency, products, etc).

All contributions no matter the size are important because they help shape the ripple effect of WordPress’ growth.

WordPress grows because of the community!

Now I do believe that depending on how much you benefit from the WordPress ecosystem, you should try to give back accordingly to pay it forward.

My WordPress Contribution Journey

When I started using WordPress in 2006, I was a true beginner and learning my way around WordPress.

Over the next two years, I evolved my workflow to exclusively use WordPress for all websites that I built (personal & client projects).

In 2009, I had a realization that most WordPress tutorials were written for developers by developers. This gave birth to WPBeginner, a way to give back by sharing my knowledge and teaching non-techy users about WordPress because I could see the impact WordPress was beginning to have on my own life as a college student.

I started attending local WordPress meetups as well as WordCamp events across United States. I simply fell in love with how welcoming and helpful everyone in the community was.

Some of my closest friends and co-founders of my various product businesses, I met at WordPress events. For example, I met Thomas Griffin (my co-founder in OptinMonster) at WordCamp Atlanta. I met Jared Atchison (my co-founder in WPForms) at the first-ever WordPress community summit hosted on Tybee Island, Georgia.

As our WordPress product business grew, we started giving back in more ways through speaking at WordCamps, evangelizing WordPress at other industry events, sponsoring local WordCamps, organizing local WordPress meetup groups, and even volunteering to help organize WordCamp conferences.

At each step of the journey, I believe the more we gave back to the WordPress community, the more it helped our business grow.

Today over 25 million websites use the software and plugins created by my companies.

This was only possible because the entire WordPress ecosystem grew, thanks to the larger WordPress community. For perspective, the WordPress marketshare grew from 17.4% in 2013 to over 43.5% of all websites today.

As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats.

If you benefit in any way from WordPress, then you’re part of the hidden WordPress economy worth well over $597 billion, and I believe it is all of our jobs to nourish the ecosystem that has done so much for us.

Our Contributions to WordPress + Open Source

As each year passes, my goal is to continue increasing our contributions to WordPress. Here are some of the ways we’re currently giving back to the WordPress community.

Global Sponsorship of All WordCamps

As of last year, WPBeginner is a Gold sponsor for all WordCamps around the world. We do not do this for advertising because as a bootstrapped company, it’s not possible for us to attend WordCamps across the world.

We provide this financial contribution because I believe community events are central to the growth of the WordPress ecosystem, and we need more events all over the world.

Five for Future Pledge

My company, Awesome Motive, now contributes 204 hours per week to the open source WordPress project. We have team members that are part of the Core Team, WordPress plugins team, WordPress security team, and more.

We are currently the #1 bootstrapped company in the numbers of hours contributed, and we rank #3 overall only behind Automattic (parent company of WordPress.com and WooCommerce) and Newfold Digital (parent company of Bluehost) who continue to do so much for the WordPress ecosystem.

Creating 100% free WordPress Training

All tutorials on WPBeginner are completely free. You can take our WordPress 101 video course and numerous other courses at no cost.

There are hundreds of free video tutorials on YouTube as well and thousands more written ones on WPBeginner.

WordPress Free Importer projects

I want as many people to switch to WordPress as possible.

This is why I asked my teams to create free platform importers for WordPress including: Shopify to WordPress, Weebly to WordPress, and Medium to WordPress.

These tools are used by thousands of people worldwide including developers and even hosting companies.

Free WordPress Support & Help

We offer free WordPress help and support through our website contact form as well as WPBeginner Engage Facebook Group (over 98k members). We have a team of full-time employees and contributors who are there to help users with basic questions.

Of course, we also offer premium WordPress support at very affordable prices when someone needs help, and you’re guaranteed to get someone knowledgeable about WordPress.

Numerous Completely Free Utility Plugins

Our team has created and maintain numerous totally free open source projects & libraries including:

• One Click Demo Import
• Transients Manager
• Missed Schedule Posts Publisher
• WP Call Button
• TGM Plugin Activation Class
• Compact Archives
• Comment Moderation Role
• … and many more.

Let’s Encrypt Sponsorship

In the past, most website owners would have to pay for SSL which hindered the eCommerce capability of WordPress sites for small business. This is why starting in 2016, I decided to sponsor Lets Encrypt and encouraged numerous hosting partners to start supporting it.

Fast forward 8 years, Let’s Encrypt now provides SSL certificates to over 450 million websites, and almost every major WordPress hosting company offers free SSL for your WordPress site.

Symbiotic Mutualistic WordPress Contributions

Even though my various businesses do benefit from these contributions, I believe they all help bring more people into the WordPress ecosystem.

Freemium Plugins

I have either created, acquired, or invested in dozens of freemium WordPress plugins. These plugins add tremendous value to the community in the free version which are great for those just starting out.

The WordPress Plugin ecosystem is one of the best things about WordPress when it comes to DIY website building.

Of course, we generate revenue from the small portion of users who do upgrade, and I’m truly grateful for the support of the WP community. Want to help support us? See all my premium WordPress plugins.

For example:

• AIOSEO – is the leading SEO plugin for WordPress when it comes to innovation. Now with our keyword rank tracking and other powerful SEO features, we’re helping small businesses get rid of expensive SaaS tools and manage all their SEO needs within WordPress (free version here).
• WPForms – is the leading drag & drop form builder plugin for WordPress. You no longer need to pay expensive SaaS form or survey tools to build high-converting forms. It comes with over 1900+ pre-built form templates that you can use to create any type of form (free version here).
• Uncanny Automator – is a no-code workflow automation tool inside WordPress. Think of it as a Zapier but inside WordPress … and without the high costs. (free version here).

These are just some of the examples. I’m extremely grateful that over 25 million websites trust our various plugins when building their WordPress sites.

Affordable Pro Services

When I started building websites nearly 20 years ago, I would charge $500 for the website. Most WordPress agencies and freelancers start with low prices, but as their business & skills grow, they raise the prices.

This leaves a huge gap for WordPress beginners who end up switching to proprietary website builders that offer affordable custom website design services.

This is why I invested in Seahawk Media and launched WPBeginner Pro Services to offer affordable websites for small businesses starting at $599.

In no way am I saying that enterprise WordPress websites cost this low. Our service is intended to fill a gap for small businesses who simply can’t afford the high prices, but still want a trusted provider to build their WordPress site.

I have great respect for our friends at 10up, Human Made, rtCamp, WebDevStudios, MultiDots, CrowdFavorite, and others who offer enterprise WordPress services. They’re awesome, and if you’re working on a large project, check them out.

WPBeginner Growth Fund

In the early days of WordPress, investors simply didn’t understand the WordPress community. I would say many still don’t.

This means that most WordPress founders have no clear exit path or route to getting friendly investment partners who understood the ecosystem.

This is why I created the WPBeginner Growth Fund. We provide founder-friendly investments and exits to WordPress founders (many of them are our friends whom I have known for years).

This is a far better option than exiting to a private equity firm because each company continues to operate independently while having support from someone experienced who values the WordPress ecosystem.

We’re fully bootstrapped (i.e no investors or debt). My goal is to invest our profits into supporting the WordPress ecosystem growth by providing investments and exits to other WordPress business owners.

This creates the ultimate win, win, win situation for the customers, for the entrepreneurs, and for the community.

Why I changed my mind on WordPress Contributions

As a bootstrapped founder, my first priority is always our team and our customers. It’s normal to focus on our internal growth metrics above all.

However when operating in a larger ecosystem, it’s also important for us to ensure the health of the WordPress project is sustainable and moving in a positive direction.

We’re not a young ecosystem anymore. WordPress is 21 years old.

There is going to be natural transitions that happen with contributors retiring or moving on to focus on other areas of life.

Same applies to WordPress product & agency owners wanting to exit and move onto the next chapter of their lives.

This creates a vacuum that can lead to an unsustainable future which hurts all of us.

In times like this, it’s more important than ever for us to focus on fostering the community.

We must work together, encourage positivity, and show appreciation for anyone who contributes in any form.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” — Abraham Lincoln

I was inspired to contribute more after my conversation with Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of WordPress) at a TED conference in Vancouver in 2022 where both of us passionately shared our love for the WordPress community.

There’s no one who contributes more to the WordPress ecosystem than Matt himself. Automattic donates 4,000+ hours a week (that’s over 208,000 per year) to the open source project.

I really like Matt’s thoughts on Ecosystem Thinking.

I believe that symbiotic mutualistic contributions are crucial for a healthy ecosystem because all parties involved benefit from it.

Let’s continue to work together in contributing to WordPress and helping democratize publishing & commerce across the world.

As always, I want to thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner, and we look forward to continue serving you for years to come.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

Misc Notes / P.S.

* If you run a website on WordPress and want to help support companies that contribute to WordPress, please see the Five for Future pledges. I can say this about my product companies that what we earn through our premium plugin sales, it help us give back to the community, and I appreciate your support.

** It’s important to emphasize that I’m an investor in Automattic. Of course I want a great return on my investment, but I believe in Matt’s vision that both good return and incredible contributions can happen at the same time.

*** If you’re a WordPress business owner who’s looking for an exit or investment, and don’t want to deal with private equity folks, I encourage you to look at my WPBeginner Growth Fund. We’re fully bootstrapped independent creators with a mission to help small businesses grow & compete with the big guys.

**** It was great seeing everyone at WCUS. Thank you for everyone who said hello and for the kind conversations. The event always feel like a family reunion. Some photos below:

Photo credit: The ecosystem image is created by Jordan Hillier from Automattic, and I found it on Matt’s blog post which I linked above.

The post Contributing to the WordPress Ecosystem (My Thoughts) first appeared on WPBeginner.

More traffic means more customers, more sales, and more profit. So, you might be looking for a quality SEO tool to improve your search rankings and attract more visitors.

With so many SEO tools available, both free and paid, it’s natural to wonder whether paying for a premium plugin is worth the money.

In this article, we’ll share our firsthand experience using both free and premium WordPress SEO plugins. We’ll explore the extra features premium tools offer and the impact they can have on your website’s traffic and success.

Choosing the Right SEO Tool for Your WordPress Website

WordPress users have a lot of options when it comes to plugins that help optimize websites for search engines. But with so many tools that promise to boost your rankings, it’s hard to know where to start.

Here at WPBeginner, we get tons of questions from readers asking which SEO plugin is the best for making it to the top spots in search results.

In response, we created a detailed showcase of the best SEO plugins and tools. These tools can help you increase your website traffic by 20-30% within just a few months.

This list covers a wide range of use cases and includes leading plugins like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) and Yoast SEO, as well as standalone tools like Semrush and Ahrefs.

But here’s the catch. Many of these plugins offer both free and premium versions, leaving you with another decision to make.

While free versions provide a solid foundation for basic SEO, the premium upgrades promise to unlock advanced features designed to give your site an edge in search engine rankings.

So, are those premium features worth the investment? Do they really make a difference in your search rankings?

Let’s dive in and explore the unique capabilities of premium WordPress SEO tools and see how they can help your website make it into the top search results pages.

What Are the Benefits of Premium WordPress SEO Plugins?

At WPBeginner, we’ve been using premium SEO plugins for many years. Here are some of our favorite features and benefits:

1. Comprehensive SEO Audits

While free plugins provide basic on-page analysis, premium versions often offer more in-depth insights and recommendations.

They run comprehensive SEO audits on your website. This way, you get a clear idea of your site’s overall health from an SEO perspective. They scan all of your web pages and then highlight potential issues, recommending how to fix them.

We regularly use AIOSEO to analyze our content for readability, keyword usage, and overall optimization. It gives us access to an actionable SEO report inside our WordPress admin area that gives us a clear roadmap for improvement.

This is really helpful because search engine optimization is a complex procedure that takes time. Having a clear checklist of everything that needs to be improved simplifies the process so you can easily fix one issue at a time.

2. Advanced Sitemaps

Search engines need to find and index every page on your website before they can be displayed in search results.

Google recommends using sitemaps to help with this process. Sitemaps help search engines crawl up to 40% more pages, resulting in more of your content appearing in search results.

There are different types of sitemaps, such as XML sitemaps that help search engines discover and index your content and RSS sitemaps that notify them of updated content.

Enabling both of these will give you the biggest SEO benefits. With a premium WordPress SEO plugin, this is as easy as switching on a setting for each type of sitemap.

3. Powerful Redirects and 404 Monitoring

Broken links point to web pages that do not exist, leading to frustration and 404 error messages for your users. They are also bad for SEO and result in a 12% higher bounce rate.

Premium SEO plugins help you avoid broken links by automatically creating redirects when you rename a post or page or change its URL.

They also automatically track and log 404 errors so you can quickly redirect these URLs to existing posts as part of your regular WordPress maintenance.

This will make sure your visitors find the information they are looking for and avoid frustrating surprises when clicking links on your site.

4. Advanced Schema Markup

Schema markup is structured data that is added to your web pages behind the scenes. It helps search engines better understand your content and display it more prominently in search results.

For example, using recipe schema can make food blogs more visible in search results. It can increase your click-through rates by 30%, bringing valuable traffic to your website.

But manually adding this structured data to your posts is very technical and time-consuming.

It’s much easier using a premium SEO plugin because it can add schema markup automatically. These tools also let you add more specific markup to individual posts with the click of a mouse, including FAQs, recipes, events, products, and more.

5. Internal Linking Suggestions

We always recommend that you add links to your own content throughout your website. This way, you help users find posts that are related to the topic they are reading about. These are called internal links and they are good for SEO, increasing page views by up to 40%.

The problem is that as you create more content, it becomes hard to find all the related blog posts you can link to. Searching for them manually becomes frustrating and takes a lot of time.

Premium SEO plugins help by automatically listing internal linking opportunities. With a click of your mouse, you can easily add these links to relevant posts along with an automatically generated phrase and anchor text, improving your SEO and saving you time.

6. Social Media Optimization

We also use a premium WordPress SEO plugin for social media optimization because it allows us to control how our WPBeginner content appears when shared on platforms like Facebook and Twitter (X).

Instead of these platforms pulling random information and images from our posts, we can specify the title, description, and image that is used. This means that our posts are more likely to resonate with our social media followers, bringing more traffic to our site.

7. Local SEO Optimization

If your business has physical locations, then premium SEO plugins can help optimize your site for local search results, including automatically generating location-specific schema markup that makes it easier for customers in your area to find you.

Potential customers will see your business on Google Maps and search results when looking for your type of business in their local area.

They will be able to see your address, phone number, and opening hours right from the search results page. Plus, they can even get turn-by-turn directions as they drive to your store.

8. WooCommerce SEO

If you have an online store, you can also benefit from the specialized WooCommerce SEO features offered by premium plugins. These help you optimize your product pages so they are more visible in product searches.

Users will also be able to see customer reviews and star ratings, showing that other customers have had a positive experience with your products. This can help drive more traffic to your store.

9. Priority Support

When you’re running an online business website, having access to expert support can be invaluable. Premium versions usually offer priority support to help you resolve issues quickly.

This ensures that if you come across any problems or issues when using the plugin, then you can receive prompt help from experts and get back to the job of running your business.

For more details, you can see our guide on how to ask for WordPress support and get it.

What Is the Best Value Premium SEO Plugin?

If you’re serious about driving more organic traffic to your website, then subscribing to a premium SEO plugin like we have is a smart move.

Your next task is to decide which plugin or service to use. Your first question will probably be which plugin offers the best value for money.

All in One SEO vs. Yoast SEO Premium

AIOSEO and Yoast SEO are the leading WordPress SEO plugins and offer extensive features.

However, there are important differences in their pricing and features.

When we compare the two plugins’ most affordable plans, AIOSEO is more affordable while offering comparable features:

• AIOSEO’s Basic plan starts at $49.60 per year
• Yoast SEO Premium starts at $99 per year

At first glance, the prices of their most powerful SEO plans look similar:

• AIOSEO’s Elite plan costs $299.60 per year
• Bundle pricing for Yoast SEO Premium, Yoast WooCommerce SEO, Yoast Local SEO, Yoast News SEO, and Yoast Video SEO costs $229 per year.

However, the difference is that AIOSEO’s plan covers 100 websites, while Yoast’s price is for a single site. Plus, AIOSEO offers a more comprehensive feature set.

When it comes to value for money, AIOSEO stands out. It offers a compelling package that covers multiple websites at a competitive price point.

You can learn more in our detailed comparison of Yoast SEO vs. All in One SEO.

You might also like to read about our journey switching from Yoast to All in One SEO to improve our SEO workflow and access the SEO features we need.

All in One SEO vs. Premium Standalone SEO Tools

If you don’t have the budget for standalone SEO tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, AIOSEO Premium offers a lot of impressive features for a great price.

To give you an idea, even when looking at the most affordable options, Semrush‘s most basic plan starts at $119.95 per month, and Ahrefs‘ lite plan starts at $99 per month.

While these tools are incredibly powerful, their starting prices come to more than $1,000 per year, which may not be justifiable for smaller websites or bloggers.

By contrast, you can subscribe to AIOSEO’s highest-tier Elite plan for far less money. It includes advanced features like local SEO, advanced WooCommerce support, and video SEO and costs less than $300 per year.

Besides that, AIOSEO focuses specifically on WordPress, making it easier to use and more tailored to your website’s needs. This makes it a cost-effective solution for agencies or businesses managing multiple WordPress sites.

Plus, if you run a small business or are just getting started, AIOSEO Premium’s features might be more than enough for your needs.

That said, if you’re looking for more SEO features at a lower cost, you can pair the plugin with an affordable tool like SEOBoost to get powerful content optimization options. This will give you AI-powered analyses, content audits, content briefs, and much more.

Or, if you need just a little extra help with keyword research, LowFruits is a great choice. It helps you generate keywords and analyze the SERPs to improve your rankings.

Premium WordPress SEO Plugins FAQ

Here are some questions we are asked most often about premium SEO plugins for WordPress:

What are premium SEO plugins?

Premium SEO plugins are paid versions of WordPress SEO tools that offer advanced features, enhanced optimization capabilities, and often superior support compared to their free alternatives.

How do premium SEO plugins differ from free SEO plugins?

Premium SEO plugins typically offer more advanced features like schema markup generators, content optimization tools, local SEO features, and dedicated support. Free plugins usually provide basic SEO functionality but may lack advanced features or regular updates.

Are premium SEO plugins necessary for good search engine rankings?

While not absolutely necessary, premium SEO plugins can significantly enhance your WordPress site’s optimization efforts, potentially leading to better search engine rankings. They often provide tools and features that can give you an edge in competitive markets.

Will a premium SEO plugin automatically improve my search rankings?

No SEO plugin can guarantee improved rankings. However, premium plugins provide advanced tools and guidance to help you optimize your site more effectively, which can contribute to better search performance.

How much do premium SEO plugins typically cost?

Prices vary, but most premium SEO plugins cost between $50 and $300 per year, depending on the features offered and the number of sites you can use them on.

Do I need to renew my premium SEO plugin license annually?

In most cases, yes. Annual renewals ensure you continue to receive updates, support, and access to new features. However, some plugins offer lifetime licenses.

Can I get a refund if I’m not satisfied with a premium SEO plugin?

Many premium plugin developers offer money-back guarantees for a certain period. Always check the refund policy before purchasing.

Currently, AIOSEO offers a 14-day money-back guarantee, and Yoast SEO has a 30-day guarantee.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn that, for many websites, premium plugins are definitely worth investing in. You may also want to see our guide on how to automate WordPress SEO or our expert pick of the best FAQ WordPress plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Are Premium WordPress SEO Plugins Worth It? (+ How to Choose) first appeared on WPBeginner.

We’ve tested tons of ways to build a website to help our audience at WPBeginner. Since many of our readers are just starting out, we think we’re in a good spot to share what we’ve learned.

Let’s be clear: coding gives you total control, but website builders can help beginners make great sites quickly. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer – it depends on your needs, skills, and goals.

In this post, we’ll give you a simple, honest comparison of website builders and coding, from each of their advantages and disadvantages to tips on choosing the best option.

Website Builder vs Manual Coding: A Summary

What Do We Mean by Manual Coding vs. Website Builders?

Before we start, let’s define what we mean by manual coding and website builders. These are two different approaches to creating a website, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Manual coding, also known as hand coding, is like building a house from scratch. You build your website using special programming languages that web browsers understand so that they can display your web content correctly.

The most common languages for this are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. HTML structures your content, CSS styles it, and JavaScript adds interactivity.

On the other hand, with a website builder, it’s like using parts that developers have prepared for you to construct your house. These website builder tools provide a user-friendly interface where you can design a site yourself without writing code.

Popular examples include WordPress, Wix, and the Hostinger Website Builder. These platforms offer templates and drag-and-drop features, making it easier for beginners to create professional-looking websites.

Is WordPress a website builder?

WordPress is technically an open-source content management system (CMS) that is free to download. However, it has evolved to include powerful website builder capabilities.

For example, it offers tools called page builders like SeedProd and Thrive Architect that make it even easier for you to build your site.

The only difference between WordPress and other standard site builders is you need to buy and set up your own web hosting. With other options, the hosting is already configured for you, so you can start the onboarding process right away and build your site.

Because this difference is so minor, and since the CMS is so popular, we’ll also compare the differences between a WordPress builder vs. manual coding.

Website Builder vs Coding: By the Numbers

Lots of people debate between using a website builder vs manual coding because these methods are still widely used. To understand this better, let’s look at some real numbers.

A company called W3Techs keeps track of how websites are made. They found that 43.4% of all websites use WordPress. Other popular website builders like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace are used by 4.5%, 2.8%, and 2.1% of websites.

When we add these up, that means around 50% of people are using website builders to create their sites.

Interestingly, 30.7% of websites don’t use any of the website-building tools that W3Techs checks for. This doesn’t mean all these sites are coded from scratch, but it’s likely that many of them are. So, even though website builders are popular, there are still plenty of custom-coded websites out there.

These numbers show us something important: website builders are becoming more common, but manual coding is still widely used.

Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of a website builder or WordPress builder vs manual coding. This way, you’ll be able to choose what’s best for your needs. You can use the quick links below to navigate through this article:

Otherwise, we’ll start with an in-depth analysis of website builders.

Pros of Website Builders: Easy to Use and Accessible

Easy to Use

One of the biggest advantages of website builders is how simple they are to use. You don’t need to be a computer whiz or know any coding to get started. It’s like building with digital Lego blocks. You just pick the pieces you want and put them together.

This low barrier to entry means anyone can create a website, whether you’re a small business owner, a blogger, or just someone who wants to share their hobby online.

Let’s look at an example. If you use the Hostinger Website Builder, all you need to do to get started is sign up for a plan, go through the onboarding wizard to set up your website, and then you’ll arrive at the website-building interface.

With the drag-and-drop editor, you can add and move around all of the elements on your website as you preview them in real time. Whenever you need to change them, you can just click on an element, and you’ll be able to customize it based on your preferences.

The same goes for using a page builder like SeedProd on WordPress. The hosting and website setup takes a bit longer than a website builder like Hostinger’s, but there’s still zero coding involved.

Once the page builder plugin is up and running, you can choose a theme template kit for your website and start customizing it on the drag-and-drop interface. The same principle applies: if you click on a block, you can customize it using the available tools.

Ready-to-Use Templates

Another great thing about website builders is their customizable templates. You don’t need to be a design expert to make your site look professional.

For instance, Thrive Architect has over 300 templates to choose from across different industry categories, including everything from online stores and SaaS companies to home services. These templates are like pre-decorated rooms, which means you just choose one you like and move in.

Of course, you can still add your personal touch by changing colors, fonts, and layouts to match your style or brand.

This way, your website won’t look similar to other sites using the same templates.

Speedy Setup

You may need to get a website up and running as fast as possible. Website builders are perfect for these situations. You can get a basic site online in just a few hours, which is great for things like landing page campaigns or when you need to create a quick online presence for an event.

Fun fact: When the OptinMonster team needed a landing page for their ad campaign, they used SeedProd to build one in less than 30 minutes. Not only did they launch their campaign quickly, but they were also able to increase their conversions by 340%.

Large Collection of Built-in Features

Website builders often come with a whole toolbox of features. Things like contact forms, photo galleries, and opt-in forms are usually just a click away. This means you don’t have to hunt for separate tools or plugins because everything you need is right there in the builder.

Some builders, like SeedProd, may even have an AI feature built-in. This makes it even easier for you to generate content without hiring a copywriter or a graphic designer.

For platforms like Hostinger Website Builder, Wix, and Squarespace, you may even find some eCommerce functionality available.

As a result, you don’t need a separate platform to run your business and build an online store.

And if you use WordPress with a page builder, then you can install WooCommerce to set up your online store while using the page builder’s templates to design the website.

Ongoing Support and Updates

When you use a website builder, you’re not on your own. Most platforms offer customer support and regularly update their tools. This means you don’t have to worry about keeping your site’s technology up-to-date or fixing technical issues on your own.

For example, SeedProd has a large collection of resources, including extensive documentation and a library of blog tutorials to help you get started. You can also submit a support ticket to get direct assistance from the team.

If you use a hosted platform like Wix or Squarespace, that also means your web hosting is taken care of for you. In other words, you don’t need to configure your site’s hosting back end and can just focus on building the front end of your site.

Cons of Website Builders: Limited Customization and Cost

Dependency on the Platform

Platform dependency is one of the key disadvantages of website builders. By that, we mean your site is tied to the website builder’s system, which can be problematic if the company makes significant changes (or worse, shuts down).

Also, the features available are often limited to what the platform offers. Some builders like Wix or Squarespace may have an addon library, but the features you can get are limited to what addons are actually available there. You may even need to pay extra for some extensions.

This is why we often prefer WordPress with a page builder as a website builder solution. It offers more flexibility and customization options because it’s an open-source platform with a vast collection of WordPress plugins and themes.

Instead of being locked into a single provider, you have the freedom to extend your site’s functionality. Plus, if you ever want to move your site or change your theme completely, WordPress makes it much easier to do so without starting from scratch.

Limited Customization

Website builders often come with pre-designed templates, which can lead to certain similarities in design across many sites. This limited customization can be frustrating for users who want a truly unique website.

However, it’s important to consider whether having a completely unique design is always beneficial. As Kate Shokurova from UX Collective points out:

99% of the websites are functional. Excessive creativity might help produce a site that is aesthetically interesting but less productive as a business tool. All these innovative, cutting-edge efforts to create immersive emotional experiences can prevent people from achieving their aim: to buy, to read, to watch, to find, etc. So to complain that today’s websites look dull would be getting it wrong.

Kate Shokurova from UX Collective

These templates are designed in similar ways for a reason. They follow best practices and create a familiar experience for users, reducing the time they need to navigate and understand your site.

This familiarity can actually be a benefit, especially for business websites where the goal is to call users to do specific actions.

Potential for Bloated Code

When we looked into why a lot of developers prefer hand-coding a website, one of the primary reasons we discovered was speed. This is because sites built with website builders can sometimes end up with bloated code, including unnecessary elements that can slow down their overall performance.

After trying out various website builders for years, however, we’ve discovered this isn’t always the case. Some website builders include fast hosting and a built-in content delivery network (CDN) to improve your site’s speed.

This is another reason why we recommend using WordPress with a page builder. There are a lot of speed optimization and caching plugins that you can install, so you don’t have to depend on a website builder’s hosting setup to make sure your site runs fast.

Plus, some page builders have been shown to create surprisingly fast sites. In our Elementor vs. Divi vs. SeedProd review, all of the demo sites we tested scored 90 or higher on PageSpeed Insights, with SeedProd scoring 93.

Ongoing Costs

Many website builders operate on a subscription model, which means you’ll have ongoing costs to keep your site running.

The prices vary a lot, too. Plans for Hostinger Website Builder start from $2.99 per month, billed annually (which equals $71.76 per year). Meanwhile, SeedProd’s plans start from $39.50 per year. If you use Wix, then you can expect to pay around $17 to $159 per month.

While these high costs can be a drawback, it’s important to consider what you’re getting for your money. Subscriptions often include regular updates, security patches, and customer support, which can save you time and headaches in the long run.

Most importantly, you don’t need to invest the time and money needed to learn how to code from scratch.

When to Choose a Website Builder Over Manual Coding

You may want to choose a website builder over manual coding if:

• You’re a beginner with little to no coding knowledge or skills.
• You need to create a website quickly, such as for a time-sensitive project, event, or campaign.
• You want to create a simple blog or portfolio site.
• You want to test out a website idea before investing in a custom-built solution.
• You’re a small business owner or entrepreneur focusing on your core business rather than web development.
• You’re a nonprofit or community organization with limited technical resources.

Of course, there are plenty of other highly specific situations where you might prefer a website builder. These are just a few of the most common.

Tips for Choosing a Website Builder

Now, before choosing a website builder, we recommend doing some deep research first. This way, you can pick the best option for your needs. Here are a few tips:

1. Consider your budget. Many builders offer free plans to start, but premium features often require a subscription. Compare costs and features to find the best value.
2. Evaluate the feature set. Ensure the builder offers the functionality you need, such as specific design elements like rotating testimonials or a custom scrollbar.
3. Check the builder’s longevity. Choose established platforms that have been around for a while and support many websites. This will reduce the risk of using a platform that may shut down soon.
4. Think about scalability. Consider whether the builder’s features can grow with your needs over time. Find examples of established businesses that use those builders to get a better idea.

Our personal recommendation is to use WordPress with a page builder. This combination offers the best of both worlds: the ease of use of a website builder with the flexibility and extensibility of WordPress. It’s ideal for beginners but also powerful enough for more advanced users.

While WordPress requires web hosting, many providers now offer one-click WordPress installs, making setup a breeze. Bluehost, for example, is officially recommended by WordPress.org and offers easy installation.

Also, WordPress has a large dedicated community, so you can easily find resources to help you use the platform. Here are some examples made by our team here at WPBeginner:

• How to Edit a WordPress Website
• Ways to Create a Mobile-Friendly WordPress Site
• How to Create a Squeeze Page in WordPress That Converts

If you want to explore WordPress before committing, you can also try WordPress Playground. It lets you use WordPress in your browser, giving you a feel for the platform.

Pros of Manual Coding: Powerful Control and Customization

Now, let’s move on to our assessment of using manual coding to create a website.

Full Control

When you’re hand coding, you have the power to dictate every aspect of your site’s design, functionality, and performance. This level of control is particularly appealing to those with coding knowledge who want to craft every detail of their online presence.

For example, you can optimize your site’s loading speed by writing lean, efficient code without the bloat that sometimes comes with website builders. This control extends to every element on your page, allowing you to create a truly unique user experience.

Full Customization

The ability to create unique, custom designs without limitations is another significant benefit of coding from scratch. While website builders often constrain you to their templates and design elements, manual coding allows you to bring any design vision to life.

This level of customization is especially valuable for businesses or individuals looking to stand out in a crowded online space. With manual coding skills, you can create interactive elements, unique layouts, and custom functionalities that may not be possible with most website builders.

Optimized Performance

When coding a website by hand, there’s a higher potential for optimized, lightweight code. This can result in faster loading times and better overall performance, which is crucial for user experience and search engine optimization.

Experienced coders can write clean, efficient code that does exactly what it needs to do without unnecessary extras. This level of quality control is harder to achieve with website builders, which often include extra code for features you might not even use.

No Platform Restrictions

The flexibility to adapt and modify code without the restrictions of a predefined interface is another key advantage of manual coding. As your website grows and evolves, you can easily add new features or change existing ones without being limited by a website builder’s capabilities.

This flexibility is particularly valuable for complex or enterprise websites or those with unique requirements that may not be easily supported by standard website builders.

What’s more, a hand-coded website doesn’t depend on third-party software updates. This means you have more control over when and how your site changes, reducing the risk of unexpected issues caused by automatic updates.

Learning Opportunity

While not ideal for beginners, coding a website from scratch provides an excellent learning opportunity. It allows you to deepen your understanding of web technologies, which can be valuable for future projects or career development.

You might even want to become a professional web developer one day.

This way, you can work as a freelancer and make money for clients who need websites.

Cost-Effective in the Long Run

Although there might be a higher initial time investment, hand-coding can be more cost-effective in the long run. You won’t have ongoing subscription fees associated with many website builders, and you’ll have the skills to maintain and update your site yourself.

Cons of Manual Coding: Time Investment and Learning Curve

Steep Learning Curve

This may be obvious, but the steep learning curve is one of the main cons of coding websites from scratch.

It’s not just about mastering HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for front-end development. To create fully functional, dynamic websites, you’ll also need to learn server-side languages like PHP, Python, or Ruby, as well as database management systems like MySQL.

This can be overwhelming, especially for beginners. It’s not something you can pick up overnight, and it requires consistent practice and dedication to become really good at this skill.

Significant Time Investment

Hand-coding a website requires a substantial time investment, from learning the necessary skills to practicing them.

Unlike using a website builder, where you can have a basic site up and running in a matter of minutes, coding from scratch can take weeks or even months (depending on the complexity of the site and your skill level).

All in all, the benefits of coding from scratch might not be worth the extra time it takes, especially if you need to get your site online quickly.

Difficulty in Updating Content

When you’re coding a website, updating content can be more challenging, especially if you’re working with a team that includes non-coders. Unlike website builders that offer user-friendly interfaces for content updates, hand-coded sites often require direct changes to the code.

This can lead to bottlenecks in the content update process, as all changes need to go through someone with coding knowledge.

Challenges in Adding New Functionalities

Many website builders offer plugins or apps that can be easily integrated with a few clicks. When coding from scratch, you’ll need to either code these functionalities yourself or find, evaluate, and integrate third-party libraries or APIs.

This process can be time-consuming and may require additional learning, especially if you’re working with unfamiliar technologies or APIs.

Maintenance and Security Concerns

Hand-coded websites require ongoing maintenance to ensure they remain secure and compatible with the latest web standards and browser updates.

This responsibility falls entirely on you or your development team, unlike with many website builders that handle security updates and maintenance as part of their service.

On top of that, there’s a higher risk of introducing errors or bugs into your site when you’re hand coding, especially if you’re a beginner.

When to Choose Manual Coding Over Website Builders

You may want to consider manual coding if:

• You enjoy the process of coding and want to enhance your skills.
• You need a highly customized website with unique features.
• Performance and load times are critical for your project.
• You want complete control over your website’s code and functionality.
• You want to avoid the ongoing subscription costs associated with some website builders.
• You’re looking to build a career in web development.

Keep in mind that if you’re a total beginner, building a website manually with code is likely to be a long and challenging project.

Tips for Getting Started with Manual Coding

If you’re interested in learning how to code websites from scratch, here are some tips to get started:

1. Learn HTML and CSS first. These are the building blocks of web development.
2. After that, move on to JavaScript. This will allow you to add interactivity to your websites.
3. Then, learn a back-end language. Popular options include PHP, Python, or Ruby. This will let you create dynamic websites.
4. Practice regularly. Coding is a skill that improves with practice, so try building small projects to apply what you’ve learned.
5. Use online resources. There are many free coding tutorials and courses available online.
6. Join coding communities. Websites like Stack Overflow can be great for getting help and advice.
7. Explore frameworks and libraries. Once you’re comfortable with the basics, look into tools like React or Vue.js for front-end development.

Remember, learning to code takes time and patience. While it’s not ideal for beginners who need a website quickly, the skills you gain from coding can be incredibly valuable in the long run.

If you want to learn the basics, you can check out our beginner’s guide on how to code a website.

Why a Hybrid Approach Is Often the Best Option

To be honest, you don’t have to choose between a website builder or a WordPress builder vs. manual coding. There’s a third option that gives you the best of both. We call this the hybrid approach.

In this case, a hybrid approach means using a beginner-friendly website-building platform that also allows for custom coding when needed. This method combines the user-friendliness of website builders with the flexibility of hand coding, giving you more control without the steep learning curve.

This is why WordPress has become so popular. While it might take a bit longer to set up than a typical website builder, and it may not offer the complete customization of hand coding, WordPress strikes an excellent balance.

First, it allows you to build your site using intuitive page builders like SeedProd or Thrive Architect. Plus, many features that would take significant time to code manually are readily available in WordPress through plugins.

At the same time, if you need custom functionality, you can add your own code by editing the theme or plugin files directly.

Or, if you’re not comfortable diving into core files, you can use a plugin like WPCode to safely and easily add custom code snippets.

Unlike many website builders that lock you into their hosting, WordPress allows you to choose your own web hosting provider. This means you can monitor your website resources more closely and switch to a different hosting provider only when you need to.

With website builders, you often need to upgrade to a higher plan for additional features, even if you don’t need all of them.

Admittedly, one of the downsides of WordPress is the lack of direct support. That being said, its vast community of developers and users can make up for it.

You can find solutions to most problems quickly, whether through official documentation, community groups like WPBeginner’s Facebook Group, or tutorials by WPBeginner.

For more options, you can see our guide on how to contact WordPress support.

Alternative: Hire a Professional Website Service

Not sure about building a website yourself? We’ve got you covered with our WPBeginner Pro Services. We bring over 15 years of WordPress experience to your project, and we’ve helped more than 100,000 people get started with WordPress.

While this option might cost more than DIY methods, it’s a solid investment if you need a high-quality, custom website without the hassle of creating it yourself.

From designing new websites to improving site performance and providing WordPress maintenance, we can handle it all.

Just focus on your business while we take care of your web presence. We’ll make sure your site ranks well and loads fast. Even after your site launches, we can help you out with security updates and emergency support.

Check out our plans and schedule a free consultation call with our WPBeginner Pro Services today.

We hope this article has helped you learn the pros and cons of using website builders vs. manual coding to create your website. You may also want to check out expert picks of the best WordPress theme builders and our comparison guide on free vs. premium WordPress themes.

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The post Website Builder vs Manual Coding: Which Is Better? first appeared on WPBeginner.