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What are the pros and cons of each service?
Showit vs. WordPress
79% of consumers say that if the content of a website isn't optimized, then they'll look for another website to complete their task. And 83% of them feel a seamless experience across all devices is important.
You can't ignore these statistics, especially when you're a creative small business owner who's competing in saturated markets. To capture your audience and keep them there, you must have a website that's not only informative but also optimized and well designed.
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) out there and for good reason: Functionality can be quickly added using plugins, it’s free to use, and can be easily optimized for search engines.
But many people find it confusing and difficult to maintain and set-up, especially if they don’t have a technical background.
Showit, on the other hand, makes it easy to design a professional website and integrates with WordPress so you get the best of the WordPress platform.
If you're curious about how Showit stacks up versus WordPress, then keep reading. We'll give you a comprehensive guide on these two website platforms, and share how Showit harnesses the best parts of WordPress while maintaining an intuitive user experience.
vs.
DESIGN BY Elizabeth Mccravy
As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into building and launching a WordPress website.
Staging Domain: This is a temporary domain that you can use to build your website while having a “coming soon” page up on your actual domain. Staging domains are also a great place to test updates. Testing updates on a staging domain is especially important for WordPress websites since it’s not unusual for a plugin update to “break” a website.
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Domain: Your domain is the URL address that you’re website can be found. We generally recommend purchasing a domain using Google Domains. After you purchase a domain and are ready to launch, you’ll need to point your domain to your nameservers.
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Template: You’ll most likely want to start with a pre-designed template or theme unless you’re a website designer or know a programming language. There are lots of options when it comes to WordPress templates/themes, but you’ll need to be sure to select one that works with whatever website builder you choose.
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Website Builder: Unless you know a programming language, you’ll likely want to install a website builder within WordPress to assist you in designing and building your website. There are a lot of options to choose from, but you’ll want to make sure you find one that supports the features you need for your creative business.
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WordPress.Org: Next you’ll need to install WordPress.org on your hosting server. Many hosting providers offer a “one-click” install, but be sure your website host supports WordPress.
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Host: You’ll need to choose a company to host your website. Choose carefully as the quality of your website host will directly impact your website’s performance. Additionally, you’ll want to find a website host that specializes in WordPress for the best performance.
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Here’s an idea of what you’ll need to build and launch a WordPress website:
What You’ll Need to Launch a WordPress Website
images are an example of a Showit website, not a WordPress site. This design is Juliette by Viva La Violet.
WordPress is a well-known, open-source website platform and the most widely used CMS today. The fact that it's “open-source” accounts for much of WordPress's success. There’s a big community of developers that have contributed to its growth throughout its existence.
It’s challenging to provide an overview of how easy it is to build a website on WordPress because there are so many different website building tools available for WordPress.
What Is WordPress?
Showit is a website platform that provides its users with almost total creative control over their websites so creative entrepreneurs can create beautiful, high-performing websites that showcase their work.
Unlike WordPress where one has to figure out on their own what tools to use to build a website, Showit provides an intuitive website builder.
Showit’s drag-and-drop website builder makes it easy to place images and text exactly where you want them. Nearly any aspect from fonts and colors to images and layouts can be customized, regardless of the template, you decide to use.
One of the biggest benefits of Showit is that it integrates with WordPress. Check out this video on how Showit gives you the power of WordPress without the complexity.
What is Showit?
Wedding professional & business mentor
Candice
"As a busy entrepreneur, my time is so valuable, Showit makes it easy for me to build my biz. I can launch products, services, and new ideas with a click of a button."
As you can see, there are far fewer moving parts when building and launching a Showit website vs. a WordPress website.
Domain: As we mentioned above, we recommend purchasing a domain at Google Domains. The Showit team will help you point your domain when you’re ready to launch your website.Template: You can design your website from scratch using Showit’s Simple template, choose from Showit’s library of free templates designed by vetted Showit Design Partners, or purchase a template from your favorite Showit designer.
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Template: You can design your website from scratch using Showit’s Simple template, choose from Showit’s library of free templates designed by vetted Showit Design Partners, or purchase a template from your favorite Showit designer.
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Showit: After a 14-day free trial, you’ll sign-up for a Showit subscription. Showit not only provides the website builder but also will host your website for you. This way you don’t have to spend any time configuring a server and guessing at the best set-up for your Showit website.
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Here’s an idea of what you’ll need to build and launch a Showit website.
What You’ll Need to Launch a Showit Website
Between hosting, pointing domains, building, customizing and launching, it takes a lot to get a website up and running.
Showit not only provides easy-to-use website building tools, but they also host your website. This makes it far easier to get your website up and running smoothly! We’ll also help you with the entire technical setup like pointing your domain and launching your website for the first time. This can save you a lot of trouble and effort since figuring out each part of your website logistics can eat up a big chunk of your time.
Another bonus of Showit: If you’re moving from WordPress or Squarespace, we’ll even migrate your existing blog posts for you!
As you saw above, there are a lot of technical pieces you’ll have to worry about when launching a Showit website. You'll have to find your own website host, point your own domain, and troubleshoot set-up yourself.
Technical Setup
Now that you have some background of each website platform, here’s how they stack up against each other in other areas:
Showit vs. WordPress
DESIGN BY With Grace and Gold
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WordPress is free to use, but you’ll need to pay for a few items to get it working. Minimally, you’ll need to purchase a domain name and find a website host that can support your WordPress website. But you’ll likely need to pay for additional stuff like pre-designed themes and plugins.
On Showit, you’ll pay for your subscription, which will range from $24-39/month, and you’ll need to secure a domain name, which is usually $12/year.
In general, using Showit is probably going to be more expensive than using WordPress. However, it'll be well worth it since Showit takes care of everything for you, including hosting, setup, support, and more. Despite being cheaper, WordPress will definitely require more work to get your website up and running.
PRICING
Website templates can save a lot of time, and something we always recommend people start with if they’re not a website designer.
On Showit, you'll find plenty of great templates, both free and paid. Not only that, but they're created by vetted Showit Design Partners. This means any website designs you find within the Showit platform or in the Showit Design Store meets Showit’s design standards and has been created by a professional.
Not only that, Showit’s templates are highly customizable. You can make as many changes as you’d like without using a single line of code!
WordPress also has plenty of free templates to use; however, there's less documentation available, and you'll likely need some coding knowledge to maintain your website. This can result in unexpected costs, as you might find yourself relying on developers or designers to do this for you.
TEMPLATES
wedding photographers
Chris & Micaela
"Showit is easy & powerful. We didn’t have to do anything special to make it look professional & changes are easy as drag and drop."
DESIGN BY northfolk Co.
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When everything runs smoothly, you barely give customer support a second thought. But once there's a kink in your plans, then customer support can either be your best friend or your worst enemy.
Showit has a Help Center where you can access a wide variety of resources, such as video tutorials, help documents, and a helpful community on Facebook. You can even message them from within the Showit app by using the chat icon!
Not only that, but they also have a section for emergency support, where you'll get prompt help from a Showit employee, no matter what time of day it is. So you'll get both email and chat support when you need it.
There’s not much in the way of customer support when it comes to WordPress. Generally, the individual tools you use have customer support with varying levels of service. There are many forums available to WordPress users, but they are inconsistently updated. This means if you have a pressing issue, you can post right away, but you may be left waiting for days (or forever!) for a response.
Customer Support
Template design by Buffalo Collective
Showit shines in this area because you don't need to know code at all. There's an easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder, which will make many creatives feel at home since it has a similar feel to the Adobe Suite.
Just take a look at how easy it is to design the mobile and desktop versions of your Showit website.
It's true that WordPress also has drag-and-drop builders, but they vary in quality and don’t necessarily have the same niche-focus on creative professionals. This means that builders A) might not have the features you need, or B) might not develop features with your type of business in mind.
EASE OF USE
If you're convinced that WordPress has everything you want, but you're terrible with coding, not to worry. The best thing about using Showit is you still get to enjoy many of WordPress's features.
Showit utilizes the WordPress blogging platform. However, you still design your blog using Showit. In other words, you get the power of WordPress with the ease-of-use of Showit.
This also means you get to take advantage of WordPress plugins, which allow you to easily add functionality to your website.
Get the Best of Both Worlds With Showit
CUSTOM WEBSITE DESIGN BY alisabeth designs
Should You Choose Showit or WordPress?
If you’re a technical person that doesn’t mind (or enjoys) troubleshooting website related issues and wants the flexibility that WordPress provides, WordPress might be for you.
But if you’re looking for something that’s built for creative professionals, easy-to-use, has great support, and an incredible community, look no further than Showit.
Are you interested in using Showit? Check out our demo now! Then, start your free 14-day trial—no credit card required.
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