Website editors: Which is the best?

Wordpress

Probably the best known, WordPress was one of the first online website builders introduced, and it’s likely still the market leader and the first editor many users turn to who don’t have much website building or coding knowledge.

As the market leader, I expected this editor to achieve the highest score across all categories. However, I was very disappointed.

Ease of Use

Was Wordpress easy to use? Well, yes, in a way. I didn’t need to consult a manual to understand its terms or processes, but neither did the program do what I wanted it to do. If I was on the lookout for a simple to use template website, this fulfilled the brief. That said, I didn’t feel like I had much control about where I wanted things to appear on the web pages I tried to design.

Design options

These were only limited to the user’s budget. I didn’t spend any money in order to make my comparisons fair across the board, which meant my options with Wordpress were restricted. Most of the free design options simply allowed me to create a very basic portfolio, or to establish a link tree that allows visitors to access different social media accounts. Very disappointing.

Cost

Before you can begin to create your website, WordPress are very keen to sell you a domain. I opted for a free one; however, the free domain felt very unprofessional—and if I was a customer stumbling across my subsequent URL on Google I would refuse to click it, due to how dangerous it looked. The vast majority of Wordpress’s features are locked behind paywalls, which wasn’t just frustrating, but ended any hope I had that WordPress would come out as top dog.

Extras

There’s nothing I can say in terms of extra features or standouts. Unfortunately, Wordpress is just so basic, it’s almost painful to use.

Score: 5/10

In summary: I’m sure die hard Wordpress fans will be screaming at this review, but from what I gather from people who do use it, it’s nowhere near the easy-to-use platform it was when it first launched. With no knowledge of what it provided for users like me in its heyday, I can’t comment. All I can say is, Wordpress will not be my first choice when I get round to creating my first website.