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  • WordPress vs Django CMS (2023) — Which One’s The Best?

    There are many Content Management Systems (CMSs) that you can use to create your website. However, when it comes to choosing the right platform, it can be difficult to determine which one will work best for you. In this post, we’ll discuss the two popular options – WordPress vs Django CMS – and walk through who should consider using each option. Additionally, we’ll compare the two platforms in terms of their ease of use, security, publishing tools, and more. So, let’s get started!

    Who Are They For?

    When choosing a CMS, it’s important to think about the type of content you plan to create. WordPress and Django are two very different platforms, designed for specific types of users and purposes.

    WordPress

    As a free and open-source software, WordPress was originally developed as a blogging platform:

    Today, WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, powering over 40 percent of websites due to its easy-to-use interface and a large number of themes and plugins. Additionally, you can use WordPress for any type of project, including portfolios, online shops, business sites, membership sites, and more.

    Furthermore, WordPress is built on PHP. However, you can build a fully-functional website without touching a line of code. This makes this CMS a more suitable choice for those without coding knowledge.

    Django CMS

    Django CMS is a free and open-source framework that gives users the flexibility to build professional and customized websites from the ground up:

    wordpress vs Django

    It’s important to note that Django CMS and Django are two different things. Specifically, Django is a Python web framework that helps developers create apps with minimal coding. In contrast, Django CMS is the content management system built on the Python framework. This makes it an ideal choice for users who are familiar with Python. Moreover, it allows you to make quick customizations to your content from the front end of your site.

    Which Platform Is Easier to Use?

    If you’re building your first site or project, you want a user-friendly and intuitive platform. Otherwise, you might find the process a little overwhelming. Let’s look at how WordPress vs Django CMS compare when it comes to ease of use.

    WordPress

    WordPress is a very beginner-friendly platform. Once you install the software, you can log into your admin dashboard and start building your website:

    WordPress vs Django

    The WordPress dashboard contains all of the platform’s built-in tools. With that being said, you can click on a tab to navigate to a particular area on your site, such as your posts and pages. For instance, if you go to Media, you can upload photos and videos:

    wordpress vs django

    Additionally, it might take a few hours to familiarize yourself with the dashboard and its tools. However, fortunately, you’ll find plenty of WordPress tutorials and how-to guides online.

    Django CMS

    In contrast to WordPress, Django CMS is powered by Django, the most popular Python framework. Although you don’t need to be an expert developer to get a demo Django CMS up and running, keep in mind that you’ll need to design your site from scratch.

    After being installed, Django CMS has a simple interface that enables you to edit your content on the front end. Consequently, you can see your changes in real time.

    wordpress vs django

    If you want to edit a particular page, such as your blog, all you have to do is select it from the menu.

    Django Blog

    In addition, you can configure its options by selecting Page from the top menu and navigating to Page settings or Advanced settings. This will launch a popup window, where you can edit the page’s title and URL, set up a redirect, and more.

    wordpress vs django page settings

    Furthermore, you can design and edit your content without navigating away from the page. This means you can access every area of your site, including pages, from the same interface. For instance, the media library appears as a sliding window over the page you’re working on.

    wordpress vs django media library

    As a result, Django CMS provides a very efficient way to build your site. Specifically, you don’t have to click through multiple tabs to access your settings or navigate away from the page to make customizations.

    WordPressDjango
    Ease of UseBy accessing tutorials and documentation, the WordPress learning curve can be surmounted.
    		🥇 Winner

    Right from the beginning, Django simplifies the process of adding and editing content in its CMS.
    Choose WordPressChoose Django CMS

    Customization Options

    When it comes to building a website, it’s important to consider the customization options available with each CMS. This is particularly important if you want to create a site that stands out from the crowd. Therefore, let’s compare WordPress vs Django CMS to see which has the best customization options.

    WordPress

    To begin with, WordPress is a highly flexible platform with various customization options. Firstly, it offers a vast library of customizable themes that can be used to design your site. In addition to that, it provides a plethora of options for customizing your site’s functionality. For instance, if you want to add a specific feature, such as a social media plugin, you can easily search for it in the WordPress Plugin Directory, or on sites like 10Web or Smash Balloon.

    Social media buttons plugins in WordPress

    Plus, there are thousands of free WordPress plugins you can use. You can access them right from your dashboard by navigating to Plugins > Add New:

    Adding new plugins in WordPress vs Django

    Additionally, WordPress provides a wide range of customization options for its themes and templates. This can help you achieve a unique design for your site that matches your brand. You can customize everything from the color scheme and fonts to the layout and design of your pages. With the help of a page builder plugin like Divi, you can create custom page layouts without needing to know how to code. These tools often come with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that allows you to easily rearrange and customize the elements on your pages.

    Django CMS

    In contrast to WordPress, Django CMS offers a different approach to customizing your site with plugins. Django CMS plugins can be added to your site to create various elements such as lines, buttons, text, headings, and more.

    wordpress vs django plugins

    To customize each plugin in Django CMS, you can make various changes based on the element added. For example, if you’re adding an image gallery, you can change the height and width of the thumbnail, enable fullscreen, zoom, and more.

    Customizing image gallery in Django

    Furthermore, Django CMS has some limitations when it comes to customization options unless you have experience with Python. Nonetheless, if you’re a web developer, you can effortlessly construct your applications in Django.

    WordPressDjango
    Customization🥇 Winner

    When it comes to customization, WP wins due to the number of design options, as well as plugins and themes available.     		Unless you have knowledge of Python, customization options in Django CMS can be somewhat restrictive.
    Choose WordPressChoose Django CMS

    Theme and Template Options

    Designing a website can be time-consuming. Fortunately, you can use themes and templates to simplify the process. This is where both WordPress and Django CMS shine.

    WordPress

    WordPress offers a user-friendly way to find and use templates to quickly get started with building your website. As we mentioned earlier, it offers a broad range of free themes for different types of websites. To search for specific designs, you can use the “Feature Filter” in the WordPress Themes Repository.

    wordpress vs django Themes

    In addition to the various free themes, each WordPress theme comes with its own set of templates and customization options. These options allow you to modify the color scheme, typography, and layout to match your preferences.

    As a result, you can now have greater flexibility and more options when using the new Full Site Editing feature. By utilizing blocks, you can fully customize your theme:

    Full Site Editing

    After creating or using a block-based theme, you can start editing your theme using the new Full Site Editing feature. To access this feature, navigate to the Editor section under Appearance. Here, you can edit your theme and its templates to customize your site.

    WordPress Full Site Editing Template

    Furthermore, if you don’t find a theme that meets your requirements, you can create your own. As mentioned previously, WordPress provides a user-friendly block editor that enables you to build your site with blocks. You can create custom templates by using different types of blocks, such as the row block, images, buttons, and more, and arranging them in the desired order. This way, you can have a unique design that stands out from the crowd.

    Django CMS

    While there is no themes library for Django CMS, you do have the option to select a template for your page. For instance, you might opt for a full-width layout.

    wordpress vs django templates

    Accordingly, if you want to have more design options and save time, WordPress would be a better choice than Django CMS. It provides a range of customizable themes and templates that can be easily applied to your site.

    WordPressDjango
    Themes and Templates🥇 Winner

    In addition to third-party themes and plugins, WordPress also features a user-friendly block editor that can be used to create templates.    		However, if you don’t intend to design your own, the options for themes and templates are limited.
    Choose WordPressChoose Django CMS

    WordPress vs Django for Publishing

    If you’re intending to create a website with frequent blog posts or a complex site structure, it’s crucial to have a wide range of publishing tools available in your content management system.

    WordPress

    Since it was originally developed as a blogging CMS, WordPress offers a lot of useful features for publishing posts. The main publishing tool is the Block Editor, which is a user-friendly builder that enables you to put together posts and pages with pre-built blocks. With a wide variety of elements, including headings, paragraphs, images, buttons, lists, block patterns, and more, this tool is ideal for building complex pages and posts quickly and easily.

    The WordPress Block Editor

    Plus, you can click on a block to customize it. For example, if you select an image, you can change its dimensions or add a border:

    Editing an image in WordPress

    WordPress lets you save your posts and pages as drafts so you can continue working on them later. In addition, you have the option to schedule your posts or publish them straight away. Furthermore, you can restrict a post’s visibility to site admins and editors, and protect it with passwords.

    All of these publishing tools make WordPress an ideal platform for blogs and news sites. They facilitate team collaboration on articles and help you manage your content schedule more effectively.

    Django CMS

    On the other hand, Django CMS has a basic blog feature. When you choose to create a new post, you get a window where you can write your content.

    Creating a new article in Django

    While Django CMS has a basic blog feature with fields for meta descriptions, keywords, and categories, it lacks functionality when it comes to publishing options such as scheduling a post or restricting its visibility. As a result, it may be limiting if you want to create a professional blog. In contrast, WordPress is a better option as it offers a wealth of blogging features and tools, such as saving drafts, scheduling posts, publishing options, and content collaboration.

    WordPressDjango
    PublishingTo enhance the ease of use, it’s worth noting that the WordPress interface is designed to make content publishing simple and efficient, thanks to the intuitive block editor.


    		🥇 Winner

    Similarly, with the Django page editor, you can conveniently create and edit content.
    Choose WordPressChoose Django CMS

    Which Platform is More Secure?

    When it comes to content management systems, your site’s security is of the utmost importance. Both WordPress and Django CMS offer different security measures to help keep your content safe. However, let’s dive more into the differences between these platforms to see which one comes out on top in terms of security.

    WordPress

    WordPress is popular and has many plugins and themes, which makes it more vulnerable to attack. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in plugins, themes, and WordPress core. To keep your site safe, you should update all software on your site, including WordPress core and themes, as soon as new versions are released. Plus, you can enable auto-updates.

    wordpress vs django

    Furthermore, to enhance your site’s security, you can install one of the best WordPress security plugins such as Sucuri.

    Sucuri

    In addition, many web hosts such as SiteGround and Cloudways provide security tools and features such as SSL certificates, and you can use top WordPress backup plugins to back up your site files and databases.

    Django CMS

    Compared to WordPress, Django CMS provides more built-in protection due to its built-in authentication and security solutions for common threats like SQL injection and cross-site forgery. This means you won’t need to worry about carrying out updates or installing additional security tools. In contrast, with WordPress, you are responsible for ensuring that plugins and themes are secure and up to date.

    WordPressDjango
    SecurityAlthough WP is not inherently the most secure platform, there are great options like Sucuri to get the job done.

    		🥇 Winner

    Django is equipped with built-in authentication and security solutions, making it one of the most secure frameworks.
    Choose WordPressChoose Django CMS

    Who Has the Better E-Commerce Platform?

    To evaluate eCommerce functionality, let’s compare WordPress vs Django CMS.

    WordPress

    Though WordPress doesn’t provide built-in eCommerce features, it’s possible to set up an online shop using third-party tools. The most commonly used tool for eCommerce on WordPress is WooCommerce.

    wordpress vs django

    WooCommerce enables you to manage your online store right from your WordPress dashboard and provides various Yith extensions for additional functionality. Plus, these extensions can help you to filter products, add payment gateway support, and display customer reviews.

    Furthermore, if you’re looking to sell digital products, you can utilize a plugin such as Easy Digital Downloads. Moreover, you can customize your e-commerce website with a page builder like Divi.

    Django CMS

    Django CMS is versatile and suitable for eCommerce sites as well as for developing custom apps for businesses. You can utilize the Django-SHOP documentation to begin your development.

    wordpress vs django SHOP

    In conclusion, it’s worth noting that Django can offer more flexibility for e-commerce sites. With this platform, you have the freedom to extend your online store’s functionality and create custom features that are tailored to your specific business needs.

    WordPressDjango
    E-Commerce🥇 Winner

    To be e-commerce friendly, WP needs a solution such as WooCommerce.

    		While there are good e-commerce choices, the learning curve is steeper.
    Choose WordPressChoose Django CMS

    WordPress And Django CMS Alternatives

    Before you make your final decision on your website platform, it may be helpful to compare WordPress against its other biggest competitors. We’ve done the hard work for you and compared WordPress vs everything else. Most recently, we reviewed WordPress vs Squarespace, and I think you’ll be interested to see the results.

    WordPress vs Django CMS: What’s the Final Verdict?

    As we have seen, there are some key differences between WordPress and Django CMS. Specifically, WordPress is generally considered more beginner-friendly, while Django CMS is more focused on the needs of developers.

    WordPressDjango
    Ease of UseBy accessing tutorials and documentation, the WordPress learning curve can be surmounted.

    		🥇 Winner

    Right from the beginning, Django simplifies the process of adding and editing content in its CMS.
    Customization🥇 Winner

    When it comes to customization, WP wins due to the number of design options, as well as plugins and themes available.    		Unless you have knowledge of Python, customization options in Django CMS can be somewhat restrictive.
    Themes and Templates🥇 Winner

    In addition to third-party themes and plugins, WordPress also features a user-friendly block editor that can be used to create templates.    		However, if you don’t intend to design your own, the options for themes and templates are limited.
    PublishingTo enhance the ease of use, it’s worth noting that the WordPress interface is designed to make content publishing simple and efficient, thanks to the intuitive block editor.


    		🥇 Winner


    Similarly, with the Django page editor, you can conveniently create and edit content.
    SecurityAlthough WP is not inherently the most secure platform, there are great options like Sucuri to get the job done.

    		🥇 Winner

    Django is equipped with built-in authentication and security solutions, making it one of the most secure frameworks.
    E-Commerce🥇 Winner

    To be e-commerce friendly, WP needs a solution such as WooCommerce.


    		While there are good e-commerce choices, the learning curve is steeper.
    Choose WordPressChoose Django CMS

    Final Comparison

    When it comes to WordPress, you get access to a vast array of tools, including plugins by 10Web and Smash Balloon and premium themes such as Divi, which allow you to create a complete website without any coding. This makes WordPress an ideal platform for showcasing content and building highly-customized sites.

    Django CMS, on the other hand, is more suitable for individuals who have experience with Python and prefer to develop custom apps for their websites. Additionally, Django CMS offers built-in security features, making it an excellent choice for those who value enhanced security measures.

    The post WordPress vs Django CMS (2023) — Which One’s The Best? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • WordPress vs Ghost (2023) — The Key Differences

    Even though WordPress is one of the top Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world, with well over 1/3 of the internet using it, it started as a simple blogging platform. Since then, it has grown to power some of the most visited and complex sites out there. It remains, however, a blogging powerhouse. Ghost is a publishing platform that is focused on being the publishing platform that WordPress could have been if development had gone in a different direction. We are going to take a look at WordPress vs. Ghost features head-to-head so you can see which platform will handle your content in the way you need.

    WordPress vs. Ghost: Who Are They For?

    When looking at these two platforms head-to-head, your audience should be at the forefront of your mind. Who you’re creating content for very much changes which platform is right for you.

    wordpress dot org

    WordPress is for people who want to create content, have near-endless options and features available to them, and customize every aspect of their site to suit the exact needs of their user base. We should note, too, that WordPress Posts and Pages are at the heart of most features that are added to the platform, indicating the focus of the platform is still content creation and publishing despite its development into a CMS platform. Additionally, WordPress does have both hosted and self-hosted versions.

    ghost homepage

    Ghost is for people who want to create content. Stop. Initially developed as a publishing platform, Ghost has evolved into a…publishing platform. Ghost dedicates its entire structure and feature set to get your content in front of readers, whether that is public written content, paywalled membership stuff, or email marketing that combines them both. Over time, what was a simple blogging software has turned into a full-fledged publishing platform, with metrics, email service, and integrations for referral program creation and more.

    Given that Ghost is a primarily publishing-focused platform, we are going to look at WordPress vs. Ghost from that perspective primarily.

    Learning Curve/Ease-of-Use

    With any publishing software, you want as little friction between your words and your readers as possible. Creating and editing posts, adding images and media, as well as adjusting site styles, and navigating the backend is all primary focus for publishers and writers as well.

    WordPress’s Learning Curve

    If you’re unfamiliar with WordPress and open the admin dashboard for the first time, it can be a shock. The interface hasn’t changed much over the years, though it has been refined. Most of the menu items are straightforward and functional posts, pages, plugins, themes, and so on.

    You will have some quirky features to learn, such as widgets and menus being under Appearance, while Plugins get their own main dashboard space. Primary WordPress settings are broken into separate pages instead of tabs and other idiosyncratic leftovers from the decades-long development cycle.

    wordpress dashboard vs ghost

    Creating a Post is straightforward, however. Posts – Add New – Publish. The Block Editor is smooth, though occasionally cumbersome. And you will find that some elements of Posts and Pages (such as featured images and post snippets/excerpts) will be used differently depending on what theme or plugins you use.

    wordpress block editor

    However, once you’re used to the WordPress way of doing things, it is second nature, and you will understand why things are located where they are and how your particular theme/plugin setup uses each element of the Post/Page.

    Ghost’s Learning Curve

    From the moment you log into Ghost’s dashboard, it shows you that it is centered on writing and publishing content. The Posts section of the menu is expanded and prominent from the beginning. You have access to your whole archive without an extra click.

    ghost dashboard vs wordpress

    You can click the + button to add a new post, and the screen is very similar to the WordPress Block Editor. In most ways, the two are functionally identical in use. However, Ghost’s editor isn’t nearly as extensible as WordPress’s, meaning if you find a feature lacking that you need, adding it won’t be easy (or perhaps even possible).

    wordpress vs ghost

    In terms of a learning curve for actually publishing a post, the two workflows are nearly identical. One isn’t steeper to learn than the other for publishing. It is, essentially, a personal preference on which particular environment you prefer to write in.

    However, for the dashboard itself, you may find yourself having an easier time navigating Ghost (at least initially). Part of that comes in the user-friendly color coding and icons—something WordPress’s more utilitarian design could learn from.

    ghost dashboard

    All the site settings and customizations are located under the Settings gear, while all the publishing and user management are in the main menu. The learning curve for Ghost is considerably lower than WordPress, but the trade-off is that your customization and site features are more limited, too.

    WordPressGhost
    Ease of Use🏳️ Draw
    WordPress can take some time to learn, but there are plugins and tutorials to make things easier.    		🏳️ Draw
    Ghost is about as easy to learn as WordPress, and will take some time to adjust too.
    Choose WordPressChoose Ghost

    Customization Options (Themes, Plugins, Integrations)

    While most publishing success comes from the content that you create, a portion of success is due to the appearance of professionalism. This means that if your site doesn’t appear credible, users are less likely to return (or even stay). Even if you’re creating top-notch content, if your site doesn’t look just as top-notch, users may not even consider your content. That said, when considering WordPress vs. Ghost, both platforms give you the ability to project the professional image you need.

    WordPress Customization

    If there is one place where WordPress soars above and beyond almost all competitors, it is for customization. The WordPress ecosystem is full of themes, plugins, widgets, code snippets, and developers that can make the platform do anything and look like anything. In terms of design and integrations, WordPress beats Ghost hands down. (And most other platforms, too.)

    The WordPress.org theme repository has thousands of free themes for your website. 3,989 free themes are available at the time of this writing, so the chances of your finding a theme that looks close to what you envision out of the box are pretty likely. It may not have all the features you want, however.

    wordpress theme repository

    Which is where the WordPress.org plugin repository comes in. Like themes, this repository has thousands of plugins available to add utility features and design elements to your site with a couple of clicks. If

    WordPress is open-source software. It uses PHP and React.js with the intent of being extensible. If you have the coding knowledge and experience, you can make WordPress do anything you could imagine it doing. If you don’t have the coding knowledge to get into the editors, that’s okay, too. The plugin and theme repositories are there for you to piece together the website of your dreams.

    You can additionally adjust the CSS and HTML for your themes and various pages directly inside the backend, giving you full access to every little detail of your website.

    Ghost Customization Options

    Ghost, on the other hand, is limited in the amount of customization you get for your site. Like WordPress, Ghost also has a theme repository, but it is significantly limited. At the time of this writing, there are 92 total themes available, only 15 of which are free. The others range from $29 to $159. Keep this in mind. However, that premium WordPress themes are similarly priced.

    ghost theme repository

    You can also develop your own Ghost theme and use it, too, using the Handlebars templating language. Admittedly, that’s a little out of many people’s wheelhouses. (The documentation does link to some excellent Handlebars tutorials, though.)

    Outside of the themes, all of your customization options are available in the Settings area of your Ghost dashboard. You can alter accent colors, logos, fonts, icons, and so on in terms of design. You can also set up navigation menus, newsletter templates, and opt-ins and experiment with new test features.

    Additionally, you can customize code for your Ghost website in the Code Injection area of the settings, but it is limited to Header and Footer areas. To alter site-wide CSS, you won’t use a custom.css file; you will add style tags to the Header of the website. This is hardly the most elegant solution, but it works.

    However, if your entire goal is publishing as simply as possible and looking professional, and having a fantastic experience doing it, you may be able to overlook the lack of customization available in Ghost.

    WordPressGhost
    Customization🥇 Winner

    WordPress shines in terms of customization based on the sheer amount of plugins and themes available.    		Ghost just doesn’t have as many options as WordPress.
    Choose WordPressChoose Ghost

    Self-Hosting

    Very briefly, we want to touch on the aspects of self-hosting WordPress vs. Ghost. Both platforms are open-source. And you can run from your web servers or local development environment.

    WordPress is the winner in this match, like Customization. Because of its ubiquity, every web host out there has quick installers for WordPress, and the Famous 5 Minute Install is even easier with their help. You have the choice of hosting anywhere and finding support pretty much anywhere, too. WordPress hosts are plentiful, but there are a few, such as Cloudways and SiteGround, that offer some stand-out features at a very reasonable price.

    With Ghost, self-hosting is kind of an ordeal. You will need to install it by the command line using Node.js and NodeSource, both a root and non-root user within your server, and a VPS. Ghost is a partner with Digital Ocean and has a Ghost image that you can use much like the WP quick installers, but that’s an exception, not the rule.

    In the end, Ghost Pro is a fantastic platform and comparable to both WordPress.com and .org, but Ghost as a self-hosted app can be troublesome for everyone but the technically skilled. And since it’s a publishing platform first, you may not be a command line wizard if you’re looking at Ghost.

    WordPressGhost
    Self-Hosting🥇 Winner

    WordPress has quick installers for hosts everywhere.    		It can be a real hassle to host with Ghost.
    Choose WordPressChoose Ghost

    E-commerce

    Almost every website out there sells digital (or physical) goods and services in some way. E-commerce is a sustainable and viable option to monetize many websites. We want to take a look at the options available for you with WordPress vs. Ghost because of that.

    WordPress E-commerce Options

    WordPress comes out of the gate running in this head-t0-head because of WooCommerce. A free plugin that is supported by a huge array of free and premium extensions, WooCommerce dominates the WP e-commerce industry. For a reason. It’s very good.

    You can sell physical goods pretty quickly after setting up the plugin. And digital goods are just an upload away. However, to reach full power with WooCommerce, you will need to use those add-ons and extensions. To get the most out of WooCommerce to sell digital goods, you may need an extension to limit purchases to members of your site.

    Or maybe you want to use WooCommerce to set up a course to teach your users. You can do this. But it will require an extension that ties into a learning management system platform. Plus, you can tie WooCommerce into whatever email system you use, whether that’s MailChimp, Constant Contact, Emma, or something else. Again, mostly with an extension.

    You can do any kind of e-commerce with WooCommerce. It’s fantastic. But, like WordPress and themes/plugins, you need to piece together your dream store on your own.

    On top of all this, you can use plugins such as MemberPress to create membership sites that directly rival the membership and revenue-generating options in Ghost.

    Ghost E-commerce

    Ghost e-commerce, on the other hand, is a little different. With Ghost, you’re not setting up a shop or storefront. You’re selling memberships to your site and access to your content. From the moment you open the dashboard, monetization is literally at the top of the list. You can see your membership revenue over the past 30 days first thing.

    ghost dashboard vs wordpress

    When you’re publishing a post, you set who has access to the content from there. It’s easy and built into the Ghost platform itself.

    paid members in ghost

    That’s the catch with Ghost. You’re selling memberships. No goods or services. You can somewhat treat these memberships in the same way that you would a WooCommerce digital storefront, but in general, Ghost is set up for you to hone a community more than one-off sales. (If you want a platform like Ghost that rivals WooCommerce for e-commerce, check out our WP vs. Squarespace post to see the breakdown.)

    None of this is a negative. It’s just the difference in the audience for WordPress vs. Ghost. In terms of pure publication e-commerce, Ghost has membership posting, and newsletter features integrated amazingly. It’s an amazing platform. You just can’t sell individual items.

    WordPressGhost
    E-Commerce🥇 Winner

    The WooCommerce plugin let’s you create an online store with ease, plus it has extensions to add functionality and customize your store to your liking.    		Ghost is a great platform for selling memberships but can’t do much more than that in terms of e-commerce.
    Choose WordPressChoose Ghost

    WordPress vs Ghost: Who Wins?

    Head-to-head, WordPress, and Ghost are incredibly similar except for just a few details. But it’s those details that make or break the platform for some users. WordPress is a highly customizable platform that started with publishing at the forefront. It has moved to be more of a one-size-fits-all CMS. Ghost began as a publishing-first platform that has stayed a publishing-first platform. Every detail of the software is geared toward getting your content in front of users’ eyes. So you can make money off of it.

    WordPressGhost
    Ease of Use🏳️ Draw
    WordPress can take some time to learn, but there are plugins and tutorials to make things easier.    		🏳️ Draw
    Ghost is about as easy to learn as WordPress, and will take some time to adjust too.
    Customization🥇 Winner

    WordPress shines in terms of customization based on the sheer amount of plugins and themes available.    		Ghost just doesn’t have as many options as WordPress.
    Self-Hosting🥇 Winner

    WordPress has quick installers for hosts everywhere.    		It can be a real hassle to host with Ghost.
    E-Commerce🥇 Winner

    The WooCommerce plugin let’s you create an online store with ease, plus it has extensions to add functionality and customize your store to your liking.    		Ghost is a great platform for selling memberships but can’t do much more than that in terms of e-commerce.
    Choose WordPressChoose Ghost

    If you are in it for publishing content and making money off that content directly without having to deal with typical website issues, Ghost is for you. If you want full control over being able to tweak your website’s design and features, a similarly smooth writing experience, and want to self-host the software, WordPress is the way to go.

    WordPress Deep Dive

    One more thing. Before you make your final decision on your website platform…are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs. everything else so that you don’t have to! We reviewed WordPress vs. Laravel, and I think you will be interested to see the results.

    If you’re looking for specific plugins to help WordPress become even more powerful, we recommend the following:

    What have been your experiences with WordPress vs. Ghost? Why do you prefer one platform over another?

    The post WordPress vs Ghost (2023) — The Key Differences appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • How to Create Compact Archives in WordPress

    Do you want to create compact archives on your WordPress website?

    If you have been blogging for a few years, then the list of your posts might have become too long to fit in your WordPress sidebar. This will make your sidebar look cluttered which won’t be good for your site presentation

    In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create compact archives in WordPress.

    How to create compact archives in WordPress

    Why Do You Need Compact Archives in WordPress?

    Adding an archive in WordPress allows you to easily display your previously published content on your website for users to go through.

    By default, WordPress offers an ‘Archives’ block and widget that can be added to the sidebar of your WordPress blog.

    However, the ‘Archives’ block only allows you to display your archives as a long list or a dropdown menu.

    A list will make your site look cluttered while a dropdown can be easily overlooked by users as it isn’t as noticeable.

    The default archive block in WordPress

    By creating compact archives, you can easily display your archives in the WordPress sidebar without taking up much space. You can also display them on your about page or even create a dedicated Archives section.

    That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add compact archives in WordPress.

    How to Add Compact Archives in WordPress

    You can easily create compact archives in WordPress using the Compact Archives plugin.

    First, you need to install and activate the Compact Archives plugin. For further instructions, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Now, the plugin offers three styles to display compact archives on your website.

    Style 1. Relaxed three-letter month initials

    Style one of the compact archives

    Style 2. Compact Monthly Initials

    Style two of compact archives

    Style 3. Numeric Block

    Style three of the compact archives

    There are multiple ways to easily display compact archives on your website.

    In this tutorial, we will be showing you all four methods and you can choose the one that you like the most.

    Method 1. Add Compact Archives in WordPress Posts or Pages

    It is super easy to add compact archives to your WordPress page or post because the plugin comes with an easy-to-use block that you can add to your post or page.

    For this tutorial, we will be creating a new page for compact archives.

    Simply head over to the Pages » Add New page from the admin sidebar. Once a new page opens up in the block editor, you can start by typing a name for your page.

    Next, you need to click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button at the top and search for the ‘WPBeginner’s Compact Archvies’ block.

    Upon locating it, simply click on the block to add it to your page.

    Add the Compact archives block to a page

    Next, you need to choose a style for your archives from the Block Settings panel on the right corner of the screen.

    Simply choose a style of your liking from the dropdown menu below the ‘Select Archive Type’ option.

    Select an archive type from the dropdown menu

    You can also choose if you want your archive text to be capitalized or Uppercase.

    For that, you need to open the dropdown menu below the ‘Transform Text’ option.

    Select the archive text from the dropdown menu

    Once you’re satisfied with your choice, simply click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button at the top.

    This is how your archives page will look.

    Archives preview

    Method 2. Add Compact Archives as a Widget

    You can also display your archive as a widget on your website.

    Adding the Compact Archives Block in Full Site Editor

    If you’re using a block-based theme on your website, then you’ll have to add the ‘ WPBeginners’ Compact Archives’ block using the full site editor.

    First, you need to visit the Appearance » Editor page from the admin sidebar to launch the FSE.

    From here, you need to click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button on the top-left corner of the screen to open up the block menu.

    Next, you need to simply locate and add the ‘WPBeginner’s Compact Archvies’ block to your preferred place on the website.

    Add the compact archives block in the FSE

    Once you add the block, you can configure its’ style and text settings from the Block Settings panel on the right.

    Finally, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your settings.’

    Configure the Compact archives settings in FSE

    Your compact archives will look like this.

    Compact archives in FSE

    Adding the Compact Archives Block Using Widgets

    If you’re not using a block-based theme, then this method is for you.

    First, you need to visit the Appearance » Widgets page from the admin sidebar.

    Once there, simply click the ‘Sidebar’ tab to expand it.

    Now, you need to click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button in the sidebar tab.

    This will open up the ‘Widget Block Menu’ where you need to search for the ‘WPBeginner’s Compact Archive’ block.

    Upon locating it, simply click the block to add it in the sidebar section.

    Add the compact archives block in the sidebar

    Once the ‘Compact Archives’ block is added you can change the style and text of your archive by configuring the settings from the Block Settings panel on the right.

    Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button at the top to save your changes.

    Configure the block settings of the compact archives and click Update button

    This is how your website sidebar will look upon adding the ‘Compact Archvies’ block.

    Compact archive preview in sidebar

    Method 3. Displaying Compact Archives in Template Files

    If you are making a custom WordPress theme or want to display archives in a theme template file, Compact Archives comes with handy template tags that you can use.

    Simply add the following template tag to your code.

    <ul> <?php compact_archive(); ?> </ul>

    After adding the tag, compact archives will be added to your page.

    However, if you want to add a style to your archive, you can do so by adding the following template tag in your code.

    <ul>
<?php compact_archive($style='initial', $before='<li>', $after='</li>'); ?>
</ul>

    For example, $style == 'initial' will display only month name initials and should fit right inside a sidebar. Using$style == 'block', will fit the main column of a page. Using $style == 'numeric', will display numeric months.

    Method 4. Add Compact Archives to Your HTML Sitemap

    If you want to create an HTML sitemap page for your in WordPress, then you can also display compact archives on your HTML sitemap page.

    First, you will need to install and activate the All in One SEO for WordPress plugin. For more details see our article on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It allows you to easily optimize your website for search engines.

    It also comes with an HTML sitemap feature that allows you to easily add an HTML sitemap to your WordPress site.

    It is a premium plugin but you can also use the free version called All in One SEO Lite. The free version has fewer features but it includes HTML sitemaps.

    Upon activation, the plugin will launch the setup wizard. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to set up the plugin or see our guide on how to properly set up All in One SEO for WordPress.

    Once finished, you now need to visit the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page from the admin sidebar.

    From here, you need to click on the ‘HTML Sitemap’ tab and make sure that the ‘Enable Sitemap’ toggle is turned on.

    Toggle the Enable Sitemap switch

    Next, you need to choose how you want to display your HTML sitemap.

    For this tutorial, we will be choosing the ‘Gutenberg Block’ option.

    If you choose this method, then you’ll have to add the “AIOSEO – HTML Sitemap” block to any page where you wish to display your HTML sitemap.

    Choose the Gutenberg block

    Next, you need to scroll down to the ‘Compact Archives’ option in the ‘HTML Sitemap Settings’ section.

    Here, you need to simply toggle the ‘Compact Archives’ switch to ‘Enabled’.

    Now your HTML sitemap will be displayed in a compact date archive format.

    Toggle the compact archives switch to Enabled

    Finally, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

    Next, open up a page where you want to display the HTML sitemap from the admin sidebar.

    From here, simply click on the ‘Add Block’ (+) button at the top and then add the ‘AIOSEO-HTML Sitemap’ block to your page.

    Add the AIOSEO-HTML Sitemap block to your page

    Finally, don’t forget to click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to save your changes.

    Your compact archives HTML Sitemap will look like this.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to easily create compact archives in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to easily create an email newsletter in WordPress and our top picks of the best social media plugins to help promote your website.

    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 How to Create Compact Archives in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

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  • WordPress vs Laravel (2023) — What You Need To Know

    Comparing WordPress vs. Laravel is complicated because both “platforms” have little in common besides using PHP. However, understanding the differences between both options is essential to determine how to build your next project.

    In this post, we will talk about who should use WordPress and Laravel. We’ll discuss customization options, ease of use, security, and more. Let’s get to it!

    WordPress vs. Laravel PHP Framework: Who Are They For?

    It’s important to understand that WordPress and Laravel are two very different types of software. However, they’re both “solutions” that you can use to build websites and online applications.

    WordPress

    WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that enables you to build sites using visual tools. You get access to a Block Editor that works similarly to page builder software and a dashboard with options to create and manage content, user accounts, and more:

    WordPress homepage

    On paper, WordPress is a blogging platform. However, the CMS is incredibly versatile, so much so that 43% of all existing websites use it. Therefore, it’s suitable for everything from eCommerce stores to personal blogs.

    If you use the open-source version of WordPress, you’re not even limited to a specific web host. You can set up the CMS on any server that you want.

    Laravel

    Laravel is not a CMS but a “framework” for the PHP programming language. That’s the same language that’s at the core of WordPress. However, Laravel doesn’t provide visual tools or dashboards to help you create a website:

    Laravel homepage

    With Laravel, you get a library of pre-programmed features to “put together” a website. That process takes place from a Command Line Interface (CLI) called Artisan.

    To use Laravel, you’ll need to know your way around PHP even though you interact with the framework using a scripting language. Although that process may sound complicated, using Laravel can be remarkably straightforward if you have a development background.

    Laravel is not a “platform” that you can pick up without programming knowledge. If you have zero background in web development, WordPress is definitely preferable.

    However, that’s not to say WordPress is a platform for beginners only. The CMS is incredibly customizable, and you can use it to develop websites with highly complex functionality.

    WordPress vs. Laravel PHP Framework: Ease of Use

    Although WordPress and Laravel offer such different experiences, we can compare how easy they are to use. Let’s start with WordPress.

    WordPress

    WordPress is straightforward to learn, even if you have no web development experience. It might take a while to go from zero to having a ready-to-go website. However, you have an amazing wealth of resources and tutorials for the CMS. Combine those resources with an intuitive dashboard, and WordPress is a beginner-friendly option:

    WordPress dashboard

    Once you have some experience under your belt using WordPress, you should be able to create new pages and entire websites relatively quickly. You’ll practice using the Block Editor, know which plugins to use in particular situations, and get an idea of which themes to use for different sites.

    Laravel

    If you don’t have a background in web development or experience using the command line, Laravel might be overwhelming. However, you don’t need to be a master programmer to use Laravel.

    Basic knowledge of PHP and CLI functionality should be more than enough to unlock the potential of Laravel:

    Installing Laravel using the command line

    Laravel offers extensive documentation to help you get started. For the best possible experience, we recommend checking out the Laracasts library. The library contains in-depth video tutorials for getting started with Laravel. You’ll also learn how to use some of the many “packages” or pre-built features the framework offers.

    If you want an “easy” setup, Laravel offers some “starter kits” that package several features, including scaffolding (the basic structure for any Laravel app that you create). You can use starter kits such as Laravel Jetstream for faster application deployment:

    Laravel Jetstream

    Arguably, the learning curve for Laravel is bigger than with WordPress. However, once again, we’re talking about two options for web projects with entirely different approaches. If you’re comfortable with the command line, you can set up a Laravel project on your server and start publishing pages in minutes.

    WordPress
    Ease-of-Use🥇 Winner
    While WordPress does take a second to learn, it is straightforward to get used to and most users will be acclimated within just a few minutes. However, the advanced features will take much longer to master.    		If you don’t have a background in web development, Laravel can be a lot to take in. However, they do offer video tutorials to help you get you started.
    Choose WordPressChoose Laravel

    WordPress vs. Laravel PHP Framework: Customization

    Both Laravel and WordPress offer a wealth of customization options for whatever project you’re working on. Here’s how both of them compare.

    WordPress

    Most people customize WordPress using plugins and themes. Plugins are add-ons that can add new functionality to the CMS. Fortunately, there are thousands of plugins available to use, and a lot of them are free:

    Installing plugins in WordPress

    Plugins not only add new features to WordPress but also enable you to change core aspects of how the CMS works. For instance, if you don’t like the default Block Editor, you can replace it with a page builders plugin, such as Divi or Beaver Builder.

    With WordPress, you can develop almost any kind of online project that you can imagine. If you have web development experience, you can also edit the WordPress code and create new plugins and themes. In short, every aspect of WordPress is up for customization.

    Laravel

    With Laravel, you start every project from scratch, choosing which dependencies and packages you want to use. That means any website built using Laravel only includes features that are manually added:

    Some of Laravel's packages

    The Laravel model means that every project has a unique set of features. With Laravel, you can add or remove any package since the framework uses a modular system.

    Although some packages can add a visual interface for your Laravel website, you should expect to make most edits via the command line. That means you’ll need to understand the Laravel syntax and be comfortable managing a web project via commands.

    WordPress
    Customization🥇 Winner
    With all the thousands of plugins and opportunities for custom coding,
    WordPress is set up to be the master of customization.     		Laravel is designed to be a modular system, with frameworks being hand selected by the user. There is a lot of room for customization, it just takes a lot of know-how.
    Choose WordPressChoose Laravel

    WordPress vs. Laravel PHP Framework: Themes and Templates

    Many platforms provide themes and templates to customize your website’s style. Themes enable you to quickly try new designs and overhaul your website’s appearance without coding. Here are the differences in how WordPress and Laravel handle theming.

    WordPress

    As you may know, WordPress offers a massive collection of themes, both free and premium. You can look for and install themes without leaving the dashboard and change options almost instantly:

    The WordPress.org theme repository

    Plus, if you look beyond free options, many premium themes add new functionality to WordPress, such as page builder themes (like Divi). The biggest challenge with themes tends to be settling on an option because there are so many of them.

    You can fully customize any aspect of the themes that you use. Moreover, WordPress enables you to edit page templates using the Block Editor.

    Laravel

    Laravel uses the Blade templating engine by default. It enables you to produce layouts manually, which is more efficient than creating pages from scratch. However, you’ll still need to code every section and element of your Blade templates.

    Alternatively, you could use CCS pre-processors and frontend toolkits. One of the most popular options among Laravel users is Bootstrap:

    The Bootstrap homepage

    Toolkits such as Bootstrap do support and offer themes. However, these are not specific to Laravel itself but to the pre-processor you’re using.

    Although the lack of theming systems might be a con for some, the open-ended approach that Laravel offers is quite appealing. Since you’re working with a framework, you’re free to use any front-end toolkit. Therefore, you can choose from hundreds or thousands of templates if you take the time to set things up.

    If you look for Laravel templates, you will find some options for admin dashboards. Keep in mind that Laravel doesn’t come with an admin panel or dashboard. However, you can build one and use Laravel templates to customize its style:

    Examples of Laravel templates

    These templates will usually require dependencies and frontend toolkits to work. Additionally, you’ll still need to configure Laravel to work with the template and display data through it (some packages can do this).

    WordPress
    Themes and Templates🥇 Winner

    WordPress offers a huge variety of premium and free themes.    		Laravel utilizes the Blade templating engine to produce manual layout, but you can also take advantage of Bootstrap to use hundreds of themes, as long as you take the time to set them up properly.
    Choose WordPressChoose Laravel

    WordPress vs. Laravel PHP Framework: Publishing Tools

    Although Laravel isn’t a “publishing” platform per se, it can fulfill that role with the right approach. Let’s talk about how WordPress and Laravel compare with publishing tools.

    WordPress

    Publishing posts and pages are at the core of the WordPress experience. The CMS focuses on providing tools to create pages and blog posts with ease. The Block Editor reflects that with its visual approach to page creation:

    The Block Editor

    WordPress also offers functionality for managing posts. You can edit, update, and delete posts at any time. Even if you have a massive library of content, WordPress makes it easy to manage it.

    Laravel

    Laravel doesn’t offer built-in publishing tools. However, you can easily change that using the right packages. Some Laravel packages focus on adding blogging and publishing functionality to the framework.

    One such example is Laravel Blog. This package adds a dashboard that looks like WordPress and a classic text editor to publish new posts and pages:

    The Laravel Blog dashboard

    The alternative is to code and publish pages manually. That’s a valid approach, but if you plan on running a blog that publishes content often, you’ll want to use packages to handle the workload more efficiently.

    WordPress
    Publishing Tools🥇 Winner

    WordPress is a very user-friendly platform, making it easy for non-technical users to create and publish content without much technical expertise. It offers a built-in editor with a variety of formatting options and multimedia support.    		Laravel is more developer-oriented and requires technical expertise to use effectively. While it doesn’t offer a built-in content editor, it can be used to build custom publishing tools that are tailored to specific needs.
    Choose WordPressChoose Laravel

    WordPress vs. Laravel PHP Framework: Security

    Protecting your website from attacks and securing user data is key to any modern website. Here’s how Laravel and WordPress compare in terms of security.

    WordPress

    One of the main advantages of using WordPress is that the platform gets regular updates and security patches. If you keep WordPress itself, plus the themes and plugins you use, up to date, your website should be mostly secure. There are security plugins that can help you keep your website safe as well, We’ve listed the best ones here.

    Having said that, there are plenty of extra steps that you can take to protect your site even further. Some plugins can help you implement features such as Two Factor Authentication (2FA). Additionally, you can whitelist IP addresses, use web hosts that offer advanced security functionality, and more.

    Laravel

    Laravel offers many pre-programmed security features that you can implement for your projects. These features are not “enabled” by default, meaning you need to add them manually on a project-by-project basis. They include:

    • A user authentication system
    • Protection against XSS attacks and SQL injections
    • Email verification
    • Password hashing and reset functionality

    On top of its pre-programmed functionality, Laravel includes packages to enhance security. Arguably, Laravel is much more secure than most other PHP frameworks. However, there’s always more that you can do to protect your site, so it’s essential to be proactive about it.

    WordPress
    SecurityWordPress has several security plugins that can be installed to further enhance its security features. However, since it is a widely used platform, it is often targeted by hackers, making it more vulnerable to attacks. 🥇 Winner
    Laravel, on the other hand, is a PHP web application framework that is designed to be secure by default. It comes with built-in security features such as CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) protection and secure session management.
    Choose WordPressChoose Laravel

    WordPress vs. Laravel PHP Framework: E-commerce

    Running an online store is one of the best ways to make money online. This section will help you decide which platform is more suitable.

    WordPress

    WordPress is a very user-friendly CMS for running an eCommerce store. Using the free WooCommerce plugin, you can create a storefront, upload products, process payments and shipping, and more:

    WooCommerce plugin

    Furthermore, you can use WooCommerce extensions to add extra functionality to your store, such as product filters and customer reviews. Since you control your shop visually, it’s very easy to organize and sell your products.

    Plus, you can choose from other free and paid eCommerce plugins, such as Easy Digital Downloads. Overall, WordPress eCommerce is very accessible.

    Laravel

    As we previously explained, Laravel works with packages. Some Laravel packages can add complex functionality to your projects, such as publishing tools and eCommerce systems.

    E-commerce packages like Aimeos and Lunar can help you set up complex online stores:

    Lunar

    These eCommerce packages give you arguably more freedom than WooCommerce since you can design more complex products, shopping carts, and customer parameters. You’ll also typically get access to an admin hub to manage all your sales. However, as with most Laravel features, you’ll need developer experience to get the most out of eCommerce packages.

    WordPress
    E-commerceThe WooCommerce plugin let’s you create an online store with ease, plus it has extensions to add functionality and customize your store to your liking.🥇 Winner
    Laravel provides a solid foundation for building e-commerce websites with a range of features such as authentication, routing, database management, and templating.
    Choose WordPressChoose Laravel

    WordPress vs Laravel: Picking The Best Option

    Laravel and WordPress offer very distinct approaches to creating a website. With WordPress, you get a CMS that packages visual tools to help you build and manage every aspect of your site. By contrast, Laravel is a PHP framework that requires you to put together projects from scratch using pre-built features and packages.

    WordPress
    Ease-of-Use🥇 Winner
    While WordPress does take a second to learn, most users will be acclimated within just a few minutes.     		If you don’t have a background in web development, Laravel can be a lot to take in. However, they do offer video tutorials to help you get you started.
    Customization🥇 Winner

    WordPress is set up to be the master of customization.     		There is a lot of room for customization, it just takes a lot of know-how.
    Themes and Templates🥇 Winner

    WordPress offers a huge variety of premium and free themes.    		With Laravel you can use hundreds of themes, as long as you take the time to set them up properly.
    Publishing Tools🥇 Winner

    WordPress is a designed for bloggers.    		Laravel is more developer-oriented.
    SecurityWordPress is a widely used platform, so it’s often targeted by hackers, making it more vulnerable to attacks.🥇 Winner
    Laravel comes with built-in security features that are unmatched.
    E-commerceThe WooCommerce plugin let’s you create an online store with ease.🥇 Winner
    Laravel provides a solid foundation for building e-commerce websites with the right extension packages.
    Choose WordPressChoose Laravel

    There isn’t a definitively better option for building a website. If you’re an experienced programmer, you’ll probably appreciate Laravel for what it offers – an incredibly scalable and customizable framework that can adapt to your needs. On the other hand, WordPress simply works right out of the box, which can simplify and speed up some projects.

    WordPress vs Anything Else

    One more thing. Before you make your final decision on your website platform…are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs. everything else so that you don’t have to! We also reviewed WordPress vs. GitHub Pages, and I think you will be interested to see the results.

    If you’re looking for specific plugins to help WordPress become even more powerful, we recommend the following:

    Do you have any questions about using WordPress vs. Laravel? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!

    The post WordPress vs Laravel (2023) — What You Need To Know appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • 9 Best WordPress Restaurant Plugins for 2023

    Getting your restaurant business online can help you boost sales, grow your brand recognition and gain loyal fans. When looking for the best WordPress restaurant plugins, you are in search of the right tools to help you get the job done. Whether you need online ordering, WooCommerce integration, menu editors, or social proof, our list of the best WordPress restaurant plugins will help you make the right decision for your food business. Set up your website for success by checking out these plugins before building your next restaurant website.

    Why You May Need a Restaurant Plugin

    Restaurant needs are a lot more robust than the average small business website. They take just a little bit more work but that work is well worth it. Being able to leverage technology that the average person in 2023 expects is a must if you want to stay relevant (and busy). Here are some things that your website may need to have to be at its best:

    • Online Reservations: Restaurants may want a way for customers to make reservations online, whether it’s through a third-party service or a restaurant reservation plugin on the website.
    • Mobile Ordering: With more and more customers using their smartphones to order food, restaurants should have a mobile ordering system that has a fully responsive design for mobile devices.
    • Displaying Menus: A restaurant should showcase its menu in an easy-to-read format that entices customers to come in and dine. This can be done through a custom plugin or simply by formatting the food items in a clear and concise manner. This is very important if you use QR codes in your physical location in lieu of printed menus.
    • Showcasing Locations: If a restaurant has multiple locations, it should make it easy for customers to find the nearest one. This can be done through a custom plugin that integrates with Google Maps or through a simple “Locations” page on the website.
    • High-Quality Images: Restaurants should use high-quality images of their food, locations, and staff to entice customers and give them a sense of what the dining experience will be like. The more mouth-watering the better! Just make sure those images are optimized for performance.
    • Customer Reviews: Displaying customer reviews on the website can really help restaurants build trust with potential customers and encourage them to pay you a visit.

    9 Best WordPress Restaurant Plugins

    As we explored above, WordPress restaurant plugins can have a multitude of functionalities. We’ve made sure to gather some of the best plugins on the market that cover many different use cases. Here are our top picks for restaurant plugins on WordPress:

    1. WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering

    WooCommerce Food Ordering plugin Homepage Feb 2023

    The WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering plugin by the excellent folks over at Barn2, is a fantastic solution for restaurants and food outlets looking to take their business operations online. It turns a typical WooCommerce store setup into a restaurant’s dream for online ordering.

    Key Features for WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering:

    • Fully integrates with WooCommerce and other WooCommerce plugins
    • Designed to be as familiar as the DoorDash and Uber Eats UIs
    • Layouts for lightbox or on-page ordering
    • Set open/close times so orders don’t come in when you are closed
    • Works with WooCommerce product variations and options (“options” require an additional plugin)
    • Pulls in and works with WooCommerce delivery settings (ex. “delivery” or “collect in person”)

    WooCommerce-Restaurant Ordering Plugin

    WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering makes displaying your menu items and checking out very easy. By default, the plugin’s UI is amazing and very intuitive. Extra functionality can be achieved with other Barn2 plugins such as WooCommerce Product Options and WooCommerce Fast Cart. In fact, all of these Barn2 plugins

    WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering is for you if you…

    • Need the ability to create online orders
    • Enjoy the flexibility of WooCommerce and other extensions

    Pricing: $129 a year

    Get WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering

    2. Food Menu

    Food Menu WordPress Restaurant Plugin

    Food Menu is an effective plugin for restaurants and food industry businesses that makes it easy to create online menu boards. You can add images, descriptions, and prices—everything you need to share your menu with the world. Most of the standout features come in the premium version but you can also try out their free to see if it is a good fit beforehand.

    Key Features of Food Menu:

    • Use WooCommerce product data for easy menu creation (Premium version)
    • Allows for clicking open expanded views of products in a lightbox
    • Drag and drop menu builder
    • Display ingredients and nutrition information
    • Multiple layouts powered by Ajax category filtering and pagination
    • Shortcode generator for embedding unlimited menus

    This is a very simple plugin that majors on the majors. It creates very attractive menus with the functionality that is absolutely required. The Ajax filtering makes menus created with Food Menu incredibly easy to use.

    Food Menu Example of Ajax Category Filter

    Food Menu is for you if you…

    • Want a simple way to present your restaurant menus
    • Need a menu that can work in conjunction with WooCommerce
    • Want an easy way to add, categorize, and display menu items

    Pricing: Free, Pro Version from $24 a year

    Get Food Menu

    3. WPCafe

    WPCafe – Restaurant Menu, Online Ordering for WooCommerce, Pickup/Delivery, and Table Reservation

    WPCafe is a complete restaurant solution that offers a full range of features to help manage virtually every aspect of a food business. With its combination of reservation management, menu creation, online ordering, and pickup/delivery capabilities, this plugin is a must-have for any restaurant or cafe that wants to fill up the order queue for their kitchen.

    Key Features for WPCafe

    • Comes with customizable menu styles and layouts
    • Customizable mini cart module when checking out and browsing
    • Advanced search and filter for menus
    • Customers can visually see open tables ready for reservation
    • Google Maps integration for store location and customer address auto-complete
    • Manage discounts, keep track of payments, and turn on tipping
    • Customizable reservation forms
    • Integrates with Gutenberg blocks to help build website content.

    The beauty of WPCafe is that it turns a great eCommerce solution (WooCommerce) into an industry-leading restaurant management system. Its ability to use Google Maps in the checkout process is very streamlined. We especially like that it simplifies WooCOmmerce’s standard checkout process with what they call “Mini Cart” checkout. It brings in a quick side pane, instead of loading a new page, when a customer is ready to checkout.

    WPCafe MiniCart for Restaurant Management System

    WPCafe is for you if you…

    • Need a total solution without a bunch of patchworked plugins
    • Want a reliable plugin that “gets” restaurants and their needs

    Pricing: Free version with Pro at $59 a year (Lifetime pricing available)

    Get WPCafe

    4. ProveSource

    ProveSource Homepage Feb 2023

    ProveSource is a social proof plugin for WordPress that pulls recent orders to display them as social proof to site visitors. This creates a positive signal for visitors that will help boost sales and increase your conversions. ProveSource is commonly used in traditional eCommerce stores but can be used to great effect for WooCommerce-powered restaurants.

    Key Features for ProveSource:

    • Showing recent orders and the current number of site visitors
    • Customize order popups with position, timing, colors, and images
    • Supports over 22 languages with Localization and translation
    • Use a nudge style that is friendly to your brand and store design instead of obtrusive popups
    • Integrations with popular payment gateways and email marketing platforms

    ProveSource is specially designed to show high-converting social proof on mobile devices. The truth is that most of your customers who are submitting mobile orders are doing so on their phones. This plugin and service help you make the most use of your mobile website and capture interest using data that your store already is generating. You can create multiple types of banners and display each based on specific rules. Additionally, you have a good amount of control over how they look.

    ProveSource Banner Creation and Deployment Rules

    ProveSourceis for you if you…

    • Use WooCommerce to power your mobile order system (deliveries or pick-up orders)
    • Have low website conversion rates and want to increase sales

    Pricing: Free plan, Paid plans starting at $24 a month

    Get ProveSource

    5. WooCommerce Location Picker

    Location Picker at Checkout Plugin for WooCommerce

    Location Picker for WooCommerce offers WooCommerce store owners a more precise location of customer locations. This is useful for delivery offered by local restaurants. With this plugin, customers can intuitively select their exact location using Google Maps during the checkout process, without the need for additional contact.

    Key Features for WooCommerce Location Picker:

    • Geolocation feature to accurately detect user’s location during the checkout
    • Autofill Address Details to save time and reduce input errors
    • Translation Ready for use in multiple languages
    • View on Map Button for Admin to visually track and confirm delivery locations

    Location Picker Drawn Boundaries Overlay Google Map

    Location Picker can be set up to automatically detect the customer’s location on the checkout page load while also allowing customers to make any necessary corrections. This feature helps to ensure that the delivery is accurate, providing a smoother and more efficient transaction for both the customer and store owner. Delivery boundaries may also be set up to ensure that you aren’t delivering orders to customers well outside your delivery range.

    WooCommerce Location Picker is for you if you…

    • Offer delivery services from your website
    • Have had bad experiences being able to find the exact locations of customers who may be in public places like libraries, workplaces, and parking lots

    Pricing: Free plan, Pro starting at $39.99 a year (Lifetime options available)

    Get WP Store Locator

    6. Five Star Restaurant Menu

    Five Star Restaurant Menu Plugin

    The Five Star Restaurant Menu plugin is a block editor-based WordPress plugin that allows restaurants to quickly and easily set up responsive restaurant menus. It provides everything you need to set up your restaurant menu and beautifully showcases it on your website. The “Ultimate” version also comes with its own ordering system and app.

    Key Features for Five Star Restaurant Menu:

    • Advanced menu Layouts and styling
    • Sorting and filtering options for your menu
    • Display dietary icons within your menu
    • Accept orders directly from your menu page
    • Display sale/promotional pricing

    Five Star Restaurant Menu Plugin Custom Fields Dashboard

    Five Star Restaurant Menu lets you create and use custom fields for your menu items so you can display detailed information. Use these custom fields for info like nutrition, ingredients, and guidelines, and use them to set up templates for your menu items.

    Five Star Restaurant Menu is for you if you…

    • Primarily want an easy and good-looking way of displaying menu items
    • Already use or are planning to use other Fiver Star products like Reservations and Reviews

    Pricing: Free version, $67 Lifetime for Premium, and $297 a year for Ultimate

    Get Five Star Restaurant Menu

    7. Divi Restro Menu

    Divi Resto Menu

    Divi Restro Menu has one purpose—to make creating attractive online menus on Divi as easy as possible. Users of Divi’s WordPress theme or plugin will have no trouble using this plugin as they better showcase their menus digitally.

    Key Features for Divi Resto Menu:

    • Has 2 customizable menu layouts
    • Creates a menu custom post type for easy menu item management
    • Ajax-powered pagination, categories, and filtering
    • Easily show ingredient list and item description
    • Display menu item images

    Divi Restro Menu expertly handles your menus and menu items. The frontend experience for site visitors is especially pleasing since they can adjust the view of the menu based on filter options. Simply click a menu category and all that is visible are the items in the category.

    Divi Restro Menu Filterable Categories

    Divi Resto Menu is for you if you…

    • Use Divi for your restaurant website
    • Want the easiest way to display menus and menu items

    Pricing: $39 a year

    Get Divi Resto Menu

    8. WooCommerce Food

    WooCommerce Food - Restaurant Menu & Food ordering

    Like WPCafe, mentioned above, WooCommerce Food is a highly recommended WordPress plugin that creates and manages an entire ordering system for your website. The plugin makes it easy for restaurants, cafes, and food service businesses to display menus but also accept online orders through its WooCommerce-powered backend.

    Key Features for WooCommerce Food:

    • 10+ food and menu display styles
    • Users can choose an order method: pickup, delivery, or dine-in
    • Set and limit delivery zone with Google maps
    • Supports multiple locations with differing menus
    • Set custom opening and closing times
    • Compatible with WPML

    WooCommerce Food - Restaurant Menu & Food Ordering - Order Calendar

    WooCommerce food gives you a preview of all your orders and their status, date, time, and order number from one convenient calendar. Filter through orders placed on your website by “day” or look at your past and future views using the “week” or “month” views.

    WooCommerce Food is for you if you…

    • Need a cheap online ordering system
    • Want a solution that is built on top of and extends WooCommerce

    Pricing: $49 Lifetime (6 months of support)

    Get WooCommerce Food

    9.  DoorDash for WP

    DoorDash WP Plugin Landing page Feb 2023

    DoorDash is a major provider that connects local restaurants with customers. It offers a reliable app that allows customers to find restaurants, place orders, and tracks the status of food delivery. Restaurant owners in the past had to signup as a vendor through their app in order to tap into the customer base that DoorDash has created. The DoorDash plugin for WordPress lets restaurants provide the option for delivery via DoorDash and then does all the heavy lifting of moving the order into DoorDash. Just a simple delivery fee is charged to the restaurant owner (no other fees for using DoorDash!).

    Key Features for DoorDash for WP:

    • Provide a convenient and reliable delivery experience to your customers
    • Eliminate in-house delivery costs and pay only per delivery
    • Get status updates and live tracking URLs for every delivery
    • Own the end-to-end customer shopping and checkout experience
    • Offer delivery from multiple store locations

    DoorDash Pickup Locations for Dashers

    DoorDash’s WordPress plugin can completely manage your delivery operation for your restaurant. Without needing to worry about a delivery workforce (and all the headaches that come with one) you can easily focus on making quality food and getting it out the door. It can even manage multiple locations so their Dashers (what they call delivery drivers) know where to pick up the order.

    DoorDash for WP is for you if you…

    • Are looking for a way to outsource delivery
    • Already use WooCommerce on WordPress

    Pricing: Free, Service fees apply per order

    Get DoorDash for WP

    Bonus: Restaurant Menu by MotoPress

    The WordPress Restaurant Menu by MotoPress is a free and easy-to-use food menu plugin. Create and manage all of your menu offerings on the backend and showcase menus anywhere on your WordPress theme. It includes built-in functionality for pizza ordering, fast food ordering, and more. Sell food and drinks with Paypal and cash on delivery methods for free. Additional add-ons are available at a reasonable price.

    Pricing: Free, Paid add-ons available

    Get Restaurant Menu by MotoPress

    Which is the Best WordPress Restaurant Plugin?

    Overall, when it comes to total online order management, both WPCafe and WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering are the clear winners. These plugins offer everything a restaurant needs to manage online orders, from taking reservations to managing menus and delivery options. Make sure to get them today so you can start building your online ordering platform.

    However, if you’re simply looking to create and display online food and drink menus, both Divi Restro Menu and Food Menu are excellent options, each with their own set of unique features and customization options. No matter which plugin you choose, incorporating one of these tools with your website is going to set you up for success.

    PluginPriceFree Option
    🥇WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering$129/yr❌Visit
    🥈Food Menu$24/yr✔️Visit
    🥉WPCafe$59/yr✔️Visit
    4ProveSource$288✔️Visit
    5WooCommerce Location Picker$39.99✔️Visit
    6Five Star Restaurant Menu$67 Lifetime✔️Visit
    7Divi Restro Menu$39/yr❌Visit
    8WooCommerce Food$49 Lifetime❌Visit
    9DoorDash for WPFree✔️Visit
    10Restaurant Menu (MotoPress)Free✔️Visit

    The plugin recommendations don’t stop there. All local businesses, including restaurants, need to be leveraging Schema Markup. Check out the best WordPress schema plugins we were able to find that can improve your local SEO.

    Featured Image via graficriver_icons_logo / shutterstock.com

    The post 9 Best WordPress Restaurant Plugins for 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • WordPress 6.2 Beta 3 Released, Contributors to Host Live Product Demo on March 2

    WordPress 6.2 Beta 3 was released this week, another small milestone towards the official, more polished version that is expected in under five weeks on March 28, 2023. Testers will find 34 issues resolved since the Beta 2 release, bringing the cumulative number of enhancements to 292, with 354 bug fixes and counting. Details for the changes in beta 3 are available in the linked tickets:

    Contributors will be hosting a live product demo on Thursday, March 2, 2023 at 12:00 PM EST via Zoom. WordPress contributors Anne McCarthy and Rich Tabor, who are helping lead the release, will give viewers a tour of the features coming in 6.2.

    “This is a slightly different format from the previous 6.0 and 6.1 walk-throughs, focusing on showcasing the great work that’s been going into the release,” Marketing Team contributor Jonathan Pantani said. “Future releases can expect to see this, a walk-through/discussion, or both types of live events become part of the release cycle.”

    The event will be moderated by Nathan Wrigley, who will guide the discussion and present questions from the audience. Questions can be submitted in advance in the Make WordPress Slack via the #walkthrough channel. The livestream will be recorded and published in a follow-up post after the product demo has concluded. There is no registration for the event. Those who want to watch and participate live can launch the meeting using Zoom at the scheduled time.

    Go to source

  • 9 Best WordPress Forum Plugins in 2023

    Forums are a great tool to foster discussion and connection on the internet. With some of the best WordPress Forum plugins out there, it is easier than ever to create your own online community.

    In this post, we’ll provide you with our list of the most helpful WordPress forum plugins to help you get a forum up and running on your site.

    Key Features of the Best Forum Plugins (What to Look For)

    For those looking to create an online community, WordPress is a great platform to build on. When looking for a forum plugin, it needs to be able to do the job well. Look for these features of the best forum plugins:

    • User Accounts and Dashboards: User registration and management should be simple and efficient so users can register an account with ease and you can track user activity, receive real-time updates, and engage with the community.
    • Customization of Styles and Layouts: Look for a forum plugin with a wide range of customization options to help you create a forum that matches your brand’s style and layout, from color schemes to custom fonts.
    • Advanced Moderation Tools: To keep forums clean and spam-free, look for plugins with a variety of moderation tools that allow administrators to manage the content of their forums, including features like moderation queues, flags, and automatic spam filters.
    • Simple to Use: You want a simple forum that does not inhibit a community from growing, with a user-friendly interface and clear navigation to help users find what they’re looking for and participate in the community with ease.
    • Option to Subscribe to Topics and Receive Notifications: Subscribing to topic notifications is an essential feature for keeping users engaged with the forum. Participation is key in keeping the forum interesting and worth visiting.
    • Compatibility: Make sure your forum plugin is compatible with essential plugins and themes you will use on your site.

    The Best WordPress Forum Plugins

    Most would agree that the two most popular WordPress forum plugins are bbPress and BuddyPress. Although these plugins are free and provide a core foundation for building forums, they are often used with other themes and plugins to get a more polished design and user experience. Some of the best membership plugins and LMS plugins have built-in forums using bbPress and BuddyPress integration. So, we’ve expanded our list to include other plugins and themes that can help you build online communities with the tools you need.

    Here they are:

    1. Answers by Creative Minds (CM Answers)

    CM Answer Q&A Plugin for WordPress

    Answers by Creative Minds (a.k.a. CM Answers)  is a Q&A-style WordPress forum plugin designed to help you build engaging communities around answering questions. Its forum-like layout and functions focus on questions versus topics—making it perfect for creating a Stack Exchange/Quora-style forum. The basic free version has enough features to start, but the pro version is what makes Answers a great choice for building forums.

    Key Features for CM Answers:

    • Forum topic views and answer counters
    • Forum-related email notifications for administrators and users
    • Sorting options in the question and answer pages
    • The forum template can be easily customized
    • Ability to monetize forums with PayPal/Stripe integrations

    CM Answers Monetization

    Not only is CM Answers a great tool for building a Q&A-style forum, but it also offers unique features that set it apart from other forum plugins. For instance, website owners can use it to replace the commenting system on regular blog posts (without the need for a comment plugin). And, the forums can be monetized which is an ideal choice for thought leaders and bloggers who want to create a paid community around their offerings.

    CM Answers is for you if you…

    • Need a total Q&A forum solution
    • Have been kicking around the idea of creating a paid community (similar to a paid Facebook Group or Discord server)

    CM Answers Pricing: $39 per year

    Get CM Answers

    2. ForumEngine

    ForumEngine WordPress Forum Theme

    ForumEngine is a WordPress theme that makes it easy to turn your site into a discussion forum. Yes, theme. We’ve included it for those who may want a complete forum solution (or website) without having to build and design one yourself. A theme may be of particular interest to those who want to run a community forum on a separate WordPress installation on a sub-domain or in a root folder (eg. community.example.com or example.com/community).

    Key Features of ForumEngine:

    • Frontend style customizer with other frontend controls
    • Adaptive design for mobile use
    • User badges and achievements
    • Live notification system
    • Translation support

    ForumEngine Frontend User Styling

    One of its standout features is its detailed styling function, which gives you complete control over the look and feel of your forum. That, and individual users can customize styling their way with a front-end styler.

    ForumEngine is for you if you…

    • Have the flexibility to use a theme versus a plugin for your forum solution
    • Want to pay a low Lifetime (LTD) price for the software
    • Like an active developer who listens to feedback and posts updates regularly

    ForumEngine Pricing: $49 per year

    Get ForumEngine

    3. bbPress

    bbPress WordPress Forum Plugin

    bbPress is an incredibly popular WordPress plugin that makes it easy to add a forum to your site. Developed by some of the same team behind WordPress.org (the open-source project)—bbPress has an air of familiarity that is classically WordPress. We like that it seamlessly integrates with membership plugins like MemberPress and Paid Memberships Pro so that you can easily add a forum to your membership site. It even integrates with Lifter LMS to create a community forum for your online course as well.

    Key Features for bbPress:

    • Ability to create multisite forums
    • Customizable forum templates
    • Forum spam protection through Akismet
    • Fast, light, and built to WordPress standards
    • Extend your forum with numerous free, third-party plugins
    • Allow users to subscribe to topics and specific forums

    bbPress showcase of Free plugin user groups

    The key feature and advantage of bbPress are that it is completely free and open-source. This means that you can go to the website and download the plugin without having to worry about any upsells or hidden costs. And since it is developed to the highest standards, free and open source feels pretty good.

    bbPress is for you if you…

    • Want a lightweight and reliable forum plugin
    • Want a free solution that works without a lot of design options
    • Use a membership or LMS plugin that already has built-in integration for it.

    bbPress Pricing: Free

    Get bbpress

    4. Asgaros Forum

    Asgaros Free WP Forum Plugin

    Asgaros Forum is a lightweight and straightforward WordPress plugin that makes it easy to add a forum to existing websites. It’s designed to provide all the basic features of a forum without getting bogged down in unnecessary features and bloat, making it an ideal choice for websites that need a small and simple forum.

    Key Features of Asgaros Forum:

    • Users create profiles that come with notifications and personal feeds
    • Users have access to media uploads within the forum
    • Forum statistics and analytics
    • Guests can guest-post within forums
    • Moderation system for approval processes and forum banning
    • Compatible with Multisite

    Asgaros Forum Moderation Reports

    One of the great features of Asgaros Forum is its moderation tools. Moderators have deep visibility about who is online (in real-time), which makes it easy to keep an eye on what’s happening in the forum. Additionally, the plugin offers a simple admin page with topic/user monitoring, usage reporting, and moderation tools.

    Asgaros Forum is for you if you…

    • Need a forum solution that can be added to an existing website
    • Want just enough features to open up a forum but not too many to manage

    Asgaros Forum Pricing: Free

    Get Asgaros Forum

    5. wpForo

    wpForo free WP Forum Plugin

    wpForo is a comprehensive and user-friendly forum plugin for WordPress. It allows site owners to easily create modern forums where their users can participate, ask questions, answer, up-vote, and subscribe to topics. This plugin brings everything you need to run an efficient and professional community, including a powerful and beautiful forum with unique features. The core features of the plugin are free, but if you need more, some affordable add-ons allow you to integrate WooCommerce memberships, GIPHY, private messaging, and many more.

    Key Features for wpForo:

    • Easy drag-and-drop forum management system for admins
    • Member ratings and badges
    • Built-in forum sitemap, forum SEO tools, and caching system
    • Six end-user forum styles, including dark mode
    • Four forum layouts and designs
    • Built-in topic and forum subscription

    wpForo Forum Quality Sytyles and Design

    One of the reasons why many users prefer wpForo over other forum plugins is its modern design. Other forum solutions can tend to look dated (plus forums are hard to style anyways). It includes four major layout styles for site admins to use and six styles (sometimes called skins) that individual users can use to customize their experience (including dark mode!).

    Engage your community even more with gamification and reward points to users for getting likes and up-votes using MyCred plugin integration.

    wpForo is for you if you…

    • want a modern-looking forum option out of the box
    • Enjoy the core features and don’t mind paying for the occasion extension/add-on

    wpForo Pricing: Free with Paid add-ons available

    Get wpForo

    6. WP Discussion Board

    Discussion Board Forum Plugin

    WP Discussion Board – WordPress Forum Plugin is a user-friendly and practical solution for those looking to add a forum to their WordPress site. With a simple setup and a form-driven front-end design, this plugin is accessible to users with no prior WordPress knowledge.

    Key Features of Discussion Board:

    • User management for forum administrators
    • Frontend user self-serve and management
    • Spam reduction tools
    • Shortcode library to show forum on other pages and posts
    • Designed to look beautiful and work with any theme

    Discussion Forum Minimalistic Design

    The Discussion Board offers a minimalist and modern forum that can be placed anywhere on your WordPress website. The user registration process is streamlined and effortless. Overall, Discussion Board is easy to look at which isn’t the case with every forum plugin out there.

    Discussion Board is for you if you…

    • Like the idea of using form submissions as part of the forum experience
    • Need dedicated moderation and spam protection tools built-in

    WP Discussion Board Pricing: Free; Paid plans start at $49 per year

    Get WP Discussion Board

    7. BuddyPress

    BuddyPress WordPress Community Plugin

    BuddyPress is a powerful plugin developed by the same team behind bbPress and WordPress. It goes in a slightly different direction than bbPress in that it can transform your website into a social media network. BuddyPress can work with any WordPress theme to help you create an online community complete with user profiles, messaging, and networking options. It’s ideal for business owners and bloggers who want to build a community around their content and product.

    Key Features for BuddyPress:

    • Users can control profile visibility
    • Admins can create custom profile fields
    • Friendships and friend connections
    • Public and private messaging
    • Customizable emails

    BuddyPress Personal Profile and Friend Requests

    Forums are often great for creating community. BuddyPress goes the extra mile and brings social networking functionality directly into a WordPress website. It offers an exciting alternative to traditional forums and comment plugins with less emphasis on “staying on topic” and more emphasis on community engagement.

    BuddyPress is for you if you…

    • Like the idea of building a social network for your users directly on your site
    • Want community engagement that goes beyond forums
    • Don’t mind the extra setup that is entailed in creating social features

    BuddyPress Pricing: Free

    Get BuddyPress

    8. Sabai Discuss

    Sabai Discuss WordPress Forum Plugin

    Sabai Discuss is a premium WordPress plugin that offers a unique take on forums. It combines the best of both worlds by offering both a discussion stream and a question-and-answer tool, making it ideal for those who want to create a community-driven Q&A website, a discussion forum, a knowledge base, or even a helpdesk portal.

    Key Features for Sabai Discuss:

    • Discussion Stream makes it easy to stay on top of new activities with a streamlined information feed
    • Voting engine for threads within the forum
    • Upvote or downvote questions
    • Moderation system with user reporting
    • Forum users can use the frontend markdown editor

    Sabai Discuss Attractive Forum Layouts

    One of the standout features of Sabai Discuss is its attractive and easy-to-read interface. It’s designed to look like a Q&A platform like Quora or Stack Overflow, and it does so in a way that’s both functional and visually appealing. This makes it a great choice for those who want a forum that feels modern and engaging.

    Sabai Discuss is for you if you…

    • Enjoy purchasing products from Envato Marketplace
    • Need a Q&A-based forum setup

    Sabai Discuss Pricing: $24 (LTD) with 6 months of support

    Get Sabai Discuss

    9. Simple:Press

    Simple:Press Ultimate Forum Plugin

    Simple:Press is a feature-packed WordPress forum plugin that offers a sleek and customizable interface. Its threads are clean and have simple colors that complement your website’s content. The free version is fairly basic, but you can enhance its functionalities by purchasing a premium plan. Ideal for businesses that are planning for very large and complicated communities.

    Key Features for Simple:Press:

    • Sub-forum support
    • Forum ranking and badges
    • User-defined signatures
    • Upload avatars or use Gravatar or WordPress avatar
    • Forum statistics for the admin
    • Member profile options for users
    • Monetization potential

    SimplePress Clean and Advanced Forums

    Simple:Press touts itself as an enterprise solution. If you are looking for a robust and complex community forum, Simple:Press aims to be the ideal plugin for your needs.

    Simple:Press is for you if you…

    • Have enterprise-level dreams for your community
    • Don’t mind paying a pretty penny for advanced features
    • Want a modern-looking forum

    Simple:Press Pricing: Free; Paid plans start at $199 per year

    Get Simple:Press

    What are the Best WordPress Forum Plugins?

    Our list of the best WordPress forum plugins provides you with a glance into what’s available to you as you build your online forum. Should you want to monetize your community, you can consider using bbPress with a membership plugin like MemberPress or Paid Memberships Pro. Or you can use CM Answers or Simple:Press .

    If you are after a forum theme, check out Forum Engine as it is a complete forum built into a theme instead of a plugin.

    PluginPriceFree Option
    🥇CM Answers$39/yr✔️Visit
    🥈ForumEngine$49/yr❌Visit
    🥉bbPressFree✔️Visit
    4Asgaros ForumFree✔️Visit
    5wpForoFree (Paid Add-ons)✔️Visit
    6Discussion Board$49/yr❌Visit
    7BuddyPressFree✔️Visit
    8Sabai Discuss$24 (6 months support)❌Visit
    9Simple:Press$199/yr✔️Visit

    When choosing any plugin on WordPress, it is important to look at features and pricing carefully. This means paying very careful attention to what is (and isn’t) offered with each pricing tier. WordPress offers many great free and cheap options for forum plugins. Enjoy building your community.

    Featured Image via M. Ageng sumantri / shutterstock.com

    The post 9 Best WordPress Forum Plugins in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • New Proposal Seeks to Update WordPress Release Process for Merging Gutenberg Features After Beta 1 Feature Freeze

    WordPress lead developer Andrew Ozz has published a proposal for the addition of a new “gutenberg-merge” ticket type that would formalize the latitude Gutenberg contributors have been given for committing code after Feature Freeze during the release cycle.

    Ordinarily, any new features and enhancements landing in the release are required to be committed before Beta 1 so they can be ready for testing. It used to be the case that tickets could be changed from “enhancement” to “task” right before Beta 1 as a rare exception for items that were not ready in time for beta and just needed a few more days to get committed.

    “The intent was to allow another two or three days, not a week or two,” Ozz said. “This exception used to happen quite rarely, perhaps a few times per year.

    “However lately this exception has become part of the standard release workflow. In recent years, it’s become common for 15 to 20 tickets for code coming from Gutenberg to be changed to tasks each release. The reason they are changed is not to give the developers a few more days to complete them. It is mostly to signify that they are going to be committed later.”

    Ozz contends that because the Gutenberg feature plugin is used on more than 300,000 site, including WordPress.com, and because 60% of users rapidly update to the latest version, that any features and enhancements coming from Gutenberg have already been tested.

    The comment section of the proposal is active with differing opinions. Several participants in the discussion did not agree that just because features are in the plugin does not mean that they have been adequately tested against the goals they were intended to achieve.

    “Something that worries me about how this could work is, that currently the level of documentation for features that land in core have a higher standard than Gutenberg merges,” Core contributor Fabian Kägy said. “Once we approach the beta 1 time the documentation team goes through all the features that were merged in that cycle, making sure there are dev notes for any changes that might impact users / developers. If this deadline is shortened this also means that it may become harder to uphold this standard.”

    Kägy also noted the challenges of plugin and theme developers testing their extensions against core in order to ensure compatibility with the latest version.

    “With this changed workflow the actual amount of time where you know with a pretty large likelihood what features will be part of a given core release becomes shorter, making it more difficult to ensure compatibly with a release in time of the release,” Kägy said.

    Core contributor Peter Wilson outlined two concerns with the proposal:

    • by treating Gutenberg as a special case, it will increase the conflict between those who primarily work in the WordPress-Develop repository and those who primarily work in the Gutenberg repository,
    • bypassing the feature freeze requirements for the editor goes against the contention that Core is Gutenberg and Gutenberg is Core.

    Wilson said the late merging of Gutenberg features has “been a source of conflict for several years.”

    “Bulk merges of Gutenberg features late in the cycle have also been an issue reported from both those who work primarily in the Gutenberg repo and those who work primarily in the WordPress-Develop repo,” he said. “For years incremental merges during the cycle have been advocated but never achieved per the comments in the linked post.”

    Wilson also disagrees with the proposal’s assertion that features developed in the Gutenberg repository are better tested in the feature plugin, as the goal of the Beta and RC periods are to test the release as a whole.

    “With Gutenberg as a plugin replacing core blocks with the plugin’s versions, testing the release as a whole doesn’t happen until after the editor changes merged in to WordPress-Develop,” Wilson said.

    “It’s only once Gutenberg is merged in to WordPress-Develop that the unit tests start running on various hosting providers running the test suite in a range of environments.”

    WordPress Core Committer Joe McGill encouraged the proposal’s authors to elaborate on the policies and expectations that will be applied to committing patches to tickets designated with the new ticket type.

    “For example, should all of these commits be completed before RC-1, unless a bug is discovered during the RC period—and only the fixes discovered be committed, or are there other rules in play?” McGill said. “Personally, I still think that we should aim to have code for any major new feature merged before the Beta-1 milestone, regardless of whether it’s being tested in the Gutenberg plugin or not.”

    The discussion is ongoing in the comments of the proposal. Although the proposed changes primarily affect core contributors, committers, and release leads, they also impact testers and WordPress’ plugin and theme developer community working to ensure compatibility ahead of a major release. Those who have feedback on how Gutenberg features are handled during and after “feature freeze” should jump in on the comments of the proposal.

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  • WordPress vs Squarespace (2023) — The Crucial Differences

    WordPress began as a blogging platform nearly two decades ago and since then has evolved into a full content management system that rivals (if not surpasses) any web platform available. One of its strongest competitors in that arena is Squarespace, a sleek and polished website builder that offers professional-level design and function for those who have no web design or coding knowledge. In this article, we take a look at WordPress vs Squarespace head-to-head so that you can decide which would be the better fit for your website.

    A Note on WordPress

    wordpress dot org

    For this comparison, we’re going to be considering the .org version of WordPress rather than the .com. We have a great, full-length article diving into the major differences between the two for you to check out if that’s something you’re considering. Despite the similarities between WordPress.com and Squarespace as hosted web platforms, we feel that .org is by far the stronger product and will be what most people are choosing between when looking at WordPress vs. Squarespace.

    WordPress vs Squarespace: Who Are They For?

    Before we dive into features and specifics, we want to discuss the differences in who the platforms are marketing their services toward. This alone can make a difference for users because of who new features and quality-of-life upgrades are made for.

    WordPress, as a platform, offers a bit of everything for everyone. The Gutenberg block editor is a passable page-builder and excellent composer, developers can dive headfirst into the WP codebase and create plugins and themes with added functionality, and the third-party ecosystem means users of any expertise level can find the perfect themes, plugins, and features for their site with the right amount of research. Users do, however, have to find hosting and domain registration on their own and handle most of the configuration.

    squarespace homepage

    Squarespace, however, is a Software-as-a-Service (or SaaS) platform that includes hosting, design, domains, and support for a monthly fee. They market to site owners who want to use a page builder to easily design a site that looks as though a professional designer made it. (You don’t need any coding or design experience.) The style of Squarespace reminds me of the Tilda website builder, which we also reviewed. Within minutes of signing up, you can click a few times and have a working website online. You just need to then go through and adjust settings to make sure T’s are crossed, and I’s are dotted.

    1. Pricing (Is Squarespace or WordPress More Affordable?)

    One of the first and most important elements of choosing a website platform is the cost. How much is this thing going to run you in the long term and the short, and what features, bells, and whistles are included in that price?

    The Real Price of WordPress

    WordPress is open-source, downloadable software that you can install, host, and manage yourself. So, in theory, it’s free. But that’s not quite the case. Other recurring costs are necessary to keep a WordPress website online, such as the web host (like SiteGround or Pressable), the annual cost of a domain name, and theme/plugin licenses and memberships. WordPress is marketed as free, but it actually has a number of underlying costs that can hit your wallet deeply.

    However, those costs are variable per site. Some theme and plugin licenses are for a single site for a single year. Others are memberships that offer lifetime plans for a one-time cost, like we do here at Elegant Themes. It’s piecemeal and variable. You might pay anywhere between $5 per month for hosting, $10 per year for a domain, and $29.99 once for a theme. Or you might spend $99 per month on managed hosting, $250 per year on security platforms, $79 per month for Shopify (or hundreds on WooCommerce extensions), and that same $10 per year for that same domain name.

    But it’s definitely not free.

    How much does Squarespace cost?

    Squarespace, on the other hand, is a premium SaaS platform that users go into knowing it isn’t free. Much like WordPress.com, Squarespace is a premium, hosted web platform that helps people get sites up and running without technical expertise or design experience.

    wordpress vs squarespace pricing

    Because it is a SaaS platform, Squarespace is not free. While there are minimal costs for WordPress in terms of hosting and domain names, it’s possible users can get hosting for under $5 per month. With Squarespace, users can expect to pay at least $12 each month, if billed annually, and $40 to unlock each and every feature. Website owners choose from various tiers and pay based on what features they want to be enabled for their websites.

    Admittedly, not every site needs every feature. It is a stark contrast to WordPress–which, as open-source software, created a massive third-party ecosystem–whereas all Squarespace users have access to everything from the very beginning in one dashboard. Squarespace, however, charges for the convenience of having things instantly at your fingertips with no added configuration.

    WordPressWix
    Pricing🥇 Winner

    While it is technically free, you’ll eventually need to pay for hosting or services. The amount depends on what you want to spend.    		It’s a premium SaaS platform, so you pay monthly or yearly for the convenience with no additional configuration options.
    Choose WordPressChoose Squarespace

    2. WordPress vs Squarespace Design and Features

    One of the biggest draws to both WordPress and Squarespace is that they both offer tools for anyone to make a beautiful website without coding or design knowledge. Page-builders and themes like Divi come with layouts made by design professionals that WordPress users can import, and Squarespace offers exactly that with their templates. The way the website platforms handle these features, however, makes a big difference in the user experience.

    WordPress Themes

    wordpress themes

    At the core of WordPress sit themes, plugins, and widgets. Each fills a specific role in the functionality of your site, and making the most of their individual strengths and quirks is what sets a WordPress site apart from a Squarespace one (or any other CMS, really).

    Themes are the base of WordPress, being the visual foundation for the site as well as the functional one. Our own Divi provides a blank canvas for designers, onto which they can create anything they want using the packed-in page builder. Other themes may not offer a built-in page builder but instead have pre-designed pages that perform specific functions for certain types of users and look a certain way.

    WordPress Widgets and Plugins

    Plugins are simple apps and scripts that add new features to a site regardless of theme. WooCommerce adds an eCommerce shop to any WordPress site, and Yoast SEO helps any site, regardless of the theme, be able to track its search engine optimization. If there’s a feature that you want in WordPress, there’s a 99.9% chance a plugin exists for it.

    plugins

    Widgets are also a big part of WordPress, letting you access and display the various features of your site. Maybe it would be recent posts in a sidebar or the SEO score in real-time as you write a post. Widgetized areas are customizable parts of the WP site, front-end and back, that you can set to do whatever you want. From code to drag-and-drop to set features, widgets can make up a good portion of a WP site’s real estate.

    These drag-and-drop plugins make your WordPress website editor similar to the basic web design tools that Squarespace uses:

    If you’re looking for more suggested plugins, check out one of our articles here.

    Squarespace Themes and Templates

    wordpress vs squarespace themes

    Squarespace themes are different than WordPress themes. Where WP themes come with features and functionality for the site, themes on Squarespace are purely aesthetic. But that’s not a bad thing. That’s great. That’s the point.

    The themes that you get with Squarespace are beautiful and made so that non-designers can find something that suits them and then get their content within that template without having to fuss with the specifics of design. That’s handled already. Squarespace offers significantly fewer theme templates vs WordPress. But the ones you can choose from have been curated and designed specifically for the platform and to work with specific kinds of sites (e-commerce, blogging, portfolio, etc.).

    In terms of plugin and widget corollaries, Squarespace differs quite a bit. You can’t fiddle with every gizmo like you can with WordPress, but Squarespace does that on purpose. They designed the platform so that you don’t have to. Instead of having to install and configure WooCommerce, there’s an e-commerce shop set up already in your Squarespace dashboard. You don’t have to find and configure analytics plugins or SEO because Squarespace has those integrated into the dashboard, too.

    The Squarespace Builder

    We do want to mention the Squarespace site builder is very similar to WordPress page builder plugins, and the default WP Gutenberg block editor. You can add sections and modules with ease, just by pressing a + button. However, the amount of customization that you get on the site at this point is severely limited. You can’t really adjust positioning or colors to fully custom levels. You may only have options such as Title and  Caption and Color Palette.

    This is intentional on Squarespace’s part, as they design the themes and templates, and modules for specific looks and features. This design is a major draw for many people to Squarespace, but we do want to point out that you are pretty much locked into these designs without true customization.

    WordPressWix
    Design and Features🥇 Winner

    The biggest draw to WordPress is the thousands of plugins, themes, and widgets you can use to customize your website.    		Squarespace gives users the chance to create aesthetically pleasing websites with ease, but doesn’t offer very many customization options.
    Choose WordPressChoose Squarespace

    3. Learning Curve and Ease of Use

    If the number of themes and plugins and amount of customization options in WordPress overwhelms you, you’re not alone. Loading into the admin dashboard for the first time can be a shock. Hopping into the Squarespace backend might also feel a bit overwhelming, with every tool for your site immediately available in the sidebar.

    Setting up any new website tools will come with a learning curve, but we want to take a close look at WordPress vs Squarespace to see how steep that curve goes and how quickly it evens out.

    WordPress Offers Full-Site Customization

    wordpress vs squarespace editing themes

    This is, in our eyes, the biggest draw for WordPress vs Squarespace: the ability to poke, prod, tweak, and turn each and every line of code to be exactly what you need it to be. If you’re a developer or designer, you can make WordPress do anything you want by digging into the codebase.

    However, those aren’t skills everyone has. If you don’t happen to fall into the category of folks who are comfortable tweaking PHP and JavaScript, WordPress can have a pretty steep learning curve.

    Admittedly, the theme/plugin/widget system helps ease the steepness of the curve, it still takes external research and effort to find the right suite of add-ons as a base for your site. If you come to WordPress as a fresh user with no prior knowledge of the ecosystem, it’s incredibly easy to get taken in by too-good-to-be-true claims from some third-party developers.

    If you do your due diligence, however, a WordPress site with a good theme and plugin combo will run smoothly and efficiently without trouble. You just have to put in the time to learn how to get to that point because to be quite honest, the UI and messaging to get started are nowhere near what they should be for new users.

    Squarespace Offers Curated Customizations

    squarespace design

    When it comes to starting out with Squarespace, the left side of the screen is a list of every part of your site, and the right side has a pop-up that directs you to begin customizing immediately. From site title and logo to fonts, colors, and media, the Squarespace introductory tutorial trumps WordPress in every way.

    squarespace design

    This kind of initial walkthrough significantly lowers the learning curve of the software because you don’t have to find anything on your own or worry about missing something fundamental. The platform takes you through it step by step.

    Because of that hand-holding and guidance, though, the breadth of customization options are rather limited. Depending on the chosen template (the Squarespace equivalent of a WordPress theme), you will have different on-page options to adjust and fill with your own content.

    squarespace page builder

    To edit individual pages on the site, Squarespace has a basic page builder. You won’t get the customization options from top-end WordPress page-builder plugins like Divi, but you will get to introduce or remove elements from the page, as well as adjust spacing and another basic formatting. In lots of ways, the Squarespace site builder is roughly equivalent to the Gutenberg block editor in capability and learning curve.

    Dashboard vs Dashboard

    Briefly, we also want to point out that the learning curve for the Squarespace dashboard is relatively flat. While it can be overwhelming to see everything all at once, the list of features doesn’t grow often, if at all. It’s fast, it’s intuitive, and it doesn’t take a BS in computer science to know what the options do. Users can edit and change everything they want on the same page quickly and without page loading. For users who want a no-nonsense, understandable, easy-to-use place for all their features, Squarespace is it.

    dashboard for squarespace vs wordpress

    In direct comparison, the WordPress admin dashboard leaves a lot to be desired. This isn’t to say that the dashboard isn’t effective or usable. It absolutely is. And you can dig in and customize it however you need. But as your site grows, so does the dashboard.

    wordpress dashboard example

    When you install new plugins, they add their features to the dashboard somehow. This means that everything is ready and waiting for you at all times. But it also means that you have to learn a new configuration that’s not always intuitive regularly, too.

    WordPressWix
    Ease of UseWordPress can be daunting when your first getting started. It takes a bit of research and know-how to get comfortable with the platform. 🥇 Winner

    Squarespace offers a handy tutorial that can get you acclimated quickly. It’s simple, basic, and effective.
    Choose WordPressChoose Squarespace

    4. Content Ownership and Your Data

    Data is one of the hottest commodities in the world, so making sure that you’re in control of yours is paramount to running a successful site. With that in mind, you have to know how your data is going to be used and stored by the companies you trust with your website. Let’s compare WordPress vs Squarespace.

    Your Content and Data on WordPress

    WordPress installations are yours, always have been yours, and always will be yours. Content that you put on that website can be exported and used anywhere (within its licensing and copyright, that is) without the worry of interference.

    This goes for your domain name and web address, too. If you register it separately from your web host (which we recommend that you always do), no one can say that you can’t sell that URL or move it to a different host. It’s yours to do with what you want.

    Not all platforms are like that, and some will fight you tooth and nail to keep you on their platform through some pretty shady means (but not Squarespace, actually). With WordPress, that’s not even a concern, and we feel that is a very important point to make.

    You do need to make sure, however, that your host is trustworthy with your data, too, as they’re the ones ultimately in charge of what happens to it.

    Your Content and Data on Squarespace

    You can export your content from Squarespace and move it elsewhere if you want. You do own the content and images (again, as per licensing). Squarespace has a series of import/export tools for content and details that you include on your site, and their Terms of Service (as far as we’ve been able to read) don’t include any hidden clauses that anything you put on their platform belongs to them.

    You can even transfer a domain name registered through them to any other registrar. This is important because the URL you choose is one of the most important parts of owning a website. The main issue we’ve found with their domain service is that even if you use their “free” domain registration, it renews at $20 to $70 from then on out, depending on your TLD (.com, .org, .tv, etc.). For a typical .com, that’s a lot. There is certainly an upcharge here. But again, that’s part of a SaaS platform that handles these things on your behalf.

    In general, the main part of your Squarespace account that you don’t own and have control over is the design and templates that you use. Those belong to Squarespace, so if you move to another platform, then you must do a redesign using a different theme. This is normal. The same thing happens if you were to move to Squarespace from WP. You couldn’t use your Elegant Themes membership to bring Divi along with you, for instance.

    WordPressWix
    Content & Data Ownership🏳 Draw

    WordPress has and will always let you keep your data and content and has tools to be exported should you leave the platform.    		🏳 Draw

    Squarespace let’s you keep all of your data and content, but keeps access to it’s templates, which is a standard practice.
    Choose WordPressChoose Squarespace

    5. E-commerce

    For many sites, the make-it-or-break-it feature is being able to run a fast, reliable, and efficient storefront through the website. Both WordPress and Squarespace are great options for this. But they do have their own idiosyncrasies when it comes to how that is handled and what features are available.

    WooCommerce on WordPress

    You have a number of options for e-commerce on WordPress, but by and large, you will probably be using WooCommerce. It’s the biggest player on the field. And for good reason. Like WordPress itself, WooCommerce is free software that you can download, install, and configure relatively quickly.

    Upon installation, WooCommerce walks you through the process of setting up your store. You just follow along, making sure all the details are right before you even get taken to the shop and products.

    In terms of aesthetics, the shops and products that you can make with WooCommerce look great, and you can download plugins that adjust pretty much every aspect of the shop. Even Divi has a series of modules dedicated to tweaking your WooCommerce store’s design until it’s perfect.

    Like the rest of WordPress, though, WooCommerce has a series of hidden fees in terms of most non-base extensions and features having an extra cost. We also have to mention that the learning curve for the UI is pretty steep.

    woocommerce learning curve

    Even so, the power and extensibility you get with WooCommerce are worth the effort and the potential additional costs of extensions and add-ons. But at its base, the only fees and costs are from the payment processors. In reality, though, you will have a range of small costs as you figure out what features you need.

    Squarespace Commerce

    The Squarespace e-commerce solution is in the dashboard under the heading Commerce. Clicking it the first time will bring up a wizard not unlike the one that WooCommerce uses, taking you through the process of setting up physical goods, payments, digital options, and other details.

    You will choose a store template for your site. However, the options are rather limited. In most cases, your store will be a grid of product images, and you will be able to customize elements such as text alignment, aspect ratio, width, and spacing. This is similar to the default WooCommerce shop, with which you don’t get customization, either. However, you have options to extend that in Woo but not on Squarespace.

    wordpress vs squarespace ecommerce

    Squarespace e-Commerce pricing

    The learning curve for Squarespace commerce is relatively low, as the entire process of setting up and even adding more products is quick and painless. The user experience of selling on the Squarespace e-commerce platform is much nicer than WooCommerce. But that comes at the trade-off of pretty limited options for displaying your products.

    You won’t, however, run into extra costs if you use Squarespace for an e-commerce platform. Everything that you need to run the store itself is packaged in with your monthly cost. However, the lowest tier of Squarespace’s features doesn’t include e-commerce. For that, you will need to pay $18 per month. Which isn’t out of line at all when compared with competitors like Shopify.

    WordPressWix
    e-Commerce🥇 Winner

    WooCommerce is a great free tool that has become a standard for the WordPress community. There is a ton of customizability options that are available to help you create your ideal store. But, it can be a bit challenging to learn and the add-ons do come with a small fee.     		The learning curve for e-commerce with Squarespace is low and simple to get started with. However, there isn’t a lot of customization options and running a store will cost an increased monthly fee.
    Choose WordPressChoose Squarespace

    WordPress vs Squarespace

    When considering a WordPress vs Squarespace site, it comes down to what you are in the market for in terms of your website, what your budget is, and what your experience level with websites might be.

    Head to head, Squarespace offers a far more refined experience with a lot of the hassles of owning and managing a website taken care of for you. Squarespace has a lower learning curve, a slicker interface, and a solid support team for its all-in-one SaaS platform. From e-commerce to portfolios to blogging and more, Squarespace integrates it somehow into its platform. For someone who wants a professional website with as little friction as possible, Squarespace is the way to go.

    WordPress, though, offers complete autonomy and customization but has a mildly confusing interface and a moderate learning curve. Every feature a site owner could need, however, is readily available. You just have to find the theme or plugin that provides it. In some ways, WordPress can feel like the Wild West. But in reality, the piecemeal way themes, plugins, features, and such are handled makes it so that every type of site owner is catered to somehow. If you want to work on your website until it is pixel-perfect in every regard, WordPress is the way to go. From SEO tools to Social Media plugins, WordPress has something for you.

    Final Comparison

    In the end, WordPress vs Squarespace boils down to whether you want a beautiful, walled garden with less customization or a garden plot that will be just as beautiful by getting a little dirt on your hands. We don’t think one platform is necessarily better than the other. They’re just better for different kinds of site owners.

    WordPressWix
    Pricing🥇 Winner

    While it is technically free, you’ll eventually need to pay for hosting or services. The amount depends on what you want to spend.    		It’s a premium SaaS platform, so you pay monthly or yearly for the convenience with no additional configuration options.
    Design and Features🥇 Winner

    The biggest draw to WordPress is the thousands of plugins, themes, and widgets you can use to customize your website.
    Squarespace gives users the chance to create aesthetically pleasing websites with ease, but doesn’t offer very many customization options.
    Ease of UseWordPress can be daunting when your first getting started. It takes a bit of research and know-how to get comfortable with the platform. 🥇 Winner

    Squarespace offers a handy tutorial that can get you acclimated quickly. It’s simple, basic, and effective.
    Content & Data Ownership🏳 Draw

    WordPress has and will always let you keep your data and content and has tools to be exported should you leave the platform.    		🏳 Draw

    Squarespace let’s you keep all of your data and content, but keeps access to it’s templates, which is a standard practice.
    e-Commerce🥇 Winner

    WooCommerce is a great free tool that has become a standard for the WordPress community. There is a ton of customizability options that are available to help you create your ideal store. But, it can be a bit challenging to learn and the add-ons do come with a small fee.     		The learning curve for e-commerce with Squarespace is low and simple to get started with. However, there isn’t a lot of customization options and running a store will cost an increased monthly fee.
    Choose WordPressChoose Squarespace

    WordPress vs Everything

    One more thing. Before you make your final decision on your website platform…are you curious to see how WordPress stacks up against its other biggest competitors? We did the hard work and compared WordPress vs. everything else so that you don’t have to! Most recently, we reviewed WordPress vs. Weebly, and I think you will be interested to see the results.

    If you’re looking for specific plugins to help WordPress become even more powerful, we recommend the following:

    Having said that, Squarespace still provides a great set-and-forget website-building tool.

    We hope you’ve enjoyed this WordPress vs Squarespace comparison! What is your position on WordPress vs Squarespace? Why do you feel that way?

    The post WordPress vs Squarespace (2023) — The Crucial Differences appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

    Go to source

  • WooCommerce vs Shopify (2023) — Which One Is Best?

    WooCommerce vs. Shopify is a tough match-up. Shopify claims that over 1,700,00 businesses use its platform. WooCommerce, on the other hand, has more than five million active installations. That means we’re talking about two eCommerce giants, each taking an entirely different approach to helping you build an online store.

    In this article, we will compare WooCommerce vs. Shopify regarding setup, payment processing, customizability, and price. Along the way, we’ll tell you which eCommerce platform excels in each area to help you decide which option best fits you.

    Let’s get to it!

    WooCommerce vs. Shopify: Hosted vs. Self-Hosted eCommerce

    Although both Shopify and WooCommerce can help you create an online store, they offer very different user experiences. The primary difference between the two options is that one is self-hosted, and the other is hosted.

    Here’s what that means:

    1. WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. You can install the Content Management System (CMS) on any server of your choice, are entirely free to edit the WooCommerce and WordPress code, and can use both tools for just about any type of project you want.
    2. Shopify. Shopify is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. It provides you with hosting, eCommerce software, maintenance, and support. That means less control over your store, but an easier setup process.

    WooCommerce itself is free. However, you still have to pay a monthly or yearly fee for hosting the WordPress website that’s using WooCommerce (unless you run your own server). In return, the combination of WooCommerce and WordPress gives you complete freedom when it comes to your eCommerce projects:

    WooCommerce

    Shopify as a platform is all about providing businesses with easy-to-use tools for launching an online store. As a hosted platform, it combines all of the features you’ll need in one package:

    Shopify

    Due to its nature, Shopify is a less flexible platform than WooCommerce. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as we’ll explore throughout the rest of this article.

    Setting Up a Store in WooCommerce vs. Shopify

    If this is your first time setting up an online store, you’ll want to know how difficult (or simple) each platform makes that process. Let’s start with WooCommerce.

    WooCommerce

    As we mentioned earlier, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. This means that before you get to work on your store, you have to go through a series of steps, including:

    1. Finding a web host
    2. Signing up for a hosting plan
    3. Installing WordPress
    4. Finding and installing the perfect WooCommerce theme
    5. Setting up WooCommerce

    This process doesn’t take much time if you’re already familiar with WordPress and you have a web host in mind. However, if this is your first time looking for a web host, you’ll need to budget plenty of time for research.

    Installing WordPress is a painless experience, and in many cases, your web host will do it for you. In addition, some WordPress hosting services offer “eCommerce” or WooCommerce plans, which is a fancy way of saying that they’ll pre-install WooCommerce and some other useful tools for you.

    Once you get to work with WooCommerce, the plugin will launch a wizard that will help you configure your store and set up some basic pages for it:

    Setting up a store using WooCommerce

    After your store is ready to go, you can start adding products. The plugin adds a Products tab to your site’s dashboard and lets you use the WordPress editor to set up new products for your store:

    Adding products to WooCommerce

    Adding new products to WooCommerce is simple, but it’s not as “visual” a process as with other eCommerce platforms.

    Shopify

    With WooCommerce, you have to go through several steps to get your store up and running. When you’re using Shopify, the process boils down to two parts:

    1. Signing up for a Shopify account
    2. Configuring your store

    When you log in for the first time, Shopify will ask you a few basic questions about what kind of project you’re working on:

    Launching a new Shopify store

    Shopify will also ask you for some personal information, which it needs to process your store’s payouts. As soon as you get to the dashboard, you’ll be able to start adding products. Overall, the Shopify product editor offers a more streamlined experience than WooCommerce does:

    Adding a product in Shopify

    Both Shopify and WooCommerce enable you to add a lot of details for each product in your store. You can specify prices, set up Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) numbers, track stock, configure shipping, and more.

    One standout feature that Shopify offers is built-in basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) options for products:

    Working on a product's SEO in Shopify

    To get that same functionality in WooCommerce, you have to use an SEO plugin. With the right tool, you’ll get access to a lot more features than what Shopify offers out of the box.

    WordPress
    Setting up a Store🥇
    Winner
    Shopify excels in this category because its simple regardless of your technical experience.
    WooCommerce is easy to setup as well, but it’s especially easy if you have experience with WordPress.
    Choose ShopifyChoose WooCommerce

    Verdict: If you’re familiar with WordPress, setting up WooCommerce and adding products will be a walk in the park. On the other hand, if you’re new to eCommerce, Shopify offers a much more streamlined setup experience.

    Configuring Payment Options in WooCommerce vs. Shopify

    An online store can only be successful if you offer payment options that your customers want to use. You’ll want to have access to as many options as possible, so you can pick the best ones for your store.

    WooCommerce

    With WooCommerce, you get access to several payment processors out of the box. The plugin lets you choose from several options during the setup wizard, including Stripe and PayPal. However, you can always enable additional methods through the WordPress dashboard:

    Setting up WooCommerce payment methods

    If you want to set up additional payment methods, you can always browse the WooCommerce “extensions” store. Extensions are simply plugins that add new functionality to WooCommerce, such as support for additional payment processors:

    WooCommerce payment extensions

    These add-ons enable you to integrate almost any payment processor you want into your store. The downside is that a lot of WooCommerce extensions are pay-to-play, and they can get fairly expensive.

    Shopify

    Shopify also supports a broad range of payment processors. The platform promotes PayPal as its main option, but it also gives you access to several third-party providers and what it calls “alternative payment methods”.

    Configuring Shopify to work with third-party providers is simple. The platform will offer you a list of options, and it explicitly tells you which are not available in your country:

    Configuring Shopify payments

    When you add a new payment option, Shopify will inform you if you need to create an account and how to connect it with your store. It also tells you how much that specific payment processor charges in fees, which is very useful.

    As we mentioned briefly, Shopify also supports some alternative payment options. Among those, you’ll find payment processors that enable customers to pay using cryptocurrency and local payment options in their regions:

    Configuring alternative payment methods in Shopify

    It’s also worth noting that all of these options are built into Shopify. Unlike with WooCommerce, you don’t need to pay for extensions that add specific payment processing options to your store. Shopify does offer extensions (free and paid), which it calls “apps”, but not for this functionality.

    WordPress
    Configuring Payment Options🥇 Winner
    Shopify offers you most of the options you’ll need directly out the gate, but doesn’t offer the more specific extensions.
    WooCommerce comes with a few standard payment options but, has the bonus have having an extensive plugin library.
    Choose ShopifyChoose WooCommerce

    Verdict: If you’re looking for very specific payment processing options, WooCommerce extensions can be your best bet. However, Shopify gets a thumbs-up for incorporating so many options without requiring additional tools. Out of the box, however, both eCommerce solutions give you access to the basic payment processors that most stores use (such as Stripe and PayPal).

    Customizing Your Store with WooCommerce vs. Shopify

    If you want to make your store your own, you’ll need the ability to add new features and change its style. In that area, both WooCommerce and Shopify offer some impressive options.

    WooCommerce

    Customizability is where WooCommerce shines. Since you’re using WordPress, you can customize your website and store it in almost any way you can imagine. WordPress offers thousands of themes and plugins (both premium and free) that enable you to add new and exciting functionality to your projects.

    For example, you can look for WordPress themes that integrate with WooCommerce out of the box. Some themes, such as Divi, enable you to use advanced visual builders to customize your store and product pages:

    Customizing your store using Divi

    With WooCommerce, you have a level of freedom to customize your store that hosted platforms such as Shopify simply can’t match. You can even alter your site’s foundational code (or hire a developer to do so for you).

    The trade-off for that freedom is that you’re always learning something new about how to use WordPress and WooCommerce. If that sounds like a good deal to you, then WooCommerce’s customizability is its primary selling point.

    Shopify

    Shopify offers a broad range of customization options for its users. You get access to an app library that gives you plenty of options for adding new functionality to your store:

    Adding apps to Shopify

    Just as with WordPress, some of Shopify’s apps are free, and some are premium. However, the selection of apps is magnitudes smaller than what you’ll get with WordPress and WooCommerce. Also, where premium WordPress plugins usually charge you for a yearly license, most paid Shopify apps work on a monthly subscription model.

    As far as themes go, Shopify offers a modest selection of free options:

    Free Shopify themes

    When it comes to premium themes, the selection is much broader. However, Shopify themes tend to be much more expensive than their WordPress and WooCommerce counterparts, with most starting at around $180.

    WordPress
    Customizing Your StoreCompared to WooCommerce, Shopify provides a limited set of customization choices that come at a higher price point.🥇 Winner
    WooCommerce’s unparalleled customization capabilities make it a particularly compelling in this category.
    Choose ShopifyChoose WooCommerce

    Verdict: The level of freedom that WordPress and WooCommerce offer is unmatched. Shopify is a customizable platform, but due to its hosted nature, it can’t compete with WooCommerce. Moreover, WooCommerce and WordPress are so popular that there are almost no features you can’t add to your store using plugins.

    How Much Does WooCommerce vs. Shopify Cost?

    Ultimately, the biggest deciding factor between WooCommerce vs. Shopify will likely be your budget. With that in mind, here is the basic pricing you’ll be looking at:

    WordPress
    eCommerce SoftwareIncluded with each plan🥇 Winner
    Free
    Plans$29, $79, and $299 per month plansFree
    Setup feesIncluded with each planNone and some web hosts set up WooCommerce for you
    HostingIncluded with each planHosting plans start at around $5 per month
    Domain nameNot included – .com domains start at around $15 per yearIncluded with some web hosting plans
    Store and website maintenanceIncludedDepends on your hosting provider and plan
    Plugins and appsOn average, monthly app subscriptions start at around $5-20On average, premium plugins start at around $10-20 for yearly licenses
    ThemesOfficial premium themes start at $180On average, premium themes start at around $29
    Choose ShopifyChoose WooCommerce

    On paper, WooCommerce is the cheapest option out of the two. You can set up WordPress and WooCommerce for less than $20, including hosting and a domain. With Shopify, you need to spend at least $29 for its basic plan and then pay extra to register a domain.

    If you want to use Shopify apps, those costs can add up quickly too. Monthly subscriptions will end up costing far more than yearly fees for premium WooCommerce extensions. However, it’s worth noting that you don’t need to use premium themes, extensions, or apps for either platform – it’s all up to you.

    WooCommerce Deep Dive

    If you’re interested in learning more about what WooCommerce has to offer, you can check out some of our articles like WooCommerce vs. Magento or our article on the real cost of using WooCommerce.

    Whether you’re a seasoned WooCommerce user or just starting, these articles will provide you with valuable insights and best practices to take your store to the next level.

    WooCommerce Vs. Shopify: The Final Comparison

    Choosing between WooCommerce and Shopify can be a challenge. WooCommerce is by far the more flexible option, but it also takes longer to fully master than Shopify does. If you’re entirely new to eCommerce and you want an experience that’s as easy as possible, Shopify is a safe bet.

    WordPress
    Setting up a Store🥇 Winner
    Shopify excels in this category because its simple regardless of your technical experience.     		WooCommerce is easy to setup as well, but it’s especially easy if you have experience with WordPress.
    Configuring Payment Options🥇 Winner
    Shopify offers you most of the options you’ll need directly out the gate, but doesn’t offer the more specific extensions.     		WooCommerce comes with a few standard payment options but, has the bonus have having an extensive plugin library.
    Customizing Your StoreCompared to WooCommerce, Shopify provides a limited set of customization choices that come at a higher price point.🥇 Winner
    WooCommerce’s unparalleled customization capabilities make it a particularly compelling in this category.
    PriceShopify necessitates a minimum of $29 for its basic plan, and you must pay an additional fee to obtain a domain. Moreover, expenses for Shopify apps can accumulate rapidly.🥇 Winner
    For under $20, you can establish a WordPress and WooCommerce site, which includes hosting and a domain.
    Choose ShopifyChoose WooCommerce

    On the other hand, if you’re comfortable tinkering with your store, WordPress and WooCommerce offer a wealth of customization options that are unmatched. More importantly, it can be much cheaper to set up a WooCommerce store, which makes it a great entry-level option.

    Do you have any other questions about WooCommerce vs. Shopify? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!

    Featured Image via olesia_g / shutterstock.com

    The post WooCommerce vs Shopify (2023) — Which One Is Best? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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