Yes – it is.

Did you know that almost half of the world’s websites are powered by WordPress?

We’ve been working with WordPress (a.k.a WP) sites for many years, and let me tell you, these numbers are no accident.

Say you just launched a business and need a website. You don’t know exactly how your company will evolve or what features you’ll need in the future. You’ve been looking at different platforms and are wondering; “is WordPress the best website builder?”

What makes WordPress the go-to builder is it’s designed to grow with you and accommodate your needs—whatever they may look like.

WP is the most versatile website builder out there. With over 20,000 WordPress theme choices to customize the design of your site (although we have a solid commitment to just one, more on that another time) you can start with the basics and evolve it however you need to. Whether you want to start selling products, offering courses, integrating marketing tools, or anything else that you can dream up, WordPress can do it! Whenever you find yourself thinking, “I wish my website could look like that, or do that thing,” WordPress can do that too.

In this post, we want to take a deep dive into why we truly believe that WordPress is a growing business owner’s best friend.

Understanding Website Builders

Website builders are tools that simplify the process of creating websites. The biggest appeal of using a website builder is you don’t need to do any manual coding.

Most of these platforms provide pre-built templates, drag-and-drop interfaces, and customization features. Website builders cater to different skill levels, from beginners looking for a basic, user-friendly solution to professionals seeking more complex customization.

When you want to create a website, you have several different options for website builders.

Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Duda, and WordPress are some of the major platforms out there. And then there’s Kajabi, Thinkific, Teachery, and Teachable for course websites.

I’ve worked with many of these over the years (especially the course builders) although I typically only get my hands dirty with sites like Wix and Squarespace when a client has reached their limitations with that platform and is looking to uplevel to a more customized website with an upgraded user experience.

WordPress definitely takes the cake. Here’s why:

What Makes WordPress So Great?

For starters, one of my favorite things about WordPress is the sheer size of the WP community.  

When you Google “hire a website designer” there is a 99.999 percent chance the one you find knows their way around WordPress—and there is no shortage of options when you need some help.

It’s harder to find designers who offer services for Webflow or Duda, for example.

Think about it like this:

When you buy a Tesla, your options are pretty limited when you need a mechanic. You would likely need to take your vehicle to a specialized Tesla repair facility. If you need replacement parts, you’re probably in for a headache.

On the other hand, you can take your Jeep Grand Cherokee or Ford Escort to just about ANY mechanic for repairs.

This logic applies to WordPress.

And it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to benefits.

The Best Features of WordPress

Versatility

It doesn’t matter what phase of business you’re in, WordPress can accommodate you.

You can have “just a website” – homepage, about, contact us, blog, etc. Or, you can build a completely custom theme, and integrate it into an online store with WooCommerce or a learning platform with LearnDash. WordPress can also be the foundation for an app. (And if you’re curious about an app, let’s meet because we LOVE transforming courses into apps with online communities all in one place!)

This is going to sound super cheesy… but with WordPress, anything is possible for your website, your courses, your communities, and your online store.

User-Friendliness

The WordPress dashboard is easy to navigate even if you’ve never built a website—although we will be completely upfront and say that it does take a bit of hand-holding to get to know your way around and we are here to help you because one of our top values is to empower our clients to be able to manage and build upon their website themselves without requiringany coding. We actually set all of our clients up with a custom Reference webpage containing a collection of how-to videos to take you step-by-step through various website tasks if and when you need them. Naturally, we are on stand-by to help make updates and improvements too. That’s our jam. Just ask how when we meet!)

Mobile Responsiveness

The majority of website activity happens on mobile devices – and having a responsive website is non-negotiable. Most WordPress themes these days are responsive. This means you won’t have to worry about how your site will appear on mobile devices.

Search Engine Optimization Friendly

WordPress has earned a great reputation for being SEO-friendly—and the plugin catalog offers a plethora of SEO tools. (Our favorite is Yoast.) This makes it easier for your site to pop up on Google searches. 

Now, this isn’t to say you don’t need SEO services. But having a WordPress site will make your SEO specialist’s job much easier.

Vast Catalog of WordPress Plugins and Integrations

One of the greatest things about WordPress is the GIANT selection of WordPress plugins and integrations with other software.

A plugin basically adds code to your website so that you can create a specific custom feature, for example, the Gravity Forms sets you up to build all kinds of forms, surveys, quizzes, databases and more. LearnDash will help you build courses. WooCommerce will help you build a store to sell any type of product you can think of.

Whether you need social media integrations, eCommerce capabilities, SEO, or security, you name it, the WP universe has everything you need to install WordPress plugins and run an awesome business online.

What Are Some WordPress Myths?

Despite the widespread use of WordPress, there are quite a few misconceptions out there – and we want to address them here.

Building a WordPress Website is SUPER Easy.

We’ve been talking about how easy the WordPress platform is to navigate—even if you’ve never built a website.

You might be asking yourself: why the hell would I pay a website designer to build a WordPress site if I can do it on my own?

Here’s the reality of it.

Anyone can build a website on WordPress. But building a WP site that attracts visitors and generates considerable results has many challenges—and navigating these challenges takes an expert’s touch. 

Also, while developers promise that you can just install a plugin and “voila” it works and matches your brand, it’s rarely the case that it goes that smoothly. Trust me, I’ve been building WordPress sites for 13+ years.

And while a WordPress theme may start out as mobile responsive, as soon as you or your team members start adding, moving, and messing with all the pieces and parts of your web pages, it can quickly become un-responsive and won’t look perfect on mobile devices.

There is much more psychology and technology at play in the very best websites than many assume. We dive a little deeper into this topic in a recent post on user experience.

The bottom line is this:

WordPress is an easy platform for novices to navigate. But if ANYONE could build and maintain a professional, high-performing website on WP, WordPress developers and web agencies wouldn’t exist. 

WordPress Websites Are Cookie Cutter

WordPress offers thousands and thousands of pre-made website themes. Some are fully designed for you which is great for when you don’t have any coding experience, but they only take you so far. Others, like our favorite themes—Beaver Builder and BuddyBoss—are fully customizable. They are a blank canvas and we can design and build whatever we dream up together.

Trust me, you’d be surprised that some of the most reputable and biggest sites out there are built with WordPress.

WordPress Websites Take Forever to Load

There are a million reasons why a website is slow such as poorly optimized images, bad coding, subpar web hosting, an unoptimized content management system, and so on. WordPress is not the culprit.

If a room is messy, do you blame the room itself?

No, rooms are messy due to poor organization, bad habits, neglect, etc. The same goes for WordPress and slow websites.

Let’s Compare WordPress to Other Platforms

To sound like a broken record, the real value of WordPress stems from its versatility and customization. Most website builders do not have these capabilities.

For example, Shopify websites are primarily focused on being online stores. They can’t evolve to offer online courses—you would need to implement a 3rd party tool or build a separate website (such as on WordPress, ironically).

Kajabi and Thinkific are confined to being online course platforms. If you wanted to add a merch store or integrate marketing enhancements, you’re limited to what they offer. These platforms do not have the vast plugin options that WP does.

To give you a real-world example, at Tall Poppies Design—my web design/development agency—we had a client interested in turning their online courses into an app.

We built out their website using the Buddyboss WP theme, then implemented LearnDash to give them their own app. If we used Kajabi or Thinkific, course participants would have to download the Thinkific or Kajabi app.

Our client was able to have their own individual app because we built their site using WordPress. The Buddyboss website and app even has a community feature which means course participants can interact directly within the platform. No Facebook Groups, external forums, etc.

All in all, I don’t want to knock any of the other website builders out there. I am the first to recommend Thinkific as my favorite course builder to get a course launched quickly and easily (just like we did for Tara Simkins and The Circle Up Experience). These other software platforms can do some truly amazing things. However, none come close to the customization abilities available with WordPress.  

The Final Verdict: Is WordPress the Best Website Builder?

To come full circle here, there is no question that WordPress is the best platform for website building. 

It can do wonders to get your online presence off of the ground and to grow with you as you scale.

At Tall Poppies Design, we help life coaches, online course educators, and small business owners build and maintain high-performing websites, as well as provide SEO, marketing funnels, and more to improve online results. If you’re ready to get started on upgrading your website, WordPress or otherwise, schedule a strategy call today. Our experienced designers and WordPress developers are ready to help!