It seems like over the past few years, and especially with the changes brought by the pandemic, website creation has exploded in the market. As a result, more and more individuals, businesses, and organizations create an online presence on social media or by opening their websites.
Of the many platforms that let people easily create their website, two platforms have risen as the most widely used:
WordPress and BootStrap. Both are places where people, even those without a shred of IT experience, can open a website and create an online presence. But to say that both are the same is a grave mistake.
Both platforms come with their own set of pros and cons that set them apart from each other. Knowing these differences can help you, as a beginner, decide which would best work for your and your needs.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a free website building platform that is one of the most widely used by beginners. In addition, WordPress is an open-source system that allows third-party developers to create plugins that greatly expand the capabilities of the website builder.
Though free, there are some paid plans which give users access to more themes and customizability. Though compared to other sites’ plans, WordPress remains one of the most affordable platforms out there.
Features
There are a host of features provided by the open-source nature of the platform. The most notable features include a large selection of themes, plugins, accessibility with regards to education and advice for beginners, and mobile applications support.
SEO tools are also available and make the platform for website builders looking to generate traffic quickly. This, along with other factors, explains why over 75 million people and businesses happily use WordPress
Pros:
- User Friendly. The entire platform makes it easy for a person with no coding knowledge to build a website by themselves. There is also a highly responsive team that promptly answers any questions you might have or even help you with the building of the site.
- Affordable. WordPress remains one of the more affordable website building options in the market. Some businesses are operating without any of the paid plans.
- Open-source and highly customizable. The nature of WordPress’ design and allowance of third-party developers means that there are thousands of plugins and themes, both paid and free, that a user can choose from.
- SEO. Search engine optimization is one of the things that a website can do to generate traffic. The availability of many SEO tools in WordPress makes it easier for a new website to hit the ground running.
Cons:
- Speed. Because a third-party developer makes them, some themes or plugins come with unnecessary code. This can make them or the site as a whole run slower. In cases where the traffic is heavy, there are quite a few occasions where a WordPress site can crash.
- Security. Users have to be wary of some of the themes or plugins available. Sometimes a theme or plugin can be made with malicious intent and be downloaded with malware that can cause all sorts of havoc for you and your site. Only download from reviewed and trusted sources.
- Frequent Updates. WordPress is an ever-changing platform with each theme or plugin is frequently updated to improve features or correct bugs. Sometimes these updates lead to incompatibility, loss of data, or even the crashing of the entire website.
What is Bootstrap?
BootStrap is described as a front-end framework that is used to create modern websites and web apps. The platform is open-source and free to use. That being said, a person could benefit (alot ) from knowledge about coding when trying to use it. BootStrap is primarily used by developers who see it as an easy way to style a web application.
Features
BootStrap features numerous HTML and CSS templates for UI interface elements such as buttons and forms. Bootstrap also supports JavaScript extensions and boasts a free collection of tools for creating websites and web applications.
Though not known as being particularly beginner-friendly, a beginner’s tutorial program lets newbies learn the basics.
Pros:
- A framework that supports all browsers. BootStrap allows for numerous coding languages, which means that websites and applications built with it can be used compatible with most popular browsers.
- Lightweight and customizable. The platform facilitates the development of the front-end like header, footer, navbar, etc. If you know the language, there are very few limits to what you can make and how good it looks. This makes it a favourite among developers for web and application design.
- Fast. The platform is straightforward on the computers’ systems and takes little time to load and use.
Cons:
- Does not comply with HTML. Bootstrap seems to have a more challenging time with HTML for all the languages it can support than other platforms.
- Is not conducive to SEO. Search engine optimization does not come naturally or easily to the platform. Some training with meta tags will be needed.
- Requires experience with coding. As stated, in terms of being beginner-friendly, BootStap is probably not the best place to start with website building if you have no prior IT knowledge.
- Pre-designed themes are paid for. Though some free themes and WordPress themes are also supported, even good ones require some money to be spent.
Bootstrap vs. WordPress-Verdict
Though both platforms theoretically let you create websites. Comparing them to each other is like comparing apples and oranges. If you are looking to develop front-end things for websites and applications from scratch, BootStrap is the way to go. It comes highly favoured by industry professionals for ease of use and versatility. As long as you have a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS
If you are a blogger or business owner looking to open an online store, then WordPress is a hassle-free platform that’ll let you do just that.
If you want to do both, then you can do both. For example, some developers create a Bootstrap template using HTML or CSS and then integrate it into WordPress. In the end, all that matters is your purpose and which platform lets you carry out that as best as possible.
