WordPress – Wix – SquareSpace – GoDaddy

  • Hi there, I’m trying to help a small nonprofit create, manage and host their own website. They will be doing all of the work and they are nice people but with very limited tech skills. They probably aren’t good candidates for Github or Netlify which is why I’ve narrowed their scope to WordPress – Wix – SquareSpace – GoDaddy. It seems WordPress is either designed for or has migration tools so if you create a site on Wix – SquareSpace – GoDaddy and you find you need more features than those other webbuilders offer you can easily migrate your site to WordPress.com? Is that correct? It’s challenging finding objective, independent reviews and comparison charts of start-up website builders – hosts. Thank you.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • First, there’s a difference between wordpress.com and www.ads-software.com. The .com provides limited free hosting using the software that the .org produces. The .com has more elaborate hosting solutions for sale, whereas there is nothing for sale here.

    The plugin repository contains some importers, https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/search/import/
    but I don’t know that there are any specifically for Wix or SquareSpace. You would need to purchase a .com plan to run most plugins there (but you should ask over there for details). You can look at an empty sandbox here: https://wpsandbox.net/
    to see what importers are listed under Tools, but they are all old. There was mention of an initiative to improve the importers a few months ago, but it hasn’t come up recently.

    WordPress is in the middle of changing (a lot!) which is cause for some of us who’ve been around awhile to migrate to other options.
    There are services that host a WP installation behind a firewall, and serve it as static. (Sitesauce, Shifter, Strattic) There are also standalone software like Publii and Ghost that can be used for a static site.

    Thread Starter eagerlearning

    (@eagerlearning)

    Hi Joy, Thank you for sharing your thoughts. My goal is to guide them to easy-to-use tools to create, manage and have hosted their site with the possibility of flexibility built-in so if they outgrow that choice they’re not boxed in so they have to re-create their site from scratch at another web builder – hosted site. Thanks!

    The great thing about WordPress is all the customization options.
    There are free and premium plugins that will focus in on non-profit work. If you want to have WordPress something, likely there is a theme/plugin for it.

    I’d suggest considering what features the client may need at launch, and again as they grow. Do they want to fundraise from their site? Do they have or need the site to integrate with a payment gateway? Will they want an event calendar or ability to sell tickets on the site? Will they update the site content (posts/articles) themselves? Do they want an email newsletter included? Getting the full scope of what they may need at and after launch as they grow will help you sort out the options.

    Disclaimer: I am a GoDaddy Pro web design & developer advocate, focused specifically on a tool that allows devs to update many client WordPress websites on any platform, along with but not limited to the managed WordPress hosting. So – GoDaddy can also include using WordPress, though there are plenty of other options.

    Thread Starter eagerlearning

    (@eagerlearning)

    Hi Courtney,

    Thank you ever so much for your really helpful post.

    If the NPO’s answers were Yes to any of your questions how does that inform them of which web builder to choose from Wix to GoDaddy to SquareSpace to WordPress.com? Would those options only be available with WordPress?

    Would it be advisable to build the initial site on Wix or Go Daddy (for ease) and then if there needs grow to then simply migrate their site to WordPress?

    Thank you again for a wonderful discussion.

    My goal is to guide them to easy-to-use tools to create, manage and have hosted their site with the possibility of flexibility built-in so if they outgrow that choice they’re not boxed in so they have to re-create their site from scratch at another web builder – hosted site

    for this, i would say www.ads-software.com is perfect for their requirements
    they can self host and scale as per their needs, while wix and squarespace do provide ease of use but they are not flexible as www.ads-software.com

    give it a try share host + wp.org + astra theme + Gutenberg

    • This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by corusx.
    Thread Starter eagerlearning

    (@eagerlearning)

    Thank you corusx

    Thread Starter eagerlearning

    (@eagerlearning)

    Migrating site – It seems you can’t just copy/paste your Wix site onto www.ads-software.com. So, is it a matter of building a basic site on WordPress with one of the WP themes and then copying/pasting your Wix-created member list, forum, forms, etc.?

    What was it about astra theme and/or Gutenberg theme that seemed to work better for you or offered more features?

    Thanks again.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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