I was a pretty big fan of WordPress … was! I mean, it's still OK and it has its pluses and minuses, but it's also a huge pain in my butt!
Then I met the love of my life, the HubSpot CMS. It wasn't love at first sight, but once I warmed up to her, I was hooked.
I say this because even though I've been fully bought-in on the HubSpot Marketing software (as well as many of HubSpot's sales tools) since 2016, I wasn't steering any of my clients to the HubSpot CMS. At first I felt like the HubSpot CMS locked my clients into a platform, they may not want to be on long-term. I also initially thought the CMS was priced too high.
My thinking on this has changed, and here's why.
First, let's just briefly touch on some issues with WordPress. If you use a theme or template created by someone else, then you are almost surely working with a bloated theme — a theme that has much more code then you actually need. Secondly, you are assuming that the creator of your theme is going to a) stay in business for a long time and b) actually provide some support to you.
If you build your own WordPress theme, like we've done, you still face issues. You need plugins to help you accomplish all the functionality you need, and these plugins have the same issues that complete themes have. They were made by others and some of these plugin creators don't stick around too long and/or provide any support.
If your WordPress plugins aren't updated regularly and correctly, you end up with major security issues.
Finally, WordPress was meant to be an easy-to-use, easy-to-update blogging platform. However it has evolved into much more than that. Most WordPress sites these days have so many customized features that you need a professional to maintain them. This maintenance is necessary every single month.
If you have HubSpot Marketing software, it's a complete no-brainer because all of your content can be kept in one place. You can personalize content for your site visitors and much more. But let's focus on the standard benefits of the CMS that make it a much better — and easier — solution for a small business to manage.
HubSpot CMS websites include an SSL, which ensures a safe browsing experience for all of your site visitors. Additionally, the software is constantly updated so any potential security issues are found and dealt with immediately, so your site experiences no downtime.
HubSpot sites are backed by a world-class content-delivery network that serves your content across the globe in the fastest way possible … which we all know is important for both SEO and user experience. There are also built-in SEO recommendations that help you optimize your content.
There's an extremely intuitive and easy-to-use back-end that includes drag-and-drop modules. Almost anyone can create professional-looking website pages, landings pages and blogs. There are even built-in form creators.
If you ever need help with the HubSpot CMS, you can train yourself with several different courses in the HubSpot Online Training Academy or simply reach out to HubSpot's world-class support team.
What's not to like? Cost maybe? I'm not so sure, though, The HubSpot CMS is $300/month, and while that may seem expensive at first, I'm finding more and more small businesses who don't think it is. Once you factor in the cost for hosting, buying an SSL and maintaining your site and its various plugins with another CMS, the HubSpot CMS pricing could actually be much more affordable.
If you could get rid of all your hosting headaches, plus remove the burden of ongoing code maintenance, that alone would convince most that HubSpot's CMS is the way to go. But once you add in fast loading content, an easy-to-use back-end and no security issues … it's a slam-dunk.
Want to know more about the HubSpot CMS or see a demo of it in action? Reach out and we'll let you behind the curtain to see how much more enjoyable your website can be.