WordPress Alternatives: 19 Picks For Small Businesses

WordPress still runs a huge slice of the internet—43.3% of all websites (reported in 2025). But here’s what most SMBs miss: market share isn’t a safety guarantee. When platform drama, plugin conflicts, performance issues, or hosting restrictions hit, you don’t just have a “website problem.” You have a lead flow problem.

This matters even more in January. A lot of small businesses use Q1 to rebuild their marketing engine: new service pages, new landing pages, new content calendar, maybe a store refresh. If your CMS is slow, fragile, or hard to update, it quietly taxes every campaign you run.

I’ve found that choosing a website platform is less about “which CMS is best” and more about which platform keeps publishing easy, keeps costs predictable, and keeps SEO fundamentals clean. Below is a practical guide to 19 WordPress alternatives, organized by what SMBs typically need: a simple marketing site, a content-first engine, ecommerce, or a more technical build.

How SMBs should choose a WordPress alternative

The right WordPress alternative is the one that supports your content marketing without adding new chores.

Start with 5 questions (and answer them honestly)

1. What’s the job of the site? Lead gen, ecommerce, publishing, community, or “brochure + credibility.”
2. Who updates it weekly? Owner, assistant, marketer, or developer.
3. How search-dependent are you? If SEO is core, performance and technical control matter more.
4. What’s your real budget? Include ongoing costs: add-ons, email tools, apps, maintenance retainers.
5. How allergic are you to lock-in? Some platforms make it hard to export or migrate.

Snippet-worthy truth: A CMS decision is a 2–4 year commitment, not a weekend project.

The CMS trade-offs that actually affect leads

• Speed & Core Web Vitals: Faster pages generally convert better and reduce paid traffic waste.
• Editing workflow: If publishing is annoying, you’ll publish less. Your competitors won’t.
• Feature “tax”: Some platforms nickel-and-dime you through apps and add-ons.
• Portability: If you can’t export cleanly, you’re buying a cage.

Quick website builders (fastest path to “live”)

If your goal is to launch a clean, credible website quickly—and you don’t want to think about hosting, updates, or security—hosted builders are the shortest route.

Wix

Best for: very small businesses that want drag-and-drop control and quick setup.

• What it does well: all-in-one hosting, templates, apps, basic ecommerce.
• What to watch: performance is a common complaint; no easy export if you leave.

My stance: Wix is fine for “get online this week.” If SEO is your primary acquisition channel, you may outgrow it.

Squarespace

Best for: service businesses and creatives who want strong design with minimal setup.

• What it does well: polished templates, integrated features, easy publishing.
• What to watch: design constraints and rising costs as you add features.

Squarespace often wins when you want a site that looks expensive without hiring a designer.

Webflow

Best for: SMBs that care about design control and want a more “pro” build.

• What it does well: serious design system, clean output, CMS flexibility, good SEO controls.
• What to watch: learning curve; many businesses pay ongoing help (often $250+/month retainers reported by developers).

If you want a marketing site that can evolve into programmatic SEO pages later, Webflow is a real contender.

Weebly

Best for: simple sites, especially if you already use Square.

• What it does well: straightforward editing, Square-powered ecommerce.
• What to watch: limited templates and customization.

Weebly is the “keep it simple” option. Great until you need more nuance.

Ecommerce platforms (when selling is the core business)

If your revenue depends on online transactions, don’t force a general CMS to behave like a store unless you have a strong reason.

Shopify

Best for: most SMB ecommerce brands.

• What it does well: fast store launch, secure checkout, strong ecosystem.
• What to watch: app sprawl—merchants often end up paying for many apps; monthly + transaction + apps adds up.

Rule of thumb: Shopify is ideal when products are the business, not an add-on.

BigCommerce

Best for: growing catalogs that need more built-in ecommerce features.

• What it does well: more features in-core, no transaction fees, good for complex catalogs.
• What to watch: steeper learning curve and smaller talent pool than Shopify.

PrestaShop

Best for: businesses that want control and are comfortable with self-hosting.

• What it does well: open-source flexibility, strong international support.
• What to watch: hosting + maintenance are on you; modules/themes can become the real cost.

Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Best for: enterprise ecommerce with complex requirements.

• What it does well: handles huge catalogs, advanced business logic, B2B.
• What to watch: it’s expensive and demanding; success depends heavily on expert partners.

Honest take: if you’re an SMB, Magento is usually overkill unless you’re already operating at enterprise complexity.

Open-source CMS (more control, more responsibility)

Open-source alternatives can be powerful—but they only stay “cheap” if you can maintain them.

Joomla

Best for: sites needing stronger user permissions or multilingual support built-in.

• What it does well: structured CMS, advanced access controls.
• What to watch: smaller ecosystem and steeper learning curve than WordPress.

Drupal

Best for: complex websites with workflows, permissions, and structured content at scale.

• What it does well: enterprise-grade content modeling and security.
• What to watch: requires specialized talent; maintenance costs can be high.

Drupal is a “build the right thing once” platform. It’s rarely the “quick marketing site” platform.

Blogging & publishing platforms (content marketing first)

If your strategy is thought leadership, SEO articles, newsletters, and memberships, these options can beat WordPress for focus and simplicity.

Ghost

Best for: content businesses that want speed + memberships + newsletters.

• What it does well: fast publishing experience, built-in memberships, Stripe integration.
• What to watch: fewer plugins/themes than WordPress.

I like Ghost when you want a lean content engine and don’t want 30 plugins installed to do basic things.

Medium

Best for: distribution and credibility, not ownership.

• What it does well: built-in audience and recommendations.
• What to watch: limited customization; you don’t own the platform relationship.

Medium is better as a channel, not your main business website.

Blogger

Best for: experimenting with blogging at $0.

• What it does well: free, stable, Google integrations.
• What to watch: stagnation and limited growth options.

Substack

Best for: newsletter-first creators and small publishing brands.

• What it does well: payments + email delivery + simple publishing.
• What to watch: 10% platform fee on paid subscriptions (plus processing), limited design, platform dependence.

Substack is great for starting a newsletter quickly. For long-term brand control, you may want a platform you own.

Headless CMS (for modern marketing stacks)

Headless CMS separates content storage from the front-end. That’s powerful for multi-channel marketing—but you need developer support.

Contentful

Best for: teams publishing across web, app, and other channels.

• What it does well: enterprise workflows, strong APIs.
• What to watch: can get expensive; requires developers.

Sanity

Best for: teams wanting a highly customizable editing environment.

• What it does well: flexible content modeling, real-time collaboration.
• What to watch: setup complexity; you’ll need technical ownership.

Strapi

Best for: businesses wanting an open-source headless CMS they can self-host.

• What it does well: control and extensibility, modern Node ecosystem.
• What to watch: you own updates, backups, and security.

Static site generators (speed and security, with trade-offs)

Static sites are fast because pages are pre-built. They’re also harder for non-technical teams to update.

Hugo

Best for: documentation, technical marketing sites, content-heavy sites needing speed.

• What it does well: extremely fast build times; low-cost hosting.
• What to watch: editor workflow is developer-centric; dynamic features require add-ons.

Jekyll

Best for: GitHub-based sites and documentation.

• What it does well: GitHub Pages integration, strong ecosystem.
• What to watch: Ruby toolchain overhead and slower builds vs Hugo.

When should an SMB move off WordPress?

You shouldn’t switch platforms because of drama. You should switch when the platform is blocking marketing output.

Strong reasons to consider a switch

• You’re spending too much time on updates, plugin conflicts, or security.
• Your site is slow and hurting conversions (WordPress has ranked poorly in Core Web Vitals compared to other major CMS platforms, per 2025 reporting).
• You need built-in features WordPress requires multiple plugins for (memberships, newsletters, ecommerce flows).
• You’re worried about ecosystem risk and want a more managed solution.

Weak reasons to switch

• “WordPress is bad for SEO.” Google has repeatedly stated the CMS doesn’t rank you; execution does.
• “We need a redesign.” You can redesign on any platform. Switching only helps if the workflow improves.

A practical decision matrix (pick faster)

Here’s a simple way to choose a WordPress alternative without overthinking it:

• You want the simplest marketing site: Squarespace or Wix
• You want strong design + marketing flexibility: Webflow
• You sell products as the core business: Shopify (most), BigCommerce (complex catalog)
• You’re content-first with newsletters/memberships: Ghost
• You want newsletter-first monetization fast: Substack
• You need complex permissions/workflows: Drupal (or Joomla if you want simpler)
• You have developers and want omnichannel: Contentful/Sanity
• You want speed and security with a dev workflow: Hugo/Jekyll

One-liner you can steal: Choose the platform your team will actually publish on every week.

Next steps: do a “platform fit” audit this week

If you’re following this SMB Content Marketing United States series, you already know the pattern: content wins when publishing is consistent. Your CMS either makes that easier—or quietly prevents it.

Here’s a quick action plan I recommend:

1. List your next 10 pieces of content (service pages, FAQs, blog posts, landing pages).
2. For each platform you’re considering, ask: How many clicks, how many tools, how many extra costs to publish that content and track results?
3. Decide what you value most: speed to publish, SEO performance, design control, or platform ownership.

If you had to rebuild your site in 90 days to support lead gen, which platform would your team still like using in month six?