WordPress alternatives: eight honest options
Website builders you rent, a publishing platform, and self-hosted CMSs you own: what each one is genuinely good at, what it costs, and what you can take with you if you leave. Written by the makers of one of them, which is why every entry lists real tradeoffs.
- Choose Squarespace if you never want to think about hosting, and you want a polished site this week.
- Choose Wix if you want to start free and build by dragging.
- Choose Webflow if you design visually and want real CSS control.
- Choose Ghost if the site is mostly writing, newsletters and paid members.
- Choose Grav if the budget is zero and you are technical.
- Choose Kirby or Craft if you want a developer's CMS with a long track record, or a database behind it.
- Choose Total CMS if you want to own the site on ordinary hosting, with no database and no plugin stack, or you design in Stacks or Pinegrow.
- Choose WordPress if you need a large shop or one very specific plugin.
A note on who wrote this. We make Total CMS, one of the eight. That is a conflict of interest, so rather than pretend otherwise we have marked our own entry, listed it last, given real reasons to choose the others, and priced everything from each vendor's own page. If you build client sites for a living, our WordPress alternatives for freelancers is the narrower guide written for you.
First, the case for staying. WordPress runs about 40% of the web. Core is free, almost every host installs it in one click, and whatever you need, a plugin probably exists. WordPress core's own security record is excellent; across 2025 most of the ecosystem's reported vulnerabilities were in plugins, not core. If WordPress is working for you, nothing below is a reason to move.
People usually leave for one of three reasons, and each points to a different kind of alternative:
- You are tired of running it. Updates, plugins, backups, a database. A hosted builder (Squarespace, Wix, Webflow) takes all of that away, in exchange for a subscription and a site you cannot move.
- You mostly publish. A blog, a newsletter, paid members. Ghost was built for exactly that.
- You want to own the site with less to maintain. A self-hosted CMS without the plugin stack: Grav, Kirby or Total CMS store content as files with no database, and Craft keeps the database but gives you one product instead of an assembly.
The first decision is renting versus owning, and it matters more than any feature on this page. We have written it up on its own in hosted vs self-hosted.
At a glance
Eight worth your time.
| Product | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Squarespace | $19–$99/month, billed annually | Non-technical owners who want a polished site live this week |
| 2. Wix | Free plan; paid plans about $17–$159/month, billed yearly | Beginners and small businesses who want drag-and-drop and a free start |
| 3. Webflow | $15/month (no CMS) / $25/month with a CMS, billed yearly, per site | Designers who build visually and want hosting they never think about |
| 4. Ghost | Free to self-host (MIT); Ghost(Pro) $18–$199/month, billed yearly | Writers and publishers whose site is mostly posts, newsletters and members |
| 5. Grav | Free (MIT) | Technical owners who want free, open source and no database |
| 6. Kirby | €99 Basic (under €1M revenue) / €349 Enterprise, per site | Developers and studios who want a long track record and plain PHP |
| 7. Craft CMS | Free Solo / $279 Team / $399 Pro per project, then $99/year for updates | Teams that want structured content and a database, without a plugin stack |
| 8. Total CMS Ours | $195 Standard / $395 Pro, one-time per domain | Owners and builders who want to own the site, on ordinary hosting, with little to maintain |
The options
Each one, with its tradeoffs.
-
Beautiful templates, serious commerce, and nothing to maintain.
squarespace.com, captured Strengths
- Design is the thing it is best at: an excellent template library that looks professional with no designer
- Hosting, SSL, CDN, security and backups are all included, so there is nothing to update or patch
- Real commerce: subscriptions, point of sale, abandoned-cart recovery and automated tax, with 0% Squarespace fee on store sales from the Core plan up
- 24/7 support on every plan, including the cheapest
Tradeoffs
- A subscription with no way to self-host; if you stop paying, the site goes offline
- The export is partial: style settings and Custom CSS do not leave, nor do store, portfolio and several other page types
- No server-side code of any kind, per their own documentation
- Content types are pages, blog posts, products and events; if yours do not fit those shapes, that is the wall
- Basic takes a 2% fee on store sales
-
The easiest start of any of these, with a free plan to try it on.
wix.com, captured Strengths
- A free plan, so you can build the whole site before paying anything
- Drag-and-drop editing with a very large template library
- Hosting, security and updates are handled for you
- Online payments and e-commerce on the Core plan and above
Tradeoffs
- A Wix site cannot be moved to another host. Wix's own support article says the site "needs to be hosted and operated on Wix's servers"
- So leaving means rebuilding, design and all
- A subscription for as long as the site exists
- E-commerce and larger storage need the higher plans
-
The best visual design tool there is, with real CSS control.
webflow.com, captured Strengths
- The Designer gives genuine control over layout and CSS, not a page-builder abstraction
- Excellent hosting on every tier: CDN, automatic SSL, DDoS protection and one-click backups
- Webflow University is the best free web-design education anywhere
- A capable read-and-write API and a mature first-party MCP server
Tradeoffs
- Code export needs a paid Workspace plan on top of the Site plan, and it exports the front end only: CMS content, forms processing, site search and e-commerce stay behind
- Exported code cannot be imported back
- The cheapest plan has no CMS; the CMS tier caps at 20,000 items
- Pricing moved upmarket in 2026, with a new $2,500-a-month Team plan
-
A publishing platform for blogs, newsletters and paid memberships.
ghost.org, captured Strengths
- Built for publishing: a clean editor, email newsletters and paid memberships in one product
- Ghost takes 0% of paid subscriptions on Ghost(Pro) Publisher and above; only the payment processor charges
- Open source under the MIT license, so you can self-host it for free
- Ghost's own WordPress migration plugin brings posts, pages, tags, authors and images across
Tradeoffs
- It is a publishing tool rather than a general CMS; a site that is not mostly posts will fight it
- Self-hosting means a Node.js server: their supported stack is Node.js 22, MySQL 8 and Ubuntu, on a VPS rather than ordinary shared PHP hosting
- The migration plugin leaves custom fields, shortcodes and custom post types behind, and WordPress.org flags it as untested with recent WordPress releases
- Ghost(Pro) Starter does not include paid subscriptions, and staff seats are limited by plan
-
Free, MIT-licensed and flat-file, with nothing paywalled.
getgrav.org, captured Strengths
- Genuinely free and MIT licensed; no fee, ever
- No database, so a backup is a folder and a move is a copy
- Hundreds of plugins and themes, and ready-to-run skeleton sites, most of them free
- First-party REST API and MCP server packages for AI agents
Tradeoffs
- You host and maintain it yourself
- Free support is a community forum and Discord; direct access to the core team is a paid support contract from Trilby Media
- The admin, API and MCP server are separate packages, each updated on its own
- No user groups ship by default; you create them in the admin or in YAML
-
Fourteen years of shipping, plain PHP templates, and a bespoke admin per site.
getkirby.com, captured Strengths
- Shipping continuously since 2012
- Blueprints build an admin panel tailored to each page type, so editors only see what they should touch
- Multi-language content is built into core
- Three years of updates per license, and free private development installs
Tradeoffs
- Licensed per site and per domain, so several sites multiply the cost
- The €99 tier depends on revenue staying under €1 million
- Templates are plain PHP; it is a developer's tool, not a site builder
- No first-party MCP server; the capable one is a community plugin
-
A commercial PHP CMS built around a developer's content model.
craftcms.com, captured Strengths
- Excellent content modeling: entry types, fields and relations shaped to your content
- One product with a first-party plugin store, rather than an assembly
- Solo is free forever for a single user
- Twig templates, a constrained language you can hand to a designer
Tradeoffs
- It still needs a database to provision, back up and migrate
- Team and Pro include one year of updates, then $99 a year
- Team allows up to five users; unlimited users means Pro
- A developer has to build the site; there is no template library to start from
-
Total CMS
Ours — we make thisTotal CMS is a commercial flat-file PHP CMS with a built-in MCP server, so AI agents like Claude can work with a live site (read-write on Pro). It runs on ordinary PHP hosting.
totalcms.co, captured Strengths
- Works with the front end you already have: Twig in your own pages, or pages from a visual tool like Stacks, Pinegrow or Bootstrap Studio (how it works)
- Runs on any PHP 8.2+ host, with no database, no Composer on the server and no framework
- One purchase per domain with two years of updates; the site keeps running whether or not you renew
- The MCP server, forms, access groups, image processing, SEO and REST API are part of the CMS rather than plugins (custom schemas, automations, external API access and full MCP access are Pro)
- Content is files, so it goes in git and a backup is a folder
- A WordPress importer reads a standard WordPress export
- Support direct from the developer
Tradeoffs
- Proprietary and paid; there is no free tier for a live site, only a 45-day trial. Local development on
localhostor a.testdomain is free, with every Pro feature - You arrange hosting and keep it updated yourself; nothing like Squarespace's 24/7 desk
- No template library: you bring the front end, hand-coded or from a visual tool like Stacks
- The smallest ecosystem and talent pool on this page
- No e-commerce
How to choose
The longer answer.
Start with renting versus owning, then with what the site mostly is.
- If you never want to think about hosting, choose Squarespace. It is the best of the hosted builders for a polished site with nothing to maintain, and its commerce is serious. Accept that the design stays behind if you ever leave.
- If you want to start free and build by dragging, choose Wix. Know before you begin that a Wix site can only ever run on Wix.
- If you design visually and care about CSS, choose Webflow. Nothing self-hosted replaces its Designer.
- If the site is mostly writing, newsletters and paid members, choose Ghost. It does that one job better than any general CMS here, WordPress included.
- If the budget is zero and you are technical, choose Grav. Free, open source, no database.
- If you want a developer's CMS with a long track record or multi-language content today, choose Kirby.
- If you want structured content and are happy to keep a database, choose Craft.
- If you want to own the site on ordinary hosting, with no database and no plugin stack, choose Total CMS. It also adds content management to sites built in a visual tool like Stacks, Pinegrow or Bootstrap Studio, so the design you made is the design that ships.
- If you need a large shop, or one very specific plugin, stay on WordPress with WooCommerce, or look at Shopify. None of the self-hosted options here does e-commerce as well.
If you are down to two flat-file options, the best flat-file CMS compares them in more depth.
Questions
Common questions.
What is the best alternative to WordPress?
It depends on why you are leaving. If you want nothing to maintain, a hosted builder: Squarespace for design and commerce, Wix for the easiest start, Webflow for visual control. If you mostly publish, Ghost. If you want to own the site with less to maintain than WordPress, a self-hosted CMS: Grav if it must be free, Kirby for a long track record, Craft if you want a database, Total CMS for ordinary hosting with no database.
What is the easiest WordPress alternative?
The hosted builders. Wix and Squarespace need no hosting, no updates and no technical knowledge, and Wix has a free plan to try it on. The self-hosted options on this page all assume someone, you or a developer, sets up hosting and builds the templates.
Is there a free WordPress alternative?
Yes. Grav and self-hosted Ghost are free and MIT licensed, though Ghost needs a Node.js server. Craft's Solo edition is free for a single user. Wix has a free plan on its own hosting. Kirby, Squarespace, Webflow and Total CMS are paid, with trials or free development installs.
Can I move my content from WordPress?
Usually the content, rarely the design. Ghost has an official WordPress migration plugin, Squarespace imports WordPress content, and Total CMS ships an importer that reads a standard WordPress export. Themes, page-builder layouts and plugin-specific data do not transfer to any of them, so plan the move as a redesign that brings the content along.
What happens if I want to leave the alternative later?
This is the question to ask before you start. A Wix site cannot be hosted anywhere else. Squarespace exports some content as a WordPress file, but not your design. Webflow exports the front end on a paid Workspace plan, without the CMS content in it. Ghost exports its content and is open source. With Grav, Kirby, Craft and Total CMS the whole site is already on your own server.
You make one of these. Why should I trust this page?
Exactly as far as you can check it. Every price and claim comes from each vendor's own pages, linked below; our entry is marked and listed last; and the guide recommends a different product for most of the situations it covers. If you find something inaccurate, tell us and we will fix it.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Checked . Software and pricing change, so check each product’s own site for their current details.
Prices and claims verified from each vendor's own site on 24 October 2026:
- squarespace.com/pricing and Exporting your site
- wix.com/plans and Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere
- webflow.com/pricing and How do I export my Webflow site code
- ghost.org/pricing, Ghost hosting requirements and their license
- getgrav.org
- getkirby.com/buy
- craftcms.com/pricing
- W3Techs — WordPress usage
- totalcms.co/pricing — our own
Grav rechecked on 28 October 2026 against Grav 2.2.14: Admin2's group screens, paid support packages and skeletons.
All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. We have no affiliation with WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Ghost, Grav, Kirby or Craft. If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Keep comparing
Head to head, or zoom out.
- Hosted vs self-hosted Before you choose between Squarespace and Webflow, or between Kirby and Craft, there is a bigger question underneath: do you want to rent a website platform or own the software that runs it? Here is how to decide, from someone with an obvious stake in the answer.
- The best flat-file CMS in 2026 Five flat-file content management systems worth your time, what each is genuinely good at, and where each one will frustrate you.
- A PHP CMS without a database Running a CMS with no MySQL sounds like a corner-cutting exercise.
- WordPress alternatives for freelancers If you build client sites for a living, the CMS decision is really a decision about the next three years of your evenings.
- Making a PHP app legible to AI agents Coding agents invent functions that don't exist because the app can't describe itself.
- Webflow alternatives: six honest options Whether it is the 2026 price changes, the code export gate, or a sense that Webflow is now being built for someone else, here are the serious alternatives for people who design visually: what each costs, what you give up, and what you can take with you.
- Squarespace alternatives: six honest options Other hosted builders, a store platform, a publishing tool and self-hosted software: what each one is genuinely good at, what it costs, and what you can take with you if you leave.
- Wix alternatives: six honest options A Wix site can only ever run on Wix, so the most useful question about an alternative is what you could take with you next time.
Put it on your shortlist, then test it.
45 days, every Pro feature, no credit card. Install it next to the others and decide with a real site in front of you.