WordPress Vs. HubSpot: Which One for Your Business

If you’re still not sold on the benefits of blogging, here are some statistics that might change your mind*:

• Marketers who blog receive 67% more leads than those who don’t blog.
• Companies that blog receive 97% more links to their website.
• Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.

One of the key questions to answer when blogging for business is what platform you should use. Currently, two of the most popular platforms are WordPress and HubSpot. Each of these systems provides a wide variety of features and benefits, so in order to help you determine the best platform for your needs, we wanted to take a look at how they stack up against each other:

Design

If you’re planning to integrate your blog into your existing website, both WordPress and HubSpot provide a number of tools for doing so. However, one thing you should be aware of is the need to create a design and page layout for your blog that fits within your website’s style guidelines. Both platforms provide marketplaces where site owners can download and install a variety of both free and paid pre-made templates, but configuring these templates to match your website’s layout and design may require some additional development work.

Hosting

With WordPress, one thing that site owners will need to be aware of is where the blog will be hosted. A wide variety of companies offer hosting for WordPress sites, but site owners should research their offerings to ensure that the provider offers the bandwidth, uptime, and storage space that will meet their needs, as well as any other necessary options, such as DNS management and technical support.

Site owners who utilize HubSpot have things somewhat easier, since their blog will be hosted by HubSpot, which provides consistent, quality performance through a native CDN and SaaS-based architecture.

Third Party Functionality

WordPress provides thousands of plug-ins that allow other systems to be integrated into your blog. While a wide variety of options are available, managing multiple plug-ins can be cumbersome, and support for these plug-ins is often inconsistent. In addition, utilizing a large number of plugins can negatively affect the blog’s performance, resulting in longer page load times.

HubSpot addresses these issues by functioning as an “all-in-one” platform that seamlessly combines marketing automation, analytics, and CRM, eliminating the need for many third-party systems altogether. If you do need to use a third-party system with your blog, HubSpot offers a number of integrations, as well as an API that can be used to create custom integrations. It should be noted, however, that implementing these integrations may require developer assistance.

Analytics

WordPress doesn’t provide native analytics for tracking traffic and visitor engagement, so one or more plugins will be required to enable this functionality.

HubSpot, on the other hand, provides a wide variety of analytical tools, including simple integration with Google Analytics, lead tracking, social media monitoring, and keyword analysis.

Security

WordPress is an open source system, which presents some security issues for site owners. Since the code that runs WordPress is freely available to everyone, it has become a target for hackers who may attempt to steal login credentials, access customer information, or infect a site with malware. In addition, some of the plugins available for WordPress can provide an opportunity for hackers to attack a site, so it is important to keep them up to date to address any security vulnerabilities.

As a closed system, HubSpot provides their customers with protection against attacks and vulnerabilities, and they provide 24 hour monitoring and support. In addition, HubSpot makes it easy to set up HTTPS, which not only ensures that any customer data is secure, but can also provide search engine optimization (SEO) benefits.

Support

As an open source platform, WordPress support is community-focused. Site owners can use WordPress’s official support forum to search for answers to any issues they encounter or ask for help from other members of the community. While most questions can be answered in this manner, some issues may require paid support from a developer to resolve.

HubSpot, on the other hand, provides direct support to their users, with a support staff available by email or live chat. They also provide a helpful knowledge base that walks users through the use of different aspects of the platform, ensuring that questions can be answered quickly and easily.

Cost

While using the WordPress software is free, there are a number of other costs involved in setting up and maintaining a WordPress blog, including hosting, developer services, and licensing for plugins. Depending on what systems you plan to integrate with your blog, the amount of traffic you expect to receive, and whether you will need any customization, both initial and ongoing costs will likely be required.

As an “all-in-one” platform, HubSpot reduces the need to obtain multiple licenses for different systems, and hosting is included. Depending on the number of contacts in your database, the pricing plans can vary, but they provide a number of benefits, including reliability, security, and support. In fact, HubSpot has compiled a list of the various WordPress plugins that would be required to duplicate HubSpot functionality, allowing site owners to weigh the costs and benefits of each platform.

What’s the Best Solution for Me?

Every organization has their own requirements and goals, and hopefully this comparison of WordPress and HubSpot will help you as you determine which platform will best meet your needs. If you’re still trying to decide whether you should invest in HubSpot’s all-in-one platform or use WordPress as a more cost-effective solution, we can help! Please contact us, and we’ll work with you to determine the solution that will allow you to achieve the best ROI for your business blog. We look forward to helping you achieve success in your digital strategy!

*source: HubSpot