Hubspot CMS Vs WordPress: Which is Better in 2024?

Are you looking to pick from one of the best Content Management Systems (CMS) for your website? There are several options out there, but WordPress CMS stands out in all of them. Over 35% of the web is powered by WordPress, and its extensive features are easy to use and create a customizable website.

However, there are other great platforms used by several people that are straight-up competing with WordPress. HubSpot CMS is one such platform that has built-in CMS and powers your website to a personalized and secure experience.

So, how can you choose between the two? We are here to help you with a brief comparison of HubSpot CMS Vs WordPress to help you make the best choice. 

HubSpot vs WordPress – CMS Platforms

If you are thinking about what these two platforms are for and what purpose they serve, read ahead. WordPress and HubSpot are both content management systems (CMS); however, they are made for different types of users. 

While both of these allow you to customize themes, appearance, and functionality, each has a notable focus and is best suited for specific users. Today, we aim to examine who might benefit most from each platform.

Additionally, before getting into the comparison mode, it’s important to note that we will be comparing WordPress.org and not WordPress.com, which is a more powerful and versatile form of WordPress. 

Read here how to migrate from WordPress.com to WordPress.org  

What is WordPress?

First launched in 2003, WordPress is one of the most popular, flexible, and trusted CMS platforms on the web. It is installed on third-party hosting providers like Bluehost, GoDaddy, and others. WordPress has completely evolved and grown over years and is now the most dominant website-building platform. From blogging to setting up an eCommerce store or running an online business, you can do it all with WordPress. 

The best part is, it is easy and free to customize your website as you want. You don’t need to be a tech person to start your website on WordPress making it great even for beginners. Additionally, it has a wide range of free and premium themes and plugins to design your website with full freedom. WordPress is all about empowering your website with millions of possibilities! 

Read: Top Reasons To Use WordPress For Your Website

What is HubSpot? 

HubSpot CMS is a cloud-based content management system (CMS) perfect for marketers and developers to build user-friendly websites. With its in-built SEO and marketing services, it goes beyond just a CMS and acts as a Content Optimization System (COS). HubSpot CMS helps you create a personalized experience with its fully integrated website features.

Hubspot is a one-stop solution for all the functionality you need for your website. You can manage multi-language content creation, use the best SEO advice and get advanced security for your website with HubSpot.

Quick Comparison

Before moving on to the detailed description of both platforms, let’s go through a quick comparison of HubSpot CMS and WordPress for more accuracy:

HubSpot CMS	WordPress
Cloud-based CMS platform	An open-source CMS platform
Paid platform	Free of cost
Proprietary software with inbuilt features like hosting, SSL, SEO and marketing tools, Analytics, Themes, and added security	An open-source software with the freedom to own the website and use as many features as you want. However, you need to buy a hosting provider for WP
Has exceptional speed and security services	Limited features for speed and security
Limited control	Flexible and easy-to-use
In-built high-end SEO and Marketing tools	Several Plugins for SEO and marketing

HubSpot vs WordPress – Detailed Comparison 

Let’s get into a detailed analysis of both HubSpot and WordPress to understand more about their features and functionalities. Following detailed comparison can help us choose the best fit for building our website.

Ease of Use 

HubSpot is an all-in-one platform that helps you build a website easily and quickly. The platform is aimed at both marketers and developers with easy-to-use features and an interface. With HubSpot, you need not purchase extra plugins to create a website because everything is inbuilt. Though, it requires a bit of understanding to begin with. Thankfully, HubSpot offers walkthroughs and beginner-oriented options for someone with no advanced knowledge of websites.

WordPress CMS is a powerful platform to build your website, but it can be complex to begin with. Its ease of use depends on the theme and features you chose. Someone looking to create an advanced website must know some advanced coding and require extra plugins and tools to start building a website. However, being a popular CMS platform, there are various tutorials and easy-to-follow guides for both beginners and advanced WordPress users. 

Read more: How to Create a WordPress website in 2024

🎖️ Winner: HubSpot, as it is generally considered more user-friendly with its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality, while WordPress has a steeper learning curve but can be easy to use with plugins and tutorials. 

Themes & Templates

HubSpot CMS offers free default themes for users at the time of sign-in. Users can edit the default theme or download a new one from the HubSpot marketplace with more than 230 themes to choose from. On the other hand, a developer is required to use HubSpot CLI to edit the default theme and import it into their dashboard. 

When it comes to themes and templates, there is no one better than WordPress CMS. It offers thousands of both free and paid themes and templates to choose from. You can pick from top premium themes with page builders like Divi and Elementor WordPress website page builders and control the whole look and feel of your website. 

Moreover, developers get the option to create custom page templates and extend their theme functionality. 

🎖️ Winner: WordPress, as it has thousands of both free and premium themes as compared to HubSpot’s limited themes.

Customizations

For beginners, HubSpot CMS offers a simple drag-and-drop editor with various customization features. It offers pre-built website themes and modules which can be customized based on the theme you chose. 

For advanced users like developers, customization is controlled by the CLI (command line interface) version of HubSpot. Every template offered under this version is built from scratch and can be customized the way you want. However, one needs to have some technical knowledge to bring out the best of this customization option. 

With WordPress, you have full freedom and flexibility to customize your website. It offers various features, themes, and elements which make it easy to build the website your way. There is a wide variety of both free and paid plugins that helps you customize your text, media, layout, design, and more. Thus, you have full authority over your website’s looks and functions. 

🎖️Winner: With its unmatched options and flexibility for customizations, WordPress is a clear winner here.

HubSpot vs WordPress – Publishing Tools 

Both HubSpot and WordPress have amazing blog publishing capabilities. However, both have different ways to do so. 

It’s easier to create blog posts with WordPress using its classic blog editor or Guttenberg editor. Additionally, you have the option to elevate the publishing with plugins like AIOSEO to help with search engine optimization or add media to make the blogs more interesting. If you’re using the Gutenberg block editor, there are many plugins available that add new modules and extend its functionality.

On the other hand, HubSpot CMS has a unique approach to blogging. Here, you can build website pages, landing pages, blogs, and even your site structure via different tabs. The blog editor is classified into two main tabs with extra settings for your site’s header, footer, blog content, and comments. 

A good feature is the ability to designate posts to various themes, allowing you to change the build based on your content. HubSpot is quite user-friendly. However, some adjustments are required if you’re used to other post-editors.

Read: Blogger Vs. WordPress: What’s Best For Blogging?

🎖️Winner: The winner is WordPress here, as it’s more user-friendly and is easy to begin with if you are new to blogging

Security 

HubSpot CMS offers the best security features as it is a Saas solution (software-as-a-server). It offers you a complete built-in package with an SSL certificate for all types of protection, end-to-end encryption, and a web application firewall all at one platform. There are no extra plugins or tools required for you to add security in HubSpot CMS. 

Unlike HubSpot, WordPress does not come with inbuilt security features. Its security is largely dependent on the hosting service and plugins you choose. This is why, you need to choose the best hosting for your WordPress website to keep your site safe from any external threat.

Check out WordPress Security Checklist.  There are various great hosts like GoDaddy, Convesio, and plugins available for added security in WordPress. Read here: Best WordPress Security Scanners.

However, if anytime you feel things are getting out of hand, you can always reach out to professional WordPress support and maintenance services or WordPress support.

🎖️Winner: HubSpot has an edge over WordPress because of its robust built-in security features.

E-Commerce 

HubSpot does not really offer any associated e-commerce plugins. To create and start an online store with HubSpot CMS you have got only two options. One is an embedded payment button offered by digital wallets like Paypal and the other is setting up a dedicated e-commerce platform. In short, you will need a third-party tool or plugin which requires a complicated setup, to begin with. 

WordPress can be easily integrated with various e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify – Read WooCommerce Vs Shopify. The best option is using WordPress+ WooCommerce to kickstart your online store with ease and efficiency. However, if you need customized solutions for WooCommerce you will need to purchase some add-ons with it. 

Read: WooCommerce Site Speed: Quick Tips to Speed Up Your Online Store

🎖️Winner: The WooCommerce plugin in WordPress makes it a winner in terms of setting up an online store easily and quickly.

Pricing

HubSpot, a SaaS solution, comes with a full-fledged package of hosting, security and SSL certificate and one website. This will cost for this starts at $23/month. 

However, if you want a more premium and professional plan, you must pay more at $360/month. However, this vast cost covers 100 websites, 10,000 web pages, up to 100 emails inboxes and more. So, it’s a win-win situation for all. 

WordPress, on the other hand, is an open-source platform and comes free but with additional costs of buying a domain, hosting plan, themes, plugins etc.

🎖️ Winner: Because of it’s open source functionality, WordPress have a edge when it comes to costing. However, HubSpot can also be a viable option if you are marketing professional looking for greater control over your customers base.

Pros and cons of using WordPress 

Every platform, no matter how good and powerful it is, has its pros and cons. Before making a choice, it is wise to make a sound decision by reflecting on both the advantages and disadvantages of the platform. So, here are some pros and cons of using WordPress:  

Pros

• Cost: WordPress is a free platform that can be used by anyone on the web. However, to start using it, you will need to buy a domain name and a hosting provider in addition. There are many hosting providers that are quite affordable and create the whole WordPress installation process for you. 

• Wide Variety of Plugins: The best part of using WordPress is its several themes and plugins that let you bring more design functionality to your website. There are thousands of free and paid plugins available in the WordPress directory alone. 

• Customizable Themes: With thousands of features and plugins available, you can customize and design the website you like. From layout to the color scheme, you can have full control over your website theme. 

• FTP Access: FTP is a File Transfer Protocol software that allows you to build a fully customized website for you or your clients. This feature is great for those who want to modify their website or directly upload or transfer files from one website to another. 

• WordPress Community: Being the most popular and entrusted platform on the web, WordPress has successfully held a huge community of WordPress users online. These are people who work together to develop the platform and contribute towards its growth. As a part of the WP community, you can get help and support anytime you want within the community for Free of cost. 

Cons: 

• Too Simple: Sure everyone likes simple and easy things in life. However, sometimes simple and easy things can hamper your creativity. WordPress is an open-source and free platform and anybody can use it to build a website. This can lead to your website looking identical to many others who are using the same platform. This can lead to declining your uniqueness. 

• Site Speed: If you chose WordPress you might face speed-related issues if you do not know how to enhance your site speed. You will have to install additional plugins that can help you improve your website speed. 

• Security vulnerability: Since WordPress is used by thousands of people on the web, it is the most vulnerable to security issues and threats. There is a high chance that your site is open to several hackers and malware issues. So, you need to be very careful about your site security. 

Pros and cons of using HubSpot

Let’s look at some pros and cons of HubSpot CMS as well: 

Pros

• Built-in features: Unlike WordPress, HubSpot CMS has many built-in advanced features. From hosting services to inbuilt SEO and marketing tools, HubSpot has several features that can help you build a highly customized website without any external plugins. 

• Unique content: With its feature capacity, HubSpot can build and produce an authentic content website. Several components help you build a content-rich experience for your users like no other. 

• Live Preview: CMS Hub interface allows you to view all the changes you have done to your website and view them in real-time using a drag-and-drop tool. 

• Dedicated support team: HubSpot offers a dedicated team of support constantly working on bringing the best solutions for your website issues. You can directly interact with the support team or reach out via Twitter, raise support tickets, or use your HubSpot account. 

Cons

• Costly: Unlike WordPress, HubSpot CMS comes with a cost starting with the lowest plan of $300/month. You can also take a yearly plan with some discount if necessary. Though, you can access the HubSpot CMS free 14-day trial to check if it works out well for you or not

• Closed Platform: The most typical problem with HubSpot is that it is not an open-source platform and thus not all can have access to it. Also, you cannot make any changes on the platform because of certain limitations. 

• Limited Freedom: With a closed platform comes less flexibility and freedom to work according to your style. You will have to depend on CMS HubSpot for many of the choices and lose some control over your website there. 

Final Thoughts

When it comes down to choosing between HubSpot CMS and WordPress, there is no real winner in this race. Eventually, it all depends on you picking an ideal fit between the two platforms according to your website needs and functionality. With the above-detailed comparison and information about both CMS, we aim to bring clarity for you to make the right choice. 

If you are a beginner who requires more freedom and wants to build your website your way, you can choose to go with WordPress. If you want an all-in-one package and to keep yourself focused, you can go ahead with HubSpot CMS. We hope our blog above will help you choose the best fit for your website. 

FAQS – Hubspot CMS vs WordPress