HubSpot vs WordPress: Understanding the Differences

When it comes time for your organization to decide on a Content Management System (CMS), some individuals might choose the far less invasive route with an “eenie, meenie, miny, moe” approach. However, we implore you and your organization to take the decision, at least, one step further.

In this article we’ll talk through the top two heavy hitters that are toe-to-toe in the CMS universe in a list of the top 11 best CMS platforms in 2020: HubSpot and WordPress.

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot, in a nutshell, provides inbound marketing software for small, medium, and large businesses. 

To that point, however, oftentimes when people mention HubSpot they are referencing the all-in-one digital marketing solution that allows you to:

• Create search engine optimized (SEO) blogs and web content
• Build functional and effective landing pages
• Track data and analytics
• Launch email marketing campaigns 
• And a lot more (CRM, sales software, etc) all from one convenient and comprehensive dashboard 

With so many features, there can be a lot of moving parts involved. Luckily, with one easy-to-use dashboard, your team won’t struggle with navigating additional third-party services in order to perform fundamental functions. 

Do you and your organization have the patience to filter through HubSpot’s capabilities and align them with your company’s needs to work best for you and your team?

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a highly popular, free CMS with a simple “plug and play” aspect that appeals to many users who aren’t on the hunt for an all-in-one marketing platform.

Thousands of additional add-ons, themes and plugins are available, but because they aren’t built-in, the user is required to configure these functions themself. 

This could prove either valuable or costly, depending on whether or not you have the knowledge, time, and resources available to follow through with these additional components. 

Now that we have a high level understanding of HubSpot and WordPress, let’s take a closer look at the main differences between the two. 

SEO

The creation of comprehensive, relevant content through either platform is pretty straightforward; however, the main difference between the two, in regard to creating optimized content, is important to note.

• WordPress: In order to optimize blog copy for search engines, you will need to install a plugin such as Yoast SEO to configure the content to the latest standards in SEO.
  
  
• HubSpot: Optimizing your blog copy for search engines is much more streamlined with HubSpot in the sense that search engine optimization is already configured into the platform and is already primed to comply with the latest Google algorithm updates. 

Website design

Both HubSpot and WordPress play by the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) rules in that it’s fairly simple to make on-page changes without needing a full breadth of coding knowledge.

But, as can be expected, there are subtle differences between the two. 

• WordPress: The theme your business chooses for its website will determine the amount of hands-on time (and coding knowledge) needed to create a site that functions in alignment with what your company desires. 

However, even to that point, many WordPress themes are free for a reason; additional coding elements and add-ons might not be a possibility based on the developer who owns the rights to the theme. 

• HubSpot: Drag and drop elements make creating a customized website a pain-free task for practically anyone. In addition, HubSpot automatically:

• Builds analytics into your website
• Secures websites with an SSL (secure socket layer) 
• Optimizes content for mobile

Landing pages

The difference between both WordPress and HubSpot can really be narrowed down to distinctions in their creation of landing pages.

• WordPress: Although WordPress allows for the creation of visually pleasing pages, it’s the elements behind the curtain that should matter most to your marketing team. 

Your organization needs to be able to both track leads and regularly A/B test in order to ensure your landing pages are optimized. These attributes aren’t possible on WordPress without additional third-party services like Instapage, Optimizely, and Leadpages. 

Even with the ability to work with third-party services that can help in creating an optimized landing page for your business, it’s important to also consider whether or not your team will be at peak efficiency when using multiple services as opposed to just one. 

• HubSpot: HubSpot is similar to WordPress in that your team can “drag and drop” custom (or pre-built) modules onto your landing page based on the functions you need. However, it’s the ability to both A/B test your landing page (available based on the package your organization has purchased) as well as customize the page elements to align with your branding, that makes HubSpot an easily identifiable victor in the CMS space.

The needs and subtle nuances of your business will strongly determine which CMS software is best for your team. However, in a world where content is still king and email marketing isn’t dead, obtaining an intuitive and robust CMS platform can do your organization a world of good.

Schedule your free consultation to learn how a CMS can directly impact your business growth.