Bloggers and Content Creators - What is your preference?

Calling all bloggers, content creators, etc

Preference Question

  1. Do you prefer installing and managing Wordpress yourself ? Or paying for managed Wordpress hosting?

  2. Do you have a preference of a particular system? Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix, etc

Find out what’s being managed.

I used a base Bluehost account & Studio Press/Cloudways managed servers. Setting up my WordPress sites …about the same effort.

I like being able to buy a box of server space through Cloudways. With BlueHost my sites crept to almost negative throughput because of sharing space with others. (Several Years Ago)

No way do I qualify as an expert. I am satisfied with Cloudways for $10 a month I buy a private expandable box for my tiny personal site. They provide cache software and multiple servers around the world… Their robot stops by and lets me know about how to configure my site to run better.

With BHost I could do the same but the plugins were my choice and I often subscribed to them and had to figure out optimal configurations. Some managed Wordpress providers limit plugin choice. (Not necessarily bad)

I ran Wordpress on the above hosts. Satisfied. Once set up they run without much fuss. This observation is not against using SquareSpace but the oh my god blather about plugins and updates is overdone.

As someone who has been in the WordPress world, mostly as a user and an enthusiast, I say first that good hosting 1) is pricy and 2) is absolutely worth it. By “good” I mean Managed WordPress by an established host, and thankfully, there are many good ones.

As to which direction to go regarding types of website platforms, it definitely depends on your objective. I have never used Wix or SquareSpace, so I can’t speak to them as a user, but I do know that the amount of site customization compared to WordPress is more limited. But that is the point. Those systems cater to those who really don’t want to customize their site that much beyond just the visual and content changes.

The great thing about WordPress is it’s open-source nature and philosophy. It’s a tool that you can make into whatever you want, and host wherever you can. For some that freedom is scary and overwhelming, for others it’s extremely exciting.

That, and WordPress has never been more approachable than it is right now. Page Builders have brought the ease of drag and drop site design to WordPress. You can spin up a complete WordPress site in seconds now. It’s pretty great.

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Just wanted to add and clarify. I have been using Wordpress for so many years, it’s an automatic reflex for me to do many of the tasks in there.

One of the things that I have noticed over the years that sometimes takes more time is the actual maintenance, regular updates, etc to avoid getting hacked, abused, spammed, etc.

So I began to wonder how much time would I actually save if I switched to something managed instead of my Cloudways server, I would save time and create more content.

I’m not directly answering the question, but something to think about: Wordpress is by far the most attacked/probed/prodded thing on our network. Keeping an instance running safely can be highly nontrivial, so while a managed service may cost money, it’ll probably save you effort and grief.

I manage the website for a local commiunity organization. The website runs on Wix.com. I do not recommend Wix.com. They have their own, proprietary, nonstandard way fo doing everything. I’ve been struggling to get up to speed.

Previously the site was on wordpress.com. I wish it was still there. Wasn’t my decision to move.

I use wordpress that is managed and kept up to date by the ISP.

I have sites managed by wordpress.com itself. Yes, significantly reduced number of available plugins, but they do what I need, and the sites are rock-solid, well-protected and updated, there’s a good selection of themes, and I don’t have to spend a single second thinking about maintenance or backups or security.

If you put yourself on the mailing list you’ll periodically get offers for 20%-off on hosting too. In fact, I received this on 2/13:

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