I started looking into the topic of WordPress vs. Adobe Business Catalyst by asking some simple questions. What’s so great about WordPress? About Adobe Business Catalyst? What’s the big buzz about them and how do they compare to each other? After digging through endless pages on the topics, here ‘s what I learnt.
First, web designers and programmers are very opinionated people. They like what they like and they hate what they hate – and most of them like WordPress. The truth is that WordPress currently accounts for 55 percent of the top one million websites that use a Content Management System. WordPress also accounts for almost 20 per cent of the top one million websites. Those numbers are huge, and they also have great implications.
We can assume from these statistics that WordPress is easy to use. Knowing some HTML , CSS, and PHP one can start learning how to customize a WordPress website, begin to understand the way WordPress templates are created and how they generate information every time a website page has a visitor.
For clients and the non-techies, the WordPress Dashboard couldn’t be easier to use. Anyone who can use Facebook or buy a book online can figure out how to write posts, create pages, and make simple customizations. Training someone how to make basic updates on a WordPress website can take as little as an hour.
The next best thing about WordPress, and let’s just face it this is the most important thing to most people – it’s free! WordPress is free and open sourced, which means that WordPress believes in free redistribution and access to an end product’s design and implementation details. Think of it like a craft brewery where they write the recipe and process on the walls for everyone to see and utilize – and the beer is free. No “secret ingredients” here.
Now that we know a few things about WordPress let’s move to the Adobe Business Catalyst. The most positive commentary Adobe Business Catalyst is getting is due to it’s proficiency in dealing with – you guessed it – business. Adobe Business Catalyst is a hosted solution, meaning that Adobe will host your website for a monthly fee. Depending on the size, purpose, and monthly bandwidth requirements of your website hosting costs will vary. Unlike WordPress that is mainly a publishing platform, Adobe Business Catalyst is a superior platform for e-commerce, meaning it will be beneficial to a large business with many items to sell online. Adobe Business Catalyst also integrates business solutions like e-mail marketing and analytics, so you can more easily stay in touch with customers and keep track of sales and visits.
Hopefully your business is successful enough to pay the Adobe Business Catalyst fees which start at $6-$80 a month. Downfalls of Adobe Business Catalyst is that it doesn’t do as well as WordPress with search engines. It also isn’t designed to be as powerful of a tool for publishing information/ blogging.
After having visited a number of websites that run on Adobe Business Catalyst, my first impression is that in most cases they look alike and are somehow generic. That is because setting up an Adobe Business Catalyst website is relatively easy and inexpensive. Businesses who choose Adobe Business Catalyst don’t have to spend as much money to design and develop their website upfront. Unlike WordPress that requires more thorough knowledge for the customization of the code, an Adobe Business Catalyst website can be set up with the prebuilt templates from an Adobe Business Catalyst partnering company. After the website is set up for a very low cost, the partnering company makes money based on commission (20%), whether that is one time or ongoing. Therefore, the company who you’ll contract with will not charge as much as building a WordPress website but they capitalize on the residual monthly income.
Adobe advertises the Business Catalyst as being able to set a website in minutes. How good will that website that is set up in minutes be is a matter of personal opinion. Metaphorically speaking, I’d prefer a meal that has been cooked for a few hours rather than have a McDonalds burger that is handed to me as soon as I walk in, but you get what you pay for.
As stated above, techies are opinionated. There are a lot of people on the internet who have a lot to say about what you should be learning and doing. The most important lesson of all is that you should do your homework. Every business is different and every website is different. If you don’t take the time to research what will work best for you, you are doing yourself a great disservice. Looking at statistics about WordPress and Adobe Business Catalyst will help you decide which one is the best choice.
Customer Success Manager
