Just as the popularity of WordPress is continuously soaring, so is the hype surrounding HTML5. Today’s post will drill down into these two topics and help you decide which of the two platforms best fits your business needs.
Let’s find out!
WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS) used by 42.8% of the top 10 million sites surveyed as of October 2021. The CMS platform was initially released on May 27, 2003.
Plus, the best part about WordPress is that it offers a variety of features and plugins that would help you reach your goals as an online business owner. Its versatile and customizable features make it highly adaptable for websites that aim to sell products or services.
Let’s discuss its main features in brief.
The most prominent features of WordPress include:
WordPress comes with a backend Dashboard and a graphic user interface using which you can update your site’s content or fine-tune your site’s layout, appearance, or functionality. You can even replace the theme whenever you want.
The WordPress post editor is easy to use. It comes with a small learning curve, letting you easily create media-rich pages and posts and also manage their layout with ease.
WordPress is flexible because of its extensive customization options, themes, and plugins. These options allow you to create a site that’s unique every time. For one, most WordPress themes are highly customizable, allowing you to edit and adjust every aspect like the layout, colors, and more and improve its UX. You can also add a custom domain.
WordPress allows you to design a mobile-friendly site with a click – using responsive themes.
You can drag-and-drop images into posts and pages to create professional photo galleries. It also allows you to embed audio, video, and more.
Your new posts will be automatically sent to Twitter, Facebook, and other social channels. You can add social tools to increase shares, as shown in the image below.
WordPress has a lot of great stats and built-in monitoring tools. These tools can really help you take control of your website and give you the ability to analyze what content is working and what is not. You can also understand your visitors better with rich stats.
Built-in sitemaps and other SEO tools make it easy for new users to find you.
You can get support 24/7 via email and the community forums. If you are using a paid plan, Happiness Engineers will be available via live chat.
WordPress is suitable for websites where the content will be updated regularly- a blog, news, or e-commerce website. It is the go-to option for bloggers, marketers, and SEO professionals.
A great example of a site built using WordPress is Shop Catalog, an online store of trending youth culture site Thought Catalog.
The designer has created a simple grid layout on a white background, and thus the bold colors and graphics of the featured books pop.
The top navigation bar is neat. Visitors will be able to easily find what they are searching for. Also, content gets updated regularly on this site.
HTML5, first released on 22 January 2008, is the 5th and the most advanced version of HTML.
The markup language used to create web pages and web applications has a lot of tags to make the life of designers easier. As per stats, HTML5 is used by 89.7% of all the sites.
Let’s get a brief overview of its key features.
The latest features of HTML5 include:
With the introduction of audio and video tags, developers can embed a video or audio on the site. While developing an HTML5 video, you can use CSS and CSS3 for styling the video tag. It also lets you change features, such as the border, opacity, reflections, animations, and more. You don’t have to build a video player either.
When you use <header> and <footer> tags, the browser knows what to load first and what to load later. You no longer have to spot the two elements using a <div> tag.
You can use a <figure> tag to mark up an image in a document. The <figcaption> tag can define a caption for the image.
With the <nav> tag, it is much easier to create a navigation menu. It designs an orderly horizontal menu of text links. Screen reading software can accurately spot primary navigation areas in the doc.
Using the progress tag, you can monitor how a task is progressing at the time of execution. You can integrate and use it with JavaScript.
HTML5 is usually used to develop huge applications, animations, and other complex apps for the browser.
A good example of a site that has been built using HTML5 is Allbirds, a sports shoe brand in New Zealand. The site was built using Shopify and it blends lifestyle photography and illustrations. The site gives the users a feel for the product instead of just telling the story behind the brand.
Also, the site shows great attention to detail and thought behind its product design.
Hopefully, the above analysis managed to shed some light on the HTML vs WordPress battle.
Before you make your decision to use a static HTML5 website or a WordPress site, find out why you are building your website. Remember, your goal will help you choose which one to use to build your site. Are you going to push frequently updated content to your clients? Do you want a site where you can make changes easily? How much budget can you allocate to hosting? Consider all these points and settle for the right one.
While WordPress is a more suitable option for novices and experts alike, HTML5 is more suitable for professional or large businesses that can hire professional designers. Review their features, pros, cons, and use cases carefully, and choose the option that aligns the best with your requirements.
Also, if you are looking for full comparisons between WordPress and the rest of CMS platforms, you can take a look at these guides:
I write for GrowthRocks, one of the top growth hacking agencies. For some mysterious reason, I write on the internet yet I’m not a vegan, I don’t do yoga and I don’t drink smoothies.
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