Do you want to change the footer message in your WordPress admin panel?

The default footer in the WordPress dashboard simply states that the site has been made with WordPress and displays the version number. You may want to change that so you can credit yourself for developing the theme, advertise a pro version of a plugin, or even add support links for your clients.

In this article, we will show you how to change the footer in the WordPress admin panel.

Why Change the Admin Panel Footer?

The default footer in your WordPress website‘s admin area is basic and doesn’t really serve a purpose for most users.

It has a link to the WordPress home page and displays the version of WordPress you’re currently running. If there’s an update available, the footer link will change to let you get it and update your site.

That’s it, though. You can change it to have links back to your own site, provide some helpful links for your users, or just remove it entirely since the space isn’t seen all that often anyway.

With that in mind, let’s dig in and see how to change the WordPress admin footer two different ways.

Method 1. Changing the Footer in the WordPress Admin with WPCodeMethod 2. Changing the Footer in the WordPress Admin Manually

Changing the Footer in the WordPress Admin with WPCode

To change the footer in the admin dashboard, we’re going to insert a code snippet into our theme’s functions.php file.

Normally, we only recommend pasting code snippets into your WordPress core files for advanced users because even a slight mistake can break your site. Plus, if you update your theme, any changes to the functions.php file will be erased.

That’s why we will be using the free WPCode plugin, which makes it safe for anyone to add code snippets into WordPress files.

First, you will need to install and activate WPCode. For detailed instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once that’s done, go to Code Snippets » Add Snippet in the admin dashboard’s left-hand menu.

Simply search for ‘footer’ and hover your mouse over the entry titled ‘Change Admin Panel Footer Text.’

Then, all you need to do is click the ‘Use snippet’ button.

Next, you’ll be taken to the Edit Snippet screen. WPCode automatically configures settings for snippets that you add from the library.

Next, you just need to change the footer text on Line 5 to whatever you want the new content to say. You will need to use HTML if you intend to include links or anything other than plain text.

When you’ve changed the footer text to your liking, just toggle the switch to ‘Active’ and click the ‘Update’ button.

The new admin panel footer will now be live on your site. It will vary based on your specific changes, but the default WPCode snippet looks like this:

If you like how this code snippet works, you can take a look at the WPCode snippet library found at Code Snippets » Library to see everything that comes included for free with the plugin.

WPCode’s built-in library has dozens of pre-configured snippets. You can probably replace single-use plugins you have on your site. For example, WPCode can disable the WordPress REST API, WP Admin Bar, or media attachment pages.

Method 2. Changing the Footer in WordPress Admin Manually

Another method to change the footer in the WordPress admin is by adding code to your theme’s functions.php file. We recommend this for advanced users only, as even a small mistake can break your site.

For more information, see our detailed guide on how to paste code snippets from the web into WordPress.

First, you will need to connect to your site via FTP or through your WordPress hosting provider’s file manager. Then, head to your site’s /wp-content/themes/your_theme/ directory.

Then you just need to edit the file. You can open it in a plain-text editor like Notepad, or you can use the built-in editor if your host provides one.

Simply copy and paste this code into the functions.php file.

Be sure to change the HTML in the starts with $footer_text in the sample code to whatever you want as your new admin footer.

Finally, save your file. You should see the new footer in your admin right away.

We hope this article helped you change the footer in your WordPress admin area. You may also want to see our guide on how much does it cost to build a WordPress site, or our expert comparison of the best virtual business phone number apps for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Change the Footer in Your WordPress Admin Panel first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking for a social media cheat sheet that you can follow to quickly set up social media profiles the right way?

If you are serious about your website or blog, then you simply can’t ignore social media. The problem is that each of these platforms has different requirements for cover photos, profile images, article covers, etc. This makes it quite overwhelming for new users to get started.

In this article, we will share our ultimate social media cheat sheet for WordPress.

Why Do You Need a Social Media Cheat Sheet for WordPress?

If you have been running social media profiles for your WordPress blog or website, then you would notice that each platform has different requirements.

For example, Facebook has specific requirements for image sizes while Pinterest needs totally different proportions.

It can be difficult to remember all that information when creating social media images for your articles or profile.

A cheat sheet helps you quickly look up all these options. It will also ensure that you don’t miss anything important when creating a social media profile or publishing a new article on your WordPress website.

That being said, let’s get started with our ultimate social media cheat sheet for WordPress users.

Here is a quick overview of the things we will cover in this article:

Choose your social media platformsSocial media image sizes checklistSetting up social media optimization in WordPressSocial media settings for WordPress posts and pagesAdding social sharing buttons to your websiteSetting up automated social sharing in WordPress

Choose Your Social Media Platforms

There are so many social media websites, but not all of them are helpful in growing your business or bringing traffic to your website.

Apart from bigger sites like Facebook and Twitter, you can choose platforms that work best with your website’s target audience and niche.

For example, if you run a fashion blog, then you may want to use Instagram to promote your content.

A food and recipe blog may want to focus on YouTube and Yummly.

Home decor or DIY websites may find Pinterest helpful in finding the right audience.

Choosing the right platforms for your target audience will help you create an effective social media marketing strategy to grow your business.

Social Media Image Sizes Checklist

To promote your blog or business on social media, you will need to setup profiles, upload your website logo and a cover photo, and create images to accompany your articles and links.

You can see our article on how to easily create images for your WordPress blog to learn how to make beautiful images without hiring a graphic designer.

Now the problem is that each social media platform has specific requirements for these images. Not using the right size would make your images look skewed or stretched.

Here is our quick cheat sheet for social media image sizes that you can use when creating images for your social accounts.

Facebook image sizesTwitter image sizesInstagram image sizesYouTube image sizesPinterest image sizesLinkedIn image sizes

Facebook Image Sizes

Facebook has specific recommendations for images to be used in different areas.

Cover image: 820 x 312 pixels on computers and 640 x 360 pixels for smartphones. Cover images should be less than 100 KB in filesize. It could be in JPEG or PNG file format. You can create a larger image while maintaining the same aspect ratio, and Facebook will automatically create smaller sizes to display on mobile devices.

Profile image: An square image of at least 170 x 170 pixels on computers and 128 x 128 pixels on smartphones. For business pages, this is where you would ideally display your custom logo. This image will be cropped to display as a circle.

Shared Image: 1200 x 630 pixels. This image will be displayed on your page with a maximum width of 470 pixels and in the feed maximum width of 600 pixels.

Group cover image: 1640 x 856 pixels.

Twitter Image Sizes

Twitter is the internet’s conversation hub. Following are the recommended image sizes for Twitter to make your profile more engaging and professional.

Header image: 1500 x 500 pixels. This full-width image appears as the cover image of your Twitter profile page.

Profile image: 400 x 400 pixels. This square image is cropped to be displayed in a circular format. Twitter allows you to upload JPG, PNG, and GIF formats with a maximum file size of 2MB.

In-stream image: 1200 x 675 pixels. This image is displayed when you share an article, retweet, embed a tweet, upload images, and more. If you are already using Twitter Cards then Twitter will be able to pick the correct image to display with your article description and title.

Instagram Image Sizes

Instagram’s main content is already in a visual format. If you are uploading photos directly from your phone using the Instagram app, then it will automatically take care of appropriate image sizes for you.

For other uploads, you can follow these Instagram image size recommendations for the best results.

Profile image: 320 x 320 pixels. You can use larger image dimensions as long as it is a square image.

Image thumbnail: 161 x 161 pixels. This image is displayed as your thumbnails for your photos.

Shared photos: 1080 x 1080 pixels. You can use a higher resolution image as long as it is a square image.

Shared videos: 1080 pixels wide.

Instagram Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels or minimum 600 x 1067 pixels. File size cannot exceed more than 4 GB which is quite a lot for a high-quality video.

YouTube Image Sizes

YouTube is not only the second most popular social media platform but also the second most popular search engine. Your YouTube channel image, cover image, and video thumbnails are crucial in getting more views for your videos.

YouTube Channel cover image: 2048 x 1152 pixels. You need to make sure that the image is horizontally centered so that it looks good on mobile devices where YouTube may crop the image to fit the user’s screen size.

Channel icon: 800 x 800 pixels. This image is displayed as your channel icon and may sometimes be cropped as a circular image.

Video thumbnail: 1280 x 720 pixels. Ask any YouTube creator and they will tell you that the video thumbnail is the most important part of video optimization on YouTube. This is what YouTube users will see on their homepage, in search, and in other areas. A highly optimized video thumbnail helps you get more views and grow your channel.

Pinterest Image Sizes

Pinterest is a visual social sharing platform, which means images play the most significant role in growing your Pinterest following.

Profile image: 165 x 165 pixels. You can upload a higher resolution image with a maximum file size of 10 MB.

Profile cover: 800 x 450 pixels. Select a board to feature as your profile’s cover. Pinterest will automatically fetch pins from that board to create your profile cover.

Board cover image: 222 x 150 pixels. Pinterest allows you to choose the cover image from the pins you have saved for that board.

Pinned image preview: 236 pixels wide. Pinterest automatically scales your pins to fit their grid. For best results, you need to upload the images with an aspect ratio of 2:3 to 1:3.5.

LinkedIn Image Sizes

LinkedIn can be a great source of traffic, connections, and building a brand image. It is a social networking platform for professionals and businesses, which makes it a powerful tool to help you grow your business.

Personal profile image: 400 x 400 pixels with a maximum image file size of 10 MB.

Banner image for personal profile: 1584 x 396 pixels with a maximum file size of 4 MB.

Company cover image: 1128 x 191 pixels.

Shared image: 1200 x 627 pixels.

Company profile / logo image: 300 x 300 pixels or higher resolution image with 1:1 aspect ratio.

Setting up Social Media Optimization in WordPress

Now that you have learned about proper social media image sizes, the next step is to make sure that your WordPress site is optimized for social media.

The most important aspect of this optimization is to set up automatic inclusion of Open Graph metadata. Open Graph metadata is a technology that allows you to include additional information to your web pages that social media and search engines need.

First, you need to install and activate the All in One SEO plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin that helps you get more traffic from search engines. It is also a complete website optimization tool including support for social media platforms as well.

Upon activation, you need to visit All in One SEO » Social Networks page. From here, you need to first add your social media profile URLs under the ‘Social Profiles’ tab.

You don’t need to add all URLs, you can simply skip the social media websites where you don’t have a profile.

Next, you need to switch to the Facebook tab. From here you can see that AIOSEO enables Open Graph metadata by default.

Below that you need to provide a default post Facebook image for your website’s front page. The image you provide here will be displayed when someone shares your website’s front page or root URL on Facebook.

Next, switch to the Twitter tab. Here you can choose the default card display for your website.

A ‘summary with large image’ option will display your Twitter share image with a summary of your article.

You can now switch to the Pinterest tab. From here you can add the Pinterest confirmation tag to your website.

You can click on the link on the screen to claim your website and get the confirmation code. For more details, you can see our guide on how to verify your WordPress site on Pinterest.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Social Media Settings for WordPress Posts and Pages

Just like the SEO settings for posts and pages, you can also optimize them for social media websites.

AIOSEO plugin allows you to easily set social options for your individual posts and pages.

Simply edit the blog post or page you want to optimize, and then scroll down to ‘AIOSEO Settings’ section below the editor.

Switch to the ‘Social’ tab and you can upload a custom title and description as well as an image for Facebook and Twitter shares. You can also see a preview of what your post will look like when shared on social media.

After that, you can click on ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ to save your post or page.

Adding Social Sharing Buttons to Your Website

The easiest way to promote your website on social media is by encouraging your users to share your content. This can be achieved by adding social sharing buttons to your blog posts and pages.

First, you need to install and activate the Shared Counts plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Shared Counts is the best social media plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily add social sharing buttons to your WordPress blog posts.

Upon activation, simply head over to Settings » Shared Counts page to configure plugin options.

From here you need to scroll down to the ‘Display’ section and select the social media websites you want to display in the ‘Share Buttons to Display’ field.

After that, you can choose a button style and location where you want to display the buttons.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

You can now visit any post on your website to see social sharing buttons in action.

For more detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add social share buttons in WordPress.

Setting up Automated Social Sharing in WordPress

Social media platforms are great for building a following and bringing more traffic to your website. However, it can become quite time-consuming to share content across different platforms and engage with your audience.

Luckily, there are several online tools that you can use to automate the process.

Uncanny Automator is the best WordPress automation plugin that lets you connect your social media profiles with WordPress. Using the plugin, you can automatically share new blog posts on Facebook, Tweet them on Twitter, and share them on Instagram. Smash Balloon is the best social media feeds plugin for WordPress, and it allows you to create custom feeds on your WordPress site. You can easily embed posts from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on your site to boost engagement, increase social followers, and build trust with users. Revive Old Posts allows you to automatically re-share old blog posts to your social media profiles at regular intervals. Learn more in our tutorial on how to automatically share your old WordPress posts.Buffer is a platform that lets you set up a queue of social media updates and publish them on your preferred schedule.MonsterInsights helps you easily track social media traffic using Google Analytics. This helps you learn how your posts are performing on social media websites. For details, see this guide on how to track social media traffic with Google Analytics.

We hope this social media cheat sheet for WordPress helped you improve your social media marketing strategy. You may also want to see our list of best email marketing services and how to start your own podcast.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post The Complete Social Media Cheat Sheet for WordPress (Updated) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Would you like to add a slide panel menu to your WordPress site?

Adding a responsive menu will make it easier for users to navigate your website when using mobile devices. When they tap your menu icon, a panel menu will slide onto the screen using a beautiful animation.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add a slide panel menu in WordPress themes without writing any code.

Why Add a Slide Panel Menu in WordPress Themes?

Well-designed menus help your visitors find their way around your WordPress website. Many of your visitors will be using mobile devices, so it’s important to preview the mobile version of your WordPress site to see how your navigation menu looks on smaller screens.

Luckily, many WordPress themes come with built-in styles that will automatically show mobile-friendly menus when viewed on a small screen.

However, you may want to customize your mobile navigation even more and add a fullscreen responsive menu or animated slide panel menu.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how to add a slide panel menu in WordPress themes.

How to Add a Slide Panel Menu in WordPress Themes

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Responsive Menu plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

There is a premium version of Responsive Menu with extra themes and additional features such as conditional logic, but for this tutorial, we’ll use the free plugin.

Upon activation, navigate to the Responsive Menu » Menus page. Once there, you should click the ‘Create New Menu’ button at the top of the screen.

You will then see four themes that you can use for your new responsive menu. Additional themes are available for purchase.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the automatically selected theme. You can then click the ‘Next’ button.

This will take you to the Menu Settings page. Here you can enter a name for your responsive menu, and then select which WordPress menu you’d like to be displayed in the panel.

For the sake of this tutorial, we chose the ‘Navigation’ menu. If you need to create a new menu, then you can learn how by following our guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.

You can also hide the normal menu that comes with your WordPress theme so that your users will only see the new slide panel menu. You do this by entering CSS code into the ‘Hide Theme Menu’ field.

The code you need to enter here varies from theme to theme, and you can learn more details by clicking the ‘Know More’ link.

Users with the Pro version have a few additional settings. For example, Pro users can select the devices and pages where the menu should be shown.

Once you’re happy with the settings, you should click the ‘Create Menu’ button at the bottom of the page. This will take you to a page where you can finish customizing your menu.

You will see a preview of your website on the right of the screen, and there are buttons at the bottom to switch between phone, tablet, and desktop view. You’ll also find customization options on the left.

Notice that there is some text displayed above the menu. This is the menu’s title text and a line of text that the plugin calls ‘additional content’.

You can edit or hide the text by clicking on ‘Mobile Menu’ and then ‘Container’ in the menu on the left of the page.

You can type anything you like into the ‘Title Text’ field, such as ‘Main Menu’ or ‘Navigation.’ If you don’t want to display a title, then simply slide the ‘Title’ switch to the off position.

After that, you need to scroll down to the ‘Additional Content’ setting. You can toggle this setting off or type alternate content. In the screenshot below, you’ll notice that the switch has been toggled off so the words ‘Add more content here…’ are now hidden.

Once you’re happy with the menu settings, make sure you click the ‘Update’ button at the bottom of the page to store your settings.

The Responsive Menu plugin comes with many other options that allow you to change the behavior and appearance of your slide panel menu. You can explore these options on the plugin’s settings page and adjust them as needed.

Now you can visit your website to see the menu in action. Here’s how it looks on our demo website. Note that if the current page is in the menu, then it is highlighted with a color band.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to add a slide panel menu in WordPress themes. You may also want to learn how to track visitors to your WordPress site, or check out our list of must-have plugins to grow your site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add a Slide Panel Menu in WordPress Themes first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you comparing WordPress vs Ghost and wondering which is best for you?

WordPress and Ghost are both popular blogging and website building platforms. However, both have pros and cons that you’ll want to compare before starting your new blog.  

In this article, we’ll compare WordPress and Ghost with their strengths and weaknesses, so you can decide which is the better platform for you. 

What to Look for in a Blogging Platform?

Before we compare WordPress vs Ghost, let’s highlight the main things you should be looking for when choosing a blogging platform for your next project. 

We’ll use these factors for our WordPress and Ghost comparison. You can click on any of the quick links below to jump straight to the relevant section.

Overview – An introduction to WordPress and GhostCosts – How much does it cost to start a blog?Ease of Use – How easy are they to learn and use for an absolute beginner?Design & Templates – What are your blog design and customization options?Ecommerce – Can you use it to sell things from your blog?SEO – Can you easily optimize your website for search engines and get traffic?Addons & Integrations – Can you extend the platform’s functionality with addons and third-party tools? Support – Can you get help quickly and easily when you need it?

Note: This is a comparison between Ghost and self-hosted WordPress.org. For more details, see the differences between self-hosted WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

Overview: WordPress vs. Ghost

Before we go into our in-depth comparison of the two popular blogging platforms, it’s important we cover the basics of what each platform is.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular website builder and content management system (CMS) in the world. It powers over 43% of sites on the internet and has been around for over 18 years. 

It can be used to create nearly any kind of website or blog, and it’s used by some of the most successful WordPress blogs in the world. 

To start a new WordPress blog, you need both a domain name and web hosting. There are plenty of great WordPress hosting companies that offer a 1-click WordPress installation and easy blog setup. 

What is Ghost?

Ghost launched in 2013 with the goal of creating a streamlined publishing platform for writers, publishers, and journalists.

It has over 3 million installs with an active monthly user base of over 10,000.

It’s a very clean and minimalist platform with fast loading speeds. Those looking to get started blogging as fast as possible can begin in a couple of minutes. 

Ghost is available as a hosted platform, or as software that you can install and host yourself. For our comparison, we’ll focus on the more popular hosted version of Ghost, since the self-hosted version is very complex to set up.

Costs: Ghost vs WordPress

For most users, the cost of building a blog will be the main factor in which platform you choose. 

If you’re just starting online, then you’ll probably want to keep your costs as low as possible, then invest more as you begin to make money blogging.

Let’s look at the costs of building a blog with Ghost and WordPress and the steps you can take to keep costs as low as possible. 

WordPress — Costs

The WordPress CMS software is free and open source. But, you need to purchase a domain name and hosting to have a website live on the internet. 

Usually, a domain name costs $14.99 per year, and website hosting starts at $7.99 per month when paid annually. This can be a pretty big investment when you’re just starting out.

Luckily, Bluehost has agreed to offer our readers a 69% discount on hosting, plus a free domain name, and SSL certificate. Basically, you can get started for as low as $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Bluehost is one of the best WordPress hosting providers and is an officially recommended host by WordPress.org.

WordPress also has a massive ecosystem of free plugins and themes you can get started with to help you keep your costs down.

There are over 59,000 free plugins available in the WordPress.org plugin repository alone and over 9,000 free themes to choose from.

If you purchase any premium WordPress themes, plugins, or third-party services and software, then this can increase the price of using WordPress.

You can build your blog with free plugins and themes to keep costs as low as possible. Most premium plugins and themes also have free versions with slightly less functionality. Then, as your website grows, you can begin to invest in premium themes or plugins as needed.

Another great thing about WordPress costs is that you have complete control over your site. You can modify the code or add as many users or members to your site as you want, for no additional fees.

For more details, see our guide on the cost of building a WordPress site. It gives you a detailed breakdown of different scenarios and the steps you can take to spend as little as possible. 

Ghost — Costs

With Ghost, you pay a monthly fee based on your audience size and the plan you choose. Currently, the cheapest plan you can get is the Starter plan for $11 per month when paid annually.

This plan supports one user, up to 500 members, and gives you access to the official Ghost themes for building your blog. A free domain name and hosting are included in your account when you sign up.

If you want to add another user to your team and get access to custom themes and integrations, then you’ll need the Creator plan for $33 per month when paid annually. There are also higher priced plans for larger teams who need support for 5+ users.

Ghost defines “members” as people who can sign up for your newsletter or buy paid subscriptions. If you have more than 500 members, it will multiply the cost of any plan. For example, the Creator plan becomes $65/month when you have 5,000 members.

You can take advantage of the 14-day free trial to fully test the platform to see if it’s right for you.

Winner — WordPress

WordPress gives you the same features as Ghost at lower costs. Plus, you can add even more features using free plugins. With WordPress, you can even create an email newsletter and online store without additional costs.

As your site grows, you can choose to invest more money into your blog, but when you’re just starting, it’s easy to keep costs as low as possible. 

Ease of Use: WordPress and Ghost

Most users starting a blog aren’t programmers or coders. They need an easy to use platform to quickly build a blog and publish content without having to learn how to code. 

Let’s see how WordPress and Ghost stack up.

WordPress – Ease of Use

Overall, WordPress is pretty easy to use, but there is a slight learning curve. Since it’s open source software, you need to install it yourself and manage updates and backups. 

If you’re just getting started, you’ll also want to spend time learning about WordPress terms, themes, plugins, and more. 

To quickly grow your skills, see our guide on how to learn WordPress for free in a week or less.

Once you’ve learned the core concepts, it’s pretty easy to customize your blog and start creating content. 

WordPress comes with an intuitive visual editor called the block editor. This is what you’ll use to create your posts and pages. It lets you easily create beautiful layouts without writing any code.

You can also build custom pages using a drag and drop page builder.

These page builders are available as plugins that you install on your site, and they allow you to drag and drop different elements onto your page and easily customize them.

WordPress also has a massive plugin library to help you do anything you want to do with your blog, without having to know any code.

Ghost – Ease of Use

Ghost lets users write and publish content easily. Since the entire goal of the platform is publishing and monetizing content, it’s very beginner friendly.

As soon as you log in to your account, you’ll be taken directly to your account dashboard. Here you can create posts and pages, customize your website, and manage your members.

The post dashboard is quite similar to the WordPress block editor.

You can add images, HTML, galleries, buttons, videos, and more. 

Ghost is made for writers and bloggers looking to publish and monetize quickly.

Winner — Tie

Both WordPress and Ghost have a point and click editor, customizable templates and layouts, and a similar page and post editor.

The Ghost platform is easier to use, but fewer customization options are available. It’s mostly a pure content publishing platform. 

Once you learn the core concepts of WordPress, customizing your site, publishing posts, and creating pages become easy. 

Design and Templates: Ghost and WordPress

As a beginner, you want an easy way to create a blog with a professional design.

Let’s look at how WordPress and Ghost handle design, customizations, and the whole website building process. 

WordPress — Design and Templates

As you saw above, WordPress gives you access to thousands of free themes you can use to create and customize your WordPress blog. Many of these are very feature-rich and mobile-friendly right out of the box.

You can get started with any theme you want to give your blog a professional design. You’re free to switch your WordPress theme at any time and are never stuck with your current design. 

Every theme can be customized with the built-in WordPress theme customizer. Some themes also handle customizations with their own theme options panel.

WordPress keeps the design of your site separate from the content. This not only helps to keep a consistent design, but it makes it easy to change WordPress themes in the future without losing your content.

Another option is to use a WordPress theme along with a page builder plugin like SeedProd to create custom pages and landing pages. 

Page builders also come with their own professionally designed templates you can completely customize with a beginner-friendly drag and drop builder. 

You can easily create coming soon pages, sales pages, landing pages, and more without writing any code. 

Ghost — Design and Templates

Compared to WordPress, the amount of design and customization options is limited. The platform comes with a theme repository similar to WordPress, but there are just over 20 free themes available.

If you have a larger budget, then you can purchase a premium theme, but there are still only around 100 of these to choose from. 

Customizing your theme is done within the settings panel. You can control the color scheme, fonts, icons, site logo, and more. 

Your settings menu is where you’ll also set up your website navigation menus, email opt in templates, and more. 

There’s also a built-in option within the platform to hire theme developers to create a completely custom design. 

Winner — WordPress

WordPress offers a greater theme selection and a nearly endless selection of plugins. No matter your niche, you’ll be able to find the perfect WordPress theme for your needs.

Plus, you have much more flexibility by separating content and functionality from the design. 

Users can completely customize every aspect of their theme and even use WordPress page builders to create custom pages without writing any code. 

Ecommerce: WordPress vs Ghost

Adding eCommerce functionality to your site lets you sell things online. You can sell subscriptions, products, courses, and more.

Let’s look at how Ghost and WordPress handle eCommerce. 

WordPress — Ecommerce

To add eCommerce functionality to WordPress, you’ll be using the free WooCommerce plugin. It’s the most popular eCommerce platform in the world used by millions of online stores, both big and small.

It lets you easily sell any kind of products you’d like, digital or physical.

WooCommerce comes with its own addons and plugins you can use to add new features to your online store. 

There are also hundreds of WooCommerce themes you can choose from to create a professional online store.

You can truly create any kind of eCommerce site you want, whether that’s selling online courses, paid newsletters, digital and physical products, adding content paywalls, and more. 

Plus, you can choose from a wide range of different payment gateways like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and more. 

Ghost — Ecommerce

Ghost does eCommerce a little bit differently. With Ghost, you won’t be creating an online store. Instead, you can sell memberships to access your content, similar to other platforms like Substack. 

When you’re writing a post, you can choose who will get access to your content. It can be publicly available, or gated for all members or paid members only.

Essentially, with Ghost, you’re putting content behind a paywall for your premium subscribers. 

This functionality is integrated into the platform, so managing members and creating paid newsletters is easy.

Winner — WordPress

WordPress offers a flexible platform to help you sell anything you want. You can use WooCommerce or another eCommerce plugin to get started. It supports more addons, payment options, and various types of products. 

You can sell premium content, digital and physical products, membership subscriptions, and much more. 

Ghost has built-in eCommerce functionality, and you can start selling as soon as you create an account. However, you’re limited to selling premium content and paid newsletters. 

SEO: WordPress and Ghost

If you want to rank high in the search engines and get more website traffic, then you’ll need to use a search engine friendly platform. 

Some platforms are better than others and make it easier to rank, while some actively make it more difficult.

Let’s see which platform is better for SEO, WordPress or Ghost. 

WordPress — SEO

Right of the box, WordPress is very search engine friendly. The core platform is built with SEO best practices in mind, so it’s easy to boost your website traffic and rankings.

There are all kinds of built-in settings for you to configure to help optimize your website.

For example, you can change your permalink settings and create SEO-friendly URLs, create categories to organize your content, add tags, edit your image alt text, and more. 

Beyond the default settings, you can maximize your WordPress SEO with the help of WordPress SEO plugins and tools. 

For example, you can use a plugin like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) to fully optimize your site without having to learn complex SEO terms or hire an expert.

With this plugin, you can add title tags and meta descriptions, choose a focus keyword, and get detailed page analytics with recommendations to optimize your blog posts. 

It will even automatically generate XML sitemaps, manage and create redirects, automatically apply the right schema, and more.

You can also control how your site appears on social media, connect to Google Search Console, and even add breadcrumbs to help your visitors more easily navigate your website. 

Ghost — SEO

Ghost has a handful of built-in features to help optimize your posts and pages for the search engines. You have complete control over your URLs and permalinks, page title, and meta description. 

There are also built-in settings to automatically create a website sitemap, assign canonical tags for your posts, and integrate your website with Google Search Console.

It also has a built-in feature to add multiple authors to post bylines. This is useful if you have a multi-author blog and want to highlight each author. 

However, since a lot of your website content will be protected and for members-only, this content won’t rank in the search engines. You’ll need to publish additional content for free to rank in the search results. 

Winner — WordPress

When it comes to optimizing your website for the search engines to increase your blog traffic, WordPress offers more options and flexibility. You can use WordPress SEO plugins to boost your rankings further and access more features.

Ghost has solid built-in SEO settings, but doesn’t quite get to the level of depth that WordPress offers.

Addons and Integrations: Ghost vs WordPress

No blogging platform will have everything you need right out of the box. Using addons and integrations helps you add more features and sync your site with third-party services. 

Let’s take a look at how Ghost and WordPress handle addons and integrations. 

WordPress — Addons and Integrations

You can truly unlock the power of WordPress by using WordPress plugins. Think of them like apps for your WordPress site.

To add new features and functionality, all you need to do is install and activate a plugin.

There are over 59,000 free WordPress plugins available from the WordPress plugin repository. Plus, thousands more premium plugins are available.

You can add nearly any feature you like to your blog, including contact forms, Google Analytics tracking, social media feeds, and more.

Plus, WordPress easily integrates with many other popular tools or services you need to grow your blog. 

This includes popular email marketing services, market research tools, live chat software, CRM software, business phone services, and much more.

Ghost — Addons and Integrations

Ghost doesn’t offer any additional addons to add more features to your site. All of the functionality is built right into the platform. 

However, they do have a variety of built-in integrations to link your website with third-party services, like Google Analytics, Stripe, Zapier, ConvertKit, and more. 

There are detailed instructions that show you how to add the integration to your blog.

Winner — WordPress

WordPress wins this category with thousands of different plugins and third-party services you can use to add whatever functionality you require to your blog. 

Support: WordPress or Ghost

Everyone needs help with their blog occasionally, whether it’s a question about building your site, adding a new feature, or troubleshooting an error. 

Let’s take a look at the different support options for Ghost and WordPress. 

WordPress — Support

WordPress has a large and helpful online community with all kinds of valuable free resources available. For example, you have the official WordPress support forums, tutorial and resource sites like WPBeginner, Facebook groups like WPBeginner Engage, and much more. 

Plus, most WordPress themes and plugins have their own dedicated support forums, either on WordPress.org or through their own websites.

To learn more, see our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it. 

Usually, you’ll be able to find answers to all of your WordPress related questions with a simple Google search.

You can also follow our WordPress tutorials for step by step instructions on how to extend the functionality of WordPress.

For more details, see our guide on how to make the most out of WPBeginner’s free resources.

If you need more help, then you can always hire a WordPress developer. Since WordPress is so popular, there are thousands of high-quality and affordable developers to help with your blog.

Ghost — Support

Ghost has an online help center with dozens of in-depth guides to help you get started with the platform.

It includes tutorials on editing your website, publishing content, setting up membership levels, connecting to social media, and more. 

Beyond that, you can reach out to their support team via email. Ghost also maintains an active resource section with useful articles on building, growing, and making more money from your website.

Winner — WordPress

WordPress is the largest website building platform in the world and has much more support options for its users.

WordPress support is available from plugin and theme developers, available in multiple languages, and there’s a lot of free support options too.

Ghost only offers a single support channel and a small library of how-to articles.

WordPress or Ghost – Which is Better?

Judging by the comparison criteria we set above, WordPress is a much better option for starting a new blog.

It offers more flexibility, design options and themes, eCommerce options, and more. Plus, it does all of this at a lower monthly price. You’re in complete control over how much you spend when building your new blog.

Ghost offers users a fast and simple blogging and monetization platform. However, it’s limited by its customization options, ways you can make money, and overall flexibility.

If you’re ready to get started with WordPress, see our complete step-by-step guide on how to create a WordPress website.

We hope this article helped you compare WordPress vs Ghost with their pros and cons. You may also want to see our guide on how to get an email domain, and our expert picks on the best payroll software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post WordPress vs Ghost – Which Is the Better Blogging Platform? first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking for a website builder for your WordPress site but not sure whether to choose Elementor, Divi, or SeedProd?

With the right website builder, you can easily customize your site and build landing pages that help increase conversions and grow your email list.

In this article, we’ll compare Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd and show you which is the best WordPress website builder.

Brief Overview of Our Contenders

Elementor, Divi, and SeedProd are among the best drag and drop page builders and theme builders for WordPress. They help you customize your site without editing code.

Elementor was launched in 2016 and is one of the most popular website-building platforms for WordPress. It has over 5 million active users spread across 180 different countries.

Divi is part of Elegant Themes and is a visual theme and page builder. Elegant Themes has been in the industry for over 14 years and they have over 806,000 customers worldwide.

SeedProd is a beginner-friendly WordPress theme builder and landing page plugin. Over 1 million professionals use SeedProd to create custom themes and page layouts in WordPress. It is also part of WPBeginner’s family of products.

That said, let’s compare these WordPress page builders to see which one is the best. We’ve broken down our comparison into the following sections:

Ease of UseCustomization FeaturesPerformanceIntegrationsCustomer SupportPricingElementor vs Divi vs SeedProd – Which One is the Best?

Note: For our comparison, we used the premium versions of all the plugins, so you get to see all of the features and integrations they have to offer.

Ease of Use – Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd

When it comes to choosing a website builder, it’s important to select a tool that’s beginner-friendly and designed for non-techy users.

It should allow you to completely customize your WordPress theme and landing pages easily, without needing to edit any code.

Let’s see how these 3 builders stack up for ease of use.

Elementor – Ease of Use

Elementor offers a drag and drop theme and landing page builder. It provides different elements in a menu on your left, so you can quickly drag and drop them onto your template.

You can also enable a responsive mode, which lets you switch from a desktop view to a tablet or mobile view. This helps in editing your theme for different devices.

The builder can be overwhelming for beginners at first. There are a lot of elements to choose from and clicking on any element on the template opens several more options for customization.

However, once you get the hang of it, Elementor’s website builder is easy to use.

The only downside we found was that there is no quick way to undo or redo the changes you made to the page, except for going through the revision history and reverting your changes. This can be frustrating and time-consuming when customizing landing pages or themes.

Divi – Ease of Use

Divi also offers a drag and drop builder to edit the Divi WordPress theme and change the layout of your landing pages without editing code.

What makes Divi’s builder different is that it lets you edit the WordPress website on the front end. It works by showing your design in real-time, so you can exactly see what each element looks like.

Unlike Elementor or SeedProd, you don’t get a menu containing different elements like text, images, videos, or buttons to add to the template.

Instead, Divi lets you select the layout of the section you want to add, and then allows you to choose the element you’d like to add.

It could take some time for new users and beginners to pick up the process for customizing their WordPress themes and landing pages, but it’s fairly straightforward and simple to use.

SeedProd – Ease of Use

SeedProd’s drag and drop website builder is very easy to use as well. It is a theme-agnostic plugin that lets you create your designs from scratch, without being limited by your theme’s design.

You can add different elements from the menu on your left by dragging and dropping them onto the template.

Using SeedProd’s theme builder, customizing the way your site looks is effortless. It’s made for non-techy users and ensures that anyone can customize their site without editing code.

You can also see the revision history and revert previous changes with a click of a button. There’s also a draft mode, which lets you edit a page privately without revealing it is under construction.

The builder is also quick and designed with speed in mind. It doesn’t bloat or slow down your website.

SeedProd also lets you add a coming soon page, maintenance mode, and 404 error landing pages with ease. This way, you can create buzz around your upcoming website or tell search engines that your site is currently under maintenance.

Winner – SeedProd

All 3 plugins offer a no-code drag and drop website builder for WordPress and are quite easy to use. Each website builder is made with beginners in mind and they make it super simple to create stunning website themes and landing pages.

However, SeedProd’s easy revision history makes it the winner in this category.

Customization Features – Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd

Another important factor to look for when selecting a website or landing page builder is the level of customization that’s possible.

It’s important to choose a tool that gives you full control over the appearance of your themes and pages.

Here’s a look at the customization features offered by Elementor, Divi, and SeedProd.

Elementor – Customization Features

Elementor offers over 300 designer-made templates. Simply pick a template, add your content, edit its style, and make it your own. Using Elementor, you can control every aspect of your site’s appearance.

It offers templates for a wide variety of categories. For example, you can choose a template for a blog, eCommerce store, travel, tourism site, fashion blog, non for profit organization, education, and more.

With Elementor, you get over 100 different widgets to add to your theme or landing page. These include basic widgets like heading and text, Pro widgets such as share buttons and countdown timers, and theme elements like post title, and WooCommerce widgets.

Other than that, Element also offers advanced customization features. For instance, you can add custom CSS to change the appearance and behavior of your site, add custom code, upload your own fonts and icons, and more.

Divi – Customization Features

Divi offers over 100 pre-made website themes and over 800 pre-made landing page layouts.

You can choose from a full website pack to design your WordPress website. The pack includes templates for different pages like a blog section, about us page, contact page, homepage, and more.

Besides that, Divi offers over 40 website elements for customizing your website theme and pages. For example, you can add sliders, call to action (CTA) buttons, forms, testimonials, galleries, and more.

You have full control over how each element looks. You can change the fonts, text color, border options, add hover styling, use filters and effects to enhance the appearance of any element, or use custom CSS to edit any element.

SeedProd – Customization Features

SeedProd offers over 20 different website theme templates and 150+ landing page templates. You can also choose from over 20 built-in color schemes or create your own from scratch.

Each website theme template is packaged with templates for multiple pages and sections, like the homepage, a single blog post, header, and footer.

However, what makes SeedProd different from Divi and Elementor is that it doesn’t rely on your WordPress theme for styling or functioning. It works independently from WordPress themes gives you complete control and freedom over the appearance and design of your theme.

There are also over 80 different blocks you can use to customize your WordPress themes and landing pages further. For instance, you can add a site logo, post navigation, headlines, text, or use advanced blocks like contact forms, optin forms, giveaways, icons, progress bar, and more.

Each block is further customizable, as you can change its alignment, color, edit font size, change heading levels (H1, H2, H3, and so on), add image alt text, edit image size, and more.

Other than that, SeedProd also offers WooCommerce blocks, so you can easily customize your WooCommerce store. It even integrates with Google Fonts to give more options to customize your website.

Winner – Tie

Whether your choose Elementor, Divi, or SeedProd, each WordPress website builder offers a great range of customization options. You get to choose from multiple themes and landing page templates.

Plus, you can select any element on the template and further edit its style, color, and appearance. They also allow advanced customization options through custom CSS and custom code snippets.

Performance – Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd

The performance of your WordPress site plays a vital role in getting more conversions and boosting search engine rankings.

A slow-loading website can lead to a poor user experience, which means people might leave your site before interacting with your landing pages. Similarly, Google now uses page speed as a ranking factor and ranks sites higher in search results that load quickly.

To test how Elementor, Divi, and SeedProd perform, we created a simple landing page with a headline, an image, and a button. Then to test the page speeds, we used Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

That said, we’ll focus on the mobile page speed scores, because Google now uses your site’s mobile version for indexing and ranking content.

Let’s see how each of these website builders performs.

Elementor – Performance

When we tested our landing page created using Elementor, the PageSpeed Insights tool showed an overall score of 90 for mobile. This is a great score and shows your site won’t slow down while using the builder.

Divi – Performance

The score obtained using Divi’s drag and drop builder was also excellent. A 91 score means your website loads quickly, and you don’t have to worry about page load times when using Divi.

SeedProd – Performance

SeedProd’s page speed tests were slightly better than both Elementor and Divi. With a score of 93 on mobile, you can expect fast performance and no delays in load time when using SeedProd to design your website and landing pages.

Winner – SeedProd

All 3 website builders performed well in our test, but SeedProd was slightly better than Divi and Elementor because it’s built with a speed-first mindset.

It helps you avoid bloated code which generally leads to faster speed and page load time.

Integrations – Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd

Integrating your WordPress landing page and theme builders with other WordPress plugins and third-party tools is important for adding more features and helping you to achieve your business goals.

For example, you can connect email marketing services to capture leads and build an email list, optimize your pages for search engines with SEO tools, or integrate social media networks.

Let’s see which tools and plugins are supported by Elementor, Divi, and SeedProd.

Elementor – Integrations

Elementor seamlessly integrates with different email marketing tools like AWeber, Drip, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Sendinblue, and ConvertKit. You can also connect customer relationship management (CRM) software such as HubSpot with Elementor.

Elementor also supports different WordPress plugins, including WooCommerce. You get different WooCommerce elements in the drag and drop builder as well.

One thing we noticed was that it’s not immediately clear how to connect our preferred email marketing service with Elementor.

To choose an integration with Elementor, you’ll first need to enter the API key for your preferred service in Elementor plugin settings.

Once that’s done, you can go to the drag and drop builder and add a signup form in your WordPress theme or landing page template. It’s only then you’ll be able to select your email service in the ‘Actions After Submit’ dropdown menu.

Besides that, it integrates with other eCommerce plugins like MemberPress and LearnDash.

Lastly, Elementor also integrates different social platforms like Facebook SDK, YouTube, Vimeo, Google Maps, SoundCloud, Slack, and more.

Divi – Integrations

Divi offers limited integration options compared to the other two WordPress websites and landing page builders.

It easily integrates with WooCommerce and offers different modules like add-to-cart buttons, cart notice, product ratings, and more. You can use these modules to create a WooCommerce store in WordPress.

Other than that, the tool lets you integrate Google Maps to show your location. It also works with the Wishlist Member plugin, Toolset plugin, and Hotel Booking plugin for WordPress. Sadly, it doesn’t integrate with third-party email marketing tools or CRMs.

SeedProd – Integrations

SeedProd also offers a wide range of integrations with premium third-party tools and WordPress plugins.

For instance, you can connect it with Drip, Constant Contact, and other email marketing tools to collect and manage email subscribers.

SeedProd seamlessly connects with WPForms and allows you to add any form to your website pages. Similarly, it also offers WooCommerce integration and lets you add WooCommerce blocks to your template.

Besides that, SeedProd integrates with Google Analytics and allows you to track website visitors. You can also connect it with Zapier and add Recaptcha to your landing pages.

What makes SeedProd different from Elementor and Divi is that it lets you connect email marketing services within the theme or landing page builder. There’s no need to exit the drag and drop builder to enter the API key and connect your email marketing service.

Winner – SeedProd

When it comes to integrations, it’s a close fight between Elementor and SeedProd. Both tools offer a lot of third-party tools and WordPress plugins for integration.

That said, SeedProd is our winner because the process of integrating email marketing services and third-party tools is much easier and faster than Elementor.

You don’t have to exit the theme or landing page builder to enter API keys. It shows different email marketing services under a separate tab inside the website builder, which removes the need to perform additional steps to integrate each service.

Customer Support – Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd

At times, you could get stuck or need help while using a WordPress website builder.

This is where having excellent customer support comes in handy. With the proper guidance and resources, you can resolve your issues and ensure the best results for your business.

Here’s how Elementor, Divi, and SeedProd stack up when offering support to users.

Elementor – Customer Support

Elementor offers multiple options for users who need help or need to contact customer support. They have a detailed and well-organized help center where you’ll find documentation on different topics.

For example, you can see steps for installation, how to create a new page, learn more about its features, how to use different widgets, and more.

Elementor also offers a guides and tutorials section where you’ll find multiple videos on different topics. You can even take courses and master using Elementor for various purposes, like building a portfolio or creating an online store.

If you’re an Elementor Pro user, then you get 24/7 premium support. Simply submit a support ticket, and a support representative will respond to your query.

Divi – Customer Support

Divi offers customer support through detailed documentation, including written steps and video tutorials. It also provides a community forum where you can interact with other users.

Another way Divi offers customer support is through support tickets and live chat. You can reach out to a customer support agent and resolve your problems through the live chat feature.

SeedProd – Customer Support

SeedProd offers customer support through a detailed knowledge base, where you’ll find tutorials and guides for getting started, learning more about different features, and troubleshooting various issues.

The plugin also offers support through a ticketing system. You can open a ticket, and a team of WordPress experts will help you out.

Since SeedProd is part of the WPBeginner family of products, you can join our WPBeginner Facebook Group for support. The group has over 83,000 members, and it’s a great place to ask for help.

Winner – Tie

All 3 WordPress website builders offer great customer support options. Elementor has lots of documentation, videos, courses, and more. Divi lets you chat with their support staff through live chat. While SeedProd offers detailed documentation, and premium ticket support.

Pricing Plans – Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd

Another important factor you should consider when selecting a WordPress website builder is its pricing. Let’s look at the pricing plans offered by Elementor, Divi, and SeedProd.

Elementor – Pricing Plans

With Elementor, you get 4 pricing plans starting from $49 per year with their Essential plan. However, if you need to use Elementor on more than 1 website, then you can choose their Expert plan for $199 per year.

There is also a Studio plan for $499 per year that lets you activate 100 websites and an Agency plan for $999 per year that offers 1000 website activations.

Elementor also offers a free version that you can use before subscribing to a premium plan.

Divi – Pricing Plans

Divi offers 2 pricing plans starting from $89 per year with their Yearly access plan. On the contrary, you can subscribe to their Lifetime access plan and pay a one-time fee of $249.

SeedProd – Pricing Plans

SeedProd lets you choose from 4 different pricing plans. The Basic plan starts from $31.60 per year, and the Plus plan costs $76.60 per year.

However, if you want to use the Theme builder, then you’ll need the Pro plan for $159.60 per year or the Elite plan for $239.60. With each plan, you get a 14-day money-back guarantee.

SeedProd also offers a Lite version which is 100% free to use. However, it has limited features and doesn’t include the WordPress theme builder.

Winner – SeedProd

SeedProd offers affordable pricing plans compared to Elementor and Divi. Plus, you get more features and integrations with SeedProd, making it excellent value for money.

Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd – Which One is the Best?

Elementor, Divi, and SeedProd are among the best WordPress website and landing builders in the market, so comparing them will always be close.

However, we believe that SeedProd is the best plugin for building custom WordPress themes and landing pages.

It’s super easy to use, offers an exceptional user experience, and gives your more control over the customization of your themes and pages. With SeedProd, you also get great integration options, responsive designs, and fast performance.

Often users ask us what about the default WordPress block editor, and how does it compare with these WordPress page builder plugins. There has been a lot of promising progress being made with front-site editing with the WordPress block editor, but it’s not yet powerful enough to compete with these popular page builders.

For more on this topic, see our guide on block editor vs page builders.

We hope this comparison between Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd helped you pick the best WordPress website builder. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best blogging platform and the best GoDaddy alternatives.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Elementor vs Divi vs SeedProd (Compared) – Which is the Best? first appeared on WPBeginner.