Whether you’re planning on starting a blog or building a website, choosing the right content management system (CMS) is vital. CMSs have evolved over the years, so making the right selection if you’re new to the field can be challenging.
This is because there are so many factors to consider, ranging from the target audience of the CMS and the cost. Two well-known CMS platforms are WordPress and MODX.
WordPress vs MODX has always been a popular topic of discussion in recent years among website developers and entrepreneurs. The question remains, which CMS reigns supreme.
This guide will cover all the facts and compare MODX and WordPress so you can ultimately make the right choice for your business.
What is WordPress?
Founded in 2003, WordPress is one of the most popular CMS platforms in the world. In fact, WordPress powers nearly 40% of the entire internet. This means there’s a great chance that your competitors are even using WordPress for their website management.
That doesn’t include some of the most well-known publications in the world, such as Fortune, the New York Times, and even Time Magazine that use WordPress for their content management.
In the early days of the internet, creating a website required excellent expertise in development and coding. WordPress ushered a new wave of innovation, in which a website could be constructed by a template or theme. And, the cost of WordPress was much less expensive when custom coding was unneeded.
The theme bases the design of the entire website, and users can choose between thousands of free and premium options. Once the theme is selected, the user can build individual pages to complete their website.
WordPress offers newbies a low barrier of entry into creating the perfect blog or website. It’s also an open-source platform, meaning that experienced developers can edit the code to create a customizable website for their brand.
What is MODX?
MODX was released in 2004, and is also an open-source CMS like WordPress. MODX was created for the same reason as WordPress. The tool provides website developers with a simple and straightforward method of creating websites and blogs.
MODX has been used for nearly two decades, mainly due to its user-friendliness. MODX is also search-friendly and functional for a wide variety of purposes. Similar to the battle between iOS and Android, developers have long pitted WordPress vs MODX together for years.
WordPress has quickly gone on to become one of the most recognizable brands in the world, but veteran developers also know about MODX all too well. While the platforms are similar in a lot of ways, there are some key differences.
One of these differences is the target audience for both platforms. Below, you’ll find out which types of people WordPress and MODX target. This way, you can move a step closer to selecting the best product to create your website or blog.
Who is WordPress For?
WordPress is aimed for all kinds of website developers. Entrepreneurs who want to try their hand at building their own blog or website will find that WordPress offers a quick path of launching their creations.
Amatuer developers will appreciate that WordPress is entirely search-friendly, meaning that their websites will rank well on search engines like Google and Bing. Finally, veteran developers will love that they can edit the CSS and HTML of their websites.
This will allow them to create custom websites for their clients. WordPress is a dynamic CMS that will allow you to create any type of website you want. By using the thousands of plugins on their marketplace, you can style your website to your standards and improve its functionality.
At last, WordPress hosts one of the most tight-knit communities on the internet. Home to millions of users and moderators, you can submit any question you’d like on the forums and receive a prompt answer in regards to bugs, scripting dilemmas, and design inspiration.
All of these features make WordPress the most versatile CMS on the market. However, it’s definitely not perfect. If you aren’t tech-savvy or willing to pour in the time and effort to create your website, then you’re better off choosing another platform.
While WordPress is simple to use, it’s not a complete cake-walk to develop the website of your dreams.
Who is MODX For?
MODX is also a very popular CMS that’s similar in a lot of ways to WordPress. However, MODX isn’t as versatile as its main competitor. The platform was mainly designed for developers in the early 2000s.
While the platform has improved its user-friendliness, it still has a steep learning curve compared to WordPress. This is evident by the world’s top organizations and even local bloggers who use the platform.
On the other hand, MODX is the perfect tool for novice developers who want the freedom to design their websites the way they choose. This doesn’t mean that anyone can’t create a website on MODX.
It does mean that if you aren’t willing to devote the time and resources to invest into a MODX website development project, then you’d save more money and time using WordPress instead.
Like WordPress, MODX is an excellent solution for veteran website developers. It’s also an open-source CMS with a vibrant community. There is no limit to the type of website you can construct with MODX.
If you have the bandwidth to tackle your own website development project, there’s not many features separating WordPress and MODX.
How Much Does WordPress Cost?
Before we get into this section, it’s important to highlight that WordPress is not a free CMS. Granted, it’s possible that you don’t have to pay anything to build and launch your website.
However, if you need a website or blog for professional purposes, you might want to pay the monthly or annual rate plans instead of having a free “.wordpress.com” subdomain attached to your website.
In any case, WordPress offers a bunch of pricing plans at a monthly or annual rate. These plans start at $4/month, and the most expensive package is an eCommerce option at $45/month.
These figures are more expensive if you want to commit on a monthly basis, but the changes aren’t very significant. The important thing to mention here is that the costs for managing your WordPress website goes beyond these prices.
You’ll still need to pay for hosting, plugins, and a premium theme if you want to develop a stellar, professional website. You’ll also need to hire a qualified website development agency if you want to create a custom site.
All in all, you could be looking to spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars every year on your website. With MODX, these costs are very different.
How Much Does MODX Cost?
When it comes to pricing, MODX is a bit simpler than WordPress. Again, MODX is geared mostly toward developers. As such, the prices are more expensive than WordPress.
Here is a breakdown of their traditional plans:
- Base — $30/month
- Team — $60/month
- Business — $150/month
The Base plan is geared toward businesses that just want to create and manage one website. However, they can pay $10/month for every other website they want to create. This includes a 10 GB vault storage.
The Team plan, however, is aimed toward digital marketing and website design agencies that want to create dozens and even more websites. This deal offers a 75 GB vault storage, but will charge you $5/month for every additional website.
Lastly, the Business plan is for developers who want to build custom websites or have greater needs. They can receive a 150 GB vault storage, and they can build how many websites they want for free (if they’re using private servers).
While MODX is more expensive than WordPress, the pricing options are straightforward and very specific about who they’re for.
MODX vs WordPress: Head-to-Head Comparison
Now that you fully understand what WordPress and MODX are and how they’re different, let’s compare both platforms in respects to:
- Ease of Use
- Customizability
- Security
- Cost
- Development
- Site Management
Let’s get started.
Ease of Use:
If you’re asking the question about which platform is easier to use, first ask “which is easier for whom?” If you’re not tech-savvy, then using WordPress is the better platform. It’s completely simple to find and install the perfect theme for your website or blog.
On the other hand, veteran developers may find that WordPress is a difficult platform to break. Therefore, if you want any highly-custom features or anything out of the ordinary for a website, you should choose MODX instead.
Customizability:
Both MODX and WordPress are open-source CMS products with vibrant communities. For experienced developers, MODX is the better tool when it comes to customizability. That’s because MODX is a template system designed from the ground up.
Nonetheless, WordPress is highly customizable when you’re new to website development. With thousands of plugins to choose from, you can create a powerful website to outmatch even global competitors.
WordPress is also the better tool for developers who are building websites for clients.
Security:
While WordPress is definitely the most recognizable CMS product, it does have a noticeable disadvantage. WordPress has been exposed to more security issues than any other CMS.
This is because the plugins on WordPress aren’t as well-tested compared to MODX. Though, all of these security issues aren’t to blame solely on WordPress. Being the more popular platform, it makes sense that a lot of their websites will be attacked by hackers.
By simply picking recommended plugins and updating them, you can make sure they are well-suited to deter even the most skilled hackers from compromising your website data.
Cost:
WordPress offers the more inexpensive pricing plans and has more of them, suited for freelancers, small businesses, corporations, and even online stores. In regards to versatility, you can get more for your buck by using WordPress.
Though, MODX has simpler pricing plans for developers who work on their own or for their own clients. It’s also worth mentioning that you’ll still need to pay for hosting and maintenance for both platforms.
Since WordPress is geared mostly toward beginners, you may still have to hire a developer to create a custom website for your business.
Development:
WordPress presents a glaring issue to developers. Since the plugins and themes are user-generated, there’s a great chance that you could encounter a poorly-written product with difficult-to-read documentation.
MODX doesn’t rely much on pre-programmed themes and provides greater flexibility to developers. The only caveat here is that WordPress has a larger community and affords developers with a greater variety of different themes and plugins. It can be a great WordPress alternative for the right website project.
While there’s a chance you may not find the theme you’re looking for on WordPress, it does have a better arsenal compared to MODX.
Site Management:
WordPress and MODX both offer excellent site management capabilities for their target audiences. Since WordPress is geared towards beginners and novice developers, it’s very simple to manage any website from the platform’s back end.
Bloggers will also find it simple to create, edit, and delete their posts in the back end as well. If you want to make changes to your website’s infrastructure, you can rely on the Gutenburg Editor to drag and drop elements, such as paragraphs and images on particular pages.
On the other hand, MODX offers great site management for websites with more complex architectures. This allows developers to build complex workflows, while keeping their websites neat and organized.
Overall, there is no clear winner in this category. WordPress and MODX are both the cream of the crop when it comes to seamless website management.
Do You Need Help Creating a New Website?
WordPress and MODX are both wonderful CMS products. There is no verdict on which one is better, since they are aimed at different audiences. Nonetheless, if you need a website for your business, then you’ve come to the right place.
At Dev.co, we specialize in creating high-performance websites for your clients. If you want to learn more about how we can help, contact us today to speak to a member of our team.
Connect with Ryan on Linkedin.
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