Podia and WordPress are both tools for building a website and blog, and both make it possible to start and grow an online business.

WordPress is a content management system with lots of customization options. This open-source software can be used however you like, but you’ll likely need to install other apps and tools called plugins for full functionality.

Podia, on the other hand, is an all-in-one platform for building your online business. It has features for course creation, building a website, blogging, email marketing, managing affiliates, and selling digital products, all under one roof.

So which one is best for you? In general, people with very complex websites or people who enjoy web development and coding might prefer WordPress because you have more control. But for most small business owners, an all-in-one tool like Podia saves you time, money, and headaches.

Let’s take a look at the details to see which option is right for you.

Podia and WordPress plans and pricing

The biggest difference between Podia and WordPress is that Podia is an all-in-one platform for running your business, while WordPress is primarily a website builder with optional add-ons that give you more functionality, like email, courses, and products.

Podia pricing:

Podia has a simple pricing structure that includes everything you need to start and grow your business. There are two paid plans and the option to add more email subscribers as your list grows. You can also sign up for a 30-day free trial to test all the features before you buy.

• Mover plan: $39/month and 5% transaction fee ($33/month when paid annually): Mover includes your website, blog, landing pages, and customer messaging, plus unlimited digital products, courses, custom domains, and third-party code.

• Shaker plan: $89/month and 0% transaction fee ($75/month when paid annually): Shaker includes all the Mover features plus the option to make your own affiliate program.

You can also add Podia Email to any Podia base plan. Podia Email is free for your first 100 subscribers, and after that, the price goes up as your list grows. All plans have all email features, so you can send beautiful newsletters, run advanced automations, build campaigns, and segment/filter your audience no matter your list size.

WordPress pricing:

WordPress itself is technically free to use since it’s open-source software, but you’ll need to find and pay for website hosting, your domain, and any themes, plugins, or apps you need to make it work the way you want.

For example, you may need to add an online course platform plugin, a third-party email marketing tool, a checkout cart plugin, and any other things you need to build your business.

It’s difficult to say how much your WordPress site will cost per year because you have nearly endless options for everything you want to do.

You can find hosting for a few dollars a month or pay thousands for private servers. You can use free and cheap plugins that do the basics, or you can pay top dollar for the same premium tools that big companies use.

Podia user Robert Williams explained that he saved $420 per month when he switched his business to Podia. Before, he paid $104/month for website hosting, $74/month for course builder tools, and $99/month for his community membership site.

Along with those huge monthly savings, Robert said that the best part was the “cognitive load relief of managing everything in one tool.” As Robert puts it: “I’ve been in business about 11 years… had I used Podia all of that time, I’d have saved over $55,000.”

Bottom line: WordPress is a good option if you want to be able to decide every aspect and feature of your business. You don’t mind using integrations and are comfortable connecting and managing your own software.

Podia is a better fit if you want to run your whole business in one place for one easy price. You don’t have to use integrations or extras (unless you want to), and you can sign in to one dashboard to get a birds-eye view of your business. And if you need some help, Podia’s chat support is only a few clicks away.

Building your website with Podia vs WordPress

Simplicity is the biggest difference between Podia and WordPress when it comes to building your website and blog.

With WordPress, you can customize the code of your website completely. The focus is on content management, and you can add as many blog posts and pages as you want.

There are virtually endless customization options and themes you can use to make your WordPress website look how you want, so it’s helpful to have some design experience since all WordPress installs start with a blank slate. You can also purchase third-party paid themes for more design options.

As I mentioned above, you can choose from thousands of WordPress plugins to give your website more options. For example, you can download plugins to manage your SEO, create FAQ sections, or set up an author bio card.

WordPress plugins give your site more functionality, but the quality can vary. Some don’t have good customer support, some are expensive, some break, and you have to make sure you’re always keeping them up to date to keep your site secure.

With Podia, simplicity is the name of the game. Your website, blog, and landing pages are all connected with one simple website builder, and you can point and click to make changes. Podia has dozens of pre-designed website sections (like image layouts, text layouts, FAQs, author bio sections, CTAs, testimonials, and featured products) that all look great out of the box.

You can customize your fonts, colors, website width and spacing, and other details across your sales pages and blog posts, all with a few clicks. You can also copy and paste to add embeds from +1900 sources across the web.

Podia has a full blogging feature. You can type (or copy and paste) your content right into the blog editor, add a feature image, adjust your SEO settings, and customize the layout of your blog posts and blog pages.

Podia ranks high on ease of use for beginners and experienced entrepreneurs alike because you can build exactly what you need without the complicated bells and whistles.

For example, when you set your global color palette, those colors automatically populate in your products, courses, and email builder so everything matches your branding.

Same with your logo. Upload it once and use it anywhere with just a click. This may seem like a small detail, but it’s little touches like this that save you time and give your online business a more professional look.

As a fun bonus, Podia even has built-in customer messaging so your visitors can send you a message via chat directly through your site. (This is something you’d need to pay extra for with WordPress).

As Podia customer Adrian Dalsus puts it, “With Podia, you know your site will look beautiful on mobile or desktop. It won’t crash. All the buttons will work.”

Sell digital products — they’re already connected to everything else

It’s possible to sell digital products and courses with Podia and WordPress, but once again, Podia is an all-in-one tool while WordPress requires extra addons and plugins.

With WordPress, you can use plugins and apps to add ecommerce features, checkout, courses, and other types of content to your website. But like everything with WordPress, you’ll need to set everything up yourself. (Noticing a trend here?)

With Podia, unlimited digital downloads, webinars, online courses, and coaching products are included in the Mover and Shaker plans. You can click to add your products, build a beautiful storefront, create custom sales funnels, and build a learning experience for your students.

For course creators, Podia’s course builder lets you add videos, text, audio files, images, and any other files you like, as well as quizzes and embeds. You can also enable comments so students can connect and integrate your course with Discord for a community feature.

Podia automatically generates a sales page for each digital product you create, and you can customize it using the easy website builder. Podia also includes your checkout, and you can add product waitlists, upsells, access limits, seat limits, and even your own affiliate program — all in a single platform.

Built-in email marketing keeps things simple

Email marketing is an important part of running an online business because it gives you a way to stay in touch with your customers and followers long-term. WordPress plays nicely with third-party email platforms, but these can be expensive, and you’ll need to embed sign-up forms in your site using code snippets.

With Podia, your email marketing is included like everything else. You can send broadcasts, newsletters, and automated email campaigns, and there’s already an email sign-up form built into the website builder, so you don’t have to add any code.

Your email is also connected to your products and courses, so you can message everyone who has bought a particular product, or only people who haven’t. You can also send messages to people on a waitlist and add custom tags.

When it comes to actually writing your emails, there are over a dozen professionally designed templates you can use to get started, or you can create a template of your own. Because your blog and email are connected, you can pull in full blog posts or snippets in just a click, and add images, text, decorations, and featured columns in seconds. Then you can send it right away or schedule it for later, whatever works best for you.

If you want a business website where you choose all the parts and pieces, but you’re also responsible for maintaining all those parts and pieces, WordPress could be a good option for you.

But if you’re looking for a simple system that’s easy to use and has your website, blog, digital products, courses, emails, affiliates, and everything else in one place, we’d love to have you at Podia.

Sign up for your free trial today.