Adobe Business Catalyst vs. WordPress
For small and mid-sized business, WordPress has become the defacto web content management software (WCMS) of choice. However, is it the best?
We’ve developed and edited hundreds of websites in both WordPress and Adobe Business Catalyst, and we’ve found the latter to be a much better option for SMBs. This is why we became an Adobe Business Catalyst partner four years ago.
Compare WordPress and Adobe Business Catalyst for yourself:
| Feature | Adobe Business Catalyst (ABC) | WordPress (WP) |
| CMS Developer | Adobe | WordPress.com (open source) |
| CMS Type | Pure cloud | Hosted software |
| Code Type | HTML | PHP |
| Software Updates | Automatic: rolled out by Adobe each week | You have to update WP every 1-2 months, which may or may not be compatible with your plug-ins |
| Hosting | Amazon Web Services | 3rd party hosting providers or your server |
| Email Hosting | Up to 10 emails included, more optional | None |
| Support | 24/7 from Adobe, local partners and forums | Local partners and forums |
| Up-Time Status | http://status.businesscatalyst.com/ | None |
| Web Editing | On-page while navigating pages and in ABC back-end | In WP back-end only |
| Dreamweaver Editing | Optional (not required) and good for global find/replace edits | None |
| Content Holders & Web Apps | Built-in | Requires a plug-in |
| YouTube Embedding | Cut and paste Google code | Custom WP code required |
| Directory Structure | Alphabetical listing and folders | Alphabetical listing only |
| Copying Pages | Built-in | None |
| SEO | Built-in | Requires a plug-in |
| Revision History, Archiving & Rollback | Built-in | Built-in |
| E-Commerce | Built-in and is certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant | Requires a plug-in |
| Contact Forms | Built-in | Requires a plug-in |
| Blog | Built-in | Built-in |
| CRM | Contact database | Requires a plug-in |
| Email Management | Built-in like an internal Constant Contact | Requires a plug-in/separate service |
| Reporting | Visitors, traffic, content, forms, e-commerce, email, custom, admin | Requires a plug-in |
| XML Sitemap | Automatically generated every 24 hours | Requires a plug-in |
| URL Redirects | Built-in | Requires a plug-in |
| RSS Feed | Built-in | Requires a plug-in |
WordPress Plug-Ins
It’s not that we’re anti-WordPress plug-ins, especially as we use them on every WordPress site we’ve developed. It’s just…
- Plug-ins often break with major WordPress releases – I remember working on one client’s site where WordPress updated itself automatically, which broke five plug-ins including the contact form; fortunately for them, we had them back up and running in a half hour
- Plug-ins often have security loopholes that can be exploited by hackers – we’ve had several client WordPress site hacked because of this
- Many plug-ins were developed by someone in their basement in some other part of the world – this is why they often have limited or zero support and never make it beyond version 1 or 2; we’ve even seen WordPress contact forms that send a copy of each form back to the plug-in developer unbeknownst to the client
Why deal with these risks if you don’t have to?
Contact us to learn more and to request an Adobe Business Catalyst demo.
