In this blog, we’re going to look at how to choose the right website platform for your photography business, specifically looking at the pros and cons of the two most popular platforms Showit and WordPress.

As you probably know, there are many website platforms out there. If your struggling to choose one for your photography businesses website, it’s understandable, since it’s a big decision.

When it comes to creating your website, every platform is going to have pros and cons. There is rarely going to be a completely “perfect” platform, if we’re being honest. 

It is critical that you do your own research to identify what platform will work best for your needs, but know we can also give you some suggestions based on our experiences as well (and we will!). 

Main Things to Look for in Your Website Platform Choice

To make the right choice, here are some of the key factors we look ourselves when we want to decide what website platform we want to build on. Let’s look at a few of those:

So the things we’re looking at are the following – 

• How easy is it to use?
• Does it work out of the box, or does it require coding or plugins?
• Is the UI easy to navigate when putting together a website?
• Is it easy to maintain the website?
• Is the website platform secure?
• Can the website platform be used to create the type of website I have in mind?
• What kind of learning curve are you willing to tolerate to have a good quality website?

The best way to really get a feel for many of these things is hearing feedback from others, looking up videos on YouTube walking through the platform, and most have free trials that can allow you to explore the UI more for yourself. 

Keep in mind, our team has collectively built many websites, both for photography studios as well as for other endeavors, so from time to time we have to evaluate what is going to work best for our needs with different projects.

These things form the main “benchmarks” we’re thinking about as we evaluate WordPress vs. Showit platforms and websites.

Showit vs WordPress – Showdown

Which website platform is right for your photography business?

WordPress – The Greatest Website Platform for Photographers?

Let’s start with the most used website platform for websites online in general – with a crazy 43% of websites being built using this.

WordPress comes in two different forms: wordpress.com and wordpress.org.

When we talk about WordPress, we are pretty universally talking about wordpress.org – the open-source form that is free to use.

Without getting into the weeds, wordpress.com is a more expensive, more limited version of WP used for very simple websites and blogging, and in our view is not worth considering for your business website.

WordPress Pros:

• It has a massive library of third party plugins and site templates. Because the platform is open source, virtually any developer can make things for it. 
• Plugins can help you achieve a wide range of things including impacting your site’s SEO, security, and site backups, to smaller widgets to help showcase images in unique gallery carousels and lots more.
• Pretty much unlimited options due to the wide range of themes and plugins.
• For creating blog posts, the WordPress interface is streamlined and really effective for organizing and adding new content regularly.
• WordPress also has a number of “builder plugins” such as Elementor to help give you the benefits of WordPress without the complexity of building a site without many visual cues.

WordPress Cons:

• WordPress sites can often be more technical and complicated to build out and modify, which can be tough for people without extra guidance.
• Using too many plugins can cause website performance issues.
• It’s not always intuitive how plugins or themes “work,” so there is often more of a learning curve associated with WordPress sites.
• Some plugins and 3rd party templates can have security concerns.
• Some plugins or themes may not work well together.
• Designing an aesthetically pleasing website can be difficult, especially without using a website builder plugin, since there will be limitations that vary depending on theme and will require coding or finding unique plugins to add capabilities.

Our Overall Thoughts on WordPress:

In our experience, WordPress can be an excellent platform for your website, but it can also be a major pain point if you struggle to use it well.

If I’m being honest, some of the best performing site’s I have seen from photographers have been built on WordPress, and so have some of the absolute worst. 

As a result of this, if you have a WordPress website that is performing poorly in some way, it can often be hard to diagnose the problem and get it functional since the web of coding, plugins, etc. can present many opportunities for a “fix” to also end up breaking other parts of the site.

With this said – it’s not all gloom and doom.

Your specific choice of theme and plugins make a massive difference, as well as your willingness to learn the ropes of WordPress, which can at times be pretty unintuitive. I have a site on WordPress, and still get lost sometimes!

On the topic of themes, an increasingly popular one is Kadence – and from the site’s we’ve seen it would definitely be one to suggest for its easier usability, relative flexibility and performance. 

Common Questions about WordPress for Photography Websites:

Is WordPress good for creating website’s with good user experience (UX)?

The simple answer is “yes” since WordPress websites can be customized greatly. However, the ease of getting your site in a good state from a UX perspective will vary depending on your theme and specific needs. Since WordPress by default is not a drag-and-drop editor, moving around sections and getting the flow to be really customized can sometimes be a little challenging, but it is definitely possible.

It cannot be understated that a good WordPress website has the ability to really “wow” in this area, not just in aesthetic presentation of site content, but also in high performing page speeds which allow users to engage with your site’s content more quickly than many site builder sites.

Is WordPress good for creating websites with good SEO?

Yes. WordPress is excellent for SEO right out of the box, and with a variety of SEO plugins at your disposal like Yoast SEO (and many others), it can make it easier to do even typically more difficult SEO tasks.

If you’re interested in learning more about WP plugins, check out WordPress Plugins for Photography Websites.

Is WordPress worth the price?

WordPress is free to use and an open source platform – so you will find it tends to be the most “cost effective” website platform you can use. The only hard “cost” would be connected to your domain hosting, which is required for any website platform.

With this said, keep in mind that there are “hidden costs” that may or may not impact you – if you decide to use any pro versions of plugins, most (not all) use subscription models and you can find yourself paying quite a bit.

Expectations if you decide to build a site with WordPress:

• You need to do your homework and find the right theme to build on
• Have clear goals for your website that will be aided by WordPress’ capabilities
• Expect there to be a higher learning curve than other website platforms
• Get clear on the limitations the platform may have on your designs out of the box (and may require coding or plugins to make things work as you imagined).

Showit – Is it the Best Website Builder for Photographers?

Next, we’d love to talk a bit about Showit…

Showit is a website builder that also uses WordPress for its blog – so you happen to get some WP functionality built in.

Showit is particularly popular among photographers and other creatives because of its drag-and-drop editor that makes creating a website much easier due to its visual nature.

Showit Pros:

• It’s highly customizable, allowing users to design almost every aspect of their website without needing to know how to code or use plugins.
• It has a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface.
• Integrates with WordPress for blogging capabilities and plugins
• Allows you to easily create responsive and mobile-friendly websites because you create these designs independent of each other.

Showit Cons:

• Can be more expensive compared to other website builders.
• There is still a learning curve due to the sheer number of customization options available.
• Showit sites can sometimes have slower loading times, which is common with any drag-and-drop site builder.
• Limited integration options and built-in widgets and extensions.

Our Overall Thoughts on Showit:

Overall, Showit is best suited for users who prioritize design flexibility and are willing to invest in a visually distinct, highly customized website.

Currently, we have our photography websites built on Showit, as well as our Shoot and Thrive site (which you are on right now!). 

If you are really unsure about what platform to go with, it’s our top recommendation for most photographers since we have experience getting really good results without the need for all the technical knowledge that is often required for putting together a good performing WordPress site. 

Common Questions about Showit for Photography Websites:

Is Showit good for creating website’s with good user experience (UX)?

Yes. The drag-and-drop editor allows you to really curate how your pages are laid out and optimize for UX significantly, in ways that are a lot easier than non-drag and drop platforms like WordPress.

Is Showit good for creating websites with good SEO?

Yes. Like any website platform, you get what you put into it. With things set up correctly and a good content strategy, you will experience positive SEO results with a Showit website.

Is Showit worth the price?

Showit has a free trial, as well as monthly/annual subscription plans. At it’s most expensive, Showit costs $468 (at the time of this writing). For a site platform you are confident in, this is a worthwhile overhead expense, but is clearly more expensive than WordPress alternatives.

Expectations if you decide to build a site with Showit:

• Expect some learning curve as you get used to the drag-and-drop builder
• Have clear goals for your website that will be aided by your use of Showit
• Get clear on limitations of the Showit platform

How to Build a Better Website as a Photographer?

So now that you have a good idea of our thoughts comparing and contrasting Showit vs. WordPress – we wanted to quickly talk about how you can create a better website.

One of the best approaches to building your website starts by not even trying to build on one of these site platforms at all.

Instead, you could use a tool like Canva or Photoshop, and build out a mock up of your website in there without any platform limitations.

You could model your website based on your own vision, reference other people’s websites and site templates, and take inspiration from things like our Website Course for Photographers and the accompanying Website Blueprint Guide we include there to help our students lay out their web pages.

With a clear vision in this format, you can now decide what platform will work best to bring it to life.

So, to wrap things up here – 

What is the best website platform for photographers – Showit or WordPress?

In general, WordPress and Showit are going to be two of the most popular website platforms you’ll hear about. 

Of course, there are many others out there such as Squarespace, Wix, Pixieset, Good Gallery, and countless others.

At its core, it’s important to know that each platform has its own pros and cons, so you will want to evaluate them based on your specific needs.

But with that said, know this –

You can create a successful website on any of these platforms.

You need to assess the most important things you are looking for in your website, as every platform has pros and cons baked in.

In general, we always suggest Showit or WordPress depending on your specific goals.

Showit is an excellent platform that is very design-forward. You can create beautiful-looking websites with relative ease as they have the best true drag-and-drop website editor on the market. The UX and SEO capabilities are top notch if implemented well into your site.

With blogging managed through WordPress, you also receive some benefits of the WordPress infrastructure (such as the ability to use plugins on premium plans).

WordPress is used by a large percentage of websites online because it offers the most customization options due to being open source and supported by many third parties who develop for it. WordPress is (rightfully) seen as more technically demanding with a higher learning curve. 

If you are someone who is confident they can learn a fairly technical platform for your website, you can see stunning results and with the right choice of theme some of the fastest web pages online.

You should ultimately choose the platform you feel most confident in and that you can grow into long term!

If you still need help, we also put together a quiz to help guide you – you can check that out here. Simply answer some questions, and the quiz will let you know what platform would be best for you. 

Need More Personal Help Choosing a Website Platform?

Get in touch with us to set up a consult call to learn more about our online courses and coaching services. We have many different options available to help you make the right decision for your business.