HubSpot CMS: Why It's Time To Make the Move

6 min read
19-Jan-2022 10:09:30 AM

You’re on the hunt for something elusive. But it isn’t a rare bird or an exotic plant that only blooms once per century. 

It’s something much harder to find.

A content management system that actually works for you. One that your sales, marketing, management, and support teams can all agree upon. One that doesn’t require dozens or even hundreds of hours to build out your site, one that generates inbound traffic, and one that analyzes your performance so you can continue to grow as an organization.

An impossible hunt?

Think again. 

The solution is clear: HubSpot CMS is where it’s at. And if you’re not there, it’s time to make the move. 

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Comparing HubSpot to WordPress

If you’re seeking the best content management system (CMS), chances are your search will lead you to two main choices: HubSpot and WordPress. While these are both pretty powerful tools to create a website, there are some major differences. So, how do they compare?

WordPress is a CMS built with an open-source concept. This means that users can build their own website via custom solutions. This open-source software solution must be installed or configured on your servers, or else it requires the use of a third-party hosting provider. Within the main interface, there are basic content creation tools, but for anything else, the platform requires plugins. This means that for basic functionalities like sitemaps, SEO tools, and analytics, users must add additional plugins. WordPress started as a site for blogging and expanded into a CMS, so features like content creation are strong, but when it comes to anything else, there isn’t a lot of native functionality. Users have to tack on plugins to get what they need.

Which gets pretty bulky, and not very user-friendly. 

On the other hand, HubSpot’s CMS Hub includes tools for marketers and developers to build customer-centric sites focused on the overall user digital experience. CMS Hub is a powerful web app that’s designed to allow brands to create content and campaigns that foster growth. It’s a cloud-based platform that gives users the power to share content, drive conversions, and analyze the performance of their campaigns, all from the same platform. 

What about cost? At its most basic level, WordPress is free, but the costs for hosting, plugins, security, and maintenance add up very quickly. HubSpot is priced as a set monthly fee so there are no surprises. With several tiers of features and functions, there’s a price for every size company and every budget. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the major difference between HubSpot CMS Hub and other CMS platforms like WordPress. It’s worth the watch!

What is HubSpot’s CMS Hub?

Security and Performance Issues: The Trouble with WordPress

Many B2B organizations look at HubSpot and wonder why they should consider HubSpot over more common content management systems like WordPress. There’s no question that WordPress is the most frequently used CMS on the internet today. 

But it’s also the more frequent target of hackers, malware, and other security issues. No, thank you. 

WordPress is so often on the receiving end of the actions of cybercriminals that in 2020, there were over 2,800 attacks on WordPress-hosted sites every single second.

By 2025, it’s estimated that cybercrime will total $10.5 trillion every year. And while the number of cyberattacks is on the rise, so, too is the cost of each attack. In 2019, the average cost for remediation following a ransomware attack was around $761,000. But by the end of 2020, this cost had more than doubled, reaching an average of $1.85 million. 

With cyberattacks increasing in both frequency and cost, it’s important to understand the specific issues related to WordPress, which include:

  • Unauthorized logins: The default login backend page for WordPress sites is easy to find, making it easier for hackers to gain access via a brute-force attack. 
  • Outdated software: Users must complete security-driven updates every few months. If they fail to do so, they are left with vulnerabilities that hackers can easily expose. 
  • Default administrator access for users: There are six basic user roles that organizations can assign to each user, but the default user role is “administrator,” which makes it easier for hackers to gain access to one user’s account—and data throughout the system.
  • Outdated themes and plug-ins: WordPress appeals to users because they no longer have to build a site from scratch, but can build their site using themes and plugins. But all of these extensions call for site owners to take security into their own hands; not all developers release updates with better functionality and security, leaving websites exposed.

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Other problems with WordPress sites include:

  • Structured query language (SQL) injections
  • Cross-site scripting and malicious code placed on the back end of a site
  • Denial of Service (DoS) attacks
  • Phishing attacks
  • Supply chain attacks
  • Hotlinking
  • Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)

In addition to major security concerns, WordPress also comes with significant performance issues. One doesn’t have to search for very long to discover dozens and dozens of sites offering suggestions on how to speed up WordPress or how to eliminate WordPress performance issues. Challenges with web hosting, WordPress configuration, bad-coded plugins, and external scripts can all pose a serious threat to fast loading times and website performance. Even the size of a page can impact its performance in WordPress. 

With HubSpot, this simply isn’t the case. Not only is HubSpot cloud-based, but it takes a global CDN (content delivery network) approach. HubSpot explains a CDN as “a distributed system of servers designed to deliver web content as quickly as possible to end-users.” Since page loading speed and peak performance are increasingly important to consumers, this can be a major deciding factor when choosing between WordPress and HubSpot. It means you’re giving website users a better overall customer experience. 

HubSpot: Designed for Marketers (and Everyone Else)

HubSpot was made with your marketing team in mind. HubSpot gives B2B brands the power to combine all of the marketing tools they need in one spot, sharing data between tools to create an unstoppable marketing force. HubSpot was engineered to:

  • Help boost website traffic
  • Attract visitors and convert them into leads
  • Convert leads into paying customers and brand promoters

This also means that HubSpot brings together a whole host of features to support sales, marketing, service, and operations teams. This includes blogging, live chat, integrations for social media and web ads, plus landing pages, email marketing automation, account-based marketing (ABM), powerful analytics tools, and more. Users can even track the return on investment (ROI) of brand campaigns with revenue attribution reporting.

And of course, all of this information is brought to life using the customer data in a company’s CRM, which gives you the power to create personalized marketing campaigns at scale. This helps your sales team, your management team, your marketing team, your support team, and your entire organization operate more efficiently.

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Drag-and-Drop Editing

HubSpot’s CMS platform is simple and easy-to-use to build sites, thanks to drag and drop editing. This allows developers to create both pages and global partials, as well as place modules, alter layouts, and even do some styling. 

The benefits of this drag and drop editing capability? Content creators and developers don’t have to make as many templates or spend time dealing with coding for each of their website pages. Compared to hard coding modules which tag and set modules into a template, HubSpot’s drag and drop capabilities enable users to change the content and layout. 

Essentially, with such flexibility, creating content doesn’t require as much time; developers don’t have to build as many templates. One template can support a multitude of web pages and an array of designs. 

See How Your Website Stacks Up

The hunt is over and the choice is clear: HubSpot is the clear choice for your entire team.

At ThinkFuel, our goal is to help B2B businesses thrive. Your biggest marketing asset should be your website, and we’re here to assist you—to turn your business into an unstoppable, business-generating machine. In our expert opinion? We’ve looked at all the content management systems out there, and HubSpot is hands down the best tool to make that happen. 

Want to see how well your website works for you? Try our Website Grader Tool. In a matter of seconds, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of how your website stacks up. Then? We’ll share free advice on how to make it better. 

Ready to make the move to HubSpot? We’re ready to help—let’s talk. Contact us today to learn how we can take your website to the next level.

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