WordPress vs Tumblr vs Zyro: The Best Platforms for Your Content
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There’s a lot of decent blogging platforms on the web, which makes choosing the best one seem like a daunting task — especially for beginners.
To help you get off on the right foot, I made a comparison of the three best blogging platforms to choose from: WordPress, Tumblr, and Zyro.
By knowing what each platform has to offer, you get to pick the one best suited to your blogging needs.
Rundown
Here is what this article will cover:
WordPress
The Pros: WordPress offers plenty of customization options and a great content management system.
The Cons: It has a steep learning curve, making it not so beginner-friendly.
For Whom: Users with technical knowledge who want to create a blog and plan on expanding its functionality.
Tumblr
The Pros: Tumblr combines blogging with social networking, allowing you to grow your social presence.
The Cons: Your blog’s ownership belongs to Tumblr.
For Whom: Users who want to blog for fun or promote their brand.
Zyro
The Pros: Zyro is an affordable website builder with an easy drag-and-drop feature, dozens of responsive website templates, and eCommerce features.
The Cons: It lacks advanced content management capabilities.
For Whom: Users who want to create a full-fledged website and the chance to make money with it.
WordPress vs Tumblr vs Zyro: An Overview
Before jumping into the comparison, let’s see what each platform has to offer. Here, I provide insights into the features, pricing plans, pros, and cons of Zyro, WordPress, and Tumblr.
WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) for creating all kinds of websites, including a blog.
While it doesn’t have a website builder, you have access to hundreds of niche themes. Most of them come with plenty of customization options, allowing you to personalize the site hassle-free.
Functionality-wise, WordPress’s massive collection of plugins and widgets makes sure the site can accommodate all your needs. Similar to themes, you can easily find both free and paid plugins on the web.
For beginners, the high availability of plugins and themes may be overwhelming. In the worst-case scenario, not knowing how to use one properly can break the entire site.
Since WordPress doesn’t provide any support, you have to rely on forums and online tutorials to understand how everything works.
Blogging-wise, WordPress’s powerful CMS makes it easier for managing and publishing content. There are many excellent SEO plugins you can install to boost the site’s search engine optimization.
Despite being free to use, you need to get a custom domain name and hosting to run it. Since free hosting services and domains come with limited capabilities, I recommend investing in good ones, which can be expensive.
Not only that, but a WordPress site requires hands-on management and maintenance. From installing the software to a hosting account to updating its core files, it’s your responsibility to keep the site running.
That being said, WordPress is an ideal choice if you don’t mind its steep learning curve. Once you get the hang of it, this platform can be a powerful tool for blogging, among other purposes.
Pros of WordPress
- Tons of plugins and widgets to add additional functionality
- Great scalability
- A broad selection of free and premium themes
- Robust content management system
- SEO-friendly
Cons of WordPress
- Steep learning curve, making it not beginner-friendly
- Installing too many plugins and themes can slow the load speed and increase vulnerability to cyber-attack
- Hands-on website management.
Tumblr is a popular blogging platform doubling as a social networking site. Accordingly, you can follow other blogs as well as like and reblog posts.
Not only that, but the platform also has a schedule posts feature, allowing you to set a Tumblr blog’s publish time without using third-party services.
Compared to its competitors, Tumblr sports a different dashboard interface. Instead of displaying administrative functions, you get a feed of posts you made and the blogs you follow composed on one page. So, you only need to scroll vertically to navigate it.
While Tumblr has a theme repository containing free and premium web templates, many third-party developers make their own custom designs. Since the platform supports HTML and CSS customization, you can build a theme or customize an existing one as long as you understand how to code.
The best part of Tumblr is its social aspect. Not only can you share content by reblogging other user’s posts, but you can also chat with other bloggers through its messaging feature.
Despite its perks, Tumblr doesn’t give you any backend control over your blog. It also enforces strict rules on posts and user behavior, which can result in a ban if you break them.
Pricing-wise, Tumblr is free to use. All you have to do is sign up for an account. You only need to pay additional fees if you purchase a custom domain or premium themes.
If you want to blog for fun and connect with other people with similar interests, consider using Tumblr.
Pros of Tumblr
- Free to use, no hidden fees, or forced ads
- Easy setup process
- Available on mobile, allowing you to blog on the go
- Supports HTML and CSS customization
- Allows you to have multiple secondary blogs within one account
Cons of Tumblr
- Limited customization abilities, unless you know how to code
- Minimum functionality mostly catered for blogging only
- Entirely dependent on Tumblr’s servers
Unlike WordPress and Tumblr, Zyro isn’t a big name as a blogging platform. Despite this, it has the advantage of having all the tools you need to build a full-fledged multi-page website.
Zyro is an ideal choice for accommodating different types of content and needs — portfolios, landing pages, and even online stores can be made quickly and easily with this platform.
What’s more, Zyro has dozens of professionally designed templates catering to specific niches. While the choice may be limited, all templates are fully responsive and SEO-optimized, so it’s easier for you to rank higher in search results.
The main selling point of Zyro is its ease of use. The editor uses a drag-and-drop feature and grid system, allowing you to move elements effortlessly. You can add new elements, videos, and social media feeds as well as modify the existing ones with a few clicks.
To create a blog, users can opt for its Basic plan for $1.99/month or the Unleashed for $2.99/month. Both options pack all the features and resources you need to create a functional website.
The best part is that Zyro allows you to create an online store. The eCommerce plans range between $8.99/month and $13.99/month. Some of the highlighted features include abandoned cart recovery, marketplace integrations, and promotion tools.
If you plan to branch out into other activities besides blogging, Zyro is your best option.
Pros of Zyro
- Exceptional ease of use
- Intuitive and beginner-friendly drag-and-drop website builder.
- SEO-optimized website templates
- No hidden fees
- Versatile eCommerce features
Cons of Zyro
- Minimum blogging capabilities
- Limited customization options
WordPress vs Tumblr vs Zyro: Which One is Better?
Now that you know each platform’s biggest strengths, I compare them based on several criteria: design, eCommerce integration, flexibility, blogging capabilities, analytics, support, pricing, and monetization options.
Themes and Design
Since Tumblr has a young audience base, its themes’ design tends to incorporate bright colors and images.
Minimalism is another popular trait of the majority Tumblr themes since it’s perfect for accommodating content-heavy blogs, of which most of them are.
Flexibility-wise, Tumblr’s built-in HTML editor makes it easy to make modifications on the go. There’s also plenty of ready-to-use themes you can use to save time.
However, customizing a theme requires coding skills since Tumblr doesn’t have a website builder, which is inconvenient for beginners.
Meanwhile, Zyro’s small selection of professional templates falls short compared to Tumblr and WordPress.
All templates are responsive, so you don’t have to mobile-optimize it at the very least. As each of them caters to a specific niche, you only need to pick the one that matches your blog.
Fortunately, Zyro’s built-in website builder is extremely easy to use. The drag-and-drop feature allows you to rearrange the elements with a click. The only downside is that it currently lacks advanced customization options.
WordPress easily wins over this category. As it has tons of themes available all over the web, you can easily find one aligned with your niche and budget.
Its built-in theme editor may not offer many capabilities, but you can easily install a website builder plugin to ease the customization process. There are plenty of great plugins available, you can choose the one best suits your preferences.
Winner: WordPress
Ecommerce Integration
While Tumblr doesn’t have built-in eCommerce features, it supports Ecwid integration. You can also embed stores built on other eCommerce platforms as long as the code is compatible with Tumblr’s widget. In other words, your options are limited.
Similarly, WordPress-based online stores require an eCommerce plugin to function. There are many good plugins available, but the good ones tend to be costly. What’s more, they take technical skills to operate.
As Zyro offers dedicated eCommerce plans, you get all the tools you need to create a professional online store. All integrations and management processes are code-free, allowing even beginners to get the hang of it in no time.
Winner: Zyro
Blogging Capabilities
Compared to WordPress and Tumblr, Zyro currently has limited blogging capabilities. You can create multiple pages to display all types of content, but it lacks a dedicated dashboard to manage posts and formatting settings.
On the other hand, Tumblr’s blog editor allows you to pick the type of content you want to create.
The text editor equips standard formatting settings and a blockquote feature to separate conversations made via reblogging.
WordPress’ block editor equips a drag-and-drop feature, making it easy to rearrange blog posts’ sections.
You can divide posts into different categories and tags. Embedding social media posts, videos, and pictures only takes a couple of clicks. What’s more, there are many plugins you can use to expand its functionality.
Winner: WordPress
Analytics
Tumblr has built-in analytics, but it only tracks the number of notes, new followers, and total followers. You have to integrate your blog with Google Analytics manually to get better insights into its performance.
Similarly, WordPress requires installing a Google Analytics plugin to gain this functionality. The quality of the data reported depends on the plugin, so it’s vital to invest in a good one.
On the other hand, Zyro includes built-in Google Analytics in its paid plans. You can monitor your traffic, visitors’ preferences, and their duration of stay from the comfort of your dashboard without having to use a third-party tool.
Winner: Zyro
Support
Besides offering a ticket support system, Tumblr also provides phone, email, and Twitter support. Despite this, the response time may take up to a day depending on the traffic.
WordPress doesn’t provide customer support at all. So, you have to rely on community forums and online tutorials for assistance. Fortunately, there are plenty of those on the web, making it easy to find the right tutorial for your needs.
Zyro wins this round by a landslide with its 24/7 support. Regardless of your plan, their support team is available via email and live chat.
Winner: Zyro
Pricing
WordPress’ software may be free to download, but it requires hosting and a domain name to run. Investing in a great hosting provider and a domain registrar can be costly.
If you need to use specific plugins and themes, the premium ones will cost you even more money.
Both Zyro and Tumblr gain the upper hand in this category.
Unless you want to purchase a domain name or a theme, Tumblr is completely free to use. As for Zyro, it offers more than enough tools and resources to create a professional website for a really cheap starting price.
Winner: Zyro and Tumblr
Monetization
At the time of writing this article, Zyro doesn’t allow you to sell ad space. The only way to make money with this platform is by including affiliate links in the content or building an online store with the eCommerce plan. You can also use the site to promote your business.
Meanwhile, Tumblr supports integrations with Google AdSense, Yahoo! Bing Contextual Ads, and Infolinks. You can add affiliate links to your posts, integrate your online store with the blog, and create sponsored posts.
WordPress, on the other hand, supports all kinds of monetization methods. You can apply for AdSense, join affiliate marketing, build an online store, create a membership site, and so much more. As long as you use the right plugin, you can turn your site into a moneymaker.
Winner: WordPress
Which One Will You Choose?
Now that you have a better understanding of how these three platforms work, what would be your pick?
With Zyro, you get to create an appealing website for any type of content. Despite lacking in blogging capabilities, its easy-to-use website builder and pre-built professional templates make it easy to launch a fully-functional website in no time.
WordPress’ CMS allows you to manage your content much easier. While it has a steep learning curve, it can be a powerful blogging platform in the hands of advanced users.
Finally, Tumblr provides an easy and quick solution for your blogging needs. With its networking features, you get to connect with other users hassle-free.
In the end, what you pick depends on the type of content you want to create.
Whenever you purchase something via one of the links in this article, I may earn a tiny commission without any extra cost to you.
