If you’re here, then it likely means you need a website and you’re assessing your options. If you’ve been doing a little online research, then you may have stumbled unto WordPress.
Without a doubt, WordPress is the most widely-used content management system (CMS) and website builder in the world. In fact, nearly 118 billion WordPress sites were created as of 2016.
News publications, popular blogs, entertainment sites, and business websites are commonly created on the WordPress platform. With all of that said, you’re probably wondering –
“If that’s the case, why is this even an article?” “WordPress must be better, right?”
While WordPress may be a powerful CMS for a trained website developer to use, it’s certainly not an easy platform for the novice or everyday business owner to delve into on their own. Even having one built for you, thinking you can edit it on your own, lands most business owners in a frustrating situation. A lack of familiarity with general website design and development principles, and the workings of the system itself leads most WordPress website owners wanting to bang their head against their desks more often than not.
From the basic functions like editing text, to more complex tasks like ensuring that you are keeping up-to-date with the multiple security patches EACH month, small business owners find dealing with their websites to be problematic. The website they thought they could handle on their own, now requires paying someone an hourly rate of $75, $100, $150 or more per hour to make those updates for them.
Your "easy" to build website on a "free" platform, just got much more expensive to own than you expected, and every time you spend that hourly rate you feel that your site becomes less and less valuable to your business and more of a hassle and unnecessary expense.
That's when you find that having your website built on an easier to use platform is a more ideal approach.
That’s where Optuno comes in.
The professionals at Optuno will build your website for you and ensure it appears in the major search engines. So, if you want to make the right decision and choose the service that’s right for your business, keep reading.
Below, we’ll break down all of the aspects of both types services.
Optuno:
What is Optuno?
Optuno is a full-service option providing a custom built website that is hosted and maintained for you by a dedicated project management team assigned to your account.
We take the headache and outrageous costs out of building and maintaining a website for your business. Optuno is NOT a do-it-yourself solution, it is 100% Done For You, Not By You™.
Optuno is the best of both worlds, as you'll receive a stunning website that’s agency-level quality without paying the big bucks.
Your unlimited revision period ensures your website turns out just as you want it, just like with agencies and freelancers that use WordPress and other online website builders.
Unlike those web builders, Optuno is a full-service solution.
Not only do we create a website that reflects your brand, but our team will also develop a site that’s a magnet for leads too.
More leads mean you receive more sales opportunities. And, that leads to increased revenue.
So, let’s discuss how Optuno works.
How Does Optuno Work?
Optuno makes the process of having a professional website built for your business easy, simple, and painless.
To get started, all you have to do is visit our website by clicking here, and selecting the plan that best meets your needs. Optuno's 3-step account setup process takes just a couple of minutes and you're back to work!
- Step 1: Tell us your existing domain name or create a new web address if needed.
- Step 2: You’ll be asked to select a website theme from our Theme Library. The Optuno Theme Library is complete with over 50 beautiful themes that align with what your business is about. Whether you run an eCommerce store or a legal practice, you’ll be able to find a theme that’s right for you.
- Step 3: Fill out a brief questionnaire about your business and preferences.
This will ensure that your dedicated project management team can deliver a website that matches your exact needs and desires.
And, that’s it!
That’s all it takes to have a professional website created by Optuno.
In 7-10 business days after filling out your questionnaire, you’ll receive the first draft of your website.
Unlike other website design services, Optuno integrates your first draft into our custom CMS (FICMS™) so you can actually try it out.
From there, you'll have a full 30-day unlimited revision period available for us to make any changes you like. You’ll simply provide your thoughts and feedback to your project managers so they can make those updates for you until you’re 100% satisfied.
Once your website is complete, Optuno will upload it into all major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc), ensuring that your website is properly indexed to appear in search results.
In other words, your customers will be able to find your website online so you can begin receiving quality leads and making money.
Who is Optuno Right For?
Optuno enables anyone to have a custom-built website at an affordable rate, without wasting time and effort trying to build a site with tools like Wordpress, Wix, Squarespace, and the like.
With that said, Optuno is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses in all industries.
Furthermore, Optuno's process and technologies are ideal for organizations with limited resources (time, staff, and budget) to devote to a high-quality website development project.
What’s Included With Optuno’s Pricing?
Optuno will create and manage your website for an affordable monthly price. All of our plans, traditional and eCommerce, come with the following features:
- Hosting & Ongoing Maintenance
- 100% Customized Mobile-Friendly Design
- Unlimited Changes During Revision Phase
- 1 Free Domain Name (First Year)
- An Easy Guide to General Site Content
- Headers, Call-Outs, Page Element Labels
- On-Page Search Engine Optimization
- New Content Creation Services Available Upon Request
- Search Engine Submissions
- Social Media Banner Graphic Creation
- 1 Free SSL Certificate
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- FICMS™ One of the World's Most User-Friendly CMS'
- Installation of Widgets, Buttons, Pixels, and Other Complicated Coding Mechanisms
Unlike other web design services, Optuno won’t just create a website for you and leave you hanging when it’s done and hit you with additional fees to host it and make updates for you.
We’ll continually manage your website and be there to provide 24 hours response times when you need something done!
Let’s move on to Optuno’s pricing for traditional websites.
Optuno’s Pricing for Traditional Websites
For any traditional websites that aren’t selling online products or services, Optuno offers affordable monthly packages that include website creation, hosting and maintenance. The following chart includes pricing for single and unlimited page websites.
| Single Page Website | Unlimited Page Website | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual (66% Off) | $49/mo | $99/mo |
| Monthly (33% Off) | $99/mo | $199/mo |
| Month-to-Month | $149/mo | $299/mo |
| Single Page Website | |
|---|---|
| Annual (66% Off) | $49/mo |
| Monthly (33% Off) | $99/mo |
| Month-to-Month | $149/mo |
| Unlimited Page Website | |
| Annual (66% Off) | $99/mo |
| Monthly (33% Off) | $199/mo |
| Month-to-Month | $299/mo |
Optuno’s Pricing for eCommerce Websites
For eCommerce websites selling online products and services, Optuno offers the same monthly plan options. Here are the pricing options for smaller (basic) and larger (enterprise) eCommerce sites.
| Basic eCommerce | Enterprise eCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual (46% Off) | $169/mo | $199/mo |
| Monthly (29% Off) | $222/mo | $265/mo |
| Month-to-Month | $313/mo | $373/mo |
| Basic eCommerce | |
|---|---|
| Annual (46% Off) | $169/mo |
| Monthly (29% Off) | $222/mo |
| Month-to-Month | $313/mo |
| Enterprise eCommerce | |
| Annual (46% Off) | $199/mo |
| Monthly (29% Off) | $265/mo |
| Month-to-Month | $373/mo |
For both traditional and eCommerce pricing plans, Optuno offers a complete 100% money-back guarantee for 15 days after you sign up.
Optuno Pros and Cons
Optuno is the ideal choice for any small and medium-sized business that want to minimize the time it takes and frustration associated with the process of creating a quality site.
Here are the following pros of doing business with Optuno:
- A custom-built website designed by experienced designers and developers.
- A complete, hands-free website design experience
- An affordable website design option for any business.
- Creative control over the outcome of your website.
- Unlimited revisions for up to 30 days.
- A complete, money-back guarantee 15 days after you sign up.
- A website that’s built to not just compete and thrive on major search engines.
We're all about transparency and could never say we are everything to everyone, but we sure are close.
Here are some cons for your consideration to help determine if Optuno is the right fit for your business.
- If you require that your website includes highly technical connections or integrations with existing back-office platforms that run your business, Optuno may not be the best fit. These types of projects typically require extensive custom programming, and they simply don't mesh well with our process and methods. We'd recommend a traditional website agency in this instance. While they may cost more, they tend to be able to dedicate the time and resources needed to delve into such complicated integrations and the unique and ongoing requirements such work requires.
- If your business is highly creative, which necessitates very intricate design work on a page-by-page basis, Optuno can 100% handle your site, just understand that such work may require some additional expense on the design side. In such situations, a site specialist will review your needs and develop an action plan for your consideration.
Optuno has 5 stars on Google, 4.9/5 stars on Facebook, and an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
You can check out our testimonials by clicking here to see what people have to say about our service. They speaks volumes about how we operate as a company and how we treat our customers.
Now, let’s see how WordPress stacks up to its competition.
WordPress:
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a content management (CMS) designed to help both people and businesses create a website.
With numerous themes and plugins at its disposal, WordPress provides many options for website creation.
As of 2020, WordPress is responsible for more than 35% of all websites on the internet.
WordPress claims it can be used by anyone, regardless of their experience with coding and website development. While a template can easy enough to install into the CMS, the usability (a.k.a. user-friendliness), is skewed towards those with developer/programmer level experience and/or training.
How Does WordPress Work?
To get started with WordPress, you’ll need to click here to visit their website.
Once you create an account, you’ll be directed to tell what your business is about.
Next, WordPress will have you choose a domain name.
You have the option to choose a free WordPress subdomain, purchase a new one, or connect an existing domain.
When you’re done, you’ll be finally prompted to purchase your plan and start designing your website.
This process usually takes five minutes.
WordPress provides a wide array of themes you can choose from to design your site, but you’ll have to pay for premium themes.
This means you have limited options of which theme you can use without spending more money.
Who is WordPress Right For?
You may be able to create a website on WordPress on your own, however keep in mind that it was originally designed mainly as a blogging tool, not as a means to manage a corporate website. As it has grown plugins have been created to allow for more robust functionality, which many times require a higher level of technical know-how.
WordPress may also be ideal for larger organizations that have the necessary resources to develop its website in-house.
If you want to develop a traditional or eCommerce website on WordPress, you’ll likely need professional assistance.
That is, unless, you want a very basic and limited website.
If not, hiring a WordPress expert may be your best option to install sufficient plugins, integrate with your design, update your website regularly, and help your site to rank well on major search engines.
What’s Included in WordPress’ Pricing
Unlike Optuno, WordPress is a Do-It-Yourself option.
Take a look below at what you can gain from using WordPress’ services for your personal or professional use.
WordPress Pricing for Blogs and Personal Sites
| Personal: | Premium: |
|---|---|
| $4/month = $48/year | $8/month = $72/year |
| per month, billed annually | per month, billed annually |
| Personal: | |
|---|---|
| $4/month = $48/year | |
| per month, billed annually | |
| Premium: | |
| $8/month = $72/year | |
| per month, billed annually | |
The features of the personal plan are as follows:
- Free domain for one year
- Jetpack essential features
- Email & live chat support
- Dozens of free themes
- Basic design customization
- 6 GB storage space
- Removal of WordPress ads
The features of the premium plan are as follows:
- Free domain for one year
- Jetpack essential features
- Email & live chat support
- Unlimited premium themes
- Advanced design customization
- 13 GB storage space
- Removal of WordPress ads
- Google Analytics integration
- Advanced social media
- Simple payments
- Site monetization
- VideoPress support
WordPress Pricing for Business Sites and Online Stores
WordPress offers individual plans for business websites and online stores.
Here is how much each plan will cost you:
| Business: | eCommerce: |
|---|---|
| $25/month = $300/year | $45/month = $540/year |
| per month, billed annually | per month, billed annually |
| Business: | |
|---|---|
| $25/month = $300/year | |
| per month, billed annually | |
| eCommerce: | |
| $45/month = $540/year | |
| per month, billed annually | |
The features of the business plan are as follows:
- Free domain for one year
- Jetpack essential features
- Email & live chat support
- Unlimited premium themes
- Advanced design customization
- 200 GB storage space
- Removal of WordPress ads
- Google Analytics integration
- Advanced social media
- Simple payments
- Site monetization
- VideoPress support
- Get personalized help
- SEO tools
- Install plugins
- Install themes
- Remove WordPress branding
The features of the eCommerce plan are as follows:
- Free domain for one year
- Jetpack essential features
- Email & live chat support
- Unlimited premium themes
- Advanced design customization
- 200 GB storage space
- Removal of WordPress ads
- Google Analytics integration
- Advanced social media
- Simple payments
- Site monetization
- VideoPress support
- Get personalized help
- SEO tools
- Install plugins
- Install themes
- Remove WordPress branding
- Accept payments in 60+ countries
- Integration with top shipping carriers
- Unlimited products or services
- eCommerce marketing tools
- Premium customizable starter themes
WordPress Pros and Cons
WordPress is a strong building platform for businesses ready to invest the significant time and resources to create their website.
Here are some pros about going with WordPress.
- It’s versatile and can be used by those with sufficient ability to hand most tasks with enough custom programming.
- There are people all over the globe that can build a site using it.
- It is a free platform to build a site on as it is open-source if you aren't going directly through WordPress.com.
- It has an extensive library of plugins that increase the limitations of the base program.
Starting out as a blogging tool helped propel WordPress to be known as one of the most prolific website development tools on the web.
Even million-dollar website design agencies use WordPress.
But, there is one major caveat you should be made aware of.
Although WordPress can be used by anyone, if you don’t have the knowledge of building and marketing your website you’ll struggle to achieve much success.
WordPress puts a lot of helpful tools at your disposal, but you’ll have to invest the time and money necessary to either learn how to build a stellar website or hire someone else to do it for you. This is where it starts to fall down.
Here are some cons to using WordPress.
- Ease of use to make ongoing updates is poor. This is first and foremost a tool for programmers and developers, not your every day person running a business or marketing department. While the tools are robust, there is a very steep learning curve.
- Updating information is difficult without professional help, meaning there is an additional hourly cost to make even the most simple edits to your website.
- Programmers and Freelancers tend to be unreliable as their availability to work on random website update requests are limited due to regular jobs or current project schedule requirements.
- Switching programmers and/or freelancers many times results in pressure to rebuild a website based on the "mess" the previous programmer created in the WordPress code trying to make it work per project specs. Many times they may "price you out" of updating an existing site, and offer to build a new site for less. As it is more difficult for them to figure out what a previous programmer did on an existing site. This forces you through the headache of designing and building a site.... Again.
- Security is a major issue with WordPress. It is similar to how Microsoft Internet Explorer became notorious for viruses, malware, hacking, etc. It is so widely used that it has become the primary target of hackers looking to steal customer data, credit card information, and also use your website to send massive amounts of spam email. All of these issues can reap havoc on your site and domain name's reputation with the search engines.
- Security Patches and System Updates have to be applied nearly twice a month in order to keep up with, let alone stay ahead of the hackers. This means you are spending money on a programmer each month, on an hourly rate to keep your site safe. Most people don't want to spend the money and risk it, and that comes with costs, as you'll soon enough need to abandon the site and start over.
Basically, using WordPress is only effective if you’re an expert at creating websites, or have the budget to keep throwing at the website to keep it updated with content, and update its programming on a monthly basis.
So, don’t let the "popularity" fool you. If you’re not experienced, you’ll be taking on a great risk.
The Final Verdict
WordPress is definitely one of the most popular website building tools out there.
But, you’ll need a ton of resources to create a stellar site and have it rank above your competitors.
There are very few (if not any) top WordPress sites that ranking extremely well on Google, built by a company CEO or their crafty younger cousin.
Website development, like putting in an air conditioner, it is a skilled trade.
With that said, Optuno is the better option in terms of affordability and long-term success, since you’ll be having experienced project managers, designers, and developers making sure your website is updated with your information, looking good, and always up-to-date for any security concerns.
Optuno is the only website design option that allows you to sit back and watch while a professional website is being built for your business at an affordable cost.
To learn more about how you can use Optuno, use the form below to schedule a free consultation or give us a call at 1-888-678-8662 any time.
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