How to Reinstall WordPress Without Wiping Your Website
When you install WordPress, it automatically sets up a backup for your site in the event that you lose all your content somehow. While this is a great safety feature, it can also mean that you’ll need to spend a good chunk of time going through and re-creating all that content if you ever decide to uninstall WordPress. Especially if you’ve been blogging for a while and amassed quite a bit of content over the years, this can be a pretty daunting task. For those of you who’ve had your heart set on getting rid of WordPress for a while now, it’s finally the right moment to bring it up again. In this article, we’ll show you several alternatives that can help you save your content while also giving you the freedom to do as you please with your site.
Free & Open Source Alternatives To WordPress
If you’ve been searching for a decent, free WordPress alternative, you’ve probably stumbled across several options. While none of these are perfect, each one offers something great that you might not find in the standard WordPress package. Below, we’ll walk you through each one. We’ll start off with the most popular free WordPress alternative, followed by some others that offer more features.
1. Joomla
While not as famous as WordPress, Joomla is actually much more popular around the world. According to its website, the open-source CMS (content management system) is installed on over 200 million websites across the globe. It’s commonly used for building e-commerce stores, corporate websites, and creative portfolios. If you’re looking for a free, standards-based option that can help you get up and running quickly with minimal training, Joomla is the perfect choice for you.
Joomla’s popularity can be attributed to its ease of use and the large community who develops for it. The platform is designed to be very user-friendly, even for beginners. Because it’s open source, the community is extremely active and helpful, offering an endless supply of support if you have any questions along the way.
One of the biggest benefits of using Joomla is the fact that it’s completely free. While you won’t get sophisticated features like drag and drop page builders or massive customizations, you will get a fully functioning, open-source CMS that’s suitable for any type of website.
2. Drupal
Drupal is another extremely popular and customizable CMS that’s been around for a while now but has only recently risen in popularity. Its website states that it’s been installed on over a million websites, including ThisIsUK, TheGuardian, The Washington Post, and many, many more. Drupal offers a lot of flexibility and allows you to build almost any type of site you can think of. Because of its wide array of functionality and highly customizable nature, it’s become famous for powering blogs, online stores, and websites of all shapes and sizes. If you’re looking for a free, open-source solution that can help you build your dream site, Drupal is the CMS to consider.
Drupal is also one of the most popular WordPress alternatives because the platforms seem to work hand-in-hand. For example, with Drupal, you can integrate your WordPress site with your domain’s DNS and use the same login credentials to access both platforms. This makes the process of content importing a lot simpler and saves you a lot of time in the long run.
3. Curious CMS
CMS stands for content management system, and that’s exactly what this platform offers as well. However, unlike most other platforms, Curious CMS is designed from the ground up to be used with WordPress, enabling you to take full advantage of its massive popularity while also giving you the freedom to host your content on your own domain.
This is a great option for those of you who want to retain total control over your content without needing to rely on a third party like WordPress. CMS offers a robust feature set that will enable you to build any website you can think of. While it might not be the most user-friendly solution out there, it’s definitely one of the most feature-rich and customizable.
This is a solution that’s right for you if you have a specific type of website in mind and are looking for a free, open-source solution that can help you build it easily. If, however, you’re looking for something more user-friendly, consider one of the other solutions mentioned below.
4. Arduino
Arduino is an open source hardware platform that provides you with the tools to create your own devices and systems. The name comes from the Italian word for “engineer,” which is why this platform is commonly used by hobbyists, tinkerers, and professionals who like to get their hands dirty. It provides you with a variety of electronics including microcontrollers, sensors, LEDs, and more, all of which you can control through code.
If you’re looking to create something unique that no one else in the world has, you can use the Arduino platform to do so. It’s become a bit of a sleeper hit in terms of popularity recently, due in large part to its ability to create things that nobody else can. In addition to its use in hardware, Arduino also has a variety of libraries available that you can use in your code to make things easier.
Arduino has a variety of benefits for those of you who use it. For example, you can use it to develop something unique that might not even exist yet. Or, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can create something totally different and wonderful that will draw in customers by the truckload.
Arduino is also completely free, enabling you to create unique devices and web applications that might otherwise cost you a small fortune. If you’re looking for an open source option that can help you get your hands dirty and build something great, look no further than the Arduino platform.
5. Codeigniter
Codeigniter is a free PHP (hypertext preprocessor) framework that provides you with the tools to build dynamic web applications. You’ll commonly see this solution used in combination with WordPress, as it makes the process of content importing a whole lot easier and more streamlined. It’s great if you’re looking for a free solution that can help you get your site up and running quickly with minimal training. A lot of people use this open source framework because it’s easy to learn and very flexible.
Codeigniter’s primary goal is to make web development simple by providing you with all the hooks and functionality you need to build virtually any type of website.
6. Kohana
Kohana is similar to Codeigniter in that it’s a fully functional PHP framework that provides you with the tools to build dynamic web applications. However, it’s even more flexible than Codeigniter and offers several additional features.
Kohana is a strong contender among the free, open source solutions because of its functionality. It has a large community who actively supports it and offers an endless amount of documentation should you ever need it. Thanks to its robust feature set and flexible code, you’ll find many bloggers and designers who use it regularly.
Kohana is also completely free, enabling you to build a professional-looking site without needing to worry about cost. While Codeigniter and Kohana work well together, they’re both great options if you’re looking for a free solution.
7. Crafty
Crafty is a free and open source solution that provides you with the tools to build interactive websites using HTML5 and CSS3. It was originally built as a portfolio for Dribbble, a design-focused social network, and the creator of Crafty, Dave Maloney, wanted a simple solution that enabled them to showcase their work quickly and easily. Now, it’s available for everyone.
An important thing to note about Crafty is that it’s designed to integrate with other platforms and services, meaning you can integrate your existing WordPress site with your domain’s DNS and use your existing login credentials to access both platforms. This makes the process of content import very simple and saves you a lot of time in the long run.
If you’re looking for a free, open source solution that can help you build an interactive website or portfolio, look no further than Crafty.