Google Sites vs WordPress: What’s the Best Builder in 2024?

Google Sites vs WordPress: Final verdict

Google Sites and WordPress cater to different user needs, each excelling in specific areas.

• 
  Google Sites (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is ideal for users seeking a simple, collaborative platform for creating basic websites. It offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, seamless integration with Google services, and robust security features. However, it lacks advanced customization options and built-in ecommerce functionalities, making it less suitable for complex websites or online stores. When comparing Google Sites vs WordPress, Google Sites is best for team projects, personal portfolios, and small business websites.
• 
  WordPress (Overall Grade: 7.1/10)
  
  stands out for its extensive customization options, powerful plugins, and comprehensive ecommerce capabilities through WooCommerce. It is an open-source CMS that offers flexibility and scalability, making it suitable for a wide range of website types, from blogs to large-scale ecommerce sites. Considering Google Sites vs WordPress, WordPress is the preferred choice for users who need advanced features, creative control, and a robust platform for business growth.

Which one is the best for ecommerce: Google Sites or WordPress?

Verdict

: Google Sites is not designed for ecommerce, while WordPress, with its WooCommerce plugin, excels in providing a comprehensive ecommerce solution.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Google Sites is primarily a tool for creating simple websites and lacks built-in ecommerce features. Users can integrate third-party tools or widgets for basic ecommerce functionality, but it is not ideal for businesses looking to establish a robust online store. When comparing Google Sites vs WordPress, Google Sites falls short in ecommerce capabilities.
• 
  WordPress
  
  : WordPress, especially with the WooCommerce plugin, offers extensive ecommerce features, including multiple payment gateways, abandoned cart recovery, and detailed analytics. It is highly customizable and suitable for businesses of all sizes looking to build a powerful online store.

Which one is the best for informational and business websites?

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, WordPress stands out as the superior choice due to its extensive customization options and robust feature set. Google Sites, while user-friendly and integrated with Google services, falls short in terms of design flexibility and advanced functionalities.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Google Sites is a straightforward website builder that excels in ease of use and integration with other Google services. It is ideal for users who need a simple, collaborative platform for team projects, personal portfolios, or small business websites. However, its limited design functionalities and customization options make it less suitable for more complex informational and business websites. In the Google Sites vs WordPress comparison, Google Sites is best for those who prioritize simplicity and collaboration.
• 
  WordPress
  
  : WordPress is an open-source content management system that offers unparalleled customization and flexibility. It is well-suited for a wide range of website types, including blogs, business sites, and online stores. With a vast array of themes and plugins, WordPress allows users to create highly customized and feature-rich websites. For those looking to build a professional and dynamic informational or business website, WordPress is the clear winner in the Google Sites vs WordPress debate.

Google Sites vs WordPress: Detailed comparison

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Winner: WordPress.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control, a wide array of design features, and extensive customization options, WordPress is the preferred choice.

Google Sites offers a limited number of templates suitable for various purposes, from personal blogs to business websites, with both free and premium options available. These templates are designed for user engagement, simplicity, and functionality, allowing for customization to meet specific needs. However, compared to other website builders like 10Web or Squarespace, Google Sites might offer less variety in templates and design customization options.

Google Sites Themes

Compared to Google Sites, WordPress offers an extensive variety of templates and designs, catering to a wide range of website types beyond just blogs or ecommerce. Its open-source nature allows for high customization and creative freedom, appealing to diverse user needs. While WordPress itself doesn’t sell premium templates, numerous third-party theme shops offer sophisticated and specialized design choices, expanding the possibilities for users.

WordPress Themes

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. With a score of 8.3, Google Sites offers a user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop functionality, making it easy for individuals with no coding experience to create and publish websites. WordPress, scoring 7.2, offers great flexibility and power, but it can be less intuitive for beginners compared to simpler website builders.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: WordPress

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but WordPress stands out with its vast array of resources, including detailed documentation, community forums, online tutorials, and courses offered by both WordPress and third-party providers.

When it comes to ecommerce, WordPress outshines Google Sites. WordPress, with its WooCommerce plugin, provides a comprehensive ecommerce solution, while Google Sites lacks built-in ecommerce features.

Google Sites ecommerce features:

Google Sites itself does not have built-in eCommerce features. However, you can integrate eCommerce functionalities into a Google Sites website by embedding third-party tools or widgets, linking to an external eCommerce platform, or using buttons that link to payment processors. For instance, you could use Google Forms for order forms and integrate PayPal or another payment service for transactions. To have a full-fledged eCommerce platform with Google Sites, you’d need to rely on these external integrations or services.

WordPress ecommerce features:

• WooCommerce Integration
• Multiple Payment Gateway Support
• Abandoned Cart Recovery
• Ecommerce Analytics
• SEO Optimization Tools
• Extensive Plugin Ecosystem

Ecommerce themes & templates

Google Sites does not offer any ecommerce templates. On the other hand, WordPress provides hundreds to potentially thousands of ecommerce and WooCommerce specific themes and templates, both free and premium.

Product page customization

Google Sites lacks any product page customization features, as the products can be listed with embedding third-party platforms, all the customization can be done within the mentioned platforms. In contrast, WooCommerce on WordPress offers extensive customization for eCommerce product pages, balancing plugins, page builders, and custom coding. Essential elements include quality product images, detailed descriptions, and effective add-to-cart buttons. Advanced features like product tabs, upsells, and related products are customizable. Tools like Elementor and the Ultimate Product Catalog plugin enhance functionality, but heavy plugin use may affect site performance.

Payment processing

You can integrate payment gateways into Google Sites using external tools or links, not through native features. This can be done by embedding HTML code for payment buttons from services like PayPal, Square, or Stripe, or by linking to an external checkout page. Third-party eCommerce widgets also offer a way to add payment functionalities. However, Google Sites doesn’t offer the comprehensive eCommerce capabilities that dedicated platforms provide.

WordPress doesn’t handle payments directly but offers plugin options for payment processing. Popular gateways include PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, and Square. Choose a gateway based on transaction volume, currencies, fees, and security. Plugins integrate gateways with WooCommerce for a user-friendly setup. Consider options for recurring payments, offline payments, and fraud prevention. Research, read reviews, and start small, scaling as needed.

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Winner: WordPress

. WordPress, with a score of 8.5, offers a user-friendly interface with block-based editing, extensive styles customization, template management, page editing/creation, distraction-free modes, versatile saving options, and accessibility for users of varying skill levels. It also provides a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface, allowing users to see the end result while designing the website.

Google Sites, scoring 7.0, offers a user-friendly website builder editor that allows users to create and design websites without needing coding knowledge. With its drag-and-drop interface, users can easily add, customize, and arrange elements such as text, images, and videos on their web pages. It also provides a variety of templates and design options to help users get started quickly and ensure their site looks professional.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: WordPress

. Google Sites does not offer a mobile editor app, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to WordPress. WordPress, on the other hand, provides a Mobile Editor App that allows users to manage their website on the go.

Users can create and edit posts, manage comments, schedule content, and analyze website traffic from their phone or tablet. While it offers convenience and basic functionality, it has some limitations compared to the web-based editor, including fewer advanced options, restricted code access, and limited design customization.

In summary, WordPress receives a higher rating due to its mobile editor app, offering convenience and basic functionality with some limitations. Google Sites, on the other hand, does not offer a mobile editor app, putting it at a disadvantage.

Overall Result

:

WordPress Wins

. WordPress scores 8.1 in product testing options, while Google Sites scores 6.9. WordPress, being an open-source CMS, offers a free version with extensive customization options. Google Sites, on the other hand, provides a 14-day free trial with the possibility to test some premium features. However, it does not offer a money-back guarantee.

Google Sites offers a range of pricing plans, while WordPress is open-source and free, but requires separate hosting services.

Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites offers cloud-based managed hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and data centers across the globe. On the other hand, WordPress does not directly provide hosting services, and the uptime and data centers depend on the hosting provider chosen by the user. Therefore, Google Sites has a higher hosting quality score.

🏆 Winner: WordPress

Both Google Sites and WordPress place a high priority on website performance and page speed, with Google Sites focusing on automated optimization, CDN, mobile optimization, browser caching, code minification, and use of AMP, and WordPress providing valuable resources for enhancing website’s Core Web Vitals (CWV), however WordPress gets a slight edge when it comes to website speed optimization.

WordPress, an open-source content management system, provides valuable resources for enhancing website’s Core Web Vitals (CWV). It suggests to analyze CWV, choose a reliable host, optimize images, minimize plugins, use lazy loading, and employ a CDN. WordPress also recommends tools like Core Web Vitals, WP Rocket, Hummingbird, and AMP for mobile speed. The load times and PageSpeed scores vary widely and are dependent on optimization.

Google Sites, a structured web page-creation tool, focuses on automated optimization, CDN, mobile optimization, browser caching, code minification, and use of AMP for website speed optimization. It emphasizes on LCP, FID, CLS improvements for Core Web Vitals. However, Google does not disclose statistics about website Page Speed scores, or load times.

🏆 Winner: WordPress.

With a score of 8.8, WordPress outperforms Google Sites (6.4) in terms of plugins and integrations. WordPress offers over 60,000 free plugins, significantly more than Google Sites, and these plugins extend its functionality across various domains, including advanced ecommerce tools, SEO optimization, social media integration, email marketing, website analytics, appointment scheduling, customer support, enhanced media galleries, blogging features, custom forms and surveys, diverse payment processing options, website localization, improved security measures, and the addition of custom widgets. Some of the top WordPress plugins include RankMath for SEO, WP Rocket for caching, WPForms for form creation, UpdraftPlus for backups, EWWW Image Optimizer for image optimization, and WooCommerce for ecommerce integration.

On the other hand, Google Sites also offers a wide array of plugins and extensions to enhance website functionality, catering to various needs such as social media integration, e-commerce, chats, forms, video, audio, and more. Elfsight and Common Ninja offer a wide range of integrations for Google Sites, extending its basic functionalities to include features like social media feeds, review displays, chat support, e-commerce tools, and various interactive widgets. These integrations are designed to enhance user engagement, improve website functionality, and boost sales, making Google Sites a more powerful platform for businesses, educators, and individuals. Both platforms provide easy-to-use, customizable widgets that require no coding knowledge, ensuring that users can significantly enhance their Google Sites without technical difficulties.

Google Sites Applications

WordPress Applications

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Overall Winner: WordPress

. WordPress stands out for its extensive marketing tools, especially in SEO, blogging, and social media integration. Google Sites, while offering basic SEO and analytics features, lacks in email marketing, blogging, and ads and promotions.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. In the comparison of Google Sites vs WordPress, Google Sites takes the lead with a customer support score of 7.2. Google Sites offers a range of support options, including a Help Center, community forums, and direct support for Google Workspace customers. Paid subscribers benefit from 24/7 support for critical issues, making it a reliable choice for businesses needing consistent assistance.

WordPress, on the other hand, scores 5.0 in customer support. As an open-source platform, it lacks direct customer support. Users must rely on community forums, the WordPress codex, and support from hosting providers or plugin and theme developers. While the community is vast and helpful, the absence of official support can be a drawback for users needing immediate or specialized help.

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Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites, with a security score of 9.3, offers robust measures for data protection and website security. It benefits from Google’s regular security updates, access controls, and compliance with international data protection standards. Google Sites also provides SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and automatic malware scanning to protect data and users from various online threats.

Although it may not offer the same level of specialized security features as Google Sites, WordPress, scoring 6.7 in security, provides numerous functionalities and resources to enhance website security. However, its approach to private data storage and protection can vary depending on the hosting provider. Users can utilize multiple plugins to bolster security, such as those for site backups, monitoring, malware scanning, user activity tracking, permission control, and spam protection tools. Despite these features, WordPress’s security measures are not as comprehensive as Google Sites’.

🏆 Winner: WordPress

. WordPress, with a score of 6.1, allows for the integration of various AI plugins due to its open-source nature. This includes AI website builders, AI ecommerce features, AI content generation, and additional AI features. On the other hand, Google Sites does not have any AI capabilities.

🏆 Winner: WordPress

. Both Google Sites and WordPress allow multiple users to collaborate on a website, but they offer different roles and access levels.

• Google Sites allows multiple users to collaborate with different roles, including Owners, who have full control, and Editors, who can modify content but not site settings. There’s no strict limit on the number of users who can edit a site, allowing flexibility in management and development. Viewers can only see the site, with no editing permissions. This structure supports collaborative website building with varied levels of access and control for different users.
• The editing access for a WordPress.org website depends on user roles and additional controls. User roles, ranging from Super Admin to Subscriber, dictate the level of permissions, while plugins and controls such as role management plugins and revision control offer further customization for specific editing rights and collaboration.

WordPress User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

Google Sites vs WordPress: User Feedback

Users consistently praise Google Workspace, particularly Google Sites, for its seamless integration, ease of use, and collaborative features, making it a go-to solution for various professional and educational needs. The platform’s simplicity and user-friendly interface are lauded, enabling effortless website creation and sharing of information within organizations. While some users desire more customization options and additional features, overall, Google Workspace remains highly valued for its versatility and streamlined workflow facilitation.

WordPress receives praise for its user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, extensive themes and plugins, customization options, and supportive community. However, users mention technical challenges, security concerns, a learning curve, and a lack of direct support. Overall, it remains a widely used and versatile platform, especially beneficial for startups and small businesses.

Google Sites vs WordPress: FAQ