WordPress Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons, Cost, & Is It Right for Therapists?

WordPress Review – Key Takeaways

• WordPress is totally DIY and requires you to complete most of the work in setting up your website.
• WordPress offers a fairly intuitive interface, but the features offered are in complete excess of most therapy practice’s needs.
• There are many affordable pricing plans with WordPress, and a basic website can be set up for free.
• WordPress is one of the most popular website-building tools and hosting platforms worldwide.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is a massively popular website builder. It is entirely self-service and provides numerous features for creating anything from basic websites to comprehensive enterprise web applications. WordPress has an astounding assortment of first and third-party plugins to provide functionality for any website imaginable.

According to WordPress, its platform powers 42% of the entire internet¹. Considering the size of the internet as a whole, this is a truly staggering number – more bloggers and businesses use WordPress than every other alternative combined.

Types of Website Builders

Website builders can range from completely do-it-yourself systems wherein you build the website mostly on your own to fully professionally managed websites designed by experienced web designers. Depending on your experience, budget, and the amount of time you’d like to spend on setup, different options may be better for you.

WordPress is self-service, so all of the work involved in building the website is yours. However, WordPress does offer plans wherein professionals will build your website for you – with a large upfront cost of $499 – $5,000.

WordPress Specs

How Easy Is WordPress to Use?

WordPress is unique because it remains relatively easy to use on a fundamental level while offering robust functionality and customization. It is true, however, that WordPress can get complicated quickly, and many web professionals are dedicated specifically to working with WordPress.

Compared to other template-based, self-service website builders, WordPress is not as easy to get started with. While the general process remains the same, the task of selecting an appropriate template and modifying it to suit your needs can be a daunting task.

The steps for creating a website with WordPress are:

1. Select a beginning template: Select a template to start your website with from an assortment of templates. (5-10 minutes)
2. Edit the template website to meet your needs: After choosing a template, you will edit the contents of it to match your website. Change the text content, fonts, colors, and images from the options available on WordPress. (60-90+ minutes)
3. Review your draft website and make revisions: Double-check everything to ensure that everything is the way you’d like it, both aesthetically and functionally. (30+ minutes)
4. Your website goes live: Once this process is complete, you will publish your website.

How Much Does WordPress Website Builder Cost?

WordPress’ costs range from $0 – $70+ monthly, depending on the plan selected. Discounts are offered for annual billing. WordPress offers a basic plan at no cost. Free domain registration is included with all annually billed plans. Professional website design consultants are available for fees ranging from $499 – $5,000+.

Here are the costs for WordPress:

How to Get Started with WordPress

To get started with WordPress, simply navigate to the WordPress website, and select “Get started.” After entering a bit of information about your practice, you will select a template and begin editing your website.

WordPress Core Features

WordPress offers a staggering array of features, however, its most basic core features are very similar to other template-style DIY website builders. These include a number of templates to start your site with, intuitive controls for customizing your content, marketing, and SEO tools, as well as many plugins and extensions to add even more functionality.

Templates

WordPress offers the most versatility out of any website builder I’ve tested when it comes to templates to start your site with – provided you are willing to pay for the business plan. While the free plan offers a good selection of templates, and the premium plan offers even more, the business plan unlocks the ability to upload custom templates.

A quick search reveals the sheer magnitude of people that have published custom WordPress templates – so, while Wix has over 800 templates, WordPress unlocks a thousands of design options with more being built every day. This gives WordPress a leg up over other DIY template builders, as you can upload a template specific to therapy websites and get started right away.

Design Customization

The degree of customization that can be achieved with WordPress is unparalleled. This makes WordPress entirely adequate for a therapist’s needs, however, it may be excessive in many ways, considering that most of the advanced options available are going to require far more skill to implement.

The interface for customizing things is a bit outdated, but can easily be improved by plugins or extensions like Avada. WordPress does not have an AI assistant to help you build your website like Wix does, so getting your website customized fully can be labor-intensive, and quite daunting.

Elements that can be customized by you in WordPress:

• Changing/uploading images
• Changing text content
• Customizing submittable forms
• Creating new pages from a template
• Sitewide color scheme
• Font size and color
• The overall flow of the website
• Recoloring individual design elements
• Moving text, images, or other items around on a page
• Custom code and web APIs in Dev Mode
• The website template once published

Elements that cannot be customized by you in WordPress:

• None

Website Integrations

WordPress offers a staggering 58,000+ plugins and extensions. While the vast majority of these won’t be important for therapists, there are many that would. Keep in mind that many of these integrations may incur extra fees.

Some WordPress plugins will incur extra fees, while others will be free to use with your website. Below, we discuss the must-have WordPress plugins for therapists to tailor WordPress to your needs. To activate custom plugins in WordPress, you must be subscribed to a Business plan.

SEO Tools

WordPress offers a handful of useful features for SEO management natively, but most of the useful offerings will come from plugins and extensions, of which there are far too many to number here.

WordPress does offer the ability to manage meta titles, page descriptions, keywords, and other parameters as you’d expect a quality website builder to. There is also a stats page to help you monitor your website’s general performance.

Additional Tools & Functionality

WordPress is less a website builder and more a holistic content management system. There are a multitude of plugins, extensions, custom codes, and others that can be added to your website to customize it in any way imaginable.

Best WordPress Plugins for Therapists

In order to create an effective therapy practice website with WordPress, plugins, or software that extends the functionality of your website, are essential. A few important WordPress plugins for therapists include those for building the website, adding security, ensuring HIPAA compliance, improving SEO, and more.

To use custom plugins, you must be subscribed to the Business subscription plan, at minimum. This plan costs $40 monthly, or $300 annually.

Yellow Schedule – HIPAA-Compliant Scheduling

One of the most important features of a therapist’s website is the ability to book clients directly to your schedule. Yellow Schedule allows your clients to book appointments, receive appointment reminders, and confirm their appointments by email and SMS. Yellow Schedule is free to use and can be found on the WordPress plugin marketplace.

Avada – Website Builder & Mental Health Template

One plugin of note for therapists is the Avada plugin – a fully-featured website-building plugin that helps make WordPress more accessible. Costing a one-time price of $69, Avada makes the whole ordeal of building a website with WordPress easier. Avada offers a theme called Avada Psychology that provides an excellent template for mental health and psychology practice websites. You can learn more on the Avada website, or in the WordPress plugin marketplace.

HIPAAtizer – Create HIPAA-Compliant Interactive Forms

HIPAAtizer is another free WordPress plugin that works great for mental health practices. This plugin allows you to create custom forms for your clients to use that are  completely secure and HIPAA-compliant. You can create a form totally from scratch, or choose from one of HIPAAtizer’s pre-generated forms. You can learn more about HIPAAtizer on the WordPress plugin marketplace.

Comm100 Live Chat & Chatbot – Secure Video, Audio, & Text Chat

If you plan on providing remote services, or would like to live chat with potential clients while they’re on your website, Comm100 is a great choice. While remaining secure and HIPAA-compliant, Comm100 allows you to meet with clients for sessions, and also offers an automated chatbot to help answer website visitor questions while you’re away. To learn more about Comm100 Live Chat & Chatbot, visit the WordPress plugin marketplace.

Yoast SEO – Simple Search Engine Optimization

For optimizing the way your site ranks in search results, Yoast SEO is a plugin that’s hard to beat. Yoast offers their basic plan for free, and it unlocks a ton of functionality for ranking for keywords, optimized snippeting, managing tags and meta titles, and managing your writing style. Yoast also offers a premium plan for either $99 annually, or $9 monthly. The premium plan grants you access to advanced SEO features, but most would not be necessary for a simple therapist website. You can learn more about Yoast SEO in the WordPress plugins marketplace, or on the Yoast SEO website.

Limit Login Attempts – Simple Security Solution

Limit Login Attempts is a plugin that does just what it sounds like it does. With this free plugin, you can immediately add a layer of protection to your website from brute-force entry by hackers. This method of hacking applies an algorithm to try thousands of passwords to enter your website’s secure areas. By limiting the number of login attempts, this prevents this hazard entirely. You can download Limite Login Attempts on the WordPress plugin marketplace.

WordPress Domains & Hosting

Hosting with WordPress can be handled in a few different ways. You can use WordPress as a content management system and go through an external hosting service, or you can have WordPress host the website.

I would recommend hosting your website directly through WordPress for the sake of simplicity. In the cost section above, I addressed the costs associated with hosting, and for a simple therapist’s website, WordPress offers plenty of functionality at any of its subscription plans. If you elect for annual billing, then you’ll receive a free domain registration for one year.

Who Is WordPress Right For?

WordPress is a great choice for many, as evidenced by the sheer number of people that trust it. If you need total control over the website, need professional-level features, or are on a tight budget, then WordPress is an ideal choice for your practice.

Those Who Want Total Control of Their Website

WordPress offers unparalleled control over the website you create. If you’d like to know you are in charge, and have access to as many design options as you can imagine, then definitely consider WordPress.

Practices That Require Professional-Level Features

WordPress is used by a huge slice of the internet, and a number of huge corporations like Disney and Time Magazine trust it to power their websites. If you want access to professional-grade features, WordPress is a great choice.

Practices on a Tight Budget

Compared to its competitors, WordPress has some of the most affordable starting costs. Normal plans do not require a setup fee, and it’s possible to get started with WordPress for entirely free if you don’t mind being limited to only the essentials.

Who May Want an Alternative to WordPress?

WordPress isn’t right for everyone; if you don’t have the time to commit to building a website, need a full practice management system, or feel you’ll need an option that’s easy to use, you’ll be better served elsewhere.

Those Who Don’t Have the Time for Building a Website

Building a website with WordPress can be a fairly time and labor-intensive prospect. If you are on a strict timeline or just don’t feel like going through the trouble, you may not prefer WordPress. A better option is Brighter Vision, which builds totally custom websites for therapy practices. Read more in our Brighter Vision review.

Therapists Who Need a Full Practice Management System

WordPress doesn’t have any systems built specifically for therapists, and there are no options for making a HIPAA-compliant website (not easily, at least). If you’d like a full suite of practice management solutions, SimplePractice has tools for managing clients, billing, and building a website. Read our review of SimplePractice and SimplePractice Website Builder review for more insight.

Those Who Want a Website Builder That’s Easy to Use

While the skills are easy to pick up, I wouldn’t say WordPress is the easiest to use; and, with lower-cost plans, customer support is very limited. If you feel like you need a solution that’s simpler to implement, you’d be better served with Wix. Our review of Wix has more details.

WordPress Vs. Brighter Vision

WordPress and Brighter Vision offer entirely different methods of attaining a website for your therapy practice. WordPress is entirely DIY and is not designed specifically for therapists. Meanwhile, Brighter Vision is a totally custom service in which a professional website developer will work with you to tailor-make a website for your practice. With Brighter Vision, every aspect of the website is handled for you, whereas WordPress requires a great deal of time and effort.

In terms of cost, Brighter Vision is significantly more expensive than most plans with WordPress, since it is a custom service. Brighter Vision requires a $100 setup fee with all plans and ongoing costs starting at $69 monthly. However, a WordPress website can feasibly be built at no cost, and the ongoing costs of premium plans max out at $70 monthly.

WordPress Vs. Wix

WordPress and Wix offer very similar services. Wix is a bit more user-friendly and would be an easier system for a beginner to pick up. Wix offers more built-in templates and plugins at a lower cost than WordPress, but WordPress offers a larger variety and depth of customization if you’re willing to pay for it.

Overall, middle-of-the-road costs with Wix and WordPress are similar, and both offer free options. The price range for Wix is $0 – $59 monthly, whereas WordPress is $0 – $70 monthly.

WordPress – Our Final Verdict

WordPress is one of the world’s most used website-building tools and for good reason. It offers a great deal of value and some of the most robust features you can find. However, most therapy practices simply do not need all of these features, which can often get in the way and make website building more complicated than it needs to be. Most practices will be better suited with something simpler and more approachable, or ideally, a website builder made specifically for therapists.

You should consider signing up for WordPress’s free trial if you:

• Want to have full control over your website
• Are on a very tight budget
• Are planning a more complicated website with unique features

You should consider looking for an alternative to WordPress if you:

• Want a simple solution that can be implemented with minimal time and effort. A better option is Squarespace. You can read more in our review of Squarespace.
• Want a web consultant that specializes in mental health websites. The best choice is Brighter Vision. Check it out in our Brighter Vision review.
• Need a full therapy practice management system. Your ideal choice would be SimplePractice. Read more in our review of SimplePractice Website Builder and review of SimplePractice.

History of WordPress

WordPress is a venerable institution in the website design and development world. It has been around since 2003 and powers 42% of the entire internet ¹. It builds websites for some of the world’s largest businesses including Disney, Time Magazine, Conde Nast, and Facebook. WordPress released an online book titled Milestones: The Story of WordPress detailing the history of their platform and the twists and turns it has taken, for those interested.

FAQs for WordPress

Is WordPress HIPAA-Compliant?

No. Off-the-shelf, WordPress is not HIPAA-compliant and offers no plans that are. However, there are plugins designed for healthcare professionals to add HIPAA-compliant features to your website, like client forms and scheduling tools.

Is WordPress Free to Use?

Yes. WordPress has a free plan that offers basic website creation and hosting.

Does WordPress Own Your Content?

No. You retain ownership of the content of your website; WordPress simply provides you with a platform to publish and host your content.

What Kind of Help and Support Does WordPress Offer?

WordPress doesn’t offer much customer support unless you are using one of their more expensive plans. However, since WordPress is so popular, there is a lot of community support, and WordPress maintains a comprehensive knowledge base. With the number of users worldwide, it is easy to find answers to WordPress websites across numerous independent websites and forums.

What Safety and Security Features Does WordPress Have?

For all of its paid plans, WordPress offers SSL certificates, and some plans have more advanced security features. However, it is worth noting that WordPress websites are not natively HIPAA-compliant. While it is possible to make a WordPress website HIPAA-compliant, this is not an easy or straightforward task. It’s best to make sure your client’s data is exposed to your WordPress website and good security practices are put in place.

What Are the Disadvantages of WordPress?

WordPress can get complicated fast. Building a WordPress website can be time and labor-intensive depending on your skill level and the features you are trying to implement.. As well, WordPress was not designed expressly for therapists, so it lacks some of the features that therapist-built website builders have, and it is not natively HIPAA-compliant.

Additional Website Builder FAQs

What Is Web Hosting?

Web hosting, in layperson’s terms, is the process of making your website’s data available and accessible to the internet. Web hosting companies provide the storage needed on a physical server, which you would then rent to store your website’s data².

What Is a Domain Name?

Domain names are human-readable addresses for any given web server accessible on the internet³. This address corresponds to a computer’s IP address which your web browser will use to access the page you’d like to view. Domain names are a way to make these IP addresses easier to read for humans.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of optimizing a website to be more visible on the results page of a search engine like Google or DuckDuckGo.⁴

What Are Plugins?

Plugins are extra features that can be added to website builders or other software. Typically developed by third parties, they take the initial software a step further in its capabilities. For instance, a website builder may not be able to handle eCommerce effectively on its own, but a third-party plugin may add just the features you need. Plugins may be free, or incur extra costs.