Showit? WordPress? I don’t know where to start!

I hear you, and today I want to give you all the information about the two so you can make an informed and great decision for your business!

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen both of these options and you’re just not sure which one will work best for you!

What is Showit?

Showit is a drag and drop website builder that allows you to edit absolutely anything on your site without ever touching a line of code. Showit websites are designed inside of the Showit app, which is a drag and drop program with ample options for every element.

Showit stands by itself, which means it is also your hosting provider, and you don’t need anything else to make it all work.

Take a look behind the scenes at a quick video of me editing one of our templates:

What is Genesis?

Genesis is a WordPress theme that is a framework (which we also call a “parent theme”) . In order to use this WordPress parent theme, you’ll need to have a child theme as well. Our themes at Restored 316 are all child themes for the Genesis framework.

For simplicity sake, while Showit stands by itself, the Genesis framework needs a couple more things in order to work. You’ll need a hosting provider, WordPress, a copy of the Genesis framework, and a Genesis child theme.

Showit & WordPress: Working Together

Now that we know the difference between Showit and Genesis, let’s talk about how Showit and WordPress actually do work together!

Inside Showit, you will have a Blog page, Single Post, Category, and Page template.  These templates are designed to match your website but inside these page designs, there are placeholders to display your content from WordPress. Here is an example:

This title is designed with the font, colors, size, placement and everything inside of Showit, but our placeholder is the Post Title.  When you publish content, this title is updated with your own blog post title!

You will have a login for Showit and a login for your WordPress site and the two will work together based on your Showit design template. You will continue to write and publish your blog posts just as you always have!

Pages (static content) are generally designed inside of Showit and use the Showit app for design ability, and blog posts still use the power of WordPress!

Now that we understand what both of these platforms are and how they can actually work together, let’s discuss some Pros and Cons of both!

Pros of Showit

Ease of Use: Showit has an easy to use drag and drop editor that feels similar to Adobe Suite or even Canva. It may take just a teeny bit of time to get acclimated with the software, but the learning curve isn’t too steep.

Design ability: When looking at template options you’ll notice that Showit templates tend to offer a little more in their designs than that of WordPress. The ability to design things in Showit far surpasses the ability in WordPress.

Mobile Design: With Showit, you can drag and drop every element of your mobile design as well as your desktop version. The process of designing your mobile website is quite tedious with Showit if you’re building everything out yourself, which I would say is a con if you’re building from scratch. This is a huge benefit to starting your site with a pre-designed template so all the work is already done for you!

It really is incredibly convenient that you can design your website for mobile devices exactly how you want and you can also hide/show certain elements on mobile/desktop to make both mobile and desktop versions perfect for both users.

Getting help: Showit does have a great Facebook community and a knowledge-base of helpful documentation to answer just about any question you have as you get started.

Pros of WordPress

Ease of use: As for design flexibility, WordPress uses Gutenberg blocks which allow you to add pre-designed blocks to your website anywhere you want. This allows for some flexibility, but it’s not as flexible as Showit.

Mobile Design: If you’re starting with a pre-designed template for your site, the mobile version is already done for you! Every element you add to your site or update will automatically format on mobile so this is super simple! Unlike Showit, you aren’t able to differentiate any elements from appearing on mobile vs desktop.

Cost: The cost of getting Started is a bit less than it would be would Showit. Let’s break down what it will cost with WordPress:

Domain = $15/year
Hosting = as little as $10/mo or $120/year
Genesis Framework = $70 one time
Restored 316 Child Theme = $75-$99
Cost of getting started: As little as $170

Cons of Showit

Mobile Design: While there are a lot of pros around Showit mobile design, I have seen some reports in the Showit Facebook community that sometimes it fails to render properly on Android devices, and you can’t specifically control how your Showit site appears on iPads, as it will display the same desktop version on iPad devices.

Cost: Showit is definitely more expensive than WordPress but easier to set up when getting started since the Showit team will do everything for you. Let’s break down the cost of Showit:

Cons of WordPress

Ease of use: With WordPress, you’ll still be responsible for setting up your own hosting, installing your own plugins, making sure plugins aren’t conflicting with each other, and making sure you keep everything updated.

Design ability: WordPress has been known to be a little more technical when it comes to making changes to your website such as fonts, colors, and placement of elements. In order to make changes like this generally requires either code or plugins. With that said, WordPress still requires a little more getting used to than Showit due to the control one has over their website.

With all the pros and cons listed, it is absolutely possible to have a beautiful and functional website on both platforms!!

Who is Showit for?

I find that Showit is the perfect fit if you’re a Photographer, Podcaster, or Creative Professional (Wedding Industry, Interior Designer, Web Design Professional, Creative Services, etc).

Showit is also fantastic for bloggers also but if you use an ad service you’ll want to see this article. Our Jane Garland template is a great template for bloggers!

If you sell products, you can also use Showit! You can use WooCommerce, ThriveCart, SamCart, SendOwl, or Shopify Lite.

Who is Showit not for?

There are two groups of people I feel Showit isn’t the best fit for:

If you’re a blogger solely dependent on your ads, WordPress is a better fit for you! Your ads will work on Showit, but the sidebar ads are a little buggy at the moment.

If you have an ecommerce shop with more than 15 products, products that have multiple options upon order, or if you need membership functionality Showit isn’t the best fit for you and WordPress is the way to go!