Is self-hosted WordPress a good Tumblr alternative?

Perhaps you’ve heard that WordPress is a good alternative to Tumblr and are curious if that’s really the case. Or maybe you’re on the lookout for a place to host your new business website and want to know what each of these two platforms has to offer.

Regardless of your reasons, you’ve come to the right place, as we’re going to dissect the surprising similarities and drastic differences between WordPress vs Tumblr.

First, we’ll explore their pros and cons to help you understand both platforms’ unique offerings. Then, we’ll walk you through what makes them so different, highlighting which option makes the most sense depending on your objectives. 

Lastly, we’ll offer an answer to the question of whether WordPress is a good Tumblr alternative or not and why.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What is self-hosted WordPress?
• What is Tumblr?
• What are the differences between WordPress vs Tumblr?
• When is self-hosted WordPress right for you?
• When is Tumblr right for you?
• Is self-hosted WordPress a good Tumblr alternative?
• WordPress vs Tumblr: Which option is right for you?

What is self-hosted WordPress?

WordPress began its life as a blogging platform back in 2003. And while it’s still a popular choice among bloggers today, WordPress has grown into much more than that. It has become the world’s most popular open source content management system (CMS) — making up an impressive 62 percent of the global CMS market.

You may have heard that there are two “versions” of WordPress you need to be aware of: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. While at first, you might think they are the same thing, in reality, they couldn’t be more different.

WordPress.com is a platform for hosting a website, while WordPress.org is an open source software you can use to build that website.

Pros of self-hosted WordPress

• It’s highly customizable: You can choose from over 60,000 plugins and over 10,000 WordPress theme options to extend your WordPress site’s functionality.
• It allows for full control: You make every decision regarding your site, as it’s 100 percent yours.
• It’s readily scalable: Managing your website’s resources and functionalities is easy and affordable.
• It’s optimized for ecommerce: WordPress supports an array of online retail features, making it a stellar option for hosting your ecommerce store.

Cons of self-hosted WordPress

• It has a steep learning curve: If you’re new to web hosting, familiarizing yourself with the WordPress dashboard will take time and effort.
• It doesn’t include hosting costs: While WordPress itself is free, hosting your website and purchasing a custom domain name is another matter.

What is Tumblr?

Founded in 2007, Tumblr also started out as a simple blogging solution. But like WordPress, the platform has since expanded beyond its founders’ original vision, growing into a popular choice for bloggers, content creators, musicians, celebrities, and influencers. 

To give you an idea of Tumblr’s size and scope, it received over 340 million monthly visits in April 2023 alone.

Unlike many of its blogging competitors, Tumblr is specifically designed for microblogging — sometimes referred to as “tumblogging.” This means it’s primarily useful for publishing short-form content like captioned images.

Pros of Tumblr 

• It’s easy to use: All you have to do is create a free Tumblr account, and you’re ready to start posting.
• It has robust social connection features: Tumblr makes it easy for you to distribute content, connect with people in your industry, and grow your network.
• It’s optimized for visual media: Tumblr’s interface allows you to add images, video clips, GIFs, and other digitized visual content to your blog.
• It’s free: With Tumblr, you can skip purchasing a domain name or finding a hosting provider and just focus on sharing your content.

Cons of Tumblr

• It offers limited customization options: Your choices are limited when it comes to making your blog look and feel unique.
• It disallows site and content ownership: You don’t own your site or content if you run a Tumblr blog, meaning your account can be suspended or terminated at any time.
• It lacks ecommerce options: While you can take advantage of premium add-ons to turn your Tumblr site into an online store, these options are limited and lack many of the basic functions a business owner would want.

What are the differences between WordPress vs Tumblr?

WordPress is an open source content management system, while Tumblr is an online publishing platform. They are both great blogging platforms and are owned by Automattic — an American web development company.

But that’s where their similarities end, as the type of blogging experience they offer couldn’t be more different. Let’s explore exactly how they differ to help determine whether self-hosted WordPress is an effective Tumblr alternative.

Customization

With WordPress, you have almost complete control over the look and function of your website. You can choose from a seemingly infinite number of incredible themes and widgets and install whatever plugins you want to add features to your site.

The WordPress block editor further expands your choices for adapting your WordPress site, its pages, and the content you distribute through it. The editor comes with tons of “block types” and advanced settings you can alter to customize everything from text shadow to sharing permissions.

That isn’t to say that Tumblr doesn’t come with customizable elements of its own — it most certainly does. You have the option of customizing things like your dashboard’s appearance, header images, and font color.

In addition, Tumblr offers an array of free themes, templates, and colors you can use to personalize your page’s appearance.

Nevertheless, Tumblr can’t compete with the sheer number of options WordPress offers you in terms of style, site structure, and editing choices. If setting your website apart from the competition is a priority, then you’re better off going with a self-hosted WordPress site.

Blogging

As both WordPress and Tumblr’s roots are in the world of blogging, they are amazing options for starting and managing a successful blog. The question you need to ask yourself is, “What kind of blog do you want?”

Tumblr is ideal if you’re looking to build a casual, short-form blog with limited functionalities. For instance, you can easily post short-form multimedia content like GIFs, video clips, captioned images, and audio files to your Tumblr page.

Self-hosted WordPress, on the other hand, is better for creating and publishing long-form content. This is due to the platform’s intuitive drag-and-drop page builder and near-limitless capacity for customization.

You can add things like built-in moving backgrounds, galleries, and web forms, as well as integrate a ton of add-ons, plugins, and themes to your WordPress website.

Socials

Designed to function like a social networking site, Tumblr truly shines when it comes to connecting people together. It immediately links you with other Tumblr users, presents related and relevant content, and allows you to establish authority on topics through streamlined content distribution processes.

With Tumblr, you can easily like and reblog other users’ posts and interact via social sharing buttons. These functionalities make expanding your social network and sharing your content via social platforms extremely accessible.

While Tumblr feels like a bustling digital marketplace, self-hosted WordPress appears more like an isolated island — at least at first. With WordPress, you’re responsible for marketing your site, adding it to the Google Search Console, building your network, and integrating all platforms yourself. 

This gives you complete control over your website but also means you have to work a bit harder to distribute your content. One way you can overcome this barrier is by installing social-networking-oriented add-ons or marketing plugins.

Ease of use

Tumblr’s user interface is user-friendly and intuitive. From the homepage, it’s easy to navigate throughout the site — every page is clearly labeled with a recognizable icon or heading.

Even if you’ve never used Tumblr before, it will only take you a couple of minutes to familiarize yourself with the platform’s essential functions, such as adding content or following other Tumblr creators.

This makes Tumblr a great option for casual bloggers who just want to get their work out there and aren’t too concerned with carving out a corner of the internet for themselves.

Setting up and maintaining a self-hosted WordPress website, on the other hand, requires a greater up-front time investment. You’re essentially building a website from the ground up, and it can take some trial and error before you hit upon the style and structure that works for you.

That being said, there are countless online tutorials and resources you can reference to learn how to use WordPress.

Maintenance

And speaking of maintaining your website, there’s a big difference between the amount of time you have to spend updating WordPress vs Tumblr. 

For instance, running a WordPress website means you’ll be responsible for installing and updating your website’s plugins and software, as well as consistently tracking performance and protecting your site.

Also, choosing self-hosted WordPress means you’ll need to find your own hosting solutions and register a domain name.

With a Tumblr page, you don’t have to worry about any of this. Tumblr takes care of all aspects of maintenance for you, so you’re free to focus on creating and sharing your content. 

SEO

According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report, search engine optimization (SEO) was the third most important avenue for marketers to invest in, after short-form

video and influencer marketing.

This underscores how crucial it is for you to focus on your own website’s SEO and why it’s essential you host your site on a platform that has a strong track record of delivering SEO-friendly solutions.

Coming equipped with built-in performance-enhancing features and presenting seemingly limitless options for add-ons, WordPress dominates when it comes to designing an SEO-oriented website.

Self-hosted WordPress makes it easy for you to add alt text, streamline your site architecture, insert multiple on-page headings, and adjust your site’s settings for SEO. In addition, there are a ton of plugins you can install on WordPress that make designing an SEO-friendly site a whole lot easier. 

One of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins is Yoast SEO. This intuitive plugin comes with a variety of features that make website optimization fast and accessible — no prior knowledge is required. 

Tumblr, on the other hand, is great for visual media and image-laden content, but it isn’t designed specifically with SEO in mind like WordPress is.

The platform isn’t built for producing the long-form content Google values. It also doesn’t offer many opportunities to boost website rankings. You can add titles and tags and customize URLs, but other than that, your options for optimizing your site are limited.

Ecommerce

When it comes to starting an ecommerce business, selling products, and getting the word out about your brand, a self-hosted WordPress site is a more viable option than a Tumblr page.

While you could use Tumblr to promote your business or even create an online shop by adding premium themes, the platform lacks many of the functionalities you’d want in an ecommerce store.

For one thing, you wouldn’t own your own ecommerce store. Tumblr would. And if, for whatever reason, you violated its Community Guidelines or were just unlucky, your site — and your source of income — could vanish in a flash.

In contrast, WordPress offers a huge range of ecommerce functionalities — which can be further enhanced by the impressive array of WordPress ecommerce plugins available.

Especially due to the ultimate control, flexibility, scalability, SEO features, and content ownership a self-hosted WordPress site offers, it’s the ideal choice if you want to make your online store stand out.

Pricing

Both self-hosted WordPress and Tumblr are cost-effective web hosting solutions. 

Tumblr is completely free, which obviously makes it a good budget option. You can opt for premium themes, which do cost more, but these are an add-on instead of a requirement. The basic Tumblr page comes with everything you need to get started.

WordPress also offers free website creation and management services. However, you’ll still need to purchase hosting services and register a domain name for your site. 

That said, self-hosted WordPress plans generally cost around $10/month. And some hosting providers offer WordPress hosting plans for even less. Choosing to host your website with a reliable hosting provider helps you ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

When is self-hosted WordPress right for you?

Here are some instances where you may want to use a self-hosted WordPress site:

• You’re building an advanced website with many functionalities.
• You run a medium to large-sized ecommerce business.
• You want to retain all the rights to the content you produce.
• You want to prioritize SEO.
• You want extensive customization options.
• You’re looking to expand your business in the future.

When is Tumblr right for you?

Here are some instances where you may want to use a Tumblr page:

• You’re a beginner building a simple blog.
• Your focus is primarily on visual media.
• You don’t want to find hosting or maintain your website yourself.
• You value social networking and connection features above all else.
• You want to keep costs as low as possible.

Is self-hosted WordPress a good Tumblr alternative?

The answer is it depends. 

If you’re looking for a high-quality platform with more customization options and functionalities than Tumblr, then WordPress undoubtedly is a great alternative. 

Also, if you want to retain ownership over your content and create a high-performing website with SEO optimizations, WordPress is the way to go. And if you’re building an online business that needs an advanced website or online store, the answer again is Yes.

However, if you’re looking to build a casual blog for distributing visual-heavy content and aren’t too interested in customization, you’ll probably want to stick with Tumblr. 

Plus, if you already have a Tumblr site and your main focus is social media integrations and connection-oriented features, self-hosted WordPress wouldn’t necessarily be worth the added cost and time investment to set up and maintain.

WordPress vs Tumblr: Which option is right for you?

WordPress and Tumblr share many similarities but also have clear differences that produce a diverging set of benefits.

Tumblr is a great solution for casual website owners who want to reap the benefits of the platform’s phenomenal social media attributes and intuitive design.

In contrast, self-hosted WordPress offers you nearly unrivaled flexibility and scalability but at a higher cost and with a steeper learning curve. 

Ultimately, the decision as to whether WordPress is a good alternative to Tumblr will depend on your unique goals, requirements, and priorities.

At Liquid Web, we offer WordPress hosting plans whose speed, scalability, and security are designed to meet your performance requirements. Our hosting packages come with free website migrations and 24/7/365 access to our team of experts. 

Contact us today to learn how Liquid Web can help support the growth of your online business.