Movable Type VS WordPress on Blogging Usability & Customizability

By Mark Noble
|
- 10:58 pm
2019-08-26T09:26:50
Category: Software & SaaS
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Movable Type VS WordPress on Blogging Usability & Customizability

Both Movable Type and WordPress are options that worth a shot when coming down to blogging. As a result, we would like to do a favor by helping you distinguish MT and WP from each other. In below, we pay close attention of their cost, user-friendliness, extendability in themes and plugins, etc.

Enjoying tremendous popularity, without doubts, WordPress is a formidable opponent for many other blogging projects. In consequence, we also contrasted it with other competitors prior to this comparison. For details, please check these comparisons including Tumblr VS WordPress, TypePad VS WordPress, WordPress VS SquareSpace, and WordPress VS Blogger.

Movable Type VS WordPress > Brief Introduction

Movable Type – On September 3rd, 2001, it is publicly announced as a weblog publishing system designed and launched by the corporation Six Apart. Afterwards, its original version 1.0 was released on October 8th, 2001. With impressive progress made, its current version is 6.0.2, which is available 5 months ago.

WordPress – Since it was firstly published on May 27, 2003, it does contributions by serving both a blogging tool and a content management system. With its latest version WordPress 3.9.1 that is launched 56 days ago, it has been employed by over 22% of the top 10 million websites. In total, it can be leveraged via two ways: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Please note that what we mean to talk about in below is the latter one. For their differences, this post is worth reading: WordPress.com VS WordPress.org.

Cost > Which One Is More Cost-Effective?

movable type vs wordpress in costBloggers tend to give priority to price. In this point, WordPress is free and open source. That means everyone has the capability to download it directly from the community of WordPress. Therefore, choosing it is zero-cost unless you expect to have a self-hosted blog requiring trustworthy blog hosting services offered by dependable companies.

As for Movable Type, its basic edition is open source and free of charge for personal bloggers. Besides, its commercial edition costs $595 and $1,195 for 5/unlimited user licenses accordingly.

Conclusion: WordPress is much more budget-friendly.

User-friendliness > Which One Is Better?

Ease of use is crucial for both green hands and veterans in blogging. In this part, we contrast them with analysis of interface, installation, and possibility of multiple blogs.

Interface

Movable Type features an easy-to-handle dashboard where you can see a contextually oriented menu system in the top bar. This dashboard is smoothly integrated with Create, Edit, Design, Organize, and Configure with which you are able to blog efficiently. With regard to WordPress, it is not inferior in any respects by coming with a dashboard featuring clear and easy-to-understand graphic interface, as well as a WYSIWYG editor simplifying blogging.

Installation

movable type vs wordpress in installationThe complexity of installation is another factor that matters to a great extent. In this point, WordPress wins slightly over its competitor. Specifically, the market mushrooms a large number of companies offering hosting services with which the installation of WP can be completed within clicks by means of 1-click installers. These services include Fantastico hosting, SimpleScripts hosting, and Softaculous hosting, etc. On the contrary, Movable Type is not supported by Fantastico.

Possibility of Multiple Blogs

There are some blogging fans needing to build several blogs. In this regard, Movable Type is preferable. To be exact, using MT, it is easy to get command of multiple blogs. Dissimilarly, if using WP, you need to install every blog separately you mean to control.

Conclusion: the contrast ends in a draw.

Extendability > Which One Is Greater?

The themes and plugins available decide the customizability, which is of great importance, especially for newcomers to MT and WP.

  • Themes – At wordpress.org, 2,614 themes have been downloaded for 105,114,020 times accumulatively up to now. Similarly, MT is packed with a collection of themes that are not that rich and various as those of WP.
  • Plugins – With WP applied, you are capable of enjoying 32,029 free plugins which are downloaded for 688,344,317 times, whereas Movable Type covers relatively fewer plugins.

Conclusion: WordPress excels Movable Type.

Summary > Option Lies on Personal Requirements

With the above comprehensive comparison, WordPress is much more likely to win the competition. However, we do not mean to show our preference to it. The final decision still depends on your specific needs. Unless you look forward to owning multiple blogs without strict requirements of extendability, we do not recommend Movable Type.

Besides, it’s also very easy to find a web host optimized for running WordPress site, such as Arvixe, WebHostingHub, JustHost. After all, it powers 50% – 60% of the world’s websites.