AI Website Builder vs. WordPress: Which Is Better?

If you’ve been researching website options lately, you’ve probably stumbled across the “AI website builder vs. WordPress” debate.

People think they’re comparing two different platforms when they’re actually comparing two different methods of building websites.

But the truth is, many popular “AI website builders” actually create WordPress websites for you. With this article, I want to help clear up this confusion once and for all, so you can make a decision based on your technical comfort level, time constraints, and long-term plans.

AI Website Builder vs. WordPress: What’s The Basis Of This Comparison?

AI website builders promise complete sites in a few minutes through simple questionnaires.

A traditional WordPress website setup, on the other hand, requires:

• Manual theme research (2-3 hours)
• Plugin selection from 60,000+ options (2-3 hours)
• Content creation from scratch (6-8 hours); and 
• Technical configuration across dozens of settings

What most comparisons miss is that leading AI builders like DreamHost Liftoff, ZipWP, and 10Web actually generate WordPress sites. So you’re choosing AI and WordPress.

Instead of WordPress vs. AI, the comparison should be manual WordPress setup vs. AI-assisted WordPress setup.

So, let’s make that the basis of our comparison and see if the AI approach is better than traditional website building or not.

Three Categories of AI Website Builders (What They Actually Build for You)

I’ve tested various AI builders over the past year, and discovered they fall into three categories that most people don’t distinguish between.

The first category creates actual WordPress websites:

• DreamHost Liftoff builds complete WordPress sites within a few minutes with hosting included. 
• ZipWP generates WordPress sites with custom content and design.
• 10Web AI Builder creates WordPress sites using the Elementor framework. 

These tools give you real WordPress sites that you can customize, migrate, or expand however you want.

The second category adds AI capabilities to existing WordPress builders:

• Elementor AI generates content and layouts within the Elementor interface. 
• Divi AI creates complete sections for existing Divi users. 
• SeedProd AI builds landing pages with AI assistance. 

These work if you’re already using these specific page builders, but they’re not complete website solutions.

The third category creates sites on proprietary platforms:

These aren’t WordPress sites and come with significant long-term limitations.

Traditional WordPress vs. AI WordPress Website Builders vs. Proprietary AI Platforms

I’m using DreamHost Liftoff, an AI WordPress website builder, since I have easy access to it. But a lot of what I mention will be applicable to most other AI WordPress website builders.

FactorTraditional WordPressAI WordPress BuildersProprietary AI PlatformsSetup Time8-20 hours initial1-2 hours total1-3 hours totalTechnical Skills RequiredIntermediate level neededNone initiallyNone initiallyCustomization FreedomFull WordPress ecosystemFull WordPress ecosystemPlatform limitations onlyContent OwnershipComplete ownershipComplete ownershipPlatform dependentPlugin AccessAll 60,000+ WordPress pluginsAll 60,000+ WordPress pluginsPlatform apps onlyMigration FreedomStandard WordPress processStandard WordPress processUsually impossibleSEO ControlFull WordPress SEO toolsFull WordPress SEO toolsPlatform SEO onlyLong-term CostsLow to moderate overallModerate hosting feesOften increases over timeLearning CurveSteep upfront requirementGradual WordPress learningPlatform-specific knowledge only

1. Setup Time: How Long Different Approaches Actually Take

I timed building identical business websites using different approaches to get real numbers on what you’re signing up for.

Traditional WordPress setup took me 15-20 hours spread across multiple sessions. The hosting setup and WordPress installation were the fastest since most hosting providers offer a one-click install. But if you add hosting research to the mix, it can easily take over an hour for this step.

Theme research and selection consumed another 2-3 hours as I was scrolling through hundreds of similar-looking options, trying to figure out which ones were actually good. There’s also the comparison between traditional themes and block themes, which are said to be the future of WordPress.

Theme customization took 3-4 hours as I figured out customizer settings, colors, fonts, and layout options.

Plugin research and installation added another 2-3 hours reading reviews and testing compatibility. Content creation and page setup required 6-8 hours writing everything from scratch. Testing and refinement needed another 1-2 hours.

An AI WordPress website builder can cut this down dramatically. While playing around with Liftoff, there is a basic questionnaire which can take 10 minutes or less. AI website generation happened in 60 seconds, and I was genuinely impressed by the speed.

The final step is to review content and customize the website elements for your branding which take around 1-2 hours of editing the AI content for personality and brand voice. Adding a few plugins took 30 minutes for contact forms and analytics setup.

Total time with AI: 2-3 hours in one focused session.

2. Content Quality: What AI Actually Generates for Your Pages

One of the most tiring aspects of creating websites is creating content for it. If you were to build a website the traditional way, you would write the content with all your brand voice built into it. But, that would mean you’d have many pages without completed content immediately. It might take a few days for the copywriter to get all the content ready.

Fortunately, AI website builders write the content for you. While it doesn’t sound on-brand and you have to edit it to match your brand voice, it gives you a starting point to write better content while your website continues to convey the basic messaging.

With an AI website builder, you have at least some AI-powered writing assistant to help you get the content and update your website with it immediately. LiftOff has one built into it that lets you start writing content for individual pages and edit/update your page as required.

For most AI writing assistants, the content will need to be edited for brand voice but it still saves you hours compared to starting with blank pages.

The time required to edit the content was barely 2 hours compared to the 6 to 8+ hours that I would have needed to write content from scratch.

3. Design Control: What You Can Actually Customize After Launch

This is where the biggest misconceptions exist. People assume AI means sacrificing design control, but testing revealed something different.

After the AI-powered website builder creates your WordPress site, you maintain complete design freedom.

Similar to traditional WordPress sites, you can:

• Install any WordPress theme from thousands of options.
• Add any of the 60,000+ WordPress plugins.
• Modify CSS and HTML directly through the WordPress editor.
• Use the WordPress Site Editor for visual customization.
• Access all standard WordPress developer tools.
• Implement custom functionality through code.

What I like about this approach is no vendor lock-in or proprietary code, full access to the WordPress ecosystem immediately, ability to gradually learn WordPress while the site is live, and a professional foundation to build upon.

Proprietary platforms like Wix and Squarespace limit you to platform-specific design tools, restricted third-party integrations, no access to underlying code, and template modifications within platform constraints. Basically, you’re renting designs here instead of owning it.

4. Performance: AI-Built vs. Hand-Coded WordPress Sites

I was skeptical about AI-generated site performance, so I ran comprehensive speed tests on identical business websites built in different ways.

Most AI website builders turned out good based on the Google Page speed scores. The website I created with Liftoff averaged 2.1-second load times with Google PageSpeed scores of 89/100 desktop and 82/100 mobile.

GTmetrix performance grades hit A level at 92% with Largest Contentful Paint times of 1.8 seconds.

Here’s the best performance I got from the Liftoff site after some performance optimization:

This is as close to a hand-coded website as I could get to. Liftoff uses native WordPress components, which avoids much of the bloat that comes with third-party plugins and page builders.

5. Costs: What You Actually Pay Over Time

I tracked real costs for different approaches over 24 months to understand the financial picture.

Traditional WordPress setup costs include shared hosting at $5/month totaling $120 over 24 months, premium theme one-time purchase of $59.

Total cost: $179 over 24 months.

Most AI-powered WordPress website builders charge either to host your website or on a per site basis. For instance, Liftoff starts at just $2.95/month for unlimited websites and traffic, which is just $35.40 for the first year. After the intro period, it renews at $12.99/mo.

Total cost: $191.28 over 24 months.

If you pick DreamPress, our managed WordPress hosting, the costs would be $16.95/month for the first year. AI tools are included in both the $2.95 and $16.95 per month plans.

Total cost: $443.28 for 24 months.

Proprietary AI platforms like Wix Premium plan cost $17/month totaling $408 over 24 months. Squarespace Business costs $25/month totaling $600 over 24 months.

However, these are the base plan costs and you don’t get features like emails and unlimited traffic here. You need to upgrade to higher tier plans for most of the features you’d need to run even a basic ecommerce store.

6. Migration: What Happens When You Want To Leave

Both traditional and AI-built WordPress sites migrate identically. You can perform the WordPress migration manually by first exporting WordPress database and file structure, transfer to a new hosting provider, update configuration settings and URLs, and test functionality while troubleshooting issues.

The easier way is to use a plugin. If you’re migrating to DreamHost, we have a simple Automated Migration plugin that lets you move websites easily.

Alternatively, you can use a plugin like Duplicator if you are switching to a different hosting provider.

Proprietary platform migration requires complete rebuilding and redesigning. You export content (usually text-only with limited formatting), manually recreate all design elements, rebuild functionality using WordPress plugins (or another CMS that you plan to use), and reconfigure payment processing and integrations.

Average time: 20-60 hours depending on complexity.

7. Advanced Functionality: Adding E-commerce and Custom Features

While there are quite a few CMSs apart from WordPress, the extensibility is what makes WordPress stand out. Irrespective of how you build the website, with AI or without, you still get access to the 60,000+ plugins available on the WordPress marketplace.

This means you can add complete e-commerce functionality, membership and subscription content, learning management systems, booking and event management systems, and CRM integrations exactly like traditional WordPress sites.

The same functionality on Squarespace would require you to upgrade to their Commerce Basic ($40/month) or Commerce Advanced ($72/month) plans depending on if you need advanced discounting features or if you sell subscriptions which still give you limited extensibility.

Proprietary platforms restrict you to limited app marketplaces compared to WordPress plugins, no access to the WordPress plugin ecosystem, platform-specific development requirements, and significantly higher costs for advanced functionality.

8. Support and Learning Resources: Getting Help When Stuck

When you build a website using traditional methods, you need to support yourself or rely on the support your hosting provides. And the hosting support may or may not help you with the technicalities of your website.

When you use Dreamhost’s Liftoff AI WordPress builder on the other hand, you get 24/7 live chat and phone support with WordPress experts who assist you throughout the entire process in case something fails.

You can always use the WordPress forums to get your questions answered. It’s one of the largest web development communities globally, has millions of tutorials and forum posts with documentation, and has professional developers from across the globe happy to help out with local WordPress meetups and conferences, and extensive third-party learning resources.

Traditional WordPress vs. AI Website Builder vs. Proprietary Solutions: Which Approach Fits Your Situation?

Now that you understand what you’re actually choosing between, here’s how to decide based on your specific situation.

Choose traditional WordPress if:

• You enjoy learning technical skills and have 15-20 hours to invest upfront.
• You want complete control over every decision from day one.
• You have web development experience or plan to hire a developer.
• You prefer researching and selecting each component yourself.

Choose AI-assisted WordPress if:

• You want WordPress power but need to launch quickly (1-3 hours vs. 15-20 hours).
• You prefer guided setup but still want full customization later.
• You want professional results without the learning curve upfront.
• You value having support during the process.

Choose proprietary AI platforms if:

• You need the absolute simplest solution and don’t mind platform limitations.
• You have no plans to expand beyond the platform’s functionality.
• You’re comfortable with potential migration challenges if you outgrow the platform.
• Monthly subscription costs aren’t a concern.

Stop Comparing “AI vs. WordPress”

The confusion around AI website builders versus WordPress exists because most people don’t realize they’re comparing a method to a platform.

So, here’s a simple decision framework:

• Pick manual WordPress setup when you have 15+ hours available and want to learn every component yourself. This approach gives you deep platform knowledge but requires significant time investment upfront.
• Use AI WordPress builders when you need a professional website quickly but still want WordPress flexibility. You’ll save 80% of setup time while maintaining full customization rights and plugin access.
• Avoid proprietary AI platforms unless you’re certain you’ll never need advanced functionality or the ability to migrate. The initial simplicity comes with permanent limitations that most businesses eventually outgrow.

For most users, AI-assisted WordPress creation offers the best balance of speed, control, and long-term flexibility. You get a professional website immediately while preserving all future options.