ProofCloud vs WordPress for simple client website edits
For simple client edits on a static HTML site, ProofCloud is the faster and safer choice: your client clicks what they want to change right on the page, and everything you didn’t unlock stays locked. WordPress only earns its extra setup and upkeep when the client needs a full CMS, with blog posts, new pages, a shop or plugins.
Most small-business sites don’t need a CMS. The client wants to change their opening hours, swap a photo or update a price. With WordPress, that means learning an admin area, while you keep a database, plugins and security updates running for a site that barely changes. ProofCloud is built for exactly that gap.
The core difference
WordPress is a content management system: the site is generated from a database by a theme, so a design you built in HTML first has to be rebuilt the WordPress way. ProofCloud works with the site you already have. Upload the HTML page (hand-coded, from a site builder or made with AI), click the parts your client may change, and send them a link. Nothing gets rebuilt, migrated or converted.
Why designers choose ProofCloud for simple sites
- Clients edit on the page itself. No admin area, no blocks, no menus: they click a headline and type, click a photo and replace it. If they can edit a document, they can edit their site.
- The design can’t be broken. Clients only reach the texts, photos and links you unlocked, within the character limits and formatting rules you set, and every edit is checked again on the server when they publish.
- It’s your brand, not ours. The edit link shows your studio’s name and color, so the service feels like part of what you offer.
- No passwords to reset. Clients sign in with a code sent to their email address.
- Nothing to maintain. No plugins, no database, no core updates, no security patches. The live site stays plain HTML on your client’s hosting.
- No lock-in. If you ever stop using ProofCloud, the site keeps working exactly as it is, because it’s just HTML.
- Every change in one place. Your dashboard shows which clients published edits and exactly what changed, across all your sites.
- Edits become monthly income. Instead of handling every small change by hand, or doing it for free, offer self-service editing as part of a monthly plan.
Side by side
| ProofCloud | WordPress | |
|---|---|---|
| Editing experience | Click on the page itself and type, like editing a document | In a separate admin area, with the block editor |
| Works with your existing design | Yes, any HTML page as it is: hand-coded, from a site builder or made with AI | The design has to be rebuilt as a theme or with a page builder |
| What the client can change | Only the texts, photos and links you unlock | Whatever their user role allows: usually whole pages, posts and media |
| Protection for your design | Built in: character limits, formatting rules and a server-side check on every publish | Possible with restricted roles and locked blocks or templates, but it takes setup |
| Client login | A branded link and a code by email: no password to forget | Username and password for the WordPress admin |
| Your branding | Your studio’s name and color on the edit link | The WordPress admin, unless you customize it |
| Maintenance | None: no plugins, no database, no updates | Regular core, theme and plugin updates to stay secure |
| Hosting | Any hosting that serves HTML | Hosting with PHP and a database |
| Setup | Minutes: upload the page, click what’s editable, send the link | Install WordPress, a theme and plugins, then set up user roles |
| Going live | You review and upload the update, so nothing goes live without you | Live as soon as the client clicks Update |
| Blog posts, new pages, shop | Not included: ProofCloud is made for editing existing pages | Yes, through themes and plugins |
| Cost | A paid monthly subscription | The software is free; you pay for hosting, any premium themes or plugins, and the time spent on updates |
When WordPress is still the right tool
WordPress shines when the site is really a publishing platform: the client posts news or blog articles every week, adds new pages themselves, or needs a shop, bookings or memberships. For those sites, its plugins and admin area are worth the upkeep. For everything else, ProofCloud gets your client editing in minutes.
How to move a simple client site to ProofCloud
- 1
Check what the client actually changes
Go through last year’s emails. If it’s mostly wording, prices, opening hours and photos, ProofCloud covers everything they need.
- 2
Let them try click-to-edit
Open one of their pages in the free editor together and let them change a headline and a photo. Once they see how simple it is, the choice usually makes itself. (The free editor unlocks everything; ProofCloud for developers adds the locking, the branded link and your dashboard.)
- 3
Upload the page and mark what’s editable
In ProofCloud for developers, upload the page, click the texts, photos and links the client may change, and set limits where you want them.
- 4
Send the link
Your client gets their own branded edit link. From then on, they make the small changes themselves and you see every edit in your dashboard.
Upload a site you built, choose what your client may change and send them a link with your branding.