Website builder Boxmode partners with NING to take on WordPress

Boxmode
(Image credit: Boxmode)

The website builder Boxmode has announced a new partnership with the community management and social media platform NING in an effort to become an affordable WordPress alternative.

The decision to partner with NING comes at a time when the company is working to transform its free website builder into a web engagement management (WEM) system.

CEO of Boxmode, Max Yarchevsky explained how WEM systems differ from a traditional CMS in a press release, saying:

“I had been working in the community builder market for three years before founding Boxmode. This expertise, along with regular customer feedback, helped us define the direction for growth. The WEM system is versatile and more complex than a traditional content management system (CMS) that focuses solely on content. Such a system allows for aggregating and leveraging data across different channels most efficiently. As a result, organizations can avoid data silos.” 

Headless CMS

As part of their new partnership, NING will provide a headless CMS that will serve as the back-end infrastructure to help Boxmode achieve its goal of transforming its website builder into a WEM system.

Thanks to its architecture which separates the back end and front end from each other, NING's headless CMS will allow users to benefit from a content-first approach. This method involves creating, storing and managing all content in a single repository in the cloud and delivering it to devices and websites using APIs. Other advantages of opting for a headless CMS include ease of use, scalability, development flexibility and enhanced security.

Through its partnership with NING, Boxmode users will be able to add blogs to their websites as NING's blog widget was recently added to the company's website builder. However, they will also gain access to a new Member Area that allows users of their sites to register for accounts to access paid content such as online courses, exclusive articles, podcasts, community pages and more.

Users that register accounts can send direct messages or emails with a project owner who will be able to add, remove and restore members as well as create user groups based on memberships and make specific content available for each group.

Anthony Spadafora

After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.