WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems on the internet, with over 75 million websites using it and approximately 35% of all websites on the internet. WordPress is clearly a great platform, but is it right for your business? This article weighs up the pros and cons of WordPress.
Pros :
Self-Management
One of the best things about WordPress is that you can easily make changes to the website such as adding pages, content and images. This can be very cost-effective as you don’t need to pay a web developer every time you want to update your website and you can modify large sections of the website yourself. This is much better than the days of static websites where every change had to be done by someone else. There are limitations to what you can do, and you may need some bespoke development to modify the layouts of specific themes if you are not proficient with HTML, PHP and CSS.
Range of Themes
There is an endless catalogue of free and premium themes that you can install on your WordPress website. Many simple themes will have limited features and options for customization, but you can still find ones that look sleek and are easy to manage. When choosing a theme, look for ones that have been updated recently and are maintained by their developers. This is the best way to ensure that your website stays secure through future WordPress updates. If your theme was released 4 years and hasn’t been updated it could be at risk of being hacked.
Plugins
WordPress has the best database of useful plugins you can use to add extra features to your website, including ones for SEO. If you need a custom feature, then the chances are you won’t need to hire a developer to implement these changes because you’ll be able to find a plugin to do it for you. Please note that you should be careful when installing loads of plugins; lots of plugins can slow your website down and they can also clash with each other and cause your website to break. You should also avoid plugins that haven’t been updated in years to help avoid any security risks.
Open Source
WordPress is an open-source software that is free to use and modify by anyone. This keeps costs down to a minimum, and there is a huge community that collaborates in making WordPress as good as possible. There are so many forums and websites dedicated to helping you learn how to use WordPress that you won’t need to pay money for support because most of the information about how to do something will be readily available.
Cons :
Speed
Some WordPress themes may look really professional and offer loads of great features, but they can slow your website down. Many themes have large sections of unnecessary code that runs in the background. Even if you’re not using a feature of a theme it may still be loading and slowing your site down. Installing lots of plugins will also slow your website. So, although most plugins are free, if you want your website to load as fast as possible you should seek help from specialist WordPress developers.
Not Suitable for Huge eCommerce websites
Shops with thousands of products and categories that require a more complex database structure are better off choosing a more advanced eCommerce CMS website with specialist eCommerce developers. WordPress is still a great choice for small and medium businesses.
Regular Updates
There are lots of regular updates to keep on top of when managing a WordPress website. WordPress regularly updates, your theme will update, and if you’re using a lot of plugins you will need to manage these too. If you don’t update these then your website could be at risk of being hacked. The problem with updating plugins is that sometimes they cause elements of your website, so should test updating these on a development website before you update them on your live site.
Conclusion
Hopefully this has helped you to decide whether or not WordPress is right for your business. In short, WordPress is perfect for blogging an is a really good option for Small-Medium sized eCommerce websites, but if you are a large online business you might be better looking elsewhere.