Big brand names like TechCrunch, BBC America, The New Yorker, The Official Star Wars Blogs, etc., are using WordPress. So, this platform can not be underrated just because it is open-source. And you can easily proceed regardless of any concern about the website building. No matter how complicated web ideas you have.
Everyone needs a scalable and reliable online presence in today’s genre to survive and grow in this competitive world. And in this case, WordPress is getting attention due to its easy-to-use and high-quality features & plugins. And this is the reason 39.6% of the websites are built on WordPress.
But why is it so popular? Is it worth it?
In this article, we’ll cover all those things which will help you to let you know whether wordpress is the perfect fit for your business or not. All the nonsense myths will vanish, and you’ll get to know the genuine review of this platform.
So, without any further due let’s begin the review:
#1 What Is WordPress?
WordPress is the most popular website builder platform. And according to an estimation, around 75 million websites are using wordpress.
WordPress.org CMS & WordPress.com blog hosting service both are two different things. And here we’ll talk about WordPress.org, which is widely loved & used by all.
If we look back to 2003, it was a simple blogging platform. And as the time rolled out, the platform was also used for the application development framework and CMS (Content Management System).
It is an open public platform and frees everyone, and the best part is that you can make the Website you want on this platform. You might be thinking, why is it free for all?
It is free in terms of freedom, meaning you can fulfill any motive through it. Even it won’t create any censorship problem. You can shape your Website according to your requirements.
So, How Do They Earn?
You’ll have to purchase a domain and web hosting if you seriously want a website. And you even might need to purchase some premium themes and plugins, which will allow you to have access to some extraordinary features, and it will take an additional cost.
#2 What Kind of Website You Can Make With WordPress?
WordPress is a very versatile platform, and this is the main reason for its popularity. You can use this platform to make any Website you want or can imagine.
From starting a blog to setting up an online business, you can make anything because there would for sure be a plugin available. Even by chance, if you want a world-level different plugin that’s not available there, you can easily do so by hiring a developer.
#3 Pros And Cons of WordPress
Everything has advantages and disadvantages, and so does WordPress!
| Pros | Cons |
| 1.This is an open & free platform and gives all the controls in your hand including the migration of your website to any other platform. | 1.As you are in charge of your website, you’re going to be responsible for anything that happens to your website in terms of security, making backups, installing updates, and many more. |
| 2.WordPress has its own countless plugins, add-ons, and extensions for the betterment of the website. And this is the reason due to which WordPress claims that its users can do anything. | 2.You have to invest quality time to know the basics of this platform. It is not at all a drag and drops feature-based platform. |
| 3.You can easily find your required one among the thousands of website designs and templates. And the best part is that each template has its own customization which will make your website completely unique. | 3.You can make websites easily with it but knowing at least the basics of wordpress will help you to figure out so many things. Though not today, tomorrow you’ll have to learn these skills. |
| 4.If you want any third-party application to be integrated with it, it has integration with almost every third-party app. |
#4 Common Myths About WordPress (You Need to Know)
WordPress is full of misconceptions and myths. All WordPress myths are based on the older version of this platform and do not match even in a long way of today’s version.
Let’s Clear Some Of The Misconceptions:
● WordPress is just for blogs: Undoubtedly, no one can catch the hands of WordPress when we talk about blogging. But now, it is just a part of WordPress. It is used for powering 40.0% of all websites.
● WordPress is not safe and secure for large-scale businesses: Thinking that you can be 100 percent safe and secure in this online world is not more than a myth. Even the companies like Zappos.com, Google, and Sony PlayStation have been hacked or attacked.
And that is the reason that these big brands have their separate team support, which takes care of their crucial database and prevents them from getting attacked or hacked. Among all the hacked or attacked websites, only a few were made on WordPress, so this is why that myth is not completely true. All you can do is stay updated on your database. The biggest threat to your Website is not WordPress itself but the wordpress plugins, and in this case, you take the help of VAB media.
● WordPress will not be able to Handle the Traffic: It majorly depends upon the web hosting. If you have a big company, you should go with private Hosting to unroot all these problems. This will give your Website better security and faster speed. Just go with good cloud hosting.
● WordPress is not for the long run: There are so many websites based on WordPress which have been doing too well for years and are now growing at a very good rate.
So, It is absolutely for the long run businesses.
#5 Is WordPress Good For Professional Websites?
The very forward answer is “YES.” It is worth building a professional website through it because it maintains all your content very well and provides you with so many advanced features and plugins to compete in this online battle.
Irresistible Reasons To Use WordPress:
● Open Source: WordPress now has more than 50,000 extension plugins to better the user experience and make their website experience even better. You know, since it is an open-source platform, any website designer around the world can easily add extensions to this platform. Open source code also enables developers to hire some selected and popular websites for some custom components.
● Themes: If you’re unable to design your Website, then there are already millions of pre-designed templates available to make your work easier. There are not only paid and premium themes, but some themes are available for free as well. You’d even find some themes specifically for things like product selling, amazon affiliate, and blogs, etc.
● Tutorial Rich: Definitely, it is not all an easy drag and drop platform. Instead, you’ve to learn more basics to use it properly. But obviously, it is far better than learning the coding to make the Website. YouTube is the best option among all to learn this skill properly for free of cost. You will find numerous videos on YouTube that will help you to master this skill.
● Inexpensive: Undoubtedly, platforms like WIX are a lot easier to operate than WordPress, but if you see your Website in a long race, then you must go with wordPress. Because the platforms like WIX have fewer features to operate, and the rest of the features ask for money to be accessed. It becomes a lot easier and suitable to go with WordPress on each of your business journeys.
● Validated: Since 2003, WordPress has its roots in the e-world, and even 500 fortune brands are also taking WordPress as in use. So undoubtedly, WordPress is reliable and, in the long run. So if you’re interested in having your Website but don’t know the coding, it is probably the best option for you.
#6 Drawbacks of WordPress ( Why It Can Be A Bad Option For You)
● Design: Although WordPress has many themes available on their platform, most of them are premium and cost a good amount of money, and the rest are such low-quality themes that you won’t even like.
After downloading the theme, sometimes you could find that it is not looking as attractive as it was looking in the photos. There will even be some points when you feel limited with your Website, and eventually, you will need to hire a developer to do the custom changes. And it will become your must if you want to go out of the line and have your unique identity.
● Functionality: There are several plugins available in the market to increase the features of your Website. But its core is the problem. Though you get more features with more plugins you install, it also affects the overall speed of your Website. And so many times, two different plugins don’t work together at a time, and instead of increasing functionality, you could even lose what you have. And then, you will need to spend additional money on the customization of plugins to suit your Website.
● Frequent Upgrades: As you know that it is an open-source platform, and that’s why so many developers are constantly working on it. Therefore it releases upgrades very frequently. Some you’d even see five or more updates just in a month.
And if any update releases related to the plugin or theme you’re using, then you’d see a lot of disbalance in your Website. To be safe from all this stuff, you need to have the backup of your data and check up each process before updating the live Website.
● Insecurity and vulnerability to hacking: It is the most popular CMS platform. Thus it always lies in the eyes of hackers and spammers. If you think you’ve downloaded the plugins from a trustworthy source, even then, there is no guarantee. If there is a good amount of traffic on your Website, then the Website’s security is the priority and can not be taken lightly.
● Slow Page Speed: There are many things due to which WordPress takes a lot of time to load. Its page loading speed is affected due to the extra processes such as plugins, database, and frustrating code base. And there are so many other factors as well. Page Speed is most important for two things – user experience & SEO ranking. According to analytics, modern users don’t wait more than two sec. To load the page.
● Poor SEO: Well, WordPress is also known as an SEO-friendly platform. You can create websites and content and Rank easily by using SEO Plugins. If you’re using WordPress, you better understand the importance of SEO Plugins to Optimise your Website or content for better Ranking. But the major drawback of using WordPress SEO Plugins is, by using Plugins, your WordPress website runs slowly, or its loading speed gets slow.
● Hard to Scale: Managing WordPress websites cost you similar to Custom Website Developers. Based on your Website Requirements, the amount of work increased. To handle big work like Handling Traffic, you should use WordPress Premium Plugins and do so many other changes by hiring developers.
But there are still some limitations in using WordPress. So, if you’re too Choosy and want to customize your Website again and again, then WordPress is not a good option to start working for you.
#7 How To Start Your WordPress Journey (Right Now)
Well, if you’re ready to start your Journey on WordPress. Now you need to take some steps and Hit your checklist to start your Journey.
The Two most important things you need are Hosting and Domain Names to start your WordPress website.
There is so much Hosting available in the market. I Suggest you Compare and pick the best Hosting based on your website Requirements & Mainly Focused on Features that come with Hosting. Then pick a Best Domain Name for your Website.
After purchasing both Domain and Hosting, now you’re ready for website development using WordPress. It’s a complete Drag and Drops Feature to create your eye-catching Website in a few minutes. WordPress, your Website level, is based on two factors, Templates you pick for your Website and Premium Plugins you used to make your website better.
#8 Is the WordPress CMS Platform Right Fit For Your Enterprise?
Each CMS platform takes enough time when it comes to front-end & back-end coding.
Most of the websites can easily be built and be fitted for most businesses. If you have a specific business niche, you might try some specific options. If you want to build an eCommerce platform, you should probably pick up Magneto instead of WordPress.
Ask These Five Questions Before Going For Any CMS Platform:
● What do you expect from your business via the Website?
● Will your website sell products?
● Are you going to showcase your services?
● Who will be your target audience?
● How much traffic would you expect from your Website?
Asking these five questions can help you to make the right decision.
Conclusion
No doubt, WordPress is an amazing web development platform that comes with Easy to use Interface, Without Any coding knowledge, Secure. It can do so many things on WordPress using Tools and Plugins. In this article, we’ve covered in-depth Details about WordPress, its comparison, Features, and All your Queries related to WordPress. You can read complete articles – it’s Pros and Cons, Reasons behind using this or not. Now, it’s your turn to choose if you want to use WordPress or Hire a Web developer to build a customized website easily.
For big websites, this article is really going to be helpful for better decisions. And if you think WordPress can fulfill your requirements and Build a beautiful website for you then I’ve added a Guide “How to Start WordPress Journey” that comes with a checklist that can help you to know in-depth details about WordPress.
Hitesh Khatwani
Hitesh Khatwani is Sr. PHP Developer at USS LLC. He likes to share tips Codeigniter Development and Laravel Web Development