Chances are, if you clicked here you already know what WordPress is but here’s a very quick overview.
WordPress is a platform for developing a website that allows the user (you) to log in and change it. It was developed to make it easy to create a basic website or blog but has such a level of customization that it is often used to create more complex sites. WordPress is therefore a “CMS” or Content Management System.
There are advantages and disadvantages to WordPress being used as a platform to build your website which include (and this is not an exhaustive list)
Advantages
- You can log in and change things on your site meaning you don’t need to pay for (or wait for) a tech/professional to do it for you
- There are many WP developers available meaning you can move providers more easily and should be able to get help less expensively in the event your main provider is not working out for you (we’ve taken-over several sites in this way)
- There are lots of plug-ins making some features faster and less expensive to manage/program/install
- There are some themes (designs) meaning you can reduce the cost of custom design.
Disadvantages (based on our extensive working with the system and clients)
- Unless you are managing the system often (adding content / changing things), you’ll forget how to do it and end up needing a professional anyway. Even if you do remember, often your time is better spent on your business and again, you end up hiring someone to manage your site.
- Like any well-used platform, WP attracts hackers. WP themselves are great at releasing updates, often to deal with this issue, but there must be seen, managed, and installed (and often affect plug-ins meaning more time is needed for testing etc.)
- Plugins are great but they often need managing – they are not set and forget. If left, they can simply break, rendering that function useless. The long-term plug-in cost can exceed the initial design of a custom system (not always).
