Why Use WordPress?

WordPress Pros

WordPress is Open Source

Open Source means that the source code is available free to use and can be redistributed and modified. Without getting into too much detail, this is great because it allows lots of different companies and developers to build on the system and create products for it. It means that it doesn’t get stale and because of enterprise is ever expanding. None of the pros below could come into being if WordPress wasn’t open source.

Open source products also tend to foster amazing communities. This is definitely the case with WordPress!

WordPress Themes

Every WordPress website starts with a theme. There are a couple of WordPress builders that don’t use a theme but they are the exception rather than the norm. There are tens of thousands of themes. Some are free and some are paid for.  Some are better than others, but you can find a theme for anything you can imagine. As an experienced designer, I use the same themes all the time as I know they are well coded and well supported. I can design anything from scratch using these themes.

WordPress releases its own theme each year and is names after the current year.

WordPress Plugins

Plugins are what makes WordPress so special. A plugin is something that adds extra functionality and you can find a plugin for anything you can imagine. Again some are paid and some are free.

The beauty of the open source ethos that lies behind WordPress is that many developers are happy to provide free plugins that do an amazing job, because it supports the WordPress community. I love that.

Anything is Possible

Because of the above it’s possible to build pretty much anything on WordPress. Unlike some other platforms, it’s unlikely your business will ever grow out of a WordPress website. If you need extra functionality you can bet that with WordPress you’ll be able to add it in.

It’s Free!

Yes you hear that right! All that amazingness and it’s free! I’m specifically talking about WordPress.org here (there is a paid .com), which is most designers and developers use. If you’re on a budget you can use WordPress itself which is free, a free theme and free plugins. The only thing you have to pay for is hosting which is as low as £4-5 a month.

Personally I use pro themes and plugins as they offer advanced functionality. However you can get started for almost nothing.

Hosting is in your hands

WordPress is unique in that you can host your website wherever you want. You aren’t tied and can move it whenever you like. This means that as a new business you can start with hosting as low as £5 a month. If you get website visitors or you start selling millions of products then you can move to hosting as your needs dictate.

Some website building platforms have notoriously slow website loading times. Because you can’t move from their platform there is nothing you do about it. WordPress gives you freedom of choice.

There is a choice of builders

WordPress isn’t just one builder. There are lots of builders that you can choose from. Many have free versions. This means that if one builder doesn’t feel intuitive then you can try another. Other platforms such as Wix and SquareSpace don’t offer this. It’s either their builder or the highway.

It’s seriously popular

Over 40% of all websites globally are built on WordPress. That means that there are hundreds of thousands of designers and developers (maybe millions) who know WordPress very well so you will also find someone to carry out work on your website.

WordPress Cons

It’s a steep learning curve

Although there are ways to make getting started with WordPress easier (I teach this in my Easy DIY WP membership), getting started with WordPress can feel overwhelming and there is definitely a steep learning curve. But it is so worth it. That steep learning curve, once mastered means that because of the flexibility of WordPress, you will be able to build pretty much anything you can think of.

Maintenance is in your hands

Many people would cite having to maintain a WordPress website as a negative. By maintenance I mean carrying out theme, plugin and WordPress core updates, hosting the site, looking after security etc. However, I don’t see maintenance as a down side. Yes, you need to carry out regular updates. But these are easy to do and if you use a reliable stack (your stack is the theme and plugins you use) then it won’t lead to problems and is a small price to pay for everything that WordPress offers.

too much choice for beginners

I still remember the overwhelm I felt when I started out using WordPress. There is so much research to do! Who to host the site with, what theme to use, what builder to use and what plugins to use. The choice is incredibly overwhelming. And if you’re anything like me you don’t want to get started until you have researched every single possibility. And of course, researching means Googling and the page one results are not the best hosting, themes, builders and plugins, but the ones that are best at SEO (the art of getting to page one of Google) and the ones that pay the best affiliate commission. Getting started with WordPress really is a minefield because of the sheer amount of choice.

If you choose to pay a designer or developer to build your site then they will have their own personal preferences for what builder, theme and plugins they use. If you are DIYing your WordPress website, then I recommend learning from someone who has been there. I offer and easy DIY WordPress course, but there are plenty of others out there as well.

Security

It would be remiss of me not to include security as a downside to WordPress just because you will always find it listed. In the same way that hackers used to only target Windows computers because so many people used them compared to Macs, the same could be said for WordPress websites. Because so many websites are built using WordPress they are a target for hackers. However use commons sense and your site should be fine. There are plenty of good security plugins, your hosting will also have a layer of security, you can throw Cloudflare into the mix and you will have a secure site. In the hundreds of websites I’ve built and maintained for clients, I have only ever had 2 hacks.  Both of these were because the client used “password” for their password.

plugin and theme conflicts

There are tens of thousands WordPress of plugins and themes. Most of the time they all work together in perfect harmony. However as you can imagine, there might be times when there is what is called a conflict. The most common time to spot these is either whilst you are building the site or after you have carried out an update. Depending on what the conflict is, it can either affect the whole site and the layout or just a page. I can count on one hand the number of conflicts I have ever experienced in the 10+ years I’ve been using WordPress. Again this is because I use a reliable stack, with great developers who use great code and so their utmost to make sure that their tool is compatible with others.

WordPress Pros and cons summary

As you can tell, I am a fan of WordPress. I have tried almost all the other popular website building platforms and I couldn’t imagine using anything other than WordPress. Yes, there are some downsides to using WordPress. The main one is if you want to build your own website as it really is a steep learning curve. However it is well worth the effort and I highly recommend using WordPress