WordPress was initially a blogging site developed in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little and has evolved over the years into a CMS platform. Today it has become one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) widely used across the globe. It is an open-source platform that simplifies the process of developing a site. Its flexibility and ease of understanding have attracted a huge share of the market.
Renowned market players like Microsoft, Zoom, Etsy, Grammarly, Walt Disney, and Sony Music to name a few have their websites developed with the CMS. WordPress at its core has excellent features with thousands of plugins and themes to offer. In case you are planning to develop a WordPress site we have listed some of the advantages and challenges for your knowledge.
According to a survey on the content management systems, 64.1% of websites utilize WordPress. That represents 43.0% of all web pages.
Pros of using WordPress
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WordPress is a popular site development platform. Here’s a list of top reasons to choose WordPress as an enterprise CMS.
User-Friendly CMS:
WordPress was initially a blogging platform and has evolved as a content management system over the years. The main factor behind the success is the ease of usage. One does not always have a dependency on the developing team to fix every small bug.
In fact, an average WordPress user doesn’t require any coding knowledge during the usual course of operations. Even migrating a WordPress site from one host to another is rather straightforward, thanks to the all-in-one WP migration plugin, which is one of the nearly 60,000 free plugins available for the CMS.
Highly Modular (Plugins and Themes):
WordPress has a powerful directory of over 60,0000 plugins and over 10,000 theme templates for almost every functionality that forms one of the reasons for its popularity. With a massive collection of enterprise-grade options available in the Plugins Directory and Theme Directory, one can use any combination to develop an enriching website.
Flexibility:
WordPress is the most versatile CMS platform today. One can easily develop a complex website(s), simple brochure site(s), or blogs, and one can create their own themes, for any functionality to be added the plugin directory has huge options, and any Hosting provider/type (managed, cheap, e-mail) can be chosen from ample of options, one can run/construct any sized website (small or large) and one can have full control over the customization.
SEO-friendly:
The WordPress core is fully SEO-friendly based on the sense that the website(s) developed will be indexed higher by search engines. Many WordPress themes are built keeping SEO in mind. The plugins like Yoast help in streamlining the pages or blogs for organic traffic.
Cost Effective:
Using WordPress for developing the website(s) can really be very budget-friendly as it is an open-source platform requiring no licensing cost to gain its access. One can start building the website with the important stuff and a pre-decided budget with spending on website development, premium themes, and plugins.
E-Commerce features:
With an increasing trend of online shopping, many entrepreneurs are seeking the advantage of developing commercial websites using WordPress. CMS provides a number of plugins one of them being WooCommerce which adds powerful eCommerce features to the website. Social accounts can also be integrated with the website which can direct more traffic and it can automatically update the feeds with the new products/services when added to the website.
According to a survey on statistics, 20.1% of all WordPress-using websites use WooCommerce.
Managed Hosting:
WordPress comes with a number of hosting options to choose from like WP Engine, Kinsta, Siteground, and the like to develop an enterprise website that needs high scalability, great performance, a secure environment, and robustness. These managed hosting providers provide reliable hosting solutions to WordPress compliantly. These providers will take care of regular and automated backups, offer low operational costs, have high performance, scan sites for security breaches, have optimized speed, and provide multiple staging environments and expert support.
Mobile Friendly and Responsive:
WordPress is designed to be a responsive and mobile-friendly platform where a large part of searching is done via mobiles. Content creation takes a back step when it comes to compliance with digital platforms, as websites should convert well on mobile devices else they are placed lower in search. Most WordPress themes and designs are responsive so one can easily choose what would give an excellent mobile experience.
According to a survey published by Google, more individuals search at home on mobile devices than on desktops and laptops combined! Statistics indicate that it will still be expanding in 2023.
Strong and Active community:
WordPress has an evolved massive support community. There are a myriad of blogs and forums with hundreds of communities across the globe readily available to answer queries, fix bugs, and constantly contribute towards developing the platform. It runs as the backbone for the CMS development where personnel network to learn and grow.
Frequent Upgradation:
WordPress sites are frequently upgraded for new software, bugs, security issues, the latest themes and plugin features, and many more. Thus, WordPress ensures its users are running the latest version site.
Increased Security:
WordPress offers WordPress security plugins to protect sites from vulnerable threats. Using safe plugins, following secure login procedures, and updating regularly provide a hack-proof experience.
Cons of using WordPress
There are many reasons to use WordPress for developing websites. After covering the pros, we’ll check out some of the reasons that make it challenging to use WordPress as an enterprise CMS.
Plugin Bloat:
This refers to a state where excess usage of plugins can affect the speed and performance of the site. Due to the presence of a variety of plugin options for almost every functionality, one tends to use a lot of plugins for their site which in turn becomes heavily loaded with codes of plugins affecting the functionality.
Security Vulnerabilities:
WordPress being an open-source platform is prone to a number of threats and malware. The development of plugins by many developers can lead to the transition of malicious code into your site. Maximum vulnerabilities are sourced from plugins. Even adding a security plugin does not solve the corn completely.
Frequent Updates:
Keeping up with updates can become a major concern. Frequent upgradation is good for security issues for any site but this can soon turn into an overwhelming process as a site comprises a number of plugins and themes and keeping up with the update process can be quite challenging. The more the number of features added to the site the more compatibility issues one has to deal with.
Overwhelming Options:
With a wide range of options available to choose from while developing a website, selecting what is required can become a difficult task. For beginners, selecting through a number of options and having the knowledge to process them could prove to be a cumbersome process. If one does not have a clear strategy before development it can lead to confusion while navigating through web designs, maintenance options and robust site development is out of reach.
Customization:
WordPress is an open-source platform that has thousands of free plugins and themes to make the development process cost-effective. But if one is looking to develop a unique site to give its user an enriching experience then one has to opt for paid/premium features which increase the cost of building the website, as the free available features have already been overused. Adding to this cost are the feature updates that pop up frequently add to it
Speed:
Page speed is a crucial factor and WordPress is one of the slow platforms due to the presence of additional plugins, themes, oversaturated databases, and codebases. Adding to these are the content, enlarged image(s), and unpredictable hosting affects the loading speed of the page. Each plugin adds to the loading time. Therefore, the web page takes time to develop and then load. Site speed is an important factor in deciding Google’s ranking as low-speed sites are ranked lower in searches.
Dedicated Support:
WordPress has a vibrant and one of the biggest communities available but still it is not a commercial product that can provide dedicated support to customers. Fixes for bugs, resolution of issues, and troubleshooting remain unheard of sometimes. One is on his own on such an open-sourced platform.
Back-up system:
One can easily lose data if not backed up. WordPress has no feature to automatically back-up data. One can use the plugin(s) to do so, but these plugin(s) require configuration to fit in the system also concerning the storage limit. In case the plugin does not automatically backs-up the data one has to remember to take the backup. Another concern is to keep a constant check whenever WordPress releases updates, these plugins should be compatible with the newer versions.
Conclusion
To conclude, we can say that WordPress is one of the most popular development platforms for enterprise-grade CMS. We have tried to discuss the advantages and shortcomings of choosing WordPress as an enterprise-grade CMS. The challenges discussed above can be overcome with the help of experts, one can easily hire dedicated developers who will take care of your website. After analyzing the information, one can make an informed decision on how to proceed further.
