Whenever you read anything anywhere and especially online you need to consider the source of information, their credibility and of course what their motivations, prejudice and biases might be. If you do a search for “reasons not to use WordPress” and look a little deeper there is some telling information just below the surface. The first thing to note is 8/10 of the posts were published or written by people who work at web design companies.
Almost half of the top Google results for posts denigrating WordPress as a website platform are actually hosted on WordPress themselves!
wpmilk Research , June 2019
Of those 8 companies half of them use WordPress for their own site and/or their recent clients website builds. You would be forgiven for thinking maybe one or more of those posts are disingenuous or at the very least a lesson in irony. For reference the other two results: one from CodeinWP a silly post actually advocating WordPress, and the other from CrazyEgg which is actually not focused on WordPress the platform, but the service.
Oh, the irony
- Ministry Web Designs: article is full of inaccuracies, their own website uses WordPress
- JPW Design Studio: Very transparent about the fact that they are promoting SquareSpace
- Prominent Design: their portfolio reveal almost all client sites are actually built using WordPress
- GBK Soft: another designer stating its a bad platform but use it for their own site and clients
If your web designers are telling you that WordPress is insecure, bad for SEO, slow to load, impossible to customise and anything along similar lines but using it themselves, you are probably not getting the best advice. So why are many web designers and developers anti-WordPress? What are some of the prejudice and bias’ to look out for? What other motivations might be at play? We explore a few of them below.
Disrupts pay-per-update model
A totally custom built site usually does not include the ability for non-technical users to update their site easily. This forces clients to return to their designers for the simplest of updates. Many agencies and web developers rely on the high fee’s they can charge their clients for this and are unsure of how to retain their clients ongoing business without literally locking them in like this.
Disrupts locked-in maintenance model
With a totally custom site only the designers can ever really understand it unless its extremely simple, and even then it can be time consuming getting up to speed. There are literally tens of thousands of experienced WordPress designers and developers available to a website owner. Easily enabling the owner of a WordPress site to get assistance anytime from any number of agencies and freelancers.
Disrupts the hosting-lockin model
Some of the WordPress is bad, never use it posts are promoting other proprietary web design platforms that lock their clients in to hosting on the web developers servers forever or rebuild from scratch to move.
Misinformed and/or inexperienced
They do not have the required experience using WordPress. They may well have had a bad experience with WordPress in the distant or even recent past. There are plenty of poor choices that can be made at every step of getting setup with a WordPress site that could result in an intolerable or frustrating experiences for the developer and the client. This is why it is important to select the right WordPress partner when using WP professionally.
They are geeks
WordPress is not right for everyone and has its limitations. If you liken the process of getting a new website for your business similarly to purchasing a house or new commercial premises we can begin to understand the thinking behind these types of post. You can find space in an area and style that suits you, fit-out, remodel and redecorate how you like. You can install any number of features and facilities in your new space, but there are some structural walls and supporting beams that cannot be moved. This is like getting a WordPress site. The property equivalent of what the Geeks are discussing is buying a plot of land, hiring an architect, engaging developers and designing your new place from scratch. A website of any size from these agencies is likely to cost close to or in excess of 6 figures.
Is WordPress for me?
WordPress is not the perfect fit for every business. We have found some complex eCommerce models push beyond what WordPress is really capable of doing. Sometime WordPress will provide a working proof-of-concept but with limitations of scale. However it could still be the platform that empowers a business to need to scale beyond its capabilities in the first instance. So working out whether WordPress is the right fit for your idea or business is sometimes a little more complex than just what can WordPress be made to do. Your projections for growth, anticipated needs for scale, your urgency in respect of time to market and of course budget will all play a part. Contact us and let us know about your requirements and be sure of an honest assessment personally tailored to you, as to whether WordPress is viable and what the potential pitfalls or risks might be in your particular situation.