Advantages and Disadvantages of WordPress

Advantages and Disadvantages of WordPress: Do we really need an introduction to WordPress? Absolutely not. WordPress is an innovative Content Management System (CMS) used by millions of users worldwide.

WordPress is the best choice of many web developers who want to give the best look and easy experience to their clients.

It is time to review the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress in detail. I also feel compelled to give detailed use of WordPress to our audience so that they can make a choice when they plan a new website with WordPress.

So, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of WordPress in detail.

Advantages of WordPress

1. Ease of Use

The major advantage of WordPress I can say is the ease of use. I’m a WordPress user since 2012 and from the beginning of time it never let me down with its performance. Everything from installation to maintenance, WordPress works like a breeze. Almost every Web host available on the planet are offering one-click install of the WordPress on their server. The set up hardly takes 2 minutes of time and it is ready to use.

2. It is Free

One of the most practical uses of WordPress is it’s free to use option. It is an open-source website CMS and code written in the PHP. It is completely free to use and every web hosting service providing one-click install as we discussed above.

3. eCommerce Friendly

There are plenty of features are must design an eCommerce site. If you search for the eCommerce site development requirements, you will see a list of features which are core properties to attract the audience and making sales.

WordPress has robust eCommerce support. Anyone can with a basic WordPress knowledge build an eCommerce site from scratch. There are plenty of eCommerce supportive themes available for WordPress to create a scalable site. Plugins like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, MemberPress are popular among the developers.

4. Forums Support

WordPress has great support if you want to run a forum site. There are plenty of themes and plugins available to make a WordPress website into a forum site. Plugins like bbPress, ForumEngine, and Simple Press are popular among them.

5. Best for Blogging

Blogging became an earning source for many millennials including me. And WordPress is my first choice to start my first website thetechhacker. Since from the beginning, I was very happy to use WordPress for my site. Due to the number of themes and plugins support I made my site look fresh and user-friendly.

6. SEO Friendly

If you run a WordPress powered website then you don’t need to worry about the SEO. WordPress is an SEO friendly CMS service which has great SEO plugins support. Plugins like YoastSEO, All in One SEO Pack are ready to turn your normal site into an SEO friendly website out of the box. Staring from site descriptions to deep inside jobs like managing webmaster tools, everything is easy when you use a good SEO plugin in WordPress.

7. Tutorials Availability

Being popular has many advantages. WordPress is a very popular CMS and it has many support guides and tutorials online. Many bloggers and developers are published detailed guides of using WordPress as your CMS for your site. Literally, there is an infinite number of support guides available if you want to learn about WordPress maintenance and customization.

Disadvantages of WordPress

1. Pricey Customization

WordPress is free to use CMS but it depends on the various third-party themes and plugins. Of course, the free themes and plugins available, but if you want to make your site more unique third-party services are the best options.

WordPress business has tremendously grown from the past couple of years and many developers are selling their best of the best themes and plugins. Each theme cost ranging from a couple of dollars to thousands of dollars if you want a unique customized theme. It is your choice whether to spend on this stuff or not on your website.

2. Frequent updates

Frequent updates is another issue if you want to go for WordPress. Installing WordPress does not finish the complete process. Since it is a very developer-friendly open-source platform, they frequently push updates to the users. The problem comes when a new update impact on your installed theme or plugin compatibility issue. In some cases, after the new WordPress update, the existing theme or plugin may crash resulting in the poor functionality of the website which may damage your performance in Google.

3. Vulnerability

Vulnerability is still one of the disadvantages of WordPress security. Being an open-source platform has its own set of cons. Since there is no central authority to monitor the themes and plugins, some unethical people can spread fake themes and plugins with malicious code. According to some trusted reports, WordPress is the most hacker CMC worldwide.

4. Managing MySQL Database

MySQL is an open-source database management system associated with the backend of WordPress. It runs in a server and creates databases whenever a change is made in WordPress. For a novice user, it is troublesome to manage and clean databases. A single error can cause complete loss of the data which results in a total crash of the website. It is always advisable to take a complete backup of the database before going to make changes.

5. Runs on Heavy Code

WordPress is not a simple CMS to run on a server. It is built-on PHP code which can be heavy on your server. Loading and running heavy theme and resource-hungry plugins can slow down your server. In some rare cases, it will consume all the nodes present on the server and due to the overload, and the site will get 503 error status code indicating that a server is temporarily unable to handle the request.

6. Practise Practise Practise

Yes, it is a never-ending thing if you want to change the themes on your site frequently. Every theme developer follows its own designed layout of options. Each layout is completely different from each other and you need a lot of practise and time to tweak your site with a new theme layout. Personally, I’ve used several themes for thetechhacker and my network of sites and worked for countless hours to make them look good and SEO friendly.

Conclusion

It is clear that WordPress is a great CMS for every web developer, Individuals and bloggers. If you overcome the disadvantages with your own knowledge then it won’t be troublesome for you. Before going make a decision of using WordPress for your site, look at all the requirements and think about its advantages and disadvantages clearly.