WordPress has been under constant attack lately. I'm not just talking about hacker attacks. A significant part of the IT industry, bloggers, programmers are attacking it. However, WordPress is still an extremely popular solution. Is this justified?
Accusations Against WordPress
The list of grievances against WordPress seems endless: low code quality, low security, difficult modifications, low performance, or that, for example, creating a website using WordPress is a sign of a lack of professionalism. Does this really mean that WordPress is not suitable for anything? Certainly not. It's important to remember that the loudest voices – especially on the internet – are those of dissatisfaction and haters.
Uncompromising Statistics
According to statistics, WordPress currently powers 30% of all websites and has a 60% market share in CMS (Content Management System). This is not accidental. WordPress is easy to use, has a huge community behind it, and plenty of ready-made templates and plugins, which allow for its customization. What should be even more imaginative is that in second place is Joomla with a mere 3% share. In short, in the category of "website building," there is WordPress – then a long, long nothing – and then the rest.
WordPress: Build It Yourself
There are many interesting possibilities for developing a WordPress-based site. For example, there are plugins that turn your store into a PWA (Progressive Web App), inexpensive themes that meet RWD (Responsive Web Design) guidelines, or even WordPress REST API, which opens up a huge field for expanding the platform. The wide possibilities of expansion at the same time become an argument against WordPress. It tempts to use this system in projects where it would be better to invest more in another CMS or a completely different technology and work on the code from scratch.
So... What is WordPress Good For?
A list of good applications for WordPress:
Blog
Own online store (e.g., based on WooCommerce)
Responsive websites with content
Photographic portfolio
Artistic showcase / showreel
Quick creation of Landing Page, One-page, and other marketing tools
What WordPress is Not Good For? (In my opinion).
Building SaaS-type services (Software as a Service)
Creating a product MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Solutions that must be maximally reliable – e.g., flight plan management systems
Services highly exposed to attacks – e.g., government websites
Dedicated applications – non-standard solutions
Obviously, the above lists are subjective and incomplete. However, my goal was to show certain dependencies and limitations. The choice of technology for a project should always be preceded by the appropriate analysis. However, I'll venture to say that if you're a non-technical person and you don't plan to create the next Facebook, then WordPress may be the answer to your needs in 90% of the cases.
Alternatives to WordPress
There are constantly new alternatives. The market offers such options as Webflow, Wix, Duda, or more specialized solutions like Landingi.com. Each of them solves some problems, offers specific possibilities, yet to this day, none of them has gained as much popularity as WordPress and has not offered so many solutions at the same time.
How to Decide if WordPress is Right for Me?
When writing a brief for a project, answer the following questions:
Is the type of website you want to create on the list of good applications above?
Are you willing to periodically check the panel for updates?
In case of a data leak / break-in to the panel, will any sensitive data get into undesirable hands?
Do you want to launch your service/site as cheaply as possible?
Will the service not change its functionality after launch?
Will your service have simple data types – article, product, comment, etc.?
Is what you're thinking about a standard solution?
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