Should You Still Use WordPress? via @sejournal, @alexmoss

5 months ago 93

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The past twelvemonth has been rather eventful wrong the WordPress ecosystem, marked by discussions and disputes that person prompted immoderate to question the semipermanent sustainability of the level and see exploring alternate solutions.

However, erstwhile you dive deeper into these concerns, they airy successful examination to WordPress’s enduring strengths arsenic a merchandise and its unmatched versatility successful the CMS space.

Market Share Is Sustained

The archetypal mentation of WordPress was released connected May 27, 2003. Its unsocial architecture, combined with it being unfastened source, saw a surge successful popularity – present dominating (as of December 2024) 43.7% of the CMS marketplace share.

This maturation has besides been dependable contempt the emergence of different CMSs including Shopify, Wix and Squarespace. But nary of these are open-source.

Not “Just Another” CMS

WordPress’ unsocial architecture, which allows plugin and theme extendibility, combined with the powerfulness of open-source, means it tin standard acold beyond the blogging level it was originally.

This means themes could beryllium built for end-users without them having to needfully recognize HTML oregon CSS and plugins made by third-party developers that could widen and standard the halfway level successful limitless ways.

Over the years, I’ve built truthful overmuch with WordPress, including forums, occupation boards, acquisition and learning-based portals, ecommerce sites, communities, examination engines, and scaled themes.

Our clients person ranged from radical performing tiny broadside hustles and launching startups to managing hundreds of installs connected a custom-built server for scaling sites for antithetic planetary regions and gathering customized APIs utilizing WordPress to standard activity.

No different CMS provides this flexibility – with immoderate alternatives lone doing truthful with a immense outgo and method debt.

Extendibility [Mostly] Without Limits

While I’ve been progressive successful gathering galore things with WordPress, the conception of third-party plugins paved the mode for trusted extendability wrong the CMS.

The emergence of escaped and premium plugins successful the WordPress ecosystem has created its ain niche, with implicit 59,000 escaped plugins available wrong the authoritative directory – and this does not see the thousands of plugins disposable distant from the repo.

When I discovered WordPress successful 2009, I realized it wasn’t conscionable a blogging level – and, much importantly, it was the astir cooperative to SEO champion standards. I published my archetypal of galore plugins successful October 2010.

In 2013, I co-founded an bureau with WordPress improvement arsenic 1 of its halfway offerings wherever we person worked connected thousands of WordPress sites. Whenever we received an enquiry oregon pitched for thing to build, WordPress was ever the CMS that provided the champion solution.

It’s besides truthful casual to get started with WordPress, and I counsel anyone who wants to widen their cognition to bash truthful done experimentation (I talked astir it astatine BrightonSEO a mates of months ago)

A Truly Passionate Community

Another crushed I loved WordPress was erstwhile I discovered that the community’s monolithic enactment helped the CMS progress.

Like the SEO community, the WordPress assemblage is highly engaging and supportive, not conscionable to assistance lick issues and assistance make the CMS overall, but besides there’s a batch of enactment for people’s nonrecreational and idiosyncratic development.

Away from the extended resources that WordPress provides done its documentation and forums, the WordPress assemblage thrives each twelvemonth circular done its WordCamp meetups worldwide and participates successful different communities, including WordPress chat and PostStatus. There are besides galore podcast bid to follow, including Do the Woo, WP Product Talk, and WP Builds.

This assemblage is highly supportive and resilient to changes, which successful crook helps the improvement of WordPress core, which has been instrumental successful shaping the aboriginal of website creation, production, and improvement.

The assemblage besides gives backmost successful ways I haven’t seen successful different verticals.

You Own Your Site And Data

You’d deliberation this would beryllium obvious, but it isn’t. Remember, WordPress is unfastened source. Not lone does this mean that the halfway merchandise is wholly escaped and supported by the community, arsenic already mentioned, but it is besides your property.

To present comparison this to Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace – these different CMS platforms ain your site!

While radical whitethorn judge determination are inherent risks with WordPress, I’d inquire you what would hap to your tract if, for example, Shopify were to adjacent concern tomorrow.

The reply is elemental – your tract would cease to exist. Then what? If WordPress were to halt improvement everlastingly from today, you’d inactive beryllium successful the aforesaid presumption and inactive person your website, content, and information – each of it. What bash the different CMSs offer?

As different furniture of state and hazard mitigation, the prime of utilizing WordPress arsenic a CMS is besides autarkic of wherever you take to big it.

If for immoderate crushed you privation to migrate your tract from 1 big to another you person the state to bash truthful whereas closed root platforms not lone ain the website you nutrient with them, but besides the server wherever it resides.

Do The Recent WP ‘Disagreements’ Present A Risk To WordPress?

TLDR – no. The concern does not impact the functionality of WordPress arsenic a CMS. WordPress remains a stable, reliable, and wide utilized platform, with nary denotation that its semipermanent sustainability is astatine risk. The CMS itself is unaffected and continues to thrive. If you privation to work much astir the existent discussions and disagreements impacting WP leadership, you tin work articles specified arsenic this and this to summation much insight.

Other Options?

Still skeptical astir WordPress? OK, what are your different options?

While different CMS platforms tin possibly beryllium a bully alternate to a “standard informational site”, oregon a tract that has nary customization requirements astatine each from the mean out-of-the-box functionality (which yet happens for each tract that starts to standard successful immoderate way), you person to marque precise informed decisions astir whether it’s really worthy it – and what the occupation is that you judge you’re solving.

Some questions I’d inquire myself:

Is the CMS unfastened source? If not, what bash I own?
Is determination a beardown signifier of assemblage and support?
Does it play nicely with third-party connections and APIs you mean to use?
Can you standard the tract successful the mode you want?
Can you genuinely power output connected the beforehand end?
Does it adhere to SEO champion practices?

If immoderate of the answers supra are a “no” past you request to recognize the risks of those issues earlier considering immoderate migration, arsenic you whitethorn find that the risks of the alternate outweigh thing that WordPress would.

A mates of months ago, I decided to probe respective open-source CMSs to spot if immoderate different level could vie with WordPress and its capabilities. Unsurprisingly, thing came close.

TL;DR

WordPress is present to enactment and is inactive the CMS I’d counsel successful 99% of cases.

It’s safe, supported, robust, future-proof, and unfastened source.

Whilst different CMS platforms tin connection immoderate solutions to smaller oregon simpler sites, I americium yet to beryllium genuinely convinced that they airs immoderate sizeable hazard to their aboriginal oregon their relation successful the aboriginal of websites.

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