WordPress is a content management system (CMS) with a user interface that allows you to create and edit blogs, complete websites or online shops without having to worry about the program code or the HTML structure underneath.

WordPress is very popular. After all, over 40% of all websites worldwide run on this framework. Once installed, all you have to do is log in for the admin interface and you can then either add pages to the website, write posts and install plug-ins for special web functions or design themes.

Advantages of WordPress

Advantage 1: WordPress is easy to use

The bottom line is that WordPress is an extremely practical piece of software that is easy to use, whether you are a technical guru or a beginner in website creation. On the net you can find countless free and paid templates for all kinds of websites that you can design to your own taste for your own site without writing a single line of code.

Advantage 2: WordPress is affordable

Creating a website with WordPress can be much cheaper than setting up a site from scratch. For example, you can download the free software from WordPress.org, choose a suitable design from thousands of design templates and fill the website with your own text and images. Finally, you look for a provider like IONOS or Strato to host the website on their server for a few euros a month. Alternatively, you can register with WordPress.com, pay a small fee and build your own website with the templates and tools offered there. WordPress.com takes care of the hosting.

Advantage 3: WordPress has a strong ecosystem

WordPress is one of the most widely used website builders on the internet. Because of this widespread use, WordPress has a very active user community as well as a huge ecosystem of themes, plugins and third-party tools. There is also no shortage of WordPress developers out there.

For this reason, you can also find an endless number of tutorials and guides on the internet that help you to accomplish the most diverse tasks with WordPress step by step.

Advantage 4: WordPress is flexible

WordPress is very robust and flexible. It can be used for everything from simple websites and blogs to landing pages and complex e-commerce sites or news websites. You can start with fewer pages and gradually expand the website. There is almost no limit to how much content you can publish, provided the underlying hoster is able to handle it and you maintain your website regularly.

The disadvantages of WordPress

Disadvantage 1: WordPress is vulnerable to hacker attacks

As already mentioned, the popularity of WordPress leads to tons of tools, plugins and themes that are very big advantages for users.

This proliferation unfortunately also makes WordPress an attractive playing field for hackers. In fact, about 83% of all hacked CMS websites are based on WordPress.

Hackers love to exploit the weaknesses of WordPress. They look for previously hacked themes or plugins and often find websites that still use them and manage to break into the system through them. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to always keep themes and plugins up to date and to install all updates regularly and promptly.

Disadvantage 2: WordPress can be difficult to maintain

WordPress is notorious for its incompatibility issues and critical errors. A single faulty plugin or theme can bring down your entire website. Worse, hackers can exploit loopholes to steal sensitive data or install malware. Regular updates and backups as well as important maintenance processes help to make your system more secure. However, you also need to invest the time to take care of the system accordingly.

Disadvantage 3: WordPress does not perform particularly well on performance

WordPress is now 19 years old (as of 2022) and a lot has changed in that time.

New current web technologies enable the creation of faster and more powerful websites. And even Google takes the loading speed as an important indicator for the ranking of a website.

On average, most WordPress websites are slower than their modern competitors such as Squarespace. However, this does not mean that all WordPress websites are slower. There are now special plugins that can optimise the performance and loading speed of a page. However, that is also the point: you have to install additional plugins, which makes maintenance more complex.

Disadvantage 4: WordPress is not very innovative

WordPress is not only falling behind in speed and performance, but also in innovation. Compared to other CMSs, WordPress has hardly changed in the last 5-8 years. The WordPress user interface is still more or less the same. The workflow is still the same. There is a lot of poor product design and far too many tutorials. On top of that, WordPress continues to suffer from compatibility and security issues. 

Another problem with WordPress is that it is too universal; it lacks a specific use case. Most of its competitors, on the other hand, are tailored to specific applications. Shopify, for example, is tailored to the creation of e-commerce websites.

Conclusion

Despite its weaknesses, WordPress remains the most popular and widely used CMS and holds a market share of over 60% in the CMS industry.

In recent years, other CMS tools have gained traction. These include Shopify, Wix and Squarespace. Unlike WordPress, most of these platforms are tailored to a specific use case.

Other blogging platforms such as Ghost and Medium are also becoming more popular. Regardless, there is no doubt that WordPress will continue to reign supreme for the foreseeable future.

Based on an article by Kingsley Ubah