WordPress runs about 30% of the websites on the internet in 2018, more than any other single blog or website system. It is a good choice in a content management system for many people because it has a lot of features that can be changed around easily to build a unique website. WordPress also has its drawbacks and limitations that make it less suitable for certain uses. Here are my personal opinions about the pros and cons of WordPress.

Pros of WordPress

Ease of Use

WordPress is streamlined for easy editing in every way possible. It does not take programming skill to use it, and adding content is about as complicated as learning how to email. This makes it ideal for beginners to add blog posts and change text on the site.

Plugins

WordPress is very flexible; you can make it do pretty much anything. You can download a wide assortment of plugins to add features to your site like appointment booking, contact forms, or slideshows. The official WordPress plugin site has tens of thousands of plugins to choose from to expand the functionality of your site. Because it is the most popular blog system, it has the most plugins to choose from when compared to other content management systems.

Themes

Themes are how you make WordPress look. They set the colors, layout, look and feel of the site. Switching themes changes the entire appearance of your site in the click of a button. This makes it easy to try out themes before you decide to use them. The official WordPress site has a few thousand themes that are all free. You can also buy premium themes from various companies that have enhanced features and support.

Support

If you are using WordPress and your designer needs to know how to fix something in the website, they can find plenty of guides, forums, and chat rooms to help them. WordPress has more unofficial support documentation than other website systems. Because of its popularity, a lot of designers and developers are able to add content or fix problems.

Cons of WordPress

Speed

WordPress is great because it has a ton of features already built in. The downside is that these features slow the site down a bit, which influences how happy your visitors are and how likely you are to make a sale. Once you start adding a lot of plugins to the site, things can get out of hand. Technical skill and server upgrades help with the speed of the site, but they cost money.

Security

WordPress has a lot of users so it is what hackers prefer to target the most. The flip side of the coin is that WordPress gets a ton of updates because so many people are using it. As of the past few years, WordPress security has been moving fast, with security updates coming out frequently. This means you have to be on the ball with updates.

Plugins

3rd party plugins are ones which are not made by WordPress. When you install these plugins you are trusting a company or individual to not slip some malicious code into your site. Some plugins have been found to have things like hidden advertizements, redirects to another site, information stealing, or worse. The way to avoid this is to install as few plugins as possible, and also have a malicious code scanner like Wordfence to check for issues.

Maintenance

WordPress takes maintenance. You should update at least a few times a year to keep up to date with security patches and other fixes. WordPress and its plugins have a lot of updates, some of which patch security holes. It is possible, though pretty unlikely, that an update fails and breaks WordPress. A backup plan is essential for this reason, just in case things go wrong.

Conclusion

WordPress has a lot of features and can suit the needs of most companies, and you can always find a developer that knows how to work with WordPress. The upkeep takes more time than with Squarespace or Wix, but the end result is more polished and more functional than most other types of websites.