Why you don’t have to use WordPress
In few words, Wordpress is a cms that allows you to build a site “easily” and with minimal knowledge (more conceptual than technical). It’s programmed in Php, use MySql as database and it’s the ideal solution given by people who have no technical knowledge and claim to be a amazing developer (I’m overeracting xD). Why do I say it in that way? Because no one who really knows web development would suggest using it to make a website, a single page, a blog or even an ecommerce.
In the following lines I will comment some reasons for not using Wordpress and in the end some options depending on our knowledge of codes and what we want to build.
Some “problems” with Wordpress
1. Design
I know this is very subjective, but the structure of most templates is so rigid and outdated that you can easily tell “that’s a site made with WP” just by looking it. Also, template customization is not at all simple for someone outside of the development world. The worst thing is that the best solution to improve the wordpress interface is outside the cms itself, for that, the possibility of integrating the wrong solution is very high.
This is why it will be very complex to show our own brand, because all portals look similar and adapting them to new design ideas is very difficult (if not impossible).
Have you made a template for wordpress? If the answer is no, I can say “that’s good”.
2. Plugins
The catalog of plugins is huge, which is good, BUT very few come from Automatic Inc (the company behind wordpress), this meaning the plugins work, but what they do underneath nobody knows. This is a big problem since there is not much backup after integrating them and they could work maliciously, be unstable or even not work at all, somethign very danger for the integrity of the content and the info of our users.
3. Database
This is a bit more for a technical audience, because the database that WP creates is complete and utter chaos. If at any time you need to migrate to a better built model, it will not be possible without complex and expensive work. If you want to do data analysis, the problem is the same, the structure has a lot of static information (configuration data) and unusual relationships, which were perhaps very useful at the beginning for the platform, but with the years have become a real problem where it is necessary to “dive” a lot to find where each thing is created and how “this thing” is passed to the view of the cms.
Multi Languages? not supported at the database level, you must do it in an “other” way, which is very far from an engineering process and good development practices.
Do you need to access the data through an endpoint? you must go to third-party plugins that read the data … and with that we fall into the problem discussed above, forget to arrange things under a rest api.
4. Massification
The ease of setting up a website with wordpress made it massify very quickly and, incidentally, created the idea that making a website was easy (I never speak of maintaining and growing, just creating) which lowered the price of development and allowed many so-called “developers” appeared raising wordpress as if there was no tomorrow.
5. Advanced functionalities
Imagine that you want a high-level search engine … I warn you that if there is no plugin developed by X, it is likely that you cannot do it without getting into the code (and incidentally breaking something), so something very useful like reading data from ElasticSearch and makes a data-comparator (for example), in a wordpress it is a completely absurd idea.
6. Security
This should be one of the most important points, the Wordpress team keeps the platform up to date, but third-party plugins can create security problems that may never be corrected. Here the recommendation is to constantly update and support week by week. Something that would not happen if the platform were well built.
7. Speed and quality
Woocommerce is very used by those who do not have great knowledge and boast of creating online stores quickly, what they do not say is how detrimental it is for the performance of the portal, since the consumption of resources is very high. This can be corroborated by checking a site with WooCommerce in GT Metrix or Google PageSpeed.
When to use it? Only as proof of concept when we are learning or want to see what WordPress is like. There are many, and better, alternatives like this:
For Personal page or Blog
If there is knowledge of codes, an html with a beautiful css hosted on github pages is a cheaper and very good solution for a landing page, now, if we want a blog, the options change:
1. Few knowledge of codes
If we have some knowledge of codes, the simplest thing would be to use Jekyll (or a similar platform), since through we create a static blog with categories, images, fancy styles and 100% customizable. The best of Jekyll? You can host it with automatic deployment on github or netlify pages, since they are static generated pages and don’t need a database like mysql or pgsql (cheaper even).
Jekyll example: https://thebeerbrother.cl
2. More knowledge of codes
Whether we have technical knowledge or not and we want to enjoy the power that a sql database gives below and edit online and other stuffs, I recommend Ghost, it is very comfortable and easy to install (if we want on our own server), we can use the official solution at https://ghost.org which for $ 29 gives us access to a very well designed panel, as I said easy and clear, where we can configure the menu, categories, subscribers, newsletter, tags, template, etc. in a easiest way.
Ghost example: https://blog.santiagoexchange.com
3. Zero knowledge of codes
If we do not have any technical knowledge we will always have squarespace or wix where with only making click (and a few dollars) we will achieve an excellent result
E-commerce
1. High knowledge of codes
If we know how to development we can build a store in Laravel or Rails, with the integration of payments, shipping and a custom design and functionalities. All fitting perfectly with our initial idea.
2. Zero knowledge of codes
If there is not enough knowledge, the best choice is go the simple way and pay (not someone else) Shopify, Jumpseller or Wix, three options where you can build your store without taking the risks that something like wordpress means and with which you will obtain a very satisfactory result.
If someone tell you the solution or the correct technology to solve some problem is wordpress, be like batman and hit it in the face.
