It is important to know that Wordpress is a CMS (Content Management System) that holds more than 35% of all sites on the Internet today. Followed by Drupal, which barely reaches 4-5% (source). That should be enough to talk about the scale and the people in the society behind Wordpress.
As we specialize in Custom Websites and applications, today we will make a brief comparison between WordPress and a Custom site/system. We have largely noticed that this issue is on the agenda when our customers have to choose what to step on their new company website.
👇 Let's start with a brief comparison:
First, the design. 💻
The design largely does not affect the basis on which the site will operate. Yes, if you want a custom design designed for you, programmers will probably prefer to work 'clean' using their methodologies and ways of working. In case you are going to use a ready-made template or theme, this is not very important, as long as the template is suitable for the system you will use*.
* ⚠️ Keep in mind that ready-made templates are products on the market, made by different and diverse freelancers, teams, and companies. Choose well when buying one and consult with your programmer whether the template is made of good quality, as this may affect the mobile version of the site, for example, or its future change and customization.
Then, the functionalities. ⚙️
Comparing the workmanship of any functionality with a WordPress module is almost meaningless. For every imaginary feature somewhere in the world, there is a WordPress plugin that can "do" it. This is a huge plus for Wordpress, as the installation of these features is done literally at the touch of a button and several configurations afterward. When creating a Custom Website, things don't look that way. In many cases, additional technical intervention is required, for example, to upgrade a module to be made in the style of the site and to serve its specific needs. It costs time and money.
Creating a Custom Site uses pre-designed modules that can handle everything most sites need without the need for additional plug-ins or modules. 👌 These are custom fields, collections (content types), forms, search, creating navigation, live visualization, user management, real-time collaboration, taxonomies, all of which work seamlessly, built and maintained by the same team. For example, an editor based on such blocks of content will allow you to create your sections on the site from any other existing types of fields, instead of looking for personalized technical assistance or a module to create them each time. ⏱️ 💰
Clean and customized code helps developers make site maintenance more efficient and effective. ✔️
How often do you hear from developers "It's better to make a new site, this one is old and the code in it is complicated to add"?. 👨💻 There is almost no programmer today who would be happy to develop a site in someone else's code for this very reason. So think about how important it is for you to keep your site well-written and 'clean' after a few years. And how often the site will need maintenance.
The lack of modern and rigid conventions has forced the WordPress community to come up with workarounds. Today there are so many ways in which a website can be created: Ready-made themes, page builder, block editor, classic editor, React, or some hybrid backend code. 💡
💭 We often hear from our clients: We want the new Admin panel to be simple and to have only what we need. There are many things in the current one that we don't even know what they are for and we are afraid of breaking something.
It is important that the site serves the needs of the business, not the other way around.
➡️ In short: WordPress is aimed at blogs and simpler information sites, while personalized sites are designed specifically to build and manage companies with more demanding features and development needs. WordPress is getting faster with the addition of custom functionality, and custom solutions are getting better as their functionality expands.
And here comes security. 🔒
With this high usability rate, 94% of hacked websites run WordPress (source). This is the most targeted and vulnerable CMS on the market.
If you do not have a developer dedicated to the maintenance of your site, you are vulnerable. Urgent support for developers to restore your site can be expensive, in addition to lost business from an exploited site or data leakage. 😨💀
3 Reasons Why Custom Sites Can Be Safer Than WordPress:
Developers create and maintain all the features your website needs. You will not need 50 plugins created by 50 authors of dubious quality to build your site. That's why WordPress is so vulnerable.
We use Laravel, this Framework is considered to be the most secure and well-maintained PHP model of work today. WordPress uses pure PHP code, which lacks a lot of fundamentally used stuff these days.
At your request, additional protections and/or functions can be made to protect you and your business from leaking information even from insiders using the site. Eg.: special roles or automatic deletion of information for action.
And of course - the price. 💸
When you pay to make a Custom Website, that money goes to developing a product created especially for you. When you pay to build a WordPress site, you pay developers to install a ready-made free product on your server and then configure/configure it for you.
WordPress is free, but most projects require at least a few paid plug-ins to cover all the basic features. After purchasing the Jetpack, Advanced Custom Fields, SEO plugin, and form plugin, you will see that in addition to the initial design, you spend at least a few hundred euros a year. 💶💶
What's worse is that this money goes to different companies with different goals and different priorities, each with its own maintenance procedures, updates. That's why it's important to know that it doesn't always depend on your developers when you use ready-made external modules for your site.
Are you hesitant to use WordPress or make a Custom Website? 🤔 Contact us and we will consult you for free! 📞
