WordPress
The main premise of a WordPress (WP) website is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). WordPress is an open source Content Management System, (CMS) which allows websites to be built with in-built blog support. There are lots of different CMS’s that can be used but I used WP for this project so will concentrate on WP. A lot of times the blogs part are used as news articles rather than blogs but it is the same premise. The open source part is why WP is what it is today. WP is free to use, there are thousands of plugins and themes for free as well to build on. A user can setup their own site very easily but will often be limited to the theme they use without customisation. For customisation of most of theme’s, a user will require at least a basic understanding of HTML/CSS/JavaScript knowledge. That been said, a user can find a theme they like the look of, add it to their WP site, add their content and have a working website within a few hours by doing very little work.
An E-commerce website within WordPress is a little bit different of a setup but is easy enough for a user to setup their own shop within WP on their own. It can be a bit daunting at first but WP hosts a massive community and people will help newbies on how to set up WooCommerce plugin. WordPress itself is extremely easy to manage and almost everything updates automatically.
Although WP is free, you will end up spending money on it at some point. This could be from a premium theme or a specific plugin. Themes are the user interface (UI) of the front-end. How a website looks including layout, colours, typography and design elements. A plugin is a piece of code which adds or extends functionality to the theme. Some themes out the box comes a host of plugins, especially premium themes. The 2 most common premium themes used are Avada and Enfold. Most WP companies will have used or will use one of these themes if not both at some point.
Advantages
For a static website, WP is one of the fastest ways to develop and maintain a website with little to no coding knowledge. The convenience of setting it up is simple, all hosting firms have a 1 click installation for WP.
The argument for speed vs time is made within WP favour. A traditional website requires time and effort, whereas WP requires little time and little effort depending on the project. The biggest advantage would be the how easy it is to develop a website within WP which would be a mix of all the things mentioned above.
Plugins, if you cant find a plugin for the job, it is easy to create your own if you have the knowledge to do so. That being said WP isn’t without its share of issues.
Disadvantages
One of the biggest issues is flexibility. If you install a theme then you are limited to what that theme offers. The ways around the theme to make the site more flexible is plugins. This is not a permanent solution as there isn’t always a plugin for the customisation required. So the theme will normally require modifications. This can be done by using a child theme which is easy to setup as there is a plugin for it but the modifications can be frustrating and take a lot of time. Most of the CSS changes within the theme will require “!important;” on the end of it to override the primary theme. This is fine if the site is properly maintained but most often it is not and the CSS gets pretty long with lots of overriding itself. This impacts performance and can easily hit thousands of lines of code.
Plugins, these are a disadvantage as much as they are an advantage. One of the most frustrating things with plugins is when they conflict. You can get 2 plugins for a job and have to decide between 1 and finding another purely because they don’t like each other and cause the site to crash. There is no warning of this other than you add the plugin to get a white screen. Often the only way to resolve this is via ftp or the backend of the hosting and disable the plugin/folder.
The more plugins used the more load it has on the server which effects performance. Eventually the site becomes very slow and hard to optimize. This is especially true for E-commerce platform where web traffic can become a problem for the server load. This can lead to increased costs on the hosting package to cope with the traffic.
Traditional
When I say traditional website, I mean non Content Management System websites. Most of these are not made with basic html and require some sort of Framework. Common frameworks used are Bootstrap for the HTML, React, Angular Vue for the JavaScript. There are many frameworks available, probably as many frameworks as there are themes for a WordPress website.
A framework has flexibility, you can build any website design with a framework. There are no limitations as opposed to using someone else’s work within a CMS. A traditional website will perform far better than any CMS will.
One of the biggest issues is the time and maintenance it takes to develop a site within the framework. The same argument can be made against WP as it takes time to create a custom built website. The different though is the knowledge requirements. The frameworks take a lot of time to learn and develop efficient skills for, WP is the same but less time is required overall. Any project that is being built will normally have options for the type of build. Some of these may be cheaper or easier to use a CMS for and others may require a traditional framework.
Overall
Both a traditional website and a CMS have their uses. The uses will depend on the project requirement and a CMS is not always the choice for a project. Most WordPress sites are for small scale businesses and people that want a static webpage advertising their business. They are fast, easy to setup with little maintenance requirements. Traditional websites have their purpose and many companies use them just the same as there are many companies that are WordPress only.
There are limitations to both traditional and CMS whether it be cost, time or design based. There is arguments for and against both.
Personally I have a preference over WordPress than traditional as I work within it 2 times a week for the last 2 and a half years. Everything is setup for me and I can develop some pretty looking websites with very little time. WordPress for me is flexible and I really enjoy using it.
