It’s been a tough decision; we've shared some good times, but today, Wordpress and I are no longer the friends we once were.
Don't get me wrong - Wordpress is great; it's is a powerful platform and I’ve been advocating it for years. Pick a theme, install some plugins and get a damn fine website up and running in no time. However, if you are a web developer, or the type of client who has something very specific in mind, then you might be entering a world of pain.
Dear Wordpress, here's some of the reason I'm leaving you -
1. You’re always getting hacked. Like, always. Almost all of the Wordpress installations I’ve used have, at some point, been compromised with malicious code. Hundreds of hours, usually on weekends and holidays, have been spent repairing, replacing and reinstalling whole sites that have gone down or been blacklisted in Google. The solution for this is simple enough: lockdown, update, backup, lockdown, update, backup. But it’s not that easy to stay on top of because:
2. Updates often break you like a twig. Plugins need to be updated regularly and so does Wordpress core. Each time you update your risking bringing the site to it’s knees with a broken plugin, or breaking site functionality. The more plugins you have the more likely it will be to break. And if you haven’t updated in months, or years, then it’s almost impossible to do so. Which reminds us that:
3. You've got a mad fetish for plugins and plugins are bad news. Plugins are third-party extensions the give you extra functionality; they’re great, in theory. Trouble with Wordpress is that every little bit of functionality requires a plugin. Want a contact form? Install a plugin. SEO? Yep, there’s a dozen reputable plugins for that. With each plugin you install the site becomes exponentially more difficult to maintain (see point 2) and introduces another way for hackers and bots to exploit your site (see point 1). Before you know it a simple site with a shopping cart could be clocking up a dozen plugins. I’m currently maintaining a site with 33 plugins. If any one of those plugin developers (including myself) stops maintaining that plugin it prohibits the core from updating. Nightmare.
4. Your outputted code is woeful; sometimes outright shockingly bad. Every plugin slows the site down for users and search engines. Wordpress' tags are loaded up to the eyeballs with CSS injects and useless javascript. This isn’t insurmountable and with a lot of time, determination and perseverance this can be fixed with plugins (however, see point 2 & 3). It's not as bad as a Wix site but your end users will suffer and:
5. You're not helping my SEO at all. Wordpress has a myriad of damn fine SEO plugins. However they all have generalist approaches and you’re never going to have the fine control you need to create clean code with good SEO and, more importantly, they put all the hard work onto content administrators who, usually, don't really care. Only people know how to describe the code so that machines can get the most out of it, which is where some good custom SEO and a well crafted schema will really benefit you. Plus, search engines love fast sites and Wordpress sites seldom are.
6. Same old. Same old. Almost 20% of all websites are Wordpress sites. Honestly, it’s probably the best CMS out there for people who don’t ordinarily make websites. The upshot of this is that the landscape is becoming strangely homogenised; all sites kind of look the same; you’ll lose points with the search engines for having the same structure as other sites. It probably won’t make you stand out…
7. You're just getting in my way. If you’re not a web developer and you want to make a site yourself then Wordpress is awesome; pick a theme, install a few plugins and you're off! If are a web developer, or a client who knows exactly that they want, then Wordpress often just gets in the way of everything. The Wordpress documentation is top-notch, most themes and plugins are quality workmanship, but you're working within a framework built for blogs. Projects can blow out trying to achieve the smallest customisations with. Sure, you can get something up-and-running in 5 minutes with Wordpress but I’ve never known that to be a key factor in creating a good website. Customisations outside of the Wordpress core can get you the extra functionality you need but you're going to add overhead supporting them in the future.
Wordpress isn't bad - it's actually great. You can get a website up and running with minimal experience and, for personal sites, it almost stands alone as the only choice. With enough time, money and dedication all of the problems outlined above are fixable; or you can even outright ignore or disregard them as unimportant. However, if you've got complicated or unique needs you'll likely be forced to make compromises every step of the way.
Sometimes Wordpress is a brilliant fit but if your business is unique then your website probably should be, too.
