You’ve been told that you can do anything with WordPress?
You don’t know if there are limitations for using the software as a blogging platform or a CMS?
And now, you think about the complexity of building a website for many purposes, and you think that you’ll have problems installing plugins, themes or even customizing the code?
So, read the full guide, we used WordPress for years and we tested nearly everything like building sites, moving logs, dealing with web hosting issues and fixing the most common problems that can crash the webserver.
WordPress is good, but not for every project
Lots of people think, (or they have been told at least) that WordPress can work with any projects including eCommerce and more. However, the truth is this:
WordPress.com and also WordPress.org are not able to deal with complex security problems and operations, especially for high traffic websites.
That’s because the software itself was built on PHP and MySQL, and both make a dynamic website that consumes a lot of server resources, RAM, and CPU.
So, unless you have powerful and optimized servers, don’t use WordPress for a website that receives millions of visits per month.
Now, don’t understand this wrong, we know some popular blogs and websites that use WordPress and they have a huge number of readers, however, because of their slow loading time, they’re losing many benefits.
If a website loads in 5 seconds and the owner think they’re making a success because of their traffic, then, they’re missing one thing:
Imagine if a website owner decreases the average page loading time from 5 seconds to one second, that will not only bring more traffic, but also more sales, and conversions for eCommerce sites.
In this case, building a website with HTML5 and CSS3 only will be much better, faster and user-friendly.
WordPress plugins and SEO
This is one of the most confusing things that beginners struggle with. In reality, plugins like Yoast and others are just a piece of code that you can build yourself or add without complicated settings.
Of course, Yoast is a good WordPress plugin that optimizes the blog and makes it SEO friendly for Google, however, it adds extra server requests and slow down the site like other plugins.
Instead of that, think about adding the post description and title manually. That will be time-consuming, however, it’s better for a high traffic website.
Using WordPress.com
There are many good things about using WordPress.com, which includes a high level of the security system and also the fast servers. On the other side, there are many limitations for that, and here is the full list of limitations on using WordPress.com:
- you can’t upload plugin, themes
- there is no way to monetize your blog
- WordPress branding is everywhere
- you don’t own your site, they can remove it if you violate their terms of service
- there is no way to control your blog SEO settings with the free plan
- the premium plans come with little extra features
- the business WordPress hosting plan is costly
Is WordPress.org better?
Using a managed self-hosted WordPress web host software will be better for the majority of users. There is no limitation on using the CMS, however, be careful with security.
If you don’t take care of your blog, no one will do, and you’ll spend lots of time dealing with hacks, attacks and security problems.
So, here is the point:
If you want to start a personal blog or even a professional blog on WordPress.org, make sure you read online guides and tutorials about security and configurations.
Nothing is complicated as it looks like, we all started from scratch, and luckily, there are lots of tutorials and resources for using the blogging platform or the CMS.
While using the self-hosted WordPress software may look promising for many, it comes with limitations.
For example, you can’t build a fast website with complicated operations like eCommerce sites. Even if popular sites are using that, then be aware that they invest lots of money in adding more servers and customizing the code.
So, if your main goal is to build a blog and customize it the way you want, then, use WordPress for that. You’ll be able to add any plugin or theme you want to make modifications.
But if you want to build something large and complicated, then, WordPress may work for you, but with limitation speed, performances, and even security.
That’s why the most successful eCommerce sites in the World have a custom code using HTML, CSS or JavaScript.
That comes with total control over the site code, and there is no worry about updates and plugin conflicts.
One of the worst things about WordPress is its speed and even SEO. WordPress generates an attachment URL for every image you upload
That adds more issues to the site itself unless you use plugins or redirect them. Besides, with lots of PHP and MySQL requests, it’s not faster than a regular HTML website.
So, keep that in mind and prepare yourself to make lots of optimization to make WordPress work fast. Or, choose a fully managed and fast WordPress hosting that does the job for you at the server level.
Bottom line
Because WordPress has two versions, the nonprofit one that’s open-source and free, and the commercial one that’s not cheap and limits everything, there is no definitive answer to whether or not you should use this or that platform. However, let’s make it simple for all:
If you’d like to build a blog and you don’t have any plan for monetization or customization, then, choose the WordPress.com platform.
On the other hand, if you want to build something professional, customized and you want total control over the site, then, choose an SSD web hosting that makes WordPress.org work faster and more secure.
If your site will be an online store, then, you’ll need a dedicated Commerce web hosting, or think about other HTML platforms that work better and with fewer customizations.
