Is WordPress Good for Business Websites? : That Depends!

Is WordPress good for business websites?

For startups and SMEs, WordPress is more than good where you can easily make changes yourself without having to involve developers.

WordPress is also cheap, which makes it a top choice for small business owners with limited budgets.

But large companies usually need a lot of functionalities and top-notch security. WordPress doesn’t shine in that department, especially since the plugins are notorious for their security issues. 

The good news is you can still make it secure enough for enterprise use. 

What’s more, for SaaS companies, you won’t do well with a WP site because you’ll need your own admin dashboard for your unique needs. 

Now that you have your answer, let’s know more about why WordPress is good for some businesses and not the best option for others.

Benefits of WordPress

A staggering 43.1% of all websites on the internet use WordPress as their CMS. Why? Here are the reasons.

Easy to use

One of the main hooks of WordPress is that anyone can easily get started with WordPress. You do not need any prior experience with website creation to create one of your own. Its intuitive interface and built-in templates will give you an idea of how to design your site right away. 

Everything is accessible from the WordPress CMS, letting you make changes and edits, and if you cannot find something, there is always a plugin available that you can install. 

Free to get started with

WordPress is an open-source, free-to-use platform for anyone to get started with. Some plugins may cost you as you go into more specifics, but there are tons of free features that you can experiment with for your site and keep your costs at a minimum. 

Themes and page-builders

WordPress themes and page builders are kind of like the template that decides the structure and style your website will have with its own set of tools. These themes will usually cost around $50-$200 but the benefits they provide will be invaluable, like you do not have to manually structure or design your webpages every single time. 

They also come with a lot of handy tools and features bundled together that make it very convenient for your maintenance. There are a number of themes you should check and decide upon.

No coding knowledge required

With the simple interface of WordPress beside you, along with countless plugins and themes available for your specific needs, you will need no coding to establish and design your site. You can find themes based on industries, with their own page builders, all of which are easily scalable.

Infinite (almost) number of plugins

As an open-source CMS development tool, with a lot of user-created features, there is almost no shortage of themes and plugins available. Almost every problem or issue you will face will have a plugin that solves it. 

What’s more, if you want to add certain features to your site that are not natively available by the CMS or page builder toolkit, you can install a plugin for that.

Scalability

WordPress websites do not have a limit on how many visitors they can have. You can scale up your business to however large you want. A lot of large global companies with tons of visitors use WordPress for their own sites, and what better endorsement is there? 

All you need to do is pay for your domain and hosting and you are good to go. You can get away with inexpensive hosting packages at the start. Once your business grows, you can get higher-quality hosting for not more than a few extra dollars.

Browser-based

One of the most convenient things about WordPress is that it is entirely browser-based. This means you can access it from any PC or laptop without having to install anything or have

specific minimum configurations for it. Just log in from any convenient device and you are ready to work.

SEO-friendly

WordPress makes it easy for your website to be SEO-friendly. It has built-in features like permalinks, title tags and headlines, alt tags for images, and quick site speeds which help rank higher for search engines. 

Keep in mind that WordPress is ideal for blog posting sites so publishing content, which is one of the best SEO strategies, can be easily done from WordPress.

Plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math are utilized by experts for SEO research that can significantly increase their chances of ranking higher in SERPs.

Some plugins can also automate the process of SEO. It is not advised to use such plug-ins, as the results you get will not be as effective as the work of an SEO expert. But it can help you a bit if you have no SEO knowledge or do not have the funds to hire an expert.

Integration with everything

WordPress seamlessly integrates with outside tools in order to provide a smooth experience for both users and website owners. You can integrate social media, e-commerce platforms, analytic tools, and security tools that are not available as plugins to increase the functionality and effectiveness of your site.  

Friendly and active user community

WordPress has a large and active community of users who are willing to help each other out. If you are having any specific issues, chances are that someone else also had the same issue and got it solved on a public forum. As a result, looking up your problems has a very high chance of just providing you with your solution. 

Even if you do not find your solution right away, there are a lot of groups, public forums, websites, you name it that are always available somewhere on the internet and are more than happy to help you out. 

All you have to do is reach out and ask and you will be provided with a number of ways to deal with your problem.

Not to mention, if you are just starting, tons of user-created resources and guides can help you along the way.

Great for teamwork

With the help of certain plugins, you can install features making WordPress a great way for teams to work on a project together. This will allow you to maintain workflow management, effectively solve problems together, and collaborate in real time.

Drawbacks of WordPress

Despite being widely used, WordPress may not be the best tool for your business website. We mentioned that a lot of big companies use WordPress for their own sites. However, that could be the result of people using it just because they have been using it for a long time. Let us look at some of the drawbacks that you may have to deal with.

Purpose of WordPress

Keep in mind that WordPress is a blogging platform first and foremost. Yes, it can be used for business purposes through various plugins and integrations, but it is not its primary intended use. 

It was never meant to be used as a CMS or anything other than blogging. As a result, there may arise a lot of issues in the long run.

Accumulating costs

WordPress is free to use at the start, but that does not mean it will not cost you. 

You will be relying on a lot of themes and plugins to make your site functional, a lot of which you will have to pay for. You will also need to pay for the domain and hosting. Not to mention the cost of hiring developers to maintain and update your site. 

When all these costs are added up, you will find yourself spending very close to the rates of other fully hosted no coding platforms like Webflow or Squarespace. Considering the ease of use, security, and services those platforms provide, the $10-$15 you may be saving using WordPress will not be worth the extra effort you will have to put into WordPress.

Security issues

Due to a large percentage of the internet using WordPress as their CMS, morally dubious hackers spend a lot of time trying to find gaps in the security of WordPress-based websites. If one or a few gaps are found in one site, there is a high chance they can be applied to other WordPress sites. 

These types of weaknesses also become common knowledge among hackers quickly as they are widely used around the world.

WordPress also requires a lot of upgrading and patching, a lot of which requires to be done manually. If not updated, they can be easily hacked which can harm your business in many ways.

Websites like Webflow and Squarespace provide automatic updates and take care of security making it less of a headache for designers and developers.

Compatibility of plugins

In order to make your website functional, you will be relying on a lot of third-party plugins. While it sounds nice that anyone create a plugin that can solve any one particular issue, keep in mind that these are made with only that issue in mind. 

So, when you install a number of plugins for various reasons, you may find some of them not compatible with each other, causing your site to crash. 

There is very little way for third-party creators to prevent these issues as they cannot foresee what their plugins will be used with. As a result, clashes between plugins are inevitable creating more work for you and wasting your time.

On sites like Squarespace, Shopify, or Webflow, these types of issues rarely happen as most of the features are created and moderated by the organizations and are made sure to be compatible with everything else.

Bugs

When a team works on a project together, there is bound to be some inconsistent pattern of work in there. This can cause a few unexpected bugs that can crash your website. This is very common in big projects where a lot of developers work on a project and rush through it without maintaining any fixed structure.

No customer support

In an open-source platform like WordPress, where you will be using a lot of plugins and integrations, you will be facing various issues. You will need an expert developer to determine the cause and fix it. There is no customer support system available, at least not officially that can help you.

Most other platforms like Shopify or Webflow have a dedicated support system you can contact.

Is WordPress Good for Business Websites?

Considering all the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress, you must understand your own necessities to make a concrete decision. Use WordPress if the following matches your situation.

• If you need a lot of customization
• If you need some specific plugins not found elsewhere
• You have the expertise to fully utilize WordPress
• You really need your site to be open-source

Top WordPress Alternatives

When considering the platform to build your website, it is important to consider all of your options before settling on one. Here are some alternate platforms you should consider that could be better for you.

Webflow

Webflow is currently the popular choice for site building among creators. It is easier to use and requires less coding than WordPress. 

WordPress used to be the go-to platform for easy site building, but excluding some specific features and plugins, Webflow delivers everything else that you might need in a friendlier environment; while also keeping the option for developers to add custom codes with HTML, CSS, and Javascript. 

It does have some things you need to learn and get used to, but it is currently recommended by a lot of designers in the industry, like Mr. Øyvind Østmo of Represent.

Squarespace

Squarespace is one of the simplest and yet most effective site builders out there. It is an all-purpose site builder that can also be used to create a business website. 

It is even easier to use than Webflow, with the downside being that it has even fewer customization options, and the templates available can make you create multiple websites that look the same. 

However, it is the best option for you if a simple and solid website will do just fine for you.

Shopify

Shopify is a solid option to pick especially if you are setting up an eCommerce site. This platform is built specifically for business purposes, so it will offer you features that are more than likely to cater to your needs. 

Right now, 4.8 million online stores are using Shopify because of its built-in marketing and SEO tools. It is also integrated with eCommerce platforms that help you connect with production and shipping companies along with integration with Facebook and Instagram to help you smooth out your business operations. 

Drupal

Drupal is the alternate CMS platform that is similar to WordPress which you can consider. It is more difficult to use than WordPress and has a bit of a learning curve. However, in exchange for simplicity, you get more customizing options than WordPress.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of all the options to help you make a decision.

	WordPress	Webflow	Squarespace	Shopify	Drupal
Ease of use	Moderate	Moderate to advanced	Easy	Easy	Advanced
Learning curve	Difficult	Moderate	Easy	Easy	Advanced
Customization	Very High	High	Low	Moderate	Very high
Available themes	Plenty of options	Quite a few options	Very few options	Few options but can be customized	Plenty of options
Focus of platform	Primarily blogging can be extended to other fields with plugins	All kinds of content	All kinds of websites	E-commerce websites	All kinds of content with plugins
Cost	Free, with varying costs based on plugins, domain, and hosting	Subscription-based payment ($18 per month)	Subscription-based payment ($23 per month)	Subscription-based payment ($25 per month)	Free, with varying costs based on plugins and hosting
Scalability	Scalable, but will need to upgrade hosting plans	Scalable	Limited scalability	High scalability	High scalability
Community support	Very high community support	Growing community	Considerable community support	High community support	High community support
Security	Highly susceptible to hackers, website owners responsible for security with plugins	Webflow handles security on its own	Squarespace handles security on its own	Shopify handles security on its own	Somewhat susceptible to hackers, website owners responsible for security with plugins
Updates and Maintenance	Frequently updates, with manual updates required	Automatic updates	Automatic updates	Automatic updates	Frequently updates, with manual updates required

Wrapping it up

With a lot of options available nowadays, it can be a drag to research every option there is to find the best option for you. We hope this article gave you all you need to know about WordPress and what other alternative options you have. By learning about all the relevant site builders, you should be able to pick the platform for your business website. 

We at GetWeb can help guide you through the selection of a platform or even build your business website for you. Do not hesitate to contact us and our team of experts can help you through your specific needs.

FAQs

Q. Is WordPress outdated?

Ans: WordPress is definitely not outdated and with the number of people still using it, it is not going away anytime soon. There has been an introduction of simpler and secure platforms compared to WordPress which is why it has stopped becoming the go-to platform for most developers.

Q. Which is the best CMS platform for my business?

Ans: There is no one true answer to this question. Many factors go into this decision, some of which are your own goals and visions for your site. There are also matters of ease of use, available resources, and whatnot. Determine your needs and try to find out which platforms will satisfy all your needs.