Speak to different web designers or developers and you will see that they will all recommend you different ways to build your website. Some may recommend Wix, Joomla or if you are into eCommerce type websites, Shopify or perhaps, Magento. Yet, each time we are asked about our preferred content management system (CMS), our answer is always WordPress. Here’s why…
Largest Market Share
When it comes to CMS market share, WordPress is hands down the market leader. As at 1 Dec 2020, it holds a commanding 63.1% share of market, with number 2 player, Shopify way off at just 5.1%. It has therefore got a very large user base, which in turn translates to a super large and lucrative captive market, web developers the world over cannot afford to ignore. As such, WordPress users can easily find all kinds of plugins they need, both free and paid; they will not need to fork out an arm or a leg, just to get one custom coded for them. Whether you need a contact form for your website, shopping cart features, payment gateway solutions etc, you can easily find both a free solution or a cheap paid alternative.
Used By Microsoft and Facebook
Microsoft and Facebook currently rank among the Top 5 companies in the world, in term of market capitalisation. And both these companies have websites build on WordPress, namely the Microsoft News Centre and Facebook Newsroom websites. These 2 giants aside, a number of other fortune 500 companies as well as top universities have also made WordPress their CMS of choice.
The Open Source Nature Of WordPress
While we do not have privy to the reasons why these big companies and top universities chose WordPress as their CMS of choice, one possible reason is the open source nature of WordPress which gives them more control over their website. The WordPress licence reads,
“The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software–to make sure the software is free for all its users…”
and
“We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.”
Simply compare the above terms with that of many proprietary platforms which typically say that the platform owner reserves the right to modify the terms or terminate your account, for any reason and at anytime, with or without prior notice.
Future Continuity
More importantly, because WordPress is open source, users are given the source code. This is important because even if the WordPress foundation were to become insolvent anytime in future, any php developer will be able to continue maintaining your website for you.
If you are a proprietary platform user instead, you will not have access to the source codes. If the platform were to go bust, chances are, your website will go down with it. Imagine if you are running a very profitable website and that your web business is your only source of income. Imagine too, waking up the next morning to news that the platform you are on has shut down and with it, your precious website. That’s a risk we personally will not take and that’s why every website we own, we build it on WordPress.
Easily Customisable
WordPress is easily customisable. Because the source codes are open to all, anyone with good knowledge of PHP can easily write custom functions or develop plugins to easily extend the functions and features of WordPress, beyond what is available out of the box.
It is thus reasonably easy to tweak your WordPress website to suit the needs of your organisation.
Free Updates and Security Patches
Some web developers will encourage you to invest in your own platform. If you go along with their suggestion, the Website is likely to cost you a lot more but cost aside, who is to ensure that the platform they build is secure? And if security patches are needed if future, who is going to develop those patches for you?
In addition to WordPress being free to download and use, the software is being actively maintained and updated. Whenever a new vulnerability is found, a new version will be made available to patch the discovered vulnerability. And these updates and security patches are provided free of charge.
Final Thoughts
There will be those who will tell you that WordPress is not secure. There will be those who will cite you statistics of the number of hacked WordPress sites to further proof their point. The question you should be asking is, “if WordPress is not secure, why are some of the largest companies in the world using it?”
And if your WordPress website is hacked, you should be questioning why yours is hacked but not the WordPress sites belonging to the big companies. Very often, it is down your own security practices. The password you use, the theme or plugin you use (yes, a poorly coded theme or plugin can compromise your website) etc.
It is generally believed by the web development world that WordPress is safe. And together with all the other advantages listed above, we see no reason why WordPress should not be your CMS of choice too. At Biz Edge, we know for sure that we love WordPress.
The single biggest advantage of WordPress it s the ease of use, for you as well as us. It’s easy to learn, quick to use, and just makes sense. For us, it’s flexible, scalable, reliable, and we love that it can be finely tuned, tinkered with and we can model it around our own business objectives and requirements.
Agree with you Harold. Which also helps explain why WordPress is currently the number 1 ranking CMS, in terms of market share.