When newbies such as yourself decide to build their blog, you must exercise due diligence by researching for the best blogging platforms to use. After deliberation, it won't come to a surprise if you lean toward using WordPress.
The sheer fact that Basic Blog Tips also runs on WordPress is an indication of how good of a platform WordPress is!
Not to mention, there are 76 million websites running on WordPress. Therefore, the platform must be the best choice to build your blog on!
However, it's possible that you're not comfortable using WordPress. Even after testing the platform countless of times, somehow you're not convinced that WordPress is for despite what about people say.
There really is no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing a blogging platform. At the very least, however, you need to make sure that you'll be using the best blogging platform, whether it's WordPress or not.
In this post, you will learn the pros and cons of WordPress to help you come up with an informed decision before moving forward with your blogging journey.
Pros: it’s flexible
Before discussing this section, we need to make a distinction between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress. With WordPress.com, you need to sign up for a free account and create a blog from the site. The problem here is that it will create a subdomain for your blog (i.e. sampleblog.wordpress.com). Therefore, you cannot professionally brand it with a top level domain unless you pony up cash for a monthly subscription. Aside from the branded domain, you get better storage and remove the ads from your blog.
The self-hosted WordPress CMS can be downloaded from the site for free. It’s an open source project and is being maintained by volunteers from different parts of the world who constantly make it better. While the actual platform is free, you need to buy yourself a domain and hosting from a third party provider to install WordPress.
While it seems like both versions of WordPress similar, the self-hosted one offers more flexibility and customization options. You can download plugins to help supercharge your blog (more on this later). You can edit the design and layout at will although CSS experience is required. Later on,, you can transform your blog into a professional site or an online shop with little or no hassle at all!
Cons: Difficult to set up
Pros: Extensive support
First off, you can take control of your whole site even with basic knowledge. WordPress is beginner friendly and allows you to create your posts in a few clicks. It has enabled thousands of businesses to build and grow their brand without having to consult a web developer every step of the way.
However, you may want to take your WordPress blog to a whole new level but don't know where to begin. Therefore, its Support section on the site offers more than enough resources to teach you the inner workings of WordPress. You can ask questions about plugins, themes, and other roadblocks that are preventing you from creating a better blog.
Cons: Security
Even with having a bunch of tools to counter these online attackers, WordPress can still fall victim to one of their tricks. According to Sucuri, over 78% of the sites they work on are using WordPress. Being the most popular platform, hackers and their bots try to find their way into WordPress sites by exploiting software vulnerabilities in plugins and themes. Make sure you only download these plugins from reputable developers because one single hole from their codes could expose your site to these attacks.
Fortunately, you can squash security risks by downloading and activating security tools on your blog. Speaking of which…
Pros: Plugins
There are thousands of plugins in the WordPress market. One quick search would give you enough choices to see which one works best for you. Plugins are what make WordPress functional. For example, some plugins can automatically share your blogs on social media, a Google map of your business location, and others.
To help you get started, below are posts of the most recommended plugins for you to use according to their purpose:
- Building an email list – 5 WordPress Plugins to Grow your Email List
- Optimizing your blog content for organic search – 9 Best WordPress SEO Plugins and Tools That You Should Use
- Increasing your social media shares – 13 Best WordPress Social Media Plugins for Sharing and Engagement
- Linking your content to related posts – 9 Of The Best Related Post Plugins For Keeping Your Readers Engaged
- Boosting your blog's loading speed – 7 Essential WordPress Plugins for a Faster Site
Cons: Plugins
As mentioned, plugins are great and make a WordPress site powerful. But, with thousands of plugins available for use, a lot of them can slow down or even break your website. For instance, the Jetpack plugin has lots of features. However, it comes at a cost of slowing down your site due to the features it offers. Again, this statement is not to discourage you from using Jetpack as your plugin if you find value in it. You need to understand, however, that every plugin carries risks as well.
Aside from the threat of breaking or slowing down your blog, the plugins make your blog vulnerable to attacks. If they're built by a developer who's not experienced enough or if it hasn't been updated for months, then you might want to consider finding any alternatives to these. Plugins that lack the care and maintenance from its developers are plugins not worth downloading.
Constant software upgrades
Because so many people use WordPress, it's continually receiving improvements from its community. Updates can mean a good thing. But, as always, a coin has two sides. While the “core” of WordPress is close to unbreakable, when you use a theme or have plugins that are unfit for these new upgrades, you may be at risk of breaking your website. That’s why having a backup always helps.
Conclusion
WordPress is an excellent platform to build your blog on. However, it's far from being a flawless one. For every advantage WordPress has to offer, there is also a disadvantage that makes bloggers think twice about using it.
However, the only way to find out if WordPress is right for you is if you try it. Sign up for a WordPress.com account, which will give you a general idea of how the platform works. If possible, you can ask access from someone who owns a blog that runs on WordPress and test drive its features. Opinions of others about WordPress can only provide you with other information. It's always better to get your hands on WordPress and form an opinion based on your experience with it.
If you've tried it and are unhappy about it, then WordPress isn't for you. The good thing is, there are more blogging platforms out there that may fit you even better than WordPress. Just to mention a few, there’s Medium, Wix, and Squarespace to get you started.
Don't be discouraged if people say that you're missing out by not using WordPress as your blogging platform. What's important is choosing a platform that you're comfortable with. If the platform doesn't have the features that WordPress offers but feels right using it, then it's the right one for you.
What do you think? Will you be trying out WordPress or are you thinking of using other platforms?