18 years helping Canadian businesses
choose better software
WordPress
What Is WordPress?
Open source software that is free to use for creating blogs and websites.
Who Uses WordPress?
Anyone creating or requiring a modern web presence.
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Reviews of WordPress
wordpress review
Comments: it has been the best when especially customizing websites to clients and my website
Pros:
The website is user-friendly, it is easy to customize some of the templates and themes, and it's SEO capability is top-notch. Also, it is better when someone starts an online store and it has more capability to even be free.
Cons:
Some of the themes I have been installing are slow, and some do not support the needs I have, especially when I install the themes, and they start to be hard to customize. Also, there is no learning community like an online course and gaining a certificate to showcase to clients
Alternatives Considered:
Good, but could be better
Comments: I enjoyed using Wordpress, but I made the choice to leave to platform for another platform that met my needs better.
Pros:
Wordpress is a great platform for small business owners to create a functional website on.
Cons:
There is quite a learning curve when it comes to creating a Wordpress website without Wordpress preset themes. If you want an easy process, you have to buy their themes or have a website developer on call. If you are interested in making your own website and do not like the Wordpress themes, then I would find a different platform. The costs of maintaining a developer made website on Wordpress led me to switch platforms.
Wordpress is high maintenance.
Comments: After building my original website, I discovered I had been hacked by ransom ware. I did not realize that because I was locked out of my site, I had to rebuild my site, it was only then that I found the email asking for 30K to get my site back.
Pros:
The fact I could use it for free to build a website.
Cons:
No one warned me to never put plugins on auto update. The platform requires high maintenance.
Alternatives Considered:
A Versatile and User-Friendly DIY Website Builder
Comments: Overall, WordPress is a powerful tool for DIY website building. There is a bit of a learning curve initially, but once you get the hang of it, the platform is very user-friendly and doesn’t require any technical expertise. It’s hard to complain too much, especially considering it’s a free resource that empowers anyone to create a professional-looking website. Whether you’re a hobbyist or a business owner, WordPress is a fantastic option.
Pros:
One of the standout features of WordPress is the vast array of free and paid plugins available. These tools can significantly enhance your website's functionality, allowing you to customize it to meet your specific needs. The support community is another great asset; there are countless resources and forums where you can find help and inspiration.
Cons:
That said, navigating the support community can sometimes be a challenge. With so much information available, it can feel overwhelming to find the right solution to your problem. Additionally, while WordPress is free, certain themes and plugins can come with costs that add up if you’re not careful.
My Take on Wordpress
Comments: I have a few and I like using wordpress for my blog content. I like the functionality
Pros:
The functionality and Easy to use. Newbie friendly
Cons:
The need for Plug in application and most of them are paid
Alternatives Considered:
Excellent website engine.
Comments: Create and manage our websites using Wordpress. Excellent product.
Pros:
Takes some time to learn the user interface. However, it is full-featured and once templates are set, easy to manage and maintain.
Cons:
Takes some time to learn the user interface.
Need more Security fonctions
Comments: Pretty easy to learn, lots of stuff online to help you. But they get you with all the add-ons you gotta pay for
Pros:
Easy to use, lots of tutorials online. Good for beginners
Cons:
Too many things you gotta pay extra for. Gets expensive if you want to do a lot with it
Easy to Use Blogging Solution
Comments: I had a great experience with Wordpress. It was easy to use and share with friends.
Pros:
I really liked how easy it was to blog compared to other similar sites I've used in the past.
Cons:
I really wish there was a better way to download your product when you're done if you'd like to keep it for yourself. I did find a way to print it using a third party which was nice. I believe this option has been added since I last needed it.
Alternatives Considered:
Decent but complicated
Comments: Overall, my experience with WordPress has been positive, however it is not my first choice when it comes to selecting a website hosting platform
Pros:
Variety of different options when it comes to templates, design, and metadata collection
Cons:
Complexity of the system is a steep learning curve for new users and/or business managers with little experience with technology
Alternatives Considered:
Amazing flexibility and power for a price
Comments: WordPress is great for those with some technical savvy, but there is a learning curve.
Pros:
The absolute flexibility in tools, plugins, and therefore designs and capabilities afforded by the platform.
Cons:
That sheer flexibility has a cost. There are many moving parts. WordPress can be amazing in the hands of someone who is patient, has some technical aptitude, and willing to learn how to navigate the platform. Otherwise, for many business owners busy with running their business, WP requires quite a bit of knowledge, e.g., being careful of core updates breaking plug ins, or plug in updates not working with their WP install. Then there's backups, security, CDNs, image optimisation, caching, choosing a suitable host for their install, etc.
Alternatives Considered:
Wordpress is Customizable to a Fault
Comments: WordPress is powerful and flexible but can feel bloated and overwhelming at times. While great for customization, I’ve been exploring simpler alternatives like Ghost or microblog platforms.
Pros:
It’s easy to set up and highly customizable, making it great for both personal and professional projects.
Cons:
It’s resource-heavy, with an overwhelming number of plugins and extensions that can be distracting. Some complex theming plugins add unnecessary frustration.
Alternatives Considered:
Most customizable website building platform there is!
Comments: Overall WordPress is worth exploring if you want a super custom website and are willing to put in the time to learn the platform.
Pros:
What I like most about using WordPress for my website is that it gives infinite possibilities for customization.
Cons:
What I like least about WordPress is that there is a pretty big learning curve when you don't know anything about building a website yet. It could possibly be one of the least intuitive software out there.
My Experience with WordPress
Comments: My overall experience with WordPress is great. I have 3 blog active sites with them currently.
Pros:
I like how easy it is to use, once you understand the platform. I started using WordPress in 2014 when I switched from Wix initially. I now use both platforms for different purposes.
Cons:
It can be frustrating and somewhat overwhelming for someone who is new to the platform.
Fast and Free - Mostly
Comments: Very fast to get a site up and running. Most hosting providers offer it as an app that will be ready to use in less than 10 minutes.
Pros:
Very easy to deploy and configure. Thousands of themes and plugins available. Wide ranging support.
Cons:
Some plugins are suspect and/or not actively supported, so you have to be picky.
Alternatives Considered:
The Most Customization Options for Your Website
Comments: Super flexible. Tons of themes to download that can suit your needs. A huge plugin library. Everything you could need and more without being restricted to base templates with no customizations.
Pros:
WordPress gives me the most freedom out of every other website builder I have tried. There are so many ways you can make your website your own and there is so much documentation if you need support.
Cons:
A knowledge of some coding is hugely helpful with WordPress. Not necessarily required, but sometimes there is some WordPress troubleshooting that can be solved easier when you know the code in the background.
Alternatives Considered:
Excellent tool to help build your website
Comments: Overall, we had a fairly easy time to build the website we envisioned. If we had a wish, we would really want an integrated translation feature (only the set-up, we can manage the translation itself).
Pros:
WordPress makes it fairly easy to build your website according to your own wishes.
Cons:
WordPress is sometimes too quick to implement new developments - old beloved features (such as automatic blocks) are then hard to find.
Alternatives Considered:
Good for enthusiastic newbies
Comments: I have been using it to maintain my website for three years now. I feel that I would need to learn a lot more to make more progress with the building of it, as for now I'm still looking very basic! Sometimes I wonder if build-in support could be more comprehensive.
Pros:
It is reminiscent of old-style blogging and is fairly intuitive for building and maintaining a website. The tools are accessible and there is lots of support online if finding things hard. The layout is mostly clean and the site is generally responsive.
Cons:
Sometimes there is jargon that could be offputting to someone starting out, and the purpose of some tools is not always immediately clear.
Alternatives Considered:
Wordpress makes web design simple
Comments: Great from the start. We’ve had no issues we haven’t been able to quickly fix.
Pros:
Our entire team can be a part of our web presence.
Cons:
Occasionally there is an issue with updates that require a webmaster to fix.
My favorite blogging/writing platform
Comments: I have been using WordPress for almost four years now both for websites that I have worked for in the past and for my website and I have loved everything about it since day one. It is so easy to use and there's so many different options that you can choose from to customize everything just the way you want it.
Pros:
WordPress is so easy to use, even for beginners. I love all of the different customization options that are provided for designing your website along with all of the different blocks to choose from when writing on WordPress and another thing I love about using WordPress is the ability to schedule posts which comes in handy for articles that are written in the middle of the night, I can schedule them for the next morning when more people will see them.
Cons:
I can't really think of any cons with WordPress off the top of my head.
Despite a few limitations WordPress is Brilliant!
Comments: Overall WordPress has been easy to use and update, with easy and secure access enabled for our member contributors around the world. However, we may have stretched use of WordPress to its limit.
Pros:
WordPress has been an excellent tool for us as we build our website platform for an international online community.
Cons:
We are heavy users of plugins and the plugins (now counting over 50 in our website structure and functionality) have made the website very heavy and slow to load. This has penalized us on Google and is a disadvantage.
Long time Wordpress User
Comments: I have used Wordpress for over 10 years. It has facilitated me building over 150 websites over the years and had got better and better over the years. With the right theme and plugins the options are endless.
Pros:
There are plugins for almost everything, the best ones are paid ones but sometimes you can find a free one that does the job. The fact that it is largely open source means that it moves with the community using it and gets upgraded and checked more than most. Once you know how to use it it is fully customiseable, the options are endless and its easy to deploy and give your users access to it with some training.
Cons:
The back end interface can be tricky to teach others how to use. Sometimes solutions that you'd think would be buyilt into the core arent and you have to find a plugin to do it. free plugins arent always as secure as they could be and support can be dropped so i always end up going with Paid options from bigger companies.
Multiple site owners' heaven
Comments: Once i got the hang of it, the pricing is ideal, especially for designing and hosting multiple sites, the sites I make are 100% custom to fit the needs Im trying to satisfy, and security options are endless. I love it
Pros:
I like that its open source and allows dor endless customizations, if you dream it you can host it
Cons:
Wordpress isnt newbie friendly, amd should be something you really dedicate yourself to, because you have to learn your way around the software/systems
Create a homepage not unique but not bad
Comments: Great idea to build a website. A little bit of study can make you a web designer. Surely, you first should know the concepts such as website, web hosting, domain, server, php, ftp ... etc.
Pros:
So many ready to use templates to create a website.
Cons:
Sometimes, too many restrictions to customize the website using a template or too simple.
Probably the best CMS solution in the market.
Comments: My overall experience with Wordpress as a professional web developer is great. It allows me to create custom templates easily and give me clients a solid CMS to manage their content. It's not very easy to learn how to create custom themes and plugins but once you do, the possibilities are endless.
Pros:
In general, it's a great CMS system. What I like the most about Wordpress its huge collection of plugins and how easy it is to customize the templates.
Cons:
Unfortunately, sometimes its performance is not so good but with some technical skills you can improve it a lot.
Wordpress the best CMS
Comments:
I like Wordpress, the interface (all menus on the left and the working area in the rest of the screen), there are many sections, some created by plugins. I mostly work with page section after I set the plugins I need.
Updates are frequent. You can have a preview in real time of your webpage (on desktop and mobile devices), speaking about tablet and smartphone I suggest to have a look from those devices instead of wordpress preview.
Wordpress is perfect for personal and business websites, many features of templates and plugin are free.
A really good CMS i recommend.
Pros:
Wordpress is a free CMS that allows you to create many kind of websites. It has a lot of templates and plugin (both free or "premium") and you can build your website in many ways. I usually prefer using Elementor plugin. Setup is easy, you will need an already configured database to be linked to Wordpress. Even newbies can start producing websites, the learning curve is about one week or less. There is a lot of documentation on internet in case of need.
Cons:
Too many advertisement and reminders in every section, I always have to close them because the fill the entire page. The mobile preview may not reflect what you will really see on your tablet/smartphone
