Today’s post is devoted to the description of the WordPress content management system and ends the thread about launching a website dedicated to training courses or organizing conferences. As a reminder – in the previous post we described the Joomla system.
WordPress is the undisputed leader among the most used content management systems in the world (source: https://websitesetup.org/popular-cms/) with a market share of 59.9%. The application is dynamically developed by the programming community. The number of available extras, or system functionality extensions, is huge. The system installation itself is very simple and requires no knowledge of any programming languages.
Strengths
WordPress is very easy to use and offers a lot of possibilities to customize the website to your needs. It should be noted that the built-in editor allows you to make changes to the source code of the template, but doesn’t give you as much control as in the case of the competitive Joomla system. You must also remember that if you update the template, all the changes you’ve made would be removed. In this field, Joomla is doing better.
The CMS described here is an ideal system for companies and institutions whose training offer doesn’t require an extensive website with many tabs and extensive navigation. Of course, you can create an extensive menu, but usually, you are limited to the menu in the header or footer. The creation of additional side menu requires the installation of add-ons. The basic menu allows you to link to pages, posts, your own links or categories. Simply put, if you don’t need complicated solutions, WordPress will manage all you need. If you intend to launch a website for the purpose of organizing conferences, fairs or symposiums, then you don’t have to consider any other systems.
The system can be easily expanded with free extensions, thanks to which you can automatically back up your site. Files can be transferred to your server or a data cloud. It is a very convenient solution that ensures the security of your data.
The great popularity of WordPress is associated with the huge availability of various extensions of system functionality. The database of available templates contains thousands of items. The same applies to various additions, including optimizing the website for SEO. The choice is large and thanks to the use of several different solutions, your website can run really fast. This is of great importance for the positioning of the website in search engines.
Weaknesses
WordPress standard supports multi-linguality of the website (or many websites), but its activation requires little interference in the code of configuration files. To enable this mode you need access (login and password) to the source files uploaded to your server and the program supporting the FTP connection, for example, Filezilla. It’s a good idea to run the multisite mode in advance, that is before you start adding content to your site. This will help avoid unexpected complications that may arise. Many versions are built by default on the same domain, without subdomains. You can see for yourself that turning on this mode is not easy. In our eyes, it is the biggest “minus” of WordPress.
Media management in WordPress is also simplified compared to Joomla. Files can be easily uploaded to the system – just drag & drop the file on the screen – but you can’t organize them in any way. Admittedly, there are system extensions that give you the ability to manage media, but in the standard you get a “one” directory for all files.
Summary
WordPress supporters may oppose, but from our perspective it is a system designed for simple websites. Yes, it can be expanded with available accessories, but these are solutions of “third” party, and therefore exposed to errors.
The popularity of the system is its weakness in the sense that it is exposed to constant attacks by hackers. Hundreds of bots are circulating on the network trying to get to the source files of the system. Appropriate security for access to the admin panel and regular system upgrade is therefore essential.
The system can be recommended for companies and organizations whose training offer does not require a complicated presentation. Also, it would be preferred choice for creating a site for a single event.