Can you achieve great things with WordPress ?
The main argument that all take into when deciding if to go with a CMS or to build something from scratch is the software limitations and scalability. It is true, but the main argument to chose a CMS instead of building everything from scratch is the huge amount of time that we save using the software.
This is applied not only to CMS but to any other kind of websites. The truth is that everything can be customized and configured, but some software’s make this very very hard so at the end time saved to use a CMS can be lost when trying to customize it. This is not the case for wordpress. WordPress is simple so you can build whatever you want on it with less effort. But, more important, the community of plugin developers around wordpress is so great that you can find almost everything. So if someday you wake up an you get a great idea to do with your wordpress website do a quick search on plugins directory, there are 99% chances that it is already created and you save a lot of time.
Can you achieve great things with wordpress ?
Last week i wanted to add a membership functionality to one of my websites. Visitors pay a monthly fee have access to some advanced tools. I started to think how can i do this, i started to plan create the paypal payment gateway, membership handling prices, etc. I knew that these plugins exists but some of them with high prices. I wanted something simple, payments to be made and then they have access. Right before i began to work i have done a quick search on wordpress plugin directory. I’ve found s2member which actually was able to do all i was looking for and much more.
It was simple to install, all customizations provided, everything. My conclusion: You can really achieve great things with wordpress.
What about the time ? I saved about 20 hours of work on the new functionality that would have probably have bugs and it could have been considered trash compared to this plugin where creators spent hundred of hours thinking how to provide the best free plugin to manage the membership functionality on wordpress websites.
This is the power of community and this is why wordpress is prefered by most and it is really helping the web development. You can now run any kind of website you want with minimal effort.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission
May 30th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
I totally agree. Using WordPress saves a hell of a lot of time as there are so many good plugins out there. WordPress as a CMS is great! And it just keeps getting better and better!
May 30th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
I think WordPress has incredible as a CMS platform. I am currently getting ready to set up a couple of template design sites and was delighted to find out that all the things I want to do are easily achieved with WordPress pages, plugins and customized templates.
It’s going to be much easier than building a site from scratch and much less time consuming!
May 30th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Thank you for comments. Before using wordpress i used to use normal templates and the time consumed to duplicate it for every page on my site, and when i wanted to change something i had to go trough so many files.
With wordpress you can really achieve great things 🙂
May 31st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
WordPress is my favorite CMS. Although it’s designed for blogging, but it can do many things else. I like it and use it in almost all my project. In the future, WP maybe the #1 CMS 🙂
November 7th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
WordPress is one of the best CMS scripts out there. I’ve been using it for about a year now, and have been developing plugins for it, for about 6 months, and love how easy it is to make it so versatile
December 3rd, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Yes, versatility is one of the best wordpress features, you can do both simple things and complex things saving many hours of work.
March 28th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
[…] When you install wordpress you get the same basic features. But there are a lot of tools that you can use to make greater things. These features are the ones that empower a framwork. So, today, WordPress is both a platform and a framework. It is a platform because you can install it and run your blog or website instantly and later build up on what you already have. It is a framework too because you have a lot of tools available that will help you to achieve greater things. […]