What Could Be Better than WordPress?

Mark has been writing an excellent series of blog posts “Why WordPress Is A Great Website Platform For You!” but now I’m going to tell you why WordPress may NOT be a great website platform for you and what we’re doing about it.

Ask Mark has accurately pointed out, WordPress has its advantages. Its well supported, free, updated on a regular basis, easy to use, and it has some very useful features.

Now let me tell you about some of WordPress’s shortcomings

1) Getting a good theme

Once you have installed WordPress, the next step is to find a theme (aka template) that is going to make your website look the way you want it to look. You could easily spend hours looking for a theme that’s a good fit or you could pay someone $1,000- $3,000 to create a custom theme for you.

Once you’ve found a good theme, you’ll want to research the reputation of the theme developer. Have the themes they’ve created had security issues? Do they quickly fix bugs when they’re discovered? You’ll also want to test it on phones and tablets to make sure it’s responsive and mobile friendly.

If all this seems like a lot of work, maybe creating your own WordPress site isn’t your best option.

2) Getting good plugins

Plugins provide all the extra functionality in your website. There are plugins for calendars, newsletters, shopping carts, contact forms, photo galleries, social media, filtering out spammy comments and more. A typical WordPress website has 10-30 plugins.

After you install WordPress and have found the right attractive, secure, well-supported, mobile-friendly theme for your website, you’ll need to find all the plugins to provide all the functionality you want in your website. Researching plugins is a lot like researching themes. For each one, you’ll want to find out… is the developer reputable? Does he/she fix bugs quickly? Are there any security issues with the plugin? Is it mobile friendly?

If all this seems like a lot of work, maybe creating your own WordPress site isn’t your best option.

3) Dealing with ongoing issues

Once you’ve got your theme and all your plugins, you can enter all your content and launch your site. Woohoo!

But down the road there are potential hazards:

• Updates are issued for themes and plugins. The updates need to be implemented in a timely manner.
• Bugs are discovered in plugins. They need to be reported to the plugin developer and hopefully fixed.
• Security flaws are discovered in plugins and themes. Sometimes the theme and plugin developers will issue updates quickly. Sometimes your site gets hacked, you have to remove malware from your site, restore it from backup, and then hope the theme or plguin developer fixes security issue quickly.
• Plugins are abandoned. Many plugins are created by a single developer. What happens when they no longer want to support their plugin? Usually you have to replace it with another plugin.

If all this seems like a lot of work, maybe creating your own WordPress site isn’t your best option.

But what if someone created a website builder that included all of the benefits of WordPress, but also took care of all of its short-comings?

What if this website builder…

• Included pre-selected themes that were already vetted and found to be secure, well-supported, and mobile friendly?
• Included pre-selected plugins that were already vetted and found to be secure, well-supported, and mobile friendly?
• Automatically updated themes and plugins whenever there was a new version available?
• Was supported by a team of experienced web professionals who quickly addressed any security issues and replaced plugins that become abandoned?

That’s what we’re working on here at OurChurch.Com.

It’s called WP-EZ… WordPress made easy

Simple can be harder than complex… But it’s worth it in the end. -Steve Jobs

If you missed last week’s post… we still need your input on our new web builder

Post a comment and let us know what it would mean to you to have all the benefits of WordPress but not have to deal with all the theme and plugin issues?

Paul Steinbrueck

Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com

Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.

An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.

Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.