Why WordPress sometimes gets a bad name

WordPress is one of the most popular ways to create a website. From various quarters, you can often hear various arguments that make it out to be a bad system. But what are those arguments? And what do we think about them? Read on for all the answers.

WordPress is easy to use and allows many people to create a website without too much hassle. However, there is often more involved in making a WordPress website actually fast, stable and good. Here are all the counter points made against WordPress.

WordPress is Popular

Being popular is a curse that many have. The same discussions exist in Windows vs Mac vs Linux, gaming, Stihl vs Husqvarna and every other fan base imaginable. There are always people in different camps who think their way of doing things is the best way. WordPress is a popular way to create a website and makes it accessible to many people. For example, a large proportion of all websites in the Netherlands are made with WordPress as their Content Management System. And the same is true across much of the world.

This means that it is easy to use this argument as a reason why you should not use WordPress. Purely because it is popular.

WordPress is too easy

With a little homework you can already create a WordPress website and put it live without much trouble, for example in an SSD hosting package from MijnHostingPartner.nl! At MijnHostingPartner.nl this is extra easy because besides a 1 click installation we also offer the necessary guides in the knowledge base to get you started quickly. How to publish your first post, how to view your database, setting your preferred URL. You name it and we'll have an article on it. And if not, you can always request us to make an article for you. We do this with all love, not only to help you further, but also for future questions. This way we improve our services and you can get on with your WordPress site. In the right way.

Because it is easy to create a website with WordPress, people without technical knowledge often think they can label themselves as website builders. However, this can fall into the wrong category with the technical people who knock and can understand the code of the website itself. In fact, you don't build that much in WordPress, even with a theme builder like DIVI or Elementor.

After all, the code is already written. In fact, what you often see with people who have a WordPress website created by an agency or freelancer, is that the website is cobbled together with theme builders. As a result, the underlying code is inefficient, bloated and not compliant with most standards. In other words, spaghetti code. That is the biggest reason why we often advise against using them. And you should ask yourself twice whether you want to do business with that one agency.

WordPress is unsafe

WordPress is unsafe is also often given as a reason to stay away from it. However, WordPress itself is not that unsafe in our eyes. Updates are in 99% of cases what cause security problems with a WordPress website. And the last percent are bad passwords and other failures of basic security.

Keep the number of plugins minimal, use a reliable theme with good reviews, and keep the website up to date. And you'll have a website with little or no problems. Always keep a good backup strategy though. Because updates can also cause problems. We have covered this topic in many previous blog posts. See for example an article on Securing WordPress here.

Plugins as a solution

Using plugins not as an addition to a website, but as a solution can also be used as a counter argument. And this is the best argument that can be given. There is no reason why, for example, SMTP authentication has not been added to the WordPress Core. This is also an item that we at MijnHostingPartner.nl require to be used when sending mail from the website. SMTP authentication has been the standard for a number of years now and has been implemented in many other Content Management Systems. It provides better security on the mail.

In WordPress you still need to install a third party plugin for this before you can use it on your website. And you see this more often with components that you need a.

Create a contact form? Plugin.
Add Google Analytics? Plugin.
Display nice image in a gallery? Plugin.
Add nice table of contents at the start of an article? Plugin.

This falls back to the "WordPress is easy" section as for new users it is just a matter of installing and using it. The big disadvantage is that you install more and more plugins that make your website slow, unsafe and unstable with every update. Does one plugin work with the other? You will encounter this question every update round.

Many parts for which users normally install a plugin can easily be circumvented with some basic knowledge of HTML. For example, with 2 minutes work you can have a nice table of contents. Our advice is always to ask yourself twice if you need a plugin for that task. Before you install it.

Badly coded themes and plugins

As previously covered in this article, poorly coded themes and plugins can cause many flaws on your website. From plummeting the speed of your website, to security. A good WordPress user does their homework on the plugins and theme you use. This is what makes or breaks your WordPress website.

So find out who the creators of a theme or plugin are. Which company is behind it and if they are reliable. Is it updated regularly? Plus minus, once a month. And what do the reviews say? All these questions and homework you need to do for every component you put more on your website. Some good themes that have a rock-solid reputation are GeneratePress and Astra.

Support for older PHP versions

WordPress also supports more PHP versions than usual. They do this to be able to run on older systems as well. However, this is not always a positive item. Why would you want to support PHP 5.6, which has been declared end-of-life for two years now? There are a lot of WordPress websites running on older servers, so they can't just move away from it without getting angry WordPress users.

This is however a target group that you, as a customer of MijnHostingPartner.nl, do not have to join. On all our servers we regularly perform PHP version updates that you can easily select in your control panel. Always use the latest stable version for running your WordPress website. This way you will be able to run it without any problems.

We hope you found this article interesting to read, and we would like to ask you the question if you use WordPress for running your website. And whether you do so with the same guidelines we state above. We would love to hear from you!