DESIGNSOLS

WordPress is the most famous free blog management system which is now also being widely used to create full-fledged websites. Every 5th website in USA is using WordPress. If you are also planning to use it for your personal website or blog then it is a good decision but if you want to use it for a professional or business website then you should think again.
Please read below to further see what are the benefits and drawbacks of WordPress. Website Security: Imagine that your clients visit your website only to find out that it is hacked. What kind of impression will it put on your clients? Your business cannot afford such situations. Therefore, website security is the first and the most important factor which should be considered in making a choice between WordPress or Custom coded website. First of all, being an open source project, entire code of WordPress is available to everyone including the hackers. It is just like the map of a house is available to the thieves, no matter how secure your house is, a thief, if dedicated enough, will definitely find some way to break in. While a house which is unknown to thieves will still prove to be a challenge for them no matter how insecure it is.
Before you argue that security patches are being sent every once in a while, who is responsible for the security breaches in between? If you are a website security expert, you probably already know that hackers keep updated lists of WordPress sites and whenever a security breach is found, they just run an AI robot to test that specific security breach on all the WordPress websites in their list; Later they hack all those websites that are found vulnerable. It is as simple as that. Secondly, even if we assume that WordPress core is perfectly secure, still the third-party plug-ins and themes layer is another weakness in security. The more plug-ins you use, the more chances there will be for a security breach.
Thirdly, in WordPress, almost everything is database driven which gives hackers some certain doorways to try their injection codes. In case of a successful injection, your entire WordPress website will be at the mercy of the hacker. From your most important page to the least important one, everything will be compromised. While in custom coded websites, it is possible to adopt several techniques which make the website almost impossible to be hacked. For instance, we can make the website a mixture of static and dynamic (database driven) contents. Now unless there is no inside breach (like ftp or server level passwords), there is no way for a hacker to find out that the page he is targeting is database driven or static. Even in the worst case, say if the hacker has injected some code inside your database, all your static pages will still function properly as they are not database driven. So, if you have some really important pages, you can keep then static. Also, there is no point in making such webpages database driven which will not change too often.
Winner of “Website Security” Section: Custom coded website for sure. Website Speed: Originally content management systems are used to manage only those webpages which require frequent content updates. Any webpage that doesn’t not change over a long time is not a very good candidate to be database driven. Technically, database driven pages are a bit slower than static pages due to php parser, communication between webserver and database server and the subsequent query processing delay by database server.
While developing a website from scratch, we take above facts into account and design the website accordingly which makes the website much faster.
On the other hand, in WordPress, all the pages are database driven, on the top of that, all the plug-ins and even some themes require frequent database connectivity which results in a slow and sluggish website.
Secondly, WordPress is a general-purpose CMS which means it has many features added to it that you do not need. Also, some code is present to maintain its compatibility with plug-ins and themes which makes it slower.
Not to forget, webpage loading speed plays an important role in SEO too. Slow web pages annoy your visitors as well as search engine crawlers.
Winner of” Website Speed” section: Custom coded website Website Flexibility: WordPress is a CMS so while designing a website in it, we have to stay within its limits. It is like if you buy an apartment inside a building, you cannot completely break its roof, floor or outside walls as that can result in collapse of entire building. Even though you own that apartment, you still cannot fully modify it.
On the other hand, when you develop a website from scratch, you have full control on each and every aspect of your website from designing to development. It is like a piece of land owned by you where you are allowed to build anything, from roots to top, it’s all yours.
Winner of “Website Flexibility” section: Custom coded website Website Cost: WordPress is free so obviously it cost you nothing. Although some plug-ins and themes are paid ones but still the cost of a WordPress based website is neglectable. On the other hand, A website built from scratch will certainly cost you a lot more. You will need to hire a professional firm or team. Even if you hire just one web developer to complete your website, it will still cost you probably more than $2000.

In this “Website Cost” section WordPress wins hands down. Website Development Time: WordPress has an extensive plug-ins and themes library which makes it ideal for quick development. All you need to do is browse through some themes and select one which matches your website model. Then you will need to install plug-ins for any extra functionality you need and voila! Your website is ready! You can start putting your contents in it. Using WordPress, you can literally complete your website in a single day.
On the other hand, a website coded from scratch will take time directly proportional to the functionalities you need. Usually, the procedure starts from designing a few mockups for your website; from which you will have to select one to be converted to responsive HTML. After conversion, web developers will start to add dynamic (PHP) code into the HTML as per your website needs. After completion of the project, it will be tested on local server and once approved, it will be installed on your live server. The above procedure will certainly take much longer than a WordPress based website so again in “Website Development Time” section, WordPress Wins. Website Scalability: WordPress has an extensive plug-ins library which makes it highly scalable but at the same time with each added plugin, you will feel that WordPress is becoming slower and more sluggish. Also, as your website grows bigger, you will start to feel it harder to manage with so many plugins to take care of. It is like putting together a puzzle with different shaped pieces, some will fit together, others will not.
In a custom coded website, you are free to scale your website up to any level. every additional functionality will be specifically designed for your existing code therefore there is no bloating or incompatibility issues resultantly your website will not become any slower as it grows.
Although there are countless plugins available for WordPress but still you are limited to the plugins library to scale your website. If you ever need some unique functionality you will still need to custom code it.
In “Website Scalability” section, Custom coded website wins. Website Support: WordPress enjoys one of the largest development communities in the open source world. However, that does not mean you will enjoy a dedicated support for your own website. Also, there is a great chance that every plugin you use is from a different developer so finding support in cases where you are not sure which plugin is causing the issues will be a nightmare for you. Let us say if your website is hacked, all you can do is to reload a backup but since it is the same code, it will be hacked again and again until you find and fix the security hole. WordPress updates can fix security issue within its own core but not within the plugins and themes. So even if you have a WordPress website, in such cases you will still need to hire a web developer to solve your issue who will have no idea about your website history. Web developer may fix one thing and break the other which will become a headache for you.
On the other hand, in case of a custom coded website, you can always contact the original developers of your website in case of issues. Since the website is developed by them, they will have better understanding of its coding history and will be able to resolve the issue quickly and efficiently. You will have a peace of mind while knowing that you have someone at your disposal to solve your web related issue as they arise.
So, in “Website Support” section, Custom coded website wins again Conclusion: If you are low on budget, then go ahead and build a WordPress based website which is certainly better than having no website at all. You can later upgrade to a custom coded website once you have enough budget. However, if you already have enough budget and you are serious about your business then you should certainly go for a custom coded website.