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 p.1 #17 · Website Primer ... Pro's & Con's ??? | |
It is good to know some of the basics, but you don't need to get bogged down in the technical aspects. Here is a quick pro/con list. Note, I don't work with Wordpress currently and this is based off of what I do know, past experience, other developer feedback.
Wordpress.com site:
Pros
-simple to set up
-as secure as Wordpress can be (always up to date and stable)
-Good documentation, easy to use
Cons
-you have yoursite.wordpress.com as your domain
-bound to the limits of free wordpress.com sites (not sure what those are, but I'd never recommend this for a commercial site)
Wordpress.com Premium
Pros
-simple to set up
-as secure as Wordpress can be (always up to date and stable)
-Good documentation, easy to use
-fully custom domain name (no wordpress.com in your url)
-support people to fix/change things
Cons
-not as flexible as a third party hosted Wordpress site (may or may not be an issue)
-not free (but cheap)
-still limited to what Wordpress can do with approved add ons and templates. Not 100% customizable.
Third Party Wordpress Install (i.e. Bluehost.com one click)
Pros
-very stable, lets you know when an update is available
-you can do what you like to your Wordpress install (good or bad)
-yourdomain.com url
-very cheap ($7 a month or something like that)
-use any template you want
Cons
-no one to fix anything if it goes wrong, you need to hire someone.
-add ons you install can conflict with system updates since it is not a managed environment (i.e. making sure add ons are compatible with new versions). This can get messy since many add ons are not actively developed.
-Customizing Wordpress can be difficult and lead to issues down the road. I don't mean installing third party add-ons, rather 'hacking' add ons, the core files or the templates code to make them behave differently.
ExpressionEngine custom site:
Pros
-100% custom, no limits to what the site can do or how it looks. Think hiring a contractor and building a house vs a realtor and shopping for a house.
-Very secure, no exploited security flaws (there are security patches but no hacking issues like the others)
-Very easy to use, developer can customize your control panel to make it even easier
-super stable
-fast (built on a highly regarded framework, Code Ignitor)
-scalable, grows with you from a basic gallery site to a fully functional e-commerce site
-great developer community. Just ask a question on Twitter with #eecms and you'll see. These guys love to help people.
-Established "Pro Network" on expressionengine.com. Developers are vetted and checked out before EE lists them on their pro network. Only guys who know what they are doing and have been in the business are on there. No GWC (guy with code) hacks.
-If you know HTML and CSS you can tweak the sites look yourself. EE uses a very transparent and simple HTML based template system vs the more complex php based template system of Wordpress.
-you get some support from ExpressionEngine with a paid license.
Cons
-cost. This is the most expensive route you can take. $3,000 and up for a basic photographers site. $10,000 and up if you wanted e-commerce, photo site, blog, super fancy custom design, etc.
-you will always need a developer to make structural changes, software updates, or anything other than content changes. You could learn how to do the software updates, its not too hard. But when things don't work it can be a pain to track down which add on broke your update and if you didn't do a database backup correctly...ooops. Most developers offer this as a support service for an annual fee. Well worth it.
-not as easy to find EE developers, but the good news is most are very good.
Wordpress is a very good system and IMO is the best option for most people who don't want to spend big bucks on a website. Drupal is a huge headache to use and will almost certainly require you hire someone to get you up and running. Joomla just isn't as powerful as Wordpress and can leave you stuck with a site that can't do what you need it to.
The paid options at wordpress.com are probably the safest way to go and get what you need. The warning about custom Templates likely refers to actually hacking the php code of an existing 'approved' template. That is very common for worpress sites hosted on third party servers. Wordpress.com needs to manage things much tighter and does not allow users to hack the code.
SInce you seem techno-curious a third party install would probably work well too. A bit cheaper than wordpress.com premium and allow you to have full freedom to do what you want. If your needs are pretty basic right now and you don't need to have something you know is 100% your own design, this is the way I'd recommend.
If you have the cash and time to put into a fully custom site to make it just what you want and exclusive to you. I'd go with EE. Some developers you talk to may want to make it with Wordpress or Drupal and they can build the same site with those tools as well. Thats what they know. I never have like Drupal, very steep learning curve and not a great UI on the control panel. They've worked on it quite a bit, but EE and Wordpress are still better imo. Custom Wordpress sites are very good, but as a developer I just don't like working with Wordpress. Would you know the difference? Probably not. The same site in both EE and Wordpress would be great for you. The guys I know who used to work with Wordpress tell me they prefer EE because they spend about 30% less time working on the site when they use EE and now charge a premium if the client insists on Wordpress. This allows developers to charge their same rates, but get in some lower price points (or put more time into making the site better vs just getting it up to standard).
If you do want to look at hiring an EE developer I know of a few resources and can get you looking down the right path for people to hire.
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