HELP - Wordpress - Having a website built, someone said Wordpress isnt great!

[Longingforthesummer]

I'm having a website built through a company and had the first draft - a friend has said wordpress isn't great and I shouldn't have it built on this platform!

Any advice, I don't have a clue and I'm really happy with how it's going but now worried sick I've made an error!

What is the website for? Wordpress is a great platform, used by millions of websites, but it’s functionality is limited so it’s best for personal sites/hobbies/blogs etc, or can be used well as a site to showcase a business.

if you are building a site that needs to make transactions, eg selling things, booking tickets etc then shopify or Woocommerce are considered the best at the moment, as they were created for that and so have the best functionality both for you in the backend and for your customer on the front end.

but they are all good, reputable, well used platforms, just each is stronger in different areas

Wordpress is one of the most used platforms for websites and one of the easiest for updates, SEO, etc.

im guessing your friend may have had a bad experience but Wordpress is fine (wix would be the one to avoid).

Questions to ask your web dev company-

• is Wordpress the best platform for (making transactions / gathering data / showing off photography - whatever it is you are trying to achieve functionally) and why would they recommend that over other sites
• what will the user journey look like for your function? Eg if it’s selling things, what is the process for looking at variants, adding to cart, checking out? Can you add products to show as cross sells or upsells? Can you create bundles?
• what is the predicted speed, how would that compare to other platforms?
• will you yourself be able to manage the backend easily, eg to change content, adjust pricing, manage stock? Or will that require a web developer? would the answer be different on different platforms? (Ongoing costs can differ hugely here, you’ll save a lot if you can manage it yourself!)
• Can they show you some examples of successful and busy Wordpress sites similar to what you’re creating To reassure you?

saying to your developers that you are having some doubts about Wordpress and would like their advice is totally reasonable and they should be able to advise you, but you need a bit more info than ‘my friend says it’s no good’. Can you ask your friend for specifics on why they dislike it?

as I said in my previous message, they are all good platforms, just suited to different things.

It depends whether your site is static, your developers are going to update it or you are.
I personally hate WordPress but that's at a back-end level. I also know lots of people who love it. It does have lots of functionality. You need to ask your developer to show you now what you will need to do to update it once it is built. That is the real determiner of whether a site will work for you.

If it’s a simple site and you don’t need to make lots of amendments to the page layouts and just add standard content it will be fine. If you anticipate lots of changes to the site in the future you may need to factor in getting a developer to do that as it’s not as easy to add pages as in squarespace or other CMS.

I have a WP website for my business. It's been going for about 5 years and I'm very happy with it. It doesn't do any transactions or bookings though. It was professionally developed and there's one page I update regularly myself. It's very easy.

UPDATE
It's just to have a 'presence' for a business somewhere to direct a customer to...to find out more about me...no selling, although it will have a link to a booking form.

Wordpress is fine. Can probably do a lot more than it sounds like you need. I manage quite a lot of sites and both large and small businesses can thrive on Wordpress.

As a web developer, I have to say this is a great use case for WordPress (it's good at handling sites that are focused on content, such as blogs or a simple site describing your business, rather than complex interactive features), so you should be fine as long as the company you hired is good. WordPress is an extremely popular content management system and it works great for many websites. If you're someone deeply involved in web development, it's easier to see the flaws in it, but I don't think these are relevant for a simple site such as yours.

I also want to add, WordPress CAN be used for more complex things and do fine with it. It's just more likely for its flaws to manifest itself in such instances.

I think you need to listen less to your friend who is making sweeping judgements about your business decisions that they are not involved in, and more to the experts you are paying for their service.

have confidence, it sounds like you’re doing great!

I completely understand your concern. It's not uncommon for people to have varying opinions about website platforms, including WordPress. While your friend might have reservations, it's essential to remember that WordPress is a popular and versatile platform used by millions of websites worldwide.
What's most crucial is the quality of your website's development and how well it aligns with your goals. If you're genuinely happy with how the project is progressing and it meets your needs, that's a positive sign.
And by the way, if you want more insights into website development, you can check out frogstonemedia.com. They might have some valuable information that can help you make an informed decision.

It sounds like WP will be absolutely perfect for what you need, but as PP said ask your developer to show you how to update it now to make sure you're comfortable with it. They can tweak it now to make it more user friendly rather than you have to pay them everytime you want to make a minor text change or add a banner.