WordPress, as any free tool, creates a controversial opinion among programmers and bloggers. Some people consider it as too simple, while others are happy to create a beautiful website for free. In this article we are going to list all the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress and why you should or should not hide the fact that you are using it for your website.
What exactly is WordPress? Well, simply put, it is free software with special tools for creating a perfect blog user interface. It started as a humble application for blog design with settings and several default themes, but now it is a powerful Content Management System (CMS). You can download and use it to create your website the way you want. Recently, it has become very popular, making it a target for hackers.
Let’s start from the obvious advantage – WordPress is free. You don’t have to pay a single penny to give your blog a makeover, which is good for beginners, who don’t know how to design properly. Don’t be ashamed of using a free tool – you can invest the money you saved into something else, for example, advertisement.
At least this is something that many websites do – according to statistics, more than 30% of all internet pages that exist, use WordPress for their interface. And among the blogs for a narrow audience or small companies’ web pages, you can find the official websites of BBC America, Mercedes-Benz, The Walt Disney Company, and others using this tool. The free tool doesn’t mean low quality.
WordPress is flexible and easy to use for any purposes. You can create anything – from an online store to a social network and hook it up to any web-service. This is not only about the Internet, but you can also create an application using this platform. And if you’re struggling with something, many online tutorials are here to help you! Since this is a very popular platform, YouTube has a lot of videos about using WordPress for beginners, and the community around WordPress is friendly.
As always, there is a fly in the ointment. As we know, WordPress is a fairly secure content management system, but even it requires extra protection. This is due to a variety of outdated versions and old plugins that could be useful for hackers, but not for us.
When it comes to a company website, it is very important to create a strong password and provide the server with all the necessary security measures. You may customize certain parts of your website, but you can’t change the structure of the page, because you don’t have access to HTML. For people, who are not into programming and codes, it is okay, but for professionals, it may be a restriction of possibilities.
Another upsetting fact for many users is a limited amount of themes. People like to create a unique interface for their websites, but here all you can change is one default design to another. There is a possibility to develop the theme the way you want, but you have to pay for it as for an additional feature.
Unfortunately, there are some ways for hackers to attack your website. For example, the most popular one is HTTP requests. This affects the operation of the server, especially if it is running outdated software.
Another way is a brute force attack when a hacker uses a special program that guesses the password and gains access to your website. However, you can escape this or at least minimize the possibility of attack by using strong passwords, regularly updating themes, core, and plugins, and using additional security programs.
There is an option to hide the fact that your website is based on WordPress. To do this, you can use plugins like Hide My WP Ghost and Hide My WP. The latter protects files from bots, changes permalinks, gives control over archives and posts, analyses all the risks, etc. It can’t guarantee the security though, but at least the measures that Hide My WP takes to hide important areas of your website will make it harder for hackers and bots to attack your website.
To sum up, we want to remind that WordPress is a popular platform and many brands use it for their official websites without any doubt. It provides security, simplicity and beautiful interface. It is a perfect solution for basic minimalistic web pages or for beginners.
While some people criticize WordPress, remember that you can fully exploit its potential only by using the tool, and if you are satisfied with the results, the platform will work for you. And remember that security is not a way to get rid of hacking, it is a way to reduce the risk of attack and prevent your account from being hacked. So you have to do as much as you can.
