WordPress is popular. In fact, it’s so popular that business owners sometimes don’t even think about the disadvantages of WordPress, if any.
Ashok Keshavan, a veteran Adobe Business Catalyst Guru, wrote about how WordPress loopholes can crush your business. He writes about how WordPress might just not fit into the core of every other website. He mentions problems WordPress ships with, including vulnerability, security, etc.
Marty Dickinson went out to publish at least 35 reasons why WordPress would make for a better alternative to your traditional web site for a small business website.
Yet, there are specific non-use cases for WordPress such as ecommerce and even WordPress multi-site features aren’t without problems, according to Mika Epstein of HalfElf.org. Jesse Friedman of Net Magazine also points out some misgivings and myths about WordPress.
WordPress, however, is the next best thing after sliced bread, the wheel, and fire. There’s a lot that WordPress does, including disrupt the web design community. There are, however, only a few kinds of websites that WordPress is best suited for. Let’s see where WordPress fits like a glove:
Traditional Blogs
If you are a blogger, you really don’t need anything else apart from a hosting account and a simple, one-click WordPress install. Getting started with blogging is easy thanks to powerful CMS systems such as WordPress.
Zero in on a domain name that suits your theme, pick up the best (not necessarily the cheapest) hosting for your WordPress blog - be sure to follow through and read some reviews on WordPress-specific hosts on WhoIsHostingThis or CNET. Further, to help you customize your look and feel, there are thousands of free and inexpensive themes that can be set up with a simple point, click and tweak.
Domain, hosting, WordPress setup, a relevant theme, and a few plugins later, you are good to publish on your own.
You can move your WordPress blog to another platform, a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or a dedicated server when your blog reaches a stage in growth that your shared hosting can’t handle.
Multi-User Blogs & Online Magazines
The folks at Firebubble do point out that WordPress might not have the best of the user management capabilities, but it’s still manageable.
WordPress is an incredibly easy to use platform for online magazines or busy blogs with multiple users contributing to it.
According to RackSpace, it’s one of the easiest CMS platforms to start with. Even non-technical users can use it to extend purpose to complex sites. When popular blogs such as TechCrunch, CopyBlogger, and Mashable still work on WordPress (albeit, heavily customized), it’s good enough to start your online magazine or multi-author blog today.
Portfolio Websites
Freelance web designers (and web design agencies), web developers, graphic designers, writers, musicians, and most other creative professionals have found a home with WordPress. The availability of different, readymade themes make it easy for anyone with skills to put up a website to showcase their portfolio, achievements, and have a full-fledged business up and running.
While WordPress might still not make for the best solution when it comes to ecommerce, it at least makes for a great start for creative professionals to display their portfolio.
Launches, Product Display, and Apps
If you thought WordPress was only for blogging, you’ll be amazed at what’s already been built on WordPress. Popular brands use WordPress (thanks to the ease of setup and publishing) for business/brand/product launches. Some brands use permanent WordPress pages for product display - Ford.com is a great example).
Of course, tweaking single page WordPress themes a little, you even get ready made use cases of WordPress to use as a springboard for marketing your mobile or web apps.
Single Page Specials
Think about it: if you are a student, you’ll need a web-based resume. A media professional would have a great online presence with a website to showcase achievements, published work, and credentials.
All businesses need landing pages, squeeze pages, sign-up forms for email marketing, contact forms, and so much more. WordPress lends itself valuable for its extreme versatility, and that includes all of the above purposes. Whether you want to display a creative 404 page, a landing page, a sign-up form, a single-page website, or a web-based resume, WordPress does it all.
Niche and Miscellaneous
With an active community of WordPress specialists working on themes to cater to every possible market segment, you’ll find themes that range from general blogging to electronics, from highly customized themes for bands and media houses to ones that are specifically built for photographers.
You’ll often find themes that take a different route such as those for knowledge base, Q & A, forums, online communities, directories, listing-based sites, and even those built specifically for events, complete with modules for integration with popular event hosting sites such as Eventbrite.
NGOs, Social Causes, and Communities
The usual lack of funds almost makes WordPress a default for social causes, non-profits, and communities. The CMS renders itself well to these organizations or disjointed groups of people, because apart from the easy setup and launch, WordPress also allows for collaboration and decentralized control of site management. While it gets tricky to run a full-fledged community, WordPress can blend with BuddyPress to allow for a better user-management utility.
What do you use your WordPress site for? Do let us know in the comments!
Tracy Vides is an independent researcher and content strategist, who blogs about things as diverse as tech, fashion, cars, and finance. Expect her to jump at any chance to chit-chat on Google+ or Twitter.
No doubt WP is a very great platform, it is suitable for variety of purposes, i still love Blogger.
Yup! WP IS indeed a great platform
Thanks for stopping by 
Hi Jane,
First off great image!
Secondly I like the list.
Accepting more guest posts these days I see the value in WP.
So much easier to accept and publish guest posts through the platform.
Thanks!
No doubt WP Is the best platform for most of the sites and blogs. Yes, there could be some security issues but then we have solutions to deal with them as well.
Hey Jane, you have highlighted great points, but even I believe WP is great…… as I am using it personally.
Very nice stuff! Yes, WordPress has “grown up.” Our ‘multimedia’ agency just updated our corporate site, and used WordPress.WordPress platform is very useful to design SEO friendly websites.
Hi Jane, nice blog you have. I mean it. Still mad at me?
I don’t wanna be off-topic, so, yes, I use WordPress for all my blogs since more than 7 yrs and I’m very happy with it.
Adrian
P.S. BTW, I can barely see your Flare plugin. Actually I can’t see too much (only the letters F and L), I just know that the plugin is there. You may want to fix that if you can. Your blog really looks nice and it’s a pity not to fix that
Actually not the plugin is the problem but the width of the page. I guess that the blog is designed for resolutions higher than mine (1280 x 768).
Hey Adrian, nope I’m not mad at you
Thanks for coming by.
As to the issue with Flares, can you please let me know the screen size of the device you are viewing?
Hi Jane,
Laptop, 15″ monitor, the resolution is included in my previous comment. I’ll send you by email a screen capture. You’ll be able to see exactly what I see. I don’t remember when was the last time when a blog didn’t fit my screen…
I noticed a few minutes ago that you were testing plugin’s position. It’s not the plugin at fault. I’ve seen the plugin on the left side of the post but the horizontal scroll was still there. The blog itself didn’t fit the screen. I guess that it’s a theme design issue.
Thanks Adrian, I’m on it
I highly appreciate your help!
Hi Jane
Just wanted to give you a heads up that I am having the same issue. I am using a desktop monitor with 1280 x 1024 resolution.
Hi Jane,
It’s important specially for business to know which platform should they use for business, in most cases WordPress would be more than what they need but as you said there is times when WordPress wouldn’t be the best option. Thanks for highlighting the times when WordPress is perfect.
Glad you found it useful, Qasim. Times when WP is more than what people need are rare! You tend to grow into WordPress and its plugins
I’ve been in love with WordPress for a while. I’ve created hundreds of sites over the past few years, and ind that it really fails me when I’m trying to get feedback like reviews - or try to work it for a membership site. I guess this means that it’s time I create more of the single pages and resumes.
Thank you for the post!
What sort of reviews are you trying to get, Emily? WP Customer Reviews and Rich Reviews are a couple of plugins that might work for you. As for membership, you could try out wpmudev’s “Membership” plugin.
I’ll give those a try. I had been dallying with the idea of creating an independent games site like Kongregate or JayIsGames - basically have the games there and then have people review them. I was also thinking about something that would review ice makers (I know, it’s a jump, but that’s something you do early in the morning!) Thank you for the suggestions! i’ll give it another shot, and see what I can come up with. (the real problem sometimes is just pushing through)
WordPress is one of the best, most flexible and commonly used publishing platforms available today. Reason is that WordPress themes are very user- friendly and can easily be customized by users.
Not to forget the sheer number of themes out there! Something for everyone, literally.
I’ve always loved WordPress. It is the most user-friendly among others.
great stuff to be worked out in any areas the article suggestion on how the WordPress can be linked to blogging with multimedia is great to know.
I would say that WordPress really rocks for bloggers and freelancers, especially those that don’t know how to build a website or they don’t want to spend a huge amount of money to do so. WordPress has made things much easier for everyone.
WordPress is well suited for any type of site…. not just these that are listed. I’ve developed and designed e-commerce sites, social bookmark sites, social network sites, forums, real estate listing sites, wikis, auction sites, basecamp/ task manager site, university or schools using multi-site, and much more.
I wish people would stop writing articles that make WordPress seem limiting. This shows a lack of understanding on what a content management system can do. It can do everything that Joomla and Drupal can do. And you are only hindered by your own knowledge and imagination as a developer.
I am challenging you to get rid of the box as Deepak Chopra has mentioned, and see what WordPress can really do for you.
Hi Nile thanks for stopping by. This post essentially lists some of the types of sites WordPress is most suited for. It doesn’t say people can’t use WordPress for any other kind of site outside this list. Actually the post appreciates the uses and features of WordPress. I don’t see why you feel that the post sounds “limiting”!
You might know that WordPress is suitable for a long list of sites since you have experience working with WordPress for many years. But this post is to help people who don’t know much about the uses of WordPress and what kinds of sites can be built with it. In order to get rid of the box, people have to start somewhere!
The the post should be titled: 7 Types Of Websites Most Commonly Used With WordPress … when I read a post and the title is telling me something else, it is not conveying the correct point. If you are intending it to be beginner level, it has to convey that and the meaning of the title does not reflect what you replied to me about. Do you understand what I’m talking about?
Thanks for your insights, Nile. For one, doesn’t the post cover nearly every type of website that, as you say, can be built on WordPress? Hope we’re on the same page here. One area where I would digress and still say WordPress, with all its plugins, is not as tailored for as other platforms, is enterprise ecommerce and online retail sites, the sort that run Magento. While Joomla and Drupal are pretty much out of the competition, large-scale ecommerce is another ball game altogether.
And oh, the “most commonly used” sites also happen to be the ones “most suited,” if you respect the intelligence of the web dev community at large. Thinking out of the “WordPress box,” you might want check out emerging platforms such as Ghost, that have the potential to replace WordPress in its entirety…
Tracy,
Unfortunately, I disagree. You have services like OrderStorm that offer the same enterprise level as Magento. You can even run reservation systems for hotels too.
There is a lot you can do and I actually do speak at WordCamps. You have to explain WordPress the right way to even beginners as some of them aren’t looking to use it as just a blog platform.
It is a full CMS. I encourage you to go to Ma.tt and send Matt Mullenweg an email asking him what all WordPress can do.
I’m still standing firm. I’m not going to argue this any further as this article needs some tweaking for its intentions to the reader. For me, and from my experience, WordPress is well suited for a lot of different types of sites beyond the ones you have explained.
We can agree to disagree. Thanks for inspiring me for a series on what WordPress Can Do For You.
Sure
Look forward to your series! Will it be on Blondish?
Kevin says
WordPress is a great blogging platform with tons of widgets and customization. For a personal blog, I would prefer Blogger. Blogger is easy to use, but there are many restrictions in blogger. If you know a little HTML, blogger can be less complicated.
I’m going to be controversial here, and say that WordPress is as easy as Blogger, and has better functionality. If you know how to use Blogger, you shouldn’t - switch to WordPress now!
I’m sure both Jane and Nile are with me on this!
Ya I second that Tracy
I have to agree with the other posters concerning the fact that the post seems to take the stance that those are the best use case scenarios for wordpress. We believe limitations are only based on the skill of the developer. Obviously you need to take into account the functionality a client is looking for and whether or not it makes sense to build on a specific platform.
“Obviously you need to take into account the functionality a client is looking for and whether or not it makes sense to build on a specific platform.”
Exactly!
Hey Jane!
I do Agree with your points. I Listened about WordPress that It’s a Great Platform but now I’ve seen it In this Post. It’s really able to Admire!
Thank you Again, Jane ( Useful Informer ) for making me Understand. I want to keep in touch with your every Updates. So, what should i do for this ?
Somehow I was also searching that what kind of sites of blog can be on WordPress? I have just setup a WordPress blog for other and does not found that much hard as some people describe it. Even though I still love blogger over the WordPress.
I think wordpress is good for all the website which has been created for the information display whether it is blog,product review or news and magazine website,,,,,
Some great info for me here I was using webeden for my first site but was never really happy with the format especially the mobile version. So have now set one up on word press new to me but much happier with the format of word press
Great info thanks lee
Hello,
No word wordpress is really cool CMS for many types of websites, the best thing is it’s one click install and we can easily find thousands of themes online or we can built our our custom themes. Next thing is default seo which is also a great feature.
Thanks