Every once in a while a customer will ask me what kind of platform we use to create our projects and the answer is always the same, "We do not use any platform to create any of our projects" and normally the question that follows is: "Why not to use WordPress"?
The issue in question normally comes when those clients had contacted our competition and talked to them about what they use and how their implementations are made. Most of the companies that create and handle website design today had to decide on how to create their work the easiest and most cost effective for them, this does not mean they charge less for their work but it certainly means less work for them.
Let me explain:
We have no particular problems agains WordPress, Drupal, Magento or Open Cart - these systems do exactly what they are suppose to do and,to be fair, they do a great job at it. The problem comes with your project and the company you selected to create it. If you want a blog to write about anything that comes to your mind WordPress and Drupal will work perfectly for you, the same if you want to create an experimental shopping card as a place where you can set a few products and see what will the response of your clients be, here I'll say grab a copy of Magento or Open Cart or any other e-commerce software available online and go for it.
Now if you are looking to create your company website, something professional, good looking, secure and stable, I will never ever recommend these softwares for it. While these products handle a great chunk of Internet they are mostly over-used and implemented into areas they shouldn't.
Price vs Security and Stability.
Now you will think that maybe using one of these companies that uses free software to create your project will save you money and that is something to take into consideration. As I explained before most of our competition uses and implement these free software on their clients project but that does not mean you'll save money just because it is easier for them to create your project. Based on a research made from our finance department less than a month ago, any company using these pre-made platforms to create their projects will charge from 50% to 100% more than what we charge for it.
Doesn't sound so good right? Well, that is the crude reality of how the market is handled by many companies with very little knowledge on coding, and as in any other market (I guess...). These companies will charge as much as they can for the same job, no matter the size of the job or what you expect to use this project for, the solution will be always the same with a few plugins added to it to make you happy.
Did you mention security?
Yes I did, and this is just one little example of my statement; just a few days ago something that have the potential of changing the status of an entire country happened, I'm referring to the Panama Papers Breach Issue, I'm sure you heard about it...The Panama Papers breach is the largest data leak in history by a wide margin, with 2.6 terabytes of data, 11.5 million documents, and more than 214,000 shell companies exposed.
Based on research outdated, versions of Word Press and Drupal are being blamed for allowing hackers to get into all the publicized information we all know about today. In this article wptavern.com talks about the issue and the research made to backup their statements, also here is a discussion on slashdot.com where you can check more about this problems.
Besides the Panama Papers scandal there are many... many examples online of hacked websites and data breaches because of Word Press, Drupal, Magento, Open Cart and more of this kinda of software.
How it's this possible?
Don't get me wrong, pretty much all the people involved into the core of this projects area great software developers and engineers that made and continue making a great job. The main problem resides on the plugins and themes added to them. Many of the people creating these applications do not have a good foundation in programming and overlook too many details that allow hackers to gain and sequester access into these softwares.
Based on that, lets take something else in consideration, most of the web design companies that will offer you a solution based on these software know the minimum needed to do what you need to have on it, and that is a big problem. They are working on something they don't deeply understand or care to understand, so, are you willing to go ahead and really over pay for a service that anyone with a little bit of knowledge can do? Of course not, you want your moneys worth and your business well represented...
Well... What can you do?
My recommendation (I'm a Software Engineer with over 25 years working on this field) is to think about what you need your website for before doing or looking for any company to make it happen. Based on that if you want your website as a blog, where non important and expendable information can be set online, Word Press, Drupal or any other free CMS can do the work for you but if you want a website that reflect your company, where security is needed and something that represent yourself to your potential customers online DO NOT allow anyone creating your site use any of these CMSs, as proven they can be dangerous down the road while SAVING YOU NO MONEY to have them.
Conclusion
So, why not to use WordPress or Drupal for my business website? Look, if you are looking for a serious website don't let anyone just throw a peace of code on it that they don't understand and they really expect it to work. That is not what you hoped when you started this project in your mind and it is not the right solution for you. Believe me, a peace of random software created for another purpose and modified to cover yours is not what you need. You need something robust, that you can grow on and will not be a problem in the future. Something reliable and stable. We've being doing these kind of work for the last 20 years and if you check our customers reviews you will see the results.
The software developed by our company will be created just for you, to fit your needs, will have no extra stuffing and you will be able to grow on it as much as you need in the future. We use the latest available technologies to add to our website and create our own code to each of our project... AND also charge a lot less than these other companies with little knowledge will charge. Also we partner with the leaders in this industry to be able to bring you the best on each project and make sure we are up-to-date in all aspects of this game.
