This weekend, we launched Becky’s new photo blog, http://sureshotphoto.net/.  This was a quick launch, and Becky hasn’t started posting yet, but we got the gorgeous slideshow of her photos going, and man oh man, does it look good.

The WordPress theme is from http://graphpaperpress.com/.  We are big, big fans of WordPress for a lot of simple to moderately complex sites (like this one you’re on right now).  WordPress allows a lot of flexibility and customizability, and a well developed CMS backend.

What are the upsides of developing with WordPress?

1. Quick development.  With WordPress you’re building your site on top of a solid base that takes care of a lot of the basic stuff, which means less testing is necessary, and less new code is necessary.
2. Less expensive.  This ties into number 1– as it takes less time for us to develop your site on top of WordPress, you pay less.
3. Easily extensible.  Because WordPress has such a large user base, there are thousands of extensions available.

In the end, developing most “simpler” sites in WordPress changes from inventing the wheel to refining it.  Our workflow generally consists of putting together the elements needed to create your site, then going through and modifying things to fit your business and your needs.  Because we have a strong understanding of XHTML, CSS, and PHP, we’re able to tweak existing elements to fit the needs of your company.

So, What are the downsides of developing with WordPress?

1. Limited customization.  With WordPress, you can only go so far, and if your site is going to have advanced features, WordPress isn’t going to be the right solution.  What do I mean by advanced features?  Well… do you want customers to be able to log in?  Interact with the site?  Buy from you online?  Do you want to be able to aggregate information from other sources?  Do you want to interface with other services via API?  If you answered yes to any of these, then WordPress probably isn’t the right solution for you.
2. Security.  WordPress is not completely secure.  That said, it’s not like the computer geek at your local high school could easily break in, but if you had a dedicated hacker looking to get at your information, your site could be compromised.
3. Client Overconfidence. Now this one is a little bit of a tricky area… but I’ve seen a few occasions where the WordPress admin interface is so easy to use that the client will try adding features on their own, which has, more often than not, resulted in the whole site breaking.  Similarly, clients will automatically assume that they’re supposed to install every WordPress update, when, oftentimes, this ends up removing any or all of the customizations we’ve made to the site.

So, when is WordPress the right choice?  If you’re a small business looking for an attractive, simple website that you can update on your own, and you’ve got a moderate level of tech saavy, WordPress deserves a close look, and, at Hotchkiss Consulting, we’re happy to help you figure out the solution that’s best for your business.