WordPress is one of the largest CMS’ on the market, but that does not always mean it is the best option for your company! Just like shopping around for the best creative management firm for your company’s needs and budget, the same thing should be done for websites! From hosting and maintenance to customized websites, 

Now, we want to preface that our omg web design and developers are not against WordPress, in fact, we have designed and developed some beautiful websites on that CMS, but we do prefer others on the market. 

These are our reasons as to why we prefer ExpressionEngine (EE) over WordPress and four reasons to ditch WordPress! 

WordPress vs ExpressionEngine 

There are several reasons why our omg web design and development experts at OMG Austin prefer ExpressionEngine (EE) over WordPress. From its ability to customize an entire website with custom coding available to its security set in place. 

Security is one of the top priorities when it comes to a website. This is because a website not only holds the information about the company, but all of its consumers as well. EE has a 10 years track record of being one of the most secure CMS’ out there with double authentication security. 

The security measures set in place by EE is so strong that it is nearly (we say nearly because it could happen) impossible to hack into an EE site. 

Why else? We love to customize websites. Yes, you can customize a WordPress website, but it is not as simple. It can take a considerable amount of time and energy just for it to still break at the end. 

At OMG Austin, the joke is that our clients can dream up their own website that is customized in every way, and our designs and developers can bring that to life! This is because of our ability to customize on the backend of EE itself! With WordPress, a template is a template, and even with some serious time and dedication, the customization is limited. 

Yeah, custom HTML 5 with the ability to add any plugins needed while keeping the website secure just sounds a lot better in sales meetings. (Sorry, not sorry!) 

Why else do our omg website design and developers love EE? The ability to easily and effectively implement plugins to the website is great! While any website can be slowed down by a plugin (we will get to that in a bit) EE has the ability to still run at Google’s recommended speeds with their plugins. 

Now, what are our five reasons why a company should stop using a WordPress website ASAP? 

1. Security breaches 

Each and every day, Google blacklists about 10,000 to 50,000 websites for phishing and security issues. And 90 percent of security breaches were on WordPress in 2018. While WordPress is one of the most popular CMS out there, it is also known to be one of the most popular prone to security breaches and issues. 

This is because WordPress is an open source platform that relies on plugins for websites, which in return, allows for easily hacking into plugins because no one is monitoring these plugins. 

It has been recorded that WordPress is the CMS that is easily and widely hacked. 

2. Plugins 

Those same plugins that you need on the website for customization or simple tasks are the same ones that get hacked and slow down the website! 

Since so many different website developers and companies hold the rights to the plugins and templates, which allow for so many others to use, it can be the place to hack. Not only that, but plugins need constant updates and maintenance to continue to do the job they are installed to do.

How is this possible? Some plugins are constantly changing and new updates need to be installed! For a company that does not have a website developer or staff member dedicated to website and plugin maintenance, a WordPress website can easily start to crash. (We have seen it!) 

This is not only wreaking havoc on the website, but SEO can be affected and leads and sales can be lost in the process of getting the website back up and running. 

3. SEO

While SEO in every industry for every company and niche in-between is a bit different, WordPress SEO is the same. WordPress boasts that they are SEO friendly, and have updated a number of features to make it much easier to be SEO friendly. However, there are still about 20 items that all companies need to check off their WordPress SEO checklist to make sure that they are ranking in search engines! 

4. Updates and more updates 

While WordPress is free, it can be a costly website! With constant updates to plugins, templates and maintenance of the website, it might not be worth the “free” template at the end of the day.

 All good things come to an end, and the original template your company decided upon will come to an end. This means that your company will have to update the template, and in our experience, it never brings anything good. 

However, without updating the template, the website is now even more susceptible to hacks and security breaches! Without a team of omg website design and developers to help with these updates and transition smoothly into the new template, it can be difficult to maintain the website. 

At the end of the day, OMG Austin is not anti-WordPress, but we do prefer other CMS over this one. 

This is why it is important to invest in your company’s website for the longevity of your company! For more information on ExpressionEngine and how we can transition your old website, contact us today!