Why Use a CMS Platform?

If we compare things to completely custom development – or based on a framework that requires hand coding, then using a CMS platform like WordPress comes out on top for three key reasons.

Cost

Even if you are not developing yourself, a website agency or freelancer will set up a template for you at a much lower cost than commissioning a custom designed UI and code that is hand crafted just for you, but is not necessarily better code.

A great WordPress theme will run you about $50 from one of the major marketplaces, some require additional plugins for specific functionality, but most give you everything you need right in the box.

Speed of Development

You can have your website up and running within hours – or days – depending on complexity. If you keep it simple then it is completely achievable to put together a 5-6 page website and get it online within a day. After that, you can probably manage one plugin – so adding one area of functionality like a photo gallery – per day, to build a complete but simple website in a week or so. Compare this to the months of development work it would take to build something entirely from scratch, and you wouldn’t have such a powerful admin backend either.

Flexibility

If there is one area WordPress excels in, then it’s adaptability – these days people have made WordPress do anything from displaying a simple blog to becoming your own personal Reddit clone (yes this theme exists).

While the basic framework wasn’t built with the current full blown CMS usage in mind, it has evolved along the way and grown to accept standard customisations – such as custom post types, content types, and taxonomy, along with custom fields you have a lot of power to plug your own code into these areas and build ontop of – not change – the core platform.

By utilising themes and plugins, you can build a website that is not reliant on any one developer. One day your website will break, probably nothing serious but websites have a tendency to fall over occasionally – it’s a pain but they can be fragile little things.