Item: WordPress
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have used WordPress for years to create websites for our businesses. We have one main business (our school) and some smaller businesses which we've also created websites for. It's great to be able to do everything online so we're not tethered to a specific computer. It's also very beneficial to have the regular security updates, to be able to change the look of our website quickly and easily in the form of themes, and the vast array of plugins that allow us to add many different features to our sites.

Pros and Cons

Very user-friendly--you don't need to be a coding expert to create a website
Lots of features--Just about any kind of functionality you can imagine there is a plugin for that

It can be tough to sift through the various plugins, and not all are regularly updated
Finding support can also be difficult. There is a free message board, but it's hit or miss.

Return on Investment

WordPress has been essential to our online presence for years, it is how we were visible online before the social platforms took off.
We sell products and services through our WordPress websites, so it is integral to our businesses

Alternatives Considered

CoffeeCup HTML Editor

In the beginning we used CoffeeCup HTML Editor, which was a nice little program, but it bound us to using one specific computer to do all tweaks and updates and we had to wait to upload changes and it was a real hassle. For a limited website that doesn't need to be changed often that would be fine, but WordPress suited our needs much better.

Other Software Used

Google Hangouts, Audacity, Adobe Photoshop

Likelihood to Recommend

It is originally intended for blogs, but you don't need to run a blog to use it. We use it just for regular websites and find it to be excellent. Especially if you have other people that need to add content or make adjustments, you can assign them logins and roles to add content, edit, make changes, etc. There are so many free and paid themes that allow you to do just about anything, I can't really think of an instance where Wordpress would not be an appropriate option for a website, unless you are looking for something super simple and brief, like only a page or two, then Wordpress might be overkill for your needs.

WordPress is excellent for business websites

Overall Satisfaction with WordPress