Whenever someone asks me what I’d suggest to them for a Content Management System (CMS) or blogging platform, the answer is almost always WordPress. I power this site with WordPress, as well as probably 75% of my design clients sites.
WordPress has many distinct advantages over other alternatives, and as an overall platform I find it to be the closest to my utopia when weighing all features & options.
The advantages WordPress has include:
- Free & open source
This means that WordPress does not cost the person or company running the site money to run their software, and by being Open Source and under the GPL License they never will charge you. - A very active and growing Development Community
One of the biggest advantages to running WordPress over other Systems is that the amount of plugins available is outstanding, and almost all are free or very reasonably priced considering. - Knows it indentity
That may sound a bit odd, but many pieces of software becoming overweight and bloated as they grow. Community input asks for certain features and these keep piling on top of one another. WordPress is a bit different in that it expects a user to install Plugins for enhanced or specific needs. This keeps the system simple and easy to use. - Simple and powerful content editors
The Main dashboard of WordPress is meant to be easy to get around, and the areas to add or edit content are simple to use and even less computer-savvy people can edit and update content easily after just a gentle nudge in the right direction.
I could go on for some time about more intricate details on the power of WordPress but those are the main reasons I almost always suggest WordPress. A word of warning though, no single piece of software will be perfect in every situation, and WordPress is no different. There are certain things that may be easier to build on another platform, or without a platform entirely. I use WordPress in any instance where it would make sense to, but you shouldn’t have to fight against the software you’re using to build something, and that is why I won’t say that WordPress is the best CMS for all applications, that is just too large of a check to cash.