Alternatives to the Wordpress CMS

Wordpress Advantages

• It's free!
• Can quickly set up a site
• Many themes for different looks
• Lots of plugins for a variety of functionality
• Reasonably easy to edit once it's set up

Wordpress Disadvantages

Some of the advantages can become disadvantages.

• Most CMS's, including Wordpress, use a database. That makes backing up a site more complicated. Frequent database access can slow your site. A corrupted database generally means your site doesn't work—at all!
• It can be difficult to customize a theme to match your branding. Using a stock theme can make your site look like someone else's
• Plugins are written by a variety of authors who may not follow secure coding practices.
• Plugins require frequent updating. Sometimes plugins are abandoned by the author, and no updates are available.
• Wordpress itself requires frequent updating
• Updating Wordpress or a plugin may cause a conflict with other components, resulting in something on the site not working or in the worst-case scenario your entire site ceases to function
• As the most popular CMS, Wordpress is the most frequent target of hackers, hence continual updates are required to keep it secure.
• I don't mean this to be disparaging; there are proficient developers that use Wordpress. But, there are also individuals who merely know how to click a few buttons to auto install Wordpress, select a theme, and edit some content. You can create a site quickly and easily that way, but when something goes wrong, those types of developers (and you) are in big trouble!
  
  The "developer" doesn't have the background knowledge to fix the problems when things go awry and quite often they just disappear at that point.
• It's not just me, search the web for 'I hate Wordpress' to find other issues with the CMS. Other systems aren't perfect either. Perhaps it's because it's so widely used that the flaws of Wordpress are well known. One comment on Quora stated it well, "Just keeping your WP core version current and working with your various plugins will make you cry."

Better than Wordpress?

I use a content management system that provides excellent design flexibility as well as superior security. This system allows me to design a site that's customized to your organization's look and functionality. Sites constructed with this CMS allows end users to edit most of the site with no technical skills beyond resizing images and basic word processing-type abilities.

The content management system I use is Processwire.

In all reality, many clients who initially think they need or want a content management system, really don't.

Your time is likely better spent on other aspects of your business rather than editing a website. I still create many websites that use no CMS system at all—straight HTML/PHP sites. These require technical knowledge to edit (which I can do for you). But this type of non-CMS site is fast and secure.

The screen capture shows an editing page using the Processwire CMS. Using that CMS, I can make a highly-customized site tailored specifically to the content and functionality of your business or organization.

My book website Sonrise Stable was created with the Processwire CMS. Blog posts, news articles, etc. can be customized according to your needs using Processwire. Sample Blog here, Photo Galleries, and Ecommerce.