Why WordPress? Six Reasons Why WordPress Is Ready for the Enterprise

Why WordPress?

Six Reasons Why WordPress

Why

WordPress?

Entering a Golden Age

In 2015, WordPress surpassed the threshold of running 25% of the web. What began as a

blogging platform is now the most widely-used content management system on the internet, and a wise choice for site owners looking to scale for years to come.

As WordPress grows and evolves, more big brands are taking notice—The New York Times, TechCrunch, Microsoft, and Facebook all run sites using the CMS. Its size in the market makes WordPress a leader in innovative digital experiences, and the scale of its developer ecosystem will continue to drive innovation and adoption. You may have heard that WordPress is for just for bloggers or mom-and-pop shops, but in reality the CMS is more than capable of running some of the biggest, most important sites on the internet.

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Writers, content editors, and designers love WordPress due in no small part to the community’s focus on a great user experience. Read the WordPress philosophy page to learn more about the guiding principles and beliefs that drive both the project and the community.

of the web runs on WordPress

WordPress sites exist in the wild

monthly pageviews for the CMS

25%

70M

+

30B

+

“When WordPress adopts modern technologies, so does the rest

of the world.”

Why

WordPress?

So, if you’re looking to start a new web project, or focused on making your brand’s site the best it can be, don’t overlook WordPress. The content management system has proven that it is here to stay, delivering rich user experiences and high performing websites for years to come.

Why WordPress?

This guide is designed to help website owners evaluate WordPress when considering open source solutions. We cover six important reasons why the content management system is a viable solution for the enterprise.

TOM WILLMOT, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, HUMAN MADE

WordPress is becoming the CMS of choice for more and more of the enterprise and big publishing sectors. Over the 5+ years that we’ve been solely focused on delivering WordPress at scale in those markets we’ve seen the conversation change significantly. People came to WordPress for its speed of deployment and publishing experience, they’ve stayed because of its unparalleled focus on backwards compatibility, the robust security of the core CMS, and its proven flexibility to meet the diverse requirements of some of the world’s largest enterprises.

Reason

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

Reason

#1

Ecosystem: A Community You Can Trust Delight Your Content Editors

Security Comes First Scalable For Any Stage

Why

WordPress?

Reason

#1

MASON JAMES, CEO, WP VALET

Two primary reasons for choosing an open source CMS are the reliability that comes from software that has been tested so thoroughly by a massive audience and the availability of developer resources to engage. Many enterprise sites are able to achieve agile operations because they can pivot their resources away from expensive licenses towards management and iterative development resources.

Freedom

Whereas proprietary solutions often complicate updates and integrations, open source

solutions eliminate the risk of vendor lock in. Using a closed system? What happens if business relationships sour? Time for a new technology. With open source, you’re no longer at the mercy of a particular vendor’s roadmap, pricing structure, or business decisions.

Flexibility

Open source solutions allow your company to make decisions on upgrades and innovate at your own pace. React to market trends and handle issues with agility—without having to rely on a vendor. Plus, you’re never stuck with WordPress. If you ever decide to switch solutions, it’s easy to get your data out.

OPEN SOURCE

= SHARE THE LOVE

OPEN SOURCE

The world has already begun to move away from

proprietary, closed-off systems in favor of open and

connected tools and services. As an open source

project, WordPress offers complete freedom,

flexibility, and customizability.

WhyWordPress?

JONATHAN WOLD, ACCOUNTS DIRECTOR, XWP

As an open source project, WordPress offers complete freedom to take the software and do what you’d like. There are no licensing costs and with all the code readily available there are no surprises. The core philosophy behind WordPress development, including being designed for the majority, an emphasis on simplicity and efficiency, and a commitment to clearly defined development cycles makes WordPress predictable and reliable, two values prized for enterprise-level sites.

Customizability

Take the software and tweak it however you want. Need a customization? No problem, there’s likely already a plugin to fit your needs. If not, WordPress freely offers a robust set of APIs your team or agency can use to develop plugins for just about any use case.

Innovation

The developer ecosystem around WordPress is huge, dwarfing the website engineering efforts of major software companies by an order of magnitude. There’s a reason Microsoft chose WordPress: they realize that only a vast open source project can keep pace with the rest of the internet when it comes to innovation.

Why

WordPress?

Reason

#2

By the Numbers

In 2015, there were

89

21k

34

1.6k

2.1k

40k

2k

Your Site Is Worth It

Which plugin should I use for X? Am I ready to upgrade? Is this a good theme? What is this security update all about? Where should I host? There is a lot to consider when working on a web project, so don’t sell yourself short trying to make these decisions on your own. Your site is worth it, and you need someone on your side to help—hire a professional or work with an agency that can use the ecosystem to ensure the best for your site.

ECOSYSTEM: A COMMUNITY

YOU CAN TRUST

ECOSYSTEM

DANIEL BACHHUBER, PRINCIPAL, HAND BUILT

There are really two parts to the WordPress ecosystem: those who are actively involved in core development, and those who use WordPress because it’s a great CMS for their project. The latter hugely outweigh the former. But, as more people become professionally involved with WordPress, the project is working hard to make contribution more accessible to newcomers, so it can benefit from a greater diversity of professional opinions, backgrounds, and experiences. New to WordPress? There are dozens of ways to get involved with the community, both online and off. Plus, the community is built upon openness and sharing—you’re almost guaranteed to find someone wearing similar shoes to collaborate with.

In addition to free and open source software, using WordPress means having access to an entire ecosystem of developers, designers, and WordPress-specialized agencies. The WordPress community has a large and knowing group of experts that are willing to share and collaborate.

Why

WordPress?

Reason

#3

Built for Editing

WordPress was built with the content editor in mind. While offering a wonderful experience for the end user is imperative, having a simple and seamless interface for adding and editing content can have a profound impact on the quality of your content. Your website will have more value if this process works well, and WordPress has a best-in-class content editing experience, right out of the box.

DELIGHT YOUR

CONTENT EDITORS

CONTENT EDITOR

WordPress offers a beautiful, user

friendly content editor out of the box.

BOONE B. GORGES, BUDDYPRESS LEAD DEVELOPER

At the most basic level, a great content editing experience makes it more likely that your users will create great content. A really good content editing system will get out of user’s way; a writing UI is most successful if you forget you’re using it. This is a hard thing to get right, and it’s nearly impossible to achieve when the editing experience is seen as an afterthought by the CMS

developers. For WordPress, the writing experience has always been a critical focus, and WP has had 12+ years of development at handling the thousands of details and edge cases that, taken

Why

WordPress?

Reason

#4

Navigating the Plugin Minefield

The barrier of entrance to plugin development is low, so a best practice selection strategy is key to ensuring your site remains secure. It’s important to be aware of bad plugins and use a professional to review any plugins you want to implement on your site. Reach out to the community and trusted maintainers for advice on what to use.

WESTON RUTER, CTO, XWP

The WordPress plugin directory does a limited amount of checks when approving new plugins to be added. There are many plugins in the directory that are created by inexperienced developers who are not familiar with the common security vulnerabilities. Whenever considering a community plugin for a project, unless it is developed by trusted parties, the plugin needs to be evaluated for issues like SQL injection due to a lack of prepared statements, XSS due to a lack of escaping, and file inclusion vulnerabilities by failing to sanitize incoming file paths. The WordPress-Coding-Standards for PHP_CodeSniffer can catch many of these issues automatically, but it is important for an experienced WordPress developer to do an audit of any plugin to ensure it is secure and performant.

SECURITY COMES FIRST

Running 25% of the web makes WordPress a natural target for security exploits, but does not mean the CMS is ill-equipped for such attacks. In fact, WordPress core is very secure, and an updated version has never had a major exploit. The real risk lies in plugins and themes, but this is easily mitigated by doing your due diligence, using a professional, and having a hardened environment to negate common vulnerabilities and attack vectors.

WhyWordPress?

Reason

#4

SECURITY

WordPress Security Tips



Always run the latest version of core, plugins and themes



Remove unused plugins, themes & users



Have a professional review plugins before implementing



Use strong passwords & enable two-factor authentication

for all users



Host with a reputable, dedicated provider

DANIEL BACHHUBER, PRINCIPAL, HAND BUILT

All software will have bugs. When WordPress 4.2 was released, so was WordPress 3.7.6, 3.8.6, 3.9.4, 4.0.2, and 4.1.2. And these minor releases were automatically deployed to millions of sites. You can trust 20+ engineers on the WordPress security team to keep the core software safe.

As a website owner, it’s important to do your research and ask the right questions regarding security. Read the WordPress security white paper to learn more about core software development and its related security processes.

Why

WordPress?

Reason

#5

MASON JAMES, WP VALET

Scalable infrastructure is all about handling (or eliminating) variables and unknowns. If you’re running large, enterprise-level sites, a consistent software platform is critical. WordPress is a great choice here. There are endless theme frameworks and plugins and many have been well vetted, proven to stand up during large, taxing operations.

The WordPress Site Owner’s Scalability Punch List:

 Plugins: Choosing quality plugins will help your site run smoothly. Be sure to vet all plugins for efficiency and performance before installing.

 Themes: Themes can also lack performance. Work with a professional developer to choose themes that are responsive and written for speed.

 Code Review: Make sure your development team employs a method for monitoring code in production. Quality code is the foundation of a performant site.

 Caching: Most things performance-related in computing come down to cache optimization. Be sure to employ a high performance persistent object cache.

 Infrastructure: You have to run your site somewhere, so make sure you host with a reputable website management platform that won’t leave you hanging when the big traffic comes.

SCALABLE FOR ANY STAGE

As a site owner, you have to be prepared for

what may come. Having a reliable platform

is critical for scaling your site, and will also

help you keep your sanity. With the right

infrastructure and development practices in

place, WordPress can push hundreds of millions,

even billions, of pageviews a month.

Why

WordPress?

Reason

#6

DANIEL BACHHUBER, PRINCIPAL, HAND BUILT

WordPress is the ideal choice for a future-proof publishing platform because of its steadfast commitment to backwards compatibility. This means the code you write today isn’t going to break when you update to the latest version tomorrow. In fact, the vision for WordPress is that, much like many browsers and mobile apps, you shouldn’t have to think about which version you’re running—you’re just using WordPress.

Even with this commitment to backwards compatibility, the WordPress project is always pushing forward on the latest and greatest. For instance, WordPress’ new JSON REST API presents a modern interface for other systems to pull data out of or push data into WordPress. Prefer a React-based frontend? Use the REST API to pull a custom data model into JavaScript. Need to deliver from a print CMS into WordPress? The REST API has automatically generated documentation, making it possible for the print CMS team to complete the project with minimal involvement from the WordPress team.

FUTURE-PROOF:

GROW OLD TOGETHER

WordPress is also an ideal choice for enterprise

because it is here to stay. You can rest easy

knowing the core team is deliberate about

actively maintaining and improving WordPress,

and the CMS will continue to be a viable and

modern framework for years to come.

FUTURE-PROOF

Don’t Leave Your Site Hanging

When choosing a CMS, it’s important to keep longevity in mind. Don’t create headache down the road by choosing a solution that can’t grow with you. WordPress’ commitment to backwards compatability and modern development, coupled with its dedicated community makes it a wise choice for forward-thinking site owners.

WhyWordPress?

Reason

#6

FUTURE-PROOF

Backwards Compatibility

The code you implement today isn’t going to break in the future. Dedicated to ensuring backwards compatibility, WordPress is going to make sure you aren’t backtracking with each update.

Modern Development

JavaScript and API-driven interfaces are the future for WordPress development, and will allow developers to customize the CMS more than ever before. These innovations make WordPress a great choice for an application framework as well as a blog and/or content management system.

Growing Community

The large and growing community of WordPress professionals is another sign the CMS is here to stay. You have a community to rely on, and can attend a WordCamp near you to meet members of the core team and bask in the knowledge of the community.

BOONE B. GORGES, BUDDYPRESS LEAD DEVELOPER

WordPress’s dominance ensures that the market for WP talents and products is here to stay. While WP is not the newest or trendiest tool, it’s guaranteed to be around, and widely

supported, five and ten and twenty years from now.

Moreover, WordPress is a “good guy” in the ongoing battle against platform fragmentation and proprietary services. Putting your enterprise’s resources into an Android or iOS app means putting a great deal of trust in Google and Apple, and it means the duplication of effort across platforms. WordPress is a proud champion of the distributed Web and its open standards as the best and most sustainable platform for creation.

And from a technical point of view, WordPress keeps getting better and easier to customize. WordPress’s internals are being made sleeker and more modular all the time. The introduction of the REST API into WP core means a decoupling between WordPress as an application engine and WordPress as an editing interface. It’s a good time to be building professional-grade tools with WordPress, and things will get even better in the months and years to come.

Why

WordPress?

Go Big with WordPress

Your website is the face of your company. You know this. As an enterprise site owner, you have a lot to consider in managing your website. Treat your site right by using the best tools and technology to serve your audience. WordPress is here to stay, and we hope you now feel comfortable considering the most popular CMS for your next big web project.

TOM WILLMOT, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, HUMAN MADE

Like any piece of software, it’s important to ensure you’re following best practices when it comes to deploying WordPress at enterprise scale. Done right you can absolutely have the benefits of WordPress’s great content editing experience, it’s large ecosystem of open source plugins and themes and its speed of delivery without having to compromise one bit on scalability, security or enterprise systems integration. The key is ensuring you are working with a team who understand the unique strengths of WordPress and how to best match those with existing best practises around security, scaling, deployment etc.

SCALE WORDPRESS

ON PANTHEON

WordPress reaches its full potential on a

professional-grade platform, see how Pantheon can help make your enterprise site awesome.

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