WordPress Website Development: Why, When and How Much

Regardless of the fact that around 64 million websites are currently using WordPress, there are still a lot of questions and misconceptions about WordPress development. MindK as a company that provides WordPress development sevices for years, usually faces questions from the clients about whether WordPress is a good choice for their particular goal, are there any hidden hazards, how much does it cost to develop a website on WordPress, and so on. That’s why we’ve prepared an ultimate guide where we’ll answer:

• what are the benefits and drawbacks of WordPress development services?
• when should you opt for WordPress development?
• how much does it cost to develop a website on WordPress?

WordPress development services: pros and cons

WordPress (WP) engine has a number of advantages and drawbacks that businesses should take into account if thinking of building a WordPress website. Among the key benefits are:

• Fast start and scalability. Indeed, building a working website on WordPress doesn’t require years of development. Depending on business needs, level of complexity and the experience of the WordPress development company you are working with, launching the first basic version of the website can take from several weeks to several months on average. Moreover, WordPress has long dispelled the stereotype that it is good only for blogs or promo sites. Due to the availability of templates, WordPress now serves various industries and business goals.

You can create almost anything on WordPress, from a blog to an online store or a big brand representation. As we’ve already mentioned, a number of world-famous companies use WordPress for their websites. Among them are Bloomberg, PlayStation, BBC America, Vogues, Sweden’s Official Website, TED Blog, Microsoft News Center, Time Inc., and others.

Example of WordPress website – Techcrunch

• Intuitive use. WordPress is quite easy to use for business. It has a clear admin panel. Even people unfamiliar with the sphere of maintaining sites can figure out how to manage WordPress websites, namely, WordPress has many features that a person can use to upload multimedia content, create image galleries, set a schedule for articles to be published, and so on.
• Wide range of plugins and themes. There is an official database of plugins and themes developed for WordPress. They are created by third-party developers and designers and are available for purchase.

Themes are a group of different files including style sheets, graphics, and code that determine the appearance of the website. A client can either choose from the ready-made themes or ask the WordPress development company to create a custom theme that will make the website stand out from the crowd.

Plugins extend the functionality of the WP website. Most plugins have a narrow specialization and serve to perform specific tasks. They can range from simple ones like adding a forum to your website to more complex features. For example, our team has recently developed a Mindbody plugin that allows to embed scheduling, booking, and secure payments into WordPress sites.

Similar to themes, there are custom-made plugins, however, if you need to extend the WP functionality by means of a plugin, you can order a customized plug-in development for your business needs. We’ve already explained all ins and outs of WordPress plugin development, so check out the article to find more about it.

Source: wordpress.org

• Responsive design. Mobile traffic is constantly growing – in 2021 it’s increased up to 56%. Due to this, it is very important for a website to be adaptive for mobile devices. WordPress websites have this functionality by default. Even the basic out-of-the-box theme is ready to work with any resolution.

• SEO-friendly. Modern business requires constant work with Search engine optimization (SEO). The WordPress platform is ready for this and has a number of plugins that allow content optimization, meta-tagging, embedding keyword, and so on. In general, they do everything to make search engines like Google be loyal to the website and rank it higher in the search. Without it, optimization would take a lot of time and investment.

With all these benefits the company has an opportunity to get a good-looking, responsive, and SEO-friendly website at short notice. Sounds not half bad, doesn’t it? However, it is important to consider that to gain these benefits the business should partner with an experienced provider of WordPress development services. In such a way, we smoothly come to some drawbacks of WordPress development you should be aware of:

• Hard to find a tech provider with deep knowledge of WordPress. You may be surprised, but it really is a problem now to find a qualified specialist. Although the market is overcrowded with WordPress development offerings, don’t kid yourself. The WordPress market is huge, therefore you will definitely come across dozens of offers ranging from freelancers to large companies with different experience, competence, and rates. So, you’ll need some time and patience to find a WordPress website development company or WordPress developers able to guarantee the quality of service provided. We have already shared some valuable tips that will help you find a reliable team in our article 5 steps to find a good WordPress Developer in 2021.
• Incompatible updates. This drawback comes out from the main advantage of WordPress – customization. We’ve mentioned the variety of plugins that allows you to customize and extend the functionality of your website. However, when the plugins are updated, it can cause errors and bugs. Also, when WordPress itself is updated, there is a risk of losing compatibility with installed plugins and themes. This can cause serious errors. That’s why working with an experienced WordPress developer is worth gold.
• Security issues. WordPress is a platform with open-source code and is available for everyone who needs to use or customize it. However, open-source has its drawbacks. The number of viruses, spammers, and fraudsters is increasing. Plugins are considered the weakest point in terms of security – almost 90% of security vulnerabilities came through plugins in 2021.

Source: wpscan.com

Now that you see WordPress development has two sides of the coin, let’s talk about which websites WordPress engine is suitable for.

When WordPress is a good idea to use?

There is a common misconception that WordPress is good only for blogs, but this is not true. Indeed, initially, WordPress was designed as a content management system, but today you can implement almost any project by means of WordPress.

Except for blogs, here are the most common examples of websites suitable for WordPress:

• Informational web portals that involve informational content of any sort, including corporate portals and business websites. The largest companies like Disney, IBM, General Electric, Verizon, Mercedes-Benz, and others use WordPress for their corporate sites. It is the most essential evidence that this CMS is suitable for business sites.

By the way, web portals are one of the most popular requests we receive at MindK. Our team has recently helped Reputation, a US-based company, to launch a promo web portal to market their solutions and services.

• E-commerce sites created by means of WordPress using the WooCommerce plugin are just as good in speed, feature set, and security as online stores running on such popular e-commerce CMSs like OpenCart, Magento, and others.

Example of e-commerce website on WordPress
Source: houseofwhiskyscotland.com

• News websites and magazines, proven by such famous websites that run on WordPress, such as Techcrunch, Fortune, The New Yorker, Harvard Gazette, Vogue, Chicago Sun Times, and others.
• Portfolios used to represent an individual and show examples of works.

Apart from these, there are a large number of other types of websites that can run on WordPress like forums, social networks, job search websites, real estate portals, online catalogs and so forth.

Here at MindK we even developed an e-learning system on WordPress called Tyoch. It is an easy-to-use platform that brings together the best trainers, large companies, and individuals. With the help of the system, the coaches have everything to run their education business online.

With all that said, the question relevant for everyone who plans to develop a WordPress website, is the cost.

How much does WordPress development cost?

Everyone who needs to develop a WordPress website or customize it wishes answering this question could be that simple. However, the final cost of WordPress development services depends on a number of factors. In our article about How much does a web application cost, we’ve already mentioned these factors. In short, here is what can influence the cost of WordPress development services:

• Scope of work: means a set of features or number of services you require.
• Business niche: building an online store or real estate portal may be more expensive than developing an online portfolio.
• Technical complexity: implementation of technically complex features like integrations increases the costs of development. Custom development may also cost you more, as building a website from scratch or based on the premade theme is a big difference. Usually, well-established, large to medium-sized companies opt for custom website development.
• UI/UX design: if you want a fully custom design, be ready to pay for it, while the cheaper option is a design based on pre-built templates and WordPress themes.
• Deadlines: the tight deadlines and urgency will always cause the costs of development to go up.
• Non-functional requirements: involve characteristics that describe how the application works like performance, scalability, usability, security, reliability and so on. They have a high impact on the user influence, so should not be overlooked.
• Engagement model: are different modes of cooperation with a web development company like fixed price, time and materials, or dedicated team. Each of these models has strong and weak points. To choose the one for your needs, just explore our article about types of engagement models.
• Choice of developer: the choice of WordPress company you entrust development to is one of the most important variables that influence the final costs of development.

The average hourly rate for a WordPress developer in the United States is around $31 for now. However, you may face rates from $10 to $250 per hour. This is because rates always depend on the experience, knowledge, and professional level of the team you are hiring.

Due to this, sometimes a WordPress development company with higher rates may cost you less in the long run. All this is thanks to streamlined processes, clear business workflows, effective management, and greater experience under the belt that most freelance WordPress developers can’t offer.

To find the cost for your project, it’s necessary to explain all the requirements to the WordPress web development company. The company will provide you with a rough estimate, an approximate cost of your project. Rough estimates MindK provides to clients consist of five sections: estimate itself, our assumptions, our suggestions, the limitations, and our questions.

WordPress website development services by MindK

Each WordPress development company has an individual set of development services they provide. For example, if you are looking for a company to migrate your website from another Content Management System to WordPress or integrate some third-party system, not every WordPress developer or company can get the ball rolling.

At MindK we provide WordPress development services for more than 10 years and have experience with:

• developing websites from scratch;
• creating multisite on WordPress;
• developing custom plug-ins;
• customizing WordPress themes;
• migrating website to WordPress; and
• integrating with third-party solutions.

If you are looking for a reliable WordPress website development company to help you with any of these tasks, fill in the contact form on our website and our manager will contact you shortly. Explore our WordPress Development Services offering to see more about our work.