Why portable websites are more affordable

With a myriad of website options for your newly minted business, your eye is caught by the cheap prices of the do-it-yourself variety of website builders. Let’s put aside that you may not be a creative genius and work on the assumption that the do-it-yourself option has some form of AI or a huge range of templates, which will create a website which will wow your prospective clients. What’s not affordable and to love here?

Well, if you don’t mind being tied to that company for the foreseeable future for domain renewal, hosting costs and emails – it could be fine. But putting even that aside the biggest issue you will discover is that a some point in the future you may want to develop some feature or functionality that your do-it-yourself provider simply doesn’t offer.

WordPress = portable and affordable

So after paying a not inconsiderable monthly sum for the last 2 years you have just discovered the limitations of your website, and in most cases – that you do not own the code, and that if you want to do something more than a relatively standard brochureware site – you will need to start again.

Therefore, in order to future proof your website, and avoid the pitfalls of wasting your investment, you need your website to be portable to developers who are able to create exactly what you need. We recommend WordPress for this purpose. Having a WordPress website is like having a portable number on your mobile phone. You can switch developers and hosting companies with minimal fuss, which is eminently more affordable.

The myth of the custom CMS

When Sheer started we had to decide if we would develop our own Content Management System (CMS) or adopt something open source. For us it was a no brainer. We don’t tie our clients in with our own CMS simply because over the long term it won’t benefit anybody. There are still some outmoded web development companies out there who will tell you their CMS is the next big thing and that it’s more secure than open source alternatives.

Generally this is bunkum, WordPress is open source with a huge developer community which constantly enriches its functionality and security. Sure it suffers from hackers targeting it from time to time, but patches are issued quickly and regular updating will keep your website protected. A custom CMS will not be developed with anywhere near this frequency and so could be vulnerable to security flaws and will inevitably offer lesser functionality.

Avoid tie-ins and select a partner you can trust

Open source CMS such as WordPress are portable because there are a huge number of developers working with it globally. When you consider the vast range of plugins and widgets – there is very little you can’t do with this platform. The same cannot be said for do-it-yourself website builders or web developers who offer their own Custom CMS.

With these guys, if anything goes wrong – I’m afraid you are stuck at their mercy and if you don’t like it – you will need to start again. With WordPress, you can pick up and move somewhere else easily with no fuss. Above all, we don’t believe in tie-ins because of their inferior value and that our customers come back to us because of the quality and service we offer. If you are looking for a website that’s affordable, future proof and portable – then please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.