Having been a WordPress developer since 2018 and working in various agencies developing for clients, I am very pleased to have joined Webnetism in the summer of 2024 and transitioned to developing with an in-house CMS called CMS42 built with Angular/C#.
This shift has given me a unique perspective on the merits and challenges of each approach. Businesses often face a key decision: opting for an off-the-shelf solution like WordPress or have an in-house CMS tailored to their specific needs. Both approaches have distinct advantages and challenges, hinging on factors like customization, scalability, cost, and long-term maintainability.
While WordPress offers a robust, wide ranging ecosystem with good community support through plugins etc, an in-house CMS allows unparalleled flexibility and control, catering precisely to the organization’s workflows and objectives. I will now go through the various scenarios I have encountered during my time working on a few CMS42 projects at Webnetism and where there have been clear advantages for both a developer and the client in the final delivery.
1. Anything is possible
As the title here states, anything is possible with a bespoke in-house solution like CMS42. If there is a specific specialised feature that a client would require, for example a XML feed that would need to be integrated for an e-commerce solution or a customer portal login that would display customer data or files. All these requests can be accommodated and built straight into the CMS for a native and bespoke finish that also comes with the support of a team that fully understands your requirements and can help you achieve your business goals. As I have been working with the team to complete projects for our customers there have also been cases where I have asked for features to improve the functionality of our CMS, mainly site wide copy paste, saving content as what we call “snippets” to make it easier to have repeating content on pages that can easily be edited from one place rather than page by page and having to manually change content, template creation for faster page generation and much more.
2. Developer Support
Although Wordpress does offer e-commerce solutions for example through the Woocommerce plugin (one of the most widely used), this in the long run can actually cost you more and will still require developer support assuming you want to make more meaningful changes than just colours and text. A lot of these plugins also require monthly subscriptions and need regular updates to ensure they are secure and keep up with the latest features of Wordpress. I have also seen cases where developers of these plugins either shut down their plugins or phase out support potentially requiring you to migrate your business to another plugin or again have to seek external support which can cause further frustration.
3. Performance
Website performance is vital for higher Google rankings, as fast-loading pages improve user experience and reduce bounce rates. Core Web Vitals, which assess speed and interactivity, are key factors to increasing rank on search engines. As a result of this increase in prioritising performance, choosing an in house solution can deliver far higher results than an off the shelf solution like Wordpress. The team at Webnetism take performance into account and make it a priority when developing your business solution and as a result a modern CMS42 build scores very highly on Core Web Vitals.
This is in contrast at times with Wordpress where the reliance on plugins provided by multiple developers (as well as the number of libraries and packages that these plugins use) also can cause conflicts leading to bloat and performance loss for your site. Granted this can be mitigated with effective caching but this again requires knowledge of your hosting provider and the right settings needed for the caching plugin. CMS42 does not have this issue as all the features and requirements for the project are known to us and accounted for ensuring the best possible result.
Conclusion
In summary, moving from WordPress development to working with CMS42 has provided valuable insights into the strengths of an in-house CMS. While WordPress offers extensive features and a vibrant community, CMS42 excels in delivering bespoke solutions tailored to unique client needs. Its focused design eliminates plugin bloat, ensuring better performance and smoother workflows. With CMS42, projects benefit from a system that prioritizes speed, scalability, and flexibility, backed by a team that fully understands the platform. This shift has highlighted the advantages of a custom-built CMS in creating efficient, future-proof solutions that align perfectly with both client goals and business objectives.
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