Deciding if WP is appropriate for me

  • Unknown's avatar
    singularelegance · Member ·

    Is WordPress appropriate if I already have a website I am happy with, but need to change ability to edit?

    WP.com: Unknown
    Jetpack: Unknown
    Correct account: Unknown

  • Unknown's avatar
    rawalplawit · Member ·

    Hey @singularelegance, if you are happy with your current website then there is no reason to switch.

    However, if you join wordpress.com pro, you will have access to support 24/7. You also wont have to worry about backups or performing routine maintenance. Everything is managed by wordpress.com and you can just relax and focus on the content of your website.

    You can get additional information at https://wordpress.com/go/business-website-guidance/wordpress-com-vs-wordpress-org/

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    Can you tell us a bit about your site, like what you’re using it for and what types of features you’re after? Then we’ll be better able to say if WordPress will be a good fit.

    What I can tell you for now is that one of the biggest advantages of WordPress is it’s customizability – if there’s a feature you’re looking for that doesn’t exist in the software natively, chances are there’s a plugin that can add that feature for you, and if not you can hire someone to build you a plugin for it. And there are thousands of themes available to control how your site looks, each of which you can also customize however you want.

    WordPress is also no-code as far as maintaining your content goes, i.e. you can create new pages and update existing ones without ever having to write HTML code, and with the site editor and block themes that came out earlier this year, you can customize your site’s look without knowing any PHP or CSS code.

    Lastly, content on a WordPress site is 100% portable, so if you wanted to migrate your content to a different site, different hosting provider, or even a completely different platform, the ability to let you do that is built into the WordPress software itself. As opposed to hard-coded HTML websites or platforms like Wix that don’t offer a way to export your site’s content.

    For WordPress.com specifically there’s also the items @rawalplawit mentioned above that we offer as a hosting provider, over and above features built into the WordPress software itself.

    I hope that helps, but let us know if you have any more questions.

  • Unknown's avatar
    singularelegance · Member ·

    Thanks for your reply. I run the fundraising arm of a nonprofit. The site allows parents to preview and purchase photographs of their student state science fair participants taken during the event. The site was built with DreamWeaver and now I need to migrate it to a different editing site. All of us are volunteers and cannot afford to pay for professional services. (Volunteers do not last forever!)

    Does the free version of WordPress allow me to migrate existing code using my existing free host and domain to the WordPress platform? I have access to all admin code credentials. I just need something I can learn without a degree in computer science!

    Thanks for any help you can offer.

    Sue

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Thanks for the extra details, Sue.

    Before I get to your question, let me quickly clarify: right now you’re on WordPress.com, a hosting provider for the open source WordPress software. That software itself is free, and made by the community on WordPress.org, but you still need to pay to host that software at a hosting provider like WordPress.com, Bluehost.com, Pressable.com, etc.

    Here on WordPress.com we offer a free hosting option with some restrictions, and a paid hosting option for the full WordPress experience, called the Pro plan.

    Does the free version of WordPress allow me to migrate existing code using my existing free host and domain to the WordPress platform?

    It would very much depend on the code you want to bring over and what it’s meant to do. Dreamweaver and WordPress are two completely different platforms, and something built for one won’t necessarily work on the other.

    If you’re talking vanilla HTML code, then it should work for the most part, though we restrict certain types of HTML on the free plan for security reasons, in particular iframe embeds. If you are speaking of iframe embeds, or anything involving JavaScript code, that would require our Pro plan.

    https://wordpress.com/en/support/code/

    Likewise, using your own domain will also need the Pro plan:

    https://wordpress.com/en/support/domains/connect-existing-domain/

    However, on the Pro plan you’d also be able to install any WordPress plugin to add the functionality you need to the site. If, for example, you needed the photos to only be available to parents who have registered as a user on the site you can use a membership plugin. And to sell the photos you can use the WooCommerce plugin which support both physical and digital purchases, and a variety of payment options.

    You also don’t need to know anything about code or programming to do this. While it’s certainly possible to hack the WordPress code to build something custom, WordPress is designed as a no-code CMS (content management system), which allows you to customize how your site looks and works without having to write a single line of code in most cases. It can take a while to learn, especially if you want to use more advanced features, but it’s designed so anyone can use it to build a website, regardless of your experience.

    Let me know if that sparks any more questions :)

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