Are you trying to decide between building your website from scratch or using a website-building platform like WordPress?

When web development first began, the options for building a website were extremely limited. In most cases, your only option was to write every line of code yourself or hire someone else to do it. In 2022, things are very different thanks to the rise of CMS and website builders.

These platforms offer developers a streamlined approach to creating a website, and sometimes not even a line of code is required. However, just because it is easier to do, does not necessarily make them the better choice when building.

To help you find a solution that’s right for your business, we'll compare and contrast the functionality of a static HTML site and the popular content management system (CMS), WordPress.

What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source flexible Content Management System that allows multiple users to create, manage and modify their website from a user-friendly interface without directly interacting with the code. Instead, they typically interact with the platform’s editor, in which they can add their content, which is quite easy to understand, even for absolute beginners. Having covered 40% of the internet, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using WordPress.

Pros
WordPress is easy to begin working with as you don’t need any technical skills to know how to use it. This allows you to almost completely eliminate the need to know how to code. When performing your website’s daily management tasks the platform is specifically designed to be very beginner-friendly. It is famous for its 5-minute installation. Instead of coding, most of the actions can be performed through its user interface. It allows you to:  

• Create or update content and pages.
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• Customize your site’s functionality and appearance.
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• Improve and manage SEO.

Responsive: The developer makes your website responsive by using themes and templates on every screen resolution.

Easy to Manage: You can simply login to your WordPress site and add new pages without paying your developer. WordPress is easy to use and has an intuitive user interface, which makes it easy for you to create or update pages on your site.

Themes and Templates Implementation: There are thousands of ready-made templates that you can use on your site. These themes are developed by professionals from all over the world.

Incredibly Powerful: WordPress websites can be easily extended with plugins. By installing plugins, you can add any functionality to your existing websites such as adding a contact form, adding a reservation system, adding a photo gallery, and more. Also, WordPress is always developing, as it is open-source. Anyone can contribute to WordPress – helping in fixing issues and bugs, etc.; they can also create and develop their own WordPress themes and plugins. This helps the rapid development of WordPress as the platform always gets better whenever there is a new release or an update.

Cons
WordPress is built on PHP and MySQL. Fortunately, you don’t have to worry as you can use WordPress without any knowledge of  PHP and MySQL. However, to make more advanced customizations that are not offered by plugins or themes, you need to know some scripting languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which might take time to learn.

Need Regular Updates: You are required to manage and take care of your website periodically and you have to make sure there aren’t any compatibility issues.  So, you will be required to keep your WordPress site and its aspects – such as plugins and themes – always up to date. If your time to maintain your WordPress site is scarce, you can simply use a hosting service that provides daily backups and updates for your site, helping keep your WordPress site secure.

Depends on Extra Plugins: There are multiple plugins used in WordPress conversion, to make your website more attractive and to fulfil the requirements of our clients.

Less Secure: Developers use WordPress security templates to make the website secure. But it is less secure than HTML Static website

Learning Curve: While WordPress is easy to use but it takes a while for most beginners to get familiar with the software. There is plenty of help available to get over this learning curve quickly, but it will take a little effort.

What is a static HTML website?
A static HTML website is made up of a series of HTML files. Each file represents one page of the website and every time a visitor enters the website their browser is displaying that HTML file.

Each page of a static HTML website must be edited individually if you want to make a change. Thus, if you plan to redesign your website, you’re going to need to edit every single file. This makes managing a static HTML website extremely time-consuming. That is unless you incorporate CSS and PHP, which can vastly improve development time. But still, you’re looking at a lot of coding.

However, the key advantage is complete control over the content on your pages. There are no preset limitations. Instead, the only limiting factor is your coding knowledge. Let’s take a look at HTML’s pros and cons to differentiate it better.

Pros
When using HTML for your website, you get to control nearly everything on your website. Because you build your website from the core using a markup language, accessing and modifying the code is easier than with WordPress. This makes it much more flexible when integrating certain additional features. For example, while WordPress uses schema plugins, you can easily employ schema markup on a static HTML website via code.

Little to No Maintenance: Once your website is live, you do not need to install any updates or regularly backup. If nothing is changed, you can just backup your website once and forget about it.

Low Requirements: HTML websites don’t need servers with PHP or MySQL installed on them. They can run on cheaper servers with low resources. Although most good web hosting companies offer PHP and MySQL support. It is used for startups and small organizations. There is no need for a database.

Strong Security: A static website is converted with the help of HTML and CSS markups, which requires a professional. It is tough to break its security without good knowledge.

Quick Loading: The static HTML website has limited functionalities, which make it lightweight and bug-free. This will also be helpful for the quick loading of your website.

Cons
HTML is definitely not beginner-friendly. Static HTML is good for building a basic website. However, you need to do a little coding if you want to update your content, and you need to rewrite your CSS if you want to change your site’s appearance.

No Updates: Unless you know HTML/CSS, static HTML websites can be very difficult to update for beginners. You will need to hire a developer even for smaller tasks like adding new pages, updating old content, or uploading videos or images.

No Additional Features: If your business grows and you want to add a feature to your website like a store, a survey or poll, a gallery, etc. All of this would require you to hire a developer.

Costs: Considering that you will have to hire people even for the smallest tasks, the cost of a HTML website could get much higher than a WordPress website.

Requirements of Developer Always: You need to hire a professional developer to make any changes to your website. It’s not possible for a non-technical to make any changes without having the proper knowledge.

So, after learning both the pros and cons of WordPress and HTML, have you got a clearer idea of which one is better for your website?

WordPress is a dynamic and more structured platform. It is beneficial for both large as well as for small companies. On the other hand, HTML is a static and more secure website. You can use a static website for small organizations. As both have their advantages and disadvantages. So, you can select either of these two depending on your business requirements.

Still, need any help? Feel free to contact us