Almost half of the web (~43% at time of writing) runs on WordPress. What originally started as a blogging platform in 2003 has evolved into something wildly customizable. Open source and able to be built on with custom code and/or appended by a tremendous amount of third party plugins and page builders, it’s no wonder WordPress takes up such a massive market share in the web world. Even without knowing much code, an advanced WP user can actually make some pretty cool sites with some pretty powerful functionality.
But with great power comes great responsibility.
Because for all of its pros, WordPress has a dark side. And in the wrong hands, it can quickly become a nightmare for performance, usability, and security. There’s no hiding it: bad WordPress sucks. And most business owners don’t know if they have a good WordPress site or a bad WordPress site until something breaks.
Tech Debt: A Tale as Old as Time
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. Business owner gets a cool new site. For cheap. Maybe they found someone on Fiverr, or their cousin did it for $500. In any case, the site launches and everyone is happy!
Then two years down the road it breaks. It’s loading slowly. The design is wonky. It’s like something changed overnight, but now:
- Nobody knows how the site works
- Nobody has access to what they need
- Plugins are abandoned
- Updates break things
- The original developer disappeared
Now the “cheap” site becomes expensive to fix. 🎶 Hello tech debt, my old friend 🎶
WordPress Needs a Babysitter
Without technical oversight, WordPress can quickly become a war zone.
Because WordPress powers such a huge chunk of the internet, it’s a popular target for hackers looking to cast a wide net. If third-party solutions like page builders and plugins aren’t regularly maintained and updated, they can quickly become security vulnerabilities.
On top of that, letting routine maintenance fall by the wayside also risks breaking the design or functionality of your site because a good plugin or page builder will be making regular updates. If you let updates pile up for too long, eventually you end up trying to leapfrog years of changes all at once. That’s when things tend to break.
Frankensites
Speaking of things not working the way they did before, we need to pause for a second and talk about Frankensites (that’s a Humboldt Creative original term, as far as I know).
Because a lot of bad WP environments suffer the same ailment: Way. Too. Many. Plugins.
Need a pop-up? Plugin.
Need a form? Plugin.
Need a button that sparkles when Mercury is in retrograde? Probably a plugin.
Suddenly a website that could’ve been lean and reasonable to maintain ends up with massive bloat. The Frankensite is here, and it is not fun to babysit.
So how do you avoid a Frankensite?
My personal rule of thumb is simple: keep WordPress sites to three heavyweight plugins or fewer whenever possible. That could be something like WooCommerce, The Events Calendar, BuddyPress, etc. Anything that has a substantial amount of functionality.
And as soon as these plugins need to interact with each other (say you need to make a paid membership account to share events on the community calendar), and you’re looking at custom development work to make your site behave the way you want it to behave anyway, it’s probably time to invest in a custom solution.
What Good WordPress Looks Like
Okay, so we have an idea of what a bad WordPress site looks like. Or when it’s time to move away from WordPress. Maybe you’ve even seen this happen firsthand.
So what does a good WordPress site look like? Why would anybody go with WordPress at all?
Oh friend, they are actually so beautiful and fun to work with.
A good WordPress site:
- Uses only the plugins it actually needs (many small features can be handled with lightweight custom code instead of adding another plugin)
- Has quality hosting, backups, and a clear update process
- Uses a well-maintained theme (or a totally custom theme)
- Has somebody responsible for ongoing maintenance (a babysitter)
- Is still easy for the business owner to go in and edit as needed
One of my favorite examples of a good WordPress site is Silk Stars.
During the pandemic, I joined this platform to continue my aerial practice. Students are able to pay for membership, log in, gain access to exclusive paywalled video content breaking down the monthly sequences plus a library of conditioning exercises to augment the skills in the air. Students are also able to upload their videos for Womack & Bowman to review and critique. Further, students can view each other’s videos to leave comments and encouragement. Like a little mini social media platform.
Beyond all of the functionality, the site simply works. It’s fast, responsive, and capable of supporting a surprisingly complex ecosystem of memberships, video content, uploads, comments, and community interaction without feeling clunky or fragile. That’s what impresses me most. The technology fades into the background and lets the experience take center stage.
From a technical perspective, that’s usually a sign that somebody made thoughtful decisions about architecture, hosting, maintenance, and long-term support. Under the hood, the site is clearly sophisticated and professionally maintained.
That’s an example of WordPress done right.
And then there’s the flexibility of WordPress. I love talking systems but love talking design even more. WordPress allows for fully custom theming. Meaning, you actually get a lot more control over design than you would with something like Squarespace or Shopify. Just take a look at the examples on Awwwards to see what I’m talking about.
You can usually spot the constraints of a template-driven builder once you’ve worked with enough of them. Custom WordPress? Whole new ballgame.
When you own the code, the possibilities get a lot bigger.
Signs You Have a Bad WordPress Site
So what’s the TL;DR?
Chances are if you’re here looking for validation that you indeed have a bad WordPress site, you probably already know the answer. For those who aren’t sure, here are a few signs you have a bad WordPress site:
- You avoid logging in.
- You’re afraid to update anything.
- Nobody knows what plugins do.
- Your site is slow.
- Forms and features randomly stop working.
- You have three page builders installed.
- Every fix creates two new problems.
- Your developer vanished years ago.
But again, none of these canaries in the mine are WordPress’s fault because WordPress isn’t the problem. Bad architecture is the problem. Bad maintenance is the problem. Bad decisions made over ten years by six different developers are the problem.
Good WordPress is one of the most flexible website platforms available.
But bad WordPress? Bad WordPress sucks.
WordPress Doesn’t Have to Be Scary Though!
If you’ve made it this far and are suddenly wondering whether your website is secretly a Frankensite, don’t panic. Most WordPress problems are fixable. Sometimes it’s as simple as cleaning up a bloated plugin stack or implementing a proper maintenance plan. Sometimes it’s realizing WordPress isn’t actually the right tool for the job anymore.
That’s the stuff we help people figure out every day. Whether you need a second opinion, a rescue mission, ongoing maintenance, or a completely fresh start, we’re happy to take a look.
No judgment. We’ve seen some things.
