WordPress Development Trends & Challenges

WordPress is obviously one of the most popular content management systems for developing websites quickly and easily. Web developers have been using WordPress for more than a decade now, and they want to keep themselves updated so that they can effectively leverage this platform. And those new to WordPress development are trying to learn about it to decide whether they can use this platform for their next project. 

As such, developers have so many web development platforms available to choose from, and it is difficult to decide whether WordPress would fare better than the rest. As the decision is challenging, whether experienced, or not, all web developers are interested in answers to some questions about WordPress development. 

Through this blog, we will try to answer some questions for those going for WordPress development. But, before that, we must see these surprising statistics about WordPress that will convince us why we can’t ignore WordPress. 

“WordPress is used by 63.1% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 43.1% of all websites.”

So, how are so many businesses doing with this platform? The trends in WordPress development should answer this question!

Trends in WordPress Development

Let’s look at the trends in WordPress development. These trends keep changing rapidly, though some continue for longer as they keep helping businesses lead the competition. 

Gutenberg Editor

Gutenberg is the new modular editor plugin for WordPress. It allows you to edit the different content blocks, and adjust widgets. A stable instance of Gutenberg is included in the new releases so that the developers do not have to worry about the website or editor crashing with WordPress or plugin’s version upgrades. 

In summary, Gutenberg editor offers the following.

Headless WordPress

The concept of headless architecture in a CMS allows the flexibility to use the most popular frontend technologies such as React, Angular, Vue.js, etc., for the development of the frontend of your website while retaining the advantages of using WordPress in the backend. This is however not the only benefit of separately designing frontend and backend. Other benefits are as follows. 

1. The frontend and the backend of your site can be managed by different teams with different skills and expertise in the relevant technologies.   
2. Separation of frontend and backend helps improve website performance with the best technologies empowering the frontend performance.
3. Users of the backend have all the privileges of their familiar WordPress, including Dashboard, while the users have excess to high-grade customized frontend user experience. 
4. Progressive Web Apps are possible by using headless WordPress setups.

Suggested Reading: CMS 101: All You Need to Know 

Artificial Intelligence in WordPress

Now that the world is looking for Artificial Intelligence in everything, the trends continue to favor the development of more and more WordPress plugins with AI support and functionality. If you are interested in WordPress plugins with AI, you can find a variety of these. However, an expert developer’s trick is to never select a plugin without testing or checking the ratings and reviews. 

Before selecting a plugin, or, integrating it with your site, it is advisable to visit WordPress community forums and discuss with fellow WordPress developers who have used the plugin as they have possibly identified the benefits and limitations of that plugin. Moreover, as AI is a fast upgrading technology, with better capabilities adding very fast, you must ensure you select a plugin that upgrades as quickly.    

WordPress VIP

WordPress VIP, a premium enterprise hosting service by Automattic, comes with a managed hosting environment that can handle heavy traffic, high performance, top security, and scalability for large-sized business requirements. WordPress VIP has all the ingredients to be one of the most talked about WordPress development trends in the business circles, with more and more players adopting it this year and after. 

Voice Search Optimization

The one feature that no web or app developer can ignore now is voice search optimization. Around a decade ago, the searches were textual. However, now, as more and more users are on mobile phones, and voice recognition algorithms have advanced enough to accurately interpret voice instructions, it is possible to do voice searches quickly and accurately. 

Users are thus quitting text search and so most web developers are trying to leverage voice search functionality. Eventually, the choice of the best web development platform rests on its voice search optimization capabilities. This functionality, along with the use of AI, will make WordPress the Developers’ Choice in the coming years.  

We are living in an era when more and more businesses are targeting global clientele. They are thus trying to leverage voice search capabilities through the support of various tools and languages. Multilingual voice search is thus going to rule over all web development trends, including WordPress development. There are various multi-lingual voice search plugins available for WordPress. We can expect these functionalities to improve with time.   

Limitations of WordPress for Developers 

It is pointless to just talk about the benefits of a technology or platform, especially when you are writing for developers who will have to execute a complete project on this platform and they need to know the shortcomings as well as challenges in WordPress development. 

Custom Plugin Development

Anyone familiar with web development or mobile app development very well understands that it is easier to code than to decode and recode. This goes for WordPress custom plugin development as well. Developers need to understand the architecture of WordPress well to be able to develop plugins that can be integrated into it. This also requires knowledge and awareness of WordPress development best practices. However, the best practices change with updated versions and changing market needs. This is a never-ending challenge for developers.   

The developers must keep themselves updated on the latest WordPress releases, their features, and best practices in development to cope with plugin development. And, after you have all of that, and released your plugin, WordPress upgrades make it essential for you to upgrade your plugin to prevent the crashing of the site or relevant functionality. Sounds huge! 

Well, it may not be easy to develop WordPress plugins and keep upgrading them with changing releases or needs. However, the top WordPress developers have mastered the art and can do that for you without any hassles. 

Time and Budget Constraints

If your business needs a simple website, on a limited budget, WordPress development is a very good choice and the site can be delivered in hours or a few days, depending upon your needs. However, if your requirements are complex, WordPress development will also include the development of complex functionality plugins. Such custom development of WordPress plugins for complex functionality requires a high budget, more time, and high-grade skills. 

Many businesses with complex requirements go for custom web development instead of WordPress development as they realize that custom development using the trending languages and technologies would not cost any higher than custom WordPress development and so they choose the flexibility of technology and languages compared to WordPress. 

We must accept that there is no perfect choice when custom web development from scratch is compared to WordPress development as the decision should be based on your requirements and upon consultation with the top web development companies who have experience and expertise with all these options and can understand which mode should work out best for your needs. 

Suggested Reading: How to Start Your First Website - CMS Vs. Custom Development

Performance

On one hand, you can find many developers appreciating the performance of WordPress, while on the other, you will see support forums flooded with developers complaining about the performance of their WordPress websites! Let’s try to understand the reasons for this.

WordPress is resource intensive and difficult to manage on shared or poor-grade hosting. Also, if you have developed low-performing themes or plugins, your website performance is affected. And, many businesses are even constrained to use third-party plugins due to limitations of time and budget. These are an added threat to website performance because not all such plugins are equally performing. 

To achieve the desired performance, you must try caching and optimization, apart from custom plugin development.   

Limited Control Over Database

WordPress has its specific database structure and it can cause database performance issues during challenging operations. Many developers are opting out of WordPress for web development as they find it difficult to manage the database.

The only perfect solution for the database problem is to go for custom web development with one of the best web development service providers. They will ensure that they choose the right database technology to build a solution that you can trust.    

Wrapping Up! 

WordPress is the preferred web development platform for many, including web development companies that want to deliver quick and low-budget projects. 

There are various WordPress development companies across the world. Going with the experts will get you the desired results. So, what are you waiting for? Find the best WordPress development partner for your next project on Goodtal!