Why You Don’t Want a WordPress Website & Subscription Software – Pay Once & Own It

by EzekielDiet.com
Posted on Apr 23, 2024

I’ve been using WordPress websites for at least 15 years. I’ve earned the right to have a solid opinion about why you don’t want a WordPress website.

Another huge issue especially for business today is subscription software vendors. The software industry does not want you to own desktop software any longer. There’s been a concerted effort to eradicate and get rid of desktop software where you pay once and own it. Everyone wants you and all your business data in the cloud for anyone and everyone to scrutinize and hack.

The first WordPress website I owned indicated the problems to come on the very first day the site was loaded and in my possession. During the development of the site there were already a dozen software updates for WordPress and multiple plugin applications that do different functions to improve the site’s use and overall look. Being the new administrator I clicked to load all these required updates and just like that the site was broken. My web designer went ballistic that I would dare touch the required WordPress and Plugin software update button. It took another 2 days to fix all the programming problems when the software patches were installed.

I slowly realized I need to run a separate testing website on the server just to test which plugins and updates would crash the site or change programming and pagination throughout the site. With this comes a new IT web guy and more expense.

WordPress is open source software that anyone can manipulate and add nefarious code and backdoor entrances. A lot of the functionality in the website comes from “plugin” applications that are made by hundreds or thousands of different vendors. This is a problem. You don’t know who you’re doing business with. Plus these software vendors come and go out of business like the changes of the season. Plugins that are all the rage this year are no longer supported next year and it’s discovered came with vulnerabilities.

Almost immediately the WordPress site was being hacked with nefarious code and redirects and advertising for questionable sites.

Failed robot attempts to log into the back-end control panel were going on continuously from every country on the planet. New software had to be loaded to lock down the site from nefarious hackers working hard to guess the password to log in to the back-end control panel. The standard generic WordPress admin login makes it an easy robot target to guess your password. The control panel login had to be hidden in redirect to a different address so robots weren’t constantly trying to login. The practical problem is after several failed robot login attempts the site gets locked for several hours. When I needed to get in to make changes or updates I often find I’m locked out until hours later due to failed login attempts.

Eventually I had to move the sites to a dedicated Linux server we could lock down tight which solved a lot of the problems. But not all the WordPress vulnerabilities.

Another issue with WordPress plugins is when one goes bad, or gets hacked, Google can view it as nefarious code and stop indexing your website on their search engine.

WordPress is never-ending drama and I’m doing everything I can to divest myself of WordPress as I write this rant.

Now let me tell you about another website I own that I had custom built 20 years ago in PHP. Because it was custom built it’s what my programmers refer to as a closed PHP system. This is an elaborate website with several back-end control panels, CRM database that tracks affiliates, their sales and commission. It allows those affiliates to duplicate my business website with their own website header. It looks like an extension of their website. It only cost me a few thousand dollars to build it out in India in 2004 when the dollar could buy a lot more than it does today.

In stark contrast to the WordPress site that Affiliate site has operated flawlessly day in and day out, year in and year out, decade in and decades out without any software issues except for reloading a new SSL encryption certificate every year. The IT industry doesn’t want this either. Like desktop software, they don’t want you to build out a closed PHP system you own that’s free from constant blind updates that crash and spy on your site and business.

The same is true for business software developers. Adobe, Act, QuickBooks, MS Office and more all want you on their endless subscription plan.

I ran a report the other day that showed I’ve paid Act! over $20,000 in 15 years for a few seat licenses to use a simple CRM database. That’s crazy. I was hosting my own desktop Act! server software I bought used on eBay for a few hundred dollars and paid an Act! programmer to build it out custom for my business for like $1,500 total cost. I always said that was the best money I’ve ever spent. However I had to babysit the server to make sure it was up and running 100% of the time. I couldn’t take a long vacation without worrying about server issues while I was away. So I bit the bullet and moved to Act! cloud software. But when and if the Internet ever goes down, I’m out of business. You don’t want this either. Have your CRM database built into a PHP closed system and host it on your own dedicated server with your website.

My next pet peeve is QuickBooks. They definitely do not want me to continue running my own private bookkeeping desktop software. QuickBooks wants me on a $500 annual subscription to use their software. If you own bookkeeping software that you know well and works fine; why upgrade when what you have isn’t broken? So QuickBooks regularly breaks my desktop software to eliminate functionality in an obvious effort (in my opinion) to force me into a subscription. Many of their loyal customers are also incensed by the fact that QuickBooks (under the guise of updating your software) will turn off or break your copy of the desktop software so you can no longer do things like convenient electronic bank feeds imported into the program. Time goes by so fast, in 20 years you’ll have spent $12,000 for a cloud based bookkeeping software you can buy for $39.95.

Adobe PDF is the same way, I think I’m paying $14.95 a month to use Adobe PDF editor. Own the software even if you have to use a knock-off brand. You constantly have to keep up with charge cards on file expiring and interruption of service drama. This has become such a problem that there are companies selling Subscription Service Software to track all your subscription software fees.

There is one caveat to using a closed system PHP website. You will have to reskin the site from time to time to accommodate new wider screens and get rid of dated looking features like scrolling images, shadow text, etc. There are a few alternative media sites out there that are still using their 20+ year old templates that really need to update. Some don’t even realize their site doesn’t fit on an average screen because it looks okay on their old PC.

Here’s another issue going forward. In a hyper-inflationary market where a sandwich may cost $300; how much do you think all these subscription software fees will cost you? Divest yourself and business from subscription cloud based services ASAP while you still can. What you buy today will work for another 20 years.

Take some time and list all your current subscription service fees for everything from Netflix and Prime to software and websites. Think about how sustainable that will be when everything costs 10 times what it does today.

Another reason all these businesses want you on a subscription fee plan is the resale value of their business. A business with thousands of customers on a subscription plan is much more valuable than a company selling a product that needs an endless stream of new customers.

Another issue is Third Party Providers – TPPs. When you put your business in the hands of a TPP or a couple dozen TPPs (like WordPress and their army of Plugin vendors); your business will only be as good as all those TPPs doing their job correctly, on time, all the time. Keep the TPPs to an absolute minimum.

One final thought, your business will be much more valuable with your own proprietary software than it would with a disparate bunch of subscription software service TPPs you don’t own.

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Why You Don’t Want a WordPress Website & Subscription Software – Pay Once & Own It

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