Should you use WordPress.com for the design and hosting of a Corporate website?

The short answer: It is possible, but not desirable.

Comparing the functionality available under WordPress.com against Google Page Creator (available under Google Apps) – It is an excellent product. However, most business websites are going to require a minimum of flexibility that just isn’t available with WordPress.com.

Before going any further I think it will be useful for many readers to clear up some of the confusion surrounding WordPress software. The full history is available here but to be extra brief… WordPress is Blogging software, and available for download, use and manipulation from wordpress.org. Some of the smart people behind WordPress decided that in order to make things extra easy for people to get up and going with their blogs, a hosted version of their super software should be made available, and so wordpress.com was born.

With WordPress.com you can be up and going in a matter of minutes, even under your own domain, as I am here at AntGalvin.com.

Blogging software? Amn’t I evaluating WordPress as a CMS (Content Managment System) for a fully fledged small business website. Why sir, yes I am. WordPress software is very capable of managing small professional looking websites. In fact in recent chats with three successful home-office website desiners, all three use WordPress software. (For more complicated jobs, Drupal is their preferred option).

So WordPress.com is a very convenient solution for getting started with WordPress software. The downside of this convenience is that a lot of the functionality that makes WordPress software great has had to be curtailed to make it work in this hosted situation. There is a great list of the top 15 limitations and benefits of using WordPress.com available here - I suggest you read them. The main one in my mind is the limitation on design freedom on WordPress.com - A problem that evaoprates when you use WordPress software on an independent host.

I make one other argument against using WordPress.com for hosting a corporate website. You cannot use Google Analytics on WordPress.com webpages (See the WordPress.com faq). “So what?” you say.

If you are own or manage a small business, I am sure you understand the problems of being short on resources, especially time and cash. So if you are going to develop a website for the business, you need to know if its cost-effective. How do you do that? The best way to do this (apart from looking at directly generated sales) is to monitor your website via Google Analytics. This excellent software is free to use and provides any website proprietor with invaluable information on the performance of their website. Its also simple to use.

Please note that WordPress.com does provide good stats on the visits and behaviour on your site - But it is limited and will become a problem in time for anybody serious about developing their website.

The same is true for the other limitations of WordPress.com - They may just annoy you at the start, but they will eventually become a major issue. When that happens, you will end up using WordPress software on your own choice of host.

If you are a small business, save yourself the hassle, Start at wordpress.org and leave wordpress.com to the part time bloggers, like me.