In today’s online marketplace having a website is essential for every business to showcase their product or services. When we talk about website development the most popular name that comes to our mind is WordPress. WordPress powers over 34% of the web today, and is known as the best CMS in the world.

There are many web design platforms available nowadays that allow you to design your own website easily. WordPress is one of them and can be used to build not just blogging sites but also complex business websites and ecommerce stores. A common question that comes in the minds of start-up entrepreneurs or business owners is –

Whether you should hire web developer or do it yourself?

Building your own WordPress site

If you are a small business or a self-employed professional wanting to publish your website at a low cost, then you can definitely start building your own website, but you should be ready to face all the challenges that come with it. Most start-up businesses start building their own site but at the end are not happy with the final outcome and end up hiring a professional developer. Let’s look into some of the benefits and challenges of building your own WordPress website.

Benefits

1. It’s cost effective because WordPress as Software is free to use.
2. It’s an open source and has a huge support community
3. There are numerous themes and plug-ins available to help you build a website.

Challenges

1. Steep Learning curve – Yes, there is a fair bit of learning curve required before you can start building your own website in WordPress. This learning curve depends on your requirement complexity. The more complex features you require the steeper will be your learning curve. Advanced WordPress website development needs prior knowledge and understanding of how WordPress works. Knowledge of PHP, HTML,
   CSS, JavaScript and knowledge of MySQL is also required for customizations.
2. Even though the core software is free, you would still require investing in purchase of a domain name and hosting services. To have your website live you will need basic understanding on how to host your website files and pointing your domain to your hosting server.
3. Time consuming – If you are new to WordPress then it’s going to be a time consuming process. Depending on your WordPress skill competency level you are sure to make mistakes and face bottlenecks at different stages of development. So be prepared for delays and jumping deadlines.
4. Perfect theme – There are more than 7,221 themes available in the official theme directory and probably 5 times more in the premium market. Finding your prefect theme in this ocean of themes is going to be a time consuming and overwhelming task. With that said, finding a theme that’s 100% perfect to your needs is going to be like hitting the jackpot. There would always be some little detail that you will have to compromise with while selecting an existing readymade theme.

Hiring a Professional developer for your WordPress website

Hiring a professional developer is surely an expensive affair as compared to doing it yourself. If you’re wondering what the cost is, It simply depends on your business needs, and what features you have in mind for your website. Let’s look into the benefits and challenges of hiring a professional developer.

Benefits

1. Custom made website – By hiring a WordPress design and development agency or developer you can get your website 100% customizable as per your need. They have the programming skills to make custom changes in the theme and plug-in codes to help you get what you want.
2. Less time consuming – An experienced developer will already have the skill and years of experience to skilfully work with the core WordPress software, and various themes and plug-ins. Thus resulting in faster turnaround time.
3. Use your time on core business functions – By hiring a developer you can off load your website development completely to them. Thus you now have more time on hands to focus on other core business activities like marketing, sales and operations.

Challenges

1. Cost – This is generally the primary challenge faced by small businesses. The cost would depend on the level of customization required and features to be build. As a ballpark it could be between $5000-$10,000 for a basic website. Again the rates of Freelancer and Agency vary.
2. Requirement understanding – You need to make sure that the developer is on the same page as you. Many-a-times creative or requirement understanding difference can lead to the end result not being as per your expectation. Therefore regular checks are needed to avoid last moment delays and frustrations.

Making the right choice to best suit your goals

Let’s consider few factors which would help you make the right decision when it comes to hiring a web developer or do it yourself

When to Do It Yourself

1. You are a tech savvy person – Yes, if you are familiar with how WordPress works and know basic coding skills then you are better off doing it yourself.
2. No time constraints – In case you are a beginner and wish to do it yourself and have all the time in the world to learn the skills required to build your site, then go ahead and do it.
3. Budget limitation – This can be one of the main reasons to do it yourself.
4. Basic informative or blogging website – If you need a website build for basic product or service information or a blogging site, then do it yourself.

When to Hire a Developer

1. Technical Learning is not your passion – If you are someone who is not passionate about learning new skills and find it overwhelming then its better off hiring a developer to get the work done.
2. Need a custom website – If you are looking for a highly custom website then you should definitively go for a hiring a developer to get the desired results.
3. Strict deadline to meet – If you have a strict deadline to meet and delays may affect your business then its better off to hire a developer to speed up the process.
4. Website complexity and features integration – Websites which require high complex feature such as ecommerce websites, API integration, or highly dynamic content websites.
5. Commercial business website – It’s advisable to hire a professional WordPress developer when building a commercial business website for the purpose of generating revenue or cash flow. A professionally build website is less vulnerable to security loopholes and hacks.

Conclusion

Hope the above helps you evaluate your options based on your needs. It’s a matter of figuring out what your final goal and expectations are and how much time and money you can invest. Your money and time should always be spent as wisely as possible. We are pleased to provide you with the any help needed. Please contact us at PARSIDIO for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.