Sometimes a technology comes around that is disruptive - it changes assumptions about the ways things were done in the past. When Blogger was developed it changed the nature of the internet - suddenly anybody could create their own content online without having to know anything (much) about code. It was a fundamental shift in thinking about what the internet could be used for.

Along came WordPress which quickly became the platform of choice for blogging for a number of reasons, the most important of which was the software was well written and supported by a community of open-source offcionados. But with popularity came a couple of issues which over time have become serious drawbacks to the platform.

Because the platform is open source software it is available for both the good guys and bad guys to find exploits - bugs in the software which are then used for attacking websites and servers. Wordpress sites are very often the weak link on a server and can end up corrupting whole systems because a single WordPress blog fails to be patched continually.

Because the platform is designed to be everything for everyone, it has over the years become increasingly more complicated to use and from the perspective of website developers it has become a nightmare to maintain.

The software is regularly updated (which is good) but because of it's system of themes and plugins this often means that the very customizations made to the software to make websites unique break when the updates are applied - with the total cost of ownership going up with every update

We have many clients who want a blog as part of their website and (obviously) we also have a blog as part of ours. Over time we were getting increasingly unhappy with WordPress as a solution both for our clients and for ourselves and so we took to the whiteboard and we made a plan to move away from WordPress and to offer our clients (and ourselves) a blogging platform that is integrated with our CMS.

The Edgeworks CMS with Blog provides our users with a simple management interface focused on the content they are wanting to add to their blogs and not on plug-ins, themes, updates, widgets and the other confusing aspects of blogging. People don't want to, and shouldn't have to, learn lots of new lingo just to have an effective blog. 

When we began work on replacing WordPress with our own platform we wanted to focus on a handful of key things:

1. The software needed to be fast. It needed to be way faster than the same content served from WordPress
2. The software needed to be simple - our clients don't need to be bothered with updates rolling out every few weeks - if they have to be updated then it shoudln't be their job to do it.
3. The blog has to be as flexible to growth and alteration as the rest of the Edgeworks CMS.
4. We had to provide a way for users to move from WordPress to our platform
5. We had to provide a way for them to move back into WordPress if they wanted to

We are thrilled to say that we have tackled these and more.

We took our own blog and ran the same content side-by-side in WordPress and on our platform. WordPress on average took nearly 60% more time to display the exact same content as displayed using our blog. 

We've eliminated over 80% of the administration required by WordPress blogs. Sure, you can still get the same bells and whistles (if we don't have it we can certainly make it for you) you expect from a WordPress blog, but in most cases there really is no need for all the clutter. We keep things focused on the primary goal of blogging: writing content.

Because the blog is integrated with our platform we have incredible flexibility to deliver whatever our clients need or want. 

Our own blog used to be on WordPress and we didn't want to lose all the valuable content or the great comments from our readers. We wanted a way to capture all that and pull it into our own blog platform so we wrote the tool to do it. We've already done the same for a client (http://amysgarage.com) who has moved away from a malware-plagued WordPress installation to our CMS with Blog.

We are pleased to now be offering the Edgeworks CMS with Blog to any and all businesses interested in trying on something new. While we can't meet the price of free, we believe that the benefits of a professional design, integration with our CMS platform, personal support from the crew that wrote the code and individualized implementation are all well worth your consideration. We don't think we've created a disruptive technology like the early leaders of blogging, but we do think we just may change your expectations about what blogging should be like. 

Get in touch with us today and we'll get you blogging without the headaches of WordPress.