Moving from Wordpress to Meteor

Our blog started on Wordpress technology. After about 1.5 months of dealing with Wordpress we developed a Meteor website for blogging. I’m going to share some experiences interacting with both Wordpress and Meteor along with reasons why we decided to change the technology of our blog.

Why We Decided To Start a Blog

111 Minutes has been instrumental in mobile and web development for more than 7 years. In all this time we have gained experience in our sphere; had interesting chats with entrepreneurs and coders; have worked on interesting projects for big brands and startups; and we are continuing to do all of this. So we decided to start our blog to share our stories, experience, and vision. In our case, it was easier to say than to do (as it always is).

Wordpress

One of the first stages we must decide on is the technology for our blog. We wanted to start with MeteorJS, but our developers were busy at that moment and so a Wordpress blog was chosen. Also, we believed that Wordpress would make it easier and faster for us to start blogging. However, we were wrong. Everything turned out differently.

What do you need to do to start a good blog on Wordpress? We thought that a domain and Wordpress theme that allows blogging was enough. It took about one day to find a theme that looked great, fit our company style, and was mobile responsive. However, it turned out to not be responsive at all when we installed it.

We bought a theme and implemented it on a site. Everything was pretty easy before we started to customize some things. The implementation of a new feature could require a full day for our developer; but work with Wordpress differs from work with other web technology. To implement new features, it was required to install a plugin for the theme. After time was spent on searching and installing, we needed to customize this plugin. And to customize something on Wordpress can take a lot of time; a day or even more to customize. But if you are okay with the standard look and features of the site, you won’t face these kinds of problems.

In our case, designers were ruling the appearance of the site so it wasn’t easy to satisfy them with Wordpress. Our developer tried hard, but it isn’t possible to customize everything on Wordpress. Even if it was fully customizable, some bugs could still appear. Also, Wordpress was slow. It took about 4–4.5 weeks to create a blog on Wordpress and customize it as much as possible. However, we still tried to enhance its appearance. Some things were still unreal to do on an implemented Wordpress theme.

Our developer said that he could create the same blog on Meteor. He repeated it for some time, but we still believed in Wordpress. About a month was spent on our blog, and we didn’t want to admit that this time was wasted. However, we faced the truth and Meteor development started.

Meteor

Only about 3 weeks have passed since we decided to create a blog on Meteor and it was ready. This time includes testing. About 1.5–2 weeks passed when our developer invited me to test our new blog on Meteor, almost all the features were implemented! Development didn’t take a lot of time.

There is no need to search for plugins — and spend hours on customization — to implement new features or to change old features.

Meteor websites are one page applications. So surfing our new blog became much more faster. Also, our designer’s time was freed since all their design requirements were satisfied. Now, our blog looks more attractive.

It is so easy to use our new Meteor blog. It even became easier to create articles (posts) there, so now I spend less time creating new posts than I did on Wordpress.

Wordpress VS Meteor

I have some experience now working with both Wordpress and Meteor and can give advice on what needs are satisfied by Wordpress and what needs are satisfied by Meteor.

Wordpress is good for people that have no opportunity to cooperate with developers and don’t require a unique and fast product. These people can still have a good Wordpress site, but it is hard to make changes there as it is slow and looks standard.

Meteor is the best fit for people who can cooperate with developers and desire a unique and fast website. These people will be able to customize their site and provide their own style for it. Also site would be mobile responsive, secure and SEO friendly.

So if you or your business requires a high quality, fast, and unique website, I can’t propose anything better than Meteor!

Originally published at 111 Minutes Blog.