Why Is WordPress So Hard (And How to Make It Easier)

Is WordPress Hard to Use? How to Simplify WordPress for Beginners in 2024

WordPress has long been the world‘s most popular website builder and content management system. Its free, open-source software powers over 43% of all websites on the internet, including many major brands and businesses.

But despite its widespread usage, many people find WordPress overly complex and hard to use compared to drag-and-drop website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify. Beginners are often overwhelmed by WordPress‘ steeper learning curve.

So why is WordPress so complicated for many users? And what can you do to simplify WordPress and make it easier to build and manage your website?

In this guide, we‘ll explore the aspects of WordPress that make it harder to learn than other platforms. Then we‘ll share beginner-friendly tools, settings, and best practices to help you use WordPress like a pro without any coding!

Why WordPress is Hard to Use (for Beginners)

The main reasons many people struggle when starting with WordPress include:

1. WordPress is open-source self-hosted software

One of WordPress‘ greatest strengths is also what makes it unintuitive for beginners. WordPress is free, open-source software that you install on your own choice of web hosting.

This is different from website builders like Wix and Squarespace that provide all-in-one hosted packages. With those, you build and publish your site entirely through their platform.

In contrast, WordPress acts as a separate content management system. You need to sign up for web hosting, link it with WordPress, and manage your hosting settings outside of WordPress itself.

This gives you much more freedom, flexibility and control over your website. But it also comes with extra setup steps, costs, and technical responsibilities that beginners may not be prepared for.

2. The WordPress admin area is feature-heavy

When you first log into your WordPress dashboard, you‘ll see a large sidebar menu with many different options. Posts, pages, comments, appearance, plugins, users, tools, and settings are some of the default menu items.

As a beginner, it‘s normal to feel intimidated by all the settings and terminologies. Without a clear step-by-step wizard, it‘s not always obvious where to start or what to do next.

Additionally, things can get more overwhelming as you use your WordPress site. As you install new themes and plugins, they often add their own settings pages that "bloat" your WordPress dashboard with extra menu items and options.

3. WordPress relies heavily on third-party themes and plugins

Out of the box, WordPress provides a solid foundation and essential features for publishing a basic website. But to customize the design and add more advanced features, you‘ll need themes and plugins.

The good news is there are over 60,000 free and premium WordPress plugins and over 10,000 themes in the official directories. These let you add any functionality to your site, from contact forms to eCommerce stores to membership sites.

The downside for beginners is that it can be paralyzing to choose from so many options. It‘s also not always clear which themes and plugins are secure, reliable and frequently updated. Using unmaintained or poorly coded plugins can slow down or break your site.

4. WordPress maintenance and security takes work

As a self-hosted WordPress user, you‘re responsible for keeping your own website secure and functioning properly. This includes ensuring your WordPress software, plugins and themes are always up-to-date.

Falling behind on updates makes your site vulnerable to known security exploits and compatibility issues. Hackers frequently target outdated WordPress sites to steal data and spam search engines.

WordPress security also involves ongoing tasks like monitoring for malware and scanning for content changes. Neglecting basic security practices and hardening can let hackers sneak in malicious code.

Another key maintenance task is optimizing your WordPress site‘s performance. Without a CDN, caching and other speed optimization, your pages could load slowly and frustrate visitors.

While some hosting companies take care of these tasks for you, many leave it in users‘ hands. Having to learn about these technical responsibilities adds to WordPress‘ complexity.

5. Customizing WordPress beyond the basics requires coding

One of the top complaints we hear about WordPress is that it‘s not truly beginner-friendly. While you can set up a basic site without code, extensively customizing it requires editing theme and plugin files.

For instance, changing your theme beyond its settings often involves creating a child theme and knowing HTML and CSS. Modifying or extending plugins requires an understanding of PHP and JavaScript.

Learning these web languages takes significant time that beginners and small business owners often don‘t have. But without coding know-how, your site design and functionality are limited.

Having said that, there are many ways to build a fully custom WordPress site without ever touching code. Page builder plugins are one popular solution we‘ll cover below.

6. WordPress support is largely community-driven

Unlike commercial website builders, WordPress doesn‘t come with an official support team or centralized documentation. Instead, it relies largely on its huge worldwide community of volunteers and web developers.

The official WordPress.org forums let anyone ask questions and seek help from other WordPress users. But response times and quality of support can vary greatly. Many questions go unanswered if they‘re too niche or complex.

Instead, most users turn to third-party blogs, courses, and tutorials to learn WordPress and troubleshoot issues. But it‘s not always clear which educational resources are trustworthy and up-to-date.

This lack of direct hand-holding makes it harder for casual beginners to get help when they‘re stuck. It‘s one of the trade-offs to using free open-source software.

Thankfully, the WordPress community is filled with experts (like us) who are passionate about teaching WordPress in simple terms. We‘ll share our best educational resources later on.

Now that we‘ve covered why WordPress is so hard, let‘s look at simple ways to overcome these obstacles.

How to Make WordPress Easier for Beginners (No Code Required!)

With the right tools, settings and approaches, anyone can master WordPress without having to learn to code. Here are our top recommendations to simplify using WordPress in 2023:

1. Use managed WordPress hosting

The easiest way to make WordPress less intimidating is to choose a managed WordPress hosting provider. Managed hosting companies handle all the backend technical tasks for you.

For instance, many managed plans automatically update your WordPress software, plugins and themes for you. They also implement server-level caching, daily backups, CDN integrations, and security hardening measures.

This frees up your time and mental energy to focus solely on growing your website. You won‘t have to worry about your site‘s speed, uptime or security.

Some of the best managed WordPress hosting companies for beginners include:

SiteGround – Known for its speedy servers, beginner-friendly onboarding and 24/7 support
Bluehost – Officially recommended by WordPress.org and includes a guided launch wizard
WP Engine – Premium managed WordPress host with advanced features and expert support
Flywheel – Popular among freelancers and agencies for its designer-friendly tools and workflows
Kinsta – Enterprise-grade managed hosting for mission-critical sites with auto-scaling and multi-region deployments

For more options and real performance data, see our ultimate list of the best managed WordPress hosting companies.

2. Find lightweight themes and essential plugins

One way to keep your WordPress site fast and beginner-friendly is to choose a lightweight, well-coded theme. Look for themes that follow WordPress coding best practices and only include features you‘ll actually use.

Some great themes for beginners and small business owners include:

Astra – Popular multipurpose theme that‘s under 50 KB with dozens of starter templates
GeneratePress – Lightweight theme optimized for speed and performance
OceanWP – Multipurpose theme with built-in SEO settings and native AMP support
Kadence – Fast, accessible theme for building custom layouts with blocks and hooks
Mai Theme – SEO-optimized theme for local businesses with Schema markup

Similarly, you can prevent plugin bloat by only installing essential plugins from reputable developers. Some must-have WordPress plugins for beginners include:

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) – Complete SEO toolkit to optimize your site for search engines
WPForms – Drag-and-drop form builder with pre-made templates and entry management
MonsterInsights – Google Analytics dashboard to track your site‘s traffic and visitor behavior
SeedProd – Landing page builder with coming soon and maintenance mode
WP Rocket – Caching and speed optimization plugin to improve Core Web Vitals

Check our full list of recommended WordPress plugins that are beginner-friendly, frequently updated and highly rated.

3. Use a visual page builder plugin

Many beginners find WordPress hard because they want pixel-perfect control over their page layouts. While the WordPress block editor is easy to use, it offers limited design options.

If you want to build completely custom page designs without code, you can use a visual drag-and-drop page builder plugin. Page builders like SeedProd and Divi provide an intuitive front-end interface to design your pages.

You can start with pre-made section and page templates, then customize them with your own colors, fonts, spacing and more. Page builders also come with widgets for common business needs like contact forms, Google Maps, testimonials, galleries, and more.

Many page builder plugins also include theme building frameworks to design your own custom theme. You can create custom header, footer, archive and single post templates without restricting yourself to a theme‘s limitations.

If you want the flexibility of a page builder without a separate plugin, consider a theme with a built-in visual builder. Popular options include Divi, Thrive Themes and Elementor‘s Hello theme.

4. Handle SEO with the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin

Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to getting organic traffic and leads for your website. But for beginners, WordPress SEO can seem like a complex and ever-changing field filled with jargon.

Fortunately, you can follow SEO best practices and increase your rankings without being an expert. All you need is the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin.

AIOSEO is the complete WordPress SEO plugin toolkit that includes everything you need to optimize your site:

TruSEO on-page analysis for your keyword usage, title, meta description, links, images, etc.
Schema markup generator to help search engines understand your site‘s content
XML sitemap and HTML sitemap to help search engines crawl and index your pages
Link Assistant to find internal and external linking opportunities within your site
Local SEO module for small businesses to rank in Google Maps and local search results
WooCommerce SEO to optimize products, prevent duplicate content and increase conversions
REST API SEO controls to secure endpoints and prevent content scraping

AIOSEO automates technical optimizations and guides you through the SEO process for your posts and pages. It‘s the easiest way to handle WordPress SEO as a beginner.

5. Secure your site with a WordPress security plugin

If website security terms like SSL, malware, brute force, and DDoS sound overwhelming, fear not. You can secure your WordPress site from common threats using a beginner-friendly WordPress security plugin.

One of the best WordPress security plugins for beginners is Sucuri. It performs automatic security scans, detects and removes malware, protects against brute force attacks, and filters out spammy traffic.

Sucuri also offers a Website Application Firewall (WAF) and Content Delivery Network (CDN) to stop attacks before they reach your server. Their all-in-one approach makes it easy to harden your site without configuring multiple plugins.

Other simple ways to improve your WordPress security include:

Installing an SSL certificate to encrypt visitor data and logins
Enforcing strong passwords and two-factor authentication for user accounts
Limiting login attempts to prevent brute force attacks
Disabling file editing and restricting plugin/theme installations
Changing default WordPress table prefix to prevent SQL injection
Keeping regular backups to restore your site if it‘s hacked or broken

For a complete checklist, see our ultimate WordPress security guide for beginners in 2023.

6. Learn WordPress with free resources

As we mentioned earlier, one of the downsides of WordPress is that it doesn‘t have an official support channel. But the upside is that you can find a wealth of community-created tutorials, courses, and educational content online.

Some of the best places to learn WordPress step-by-step include:

WPBeginner Blog – Comprehensive tutorials and guides for non-technical WordPress users
WPBeginner‘s YouTube Channel – Over 300 free WordPress video tutorials for visual learners
WPBeginner‘s Free WordPress Course – 17-part text tutorial to set up your first WordPress site
WordPress Codex – Official documentation for WordPress developers and advanced users
WordPress.tv – Videos of talks from WordCamps and WordPress events worldwide

You can also find free WordPress help and connect with other users in communities like:

WordPress.org Support Forums – Official WordPress forums organized by topic
WPBeginner Engage Facebook Group – Supportive community for non-techies and beginners
Advanced WordPress Facebook Group – Moderated group for developers and power users
Reddit‘s r/WordPress – Active subreddit for asking questions and sharing news

When you encounter an error or issue on your WordPress site, try searching for it in these resources first. Chances are someone else has already asked and answered your question before.

By leveraging the wisdom of the WordPress community, you can overcome the learning curve faster than trying to figure everything out on your own.

For a complete roadmap to WordPress mastery, check out our ultimate guide on how to learn WordPress for free in a month.

7. Hire help for tasks you can‘t do yourself

Finally, remember that you don‘t have to become a WordPress expert to have a successful website. Sometimes it‘s more efficient to hire an expert to handle things outside your comfort zone.

For instance, you can hire a WordPress developer to create a completely custom theme for you. This can be faster than learning to code it yourself.

You can also outsource WordPress tasks you don‘t enjoy doing, like performance optimization or security monitoring. WordPress maintenance companies will handle updates, backups, security and more for a flat monthly rate.

If you run into a specific technical issue, you can hire a WordPress freelancer to fix it for you. Codeable and Upwork have hundreds of vetted WordPress experts you can hire for one-off jobs.

Of course, outsourcing comes with added costs. But it can be worth it to free up your time and mental energy to work on your business.

Simplifying WordPress in 2024 and Beyond

WordPress has undoubtedly contributed to the democratization of publishing and the open web. But its flexibility and robust feature set can be overkill for beginners who just want a basic website.

While the WordPress developer community is constantly working to improve WordPress‘ user experience, backwards compatibility means the learning curve won‘t disappear overnight. There will always be some friction to using such a powerful open-source CMS.

The good news is that by using the right combination of hosting, plugins and approaches, anyone can learn to use WordPress without coding. The key is to take advantage of the wealth of community resources and focus on your highest leverage tasks.

Implement the tips and best practices in this guide and you‘ll be well on your way to mastering WordPress. You‘ll soon see why WordPress is worth the initial learning curve for its unmatched flexibility and customization.

For more ways to make WordPress easier and get help when you need it, join our communities WPBeginner Engage and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more WordPress tutorials.