Back in the mid- to late-aughts, when WordPress was still but a wee blogging platform, it was fashionable (and not completely false) to rave about the fact that the software is free – just hop over to wordpress.org to download the files and start developing on your own server, or sign up for a wordpress.com account, pick from their list of themes and start writing!
Even now, with WordPress just past its 15th birthday, that’s still a point of pride for everyone involved. But free is a tricky concept. The phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” applies to WordPress the same as it applies to a sandwich – there’s always a catch.
That catch is that while you can still get started for free (and you’ll always be able to!), WordPress isn’t as simple as it once was, and the decisions you make when you first break ground on your site can hound you for years. Neglecting site speed can directly impact search engine rankings; holes in site security can, at best, cause users to get security warnings in their browser and, at worst, result in a site being hacked; choosing the wrong theme framework can result in hours of frustration when things break and embarrassment when site visitors see something broken.
We want you to choose WordPress
At BIPi, we love enabling our clients to truly own their sites, and to participate as much or as little as they want in its care and feeding. WordPress makes that possible. The intuitive nature of the Dashboard is a huge reason why WordPress is now running just under 30% of all websites out there on the internet. We want to see that percentage grow.
Lowering the cost of entry into owning a WordPress website has been heavy on our minds as of late. We’ve seen hours of effort poured into squarespace and wix sites be all for naught when it becomes apparent that the sites can’t scale alongside the business and everything has to be manually moved to another platform. We’ve seen frustrated clients who can’t figure out how to change simple content, like a phone number, on their HTML landing page. We’ve talked with prospective clients who simply can’t afford the $2500 for a starter WordPress site. We’ve seen folks who already have a WordPress site unpleasantly surprised at the cost of ongoing maintenance because they were never educated about software licensing and updates.
That’s why we’ve created a no-risk, low-cost-of-entry alternative to paying an agency thousands of dollars up front to build your starter site.
Introducing the WordPress Greenhouse
With a Greenhouse site from Berry Interesting, you’ll get a fully-functional, self-hosted WordPress site that you can cultivate, without having to worry about inclement weather, invading pests or pesky weeds.
Greenhouse clients benefit from the exact same level of care and attention that our bigger clients get under our Small Business WordPress Support Plan (a $110/month value) without worrying about upfront cost, software updates, or licensing fees.
Learn more about our Greenhouse or fill out an application here.