If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you will know that we love WordPress.

But even if you didn’t know, it is unlikely to come as a surprise, given that we have created a tool for managing multiple WordPress sites. Doing so would be a strange move if we hated the platform, wouldn’t it?

One of the things that excites us about WordPress is its potential applications. Whilst is occasionally derided amongst certain circles as being “just” a blogging platform, the fact is that WordPress is an enormously versatile tool, capable of achieving some pretty astonishing things.

It really isn’t “just” a blogging platform — trust us.

ManageWP and WordPress

If you want a better idea of what WordPress is really capable of doing, you need look no further than this very post. I mean that in both a literal and figurative sense. Yes — the purpose of this post is to open your eyes to WordPress’ power and capabilities, but you can also better understand that fact by simply taking a peek under the covers of this very blog.

Because this blog runs on WordPress. That in itself is not remarkable — nor is the fact that the ManageWP front-end website also runs on WordPress. But have you considered the fact that the entire ManageWP service runs on the same WordPress installation as the blog and the website?

That’s right folks — a single WordPress installation not only handles our website and blog, but also a tool used by tens of thousands of people. It’s a website, a blog, and a software application — all in one.

Keeping It in the Family

Running ManageWP on WordPress wasn’t some contrived decision that we made. We didn’t shoe-horn our service into an ill-suited framework. We assessed our options in terms of creating the best possible product, and came to the conclusion that WordPress offered exactly what was necessary.

After all, what better place to manage your WordPress sites from than a WordPress site? The ManageWP dashboard is just another WordPress dashboard — albeit with a raft of modifications. Usability 101 teaches that you should construct systems that are familiar to the enduser — what is more familiar to WordPress users than WordPress itself?

What is perhaps most unusual is that there are no competing services out there who have followed suit. We don’t intend to question why, but we do question why any other way would be better. If you want to manage multiple WordPress sites, surely a service based upon WordPress itself seems like the best solution?

We’re Not Alone

We’re not the only developers using WordPress as a software application — far from it. In fact, this very post was inspired by a great article over at Digital Telepathy’s blog: A Guide to Using WordPress as a SaaS (Software as a Service).

Those folks (who also happen to be the developers of the awesome SlideDeck plugin) created, scaled, monetized and sold the enormously popular Hello Bar app, using WordPress as the core foundation. As you can read in their post, WordPress offers everything you need to produce a SaaS application – the only real limitation is your imagination.

So next time someone tries to argue that WordPress is nothing more than a glorified blogging platform, point them in the direction of this post — they’ll be eating their words.

Creative Commons image courtesy of LadyDragonflyCC