What are the limits and sensible alternatives to Wordpress scalability

[Whitey]

We're planning a 26 language CMS platform with around 50,000 pages per language for the purposes of SEO.

An affiliate widget on a separate platform via an i-frame will appear on a sub domain which will be embedded into each page.

Realistically, what are the scalability limits on Wordpress, when is it sensible to look elsewhere for other options, and what low cost / free CMS's would you recommend to graduate to? How can I get out of this at a reasonable cost?

[lorax]

I have heard there are WordPress sites with millions of pages on them. WordPress.com itself comes to mind. There is no reason why WordPress wouldn't be able to support millions of pages that I'm aware of. The question isn't if the CMS will support it (it will) but rather if the hosting and delivery platform are up to the challenge.

[added]Configuration of WordPress is equally important. The further away from the default install you get, especially if your programmers aren't that up to speed with best practices, the more likely you will experience issues. And the more traffic/pages, the more visible the issues will become.[/added]

[creeking]

do you have a choice of databases to use with wordpress?

[lorax]

WordPress is best with MySQL. You can use it with other databases but you'd be adding on a lot of extra work. See: [codex.wordpress.org...]

[Kendo]

50,000 pages per language?

I would most definitely custom build this site and stay as far away from out-of-the-box CMS dependency (WordPress et all) as possible.

In fact I might even consider using flat files instead of MySQL for static data and let a internet services deliver pages from cache rather than consume server resources.

[lorax]

>> far away from out-of-the-box CMS

Why?

[Whitey]

I would most definitely custom build this site

Interesting - how do you believe this would be more effective? How would you approach it?

[Kendo]

First thing to consider is that any out-of-the-box solution, especially one that is free and open source, provides a pattern for exploitation.

Next point is that being design orientated for specific tasks that no compromises have been made to support anything else.

It can also be made to be more SEO friendly, use less database and thus less server resources and consume less bandwidth for both the host and the end user.

[lorax]

@Kendo, I don't want to hijack this thread so I'm just going to say I disagree. We can discuss further in another thread.