What is WordPress? In essence, WordPress is the simplest and most popular way to create your own website or blog. In fact, WordPress powers over 37.6% of all websites on the Internet. Yes, it’s likely that more than one in four sites you visit uses WordPress.
On a more technical level, WordPress is an open-source content management system licensed under GPLv2, meaning anyone can use or modify the software for free. A content management system is basically a tool that makes it easy to manage important aspects of your website—like content—without needing to know any programming.
The end result is that WordPress makes building a website accessible to anyone, even non-developers.
What Kind of Websites Can You Make with WordPress?
Years ago, WordPress was mainly a tool for creating blogs, not traditional websites. That’s no longer true. Today, thanks to changes in the core code and a huge ecosystem of plugins and themes, you can create any type of website with WordPress.
For example, WordPress powers many business sites and blogs, and it’s also the most popular way to create an eCommerce store! With WordPress, you can build:
- Business websites
- eCommerce stores
- Blogs
- Portfolios
- Resumes
- Forums
- Social networks
- Membership sites
- …almost anything you can imagine.
What’s the Difference Between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
- WordPress.org, often called self-hosted WordPress, is the free, open-source WordPress software you can install on your own web server to create a website that’s 100% yours.
- WordPress.com is a paid, for-profit service that runs on the WordPress.org software. It’s easy to use, but you lose much of the flexibility of self-hosted WordPress.
Most of the time, when people say “WordPress,” they mean the self-hosted version from WordPress.org. If you really want your own website, self-hosted WordPress.org is almost always the best choice.
All you need to get started with self-hosted WordPress is a web hosting plan and a domain name.
Who Created WordPress and How Long Has It Been Around?
WordPress started as an independent project in 2003, branching off from an earlier project called b2/cafelog.
WordPress is open-source software, so today it’s built by a large community of contributors. But if you trace its roots, WordPress was originally created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
Since then, Matt Mullenweg has become the face of WordPress and is also the founder of Automattic, the company behind the for-profit WordPress.com service.
Why Should You Use WordPress?
Over 32% of all websites use WordPress, including well-known entities like the White House and Microsoft.
But what about you? Why should you use WordPress?
No matter what kind of website you want to create, there are many reasons to use WordPress. Here are some of the biggest:
WordPress Is Free and Open Source
One of the biggest benefits of WordPress is that it’s free and open-source software. While you’ll need to pay for hosting, you’ll never have to pay just to use WordPress itself, unlike alternatives like Squarespace.
WordPress Is Extensible
Even if you’re not a developer, you can easily modify your site thanks to WordPress’s huge ecosystem of themes and plugins:
- Themes – change how your website looks.
- Plugins – change how your website works. Plugins can be small, like a contact form, or huge, like creating an eCommerce store.
There are over 50,000 free WordPress plugins and 5,000 free themes, plus tons of premium options. In short, you have lots of choices!
WordPress Is Easy to Install
Think you need to be a tech genius to build your own website? Think again! If you can click a few buttons, you can install WordPress on your site.
WordPress Is Flexible
As mentioned, WordPress is great because it lets you create almost any type of website. Even better, your site can grow and evolve with you.
So, What Is WordPress? It’s the Best Way to Build a Website
WordPress is the most popular way to build a website for a reason. If you want to create any kind of site—from a blog to an eCommerce store—WordPress is an excellent choice.
Just remember, WordPress.org and WordPress.com are not the same. In most cases, WordPress.org is what you want to create a website. Self-hosted WordPress.org gives you more ownership and access to all the advantages and benefits of the WordPress community.
So, how will you use WordPress? We look forward to hearing about your experience!
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