What is WordPress? This is a question that many beginners exploring and creating websites with WordPress often ask. Basically, you can understand it as the simplest and most popular platform for creating and designing your own website or blog.
1. What is WordPress and what is the difference between the two popular WordPress websites?
1.1. Understanding what WordPress is
A WordPress website is a platform that helps users create their own websites. In fact, it is a platform that powers over 35% of all websites on the Internet, meaning that more than 1 in 4 sites you visit are likely created with WordPress.
So, from a technical perspective, what is WordPress? WordPress is an open-source content management system licensed under GPLv2, which means anyone can use or modify it, designing WordPress websites for free.
A content management system is a powerful tool that allows you to easily customize important aspects of your website, such as content, without needing to know how to code. Therefore, anyone, whether a developer or not, can build a website for themselves.
1.2. What types of websites can you create using a WordPress website?
In the past, WordPress was primarily a tool for creating blogs rather than traditional websites. However, that is no longer the case today, as we can now build websites with WordPress of any kind. This is because the tool has undergone significant core changes, and the ecosystem of theme stores and the best SEO plugins for WordPress is also incredibly vast.
For instance, you can create a wide variety of websites, business blogs, or even e-commerce sites. Specifically, these include portfolios, forums, social networks, membership sites, blogs, and online stores.
1.3. Understanding the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com before building a WordPress website
To simply understand the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, you can follow this brief and specific explanation:
- WordPress.org: often referred to as self-hosted WordPress, is a WordPress website open-source platform that is free for you to host on your own server, allowing you to create and design your own WordPress website .
- WordPress.com: is a paid service provided by WordPress.org that is quite simple to use.
Most people, when referring to "WordPress," are talking about the self-hosted version available at WordPress.org. If you want to own your own website, this is the best choice to get started.
2. Who created WordPress and where is WordPress website design used?
2.1. Who created WordPress?
WordPress began as an independent project in 2003, originating from a fork of a previous project called "b2/cafelog." WordPress website design uses open-source code, which is why it has an incredibly massive community of contributors today. If you read about the history of WordPress, you will see that it was born from a collaboration between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
Since then, Matt Mullenweg has become the face of WordPress websites, and is also the founder of Automattic, the company behind the paid WordPress.com service. It is fair to say that WordPress currently boasts a massive community and is the most popular solution for building any type of website.
2.2. Notable organizations using the WordPress platform
Many individuals and large enterprises choose to build websites with WordPress, and you may even be browsing sites built on this platform right now. Some notable examples include Whitehouse.gov, blogs.microsoft.com, and rollingstones.com.
3. Why should you build a website with WordPress?
3.1. WordPress websites use open-source, free software
One of the biggest benefits of building a website with WordPress is that it uses free, open-source software. While you may have to pay a small fee for hosting, you do not have to pay to use the tool itself. Additionally, you can find many themes to change your site's appearance, plugins to assist with management, the best SEO plugins for WordPress…
3.2. WordPress has impressive scalability
Even if you are not a developer, you can easily modify your website thanks to the massive ecosystem of themes and plugins available for WordPress websites.
- Themes: these help change the WordPress website design quickly.
- Plugins: primarily change how WordPress websites function, such as adding contact forms or creating an e-commerce store on your site…
A simple search reveals 50,000 free WordPress plugins and 5,000 free WordPress themes currently available. It is safe to say that users have countless options to explore.
3.3. Installing WordPress is incredibly easy
You don't need to be a tech genius to create your own WordPress website or design a WordPress website. The main task is simply to make a few selections and click a few buttons. The menus will guide you through adding a new page or navigating to existing ones.
Hopefully, with the detailed information above, you now understand what WordPress is as well as how to create a WordPress website easily. If you are looking to build a website, from a blog to an e-commerce store, this is an excellent choice. When creating a website with WordPress or designing a WordPress website you gain access to all the perks and benefits of this vast community.
