What is WordPress? An Overview for the Beginners

What is WordPress?

Most of the people who use the internet might hear about WordPress. WordPress is the simplest and most popular site builder which powers more than one-third of the website on the internet. This means about 40% of websites are powered by WordPress. On average, more than one of four websites you use on the internet is made of WordPress. From a small personal blog to major sites of major companies are using WordPress to build their websites. Ex: Microsoft blog, whitehouse.gov, Sony, the New York Post, Time Inc., etc. are powered by WordPress.

On the other hand, more likely to describe in a technical term that, WordPress is an open-source content management system licensed under GPLv2. That means anyone can construct and customize the WordPress software for free.

In simple terms, WordPress is the easiest way to build a website.

 

What kind of Website you can Make with WordPress?

In the beginning, WordPress was a tool to build a blog site only. After times, the developer team makes WordPress a universal website builder that can build any type of website now. Not only Blog and Business sites but also you can build an e-commerce store as well. WordPress provides huge support with the plugin and uncountable themes. With WordPress, you can construct

• Blogs
• Business websites
• eCommerce
• Portfolios
• Social Networks/Online communities
• Resume
• Forums
• Job
• Business Directory
• Q&A Websites
• Religious Websites
• Organizational Websites
• Coupon Websites
• Auction Websites
• Multilingual Websites
• Educational/ Knowledge Websites
• Podcasting Websites
• School/College/Varsity Websites
• Photography Websites

And many more you want….

 

Types of WordPress:

There two different versions of WordPress is available.

1. Self Hosted WordPress

-WordPress.org is an open-source software managed by the non-profit WordPress Foundation

2. Hosted WordPress

-WordPress.com is for a profit-business owned and managed by Automattic that uses WordPress.or open-source software.

Matt Mullenweg founded both WordPress Foundation and Automattic. Profit or non-profit, both are linked unofficially.

 

When and Who Made the WordPress?

Nowadays, a huge community of contributors is contributing to developing WordPress. But if we look back to the origin of WordPress in 2003, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little created WordPress as a collaboration. Since then, Matt Mullenweg has become the front face of WordPress and founded Automattic, the company behind the for-profit WordPress.com.

How to Build a website with Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org and How Much They Cost?

Hosted WordPress (WordPress.com): WordPress.com provides the service of hosted WordPress. It is a SaaS (Software as a Service) so that you will just need to make your website on WordPress.com like creating an account and nothing to do anymore. WordPress will do the rest with Hosting and domain name. WordPress will control and manage the database on its own with a certain amount of cost. The whole process will take a couple of minutes to be completed.

So, How much it will cost to build and manage a website on WordPress.com? It depends on the plan you want to take. Here is some assessment.

• You will have to pay $25 per month or $300 per year for hosting (Server space on which to install WordPress and install your site) your website (like getting hosting from Kinsta or WO Eng hosting provider)
• For premium theme (Design template for your site) $170-$180
• $180 for eCommerce (Tools let you sell products online) integration.
• $25 per plugin (Apps that will add more functionalities to your site)
• $50 per month for maintenance cost, if you want to keep updated your site with the latest plugins, theme, etc.

Self Hosted WordPress (WordPress.org): With WordPress.org, the process of creating software not as easy as WordPress.com. You need to install WordPress on your computer from WordPress official site. You need two basic things,

• Your domain name
• Web host

Then you can install WordPress on your computer. You need to know about minimal coding and technical knowledge. Besides this, you can take support from an expert to install and manage your server. Another way is, many hosting provider companies provide services for self-hosted WordPress. You can also take service from them. Though WordPress.org is open-source and free to install, yet you have to spend for Web hosting service, domain name, and maintenance purpose. It may cost for,

• Domain name- $10 per year for a .com domain
• Web hosting- can vary from $3-5 per month, but can arise $100+ for performance managed WordPress hosts. 

So, Which one you should use? If you want to stay calm and hassle-free, you must go for WordPress.com. If you want to do it all yourself, WordPress.org is got to go. Here all is yours.

Who Uses WordPress?

Individuals, big businesses, and all between them use WordPress. You know before that about 40% of websites are Powered by WordPress. So it is expected that a huge number of big companies would use WordPress to host their websites. Here are some notable big brand names.

• Microsoft blog
• Whitehouse.gov
• Sony
• The New York Post
• Time Inc.
• Techcrunch
• The Walt Disney Company
• Facebook Newsroom
• BBC America
• MTV News
• Microsoft News Center
• cPanel Blog
• Quartz
• Usain Bolt
• The Mozilla Blog
• The Wall Street Journal Blog
• SAP News Center
• Bata
• Mercedez Benz etc.

 

Why You Should Use WordPress?

WordPress is Free and Open Source:

We already know that WordPress is an open-source platform. So you can customize your sites as you want by changing the codes. Another thing is, WordPress software is free to install. You will never need to pay any fees for the software, but a little for hosting.

 

WordPress is Easy to Install:

By clicking some button you can install WordPress on your machine. You no need any expertise or help from an expert.

 

WordPress is flexible and Adaptable for Changing as Needs and With the Support of hundreds of Plugins and Themes:

Although WordPress was first designed for blogging sites, now you can build any type of website you want with WordPress. WordPress runs complex sites for big companies as well as personal blogs. You just need to add plugins and make your site as you want.  Do you want to add a forum to your site? Just install the bbPress Plugin. Want to add a social network? Just add the BuddyPress Plugin. Want to sell products on your site? Here is the wooCommerce Plugin to turn your site into an eCommerce platform. You can design your sites for any kind of task using hundreds of plugins. You also can design your site’s interface with the help of hundreds of themes that WordPress provides. No need to worry about changes. Here are all advantages to turn your sites into any platform on WordPress.

 

 

High Ranked on search engines:

WordPress websites are highly ranked in searchability on google and other search engines. This happens for their SEO-optimized keywords because they are constantly being updated.

 

Mobile Responsive:

A website needs to be optimized and responsive on any device. WordPress sites are responsive on any device for their responsive themes.

 

Built-in Blog Support:

There is a built-in blog feature on the WordPress site since WordPress is a content management system. So it has multiple features to publish content easily. The blogging feature can be accessed from any device at any time. Users don’t have to create any blogging features separately or add any separate plugin.

 

WordPress is Secured:

No need to worry about the security of your site. WordPress uses world-class security for its software.

 

Great Community Support:

Since WordPress is free and open-source, it is supported by a huge community of developers around the world. This community is responsible for making changes to the source code and keeping WordPress updated and secured.

So, What is WordPress? WordPress is the simplest, best, and reliable way to build Websites.