Millions of websites have been built on the WordPress platform. WordPress is the preferred choice of content management system (CMS) powering more than 60 million websites, of which 39% are the top 10 million websites. There is no competition when it comes to deciding what is the most popular CMC solution in use.
But what makes WordPress in-demand? What makes it so good?
WordPress was created back in 2003. It gained traction because of the long list of features it offered to its users, and it only introduced better and more powerful tools with each software. Now, it is the greatest, most flexible, user-friendly CMS available. Here is a list of its best features that make WordPress the most popular choice.
1. Free and Open-Source Platform
To start, WordPress is a self-hosted platform. This means that WordPress provides its users with open-source software. You can easily download a copy of their program from their official website and install it into a directory.
The codes are open-sourced, which lets you make any edits and permits exceptional levels of flexibility to tailor the program to your situation. WordPress makes website construction codes easy to find, use, edit, and re-purpose.
The best thing about WordPress is that it is entirely free to use. WordPress has a GNU General Public License (or GPL), which means anyone can download, edit, customise, use, and even sell the codes too, under the condition they release it under a GPL license too.
Although the platform is completely free of cost, you may end up paying for hosting, premium support, updates of premium plugins/themes, premium themes, and premium plugins.
2. WordPress Plugins
Plugins are what made WordPress rise from being a basic blogging platform to a full-fledged CMS. Plugins let you customise the functionality of your WordPress website. This aspect allows you to include advanced features like analytics, membership sections, contact forms, and whatnot.
Most WordPress plugins are autonomous, meaning the users can switch it up to customise functionality according to their website design and purpose. This also means that the maintenance costs are kept low as individual plugins can update on their own without interpreting dependent aspects.
WordPress offers several thousands of plugins to choose from- free and at an expense for premium plugins. The abundance and diversity of the plugins offered by WordPress can actually be overwhelming. The plugins range from functionality for marketing, photos, and infographics to SEO, caching, and security.
One thing is for sure, if you want it, WordPress definitely has it.
3. Themes
Themes are a major player when designing websites. They decide your whole website layout and ultimately what your page is going to come out looking like. Themes are also closely intertwined with SEO and marketing strategies and search engine rankings, and user-friendliness.
WordPress has tons of options for ready-made templates. Additionally, you are free to explore and play with customised templates too. Just like plugins, the themes offered range from simple and minimalist frameworks to heavily featured ones with pre-populated content and images.
4. Easy To Use
The massive success of WordPress can be greatly attributed to the level of easiness and user-friendly software they have created. Imagine knowing nothing about coding and HTML and yet still being capable of building a professional-grade website for your use, within minutes!
That is exactly what WordPress promises and delivers on.
The logically organised menu of features and simple mouse-click selections allows inexperienced individuals to design their own sites without the help of Web experts and developers.
Additionally, WordPress has an extensive community that can help you with any problem you could face during the process. You can easily find solutions on the thousands of forums available online.
No wonder why WordPress is a fan-favourite of so many people. This was just a brief overview of what the successful CMS platform can actually do for you. To grasp how wonderful WordPress is, and to explore its versatility, try using WordPress yourself!