WordPress has come a long way since its inception as a blogging tool. It has now become a powerful website builder and content management system (CMS) that is easy to use and flexible enough to create different types of websites. That's why WordPress has become so popular. If you're wondering why you should use WordPress, you've come to the right place. You may have done some research on WordPress or heard about it from a friend or colleague, but that doesn't mean you've fully weighed the pros and cons or that you've thoroughly checked the features.
For average business owners, names like WordPress, Joomla, Shopify, Magento, Wix, and Weebly might sound like alien names. But when it comes to creating a website, these are all platforms that can be used. Each platform has its own benefits, while many are more often used for specialized websites for specific purposes. For example, Shopify is best suited for online stores and Magento is best for ecommerce stores. Other website and platform builders have more flexibility, and these are usually the most popular. You can usually find free themes and plugins, but the premium (paid) ones usually offer better features and quality support.
Many WordPress users end up paying for additional services, whether they are freelancers or agencies. For example, you can pay a freelancer to design a logo for you or to adjust part of your site's CSS code. Other WordPress users are interested in keeping graphic designers or maintenance experts available. It all depends on your experience and the scale of your website. But overall, you can keep your WordPress costs to a minimum.
Many webmasters end up paying only for hosting. When you download WordPress from their official website, you will be taken to a free download page which is updated frequently based on the latest version (currently WordPress 5.2+). This provides an instant idea of how the WordPress software is presented to users. You're not bombarded with ads or asked to complete a survey before you download the free software. You will see a basic page with some descriptions, beta versions, requirements, source code, files, and a download counter.
It offers multiple download options (such as .zip and .tar.gz) along with the appropriate instructions to install the WordPress software on your own. This way, there is no need to manage the files and upload them via FTP. Managed WordPress hosting companies go one step further by managing all installation, maintenance, security and backups in the future. As for updates, you don't have to return to the download page every time a new version of WordPress is released. Instead, WordPress informs you about the update in the control panel where you can usually complete the process in less than a minute. One of the most common misconceptions about WordPress is that it's mainly for creating blogs.
At one point that was indeed the case but that has changed dramatically with different new versions over the years. In fact, WordPress has an advantage due to its blogging roots as it's by far one of the cleanest and fastest ways to write and publish blog posts - all included right from the start. Some website creation tools think first of design and applications then the blogging interface appears as an afterthought. That's not the case with WordPress so you can create a beautiful e-commerce site knowing that blogging is an integral part of the development process. The good news about WordPress is that functionality for things like forums and e-commerce websites is achieved with simple plugins and themes. So if I wanted to create an online portfolio for my web design business I could use a theme with just a small one-time fee plus loading some demo data and making any changes I would like myself. The following screenshot shows a fairly popular e-commerce theme combined with WooCommerce plugin - one of the main ways to turn your regular WordPress website into an online store with payment processing, shopping cart and product galleries. Check out this detailed tutorial on how to install WooCommerce.
The last example below shows a forum which was built with a theme but you can also consider searching for some forum plugins if there are no forum functionalities available yet. And this is exactly how to achieve different types of websites with WordPress - write down what function you need then go to Google and check if there are any plugins or themes that fit your needs - I bet you'll always find good results! In my own experience I have never encountered any incompatibility issues when uploading files on WordPress. You can expect to upload common files such as .jpg,.png,.gif,.pdf,.doc,.pptx,.mp3,.m4a,.mp4,.mov,.wmv and .avi along with darker file types like .odt,.key,.ogg and .svg. However it's important to follow rules and legally use only media that you own or are open for free downloads or can be used when granting credit. In short, if you want to put a photo, gif, video or document on your website then WordPress is usually a fair game - it's even common to host documents and presentations on a website without publishing them on a specific page!.
