WordPress is one of the world’s biggest website design and hosting platforms. Responsible for a huge swathe of the internet, WordPress is often the first platform people consider when they want to build a new website.
While many people think of WordPress as a blogging site, partially because those websites often still have the WordPress name and branding, it can do much more.
This WordPress review will take a close look at WordPress, including the pros and cons of the platform, what it does, and some common questions about the site.
Table of Contents
What is WordPress?
At its core, WordPress is a website building platform. The WordPress page builder, which you use to populate your website, is reasonably easy to use. The ability to work with the creation tools and building mechanics and directly in the code gives you a lot of flexibility and control.
WordPress is also a content manager. It allows you to create, edit, save, post, and schedule content without ever leaving its platform.
You’ll also get access to a curated feed of content coming from other WordPress sites, making it a kind of blogging home page as well.
Critically, WordPress is also a domain host. That means that you can get and control your website directly in WordPress. But the software works with other hosting platforms as well, so you aren’t required to own a WordPress domain.
Put simply, WordPress is an all-in-one website creation and management platform. It’s suitable for small blogs, business and professional web teams, and eCommerce sites.
Pros and Cons
Like any platform, there are WordPress has some pros and cons. But, it’s also one of the biggest website building and hosting platforms for a reason.
Pros
- Offers a free option
- Subscriptions are reasonably priced
- Thousands of themes to choose from
- Access to premium themes and content is affordable
- Can move and export your website whenever you need to
- Incredibly flexible design
- Cloud storage
- Changing/adding to your website is easy
- Can host multiple websites through the same account
- Thousands of plugins for added versatility and tools
- Web Designers tend to be experienced with WordPress
- Lots of support and how-to documentation
Cons
- No automatic backups
- Advanced features often require some coding skill
- Lacking customer support
- No drag and drop creation
- Need to manually install updates
As you can see, the pros of this platform outweigh the cons by a good bit. You don’t have to be the best WordPress page builder to get a lot of utility and use out of the platform.
WordPress is also designed to make gaining the skills you need to use it simple.
Is WordPress Easy to Use?
Signing up for WordPress is incredibly simple. You’ll create an account and then be prompted to pick a domain name and website name. Especially if you’re creating your first website on the platform, it will walk you through the whole process.
Customizing your website can be a little more difficult, depending on the theme you choose and what you want to build. Some HTML and CSS coding experience is very helpful, but not required, to build a functional WordPress website.
Plugins, analytics, and other details of your website are also fairly straightforward.
You do need to remember to create your own site backups and to manage updates and other changes to your website manually.
WordPress does get some bad press for its customer service, but that largely isn’t earned. Like many website builders, it’s primary support for subscribers is a 24/7 live chat online. The chat is usually responsive.
There’s also a large library of useful documents that can help you fix a problem yourself, without contacting the support chat.
If you’re using the free version of WordPress you won’t have access to the chat line. But, the document library and WordPress’s forums will still be available to you.
Overall, WordPress isn’t the easiest of the website building platforms to use, but it isn’t a difficult platform either.
Billing
WordPress subscriptions are billed annually, but they list a monthly subscription cost. You are billed each year on the day you first sign up for the plan.
There is a free version of WordPress you can use, which is basically just as powerful as the original. But, you do have to deal with hosting fees and other non-WordPress costs if you opt to use the free version of WordPress
Subscription Level |
Personal | Premium | Business | eCommerce |
Price |
$4/mo | $8/mo | $25/mo | $45/mo |
FAQs
The short answer is that WordPress can be used for pretty much whatever kind of website you want it to.
The core of the software is about flexibility and allowing people to create what they want. A slightly more detailed answer is that WordPress is a website creation and management platform.
It is also where some of the best themes, plugins, and additional tools for website management can be found.
If you want to run a website, chances are, WordPress will be able to support it.
Yes. WordPress is Open Source. Its source code is widely available, and you can use it for yourself if you have the required skills. If you’re interested, you should also know that WordPress is written in PHP
Yes. WordPress is one of the largest CMS (content management software) platforms available right now.
WordPress allows for content creation, storage, posting, and scheduling. That said, WordPress is not necessarily the Best CMS, which is why there are plenty of plugins and additional tools you can add to WordPress.
Those tools also make WordPress one of the more flexible and customizable CMS platforms.
Yes. WordPress can host your domain for you, although other options will still allow you to use WordPress.
Setting up a WordPress hosted website can also be the easier/simpler option for many users.
Conclusion:
In this review, we’ve gone over some of the most prominent pros and cons of WordPress. The WordPress page builder is one of the more powerful website creation tools available, though it can require some know how to use it.
In terms of content management, the tools are simple but well-designed and streamlined.
It also can’t be denied that WordPress is one of the most flexible tools thanks to the many plugins and supported extensions you can add to your website.
While this platform can take some getting used to, it can also help you develop the website development skills you need to use it.
WordPress is, overall, a solid and powerful tool. It’s one of the most flexible options and is designed to support a wide range of different types and styles of websites.