What is WordPress?

What is WordPress?

Answer: WordPress is a popular CMS (web content management system). It is used by over 40% of the websites on the internet. WP was originally created for blogging and has evolved into a full service CMS, where you can build a website and run an e-commerce website.

To put it simply, WordPress is a website builder. That’s the simple answer. It is an open source software that is free to use. All you need is to self host your own site and you can install the code and run WordPress.

What most developers and designers like about WordPress is that there are so many tools and resources available through the open source community. You can ask questions on the WordPress.org forum and receive help, or you can use one of the many free themes or plugins to customize your website.

Is WordPress Free?

Yes, WordPress is free. And you can find the files you need at wordpress.org

If you go to the WordPress.com website, that is a site developed by one of the original developers of WordPress. WordPress.com is a website development platform that offers hosting service. And since you need hosting to run your website, they offer it there.

So Are WordPress.com and WordPress.org the Same?

No they are different. One is the free open source community website where you can access the code and the WordPress community. The other is a business.

What Hosting Do You Recommend for WordPress?

I recommend Hostinger and Cloudways. Hostinger is what we use, and it works well. It’s fast, cheap, and the website has no problems.

The difference between Hostinger and Cloudways or Hostinger and any other host is that Cloudways has more flexibility with different server options and scalability. There are some premium features that also make it a favorite of agencies and designers.

You can use our affiliate links to access the WordPress hosting services we recommend. Thanks in advance if you use it – it’s no charge to you but it helps support the content we can provide for free.

How do I Install WordPress?

The steps to installing wordpress are the following:

  1. Get hosting
  2. Install WordPress
  3. Install and active a WordPress theme
  4. Choose a template
  5. Customize your webpages
  6. Create content

You can condense the steps if you wanted, but for clarity, those six steps above are all you need.

Is it Hard to Use WordPress?

No it is not hard to use WordPress, but like most things, it has a learning curve if you are new to WordPress. But it’s pretty simple to use.

The easiest way is to watch a video tutorial that gives a tour of the WordPress dashboard so you can be introduced to everything. From there, it’s pretty simple.

If you want to check out a video, we have a beginner tutorial on how to use WordPress.

In Summary

I hope this question and answer page on WordPress is helpful. I learn best by watching someone show me how to do things and then trying it myself. But there are not a lot of great tutorials available nowadays, primarily because people are not really making them to help others but to push some sort of affiliate product.

You may not get the perfect website watching any WP tutorial, but you will understand how to use WordPress and how to build a website or blog through it. From there you can find the right resources and create what works best for you.

If you need help, feel free to reach out.