Overview About The Article
Being the most popular website builder, most users would go for WordPress. But is it the right choice for you?
I am going to help you answer this question in this detailed review.
What is WordPress?
WordPress has been around since 2003 and started as a blogging platform in 2006. Since then, it has become the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) in all parts of the world hosting more than 80 million websites, or 40% of the internet websites today.
With this platform, you can create your own website with much flexibility. You can transform your content, images, video, and other media and ideas into a functional website.
Before you become fascinated by the volume of its users, it’s important to know if you must add yourself to them. Read on for everything there is to know.
How to Sign Up and Start Your Website on WordPress
You have two options to create your website:
- Choosing a web host and creating a site on its self-hosted WordPress.org
- Using their full-hosted WordPress.com website builder
WordPress.org and WordPress.com
- WordPress.org: It is the self-hosted version that gives you absolute control over your website. However, this will compromise the ease of use. You will need to control owning, operating, and maintaining a WordPress website. Finding a separate hosting provider is a requirement if you’re not quite used to website customization on your own.
- WordPress.com: It is the full-hosted version that does both website creation and hosting for you. This requires a monthly fee like a typical website builder such as Wix, Squarespace, or Weebly. Unlike in Website.org, you do not have to find a separate hosting provider to start your website.
However, not all plugins work on this platform, so this can compromise the flexibility of your website. Also, you have no control over your hosting specification with website speed and security, which are important as your website grows and gains more visitors.
To summarize, WordPress.org lets you create a unique website beyond the drag-and-drop website builder’s capabilities. On the other hand, WordPress.com saves you a lot of hassle from technical complexity just like other drag-and-drop website builders.
In this review, I will show you how to sign up for WordPress.com. To start building your website, follow these simple steps:
- Open Google Chrome or any browser.
- Type in “https://www.wordpress.com/”.
- Click on “Start your website”.
- Enter your email address, username, and password. You may also login with your Google or Apple account.
- Enter your domain name. If you already have an existing domain, you can transfer it by clicking on “Already own a domain?”.
- Select from any of the suggested domains.
- Enter necessary details required. Click on Continue, then enter your credit card details.
You can skip this step by clicking the “X” mark on the upper-left corner of the screen.
- You can now start customizing your website.
WordPress Features
To know how much WordPress has to offer, let us measure it in terms of website builder metrics:
Ease of Use
Compared to any drag-and-drop website builder, WordPress is harder to set up. If you don’t mind putting in a lot of time and effort then you could set up your own WordPress website. Both WordPress.org and WordPress.com come with theme customizers and visual editors that allow you to tweak your website.
You can use hosting providers like Bluehost for a one-click WordPress installation and automatic WordPress updates. However, you will need to get patient in taking between hours and days to set up, depending on the amount of your technical knowledge.
WordPress Templates, Themes, and Designs
This is where WordPress stands out more than any other platform, even from Wix. Over 5,000 themes are available from third-party sites such as Woothemes, ThemeForest, and Themify, which enables you to create a unique and personalized site.
Using free themes is fine, but you might want to extend your website’s capability. I recommend getting paid themes from verified sources. When it comes to theme customizations, WordPress.org offers better flexibility. However, you will need to hire a WordPress developer to create custom themes for you that best reflects your brand identity.
Factors to Consider in Choosing a Theme
- Give importance to themes’ functionality rather than looks best for your website’s needs.
- Use themes created by great developers with a history of creating useful WordPress themes.
- Choose a frequently-updated theme to ensure the elimination of bugs and up-to-date WordPress updates. You can see it by looking into its Changelog.
Where You Can Find Good WordPress Themes
The following theme providers offer great selections of WordPress website designs:
- FloThemes
- WooThemes
- Elegant Themes
- MojoThemes
- ThemeForest
- StudioPress
Add-ons and Plugins
Plugins and add-ons add more functionality to your WordPress website like apps do for your smartphone. You can install as many of them as you want.
There are over 50,000 available free and premium WordPress plugins. Since WordPress is an open-source system, you can also download and integrate plugins from third-party sources. Free plugins are less likely to be updated compared to paid plugins. The latter also is best for more features.
You can find and manage plugins in your WordPress dashboard by going to “Plugins”.
Things to Consider in Choosing a Plugin
- Choose paid rather than a free plugin If you will need support.
- Use regularly-updated plugins.
- Only use plugins created by a trusted developer.
- Use popular plugins with many users to ensure that they are tweaked for any WordPress updates and coding problems.
Some Useful WordPress Plugins
- Yoast – helps you improve your search engine rankings
- Disqus – lets you manage comments on your website
- Cloudflare – improves website performance and security improvement
- CrazyEgg – visual website analytics tool
- Akismet – filters out spam comments
- TinyPNG – compresses your images without reducing quality and improves page load speed
- InfusionSoft – email marketing and client management tool
- WooCommerce – turns your website into an eCommerce store
- aMember – membership plugin and user management tool
- Booking Calendar – lets you accept bookings from visitors
- Envira Gallery – creates a WordPress portfolio
- Multilingual Press – enables you to create and manage a WordPress website in multiple languages
Blogging Tools
WordPress has a plugin for any blogging function that you need for your website from simple contact form creation to Google Analytics Integration.
With features such as dedicated themes, private posting, and native commenting, it’s perfect for a blog.
eCommerce Tools
If you sell products online, you will need to consider including eCommerce features on your website.
Since WordPress is a blogging platform, it doesn’t come with integrated eCommerce features but it comes with a powerful eCommerce plugin called WooCommerce It lets you convert your WordPress website into a complete eCommerce store with its completely customizable and dedicated themes and plugins.
As alternatives, you can also use Ecwid, WP E-commerce, and Easy Digital Downloads for different functionalities.
Data Export
It is easy to export content on WordPress. You just have to click on the exporter option to download all your content in an easy-to-port XML format.
For WordPress.org, you can have complete backups of your website from downloading all media files to manually exporting databases.
WordPress also wins when it comes to the portability of websites. It makes switching from one web host to another easy.
SEO Tools
To reach your target audience and bring more traffic to your website, it is important to have robust SEO tools. WordPress allows you to use the Yoast SEO plugin, RankMath, and more to optimize your site better.
For instance, Yoast provides suggestions for adding internal links, improving readability, and optimizing keywords. This makes your website rank much higher on search engine results.
WordPress triumphs for its completely responsive websites, which top Google search engine.
The good thing about WordPress sites is that they are not limited to only one domain provider, so you can easily switch as necessary.
Maintenance Activity Updates
You will get notified of periodic updates that you have to download and install.
Value for Money
WordPress website is entirely free; the catch is that you have to pay for a web host for customization, themes, templates, web design, and SSL certificates.
Customer Support
This platform offers a forum, live chat, email, and phone support for any user concerns.
It also has a huge support community you can turn to for help.
- Forum: You can ask or answer questions about WordPress concerns.
- Codex: useful documents to make code changes to your WordPress website
- Tutorials: There is a beginner’s guide that you can read before starting your website.
- Online Courses:
- Lynda.com – offers basic courses both for free and premium monthly payment
- Tutsplus.com – offers how-to tutorials for free and premium monthly payments
Pricing
You’ll wonder why this platform is so popular yet free to use.
Aside from a new domain, what you have to invest in is the web hosting, themes, plugins, third-party software, online courses, and developers that you want to use with your website.
It doesn’t have a specific cost but I will provide you with the mentioned requirements’ prices:
- WordPress Website Hosting (Example: Bluehost)
- Monthly cost: $5-$100
- Self-hosted shared hosting: $3-$20
- Fully managed hosting: $30-$100
- WordPress Online Tutorials and Courses
- Monthly Cost: $0-$50
- Time to Learn Basics: A few hours
- Time to Learn WordPress: Weeks
- WordPress Themes
- One-time payment: $0-$5,000
- Basic Templates: $35-$50
- Premium Templates: $80-$200
- Template Alterations: $300-$1,000
- Custom Design: $5,000-$10,000+
- WordPress Plugins
- One-Time Payment: $50-$500
- Monthly Payment: $5-$150
- Payment Software
- One-Time Payment: $100-$500
- Monthly Payment: $30-$80
- Membership Gateway Software
- One-Time Payment: $100-$300
- Monthly Payment: $50-$150
- Email Marketing Software
- Monthly Payment: $5-$99
Depending on your business requirements, you can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars as you desire.
Pros And Cons
Pros
- Comes with a free plan
- Offers complete control and high-level customization on your website
- A massive number of add-ons and plug-ins
- Completely responsive sites
- Flexible pricing
- Great blogging and SEO features
- Huge collection of extensions, add-ons, and plugins available to elevate your website
- Very customizable with thousands of website designs and templates to choose from
- Due to its popularity, almost all popular third-party tools already have integrations available including email marketing software, lead generation tool, SEO tools, CRM software, and payment gateways.
- Full access to codes to customize any pre-made themes and designs
- Easy incorporation of third-party tools such as a forum, a shopping tool, and membership access area
- You can pick the best hosting provider there is.
- Has a huge community of users and developers where you can get help and tips for your website
Cons
- Certain technical skills needed
- Takes a lot of time to learn and explore the website
- A hosting provider is necessary to have everything on your blog in place.
- Does not have a built-in drag and drop website builder
- Some basic knowledge of HTML and CSS needed
- Coding knowledge required to manage and troubleshoot issues
- as well as in changing your header image location
WordPress Alternatives
If you’re not pleased with the complexity of this website builder, then you might look into its alternatives with a drag-and-drop function and very easy-to-use interface:
- Wix
- Weebly
- Squarespace
- Jimdo
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Webnode
- Site123
- Webflow
FAQs
Is WordPress free?
WordPress is open-source software that is free for you to download and use. However, to use this on the web, you will need the platform’s hosting such as Bluehost, SiteGround, HostGator, DreamHost, and GreenGeeks which then are paid.
How do I install WordPress?
You can install WordPress either manually using their 5-minute installation process, or use hosting providers to download it with just one click. For hosts like Flywheel, WP Engine, or Kinsta, the platform is already pre-installed.
Can I import my posts from another blog or blogging platform?
Yes, you can export content from your old blog, then import it on your new WordPress blog. You can check out the official guide for the steps.
How do I change the style of my WordPress website?
You can get a new theme for your website. You can refer to the features section of this article to know where to get awesome themes.
Opinion
We all have seen how the most popular CMS and website builder works.
I can make you agree that this platform is not for everyone with its level of complexity. Compared to other website builders, it is more difficult to use especially for beginners.
However, when you have fully taken advantage of WordPress’s full potential, you’ll learn that it can be an exceptionally powerful tool. So far, it is the most flexible website builder today due to the freedom of choosing your own website hosts, themes, plugins, and other essential features. You can also create any type of website you can imagine.
As long as you think that spending time and money to get your website up and running, this could be the start of a great website for you. Otherwise, you might just prefer to use a simpler drag-and-drop website builder that fits most of your business needs.
With good value for money and the option of a free plan, you can join 40% of the websites on the internet today by simply signing up.
We hope this review has helped you know its capabilities as a website builder.
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