Have you ever thought about starting your own website? Maybe you wanted to set up an online business or start a blog but you didn’t know how to make a website. Maybe you even started to code but realized that HTML, CSS, and Javascript are not made for you.
Don’t worry! You don’t have to give up on your dream. There are plenty of resources available that helps you make your own website. One such resource is WordPress. WordPress help you create websites easily and effectively without coding and the best part is that it is free.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a free and open-source Content Management System (CMS) that helps you to create and manage the content on a digital platform. In simple words, WordPress helps you to create and manage your websites without writing a single line of code. WordPress provides you with an easy drag and drop solution to make your own website.
Features of WordPress
- WordPress is very easy to use and is, therefore, beginner-friendly.
- It offers a drag-and-drop solution to make a website. No coding is required.
- It offers a simple interface to manage the content on your website.
- It provides thousands of themes to style your website.
- It has many plugins to make your websites much more interactive.
- It is free to use and has great community support.
Is WordPress reliable?
Approx 30% of the entire web runs on WordPress. That’s an enormous number of websites. WordPress can be used to make almost any type of website, be it a news website, a shopping website, a blog, a portfolio website, a forum, or even a social media website. You can import the themes and customize your website using page builders such as Elementor.
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Is WordPress completely free?
Yes, WordPress is completely free to use but you will have to buy web hosting and a domain name to host your website online. You can use Xampp to host your website locally on your PC. Some themes and plugins on WordPress are paid but most of the resources are available for free.
What makes WordPress better than it’s competitors?
Since WordPress is a free and open-source project, it is maintained by a huge community of passionately driven people who are ready to help you whenever you get stuck or if any problem arises while using WordPress. It is the community support that had made WordPress such a huge success and a hit.
WordPress has an enormous library of free and paid themes and plugins developed by passionate developers which helps you to add various features to your websites very easily which would have taken a much greater effort to code.
Who should use WordPress?
WordPress is beginner-friendly doesn’t mean that it is only for beginners. One can make almost any type of website using the resources provided by WordPress. If you want you can make a simple blog site, a social media website, or even an online shopping store using WordPress.
WordPress is used by many professionals too. It is estimated that about 75 million websites running on the internet are made using WordPress. Even this website on which you are reading this blog was created using WordPress and I can guarantee that setting up this website was way easier than writing this blog.
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WordPress alternatives
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Wix
Wix also offers a drag and drop solution to create websites and is often considered easier to use than WordPress. It also has a lot of templates that you can edit to have your own website within a matter of minutes.
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Weebly
Weebly is one of the easiest website builders out there which can be used to create responsive websites. It also has an app center to add extra features to your website.
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Jimdo
SEO is the biggest strength of Jimdo. In addition to website building, it also optimizes it for search engines. It also has an Android/iOS app to create websites on your mobile phone.
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Squarespace
If you want to create a blog then Squarespace could be the best among the lot. It offers great blogging specific features like multi-author functionality, AMP support, etc. You can even host your podcast on Squarespace.
Problems in WordPress
If you want to have a certain design that is not provided by the theme you have to add your custom CSS to the website. WordPress websites are highly dependent on plugins which are mostly third-party software. You never know for what time the plugins will get supported, so it’s better to code your website rather than using WordPress.
If you want to implement complex and latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or Augmented Reality to your website then it is highly recommended to develop your website or hire a web developer to do so as it would be very difficult to find plugins that would help you achieve what you want in WordPress.
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Is it worth using WordPress in 2020?
Definitely yes. If you are a beginner and want to make a basic website or set up a blog or a simple online store for your business, WordPress is the best tool you can use. It satisfies almost all your needs. Yes, you might have to take a few hours of training but after that, you can make websites either for yourself or work as a freelancer making websites for others.
But if you have bigger aspirations like you want to implement Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning algorithms on your website or you are working on a complex tech startup then you should probably skip WordPress and get your website coded by a professional web developer.