Word­Press is the world’s most pop­u­lar web­site builder. It allows you to eas­i­ly cre­ate web­sites, blogs, eCom­merce stores and more. 

If you have been won­der­ing what is Word­Press, how does it work, and what you can use it for, then you are in the right place. 

In this beginner’s guide, we will explain what is Word­Press, how you can use it, and answer some of the most fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about WordPress.

What is WordPress?

Word­Press is a web­site builder and con­tent man­age­ment sys­tem. It is an open source soft­ware that any­one can use to make any kind of web­site imaginable. 

It start­ed out as a blog­ging plat­form in 2003 but soon trans­formed into a CMS and lat­er a full-fledged web­site build­ing plat­form. Today it pow­ers more than 38% of all web­sites on the internet. 

To learn more about its evo­lu­tion, see our com­plete guide on the his­to­ry of Word­Press and how it changed over time. 

To sum­ma­rize, Word­Press is a soft­ware that you can use to build blogs, web­sites, and stores to sell prod­ucts online. 

How is it Different from WordPress.com?

In this arti­cle, when we say Word­Press we are talk­ing about WordPress.org.

WordPress.com is a sep­a­rate web­site that offers web­site and blog host­ing ser­vice. It was launched by the Word­Press co-founder, Matt Mullenweg. 

Most begin­ners often con­fuse the two due to their sim­i­lar names. 

WordPress.org is the open-source soft­ware used by mil­lions of web­sites (includ­ing WPBe­gin­ner). On the oth­er hand, WordPress.com is a web­site and blog host­ing platform. 

For more details, see our guide on the dif­fer­ence between WordPress.org vs WordPress.com.

What do You Need to Use WordPress?

You need a web host­ing account and a domain name to start using WordPress. 

All web­sites need web host­ing. It is the place where all your web­site files are stored, so that oth­ers on the inter­net can access your website. 

A domain name is your website’s address on the inter­net (exam­ple, wpbeginner.com).

If your web­site was a house then web host­ing will be the build­ing you live in and domain name would be your street address. For more on this top­ic, see our beginner’s guide on the dif­fer­ence between web host­ing and domain name.

To get a web host­ing account, you’ll need to sign up with a Word­Press host­ing provider. These are third-par­ty com­pa­nies that sell host­ing solutions. 

We rec­om­mend using Blue­host. They are one of the largest host­ing com­pa­nies in the world and an offi­cial­ly rec­om­mend­ed Word­Press host­ing provider. 

Nor­mal­ly, a domain name costs $14.99 per year and web host­ing starts from $7.99 per month. 

Blue­host is offer­ing WPBe­gin­ner users a dis­count on host­ing with a free domain name. Basi­cal­ly, you can get start­ed for just $2.75 per month. 

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclu­sive Blue­host Offer ←

For step by step instruc­tion, see our com­plete guide on how to make a web­site it will walk you through com­plete Word­Press set up. 

What Kind of Websites You Can Make Using WordPress?

You can make any kind of web­site imag­in­able using WordPress.

Users from all over the world use Word­Press to make mon­ey online. It is flex­i­ble enough to run eCom­merce oper­a­tions and sim­ple enough to quick­ly make small websites. 

The fol­low­ing are just some types of web­sites you can make using WordPress. 

• Start a blog
• Make a small busi­ness website
• Cre­ate an online store
• Build a mem­ber­ship community
• Sell online courses
• and many more

How WordPress Works?

Once you have installed Word­Press, you’ll see an easy to use dash­board with links to dif­fer­ent areas in the left col­umn. From here, you can cre­ate pages for your web­site or write blog posts. 

You can also choose a web­site design tem­plate (Theme) for your web­site. There are thou­sands of free Word­Press themes that you can choose from. You can also choose pre­mi­um Word­Press theme that comes with more advanced features. 

All these Word­Press themes allow you to set up your web­site using a sim­ple theme cus­tomiz­er inter­face. From here you can edit and cus­tomize your site design.

But the real pow­er of Word­Press comes from the plugins. 

Word­Press plu­g­ins are like apps for your web­site. Sim­i­lar to the apps you install on your phone, Word­Press plu­g­ins allow you to add new fea­tures to your website. 

For instance, you can add a con­tact form to your site, or dis­play a light­box pop­up to announce a sale. 

You can con­vert your site into an online store using plu­g­ins like WooCom­merce, or use a mem­ber­ship plu­g­in to make a sub­scrip­tion-based website. 

There are 56000+ free Word­Press plu­g­ins in the Word­Press plu­g­in direc­to­ry alone. There are also pre­mi­um Word­Press plu­g­ins that offer full sup­port and guar­an­teed updates. 

You can see some of the best Word­Press plu­g­ins hand-picked by our expert team to help you grow your Word­Press site.

Note: If you want to see how Word­Press works behind the scenes from a tech­ni­cal point of view, then please check out our info­graph­ic on how Word­Press works.

Who Else is Using WordPress?

Word­Press is not just for begin­ners. It is used by many of the for­tune 500 com­pa­nies, uni­ver­si­ties, non-prof­its, gov­ern­ments around the world, and more. 

The fol­low­ing are some of the top brands and orga­ni­za­tions that are using WordPress. 

1. The White House

The offi­cial web­site of the White House is built using Word­Press. It fea­tures a large head­er on the top fol­lowed by the lat­est updates, news, and resources. 

2. Face­book

Face­book uses Word­Press for their cor­po­rate web­site. It is a typ­i­cal busi­ness web­site with a home­page show­cas­ing key char­ac­ter­is­tics of the brand along with its flag­ship prod­ucts. It also has a blog sec­tion called the Newsroom. 

3. The New York Times

New York Times uses Word­Press on its cor­po­rate web­site show­cas­ing the com­pa­ny behind the icon­ic newspaper. 

4. Microsoft

Microsoft uses Word­Press to run their blogs web­site. It fea­tures com­pa­ny news, infor­ma­tion, and prod­uct highlights. 

5. Sony Music

Sony Music is one of the biggest music pro­duc­ers in the world rep­re­sent­ing top artists and labels. They use Word­Press to pow­er their cor­po­rate website. 

To see a full list, check out our com­plete list on the most pop­u­lar brands using Word­Press.

Why Use WordPress to Make a Website?

Now, if you are think­ing about start­ing a blog or a small busi­ness web­site, then you may be won­der­ing why you should use Word­Press as your web­site platform? 

There are dozens of web­site builders and poten­tial Word­Press alter­na­tives on the mar­ket that you can use to make your web­site. How­ev­er, we believe that Word­Press is the best plat­form for begin­ners and small businesses. 

This is why over 38% of all web­sites use WordPress.

But here are just some of the rea­sons to choose Word­Press for your website. 

1. Word­Press gives you the freedom

Word­Press is free (as in free­dom) and open-source soft­ware. Any­one can use it to cre­ate and launch a web­site. It is not owned by a sin­gle com­pa­ny, and it is pro­tect­ed by the Word­Press Foun­da­tion, a non-prof­it organization. 

This means you have com­plete free­dom to use it in any way you see fit. You will have full con­trol and com­plete own­er­ship of your web­site and all of its content. 

2. Word­Press is easy

One of the rea­sons that make Word­Press the #1 web­site builder is that it is incred­i­bly easy to use. 

There is a slight learn­ing curve when you famil­iar­ize your­self with the soft­ware, but most begin­ners pass it quick­ly and eas­i­ly man­age their own websites. 

Pro Tip: See our guide on how to learn Word­Press for free in a week.

There is also a ton of free Word­Press help and sup­port avail­able. You can ask ques­tions on any tech com­mu­ni­ty web­site and you’ll find answers from oth­er users who start­ed out just like you. 

You can also join our WPBe­gin­ner Face­book Group to ask all your Word­Press relat­ed ques­tions and get free help from our experts and oth­er WPBe­gin­ner users. 

3. Word­Press is super-flex­i­ble

Word­Press allows you to use third-par­ty themes and plu­g­ins. This means you can choose from thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­al­ly designed tem­plates for your website. 

Using plu­g­ins, you can add any fea­ture to your Word­Press web­site. Most of them are avail­able for free, but you can also pur­chase pre­mi­um plu­g­ins to get pri­or­i­ty sup­port from developers. 

There are drag & drop Word­Press page builder plu­g­ins that lets you com­plete­ly cus­tomize your design and make cus­tom tem­plates with­out writ­ing any code.

4. Word­Press is mul­ti­lin­gual

Word­Press is ful­ly trans­lat­ed into more than 65 lan­guages. You can eas­i­ly choose your web­site lan­guage dur­ing the instal­la­tion or change it from the set­tings page. 

You can keep the Word­Press admin area in one lan­guage and cre­ate a web­site in anoth­er lan­guage. You can also use a Word­Press mul­ti­lin­gual plu­g­in to cre­ate a web­site in mul­ti­ple languages. 

Word­Press themes and plu­g­ins can also be trans­lat­ed and many of the top Word­Press plu­g­ins are already trans­lat­ed into many languages. 

5. Word­Press is cost effec­tive

With pro­pri­etary web­site builders and host­ed plat­forms, you have to pay a month­ly fee for a fixed set of features. 

With Word­Press, you pay a month­ly fee for host­ing and add any fea­ture to your web­site using plu­g­ins. Most of them are free or have free alter­na­tives, which gives you the free­dom to con­trol the cost of your Word­Press web­site.

Once your web­site starts grow­ing and mak­ing mon­ey, then you can spend on upgrad­ing your host­ing ser­vice or buy­ing pre­mi­um Word­Press themes and plugins. 

For more rea­sons, see our arti­cle on why you should use Word­Press.

FAQs about WordPress

We made WPBe­gin­ner to help Word­Press begin­ners. Since 2009, we have helped mil­lions of begin­ners get start­ed with Word­Press and have been answer­ing Word­Press relat­ed ques­tions every day. 

Here are some of the most fre­quent­ly asked Word­Press ques­tions that we hear from beginners. 

1. Why is Word­Press avail­able for free?

Word­Press is an open-source soft­ware avail­able for any­one to use. It is free (as in free­dom), but there are oth­er costs involved. For instance, you’ll need Word­Press host­ing and domain name to make your website. 

For a more detailed expla­na­tion, see our arti­cle Why is Word­Press free which explains the phi­los­o­phy behind free soft­ware and WordPress. 

2. What are the dis­ad­van­tages of using WordPress?

Like every­thing else in the world, there are pros and cons to using Word­Press. We have men­tioned the advan­tages in detail, and they are enough to out­weigh any dis­ad­van­tages. How­ev­er, here are some of the cons of using WordPress. 

• You will need to spend a lit­tle time learn­ing the basics. This does not mean cod­ing or pro­gram­ming, but learn­ing where things are locat­ed and how to use them.
• You’ll need to spend time on set­ting up back­ups, secu­ri­ty, and updates. Most of these tasks can be eas­i­ly auto­mat­ed and most begin­ners man­age them with­out any spe­cial skills
• If you are not care­ful, then you may end up spend­ing more on third-par­ty tools and plu­g­ins that you may not need. Spend your mon­ey wise­ly and rely on free alter­nates when­ev­er possible.

3. How can I learn Word­Press?

Word­Press is easy to learn, and there are a lot of learn­ing mate­r­i­al out there. You can learn Word­Press right here on WPBeginner. 

We are the largest Word­Press resource site for begin­ners in the world. All of WPBe­gin­ner resources are avail­able for free. 

For begin­ners, we rec­om­mend start­ing out with our Word­Press video tuto­ri­als. It is a series of videos that walks you through Word­Press basics and how to man­age your web­site like a total pro. 

Our Word­Press glos­sary sec­tion explains all the tech­ni­cal Word­Press ter­mi­nol­o­gy in plain Eng­lish for beginners.

You can also find answers to your Word­Press ques­tions by click­ing on the search icon at the top. 

Need a lit­tle more help from real users? Join our WPBe­gin­ner Face­book group to get answers from oth­er Word­Press users and our experts. It’s free to join, and there are over 50,000 members.

You can also sub­scribe to our YouTube Chan­nel for reg­u­lar Word­Press video tuto­ri­als and guides (over 500 free video tutorials). 

4. Which Word­Press host­ing com­pa­ny to choose?

You’ll need Word­Press host­ing to start your web­site, and there are thou­sands of them out there. Due to fierce com­pe­ti­tion in the host­ing indus­try, it becomes quite con­fus­ing for begin­ners to make up their minds. 

Don’t wor­ry, we did the research for you. You can read about it in our com­plete Word­Press host­ing guide for beginners. 

For begin­ners, we rec­om­mend start­ing with Blue­host. They are offer­ing a gen­er­ous dis­count and a free domain name. 

More impor­tant­ly, they are one of the biggest names in the busi­ness and an offi­cial­ly rec­om­mend­ed Word­Press host­ing provider. 

If you have a slight­ly larg­er bud­get to afford pre­mi­um host­ing, then we rec­om­mend Site­Ground or WP Engine.

5. How do I start a Word­Press web­site?

Get­ting start­ed with Word­Press is easy. You can sim­ply fol­low our step by step tuto­r­i­al on how to make a Word­Press web­site for detailed instructions. 

It will walk you through the whole process, and you’ll be up and run­ning with a brand new Word­Press web­site in no time. 

If you need assis­tance, you can take advan­tage of our free Word­Press blog set­up ser­vice, where our expert team will set­up your Word­Press blog for free, with­out any costs.

We hope this arti­cle explained what is Word­Press, and how you can use it. You may also want to see our guide on things to do after installing Word­Press, or head over to check out these prac­ti­cal online busi­ness ideas that you can start with Word­Press right away. 

If you liked this arti­cle, then please sub­scribe to our YouTube Chan­nel for Word­Press video tuto­ri­als. You can also find us on Twit­ter and Face­book.

The post What is Word­Press? A Beginner’s Guide (FAQs + Pros and Cons) appeared first on WPBe­gin­ner.