Content management systems, or CMS, are software that allows users with little or no coding knowledge to create a website of their own easily. CMS allows individuals or a group of people to create, edit, and publish content for their websites. Of all the available CMS software out there, WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular one to use. The first-ever version of WordPress was based on a previous blog software called b2 Cafelog and it was created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. WordPress was released in May of 2003 and it was favored heavily by the community. In present times, it is still as popular as ever with a whopping 43.2% of all websites on the internet using WordPress to create and manage their website.
You may ask yourself why WordPress is such a sought-after tool for content management. It’s because it has so much versatility and is also very accessible. No two WordPress websites look the same and that is because of themes. WordPress themes give your website the unique look that you want for your website, and there are thousands of themes to choose from. WordPress also has over 50,000 free plugins that allow you to add advanced features too and better manage your website. Having access to free themes and plugins makes giving WordPress a try very non-committal and heavily beginner-friendly. That is another reason why WordPress is so popular, how it is beginner-friendly.
On the WordPress website, you can find resources that teach you how to use the software and give you helpful tips. This means that anybody can decide to learn WordPress without having to scour the internet to learn how to use it. It’s clear that what WordPress is doing to attract more users is working because its usage has increased by an average of 12% per year since 2011.
WordPress does come with some cons, however. Since WordPress is such a popular CMS, it is a common target for cyber attacks. Another con of WordPress is the need to update frequently. Frequent updates make the software function to the best of its ability, but this also causes your plugins to need to catch up to all these updates. This can become annoying and hard to manage when you have many plugins for your website and have to make sure they stay compatible with WordPress throughout updates.
All of these factors put together are what makes WordPress so popular. Although there are bad things associated with WordPress, they are easy workarounds, so the pros far outweigh the cons. The ease of access makes it attractive to newcomers, and the versatility makes it attractive to more experienced CMS users. With its vast amount of themes and plugins, WordPress is often the number one choice of CMS for websites. The resources provided by WordPress make it easy to start off, but if enough effort and time are put in, one can realize more feats that are harder to achieve. When it comes to CMS, WordPress is the gold standard.