What is WordPress?

You may have heard of WordPress before, most people have, but not know what it actually is. WordPress was created back in 2003; originally, it was an offshoot of another project called b2/cafelog.

So, what is this WordPress you speak of? WordPress is a simple and straightforward way to create a website. WordPress is the most popular way for business entrepreneurs, bloggers, and many others to create their very own website. 

WordPress allows your website to run and work. Think of your car as the website, and WordPress as the engine, without the engine, the car cannot work… same goes for your website and WordPress. 

WordPress allows you to edit your content, make new posts and pages, and ensures that your website is displaying correctly on all devices that go to your site. Not to forget, WordPress is what actually allows your website to run. 

What is WordPress used for, and who by?

WordPress can be used by anyone wanting to create an online platform, university students, big-time businesses, as well as all of those between.  

The popularity of WordPress kind of shows just how good and useful using it to build your website is. Over 37.6% of all of the websites on the world wide web is powered by WordPress. 

Advantages of WordPress.org compared to WordPress.com.

You would have thought WordPress.org and WordPress.com would be the same thing, and most people do believe they are.

But, in fact, they most certainly are not the same. To put it bluntly, WordPress.org is what is needed to build a self-hosted website. Self-hosted websites give you a lot more ownership and allow you to have access to all of the various benefits of WordPress. 

WordPress.org is what’s known as a self-hosted website; therefore, people often call WordPress.org’ self-hosted WordPress.’ It is free to use and install; you will be able to install the software to your website and start to create a website which is all yours, you are in 100% control of the website.

WordPress.com is still a website creating software, but it is a for-profit service that you have to pay for. Similarly to WordPress.org, WordPress.com is easy to use still, but you lose most of the flexibility and sense of personality to your website. 

WordPress is a solution created to help and make the process of creating a website easier and more enjoyable for users. 

WordPress.com is a way of creating your own website, but not have all of the work or freedom left to you; instead, someone else would handle it for you. You can still create your own website, but the websites are preinstalled, making it easier for you, but you lose the freedom and flexibility to make it fully how yours. For some people, this works effectively, but if you’re going to create your website from scratch with all of your own ideas and vision, the WordPress.org is for you. 

Get the complete guide on how to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

With WordPress.org, you can customize your website whenever you want, and as much as you want. Whereas with WordPress.com, that isn’t the case. 

You can add and gain revenue from ads with WordPress.org without having to share the profits with anyone. You can create an online shop on your WordPress.org website, where you can sell products. You can also create membership sites with WordPress.org and sell memberships to customers. 

WordPress.com is rather costly for the lack of freedom that you get over your website. You are unable to use ads on your webpage when using WordPress.com, limiting your ability to make money from your site. As well as many other downfalls with using WordPress.com, they are allowed to delete your site at any time without warning if they feel it violates their rules and terms. 

If you are looking to create a website, whether it be to sell items, create memberships, or simply have a website of your own, WordPress.org is the most recommended and popular option to go for. With WordPress.org, you have complete control over your website with the freedom to customize it to exactly what you wish for. As well as use ads to make money from. Whereas WordPress.com limits your personalization to the website, as well not allowing owners to make money from the ads.