WordPress is the most popular online publishing platform, currently powering more than 27% of the web.

What is CMS (Content management systems) : Content management systems are web-based applications for creating and managing the content of a website.

We include all such systems in this category, also systems that are often classified as wikis, blog engines or discussion boards.

WordPressOrg And WordPressCom

There are two versions of WordPress. WordPress . org (self-hosted version) and WordPress . com (hosted version of WordPress).

WordPress . org : If you want full control over your website/blog that you can download and install a software script called WordPress from https://wordpress.org/download/.

To do this you need to buy a Reliable Hosting Plan from a web host who meets the minimum requirements and a little time.

WordPress is completely customizable and can be used for almost any type of website or blog.

To get started with self-hosted version you will have to buy Domain and web hosting (Managed WordPress Hosting starting from $7.99 per month) and technical knowledge is required.

WordPress . com : is hosted version of the open source software aWordPress.

At wordpress . com you can start a blog or build a website in seconds without any technical knowledge. wordpress was created in 2005.

At wordpress you can start a free blog or website, but there are some limitations. You will have to pay them to unlock different features.

How You Can Use WordPress How Does WordPress Works?

If you are a designer or developer, or you work for a company that designs/develops websites, you can use WordPress to build websites and/or blogs for clients.

WordPress is not difficult to use at all. You can learn basics of WordPress with in an hour or two.

WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL, but you don’t need to know HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript & other languages to use WordPress.

How to get started with WordPress self hosted version?

1. Get A Domain Name + Hosting
2. Install and set up WordPress
3. start publishing content

WordPress is famous for its five minutes installation process. It means your WordPress based website will be online with in 5 minutes.

Most Powerful WordPress Features

One of the main reason of WordPress is its flexibility and list of very powerful features, that allows you to build the different type of blogs and websites very easily.

For example, With WordPress Themes you can change the design of your websites very easily.

Here is a list of WordPress features.

Built-In Comments

Your blog is your home, and comments provide a space for your friends and followers to engage with your content.

WordPress’s comment tools give you everything you need to be a forum for discussion and to moderate that discussion.

Change Design Easily With WordPress Themes

WordPress Themes allow you to change the look and functionality of a WordPress website or installation without altering the information content or structure.

Thousands of free themes are available at https://wordpress.org/themes.

There are many marketplaces and developers selling premium themes.

Add Additional Functionality With Thousands Of Free Plugins

One very popular feature of WordPress is its rich plugins. which allows users and developers to extend its abilities beyond the features that are part of the base install.

As of 2019 WordPress has a database of over 41000+ plugins with purposes ranging from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to adding widgets, building social networking, online store, forums websites and much more.

Widgets

Widgets are small modules that offer users drag-and-drop sidebar content placement and implementation of many plugins’ extended abilities.

Widgets allow WordPress developers to add functionality to their sites. These small modules can be used to add functionality such as a slideshow, Facebook-like box, small news slider, and more.

Multi-User And Multi-Blogging

You can have multiple users on a WordPress site with different user roles and Capabilities. A user with the Administrative rights have full authority to manage WordPress site while a User with subscriber role has minimum capabilities.

Multi Site Network

As of WordPress 3.0, you have the ability to create a network of sites by using the multi-site feature.

With WordPress Multi-Site feature you can create a network of WordPress base websites just like WordPress where any one can register and create a free website/blog.

Visit WordPress features page to learn about all the features.

How Many People Are Using WordPress

As of May 2019, version 5.2.0 had been downloaded over 65 million times.  WordPress 5.2 has been downloaded more than  11,921,350+ times.

As of 2019 WordPress is fastest growing content management system and most widely used CMS to build highly customized websites and blogs.

WordPress is used by 58.6% of all the websites whose content management system is known. This is 24.9% of all websites. WordPress Version 5 is used by 83.1% of all the websites who use WordPress.

WordPress.com activity page shows that over 409 million people view more than 20.4 billion pages each month and users produce about 56.6 million new posts and 52.2 million new comments each month. WordPress host blogs written in over 120 languages. English is most popular language.

Most Popular Websites Using WordPress

according to research, here are 10 most popular websites using WordPress

1. WordPress.com
2. WordPress.org
3. Conservativetribune.com
4. Time.com
5. Webtretho.com
6. Xda-developers.com
7. Techcrunch.com
8. Exoclick.com
9. Vcommission.com
10. Wired.com

Notable WordPress Users

WordPress is not only used by individuals and hobby bloggers, some of the world’s most popular and biggest websites in the world rely on WordPress.

Here’s a sampler of well-known sites that are powered by WordPress.

1. The New York Times’ blogs
2. CNN blogs
3. Forbes
4. Reuters
5. eBay
6. Sony
7. BestBuy
8. MP3.com
9. TechCrunch
10. Samsung
11. IBMJobs
12. Boing Boing
13. Mashable

and a lot of others. You can view complete list at WordPress Notable Users page.

Next Steps

Now you know all the basics things about WordPress, it’s time to start learning WordPress, so you can create powerful websites with WordPress your self.