What Makes WordPress the World's Leading Content Management System?

Whether starting a blog, setting up a business website, or establishing an online store, many people start in the same place: WordPress. If you've found yourself wondering 'why is WordPress so popular?', then its versatility makes a pretty compelling answer. The ability to provide a multitude of services to fulfill a wide range of user goals has established WordPress as the world's leading content management system (CMS).

It isn't just versatility that has positioned WordPress as the internet community's CMS of choice. The platform's accessibility, the creative license afforded to users through its themes, and the security provided by WordPress plugins are three of the factors that have contributed to WordPress' sustained popularity.

Why is WordPress so popular with those starting out in the business of posting online content? The ability to use WordPress services for free is understandably a massive draw for beginners, as it provides a pressure-free environment to experiment with website creation. While some features are only unlocked for premium subscribers, the freely available core services help users to become familiar with the WordPress brand. This develops loyalty to the CMS, creating WordPress users for life.

WordPress is also incredibly easy to use, another reason why tech novices instantly feel at home with this CMS. The platform boasts intuitive navigation, while the simplification of complex web design features allows users to make dramatic changes to their site at the click of a button. The open-source code also means that WordPress gives flexibility to those more confident with technical tinkering. The strength of its code makes WordPress strong on an SEO front, so a new blog with WordPress hosting has a better chance of appearing high on search engine results compared to sites from a different CMS.

The development of WordPress hosting platforms has made the CMS even easier to use, whatever the purpose of your site. At Verpex, our WordPress hosting packages are optimized specifically to make it a breeze to set up a new site or to manage your current site(s), as existing WordPress pages can be migrated seamlessly from other hosts. Whether you want to simply run a casual blog or you want to use WordPress hosting tools to manage a portfolio of sites, the accessibility and ease of use remain one of WordPress' distinct advantages as a CMS.

Why is WordPress so popular with those who enjoy having a great degree of control over their site? While the inherent purpose of a CMS like WordPress is to provide its users with the templates they need to set up their site, it's important to have plenty of scope for creativity within those templates. Some webpages produced by a CMS are demonstrably a product of that CMS, where you can see how the site owner has struggled to impose their own identity within the confines of a fixed template.

WordPress solves that problem by providing a dazzlingly extensive range of templates, or 'themes' as they are known on WordPress. There are over 5000 free WordPress themes, so even content creators on a budget are spoiled for choice. Though there's always a chance that you may stumble across two sites with identical themes, fonts, and colors, it's sort of like bumping into someone wearing exactly the same outfit as you: sure, there's always a chance that it could happen... but it probably won't.

If you can't find the perfect theme among the thousands of free and premium themes, then WordPress also presents the option for more confident designers to produce their own. While it's inevitably more complex than adopting an existing theme, creating a theme from scratch is still made relatively simple in typical WordPress fashion. However, with the ability to play around with the layout, images, colors, and fonts within a theme, it's likely that most users will be perfectly content with the selection of pre-designed templates.

Customization doesn't end with the framework for the site, as WordPress plugins give users even more creative license. As with themes, these plugins are separated into free and premium categories, and there's a massive selection. In fact, there are over 54,000 WordPress plugins. Some WordPress plugins help you tinker with the appearance of your site, from setting up contact forms for visitors to expanding your drag-and-drop options for rearranging the site layout.

Other WordPress plugins operate behind the scenes to optimize your site management or to boost your SEO. Here at Verpex, we've already picked out some of the most essential WordPress plugins in our guide on what to install and what to avoid. Those desirable WordPress plugins include Hummingbird, which helps you identify weaknesses on your site, and Akismet, which filters out spam contributions in your site's comments section.

These WordPress plugins generally work independently, so users can install whatever combination of plugins that they desire. There are several WordPress plugins that are geared towards enhancing a site's security, from backing up user data to scanning for malware. More layers of security can also be established by using a WordPress hosting platform that incorporates malware protection, while the large active community of WordPress users works together to spot potential threats to safety.

If you wanted just one answer to the question 'why is WordPress so popular?', then it would be this: WordPress is much better than any other CMS at giving users the tools required to realize their vision for their website. Its open-source code, its thousands of themes, and its powerful plugins can help users to design a site that fulfills pretty much any purpose that they can imagine. The free version of WordPress gives users plenty of power, while premium subscriptions or packages from WordPress hosting platforms provide members with even more freedom in their site management.

Before WordPress, creating a website was a task reserved for those with deep technological knowledge. Thanks to WordPress, anyone can access thousands of customization options on an intuitive CMS without spending any money. There are other content management systems that offer worthy services, but it is clear that WordPress stands out from the crowd. Why is WordPress so popular? It's difficult to imagine how another CMS could ever offer its users more than WordPress currently does.