It’s 2017, and WordPress Is as Popular as Ever
What special powers does WordPress have that still make it the most popular platform there is?
Try to google “Wordpress powers”.
Is it 25, 27, or whatever percentage of the web that it covers and/or powers?
Just three years ago, it powered 22,5% of all websites on the Internet. In 2016, the number was 26%. Right now it’s near 27%. The numbers continue to rise, and those fabulous stats feed our need for this awesome platform that gained the lion’s share of its popularity as a blogging platform, but over time has grown into a full content management system. One in five websites is powered by WordPress, and among them are websites of The New York Times, CNN, eBay, LinkedIn, etc.
Its best-ranked competitor, Joomla, powers only 2,9% of all of the world’s websites.
Things are not black and white, of course. As any geek would confirm, popularity doesn’t necessarily equal quality. Furthermore, there isn’t a perfect CMS, and never will be. But the mere fact that it’s applicable to a variety of different websites speaks for itself. Or, to speak in pragmatic terms, if it works well for billions of people, chances are it will prove to be a perfect choice for you and me.
It’s free as free can be
By definition, it’s free and open source. Depending on what your intentions and appetites are, you can start blogging without paying a cent, as there are free themes (and very decent, at that), free plugins, free widgets. If you want it to really belong to you, it’s up to you to choose and buy your own domain and hosting at a low or not-so-low price, and make full use of it as a CMS, or an e-commerce website.
Having trouble? Speak now or be silent forever
The fact that WordPress is being managed and developed by a large community of volunteers and contributors means that any user can become a part of that community. Even if you’re not aiming to entirely lose your life and dive into the world of development, you can always write your questions or concerns on the forum, and you’ll get an answer within minutes. If it wasn’t there already.
You don’t have to be a tech freak to use it
Today it’s no news when a blogging platform is user friendly. After all, there’s Medium (or at least, there still is), the epitome of easiness and elegance. But once upon a time it wasn’t so easy to make a website. You needed the full support of developers, graphic designers, or a vast amount of knowledge if you wanted to cover it all. Even today, WordPress makes it all easier than most of its competitors.
WordPress has what those other blogging platforms, such as Medium, don’t have. It is fully customizable, and you don’t have to be familiar with those odd coding languages in order to make it suit your needs. Need something else that isn’t on the plate already? Delve into more than 47.000 plugins. Yes, some of them are old and worn out, but there are many plugins which have been tried out and tested zillion times. Just beware of using too many at the same time, as they may slow down your website.