Plans, Pricing And Features – Forbes Advisor

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) used around the world to build and manage websites. It is free to use, however, users must pay for a hosting company. WordPress offers customizable themes and designs, allowing users to be in full control of designing their website exactly as they wish. WordPress is not as user-friendly for beginners as other CMSs and coding knowledge is required for more advanced customization. That said, WordPress is the most-used platform for website creation and made our list of best content management software for 2022.

Pros

One of WordPress’ best attributes is its ability to customize website design. WordPress gives users full access to its codes, meaning users can customize any premade theme or design to their heart’s content. That, plus the availability of more than 59,000 free WordPress plugins that add features and functionality to websites, means the options for building a website are virtually limitless.

The fact that WordPress is an open source platform is another massive advantage to its users. WordPress was designed to be accessible to everyone. There is a wealth of information available online as well as a large community of developers and users devoted to sharing their knowledge with anyone who needs assistance.

Cons

Users who are looking for a simple, straight-out-of-the-box design setup should look elsewhere. All the advanced customization WordPress provides comes with a steep learning curve. While other CMS platforms come with simple drag-and-drop themes accessible to the most basic user, WordPress is more complicated. To customize website design, users must be familiar with code. For even the simplest of changes to a template, users must need to know how to use and edit HTML/CSS/PHP or hire a developer who does.

Because WordPress is an open source platform, no one person or company owns it. This means when users have a question or need help, they cannot go to a customer service department. Instead of personalized support, users are prompted to browse the community-supported forums and the WordPress support database. While these resources provide ample helpful information, they might not be helpful for every problem that arises.

WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com

It is important to note that there are two versions of WordPress—WordPress.org (which we are focusing on for this review) and WordPress.com. WordPress.com is the fully hosted version with a monthly fee similar to Wix or Weebly. WordPress.org is the free, open source self-hosted version. WordPress.org comes with a steeper learning curve, but gives users ultimate control over their website while WordPress.com is more limited.

For more details, review our side-by-side comparison of WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.