According to W3Techs, WordPress is the most popular content management system on the internet. It is the back end for a whopping 61 percent of websites that employ any kind of content management system. And it is responsible for the management of 34 percent of all websites.
It began as a blogging platform. It was born here in Houston as an answer to more clunky blogging software like Moveable Type. Because it began as a blog software, it took years and many changes to adapt it for other websites. But, thanks to some savvy coding by the team at WP and the adoration of many third-party developers, it has thrived.
But, why exactly?
WordPress is open source.
When the internet was first beginning, much of its technology was controlled by large corporations like Microsoft. Mainly because they had the infrastructure and software. Over time, open source alternatives to pricey software emerged. Eventually, they began to replace paid software. Young developers often couldn’t afford the paid software, so they learned in open source environments. Eventually, they grew up and stuck with what they knew.
WordPress took advantage of this developing the platform entirely as an open source software. It’s free to anyone who wants to use it. Of course, they will charge you if you want to use the WordPress.com hosting and support, but it is not necessary and can hamstring the ability of users to expand their websites. Besides, why pay when you can get it free?
More developers work with it than any other internet software.
Because of the open source nature of the software, developers flocked to it. They began developing plugins that would work with WP to extend its abilities. Those plugins opened up an entire world of possibilities to companies who didn’t have the time or resources to afford things like e-commerce, user management, online event calendars and the like before. Companies like Woocommerce, Paid Memberships Pro and The Events Calendar cropped up and spread like wildfire.
Prior to our conversion to a mostly WordPress development environment at Site Mender, we were hand coding all the things we could get through WP virtually for free. And we could suddenly offer customers things like online payments using Stripe or complex online forms and polls through Gravity Forms. It improved our ability to provide innovative solutions to our customers for far less of a financial investment.
Most importantly, WordPress is simple for users and developers.
While we still have to do plenty of coding even with all the plugins and open source code available with WP, the process has definitely eased for us. But, more critically, the system is incredibly easy to use for our customers. With relatively little training and extensive online tutorials available, most people pick up how to use it quickly and with almost no learning curve.
It still requires maintenance and upkeep, but even that is a much more streamlined process, decreasing stress for both developers and customers.
As a result of this innovative technology, we are now able to provide WordPress development and WordPress maintenance for clients and open up a world of possibilities that may have not been feasible for them before. If you are looking to make the change to WordPress or maybe have a website employing it that requires help, please contact us today at 888-424-6363 and let us help!