As a web designer, I am asked often, “why use WordPress?” WordPress is the best Web Hosting platform out there and perfect for any size business or industry. Most people are terrified they will need to be a developer to use WordPress and that is simply not true. With a bit of training, users realize how wonderful and powerful WordPress truly is. I often tell colleagues, friends, and customers don’t fall for the plug and play website commercials.  The reason why to use WordPress include:

13 Reason why you want to use WordPress

1. WordPress powers 32.8% of the web

WordPress powers 32.8% of websites. This is the largest share of the market and is growing steadily. One of the reasons behind this success is the unparalleled versatility that allows WordPress to be deployed everywhere from personal blogs and small businesses to large Fortune 500 companies, such as Disney, Sony, CNN and BBC America.  The graph below shows the percentage of websites and their respective platform.  The “other” on the pie graph is about 100+ different platforms that have less than 1% of the market each.  All 100+ combined make up 58.4% of the market.

2. WordPress is 59.8% of the CMS market

WordPress is 59.8% of the content management system (CMS) market. It is by far the largest CMS available.
What is a CMS? Content Management Systems include web-based publishing, format management, history editing, version control, indexing, search, and retrieval. CMS support the separation of content and presentation. It easily separates the developer from the end-user, so the end-user has control over the content of their website.

3. Open source

WordPress is a community software development project and thousands of users from all over the world have contributed to it by submitting code, fixing bugs, translating, testing, and helping others use it. It has a large backing by the community and is FREE.  Rarely do you find something that is FREE and amazing.

4. Highly customizable and flexible

Because WordPress’s code is open source, hobby and professional developers are always finding ways to improve it. There are thousands of themes you can choose from to make your site look the way you want it to. We have listed our favorite themes in the Ultimate Guide for Themes. Your theme will take care of your virtual color scheme, and the details of your site layout. It makes it easy to design a website and plug and play features into your web pages.

5. Lower setup and maintenance costs

WordPress can be self-hosted, so there are no costs associated with installing, using, and upgrading WordPress. There are a large choice of hosting providers available and your website may be transferred from one hosting provider to another with ease.

6. Limitless plugins

Plugins are like apps for your WordPress website. You can install them to add new features to your site and extend its functionality. Many are FREE and some have an upfront cost to purchase them and/or annual fee for usage. There is a choice of about 55,000+ plugins to add to your website. Whether you need a contact form added, on-page SEO, site backups, security, calendars, scheduling, etc. The choices are endless.

7. It is adaptable to make any type of website

Whether your website is a photo gallery for a photographer, a restaurant, author, lawyer, automotive repair shop, blogger, etc. WordPress is suited for all types of businesses and designs.

8. You don’t need to be a developer to manage a website

Managing a WordPress site does not require a developer to make a small change. The content is separate from the code and change can be made seamlessly. New web pages may be made easily and simply. Not hiring a developer saves thousand each year. WordPress also makes it easy for you the business to add, modify, or change any of the information. Blog articles can easily be added, new pages created. There is so much flexibility and choice.

9. SEO comes first

This is what truly sets WordPress apart from its competitors. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the ability for Google and other search engines to scan the website looking for several indicators including content and keywords to rank the website in the Google page order (rank). Plugins such as Yoast analyze the content and offer suggestions. Even if you don’t know anything about SEO, you may still optimize your content by following a plugin’s recommendations.

10. You have full control of your website

Another advantage is that if Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, etc. went away or raised their prices, you are pretty much stuck with the price. With WordPress, you can choose any host that you like. If you are unhappy with the hosting provider, you can move your website. The website builders make it near impossible to move your website as their websites are proprietary code. You may be able to move over the text, but you are pretty much starting from scratch with reformatting your website, pages and formatting..

11. It’s easy to find WordPress help

Because WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, there’s a massive support system for anything and everything related to WordPress. Plenty of blog posts, Facebook groups, WordPress tutorials, dedicated WordPress support forums, as well as helpful beginner-friendly video tutorials are available.

12. WordPress is affordable compared to other solutions

WordPress is free and all you need is to pay for the hosting, a theme, and plugins. Budgeting for a WordPress site makes it affordable compared to pay by month website builders, as you do not know if they will raise the prices in the future.

13. WordPress is responsive

Responsive websites look great on all devices (mobile, tablet, desktop). Every modern WordPress theme supports something called responsive design, which means that your WordPress site automatically scales to look great on every device.

Why do you love WordPress?  Please comment below and tell me your thoughts.