Why so many people build sites with WordPress: key facts about WordPress

WordPress is a well-known blogging app, CMS, and site-building platform—powerful and free. If you run a company, your site may be critical to the business. WordPress is a convenient way to create, update, and manage that site.

You might be wondering what kind of CMS WordPress really is. Let’s look at some key numbers:

• 60 million sites worldwide run on WordPress, and that number grows daily.
• One out of every six sites on the internet is built with WordPress.
• Over 50% of CMS-driven sites use WordPress.
• Google sees 30 million WordPress searches every day.
• WordPress is completely open source and free.
• Volunteers build WordPress—hundreds of people around the world improve it daily.
• WordPress updates often to enhance features and security.
• WordPress has been translated into 73 languages.
• If you can imagine it, WordPress can probably do it—there are thousands of plugins, themes, and widgets in the official repo.

Sounds good, right? Maybe it’s time to use WordPress to power your own site.

WordPress features and advantages

WordPress is built so people can focus on content and online business—not get stuck on technical hurdles. Here are some advantages versus other CMS platforms.

1. Free—zero cost! You can download WordPress anytime from WordPress.org. You’ll still need a domain and hosting; if you need suggestions, we’re happy to recommend solid providers.

If you truly don’t want to spend money, you can host on free platforms (e.g., BAE/SAE in China) or use WordPress.com abroad. Free hosting has limits on features and flexibility, but if that’s fine with you, a domain is just a few bucks.

2. Gentle learning curve – Even if you know nothing about websites, a simple tutorial can get you building a WordPress site in a day. By day two you’ll be installing themes and plugins—it’s really that easy.

If you know PHP/MySQL you can quickly learn to build themes and plugins. Even with just HTML/CSS and some experience, you can customize a WordPress theme in a couple of days.

3. Super easy installation – The famous 5-minute install. You just need FTP info and MySQL credentials, set the domain, site name, and admin account, and the installer handles the rest.

4. Lots of WordPress themes – This isn’t “template site building.” Templates are rigid; WordPress themes are flexible with solid SEO foundations out of the box. Choose a theme, install, activate—no need to hire a designer or developer. If free themes don’t fit, buy a premium one or commission custom work.

5. Powerful, almost limitless features – With the official plugin repo, you can add forms, surveys, video players, and more by searching, installing, and configuring—no coding required.

6. Open source—everything is visible – WordPress is open source. Open its files in any editor and you’ll see all the code plus thorough docs and comments. If something feels off, you can extend or adjust via hooks and filters without touching core, since WordPress keeps updating.

7. Automatic updates – Before 3.7, WordPress prompted you to update core, themes, or plugins; a click handled it. Version 3.7 added automatic minor updates: WordPress will update itself for minor releases and email you afterward. Big releases still prompt for compatibility reasons, but expect automation to expand over time.

8. SEO friendly – WordPress sites tend to get indexed and rank well. Themes ship with solid SEO basics; the editor avoids tags that hurt SEO; publishing already applies good defaults. If you want more, add an SEO plugin.

Ready to give it a try? If you’re building a site now, consider WordPress—or spin it up locally and test drive it first.