What Is WordPress and Is It a Good Platform for Building Your Website?

If you’ve ever asked, “What is WordPress and is it a good platform for me?”—you’re not alone. With so many options available, choosing the right platform to build your website can feel overwhelming.

Here’s the short answer: WordPress is a powerful, flexible, and beginner-friendly platform that I highly recommend. I’ve used it since its early days and it continues to be my go-to solution for creating websites that look great and grow with your business.

A Quick History of WordPress

WordPress launched on May 27, 2003, thanks to founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Built using PHP and MySQL, it started as a simple blogging platform but quickly evolved into the most popular content management system (CMS) on the planet.

Today, it powers over 40% of all websites worldwide, a staggering figure that shows just how trusted and scalable it is.

Why WordPress Is Free (And Why That Matters)

One of the biggest benefits? WordPress is free. It’s open-source and licensed under the General Public License (GPLv2 or later), which means anyone can use, study, modify, and share it.

Here are the four freedoms it provides:

Freedom to use the program for any purpose.
Freedom to study how it works and tweak it to suit your needs.
Freedom to share it with others.
Freedom to distribute your modified version.

These freedoms fuel a global community of developers and users who constantly improve the platform and create thousands of themes and plugins.

Key Benefits of Using WordPress for Your Website

Let’s dive into why WordPress is such a smart choice, especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

✅ 1. Beginner-Friendly (But Scales with You)

You don’t need to know a single line of code to build a beautiful, functional website on WordPress. The dashboard is intuitive, and many hosting companies offer one-click installation. And if you do want to dive into code? You can WordPress is incredibly flexible.

🎨 2. Thousands of Customisable Themes

There are thousands of free and premium themes to choose from. You can change colours, layouts, fonts, and more without hiring a designer. Better still, you can update your design any time as your business grows.

🔌 3. Endless Plugin Options

Want a contact form? A booking calendar? E-commerce, SEO tools, or a membership platform? You’ll find over 60,000 plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Chances are, if you can imagine it, there’s a plugin for it.

🔐 4. Strong Security and Regular Updates

Security is taken seriously. WordPress regularly releases updates to protect against vulnerabilities, and there are dozens of reliable plugins, like Wordfence and Sucuri, to keep your site safe. Using a reputable host also strengthens your site’s protection.

📱 5. Mobile-Optimised and SEO-Friendly

Search engines love WordPress. With plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math, you can optimise pages and blog posts to rank higher in search results. Most themes are responsive, so your site looks great on mobile too.

🌐 6. Own Your Content and Control

Unlike some website builders, WordPress gives you full ownership of your content and site. You’re not tied to one provider, and you can move your site between hosts at any time. This freedom is a big plus if you plan to grow or scale later.

Hosting WordPress: .com vs .org

There are two versions of WordPress:

WordPress.com – Hosted for you, with fewer customisation options unless you upgrade.
WordPress.org – Self-hosted. You download the software and install it on your chosen web host.

For maximum control, flexibility, and features, I recommend the self-hosted version at WordPress.org. It’s ideal for small businesses, creatives, freelancers, and bloggers who want to grow their online presence over time.

My Experience with WordPress

Having used WordPress for nearly two decades—and trained hundreds of business owners on how to use it—I can confidently say it’s the best choice for most people. It’s reliable, adaptable, and constantly evolving with the web.

Better yet, there’s an amazing global community behind it. You’ll find free tutorials, helpful forums, and countless YouTube videos (including the one I’ve included below!) to help you learn at your own pace.

Final Thoughts: Is WordPress Right for You?

If you’re just starting your business or looking to build a website you can grow into, WordPress is a smart, flexible, and cost-effective choice. It’s beginner-friendly, powerful under the hood, and offers more control than most drag-and-drop website builders.

So yes, WordPress is a fantastic platform for building your website.