What is WordPress?

WordPresswhat exactly is it?

WordPress is one of the most popular and powerful Content Management Systems for the web. It is software that is installed on a server and allows you to manage your website’s content via an administrator’s interface. Technically, the setup uses a MySQL database 1 and works with PHP 2 – two popular and common server-side technologies. Practically, this setup will give you the website for public view, and a login for the management of your site and its content.

WordPress started in 2003, initially focused on improving typography on blogs. It began its journey as blogging platform, open source 3 from the very beginning. Available freely both as hosted and self-hosted CMS 4 – its popularity grew, spurring on further development and updates to the software. WordPress soon outgrew the label of “blogging” software: it gained functions, security updates, improved loading speed and more. Today, it has developed into a very powerful system which continues to evolve.

WordPresswhy are there two sites?

.com? .org? – what’s the difference?

If you search online to find out about WordPress – you will come across two sites by Automattic 5 which can be a little confusing: wordpress.com and wordpress.org . The difference lies in the setup, functionality, and hosting of the website. Which of the two will be suitable to your purpose will depend on a number of factors.

wordpress.com logo, white on bluewordpress.com hosts the free service, offering paid packages for upgrades.

If you have only limited funds or none – you can set up a free website by creating a WordPress account and the site which will be hosted by Automattic. Your URL 6 will include the main WordPress domain and your options will be limited to a set number of themes. There are affordable upgrade packages available which will allow you to extend the setup with a custom domain and add more functions.

Perfect for impromptu and temporary sites and certainly fitting many smaller projects – you might find the restrictions and available packages limiting.

wordpress logo, white on dark greywordpress.org is home to the latest version of the software itself, available for download for self-hosted setups, as well as the codex, the documentation for theme and plugin designers and developers.

The self-hosted setup is what makes WordPress truly powerful. Any project is most successful when the design and functions are tailored to its specific goal. By hosting your site on a server of your choosing, you are in full control over all aspects of your site. You can work on an efficient technical setup. You are free to design your unique theme and to develop custom functions. The final set up can be exactly as your project requires.

If your site is planned to become your online home, for your work, goods or services with the intention to grow – this will be the best way forward for your project.

WordPresswhy it’s our choice

why-wp

We have tried and tested many solutions and continue to explore. Over the years, there have been some which came close but none which could surpass WordPress. It remains the solution which can deliver whatever challenges a project might bring. It is safe, fast and can be customised to fit your needs.

In addition to the strength in functionality and flexibility which allows us to create bespoke solutions – we do care about the nature of the software used as CMS. Based on web standards, WordPress is free, open source software released under a General Public License (GPL) as issued by the Free Software Foundation. Open Source is a philosophy that is in keeping with our own: that technology should be used for good, shared by all as one community. It is about enabling and empowering people, inclusively all people without prejudice of any kind‚ and for free—free as in freedom and free as in money.

The collaboration and transparency with which WordPress is created and released mean that it remains one of the best content management systems for the web. Secure and fast, it continues to improve, keeping up with latest developments at an amazing pace.

Open Source does not only result in highest quality solutions – it is a philosophy, an ethical way to empower millions of people through freely shared knowledge and collaboration. We believe in supporting open source to foster a positive way forward for an open and inclusive web.

  1. open source database management system for websites
  2. server-side scripting language used for web development
  3. open source is code made available by its authors with a license to study, change and distribute the software freely. Updates are usually the result of collaborations within the developer community.
  4. Content Management System
  5. Automattic are the people behind WordPress, Jetpack, Akismet, Gravatar, to name but a few.
  6. Uniform Resource Locator, i.e. the web address of your site