| Characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2004 |
| Open source as of | 2004 |
| Current major release | 6.4 |
| Languages | >80 |
| Total installations | >75 million |
WordPress is the most used content management system worldwide. It relies on the classic combination of PHP and MySQL and runs on all webspace hosts.
Originally designed as a pure blog system, WordPress rapidly spread out in the world of blogs and slowly converted into an adequate CMS. Today you can use WordPress to build complex websites, shops, and communities.
WordPress has a block-based editor, which provides a modern interface for writing simple articles and building complex structured pages. With the new Site-Editor Editing capabilities, customizing a website layout got more convenient.
The development of the backend, the surface for technical and content management, follows the philosophy “decisions, not options”, and therefore makes the content development within the „naked“ system deceptively easy. WordPress generally distinguishes between static sites and dynamic articles. Those can easily be written in a simple editor and supported with pictures as well as other data. Articles are automatically listed on the homepage in chronological order by date.
There are thousands of extensions for needs beyond the essential functions, called plugins, freely available in the central Plugin Directory at WordPress.org. Those extensions can be downloaded and installed directly out of the WordPress backend or manually via (S)FTP onto the webserver. If needed, plugins can be updated with a single mouse click. In addition, important security updates will be installed automatically.
By now, there are very good free plugins for the most important applications. The sheer number of fully developed, frequently updated high-quality plugins for common applications like search engine optimization, multilingualism, or e-commerce, is overwhelming. Additional to the thousands of free plugins, WordPress has its own ecosystem of chargeable plugins, which are sold through a variety of different platforms.
Design packages in WordPress, called themes, are covered by an immense selection as well. Free of charge themes are, like plugins, primarily found in the central theme directory at WordPress.org. Additionally to thousands of free themes, a wide variety of chargeable themes is available, too. However, the development of own themes is easily possible with basic PHP, HTML, and CSS knowledge, thanks to plenty of templates and detailed instructions. By now, most of all new themes are responsive, meaning they adapt to the display width and are optimized for most devices like tablets or phones.
Even complex adjustments which exceed the range of existing plugins are easily made. This is possible with the use of so-called hooks and filters. With the help of those, you can inject your code almost anywhere in WordPress.
A whole catalog of well-documented functions allows theme developers and plugin developers the safe and straightforward use of essential functions.
The use of WordPress as a platform for complex web applications and apps is now, thanks to a new interface, the so-called REST API even easier. It is possible to use WordPress as a content management system for several channels (web, apps, etc.) through this interface. The exchange of data between WordPress and other services is now more accessible and more reliable.
Besides plugins and themes, the WordPress ecosystem has a range of external services to offer. On the one hand, services that are embedded like plugins enable the option for automatic backups, the compression of uploaded pictures, or the distribution of newsletters. On the other hand, there has been a movement within the past years to provide professional services like frequent maintenance, translation, or individual themes.
There are apps to operate WordPress on a mobile device for iOS and Android. However, the WordPress backend is designed for comfortable use on mobile devices without any apps and allows you to edit your content and manage your installations.
WordPress is available in over 80 (fully translated) languages and has a huge international user/developer community. In addition to the excellent documentation on WordPress.org, there are many professionals blogs, forums, chats, seminars, webinars, literature, and videos. Furthermore, there is a movement to start more and more local user groups, which organize themselves in so-called WordPress Meetups.
Over 770 meetup groups can be found worldwide in bigger cities and other popular places where WordPress-interested developers, users, and designers regularly work in easy-going, self-organized groups to solve problems and discuss selected topics.
In addition, there are national and international, and local WordCamps (BarCamp-like conferences for WordPress-users and developers) in different locations.
|Online | | |:— |:—— |:——| |international platform | wordpress.org | |hosted Weblogs | wordpress.com | |Chat Plattform | chat.wordpress.org | |WordCamps around the world| central.wordcamp.org|