‘Tis the season of love — Valentine’s Day! It’s the day to express our love for one another…and for WordPress.
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, powering over 40% of all websites online. And for good reason.
We know all the things we love about WordPress, but we also wanted to hear what experts and users around the world had to say — so we asked them.
Let’s dive into the 14 reasons why WordPress is so loved and how you can get started with the most popular CMS if you haven’t already.
Why We Love WordPress
1. It’s FREE
“The number one reason why I love WordPress is that it is 100% free,” says Matthew Robbs, Founder of Smart Saving Advice. “I have a couple of businesses that use Shopify, and the monthly fees are absolutely horrible. You don’t have to deal with that with WordPress, as there are no ongoing fees!”
Note: although WordPress itself is free, you do have to pay for a domain name and web hosting.
Related reading: Is WordPress Hosting Worth It?
2. Easy to Use
“I've worked with nearly every other CMS platform that's out there (Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, etc.). WordPress is by far my platform of choice mainly because of its flexibility, ease of use, and the economical aspect of the free open source mindset that surrounds WordPress and the entire WordPress community of developers,” says Joe Mangum, Founder of the QuickBooks rental software Adelie Logistics with 15 years of WordPress experience.
3. Open Source Customization
“WordPress is an open source platform that offers a lot of flexibility with extensive features and extensions and is customizable with thousands of themes. Being a developer, I can’t refuse the benefit of the open source code that can be improved or modified to create the right site for our needs,” says Richard Lubicky, Founder/CEO of RealPeopleSearch and former WordPress developer.
4. Huge Directory of Plugins
“One of the top advantages of using WordPress is its ease of use for small business owners, thanks to its huge directory of plugins,” says Chloe Brittain, Owner of Opal Transcription Services.
“For example, I frequently make changes to my site, and no matter what kind of feature I want to add, I can almost always find a plugin for it. Many plugins have preconfigured settings, so I can easily set it up myself without the trouble of hiring a web developer.”
5. Beautiful & Fast-Loading Themes
“I design all my websites and those of clients on WordPress because WordPress comes with beautiful, fast-loading, and SEO-friendly themes that can be customized to suit any business needs,” says Jon Torres, Founder/Digital Marketing Consultant of JonTorres.com. “I also like the fact that the WordPress app, themes, and plugins are updated frequently to guarantee site security.”
Related reading: The 7 Fastest WordPress Themes
6. SEO Amplification Powers
“By far, WordPress tops the list of system software because of its SEO amplification powers and the ease of integrating other SaaS tools,” says Mathias Ahlgren, Founder of Website Rating.
“I run an SEO company, so I don't take SEO lightly. Beyond WordPress' standard SEO guides to enhance meta descriptions, among other basic SEO practices, WordPress has enabled our developers to seamlessly connect other SaaS solutions to really monitor client performance and management. We've implemented creative, savvy ways to integrate Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and Mangools — it's an SEO/customer performance dream come true.”
“In the grand scheme of things, while other system software helps customize a brand's operations and website functionality, WordPress allows a brand to customize its operations and website functionality on its own — from the ground up.”
7. Selling With WooCommerce
“The main reason why I love WordPress: it's so easy to sell products with WooCommerce! I use WordPress with WooCommerce to sell my services and some products online. It has all the features you need, 100% free. If you want, you can buy more plugins from WooCommerce to add even more advanced features, or you can code them yourself,” says Eloy Caudet, Owner of Wood and Fire Studio in Aachen, Germany.
Related reading: What is WooCommerce? How It Works and 10 Reasons to Choose WooCommerce
8. Versatility
“It's a robust tool for creating and managing your website. Blogs, business websites, personal sites, and ecommerce stores alike can benefit from using WordPress,” says Kamyar Shah, COO and Founder of a consulting firm, Kamyar Shah.
9. Full Control & Ownership of Your Data
“One underrated reason we love WordPress is that we have full control and ownership of our site and its content,” says Marcello De Lio, Co-Founder of High Seas Cruising.
“Platforms like Wix and Shopify are great, but you are relying on their infrastructure at all times. More importantly, server issues and data loss can happen, and you are never fully in control of your website. With WordPress, we have 100% control of our entire website.”
10. Safe & Secure
“WordPress is also dependable, robust, and secure. Hundreds of thousands of websites are hosted on the WordPress platform, and these websites consistently experience very few security breaches,” says Randy VanderVaate, CEO and Founder of Funeral Funds of America.
Related reading: Hardening WordPress: How to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure
11. Scalability
“Scalability — what's a business without scalability? WordPress can be a large-scale web solution,” says Mario Cacciottolo, PR & Branding Manager of SBO.net.
“Our company caters to customers from all over the world. Each day, our customer base keeps growing in the online sports entertainment space. WordPress allows us to keep a good caching system in place while ensuring that our website can always function at peak performance with high traffic.”
Related reading: Caching for WordPress
12. Accessible
“Over the years as we grew, WordPress has grown too and is now a medium through which small businesses are able to establish an online presence without burning a hole in their pockets, which is honestly a fabulous achievement,” says Alex Mastin, Founder/CEO of Home Grounds.
“If we must grow in the age of the internet, it is important that we have a platform that is willing to uplift us, upgrade their services with changing times, and in general promote creative endeavors.”
13. The Amazing WordPress Community
“I love WordPress for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that it has the greatest community in the world. Thousands of people give their free time to make software better for millions of people — who lend a hand on internet forums, Slack, and Facebook groups by assisting them with their difficulties,” says Luke Kowalski, Creator of TechTreatBox.
“I appreciate how open and encouraging this community is, as well as how welcoming they are to encourage more individuals to get involved. There is no other CMS with such strong people behind them.”
14. It’s the Best of the Best!
“I just built my site in WordPress, and it's the best website-building experience I've had yet. I've used various website-building software, including Squarespace, GoDaddy, Wix, and Adobe Portfolio — none of these compare to WordPress,” says Elizabeth Stryd, Freelance PowerPoint Designer at Elizabeth Stryd Design.
“WordPress offers an unbelievable amount of plugins and templates. Most of which are free, easily accessible, and incredibly helpful. I'll be using WordPress in the future for any website-building projects!”
Related reading: Why WordPress Remains the Best Choice for Your Next Website Project
All You Need Is Love…and Fully Managed WordPress Hosting
Give your website some love with Nexcess’ fully managed WordPress hosting. Whether you’re a newbie or intermediate user, our WordPress experts are ready to help. WordPress hosting by Nexcess includes:
Advanced Features for Faster Sites
To ensure that your site loads quickly every time, we provide premium image compression, a built-in CDN, and smart caching.
Automatic Updates
Automatic plugin updates with visual comparisons are included in all plans.
No Hidden Fees
There are no overage fees, bandwidth limitations, or metered pageviews to worry about.
Free Migrations
Sit back and relax while we take care of the rest. With our free migration service, you can easily migrate your existing website to one of our hosting plans.
Premium Support and Security
Our WordPress professionals provide 24/7/365 security monitoring and assistance to guarantee that your site functions properly at all times.
Check out our fully managed WordPress hosting plans to get started today.