If you want to start a website and find yourself asking “is WordPress right for me?"
This is the guide you need to see that yes, it is.
WordPress is a powerful platform that offers a lot of benefits – and we’re about to break them down.
Keep reading to learn 12 solid reasons why WordPress is right for you and how it can help you create a successful website.
What Is WordPress?
WordPress is a content management system (CMS).
A content management system is the software that enables you to build and manage your website's content.
And WordPress is the most popular CMS available, powering over 40% of all the websites on the internet.
WordPress vs WordPress
Before we dive in, you should know that when we say “WordPress”, we’re referring to WordPress.org – the free, self-hosted software.
Please don’t confuse this with WordPress.com which is a hosting service. For details, see this comparison of WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com.
WordPress vs. Hosted Website Builders
There’s a common misconception that WordPress is hard to use for beginners, and non-techie users should opt for hosted website builders like Wix, Webflow, Squarespace, or Weebly instead.
But WordPress is actually known for its ease of use and has far more benefits than any of the hosted site builders out there.
Its learning curve is minimal and you don’t need to be an expert in HTML or CSS to build an impressive WordPress site.
You can use a wide variety of templates and plugins to create a business website, blog, professional portfolio, or any other site you’d like.
Most hosted website builders don’t offer room for scale, which will become a problem in the long term as your small business grows.
There are also a lot of advanced features you’ll have to pay high prices for on hosted platforms, and they pale in comparison to the WordPress plugins you can use to achieve the same thing.
If you’re looking for user-friendly website-building software that gives you freedom and flexibility to design the website you want, WordPress is the one for you.
12 Reasons Why You Should Choose WordPress
WordPress gives you the ability to create the website you've envisioned in your mind. This section breaks down 12 solid reasons why WordPress is right for you:
1. WordPress is Free
WordPress is open-source software.
"Open-source" means WordPress is free to download, use, and modify. You can download it directly from the official WordPress website.
But you need to purchase a domain and website hosting before you can start building your own WordPress site.
A domain is your website’s address – e.g. “www.example.com”
Website hosting provides the technical infrastructure a website needs to be up and accessible on the internet. Think of it as the digital land where your website will live.
For non-techie users, we recommend using a hosting solution that offers automatic WordPress installation – like Bluehost, SiteGround, or Hostinger.
2. You Can Choose Your Own Hosting Provider
Website-building services like Wix and Squarespace take care of hosting for you but often come with a lot of limitations – from storage space to scalability, design features, and more.
But building a WordPress website means you get to choose the best hosting company that meets your needs.
There are a lot of options to choose from. Some hosting solutions like Bluehost, cater to users and businesses of all sizes and web development experience.
But, other hosting providers like HostGator and A2 Hosting have specialized hosting plans that are better suited for advanced users or businesses like marketing agencies, professional bloggers, and web designers.
WordPress lets you choose the right one for you.
Pro tip
Looking for a reliable hosting provider for your website? Check out this detailed review.
3. WordPress is Easy to Install
Most WordPress hosting providers offer one-click or automatic WordPress installation. So all you need to do is click a couple of buttons and you’re ready to start building your website.
Popular web hosts like SiteGround provide a 1-click WordPress installation feature.
4. You Can Choose from Thousands of Plugins to Build Your Website
WordPress gives you access to over 59,000 plugins – extensions and add-ons you can use to build and enhance your website.
There’s a plugin for everything.
You can find plugins to connect Google Analytics, improve your search engine optimization (SEO), to schedule daily backups, or even add a social media feed to your new site.
Some plugins are completely free — like Thrive Automator for example — but most offer a freemium model, where basic features are free to all users, while advanced features are premium.
Don’t have any coding experience? No problem. You can easily find the perfect no-code tools to build a WordPress website all by yourself. Your options are endless.
5. You Can Use Customizable Themes to Create a Unique Website
There are thousands of themes, with varying customization options, to choose from to create a unique website design.
The WordPress official directory offers 11,000+ premium and free themes; and you can even buy custom themes from third-party stores like ThemeForest.
You’ll find themes for any niche. Need a theme for your online yoga business? You’ll find one.
Looking for the best WordPress theme for your coaching business? You’ll find thousands.
But, if you want complete design freedom, you should use a WordPress visual theme builder to create your own custom WordPress theme that perfectly fits your branding.
6. You Can Build Any Type of Website with WordPress
You can use WordPress to build all kinds of websites, including:
- Business websites
- Blogging platforms
- Online magazines
- eCommerce stores
- WordPress membership sites
- Forums
- Online course platforms
- …and so much more
With this kind of versatility, you can see why WordPress is the most popular CMS and website-building platform ever.
7. WordPress is SEO-Friendly
WordPress is written using high-quality code, making it easier for WordPress websites to be discovered by Google and other search engines.
WordPress also offers basic, built-in SEO functionality such as the ability to add post and page meta descriptions, image alt attributes, configurable URLs and correct heading markup.
This is why WordPress sites tend to rank higher than others in search engines.
But, to optimize your site to get even more traffic, we recommend using a WordPress SEO plugin.
A great SEO plugin (like Yoast or All in One SEO) should help you follow the best SEO practices, while handling all the technical SEO optimizations for you. We recommend All in One SEO.
This SEO plugin offers a variety of powerful features, including:
- Creating an XML sitemap to help search engines understand your site’s structure and discover its content more effectively
- Adding a schema markup to provide search engines with more details on your website, like ratings and reviews, to increase your content’s visibility and attract more clicks
- Conducting on-page SEO analysis to ensure you’re following all the best practices
- Pinpointing broken links you need to fix
- …and so much more
Pro tip
And if you need more tips on how to optimize your posts and make them SEO-friendly, check out this handy guide.
8. WordPress Supports eCommerce Functionality
WordPress has a dedicated plugin for creating eCommerce stores – WooCommerce.
WooCommerce allows you to sell unlimited digital and physical products and includes all the core features for an online store — products, categories, shopping cart, etc.
The plugin also offers premium add-on features, such as multi-currency support, automatic tax calculation, and live shipping rates from leading carriers.
Compared to other eCommerce website builders like Shopify, this option is much more affordable – and easier to scale.
So if you choose WordPress, you’ll be able to build your WooCommerce store with ease and minimal hassle.
9. Multiple WordPress Users Can Manage Your Website
It’s easy to add multiple users to your WordPress website – and free.
Simply open the WordPress dashboard and go to the “Users” section.
This is where you’ll add a new user. You can also assign users specific roles, such as Author, Editor, SEO Manager, Administrator, etc.
These users are assigned their own username and password, which you or another admin can suspend or delete if necessary.
10. WordPress is Secure
WordPress regularly releases software updates to improve security and fix bugs. When this happens, you’ll also need to update your website’s version of WordPress.
Your hosting provider can also do this for you, automatically – depending on the provider you have.
However, you’re responsible for updating your theme and plugins.
You can also use a reliable WordPress security plugin to add an extra layer of security to your website and protect it from hackers & viruses.
11. It’s Easy to Find Help for Any WordPress-Related Issues
WordPress.org doesn’t have a dedicated support team, but you can find help in the following places:
The official WordPress support documentation
WordPress support forums where you can get helpful answers from the WordPress community
The support team or channel for your web host
The support channel(s) for each plugin or theme you use
There are also many independent websites like WPBeginner that offer in-depth WordPress tutorials to help you build and manage your new website.
12. WordPress is Ideal for Long-Term Growth
WordPress grows with your business.
You can start with a simple blog or one-page website and gradually build it into a full-blown online platform, with multiple web pages, as your business grows.
Most hosting providers give you the features you need to make this happen (storage space, pageview limits, etc.) and if you use the right tools to build your website, scaling shouldn’t be a problem.
Next Steps: Select a Hosting Provider, Purchase Your Domain and Start Building
If you’ve chosen to build your website with WordPress, that’s great. You won’t regret it.
Now it’s time to get started.
First, you need to choose a hosting provider. Bluehost, SiteGround, WP Engine, and Hostinger are among the best website hosting solutions for WordPress.
Next, you must purchase a domain name.
Most popular hosting companies offer a free domain name with their hosting plans.
After you’ve purchased your domain, use the one-click installation option to activate your WordPress website.
Once this is done, you need to start building your actual website. You’ll need the right theme and plugins to make this happen.
You can use free plugins to build your WordPress website – but most free options come with limited features and aren’t as secure as premium plugins.
Finding the right tools can be a challenge. Buying several separate plugins can quickly become expensive – and you won’t know if they’re compatible with one another until you install them.
As a busy business owner, you don’t have time to do trial and error until you find the right plugins.
Which is why we recommend using a WordPress plugin bundle that comes with all the tools you need for your WordPress website.
Thrive Suite is the best WordPress plugin bundle you can use to build your own website.
Think of it as having a toolkit of no code tools that give you the flexibility and ease you need to create exactly what you have in mind for your online business.
You can use Thrive Suite to:
Build a stunning, professional-looking websites with our library of customizable templates and intuitive theme builder
Create attention-grabbing sales and landing pages that convert with our drag-and-drop page builder
Grow your email list with our library of 400+ lead-gen and contact forms
Design engaging quizzes to generate leads & segment your audience
Build an impressive membership site, online course platform – or both
Collect, manage, and showcase customer testimonials from one place
Connect your WordPress website to a variety of available integrations (e.g. your favorite email marketing apps)
… and so much more.
Ready to Start Building Your WordPress Website?
By this point, you should have everything you need to know that WordPress is the right content management system for you.
With the recommendations in this guide, you can get started with your website right now.
Here are four free tutorials to help you build your website the easy (and right) way:
What are you waiting for?
