Is WordPress free? This is among the most common questions that prospective WordPress users ask. The answer is simple- WordPress is free software that is used by millions of people and businesses across the world. The term free is with regard to freedom. This means the open source software gives you the freedom of using, modifying, building upon and/or redistributing it in whichever way. Nevertheless, there might be associated costs.
You may be wondering why the organizations or people behind WordPress do not sell it, yet everyone says how good WordPress is. WordPress is an open-source community project that involves thousands of people who have made (and still make) significant contributions that have made WordPress one of the world’s leading software today. There’s a primary development team that guide the project development. However, anyone can suggest additional features, contribute patches and/or report bugs.
WordPress as free software: associated costs
You can download and make use of WordPress at absolutely no cost.
However:
- You’ll require WordPress hosting if you’d like to use it on the web.
- You’ll need to fork out some design and development cost
- Plugins to add extensibilities can be free or need commercial license
WordPress as free software: why should I use it?
There are various reasons why you should consider switching to WordPress. This article explains some of them.
- WordPress can handle various types of media
The open-source software won’t restrict you to text writing only. WordPress comes with incorporated software that can handle content in form of images, videos and audios. Additionally, you can use it to manage files and documents.
WP supports oEmbed-enabled sites. Therefore, you can attach YouTube videos, Soundcloud audio, Instagram posts as well as Tweets by simply pasting the URL.
- Learning how to use WordPress and actually using it is very easy
WordPress as free software is actively used by millions of people living in different continents. Are you aware that there are thousands of new people who join the WordPress community every day by creating their first WordPress powered sites? The main reason why they quickly adapt to the open source software is because of ease of use.
- Guaranteed safety and security
WordPress can run any website safely and securely. However, you shouldn't forget how insecure the internet can be. There are cyber criminals out there whose main interest is to infiltrate as many websites as possible. This shouldn't discourage you from using WordPress though. There are reliable software that can be used to keep an eye on threats.
- Extend-able by use of Plugins and Themes
WordPress Developers and web designers are not the only people who use WordPress. In fact, most people start using it with absolutely no knowledge of web design.
There is a reason why WordPress is the most ideal software for use- there are numerous free themes that you can choose from to give your that exceptional look. For everything that you can imagine, there’s a WP theme for it.
- Easy to manage
WordPress consists of an integrated updater that enables you to bring up to date themes and plugins from inside your WordPress administrator dashboard. Additionally, it informs you about the availability of new WordPress versions.
Therefore, you can just click a button to update it. In addition to those, you can safely store all your WP content by putting in place automated regular WP backups.
- WordPress is SEO friendly
The software is written using high-quality codes that make it produce semantic mark-up. Consequently, they can make your website extremely attractive to Yahoo, Google and other search engines.
WordPress is extremely friendly to Search Engine Optimization by design. Nonetheless, you can enhance this feature by using WP SEO plugin.
Conclusion
Based on my years of experiencing working as WordPress Developer, I can suggest WordPress as very reliable free or open source platform for development provided some precautions and best practices are taken.