{"id":520054,"date":"2023-12-27T05:26:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T12:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/?p=520054"},"modified":"2026-03-24T05:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:51:12","slug":"what-is-a-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/what-is-a-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a WordPress?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Updated March 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At its core,\u00a0<strong>WordPress is the simplest, most popular way to create your own website or blog<\/strong>. In fact, as of 2025, WordPress powers\u00a0over 43.6%\u00a0of all the websites on the Internet or 62% of all custom-coded <a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms\/\">content management system (CMS)<\/a> sites. Yes! more than one in four websites that you visit are likely powered by WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/35sites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3316\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: https:\/\/kinsta.com\/wordpress-market-share\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"520056\">content management system<\/a>\u00a0is basically a tool that makes it easy to manage important aspects of your website \u2013 like content \u2013 without needing to know anything about programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lots of well-known entities use WordPress including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a slightly more technical level, WordPress is an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Open_source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">open-source<\/a>&nbsp;content management system licensed under&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/GNU_General_Public_License#Version_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GPLv2<\/a>, which means that anyone can use or modify the WordPress software for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many years ago, WordPress was primarily a tool to create a blog, rather than more traditional websites. That hasn\u2019t been true for a long time, though. Nowadays, thanks to changes to the core code, as well as WordPress\u2019 massive ecosystem of plugins and themes,&nbsp;<strong>you can create any type of website with WordPress<\/strong>. With WordPress, you can create:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Business websites<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>eCommerce stores<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Blogs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Portfolios sites<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Resumes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Forums<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Social networks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Membership sites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WordPress.org vs WordPress.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress was created as a standalone open source project all the way back in 2003, by a collaboration between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Since then, Matt Mullenweg has largely become the face of WordPress and was the founder of Automattic, which is the company behind the for-profit WordPress.com service<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>WordPress.org<\/strong>, often called&nbsp;<strong>self-hosted WordPress<\/strong>, is the free, open-source WordPress software that you can install on your own web host to create a website that\u2019s 100% your own.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>WordPress.com<\/strong>&nbsp;is a for-profit, paid service that is&nbsp;<em>powered<\/em>&nbsp;by the WordPress.org software. It\u2019s simple to use, but you lose much of the flexibility of the self-hosted WordPress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the time, when people say \u201cWordPress\u201d, they mean the self-hosted WordPress available at WordPress.org<strong>. If you want to truly own your website, self-hosted WordPress.org is almost always the best option<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WordPress is that is Extensible<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you aren\u2019t a developer, you can easily modify your website thanks to WordPress\u2019 huge ecosystem of themes and plugins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Plugins<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 these primarily change how your website functions.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Themes<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 these primarily change how your website looks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Popular Websites Powered by WordPress<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>These examples show that WordPress isn\u2019t just for small blogs\u2014it\u2019s powerful enough for large, high-traffic websites used by global organizations. At the same time, it remains simple enough for beginners, which is why it\u2019s the most widely used CMS in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><td><strong>Website Name<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Industry \/ Category<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Website Link<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>The White House<\/strong><\/td><td>Government<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/\">whitehouse.gov<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>NASA<\/strong><\/td><td>Science &amp; Space<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/\">nasa.gov<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>The Walt Disney Company<\/strong><\/td><td>Entertainment<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewaltdisneycompany.com\/\">thewaltdisneycompany.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Sony Music<\/strong><\/td><td>Music &amp; Media<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sonymusic.com\/\">sonymusic.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>TechCrunch<\/strong><\/td><td>Technology News<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/\">techcrunch.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/td><td>Culture &amp; Music<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/\">rollingstone.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>PlayStation Blog<\/strong><\/td><td>Gaming News<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.playstation.com\/\">blog.playstation.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Harvard University<\/strong><\/td><td>Education<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harvard.edu\/\">harvard.edu<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Vogue<\/strong><\/td><td>Fashion &amp; Lifestyle<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/\">vogue.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Microsoft News<\/strong><\/td><td>Corporate News<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/\">news.microsoft.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Spotify Newsroom<\/strong><\/td><td>Music Streaming News<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.spotify.com\/\">newsroom.spotify.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>TED Blog<\/strong><\/td><td>Ideas &amp; Education<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.ted.com\/\">blog.ted.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Angry Birds<\/strong><\/td><td>Gaming &amp; Apps<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.angrybirds.com\/\">angrybirds.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>The New York Post<\/strong><\/td><td>News &amp; Media<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/\">nypost.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Mercedes-Benz<\/strong><\/td><td>Automotive<\/td><td><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mercedes-benz.com\/\">mercedes-benz.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated March 2025 At its core,\u00a0WordPress is the simplest, most popular way to create your own website or blog. In fact, as of 2025, WordPress powers\u00a0over 43.6%\u00a0of all the websites on the Internet or 62% of all custom-coded content management system (CMS) sites. Yes! more than one in four websites that you visit are likely&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[569],"class_list":["post-520054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-tools-resources","tag-wordpress"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":446,"label":"Tips, Tools &amp; Resources"}],"post_tag":[{"value":569,"label":"WordPress"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/jorgep-BlogPostGeneric.jpg",1024,512,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Jorge Pereira","author_link":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/author\/jorge\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":446,"name":"Tips, Tools &amp; Resources","slug":"tips-tools-resources","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":456,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":79,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":446,"category_count":79,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Tips, Tools &amp; Resources","category_nicename":"tips-tools-resources","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":569,"name":"WordPress","slug":"wordpress","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":579,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":48,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520060,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520054\/revisions\/520060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}