WordPress was first released in 2003. Since then, this CMS has developed and become a must-have: by 2022, WordPress will account for 43% of the website market and will be used by 65% of sites as a CMS.
It’s an essential player to know when you’re evolving in the web world. So let’s take a look at this CMS and the opportunities you can seize by using WordPress to create a site.
What is a CMS?
In English, it stands for Content Management System. A CMS (Content Management System) allows you to develop, put online and update a site. Your CMS is your dashboard for managing your entire site.
And WordPress?
With WordPress, you have access to a wide range of tools as soon as you install it:
- an audience analysis system
- a tool for customizing your site (many free themes are available)
- a tool for adding pages and articles to your site
- a design tool (Nocode) to develop your site without coding.
Afterwards, you can install a multitude of extensions to add all kinds of functionalities to your site.
Thanks to the sheer number of users of the WordPress CMS, there are a huge number of extensions on WordPress (there are over 50,000 extensions in the official WordPress directory).
For example, you can :
- add a payment system to your site
- set up a contact form
- or use a reservation system for your hotel.
The possibilities are endless with WordPress.
How does WordPress work?
WordPress works (as do all CMS on the web) with several computer languages:
- PHP: to run WordPress
- SQL: to store all content
- HTML: for structuring and rendering content
- CSS: for visual formatting of content
- Javascript: for dynamically enriching site content
Why does WordPress need a server?
To function, all websites need a server to store all the site’s information, especially its files. That’s why it’s important to choose quality hosting, so your site can get up and running quickly.
Hosting also enables you to secure your site’s data, and selecting your hosting provider is a very important step. You’ll then need to choose a package adapted to your site’s situation (visits, sensitive data, etc.).
There are many hosting companies on the market (more than a hundred million by 2022), and the market is not really dominated by one or more players. However, Godaddy has a 10% market share, Google 6%, Amazon and IONOS 4% and the French company OVH almost 3%. A small web hosting company can be a very good alternative if you want a tailor-made service for your website.
How does WordPress stack up against the competition?
First of all, it’s worth remembering that unlike many competitors such as Shopify or Weblfow, WordPress lets you download the CMS as open source and use it for yourself with your own hosting, without having to pay a subscription fee (there are, however, WordPress packages).
Wrongly criticized by some as a CMS that slows down sites, WordPress, with its many tools (extensions), can in fact be used to build very fast, SEO-friendly sites.
WordPress vs Shopify:
Number one competitor to WordPress with 5.4% market share. Shopify is a CMS best suited to online retailers. Shopify requires a basic $35 monthly subscription and takes 1% of its customers’ sales. Shopify’s strength lies in the thousands of applications it has developed for e-commerce.
WordPress has the Woocommerce extension, which is also a great alternative to Shopify. Shopify’s shortcoming could be in performance, as Shopify sites are often slow (due to the applications used on its sites which slow them down), and Shopify ends up being limited when you have technical skills. WordPress would take precedence over the technical and performance aspects.
Shopify, on the other hand, is a CMS ideally suited to small merchants (with little or no technical knowledge) starting out in e-commerce.
Source : Pexels
WordPress vs Joomla :
Joomla, like WordPress, is an open source CMS that can be downloaded free of charge. It is a serious competitor to WordPress, with a 3.3% market share. It uses the same computer languages as WordPress and will appeal to developers.
In 2021, this CMS won the “CMS Critic People’s Choice Awards – Best Free CMS & Best Open Source CMS”. WordPress’ strength over Joomla is surely its thousands of extensions, which Joomla doesn’t have.
WordPress vs Wix:
Wix is also a major market player, with a 2.4% share in 2022. Wix is a CMS that offers the possibility of flexible design, which is surely its strong point compared to WordPress.
Wix, on the other hand, is a less efficient CMS for large sites.
WordPress vs Webflow :
Webflow is undoubtedly one of the leading players on the Internet today. Webflow has the advantage of being one of the best tools for creating customized web designs. Its No Code development tool is highly appreciated by designers, and is fairly easy to learn.
The CMS and applications available on Webflow remain limited, but it is possible to use Webflow to design your site and then extract the code used and use WordPress CMS.
WordPress and SEO
WordPress has the advantage of being highly optimized for SEO (search engine positioning), notably with the use of Yoast SEO, which enables you to customize and improve the positioning of your various WordPress pages and articles.
What does the future hold for WordPress?
Source : Kinsta
Since its creation in 2015, WordPress has always been on the rise, and for a time had more than half the market share, but the trend now seems to be stagnation.
Competition is fierce, and in the web world, everything can change very quickly. So WordPress will have to adapt quickly and offer frequent updates and new features to remain the market leader. WordPress will remain a major CMS player for years to come.
