Today there are billions of websites. The vast majority are built with a CMS of some kind. The best known are OScommerce, Prestahop, Magento, Shopify for the Ecommerce part and Wordrpess, Drupal, Joomal, Wix for the content creation part.
WordPress is now used by more than 35% of the world’s websites. Why is this? Because WordPress is now much more than a simple content management tool. It has become a real toolbox for making blogs but also e-commerce sites, marketplaces, online booking sites, etc.
WordPress plugins for everything
All this is possible thanks to these famous plugins, of which there are more than 50,000 to date. Developed in php under the GPL license, the plugins allow you to customize your basic wordpress site almost without limit.
Free plugins are numerous but generally offer less functionality than paid plugins. The prices of paid plugins vary and can sometimes reach several hundred euros. To benefit from customer support and updates, you must renew your license every year. This is a very profitable business for many plugin publishers. Being under the GPL license, it is possible to use these plugins at a lower cost (or even for free) via sites like Freetheme.io. Since you don’t have a license, you won’t be able to benefit from customer support.
The magic thing about plugins is that they interlock with each other, allowing you to create robust interconnected functionality. For example, woocommerce with an abandoned cart recovery tool, etc.
Some plugins that have become indispensable in their field:
- Yoast, Rankmath: for natural referencing
- Itheme security, Wordfence: for security
- Divi, Elementor: for design
- Duplicator : for backup
- Wp rocket : for speed
- Contact form : for unlimited contact forms
- woocommerce : to have an online shop
- Akimset : for fighting spam
- Site kit : for integration with google tools
- Mailter, Mailpoet : for emailing
If you are looking for a feature, it is very unlikely that a developer hasn’t already thought of it.
WordPress themes provide a feature-rich overlay
With WordPress you can also install turnkey themes. In a few clicks, you will benefit from a customizable design and features inherent to the theme (booking system, pre-built pages, etc)
To choose a good theme, it is best to select a team of developers who apply the best practices in terms of coding. It is also important to look at the pace of updates. If a theme has not been updated for more than 6 months, it means that the team is not proactive in developing new features or fixing bugs. These selection criteria are also valid for the choice of plugins.
To conclude, with WordPress, anyone can set up a website. The use of a theme or a few plugins will allow you to get the features you are looking for. You will be able to quickly test your concept and validate or not its interest with the first Internet users. To go further in the design and integration of unique features to your business, you will need to make your own modifications by calling a wordpress developer.
