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WordPress · Marketing

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What is WordPress?

WordPress is the publishing software behind millions of websites, from simple blogs to full company sites. You download it from wordpress.org and run it on your own hosting. WordPress.com is a separate hosted service run by Automattic that is built on the same software. The core handles writing, media, users, comments and site design, and plugins add most other features.

WordPress is free, GPL-licensed publishing software for building websites and blogs on your own hosting. You write posts and pages in the block editor, design the whole site with a block theme in the Site Editor, and add features such as a store, forms or a newsletter through plugins. It runs on PHP with MySQL or MariaDB.

Core capabilities

  • Write and schedule posts and pages in the block editor, with drafts, revisions and private content.
  • Design headers, footers, templates and site styles in the Site Editor with a block theme.
  • Give editors, authors and contributors their own roles, and moderate comments built in.

Write content and design the site

The block editor lets you add, edit and rearrange content while the page updates in front of you. Publishing tools cover drafts, scheduled posts, revisions, private posts and password protection, and the media library handles uploads, alt text, captions, galleries and basic image editing. With a block theme, the Site Editor covers the whole layout, including header, footer, templates, navigation, patterns and global styles, and the result can be exported as a theme.

  • Block editor
  • Site Editor
  • Themes
  • Media

Extend it and bring content in

Features that site builders often bundle, such as forms, calendars, advanced SEO controls and spam protection, come from plugins rather than WordPress core. Developers get a hooks-based plugin system, a REST API, and custom post types and taxonomies. Built-in importers bring in content from Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, TypePad, Tumblr and other WordPress sites, and WordPress is available in more than 70 languages.

  • Plugins
  • REST API
  • Importers
  • Multilingual

Hosting, licence and trademark

WordPress needs PHP 7.4 or newer and MySQL 5.5.5 or newer; the project recommends PHP 8.3, MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.11, HTTPS and the Apache mod_rewrite module. Upload the files to a web host and open the installer to create the configuration file, or use a host's one-click installer, and apply updates from the dashboard. WordPress is licensed GPL-2.0-or-later. The WordPress name and logo are trademarks of the WordPress Foundation and may not be used in your own company, product or domain names.

  • Self-hosted
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • GPL-2.0-or-later
  • Trademark

Where it fits

Use cases

  1. 01

    Launch a company website

    Install WordPress on your web host, activate a block theme and set the site title, logo and colours in the Site Editor. Build pages from the standard block patterns and publish them when they are ready.

  2. 02

    Run a team blog with review

    Add writers as contributors or authors and let editors review their drafts before publishing. Schedule finished posts for a set time and use revisions to compare or restore earlier versions.

  3. 03

    Add a shop, forms or a newsletter

    Install a plugin from the WordPress plugin library for the feature you need, then configure it from the dashboard. Forms, calendars, spam protection and advanced SEO controls all come from plugins rather than WordPress itself.