WordPress Web Hosting

A good WordPress web hosting service provider will probably make your blog smile. Good, but not everybody has heard of such...

WordPress, a script-driven blog...

WordPress is one the most popular and powerful blogging applications available and because it's open source, it is free to use meaning that you will be able to make the most of all the benefits that it has to offer without spending a penny. As well using WordPress to setup a blog, you can also use it as the CMS for a standard website if you wish to do so as the features that are provided with the application by default allow for this; furthermore, you can use the third-party plugins that are available to adapt the functionality of the application further to meet your requirements. WordPress will run on any web hosting package that can offer support for PHP scripts and MySQL databases, meaning that any Windows plan or Linux top hosting plan will be able to support the application; however, to make the most of what WordPress has to offer it is recommended that you host the application on a Linux server that is running the Apache web server software. When choosing a an affordable web hosting plan for a WordPress website there are a number of different variables that you should consider, including the amount of multimedia content such as videos and images that you are going to be including as part of your website as well as the number of visitors you can expect to receive each month.

What are the main benefits of using WordPress as a CMS?

There are several main benefits to using WordPress as a CMS and when it is free to use, you have nothing to use from using the application to power your website. The main benefits include:

Expansion

Unlike any other CMS, WordPress is readily expandable and there are a number of different third-party plugins and components that you can take advantage of if you wish to add more functionality to your WordPress-based website – for the most part, installing a new plugin to your WordPress website is simply a case of downloading the zip file from the WordPress website, expanding it, uploading the contents to your web space and then running the installation wizard from the WordPress admin control panel – such a process can be carried out by the most basic of users meaning that using plugins with WordPress shouldn't be a challenge for even the most technically incompetent – however, you should be careful with the number of plugins that you add to your website because if you go over the top then you could have a problem with page loading times. Once you install WordPress, you can log in to its administration panel and start creating content right away. You can use it with any hosting account, and some web hosting providers like NTCHosting.com even offer a 1-click installation through a script installer tool that installs WordPress automatically.

Styling

WordPress has a built-in theme system that will allow you to apply any design of your choice to your WordPress installation to that it looks how you want it to look – as is the case with plugins, there is also a central directory of WordPress themes that have been developed by third-party designers and have been released for use by anyone without any cost, although you can also design your own theme that you can then apply to WordPress if you have familiarized yourself with the theme system and are a good designer.

Stability

WordPress is a tried and tested CMS platform that is used by some of the biggest blogs and websites on the internet, meaning that you can be sure that you will be using a stable system that will be able to scale with any increases in visitor numbers that you experience – when setting up a website for the first time you rarely take into consideration any increases in visitor numbers that you may have in the future, but it is the case with any growing website that your visitor numbers are going to grow as time goes on and this is why it is important to be using a solid foundation that will be able to cope with these increases.

Are there any disadvantages to using WordPress as a CMS?

Depending on what your exact situation is, you may find that there are some issues with using WordPress as a CMS under some circumstances. Some issues that you may have with WordPress include:

User area

One of the main features that other CMS systems are able to offer is the ability to create a user area that only visitors who have their own user accounts are able to access – as WordPress's primary function is as a blogging platform, user accounts are limited to the admin area meaning that there is no facility to create a members-only area for those websites that require one – however, in the role of a blogging platform this does mean that contributors can be provided with different access levels with some being designated simply as contributors, whilst more important individuals can be classed as administrators which will provide them with extra responsibilities such as managing comments on content.

Security issues

One of the biggest disadvantages of using open source applications is that anyone is able to view and modify the source code of the application, meaning that if there is an error somewhere that could allow hackers to gain access to websites running the application concerned then this could cause widespread problems, especially for popular applications – however, if security holes that could be exploited by hackers are found in WordPress then the developers of the application are usually quick to release updates to make the application secure once again, even if it is an open source application.
In conclusion, WordPress is one of the most powerful CMS systems available and provides web developers with a solid platform on which they are able to develop highly scalable websites that will be able to cope with high visitor loads. As WordPress is an open source application, you will never have to pay to use it and because it is so popular you can be sure that it will be updated on a regular basis to ensure that it remains competitive against other CMS applications and that it will always be secure to ensure that hackers will never be able to hack websites that are based on WordPress.