What the Hell is a WordPress website?

Another handy Geek > English translation post for you, because “WordPress” is something we talk about a lot. WordPress is a PHP-driven, open-source Content Management System, or CMS.

In plain English, it is software designed for the creation and management of websites. It’s easily the most popular CMS around, and powers something like a third of all websites on the internet. That’s huge.

WordPress has been around since 2003 and was originally made to build blogs. However, its flexibility soon meant it was being used to make websites of all kinds.

Being open-source (the code behind it is available to  the public to contribute to and enhance), WordPress is free to use. Also, thanks to the fact you can add little bits of extra software (called plugins) to WordPress websites, they are supremely flexible and customisable. Things like fancy image galleries, shopping carts, newsletter signups, can all be added with just a few clicks.

Giving website owners control over their content

“Content Management System” is geek-speak for websites that users can update themselves, without needing any technical skills. Users have a “back-end” of the website that they can log into where they can edit their website’s text and images, and create new pages or blog posts.

In order to function, CMS websites are database-driven. This means that all of the website’s content is stored in a database, rather than in flat, static pages.

Why do these websites need special hosting?

As WordPress is phenomenally popular, it is a prime target for hackers. Also, its open-source nature means that hackers have ready access to its code and are continually probing for weaknesses. It is therefore critical that WordPress websites are kept up to date so that vulnerabilities are fixed as soon as they’re discovered.

Database-driven websites are more resource-heavy than flat websites too, so are prone to performance issues if hosted on a shared server. That’s why we recommend our Premium VPS Hosting.

We also actively manage sites on the server, ensuring they are kept up to date at all times. This is why our Premium hosting is more expensive than our Standard hosting – and why it is essential if you want to protect your website from being hacked.