Regardless of reports about poor performance, WordPress is still used by over 70% of users for website building. 36% of the top 1 million websites in the world currently use WordPress to power their sites, based on Search Logistics. WordPress built its reputation by offering opportunities for beginners to make websites for personal and business purposes.   



According to TechReport, WordPress became the 4th most visited site by users after Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. WordPress is a free website builder wherein anyone can edit themes and pre-made templates. If you’ve been doing your research and want to learn WordPress as a beginner, this article’s for you. We provided this article to determine if WordPress is good for beginners based on user experience. We included WordPress’ benefits, pricing, and potential disadvantages you might encounter as a beginner.

Is WordPress Good for Beginners? What Reddit Users Have to Say 

Reddit users shared their experiences when they were using WordPress as beginners. One User shared their insights about using the WP Beginner website. Despite offering a good solution for beginners, the website has a strong bias with their products. Its priority is more on selling products rather than providing WordPress tutorials for beginners. The user was banned and silenced when they attempted to raise this concern.

User skyrocketed said that WP beginner is “the absolute worst” along with tools like AwesomeMotive. They experienced horrible bloated plugins and annoying dashboard notifications.                              



It’s difficult to use WordPress, specifically uploading a WP theme. One user encountered a bizarre and non-intuitive interface. As a result, they didn’t push through the tutorials and got a refund from their hosting service.                      

On the brighter side in using WordPress, user Badacid91 learned HTML and CSS to make static web pages as a beginner. They learned PHP enough to be familiar with the syntax and basic fundamentals like variables before proceeding to WordPress. Their advice is to be patient and persistent to get it right.                                                         

Another user’s WordPress beginner experience started when they bought a domain name to build a website. It took them 2 weeks to launch a site after reading tutorials and experimenting with themes and plugins. They also learned tutorials on SEO, keywords, social media, and affiliate linking.                                                                                  

What are 6 Benefits of Using WordPress for Beginners?   

                

1. WordPress is Easy to Use               

WordPress is easy to use as it provides a user-friendly experience through customizing templates and content. This website builder doesn’t require you to have any coding knowledge. You can seamlessly publish your website using pre-made templates based on your niche. As a beginner, you can first use ColibriWP, a WordPress page builder that has its own customizer. You’ll be given a virtual WordPress install where you can select website themes and use their customizer.

WordPress is easy to use once you have a good theme to add your custom images. WordPress has a page builder called Elementor. You can use this platform if you create pages using a visual editor as a beginner. However, you may find limited themes for templates. You can always check ThemeForest to select free themes. Customizing a website template on WordPress is like using Canva. Get yourself familiar with the location of the features and how to use Elementor for editing.



2. WordPress is Cost-Effective 

WordPress is cost-effective because it’s FREE to use as an open-source software. Since WordPress is a free website builder, you can create your first website using various templates. However, you’ll have to pay for hosting, domain, and premium themes to furnish your website. Selecting WP engine lets you get a $6 hosting from GoDaddy. You can pay the domain for $0.99 a year and also pay the hosting for $6.



3. WordPress is SEO-Friendly 

WordPress is SEO-friendly as it’s an open-source software that’s built with search engines. It has friendly URLs containing words that explain the content of your page. These URLs are easily read by humans and search engines.                                                       

WordPress is a good CMS platform for SEO. Despite its flexibility, its SEO effectiveness depends on your experience level. WordPress provides necessary tools like third-party plugins to make a successful SEO-friendly website. You can improve your website’s SEO performance by following the best practices and using SEOPress or Squirky as plugins.

4. WordPress is Open Source 

WordPress is an open source software where you can use and change existing templates and themes. The code base of this platform is for public view and use. Therefore, any web developer can change and improve a website. You can receive technical support from a community of web developers that contribute to WordPress.   

Don’t be confused with WordPress as an open source and WordPress being free to use. Open source only means that its code can be updated, improved, and customized. If the license allows it, specific products made from open source code can turn into commercial products. You’ll get what you pay for in accessing rich themes and plugins that turn to commercial products.

5. WordPress Offers Website Security 

WordPress offers website security plugins, protecting your website from potential hacks and vulnerabilities. Monitor release dates to regularly update your WordPress website version to prevent cyber threats. Also, make your username and password complex to secure login credentials.     

Establish security protocols and do daily backups especially if you’re working for clients. Doing these actions right can help you prevent from experiencing security issues. Consider using a few plugins and do not use page builders that need more add-ons. Take time to properly figure out the security once you use a security plugin on your website. It’s also crucial to avoid cheap web hosting, as it’s also prone to cyber hacking.

6. WordPress Offers Scalability 

WordPress offers scalability as your website can adapt to changes after adding more features. You can start building a simple website and consider adding more pages and improving content.                                                                                                                                                                             

Determining if a WordPress website is scalable also depends on the tools you use. If you have many sites, you can have a self-managed dedicated server cluster of multiple databases, web servers, catching servers, load balancers, and storage servers. But consider the website types your client has. If they’re static sites, the content delivery network (CDN) will eat most of the traffic. As a result, your server cluster wouldn’t do well.



WordPress Pricing Plans and Their Features

1. Personal Features ($4)

• Free domain for one year
• Collect payments 
• Unlimited email support

2. Premium Features ($8)

• Google Analytics Integration
• Earn ad revenue
• Premium themes

3. Business Features ($25)

• Access to more than 50, 000 WordPress plugins
• Automated site backups and one-click restore
• SFTP, SSH, WP-CLI, and Database access

4. Commerce Features ($45)

• E-commerce marketing tools
• Premium design options for online stores
• Integrations with top shipping carriers

How Much Does It Really Cost to Build a Wordpress Website?   

It costs $50-$115,000 to build a WordPress website. However, the price can still vary based on getting a domain, hosting, themes, and plugins. Building your website using WordPress as a beginner is a wonderful opportunity since you don’t need prior coding experience. 

Some users on Quora shared their insights regarding the cost of building a WordPress website. One user who studied Computer Science & Web Design said that a hosting costs $30-$200 per year and a domain name for $15 per year. Also consider purchasing premium themes or plugins which cost $50-$100 each.



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Is WordPress Easy to Learn?   

Yes, WordPress is fairly easy to learn whether you want to build a simple website or learn programming skills. Your level of knowledge and experience depends on your commitment and how much you’re willing to pay. WordPress is easy because it doesn’t require coding. However, you need to learn that there are themes you need to get comfortable changing.             

It’s crucial to learn the minor issues that might occur because of plugin conflicts. You need to get used to sites that require a lot of work. Also, consider learning graphic design principles and how to deploy and maintain website security. Using WordPress is challenging once you customize pre-built themes since you’ll spend a lot of time doing it. If you’re a consultant, consider using the native functionality when customizing a website. 

The best way to learn WordPress If you’re a freelancer is to discover what works for you. Add or swap at least one new tool for each project for exploration. In trying different things in WordPress, solo dev is the only frontend position you can try. You can be a freelancer using WordPress and earn more money because you have your needs.            



If you’re using WordPress and have Python skills, you’ll make more money in AI/ML. There are long-term rewards that will go higher financially and professionally. You can even become a contract consultant for companies with decent length contracts. Another advantage of being a freelance web developer is 50% marketing, networking, and client and project management. If you’re up for the grind, you’ll work more on small business websites.



Can I Learn WordPress Without Coding?   

Yes, you can learn WordPress without coding. WordPress is a platform that offers a user-friendly interface for beginners. You can always use the plugin library to add features and functionality to your simple website. Also, WordPress offers themes to customize your layout and plugins to create contact forms.

It’s crucial to know the difference between a WordPress designer and a web developer. You can use WordPress as a designer with no coding experience. Try not to take on any projects that require a lot of custom functionality. It can cause technical issues if you glue multiple plugins together even without coding experience.



If you’re a freelancer with WordPress design experience, it’s okay to learn a bit of PHP along the way. You may eventually end up customizing complex websites in the future. In using WordPress, you can learn SEO or Paid Ads management to enhance website content and bring traffic. Trying these ways can help your career grow upon using WordPress since you know many skills instead of just one.                                                                      



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Is WordPress Still Useful? 

Yes, WordPress is still useful because of its use of ease, flexibility, and scalability. 43% of all websites are made from WordPress, and it only continues to improve. It’s important to regularly update your WordPress site in terms of themes and plugins. 

Despite it running a good percentage of the websites around the world, it’s still not for everyone. WordPress will continue to be useful for those who treat it as their go-to website builder. WordPress produces higher-ranked websites than Wix, which only makes up for 3% of websites built.

What are the Disadvantages of Wordpress?

Plugin Reliance. While WordPress is known for its reliable plugins, this can come out as a disadvantage for limited features. You’ll always need plugins when adding SEO optimization and functionalities like contact forms and e-commerce. Plus, having access to plugins may not be budget-friendly. 10 WordPress plugins cost $30-$50 a month, resulting in $360-$600 a year per plugin. There are more affordable options to choose from, where you can pay for 12-16 premium plugins for $200 per year.                                       

It’s important to note that those who run WordPress plugins are providing essential labor on security updates throughout the year. This is already worth the cost if you want your website to have more advanced security features.     

Aside from plugins being not budget-friendly, it can also take much of your time. You can end up spending 10-15 hours on plugins every week. Every plugin author should create a premium version for compensation. Without a premium version, it can be difficult not to abandon it. What’s worse is a 100% free plugin may not be updated for months.



The plugin system of WordPress may be extendable, but it becomes inefficient and vulnerable if misconfigured. You can spend a ton of money on server resources if the project setup is wrong.              



Limited Design Control.  Limited design control occurs when your website requires extensive customization like coding or theme editing. While using WordPress is free, it doesn’t guarantee a fully grown website that’s not prone to technical or security issues. You’ll need to apply coding once you find out that design features on WordPress are limited.   

A Reddit user shared their experience of experiencing limited flexibility in using WordPress. They tried this platform for their landing page but couldn’t get the level of flexibility they needed. They ended up using another platform. We cannot deny that WordPress is good for CMS and blogging. However, it doesn’t provide full control over animations, customizations, loading videos, and so on.  

Slow Website Speed. Slow website speed, as a WordPress disadvantage, may be because of factors like poor hosting, plugins, and theme choice. Not all web hosting provides the best experience. Look at your hosting play to examine the server’s capabilities. Run a speed scan on your site using gtmetriix.com to detect where the hosting issue lies. Usually the problem comes from the theme and the server.



If your theme choice isn’t well optimized, any page becomes slow to function. This includes even your “Contact Us” page. A good theme gives significant results regardless of the theme builder you use and the number of animations.



You may also be experiencing a slow WordPress website speed because of cheap or free hosting, enormous images, poor design, and Elementor with cheap hosting. To improve your overall website, implement effective digital marketing. This includes SEO, eCommerce, hosting, content marketing, branding, and user experience.



Security Vulnerability -  Security vulnerability is possible since WordPress is an open source software prone to hackers. This means that anyone can edit or change themes, even those who aren’t professional web developers. It’s crucial to implement plugin security by sticking with reputable sources. Update themes and plugins to their latest versions. Using strong passwords, using security plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri, and enabling two-factor authentication can enhance the protection of your website.            



Be open to discovering potential harms to avoid encountering security vulnerabilities in WordPress. A strong password is useless if your website is filled with plugins that aren’t updated. Using an easy password makes your website prone to security issues despite being fully maintained and updated. Also, your website’s still prone to hacking if your hosting site or password is exposed in another breach without 2FA in place.



The first thing you look for on an assessment about website vulnerabilities is a bad vulnerability in a theme or plugin. Use auto-update on all your WordPress themes and plugins. Also, take good backups for troubleshooting. Wordfence is a WordPress security plugin that you can use to scan a website for malware. It sends recommendations when your site has out-of-date plugins and monitors changes to files.



Needs Frequent Updating. WordPress needs frequent updating as it comprises security features and functionality. It can take time to regularly update core, themes, and plugins. This will be challenging if you’re operating on a large website with multiple plugins.   

Some Reddit users shared their experiences in keeping plugins updated. One Reddit user has a personal blog where all auto-updates are turned off. But they still check for updates every day. They update a copy on their PC then back the files and database at their Webhost for update. 

Another Reddit user’s experience is about auto-updating all uncritical plugins that are unlikely to break the page. They manually update bigger updates, such as the visual builder, shop system, and plugins that depend on other shop extensions.

What is a Better Alternative to WordPress for Beginners? 

A better alternative to WordPress for beginners is Snapps,ai. This is a drag-and-drop website builder that offers easy-to-use customization features. Snapps.ai is perfect for beginners who want to create a simple website without coding experience. This platform offers pre-designed templates, widgets, SEO optimization, and domain set-up. To cost, using Snapps is more affordable than WordPress. Also, Snapps highlights the use of its migration tool with the help of a reliable team to move your old website to its platform. 

Snapps.ai lets you enjoy its customization features to build a simple website. Even if you’re a beginner, this platform guarantees ease of use and good website performance.