What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open source content management system (CMS) which began in 2003 as a blogging platform but soon branched out into a platform for different types of websites, including news sites, corporate and government sites, ecommerce sites, and many more.
Today, WordPress powers roughly 22% of the top 10 million websites on the planet, making it the most widely-used CMS in the world. The next largest CMS is Joomla, with ~3% of the top 10 million sites, and followed by Drupal at ~2%.
How secure is WordPress?
WordPress is very secure and powers some of the largest, most highly-trafficked websites on earth, including WordPress.com, which is one of the top 25 most trafficked websites in the world, and the #1 network of websites in the United States. Like any software, vulnerabilities and security issues can be encountered if developers are not following up-to-date best practices or if the server setup, whether internal or managed by a third-party, isn’t optimized for WordPress use. However, if you’re running a fully optimized WordPress install, your site will be running software that is safe, secure, and scalable.
Why would anyone use WordPress over other CMS / custom-built solutions?
One of the great advantages of WordPress is that you get a ready-to-use CMS right out of the box. Should your project require a more complex approach, you can easily build out custom solutions by integrating plugins with the core WordPress software. Good examples of companies using WordPress as a full content management system are the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Time.com and CBS Local.
On the most recent 2012 WordPress user survey, we found that 92% of all users were utilizing WordPress as a full CMS and not just as a blogging tool. WordPress is the content management system (CMS) of the web – 18% of the top 10 million sites are powered by WordPress and WordPress sites attract more than 663 million unique visitors each month. With a good team and a knowledgeable developer, you can make WordPress work for projects of any size – with simple, as well as complex development requirements and with varying traffic demands.