Wordpress
A quarter of the top websites use wordpress! (and half of total websites)
It website builder with easy-to-use templates, allowing users to simply add normal text and render it on a webpage. Forked from a b2/cafelog as it became less active by Matt Mullenweg to implment new features in 2003.
There is wordpress.com and wordpress.org.
- wordpress.com
- commerical product that allows people to host their website through wordpress servers
- Plans
- free tier has google ads
- personal ($4 per month) removes ads + themes
- professional ($8 per month) allows video upload + google analytics/stats
- wordpress.org
- you have to either host your own servers
- or be able to connect it to free/paid online server
Generally a good idea to start with free version of wordpress.com and then decide if you want to pay or host your own.
However, wordpress.org recommends some alternate hosting sites for development due to donations back to development. Also, mentions wordpress.com but only for their free tier... hmmm
Controversy
Matt Mullenweg, CEO of wordpress, like any CEO tbh, has a bunch of public facing issues. The main one is by trying to exclude companies that don't pay back royalities... Do you really need more money?
He also owns tumblr so some issues in not sensoring harassment there...