Starting your online journey can be a confusing process. Should you build a website or venture into the social media space? Well, building a website is a great way to establish yourself in the digital space, and you can then easily set up a social media presence to connect to your users, and much more. Nevertheless, the next big question is how and where to build your website? Chances are you’ve come across terms like WordPress, WooCommerce, online store, blogging, and more and your search engine landed you here. Well, you’re at the right place!
In this post, we’ll be covering the two notable website creating options WordPress and WooCommerce. Also, we’ll help clear some misconceptions on what WordPress and WooCommerce is, let us first dive into WordPress.
What is WordPress?
When people explore options to create a new website, they come across WordPress and wonder what is it exactly. Some people might think it is a blogging service provider and as a matter of fact, WordPress did start as a blogging tool and later transformed into a full feature loaded Content Management System (CMS) and a powerful website creating tool. WordPress is a factory that makes web pages defines their functions in the most appropriate way. It is an excellent open-source software for building your website, application, or your blog.
As of December 2021, WordPress has a lion’s share of 43% of Content Management Systems on all websites.
Below are some of its key features which make WordPress the most sought CMS’s:
- Open-source
It supports the idea of a community of people coming together and contributing on this project. WordPress welcomes all and is inclusive helping one all reach their objectives. - User-friendly
One of the prime reasons for WordPress being so popular is because it lets a layman design a website by himself with barely any knowledge of HTML, CSS, or any other coding skills that developers brag about. - Amazing themes
You also don’t need a designer as WordPress has readymade templates run by a template processor which users may combine it with their content without fidgeting with any core codes. Install any of the thousands of available free templates with a single click. - Plenty of Plugins
Lastly, it is popular due to its plugin repository, it allows any user to extend their website’s features and functions as per their requirement without the hassle of coding. WordPress provides a host of plugin options, currently, over 59,000 plugins are listed on WordPress.org, ranging from different utilities and services.
Now, that we’ve seen what WordPress is, let us take a detour and cover WooCommerce.
For the uninitiated, WooCommerce is a plugin. Basically, this plugin helps you sell or build an e-commerce store using WordPress. Let us quickly look at what WooCommerce is and its features.
What is WooCommerce?
The best and most clichéd analogy to explain this is to consider WordPress as the operating system and WooCommerce as a software for a specific purpose. WooCommerce helps extend WordPress into an e-commerce store.
As per the latest statistics, WooCommerce powers 20% of all WordPress websites and 8.5% of all the websites on the internet. And ever since Automattic acquired WooCommerce, its market share has been gradually increasing.
Below are some of its features that make it a popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress:
- Free and open-source
Just like WordPress, WooCommerce is also free and open-source which makes anyone easily modify, extend the code, and create customized websites.
- User-friendly
It is clear that cumbersome and complicated softwares or plugins do not take off. WooCommerce indeed woos users on its user-friendliness.
- Abundance of Extensions
It offers users the liberty to extend or add new features and functions are per the user’s requirements. It has attracted a lot of importance due its hundreds of extensions available for it.
- Enhanced SEO
WooCommerce is well-equipped with SEO (search engine optimization) and highly effective for making your online store noticeable to search engines.
The Face-Off: WordPress vs WooCommerce
To conclude, we can clearly make out that WordPress is a powerful website creating tool and an excellent Content Management System. Whereas, WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that enables users to convert their website to an e-commerce store.
However, it is worth noting that both WordPress and WooCommerce have different functionalities. If you’re a beginner who just wants to start a website or blog without any intention of selling products, WordPress is the best bet. On the other hand, if you want to foray into the online business world WooCommerce is a great tool.
We at Bluehost, offer both WordPress and WooCommerce Hosting depending on your needs. Our WordPress Hosting is recommended by WordPress.org and comes with fast website loading speed, 99.9% uptime, free domain for a year, several add-on services and more. Likewise, our WooCommerce Hosting provides high-end security, fast website loading speed for enhanced user experience, incredible e-commerce add-ons, integrated payment gateways, and much more.
To summarize, both WordPress and WooCommerce are equally significant in their own functionality. WordPress with its powerful features, designs and the freedom to make your first website seamlessly, and WooCommerce with its great strength of extensibility to turn your website into an online store.
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