What is WordPress.org?

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What is WordPress.org?

WordPress.org is a website and home to the free WordPress software or CMS. This is the website where you can download your copy of the open-source WordPress without registration and install it on your web hosting to create a blog or a website.

When you create a website with WordPress, you get full control. And by this I mean you can customize your site the way you want, add any features using plugins and from there the possibilities are endless.

With control comes responsibilities as well.  When you have a WordPress self hosted website, you are the one responsible for the site’s overall maintenance. This includes performance and security.

Now that you know you can download the free WordPress CMS from WordPress.org.

What else can you find on the WordPress.org website?

If you are thinking  WordPress.org is just for downloading the open source CMS , then let me tell you it is also home to a lot of other WordPress related resources and below I will discuss each of them separately

Showcase

When you land on the WordPress.org’s home page, the first menu item you see is the showcase.

As the name suggests, here you will find some of the top websites in the world that are powered by WordPress. If you want your website to be listed then your site needs to fulfill one or more criteria’s mentioned below.

• Website must use WordPress in a unique or innovative way.
• Attract a lot of traffic
• Written by someone famous or notable in a particular field
• Representing a notable organization, government entity or corporation as an official blog or website.

Now, submit a website all you have to do is visit WordPress the navigate to showcase and then you need to scroll a little where you will find Submit a Site button on the left.

And it will take you to a new page where you will first see the submission criteria and below that you will see the form.

Alternatively, you can directly click Submit a website on WordPress.org and it will take you to the same page with the submission form.

Now all you have to do is fill out all the details and click Submit site button in the bottom to finish the process.

It is important to know only a few sites make it to the showcase and only the sites that are added to the listing will be notified via email.

Themes

The next tab on the WordPress.org page is Themes. Here you will find all the themes that are available in the free WordPress themes repository.

Did you know? There are over 7400 free themes in the repository.

Also, it is important to know that this free WordPress themes repository can be accessed from your WordPress dashboard as well.

Now, to find a theme for your site all you have to do is enter the name of the theme or a feature that you want in the search box and it will display all the results.

As you can see in the screenshot above, I have searched for one of the best and most popular theme Astra and it displays 2 results.

Once you have found the theme and want to know more about it then you will have to hover the mouse pointer on the WordPress theme and it will show you the More Info button.

Click More Info and it will take to the theme’s landing page on WordPress.org where on the left you will find all the information such as

• Version
• Last Updated
• Active Installations

And more.

Also, below that you will find the theme ratings and if you want to download, you can see the option just above the information section.

Now, when you click Download, it will download the theme’s zip file.

Before we move forward, it is important to know if you are looking to use a free theme then I will suggest installing the theme directly from the built-in theme repository in your WordPress dashboard and it is a better and a simple way to do it.

Plugins

After themes, the next page on the WordPress.org website is the plugins. In this page you will find all the free plugins available in the WordPress repository.

As you can see in the image above, there are over 56000 plugins available in WordPress to help you extend the features of your website or blog.

Just like themes, this free plugin repository can be accessed directly from your WordPress dashboard as well. And to use free plugins on your site I will recommend installing plugins directly from your dashboard rather than downloading it first from WordPress.org  and later uploading it to your dashboard.

Having said that,

To find a plugin, all you have to do is enter the name of the plugin or the feature that you are looking for in the search box and it will show you all the plugins that offer that feature

As you can see, I searched for the feature anti spam and it showed me all the plugins that offer this feature. And trust me the list of plugins offering this feature was huge.

Now, in case you are looking for an Anti-Spam plugin, then I will suggest going with Akismet. It is free to use and comes preinstalled with WordPress fresh install. And to stop spam comments all you have to do is configure it.

Coming back to the topic,

When you search for a plugin using a feature that you want, it will show you multiple plugins and on the plugin cards you can see certain details about the plugin such as

• Name of the plugin
• Small description
• Rating
• Plugin Author
• Active Installations
• Latest compatible version

Once you have found the plugin that you like and want to read more about it then you will have to click the title of the plugin and it will take you to the landing page of the plugin on WordPress.org

On this page you will find a detailed description of the plugin along with other information such as

• Installation guide
• Change log
• Detailed reviews

And much more. Also, on top right of this page you will find the Download button. By clicking that you can download the plugin.

It is important to know, if you are facing any difficulty while using the plugin then you can click the support tab and it will take you to the plugins support or forum page where you can  ask your questions. And your queries will be resolved by either the plugin author or by someone in community.

Mobile

The next page on the WordPress.org site is Mobile. If you are thinking if mobile is somehow related to WordPress then let me tell you WordPress has a mobile app for both WordPress.com and WordPress self hosted sites.

Using this application you can perform the 3 major blogging tasks which are writing, editing and publishing. Also, you can check stats and read articles by other authors.

To download the mobile app, the first thing you have to do is click Get a Mobile App

Clicking this button will take you to the landing page of the WordPress.com app. Here you will have to enter your mobile number and select the country code.

Doing so will activate Text me a Link button.

Now, when you click the button it will send you a text message with the application download link.

If you are a WordPress.com user then to use this app all you have to do is

• Download the app using the link in the text message
• Install it
• Login and start using

On the other hand if you have a self hosted WordPress site, then you will  have to install Jetpack plugin and create a WordPress.com account to use this app.

The next question is

Do I recommend using this app

The answer is no because creating a post or a page is not merely limited to write, edit and publish. There is a lot more that goes into publishing a good looking and engaging page or a post. And you can’t use your phone to do that.

As far as checking, the stats is concerned, I don’t think Jetpack stats are as accurate as  Google Analytics and if checking stats is your reason for the download then I will suggest downloading Google Analytics application.

However, if you want to see how this app works and want to experience blogging from a mobile device then surely give this app a try.

Support

The next page on the list is Support and it is one of the most important pages on the site. Now, there are 2 sections to this page.

The first one is Documentation

As the name suggests, this section is for someone who is new to the WordPress community and is looking to learn WordPress.

Here you will find information on topics such as

• Basic of WordPress
• Customization
• Maintenance
• Security
• Security
• Troubleshooting
• Advanced WordPress

Every topic in this section is covered in detail.

Now before we move forward,

In case you are a developer and looking for developer resources. The link to the page is on the footer of WordPress.org website.

Click Developers and it will take you to a new page where you will find all the information related to WordPress development.

Having said that,

The second section of the support page is the WordPress Support Forum.

Here you can ask your WordPress related queries and the community will provide you with a solution.

To ask any questions related to WordPress, the first step is to select the correct support category and then click view forum

On clicking View forum, it will take you to the forums page where you need to search for the problem first as there are chances that it may have been resolved before and if not click Create a topic and start a new thread for your problem.

To create a topic or start a thread you will have to create an account on WordPress.org

Get Involved

Till now we have seen that WordPress.org is run and maintained by the community. And this takes it a step further.

If you are someone looking to help and wants to get involved in making WordPress better then this page is for you.

Before we move further, it is important to know, it does not matter if you are a developer or not there are plenty of ways in which you can support the community and below I have listed a few

• Core
• Design
• Accessibility
• Mobile
• Polyglots
• Theme
• Plugin
• Documentation

And more. You can see the complete list on WordPress.org

Next on the list is About and Blog pages and on these pages you can find all the information related to WordPress such as

• From where it all started
• What is the mission
• Technology used
• People involved
• Information related to WordPress updates
• Latest news

And more.

Having said that, the last page that we are going to discuss here is

Hosting

Before we move forward, it is important to keep in mind that to start a WordPress blog or a website you need 2 things

• Domain name
• Web Hosting

Once the website is created and starts getting traffic, no one wants their website to load slow or experience downtime. And that is why you need a reliable hosting provider.

Web hosting is a competitive space and there are a lot of companies that offer this service. Out of all these companies, WordPress recommends only 3 that meet the minimum requirements. Below are the web hosting companies recommended by WordPress.

• Bluehost
• Siteground
• Dreamhost

I will also suggest going for these companies as these providers have done something right and that is why an organization like WordPress is supporting and recommending them to its users.

And with that said, it completes our tour of the WordPress.org website.

I hope that you have found this post helpful and are able to understand What is WordPress.org. If you have any queries related to this feel free to let me know and I will be happy to answer them.

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