WordPress websites, explained for small businesses

By the ContractorUK Editorial Team · Fact-checked 7 November 2026

What WordPress is

WordPress is software for building and running websites. It began in 2003, when Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg forked an older blogging tool called b2/cafelog, and the project now describes itself as "the platform of choice for millions of sites across the web".

Two things set it apart from most website builders. It's open source, licensed under the GPL (version 2 or later), which gives anyone the freedom to run it, study it, change it and pass it on. And it isn't tied to one company's servers: you can install it with most web hosts and move it to another whenever you like.

Themes and plugins

A theme decides how the site looks. Plugins add features: contact forms, booking calendars, a shop, a cookie banner. The official directories on WordPress.org list over 15,000 free themes and over 78,000 free plugins, with paid ones sold elsewhere on top. That choice is WordPress's biggest strength, and also where most of its problems start.

WordPress.org and WordPress.com are different things

Almost everyone mixes these up. Both run the same WordPress software; the difference is who provides and runs the hosting.

Source: WordPress.com support guide "WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org" and WordPress.org, checked on 7 November 2026.

If the hosted version is on your list, our comparison of ContractorUK and WordPress.com goes through the plans and what they cost.

Why it suits a small business

You aren't locked in. Because the software is open, a WordPress site can change host or change developer without being rebuilt from scratch. Before you commit to any platform, ask whether you could take the site with you if you left; with WordPress the answer is yes.

Help is never far away. With millions of sites running it, finding a person who can fix or extend a WordPress site is rarely the hard part.

Editing is built around blocks: a heading, a paragraph, a picture, a button. Updating your prices or swapping a photo doesn't need a developer.

Wix and Squarespace are all-in-one platforms that run everything for you, which is a different trade-off. Our Wix vs WordPress comparison sets the two approaches side by side.

The catches

Freedom comes with chores. Every plugin is code from a different author, updated on its own timetable, and some are far better looked after than others. A site with thirty plugins has thirty things that can fall out of date or clash with each other after an update.

Hosting matters more than people expect. WordPress.org's recommended setup is PHP 8.3 or greater, MariaDB 10.11 or MySQL 8.0 or greater, and HTTPS support. WordPress will still run on much older versions, but the project warns that those have reached their official end of life and may expose your site to security vulnerabilities. A bargain host on old software isn't a bargain.

The project also only officially supports the latest version. Its security team backports fixes to older releases as a courtesy, which is generous, but not something to plan around.

What keeping it updated involves

WordPress does a good share of this itself. Automatic background updates arrived in version 3.7, and by default most sites install minor releases, the security and maintenance fixes, without anyone lifting a finger. New installations since version 5.6 take major releases automatically too, unless someone switches that off.

Plugins and themes are where you come in. Their auto-updates are switched on one at a time, or you update them by hand from the dashboard, ideally one by one, opening the site after each. Our guide to website maintenance covers the rest of the routine: backups, security and keeping the content current.

How ContractorUK uses WordPress

Every site we build runs on WordPress. You give us a few lines about your business, or upload your CV, and the builder sets up the pages, the wording and the design, usually within ten minutes. Hosting and https come with the plan, so there's no host to pick, and day to day you work in a simple WordPress dashboard for pages, media and forms, or ask the AI builder for a change in plain English. Our engineers set up the search basics as part of the SEO bundle: titles, descriptions, structured data and canonical tags on every page.

Look at yours free for 7 days, then it's £49 a month including VAT, with no setup fee and no minimum term.

Who should skip us? Anyone who wants to run their own server and manage WordPress themselves, plugins, updates and all. Buy hosting from a good host and install the software from WordPress.org. We're for people who want WordPress's strengths without the job of running it.