

WordPress themes are generally classified into two categories: free and premium. Themes may be directly installed using the WordPress "Appearance" administration tool in the dashboard, or theme folders may be copied directly into the themes directory. Every WordPress website requires at least one theme to be present. Themes allow users to change the look and functionality of a WordPress website without altering the core code or site content. WordPress users may install and switch among different themes. This allows support for more human-readable s. Its architecture is a front controller, routing all requests for non-static URIs to a single PHP file which parses the URI and identifies the target page. WordPress has a web template system using a template processor. "WordPress is a factory that makes webpages" is a core analogy designed to clarify the functions of WordPress: it stores content and enables a user to create and publish webpages, requiring nothing beyond a domain and a hosting service.

A local computer may be used for single-user testing and learning purposes. To function, WordPress has to be installed on a web server, either part of an Internet hosting service like or a computer running the software package in order to serve as a network host in its own right. The software is released under the GPLv2 (or later) license. WordPress was released on May 27, 2003, by its founders, American developer Matt Mullenweg and English developer Mike Little, as a fork of b2/cafelog. WordPress has also been used for other application domains, such as pervasive display systems (PDS). WordPress is used by 42.8% of the top 10 million websites as of October 2021, WordPress is one of the most popular content management system solutions in use. WordPress was originally created as a blog-publishing system but has evolved to support other web content types including more traditional mailing lists and forums, media galleries, membership sites, learning management systems (LMS) and online stores. Features include a plugin architecture and a template system, referred to within WordPress as Themes. WordPress ( WP, ) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in PHP and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database.


Blog software, content management system, content management framework
