Why do you use WordPress?

[Jeffro]

So why do you use WordPress versus other publishing platforms that are available? Here is my WordPress story:

I purchased everything I needed during the month of May. This included a domain, hosting, and a few other tidbits. I had a general idea as to what I wanted to accomplish with the site and the way I wanted it to look, but I had no idea on where to begin. WordPress was suggested to me numerous times and even Pete suggested that I use WordPress, so that’s what I did. Initially, I couldn’t for the life of me, figure out the templating system within WordPress. I gave up and decided to use Joomla, as I had a good amount of experience with the CMS. I quickly realized, Joomla was too much of what I needed. I ended up giving WordPress a second try and since then, I have never looked back.

What's yours?

[Ryan]

I started out with plain old HTML files hand coded. Then added an SMF forum to my site. Then figured out a way to use my SMF forum to act as a CMS for my site. Then I realised that WordPress could do exactly what my SMF forum was doing, but a whole lot better. I've never looked back :)

All attempts I've made to use other CMS's have ended in frustration. They always have something missing which I can't easily do. The only thing I find that I haven't been able to do with WordPress, or with a few plugins or integration with other software is user permissions. So the only reason I would use another software is if I needed a more advanced user permissions system, I've managed to get by without it so far though (not by choice however).

[hallsofmontezuma]

Over the years I've progressed from HTML-by-hand -> crappy content management systems -> slightly less crappy content management systems. I would use whatever the client wanted or whatever I recommended would be the best fit for them. Over time, I realized that WordPress was the best fit for all of them. It's completely scalable from a small personal blog to an extensive corporate multi-user website. I've used it as a blog, content management system, intranet, event scheduler, bug tracker, forum, social network, wiki, ... The API is very well written and very powerful, and it's getting better with each release. I can't name a single other CMS with an API that's even close to the same quality. Any layout a graphics designer makes in photoshop can be converted to a theme, and any functionality that's needed in a plugin/theme can be written by a programmer.
I started exclusively working with WordPress a long time ago and have never looked back. If they started charging for licenses I would still use it.

[Len]

Years ago I started online with a basic static HTML site as that's all that existed. In the time since I have tried every CMS/blogging engine there is but fell in love with WordPress the first time I tried it. Nothing can compare to it, from its ease of use to its ability to be highly customizable to the outstanding community around it.

As I stated once in the WP Support Forurm, the only package that came close to WordPress for me was, curiously enough, its ancestor b2.

[LarryMonte]

Having spent several years dealing with Mambo and Joomla, WordPress was like a breath of fresh air. Especially at upgrade time. (Even before WPAU)

Ever tried upgrading a Mambo site? I generally set aside 4-6 hours for this. I have never experienced a smooth Mambo upgrade which generally takes nothing less than 4 hours of code bashing. (Total PITA!) Although Joomla was a little more hassle free, it's still a time consuming upgrade.

Now, multiply the above by about a dozen clients. Yup! Upgrade time can take up to a week of my life. (Thankfully they're billed hours. :) )

Wordpress... These days you're done upgrading before putting a whole lot of thought into it. If all my clients were running WordPress, they could do the upgrade themselves.

Upgrades aside, I like WP because it's simple, lightweight (comparatively speaking) and easy to use. Not to mention the variety of plugins and community behind it.

I've only used WP on personal sites to this point. I haven't taken on new clients for over a year now, but next time I'll be looking at WP first, other CMS's second.

[Jeffro]

Cool Larry, so you too come from a background of Mambo/Joomla. Were you using Mambo when they had that huge uproar and forked the code eventually forming the Joomla project?

[LarryMonte]

Cool Larry, so you too come from a background of Mambo/Joomla. Were you using Mambo when they had that huge uproar and forked the code eventually forming the Joomla project?

I came in shortly after that but stuck with Mambo for a while after. I eventually migrated a lot of the Mambo sites to Joomla. I only have 2 Mambo sites left which I maintain. (Thank God considering my track record for Mambo upgrades. lol)

Joomla seemed to be pushing forward while Mambo wasted time implementing the MOStlyCE editor. (Major source of my upgrade headaches, actually). A decent editor but seemed to be the only progression the project was making there for a while.

Other than upgrading existing installations, my thoughts are more focused on WP now.

[itsananderson]

So my story with WordPress is a little different than a lot people's I guess. I started learning HTML and CSS in the summer of 2007 and then quickly picked up PHP when I realized how powerful it was.

As I messed around with it, I did a little bit with MySQL, which caught the eye of the Assessment office at my school. They had been working on transforming their FrontPage templates to WordPress for quite some time, but the student who had been helping them was graduating, so they needed someone new to take over the project.

I had heard of WordPress before, but hadn't done anything with it, so it was an interesting experience learning the new system and trying to help them accomplish what they wanted to do. I quickly fell in love with WordPress' intuitive API (I was impressed that I could learn enough to write my first plugin in about a week). As item progressed, my interest in WordPress grew from a simple job opportunity to an almost full time hobby. Now WordPress has become a part of my everyday life.

[Vix]

I started off with Blogger in 2000 and then looking for more functionality I tried b2 but didn't like it at all. I discovered MovableType and was really happy with it until they changed the licensing structure in 2004.

I was deciding between ExpressionEngine and WordPress before I chose WordPress which I've used ever since for three reasons: it is quick to install, easy to use and easy to extend.

[andrew]

Well, I started off using blogger in 2005, I was hosting on my own domain but it just wasn't good enough. I needed categories for one thing.

So I looked around and found WordPress. There really didn't seem to be an alternative at the time. I tried others but they all seemed to massively overcomplicate things or to do things in a way that seemed counterintuitive.

I continue to use WordPress now because it is the only good, mature, blogging platform.