WordPress is the most popular content management system for a reason – it offers the flexibility and power you need to create just about any type of website you want.
This is the main reason I always recommend using WordPress. You can do anything! Whether you want to start a blog, build a website for your business, or try something a little more difficult … in most cases, you can do it with WordPress.
In this article, you will discover 10 types of websites you can create with WordPress.
Types of Websites You Can Create with WordPress
These are just a few types of websites you can create with WordPress. It goes without saying, some of these are more difficult to do than others, but the code’s there to support it.
If you can think it, you can probably do it.
Here are 10 types of websites you can create with WordPress.
1. Portfolio
Visual artists need a place to present their work.
Social platforms, like Instagram and Dribbble, are great if you want to share your work with the wider community and build a following. However, these platforms limit what you can do with your following and often involve algorithms that limit your ability to reach your fans.
Growing your social following can be beneficial, but you need a place you can call home – a place you own, control, and don’t have to worry about fading out of popularity. This is why the portfolio is one of the most common types of websites artists create.
WordPress offers a wide selection of free and premium themes that will help you create a portfolio. WordPress has a built-in image gallery, which makes it easy to upload, edit, and add images to your website with ease.2.
2. Store
If you want to start an online store, you can do it for free with WordPress.
While Shopify and Squarespace offer their own unique dashboards and features, they come with a price – a price you pay month-after-month. Squarespace keeps things pretty simple, but it doesn’t offer the same expandable functionality as WordPress. Shopify does offer expandable functionality through its library of free and premium apps, but it’s just too damn expensive in my opinion – premium apps often charge a monthly fee instead of a one-time fee.
WordPress gives you everything you need to get started for free.
Select from thousands of free e-commerce themes for WordPress and install the WooCommerce plugin to get started. WooCommerce is owned by the same company behind WordPress, so you can expect regular updates, community support, and developer support if you need help.
3. Magazine
WordPress powers some of the most popular magazines online today, including Rolling Stone and Vogue. If you’re interested in starting your own magazine online and aim to expand your editorial team, WordPress has everything you need to do so.
With WordPress, you have thousands of free magazine themes at your fingertips. Whether you want to create a local magazine, sports magazine, or fashion magazine, you will find free themes specifically designed around those topics.
As a content management system, WordPress offers the functionality you need to manage your content calendar and the team behind it. When I was working for the FUEL Brand Network, writers and editors had different levels of access to the website. The team of writers could create and submit new content, but only the editor could publish it.
Install the Editorial Calendar plugin for free to see a birds-eye-view of your month and schedule content accordingly.
4. Membership Site
The idea of requiring membership online has been around since the beginning. Just about every service you used online, from web portals to email, required you to sign up. Because these models attracted the masses, they monetized their service with advertising.
A membership site usually offers a foundation of free content designed to attract people to the site and give them a taste of what’s available within the membership area of the website. In order to gain access to the membership area, visitors need to join. In some cases, a membership site might require your email address while others require your email address and a monthly fee.
With WordPress, you can create a membership area on your website, where people can access members-only content, engage with other members, and update the personal information behind their member profile.
5. Online Education Website
If you’re interested in creating a website that offers courses, you can do it with WordPress. Similar to the membership site model, an academy website will require people to join in order to access the courses you offer. However, this type of website will keep track of your members’ progress as they work their way through your courses.
Whether you’re interested in creating a free or paid academy website, you can use a variety of WordPress themes and plugins to accomplish this.
6. Forums
Want to create a forum on your website, where people can create topics, post comments, and connect with each other on your website?
With the bbPress plugin by WordPress, you can.
Forums can be a great place to connect with like-minded people. If you have a website and want to encourage your visitors to sign up and discuss topics together, a forum might be a great place to do so. While much of the discussion has moved to social platforms, like Facebook and LinkedIn, there’s always room to host the discussion on your own website. This keeps people on your website and encourages people to keep visiting.
In most cases, this type of website will often include other areas of the website that keep people coming back.
7. Job Boards
A job board is a type of website or area of a website that presents a list of jobs available at any given time. Unlike a forum, this type of website is about listing jobs and allowing people to respond privately as opposed to publicly.
While Craiglist dominates this area of the web, there are still opportunities to create and host your own job board. For example, if you run a local website, you could create a local job board to help your local community find or post jobs in the area. If you run a website that focuses on a specific niche that involves professionals, you could create a job board focused on helping your website visitors find those professionals.
WordPress allows you to add this functionality to your website with ease. If you have a large readership, you could also create a profitable job board that requires a fee in order to post.
8. Local Directory
If you’re interested in starting a local directory of some sort, you may be surprised to learn you can do it with WordPress.
Over the years, designers and developers have worked together to create some of the most stunning WordPress themes and functionality available. Today, you can create a directory that allows people to register, add their own information, manage their listing, and even advertise.
These types of websites require a lot of work and attention, but you can do it. Once you’re up and running, you can allow your customers to upgrade their listings to unlock additional functionality, upload images, attract reviews, and even enable advertising for a monthly fee. The system will handle the rest.
If this sounds like something you want to explore, take a look at ListingPro or Listify.
9. Social Network
Want to start your own social network?
Check out the BuddyPress plugin for WordPress to get started. This plugin will allow visitors to register on your website, create user profiles, and have private conversations.
For this type of website, I recommend checking out a premium theme that supports BuddyPress. There are some free themes out there, but it always feels like the social aspects of the theme aren’t quite native from a design standpoint. Premium themes on the other hand feel more native and seamless.
Whether you want to start your own social network from scratch or add a layer of social functionality to your existing website, you can do it with WordPress.
10. Platform
This is the most difficult type of website to create in my experience. It’s a powerful feature that allows you to run multiple websites from one dashboard and requires a bit of technical configuration to get it up and running.
I dabbled with this years ago with the goal of allowing my users to create their own store within my website. The big idea behind my personal experience was to create a platform that would help my users achieve their goals with their business. I’m not a developer but I was able to do it. If this is something you’re interested in trying DIY, I highly recommend joining wpmudev – they offer a ton of awesome themes, plugins, and community support.
Creating a multisite website will allow you to create a platform, where your users can create and customize their own website as a sub-domain of your website (example.yoursite.com). If you’re looking to compete with other platforms in your niche, you can make it free – prepare to scale your system though. If you’re looking to create a profitable platform, you can charge a monthly fee. Or, you could do both by limiting the features of the free option.
Conclusion
There are so many types of websites you can create with WordPress.
Whether you want to create a home for your visual art or launch your own platform, you can do it with WordPress. There are other solutions out there, and they may be right for you, but WordPress is by far the most flexible and affordable solution out there.