How to make a WordPress website step by step

WordPress.org or WordPress.com?

There are two things called WordPress. WordPress (often called WordPress.org or self-hosted WordPress) is free, open-source software you install on any web host. WordPress.com is a hosted service run by Automattic that launched in 2005.

The software is everywhere: W3Techs counts it on 39.5% of all websites and 58.3% of sites with a known CMS (October 29, 2026). The current version is 7.1.4, a security release from October 28, 2026; WordPress 7.1 came out on August 19, 2026.

WordPress.com plans, as of October 2026:

• Free: a yoursite.wordpress.com subdomain and 1 GB of storage, but no custom domain and no plugins.
• Personal: $4 a month billed annually, or $9 month to month. Plugins are allowed on every paid plan.
• Premium: $8 a month billed annually, or $18 month to month.

Annual and multi-year plans include a free custom domain for the first year; monthly plans don't. Want one bill and no server? A paid WordPress.com plan works. Want full control over hosting and cost? Go self-hosted, which is what the rest of this guide covers. Starting a blog specifically? See how to start a blog.

Step 1: Get a domain and hosting

Your domain is your address, and your host is the server that keeps your site online. Prices below were checked on October 29, 2026; intro prices change often.

A .com domain bought on its own:

• Cloudflare Registrar: $10.46 a year, same price to renew (via cfdomainpricing.com).
• Porkbun: $11.08 a year, same price to renew.
• Namecheap: $11.28 for the first year on sale, then $18.48 a year.

Entry shared hosting plans include a free domain, so you may not need to buy one separately:

• Hostinger Premium: $2.49 a month on a 48-month term ($119.52 paid upfront), renews at $10.99 a month, free domain for 1 year.
• SiteGround StartUp: $2.99 a month prepaid for 12 months, renews at $17.99 a month, free domain for a limited time.
• Bluehost Starter: $3.99 a month on a 36-month term, renews at $9.99 a month, free domain for the first year.

Note: Intro prices require paying for the whole term upfront, and renewals run about 2.5 to 6 times the intro monthly rate. Check the renewal price before you commit to a long term.

WordPress recommends a host with PHP 8.3 or greater, MySQL 8.0 or greater or MariaDB 10.11 or greater, and HTTPS support.

Step 2: Install WordPress

You don't need code for this. Many hosts include a WordPress installer in their dashboard, and WordPress says a manual install "takes less than five minutes to complete" under most circumstances.

Run the installer, choose an admin username and a strong password, and log in. WordPress creates a sample "Hello world!" post, a "Sample Page" and a draft "Privacy Policy" page during the install; you'll clean those up in Step 6.

Step 3: Pick a block theme

Your theme controls how the site looks. New installs use Twenty Twenty-Five, the default block theme since WordPress 6.7, with 1+ million active installs.

Keep it or browse the official directory's 8,745 themes. Pick a block theme: the Site Editor, where you edit templates, headers, footers, colors and fonts in one place, is only available with a block theme. Open it under Appearance > Editor.

Step 4: Change the essential settings

• General: in Settings > General, set your site title, tagline and timezone. A US English install starts at UTC+0, so choose a city in your timezone.
• Permalinks: in Settings > Permalinks, choose "Post name" for URLs like example.com/sample-post/. New installs try a day-and-name structure such as /2026/10/29/sample-post/ and fall back to "Plain" (?p=123) if the server can't handle pretty links.
• Reading: "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" must be unchecked when you launch. It's off by default, and it's up to search engines to honor it.
• Discussion: comments are on for new posts, replies nest 5 levels deep, and a comment with 2 or more links is held for moderation. Every option is explained in WordPress comment settings.

Step 5: Add a few essential plugins

The official directory lists 73,252 plugins, but you only need a few to start. More ideas are in our list of the best WordPress plugins.

• Comments and spam: CommentCamp adds free comments and community spaces to your posts, with spam filtering and a moderation queue built in, so you won't need an anti-spam plugin. With native comments, use Akismet Anti-spam (5+ million), which needs an API key and is pay what you want for non-commercial sites or $9.95 a month billed yearly on Pro, or the free Antispam Bee (700,000+).
• Backups: UpdraftPlus (4+ million active installs, 4.8 out of 5 stars).
• Security: Wordfence Security (5+ million active installs).
• SEO: Yoast SEO (10+ million) or Rank Math SEO (4+ million). Pick one, not both.

CommentCamp is $0 for site owners, forever, with no ads, and adds optional Q&A, reactions, member levels and quests when you want a community around your posts. It launches with an official WordPress plugin and is in private early access, so join the waitlist to get an invite. Native WordPress comments also work out of the box.

Step 6: Create your core pages

Delete the "Sample Page" under Pages and the "Hello world!" post under Posts. Then create Home, About and Contact pages, plus a Blog page if your home page is static.

Open the draft "Privacy Policy" page WordPress made for you, adapt it to your site and publish it.

Tip: Want to build in private first? Check "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" under Settings > Reading while you set up, then uncheck it before you share the link.

Launch checklist: time and cost

Before you share the link, check that:

• the sample post and page are deleted
• permalinks are set to "Post name"
• site title, tagline and timezone are set
• "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unchecked
• the Privacy Policy, Home, About and Contact pages are published