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Is building a website in PHP possible without coding?
Actually, it is possible to build a website in PHP without coding. In fact, you could build most websites nowadays without having to write a single line of code yourself. How?
By using a CMS which stands for “Content Management System”. But if you would like to build a website PHP without coding, the best CMS to use is called WordPress.
WordPress is built with PHP. However, most things that you will need out of a website like the theme, i.e. the structure, styling options as well as implementing various functions, will also not require you to a single line of code in PHP or any other coding language including HTML and CSS.
How is this possible?
Because with WordPress, all these are already built for you in PHP as well as other languages, which you don’t need to know, but are also parts of many functions on your WordPress website like JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
In this post, I’m going to show you how you can build a fully functional and great looking website in PHP without coding, so by the end of this post it may take you simply a matter of a few hours before you too, can have your own website live on the internet.
How do I build a site in PHP without coding?
- Domain name: Buy it through Namecheap and get the Whois privacy option on it. Whois privacy protection comes free by the way with Namecheap.
- Hosting: SiteGround, Hostgator, Bluehost, Kinsta, A2 Hosting, Hostinger, GreenGeeks. Offshore Hosting checkout Orangewebsite.com
- PHP Web Platform for your CMS (i.e. WordPress): Get the one click install from your host and install WordPress.
- Find an appropriate responsive WordPress theme. I like: GeneratePress, Astra and WP Ocean, but there are tons of WordPress themes you can get on Themeforest.net as well.
- Install and configure some free plugins to get you started, like: Wordfence, UpDraftPlus, Akismet, Google Site Kit, Broken Link Checker, Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin. Just browse the plugins section on your WordPress Dashboard using the Search Bar typing in any keywords for possible functions you may need. Try out a few. If you don’t like any of them simply deactivate and delete.
- You can also buy any other plugins you may need here: CodeCanyon.net.
The above should be more than enough to get your website built and launched live on the internet. However, if you feel you need more, read on. For example:
Need something a little more customized and dynamic?
You have a few more options. I will go from least expensive to most expensive. Just know that most things you want to do more than likely already have a plugin or theme designed for them for WordPress.
There are, though, a lot of exceptions, which is why you might want to look at the following options:
On the least expensive side:
Hire someone to develop a WordPress plugin to do any extra functional stuff, which is cheaper than hiring someone to build a WordPress theme that includes the functionality you need.
Hire someone to design and develop a totally new and customized site from the ground up, which is the most expensive option.
WordPress allows you to manage a ton of the pages, posts and other various aspects of a website. If a developer really needs to, they can modify the core parts of WordPress as well.
WordPress has the largest coding library and more resources than any other CMS in the world. So rarely will you ever need someone to build you a brand new website in WordPress from the ground up, which is another reason why WordPress is so popular.
However, if you do need some customizations, you can find WordPress developers on: Upwork.com (freelancers), Glowtouch.com as well as Stackexchange.com, Stackoverflow.com, Github.com and even on some of the forums on WordPress.org, Facebook groups, etc.
Things to remember when building a site with WordPress
Use responsive website themes, like the themes I’ve listed above.
Also make sure that your plugins are responsive as well so that it can fit any screen size, including tablets and cellphones.
Although nowadays, these are practically a given, except for older themes and plugins which is why you should still check.
You should also note that not all themes and plugins “play nice” together.
Sometimes there are conflicts, especially when themes or plugins aren’t updated or when the developer stops supporting it. In fact, 90% of any issues you may come across in WordPress can be down to conflict.
However, these can also be the easiest to troubleshoot and fix on your own.
Again without any coding on your part. Here’s a post you should check out on troubleshooting your WordPress site, “Why is my WordPress site slow after an update? FAQs.”
Why is WordPress a better software to create a website without coding than Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, etc.?
WordPress looks all fine and dandy when building a website in PHP without any coding, but aren’t there other CMSs and platforms that are even easier to not only build a website, but to get it live on the internet as well without WordPress?
Why should I use WordPress when I can easily sign up for a Wix account, Squarespace or even get a Shopify ecommerce store which usually includes a blog along with it should I choose to have one?
At first glance, those other CMSs and platforms look great. I’ve seen some great looking websites built from all of those platforms myself.
In addition, I must admit that for an absolute beginner, it’s much easier to build a website straight out of the box from one of those other platforms than WordPress.
However, if this is the case then why does WordPress power more websites on the internet today than any other CMS or platform?
In fact, WordPress powers about 40% of all websites on the internet today.
What separates WordPress from those other CMSs in platforms is simple. WordPress is open source, whereas all those other platforms and CMSs are closed source. But what does this mean?
Simply put, if you open up an account on one of those other platforms, you not only have to use their themes as well as functionalities, but you are also stuck with their hosting, support and service.
WordPress is open source. This means that if you buy a theme or even get one of the more than 50,000 free themes available on WordPress.org, that theme is yours.
Once you buy it or download it, you can do whatever you want with it. You can customize it and in many cases, you can even sell that customized theme.
Furthermore, your website including your themes, customizations and anything else that you have done to it is yours to keep and take with you wherever you want to go.
So for example, if you are hosting your website WordPress.com or even a self-hosted, web hosting provider and don’t like their service, prices and/or support, you can simply move your website and migrate it to another web hosting provider.
In fact, as your website grows this is exactly what you may want to do down the road. Because you see, where your website is hosted is just as important as what CMS and platform you are using.
Many hosts offer not only cheap Shared Hosting options, great for when you’re just getting started, but VPS, Cloud Hosting, Managed WordPress Hosting as well.
You can even get yourself your own Dedicated Server.
With those other platforms you are stuck. All the code that your website contains is proprietary.
This means you can’t just pick up and take everything with you and move to a different web host, if for example, you find your website crashing, customer service not responding or any other issues.
You’re basically stuck within those closed platform’s ecosystems. That theme that you’ve worked on so hard to make it just right, that’s not yours, it’s theirs.
This is one of the main reasons why WordPress is the most popular CMS on the internet today and will be so for some time to come.
Building a website in PHP without coding, conclusions.
PHP has gotten a lot of flak from a lot of programmers and coding purists over the years.
Some of this criticism is justified, but as time passes and other programming languages fall in and out of favor, many are coming to realize that although PHP, the language itself, might be a bit wonky and old school, but PHP is as far from being a dead language.
Many are actually coming around to appreciate it for what it is.
In fact, PHP has grown and evolved just like every other programming language, even to the point where it has created its own popular framework, like Laravel for example.
However, the fact of the matter is that PHP, because of WordPress, is one of the most popular coding languages used in the world to this day.
Though, PHP like WordPress doesn’t just rest on its laurels.
WordPress and PHP evolve, which is what you want in any technology whether that’s software or hardware.
One of the beauties of PHP is that it has one of the largest libraries of code in the world. You can build almost anything on PHP.
Actually, did you know that Facebook itself was developed on PHP and ran on PHP for several years and in many cases still uses it?
But don’t worry, you too can build a site with PHP without writing a single piece of code yourself by simply using WordPress.
You never know, you may have a knack for creating and building WordPress websites, that you may want to take your skills to the next level and learn PHP yourself.
