Yes, WordPress developers are in high demand. WordPress developers are in high demand because WordPress holds the title of the world’s most popular CMS (content management system).
According to W3Techs (Web Technology Surveys), WordPress is used by over 43% of all websites worldwide and makes up over 63% of websites whose content management systems are known.
Is WordPress popular?
WordPress’s popularity makes it a good choice for companies that only require basic websites (this being the majority of websites in the world). This means that there is a lot of work for WordPress developers of all skill levels. Of course, WordPress can be used to develop complex websites. I’m just highlighting that most websites are basic and don’t require a lot of complicated functionality.
WordPress makes building blogs, e-commerce sites or business websites super easy. A good knowledge of computers and the internet would be enough to start anyone building a WordPress site.
Where do I find WordPress documentation?
Many resources are available for developers looking to work in the WordPress ecosystem. For example, between StackOverflow and the documentation on the wordpress.org website, a new WordPress developer could come up to speed (at least to build one of the basic websites) fairly quickly.
Is WordPress open-source?
WordPress is open-source and is frequently being worked on and updated due to the large number of maintainers in the community. These updates mean that incorporating other new technologies or platforms (think Facebook or TikTok integration) will be addressed in a timely manner.
Being open-source also allows developers to tweak the platform, as nothing is hidden away from the developer in some API or library file. Any developer can see all the WordPress functions and manipulate them to their liking.
What kind of roles do WordPress developers work in?
When looking at job opportunities for WordPress developers, you will often hear about freelance opportunities. In my experience, there have always been many roles open to freelancing WordPress developers, more so than freelancing developers of other frameworks. Adding to this are the short contract roles and agency work available to WordPress developers.
This is different from standard software engineers/developers in most engineer roles. You would find the engineer working across multiple technologies (sometimes not even in the same tech stack).
For example, my role requires me to work in front-end and back-end technologies. I work in multiple languages and frameworks in both the front and back ends. A WordPress developer wouldn’t need to venture much past PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
Conclusion
While the job market for software developers and engineers is currently strong, the WordPress developer job market has been constantly strong for years. Every business needs a website, and with so many new businesses starting each year, work is always available for freelancers and short-term contracts. WordPress is a good choice for anybody looking to start their career or even switch from another programming discipline.