WordPress
The world's most popular website platform with thousands of actor and portfolio themes
Overview
WordPress powers over 40 percent of the web and offers actors a flexible platform for building portfolio sites. The hosted version at WordPress.com provides a managed experience with free and paid tiers, while self-hosted WordPress.org offers total customization.
Getting started on WordPress.com is free, and you can choose from hundreds of portfolio and entertainment themes. The free plan includes a WordPress.com subdomain, while the $4 per month Personal plan lets you connect a custom domain and removes ads.
How It Works
WordPress excels at content-heavy sites, making it ideal for actors who want to blog about their journey, share behind-the-scenes content, or publish news about upcoming projects alongside their portfolio. The plugin ecosystem adds endless functionality.
The free plan works for a basic portfolio, and the $4 per month plan is one of the most affordable ways to get a custom domain on an actor website. Higher tiers unlock premium themes and advanced customization.
Who Uses It
WordPress is a strong choice for actors who want both a portfolio and a blog, or who plan to grow their site over time. Its flexibility means you will never outgrow the platform.
Pricing & Plans
WordPress.com's free plan includes a WordPress.com subdomain, 1 GB of storage, and basic customization with WordPress branding on your site. The Personal plan at $4 per month (billed annually) connects a custom domain and removes WordPress.com advertising. The Premium plan at $8 per month adds premium themes, advanced design tools, and monetization features. The Business plan at $25 per month unlocks plugins, SFTP access, and the full flexibility of the WordPress ecosystem. The self-hosted WordPress.org option requires separate hosting (typically $3-15 per month through providers like Bluehost or SiteGround) plus a domain purchase, but provides unlimited customization and plugin access. For most actors, the WordPress.com Personal plan at $4 per month is the most affordable way to get a professional website with a custom domain, making it the cheapest premium option in the website builder space by a significant margin.
Pros & Cons
What's Great
WordPress's unmatched flexibility means you will never outgrow the platform — whether you want a simple portfolio today and a full content empire tomorrow, WordPress can scale with your career without requiring a platform migration. The massive ecosystem of themes, plugins, and integrations means virtually any feature you can imagine is available, from booking calendars and email newsletter signups to e-commerce for selling merch and event management for acting workshops. WordPress's blogging capabilities are the strongest of any website platform, making it ideal for actors who want to publish regular content about their craft, share behind-the-scenes stories, or build an audience through written content alongside their portfolio. The self-hosted WordPress.org option provides complete ownership of your content and design, meaning you are not locked into any single company's ecosystem and can move your site to any hosting provider at any time. The $4 per month Personal plan on WordPress.com is the most affordable custom-domain website solution available from any major platform, providing genuine professional credibility at a cost lower than a single coffee per week. The platform's SEO capabilities are excellent, with plugins like Yoast SEO (available on Business plan and self-hosted) providing detailed guidance for optimizing your site's search visibility.
What Could Be Better
WordPress's flexibility is also its greatest challenge — the sheer number of themes, plugins, and customization options can be overwhelming for actors who just want a simple portfolio site without becoming a web developer in the process. The free and lower-tier plans on WordPress.com are limited in design customization compared to Wix and Squarespace, and the truly flexible WordPress experience requires the $25 per month Business plan or self-hosted installation. The self-hosted WordPress.org option, while powerful, requires managing your own hosting, updates, security, and backups, which is a technical burden that many actors do not want to deal with alongside their performance career. WordPress sites require more maintenance than Wix or Squarespace, as themes and plugins need regular updates, and neglected WordPress sites can develop security vulnerabilities, performance issues, or compatibility problems. The design quality of WordPress sites depends heavily on the theme chosen and the user's customization skill, and many self-built WordPress sites look dated or generic compared to Squarespace's consistently polished templates. The learning curve for WordPress is steeper than Wix or Squarespace, particularly for features like menu navigation, widget configuration, and plugin management that require understanding WordPress's underlying architecture.
Our Recommendation
WordPress is recommended for actors who want a flexible, content-rich website that can grow with their career, particularly those who plan to blog regularly, publish content, or eventually build a more complex web presence beyond a basic portfolio. The platform is ideal for tech-comfortable actors who enjoy customization and want control over every aspect of their site, or who have a friend or collaborator with WordPress experience who can help with setup. If you want the cheapest possible professional website, WordPress.com's $4 per month Personal plan is unbeatable for a custom-domain site from a major platform. Actors who prioritize design simplicity and want to build a polished site in an afternoon should choose Squarespace or Wix instead, as WordPress's learning curve is not worth the investment for a basic portfolio-only site. For actors planning to build a personal brand with regular content, an audience-building strategy, and eventually monetization through workshops or products, WordPress provides the foundation that will support that growth without platform limitations.
Pro Tips
Choose a clean, modern portfolio theme that is well-reviewed and regularly updated, as the theme is the single most important factor in your WordPress site's visual quality and performance. Install and configure a caching plugin and image optimization plugin early, as these dramatically improve your site's loading speed and ensure casting directors do not abandon your site due to slow performance. Set up a consistent backup system from day one so you never lose your site content, whether through your hosting provider's backup tools or a dedicated backup plugin. Keep your site focused on your portfolio essentials — headshots, resume, reel, and contact information — rather than getting distracted by the endless plugin options and features that WordPress makes available. If using the self-hosted version, set all plugins and themes to auto-update and schedule monthly security checks to keep your site running smoothly without requiring constant attention.
