WordPress Academy: Learn WordPress step by step
Chris Dixon · Web Developer & Online Teacher
A beginner walks away having built four real WordPress sites, including a working WooCommerce store, without touching a line of code until they choose to.
WordPress Academy takes the well-worn "learn WordPress by building things" format and executes it thoroughly rather than cleverly. Chris Dixon runs four separate projects back to back: a music festival landing page, a full blog, a WooCommerce t-shirt store, and a theme conversion from static HTML into a working WordPress template. Each one adds a layer of difficulty, so a student who sticks with all four ends the course able to do meaningfully more than someone who only ever installed a theme and filled in some pages.
Structure and pacing
The course opens sensibly, spending real time on WordPress.org versus WordPress.com and on local development options (Local by Flywheel is the recommended path, MAMP the alternative) before any building starts. That grounding matters, since a beginner who does not understand why WordPress needs a server at all will be lost the moment PHP appears later. The tradeoff is pace. Early lessons narrate every click, down to naming a local site "Festival" and typing in an admin password, which is useful for a first-timer but drags for anyone revisiting a step they already understand.
The blog project is where the course does its best teaching. It walks through the customizer in real detail: background colors and textures, scrollable versus fixed background images, randomized header images, and the difference between the default dropdown menu and a responsive top-right menu. Plugin usage is treated as a first-class skill rather than an afterthought, with MetaSlider for image carousels and Homepage Control for rearranging WooCommerce sections both demonstrated with their actual settings screens, not just a name-drop.
Where it gets ambitious, and where it thins out
The WooCommerce section is the most substantial stretch, covering variable products with size options, per-variation pricing, shipping classes, and a homepage rebuilt from a default blog layout into a proper storefront using WooCommerce content blocks and a homepage template. Building a working three-size, three-price t-shirt listing is a genuinely useful exercise that goes beyond most beginner WordPress courses, which tend to stop at a single static product.
The theme conversion project is the most technically interesting piece, since it forces a student to understand that a theme is just files WordPress calls in a specific order. Dragging over CSS and image folders, then wiring them in through wp_enqueue_scripts rather than hardcoding a stylesheet link, is exactly the kind of detail that separates "I installed a theme" from "I understand what a theme is." That said, the PHP section stays close to copy-and-paste territory. Anyone hoping for a deep dive into WordPress template hierarchy, custom post types, or the loop will find the coverage functional but shallow.
The closing bonus lectures round out the practical side well: exporting a localhost project to live hosting with All-in-One WP Migration, resetting a database back to a fresh install, and creating child themes both manually and via a plugin. These are the kind of unglamorous tasks that trip up beginners in real projects, and including them shows the course was built by someone who has actually shipped client sites, not just tutorials.
Overall, this is a solid, unhurried route into WordPress for someone starting from nothing, let down only by a slow opening and a PHP section that teaches just enough to get the theme project working rather than to build independent development skill.
The standout
Converting a plain HTML and CSS website into a real WordPress theme by splitting it into header.php and footer.php and wiring them together with get_header() and get_footer(), which demystifies what a theme actually is far better than starting from a pre-built one.
What you will learn
- Install a local WordPress server with Local by Flywheel (or MAMP) and manage the WordPress dashboard
- Build a landing page with the Gutenberg editor, widgets, and the media library
- Set up a blog with imported sample content, custom menus, sliders, and a customized header and background
- Build a working WooCommerce store with variable products, sizes, categories, and a custom homepage layout
- Convert a static HTML/CSS site into a functioning WordPress theme using PHP template tags and enqueued styles
- Migrate a finished project from a local server to live hosting using All-in-One WP Migration
Best for: A true beginner who wants a structured, project-based route from zero to a working WordPress site, blog, and store, and is willing to sit through slower narrated setup steps to get there.
Skip it if: Anyone who already knows WordPress basics and just wants advanced theme development or plugin coding, since the PHP section stays introductory and the pace throughout is deliberately slow.