The basic requirements for WordPress differ depending on what WordPress platform would you like to use. So, let me explain it, you can use WordPress in two ways; creating a WordPress instance in http://wordpress.com or downloading the full WordPress software on http://wordpress.org.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a hosting service run by Automattic where you can create a subsite of WordPress, taking advantage of the WordPress Multisite functionality. Also, you can point your domain to your WordPress.com site. But, it comes with a price, for example, you can use only the themes, plugins and widgets allowed by Automattic, you will also have a bunch of preinstalled things that you can not remove. So, essentially you do not have access to a profound modification or customization of your WordPress site, unless you are a premium business user, who, according to WordPress on this article (WordPress.com Business), they will allow the use of third party plugins and themes for business premium users soon.
Consequently, in this version of WordPress, your requirements are a domain (it is not mandatory, you can use a subdomain of WordPress.com) and fulfill the WordPress.com form to create a website with them.
WordPress.org
In WordPress.org you can find the full Open Source Software of WordPress to download and install, this is the side of WordPress we will be working on because this course is intended for WordPress Developers and Designers.
To work with this version of WordPress, we will need more requirements. WordPress runs under PHP; for server side scripting language, and MySQL; for database management platforms, then, will need a server which supports:
- PHP (Versión 7 or higher).
- MySQL (5.6 or greater).
- URL Rewrite Capability; It is not required, but strongly recommended for a better URL friendly site.
- HTTPS; It is not mandatory but strongly recommended for secure communication between the server and your browser.
WordPress still gives support to PHP Version 5.2.4+ and MySQL Version 5.0, but because these versions have reached the official end of life support, they are considered a security vulnerability.
So, you have several options to get a Web Server with those capabilities, like DreamHost.com or BlueHost.com with WordPress pre-installed, or many others (You can Google: PHP and MySQL Hosting) which do not have a WordPress pre-installed instance but meets the basic requirements for a WordPress installation.
Or you can Download XAMPP (Across platform Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl) on your local machine to configure a local web server. This is the recommended option in our course because you can do anything locally, make changes to your code, even break your WordPress installation and keep your mind free of guilty =).
How to install and Setup XAMPP.