WordPress is an open source program; for those that don’t know what open source means in layman’s terms, it’s FREE. Also, WordPress has a plenty of plugins and themes for free as well; that are easily customization to your requirements. There are also sites that offer customization plugins & themes for sale and for the most part are economical.
WordPress has evolved from just being Blog-wear to a powerful Contact Management System (CMS) that’s very sophisticated, extremely user friendly. It’s not perfect, like a double edge sword, it works both ways. If you don’t take proper precautions and updates, then your software is subjected to vulnerabilities. As long as you take the necessary security precautions by reducing risks and carry updated backups, you will have a very pleasant experience.
Also, some hosting companies offer cPanel access options to install these open source software easily!
If your requirements surpass the benefits of Shared Hosting, then perhaps it’s best you look into Virtual Private Servers (my personal choice) or Dedicated Servers, depending on your budget. You can also setup accounts with wordpress.com, blogger.com, etc. for free and utilize what options they provide.
Anyhow, you can do use Google and research the pros and cons.
Resources
Hardening WordPress: http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress
Awesome wordpress security plugin WP Security & Firewall