Who Really Owns WordPress? Tracing the History of the Web‘s Most Popular CMS

If you‘re one of the millions of site owners who use WordPress, you might have wondered at some point: who actually owns this thing? Is it really free? How does WordPress make money? And what does that mean for my control over my own site?

These are important questions to understand, especially if you‘re trusting WordPress to power your online presence. Let‘s dive in and trace WordPress‘s history, structure, and business model to get some answers.

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

First off, let‘s clear up a common point of confusion. When we talk about "WordPress", we might be referring to one of two different things:

1. WordPress.org, the free open source software that you can install on your own web hosting to create a site.
2. WordPress.com, the for-profit website building service offered by the company Automattic.

While both are powered by the same underlying WordPress software, there are key differences:

This distinction matters a lot when we‘re talking about ownership. The WordPress open source project is a non-profit, community-driven effort. But WordPress.com is a for-profit service owned by a private company, Automattic.

Confusing, right? Don‘t worry – by the end of this post, you‘ll have a much clearer picture of the WordPress ecosystem. Let‘s start by looking at the open source side of things.

WordPress.org and the WordPress Foundation

The core WordPress software – the free, open source publishing platform available at WordPress.org – is owned by the non-profit WordPress Foundation.

The WordPress Foundation was founded in 2010 by Matt Mullenweg, the co-creator of WordPress. Its mission is to ensure that WordPress remains free, open, and accessible to all, forever. As the Foundation states:

"The point of the foundation is to ensure free access, in perpetuity, to the software projects we support. People and businesses may come and go, so it is important to ensure that the source code for these projects will survive beyond the current contributor base."

In practice, this means that the WordPress Foundation owns the WordPress trademark and wordmark. It‘s responsible for protecting the WordPress brand and ensuring it remains in the public trust.

However, the Foundation doesn‘t actually own or control the WordPress software itself. No one entity does.

Instead, WordPress is developed by a massive global community of volunteers. Some of these are hobbyists and enthusiasts, while others work for companies that use or provide services around WordPress. It‘s a collaborative, decentralized effort – much like Wikipedia or Linux.

This open source model is the key to WordPress‘s success. By tapping into a huge community of passionate contributors, WordPress is able to innovate and improve at a rapid pace, without being beholden to any one company‘s agenda.

As of 2023, WordPress powers over 43% of all websites, making it by far the most popular CMS on the planet. And it shows no signs of slowing down.

Data from W3Techs

That‘s an incredible trajectory for a free open source project. But how exactly does WordPress sustain itself? Who pays for all the servers, developers, designers, and marketers needed to power such a massive operation?

The Business of Open Source

This is where things get really interesting. While WordPress itself is free, it generates huge business opportunities for companies that provide tools, services, and enhancements for it.

The WordPress ecosystem is massive, diverse, and highly profitable. Let‘s break down some of the key players and business models:

• Web hosts – Companies like Bluehost, SiteGround, and WP Engine make money by offering specialized WordPress hosting. In exchange for a monthly fee, they take care of the technical dirty work of running WordPress for you.

• Theme and plugin developers – With over 60,000 free plugins and 10,000 free themes listed in the official directories, third-party extensions are a huge part of the WordPress ecosystem. But there are also thousands of premium plugins and themes sold by everyone from solo developers to huge firms. Leading companies in this space include Automattic (makers of WooCommerce), Yoast, Elementor, and many more.

• WordPress agencies and freelancers – The huge popularity of WordPress has created a cottage industry of professionals who specialize in developing, designing, and supporting WordPress sites. Top WordPress agencies pull in tens of millions in annual revenue.

• WordPress product businesses – A newer trend is WordPress-focused SaaS tools, like visual page builders, form builders, and other enhancements. Companies like Gravity Forms and Beaver Builder operate almost like mini-Automattics, often adopting a freemium model with free or inexpensive base plans and premium add-ons.

So while WordPress itself doesn‘t make anyone rich, it enables a huge ecosystem of businesses to thrive. And that keeps the flywheel spinning.

Many of these businesses contribute back to the open source project, either by sponsoring WordPress events and initiatives or by having their employees work on WordPress core, themes, plugins, and documentation.

In fact, the majority of people who work full-time on WordPress are employed by commercial entities, not the WordPress Foundation itself.

For example, as of 2023, Automattic employs over 2,000 people, many of whom contribute to WordPress in some form. Other major contributors come from companies like Google, Yoast, WP Engine, Pantheon, GoDaddy, and more.

This model – free software, powered by an ecosystem of for-profit businesses – has been wildly successful for WordPress. In 2021, WordPress‘s global economic impact was estimated to be over $10 billion/year. Not bad for a project with such humble origins!

The Role of Automattic and WordPress.com

We‘ve focused a lot so far on WordPress.org and the open source project. But we can‘t tell the full story of WordPress without also talking about Automattic and WordPress.com.

Automattic is the most important commercial entity in the WordPress ecosystem. Its holdings include:

• WordPress.com, the popular website-building service
• WooCommerce, the leading e-commerce plugin for WordPress
• Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website
• Jetpack, a plugin that supercharges your self-hosted WordPress site
• And many other WordPress-centric products and services

Automattic was founded in 2005 by Matt Mullenweg, the co-creator of WordPress. And while it‘s a for-profit, privately-held company, it‘s inextricably linked to the open source WordPress project in several key ways:

1. Automattic is the largest single contributor to WordPress core development. In 2022, around 37% of all core contributions came from Automattic employees.

2. Matt Mullenweg serves as both the CEO of Automattic and the de facto leader of the WordPress open source project. While these are separate roles, his leadership is key to both.

3. Automattic has historically donated the WordPress trademark to the WordPress Foundation, ensuring it remains in the public trust.

4. Automattic sponsors and organizes many key WordPress community events, like WordCamps and the annual State of the Word address.

So while Automattic doesn‘t own the WordPress open source project, it‘s undoubtedly the 800-pound gorilla in the WordPress world.

This has occasionally led to tensions and concerns about conflicts of interest. But it‘s also a big part of what has enabled WordPress to thrive. Without Automattic‘s investment and leadership, WordPress might have remained a niche blogging tool rather than the world‘s most popular CMS.

As a side note, Automattic has been a pioneer of the fully-remote work model since long before it was cool. The company‘s 2,000+ employees are scattered across 90+ countries, with no physical headquarters. Pretty amazing for a company valued at over $7 billion as of 2021!

What Does This All Mean for You?

Alright, that‘s a lot of history and backstory. But what does WordPress‘s unique model mean for you as a site owner? A few key things to keep in mind:

1. You own your own content. With WordPress, you have full control and ownership over everything you publish on your site. There‘s no risk of a centralized company like Squarespace or Wix suddenly deciding to take your site down or hike your rates.

2. You can customize to your heart‘s content. Want to tweak your theme, add new functionality with plugins, or dig into your site‘s underlying code? With WordPress‘s open architecture, the sky‘s the limit.

3. You‘re joining a massive, vibrant community. WordPress‘s contributor base is huge and passionate. Whether you need advice on growing your traffic or troubleshooting a technical issue, you‘ll find no shortage of resources and support. The official support forums alone have over 2 million members!

4. You‘re betting on a sustainable, enduring platform. Given WordPress‘s dominance and the robust community and ecosystem around it, you can feel confident that it will be around and well-supported for the long haul.

At the same time, there are a few potential downsides to keep in mind:

1. Maintenance and security are on you. Unlike a hosted website builder, WordPress itself doesn‘t automatically handle your software updates, backups, or security monitoring. You‘ll either need to take care of that yourself or pay a managed hosting provider to do it for you.

2. Automattic‘s dominance cuts both ways. While Automattic‘s leadership and investment in WordPress are largely a good thing, it does mean that a single for-profit entity wields outsized influence over the project. Some worry that as Automattic goes, so goes WordPress.

3. The decentralized model can feel chaotic. While WordPress‘s huge ecosystem of plugins, themes, and service providers is an asset, it can also feel overwhelming, especially for new users. Vetting third-party extensions and providers to find high-quality, trustworthy options takes some effort.

Overall though, WordPress‘s open, community-driven model has been a huge win for the democratization of publishing. It‘s put the power of a world-class CMS in the hands of millions of site owners who could never have afforded it otherwise.

So while there are tradeoffs to using an open source platform, we believe the benefits vastly outweigh the drawbacks for most users. And given WordPress‘s remarkable growth and the robust ecosystem supporting it, the project‘s future looks bright indeed.

The Future of WordPress

As we‘ve seen, WordPress has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a simple blogging tool. Today, it powers everything from small personal blogs to massive publications and e-commerce sites.

But the web never stands still, and WordPress will need to keep evolving to stay on top. So what does the future hold for the world‘s most popular CMS? Here are a few key trends and challenges to watch:

The Gutenberg Revolution

In recent years, WordPress has been going through a major transformation with the introduction of the Gutenberg block editor.

Gutenberg brings a whole new level of flexibility and visual editing power to WordPress. But it‘s also a major shift from how WordPress has traditionally worked, and the transition hasn‘t always been smooth.

Getting Gutenberg right – and bringing the entire ecosystem of plugins and themes along for the ride – will be key to WordPress‘s continued success in the years to come.

The Rise of Headless WordPress

Another major trend is the use of WordPress as a "headless" CMS. In this setup, WordPress serves as the backend content repository, but the frontend of the site is handled by a separate framework or static site generator.

This allows developers to combine the rich content management features of WordPress with the performance and flexibility benefits of modern JAMstack architectures.

As the web development world increasingly embraces API-driven, decoupled architectures, expect to see WordPress‘s role as a pure backend CMS keep growing.

Increased Competition and Consolidation

As WordPress has grown, so has the ecosystem of businesses around it. But that‘s also attracted increased competition, both from other open source projects like Drupal and from venture-funded startups building proprietary WordPress alternatives.

At the same time, the WordPress business world itself is consolidating. In recent years, major hosting companies like WP Engine and GoDaddy have gone on plugin and theme buying sprees, seeking to become one-stop shops for all things WordPress.

How will WordPress navigate this changing landscape? Can it keep innovating fast enough to stay ahead of the competition? Will consolidation be a net positive or negative for the community in the long run? We‘ll have to wait and see.

The Ongoing Challenge of Security

Finally, security remains an evergreen challenge for a platform as popular as WordPress. The reality is that any software used by millions of people will be an attractive target for hackers and malicious actors.

While the WordPress core team has made great strides in hardening the software in recent years, the decentralized plugin ecosystem remains a frequent vector for attacks.

Continuing to evolve WordPress‘s security model and tools while still preserving the openness and flexibility that make it so powerful – that‘s the key challenge for the decade ahead.

The Moral of the Story

So what‘s the moral of the WordPress story? For us, it‘s this:

Open source and business can be powerful allies in building a more open, accessible, and democratized web.

WordPress is living proof that a free, community-driven software project can become an enduring platform used by millions – and generate immense economic value in the process.

It‘s not always a smooth or straightforward path. Balancing the needs of a community with the interests of for-profit businesses is an ongoing challenge.

But in a world where so much of our digital infrastructure is controlled by a handful of massive tech giants, WordPress offers a compelling alternative vision. One where ordinary people and small businesses have real ownership and control over their little corner of the internet.

As Matt Mullenweg put it in the first ever State of the Word address back in 2008:

"It‘s a story of how open source is not just about the code, but the community around it. How the freedoms of open source, the ability to fork, to edit, to change, to share, are essential to keep that community growing and thriving."

That‘s the real magic of WordPress. Not the code itself, but the global community of contributors, extenders, and users who have adopted it and made it their own.

From bloggers telling their stories to startups launching their first products to the open web itself – WordPress wouldn‘t be WordPress without the individuals and businesses who use it every day.

So here‘s to the next 20 years of WordPress, and to everyone who makes it possible. The future of the open web is bright indeed.