With over 15 years of experience using WordPress, I‘ve seen firsthand how it has evolved from a simple blogging platform into the world‘s most popular website builder. There‘s often confusion around who owns WordPress, so let‘s clear that up.
I‘ll also share my perspective on how the open source WordPress project sustains itself, and what ownership of your content looks like if you use WordPress.com vs going the WordPress.org route.
Contents
The Rise of WordPress from Humble Beginnings
It‘s incredible to think WordPress now powers over 40% of all websites, considering it started out in 2003 as just a basic open source blogging tool.
Back then, it was called b2 or "Blues" and was focused mostly on making blogging easy. But the potential was clear early on.
Here‘s a quick timeline of major milestones in WordPress‘ history:
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2003 – First version 1.0 launched
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2004 – WordPress name adopted
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2005 – WordPress.com launched by co-founder Matt Mullenweg
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2006 – First major 1.5 "Strayhorn" release adds themes, UI improvements
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2010 – WordPress 3.0 "Thelonious" offers first true CMS features
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2013 – WordPress crosses 50M downloads and powers 20% of websites
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2018 – WordPress 5.0 "Bebo" Gutenberg editor launched
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2022 – 150M downloads, powers over 40% of all sites
Looking at these milestones, you can see how WordPress evolved from humble beginnings as a basic blogging app into a full-fledged CMS over time.
The statistics showing such massive growth and adoption speak to the power of WordPress‘ open source model.
Because the code is open to anyone to modify and extend, thousands of developers have been able to create powerful plugins, themes, and customizations that might never have emerged otherwise.
Over my 15+ years using WordPress, I‘ve definitely experienced the benefits of this approach firsthand. Any issue I or my clients faced could quickly be solved by extending WordPress‘ functionality with the right plugin or code tweak.
The open ecosystem has allowed WordPress to keep up with demands and grow far beyond what the core contributors alone could have accomplished.
The Commercial Ecosystem Around WordPress
So what does this commercial ecosystem around WordPress look like today?
While estimates vary, the global WordPress economy is likely worth $20-40+ billion dollars today. Some key elements include:
- Hosting – WordPress-specific hosts like WP Engine, Bluehost, SiteGround
- Plugins and themes – developers selling thousands of commercial extensions
- Services – designers, developers, agencies building WordPress sites
- Conferences – massive events like WordCamp that drive the community
To put this in perspective, analysts predict the WordPress hosting market alone could grow to over $15 billion by 2025.
Top commercial plugin developers like Elementor and Yoast SEO now have huge teams supporting their products used on millions of sites.
The commercial ecosystem has certainly come a long way since those early days!
WordPress.org – Owned By The Open Source Community
Now that you understand WordPress‘ origins and growth, let‘s get into who owns what starting with WordPress.org.
As an open source project, no single entity "owns" WordPress. It‘s licensed under the GPL, giving users the freedom to use and modify the software however they see fit.
Thousands of contributors have developed the core software and plugins you use on WordPress.org. It‘s truly owned by the community, not any individual or company.
The WordPress Foundation does own the WordPress name and trademark. But this non-profit entity exists only to protect the perpetuity of free, open-source WordPress.
So if you run a self-hosted WordPress site through WordPress.org, you have full ownership and control.
After 15 years of managing sites this way, I can tell you it‘s empowering to retain that flexibility. You‘re not limited by someone else‘s rules or technical restrictions.
With open-source WordPress, you can fully customize and tweak every aspect of your site to make it your own. The only real limit is your imagination!
WordPress.com – Owned By Automattic
In contrast to the open source WordPress.org, the WordPress.com platform is owned by Automattic – the company founded by Matt Mullenweg.
Automattic operates WordPress.com and makes money by selling you upgrades beyond the free, ad-supported base sites.
While this commercial model has clearly worked well for them, it does mean you need to abide by their Terms of Service when using WordPress.com.
You don‘t have the same full control over your site and content. Automattic ultimately has the right to suspend or shutdown your site at any time if they want.
Over the years managing both WordPress.org and WordPress.com sites, I‘ve seen clients run into issues with support and heavy-handed moderation on WordPress.com. There are some real limitations around customization and control.
However, the simplicity and ease of use of WordPress.com does appeal to many. You don‘t need to worry about technical configuration, security, updates, hosting, and so on.
So neither one is necessarily "better" – it comes down to your specific needs and how much control matters to you. Both certainly have their place.
Wrapping Up
I hope visualizing WordPress‘ amazing journey for the past 15+ years gives you a better understanding of how it evolved and who owns what pieces along the way.
The key takeaways are:
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WordPress.org is owned by the open source community – you retain full control over your content.
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WordPress.com is owned by Automattic – you cede some control in exchange for simplicity.
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The WordPress Foundation owns the trademark but exists only to support the open source project.
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Commercial interests drive funding and innovation, while benefiting from WordPress‘ growth.
Evaluating both WordPress.com and WordPress.org with their pros and cons will help you determine the right choice for your needs.
Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to help fellow WordPress users.
