Who owns WordPress and how does WordPress make money?
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2025 4:29 am
There has always been confusion among beginners about who owns WordPress. It's a bit unreal to think that something can be 100% free. If you've ever wondered who owns WordPress and how WordPress makes money, then you've come to the right place. In this beginner's guide, we'll answer these common questions and explain how it affects ownership of your WordPress website and blog content.
Understanding the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
Before we can answer the question of WordPress ownership, it's important that you understand which WordPress you're talking about .
The main cause of confusion is that people often don't realizeand WordPress.org are two fundamentally different products with different owners.
The difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
WordPress.org is the popular content management system (CMS) you keep hearing about. This is the real WordPress, and it's 100% free. It's often referred to as self-hosted WordPress. When you hear that you can list of malaysia cell phone number use WordPress to build any kind of website with plugins and custom themes , this is the WordPress people are talking about.
WordPress.com is a web hosting service that offers a stripped down version of WordPress to make blogging easier for you. You don't get all the WordPress features like plugins, custom themes, etc.
To keep this article to the essentials, we won't go into comparing the features of the two providers. You can learn more about that in our WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org table .
Understanding the difference between the two is important to understand the ownership and business models behind the two products.
Who owns WordPress.org and the popular WordPress software?WordPress is open source software . This means that anyone can view the code and collaborate on the software to improve it.
Understanding the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
Before we can answer the question of WordPress ownership, it's important that you understand which WordPress you're talking about .
The main cause of confusion is that people often don't realizeand WordPress.org are two fundamentally different products with different owners.
The difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
WordPress.org is the popular content management system (CMS) you keep hearing about. This is the real WordPress, and it's 100% free. It's often referred to as self-hosted WordPress. When you hear that you can list of malaysia cell phone number use WordPress to build any kind of website with plugins and custom themes , this is the WordPress people are talking about.
WordPress.com is a web hosting service that offers a stripped down version of WordPress to make blogging easier for you. You don't get all the WordPress features like plugins, custom themes, etc.
To keep this article to the essentials, we won't go into comparing the features of the two providers. You can learn more about that in our WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org table .
Understanding the difference between the two is important to understand the ownership and business models behind the two products.
Who owns WordPress.org and the popular WordPress software?WordPress is open source software . This means that anyone can view the code and collaborate on the software to improve it.