WordPress: Open Source Publishing Platform and CMS

WordPress started in 2003 when Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg created a fork of b2/cafelog, responding to the need for an elegant, well-architected personal publishing system. The project describes its mission as democratizing publishing — the freedom to build, change and share. It is licensed under the General Public License (GPLv2 or later), which the project frames as four core freedoms: to run the program for any purpose, to study and change it, to redistribute it, and to distribute modified copies. The software is built on PHP and MariaDB and is described as the platform of choice for over 43% of all sites across the web.

• Founded 2003 as a fork of b2/cafelog
• Created by Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg
• Licensed under GPLv2 or later
• Built on PHP and MariaDB
• Powers over 43% of all sites on the web

WordPress is available at no licensing cost and can be downloaded and installed by anyone comfortable arranging their own hosting and domain, with an installation guide provided. Alternatively, users can set up through a recommended hosting provider, and the site lists all recommended hosts. A browser-based demo environment, WordPress Playground, allows the software to be tried without installation. Release packages are published as zip and tar.gz archives with md5 and sha1 checksums.

• Price: USD 0.00
• Self-install with your own hosting and domain
• Set-up through a recommended hosting provider
• WordPress Playground browser demo
• Mobile app for creating and updating content

To run WordPress, the project recommends a host supporting PHP version 8.3 or greater, MariaDB version 10.11 or greater or MySQL version 8.0 or greater, and HTTPS. Apache or Nginx are recommended as the most robust servers, though any server supporting PHP and MySQL will work. WordPress also runs on PHP 7.4+ and MySQL 5.5.5+ in legacy environments, but the project notes these versions have reached end of life and may expose sites to security vulnerabilities. It also recommends that hosts run PHP applications under the account's own username rather than a shared server username.

• PHP 8.3 or greater
• MariaDB 10.11 or greater or MySQL 8.0 or greater
• HTTPS support
• Nginx or Apache with mod_rewrite recommended

Blocks are the visual foundation of WordPress and can be used to create and manage every part of a site, with or without code. The editor provides a drag-and-drop canvas for inserting, transforming, styling and moving blocks, and a block directory lists available options. Developers can build custom blocks much as they would a React component, using the @wordpress/create-block package. Blocks can also be combined into patterns and block themes.

• Block directory for browsing available blocks
• Drag-and-drop visual editing canvas
• Custom blocks built with @wordpress/create-block
• Block patterns and block themes

WordPress maintains a public release archive covering every recorded release, with 7.1.1 dated 17 September 2026 listed as the latest release, and notes that only the most recent release in the 7.1 series is actively maintained. WordPress 7.1 adds responsive block style customisation across screen sizes and interactive states without CSS, a streamlined media editor, rich text and @mentions in Notes, and a persistent admin bar across the Site Editor and block editor. Development proceeds through the Gutenberg project: Phase 1 introduced the Block Editor in WordPress 5.0, Phase 2 covered Site Editing and culminated in WordPress 6.3 with the Site Editor, and Phase 3 is under way on collaborative editing and workflows. A fourth phase covers core multilingual support, and version 7.2 is listed as planned for 10 December 2026 for rough planning purposes.

• Latest release: 7.1.1, 17 September 2026
• Archive of all past releases as zip and tar.gz
• Gutenberg phases: editing, customisation, collaboration, multilingual
• 7.2 planned for 10 December 2026

The official plugin repository holds more than 50,000 plugins, allowing sites to add stores, analytics, newsletters and social media integrations. WooCommerce is cited as a popular ecommerce plugin running more than 20% of online stores, alongside options such as a BigCommerce SaaS backend and headless approaches. For brands and content marketers, WordPress is used for campaign microsites and as a core brand platform, with responsive themes, SEO features such as XML sitemaps and schema.org markup, RSS and oEmbed syndication, and a REST API. The administrative and authoring interface is available in over 50 languages, and the platform supports double-byte and right-to-left languages.

• More than 50,000 plugins in the official repository
• WooCommerce runs more than 20% of online stores
• Admin interface available in over 50 languages
• REST API and GraphQL support for data portability
• No licensing costs for WordPress itself

The WordPress project aims to make the WordPress Admin and bundled themes fully compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA, where possible. All new and updated code released in WordPress must conform to the WordPress Accessibility Coding Standards, and known issues are tracked under the Trac accessibility focus. Accessibility-ready themes are checked by the Theme Review Team against basic accessibility requirements, though the project cannot guarantee all themes comply. WordPress states it does not currently conform with ATAG 2.0 but pledges to pursue features that help users create accessible content as a long-term goal.

• Target of WCAG 2.2 AA for Admin and bundled themes
• Accessibility Team and Accessibility Handbook
• Accessibility-ready theme review process
• ATAG 2.0 conformance stated as a long-term goal

Data Liberation is a WordPress project aimed at making user data portable rather than locked inside closed platforms, structured across five development phases. Phase 1 provides step-by-step migration guides for moving sites from platforms such as Wix, Figma and static HTML. Phase 2 addresses structural migration problems including link updating, media copying, error recovery and large sites. Phase 3 covers user-facing extraction tools, with an open source data liberation agent plugin for Studio by WordPress.com offering specialised support for platforms including GoDaddy Websites & Marketing, Hostinger Website Builder, HubSpot, Shopify, Squarespace, Webflow, Weebly and Wix; Phases 4 and 5, covering WordPress-to-WordPress synchronisation and a central content hub, are listed as future work.

• Five-phase roadmap
• Migration guides from other platforms
• Data liberation agent plugin for Studio
• Contribution via Slack and GitHub

WordPress is developed and supported by a global community of developers, designers, translators and marketers who gather at regular events. Learn WordPress offers learning pathways that progress from beginner to advanced, covering using, developing with and designing with WordPress. Additional resources include developer documentation, user forums and local community groups, and contributors can get involved through Make WordPress. The project's 2026 goals include scaling education programmes, revamping local meetups and clarifying contribution pathways.

• Learn WordPress learning pathways
• Developer resources and documentation
• User support forums
• Local meetups and community events
• Contribution through Make WordPress