Celebrating 20 Years of WordPress: A Journey of Greatness

20 Years of WordPress: As we approach May 27, 2023, the 20th anniversary of WordPress, we, as dedicated WordPress developers, want to take a moment to express our heartfelt appreciation to the incredible team behind this revolutionary platform. WordPress has completely transformed the way we build websites, empowering businesses and individuals to have dynamic, feature-rich online spaces without breaking the bank. Join us in celebrating this milestone by exploring some fascinating stats that showcase the greatness of WordPress.

When we first started building websites with WordPress in early 2008 (This is the birth of blog), WordPress was 4 years old, but we were still skeptic. We really didn’t think WordPress can last long, and this Open source CMS platform is not the right way to give something to our clients. Until then, we were using our own in-house built custom CMS, which was written by a team of ASP experts of our team. We only wanted to move our CMS system from ASP to ASP.NET.

But things changed when one of our clients, a web design agency from UK, was willing to use WordPress. Client has already studied WordPress, which was a good thing. So, We built their website with WordPress, and the client was happy. That was a great beginning, thanks to WordPress!

Despite having its own pitfalls, WordPress has significantly reduced the cost of developing a website with a CMS compared to custom CMS options. A simple WordPress website with around 10–15 pages can be built for a few hundred US dollars. Within a week, you can have a fully functional website ready for your business. On its birthday, let’s revisit some of the key takeaways of WordPress that are worth highlighting!

The Power of WordPress:

WordPress has emerged as the go-to Content Management System (CMS) for millions of websites worldwide. Its flexibility, user-friendly interface, and extensive plugin ecosystem have made it the preferred choice for businesses, bloggers, and even major publications. With WordPress, the possibilities are endless, whether you’re starting a blog, launching an e-commerce store, or creating a portfolio. WordPress is more stable now, gone are the days when a developer/site owner suffers with frequent hacks!

A Global Community:

One of the most remarkable aspects of WordPress is its vibrant and supportive community. Thousands of developers, designers, and enthusiasts contribute their time and expertise to continuously improve WordPress. Thanks to their dedication, WordPress has evolved into a robust platform with regular updates, enhanced security, and innovative features. Quick bug fixes and enhancements are frequent.

Some mind-Blowing Stats:

Let’s dive into some jaw-dropping statistics that highlight WordPress’s impact:

Market Dominance:WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the internet, demonstrating its unrivaled popularity and trust among users. WordPress is used by 63.3% of all the websites powered by a CMS.

Plugin Repository: As of May 2023, The official WordPress plugin repository offers an astounding 68,000+ free plugins, providing endless opportunities to extend the functionality of your website.

Themes Galore: Users can choose from a vast collection of over 10800 free themes (while publishing this blog) available in the WordPress Theme Directory, ensuring a visually stunning online presence.

Multilingual Support: WordPress is available in several languages, making it accessible to users worldwide and fostering inclusivity. Themes are getting translated into 100+ languages.

Mobile Optimization: With the rise of mobile usage, WordPress has embraced responsiveness, enabling websites to adapt seamlessly to various devices and screen sizes. You can also build Mobile-first themes, which is highly appreciated by Google.

E-commerce Prowess: WordPress is not just for simple CMS driven sites. WordPress, coupled with popular plugins like WooCommerce, has become a force to reckon with in the e-commerce space. By using suitable third-party plugins like WP Easycart and BigCommerce WP you can build an online store easily within hours!

WordPress has revolutionized dynamic website development, enabling businesses and individuals to harness the power of the web at a fraction of the cost. Its remarkable journey of 20 years is a testament to the dedication, innovation, and passion of the WordPress team and its global community. We’re grateful to be part of this ecosystem and to provide our clients with budget-friendly, yet powerful, WordPress solutions.

Join us in celebrating this milestone, and let’s continue to embrace the greatness of WordPress as we look forward to the next 20 years of innovation, creativity, and growth!

Now, a little bit of History and the Story Behind WordPress, How it went from Humble Beginnings to Global Dominance:

WordPress was born out of the collaborative efforts of two talented individuals: Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. In 2003, Matt Mullenweg, a college student at the time, forked a blogging platform called b2 aka cafelog (link leads to a non-secure site) when its development ceased. Alongside Mike Little, Matt set out to enhance and reimagine this software, birthing what we now know as WordPress.

What started as a humble blogging platform quickly evolved into a full-fledged Content Management System (CMS). Matt’s vision was to create an open-source platform that empowered users to build websites easily and efficiently. With the support of an ever-growing community of developers, designers, and contributors worldwide, WordPress has grown exponentially over the past two decades.

Today, WordPress is managed by a non-profit organization called the WordPress Foundation, which ensures the continued development and maintenance of the platform. The dedicated team at the WordPress Foundation, along with the passionate community, works tirelessly to improve WordPress, making it more user-friendly, secure, and feature-rich with each new update.

The developers of WordPress core have always been keeping up to WordPress Milestones, adding several features, timely updates and enhancements. Their commitment to an open-source philosophy has fostered innovation, collaboration, and the widespread adoption of WordPress as the leading CMS in the world.

Here is the history of WordPress from 2003 from w3schools.

Here is a sweat memory: Our first blog post from Feb 2008, When WP was around 5!