Comments on: Who Owns WordPress and How Does WordPress Make Money?

By: Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 13:43:11 +0000

When we say companies like Yoast SEO, BackupBuddy, WPBeginner, etc regularly contribute to WordPress, we do so by sponsoring WordCamps. These companies also help out contributing to the WordPress core software (i.e finding bugs, submitting patches, etc).

We are not certain about the criteria for hosting companies listed on the official WordPress.org page because that’s decided by Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress.

What I do know is that we as a company are not required to sponsor any WordCamp or contribute at all. But we do so because we want WordPress ecosystem to grow. I believe others do it for the same reasons.

Yes the foundation’s primary source of revenue is donation. When companies sponsor WordCamps, they’re basically donating the money to the Foundation which then distributes it to the respective WordCamps for organizational expenses and so-forth.

By: Ric

Ric — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 03:46:35 +0000

You wrote that some hosting companies and others such as Yoast SEO, BackupBuddy, etc “regularly contribute back to WordPress”. Are you referring to monetary contribution? Is it mandatory for the hosting companies to pay some amount to WordPress (I can see only 4 of them advertised on the hosting page) or are you saying they voluntarily make some monetary contribution?

You’ve also added a link to WordPress Foundation’s donations page in your article and wrote it’s their “primary source of revenue”. However I couldn’t find this link or any mention of WordPress Foundation on WordPress.org home page or in their About or Get Involved pages. There is no “donate” button visible anywhere on their site – well at least it should be on their home page if it is their primary source of revenue.

I’m just trying to understand this whole thing more precisely. Thank you.

By: Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 19:54:43 +0000

Thanks for the article Syed. You provided a clear separation between the two organizations. I also appreciated the points brought up in the exchange between you & Jeff that provided some additional information and perspective.

We are a new video technology company that is looking at potential options to offer our technology to the WordPress community (we are leaning towards building a free plug-in with some of the basic functionality and offer a premium version that would be based on a paid subscription, that included additional functionality, hosting of video content, enhanced tech support.). A couple of your other articles also provided valuable information to help us get a better understanding of the WordPress environment. I would certainly welcome the opportunity to connect if you are interested in providing some additional feedback/guidance offline.