WordPress Business Model – How does WordPress make Money?

January 22, 2023

$7.5 Billion – That is the total valuation of WordPress. How could this be possible when the CMS is completely free?

I hope you are here with the same question in your mind, and I’m happy to help 😄.

WordPress.org Business Model

If WordPress.org provides completely free themes, plugins, and features. How is WordPress able to provide all the updates and maintain the service if it is not earning from the platform?

The one word answer is “donations”. Following the success of WordPress, a large number of WordPress development companies began selling WordPress-related services and products. Also, there are many companies whose services depend on the existence of WordPress; without WordPress, these companies would become futile.

They donate for the betterment of WordPress. They want WordPress to be the biggest holder of market share. Hosting service providers like Bluehost, HostGator, Hostinger, GoDaddy, etc,. and plugins like Yoast SEO, WP Rocket, etc., also donate a significant amount to WordPress.org

There are also developers, testers, designers, writers, and so many other people who work around the clock to make WordPress a better place. We call them “contributors”.

WordPress.com Business Model

WordPress.com business model can also be referred to as Automattic’s business model. They beautifully craft a business model around WordPress, offering various products and services. I have listed some popular ones, which play a major role in filling the big bags 💰 of the organization.

Web Hosting – WordPress offers web hosting services named “WordPress VIP Hosting” to big brands like CNN, TechCrunch, Time.com, and more. The pricing for this hosting starts at $15,000 per month. Yes, that’s a hefty price.
Google AdSense – Free blogs hosted on WordPress.com carries Google Adsense ads and the revenue goes to WordPress. The Google ads will appear to the consumers when these three conditions are met:
- The visitor is not using a Firefox browser.
- The visitor must be logged out of his WordPress account, if they have one.
- The referring source is not a WordPress powered website. So, if you land on the abc.wordpress.com site from xyz.wordpress.com, visitors will not see any Google Ads.
  Even with all these conditions, WordPress still generates a significant amount from Google Ads.
Premium plans – As mentioned before, WordPress offers freemium plans to its users. Anyone can host a blog on WordPress for free, but if you want to buy additional storage space for the multimedia files or wish to use a custom web domain instead of the default wordpress.com sub domain, then you should go for these premium plans.
WordPress themes – The WordPress theme directory offers premium themes that approximately costs you between $50 to $100. These are GPL compatible themes developed by third- party WordPress developers. Automattic gets a cut for every sale of this WordPress theme.
Web Host Referrals – WordPress.org suggests a list of third-party web hosting providers, so that you can self-host your WordPress blogs for a yearly fee. When you subscribe to the hosting providers using these links, Automattic gets a commission.
WordPress Support – If you need help with WordPress and the free support forums aren’t serving the purpose, then there is an option called “ WordPress VIP Support ”. Once you become a subscriber, the WordPress development team will help you solve problems and the response time can be as low as 6 hours. This service is primarily for enterprise users who are willing to spend $2.5-5k per year.
Jetpack – If you wish to move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, Automattic has a tool called Jetpack that helps you to migrate for a one time fee of $119. Jetpack also provides other services like backups, automated file repair, site restoration, file scanning, and spam defense.
Crowdsignal – Automattic also has a plugin called Crowdsignal that allows you to create and manage polls right within the block editor. It provides a premium version where you can have an unlimited number of questions per survey, without any watermark.
VideoPress – The VideoPress plugin for WordPress lets you host videos and audio files on your own website. The plans for this plugin begin at $60 per year. The videos have no ads and support HD playback as well.
Akismet – Spam is the most annoying thing for a website owner. To avoid that hassle and save your time from filtering and deleting hundreds of spam comments, Automattic created Akismet.
- Akismet is a spam catching technology that is free for non-commercial personal blogs. If you maintain a corporate blog or run a network of blogs then you are required to buy a commercial license, which starts at $9 per month and extends up to $209 per month.