Today, WordPress celebrates its 18th birthday. What a journey it has been.
When it first launched back in 2003, WordPress started as an easy-to-use open-source content management system, but it has turned into the most popular CMS system worldwide over the years, with more than 40% market share as per the most recent statistics. As a WordPress agency, focused on providing WP services, we are more than excited to see what is coming next.
To mark this important milestone, let’s recall some of the most important events in the history of WordPress so far.
Outstanding Moments in WordPress History
- WordPress first release. Version 0.7 was launched May 27, 2003, and marked the beginning of one of the leading web platforms which empowers people and businesses to create amazing websites and grow their ideas.
- Plugin architecture was announced in 2004. The popular plugin architecture makes the CMS system so powerful by allowing all of the WP customers to add different features to their sites depending on business needs.
- Introduction of the open-source model. Another milestone worth mentioning is the open-source model, announced in May 2004. One of the reasons WordPress has grown so fast is the open-source release which allows anyone to contribute and improve the CMS system by working on core, fixing bugs, ensuring security, and more.
- Themes release. When you think of WordPress, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? How customizable it is, right? One of the biggest releases in WordPress history is the introduction of WordPress themes. They allow customers from around the world to easily create unique, original and highly customizable websites with ease.
- Introducing widgets. Another important step from WP history is the widgets introduction. WordPress widgets make the sidebar and footer areas of a website customizable which is an amazing feature that gives even more opportunities for customization when using the platform.
- Logo created. Like every gigantic brand out there, WordPress branding is a result of iterations and years of popularization. Created back in 2005, today the WordPress logo is one of the most famous ones on the web.
- WordPress Foundation created. Having the purpose to keep the CMS open, the WordPress Foundation was created in 2010. It empowers the open-source and contribution model.
- WordCamp. WordCamp US. WordCamp Europe. WordCamps have an important role in WordPress community growth since they encourage their members to learn from one another and develop their skill set.
- Gutenberg. Officially released as the default editor of WordPress with Version 5.0 in 2018, Gutenberg marked a new radical change in the way we create posts, pages, products, and everything else on a WordPress site. With lots of debates about its pros and cons, undoubtedly, it’s been one of the biggest milestones in WP history so far.
Experiencing amazing growth starting as a simple CMS system turning into one of the biggest leaders on the web, the history of WP is long and dynamic. Today, it’s been 18 years since its first release, and we covered only some of the most important milestones from its long and exciting history.
However, if you are interested in some facts and statistics, as well as more details about the WordPress releases over the years, we encourage you to take a look at the article below. Hope it will be interesting and informative, and you will find something new!
Why We Love WordPress
Aside from our contribution to the core, and themes and plugin development, as a WordPress agency our team has been engaged in diverse WordPress initiatives over the years.
The first WP meetup in Bulgaria. WordPress 15th Birthday party with the local community. Dozens of WordPress events. Active participation in the support forum. We really love everything WordPress-related.
Here are a few thoughts some of our teammates have shared to mark the occasion:
”WordPress powers 40% of the web for a reason. It’s the most resilient platform that allows a quick MVP build within hours and simultaneously handles billions of monthly page views!” – Mario Peshev, CEO of DevriX
”It has everything you need and you can focus on delivering the extra value for your clients, partners and your business” – Stanko Metodiev, CTO of DevriX
”What I like most about WordPress is how it empowers people doing what they actually desire to do in a creatively productive way, so in a sense it is all about potential.” – Yulia Oleynik, Head of Project Management
”WordPress gives it all for you to take. With a huge ecosystem of plugins, themes, complex problems already solved and being a mature platform, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. WordPress provides what is needed to build and grow rapidly and then stay stable.” – Alex Dimitrov, Creative Lead and Front-End Architect
”I’m in love with WordPress. And, from a product ownership perspective, there are some pretty good reasons for that: reliability, stability, freedom and adaptability, easy content management, development cost efficiency. Need I say more? The global WordPress ecosystem is huge and allows you to always be able to find a solution to anything you’d ever dream to do in your stack on top of WordPress.” – Radost Tsvetkova, Business Marketing Lead
”For me, the greatest strength of WordPress is the community surrounding it! As with most of the open-source software, there is always great support with not only technical, but all kinds of business issues! Apart from that, everyone in the WordPress.org community seems to be such a nice person. I’ve personally made a couple of friendships at WordCamps and Local WP meetings through the years.” – Emil Docev, Backend Developer
”WordPress provides the perfect balance between built-in features and extensibility to allow us to solve issues for various business models or build whole platforms on top of. With the constantly growing usage and community, it’s always up-to-date with the latest web trends, providing a stable, scalable and secure solution to both our clients and the end users.” – Todor Manoilov, Head of React
”With WordPress powering 40% of the internet, there’s a reason why we @ DevriX love it so much! From blogs to high-scale platforms powering businesses with nearly a billion page views per month, the possibilities are limitless.” – Bojidar Valchovski, Junior Tech Lead
”WordPress is powerful due to its out-of-the-box features, which are helping the end-user achieve their needs easily. We are focusing on solving business needs because 40% of the web is using WordPress and some of them need heroes to help them with custom features on top of the already build ones.” – Lachezar Gadzhev, Backend Developer
”For me, WordPress is so powerful because of its open-source model and the WP community itself. WordPress makes up for more than 40% of all websites globally and the fact that it’s an open-source system helps it to become one of the biggest and most helpful dev communities in the world.” – Ignat Georgiev, Backend Developer
”As someone coming from the publishing world, I find it fascinating what opportunities opens up this open-source CMS, compared to a bunch of others I had worked with. It’s just that in the right hands, it’s quite superior in terms of scale, costs, and ad stack.” – Stanislav Kaschiyski, Ad Ops
”The best practices + ready-made mechanisms that the WP core has adopted throughout the years allow us to build powerful platforms for our clients, in a timely manner and without collapsing under the sheer complexity of the problems that need solving. Being the stepping stone for all of our awesome work is the reason we love WP so freakin’ much!” – Vasilen Alexandrov, Backend Developer
Constantly evolving around the needs of millions of people out there, the WP future really depends on the web users. With all of this being said, we are excited to see what’s coming next. We know one thing for sure – the community expects the release of the first version of full site editing. Stay tuned!
Happy Birthday, WordPress. Keep growing!
Team DevriX
This article is crafted by DevriX's seasoned marketing team, boasting over four decades of collective expertise in crafting sophisticated marketing funnels, devising comprehensive content frameworks and pillars, implementing engaging email campaigns, and creating impactful social media content designed for scalability.
Our marketing experts specialize in the complete spectrum of inbound marketing strategies. As an accredited HubSpot Agency Partner and a Semrush Partner, we engage in meticulous research, blending our extensive experience with the unique insights of our highly skilled team.
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