WordPress has celebrated its 18th birthday these days. The first version of WordPress was a simple and limited blogging tool, and today it runs over 40 percent of the entire Internet.
WordPress first appeared on May 27, 2003, as a collaboration between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little who wanted to create a quality and accessible platform for personal publishing, based on PHP and MySQL.
The fact that WordPress was free under the GLP license from the start contributed to its growth, especially when in 2004 the rival blog software, Movable Type, changed the terms of use. The license that WordPress inherited from the b2 tool helped the community make it a powerful CMS as it is today.
WordPress has given a chance to those who have no experience with coding to the Internet, and today even many of the most successful companies, such as Disney, Sony, and Microsoft News, use or have used WordPress to build their sites, including the White House.
WordPress.org is celebrating a birthday with a new timeline that marks 40 milestones on the way to 40 percent market share. Scrolling through chronological events takes the form of a story that highlights the most influential moments in the history of WordPress, such as the launch of the plugin repository, major interface improvements, and the first WordCamp (a conference where WordPress fans gather).
According to Open Hub's project cost calculator, today's WordPress with its million and a half lines of code would take 433 working years, as well as tens of millions of dollars in costs, depending on the amount of salary.
Fortunately, WordPress had a huge network of developers who volunteered for the software and worked hard to keep the platform in great shape from the start.
18 years is a turning point worth mentioning. Congratulations to the developers, developers, translators, community organizers, WordPress management, and everyone else who helped make this beloved publishing platform.