WordPress is free, open source publishing software that can be installed locally on a web server and viewed on a proprietary web site or hosted in the cloud and viewed on the WordPress web site.
In 2001, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little co-founded WordPress, launching it in May 2003 with the help of several core contributing developers. At that time, WordPress was merely a free blogging forum for users. Since then, WordPress has evolved to be a full content management system with widgets, plugins and customizable themes. WordPress is licensed under GPLv2, which lists terms and conditions for copying, modifying and distributing free software. One of the most popular content management system solutions in use, WordPress is used by 42.8% of the top 10 million websites as of October 2021.
