Happy Birthday, WordPress – 22 Years!

The initial release of WordPress happened on May 27, 2003, and so this year WordPress is turning 22. We wish to congratulate the world’s most popular CMS that has helped to power the web for over two decades!

The ecosystem around WordPress is ever-thriving. Here we will have a look at what features make WordPress so popular to use when building a website, and what the future holds for its development.

Why Choose WordPress?

WordPress is suitable for small and big businesses alike. It’s popular amongst the world’s most recognized companies, organizations and institues, such as NASA, Disney, Spotify, SAP... The list could go on indefinitely. The official website of the White House (whitehouse.gov) also runs on WordPress.

Today, it’s estimated that over 500 million websites run on WordPress (2025). This means nearly a half of all websites are powered by it!

Over 500 million websites run on WordPress – almost half of all websites.

WordPress is Cost-Effective

WordPress is open source and using it is free; you don’t pay for the software. However, you still need to pay for the server space, also known as hosting. When you choose Seravo, you get much more than webhosting, as everything you need is included in the plan, from the technical aspects to the real human support.

So, it doesn’t require a lot of resources to set up a WordPress site. With a premium solution like Seravo, you’ll get started in no time as we set up a bespoke WordPress environment for you. Just fill in the form and let us handle the rest – it’s that easy.

WordPress is User-Friendly

What makes WordPress so popular? It’s UI always been intuitive and easy to approach, with no compromise to versatility and what you can do with a WordPress installation. Thanks to block themes and the new customization options they bring, in 2025, WordPress is more customizable than ever, and you don’t necessarily need coding skills to create a complex site.

Due to the popularity of WordPress, there are lots and lots of tutorials available all around the web. If you’re facing a problem with your site, it’s very likely that someone else has already solve it. A good place to start with debugging is to ask your hosting provider for help. If a plugin seems to cause an error, it’s a good idea to reach out to the developers of said plugin.

WordPress is Scalable

So, you started to build a website for your company. The years went by, and before you even knew it, the business started to bloom. The products need more information, the customers want more payment options, company techies want new integrations and entire new website sections would be needed to show what’s going on.

Suddenly, you notice that the website builder you’ve gotten well-versed with just… doesn’t have these features. (And because it’s not open source, there’s no one coming up with them, since the vendor is focused on their next big thing.) You can feel your heart sink when you realize you should be looking for a new platform, which will inevitably swallow a good chunk of your precious time and resources.

With WordPress, such a scenario is unlikely. This is what makes WordPress so great – it’s perfect for even the smallest hobbyist blog, but you can keep adding content and features to it whenever you need it.

WordPress is also interoperable with other platforms and systems.

WordPress is Customizable

Thanks to the open source spirit and an active community, there are so many things happening in the WordPress ecosystem at all times. If you can’t find a solution you like, you can develop your own – or ask the community for help! But surely you’ll find your favorites from nearly 60.000 existing plugins?

Vendor lock happens when you start using a product or service, such as a piece of software, but exporting data from it to be used in another system might be tedious or downright impossible. WordPress is also interoperable with other platforms and systems, as sometimes you just might want to try something different – and there’s nothing wrong with that. Did you know that you can easily export all your pages and posts in an XML file?

A great resource for learning WordPress is learn.wordpress.org, suitable for beginners and advanced learners alike.

What’s in Store for WordPress?

The most recent and upcoming development for WordPress have been aimed at making the software more versatile and collaborative platform. The latest features make creating content more effortless, and in the future there will be a more seamless experience when more users are working on content simultaneously.

Site Editor Improvements (FSE)

Previously, only page and post content in WordPress could be edited with the Classic Editor. In 2022, Full-Site Editing (FSE) was introduced to the WordPress core.

Full-site editing is done with the new Site Editor found in WordPress, and it means you can use blocks to design and customize the look and feel of your entire website, not just the content of pages or posts. To learn more about it, fullsiteediting.com is a great resource to get started!

Full-Site Editing has made the customization of WordPress more approachable. No more PHP loops and custom code – make WordPress look and feel just the way you want!

Multilingual Support in Core

If you want a multilingual website, this has traditionally been possible with the aid of a multilingual plugin such as Polylang, Weglot, Loco Translate and many others. In the future, site admins will be able to make translations with features found directly in the WP core.

This does not mean multilingual third-party plugins will become obsolete, as they’ll still continue offering diverse features, but having multilingual features available directly in the core will definitely make it easier to get started with translating a site.

What is a Multisite?

Besides, the use of plugins has never been mandatory – see this guide about setting up a multilingual WordPress site when you have a multisite installation. And what’s a multisite, again? Check out our earlier blog post that explains the very basics of multisite WordPress!

What about AI and WordPress?

It takes a bit of time before features are introduced and added to WordPress. The WordPress community has actively discussed the role and use of AI in the WP core, and what affordances it could bring to the CMS. For now, there are multiple AI plugins for WordPress which you can try out to see if they suit your use case and workflows.

Join the Open Source Community

One great thing about communities around open source software is that anyone can join. No prior experience is required, as learning new things is guaranteed. All you need is to get involved. Why not pop by a local WordPress meetup near you, or partake in make.wordpress.org activities online?

You can also read more about open source and how Seravo participates in the WordPress community.