Glossary Terms

WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system that powers over 40 percent of all websites, making it by far the most widely used platform of its kind. It launched in 2003 as a blogging tool from Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, and grew into a full CMS and application framework that runs everything from personal blogs to enterprise stores and media networks. It's built on PHP and MySQL, extended through a plugin system that can add almost any feature, and styled through themes that control how pages look. It comes in two forms: WordPress.com, a hosted service from Automattic, and WordPress.org, the fully open-source version you host yourself, which is the standard for business and professional sites.