WordPress

A PHP content management system for blogs, business sites and online stores, built up from themes and plugins on ordinary web hosting.

21.5k stars, 13.1k forks PHP On GitHub since December 2011

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a self-hosted publishing platform: you upload the files to a PHP web host, run the browser installer that writes wp-config.php with your database details, and manage pages, posts and media from the wp-admin dashboard. Themes control the design and plugins add features such as forms, shops or SEO. This GitHub repository is a read-only mirror of the official Subversion code; development and patches go through wordpress-develop and the Trac tracker instead.

Good fit if

  • You want a site that non-technical editors can update, on almost any cheap PHP hosting.
  • You rely on a large market of existing themes and plugins rather than custom development.

Look elsewhere if

  • You build structured, editor-heavy sites in Python: Wagtail.
  • You prefer a .NET stack: Umbraco.
  • You want a similar PHP CMS with multilingual sites and access levels built in: Joomla.

Before you adopt it

WordPress is GPL-2.0. One bundled library, sodium_compat, keeps its own separate license file; nothing in the core is proprietary or sold. Do not open pull requests on this mirror. Running it takes PHP and a database on your host; the repository offers no official Docker setup.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

WordPress health: is it still maintained?

63 of 100, actively developed

  • Activity
    1,540 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 3 November 2026.
    30 / 30
  • Contributors
    9 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 84% of them.
    13 / 20
  • Releases
    No releases published on GitHub.
    6 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Too few recent issues from outside the team to measure, so this part gets a neutral score.
    10 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 3.5 of 10.
    4 / 10

Read from GitHub on 3 November 2026. How the score works

WordPress license: is it open source?

WordPress uses GPL-2.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI. Some features sit under a separate paid license inside the same repository.

  1. December 2011First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayGPL-2.0, with paid parts: separate license wp-includes/sodium_compat/LICENSE.

How to run WordPress yourself

Docker
No Docker files in the repository
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
English only

Install instructions: wordpress.org or the README on GitHub.

Alternatives to WordPress

  • UmbracoUmbraco is a free and open source .NET content management system helping you deliver delightful digital… 92 health · MIT · 5.3k stars
  • WagtailA Django content management system focused on flexibility and user experience 86 health · BSD-3-Clause · 20.6k stars
  • JoomlaHome of the Joomla! Content Management System 85 health · GPL-2.0 · 5.2k stars
  • octoberSelf-hosted CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. 75 health · Unidentified license · 11.2k stars

All 5 projects in Websites & CMS

Questions about WordPress

Is WordPress open source?

Yes. WordPress is published under GPL-2.0, an OSI-approved open-source license. Some features are kept under a separate paid license in the same repository.

Is WordPress still maintained?

Its health score is 63 of 100 (actively developed). It had 1,540 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 3 November 2026.

How do I run WordPress?

The repository has no Docker files or app builds, so you build it from source. The README on GitHub has the steps.

What are the alternatives to WordPress?

Close alternatives in the Websites & CMS category include Umbraco, Wagtail, Joomla.