WordPress is one of the best examples of how businesses can thrive in an open-source ecosystem.
With contributions made by thousands of ingenious developers and entrepreneurs worldwide, WordPress is growing fast and attracting thousands of new users daily.
As of today, it powers more than 43% of all websites on the internet. Many companies make their entire revenue by providing WordPress-related products and services. The WordPress business ecosystem generates several billion dollars each year.
Although WordPress itself is free, users need a variety of services to make a website, including domain name, web hosting, premium WordPress themes, plugins, maintenance, and more. These are the services top WordPress companies are selling.
In this article, we will highlight some of the most successful WordPress businesses and companies today. Hopefully, this will inspire others to start their own WordPress-focused businesses.
For a quick overview, here is the full list. If you want, you can click on a company to learn more about it.
1. Automattic
Founded by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, Automattic is the company behind the popular hosting service WordPress.com (See the difference between WordPress.com vs self-hosted WordPress.org).
Automattic is also the parent company of several other popular WordPress products and services, such as WooCommerce, JetPack, Akismet, and Gravatar.
Here are some stats and facts about top Automattic products.
- WordPress.com gets more than 409 million visitors and more than 20 billion page views every month.
- WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform and powers over 39% of all online stores. (Source: Statista)
- JetPack is one of the most popular WordPress plugins ever built. (More than 5 million active installations)
Automattic heavily contributes to open-source WordPress.org, bbPress, and BuddyPress projects. In terms of influence, revenue, and the overall user base, Automattic is definitely among the top WordPress businesses and companies.
2. WP Engine
WP Engine is the most popular managed WordPress hosting company in the market. It offers hassle-free, fast, and secure web hosting services for WordPress sites of all sizes.
Loved by developers, site owners, and venture capital firms, WP Engine is among the fastest-growing companies in WordPress.
Here are some important stats and facts about WP Engine.
- WP Engine is one of the first and most successful companies to offer managed WordPress hosting.
- Their website claims to host more than 1.5 million websites for more than 185,000 customers.
- The last publicly announced annual revenue was over $132 million ARR.
Besides hosting services, WP Engine is also the parent company behind several popular WordPress products, such as localWP (local WordPress development software), FlyWheel (a managed WordPress hosting brand), Delicious Brains (premium WordPress plugins), and Advanced Custom Fields plugin.
WP Engine also acquired StudioPress, a WordPress theme company. All 35+ of StudioPress themes (worth $2000) are now available with WP Engine hosting plans.
3. Awesome Motive
Awesome Motive is the management company of WPBeginner, the largest free WordPress resource site. WPBeginner features the most beginner-friendly tutorials and guides for WordPress.
Founded by Syed Balkhi, the company also helps manage several WordPress-related products, such as WPForms, MonsterInsights, All in One SEO, SeedProd, best-selling lead generation software OptinMonster, and more.
Here are some important stats and facts about Awesome Motive and their products:
- Over 25 million websites use their software and training videos for growth.
- Their products, WPForms (5 million+ active installs), WP Mail SMTP (3 million+ active installs), All in One SEO (3 million+ active installs), and MonsterInsights (3 million+ active installs), are among the most popular WordPress plugins ever built. (Source: WordPress.org)
- OptinMonster is the #1 most powerful lead generation software, which is used by over a million websites.
- Headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, the company has been around for over 15 years. It is a fully-remote company with more than 330+ employees in 50 countries,
Besides, it runs IsitWP, a WordPress technology lookup tool and blog, and other free plugins like WPCode, WP Call Button, Missed Schedule Posts, and more.
In recent years, Syed has acquired many popular WordPress companies, such as Easy Digital Downloads, Duplicator, SearchWP, Smash Balloon, PushEngage, and more.
4. Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the top WordPress hosting companies around, and it is also an official WordPress.org recommended hosting provider.
Bluehost is one of the subsidiary brands of Newfold Digital. The company is also the parent company of several brands like HostGator, Domain.com, Web.com, and more.
Newfold Digital also acquired Yoast SEO, a popular WordPress SEO plugin. Later, they acquired Yith, which sells several popular WooCommerce plugins.
Here are some important stats and facts about Bluehost and other Newfold Digital products.
- Bluehost powers more than 2 million websites on the Internet. It is a recommended WordPress hosting provider and core contributor.
- Yith, another Newfold brand, has over 2.2 million users.
- Combining all Newfold brands, they have a massive user base of over 7 million customers. (Source: Newfold Digital LinkedIn)
Bluehost is consistently ranked #1 by the top hosting review sites. Due to its low-price hosting plans, Bluehost makes it incredibly easy for users to make a WordPress website. (See a thorough analysis of their services in our Bluehost review.)
5. Envato
Envato runs the popular marketplace websites ThemeForest and CodeCanyon. These are popular marketplaces for premium WordPress themes and plugins.
Despite the license controversies in the past, Envato is one of the most influential WordPress businesses today.
Here are some important stats and facts about Envato and its products.
- Envato’s theme marketplace ThemeForest, features more than 11,000 premium WordPress themes by third-party theme authors worldwide.
- The most popular theme on their Marketplace Avada has been sold for 956,000 times.
- The plugin marketplace CodeCanyon includes over 5200 premium WordPress plugins, of which two have been sold more than 400,000 times.
- Sellers across their marketplace made $111 million in 2023. (Source: Envato)
In addition to the premium themes and plugins, Envato offers a wide range of web design products, including stock photos, videos, music, and more.
Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Envato is a fully remote company with offices in Mexico and Australia.
6. Elegant Themes
Elegant Themes is one of the most successful WordPress theme development companies in the world. They are the people behind one of the most popular WordPress themes, Divi, and the WordPress page builder plugin Divi Builder.
Moreover, it features Bloom email optin plugin, Monarch social sharing plugin, and several other plugins and themes.
Here are some important stats and facts about Elegant Themes and its products.
- Launched in 2008, Elegant Themes claims to have more than 945,000 customers worldwide who use its products to build websites.
- Divi is the second most widely used WordPress theme used on 6% of all websites analyzed. (Source: BuiltWith)
Apart from the themes and plugins, Elegant Themes also runs a popular WordPress blog, publishing helpful tutorials and guides.
7. Caseproof
Caseproof is the parent company behind popular WordPress plugins MemberPress, Pretty Links, and Affiliate Royale.
MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin, and thousands of websites use it to create a WordPress membership site.
Pretty Links helps turn your ugly, long affiliate links into short, trackable links. The Affiliate Royale plugin lets you create a complete affiliate program.
Here are some important stats and facts about Caseproof and its products.
- Caseproof is one of the selected WPBeginner Growth Accelerator companies, chosen to help grow its wonderful products.
- Pretty Links is the most popular affiliate link management plugin used by over 300,000+ WordPress sites.
Over the years, the company has captured a significant portion of WordPress membership and affiliate plugin tools.
The acquisition of plugins like Membermouse, WishList Member, Easy Affiliate, ThirstyAffiliates, and Buy Now Plus empowers a significant chunk of eCommerce businesses.
Caseproof, with its brilliant products, is the industry leader for membership and affiliate plugin companies.
Note: WPBeginner founder Syed Balkhi is an investor in Caseproof.
8. Liquid Web (Family of Brands)
Liquid Web Family of Brands is the parent company behind several WordPress brands, such as:
- Liquid Web (cloud hosting)
- Nexcess (hosting)
- StellarWP (WordPress plugins)
- Modern Tribe (design and development agency)
Under StellarWP, they own several WordPress plugins and tools, such as SolidWP, LearnDash, Restrict Content, KadenceWP, The Events Calendar, and IconicWP.
Started in 1997, Liquid Web has grown over the years. Their website mentions managing 185,000 customers and over half a million websites.
The company is owned by One Equity Partners, a private equity firm that acquired it in April 2023.
9. IncSub
IncSub is the company behind WPMU DEV, CampusPress, and Edublogs. The WPMU DEV site offers managed WordPress hosting, support, site management, and plugins.
The CampusPress helps universities and other academic institutions build and manage websites in WordPress. Similarly, Edublogs is the blog platform for individual teachers and students.
Here are some important stats and facts about IncSub and its products.
- WPMU DEV offers a subscription model, giving users access to all their pro plugins for a monthly subscription.
- Their product, Smush Image Compression and Optimization, is one of the best image compression plugins, with over a million active installs.
- Edublogs powers more than 5 million education blogs by students and teachers worldwide.
IncSub is one of the most influential companies in WordPress speed optimization and WordPress solutions for the education sector.
10. Rymera Web Co
Rymera Web Co is the company behind several popular WooCommerce plugins, including:
- Wholesale Suite – Allows store owners to sell products at wholesale pricing.
- Advanced Coupons – Helps set up smart coupons to boost sales in WooCommerce.
- AdTribes – Allows store owners to create product feeds for Google Shopping, Google Dynamic Remarketing, Facebook Remarketing, and more.
- WC Vendors – Converts a WooCommerce store into a multi-vendor marketplace.
- VisserLabs – Provides WooCommerce import/export tools.
Based in Australia, Rymera is a fully remote company. In 2023, they acquired WC Vendors and VisserLabs, which grew their brand portfolio significantly.
11. Brainstorm Force
Brainstorm Force is the company behind Astra, one of the most popular WordPress themes ever.
While Astra was launched in 2017, founders Sujay Pawar and Abhijeet Kaldate started their WordPress journey in 2009 by providing freelancer design and development services to clients.
Later, they started by making free plugins and then premium plugins.
This success led them to finally launch the Astra WordPress theme. It has been constantly featured among the most popular WordPress themes.
Here are some interesting facts about Brainstorm Force.
- More than 3 Million websites use their products.
- Brainstorm Force is the only WordPress theme used over a million times.
- Their Starter Sites and Spectra addon makes it easy to create beautiful websites using the default Block Editor.
Brainstorm Force is a remote company with over 70 team members in 9 countries.
12. WP Media
WP Media is the company behind WP Rocket and Imagify.
They specialize in making products to improve WordPress performance and speed. WP Rocket, their flagship product, is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market.
Apart from WP Rocket, they also offer Imagify. It is an image optimization solution for WordPress sites.
- WP Rocket was launched in July 2013 and is used on 3.9 million websites.
- Imagify has optimized more than 12.9 billion images.
- Fully remote company with over 42 team members.
They also offer RocketCDN as an add-on service, which allows users to serve static content using a CDN and helps improve website performance and speed.
13. Wordfence
Wordfence is the global leader in WordPress security. It is the most popular WordPress firewall and malware scanner plugin in the market.
It offers comprehensive security alerts, maintains a malware signature database, a massive IP blocklist, and more.
Here are some important stats and facts about WordFence.
- WordFence plugin protects over 5 million active WordPress websites.
- It blocks more than 9 billion attacks and over 144,000 malicious IPs monthly on average.
It also publishes critical vulnerability alerts for WordPress plugins, helping developers patch their products, as well as providing WordPress site cleaning and audit services.
14. Human Made
The UK-based WordPress design and development agency Human Made is an official WordPress.com VIP partner.
They specialize in enterprise-grade development for global brands like News UK, USA Today, TechCrunch, Sony, PayPal, Skype, Airbnb, and many more.
Here are some important stats and facts about Human Made.
- Provides custom solutions for enterprise clients built on top of open-source technologies.
- They also contribute to the open-source WordPress community under the Five for The Future program. Currently, they have 14 contributors working across ten teams for 44 hours per week.
- They also offer Altis as an enterprise-grade hosting platform.
Human Made also had several free WordPress plugins. However, they have transferred ownership of those plugins to other companies to focus on client projects.
15. Web Dev Studios
Web Dev Studios is one of the leading WordPress design and development agencies. They have authored several books on WordPress and are actively involved in the WordPress community.
Web Dev Studios offers several free WordPress plugins, including Custom Post Type UI, Automatic Featured Images from Videos, WP Search with Algolia, Taxonomy Switcher, and more.
Here are some important stats and facts about Web Dev Studios and their products.
- Their plugin Custom Post Type UI is one of the top 100 free plugins on WordPress.org, with over 1 million active installs.
- As a web development agency, they have been around since 2002.
Their clients include several big-name brands like Microsoft, Viacom, Time, MSNBC, NBC, and WP Engine.
16. WPML
WPML is the #1 WordPress multilingual plugin, which lets you create a multilingual website in WordPress.
Here are some important stats and facts about WPML.
- WPML powers more than 600,000 multilingual websites on the internet.
- WPML clients and websites are located in more than 100 countries and translate into a similar number of languages.
WPML is a product of OnTheGoSystems, which also runs ICanLocalize, a translation service with professional human translators.
17. UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus is a popular WordPress backup plugin in the market. It is used by the world’s top organizations like Microsoft, NASA, NBA, P&G, Princeton University, and more.
Most popular WordPress blogs like WPBeginner, Torque, WMPU DEV, and Elegant Themes recommend UpdraftPlus for creating WordPress backup.
Here are some important stats and facts about UpdraftPlus.
- UpdraftPlus powers more than 2 million WordPress websites online.
- It lets you store your backup in many remote storage locations like Dropbox, Google Drive, and more. It also has its own embedded storage location UpdraftVault.
They also offer UpdraftMigrator tool for simple WordPress migration and UpdraftCentral for backing up multiple websites in one place quickly.
18. Elementor
Elementor Ltd is the company behind the popular WordPress page builder Elementor. Their drag-and-drop page builder powers over 5 million websites.
Here are some interesting facts and figures about Elementor:
- It was founded in 2016 by Yoni Luksenberg & Ariel Klikstein.
- They also offer a minimalist free theme called Hello Elementor, which is designed to work seamlessly with the page builder.
- Apart from web creation tools, Elementor also offers shared WordPress hosting plans.
Apart from Elementor, the company also offers several free WordPress plugins.
19. Themify
Themify is a premium WordPress theme and plugin shop. The company is the creator of the powerful drag-and-drop page builder plugin Themify Builder.
Themify offers WordPress themes in different categories, catering to the needs of various industries.
Here are some important stats and facts about Themify and its products.
- Themify features 48 themes, 12+ plugins, 25+ Builder addons, Photoshop files, and more.
- Themify themes and plugins help more than 120,000 customers make beautiful websites in WordPress.
Themify also offers a club membership where users can access all their products with a subscription program.
20. Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder is a popular drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress. It lets you create stunning WordPress landing pages easily and quickly.
Here are some important stats and facts about Beaver Builder.
- Beaver Builder page builder is used by over 1 million live WordPress websites.
- The Beaver Builder theme powers over 175,000 WordPress websites.
Beaver Builder includes 30+ professional templates for landing pages and content pages. It also includes the Beaver Builder theme framework for its Pro plan users.
Started in 2014, Beaver Builder is a fully remote company.
21. 10up
10up is a web design and consulting firm specializing in open-source platforms like WordPress.
10up contributes hours of development back to the WordPress project by submitting patches and employing dedicated staff to work on the WordPress.org project.
Here are some important stats and facts about 10up.
- 10up has developed 6 free plugins and contributed to over 20 free plugins on WordPress.org.
- They also contributed to the core jQuery project and sponsored the jQuery Foundation by supporting their website.
10up is also one of the featured WordPress.com VIP partners. The company has an impressive list of clients with brands like TechCrunch and organizations like the World Economic Forum.
22. Strategy11
Strategy11 is the company behind the popular Formidable Forms plugin. Their portfolio also includes several other WordPress products.
- WP Tasty – An easy-to-use WordPress recipe plugin for food blogs.
- Business Directory Plugin – Allows users to easily create a directory in WordPress.
- AWP Classifieds – Enables users to add a classifieds section in WordPress.
- Nutrifox – Allows food bloggers and restaurants to easily display nutrition labels on their websites.
Founded by husband and wife Steve and Steph Wells in 2007, Strategy11 is a fully remote company with employees in 11 countries.
23. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain name registrar with more than 78 million domain names under its management. It is also a provider of cheap shared hosting for WordPress.
In addition to domain and hosting services, GoDaddy also offers popular WordPress products and services, such as ManageWP and Sucuri.
Here are some important stats and facts about GoDaddy and its products.
- ManageWP is the first and most successful WordPress website management service with 60,000 loyal customers (over 1 million websites managed).
- Sucuri is the most powerful WordPress plugin for security and firewall, and it cleans more than 700 websites daily.
Sucuri is trusted by top WordPress companies like WPBeginner and WP Engine, as well as top organizations like Miami University, HarperCollins, and more.
24. SiteGround
SiteGround is one of the best WordPress hosting companies offering fast and secure hosting plans for WordPress.
SiteGround also provides managed WooCommerce hosting services for WordPress-based online stores. These services include hassle-free WooCommerce integration and migration.
Here are some important stats and facts about SiteGround.
- SiteGround hosts more than 2 million websites on its powerful web hosting infrastructure.
- WordPress experts like WPBeginner and Joost de Valk (founder of Yoast) recommend SiteGround for WooCommerce hosting.
SiteGround offers speedy customer service, and it is top-rated for customer satisfaction.
25. Hostinger
Hostinger is an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider. It offers shared WordPress hosting, managed WordPress/WooCommerce hosting, and cloud hosting plans.
They use cutting-edge technologies, such as LiteSpeed caching, object caching, and built-in CDN integration, to provide a faster hosting platform.
Here are some interesting facts and figures about Hostinger:
- It is an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.
- It uses a slightly different technology stack than some other WordPress hosting companies. Instead of Apache or Nginx, it uses LiteSpeed webserver for shared hosting plans.
- They are highly praised by WordPress publications for faster performance and incredible 24/7 support.
Launched as a Lithuania-based tech startup in 2004, Hostinger has grown steadily over the years.
Wrapping Up
The WordPress ecosystem is evolving rapidly, and new companies are appearing regularly. Many will soon grow to become influential WordPress businesses in their niches.
There is plenty of room for new businesses to join the WordPress ecosystem, and hopefully, we will see many more new companies rise to the top soon.
Looking to start a business? Use our free AI-powered business name generator tool to come up with a catchy name.
We hope this article helped you discover the most successful WordPress companies and businesses today. You may also want to take a look at our list of the top brands using WordPress.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Olaf
This list clearly answers the eternal question of whether WordPress could ever take jobs away from developers. Specifically, whether WordPress could one day be so good that anyone could build a website themselves. Such a situation could theoretically arise, especially in the age of AI, but it’s evident here that WordPress is only as good as its components, particularly with added plugins. And in this, there’s always great potential for finding work as a developer and working for a company that develops software for WordPress. Clearly, this business model works well.
Jiří Vaněk
It’s truly fascinating how this open-source project not only powers nearly half of the internet but also provides jobs for a vast number of people. The entire WordPress ecosystem is built primarily on the hard work and skill of individuals who make this already great content management system, in my opinion, the best one thanks to their thoughtful plugin ideas. Thanks to the community and these individuals and companies, WordPress is now where it is today, and that’s perfectly fine. I have always supported projects like WordPress, and it’s one of the reasons I build websites on it today. I believe Matt Mullenweg can rightfully be proud of how his system has slowly grown into a global giant.
Mrteesurez
Great article.
I can see many giants leveraging and building on WordPress and have become successful on it. I believe there are still rooms in WordPress ecosystem for emerging brands to evolve.
You can think of how may businesses and small brands using these brands products all across the world.
To me, I still see the bright future in WordPress.
Thanks for sharing this.
Moinuddin Waheed
Thanks to me as I am already familiar with the first seven in the list.
Its good to see the success story of these wordpress brands.
These are the company that run completely around wordpress.
Thanks wpbeginner for compiling this list, this kind of articles give us hope in WordPress future.
Vivian
Great list! You might also want to check out Devrix. It’s a European-based technical WordPress development agency focusing on developing customized digital solutions and ongoing development for businesses.
Chris
WPEngine should not be on this list. They are one of the worst hosting environments (IMO) and are nightmares for developers like myself. The cacheing is a pain for development (cannot turn off) and they don’t even offer a file manager or cpanel option, crazy.
Adrienne
Love Soliloquy, great plugin..
André
Where is StudioPress?
WPBeginner Support
Copyblogger is the company behind StudioPress.
Admin
Aatish
Hi,
What About Woothemes Changed the eCommerce face in wordpress.
Regards,
Aatish Kamble
WPBeginner Support
Automattic acquired WooThemes in May 2015.
Admin
Noz
I was wondering the same ..?
Some of the currently mentioned businesses are unheard of ,to be honest..
Marcos Depresbiteris
Thank you so much for your enourmous contribution about Wordpress.
I am gratefull.
Editorial Staff
There are so many amazing companies. We should really do another one to highlight another set
Admin
Editorial Staff
We did mention our management company Awesome Motive Inc which encompasses WPBeginner, OptinMonster, SoliloquyWP, Envira Gallery, and our other properties.
Admin
Natan
A list of twenty influential WordPress-related companies that doesn’t include Thesis/DIYthemes? Sounds fishy to me.
M Imran
Hi,
Thank you for great info. Please check out No.8 it’s IncSub, currently is written InsCub.
Regards,
Muhammad Imran
Editorial Staff
Thank you – just fixed it!
Admin
oscar
A good company too is wpcareteam.com , they have help thousands of businesses manage their WordPress site.
Ahmed Alhaj
Good List, I recognized most of them, n never heard of others!.. maybe missing other good names like WooThemes, Themezilla and ManageWP ?
Thanks
Shaswat Shah
Hi,
Nicely written article but you guys forgot to mention wpbeginner.com wpbeginner has helped millions to solve their Wordpress problems!