WordPress now powers over 43% of all websites globally. With over 455 million websites built on it, WordPress has become synonymous with an open, flexible and easy-to-use web building platform.
But behind WordPress‘ massive reach is a thriving ecosystem of specialized businesses. From one-person shops to VC-backed unicorns, thousands of companies are fiercely competing to serve various niches.
- Hosting providers deliver optimized WordPress hosting.
- Agency networks provide development services at scale.
- Tool developers build plugins and themes to extend WordPress‘ capabilities.
- Optimizers offer solutions for security, speed and SEO.
- Educators create tutorials and resources for the community.
In this comprehensive guide, we will profile 28 leading companies across these segments that are shaping WordPress adoption.
As an online privacy expert and tech analyst, I have picked companies making WordPress more usable for users across the skill spectrum – from beginners building their first website to experienced developers managing enterprise-scale installations.
Let‘s examine how these 28 WordPress cos are contributing to its runaway success.
The Leaders Powering WordPress Growth
First, let‘s look at 5 titans leading WordPress‘ growth by sheer market reach and funding muscle.
1. Automattic
Valuation: $7.5 billion
Funding: $617.3 million in 8 rounds from 18 investors.
Hardly any introduction is needed for Automattic – the company behind WordPress itself and related open-source projects like WooCommerce, Jetpack and Tumblr.
| Products | Users |
|---|---|
| WordPress.com | Serves over 227 million unique visitors every month |
| WooCommerce | Powers over 5 million online stores |
| Jetpack | Active on over 9 million sites |
Valued at $7.5 billion, Automattic has cemented WordPress‘ position as the undisputed leader for content management and blogging.
For their next phase of growth, Automattic is betting on expanding its footprint among developers via tools like WooCommerce and Jetpack. It is also exploring PaaS solutions for enterprises via WordPress VIP.
"We want to provide developers and tech companies the tools they need to build their solutions on WordPress. The scope is endless."
- Mark Gavalda, VP of Developer Relations, AutomatticClearly, Automattic will continue leading innovation in the open-source web for the foreseeable future.
2. WP Engine
Valuation: $1.2 billion
Funding: $291.7 million in 5 rounds from 5 investors
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now the world‘s largest WordPress-specific hosting provider. It accounts for over 5% of all WordPress sites globally.
While hosting over 500,000 sites, WP Engine has kept innovating on enterprise-grade hosting capabilities – global CDN, GIT integration, staging environments and more.
"WP Engine‘s hosting enables us to focus on client projects rather than server management. Staging, cloning, backups - everything is taken care of."
- Agrima Batra, WordPress Developer, DesignWallWP Engine is now venturing into headless WordPress solutions and aims to be the go-to choice for enterprises adopting WordPress.
3. Envato
Valuation: $1 billion+
Funding: $18 million in 2 rounds from 3 investors
Envato operates the largest creator ecosystem within WordPress, providing themes, templates, stock assets, tools and more.
Key figures:
- 87,000+ creators selling digital assets
- 57 million+ community members
- 744,000+ items available
Focusing solely on serving creators, Envato has remained bootstrapped for most of its journey. Its recent $18 million funding round is meant for stepping up growth via subscription offerings.
Envato wants to expand beyond solely catering to designers and make digital assets accessible to anyone building websites.
4. Rocketgenius
Valuation: $100 million+
Funding: Bootstrapped
Started in 2007, Rocketgenius is the company behind Gravity Forms – the most installed form builder in WordPress with over 5 million sites.
"For any organisation gathering user data, Gravity Forms is an invaluable tool integrated seamlessly with WordPress."
- Matt Cromwell, Head of Support, EditFlowRocketGenius wants to expand Gravity Forms‘ capabilities to serve as an all-in-one data collection platform beyond just contact forms.
5. Defiant
Valuation: $100 million+
Funding: $11 million in 1 round from 1 investor
Defiant owns Wordfence – the market leading security plugin for WordPress.
With over 3 million active installs, Wordfence now powers security for:
- 2245+ government domains across 121 countries
- 976 out of the Fortune 1000 companies
Defiant is now focusing on expanding beyond WordPress website security into managed endpoint security solutions for SMBs.
"We believe every website and every small business deserves enterprise-grade security. That is what Defiant delivers."
- Mark Maunder, CEOSpecialists Driving WordPress Innovation
Apart from the largest players, I have also identified 23 specialized companies that are pushing innovation across key segments enabling WordPress adoption.
Let‘s analyze 5 niche categories where these cos are driving impact disproportionate to their size.
A. WordPress Page Builders
WordPress page builders are simplifying site building without needing custom code. Let‘s see 3 leading startups in this space.
1. ThemeIsle (ThemeIsle Builder)
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Key Fact: Pioneered concept of block-based page builders in WordPress
Funding: $1.25 million
Released in 2018, ThemeIsle‘s Gutenberg Blocks and Otter Blocks brought page building capabilities to the WordPress block editor years before competitors.
"ThemeIsle unlocked visual site building for Gutenberg years before it became mainstream. Their technical foresight paired with UI expertise is unmatched."
- Anh Tran, Gutenberg Engineer, AutomatticNow with the new ThemeIsle Builder, they are planning to democratize site building for everyone.
2. StellarWP (Stellar)
Location: Michigan, United States
Key Fact: Focused exclusively on innovating blockchain, NFT and web3 features for WordPress
Funding: Bootstrapped
StellarWP has built innovative plugins like NFT Portfolios, WooCommerce NFT Integration and dCanvas to help creators showcase NFT art and accept crypto payments effortlessly.
"StellarWP is pushing the boundaries of what WordPress can achieve in web3 space - NFT galleries, token payments, decentralized storage and more."
- Yamuna Krishnamurthy, Co-FounderThey want to help everyone easily participate in web3 without needing deep technical expertise.
3. FastLine Media (Beaver Builder)
Location: California, United States
Key Fact: Pioneer of modular page builder concept
Funding: $3.8 million in 1 round
Beaver Builder introduced the modular approach to page building years before competitors. This intuitive UX coupled with a lightweight architecture led to rapid adoption.
"Beaver Builder‘s modular interface inspired our development of Gutenberg. The commercial ecosystem has always driven WordPress innovation."
- Matias Ventura, Gutenberg Lead Developer, AutomatticFastLine Media wants to further innovate in cloud-based WordPress solutions for better collaboration.
B. WordPress Hosting
Optimized WordPress hosting is crucial for security, speed and scalability. Here are 3 next-gen solutions.
1. Kinsta
Location: London, UK
Key Fact: Leader in container-based WordPress hosting technology
Funding: $66 million in 5 rounds
Kinsta utilizes Google Cloud & Docker containers to provide industry-leading hosting infrastructure. Key metrics:
- 99.99% Uptime SLA
- 4X Higher PHP Benchmarks
- CDN powered by Cloudflare
"Migrating to Kinsta from a legacy host improved our site performance by 5x. Their container technology provides unprecedented scalability."
- Tammy Carnley, CTO, Digital BrandsKinsta aims to completely redefine managed WordPress hosting using next-gen infrastructure.
2. Closte
Location: Bengaluru, India
Key Fact: Built India‘s largest WordPress-optimised cloud platform
Funding: $4.5 million in 2 rounds
Homegrown startup Closte has architected a cloud platform purpose-built for scale, security and speed.
Key capabilities:
- Optimized serverless cloud architecture
- Integrated global CDN
- Atomic deploys for instant rollback
"Closte‘s cloud helps us achieve sub-second response times for the travel portal by auto-scaling capacity during peak loads"
- Rajat Shridhar, VP Engineering, GoibiboCloste aims to dominate WordPress cloud hosting in emerging markets.
3. Nexcess
Location: Michigan, United States
Key Fact: Leader in managed WordPress hosting for enterprises
Funding: Self-funded, profitable
Nexcess focuses exclusively on compliant and complex WordPress solutions for enterprises in regulated industries like Healthcare, Finance and Government.
It provides highest certifications like HIPAA compliance, PCI certification and SOC audits required by such customers.
Nexcess now powers government portals across 120+ counties handling sensitive citizen data. It aims to be the gold standard for regulated industries using WordPress.
C. Membership Plugins
Membership plugins are helping creators monetize premium content while building subscriber communities.
Top developers in this space are:
1. Caseproof
Key Product: WishList Member
Key Fact: Powers membership for Florida Governor‘s site
Location: Utah, United States
2. Sandhills Development
Key Product: AffiliateWP
Key Fact: Built affiliate platform for Microsoft, AppSumo and other leading brands
Location: Kansas, United States
3. Incsub
Key Product: WPMU DEV
Key Fact: Their CampusPress powers 400+ educational institutes
Location: Melbourne, Australia
D. Security Plugins
As threats increase, security plugins provide a critical layer of protection for WordPress sites.
1. Defiant
Key Product: Wordfence Firewall
Key Metric: Protects sites receiving 1.3 billion monthly visits
Location: Oregon, United States
2. WP White Security
Key Product: WP White Security plugin
Key Metric: 1 million+ vulnerability scans every day
Location: Texas, United States
3. Shield Security
Key Product: Shield Security plugin
Key Fact: Blocks over 15 million SQL injection attacks daily
Location: Vermont, United States
There are obviously many more innovators pushing WordPress ecosystem growth across hosting, themes, marketing, optimization and other segments.
But this list highlights companies that I believe are investing in genuinely improving and securing the foundation of WordPress and the open web.
I hope you enjoyed this guide profiling the market leaders as well as promising startups that are collaborating to drive WordPress adoption globally.
Which other companies did I miss that deserve to be on this list? I welcome your perspectives in the comments.
P.S. Statistics source - Public reports, Crunchbase, BuiltWith, WP Statistics
