Automattic is the parent company behind WordPress.com, a site that offers hassle-free blogs based on the open source WordPress.org project.
The difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
There is often some confusion between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress (no .com on the end) is an open source free software project that lives at WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a free blogging service, owned and run by Automattic.
Some of the confusion could arise from the prolific Matt Mullenweg who is associated with both WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Matt is one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web, Inc.com’s 30 under 30, and Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web.
Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic, is also the co-founder and project lead of WordPress, but Automattic does not own WordPress. It’s a true open source project and the bulk of development is done by volunteers.
Blogging made easy
Automattic is a company devoted to making things simple on the web, aiming to give people the tools to make communication easy.
Founded in 2005 they have steadily grown to be one of the top companies in the consumer internet industry.
WordPress.com is the service that they are best known for, but by no means does that mean it’s all they are doing. Automattic has created over 25 plugins for your blogging needs ranging from simple blog graphs and stats to its function changing Blicki (blog + wiki) feature.
Other Web services and products include:
- bbPress – Forum Software
- blo.gs- RSS feed aggregator
- Akismet – An anti-comment spam system capable of integration with many blogging platforms and forums.
- WordPress MU – A multi-blog community system built on WordPress (merged with the normal version with the release of WP 3.0).
- Ping-O-Matic – A pinging service.
- Gravatar – Globally recognized avatars
- IntenseDebate – Commenting Tools
- PollDaddy – polls and survey tools
- BuddyPress – Social Networking Plugin Suite
- Vaultpress – VaultPress is the protection and backup service built on the Automattic grid
- Plinky – Web-based promting software to help bloggers overcome writer’s block
- After the Deadline – A spellchecker for the web
- VideoPress – VideoPress converts your original video into multiple high-quality formats suitable for viewing on the web.
- P2 – A real time blogging theme for WordPress
As of June 2010, over 22 million blogs have been created with WordPress, with thousands of new ones built each day. WordPress.com is a top 10 global site as measured by Quantcast.
