WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan
Automattic has introduced WordPress.com Education, a free plan for teachers and students that provides each student with a WordPress.com domain and various web development tools. The plan offers 6 GB of storage, backups, staging sites, plug‑in support, SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, and Studio Sync for the first year without requiring a credit card. After the initial year, students can continue for $2 per month or retain their site on a free WordPress.com domain.
- ▪WordPress.com Education was unveiled at the WordCamp U.S. conference and includes a full domain, free .blog or .art domains, and plug‑in support for each student.
- ▪The free plan provides 6 GB of storage, backups, staging sites, and advanced tools such as SFTP/SSH and phpMyAdmin for the first year.
- ▪Automattic piloted the program with 5,000 students in 27 countries, with 88.9% of educators reporting improved employability for their students.
- ▪After the first year, students may subscribe for $2 per month, or their site will revert to a free WordPress.com domain without losing content.
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| Original publisher | TechCrunch |
| Canonical URL | https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/17/wordpress-com-targets-the-next-generation-of-web-creators-with-a-free-student-plan/ |
| Publication time | Mon, 17 Aug 2026 14:56:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-17T19:09:47.659Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-17T19:09:47.659Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | None |
| Cluster logic | Not yet clustered, or no peer story found in the clustering window. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
WordPress.com maker Automattic is expanding into education with a new, free product designed for teachers and their classes called WordPress.com Education. The suite for classrooms includes a full WordPress.com domain for each student, plus free domain names (on the .blog or .art domains) and plug-in support. Teachers can provide students with access to the program for free for the first year, without having to put a credit card down or enter a trial. This allows teachers to use the technology in courses that teach students how to build websites, or for other classroom needs such as group projects that incorporate website building. Unveiling the product at its annual WordCamp U.S.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at TechCrunch.
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