We’ve been quietly piloting this for the past year, and it’s already reached more than 5,000 active students across 27 countries. Now we’re ready to open the doors.

At WordCamp US 2025, Matt Mullenweg closed his keynote with a question: 

How do we give the next generation the best tools, so they don’t have to write with a borrowed pen?

That line is the whole reason WordPress.com Education exists.

The Student Plan: Free professional WordPress.com tools

Any teacher can apply for their class at wp.com/edu and get, for every student:

• A real WordPress.com plan: The same platform millions of businesses run on. No watered-down “student tier,” no restricted plugin access.
• A free domain name: Students can register a .blog or .art domain at no cost (our two education-eligible TLDs for this initial phase). 
• Plugin support: Students can install plugins and extend their sites as part of their coursework.
• The first year, completely free: No credit card required.

This isn’t a stripped-down classroom version of WordPress.com. The Student Plan includes plugin support, 6 GB of storage, backups, staging sites, SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, and Studio Sync. Students learn and build with many of the same tools they’ll encounter working with WordPress professionally.

After year one, renewal is just $2/month ($24/year) — a price that keeps the site online and accessible long after the course ends.

That last point matters more than it might sound. This isn’t a throwaway class project that disappears when the semester ends. It’s a real website, on a real domain, that a student owns and can carry into a portfolio, a job application, or their first freelance client — for less than the price of a coffee a month.

And even if a student decides not to renew after the first year, nothing gets deleted. The site simply drops to a free WordPress.com plan on a free subdomain, and every page, post, comment, and media file the student created stays exactly where it is, fully intact and online.

No countdown timer, no “pay or lose your work” ultimatum. The portfolio a student spent a semester building is theirs to keep, whether they renew or not.

Why we built the Student Plan for real classrooms

Teachers tell us the same challenges come up again and again:

Setup takes too long. Creating accounts, configuring sites, troubleshooting access issues — all before the actual coursework even starts. WordPress.com handles the infrastructure so you can focus on teaching.

Students lose their work when the semester ends. Most classroom tools delete everything once the course closes. Motivated students who want to keep building have nowhere to go. With WordPress.com Education, every student owns their site and can keep it live for $2/month — or take their content with them, anytime.

Not every student starts from the same place. Students in under-resourced schools or countries often face barriers that limit what they can build or access online.

This program gives every student the same professional-grade platform, the same custom domain, and the same opportunity to create a real web presence — no matter where they’re starting from.

Preparing students for the real web 

Education systems around the world are rethinking what digital literacy means in the age of AI. 

We think the answer starts with ownership — not another walled-garden tool that disappears the moment a subscription lapses, but the open web itself.

Students leave with a domain they control, content they own, and practical WordPress skills built on the fundamentals that power over 40% of the internet.

It’s already working: 5,000+ students, 27 countries

WordPress.com Education has been running successfully as a pilot program for the past year.

At IES Luís Seoane in Spain, marketing teacher Joaquín says giving students access to WordPress.com from day one lets them work in a real environment. More than 20 of the program’s 30 students went on to internships, and employers were “surprised by the level our students bring—not just in SEO and SEM strategy, but in working with WordPress.”

I love the ‘forever’ nature of this. My students can build a real portfolio that they can keep and use after the course ends.

— Javier, Media Studies Teacher, San Telmo Arts School, Spain

Survey results from pilot educators confirm this:

• 88.9% said WordPress knowledge, combined with the program, improves their students’ employability.
• 81.5% said it improves their students’ entrepreneurial capacity.

Real skills, on real infrastructure, translating into real outcomes — internships, jobs, and the confidence to launch something of their own.

Building the bridge to the community

WordPress.com Education is also a bridge into the wider WordPress community. Beyond our own classroom program, we’re supporting two WordPress.org initiatives with free WordPress.com hosting:

• WordPress Credits is a WordPress Foundation program that partners with educational institutions to engage students in open source contributions. We provide free hosting to participants, and 150+ students have benefited so far.
  
• WordPress Campus Connect is a WordPress.org initiative that brings local WordPress communities into higher education institutions through student-led events. WordPress.com has sponsored dozens of these events with free hosting for organizers and attendees.

It’s about moving students from “I have a website” to “I’m part of a global open source community” and doing our part to strengthen the programs the wider WordPress project has already built.

Bring WordPress.com to your classroom 

WordPress.com Education is more than free hosting. It’s a program that works alongside educators to prepare students for the future of the open web, helping them retain ownership of their content while strengthening their employability and entrepreneurial skills.

This includes initiatives such as AI-assisted website creation, microcredentials, and professional certifications designed to build practical skills, validate knowledge, and turn ideas into real-world opportunities.

Educators can apply to bring the Student Plan to their classes at wp.com/edu.

If you’re a teacher, department head, or program coordinator who wants your students building real, lasting websites they can own and grow — apply today.