Automattic rolls out free WordPress.com Education plan for students
Automattic introduced a complimentary WordPress.com Education suite that gives teachers and their classes a full domain, storage and plugin support for a year.
Automattic unveiled WordPress.com Education, a free package aimed at schools that supplies teachers with a complete WordPress.com domain for every student, plus optional.blog or.art domains and full plugin compatibility. Launched at the annual WordCamp US conference, the plan includes 6 GB of storage, automated backups, staging environments, and advanced tools such as SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin and Studio Sync. Enrollment requires no credit-card or trial period, allowing educators to integrate website-building projects directly into curricula.
After the initial year, students can stay on the service for $2 per month or downgrade to a standard free WordPress.com site while retaining all content. The program was piloted with 5,000 students across 27 countries, with 88.9% of teachers saying it boosted employability and 81.5% noting improved entrepreneurial capacity.
Why it matters
The free plan could embed web-development skills in classrooms and expand WordPress use in under-funded schools.
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