Company
Automattic
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Automattic Inc. is a private company founded in 2005 by Matt Mullenweg, the co-creator of WordPress. Headquartered in San Francisco, Automattic operates as a fully distributed company with employees working remotely across more than 90 countries.
Automattic is best known for its contributions to the open source WordPress project and for operating WordPress.com, a managed hosting platform that brings the power of WordPress to users without requiring self-hosting. The company also offers WordPress VIP, an enterprise-grade content platform used by major media companies, governments, and large-scale publishers to deliver secure, performant, and scalable digital experiences. It is also the parent company of WooCommerce, the open source ecommerce platform powering more than 4 million online stores.
In addition to its core publishing tools, Automattic’s portfolio includes a wide range of products and services that support creators and businesses online: Jetpack (security and performance), Akismet (spam filtering), WPScan (security scanning), WP Cloud (WordPress-first cloud platform), Gravatar (globally recognized avatar), Day One (journaling), and Pocket Casts (podcasting).
The company expanded into the messaging space with the acquisitions of Beeper and Texts, aiming to disrupt closed messaging ecosystems with open-source, user-controlled alternatives. It recently acquired Clay, a personal CRM software that automatically organizes, intelligently searches and keeps your entire network in sync.
Automattic supports the mission of a free and open internet, and champions open source software development, and supports independent journalism. The company also owns and maintains award-winning publications like Longreads and The Atavist. In 2019, Automattic launched Newspack in partnership with the Google News Initiative and other funders.
As of 2025, Automattic employs about 1,500 people and remains privately held. It is considered one of the most influential companies in the open source, publishing, and distributed work ecosystems.
Created by Michelle Frechette
