WordPress, the ubiquitous publishing platform that launched millions of blogs and websites, turned 20 on May 27th. While not the first open source content management system (CMS), WordPress caught on like nothing before and helped spread open source to millions.
It was simple, easy to deploy, and easy to use, and WordPress had the added benefit of being open source. WordPress also benefited from and popularized MySQL, introducing the LAMP stack – and open source – to an audience that might never have touched a database before or had any intro to open source.
Two great tastes that go great together
MySQL was around long before WordPress, and WordPress wasn’t the first CMS to use MySQL. MySQL was founded in 1995 and went open source in 2000. MySQL was the database for phpWebLog, for example, way back in 2000.
But WordPress brought MySQL and open source to the masses. WordPress arrived on the scene as blogging was becoming a mainstream trend and helped launch, literally, millions of blogs. As a side-effect, WordPress drove the deployment and use of MySQL by users well beyond the developer and database administrator (DBA) audiences.
While not the first open source LAMP stack CMS, WordPress made setting up a blog super simple. As WordPress evolved, its setup continued to get simpler and easier, but even the very first release reduced the complexity of deploying the blog along with its MySQL database.
MySQL knowledge (kind of) required
WordPress reduced complexity – but didn’t eliminate the need to interact with MySQL directly. And MySQL was the only option. If you wanted WordPress, you had to use MySQL. Even today, the defaults are MySQL 5.7 or later or MariaDB 10.3 or later.
The project signaled intent to support other databases as early as the 0.7.1 release, but support for non-MySQL databases never materialized. Why? Because there was never a compelling enough reason to do the work. MySQL filled the bill just fine.
Depending on your hosting setup and support, early WordPress deployments required a little bit of MySQL CLI work or using phpMyAdmin to create a database with a username and password for WordPress to connect.
And if you wanted to migrate hosting or back up your WordPress install? Time to get comfortable with MySQL backups. Today it’s possible to export your WordPress data with its export utilities through the Web interface. But, for a long time, you needed to be comfortable with mysqldump or other backup / restore methods to move servers or providers.
This meant many non-technical users had to learn a bit of MySQL to dump their WordPress database and restore it.
And if your blog got Slashdotted or just a high level of traffic in general? Then you might need to delve into MySQL tuning and replicas. Out of the box, MySQL was fine for a decent amount of traffic but would fall over pretty quickly if hit with a sustained burst of traffic.
Not because MySQL wasn’t performant but because the out-of-the-box defaults weren’t adequate for heavy traffic. With a little tuning, though, MySQL could hold its own.
MySQL (and open source) for the masses
In addition to exposing millions of bloggers to MySQL, WordPress helped make open source a mainstream concept.
Technical audiences were already discovering and singing the joys of open source. Developers, system administrators, database administrators, and enthusiasts were hip deep in open source operating systems, programming languages, and open databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL. But mainstream users? Not so much.
Firefox wouldn’t see its first release until November of 2004 and didn’t start seeing widespread adoption until years later. OpenOffice was around but not seeing a ton of traction.
But WordPress? It was a perfect project to promote open source to the masses. It was easy to use. Users didn’t have to upend their daily driver operating system. They didn’t have to re-learn an office suite. Demand for a CMS was relatively new, so few users were deeply attached to a proprietary alternative.
It demonstrated the values of open source and community. Note that I said values. It wasn’t just free, as in beer; it demonstrated the benefits of having access to source code. Lots of people got their start tinkering with source code, modifying WordPress, or writing plugins for it.
It showed the benefit of real open because you could host WordPress with any provider that would support it. Unhappy with your hosting provider? No problem. Migration between hosts was almost trivial using WordPress.
WordPress, and the LAMP stack underneath it, was great for hosting providers too. No proprietary operating system or database required. You could cram servers full of users with their own small slice of resources for cheap. (Sometimes too many. Many of us learned to choose providers with a virtual private server with dedicated resources over shared hosting, but that’s another discussion for another day…)
WordPress made the web more manageable
Simply put, WordPress made the web more manageable, which also made it more open. While it started out as a blogging platform, it didn’t take long before people pressed it into service for entire sites. Why? Because it was easy, simple, ubiquitous, and free.
And, under the covers, MySQL (and MariaDB later on) helped make it possible. I’d argue that WordPress’s popularity was greatly helped by MySQL, while WordPress also brought MySQL to a new audience.
MySQL was performant enough to support heavily trafficked blogs and websites. It was open, which meant it could spread like wildfire without any licensing friction.
It was simple enough to administer, allowing inexperienced users to do basic DBA tasks like creating and backing up their WordPress database without needing much help. Experienced MySQL admins could tune MySQL to handle the heavy traffic loads for more popular sites.
Here’s to the next 20
In case it’s not blatantly obvious, I’m a big fan of WordPress. But not just a fan; I’ve been using it almost since the beginning for my own sites and others. I recommend it to anyone starting their own blog or site if they don’t have a strong use case for specific things WordPress doesn’t do well. You probably won’t be shocked to learn that Percona uses MySQL for its website, too.
Along the way, I’ve developed a great fondness for MySQL, too. (I was already a fan of Linux well before WordPress existed…)
The LAMP stack is still the foundation of the modern web. Depending on who’s doing the counting (and how), you’ll see WordPress credited with something like 43% of all websites and a whopping 65% of the CMS market. (As of May 2023; those numbers will no doubt change over time.) And where you find WordPress, you’ll find MySQL (or MariaDB), which means MySQL is also powering an enormous chunk of the Web.
With two decades under its belt, I feel like the best is still yet to come for WordPress. Here’s to the next 20; I can’t wait to see what’s next.
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