WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan
WordPress.com Education lets teachers offer their students free domains, plugin support and professional website-building tools.
Automattic, the maker of WordPress.com, is reaching out to the next generation of web creators with a new free student plan called WordPress.com Education. The educational suite offers each student their own full WordPress.com domain, free .blog or .art domain names, and plug-in support. Teachers can provide students with access to the platform for free during their first year without needing a credit card or trial.
The Student plan includes 6 GB of storage, backups, staging sites, support for plugins, SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, and Studio Sync. Automattic, best known for its WordPress.com hosting service, is known to run the open-source WordPress software powering about 43% of all websites on the internet.
Despite WordPress being ubiquitous, it's not the go-to platform for young people establishing their web presence. Instead, they often opt for setting up social media profiles. However, the new Student plan can integrate WordPress into classrooms to train the next generation of website professionals. The free plan can also make inroads in underfunded schools.
After the first year, students can choose to subscribe for $2 per month ($24/year) to keep their work. If they don't, their work will still exist as a free WordPress.com site on a free domain, retaining all their web pages, posts, comments, and uploaded media. The company piloted the program with 5,000 students across 27 countries, with 88.9% of educators reporting improved students' employability and 81.5% saying the program boosted students' entrepreneurial capacity.
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