TL;DR – PHP runs most of the web, and WordPress alone powers over 40% of it. The PHP Foundation’s annual budget is under $1 million and team.blue just became their Gold Sponsor, together with Automattic and GoDaddy.
Why only those 3 seem to care? This made us think more broadly about how hosting supports open source and whether it should.

This news reminded us that it’s a part of a bigger problem with maintaining open source software. Only a handful of operators actively support the open source projects their businesses rely on. 

We asked ourselves – why, if most of the core infrastructure used by hosting companies (Linux, MySQL, OpenSSL, web servers, mail servers, control panel components, automation tools) is open source, more companies do not do the same what team.blue, GoDaddy and Automattic did?

Because it worked for years and not many cared.

Fortunately more large brands start to talk openly that maintaining open source needs maintaining and it “thrives when everyone contributes”.

PHP Foundation budget

In 2024, the Foundation raised $685,350 and contracted 10 part-time and full-time developers responsible for a substantial share of PHP core work. 

They delivered 1,976 commits, 1,278 code reviews, and 13 implemented RFCs in a single year. 

The budget for 2025 was around $900,000. Less than $1 million per year to maintain a language used by the majority of the web.

This covers:

  • core maintainers,
  • security work,
  • releases,
  • long-term stability.

There is no hidden reserve here, this is the entire visible budget.

Now compare that with the ecosystem built on PHP:

  • WordPress-related businesses alone generate tens of billions of dollars annually (hosting, themes, plugins, SaaS services, agencies),
  • shared hosting companies generate recurring revenue almost entirely by packaging PHP-based workloads, 
  • managed WordPress hosting is one of the highest-margin products in the industry.

Exact totals vary by estimate, but the order of magnitude does not.

Billions in annual revenue.
Under $1 million in core language funding.

That contrast is staggering. 

Why only a few stepped up

Because this is not about affordability. A $12,000 annual Gold sponsorship is smaller than a single junior hire, smaller than many conference budgets and smaller than many internal tooling experiments. Platinum Sponsor gives $100.000, but still, for many companies this would not be a budgeting issue.

It’s closer to what most people do with causes they support “in principle”:

  • change a profile picture,
  • share a post,
  • agree that it matters.

And then move on.

A small number of companies have gone further.

Automattic was one of the founding supporters of the PHP Foundation.

A few others, including GoDaddy and team.blue followed with direct sponsorships. 3 companies is a relatively short list to the size of the industry that benefits.