StellarWP’s 2021 Year in Review
This year wasn’t just major for StellarWP—it was also a game-changing 12 months for the WordPress community at large.
When we launched StellarWP in spring 2021 to serve as the home for Liquid Web’s growing stable of WordPress plugins, we entered into an increasingly active space. Post Status tracked dozens of WordPress acquisitions throughout the year as software companies and investors—including us—moved in on a unique opportunity to support and grow the WordPress ecosystem.
Today, five new brands and 120 new team members later, StellarWP has come together as a collective of WordPress pros with a unified goal and vision under one umbrella brand. We couldn’t be more proud of the work our team accomplished in 2021, and we can’t wait to unlock new collaborations that will elevate our WordPress plugins in 2022.
As we reflect on the last year, here are some of the most significant milestones for StellarWP and our WordPress brands.
StellarWP acquired The Events Calendar.
We kicked off 2021 with the acquisition of the number one events calendar plugin on WordPress—not a bad way to ring in the new year!
Over the last 12 months, The Events Calendar team introduced a slew of customer-centric improvements across their products, including a new Calendar Manager, Elementor integration, and more.
Kadence WP joined StellarWP.
We were thrilled to welcome Kadence WP into the fold this spring. Their team is responsible for creating one of the most robust and user-friendly WordPress themes and block plugins. In 2021, Kadence WP also launched three new products: Kadence Child Theme Generator, Kadence Cloud, and Kadence Conversions.
StellarWP officially debuted.
Technically, there was no such thing as StellarWP before May 2021—all of our previous acquisitions took place through Liquid Web, our parent company.
But by the spring, Liquid Web leadership decided it was time to introduce a dedicated brand that would serve as the home for all of the company’s software and WordPress acquisitions. Thus, a star was born: StellarWP. ✨
GiveWP became the newest StellarWP brand.
Right after we introduced StellarWP, we also acquired GiveWP—the leader in WordPress plugins for nonprofits. They’ve helped more than 100,000 fundraisers generate over a billion dollars.
In the last year, GiveWP has continued to release impressive new tools and features, including Peer-to-Peer, Text-to-Give, and Salesforce add-ons.
IconicWP joined the Stellarverse.
Just one month after acquiring GiveWP, we announced our acquisition of IconicWP, a powerful collection of plugins that enhances WooCommerce and helps users boost their online sales.
The IconicWP team was hard at work this year on the release of Orderable, a new local ordering plugin for WooCommerce.
Between June and July, iThemes released big upgrades and a new (free!) product.
iThemes has been part of our family since its acquisition in 2018. This year, the team made serious strides on product improvements with the June release of iThemes Security Pro 7.0, which made it easier for users to secure their sites properly without requiring extensive technical knowledge.
Just a few weeks later, iThemes Security 8.0 (free) was released with a multitude of exciting new features that had previously been available only to Pro customers.
We announced our largest acquisition to date with LearnDash.
Just in time for the back-to-school season, StellarWP acquired the leading learning management system plugin for WordPress. We were thrilled to welcome the LearnDash team to our family and to celebrate their wins during 2021, including the launch of LearnDash Achievements, Certificate Builder for Gutenberg, and Coursegrid 2.0 blocks.
In December, we’re looking to the future… 👀 🌌
While we count down the final days in 2021, our team at StellarWP is thinking about what our contribution to WordPress will look like in 2022.
As a collective of leading WordPress brands, we’re in a unique position to not only enhance the customer experience for WordPress users but also to make an imprint on the WordPress community at large. More than anything, we’re committed to our people—after all, our solutions wouldn’t exist without the brains, talent, and human power that keeps everything running. We appreciate each and every member of this team.
In 2022, we’re excited to tap into more opportunities for collaboration and integration across the StellarWP team, which will ultimately help us build an even stronger suite of products for our users. 2021 was the year we came together, and 2022 will be the year we really hit our stride as a team; we can’t wait to see what the future holds.
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