The right to fork the software is at the heart of open source. WordPress itself started as a fork of the b2/cafelog project. WordPress was one of several forks from b2, which included b2++ (which eventually became WordPress Multisite) and some like b2evolution which still continue today.
Matt Mullenweg
One of the amazing advantages of WordPress is its GPL license and the fact that anyone can just make a fork of it and create their own.
Few have had any big impact, but I wanted to track known forks here. And, to be clear, this is a fork of the entire CRM, rather than a component of it (such as plugin installation, for example). Some are forks of forks too, particularly of ClassicPress.
Usage numbers are not available for most, but the most popular, ClassicPress, has an installation base of 1280 websites, as of May 2026.
Known WordPress Forks
calmPress
calmPress is a fork “that modifies the code and management idioms and adds to them whatever is required to get a more stable and calm experience for all of its users”. It was started in 2018 but has had no news items on its website since 2019 and has a near-empty forum.
It was started by Mark Kaplun, who appears to still be committing regularly to the code base.
Status: Unknown
Website: https://calmpress.org
Github: https://github.com/calmPress/
ClassicPress
This is possibly the most well know fork, created in 2018, originally to be a version of WordPress without the block editor.
Status: 🟢 Active
Website: https://www.classicpress.net/
Github: https://github.com/ClassicPress
CosmicWord
Created in late 2024 by security firm Planet Zuda, this fork hasn’t been updated since. The website is now dead, although the code repo remains.
Status: 🔴 Inactive
Website: https://cosmicword.com
Github: https://github.com/Planet-Zuda/CosmicWord
FreeWP
Created late 2024 by Vinny Green, this appears to be dead. Links on the website no longer work and no active repo can be found. However, it doesn’t appear, based on archive results, that the site was nothing much more than a holding page anyway, with footer pages incomplete and, at best, a blog.
It was created as a result of Matt’s legal case against WP Engine, and the community fall-out as a result of this.
Status: 🔴 Inactive
FreeWP: https://freewp.com
NotMattPress
Another fork protesting against Matt, I’m not sure if the code was anything other than a copy of code – it still is just a sync of that. The site has gone offline having been nothing more than a holding page.
Status: 🔴 Inactive
Website: https://notmatt.press/ (dead)
Github: https://github.com/notmattpress
Rectraceur
Created in early 2025 by Mathieu, this is another fork protesting against Matt. There’s no support, just one person’s fork of WordPress that he’s sharing for those interested.
Status: 🟢 Active
Website: https://retraceur.github.io
Github: https://github.com/retraceur
WhitelabelPress
Created in late 2024 by M.J. Schermer (whose personal website appears not to work), they also started their own “WordPressForks” sub on Reddit – needless to say, whilst the sub was for any forks, they ended up posting a lot about their own.
8 months ago it pivoted to Empowed.dev, an AI-first version of WordPress, but one that was closed source (naughty). The website for this is already dead.
Both WhiteLabelPress’ Github repo and website are no longer in use.
Status: 🔴 Inactive
Website: http://whitelabelpress.org
Github: https://github.com/neil-zip/WhiteLabelPress
Fork Detection
You may want a way to detect the use of a fork, so the following code will help with this. Impe