The White House
WhiteHouse.gov is the official website of the US executive branch, and it has been powered by WordPress since 2017. The site publishes statements, presidential actions, briefings, and multimedia for an audience that spans from journalists to people around the world. It is one of the most visible examples of open source software at work in government, and a useful reference point for any organization weighing WordPress for high-stakes publishing.
The original move to WordPress was driven by a combination of cost, editorial speed, and long-term maintainability. At the time of the transition, an administration official told the Washington Examiner that the redesigned site would save taxpayers nearly $3 million per year. And beyond cost reduction, WordPress gave the communications team a more direct path from draft to publication. Editors no longer needed a developer in the loop for routine updates, and the project benefited from WordPress’s long record of backward compatibility, which keeps content and customizations working across major releases.
Designed for the people
In 2021, the site was rebuilt from the ground up, launching on Inauguration Day. The build was led by 10up in collaboration with Wide Eye Creative. A companion presidential transition site was launched and hosted on the same platform in the days before Inauguration Day, providing a public home for the incoming administration’s announcements during the handover.
The team built directly on the block editor, using native blocks, custom blocks, and block patterns so the editing experience would visually match the published page. Everything lived inside the editing canvas, which made the editorial workflow fast and predictable under deadline pressure. The build reflects the WordPress design principle of decisions, not options: a curated block inserter, a constrained set of design choices, and custom post types paired with role-based permissions gave each Executive Office its own editorial space inside a shared, consistent system. Accessibility was foundational from the start, in line with the project’s longstanding accessibility standards.
Engineered for scale
WhiteHouse.gov runs on WordPress VIP, the only managed WordPress platform with a FedRAMP® Moderate Authorization to Operate, granted in March 2025 and listed in the FedRAMP Marketplace. Performance and resilience come from layered caching, a global CDN, and auto-scaling infrastructure, which together let the site absorb sudden traffic spikes around major announcements. The same platform supports other federal and public sector properties, including NASA and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Reflecting on WordPress’s role in public sector work, Nick Gernert, then CEO of WordPress VIP, said:
At WordPress, we talk a lot about democratizing publishing, democratizing access to communication. Philosophically and fundamentally, we believe a well-informed citizenry is a foundation of strong democracy.
The broader pattern of government adoption shows that an open source project maintained by a global community of volunteers can meet the requirements of mission-critical public communication.
Across administrations
WhiteHouse.gov has had a public web presence since 1994, and the National Archives preserves snapshots of every administration’s site. WordPress has been used across three administrations, the underlying CMS remaining the same even as design and content priorities have changed, which is one of the clearest demonstrations of WordPress’s flexibility as a publishing platform.
For teams interested in the technical detail, 10up’s case study and Multidots’ “Behind the Build” write-up cover the migration strategy, editorial design, and performance approach in depth. To explore more sites built with WordPress, visit the Showcase, and to learn how to contribute to the project that powers them, see Make WordPress.
