In 2024, Automattic said Tumblr’s backend would migrate to an architecture derived from WordPress.
Automattic, which owns Tumblr and operates WordPress.com, announced the project in August 2024. The plan was to move Tumblr’s underlying systems onto WordPress-related infrastructure while preserving Tumblr’s distinctive interface, posting experience, communities, and content. Automattic said users should not notice a major change from the outside.
The migration was intended to reduce duplicated engineering work and let developers build tools that could serve both platforms. Tumblr’s enormous scale made the project technically demanding: Automattic said the service hosted more than half a billion blogs. The announcement therefore described it as one of the largest technical migrations in internet history.
A common mix-up is treating the plan as a conversion of Tumblr into WordPress. That is not what Automattic announced. Tumblr was to retain its identity and user-facing character; WordPress was the foundation for the backend and shared development. The arrangement also linked Tumblr more closely to Automattic’s broader open-source and publishing ecosystem.