# WordPress.com Student Plan: Free Websites Students Keep > [!question] Lingering Questions > - What happens specifically to a registered `.blog`/`.art` domain (not just the site content) if a student doesn't renew — does the registration lapse, transfer, or stay parked? > - What child-safety, privacy, and data-protection framework (COPPA, FERPA, GDPR, or country equivalents) governs a program spanning 27 countries and presumably many students under 18? > - What is the actual sample size and survey instrument behind the 88.9%/81.5% figures, and were respondents teachers, students, or employers? > [!tip] Article Ideas > - Comparative piece: WordPress.com Education vs. GitHub Education's free-tier-to-alumni pipeline, on the specific dimension of post-course content/account survival. > [!link] Cross Reference > - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Product & Startup Instincts MOC]] > [!quote] Vocabulary ## Bib capsule wordpress.com, "WordPress.com Student Plan: Free Websites Students Keep," WordPress.com Blog, 2026-08-17 — https://wordpress.com/blog/2026/08/17/wordpress-student-plan/ ## Author's thesis (Q1+Q2) WordPress.com frames its new free "Student Plan" as a fix for the recurring EdTech failure mode where student work vanishes when a course, LMS, or trial account ends: a full-featured hosting plan plus a free domain, free for year one, then $2/month, with content surviving indefinitely on a free subdomain even if a student never renews. The pitch is backed by a year of quiet pilot data (5,000+ students, 27 countries) and doubles as a funding mechanism for two existing WordPress.org/Foundation education programs — WordPress Credits and Campus Connect. ## Key arguments (≤3) 1. Non-deletion at non-renewal is the real differentiator — student work survives indefinitely on a free subdomain rather than disappearing at course end, unlike most classroom EdTech tools. 2. The plan ships the full professional toolchain (SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, staging, Studio Sync), not a simplified student tier, so the skills built are career-relevant from day one. 3. The pilot evidence is real but thin — self-reported educator-perception survey figures (88.9%/81.5%) and a single detailed case study, not independent outcome research. ## Claim atoms ### Non-renewal never deletes a student's site > [!quote] ID:rw_student-plan-nondelete > "And even if a student decides not to renew after the first year, nothing gets deleted." Where/why: Central differentiator vs. classroom EdTech tools that delete work at term end; anchors the ownership narrative for the whole piece. ### Student Plan ships the full professional toolchain > [!quote] ID:rw_student-plan-toolchain > "The Student Plan includes plugin support, 6 GB of storage, backups, staging sites, SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, and Studio Sync." Where/why: Concrete feature list supporting the "professional environment, not a watered-down tier" claim — a useful anchor for any Training-team curriculum comparison. ### Pilot reached 5,000+ students across 27 countries > [!quote] ID:rw_student-plan-pilotscale > "We've been quietly piloting this for the past year, and it's already reached more than 5,000 active students across 27 countries." Where/why: Establishes pilot credibility ahead of the public launch — the evidentiary anchor behind every scale claim in the piece, though self-reported and not independently verified. ## Permanent candidates - **New**: Non-deletion at non-renewal is a retention/ownership lever distinct from feature-gating funnels — promoted below as [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Ownership Beats Disposability in EdTech Tool Design]] - The WordPress Credits/Campus Connect funnel mechanics mentioned here are already covered by [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Open Source Education Works as a Three-Stage Contribution Funnel]] — connecting, not duplicating. ## Processing checklist - [x] Checked for existing Literature Note — none found - [x] Checked for existing Permanent Notes covering this source's claims — found related-but-distinct notes ([[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Open Source Education Works as a Three-Stage Contribution Funnel]], [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Free Local Tools Funnel Toward Paid Hosting Tiers]], [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Zet · WordPress centralizes student education programs]]) covering the Credits/Campus Connect funnel and free-tool-as-acquisition patterns, but none capture the non-deletion/ownership claim specifically — new Permanent Note created - [x] Connected into [[3. Resources/MOCs/Product & Startup Instincts MOC]] ## Links - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Product & Startup Instincts MOC]] — the free-to-$2/month funnel and non-deletion retention mechanic are a product-strategy pattern worth tracking alongside other vendor free-tier plays - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Open Source Education Works as a Three-Stage Contribution Funnel]] — same Campus Connect/Credits programs, documented from a different source (podcast) with growth numbers - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Free Local Tools Funnel Toward Paid Hosting Tiers]] — contrasting funnel mechanic: that note is feature-gating toward a paid tier, this source is non-deletion of the free tier