Bluehost Develops Open Source Script To Update Two Million WordPress Sites

The cloud-based solutions provider's custom script reduced WordPress-related technical issues by 18 percent.

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Feb 11, 2016, 05:00 ET

OREM, Utah, Feb. 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluehost, part of Endurance International Group's family of brands and a leading provider of cloud technology, hosting and web presence solutions, today announced the development of a new script designed to continually update WordPress websites and increase site security. Bluehost's code successfully updated more than 2.5 million WordPress sites on its platform and has been released to the open source community.

After determining that a significant number of customers were running outdated versions of WordPress, Bluehost's development team created a unique Perl script utilizing WP-CLI (WordPress-Command Line Interface) and custom code to update WordPress sites going back to version 1.0.2. Bluehost completed exhaustive tests and reviews to ensure the script resulted in minimal disruptions or site downtime.

In this impressive undertaking, 99% of WordPress sites on Bluehost's platform were upgraded successfully with fewer than 0.007% of customers reporting any issues. Since implementation, the company has seen a significant 18% reduction in technical support requests relating to WordPress. Bluehost has further implemented this new technology to continually update WordPress websites to ensure customers on its platform enjoy the security of an up-to-date WordPress site going forward.

In its commitment to supporting WordPress and the open source community, Bluehost has released this script under the GNU General Public License (GPLv2). "We feel this is one of the best ways we can contribute to a safer online environment and provide an improved WordPress experience for everyone," says James Grierson, Bluehost General Manager. "Keeping web software up-to-date is the most straightforward way to secure a site and yet it's often the most neglected. This script helps make our customers safer and we hope the open source community leverages it to do the same for anyone who loves WordPress."

For more information and documentation on the script, visit http://bluehost.github.io/wp-tools/. For more information about Bluehost and its commitment to WordPress, see WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg's praise for Bluehost in his State of the Word speech here.

About Bluehost
Bluehost, part of the Endurance International Group, is a leading provider of cloud-based solutions, including web hosting services, eCommerce tools, marketing applications, and more. Built on open source, Bluehost designs and operates its own servers, develops innovative new internet technologies, and actively supports and participates in the open source community. For more information, visit www.bluehost.com.

About Endurance International Group
Endurance International Group is a publicly traded (NASDAQ: EIGI) technology company that helps power small and medium-sized businesses online. Through its proprietary cloud platform, Endurance provides web presence solutions including web hosting, eCommerce, eMarketing and mobile business tools to approximately 4.5 million subscribers around the globe. The company's world-class family of brands includes Bluehost, HostGator, iPage, Domain.com, A Small Orange, MOJO Marketplace, BigRock and ResellerClub, among others. Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Endurance employs more than 2,500 people across the United States in Utah, Texas, Washington and Arizona and in the United Kingdom, India, Israel and Brazil. For more information on how Endurance can help grow your business, visit endurance.com, follow us on Twitter @EnduranceIntl and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EnduranceInternational.