The WordPress Situation

Welcome back to another episode of Digital Brew! In this episode, we dive into the drama that’s been unfolding in the WordPress world. If you’ve heard whispers about “Matt vs. WP Engine” but weren’t sure what was happening, we’ve got you covered.

What we covered:

The WordPress Drama Explained

• Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of WordPress and founder of Automatic) accused WP Engine (one of the largest WordPress hosting companies) of not contributing enough to the open-source WordPress ecosystem.
• Matt then banned WP Engine from accessing wordpress.org resources, preventing their customers from updating WordPress or plugins.
• WP Engine responded with a cease and desist followed by a lawsuit.
• The conflict has caused significant tension in the WordPress community, with staff leaving Automatic and longtime community members abandoning the project.
• Automatic has reduced its investment in WordPress, cutting major version releases for 2025 down to just one.

Should You Be Worried About WordPress?

• Despite the drama, we don’t think there’s a real reason to panic about WordPress’s future.
• WordPress powers 43.5% of the internet, including major organizations like TechCrunch, Sony, CNN, Spotify, Microsoft, and yes, even Taylor Swift’s website.
• The massive financial investment in WordPress from large companies means it won’t disappear overnight.
• Being open-source means that even if current leadership falters, others can pick up the torch (just as WordPress itself began as a fork of B2/Cafe Log).
• Security updates will continue regardless of the situation.
• The real power of WordPress comes from third-party developers creating plugins and themes, not just from the core team.

Closed Source vs. Open Source

• We believe closed-source platforms like Squarespace or Webflow actually pose a greater long-term risk than WordPress.
• Closed-source platforms can change pricing or terms overnight, as Webflow demonstrated recently by significantly increasing costs for some users.
• With WordPress, you can always move your site to a different host if needed.

Our Take:

The “WordPress situation” makes for interesting gossip but doesn’t represent a significant risk for businesses using or considering WordPress. The open-source nature of WordPress provides a level of security that closed-source platforms simply can’t match.

Have thoughts or lingering concerns about WordPress after listening to this episode? We’d love to hear from you!

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