
By Syed Balkhi | October 15, 2024 | Reader Disclosure
It’s strange to get messages asking, “Is the WordPress situation really that dramatic, or is it just overhyped?”
Throughout my 15 years of managing WPBeginner, I never anticipated having to address any drama within the WordPress community in a blog post. My primary aim with this blog has always been to offer high-quality, free tutorials tailored for non-technical beginners and small business owners.
Regrettably, we’ve reached a juncture where a significant amount of misleading information and panic is being propagated about WordPress by various media outlets and influencers eager for attention.
There is a growing sense of anxiety among various groups, including website owners, digital agencies, and enterprise-level professionals. Many individuals are expressing concerns about whether WordPress remains a secure platform and if they should seek a different CMS solution for their sites.
In this article, I aim to clarify the current situation surrounding WordPress, identify those affected, and offer guidance on how to safeguard your websites.
TLDR: This is NOT the demise of WordPress, and your websites are secure.
My Disclaimer:
I am not a legal professional, nor a trademark expert. The purpose of this post is to address WPBeginner blog readers who may be worried about the current situation. Having been part of this community for 18 years, my passion for WordPress drives me to share my insights. These reflections stem from my experience in the industry and the information I have gathered online. I do not possess any insider knowledge regarding the matter at hand. My views may evolve as new information comes to light.
Now, let’s delve into the ongoing WordPress controversy involving WP Engine and Automattic.
Brief Overview: A legal dispute has arisen between two prominent WordPress companies, WP Engine and Automattic, concerning a trademark issue. Their significant impact in the industry has intensified matters, resulting in unfavorable public relations for the WordPress ecosystem. It is important to note that the vast majority of WordPress sites remain unaffected by this situation.
This entire situation emerged from the legal conflict between two major players in the WordPress sector over a trademark disagreement.
Automattic is a company founded by WordPress co-founder, Matt Mullenweg. They are responsible for the development of WooCommerce, the hosting service for WordPress.com, the Jetpack plugin, and more.
WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting company owned by a prominent private equity firm named Silver Lake.
Automattic holds the exclusive commercial rights to the “WordPress” trademark. They requested WP Engine to negotiate a licensing agreement, which could involve either financial payments to Automattic or increased support for the free open source WordPress project.
As the negotiations between the two parties stalled, Matt brought the issue to light at the annual WordCamp US conference, where he asserted that WP Engine, despite generating over $400 million in revenue, does not contribute sufficiently to the free open source WordPress project.
As the situation intensified, both organizations exchanged formal legal Cease and Desist (C&D) letters. In response to these legal threats, Matt, a co-founder of WordPress, prohibited WP Engine from accessing the WordPress.org servers.
This decision resulted in customers using WP Engine for their websites being unable to obtain updates from WordPress.org servers.
Subsequently, the ban was reversed for a limited time to safeguard users and enable WP Engine to develop their own update servers. Being an open-source platform, WordPress allowed the WP Engine team to create their own updater, ensuring that users hosted by them could continue to receive software updates.
The server block was reinstated on October 1st. Not long after this, WP Engine initiated a federal lawsuit against Automattic and Matt Mullenweg.
As tensions rose, the WP Engine team found themselves barred from accessing their WordPress.org accounts. This resulted in their inability to push updates to their WordPress plugins through the official WordPress.org servers.
One notable plugin under WP Engine’s umbrella is Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), which enjoys widespread popularity among developers and is utilized by over 2 million websites. To ensure that security updates are accessible to all users, the WordPress.org team decided to fork the ACF plugin, rebranding it as Secure Custom Fields (SCF), and took control of the original ACF plugin directory page without WP Engine’s approval. This action was justified as necessary to continue providing updates for users who might be unaware of the ongoing situation.
This move was met with considerable backlash, drawing negative reactions from developers, influencers, and media outlets.
As of the writing of this article, all other plugins from WP Engine remain available for download on the WordPress.org plugin directory, but the WP Engine team continues to be banned and cannot utilize the WordPress.org servers to distribute updates.
In essence, the core of this WordPress conflict revolves around a tense legal trademark disagreement involving WP Engine, Automattic, and Matt Mullenweg, who is one of WordPress’s co-founders.
Given that WP Engine has initiated a federal lawsuit against Automattic, it appears that only the legal system can determine the final outcome unless the involved parties reach a mutually agreeable resolution outside of court. The official WordPress Twitter account indicated that the matter could be settled if certain conditions are met:
If WP Engine retracts its lawsuits, issues an apology, and complies with proper trademark usage, they may regain access to the plugin directory listing.
For now, Secure Custom Fields remains a community plugin, open to contributions. We understand that logging into .org is currently not possible for you…
The response is a resounding NO. Not at all.
WordPress is the driving force behind more than 43% of websites globally, standing as a monumental presence beyond any individual or organization. Most small business owners and WordPress users remain oblivious to the current turmoil as it doesn’t directly affect their day-to-day operations.
During a conversation with my personal trainer, a local small business owner, it became clear he was unaware of the negative commentary surrounding WordPress. When I mentioned it briefly, he responded:
“I have no plans to leave WordPress just because some large corporations are caught up in a trademark issue. What’s important to me is that my website functions properly and my business continues to thrive.” – Sean Nelson, Founder of Hustle Training 360.
The truth is, the WordPress software that you used to create your website remains unchanged.
If you’re utilizing well-known plugins such as Elementor, WPForms, WooCommerce, AIOSEO, Duplicator, and many others, the situation remains unchanged.
A platform as significant as WordPress will not come to a halt due to a trademark conflict between two companies.
In the larger picture, only a small fraction of users are affected, and I will explain how you can determine if your website is among them, along with steps you can take to address it.
For the vast majority of individuals and websites utilizing WordPress, they are NOT affected by this legal issue between Automattic and WP Engine.
If you are utilizing a complimentary plugin that was created by WP Engine and you are NOT hosted on their platform, your websites will be affected as you won’t be able to receive updates for those free plugins from WordPress.org.
Below are the well-known free plugins developed by WP Engine that are prevented from receiving updates from the WordPress.org servers:
As mentioned before, if you are not using the plugins developed by WP Engine, there is no action required on your part.
Your WordPress site remains secure and functional.
It is always advisable to maintain regular backups of your WordPress site and utilize a security firewall like Cloudflare for enhanced protection.
For those utilizing WP Engine’s plugins, it is necessary to install the WP Engine updater plugin to continue receiving updates, or alternatively, seek out other options based on your preferences.
You can share this blog post with others to assure them of the safety of WordPress, which remains the leading open-source CMS choice available today.
A legal trademark dispute between two companies does not diminish the fact that WordPress powers 43% of all websites and continues to grow. With over 60,000 free plugins and thousands of free themes, WordPress provides limitless possibilities for building any type of website.
The development of WordPress core is making significant strides, and WordPress 6.7 is on the horizon.
Additionally, there are further insights available regarding WordPress market share and trends.
Amidst everything happening, my affection for WordPress remains strong, and I have unwavering faith in the incredible WordPress community.
Having dedicated more than half of my life to the WordPress community, I am committed to doing all I can to support both the community and our users. You can read my latest thoughts on contributing to the WordPress ecosystem.
In closing, my sincere hope is that the two esteemed companies engaged in the legal dispute will reach a resolution promptly. This will allow us to shift our focus back to the advancement of WordPress and the mission of democratizing publishing and commerce globally.
As always, I am grateful for your unwavering support of WPBeginner, and I eagerly anticipate serving you well into the future.
Sincerely,
Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner
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