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  • In latest move against WP Engine, WordPress takes control of ACF plugin

    In latest move against WP Engine, WordPress takes control of ACF plugin

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    The dispute between WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and hosting provider WP Engine continues, with Mullenweg announcing that WordPress is “forking” a plugin developed by WP Engine.

    Specifically, Advanced Custom Fields — a plugin making it easier for WordPress users to customize their edit screens — is being taken out of WP Engine’s hands and updated as a new plugin called Secure Custom Fields.

    Mullenweg wrote that this step was necessary “to remove commercial upsells and fix a security problem.”

    The Advanced Custom Fields team responded on X, describing this as a situation where a plugin “under active development” has been “unilaterally and forcibly taken away from its creator without consent,” which it said has never happened “in the 21 year history of WordPress.”

    “This essential community promise has been violated, and we ask everyone to consider the ethics of such an action, and the new precedent that has been set,” the ACF team wrote.

    Both Mullenweg’s blog post and a reply from WordPress claim that similar situations have, in fact, happened before, though Mullenweg added, “This is a rare and unusual situation brought on by WP Engine’s legal attacks, we do not anticipate this happening for other plugins.”

    They also pointed to WordPress’ plugin guidelines, which give WordPress the right to disable or remove any plugin, remove developer access, or change a plugin “without developer consent, in the name of public safety.”

    Some background: WordPress is a free, open source content management system used by many websites (including TechCrunch), while companies like WP Engine and Mullenweg’s Automattic offer hosting and other commercial services on top. 

    Last month, Mullenweg published a blog post criticizing WP Engine as a “cancer to WordPress.” His criticisms covered everything from WP Engine’s lack of support for revision history to its investor Silver Lake, but he also suggested that its “WP” branding confuses customers, making it sound like the company is officially connected to WordPress.

    Cease-and-desist letters have gone both ways, with WP Engine claiming Mullenweg threatened to take a “scorched earth nuclear approach” unless the company paid to license the WordPress trademark.

    WordPress banned WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org, briefly lifted the ban, then imposed it again. This essentially prevents WP Engine from updating the plugin through WordPress.org — so it can’t offer automatic updates to address security issues.

    WP Engine has, however, published a workaround for users who want to update the plugin and continue using ACF. (It says the workaround is only necessary for ACF’s free users, as pro users will continue to receive updates through the ACF website.)

    Moving forward, Mullenweg wrote that Secure Custom Fields will be available as a non-commercial plugin: “If any developers want to get involved in maintaining and improving it, please get in touch.”

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  • The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained

    The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained

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    The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress.

    WordPress technology is open source and free, and it powers a huge chunk of the internet — around 40% of websites. Websites can host their own WordPress instance or use a solution provider like Automattic or WP Engine for a plug-and-play solution.

    In mid-September, Mullenweg wrote a blog post calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress.” He criticized the host for disabling the ability for users to see and track the revision history for every post. Mullenweg believes this feature is at the “core of the user promise of protecting your data” and said that WP Engine turns it off by default to save money.

    He also called out WP Engine investor Silver Lake and said they don’t contribute sufficiently to the open source project and that WP Engine’s use of the “WP” brand has confused customers into believing it is part of WordPress.

    In reply, WP Engine sent a cease-and-desist letter to Mullenweg and Automattic to withdraw their comments. It also said that its use of the WordPress trademark was covered under fair use.

    The company claimed that Mullenweg had said he would take a “scorched earth nuclear approach” against WP Engine unless it agreed to pay “a significant percentage of its revenues for a license to the WordPress trademark.”

    In response, Automattic sent its own cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine, saying that they had breached WordPress and WooCommerce trademark usage rules.

    The WordPress Foundation also changed its Trademark Policy page and called out WP Engine, alleging the hosting service has confused users.

    “The abbreviation ‘WP’ is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is ‘WordPress Engine’ and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress,” the updated page reads.

    WP Engine ban, community impact, and trademark battle

    Mullenweg then banned WP Engine from accessing the resources of WordPress.org. While elements like plug-ins and themes are under open source license, providers like WP Engine have to run a service to fetch them, which is not covered under the open source license.

    This broke a lot of websites and prevented them from updating plug-ins and themes. It also left some of them open to security attacks. The community was not pleased with this approach of leaving small websites helpless.

    In response to the incident, WP Engine said in a post that Mullenweg had misused his control of WordPress to interfere with WP Engine customers’ access to WordPress.org.

    “Matt Mullenweg’s unprecedented and unwarranted action interferes with the normal operation of the entire WordPress ecosystem, impacting not just WP Engine and our customers, but all WordPress plugin developers and open source users who depend on WP Engine tools like ACF,” WP Engine said.

    On September 27, WordPress.org lifted the ban temporarily and allowed WP Engine to access resources on October 1.

    Mullenweg wrote a blog post clarifying that the fight is only against WP Engine over trademarks. He said Automattic has been trying to broker a trademark licensing deal for a long time, but WP Engine’s only response has been to “string us along.”

    The WordPress community and other projects feel this could also happen to them and want clarification from Automattic, which has an exclusive license to the WordPress trademark. The community is also asking about clear guidance around how they can and can’t use “WordPress.”

    The WordPress Foundation, which owns the trademark, has also filed to trademark “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress.” Developers and providers are worried that if these trademarks are granted, they could be used against them.

    Developers have expressed concerns over relying on commercial open source products related to WordPress, especially when their access can go away quickly.

    Open-source content management system Ghost’s founder John O’Nolan also weighed in on the issue and criticized control WordPress being with one person.

    “The web needs more independent organizations, and it needs more diversity. 40% of the web and 80% of the CMS market should not be controlled by any one individual,” he said in an X post.



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  • Automattic sends WP Engine its own cease-and-desist over WordPress trademark infringement

    Automattic sends WP Engine its own cease-and-desist over WordPress trademark infringement

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    The brouhaha in the WordPress community looks likely to escalate into a legal battle around trademarks.

    Just a day after WordPress hosting service WP Engine sent a cease-and-desist notice to Automattic asking its CEO to stop publicly trashing WP Engine, now Automattic has sent its own cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine, saying the latter has infringed several trademarks like WordPress and WooCommerce.

    This comes after Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic and co-creator of WordPress, last week criticized WP Engine for profiteering off the open-source WordPress project, called it a “cancer to WordPress,” and accused the company of contributing very little to the community.

    In its letter dated Monday, Automattic alleged that WP Engine has built a business of over $400 million in revenue based on unauthorized use of its WordPress trademark, which Automattic claims it has the exclusive commercial rights for from the WordPress Foundation. Automattic also said WP Engine has misled consumers into believing that there is a direct affliction between the two companies.

    “Your unauthorized use of our Client’s trademarks infringes on their rights and dilutes their famous and well-known marks. Negative reviews and comments regarding WP Engine and its offerings are imputed to our Client, thereby tarnishing our Client’s brands, harming their reputation, and damaging the goodwill our Client has established in its marks,” the letter read.

    “Your unauthorized use of our Client’s intellectual property has enabled WP Engine to compete with our Client unfairly, and has led to unjust enrichment and undue profits,” it added.

    Automattic is also demanding compensation for the profits made by WP Engine by using its trademarks, and said that if WP Engine doesn’t amicably solve the matter, the company has the right to file a civil injunction case.

    For context, here’s a good summary of the WordPress community by my colleague Paul Sawers:

    WordPress powers more than 40% of the web, and while any individual or company is free to take the open source project and run a website themselves, a number of businesses have sprung up to sell hosting services and technical expertise off the back of it. These include Automattic, which Mullenweg set up in 2005 to monetize the project he’d created two years earlier; and WP Engine, a managed WordPress hosting provider that has raised nearly $300 million in funding over its 14-year history, the bulk of which came via a $250 million investment from private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018.

    In the cease-and-desist letter WP Engine sent to Automattic on Monday, the company defended its right to use the “WordPress” trademark under fair use laws. The company added that Automattic has “a profound misunderstanding of both trademark law and WordPress Foundation’s trademark policy.”

    It also said Mullenweg demanded WP Engine pay Automattic “a significant percentage of its gross revenues — tens of millions of dollars in fact — on an ongoing basis” for a license to use trademarks like “WordPress.”

    “When his outrageous financial demands were not met, Mr. Mullenweg carried out his threats by making repeated false claims disparaging WP Engine to its employees, its customers, and the world,” WP Engine’s letter said.

    Notably, Automattic’s letter doesn’t mention Mullenweg’s remarks about WP Engine.

    In the last week, Mullenweg has accused WP Engine of not contributing enough to the community and offering “a cheap knock-off” version of WordPress. WP Engine pushed back against this characterization and called out Mullenweg for launching a smear campaign against the company, saying it has already affected some of its business.

    This might be the start of a long legal tussle between the two entities. A lot of folks also pointed out that this battle might be harmful for providers offering specialized WordPress hosting.

    Earlier today, WordPress Foundation changed its Trademark Policy page to call out WP Engine alleging the hosting service of confusing uesers.

    “The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress,” the updated page reads.

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  • WP Engine sends cease-and-desist letter to Automattic over Mullenweg’s comments

    WP Engine sends cease-and-desist letter to Automattic over Mullenweg’s comments

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    WordPress hosting service WP Engine on Monday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic after the latter’s CEO Matt Mullenweg called WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress” last week.

    The notice asks Automattic and Mullenweg to retract their comments and stop making statements against the company.

    WP Engine, which (like Automattic itself) commercializes the open-source WordPress project, also accused Mullenweg of threatening WP Engine before the WordCamp summit held last week.

    “Automattic’s CEO Matthew Mullenweg threatened that if WP Engine did not agree to pay Automattic – his for-profit entity – a very large sum of money before his September 20th keynote address at the WordCamp US Convention, he was going to embark on a self-described “scorched earth nuclear approach” toward WP Engine within the WordPress community and beyond,” the letter read.

    “When his outrageous financial demands were not met, Mr. Mullenweg carried out his threats by making repeated false claims disparaging WP Engine to its employees, its customers, and the world,” the letter added.

    The letter goes on to allege that Automattic last week started asking WP Engine to pay it “a significant percentage of its gross revenues – tens of millions of dollars in fact – on an ongoing basis” for a license to use trademarks like “WordPress.”

    WP Engine defended its use of the “WordPress” trademark under fair use laws and said it was consistent with the platform’s guidelines. The letter also has screenshots of Mullenweg’s text messages to WP Engine’s CEO and board members which appear to state that Mullenweg would make the case to ban WP Engine in his talk at WordCamp if the company did not accede to Automattic’s demands.

    Automattic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Mullenweg, who co-created WordPress, last week criticized WP Engine for raking in profits without giving much back to the open source project, while also disabling key features that make WordPress such a powerful platform in the first place.

    Last week, in a blog post, Mullenweg said WP Engine was contributing 47 hours per week to the “Five for the Future” investment pledge to contribute resources towards the sustained growth of WordPress. Comparatively, he said Automattic was contributing roughly 3,900 per week. He acknowledged that while these figures are just a “proxy,” there is a large gap in contribution despite both companies being a similar size and generating around half-a-billion dollars in revenue.

    In a separate blog post, he also said WP Engine gives customers a “cheap knock-off” of WordPress.

    Notably, Automattic invested in WP Engine in 2011, when the company raised $1.2 million in funding. Since then, WP Engine has raised over $300 million in equity, the bulk of which came from a $250 million investment from private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018.



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  • Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a ‘cancer to WordPress’ and urges community to switch providers

    Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a ‘cancer to WordPress’ and urges community to switch providers

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    Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg unleashed a scathing attack on a rival firm this week, calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress.”

    Mullenweg criticized the company — which has been commercializing the open source WordPress project since 2010 — for profiteering without giving much back, while also disabling key features that make WordPress such a powerful platform in the first place.

    For context, WordPress powers more than 40% of the web, and while any individual or company is free to take the open source project and run a website themselves, a number of businesses have sprung up to sell hosting services and technical expertise off the back of it. These include Automattic, which Mullenweg set up in 2005 to monetize the project he’d created two years previous; and WP Engine, a managed WordPress hosting provider that has raised nearly $300 million in funding over its 14-year history, the bulk of which came via a $250 million investment from private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018.

    Speaking this week at WordCamp US 2024, a WordPress-focused conference held in Portland, Oregon, Mullenweg pulled no punches in his criticism of WP Engine. Taking to the stage, Mullenweg read out a post he had just published to his personal blog, where he points to the distinct “five for the future” investment pledges made by Automattic and WP Engine, with the former contributing 3,900 hours per week, and the latter contributing just 40 hours.

    While he acknowledged that these figures are just a “proxy,” and might not be perfectly accurate, Mullenweg said that this disparity in contributions is notable, as both Automattic and WP Engine “are roughly the same size, with revenue in the ballpark of half-a-billion [dollars].”

    Mullenweg has levelled criticism at at least one other big-name web host in the past, accusing GoDaddy of profiteering from the open source project without giving anything meaningful back — more specifically, he called GoDaddy a “parasitic company” and an “existential threat to WordPress’ future”.

    In his latest offensive, Mullenweg didn’t stop at WP Engine, he extended his criticism to the company’s main investor.

    “The company [WP Engine] is controlled by Silver Lake, a private equity firm with $102 billion in assets under management,” Mullenweg said. “Silver Lake doesn’t give a dang about your open source ideals, it just wants return on capital. So it’s at this point that I ask everyone in the WordPress community to go vote with your wallet. Who are you giving your money to — someone who’s going to nourish the ecosystem, or someone who’s going to frack every bit of value out of it until it withers?”

    In response to a question submitted by an audience member later, asking for clarity on whether Mullenweg was asking WordPress users to boycott WP Engine, he said that he hoped every WP Engine customer would watch his presentation, and when it comes to the time when they’re renewing their contracts, they should think about their next steps.

    “There’s some really hungry other hosts — Hostinger, Bluehost Cloud, Pressable, etc, that would love to get that business,” Mullenweg said. “You might get faster performance even switching to someone else, and migrating has never been easier. That’s part of the idea of data liberation. It’s, like, one day of work to switch your site to something else, and I would highly encourage you to think about that when your contract renewal comes up, if you’re currently a customer with WP Engine.”

    ‘A cancer to WordPress’

    In response to the brouhaha that followed the talk, Mullenweg published a follow up blog post, where he calls WP Engine a “cancer” to WordPress. “It’s important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread,” he wrote. “WP Engine is setting a poor standard that others may look at and think is ok to replicate.”

    Mullenweg said that WP Engine is profiting off the confusion that exists between the WordPress project and the commercial services company WP Engine.

    “It has to be said and repeated: WP Engine is not WordPress,” Mullenweg wrote. “My own mother was confused and thought WP Engine was an official thing. Their branding, marketing, advertising, and entire promise to customers is that they’re giving you WordPress, but they’re not. And they’re profiting off of the confusion.”

    Mullenweg also said that WP Engine is actively selling an inferior product, because the core WordPress project stores every change that is made to allow users to revert their content to a previous version — something that WP Engine disables, as per its support page.

    While customers can request that revisions be enabled, support only extends to three revisions, which are automatically deleted after 60 days. WP Engine recommends that customers use a “third-party editing system” if they need extensive revision management. The reason for this, according to Mullenweg, is simple — saving money.

    “They disable revisions because it costs them more money to store the history of the changes in the database, and they don’t want to spend that to protect your content,” Mullenweg contends. “It strikes to the very heart of what WordPress does, and they shatter it, the integrity of your content. If you make a mistake, you have no way to get your content back, breaking the core promise of what WordPress does, which is manage and protect your content.”

    TechCrunch has reached out to WP Engine for comment, and will update here when we hear back.

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