Gloves Off: The Battle Between WordPress Explained. Plus, What It Means for WordPress Websites Moving Forward
WordPress, one of the most widely used technologies for creating and hosting websites, is currently in a heated battle with WP Engine, a hosting provider which hosts WordPress websites and provides a variety of website tools and Plugins for WordPress websites.
On September 21, 2024, WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg wrote a blog post criticizing WP Engine for disabling a feature that allows users to see and track revision history for pages and posts. He argued that the feature is at the “core of the user promises of protecting your data” and accused WP Engine of turning the feature off by default as a means to save money.
A legal battle has ensued since the blog post, which began with WP Engine sending a cease and desist letter to WordPress requesting to withdraw previous comments and claiming that Mullenweg threatened to 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.”
WordPress subsequently blocked WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org resources. Although plug-ins and themes are open source, services that retrieve them, like those run by WP Engine, are not included in the open-source license.
On September 27, WordPress.org lifted the ban temporarily, allowing WP Engine to access resources until October 1. On October 1, WP Engine posted on X that it has successfully deployed its own solution for updating plug-ins and themes.
What this could mean for WordPress websites moving forward
Relying heavily on one platform puts business at risk, as we’ve seen with this fallout. Whether due to technical issues or business disputes, such dependence can be problematic if things go wrong so it’s important to be proactive and have a strategy if things don’t go as planned.
In a scenario like this where you are relying on a third-party to host your website, having a complete backup of your website, including all files, databases, and configurations would allow you to migrate your website to another hosting provider quickly, rather than wait on the dispute to play out. Fortunately, the dispute didn’t last long and there seems to be some sort of a tentative resolution in place for the time being, but always be cautious of relying on one third-party platform for something as important as your website.
