What WP Engine gives you is not WordPress, it’s something that they’ve chopped up, hacked, butchered to look like WordPress, but actually they’re giving you a cheap knock-off and charging you more for it. WP Engine is not WordPress

If you haven’t been following the WordPress/WP Engine feud, it’s been a rollercoaster. People have been wondering whether it’s time to leave the platform for a competitor. This post is meant to be a digestible recap of what’s going on. At this time, I’m not advising my clients to flee WordPress for other platforms. Instead, watch what happens with the platform and consider making a change whenever you’re planning a site redesign.

If you’re on WordPress.com

You’re fine. WordPress.com is owned by Automattic. There’s no conflict here. You probably didn’t even notice this whole thing. At some point, a conflict started between Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic (WordPress.com and WordPress.org) and WP Engine. He criticized WP Engine for profiting off WordPress without contributing back, trademark infringement, offering a stripped-down, less secure, less-backed-up version of WordPress.

If you’re on WordPress.org but, not WP Engine

You’re also fine for right now. However, the decisions that WordPress is making about WP Engine will definitely shape their policies going forward. And that could affect you later.

If you’re on WordPress.org and use WP Engine

You lost access to update your plugins and WordPress is looking at other ways to penalize WP Engine. It  will affect users as they get caught in the crossfire. There have been reports that the dashboard is failing (because WP Engine blocked the WordPress news updates).

When is it really going to matter?

Between the beginning and end of each month, a lot of updates happen for themes, plugins, and WordPress. If your website is on WP Engine, your access is at risk. The longer this goes on, the more breaking you’re going to see on your site. Eventually, your site is going to suffer.

Basically, there’s going to be a lot of problems at the changeover of each month that affect anyone using WP Engine.

The Feud Timeline

  • September 17, 2024: Mullenweg publishes WordCamp US & Ecosystem Thinking
  • September 20, 204: Mullenweg publishes Are Investors Bad?
  • September 21, 2024: Mullenweg publishes WP Engine is Not WordPress
  • Prior to September 22, 2024
    • Mullenweg began speaking and writing negatively about rival WP Engine
    • Mullenweg spoke at WordCamp US 2024 and argued that WP Engine had made meager contributions to WordPress, criticized WP Engine’s significant ties to private equity, and called for a boycott
    • WP Engine sent a cease and desist against what it characterized as defamation and extortion
    • Automattic sent its own cease and desist the next day citing trademark issues
  • September 25, 2024: WordPress.org blocked WP Engine and affiliates from accessing its servers including plugin updates, security updates, and themes
  • September 26, 2024: Mullenweg publishes WPE & Trademarks
  • September 27, 2024: WordPress.org restored access until October 1 to allow WP Engine to build its own mirror sites
  • September 28, 2024: Mullenweg publishes Where is Lee Wittlinger?
  • October 1, 2024: WordPress.org removed WP Engine Access to the servers again
  • October 2, 2024: WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg for extortion and abuse of power
  • October 3, 2024: Mullenweg publishes Automattic Alignment
  • October 7, 2024: Mullenweg announced that 159 employees—8.4% of Automattic—had quit in a realignment effort
  • October 12, 2024: WordPress.org replaced the listing of WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin on the WordPress.org plugin directory with a fork called “Secure Custom Fields”
  • October 12, 2024: Mullenweg publishes Everyone’s An Owner
  • October 14, 2024: Mullenweg publishes Response to DHH
  • October 20, 2024: Mullenweg publishes My Freedom of Speech

What are the ongoing concerns?

Many developers and businesses are worried about the power flex. The Shop Shop doesn’t use WP Engine for our client’s WordPress sites. We generally let our clients choose their hosting for the self-hosted wordpress.org sites. Most of the time, clients like to do it wherever their domain is registered or where they are hosting their emails. That’s not a super-technical reason. It’s an administrative one. From a small businesses standpoint, our clients find it more convenient to have one account and pay one bill to someone like GoDaddy for anything to do with being online.

Some of our clients are also on WordPress.com. Why? Because it’s simple for them. It’s easy to set up a one-click backup/restore. There’s a lot less for them to break. Often, they’ve used a site on WordPress.com before and it’s familiar to them. And again, it’s also just one bill for them to pay.

We’re hoping that this is a  battle between Mullenweg and WP Engine — not a shift in vision for who is allowed to connect with WordPress.org. “Managed by WordPress” is a common service that many hosting companies provide and it would be an even bigger mess if those came into conflict as well.

Definitions and FAQ

Here’s a quick list of questions that keep coming up during the feud.

What is WordPress.com?

WordPress.com is a hosted blogging service run by a company called Automattic and run by CEO Matt Mullenweg.

WordPress.com (a.k.a. “wpcom” or “WP.com”) is a for-profit hosted blogging service run by Automattic. WordPress.com launched in 2005, and is the largest WordPress install in the world. It is powered by WordPress, with some additional plugins and modifications layered on. Having “.wordpress.com” in the domain of the blog or the presence of a “Blog at WordPress.com” promo message or credits image can be used to determine whether a site is hosted at WordPress.com.
What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com? from WordPress.org

What is WordPress.org?

WordPress.org is an open-source software that anyone can use.

WordPress (sometimes called “WordPress.org” or “self-hosted WordPress” for disambiguation purposes), is software that you can download and install on any web host. It began in 2003 as a fork of b2/cafelog. Licensed by the GPL, you are free to use WordPress without restriction. Sites powered by WordPress may have a “Proudly powered by WordPress” credit, or they may have no credit at all. The absence of any mention of “WordPress.com” is a good indicator that it is a self-hosted WordPress instance).
What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com? from WordPress.org

What is Automattic?

Automattic is the company that runs wordpress.com as well as several other tools.

What is the overlap between WordPress and WordPress.com? First, Matt Mullenweg is both CEO of Automattic, and co-founder of WordPress. Matt is involved with both WordPress and WordPress.com. Some WordPress contributors are also employees of Automattic. There are many more WordPress contributors, most of which have no connection with WordPress.com.
Development decisions about WordPress are made without specific regard to their impact on WordPress.com. Any special changes that WordPress.com needs are made on that side, by Automattic employees.
What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com? from WordPress.org

We are the people behind WordPress.com, Woo, Jetpack, WordPress VIP, Simplenote, Longreads, The Atavist, WPScan, Akismet, Gravatar, Crowdsignal, Cloudup, Tumblr, Day One, Pocket Casts, Newspack, Beeper, and more. We believe in making the web a better place. Source: https://automattic.com/about/

What is WP Engine?

WP Engine is a completely separate for-profit software company whose main function is allowing businesses and organizations to build, host, and manage websites powered by WordPress.

Where else could your site be hosted?

If you have a WordPress site, you’re paying someone to host it. If it’s not at WordPress.com, it’s somewhere else. Go through your bills and look for software charges. Somewhere you’re paying for hosting, either directly or through an agency. Find it and see where you have hosted your site. That will help you navigate whatever comes next.

Further Reading

  • About that brawl between the WordPress co-founder and WP Engine… from Computer World
  • All around the world, building a new web, and a new workplace. Join us! Automattic.com
  • In latest move against WP Engine, WordPress takes control of ACF plug-in from TechCrunch
  • The messy WordPress drama, explained from The Verge
  • The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained from TechCrunch
  • What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com? from WordPress.org
  • WP Engine asks court to stop Matt Mullenweg from blocking access to WordPress resources from The Verge

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