Could WordPress website owners have to make a decision...?

[scotslad]

As of 1st November 2024, a high-stakes feud within the WordPress community has sparked widespread concern among website owners and developers globally. The ongoing clash between Automattic—the company behind WordPress.com—and WP Engine, a major managed WordPress hosting provider, has raised questions about governance, control, and the future of the open-source ecosystem. This dispute could significantly impact millions of website owners who rely on WordPress for their online presence, with potential changes to hosting, plugins, and even the platform itself.
Background of the Dispute

The conflict centres around apparent improper use of the WordPress trademark (Search Engine Journal, 2024).

In response, WP Engine issued a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Mullenweg of defamation and extortion and subsequently filed a lawsuit against Automattic, citing abuse of power and trademark infringement (The Verge, 2024).

Why in this all important?

WordPress currently powers around 40% of all websites, making it the world’s most popular content management system (CMS) (Search Engine Journal, 2024). Automattic, founded by Mullenweg in 2005, has grown significantly, with an estimated annual revenue of $1 billion (FT, 2024).

The dispute between Automattic and WP Engine could create fragmentation within the WordPress community, leading to a less cohesive ecosystem. This rift has already raised concerns about control over open-source projects, as WordPress.org (the open-source platform) operates separately from WordPress.com but is still heavily influenced by Automattic’s leadership.

Key potential impacts for website owners...

...Plugin and Theme Compatibility: The conflict could lead to plugin or theme providers taking sides, potentially resulting in incompatibilities across hosting providers.

Price Increases: With added legal costs and potential shifts in hosting providers, both Automattic and WP Engine may pass on expenses to users through price increases.

Open-Source Fragmentation: If plugin and theme developers choose to align with specific providers, it may weaken the collaborative ethos that has fueled WordPress's success.

Options for Website Owners
Website owners dependent on WordPress face several choices moving forward. They need to monitor Developments Closely and seriously consider alternative platforms.

Platforms like Squarespace, Wix, or Shopify offer CMS options that come with dedicated support and fewer governance issues.

As this drama unfolds, WordPress users globally should prepare for potential shifts in the ecosystem. The outcome could redefine how millions of sites are managed, pushing website owners to adapt to a potentially divided "internet".

Do you use a worpress site? Will you be affected?

[Mike Gorman]

I have used WordPress software since 2009, I exclusively use the .ORG variation, and I have strongly promoted this to others over the years, specifically in the 'Citizen Journalist' and independent writer communities, this is because I consider this product, or project, to be a genius level solution: the software comes out-of-the-box with a bare-bones website development project what would take a very capable development team many weeks to produce, and from this we can forge a media platform that is specifically designed to cooperate with the semantic/search functions of the WWW - this is very concerning, I need to catch up with what this might mean for independent developers, thank you for bringing this to my attention!

[TrumanCash]

I am totally unimpressed with WordPress and other new programs with the block-style approach and templates that limit creativity. I have used a two-decades old html program that served me well until more recently it was moved to a Linux server and now I can no longer modify my websites. My websites are frozen and the tech guy who did it could not fix the problem.

Not being a techy, the old html programs were so much easier for me to use than WP. They old programs allowed an artsy-fartsy guy like me to have lots and lots of fun with a blank canvas to create my unique websites. I have been trying in vain with WP to even get a home page published because it is so complex and so limiting. I gave up on building anything that is creative with WP.

If you compare modern austere skyscraper architecture with say the beauty and artistry of the St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow you get the idea of the difference between the modern block structure of modern website programs that have factored out the creativity and uniqueness of good old html websites. Unfortunately, these good old html websites are no longer supported so they are falling by the wayside.

[zebowho]

I use Wordpress on a few of my domains as well as manage some client Wordpress sites. I don't think this will be as dividing as it looks on the surface. Understanding how the web works plus hosting a site and/or server is key.

Wordpress.com is in direct competition with WP Engine as they are both managed hosting platforms. You're paying for dedicated wordpress servers, and optimized for such. Most people don't need this type of hosting, the free version delivered/downloaded from wordpress.org is more than good enough and can be hosted anywhere for example with hostmonster/bluehost, my own server or a VPS running on say AWS or Azure. The latter hosting options cannot be said for the former wordpress.com/wpengine.com or for that matter squarespace, wix and shopify. Websites hosted with these platforms have to be migrated/exported in order to run on your own server or outside of the wordpress.com/wpengine/squarespace/wix/shopify/etc ecosystems.

To further this (and as far as I know), those platforms (the former two) have specific optimization running for a wordpress installation which is where they charge for a wordpress based website. The latter three platforms have a design layer sitting on top of a wordpress installation so....plugins, themes and the like shouldn't change for wordpress at large since none of those previous platforms own the wordpress framework. Plugins and themes are designed for the framework and the framework is owned/maintained/updated by Automattic and will not change based on any "hosting" service offering any variation of either managed services or design services sitting on top if that makes sense.

I guess if you are buying a hosting package on any of those platforms you could be effected but the fix for this is fairly simple, point your domain to an alternate hosting service that is setup to run wordpress and migrate your website from those ecosystems. Yes you would have to handle the "managed and design" portion either yourself or hire someone. Remember, the framework isn't in question, just the trademark (logo) and how its being used.

I think the far bigger threat to the wordpress framework is AI, one could use AI to build a totally custom CMS to host their website or just a static website and take all of the above out of the mix!

-z

[Lunesoleil]

:ROFL: my blog is on wordpress, a free version and today I was forced to have advertising and then a subscription... I purged my blog to save space, I don't know if that will be enough

:facepalm:

[Helvetic]

Btw: I am looking for a Wordpress specialist who can help me out. Please PM me. Thanks.

[Michi]

I own a wordpress site too, though I don't maintain it's content any longer. Initially my intent was to create some revenue but my interests went in some other direction.
The setup, using some template was fairly straight-forward. The numerous plug-ins required some extra work.

Lateron I had some editing problems (I think it was once I transitioned to another web host) and I simply hired a programmer at https://www.fiverr.com/ for a few bucks and got the problem fixed in no time.

For other programming tasks I used https://www.upwork.com/ and got in the end good results.
In choosing a freelancer for programming, it requires however some search and questioning to separate the wheat from the chaff.

[Michi]

I am totally unimpressed with WordPress and other new programs with the block-style approach and templates that limit creativity. I have used a two-decades old html program that served me well until more recently it was moved to a Linux server and now I can no longer modify my websites. My websites are frozen and the tech guy who did it could not fix the problem.

Not being a techy, the old html programs were so much easier for me to use than WP. They old programs allowed an artsy-fartsy guy like me to have lots and lots of fun with a blank canvas to create my unique websites. I have been trying in vain with WP to even get a home page published because it is so complex and so limiting. I gave up on building anything that is creative with WP.

If you compare modern austere skyscraper architecture with say the beauty and artistry of the St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow you get the idea of the difference between the modern block structure of modern website programs that have factored out the creativity and uniqueness of good old html websites. Unfortunately, these good old html websites are no longer supported so they are falling by the wayside.

I feel you concerning the rather limited block-style framework of the WP CMS system. Because of that I had purchased an editing plug-in (yellow pencil) so I had more possibilities.

However, for my current own site where I promote my work, I got all programmed in html (in part css) after I initially designed it in Google-sites.
(Google-sites are very limited too - so I wanted it to completely self coded.)

So for fairly simple sites, even "smart-phone friendly" ones, html is appropriate.

In regards, to your "frozen" website, you may consider hiring a freelancer, for example over at: https://www.fiverr.com/