WordPress vs. WP Engine: What’s going on and what can you do about it?
Let’s take a look at why this drama is unfolding, who’s been impacted by it so far, and what we as WordPress users can do as this battle likely plays out over the next couple of years. If you’re looking for alternatives to WP Engine hosting or the WordPress content management system, keep reading.
Matt Mullenweg, answering questions about the situation at TechCrunch Disrupt
The drama between WP Engine and Matt Mullenweg explained
It seems like something new pops up in this heated saga every week between Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, and WP Engine, the managed hosting company. Rather than go down that rabbit hole, I’m going to provide you with a high-level summary of what ignited this feud and the key events that have taken place so far.
2011: Over 10 years ago, Matt Mullenweg’s Automattic was one of many companies that invested money into the then year-old WordPress hosting platform.
2018: WP Engine received a $250 million investment from private equity firm Silver Lake. According to a recent Mullenweg interview with TechCrunch, Automattic lost their shares and stake in WP Engine around the same time.
February 2023 to September 2024: Mullenweg believed that WP Engine’s use of the WordPress and WooCommerce trademark had created confusion in the market. He was also displeased with some of the modifications the company had made to the intellectual property, which he believed compromised the user experience.
Mullenweg and Heather Brunner, the WP Engine CEO, began discussions around February 2023. Their focus was the WordPress trademark and hashing out a commercial agreement that would allow WP Engine to use related trademarked terms in its sales and marketing.
This is where the relationship began to break down between the two parties.
September 20th 2024: To try and formalize this discussed agreement, Automattic sent a term sheet to WP Engine.
WP Engine was asked to agree to the following in exchange for a license to continue using the WordPress trademark:
- Use the WordPress WooCommerce trademarks and branding in adherence with Automattic’s guidelines.
- Pay Automattic a royalty of 8% of its gross revenue every month, the equivalent of 8% in WP Engine employee hours spent working on the WordPress.org core, or a combination of the two.
- Stop forking the software made by Automattic, WooCommerce, and other affiliates.
- Participate in WordPress community events in addition to WordCamps (not just pay for sponsorships).
The agreement would terminate in seven years.
September 23rd 2024: The terms sheet was not accepted. As a result, Automattic sent a cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine. It outlined the ways in which the hosting provider continued to use the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks in unauthorized manners.
October 1st 2024: WP Engine was banned from accessing the free resources of WordPress.org. This meant that the hosting provider no longer had the ability to issue updates or manage its plugins.
WP Engine deployed a workaround to ensure that customers’ service would not be disrupted.
October 2nd 2024:WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic. In the complaint, the company alleged a number of grievances against Automattic, like:
- Misusing the WordPress trademarks for financial gain
- Extorting WP Engine for millions of dollars
- Blocking the company and its users from WordPress.org and its servers
- Encouraging WordPress users to do business elsewhere
- Libel and slander
All in all, WP Engine has alleged that Automattic intentionally interfered with its ability to do business and compromised its relationships with customers. The company is asking for injunctive relief, which would prevent Automattic from carrying on with this course of action. In addition, they seek compensatory, exemplary, and punitive damages.
October 3rd 2024: Automattic offered employees a chance to resign from the company. The “Alignment Offer” would give employees $30,000 or six months’ salary (whichever was higher) if they resigned. They would also give up their rights to be re-hired.
Of the 1,900 or so employees they had at the time, 159 people (8.4% of the company) accepted the Alignment Offer.
October 12th 2024: WordPress took over the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin in the repository and renamed it “Secure Custom Fields”.
This was done by invoking Point 18 of the WordPress.org Plugin Guidelines. The reason for which was this:
“… to make changes to a plugin, without developer consent, in the interest of public safety.”
Although WP Engine no longer had access to manage the free plugin in the repository, users were invited to download the free plugin from WP Engine’s own servers.
October 17th 2024: Automattic employees were given another Alignment Offer. The new offer would give employees nine months of pay.
Mullenweg said this was done in response to reports of someone leaking private communications to the press. The leaker accepted the offer and left the company immediately.
Who’s been affected by the WP Engine and WordPress fight?
It’s more than just WP Engine and WordPress who have been impacted by this heated battle.
WP Engine
To start, WP Engine is trying to expedite the legal proceedings due to the company already experiencing massive losses.
In the filing, they reported a 14% increase in their cancellation rate between September 26 and 30 compared to the prior September average.
Self-service signups decreased by 29%.
At the same time, their new business sales channel also reported losing 63 prospective purchases or upgrades specifically due to the legal embroilments. This division also secured 333 fewer contracts than expected, based on earlier projections.
WP Engine has also been monitoring their existing customers’ setups. There’s been a 375% increase in customers who have installed migration tools. While not all of them have begun the contract termination process, this is a strong signal that there’s a mass migration underway.
WordPress
In October, WordPress lost just under 10% of its staff due to the Alignment Offer. In Mullenweg’s interview with TechCrunch, he stated that it was much-needed as the company had been overstaffed for some time. Regardless, they’re working on refilling some of those roles now.
It’s not just staff that WordPress has lost because of this legal drama. Some developers have pulled their plugins from the wordpress.org repository after what happened with ACF. Paid Memberships Pro is the most notable of the bunch and CEO Jason Coleman explained why they left WordPress.org here.
While plugin developers might be wary of Mullenweg and WordPress.org right now, we’re not seeing a mass exodus to flee the repository. One reason could be because WordPress.org continues to be the best option for developers.
Aggressive_Ad_5454 had this to say on Reddit in a discussion about developers removing plugins from the repository:
“From my perspective as a self-funded dev of non-monetized plugins, my loyalty is to my users.
I’m not yet ready to exit the w.org repository because I’m not sure my users would be better served that way (and I don’t have a krewe of ops folks to make it happen reliably). But I have to say I’m glad others are forcing the issue. This mess needs to be sorted out, or my users will suffer.
It would be healthy for the community around WordPress if MM would explain his vision for the future. It seems likely to me that part of that vision is to slow down the ensh**tification (Cory Doctorow’s word) of the community by extractive private equity players. I am 100% on board with that goal.
But let us have a chance to see MM’s vision!”
It will be a long time before plugin developers (and theme developers, by extension) can trust Mullenweg and WordPress.org again. The same likely goes for web hosting companies that are likely pouring over every inch of their websites and marketing campaigns to ensure they’re not in risky territory when it comes to the WordPress trademark.
WordPress developers, designers, and other web pros
It’s not just the two main players that are suffering financially or reputationally. It’s many web professionals who make a living from WordPress.
To start, you have all the web developers and designers who’ve recommended WP Engine and/or WordPress to their clients. With all this disruption going on, clients now wonder if they can trust these professionals they’ve hired.
According to mccoypauley on Reddit, they’ve lost about $40,000 because of this situation. Other Redditers commented on similar losses. Euphoric_Role437 said:
“I’m facing a similar challenge with a pending 36k contract renewal. The client has already signed up with Webflow, and now I’m in a position where I either have to offer Webflow services or walk away. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than losing the opportunity altogether. By the way, what CMS platforms are you currently considering?”
Even if these web pros can maintain the trust of their clients throughout all of this, there’s still the cost to navigate the mess caused by Mullenweg and WP Engine.
It’s not like every client will pay developers or designers to migrate their websites from WP Engine hosting to an alternative provider. Or to rebuild their sites on another content management system. Sadly, because of the way many of the more popular CMS are set up, it’s impossible to do a straightforward migration out of WordPress into their platforms. So a complete rebuild is necessary.
This will likely have web designers and developers wondering if WordPress or WP Engine are worth using in the future.
What alternatives do WordPress users have?
According to Mullenweg, this legal battle between WP Engine and Automattic/WordPress could take until 2026 and 2027 to play out. So, if you’re feeling uneasy about using either of these providers, you might want to start considering alternative options.
WP Engine web hosting alternatives
If you’re looking to switch hosting providers withinWordPress, here are some WP Engine alternatives:
All of these companies are offering either discounts or free migrations, according to a recent post on the WordPress blog.
I suspect these money-saving deals will remain for some time as deciding to migrate one’s site (especially sizeable enterprise and ecommerce sites) is not an easy decision to make or process to undergo. So business owners will need time to decide and get buy-in from all decision-makers.
WordPress CMS alternatives
Graphic from WordPress, illustrating its route to 40%
Although WordPress currently hosts about 40% of the world’s websites (the biggest CMS market share-wise), there are alternative platforms that are worth looking at. For example:
Drupal
Drupal is a good option if you’re a web developer looking for an open source alternative. Although its theme and plugin repositories pale in comparison to WordPress, it’s highly customizable if you have advanced coding knowledge.
Ghost
Ghost is a good option if you’re seeking a solid blogging and newsletter-building platform. You can also use it to sell paid subscriptions. John O’Nolan, the founder and CEO of Ghost.org, recently published a reflection on his departure from WordPress and what his objectives are with Ghost. If you’re worried about something similar happening on this open source CMS, read this.
Webflow
Webflowis a good option if you want to create advanced websites and dynamic design. It’s a bit more complex to use than WordPress, but if you’ve used other visual editing tools like Figma or Photoshop, you’ll have no problem getting the hang of it. Plus, you won’t have to layer page builder plugins on top of the CMS to unlock all the design capabilities you need.
Shopify
Shopify is a good option if you need a WooCommerce alternative. It already has the largest market share of ecommerce sites, so it’s the best choice if you want to leave the WordPress ecosystem entirely. It’s also incredibly easy to get the hang of and makes it very easy to manage every aspect of your store.
HubSpot CMS
HubSpot CMS is a good option if marketing, sales, and customer service are a top priority for your brand. Although you can manage these activities outside of your CMS, it’s much more convenient to have them built in. HubSpot brings each of these hubs into a single CMS, so you can streamline your sales and marketing activities and improve your outcomes from one place.
Learn why HubSpot is a good alternative to WordPress here:
Conclusion
It could take a couple years before we see how the legal drama between WordPress and WP Engine unfolds. The best thing you can do for yourself is to figure out what’s best for you and your clients going forward. There are plenty of alternatives out there. It’s a matter of deciding if you need to make a transition and, if so, what the smartest path forward is.
Further reading
- Matt Mullenweg talks about Automattic’s staffing issues and financials at TechCrunch Disrupt
- WP Engine is not WordPress by MM
- Ensuring Stability and Security: Recent Timeline by WP Engine
- ‘I can’t run a business like this’: Why the WordPress row matters on BBC
- WPEngine, Matt, Automattic & WordPress.org megathread on Reddit
