This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing.
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.
The legal battle
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, 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, allowing WP Engine to access resources until 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.”
On September 30, a day before the WordPress.org deadline for the ban on WP Engine, the hosting company updated its site’s footer to clarify it is not directly affiliated with the WordPress Foundation or owns the WordPress trade.
“WP Engine is a proud member and supporter of the community of WordPress® users. The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are the intellectual property of WooCommerce, Inc. Uses of the WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® names in this website are for identification purposes only and do not imply an endorsement by WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc,” the updated description on the site read.
The company also changed its plan names from “Essential WordPress,” “Core WordPress,” and “Enterprise WordPress” to “Essential,” “Core,” and “Enterprise.”
WP Engine said in a statement that it changed these terms to moot Automattic’s claims.
“We, like the rest of the WordPress community, use the WordPress mark to describe our business. Automattic’s suggestion that WPE needs a license to do that is simply wrong, and reflects a misunderstanding of trademark law. To moot its claimed concerns, we have eliminated the few examples Automattic gave in its September 23rd letter to us,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch.
On October 1, the company posted on X that it has successfully deployed its own solution for updating plug-ins and themes.
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 of 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.
On October 9, web app development framework Ruby on rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson opined that Automattic is violating principals of open source software by asking WP Engine to pay 8% of its revenues.
“Automattic is completely out of line, and the potential damage to the open source world extends far beyond the WordPress. Don’t let the drama or its characters distract you from that threat,” he said in a blog post.
On the same day, Mullenweg added a new checkbox to WordPress.org contributor login, asking people to verify that they are not associated with WP Engine in any way. This move was criticized by the contributor community. Some contributors said that they were banned from the community Slack for opposing the move.
WP Engine lawsuit and Automattic exodus
On October 3, WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg over abuse of power in a court in California. The hosting company also alleged that Automattic and Mullenweg didn’t keep their promises to run WordPress open-source projects without any constraints and giving developers the freedom to build, run, modify and redistribute the software.
“Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the last ten days has exposed significant conflicts of interest and governance issues that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that trust. WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect its people, agency partners, customers, and the broader WordPress community,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch.
The lawsuit also notes alleged texts from Mullenweg about potentially hiring WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner. In a comment on Hacker News, Mullenweg said that Brunner wanted to be an executive director of WordPress.org.
In response, Automattic called this case meritless.
“I stayed up last night reading WP Engine’s Complaint, trying to find any merit anywhere to it. The whole thing is meritless, and we look forward to the federal court’s consideration of their lawsuit,” the company’s legal representative, Neal Katyal, said in a blog post.
On the same day, 159 Automattic employees who didn’t agree with Mullenweg’s direction of the company and WordPress overall took a severance package and left the company. Almost 80% of people who left worked in Automattic’s Ecosystem / WordPress division.
On October 8, WordPress said that Mary Hubbard, who was TikTok US’s head of governance and experience, will be starting as executive director. This post was previously held by Josepha Haden Chomphosy, who was one of the 159 people leaving Automattic. A day prior to this, one of the engineers from WP Engine announced that he was joining Automattic.
You can contact this reporter at im@ivanmehta.com or on Signal: @ivan.42
