WordPress Officially Bans WP Engine

| Updated on 30 September 2024

The conflict between WordPress and WP Engine has escalated further in the last few days. Now, WordPress has officially banned WP Engine from accessing its resources. 

WordPress co-founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg blasted the WP Engine by saying that they “broke thousands of customer sites” 

He released a blog post on WordPress that said “WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org.”

In that he says, “What I will tell you is that, pending their legal claims and litigation against WordPress.org, WP Engine no longer has free access to WordPress.org’s resources. Any WP Engine customers having trouble with their sites should contact WP Engine support and ask them to fix it.”

This will be alarming news for WP Engine users who frequently use WordPress plugins. This ban will prevent those users from accessing the latest versions of the plugins and leaving them susceptible to security attacks. 

We know that hackers often target WordPress Plugins. In several recent attacks, hackers affected millions of users worldwide. Insecure plugins can offer hackers full access to vulnerable websites, or allow them to install malicious or harmful software without the knowledge of admin. 

This is the latest escalation in a series of back and forth between two services. In a recent WordCamp US Summit, Mullenweg described WP Engine as “Cancer to WordPress” for exploiting open-source projects without contributing anything in return. 

After that, WP Engine sent a cease-and-desist letter to WordPress parent Automattic. They said that Mullenweg’s remarks were a failed attempt to coerce WP Engine into paying millions to license the WordPress trademark. Their lawyers also claimed that Mullenweg was looking to launch a “scorched earth nuclear approach” if WP Engine did not pay up. 

In a return, Mullenweg asked them “Why should WordPress.org provide these services to WP Engine for free, given their attacks on us?”

“WP Engine wants to control your WordPress experience, they need to run their own user login system, update servers, plugin directory, theme directory, pattern directory, block directory, translations, photo directory, job board, meetups, conferences, bug tracker, forums, Slack, Ping-o-matic, and showcase,” he also added.

In addition, the WordPress contributor community is not happy with this battle. 

Gaurav Pal

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