Introduction
At Tribus, we are proud to offer WordPress to our clients - a highly customisable and scalable CMS (Content Management System) platform. In recent weeks, you may have seen press around a dispute between WordPress and another company - WP Engine.
The main parts of contention are as follows:
Trademark Usage
WordPress claims that WP Engine is misusing the WordPress trademark and confusing users about their affiliation.
Financial Contributions
WordPress argues that WP Engine, despite making a mind-boggling amount of money from WordPress-related services, has not financially contributed to the WordPress Foundation.
Technical Disagreements
WordPress criticised WP Engine for disabling certain WordPress features, which they claim are detrimental to users.
To those who are not yet aware of the ins and outs of this dispute, this may just look like words on a page - and you might be thinking…”What has made this such a big deal?”
Well, this is why…
Escalation of Conflict
Matt Mullenweg, WordPress founder, publicly stated:
“This is one of the many reasons they are a cancer to WordPress, and it’s important to remember that unchecked cancer will spread.”
Not only this, but WP Engine responded with a ‘cease and desist’ letter which they sent straight to WordPress. Which, if you’re interested - you can read right here. WP Engine have stated that they are demanding Automattic (parent company of WordPress) and its CEO Matt Mullenweg stop making and retract false, harmful and disparaging statements against WP Engine.
WP Engine has said on their X page, (see original post here) “In response to misinformation he (Matt Mullenweg) has disseminated about the letter, its purpose, and who it is directed at, we are making the full letter available here” Then included a link to a PDF version of the cease and desist letter! CRAZY, RIGHT?
It’s not every day we, the public, get to sit on the sideline and watch a highly technical, legal battle between 2 mammoth organisations. And even get to read the legal documents ourselves.
One of WPEngine’s most popular commercial plugins is Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) - the premium version is something we use on most WordPress websites here at Tribus.
Following the cease and desist letter, on October 12th, WordPress effectively seized control of the open source/free version (available through the WordPress plugin repository) by removing WP Engine’s access, citing an urgent security vulnerability and essentially re-releasing the same product as their own, re-named as Secure Content Fields. In recent days WordPress have gone on to block users associated with WP Engine from community channels, events and WordPress.com. Has your jaw dropped yet?
If that wasn’t enough, WP Engine has now filed a lawsuit against the WordPress parent company Automatic & Mullenweg, accusing them of extortion and abuse of power!
What Now?
Lawsuits like this are common place in Silicone Valley but this is more than just a legal battle—it's a clash over control, governance, and the future of one of the web's most influential open-source platforms.
Mullenweg has cited WP Engine’s lack of contribution to the open source WordPress project as one of the primary motivations for their actions. WP Engine, despite being very successful, have long been viewed by the community as ‘not doing enough’ to support the continued development of the platform. As mentioned earlier in this blog under ‘financial contributions’
The wider implications
One of the most concerning things about the whole episode is the swiftness, and ruthlessness, of WordPress’ decision to take over the ACF plugin and redistributing it.
A dangerous precedent could have been set here. While the library of WordPress is billed as an open source selling point of the platform, they have demonstrated that control can unilaterally be seized under the guide of security and governance.
Going forward, the outcome of the conflict could yet shape the WordPress ecosystem. Automattic are pursuing trademarks for terms such as “managed WordPress” and “hosted WordPress” - which raises concerns about the future of other key WordPress services, tools, plugins and the businesses which have built profitable operations on top of WordPress.
How does this affect Tribus' websites?
Right now, thankfully, it doesn’t. We use a licensed version of ACF (Pro) available from WP Engine directly. The plugin continues to be developed and updates made available and we will continue to support client websites that use this. However, we will continue to watch very keenly how this fast-moving story progresses.
If you'd like to reach out to Tribus to discuss this matter and the role it could play with your website, click here.
