WordPress and WP Engine are at war with each other and the end users are the casualties

There has been drama brewing between WordPress and WP Engine, and it got ugly. The WordPress founder and Automattic CEO, Matt Mullenweg, wrote a blog post calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress” and accused it of using “WP” in its brand name to confuse people into thinking it was part of WordPress.

Legal Action on Both Sides

WP Engine responded by sending a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic and Mullenweg to stop badmouthing the company. In return, Automattic sent its own cease-and-desist letter, claiming WP Engine was violating trademark rules. Most recently, WordPress.org banned WP Engine from its platform.

The Impact on End Users

As a result of the ban, WP Engine can no longer provide updates to themes and plugins to WordPress sites hosted on their platform. In more serious cases, this breaks websites and leaves them vulnerable to security attacks. Unfortunately, end users are the blameless victims caught in the middle of this corporate dispute.

Community Concerns

While Mullenweg deserves credit for building the WordPress community, which powers over 40% of websites globally, his decision to pick a fight with WP Engine is causing significant harm to that same community.

Update: 10/2/24

WP Engine has filed their complaint. You can read it here.