WordPress vs WP Engine Battle & Matt Mullenweg Drama

Will WordPress be dead in 2025? What is the future of WordPress?

These are some of the questions hitting everyone’s mind because of the legal battle between WordPress vs WP Engine.

Let’s unfold the drama between Matt Mullenweg, WordPress contributors, and WPEngine.

Disclosure: This article is not intended to hurt anyone’s feelings but solely to cover the latest WordPress news. If any person or organization feels that the information is incorrect or needs to be removed, they can contact me at abizer[at]affreborn.com, and I will delete the data immediately with all due respect.

TL DR

The WordPress community is currently entangled in a significant controversy involving Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, web hosting company WP Engine, and prominent contributors Joost de Valk and Karim Marucchi. 

The dispute centers on Matt Mullenweg’s leadership, Automattic and WPEngine’s contribution, and Joost/Karim’s fork.

Watch the complete YouTube video of Logan and Matt to learn more about AI innovations and open-source platforms.

The WordPress vs WP Engine Lawsuit & The Matt Drama

It is not a big surprise to learn about the major tech giants fighting with each other in the past. One such legal battle started with WPEngine filing a lawsuit against Matt and Automattic. 

It all started when Matt Mullenweg the co-founder of WordPress.org alleged WPEngine over WordPress and WooCommerce trademark infringement. WPEngine known as the WordPress Engine accused Matt Mullenweg and Automattic of using its power and becoming greedy.

Automattic requested WP Engine to pay fees to use the open-source WordPress platform and also used harsh words such as cancer to the community. To this, WP Engine requested Matt to take down the comments and sent a legal notice to Matt and Automattic. Matt was also accused of failing to disclose the WordPress trademark transparently to the IRS.

(Source: theverge.com)

Automattic’s Reduced Contribution To Open-Source

As of January 2025, Automattic announced a reduction in its contributions to the WordPress open-source project. It is said to decrease its contribution hours from approx. 4,000 to 45 hours per week. 

Automatic blames WPEngine for its reduced contribution to WordPress security and critical updates. Automattic emphasized Five for the Future and later criticized WPEngine calling it a cancer to the community.

Matt was quoted writing in his blog post on WordPress on September 21, 2024:

“This is one of the many reasons they are a cancer to WordPress, and it’s important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread. WP Engine is setting a poor standard that others may look at and think is ok to replicate. We must set a higher standard to ensure WordPress is here for the next 100 years”.

Automattic blames WPEngine for the lawsuit filed due to which the company is not able to focus on WordPress updates and growth.

Matt also dissolved the sustainability team after one of its team representatives resigned from the WordPress sustainability team.

What a messed up new year it is for the Automattic CEO and WordPress.org co-founder Matt!

(Source: theverge.com)

Account Deactivations and Forking Discussions

In a controversial move, Mullenweg deactivated the WordPress.org accounts of several prominent contributors, including Joost de Valk, and Karim Marucchi.

This action was taken amid discussions about forking the WordPress project to explore alternative governance structures. Matt in one of his blog posts titled “Forking is beautiful” supports forking stating that WordPress itself started as a fork of the b2/cafelog project. 

At the same time, he is unsure about the WP Engine forking WordPress. He recommends not touching it because WPEngine disables WordPress core features and runs its support system.

Matt in his blog post says, “WP Engine is not WordPress”. There are several reasons, one of which is that WP Engine turns off the revision because that costs the company an extra penny and reduces its profit. This is against WordPress’s integrity.

Also, WPEngine seems to offer a hand to both Joost and Kareem for the new project or should we say a new WordPress era.

Matt in his blog post stated, “It probably won’t happen on day one, but Joost and Karim’s fork, which I’ll call JKPress until they come up with a better name, has several ideas they want to try out around governance and architecture”.

He also stated, ”I propose that in a year we do a WordPress + JKPress summit, look at what we’ve shipped and learned in the process, which I’d be happy to host and sponsor in NYC next January 2026”. 

(Source: wordpress.org)

Conclusion

The WordPress community is now eager to know about the implications of a new WordPress era and the forking.

Some are now unsure about the future of WordPress and are shifting their sites to other CMS platforms.

FAQs | WordPress vs WP Engine Drama