WordPress drama went up another notch on Wednesday after WordPress.org, the open source web-hosting software, banned hosting provider WP Engine from accessing its resources.

In a post on WordPress.org, WordPress co-creator and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg wrote that pending their legal claims, WP Engine will not have access to the platform’s resources, such as themes and plug-ins.

“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. Their servers can no longer access our servers for free,” he said.

“WP Engine is free to offer their hacked up, bastardized simulacra of WordPress’s GPL code to their customers, and they can experience WordPress as WP Engine envisions it, with them getting all of the profits and providing all of the services,” Mullenweg wrote.

As a result of this block, sites using WP Engine’s solutions cannot install plug-ins or update their themes.

Today in Matt destroys the WordPress community: you can't add plugins directly from the .org repo if you have a WP Engine site. And I can confirm that this is happening.https://t.co/vRd7jliVsM pic.twitter.com/9XGAtXhUoN

— Jacob Martella (@ViewFromTheBox) September 25, 2024

I want to share: https://t.co/CmCwbcxZfD has blocked @wpengine customers from updating and installing plugins and themes via WP Admin—disrupting essential work for #WordPress users, agencies, freelancers, and plugin developers.

Please read: https://t.co/cE45rmvnqW

— Brian Gardner (@bgardner) September 25, 2024

Not being able to do @WordPress updates because of the @photomatt/@wpengine fight is infuriating.

For a small nonprofit, being caught in the middle of this could be costly if we need to migrate our sites to a new host. That money/time should be used for our mission.

— Michael Geheren (@mgeheren) September 25, 2024

As several WordPress developers and advocates pointed out, the ban also prevents WP Engine customers from accessing security updates, leaving them vulnerable.

WP Engine acknowledged this issue and said the company is working on a fix.

“WordPress.org has blocked WP Engine customers from updating and installing plugins and themes via WP Admin. There is currently no impact on the performance, reliability, or security of your site, nor does it impact your ability to make updates to your code or content,” an update from WP Engine read.

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.

Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, has misused his control of WordPress to interfere with WP Engine customers’ access to https://t.co/ZpKb9q4jPh, asserting that he did so because WP Engine filed litigation against https://t.co/erlNmkIol2. This simply is not true. Our Cease &…

— WP Engine (@wpengine) September 26, 2024

The WP Engine vs. Automattic fight

It’s important to understand that WordPress powers nearly 40% of the websites on the internet through different hosting providers, which include Mullenweg’s Automattic and WP Engine. Users can also take the open source project and run the websites themselves, but a lot of people choose to go with plug-and-play solutions.

The fight began last week when Mullenweg criticized WP Engine publicly at a conference and on his blog for profiteering and called it a “cancer to WordPress.” He also alleged the company doesn’t contribute as much as Automattic does to the WordPress community despite both of them making about a half-billion dollars in revenue annually.

This spurred WP Engine to send a cease-and-desist letter to Mullenweg and Automattic, asking them to withdraw their comments. The letter alleged that Mullenweg and Automattic had threatened to adopt a “scorched earth nuclear approach” if WP Engine did not comply and pay Automattic a percentage of its gross revenue.

In reply, Automattic sent its own cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine, alleging infringement of the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks.

Separately, the WordPress Foundation, a charity created by Mullenweg to maintain WordPress as an open source project, told TechCrunch that WP Engine has violated its trademarks.

“WP Engine has indeed breached the WordPress Trademark Policy. The Policy states that no one is allowed to use the WordPress trademarks as part of a product, project, service, domain name, or company name. WP Engine has repeatedly violated this policy and the Cease and Desist letter sent to them by Automattic provides examples of some of the many violations,” the foundation said in an email.

The policy was updated yesterday to include an example of WP Engine. Notably, the policy doesn’t cover “WP” as a trademark.

Hours after banning WP Engine from WordPress.org, Mullenweg wrote on his blog that trademarks are the core issue. He said Automattic has been trying to sign a licensing deal with WP Engine for a long time. He noted that the company offered WP Engine the option to either pay a direct licensing fee or make in-kind contributions to the open source project. However, he didn’t clarify what making in-kind contributions would mean.

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