This week on The WP Week Podcast, we cover a major security incident affecting five Awesome Motive products, including Uncanny Automator, following a supply-chain breach that has sent shockwaves through the WordPress ecosystem.We also discuss WordPress opening testing for long-awaited Unicode email address support, bringing internationalized email addresses to WordPress accounts, along with the launch of WordPress Studio for Linux, updates from the AI Team, and the redesigned plugin screenshots gallery on WordPress.org.In community news, Wordfence Login Security is being discontinued as its features move into the main Wordfence plugin, Kinsta launches free bot protection, Akismet releases an official PHP SDK, and Beaver Builder enters the AI website builder race with its new AI-powered page generation tools.Plus, we look at growing concerns around WordPress growth, AI-driven search traffic declines, the future of WordCamps, new WordPress projects, security updates, and much more.A big thank you to our sponsors:🎯 ProfilePress – Build membership sites and sell subscriptions on WordPress.⚡ 20i Hosting – Fast, reliable WordPress hosting you'll fall in love with.💼 WP Job Openings – Create professional career pages and start hiring in minutes.Tune in for your weekly roundup of everything happening across the WordPress ecosystem.

This week, we dive into WordPress.org’s new Protect The Shire initiative, introducing a 24-hour cooldown period for plugin and theme auto-updates to improve security and reduce supply-chain risks. We also cover the experimental Gutenberg dashboard, the React 19 rollback, and the call for WordPress 7.0.x release managers.

We discuss WooCommerce’s decision to drop the block-based Product Editor, benchmark results from over 55,000 WordPress plugins challenging the “too many plugins” performance myth, and highlights from WordCamp Europe 2026, including the announcement of Málaga, Spain as the host city for WordCamp Europe 2027.

Also in this episode: major security updates, Progress Planner’s acquisition, new hosting benchmarks, the future of Patchstack’s bug bounty program, and a roundup of exciting new WordPress projects and AI-powered tools.

A big thank you to our sponsors:

🎯 ProfilePress – Build membership sites and sell subscriptions on WordPress.
⚡ 20i Hosting – Fast, reliable WordPress hosting built for performance.
💼 WP Job Openings – Create a professional careers page and start hiring in minutes.

Tune in for your weekly roundup of everything happening in the WordPress ecosystem. 🚀

This week, the spotlight is on Matt Mullenweg’s emotional WordPress anniversary post as the WP Engine legal battle intensifies, alongside growing debate after SiteGround automatically installed its AI plugin on customer sites following WordPress 7.0 updates. We also discuss WordPress market share slipping for a sixth consecutive month and what that could mean for the future of the ecosystem.

Elsewhere, WooCommerce 10.8 arrives with performance improvements and a new AI Product Advisor beta, React 19 is on its way to WordPress, and new career-focused features are being tested on WordPress.org. Security remains a major theme, with malware campaigns affecting nearly 2,000 WordPress sites, critical plugin vulnerabilities patched, and fresh insights from the State of the Community survey.

Community discussions continue around declining WordCamp attendance, the future of plugin businesses, AI-powered support agents, and the growing role of MCP, AI workflows, and agent-driven development across WordPress.

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From WordPress governance and security challenges to AI innovation, ecosystem trends, and new projects pushing the platform forward, Episode 155 captures another eventful week in the world of WordPress.

This week, WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” officially lands as the first major release of 2026, bringing AI-powered workflows, a modernized dashboard, new blocks, Connectors, visual revisions, and major developer enhancements. We also discuss why real-time collaboration was ultimately removed from the release and the growing conversation around AI security risks in WordPress.

The episode covers the call for volunteers for WordPress 7.1, the experimental new Media Editor Modal, expanded Unicode email support, Gutenberg 23.2, and AI Plugin 1.0.0. On the security front, the latest State of WordPress Security 2026 report reveals that over half of analyzed WordPress sites are running vulnerable plugins, highlighting the importance of proactive security practices.

Across the ecosystem, WordPress.com launches new AI-powered tools, WooCommerce.com moves to nightly Core builds, Modular DS 3.0 ships with integrated security features, and innovative new projects like Block MCP, Baton, Push MD, Haydi, and DesignSetGo Apps showcase how AI and automation are rapidly reshaping WordPress development.

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🔹 ProfilePress – Sell memberships, subscriptions, and digital products directly on WordPress
🔹 20i – Fast, reliable managed WordPress hosting built for performance
🔹 WP Job Openings – Create professional career pages and manage hiring with ease

From WordPress 7.0’s release and security insights to AI innovation and the future of content creation, Episode 154 explores another landmark week for the WordPress ecosystem.

This week, the spotlight is on Liquid Web’s major restructuring of its WordPress software portfolio, retiring several standalone brands including Kadence, SolidWP, Restrict Content Pro, IconicWP, and MemberDash under a consolidated product strategy. The move sparked strong reactions across the community, with voices like Chris Lema and Carl Hancock weighing in on the future of WordPress businesses and product ecosystems.

We also cover WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 4, now just hours away from launch, along with the controversial removal of real-time collaboration from the release. Leadership changes hit the Core AI Team as Jason Adams steps in, while James LePage exits Automattic to pursue a new venture. Gutenberg, WooCommerce, and the WordPress AI Plugin all continue advancing with new developer-focused features, AI tooling, and workflow improvements.

Community discussions this week centered around the WordCamp US 2026 website redesign debate, branding confusion around FluentKit and FluentWiz, and the growing role of AI across WordPress products, workflows, and events. Security also remained a major focus with vulnerabilities affecting Burst Statistics and broader concerns around plugin ecosystem trust and disclosure practices.

New projects continue pushing WordPress into AI-first and modern workflow territory, including Unblock, Pressmind, Wapuu Studio, Keystone, and WooCommerce AI integrations, while platforms like ZipWP, Elementor, BuddyBoss, and FluentCRM rolled out major AI-powered updates.

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🔹 ProfilePress – Sell memberships, subscriptions, and digital products directly on WordPress
🔹 20i – High-performance managed WordPress hosting built for speed and reliability
🔹 WP Job Openings – Create career pages and manage hiring effortlessly inside WordPress

From AI infrastructure and product consolidation to branding debates and the future of WordPress collaboration, this week’s episode captures another fast-evolving chapter in the WordPress ecosystem.

This week, the spotlight is on Envato’s decision to end its exclusive author model, moving all ThemeForest and CodeCanyon authors to a flat 50% revenue share starting July 2026 — one of the biggest shifts in the marketplace’s history. We also cover the surprise removal of real-time collaboration from WordPress 7.0 after Matt Mullenweg decided to pull the feature before release.

Across the WordPress ecosystem, WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 3 is now available for testing, while Automattic introduced the “Meta Janitors” initiative to accelerate experimentation and improvements on WordPress.org. Gutenberg 23.1 brings new taxonomy management and media editing updates, and Make WordPress Slack is preparing to become multilingual to better connect local communities worldwide.

Security remained a major theme this week, with vulnerabilities patched in Slider Revolution, Apache HTTP Server, and several WordPress plugins, alongside phishing attacks targeting GoDaddy ManageWP users and a major npm supply-chain compromise affecting TanStack packages.

Community discussions also focused on Hostingstep’s 2026 WordPress Hosting Benchmarks, where WP Engine, Pressable, and Templ led in speed and uptime performance. Meanwhile, new AI-powered tools, MCP integrations, static site workflows, and projects like Cortext, WooCommerce for Claude, and Data Machine continue pushing WordPress deeper into the AI era.

Sponsored by:
🔹 ProfilePress – Sell memberships, subscriptions, and digital products directly on WordPress
🔹 20i – Fast, scalable managed WordPress hosting built for developers and businesses
🔹 WP Job Openings – Create professional career pages and manage hiring with ease

From AI experimentation and infrastructure innovation to marketplace upheaval and WordPress core changes, this week’s episode captures another major turning point for the open web.

This week, the spotlight is on Themeum’s decision to merge Droip into Kirki, transforming the popular customizer framework into a broader website builder platform and sparking debate across the WordPress community. We also cover the announcement of WordCamp India joining the flagship WordCamp lineup, a major milestone for the Indian WordPress ecosystem.

Across WordPress and beyond, Gutenberg 23.2 introduces native Custom Post Type management, while new onboarding initiatives, meetup activity kits, and student-led WordPress clubs continue building momentum for contributors worldwide. Security remains a major concern with vulnerabilities disclosed in Breeze Cache, Scroll To Top, Quick Page/Post Redirect, and a heavily exploited cPanel zero-day. WooCommerce also released a new Subscriptions Health Check Tool following the recently uncovered renewal bug issue.

Community conversations this week ranged from plugin discoverability and AI-driven workflows to the future of WordPress businesses and developer tooling. We also saw a wave of new projects including CoverKit, WP Beacon, WP HealthKit, and AI-focused tools designed to modernize publishing, security, and site management workflows.

Sponsored by:
🔹 ProfilePress – Build membership sites, sell subscriptions, and monetize content with ease
🔹 20i – Fast, scalable managed WordPress hosting built for performance
🔹 WP Job Openings – Create a professional career page and manage hiring directly from WordPress

From AI experimentation and security alerts to contributor growth and ecosystem debates, this week’s episode captures another fast-moving chapter in the WordPress world.

This week’s episode is packed with high-impact developments across the WordPress ecosystem. The big story is the temporary closure of 80+ WPFactory plugins on WordPress.org following a reported security concern, raising fresh questions around plugin trust and supply chain safety. We also cover the updated WordPress 7.0 release timeline, now set for May 2026, with continued focus on real-time collaboration and performance improvements.

On the ecosystem side, we dive into new contributor onboarding efforts, the experimental Presence API, Gutenberg 23.0 updates, and ongoing challenges like the growing plugin review backlog. Security remains front and center with over 130+ vulnerabilities disclosed in a single week, alongside active threats and infrastructure-level incidents. WooCommerce continues to evolve with fixes to the subscriptions bug, upcoming command palette improvements, and broader performance updates.

Community discussions span everything from plugin UX debates to AI-driven development trends, while a wave of new tools and projects highlights where WordPress is heading next—faster workflows, smarter automation, and deeper AI integration.

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🔹 20i – High-performance WordPress hosting with autoscaling cloud infrastructure and built-in tools
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A week of big signals for WordPress—security, AI, and ecosystem shifts all pointing toward a rapidly evolving platform.