On September 28th, news broke that Automattic, the developer of WordPress, and the hosting provider WP Engine announced a split, with Automattic now prohibiting WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org。Previously, Automattic’s CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg criticized WP Engine for profiting over $400 million from the open-source WordPress project, calling it a “cancer to WordPress” and accusing the company of contributing very little to the community。In response, WP Engine refuted Mullenweg’s allegations, claiming to be the premier WordPress platform and taking pride in its contributions to the WordPress ecosystem. They argued that the attacks were merely an attempt by Automattic to demand more licensing fees, stating that Automattic required them to continue paying tens of millions of dollars to use the WordPress trademark。
The dispute escalated, and Automattic officially banned WP Engine’s access rights, which means users hosted by WP Engine will no longer be able to update/install WordPress themes and plugins through the backend. WP Engine stated in response that Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg was abusing his control over WordPress. They reassured users that Automattic’s policy, which prevents them from installing or updating themes/plugins via WP Admin, does not affect website performance or security。