Despite playing an important role in hosting web content from the likes of NASA and the White House, WordPress tends to keep a low profile. But the open source content management system, which powers more than 40 percent of all websites on the Internet, has come under fire in recent weeks as its founder Matt Mullenweg battles one of the biggest WordPress hosting services. Despite the ensuing legal dispute and division in the open source development community, Mullenweg says the controversy has been good for business.
“I’ve been making plans for decades. This is not a big deal to me,” Mllenweg, 40, told the Observer. The saga is part and parcel of WordPress’ longevity, according to Mullenweg, who says it helped guide his company and revitalize his career. Mullenweg founded WordPress in 2003 at the age of 19. Today, he is the CEO of Automattic, which manages WordPress.com and contributes time and code to the open source WordPress project.
Some websites are built with WordPress software, which is free and available for anyone to access, use WordPress hosting providers like WP Engine to oversee technical support. In return, hosting providers often give back by contributing to WordPress maintenance—an expectation that Mullenweg says WP Engine has failed to meet in recent years. Although he had a good relationship with WP Engine, the WordPress founder says “something changed” after the company was acquired by private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018.
Mullenweg, who first publicly criticized WP Engine in September, also accused the hosting service of misusing the WordPress trademark to confuse users into believing that WP Engine is a WordPress entity.
WP Engine has denied Mullenweg’s claims. Despite noting that it has committed hundreds of thousands of hours to developing the WordPress software and contributing to its ecosystem, the company described its trademark claims as “unprofitable” and being used for dishonest purposes. The battle quickly escalated: last month, Mullenweg cut off WP Engine from WordPress services, prompting WP Engine to file a lawsuit against Mullenweg and Automattic for abuse of power.
Despite the fact that he is now facing a long-running lawsuit against a company backed by a firm with assets of more than $100 billion, Mullenweg says he has no intention of backing down. He recently launched a new site that tracks websites that have left WP Engine since the drama, which WP Engine said it had asked to take down and described as “incorrect and reckless publication of customer information without their consent” in a statement sent to the Observer. .
Will other hosting services follow?
The inflation sent shockwaves through the entire WordPress community and raised fears among developers about the future of open source ideas and their relationship with WordPress. But according to Mullenweg, WP Engine is an unusual case.
“If you look at the WordPress ecosystem, there are dozens and dozens of companies—GoDaddy, Bluehost, Nexcess, DreamHost, SiteGround, Elementor—all of which use the WordPress trademark, and we have good relationships with them,” Mllenweg said. In the years since WordPress was invented, “there has never been anything like it. So, you can see WP Engine as an exception to their trademark abuse,” he added.
The battle also caused friction within Automattic, with Mullenweg offering buyout packages to employees who disagreed with his actions. The company, which currently has 1,727 people, lost 177 employees in October and hired 17 new people. Although the move was difficult, it also provided “clarity,” Mllenweg said. “I feel, honestly, more energized and excited to work alongside the team building Automattic every day than I ever have in my young career.”
According to the CEO, the downsizing came at the right time for Automattic. “Like many tech companies we’re finding that, with productivity improvements in AI and all of the technology, we’re doing more with less people,” he said. “This has been really good.”
Mullenweg, who has previously suggested that WP Engine license the WordPress trademark or donate money to develop the WordPress ecosystem, says he is willing to sit down and discuss a solution with WP Engine. He is also, however, prepared for their legal problems which may continue for several years.
At the end of the day, Mullenweg says the whole saga is a blip within WordPress’ broader mission of protecting the democratization of publishing, commerce and messaging. “I’ve been doing this for 21 years and I hope to do it for the rest of my life,” he said. “This is a small chapter of a very long journey.”
