As we roll on into June, here’s the low-down on new releases, fancy features and community calls to action. Let’s get into it!

Oh, and stick around to the end to see “rolling on the floor with laughter,” personified.

In today’s edition:

• WordPress 7.0 lands, finally giving Louis Armstrong his WordPress debut after 23 years of jazz names.
• The WP Community Collective wants to know how WordPress folks are really doing. (Anonymous hot takes welcome.)
• WooCommerce 10.8 drops, with a cartload of improvements including faster storefronts, review request emails and Armstrong-friendly admin.

Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?

 
Sure, this meme is funny, but in the age of AI there’s a bigger question starting to loom:

When we stop asking and answering in public, what happens to the shared knowledge base future developers (and future AI tools) rely on?

Stack Overflow may have been famously, uh, “character-building” for anyone brave enough to ask a question, but it also gave us something incredibly valuable: public debugging, weird edge cases, battle-tested answers, and comment threads where the real fix was always hiding three replies down.

It’s worth remembering that the robots learned a lot of that ancient magic from humans posting, correcting, arguing and documenting with their real, flesh-and-blood, Cheeto-dust-encrusted, human typing fingers.

So don’t forget to answer a question in public sometimes! Write up that weird fix you found. Leave a breadcrumb for the next dev Googling in a cold sweat at 11:47pm.

In the meantime, let’s scroll on and see what’s new in the wonderful, weird world of WordPress.

Armstrong Has Landed

I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom, for me and you

And I think to myself…

It’s time to update WordPress!

WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” has officially shipped, named for jazz legend Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong.

Which is wild when you think about it. After 23 years of WordPress releases named after jazz greats, we’re only just now getting to Louis Armstrong?

The big headline is that WordPress 7.0 lays the foundation for AI across the WordPress experience, with an AI Client in Core, the Abilities API, a central place to manage AI connections, plus new creative and workflow tools waiting in the wings. There’s also a refreshed dashboard, new blocks, design controls, block-level custom CSS, and a beefier developer toolbox.

The WordPress AI plugin 1.0.0 was also released on May 19th, adding request logging, connector approvals, improved media and alt text workflows, editorial tools, and early content provenance work.

Of course, with great prompts comes great responsibility. Patchstack founder Oliver Sild has already raised concerns that WordPress 7.0’s AI infrastructure could kick off a gold rush for stolen AI API keys.

Keep the Field Guide handy when you start poking around under the hood. WordPress is hitting some big new notes here, and your job is to make sure none of them turn into an ear-splitting support-ticket squeak.

The State of the Community Survey Wants YOU

In the WordPress world, community is everything. But how IS the community actually feeling right now?

The WP Community Collective aims to find out. They’ve launched their State of the Community Survey, to get an official “vibe check” about where things are headed and the forces shaping our favourite open source project.

Why? “Change needs context,” explains the official press release.

WordPress folks aren’t just usernames on a screen, WP Community Collective CEO Sé Reed explains. We’re people in the real world, navigating very real challenges. To effectively support the community and have productive conversations about the future of WordPress, the first step is to listen to what people have to say.

The survey takes about 10-20 minutes to complete and covers hot-button topics like AI, contributor participation, events and open source sustainability. It’s open to anyone who works with, builds on, contributes to or simply cares about WordPress.

So, whether you’re a freelancer, agency owner, plugin builder, core contributor or theme designer, if WordPress matters to your business you’re welcome to take part.

All responses are anonymous, so you can spill all your controversial takes without worrying about drawing the ire of a digital pitchfork mob. Responses are being collected until June 28, 2026 at 11:00am UTC.

Go ahead, throw in your 2 cents here.

WooCommerce 10.8 is Ready for Checkout

WooCommerce 10.8 brings a shopping basket full of handy improvements for store owners and devs alike.

The newest release landed on May 26th, bringing compatibility updates, performance improvements and plenty of fancy little quality-of-life tweaks designed to make your Woo store run a little smoother.

Some of the improvements include:

• Customer review request emails: Gives stores an easier way to nudge customers to leave feedback, before their retail therapy buzz wears off and they move onto the next shiny new purchase.
• Faster storefronts: Reducing friction from the “Add to Cart” journey so stores feel less “loading spinner of doom” and more “yes, please take my money!”
• Armstrong ready: 10.8 includes about 15 pull requests that align this version with WordPress 7.0 styling, so you can update both together and the admin stays seamless.

Plus, there’s a bunch of other handy behind-the-scenes developer goodies in there, like custom shipping providers, coupon-related workflows and email blocks, that’ll help you build better sites for your clients.

Check out the release notes to see what’s new.

Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats

• Within one week of Armstrong taking the stage, 46% of all WordPresses had already updated to the new version. But what’s really wild is that there are 0.36% of sites that are still on Version 4.7? Hello? Anyone home? (Source)
• There’s more than one way to center an element. 100 ways, apparently. Although, about 60 of those are “hacky” and “not recommended.” (Source)
• The WooCommerce Design Team decided to reward merchants with the cutest interactive piñata to celebrate their 1st, 100th and 1,000th sales. Who doesn’t love a playful Easter egg? (Source)

Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

WordPress just turned 23, which in internet years makes it approximately 417. Happy B-Day, WP!

If an AI reads your blog in the forest and nobody clicks through, did you really get a visitor?

Are volunteers needed for WP Suomi in Finland? Oulu betcha.

WP Canada is looking for speakers. Apologizing before your talk is optional.

WordPress.com launched Lately, for when your blog wants to be a group chat with better formatting.

Finally, Jetpack Search now speaks Woo.

We all know the real ultimate AI use case: Making a Wapuu that looks like you.

Coffee Break Distractions

Ok, this is a truly original app idea. It’s like Google Maps for your Mind Palace.

I was proud of myself for my mediocre chopstick skills until THIS made me feel inadequate.

Sometimes you stumble on a website that’s actually a work of art. This is one of those times.

Or, for a work-of-art website that’s equal parts beautiful, simple and calming, check this out.

Iceberg. Canyon. Pineapple. Lighthouse. Research says visualizing random words can help you sleep.

May you be as happy about anything as this dude is about visiting the aquarium.

In an alternative universe where this sax-hating time traveler was successful, jazz music would be very different indeed.

And finally…

Sometimes the very best physical comedy moments take you by surprise.

Love this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Share it with your favorite WordPress weirdo.

But it turned out to be something even better… an April 1st product release to match my favourite of all time (Gmail!).

And something that I thought you good people might enjoy having one-click production access to along with all the other tools you know and love here at WPMU DEV.

So, guess what, I would like to officially launch Managed EmDash Hosting here at WPMU DEV, right alongside your regular WordPress sites.

How does it work?

We’ve made it as easy-to-use as the rest of WPMU DEV, which first up means one-click install.

All you need to do is click “Create Site” and we will spin up a site for you on your Unlimited Hosting server.

Now you are able to SSO login to each site you create, alongside your regular WP sites.

Fully managed, just like your WordPress sites and with the same level of expert support.

What’s in the EmDash box?

In addition to one-click install and SSO login we’ve added a bunch of other goodies, and you can expect more to come soon.

Right now though, here’s what comes included:

• Reset: Resets the site back to a fresh Emdash install, similar to the WordPress Reset tool
• Rebuild / Restart: Rebuild reinstalls dependencies and rebuilds the project (required after plugin or config changes), with a Restart running automatically on completion. Restart is a quick standalone action that restarts the site service in seconds.
• Backups: Same daily backup system used for WP hosting: restore, manual backup, nightly backup, and comments all included
• Domains: Full domain management so users can add custom domains, configure DNS, and go live
• Email: You can easily use our Pro email service with EmDash
• SSH / SFTP: Server-level access only; a single server user gets access to all sites (WP and/or Emdash) on that server
• Server Analytics (Storage): Emdash sites will appear in the storage breakdown so users can see exactly how much storage each Emdash site is consuming.
• AntiBot: Server-level feature; when enabled it will cover all sites on the server (WP and EmDash)
• WAF Security: Managed at server level and protects to both WP and Emdash sites plus optional server-level configuration
• SSO: Emdash is passkey-based, but you can also log in via SSO: one click from The Hub and you’re straight into your admin.

How about plugins?

How did I know you were going to ask that? ;)

Well, we wouldn’t be WPMU DEV without shipping with at least one plugin.

And so here’s your new contact form

What’s up next?

Well, that rather depends on you

And also the broader EmDash community.

If this is a great success and DEV-ers start using EmDash then we’ll increase our commitment accordingly.

Similarly, we’ll look into incorporating your feedback and requests, in addition to community contributions. I mean, maybe there is a DooCommerce in the works

So, go ahead, please have a play, let us know what you think and we will be guided by our members.

Happy Dashing!

UNLIMITED!

(We had to order an extra shipment of sparkle emojis to prepare for this. You’re welcome.)

Forgive our nerdish fervor, but this is kinda a BIG DEAL.

If you’ve been busy touching grass and you’ve missed our recent posts and announcements, strap in.

In addition to the usual tips, goofball tidbits and funny vids, you’re about to get the TL;DR on why this changes everything… and has already inspired our member Rod to invoke the name of the Dark Knight:

In today’s edition:

• Why this ain’t no shared hosting… it’s a totally different beast.
• So how many sites can you REALLY fit on a $15 server? We did the math.
• What our co-founder James is using Unlimited for… and why.

But First: Unlimited… Who IS She?

She’s mysterious. She’s powerful. She contains multitudes.

Unlimited is a new way to run oodles of managed WordPress sites, without paying managed hosting pricing per site.

You get your own little slice of the internet, where you control how resources are allocated. Your server. Your rules.

Every site still comes with ALL the WPMU DEV hosting, plugins, bells AND whistles… yet works out to only around 20 cents per site per month.

Plus, it plays very nicely with the tools you already know and love. Spin up WordPress installs, manage them from your Hub, keep backups flowing, and generally feel like the efficient web wizard your clients know you are.

Game changer, indeed!

Yes, of COURSE there are bigger plans! All the way up to Eta MU with 32 GB RAM, 8 HF-vCPU and 455 GB NVME SSD! The sky’s the limit, babay!

Read the official announcement post.
Oogle Unlimited plans in all their glory.

Wait… How Many Sites Can You Actually Fit?

When we say “oodles” of sites… how many IS that exactly?

Our co-founder James did the math… and it’s kinda outrageous.

(BTW… that featured image? That’s just what happens when James is left unsupervised.)

And what sort of sites is James putting on his Unlimited package? Which ones are staying on Dedicated?

Find out here:
Unlimited or Dedicated Hosting? I co-founded WPMU DEV and here’s what I’m genuinely using them for.

After all, each site costs less than the change in your couch cushions… so why hold back?

Why This Goes WAY Beyond Shared Hosting

Limits? Where we’re going, we don’t need limits.

Unlimited transforms hosting like Doc Brown upgraded that DeLorean… and now it casually bends the laws of space-time. (No awkward dates with your teenage mom required.)

So what’s actually different between Unlimited and your stuck-in-the-past shared hosting?

Spoiler: It comes down to 3 things:

1. You get your own little internet bubble

Unlike traditional shared hosting, the only one using your resources is you.

You can run one massive site, 50 small ones, or a chaotic mix of client projects, side hustles, and that snarky little Stargate SG-1 fan blog you’ve been ranting on since 2003.

No noisy neighbors. No getting taken down by someone else’s viral moment. It’s allllll yours!

2. We took the hosting experience you know and love… and made it work at Unlimited scale

We know you feel right at home in The Hub. It’s giving “everything is right here and I don’t need 17 tabs open to look like a genius” vibes.

Switching to Unlimited is like upgrading from a tidy workshop… to a full factory.

But all your tools are still exactly where you left them.

And since it all runs on the same high-frequency infrastructure that WPMU DEV has spoiled you with for years (hello speedy CPUs and NVME SSDs), everything still feels responsive and lightning-fast.

3. We’re never gonna lock you down…

Plans are monthly. And not the “we already charged you, good luck” kind.

We’re talking pro-rata to the day.

None of those 24, 36, or bazillion-month contracts, or a 12-month “discount” that turns into a financial jump scare next year.

Just spin things up when you need them. Scale them while you’re using them. Shut ‘em down when you’re done.

Use a $15 server for just one day? Cool. Cancel it and you get about $14.50 back.

Finally, hosting that understands your workflow… instead of holding it hostage.

Read more here:
Unlimited vs. Shared Hosting: The Breakdown.

Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats

• Austin Ginder is becoming somewhat of a superhero, foiling the plans of yet another villain hiding sneaky backdoors in plugins. (Source)
• 174 PRs merged. 8 first-time contributors. Gutenberg 23.0 has been BUSY. (Source)
• Speaking of Gutenberg, adoption has climbed to over 60% compared to just 37% in 2020. (Source)

Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

Draw Attention is a very cool plugin that lets you turn images into clickable, interactive magic.

Oooh, a Guild! I haven’t joined one of those since my WoW days!

Sometimes, the biggest threat to your site… is you.

The WP Minute on hidden revenue: like a treasure hunt, but the treasure is your own underpriced services.

A completely calm and rational take on why WordPress sometimes makes us scream internally.

The next generation of WordPress devs has entered the chat.

I feel it in my fingers… Will AI make us lose the “muscle-memory” of manual coding?

Coffee Break Distractions

Someone fed ChatGPT a symphony of farts and it reviewed it like an album: “It has a cool, Lo-Fi, late night, slightly eerie vibe…”

When the code totally works… as long as you DON’T TOUCH IT.

“What the fork just happened, guys?”

If you haven’t seen Floor 796, it’s a gloriously nerdy rabbit hole you’ll lose three hours to.

The real hero of HeroPress: Topher DeRosia has officially shared 300 stories with his inspiring project.

Never underestimate your users’ ability to discover entirely new, never-before-seen ways to use your site incorrectly.

This dude refused to take two trips carrying beach chairs… and became a biblically accurate angel.

And finally…

What happened to the rest of those sparkle emojis we ordered?

Love this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Forward it to your favorite WordPress weirdo.

Which has been useful (we deal with any bugs so you don’t have to) and also super interesting!

But also, it means we’ve been using it for a while. So, given that, I’d like to share with you how I’ve been using Unlimited alongside Dedicated.

Important vs. test / playground

Now the first thing might sound obvious, but I’ve got a bunch of sites that I feel quite strongly about.

Like my own blog (allbeit not updated any more… it’s sentimental), or the sites I maintain for my mum and step-dad.

They are very much staying on Dedicated, although given the amount of traffic they get they are absolutely fine on Bronze, so I’m leaving them there.

However, there are many, many other sites that are essentially me playing with plugins and ideas and that have virtually zero traffic, and all of those are going onto Unlimited.

When the cost of a new site is basically… nothing

This is where things get really fun.

Now there are loads of great ‘test out WordPress’ sites that I’ve used over the year, I bet you have your favourites.

The old skool InstaWP was great until, um, I think they decided to become us (not awkward at all lol, flattered I guess).

These days TasteWP is pretty great (thanks guys :)

But now those days are gone! At least for me. Because I can just do it here with Unlimited… and it doesn’t expire or disappear in a few days and it has all the bells and whistles.

So I can even spin up sites, do some work on them and present them to clients – I have a few charity clients, besides my parents – and know they will be able to check them out at their leisure.

And given that I can fit at least 60 of them on one $15/m server this basically means that alongside the few small sites that are on there because they get very little traffic, all of these test and sandpit sites are, well, essentially free!

Which I know shouldn’t excite me as much as it does, but well, it still does.

And it takes less than a minute

I know, I know, it is not ‘instant’ but it might as well be.

In less than a minute you have the whole thing in place, it’s fast enough to just watch the progress bar, although that could well just be me though, I mean I am pretty proud of it .

So yep, that’s how I’m using Unlimited these days.

How are you going to use it? Let us know!

I wanted to take one of our High Frequency servers (you can also use them for Dedicated) and allow users to put over 50 sites on it.

And not just because “50 sites for $15” is helluva catchy (it is though, isn’t it ), but also because that is what our members have been asking for ever since we started offering hosting.

And if there is anything I love doing, it’s listening to our members.

So, after a LOT of hard work we made it… but why should you take our word for it?

Well, I decided to do the work for you and demonstrate how it can be done

And I didn’t just get 50+ sites on there, I got 94, although in the end I decided on 60… let me walk you through it.

Let’s break down each Unlimited site:

Total site size: 250 MB

WordPress core: 80 MB
WPMU DEV Pro Plugins: 150 MB
2025 Theme: 10 MB
Logs: 5 MB
Database: 5 MB

Now, I know you love math, so our Alpha MU plan has 32GB of NVME SSD storage and uses 9GB for system resources which leaves us with 23GB of storage for you.

That’s 23,522MB on which you could literally install 94 vanilla sites.

But of course you are going to want to add new themes, plugins and content to those sites and over time your database and logs will grow too.

So, if you instead go for 60 sites that gives you an extra 142MB to play with for each site (on top of everything else).

Which, with some nicely Smushed images we reckon is more than enough for the portfolio sites you would probably want to be hosting… plus quite a bit change, plenty for a few staging sites if you fancy too.

And ends up with another neat bit of maths… each of those sites will be costing you 25 cents (yep, $0.25) per month.

I can’t wait to see what our Premium members do with it :)

p.s. Did you like the featured image? :D

Genuinely special, not just ‘we say this is special but really it’s just shared hosting with fancy clothes’, but something that took that whole paradigm and changed it for the better.

Well, we’ve called it Unlimited and here’s why we think it’s special.

We built an isolated and compartmentalized environment that would always allow you to be in control.

Special, part 1, done.

But how were we going to manage it, what kind of experience would be just as special as the technology behind it?

Well, we tried every single different idea, from good old cPanel / WHMCS (bless, but ewww) to a brand new UX and hosting experience.

But we kept on coming back to why people love WPMU DEV hosting as it is… the tools, the ease of use and having everything in one place.

And so that’s what we decided to create.

The hosting experience and tools that you know and love at WPMU DEV, replicated for as many sites as you can fit on your super fast NVME SSD.

Special, part 2, nice.

And last, but not least, we knew that hosting for web developers and digital agencies is an ‘on demand’ thing. You need it when you need it, and when it is gone, it’s gone.

So, while we have made our plans almost recklessly affordable… the real kicker is that they are monthly and pro-rata to the day.

If you only use our $15 Alpha MU plan for 1 day of the month and then cancel, we will credit you $14.50.

No 12-month-discount followed by a huge price increase. No 24, 36 or 48 (lol!) month contract paid up front.

Just what you need, when you need it.

You guessed it, Special, part 3!

Which leaves us with:

Regular shared hosting

• A segment on a massive machine, non compartmentalized, impacted by other clients
• Running a decades old hosting platform (almost always WHMCS and cPanel behind it)
• Discounts when you pay upfront and are locked in for years… followed by huge price increases

WPMU DEV Unlimited

• Compartmentalized, isolated high frequency server where the only sites that matter are your own
• Each site has the complete suite of hosting tools, from staging to incredibly easy all-in-one-place management
• Astonishingly affordable flat price with no renewal shocks, pay for only what you use, to the day

Now, obviously I would have loved to put that all on a landing page… but our copywriter said ‘no’ haha.

So here it is, the business decisions behind Unlimited Hosting and the reasons for them.

If you haven’t tried it out yet then give it a go… and heck, we’ll even refund you in full for any reason in your first 30 days, so you don’t even have to worry about pro rata!

And let us know any questions or thoughts you’re having in the comments below.

We cannot wait to see what you do with your new hosting setup

Before I begin, I want to take you back to the dawn of shared web hosting – specifically, the birth of the revolutionary and wonderful cPanel and WHM.

And I have a confession to make: without cPanel (and, specifically, Fantastico) I genuinely don’t think I’d be here writing this now. The ability it gave people to play with open source tech on a $7/mo slice of a server was… spectacular.

I used WHM to build the first Edublogs Campus back in 2007 (now CampusPress) and I’m still slightly amazed that it existed.

And for a long time, platforms like that (and their derivatives) have been the basis for pretty much every successful shared – and therefore very low-cost – WordPress hosting service since then.

Until today. Because we’ve made a better mousetrap

Introducing: WPMU DEV Unlimited

A new way to run a lot of WordPress sites on a premium managed hosting platform – without paying “managed hosting pricing” per site.

Here’s how it works:

• Over the last 6 years, we’ve built the most feature-rich, efficient and elegant managed WordPress hosting platform you could imagine.
• It sits on top of high-performance Virtual Machines (VMs) powered by 3GHz+ Intel Xeon processors and next-gen NVMe SSD storage, so you can get the full premium managed WP experience for a fraction of the cost – and the ability to easily scale up as your needs grow.
• And now we’ve adapted that platform so you can split a VM into as many WordPress sites as you want, while still retaining the full WPMU DEV hosting stack.

We’re calling it Unlimited.

The entry plan: Alpha MU (yes, we’ve brought back the MU )

For $15/mo you get a high performance machine with:

• 1GB dedicated RAM
• 1 vCPU powered by high-frequency 3GHz+ Intel Xeon processors
• 32GB NVMe SSD storage

Alongside our system storage requirements, that’s typically enough for 50+ cached portfolio/brochure sites (traffic dependent), each running in a fully managed WordPress environment with all the tools and tricks you want.

Or: 1 decent WooCommerce site and, I dunno, 20 portfolio sites on the side

Hey – it’s up to you.

The important thing is this: it’s there for you to do with as you please. Make of it what you will.

Why this isn’t “standard shared hosting”

If you’re thinking: “Hang on… 50+ sites for $15/mo sounds like old-school shared hosting”… I get it.

But Unlimited isn’t a bargain-basement cPanel box with noisy neighbors, mystery limits, and “best effort” performance. It is powered by the same platform behind WPMU DEV Hosting, offering the same powerful features and optimized to host unlimited WordPress sites on private, dedicated resources – which means you’re getting managed WordPress hosting, not “shared hosting with a WordPress installer.”

Simply put, you have full control over what sites are hosting.

Performance + stability (the stuff that keeps sites fast)

You get the platform-level performance stack (not something you’re duct-taping together with plugins), including things like caching, a tuned server environment, and the kind of infrastructure decisions that stop one site dragging everything else down.

Plus (as we may have already mentioned, but it deserves saying again!) your sites are running on state of the art high-performance hardware, including 3GHz+ Intel Xeon processors and next-gen NVMe SSD storage.

Security that’s on by default

This is a big one. Standard shared hosting tends to put the burden on you: install security plugins, configure them correctly, keep them updated, hope nothing breaks.

Unlimited flips that: security is part of the platform – the same approach we use across our managed hosting.

Backups you can trust (and restores that don’t ruin your day)

Automatic backups, offsite storage, simple restores – the kind of safety net you want before you need it.

Workflow tools for people who manage lots of sites

Staging, cloning, Multisite support, WooCommerce readiness, and dev-friendly tools – the stuff agencies and freelancers actually rely on.

Everything managed in The Hub

This is the “unfair advantage” when you’re running lots of sites: updates, monitoring, reporting, alerts, and site management – from one place.

That’s the point of Unlimited: you’re not trading quality for price. You’re getting the full managed platform, but with the flexibility to host multiple sites on a single server plan.

And when a site grows… just spin it off

Now here’s where it gets fun.

If one of your sites needs more resources, just spin it off to a new Dedicated server. Easy. Use our migration tools or let our support team handle the move for you.

No messy migrations, no rebuilding environments, no “please support, can you move my site to a different node.”

Unlimited is your “many sites” plan. Dedicated is your “this one is taking off” plan. Use both as needed.

No long contracts. No renewal shocks.

Plus – unlike pretty much every other provider – you don’t need to pay for 48 months up front.

We go month by month.

You won’t get hit by a renewal that’s suddenly 4x the price once you’re locked in. And if you cancel a server halfway through the month… we’ll pro-rata refund you.

Try it. If you don’t like it, you get your money back.

Don’t believe us? Try it out – and if you don’t love it, we’ll refund you. No questions asked

One catch…

Unlimited is only available to WPMU DEV Premium members.

So if you’re already a Premium member – congrats, this is for you. And if not, why not give us a try (and remember: if you don’t love it, we’ll refund you, no questions asked).

Welcome to the next generation of WordPress hosting.

We think you’re going to love it.

WPMU DEV Premium Members can get started here.

To find out more about WPMU DEV Premium, click here.

The web keeps evolving. So do the bugs. We’re here to help you keep up.

Stick around to the end to find out: if you fall out of a plane… where should you aim?

In today’s edition:

• All your (data)base are belong to us: why WordPress 7.0 is delayed.
• WCEU schedule dropped and, like a pierogi, it’s stuffed with goodness.
• A plugin acquisition horror story that will make you side-eye your dashboard.

Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?

You’re one click away from happy hour, and then you make the mistake of opening Slack at 4:59pm.

What could go wrong?

The client plays their final card: “Just a quick one before EOD…” aaaaaand suddenly you’re elbow-deep in the database at 2am.

Before you get UNO-reverse’d into overtime, keep reading for a quick roundup of what’s new in WordPress.

WordPress 7.0 Hits Pause (Turns Out Databases Are… Important)

WordPress 7.0 was supposed to land on April 9. Instead, it… didn’t.

This isn’t your usual “one more bug fix” situation. The delay comes down to something much deeper: figuring out how WordPress will handle real-time collaboration without turning your database into mom’s spaghetti.

The current approach stores collaboration data (like who’s editing and where their cursor is) in the postmeta table, with transients handling presence data. It works… but “works” isn’t good enough when you’re talking about multiple users editing the same post at the same time.

Matt Mullenweg pushed back on the approach, suggesting it’s worth doing this properly from day one, even if that means delaying the release. The proposed solution? A dedicated custom database table just for collaboration data.

Which is a big deal. WordPress doesn’t add new core database tables lightly. This is serious, once-in-a-decade, “measure twice, deploy once” business.

The result: WordPress 7.0 has been pushed back and, in a move that almost never happens, dropped from Release Candidate back into beta. For now, staying on WordPress 6.9.4 is still your stable, drama-free option.

This is probably a good thing. Shipping half-baked database architecture to millions of sites is the kind of thing very likely to keep developers up at night… and not in the fun way.

Keep an eye on this page, where the updated release timeline will be announced no later than April 22nd.

WordCamp Europe Schedule Is Live

The full schedule for WordCamp Europe 2026 is live, and it’s packed. We’re talking AI, performance, accessibility, agency workflows, block development… basically every tab you already have open, now in conference form.

The real challenge isn’t finding a good session. It’s choosing between five great ones that are all happening at the exact same time… and accepting that you physically cannot clone yourself (yet).

Some of the interesting talks that catch our eye:

• How to Make Toast by Stacy L. Carlson: Sounds like it’s about breaking down processes, but might also involve a mid-morning snack?
• Beyond Hamburgers: Latest Navigation Block Changes by Sarah Norris: Although this one also sounds delicious, it’s probably a discussion about website UX that’s really on the menu here.
• Fighting Spam and Bots on WordPress with AI by Adeolu Oshadare: First toast, then burgers, now Spam? Okay, this schedule is officially making me hungry.

Good thing this year’s event is going to be set in Kraków, Poland, which means you can challenge yourself to beat your pierogi-per-day high score.

And of course, strategically planning your energy levels around the equally important late-night networking events… which may or may not involve karaoke and wild shenanigans you’ll be telling stories about until next WordCamp.

Not going? No stress. Most of the talks will make their way to WordPress.tv afterwards, so you can catch up from your desk later.

Check out the full menu schedule to plan your WCEU experience.

Someone Bought 30+ Plugins… and Added a Backdoor

In a story that feels like it should come with a horror soundtrack, a buyer acquired over 30 WordPress plugins on Flippa and quietly added a backdoor to all of them.

Not immediately, of course. That would be too obvious.

Instead, the malicious code sat dormant for around eight months before being activated, waiting for the perfect moment to break through those backdoors, like Jack Nicholson in the Shining.

The good news is that the Plugins Team moved quickly, pushing a forced auto-update within hours of the issue being reported by Anchor Hosting founder Austin Ginder.

But the bigger issue is how this happened in the first place.

This is one of the most methodical supply chain compromises we’ve ever seen, and at the moment there’s really no way to prevent it. When plugin ownership changes hands, there’s currently no deep review process.

All work and no review process makes your plugin list a very bad idea… and means a trusted plugin can quietly begin a slow descent into madness without you realising until it’s too late.

More details on the plugin drama here.

Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats

• WordCamp Asia in Mumbai boasted 2,281 attendees, a new record for the event! Official stats on cups of tea and vada pav have not been released. (Source)
• Turns out, accessibility really pays. According to the Admin Bar’s 2026 State of the WordPress Agency survey, only 1 in 4 agencies offer accessibility, but the ones that do are almost twice as likely to surpass $200k in revenue. (Source)
• Gutenberg 22.9 just landed with 131 merged PRs. Highlights include gradient backgrounds that actually play nice with images, and a tidier command palette so you can finally find things without going on a quest. (Source)

Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

Scheduling posts is so 2010. What if WordPress could schedule changes instead? Brian Coords thinks it’d be cool.

Write Plugin: What if WordPress had pristine-Moleskine, finally-writing-my-novel energy?

AI made content cheap. Fixing it is profitable. Here’s how to make content audits your new favorite service.

SSL certifications are getting shorter-lived. Because remembering to renew them once a year was too easy, apparently.

You’re a developer. Not a lawyer. Donata Stroink-Skillrud explains why your client’s privacy policy isn’t your responsibility.

AI isn’t replacing you, it’s pulling up a chair… and there’s room for everyone at the table.

Who need grammar? Speak like caveman. Save Claude token.

Coffee Break Distractions

Not all hero sections wear capes. This WordPress site helped rescue 100+ animals.

Ah yes, Dexember. It’s the month right before Xanuary, right? AI certainly thinks so.

Some might call them bugs. Others call it job security.

Seems like this guy is really head over heels for his girlfriend.

Who knew penguin relationship drama was more complex than your plugin stack?

No one prepares you for when you get expertly roasted by your own kids.

One of Tarantino’s classics: Reservoir Ducks.

And finally…

Some valuable information that could save your life.

Love this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Share it with your…

Things are changing fast. We’re here to try to keep up… and help you stay in the loop.

Stick around to the end to see the cutest unboxing video of all time.

In today’s edition:

Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?

Is it just me, or is the absolute worst thing for your productivity… having a 2pm meeting?

Your brain refuses to start anything meaningful before it. You’re not quite resting, not quite working, just… buffering.

If you’re in procrastination mode right now, we’ve got you. Scroll on for the latest WordPress updates to fill the void until motivation (hopefully) kicks in.

WordPress Now Lets AI Run Your Site (Kinda)

WordPress has shifted from letting AI read your site… to letting it actually do things.

The change is powered by Model Context Protocol (MCP), which allows AI tools to plug directly into your site and perform 19 new types of tasks, including drafting and publishing posts, building pages, managing and replying to comments, and creating, renaming, and restructuring categories and tags.

As Ana-Maria Stanciuc described, it’s like AI agents used to have a “window” into your site, and now they have a “door.” Knock knock. Who’s there? Not a human anymore!

Don’t worry, you’re still in control:

• The AI agent checks with you before publishing, creating, updating, or deleting anything
• New posts default to drafts, so you can catch any wild hallucinations before they go live
• Even “delete” isn’t forever, you can restore content within 30 days
• It won’t randomly go rogue and turn your company website into a hobbit fanfic blog (without your approval)

For the average WordPress wrangler juggling dozens of client sites and a half-written blog post from 2022… this could actually help. You can spin up draft posts in seconds, clean up formatting and categorization messes, organize content you were definitely going to sort “later,” and maybe even keep client blogs alive without chasing them for content (again).

But of course, there’s a potential dark side: AI content flooding the web, SEO turning into even more of a battlefield, and readers wondering if a human wrote anything on your site.

Turning your site into a “slop factory” still isn’t a strategy. Low-value content is low-value, even if humans are no longer required to produce it.

Have you experimented with giving an AI agent the keys to your WordPress door? How’s it going… and how much do you trust it? We’d love to hear your take.

EmDash: A New “Spiritual Successor” Just Entered the Chat

Cloudflare has just launched something called EmDash, which they are very casually calling a “spiritual successor to WordPress.” Cool cool cool. No pressure.

So what is it?

• A CMS built from scratch
• Runs on Cloudflare’s serverless platform
• Written entirely in TypeScript
• Treats plugins like sandboxed apps with permissions
• And is very, very into AI

In other words: WordPress… but if it grew up in 2026 instead of 2003.

The big pitch? Plugins can’t mess with each other or core. Which, considering most WordPress vulnerabilities come from dodgy plugins, makes sense.

Unsurprisingly, the April 1st announcement got everyone talking. (Including a GitHub issue asking if it was literally an April Fools joke.)

So… what are people saying?

• The Big M himself, Matt Mullenweg, insists that EmDash isn’t “spiritually tied to WordPress at all” and warns against claiming to “be our spiritual successor without understanding our spirit.”
• Hendrik Luehrsen says it exposes Gutenberg’s biggest weakness: a slick interface sitting on top of a system that was never redesigned for how content actually works today.
• Brian Coords calls it a genuinely smart rethink of CMS architecture… just not one that’s ready to compete with WordPress’s real-world ecosystem anytime soon.
• Olivier Dobberkau goes full philosophical, calling the admin panel a façade and arguing the real product is an API for AI agents, not humans… meaning you might not be the main user of your own CMS for much longer.

EmDash is interesting not because it’s going to dethrone WordPress tomorrow, but because it says a lot about where the web is going.

What do you think? Is EmDash a full stop for WordPress, or just a pause?

Our Premium Plan Just Got a Whole Lot More Premium

In news a little closer to home… we’ve been busy.

As in “turning our Premium Plan into a full digital agency starter pack” busy.

We recently rolled out a bunch of new upgrades to the Premium Plan, built around what you actually need day-to-day to build cool stuff for your clients.

Some of the new features packed into the Premium Plan include:

• Front-of-the-queue VIP support: Skip the line, fix things faster.
• $900 in free credits: For hosting, on-demand dev, and proactive monitoring.
• Sweet discounts: Half price hosting and Pro Email = bigger margins.
• Zero-fee billing: A feature that could save you a ton over time if you’re billing multiple clients monthly.

One of our members, Flavio, wrote:

“Thank you VERY much to the WPMU DEV team for listening, improving the Premium plan, and making it far more “reseller‑friendly.” This update shows real commitment to supporting agencies like ours.”

Cheers, Flavio! You know we’ve always got your back.

Read the full scoop on what’s new.

Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats

• On April 1st, SolidWP’s WordPress Vulnerability Report revealed 225 new vulnerabilities that had emerged in the WordPress ecosystem, including 91 that still remain unpatched. Don’t be a fool. Keep your site safe! (Source)
• WordPress can no longer boast that it powers 43% of the web. The number has dropped to 42.4%. It’s the first time that figure has dropped below 43% since 2022. The interesting part? The category of sites being built without any content management system (aka. AI-produced sites) has increased for the first time in a decade. (Source)
• The robots aren’t just building the sites, they’re also visiting them. Human Security’s State of AI Traffic & Cyberthreat Benchmark Report revealed that non-human internet traffic is growing EIGHT TIMES faster than human traffic. (Source)

Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

Bryce Culp calls WordPress 7.0 a “foundational leap forward” and explains how to prepare your site for the impending AI era.

Built your side-hustle pre-AI? A Hostinger survey says you’re more likely to still be doing things the “old-fashioned way.”

Elementor has launched their own agentic AI for WordPress. Describe what you want and Angie will build it for you.

Meanwhile, Nick Hamze has been chatting with Dewey, his WordPress version of the ever-helpful Clippy.

Jason Coleman doesn’t do anything without Flint, his 24/7 AI assistant who lives on an old gaming PC in his basement.

The 100th episode of Seriously, BUD? features AI hosts having a surprisingly human chat about the folks behind WordPress.

WP Plugin Insights uses AI to scan your plugins for trouble. Javier Casares and Mark Heijnen explain how.

Coffee Break Distractions

In contrast to all of the stuff above, here’s something whimsical and amazing built in the real world, no AI required.

A fascinating thread about a dinosaur question you probably never thought to ask.

This senior dog came last in the race, but he’s won first place in our hearts.

Our brains are biological computers. So, can they run DOOM?

Maybe not, but you can render Doom in 3D with just CSS. Niels Leenheer made it happen.

Is it worth tattooing “Patchstack” on your ankle to get stock options in the company? Soeren von Varchim thought so!

The goodest of good dogs. (Is someone chopping onions?!)

XKCD: Came for the “Dark Mode” joke, stuck around for the drop down menu below it. (My fave is “Airplane Mode”)

And finally…

Duck in a box.

Love this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Share it with your fave human.

That’s exactly what the shiny new and improved Premium Plan is designed to help you do.

You spoke, we took notes… and then we got to work. These new Premium Perks are built around what you actually need day-to-day as you roll up your sleeves and build cool stuff for your clients.

Premium is now even more of a true agency growth toolkit, helping you boost your profitability, scale your business and reduce your hands-on workload.

Here’s What’s New

$500 in On-Demand Development Credits

Instead of outsourcing to random freelancers or spending hours troubleshooting until your eyes hurt, you can now delegate the tricky, complex and time-consuming tasks to our team and keep your projects moving.

This will be your secret weapon for delivering faster, taking on more complex projects and saying “yes” to higher paying clients.

$200 in Proactive Monitoring Credits

This is a major reputation booster. No more scrambling to react when a client’s site goes down. With immediate downtime alerts, security scanning and performance checks, we’ll make sure issues are fixed before they affect business.

Fewer emergencies means less stress and stronger client trust… and makes it easier for you to justify monthly retainers.

$200/year in Hosting Credits & Half-Price Hosting

Yeah, it seems crazy… but we’re throwing in two hundred bucks of hosting every year too, plus a 50% discount. That’s $56 more per year than the old Premium plan – a 39% increase!

This is where the math really starts to work in your favor.

Being able to host a ton of sites for free, or spin up new client sites without worrying about costs, means you can make higher margins on every project. Offer competitive pricing while keeping as much of that sweet sweet profit for yourself.

Dedicated Account Manager + VIP Support

Our 24/7 support has always had your back, but now you’ll have priority access to a dedicated expert who can get problems solved even faster.

When you’re juggling client deadlines, plugin conflicts and migrations, this means you’ll never get stuck and you can spend more time on revenue-generating work.

But Wait… There’s More!

There are other great perks of Premium that should not be slept on, such as:

Zero-Fee Billing

Premium members will continue to enjoy a 0% billing fee, while Basic, Standard and Plus plans will have a 7.5% billing fee. If client billing is a feature you use often, upgrading will quickly pay for itself.

If you’re billing clients monthly, reselling services or running a maintenance business, this could save you thousands over time.

Half-Price Webmail

With Premium, you’ll also get 50% off Webmail, so you can set your clients up with a secure, professional inbox for a very affordable price. (Hello better margins!)

Wholesale Domains

Act like a domain provider, without having to actually be one. With our affordable wholesale domains, you can handle everything from domain to hosting to setup for your clients, giving them the “all-in-one package” treatment.

Plus, with domain renewals built in, it’s an easy way to add predictable recurring revenue to your business.

Give Your Business an Upgrade

The old Premium Plan gave you great tools. But the new Premium Plan gives you some serious leverage. Instead of just building sites, you can now run leaner, deliver faster and scale smarter.

Whether you’re managing a handful of sites or aiming for a full-blown agency, Premium gives you everything you need for serious growth, without the chaos that comes with it.

→ Check it out!