Automattic will reduce the time you spend on WordPress to match WP Engine’s contribution to the ecosystem

Jan. 10 (Portaltic/EP) –

Automatic has announced that it will reduce the number of hours it spends contributing to the WordPress project to match the time allocated to WP Engine, a decision it made after observing “an imbalance in the way contributions to WordPress are distributed across the ecosystem “.

Automattic is a company founded in 2005 that offers hosting, domain and maintenance services for the WordPress.org content management system (CMS), published under the open source general public license; with different pricing plans, through WordPress.com.

A few months ago, the CEO of this firm, Matt Mullenweg, accused WP Engine of using WordPress.org’s ‘open source’ model to benefit financially and who didn’t contribute enough to the maintenance of this open source system.

Specifically, the manager pointed out that he only dedicated 47 hours a week to the WordPress project, compared to the more than 3,786 hours invested by the creator of WordPress.com, as the manager highlighted at the annual WorldCamps US 2024 conference.

Now, the firm has shared another statement in which it has acknowledged that although it “has always been deeply committed to the success of WordPress”, dedicating resources and talent for almost two decades, it has observed “an imbalance in the way in which the contributions to WordPress across the ecosystem and it’s time to address it.”

This way, “to recalibrate and ensure” that their efforts have the greatest possible impactwill reduce its sponsored contributions to WordPress, a measure that it has not taken “lightly” and with which it seeks to “rethink and strategically plan” how it can continue working on this project.

Automattic has also stressed that with this change it seeks to match “its volunteer commitment with that of WP Engine and other ecosystem participants”, who approximately dedicate the aforementioned to the management program. Five For the Futuremanagement that invites companies to dedicate resources for the advancement of WordPress.

With this, the company has advanced that those hours will “probably” be used for critical security updates and that it has made the decision to reallocate resources” due to WP Engine demandsa legal action that diverts a significant amount of time and energy that could otherwise be spent supporting the growth and health of WordPress.”

However, he has indicated that he continues to “hope” that this hosting service, whose historical contributions to open source “have been scarce”, “will reconsider this legal attack” to refocus its efforts on contributions that benefit the WordPress ecosystem.

Finally, he stressed that this measure “will strengthen the foundations of WordPress” and that “when the legal attacks have ceased”, the members of the Automattic team will return “stronger and more focused than ever”, with a clear plan to drive meaningful contributions that reflect the needs of the community.