WordPress can be called the infrastructure of the Internet. It is an open source program designed to manage website content. It is widely used, stable, and therefore rarely attracts media attention.
However, the WordPress community has recently faced a conflict. Co-founder Matt Mullenweg sharply criticized WP Engine, one of the most common hosting providers on the platform. The statement turned into a public dispute. Can commercial companies use open source for profit and should they instead help the project?
WP Engine is a hosting company that has been actively using free open-source WordPress software to create and sell its services since 2010. Currently, more than 200 thousand websites use its platform, which makes it a serious competitor to WordPress.com.
Matt Mullenweg manages two key platforms:
In addition, he heads Automattic, which owns WordPress.com. According to statistics, about 43% of all websites run on WordPress, but it remains unclear how many of them use hosting from WordPress.com or other providers.
Automattic actively supports the development of the open-source project, which exists thanks to donations and community efforts. Mullenweg notes that the team spends about 3988 hours a week on improving the platform. Although the company does not pay for the use of WordPress, it invests resources in its development.
WP Engine, on the other hand, works on a different principle, investing in the community through sponsorships and support for WordPress implementation. In 2018, the company was acquired by private equity firm Silver Lake, and Mullenweg believes that it profits from the use of open source without offering anything in return.
Mullenweg did not hold back his emotions during his speech at WordCamp, a WordPress conference sponsored by WP Engine. He openly stated:
“The company is controlled by Silver Lake, a private equity fund with $102 million under management. This company doesn’t care about your open-source ideals; they only care about making a return on their investment. So I urge everyone in the WordPress community to vote with your wallet: who will you give your money to? To someone who cares about the ecosystem, or to someone who simply sucks the value out of it until there is nothing left?”
On September 21, Mullenweg clarified his thoughts in a blog post, criticizing WP Engine for devoting only 40 hours a week to the open-source project WordPress.org.
“WP Engine sets a poor standard that people will look at and think that reproducing it is enough. We need to set a higher standard that ensures WordPress will be around for another 100 years,” Mullenweg wrote. He also added that WP Engine is “robbing the WordPress ecosystem” and offering users “a bad experience to make more money.”
Mullenweg certainly has grounds to criticize WP Engine’s contribution to an open-source project. However, it is worth noting that the company does not violate the licensing rules: it can use the program for free, and no one obliges it to make contributions to the community, although it would be desirable.
The situation is complicated by the fact that Mullenweg defends not only the ideas of open source, but also the interests of his company. In his blog post, he claims that WP Engine “capitalizes on the confusion” associated with branding, promising customers WordPress but actually offering only an inferior version of the service.
In addition, he stated that “unauthorized” use of the WP Engine WordPress trademark requires a commercial license controlled by the WordPress Foundation, and even sent a warning letter demanding payment from the company.
In turn, WP Engine expressed a different version of events in their warning letter. They stated that Automattic demanded a “very large sum of money” just a few days before Mullenweg’s speech at the September WordCamp convention. If this amount was not paid, Mullenweg allegedly began threatening the company with messages and calls, threatening to use scorched earth tactics.
After WP Engine refused to pay, Mullenweg began to carry out his threats.
“Mr. Mullenweg’s secret demand for tens of millions of dollars from Automattic, a for-profit company, presented as altruistic community protection, is shameful,” the letter reads. “WP Engine will not comply with these unreasonable demands, which not only harm the company and its employees, but also threaten the entire WordPress community.”
WordPress.org has made it clear that the claims against WP Engine are not only about a lack of community support, but also about misuse of the trademark. Mullenweg now notes that Automattic has offered WP Engine two options:
“It’s not robbery: it’s an expectation that any business that makes hundreds of millions of dollars from an open-source project should give something back, and if they don’t, they can’t use the trademarks,” Mullenweg says.
The board of directors of the WordPress Foundation, the charity that supports the project, includes Mullenweg and several lesser-known individuals who are not listed on the site.
Recently, the foundation seems to have changed the rules for using the trademark. As recently as September 19, the policy stated that the WP acronym could be used “free of charge” in “any way”. Now, this text has been replaced with a provision that prohibits the use of WP “in a misleading manner.” For example, many people think that WP Engine is the WordPress Engine.
The new policy also explicitly states: “If you want to use the WordPress trademark for commercial purposes, please contact Automattic, who holds the exclusive license.”
WordPress.org banned WP Engine from free access to its servers due to “lawsuits and proceedings”, which complicated the situation for WP Engine customers. However, two days later, Mullenweg decided to postpone the blocking until October 1 – during which time WP Engine must either create a mirror or resolve the conflict.
“Why should WordPress.org provide these services to WP Engine for free, given their attacks on us?” asks Mullenweg. So far, WP Engine has not filed a lawsuit, limiting itself to a warning letter.
The conflict has drawn mixed reactions. Some believe that WP Engine should really invest more in the project and that using WP in the name can be misleading. At the same time, other members of the community are calling for Mullenweg to resign, accusing him of abusing his power. Some are concerned about the possibility of a spin-off service and the fact that other companies will start using the WP acronym.
In this controversy, which should clarify what WordPress is and is not, Mullenweg risks further blurring the lines between the commercial and open-source aspects of the platform.