Automattic vs. WP Engine
Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg unleashed a scathing attack on a rival firm this week, calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress.”
Mullenweg criticized the company — which has been commercializing the open source WordPress project since 2010 — for profiteering without giving much back, while also disabling key features that make WordPress such a powerful platform in the first place.
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It’s worth noting that Automattic has a history in backing WordPress-hosting companies, having invested in WP Engine itself way back in 2011, while Mullenweg also spoke at WP Engine’s conference just last year. Moreover, Automattic also bought a majority stake in WordPress-hosting company Pressable back in 2016, and later invested in GridPane too.
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In response to the brouhaha that followed the talk, Mullenweg published a follow-up blog post, where he calls WP Engine a “cancer” to WordPress. “It’s important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread,” he wrote.
WP Engine has responded with a cease and desist letter (via Hacker News, Slashdot):
During calls on September 17th and 19th, for instance, Automattic CFO Mark Davies told a WP Engine board member that Automattic would “go to war” if WP Engine did not agree to pay its competitor Automattic a significant percentage of its gross revenues – tens of millions of dollars in fact – on an ongoing basis.
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Mr. Mullenweg further stated that he had already created slides for his keynote speech, taking aim at WP Engine and its investor, and would present them to WordCamp attendees – and to millions of others via livestream on YouTube – if his financial demands were not met.
Rodrigo Ghedin (via Hacker News):
Notably, WP Engine was a sponsor of the event.
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What I find deeply ironic in this situation is his accusation that WP Engine “confused even his own mother,” while he’s the owner of Automattic, which has a hosting service literally called WordPress.com, distinct from the FOSS project WordPress.org — an intentional yet obvious confusion that everyone who interacts with WordPress struggles to understand and has benefited Automattic immensely since ever.
Last year, Matt leveraged the FOSS project and his for-profit endeavor resemblance (and his position in both) to redirect web searches pointed at WordPress.org plugin directory to a mirror hosted in WordPress.com.
pluc:
There’s a widget on the default WordPress dashboard that displays a RSS feed of WordPress.org, where Matt posted his rant, making it show up everywhere.
I respect @photomatt’s opinion that consumers of open source should “give back”, but to my mind that’s antithetical to the notion of it being free. Free things do not come with conditions. Giving back is an option, and always welcome. That’s open source.
Matt @photomatt has SO MUCH goodwill in the WordPress community and I fear he’s squandering it in this WPEngine fight. Whatever the details it’s not coming off well in public. I hope they resolve things soon.
Previously:
- Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools
- WordPress at 20
- Wix and Their Dirty Tricks
