Issue #269 | April 28, 2026 | Reading time: 23 mins
Hello!
This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover the temporary closure of 80+ plugins from WPFactory after a user reported an issue with one of their pro plugin, the launch of WPFolks community for the WordPress ecosystem, WooCommerce Subscriptions patching a bug that may have caused revenue loss, GoDaddy domain transfer issue, new projects, and more.
Don’t forget to subscribe and listen to the podcast version of this newsletter, where you can hear more details and discussions about these topics and more.
See you next week!
Team WP-CONTENT.CO
🙌 This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by ProfilePress, 20i and WP Job Openings
🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN
80+ WPFactory plugins temporarily closed on WordPress.org
More than 80 WPFactory plugins have been temporarily closed on the WordPress.org plugin repository, a move highlighted by Ben Word on X, following a reported security issue on the GitHub repo, as well as on the support forum for the EU/UK VAT Validation Manager for WooCommerce plugin.
The issue, reported by Camille (CEO of Ferber Enterprises), highlights that the pro version of the EU VAT for WooCommerce plugin, which is downloaded from the official website, which contains a suspicious file that attempts to download an external file when the plugin is activated. WPFactory is now investigating and working on a fix.
A list of all the temporarily closed plugins has also been provided by Ben Word.
📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND
All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies
The release has been rescheduled to May 20, 2026, following recent work on architectural improvements to ensure better stability and performance. Initially, WordPress 7.0 was scheduled to be released during Contributor Day at WordCamp Asia 2026, but was later postponed to refine the Real-time collaboration feature. Jonathan Desrosiers also shared the rtc-test GitHub repository, which is a collection of performance tests for the real-time collaboration feature that hosting providers can run and submit back to WordPress.org.
- Call for contributors to improve WordPress onboarding with Pathway Guides and Good First Issues: Efforts are underway to improve contributor onboarding through Pathway Guides, which outline clear steps for contributing, and a Good First Issues board that surfaces one-off tasks across the project. The initiative addresses common challenges new contributors face, including unclear pathways and scattered information, ahead of a planned launch at WordCamp Europe 2026.
- WordCamp Asia 2026 Contributor Day: Photos Team recap: The Photos Team brought together 40 contributors, 31 of them new, and the team uploaded 76 photos, reviewed 57, and helped participants learn submission and quality standards through hands-on guidance.
- Presence API experimental feature plugin now available: The plugin adds an experimental system-wide awareness layer to WordPress, showing who is logged in, which admin screens they’re on, and what posts they’re editing.
- Roster of design tools per block (WordPress 7.0 edition): Birgit Pauli-Haack shared an updated roster of design tools across core blocks, covering changes from WordPress 6.1 through 7.0. The table highlights supported features, notes block updates like renaming Verse to Poetry, introduces new blocks, and so on.
- What’s new in Gutenberg 23.0: This release introduces an experimental revisions panel for templates, template parts, and patterns, along with updates to the Site Editor’s Identity panel, and several other improvements and bug fixes.
- WordPress Nairobi turned a meetup into a hands-on workshop: The UI/UX Mastery Workshop had 41 attendees split into groups to work on pre-prepared websites with intentional design issues like typography, mobile responsiveness, call-to-actions, and visual hierarchy. Organizers were embedded within each group to support participants, especially beginners, followed by group presentations, Q&A, and networking.
- WordCamp Asia 2026 Community Booth: A retrospective: Destiny Kanno reflects on the return of the Community Booth at WordCamp Asia 2026, highlighting its role in fostering meaningful conversations around contributor onboarding, meetup growth, and community programs. While the booth enabled connections like new mentors, contributors, and meetup initiatives, it faced challenges with visibility, setup, staffing, and a lack of swag and materials.
- WordPress Documentation Team closes 200+ issues and needs your help: Estela Rueda reports that the Documentation Team has closed over 200 issues as part of a larger cleanup effort, with nearly 800 issues triaged overall. Many issues remain across areas like HelpHub and Themes, and contributors from related teams are encouraged to help by reviewing, updating, or closing them. The team is also working on WordPress 7.0 documentation and handbook improvements.
- Bluehost announced as a 2026 Global Partner: Bluehost is joining as a Global Partner along with Automattic (Jetpack + WordPress.com), Woo, and Hostinger, which were announced earlier.
- What’s new in WordPress AI plugin v0.8.0: This version introduces a “Refine from Notes” experiment that applies feedback automatically, new AI dashboard widgets, and so on.
- Plugin review queue remains high with over 4,800 submissions pending: The latest Plugins Team report shows 522 new plugin submissions, with 257 approved, 282 rejected, and 84 closed. The review queue remains high at 4,891 plugins, most waiting on author responses.
- Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (April 13, 2026 to April 19, 2026): Last week, there were 139 vulnerabilities disclosed in 116 plugins and 10 themes.
- WooCommerce 10.8.0 to have a faster Command Palette navigation for store management: Luigi Teschio highlights an upcoming WooCommerce 10.8.0 update that expands command palette support across admin screens, making it faster to add products, create orders, and navigate key areas.
- Radical Speed Month at Automattic: Automattic has launched Radical Speed Month, where two-person teams will spend a month building and shipping work outside of the usual team structures and approval processes. Matthias Reinholz,
Lucas Radke, Job, Povilas Staskus, Nick Hamze, James Kemp, and several others on x have shared updates on the projects they are working on. - WooCommerce Subscriptions v8.6.1 now available: This release resolves the subscription bug that may have caused stores millions in lost revenue. The issue was brought up by Sybre Waaijer and Beau Lebens (Artistic Director and overall Lead for WooCommerce), also highlighted that the bug reported by Sybre has been resolved.
- Google won’t act on spam reports if they contain personal information: Google updated its spam reporting documentation to make it clearer that spam reports are not wholly confidential and that it’s possible for personal identifiable information to be shared with the sites receiving a manual action.
🔧 TIP OF THE WEEK
Limit ACF get_field() Calls in Loops
Tip: Don’t call get_field() repeatedly inside loops.
❌ Bad
while(…) {
get_field(‘price’);
}
✅ Better
$price = get_field(‘price’);
This approach reduces DB queries.
👥 COMMUNITY NEWS
Updates and News from the WordPress Community
WPFolks, a new community platform for the WordPress ecosystem, has been launched by Ankit Panchal, bringing together different aspects of the community into a single space while allocating 30% of its sponsorship revenue to a fund that supports community members to attend various WordPress events.
- GoDaddy transferred a domain to a stranger without any documentation: Austin Ginder reports how a 27-year-old organizational domain was unexpectedly transferred out of its GoDaddy account without proper documentation, taking websites and email systems offline for days. Despite extensive support calls and formal disputes, GoDaddy closed the case without resolution, and the domain was only restored when it ended up in another user’s account by mistake, who later transferred it back to the correct owner.
- Hostinger introduces new Node.js deployment platform: It supports one-click GitHub deployments, fully managed servers with built-in security, and a flat pricing model starting at $3.99 per month with no usage-based fees.
- Vibe coding statistics by Hostinger: The report highlights key findings such as that AI-assisted coding is now mainstream, with 84% of developers using or planning to use AI tools and Big Tech generating 30–90% of new code with AI, while the market heads toward $22.2B by 2030 and so much more.
- Generate Press 2026 Community Survey results: The 2026 community survey drew 441 responses from GeneratePress and GenerateBlocks users, including 46% freelancers, 19% agencies, and 21% solo site owners, with 63% managing six or more sites. Respondents rated value highly at 8.68/10 and primarily chose the tools for performance (45%) and code quality (27%), while feedback points to challenges around the learning curve and feature discoverability.
- Perfmatters secures .com domain: Brian Jackson announces the acquisition of the Perfmatters.com domain after a decade of trying, with a redirect now in place while the team continues using Perfmatters.io for the time being.
- .ie Domain names now available on 20i: This domain helps businesses signal trust and connection to the Irish market.
- Novamira Pro has been launched: The pro version adds expertise and memory, specialized for Elementor and Bricks. It also includes reusable skills that the agent can invoke by name, memory across sessions, and more abilities for complex WordPress sites.
- Sneak peek of Bit CRM: Abdul Kaioum shares an early look at Bit CRM, a WordPress-native CRM in development that aims to bring leads, contacts, deals, invoices, and customer management directly inside WordPress.
- New skill added to Studio Code: Riad Benguella highlighted a new Studio Code skill that lets users run an on-demand SEO audit for any site, including local setups, and receive actionable improvement suggestions. Studio Code is now in beta, and interested folks can try it out now.
- Ottokit now supports over 1400 integrations: The team recently added 90 + integrations, including Zoom Scheduler, Phone, Tasks, Docs, Google Search Console and so on.
- Google for WooCommerce v3.6 makes YouTube Shopping a direct sales channel: The latest update connects stores directly to YouTube Shopping through the Google for WooCommerce extension, allowing merchants to tag products in videos and Shorts and sync their catalog automatically with Google Merchant Center.
- FlyWP v2026.39 is here: This introduces swap size control directly in server settings, a cleaner nested sidebar for easier navigation, and a new email change confirmation flow for added security. It also includes several other improvements and enhancements.
- Akismet v5.7 adds support for WordPress AI features: This updates the plugin with support for the new WordPress Abilities API and early compatibility with upcoming Connectors in WordPress 7.0.
- Bit Flows v1.18.0 introduces MCP and human approvals: This is a major update introducing an MCP Client node for connecting MCP-compatible servers directly into WordPress automation flows, along with a Human in the Loop feature for manual approvals and new Facebook Lead support, plus expanded integrations and dozens of new actions and triggers.
- SEOPress Insights 3.0 is now available: The update adds a new custom Google locations per keyword for improved ranking tracking, a redesigned dashboard with SEO analytics widgets, a performance upgrade using custom database tables and more.
- AIOSEO 4.9.6 now live: This version introduces a new AI Schema Generator that helps users create and validate schema markup in seconds without coding, and new AI bulk actions. The update also improves redirects with notes for better context, and adds compatibility with WordPress 7.0 and Divi 5.
- A new milestone for Rank Math: The plugin now has over 4 million active installs.
- One-click migration from EDD to FluentCart is now possible: The FluentCart tool enables migration from Easy Digital Downloads to FluentCart, moving products, customers, orders, subscriptions, coupons, tax rates, and licenses.
- First-of-its-kind thesis on WordCamp participation: Business administration student Kenny James Kuruvilla at Riga Nordic University is developing a pioneering thesis on WordCamp participation through the WordPress Credits program, supported by WPBakery through mentorship and also by sponsoring his trip to WordCamp Europe 2026. His research explores what drives people to participate in WordCamp events, what holds them back, and how participation can be made more accessible, especially for students and first-time attendees. Interested folks can help with the thesis by filling out this form.
- Spanish webinar series on WordPress + AI kicks off this Thursday: Antonio Sejas and Juanma Guitart are launching a Spanish-language webinar series exploring the latest in WordPress development with AI, starting this Thursday with a session focused on WordPress Studio and AI.
- Command Code to be open-sourced: Ahmad Awais shared that he is excited to announce they will be open-sourcing Command Code.
- Introducing Lerd: An open-source, Herd-like local PHP development environment for Linux and macOS that offers automatic .test domains, per-project PHP and Node isolation, one-command TLS, and a Podman-native, rootless setup.
- Fireside chat with Hilary Mason and Jesse Friedman: Taking place on April 29, 2026, from 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM at Automattic’s NoHo Space in New York, this chat will explore how AI is reshaping creativity, products, and human–computer interaction, followed by networking with drinks and light bites.
🚀 NEW PROJECTS
| “Eliminates the headache of teaching Gutenberg block syntax to your AI.“ Chris Huber about creating the Block Format Bridge . |
- Block Format Bridge: Developed by Chris Huber, this allows for bidirectional content format conversion (HTML, Blocks, Markdown) via a unified adapter API.
- TableKit: A native Gutenberg-based WordPress table builder developed by WPmet, designed to overcome the limitations of the default table block by enabling advanced, no-code, and fully customizable data tables.
- Greenskeeper: A maintenance plugin developed by Tony Zeoli that centralises updates for WordPress core, plugins, and themes, logs every update action into searchable sessions, and generates branded maintenance report emails for clients, while also adding layered comment spam protection and built-in SMTP email delivery.
- Introducing Siren Lite: Alex Standiford has released Siren Lite, the free version of Siren, and this allows users to run unlimited programs, affiliates, conversions, along with referral link tracking, full REST API support, and so much more.
- Feedwright: Created by Kazuto Takeshita, this allows users to compose custom RSS / Atom / XML feeds in the WordPress block editor.
- Awesome WP AI: The new project by Lax Mariappan, is a curated list of AI plugins, tools, themes, and resources for WordPress.
- Easy Product Media Linker: The plugin allows users to bulk attach media to WooCommerce products via CSV import with preview, search, featured image option, and undo.
- Mute Menu Notifications: The plugin by Tom McFarlin, allows you to mute the notifications in the WordPress admin menu.
- WP Wireframe: Developed by Taylor Drayson, this offers users a fast, standardised way to build WordPress settings pages from a PHP array.
- WP Desktop Mode: The project by Daniel López and Rob Roy turns /wp-admin into a desktop-style interface with movable windows and a dock menu.
- Convesio Static Proxy: The new project by Tom Fanelli and Tammie Lister allows users to load a fully external static site directly into a WordPress route without touching your theme, templates, or core WP overhead.
- Wp-docs-health-monitor: A tool co-developed by JuanMa Garrido and Jonathan Bossenger that automatically checks WordPress developer documentation against the actual source code and reports where they’ve drifted, flagging outdated APIs, missing details, broken examples, and deprecated usage along with suggested fixes.
🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS
More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss
- In this episode of the Crossword podcast, Miriam Schwab discusses the Elementor ecosystem, its growth, and its relationship with the broader WordPress project, along with insights on dependency and ecosystem thinking.
- On this episode of Seriously, Bud?, Bud Kraus conversed with Mumtahina Faguni about her adventurous experiences, WordPress journey, and reflections on culture, travel, and life.
- In WP Tavern Jukebox, Malcolm Peralty from Pressable discussed his nearly 20-year journey in the WordPress ecosystem and how managed hosting is evolving with AI, performance optimization, and smarter infrastructure shaping the future of WordPress hosting.
- Eric Karkovack and Matt Medeiros on The WP Minute+ spoke with Kim Coleman of Stranger Studios about vibe coding, exploring its benefits and risks, along with practical ways to use AI responsibly in coding, customer support, and development workflows.
- Shital Marakana shares her journey from a small village to the global stage of WordCamp Asia, highlighting how WordPress helped her build a career, gain confidence, and find a supportive community along the way.
- Michelle Frechette reflects on her experience of burnout, describing how it developed slowly through major life changes, personal loss, health challenges, and work disruptions, before taking a semi-sabbatical and eventually finding recovery, renewed energy, and motivation to re-engage with her work and community.
- James Grierson argues that WordPress is well-positioned to power the emerging agentic web, citing its scale, open-source ecosystem, and AI integrations, while noting challenges like legacy code and plugin quality.
- Matt Cromwell argues that plugin businesses need to move beyond focusing on WordPress as the product and instead prioritize solving real customer problems.
- ProfilePress explained what churn rate is, why it matters for membership businesses, and shares practical strategies to reduce membership churn rate, improve retention, and keep members engaged for longer.
- Kim Coleman explains that they are moving beyond being a WordPress plugin company to focus on helping customers run and get paid from membership sites. Their new direction, PMPro Max, bundles hosting, software, support, and tools into one offering instead of relying on standalone plugins.
- Greg Ziółkowski previews WordPress 7.1 AI plans, highlighting upgrades to the Abilities API, new core capabilities, and improvements to the WP AI Client, alongside ongoing work to better support scalable, AI-powered workflows.
- Jamie Marsland describes an internal Automattic experiment where teams are temporarily reorganised to build and ship ideas quickly using modern AI tools, collapsing the gap between idea and execution.
- Shahjahan Jewel shares the story of an experiment where the FluentCart team shipped five releases in five days, revealing that the real challenge wasn’t building features but fixing how they ship them.
- Matthew Garrepy interviewed Karim Marucchi about how FAIR, originally built as a WordPress supply chain and update solution, is evolving after limited adoption in the WordPress ecosystem.
- Varun Dubey on why WordPress is so hard to use and why that’s finally changing in 2026.
- Christian “Craylor” Makoa shares his experiment of hiring three WordPress developers for $500 each through Fiverr, Craigslist, and WordPress.com to test what kind of website quality you can realistically get on a tight budget, along with the results, revisions, and final verdict.
🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE
Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle
- How to turn a rough draft into a finished blog post with AI: From WordPress.com
- WordPress block patterns: What they are and how to use them: From Ollie
- 12 real-world MemberPress Hooks to improve your membership site: From PluginPunch
- Exploring the WordPress Cover Block: Hero section: From Anne S. Katzeff
📆 SAVE THE DATES
Do not miss a WordPress event ever again
- WordCamp Europe 2026 on June 4-6: The call for sponsors is now open. The tickets are also now available and the Side Event applications are now open. The full schedule has been published.
- WordCamp US, Phoenix on August 16 -19 2026: The call for organizers is now open.
- WordCamp Rajasthan 2026 on 3–4 October: The call for organizers is now open.
- WordPress Accessibility Day 2026 on October 7th-8th: The call for sponsors is now open.
- WordCamp Canada 2026 on November 5-6: The call for sponsors is now open.
- CMS Conf 2026 on 12-14 November: The call for speakers is now open and the tickets are now available.
🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK
Again, these are the best deals of the week, handpicked by yours!
EXCLUSIVE DEALS
- 4 Months free offer on hosting plans of WP Engine (Coupon Code- FREEDOMTOCREATE)
- 10% off on monthly & annual plans at SureTriggers (Coupon Code- WPCONTENT10)
- Up to 84% off at Hostinger (Code NYSALE for an extra 10% off)
- 15% off yearly plans at Videvo (Coupon Code – WPV15)
MORE DEALS
- 30% off for 4 months on Cloudways + 10 Free migrations ( Promo code- TREAT25).
- Up to 50% off on BookingPress plugin
- Up to 50% off on Paid Membership Pro plans.
- Up to $100 OFF Essential Blocks PRO plugin.
- 50% off 3 months on Liquid Web’s Bare Metal server hosting
- 20% off for Constellation plugin
- 28.65% off for the lifetime plan for the Modern Cart for WooCommerce plugin.
- 33% off for the Uncanny Automator plugin.
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by awesome WordPress Companies 🦸♂️🙌
Last but not least, updates from WP-CONTENT.CO 👇
WPFolks, a new community platform for the WordPress ecosystem, has been launched by Ankit Panchal, bringing together different…
A series of previously patched bugs, along with a recent unpatched one in the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin, have…
Matt Mullenweg on the #core-committers Slack channel posted a prolonged series of messages in response to a Trac…
The WordPress Core Dev Environment Toolkit has been launched to tackle a long-standing challenge in contributing to WordPress…
Team WP-CONTENT.CO
Issue #269 | April 28, 2026 | Reading time: 23 mins
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by ProfilePress, 20i and WP Job Openings
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