Issue #220 | May 20, 2025 | Reading time: 18 mins
Hello!
This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover the WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway issue, the new Build Tour 2025 initiative by WP Bhopal, Modular DS securing €615,000 in seed funding, 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 Kinsta, Omnisend, and WP Job Openings
🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN
WooCommerce identified an issue in version 9.5.0 of its Stripe Payment Gateway extension, where excessive network requests to Stripe’s API were triggered. The issue was resolved with the release of WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway 9.5.1.
📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND
All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies
The Women in WordPress initiative, launched on International Women’s Day, grew from a simple idea into a global movement empowering women across the WordPress community. Sparked by a conversation between community members, the initiative led to over 25 women-led events worldwide, many in regions hosting such events for the first time.
- WordCamp.org was temporarily offline on May 17, 2025: The issue has been resolved now as the faulty hardware has been replaced.
- Critical privilege escalation vulnerability patched in Eventin Plugin: The vulnerability occured in the /wp-json/eventin/v2/speakers/import REST API endpoint due to the lack of permission check in the endpoint along with the processing of the users roles while importing the user. All users are to update to the latest version immediately.
- 22,000 WordPress sites affected by privilege escalation vulnerability in Motors WordPress Theme: The vulnerability that makes it possible for an unauthenticated attacker to change the password of any user, including an administrator, which allows them to take over the account and the website, was recently patched.
- 10,000 WordPress sites affected by remote code execution vulnerability in UiPress lite WordPress plugin: The vulnerability was recently patched, and users are to update to the latest version immediately.
- WooCommerce 9.9 will deliver massive admin performance gains: Using smarter caching, asynchronous data loading, and leaner database queries, the WooCommerce team has reduced critical page-load times by up to 95%.
- The landscape of malicious open source packages: 2025 Mid‑year threat report: The Socket Threat Research Team identified six recurring attack methods: typosquatting, repository and caching abuse, obfuscation, multi-stage malware, automation and AI abuse, and weaponizing legitimate services.
- The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source: Microsoft has announced that the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is now open source. The code is live on GitHub at Microsoft/WSL, and users can build it from source, contribute fixes and features, and be part of its active development.
- Microsoft’s open source move: VS Code embraces AI with GitHub Copilot: The team is open-sourcing the GitHub Copilot Chat extension under the MIT license and will integrate key AI features into VS Code core.
- U.S. Copyright Office cites legal risk at every stage of Generative AI: The United States Copyright Office released a pre-publication version of a report on the use of copyrighted materials for training generative AI, outlining a legal and factual case that identifies copyright risks at every stage of generative AI development.
- Google links to itself: 43% of AI Overviews point back to Google: A study by SE Ranking examined Google’s AI Overviews in five U.S. states. It found that 43% of these AI answers contain links redirecting users to Google’s search results. Each answer typically includes 4-6 links to Google.
💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
- Foundation and Newspack join forces: Foundation, a longtime CMS provider for alternative weekly publications, is joining forces with Newspack to help migrate its customers to Newspack’s platform for free. This transition, involving about 40 publishers, will give them access to Newspack’s advanced publishing tools and revenue programs.
- Post Status acquires WP Speakers: Post Status has acquired WP Speakers, a project created by Michelle Frechette. The site will be moved from Michelle’s ownership to the Post Status non-profit. The platform features over 500 speaker profiles to help event organizers and podcasters find talent within the WordPress community.
👥 COMMUNITY NEWS
Updates and News from the WordPress Community
After a successful EmpowerWP Bhopal 2025 earlier this year, the WordPress Bhopal community is back with a new student-focused initiative, Build Tour 2025. This is a statewide program (Madhya Pradesh) designed for college and university students, offering them a chance to develop digital skills through hands-on learning and guidance from experienced community mentors.
- Modular DS raises €615K in funding: Modular DS has raised €615,000 in seed funding, and has also launched Modular DS 2.0. The team plans to use the funds to enhance the platform and expand globally. Founded to simplify website management for agencies and freelancers, Modular DS now serves over 35,000 websites in 110 countries.
- Mark Zahra raises concerns over product suggestions in WordPress block editor settings: The tweet highlights tactics in plugin cross-promotion by injecting ads directly into WordPress’ default block settings.
- The Feature API is now available as a Composer package: James LePage shared this update on X to inform the community about this development.
- Anil Agrawal relaunches WP Coupons plugin: The plugin, originally developed by Brian Jackson and & Brett Jackson, was acquired by Anil in January 2025 and has now been relaunched as a free version.
- Weston Ruter completes a decade as a core committer: Weston Ruter celebrates a decade as a WordPress core committer, reflecting on his journey from early contributions to leading key projects like the Customizer, AMP plugin, and Core Performance Team.
- 10up has officially unified under the Fueled brand: Fueled and 10up, which merged in 2023, have unified under the refreshed Fueled brand. While Fueled represents the broader agency, 10up remains the expert WordPress practice within it.
- OlliePro 2.0 released: The latest release brings a revamped dashboard, new setup wizard, starter sites, and a child theme creator.
- Crocoblock is celebrating its 7-year anniversary: Crocoblock celebrates 7 years with 100K+ websites, 1500+ plugin releases, and millions of users worldwide.
- Backuply hits new milestone: The plugin has crossed 500K active WordPress installations.
- Patchstack ranks 52nd among fastest-growing European startups: The relaunched Sifted 100: DACH & CEE Leaderboard merges previous regional rankings into one list of the 100 fastest-growing startups across 25 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
- Patchstack has launched an educational CTF event: The event will be held from the 19th to the 25th of May and will feature challenges from past events, providing a great opportunity to sharpen your skills and gear up for the upcoming WordCamp Europe CTF.
- FrankenPHP is now officially supported by The PHP Foundation: FrankenPHP, a modern high-performance PHP application server created by Kévin Dunglas and sponsored by Les-Tilleuls.coop, is now officially supported by the PHP Foundation. FrankenPHP integrates PHP directly into Go and Caddy, simplifying deployment, improving performance, and reducing costs.
- WordCamp Asia 2026 call for organisers will close on 31st May 2026: Those interested are encouraged to apply and become part of the organizing team.
- WP Engine wins TITAN Award for customer service team of the year: WP Engine’s Customer Experience (CX) team has been named a 2025 TITAN Business Award winner for Customer Service Department/Team of the Year.
- Custom Post Type UI reaches new milestone: As highlighted by Brad Williams, the plugin has surpassed 20 million lifetime downloads.
- Etch now has a full selector management system: Kevin Geary on X highlighted that Etch has a powerful selector management system, laying the groundwork for what promises to be the most advanced HTML/CSS importer and parser in WordPress to date.
- Satyam Vishwakarma receives the Yoast Care fund for his contribution to the WordPress community: Satyam Vishwakarma, a member of the WordPress Photos, Marketing, and Community Teams, is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care.
🚀 NEW PROJECTS
- Introducing Speed Network Online: Speed Network Online, launched by Michelle Frechette and June Liu, is a virtual, real-time event where professionals connect one-on-one in short, timed conversations. It’s designed for freelancers, solopreneurs, and small business folks looking to grow their referral network, meet collaborators, and build authentic business relationships.
- Plugin Pal is now live: Plugin Pal has been launched to help WordPress developers build smarter and faster. It offers real-world tutorials, behind-the-scenes plugin builds, coding tips, and time-saving workflows.
- Introducing WordPress WP-CLI Commands Explorer: The Raycast extension created by Aslam Doctor provides a searchable interface for WordPress WP-CLI commands, their descriptions, and subcommand.
- All new Accessibility Pause Animated Gifs plugin: The plugin, created by Steve Jones—Co-Owner and CTO of Equalize Digital, adds play/pause controls to animated GIFs to improve accessibility and user experience.
- Brizy shops coming soon: The Brizy team is launching the initiative soon, and the waitlist is now open.
🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS
More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss
- Security and WordPress: It’s time to fix the image: Joost de Valk highlights how WordPress’s reputation for insecurity is growing due to plugin flaws, negative media, and poor messaging, despite its secure core. Internal issues like reduced Automattic contributions and community tensions add to the problem. From Progress Planner.
- In conversation with Anne-Mieke Bovelett: In this episode, Anne-Mieke Bovelett discussed her artistic family background, creative upbringing, and journey into WordPress and digital accessibility. From Seriously, Bud?
- Is WordPress still a good choice for building websites in 2025?: This article compares WordPress with other top CMSs, covering market trends, performance, customization, usability, and security, highlighting how Kinsta’s managed hosting maximizes its potential. From Kinsta.
- Craylor interviewed Michelle Frechette and Remkus De Vries at PressConf 2025: Michelle Frechette and Remkus De Vries shared their insights and experiences from PressConf 2025.
- You don’t need paid tools to create high-quality video tutorials: Jonathan Bossenger emphasizes that you don’t need paid tools to create high-quality video tutorials. He shared his experience using free, open-source software, OBS Studio for recording and Shotcut for editing, during his Automattic trial and previous roles.
- David Heinemeier Hansson on Coding should be a vibe: He argues that programming should be enjoyable, and not something developers feel desperate to escape through AI. He reflects on how Ruby, especially through Rails, transformed coding from a chore into a joy by prioritizing programmer happiness over machine efficiency.
- WordPress 6.8: APAC emerges as the largest contributor region: APAC led WordPress 6.8 in individual contributors (42%), while EMEA contributed the most overall (50%). Despite strong input from APAC, questions remain about its influence in project leadership.
- WordCamp US 2025 moves ahead with new leads after Automattic layoffs disrupt planning: Planning is weeks behind schedule, but a newly confirmed team, backed by veteran mentors and production support, is pushing to deliver the flagship WordPress event this August in Portland. From The Repository.
- Case study: How Patchstack, Pagely & Crowd Favorite help secure one of the world’s largest media brands: The case study reveals how a global media brand partnered with Crowd Favorite, Pagely, and Patchstack to modernize and secure its WordPress infrastructure. From Patchstack.
- A recap of PressConf 2025: In this special episode, Michelle Frechette is joined by hosts Robert Jacobi, Zach Stepek, Tammie Lister, Katie Keith, Adam Weeks, and Christian Taylor as they take us behind the scenes of PressConf, an event for WordPress professionals, entrepreneurs, and influencers. From Do the Woo.
- Wes Tatters on the evolution of internet communities and WordPress open source: Wes Tatters shares his nearly 40 years of experience in technology and internet communities, from early platforms like CompuServe and AOL to modern open source projects like WordPress. From WP Tavern Jukebox.
- Figma sites isn’t the future (yet)—But it’s coming for WordPress and Framer anyway: Figma Sites launched as an easy web publishing tool from Figma, aiming to challenge WordPress and Framer. But it’s not perfect, with limited features, poor code, and vendor lock-in risks. From Web Designer Depot.
- Reinventing himself from agency owner to productized service: Matt talks with John Doherty, who shifted from running SEO agency Credo to founding EditorNinja, a scalable content editing service, and the discussion also touches upon burnout, shifting business economics, and more. From The WP Minute.
- Freemius: Growing beyond WordPress: Matt welcomes Vova Feldman, the founder and CEO of Freemius, to discuss how the company is expanding beyond its roots in the WordPress ecosystem. From The WP Minute.
- How Automattic designers iterate on UI copy: The article explains how Automattic designers treat UI copy as a core design element, from first drafts to faster iteration with internal tools like Wordmattic. From Automattic Desgin.
- Project red flags for the solo dev: The article discusses strategies to spot and neutralize red flags early, so you can build sustainably, protect your boundaries, and focus on work that fuels your career. From Delicious Brains.
- The state of SEO in 2025: The report by Glen Allsopp shows that large brands continue to dominate high-volume search results, making it harder for smaller sites to compete. Additionally, the rise of AI in search is transforming traditional SEO strategies and challenging Google’s dominance. From Detailed.
🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE
Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle
- Troubleshooting WooCommerce variations: A step-by-step guide: From Codeable
- Post previews in Headless WordPress with Nuxt 3: From WP Engine
- How to enable and disable maintenance mode on WordPress: From WPMarmite
- How to change the author of a post in WordPress (5 Easy Ways): From Jetpack
📆 SAVE THE DATES
Do not miss a WordPress event ever again
- WordCamp Europe on 5-7 June 2025: Tickets are now available.
- WPCampus 2025 on July 23–25, 2025: The call for proposals is now open.
- WordCamp US on August 26-29, 2025: The call for organizers and sponsor applications is now open.
- SomeConf 2025: The event is in the early planning stages. The call for sponsors and speakers is now live.
- WordCamp Canada on October 16-17 2025: The call for sponsors is now open.
- WordCamp Asia 2026: It is tentatively planned for early February 2026 and the call for organizers is now open.
🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK
Again, these are the best deals of the week, handpicked by yours!
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- 4 Months free offer on hosting plans of WP Engine (Coupon Code- FREEDOMTOCREATE)
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MORE DEALS
- Up to 83% off web hosting plans of Hostinger (The offer is valid from May 1st until May 30th)
- Up to 50% off on BookingPress plugin
- Up to 70% off on Shared Hosting plans at InMotion Hosting (Till May 29, 2025)
- 50% off for the first 6 months on all monthly standard plans at Kinsta
- 50% off 3 months on Liquid Web’s Bare Metal server hosting
- 20% off for Constellation plugin
- 60% off for the lifetime plan for the Modern Cart for WooCommerce plugin.
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by awesome WordPress Companies 🦸♂️🙌
Last but not least, updates from WP-CONTENT.CO 👇
After a successful EmpowerWP Bhopal 2025 earlier this year, the WordPress Bhopal community is back with a new…
WP Campus Connect, an initiative led by Anand Upadhyay and Pooja Derashri, and driven by a vision to…
The WordPress Media Corps initiative, introduced in 2024 by then-Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy, has officially come to…
To mark the 14th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), Equalize Digital is bringing together the WordPress community…
Team WP-CONTENT.CO
Issue #220 | May 20, 2025 | Reading time: 18 mins
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Kinsta, Omnisend, and WP Job Openings
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