Issue #245 | November 11, 2025 | Reading time: 19 mins
Hello!
This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover the phase 3 update for the Gutenberg project, WordPress 6.9 beta 4, Abilities API, changes to the WP Credits sponsorship guidelines, 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 and WP Job Openings
🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN
Anne McCarthy shared the latest update on WordPress collaboration efforts, highlighting progress in real-time editing, async Notes, and a modern admin redesign. Real-time collaboration is being refined for WordPress 7.0 with improved syncing and presence features, while Notes (coming in 6.9) enables threaded block-level feedback. The new DataView and DataForm components are also evolving to make admin workflows more flexible and intuitive.
📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND
All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies
This is an extra beta release to address issues found in the new template management. The beta version is now open to testing and feedback.
- Overview of the Abilities API arriving with WordPress 6.9: The Abilities API is a new system that standardizes how plugins and themes register and share functionality. It enables discoverable, AI-ready features that can be accessed through PHP and REST APIs for easier integration and automation.
- What’s new in Gutenberg 22.0: This version introduces real-time synchronization for post meta, a new theme package, and several bug fixes and enhancements.
- WP Credits updates sponsorship guidelines: As per the updated guidelines, companies can no longer sponsor tools or resources alone, but they must also sponsor one or more mentors.
- Docs Team discusses contributor recognition and contribution guidelines: The key updates from the recent meeting included adjusting meeting times for daylight savings, introducing a new contribution form and gamified recognition system with badges and leaderboards, and clarifying the difference between regular and release-related contributions.
- 400,000 WordPress sites affected by account takeover vulnerability in Post SMTP WordPress plugin: A critical vulnerability in the Post SMTP WordPress plugin (versions ≤ 3.6.0) allowed attackers to access email logs and reset admin passwords, enabling full account takeover. The issue was patched in version 3.6.1, and users are advised to update immediately.
- 100,000 WordPress sites affected by privilege escalation vulnerability in AI Engine WordPress plugin: The vulnerability in versions ≤ 3.1.3 allowed unauthenticated attackers to extract a bearer token and gain full administrative access through privilege escalation. The issue was patched in version 3.1.4.
- WooCommerce opens call for MCP beta testing: WooCommerce has launched a beta version of its MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration in version 10.3, allowing AI tools like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to securely interact with WooCommerce stores. Since it’s in beta, WooCommerce invites developers to test and share feedback before the final release.
- Google deprecates practice problem structured data in search: Google is removing support for practice problem structured data from search results starting in January. The change is part of ongoing work to simplify the results page.
- Perplexity bets $400M on Snapchat to scale AI search adoption: Perplexity and Snap announced a $400 million partnership to integrate Perplexity’s AI answer engine directly into Snapchat, giving the startup access to a reported 943 million monthly users starting in early 2026. The deal includes cash and equity payments over one year.
💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
- WPCubicle is open to acquisition: Shilpa Shah has announced that WPCubicle is up for sale. The four-year-old blog has over 50 + posts.
- Convesio acquires PeachPay: The acquisition has resulted in integrating PeachPay’s all-in-one WooCommerce payments and checkout experience into Convesio’s platform. The new ConvesioPay platform allows merchants to manage the full payment lifecycle from onboarding to payouts while providing a modern, streamlined checkout experience.
- BuiltFast and Ymir Partner to launch ‘Vector’: BuiltFast has partnered with Ymir to launch Vector and Vector Pro, a serverless WordPress hosting platform that offers auto-scaling, high performance, and enterprise-level security. Using Ymir’s serverless technology, Vector dynamically adjusts resources based on traffic, ensuring fast, reliable websites while reducing costs.
👥 COMMUNITY NEWS
Updates and News from the WordPress Community
Carole Olinger (Head of CloudFest Hackathon) announced that the participants developed a proof of concept during the hackathon that adds real-time security warnings to software packages. It transforms vulnerability data into standardized labels shown during installation and includes a policy engine that allows hosting providers to enforce security measures at the infrastructure level. By combining FAIR’s decentralized package delivery with Patchstack’s threat intelligence, the project helps identify threats before installation rather than after deployment.
- Matt Mullenweg and John Borthwick talk open source AI at dev/ai/nyc: Matt Mullenweg talks with John Borthwick about his early backing of Airbnb and Tumblr, the evolution of New York’s tech ecosystem, and Betaworks’ impact on it. Their discussion also dives into the differences between open-source and proprietary AI models and what they mean for the future of innovation.
- Invited Speakers Program for WordCamp Asia 2026 announced: The Invited Speakers Program aims to bring prominent voices from outside the WordPress community and explore new, valuable topics that enrich the event. The organizers are inviting the community to suggest potential speakers and topics by December 7, 2025. Also, the final batch of event passes will be available on November 29, 2025.
- SiNC seeks senior leaders to mentor WordPress contributors: The Support Inclusion in Tech (SiNC) community is seeking senior leaders with 20+ years of experience to mentor WordPress contributors in 2026. The program aims to foster professional growth and inclusion through mentorship, offering guidance and insight.
- The winner of the PHP 8.5 Release Page design announced: The winning design came from Nuno Guerra, followed by Hanna Stelmakh as runner-up.
- Introducing the Cloudways Lightning Stack: Cloudways has announced the Lightning Stack, a complete re-architecture of the Cloudways Flexible platform, built on NGINX + PHP-FPM to deliver faster, more stable performance for dynamic websites. It offers up to 65% faster response times and improved scalability under high-traffic conditions.
- Kinsta launches bandwidth-based pricing: The bandwidth-based hosting plans give users more control and transparency over costs. The new model helps counter inflated visitor counts from bots and lets customers choose between visitor- or bandwidth-based pricing, switch easily, and manage usage more clearly.
- InMotion has announced a new line of Eco-Friendly Dedicated Servers: These servers provide reliable speed, scalability, and security while reducing e-waste and environmental impact. Designed for businesses of all sizes, they combine enterprise power, 24/7 human support, and easy scalability.
- 20i named best web host at the PC Pro Awards 2025: For the third consecutive year, 20i has been named Best Web Host at the PC Pro Awards 2025, scoring 99% in customer support and 98% in reliability.
- MailerPress Pro is now available: After months of extensive testing and community feedback, MailerPress Pro is officially out of beta and now fully production-ready for WordPress users.
- Tutor LMS 3.9.2 released: This version introduces a new payment option for manual enrolment and enhances Strict Mode to block course completion if any assignment is failed. This update also fixes several issues, including video playback on mobile, course completion emails, WooCommerce and WPML conflicts, and quiz import errors.
- WPBakery marks four years of success with its four-day work week: WPBakery is celebrating four years of its four-day work week, known as #YourDay, which has given employees over 200 extra paid days off to focus on family, health, and personal growth. Despite working fewer hours, the company has maintained steady business growth, achieved over 70% of OKRs, and earned an eNPS of 85.
- Jonathan Bossenger has started a new series on his YouTube channel: Jonathan Bossenger kicks off a new YouTube series about his work at Automattic, starting with how communication functions in a globally distributed company. He highlights Automattic’s culture of asynchronous communication, open collaboration across time zones, and the use of its P2 system.
- WordPress Explorations by Rich Tabor: The new series by Richard Tabor looks at how WordPress could be reimagined, questioning old assumptions and exploring new ideas for its future.
🚀 NEW PROJECTS
- Promptless WP waitlist now open: Created by Breon Williams, Promptless AI instantly converts Word documents into polished WordPress pages, no prompts or manual formatting needed.
- Introducing AI Code Agents: A TypeScript SDK by Felix Arntz for creating coding agents that can interact with various sandboxed execution environments – built on top of the AI SDK.
- Introducing WPChat: A new chat plugin with numerous platform integration support, customizable chat design, team management tools, and more.
- All new YS LeadGen: A popup and lead generation plugin with smart targeting, behavior-based triggers, pre-built templates and so on.
- Groundworx Gravity Forms plugin: The plugin developed by Johanne Courtright that provides seamless integration between Gravity Forms and modern WordPress block themes.
- LoyaltyX has been launched: A new WooCommerce points and rewards plugin by DevDiggers that helps stores reward customers for purchases, referrals, and engagement.
- Comments Firewall: A powerful anti-spam plugin developed by korchix that provides enterprise-grade firewall protection for your WordPress comments.
- RedirectPress is launching soon: RedirectPress gives WordPress users complete freedom to choose any AI provider like Anthropic, Groq, Gemini, or OpenAI, and use it across all compatible plugins and themes with a single setting. It eliminates the need for code changes or plugin rewrites, ensuring flexibility and no vendor lock-in. Denis – Emanuel Sandu provided a preview of the plugin on X.
🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS
More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss
- Johanne Courtright on why she doesn’t migrate Divi sites and instead rebuilds them: Johanne Courtright explains that while migration sounds easier, Divi’s proprietary shortcodes, outdated structure, and heavy code create lasting performance and maintenance issues.
- In conversation with Zack Katz: Zack Katz discusses his journey from graphic design to web development, creating the Gravity View plugin, staying connected with customers, and embracing lifelong learning and AI tools to solve technical challenges. From Seriously, Bud?
- What’s Fair is FAIR: Ryan McCue’s session at LoopConf, where he introduced the FAIR Project, is now live. In this talk, he explains how FAIR aims to make WordPress more secure, independent, and decentralized by reducing reliance on WordPress.org, enabling federated plugin and theme management, and promoting a privacy-focused, open-source ecosystem.
- How WordPress Core keeps getting faster: Robert Abela sits down with Weston Ruter for an inside look at how performance improvements make their way into WordPress Core. From the Core Performance Team to the Performance Lab plugin, Weston explains the process, the people, and the progress behind WordPress’s performance evolution. From Melapress.
- Brian Coords on the future of eCommerce on WordPress: Gautham Khorana conversed with Brian Coords, where they discussed Brian’s journey from teaching to tech, his role at Automattic, and the evolving future of eCommerce on WordPress, including how WooCommerce is bridging the gap between open source and developers. From WP Legends.
- How pricing impacts client expectations and scope creep: Kurt and Toby delve into the complexities of running a successful agency. They discuss the pros and cons of publishing pricing, the challenges of managing client expectations, and the nuances of value-based versus time-based pricing. From The WP Minute.
- How to learn the ins and outs of web hosting: Matt Medeiros chats with Roger Williams, Partnerships and Community Manager at Kinsta. They discuss the importance of hosting education for WordPress users and the nuances of service-level agreements (SLAs) in hosting and more. From The WP Minute.
- Joshua Bryant on how Dow Jones is supercharging WordPress editorial workflows: Joshua Bryant shared how Dow Jones reengineered its WordPress workflows for major publications like The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch. His team decoupled Gutenberg from WP Admin and embedded it in a standalone React app, enabling faster, distraction-free publishing while keeping WordPress as the backend. From WP Tavern Jukebox.
- A chat with Toby Cryns: Toby Cryns chats with Topher DeRosia about his career in WordPress, running his SEO agency, and co-planning local WordCamps. He shares his passion for restoring guitars, experiences writing for WPTavern.com, and thoughts on how online content and community have evolved. From Hallway Chats.
- Big business loves WordPress because it’s open source: Karim Marucchi of Crowd Favorite and the FAIR project discusses his experience working with top agencies and selling projects to major companies, including pitching a website to Steve Jobs and more. From Publish Press.
- Letters of protest fail to stop ‘Managed WordPress’ and ‘Hosted WordPress’ U.S. trademark bids: The USPTO reviewed proof that “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress” have been widely used across the hosting industry for over a decade, and chose not to act on it. From The Repository.
- Human Made on why they embraced FSE for their website redesign: Human Made redesigned their website using the Ollie Pro theme and Full Site Editing (FSE), focusing on flexibility, performance, and ease of content management. The approach allowed consistent design without extra CSS, complete control for marketing teams, built-in responsiveness, and faster load times.
- WordPress REST API vs admin-ajax.php: Ben Word explains that WordPress developers should use the REST API instead of the legacy admin-ajax.php for AJAX requests. The REST API is faster, more secure, supports proper HTTP methods, follows modern web standards, and avoids unnecessary admin overhead. admin-ajax.php is slower, limited, and mainly suited for maintaining old code. From Roots.
- Dave Smith explored the changes to the Navigation block in WordPress 6.9: He explored how in WordPress 6.9, Navigation block links can now automatically stay in sync with the pages, posts, or categories.
🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE
Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle
- How WordPress 6.9 gives forms a theme.json makeover: From WordPress Developer Blog
- Limiting allowed blocks without breaking the Site Editor: From WordPress Developer Blog
- Making Gravity Forms inputs play nice with block themes: From Groundworx
- Unlocking new possibilities with the WordPress Interactivity API: From Kinsta
- How to use dependency extraction in webpack to make your scripts smaller: From Ian Svoboda
- Using every Interactivity API feature in one site: From Ryan Welcher
📆 SAVE THE DATES
Do not miss a WordPress event ever again
- WordCamp Netherlands 2025 on November 27-28: The tickets are now available.
- WordCamp Brasil 2025 on November 28-29: The call for sponsors is open and the tickets are also now available.
- WordCamp Nepal 2026 on January 23-24: The early bird tickets are now available, and the call for speakers is now open.
- WordCamp Asia 2026 on April 9-11: The venue has been announced. The call for speakers is now open. The call for sponsors and media partners is also now open.
- SomeConf 2026 on April 22-23: The tickets are now available.
- Checkout Summit 2026 on April 23-24, 2026: The call for sponsors is now open. The early bird tickets are now available.
- WordCamp Europe 2026 on June 4-6: The event is in the early planning stages, and the venue will be the ICE Kraków Congress Centre Kraków, Poland.
🎁 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)
- 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
- 50% off on Vecteezy monthly subscription till Oct 24, 2025.
- 7% 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 👇
The WordPress Themes team has announced that nominations are now open for its 2026 team representatives. The current…
Automattic, in collaboration with the Internet Archive, has released a new WordPress plugin called Internet Archive Wayback Machine…
Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has sent a legal notice to Kevin Geary, the creator of Automatic.css, over…
The WordPress Plugins Team, along with the Meta Team, has introduced a new feature for the Plugin Check…
Team WP-CONTENT.CO
Issue #245 | November 11, 2025 | Reading time: 19 mins
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Kinsta, and WP Job Openings
Built with Newsletter Glue.