The WordPress business is changing. Here’s what the data actually says.
Hello WordPressers!
Welcome to this week’s WP More roundup, WP More newsletter issue 47, where you get curated news about WordPress and the WordPress community all in one place.
This week is a meaty one. We have a sharp business argument about what WordPress actually is for product makers, a hard look at plugin sales data from founders who are living through the numbers, a full breakdown of the theme directory’s uncomfortable truths, a promising update from the WP Credits student program, and the latest move in the WP Engine vs. WordPress Foundation trademark fight. Pour a coffee.
There’s a lot to dig into.
In this Issue:
- WordPress Is a Channel, Not Your Product
- Are Declining Plugin Sales the Canary in WordPress’ Coalmine?
- The State of WordPress Themes: An Analysis of 14,800 WordPress.org Themes
- WordPress Credits Updates
- WP Engine Opposes WordPress Foundation’s Trademark Bids in the U.S. and Canada
WordPress Is a Channel, Not Your Product
Katie Keith, CEO of Barn2, sat down to figure out who actually uses her Document Library Pro plugin. What she found surprised her: the organizations that need a tool like hers (nonprofits, clinics, councils, membership bodies) are spread across platforms. Many aren’t on WordPress at all.
That landed at the same moment others were saying the same thing out loud. Matt Cromwell told PressConf attendees to stop thinking of themselves as WordPress plugin builders. Justin Ferriman, who built and sold LearnDash, was more blunt: the glory days of WordPress plugin businesses are behind us.
Katie’s response wasn’t to walk away from WordPress. She built a hosted version of Document Library Pro that works on any platform. Her point: WordPress is how you reach customers, not the thing you’re selling. Once you believe that, the decisions get easier. Keep WordPress as a channel. Find the version of your product that lives beyond it.
Read more on WP Product Talk →
The plugin sales picture backs this thinking up, and the next article has the data.
Are Declining Plugin Sales the Canary in WordPress’ Coalmine?
Matt Cromwell’s op-ed for The Repository cuts through the noise around plugin sales. Founders are venting, shops are closing, and commenters are declaring WordPress dead. Matt argues the reality is more specific, and more actionable, than either camp admits.
The data is real. A survey of 33 plugin companies found around 80% reported flat or lower new sales in 2025. One seller went from a €70,000 month to €15,000 MRR. Others are winding down entirely. But shops with platform-critical products or strong marketing have still grown, with some reaching past $110,000 MRR.
The common threads in struggling shops: over-reliance on organic search, selling utility plugins that are easy to replicate, lifetime pricing that doesn’t fund ongoing maintenance, and WordPress.org directory crowding now driven by AI-assisted submissions running at 700+ per week.
Matt’s advice: get closer to your customers’ revenue, diversify acquisition channels, double down on what isn’t a commodity, and fix your pricing before the market does it for you.
The themes side of the WordPress product world tells a similar story of concentration and quiet abandonment.
The State of WordPress Themes: An Analysis of 14,800 WordPress.org Themes
Pavel Ciorici pulled every theme in the WordPress.org directory through the API and ran the numbers. The picture isn’t what the headline install counts suggest.
The top 20 themes hold 61.7% of all active installs across nearly 15,000 themes. Fewer than 80 have crossed 10,000 active installs. And 6,500 themes haven’t been updated in two or more years, with roughly 918,000 live sites running that unmaintained code.
The block theme story is the sharpest finding. Theme developers have shifted: 44% of new 2026 submissions are block themes. Users haven’t followed. Classic themes hold 91.7% of the non-default install base. Only five non-default block themes have crossed 100,000 active installs. The biggest has 200K. The biggest classic theme has 1M+. The bundled block defaults (Twenty Twenty-Two, Twenty Twenty-Three) also rank among the worst-rated themes in the directory.
In large parts, the WordPress theme directory is a museum. The real market is far smaller and more concentrated than its size suggests.
On a more encouraging note, one WordPress program is proving that mentorship and community still produce real results.
WordPress Credits Updates
The WP Credits program, which brings students into WordPress contribution as part of their academic coursework, has hit its year-end partnership target halfway through 2026. More than 20 institutions signed, students volunteered at WCEU, and graduates are staying active in their local communities.
Program lead Isotta Peira shared what the pilots taught them. Self-directed onboarding before mentor matching didn’t work. The lesson: mentorship isn’t optional. It’s what makes the program stick. A new regional leads structure is rolling out to give students and mentors a genuine sense of shared context.
The second half of 2026 shifts focus from growth to quality. The goal is 35 partnerships by year-end, with a public impact dashboard, a formal alumni retention program, and a stronger sponsorship base for mentors, all groundwork for a larger 2027 push.
If you know a school or company that would be a good fit, the program’s page is the place to start.
And now, the legal front: the WP Engine vs. WordPress Foundation trademark battle has a new chapter.
WP Engine Opposes WordPress Foundation’s Trademark Bids in the U.S. and Canada, Alleging Fraud and Bad Faith
WP Engine has filed formal oppositions to the WordPress Foundation’s “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress” trademark applications in both the United States and Canada, accusing the Foundation of trying to lock down common industry terms through bad-faith filings.
The U.S. opposition, filed in February with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, centers on a fraud claim: WP Engine argues the Foundation’s sworn statement that no other parties had the right to use those phrases was knowingly false, given at least 50 companies had been using them for years. The U.S. proceeding is on hold until the California federal lawsuit reaches a final determination. A jury trial is scheduled for October 2027.
The Canadian opposition goes further, naming Automattic as the Foundation’s exclusive licensee and arguing the filings were designed to help Automattic extract license fees. Canada’s IP Office issued a provisional refusal three days after the filing. The Foundation has until August 30 to respond. Both marks are already registered in the UK, Australia, and the EU.
Read the full report on The Repository →
WordPress Must Read
→ SiteGround Report: 41% of Small Businesses Using WordPress Don’t Get Usable AI Results (newsfilecorp.com)
→ I Asked Claude to Review WordPress. Here’s What It Found. (pootlepress.com)
→ Code for the People | A Film by Bao Nguyen | Full Documentary (youtube.com)
→ WordPress Drops to 41.5% Market Share, but Three Datasets Tell Different Stories About What’s Going On (therepository.email)
→ Why Are WordPress Sites Still Running EOL PHP? (censys.com)
→ Why Gato GraphQL Is Moving Off WordPress.org (And What You Gain From It) (gatographql.com)
→ One Month of EmDash Hosting: Here’s What We’ve Sorted (wpmudev.com)
On Other WordPress News
→ Supporting High Quality Contributions to WooCommerce Core (developer.woocommerce.com)
→ What’s New in AI 1.1.0 (30 June 2026)? (make.wordpress.org)
→ Meetup.com → GatherPress (make.wordpress.org)
→ WordPress 7.0.1 Maintenance Release (wordpress.org)
→ The Classic Block Stays in the Inserter for WordPress 7.1 (make.wordpress.org)
→ What’s New in Gutenberg 23.5? (July 1, 2026) (make.wordpress.org)
→ Proposal: Restructure the Community Team Handbooks (make.wordpress.org)
→ WordPress 7.1 Release Party Schedule (make.wordpress.org)
→ WooCommerce 10.9.3 Release Notes (developer.woocommerce.com)
→ Merge Proposal: Expanding WordPress Core Abilities (make.wordpress.org)
→ Call for Testing: Responsive Styling (make.wordpress.org)
→ WebHosting.com Acquired by WordPress Parent Automattic (domaininvesting.com)
→ Guidelines for Syncing Code From Gutenberg Into WordPress Develop (make.wordpress.org)
From WordPress Community
→ A Letter to the WooCommerce Community (woosa.com)
→ Perspectives with Sé Reed (crossword.fm)
→ WordPress Community Support Recorded a $372,000 Deficit in 2025 Even as Event Attendance Rose 27% (therepository.email)
→ Automattic Releases Code for the People, a Documentary Short Arguing the Open Web Is Under Siege and Needs Defending (therepository.email)
→ WordPress 7.0.1 Now Available, Fixes 31 Bugs (therepository.email)
→ Inside WordCamp US 2026: Lead Organizers on Hitting ‘Reset,’ Adding a New Beginner Track, and Beating the Phoenix Heat (therepository.email)
→ Proposal to Expand Abilities in WordPress 7.1 Draws Pushback From Component Maintainer Over Testing and Readiness (therepository.email)
→ Contributors Call for Testing Responsive Styling Ahead of WordPress 7.1 After Years of Community Demand (therepository.email)
→ Elementor Cuts 30% of Its Workforce, Frames Layoffs as AI-Driven Reset (therepository.email)
→ First AI Leaders Cohort Graduates as Automattic Pledges $500 Million in Hosting for Open Source Education (therepository.email)
→ Elementor Cuts 100 Jobs, 30% of Workforce, as AI Reshapes Website Building (calcalistech.com)
Until Next Week
The old assumptions about how the WordPress business works are being tested by AI, by market concentration, by legal battles, and by shifting user habits. The good news is that the community is paying attention, asking hard questions, and in some cases finding new paths forward.
Thanks for reading. If you found something useful here, share the issue with a fellow WordPress person. It genuinely helps.
Nishat, WP More
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