Premium WordPress plugin Closures, business lessons, a shiny new app, and a flagship event struggling to fill seats.
Hello WordPressers!
Welcome to this week’s WP More roundup. This is WP More newsletter issue 48, where you get curated news about WordPress and the WordPress community all in one place.
This week has a bit of everything: a well-loved plugin shop saying goodbye, hard truths about growing a WordPress product, a brand-new app for your TV, a veteran rethinking lifetime deals, and some honest questions about where WordCamp US is heading.
Grab a coffee. There’s a lot worth talking about.
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In this Issue:
- DLX Plugins is closing and open-sourcing its code
- Why WordPress plugins stall after launch and what actually drives growth
- WordPress TV lands on Apple TV with thousands of free videos
- Why one WooCommerce veteran walked away from lifetime deals
- WordCamp US 2026 is a month out and ticket sales are lagging
DLX Plugins Is Closing, And Open-Sourcing Everything
Ronald Huereca, the indie developer behind DLX Plugins, announced the shop will close on October 1, 2026. He’s been building WordPress plugins since the early days of the ecosystem, but declining installs, shrinking sales, and the cost of running a solo plugin business pushed him to make the call. He’s been operating in the red for some time.
The good news: he’s not leaving users stranded. Most paid plugins will be open-sourced on GitHub and stripped of license restrictions before the sunset date, so lifetime license holders get a clean, forkable copy they can maintain themselves. No refunds are possible due to financial constraints, but existing subscribers have already had their billing canceled.
Read the full blog on DLX Plugins →
DLX Plugins’ closure is a good reminder of how tight the economics can get for indie WordPress developers. That brings us to a timely piece on what it actually takes to grow a plugin business.
Why Most WordPress Plugins Stall After Launch
Launching a plugin is the easy part. Growing it is where most developers hit a wall. Maria Ansari at BloggInc. interviewed several WordPress product founders about what separates products that keep growing from those that plateau after the initial buzz fades.
The core lesson: a successful launch creates a spike, but sustainable growth needs a completely different set of activities. Founders who are still in “launch mode” (pushing features, running promotions) are often solving the wrong problem. What’s needed is a marketing engine: SEO, content, email lists, customer retention, and a clear position in the market.
If you make or sell a WordPress product, this is one of the better business reads you’ll find this week.
Read the full blog on BloggInc. →
Speaking of things WordPress is doing to reach people in new places: the team just dropped a brand-new app on a platform you might not have expected.
WordPress TV Is Now on Apple TV
WordPress just launched a native Apple TV app called WordPress TV, and it brings the full WordPress.tv video library to your living room. We’re talking thousands of free talks, tutorials, and WordCamp session recordings from events around the world. All available to browse and watch without paying a cent.
If you’ve ever wanted to sit back and watch a WordCamp session without squinting at your laptop, this is for you. The app is free and available now on Apple TV through the App Store.
Read the full blog on 9to5Mac →
While WordPress is expanding its reach, some business models within the ecosystem are being rethought entirely. One of them has been a staple of the WooCommerce world for years.
One WooCommerce Veteran Is Done With Lifetime Deals
Rodolfo Melogli has spent almost 15 years running Business Bloomer and telling people that lifetime deals were the fairest way to sell digital products. Last week, he switched his Business Bloomer Club to a subscription model and wrote honestly about why.
His argument isn’t that subscriptions are a cash grab. It’s that the market has shifted. AI has made information cheaper and easier to produce, which means educational content goes stale faster. A one-time payment made sense when expertise was hard to find and knowledge stayed relevant for years. That’s less true now.
This is a thoughtful shift from someone who genuinely believed in the lifetime model, and it’s worth reading if you’re thinking about pricing your own WordPress product.
Read the full blog on Business Bloomer →
Pricing debates are one kind of community conversation. The state of WordCamp US is another kind entirely, and it’s been getting louder this week.
WordCamp US 2026: A Month Out and Seats Still Empty
WordCamp US 2026 is set for August 16–19 in Phoenix, Arizona, and with just weeks to go, the community is asking questions. The speaker lineup and schedule still haven’t been published as of the time of writing, and ticket sales stand at around 440. That’s well short of the 1,200–2,000 attendees the event’s page anticipates.
This is the second year running that organizing has played catch-up. Last year, Automattic layoffs disrupted the handover and attendance dropped to 1,200, down 38% from 2024. This year, planning started in late March, and while organizer Megan Marcel says the schedule is on the way, the silence has fed a lot of debate on Slack and social media.
The community’s reactions span a range. Elementor’s Miriam Schwab put it plainly: it’s hard to sell people on a conference when there’s no schedule to look at. Jon Ang of Human Made noted it looks like an event that might not happen. Some floated ideas: a bring-a-friend promotion, removing the WordPress.org account requirement to buy tickets, and a lower-tier ticket without food and swag.
Read the full report on The Repository →
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WordPress Must Read
→ Stewarded Open Source Is Not Enough: Who Can Cut You Off? (joost.blog) – Joost de Valk on what “open source” really protects you from and what it doesn’t.
→ WordPress Security Team Details 18 Months of GitHub Actions Hardening, Plans Org-Wide Enforcement (therepository.email)
→ My AI Security Pipeline for WordPress Plugins (anchor.host) – A practical walkthrough for using AI to audit plugin security.
On Other WordPress News
→ What’s New for Developers (July 2026) (developer.wordpress.org)
→ Hardening GitHub Actions Workflows Across the WordPress Organisation (make.wordpress.org)
→ Monthly Education Buzz Report – June 2026 (make.wordpress.org)
→ Help Us Improve the WooCommerce Developer Docs for Core Features (github.com)
→ Call for Testing: Settings UI Support for WooCommerce Extensions (developer.woocommerce.com)
→ Meet the Community Agents: AI Assistants for WordPress Community Workflows (make.wordpress.org)
→ Matt Mullenweg Vetoes Plan to Merge Knowledge Post Type and Guidelines in Core (therepository.email)
From WordPress Community
→ Delaware Court Blocks CloudLinux From Launching AutopilotWP After Seahawk Alleges Trade Secrets (therepository.email)
→ 13 Years Contributing to WordPress (jonathandesrosiers.com)
→ AI Was Supposed to Kill WordPress. The Trend Line Disagrees (dev.to)
→ AI in the WordPress Dashboard: Which Tasks Are Worth It? (speckyboy.com)
→ One Header, Two Themes: Phasing a Legacy WordPress Site Toward FSE (carriedils.com)
→ Build a WordPress Theme Without Ever Opening Figma (automattic.design)
Until Next Week
That’s the roundup for Issue 48. From plugin shop closures to business model shifts to a new app on your TV: the WordPress world keeps moving, even when some of its events struggle to fill seats.
If something here sparked a thought, hit reply and let me know. And if you found this useful, sharing it with a fellow WordPresser is always the best way to say thanks.
Nishat, WP More
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