Newfold Digital has significantly scaled back its contributions to WordPress, reducing its Five for the Future pledge from 329 hours per week to just 20. The move means Newfold-owned Yoast and YITH are no longer pledging any hours, with all contributions now brought under Bluehost.
In a statement provided to The Repository, the company said, “Newfold is making some changes to our core contributions across our brands and consolidating our contributions under the Bluehost [Five for the Future] page.”
The company didn’t elaborate further or respond to follow-up questions.
Newfold is now sponsoring just two contributors: core committers Sergey Biryukov and Jonathan Desrosiers, who each have 10 hours per week to work on WordPress. Until this week, both were full-time contributors as part of Newfold’s commitment to Five for the Future, WordPress’ initiative encouraging companies to dedicate resources to the open-source project.
Biryukov, a core contributor since 2007 and a committer since 2013, is employed by Yoast, but his WordPress.org profile now lists Bluehost—not Yoast—as his sponsor. Desrosiers, a Senior Software Engineer at Bluehost, has been contributing to WordPress for nearly 12 years and has been a core committer for six.
Yoast has historically been one of WordPress’ top corporate sponsors. WordPress Core Team data for February shows its sponsored contributors received more props than those of any other company.
WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg first hinted that other companies were joining Automattic in reducing their contributions in a message to core committers on WordPress Slack on Monday, noting that they were “protesting WPE’s actions by pulling back contributions.”
In January, Automattic reduced its weekly pledge to 45 hours — down from nearly 4,000 hours per week last September — matching WP Engine’s minimal commitment. Last month, Automattic reduced its pledge again to just 17 hours after WP Engine made further cuts.
Newfold’s move now puts its weekly commitment on par with WP Engine, which also pledges 20 hours. However, while Biryukov and Desrosiers remain active contributors—both were among the top 10 core committers by commits in February—WP Engine’s nine listed contributors haven’t made any meaningful contributions since September 2024, according to the activity on their WordPress.org profiles.
WP Engine’s lack of contributions is unsurprising given its ongoing legal battle with Mullenweg and Automattic. The dispute escalated in October when WP Engine sued Automattic after Mullenweg called the hosting company a “cancer” to WordPress, accusing WP Engine and its private equity firm, Silver Lake, of profiting from the project without giving enough back.
While the lawsuit explains why WP Engine isn’t contributing, its absence also reinforces Mullenweg’s broader argument that the company isn’t supporting WordPress—and that its Five for the Future pledge is now effectively zero.
Newfold’s decision comes as core committers discuss how to approach major WordPress releases over the next three years amid ongoing uncertainty. On Monday, Mullenweg proposed scaling back to just one major release per year. Under his plan, WordPress 6.8 would be the only major release in 2025, with 6.9 in 2026 and 7.0 in late 2027—a timeline he noted depends on “a positive outcome of the jury trial” in WP Engine’s lawsuit, which is scheduled for February 2027.
Last month, core committers raised concerns that WordPress development was under strain following Automattic’s significant reduction in contributions. In meeting notes published on the Make WordPress Core blog, they warned of stalled progress on the Block Editor, a lack of short-term direction, and contributor burnout.
Meanwhile, Multidots, another top 10 contributor to WordPress by hours, has also quietly reduced its Five for the Future pledge this week, cutting more than 100 hours—from 291 hours on March 11 to 171 today.
The Repository reached out to WP Engine and Multidots for comment but didn’t hear back. The Repository also contacted Mullenweg, who declined to comment.
Image credit: Chiharu Nagatomi.
