WordPress.org has resumed full services after owner Matt Mullenweg announced a surprising “holiday break” on December 20, ahead of Christmas.
The partial shutdown — the first in WordPress’s 21-year history — followed WP Engine’s successful motion for a preliminary injunction on December 11. Services suspended included new plugin and theme submissions, photo submissions, reviews, and new account registrations, with Mullenweg stating these would return “sometime in the new year.”
Mullenweg, who co-founded WordPress, explained the pause as a necessary break for himself and “the many tired volunteers around WordPress.org.”
“I hope to find the time, energy, and money to reopen all of this sometime in the new year,” Mullenweg said. “Right now, much of the time I would spend making WordPress better is being taken up defending against WP Engine’s legal attacks. Their attacks are against Automattic, but also me personally as the owner of WordPress.org, meaning if they win, I could be personally liable for millions in damages.”
Mullenweg and his company, Automattic, are embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with WP Engine over access to WordPress.org, with claims WP Engine infringed the WordPress trademarks and profited off WordPress without contributing enough back.
On January 4, Automattician Alex Shiels confirmed the resumption of services at WordPress.org in a post on the Make WordPress.org blog: “Welcome back everyone! The holiday break is over, meaning that we’ve reopened WordPress.org to new account registrations, new theme and plugin submissions, photo submissions, and reviews. I hope you’re all feeling refreshed and rested and ready for 2025.”
The shutdown led to unexpected issues, including preventing new users from purchasing WordCamp tickets. This was quickly addressed after Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast, raised the issue on WordPress GitHub. WordPress lead developer Dion Hulse confirmed that Mullenweg had approved reopening registrations for WordCamp purposes, allowing user account creation when the referring site was a WordCamp.
While services are now restored, the shutdown sparked debate over Mullenweg’s control of WordPress.org, with de Valk calling for an end to Mullenweg’s benevolent dictator for life (BDFL) leadership.
The holiday shutdown also prompted Computer World contributor Evan Schuman’s piece about a possible shutdown of WordPress.org for all of 2025.
