Chris Hajer

I fix things

[Remkus de Vries @remkusdevries]

We've been super busy improving @Scanfullyapp this year, so I thought it'd be good to highlight how the last four releases help you keep your WordPress sites as healthy as can be.

https://t.co/9kCfBbNXAl

[RUSSΞLL AARØN | #WPSupport @enqueue_russ]

My voice about AI token costs has been heard. Now we have a chance to make WordPress even better when it comes to AI in WP.

A Trac ticket was open. There's a discussion about being VERY CLEAR & honest about the costs of using API Keys in the Dashboard

https://t.co/ncdyjkReb2

[Justin Ferriman @JustinFerriman]

I'm unplugged from the #WordPress ecosystem, but from the outside looking in, I have to say that I admire the drive of @DerekAshauer and his hustle with both @ConversionWP and @SunPhotoCart 🔥

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

Installed Ollie (from @mikemcalister) locally.

Downloaded all the docs I could find for it
Put all of those in the local directory (above app/)
Started peppering Cursor with questions about it
got sufficient answers and said "make a homepage for a church with a video background"

...and it did it. No block library plugin, no bulky UI, and now I can tell cursor "make the global color palette this particular blue" and it'll just... do it.

Incredible stuff.

Cannot wait to see what Mike and team do going forward.

[Katie Keith @KatieKeithBarn2]

Today's fun: A potential plugin customer sent us a vendor due diligence questionnaire asking for our SOC 2 certificate, pen test results, cybersecurity insurance details, business continuity plan, and Regulation S-P compliance status. We refused to complete it and explained that most of the requirements aren't applicable to self-hosted plugins.

What do you do in this situation?

[Carl Hancock 🚀🇨🇷 @carlhancock]

@WPManageNinja I am generally pretty respectful towards you all. @techjewel should be able to attest to that. I've been supportive in the past.

But I have to say something because I think you've gone too far with FluentKit.

Prior to seeing your launch post for FluentKit I had randomly run across Fluentwiz, and my initial reaction was "Did David and GravityWiz branch out into Fluent solutions?!"

The naming caused actual confusion. The name didn't have the potential to cause confusion in the marketplace... it DID cause confusion in the marketplace. And I'm an expert!

Now you've launched FluentKit and I can't not say something publicly this time.

If FluentKit was a language learning app I wouldn't be posting this.

I know for a fact that you are fully aware that GravityWiz and GravityKit are legit brands in the WordPress community. They operate in the same ecosystem as you. They aren't side projects. They are legitimate businesses with legitimate registered trademarks.

Both companies have been operating in this ecosystem longer than WPManageNinja has existed.

Fluent* and Gravity* (including GravityWiz and GravityKit) compete in the same:

- industry
- ecosystem
- target audiences
- channels of commerce
- product categories
- competitive space
- I could go on and on

It is well established that there are overlapping customer bases and overlapping marketplace presence.

The fact that you are headquartered in Bangladesh doesn't matter. The United States is a major market for your products and services.

You need to do a better job with how you come up with brand names. You can't just rip off the competition the way you have been doing.

You've done great things with the Fluent name.

With that in mind, I'm asking you to do the right thing. It's my understanding both GravityKit and Gravity Wiz will be reaching out to you regarding this if they haven't already.

I hope you correct course. You are better than this.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

Pro tip: the support team is likely just as frustrated as you are, today.

Lay off them. If you can't control your emotions and use acceptable language and treat people with dignity even when you are upset, that's a you-problem.

Your $400 per year does not purchase a license to cuss out a support agent. Go touch grass.

[Katie Keith @KatieKeithBarn2]

It's the end of an era - StellarWP is no more. Some of the most important brands in the WordPress ecosystem - LearnDash, The Events Calendar, Kadence, Iconic, GiveWP and others - have had their websites taken offline and redirected to basic landing pages on the website of their parent company, Liquid Web 😢

For 5 years, I watched the development of StellarWP with interest as it was a first-of-its kind in WordPress. I never shared my opinions publicly because I had many friends there. However, those people have either quit or been laid-off, and now feels like the time due to genuine concern for these great brands and their future, and what this means for the wider WordPress community.

Back in 2020/2021, the WordPress product ecosystem was growing rapidly. Many products were seeing huge growth, which sparked a wave of acquisitions. Some were by hosting companies like Liquid Web, who saw potential in expanding into products. They acquired an impressive range of products and created the StellarWP umbrella brand to house them.

In my opinion, this was the first mistake. I never understood the purpose of a public-facing Stellar brand because it diluted the visibility of well-known brands that the public was already familiar with. For example, each individual product no longer had a prominent presence at WordCamps because they were represented at the shared Stellar booth instead, which felt strange for brands as big as LearnDash. I'm sure the existence of Stellar brought some benefits internally - e.g. shared resources and centralized marketing - but publicly, I think it harmed the products rather than helping them.

Another mistake was acquiring companies of vastly different sizes. It's sensible to apply the 80/20 rule to business by prioritizing the highest revenue products - I do this myself with Barn2's plugins. However, I noticed that some of Stellar's smaller brands - once highly respected independent businesses - were neglected. I struggle to see the logic in acquiring a brand and then giving it less focus.

I suspect that some of the companies that acquired WordPress products during the 2020/2021 boom expected the high level of growth to continue post-Covid, which was never realistic. If revenue projections weren't met then naturally, this would have led to the patterns we've seeing at Stellar, such as multiple rounds of cuts, layoffs and restructures - and ultimately deprioritizing their entire product range, as we are seeing with the death of their individual websites.

However, the true reason I'm writing this is not to analyze the reasons - it's because I'm concerned about what happens next. I can foresee two possible futures for Stellar's products:

FUTURE 1 - SLOW DECLINE
The decision to relegate huge brands to minor landing pages on the Liquid Web site suggests that we'll see a slow decline of these products over time. We'll see further cuts and layoffs, and some of WordPress' best brands will fade. That would be a loss for everyone because strong, visible products strengthen the WordPress ecosystem as a whole.

FUTURE 2 - ACQUISITION
I'd love to see the Stellar brands get acquired by a company (or multiple companies) that understand their value and can give each product what it needs to grow and thrive. Companies with a strong record of building successful WordPress products.

I don’t know what will happen next, but I hope these products end up with people who truly understand and care about the WordPress product ecosystem and have the ability to take them forward. More than anything, I hope the outcome gives the remaining people working on these products the stability and leadership they deserve.

[Michal Barus @webjuice_ie]

WordPress is down from 43.6% to 42.2% market share

Astro is doing 2.5M weekly downloads, up from 1.4M last year

We’ve moved 12 of 42 sites to Astro

Businesses need fast sites that rank and convert, not plugin chaos

Would you still build on WordPress today?

[Derek Ashauer @DerekAshauer]

Just got numbers from my accountant and some great news: I officially became product first in 2025 🎉

My overall income went up to it's highest since 2021 as well.

[Gravity Forms @gravityforms]

Quick reminder 👇

Join us and David Smith from Gravity Wiz to learn practical ways to test, troubleshoot, and streamline your form workflow.

It's free and happening soon!

Register here:
https://t.co/KlLNL733ck

[Gravity Forms @gravityforms]

Be honest - how many Gravity Forms features are you actually using?

There’s a lot under the hood...discover it all on our newly designed features page.
https://t.co/74hKUoDcdC

[Gravity Wiz @GravityWiz]

Our complete bookings solution for @gravityforms (AKA GP Bookings) just got a "Simple" display mode that shows your next available time slots as clean radio buttons.

Great if you don't want to use the default calendar mode. Sometimes, less is more!

https://t.co/VISbT1yU1D

[Jason Fried @jasonfried]

Fuck it, we just made Fizzy completely free.

The open source installable version was always free, but the SaaS version was pay. No more. Basecamp and HEY's largess will subsidize Fizzy for all.

So go grab your account at https://t.co/pGxSDeGKNK. It's Kanban the way it should be, not the way it has been. Fresh, fun, light, fast, and perfect for working with agents, too.

An official CLI is coming soon as well. Stay tuned for that.

The native iOS app should be out once Apple approves it (it's in approval right now...). Android is already out, you can get it on the Play store.

(and BTW if you were a paying customer, you will no longer be charged moving forward)

[Miriam Schwab @miriamschwab]

We've been working toward this launch for a while and we're excited to share it 🎉

Angie Code lets anyone describe a custom WordPress feature and have it built in a sandboxed environment before it ever touches their live site. No code required, no compromising on your actual vision ✨

What makes this different from just using an LLM for the same job is that Angie already knows your site: your plugins, your theme, your content structure. You're not starting from scratch every time and then manually deploying raw code and hoping for the best. You get a working WordPress asset, safely deployed, inside your actual environment.

It's free to try, so give it a whirl! We'd love to hear your feedback 🙏

https://t.co/LXQf4s9EJE

[Miriam Schwab @miriamschwab]

Angie is built for how WordPress actually works. It knows what's already on your site, it builds in a sandbox, and your live site doesn't change until you say so.

You're not starting from scratch every time and then manually deploying raw code and hoping for the best. You get a working WordPress asset, safely deployed, inside your actual environment

Learn more about Angie Code and how it can help boost your website creation flow 👇

[Joost de Valk @jdevalk]

I built Yoast SEO. I ran my blog on WordPress for years. Then yesterday I moved it to static HTML.

Everything that matters, SEO, search, schema, is still there. What I dropped was the overhead.

Do you actually need a CMS? For quite some sites: no.

https://t.co/ISpgh3fHc6

[Mike McAlister @mikemcalister]

Hey! We're cooking up all kinds of BIG things at Ollie, but we're also releasing lots of little improvements along the way.

Alongside our WooCommerce release, we also released two new extensions: Video Modal and Text Wrap styles. Check out the thread to see them in action. 👇

[Gravity Wiz @GravityWiz]

We ran a raffle for a free year of the Wiz Bundle — and we have a lucky wizard:
Drs. Andor Demarteau 🥳

Thank you, Drs. Andor! And to everyone else who celebrated with us. Here’s to another 300 editions of our weekly newsletter. 🧙‍♂️

[Gravity Wiz @GravityWiz]

Adds interactive, draggable sliders to @gravityforms with GP Sliders 🍔

When users need to pick a budget range, rate their experience, or choose a donation amount, a Number field technically works — but a slider fits the moment better.

https://t.co/ox4ONknuXJ