New WordPress Plugins galore this week, like Search Filter Sort, Etch, ToggleWP, Animate My Site, Planned Outage, and more. Also, core WordPress 6.9.1 + 7.0 updates, new acquisitions, and web hosting features.
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What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- Search Filter Sort… Arpit G Shah has launched a brand new SearchFilterSort plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce users. It allows you to create product filters, keyword search, and AJAX-powered sorting for your content and products of your WooCommerce store.
- Etch + Milestone Release… version 1.0 of Etch is now officially available and ready for use on production websites. The next update focuses on extending component capabilities, AI integration, WooCommerce components and a secret thing!
- ToggleWP Toolkit… Dave Grey has released an all-new ToggleWP plugin promising to be an all-in-one modular toolkit for pro-hosters and freelancers. Besides plugin control, it provides staging site warnings, SEO warnings, and renewal reminders.
- FunnelKit Automations + Conditional… 3.7.0 has introduced the conditional content feature in WooCommerce transactional emails for smarter personalization and revamped contact importer with direct API integrations (MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Kit).
New Free Plugins: Animate, FAQs, & Maintenance
Animate My Site… Edo Begagić has released a free Animate My Site plugin in the repository. It allows you to add different animation styles applied to selected elements across your pages made with the Block Editor. Check the video preview (YouTube) by Paul at WPTuts.
New WPFAQBlock… check the new WPFAQBlock plugin for adding interactive FAQ pages on your WordPress and WooCommerce websites.
Maintenance Mode Block… Troy Chaplin has released a free Planned Outage plugin that adds a maintenance mode feature to WordPress block themes. Visitors will see custom maintenance template when logged out.
Updates: Perfmatters, Fluent Forms, & GP Bookings
Perfmatters + Separate CSS… 2.5.6v update has added the feature of separate used CSS generated files for different WooCommerce product types and the ability to completely disable Perfmatters code.
Fluent Forms + Form Styling… 6.1.15v update sets a default style that auto-applies to all new forms. Also, added a new autocomplete field type in dynamic fields enabling smarter data entry.
GP Bookings + Gravity Forms… Dave from GravityWiz shared video preview (Links X) of the GP Bookings, which is ready for production. It is a WordPress booking platform that runs entirely on the Gravity Forms plugin.
More: WPSyncSheets, Eventin, MaxiBlocks, Commandify
WPSyncSheets For Woo + OpenAI… 9.2.6.3v of WPSyncSheets For WooCommerce has introduced OpenAI API integration for generating product descriptions from product titles when no description is available.
Eventin + Event Creation… 4.1.0v has introduced a new event creation UI/UX, promising a cleaner and faster way for event setup – along with new event scheduling and ticketing.
MaxiBlocks + Footer Templates… the team at MaxiBlocks has added 68 new footer patterns. Total now 17,342 assets and growing – including 379 theme elements and 11 starter sites (9 more in development).
Commandify + palette design… v1.0.6 added native Dark Mode support and introduced a new command palette design with improved indicators, promising a more refined user experience.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- Themes + AI Images… Ganga Kafle shared (Links X) about the ‘The Themes Team’ agreeing to move forward with allowing the use of the AI generated images, if it is clearly and properly disclosed in the README file.
- New AI Agent Skill… Brandon Payton, WordPress contributor, published a new AI agent skill that aims to streamline testing and iteration in WordPress and works with the Playground environment.
- WordPress Studio + CLI… 1.7.0v brings a new Studio CLI to leverage in the AI-assisted workflows. CLI now covers four main areas: authentication, preview sites, local site management, and WP-CLI integration.
- WordCamp Asia Buzz… preparations are going full steam ahead, grab your ticket and check sponsorship options to support this amazing event. Get a sneak peek into things you can do in Mumbai, a guide to Indian culture, and delicious food options.
- WP Business & Agency Summit… CloudFest has officially announced the WP Business & Agency Summit for web agencies, CSPs, web hosters, and the WordPress ecosystem. It is scheduled for March 23, 2026, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, at Europa-Park, Germany.
- WP Milestones… Robert Abela shared (LinkedIn) about the WP Activity Log plugin crossing the 300,000+ active installs milestone and is now ranked 208 among 60,000+ plugins in the repository. WooCommerce Shop Builder, ShopEngine plugin, has crossed the 90,000+ active installs milestone. The social login and counter, WP Social plugin, has crossed the 70,000+ active installs milestone.
- Plugins Acquisition… the team at Themeisle has acquired two WordPress Plugins. First (LinkedIn), the Woody Code Snippets plugin to add and manage PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML snippets across your site. The second (LinkedIn) Robin Image Optimizer plugin for automatic image optimization on WordPress websites.
Core WP Updates: WordPress 6.9.1 & 7.0
WordPress 6.9.1 RC1… Aaron Jorbin shared about the availability of WordPress 6.9.1 RC1 for your testing. This release candidate focuses on fixing 23 issues throughout Core and 25 for the Block Editor.
- More Core Updates
- Check the feedback received from the WordPress 6.9 retrospective.
- WordPress 6.9.1 release schedule, general release on Feb 3, 2026.
- WordPress 7.0 release squad with Matias Ventura in the lead.
- Jb Audras shared the bug scrub schedule for WordPress 7.0v.
- Call for testing customizable navigation (Mobile) Overlays in 7.0v.
New Integrations: BitFlows & Independent Analytics
BitFlows + New Integrations… 1.15.0v update has made many integrations free (Previously Pro Only) for WooCommerce, Elementor, WPForms triggers, and WhatsApp, Telegram actions. Also, added new triggers for JetEngine, WPCafe, SEOPress, and Bit Social.
Independent Analytics + New Integrations… Ben Sibley has added new form tracking integrations for Everest Forms, Mailchimp for WordPress, Newsletter, and Kadence Blocks in 2.14v of Independent Analytics. Also, added a new User Journeys feature that lets you explore every session recorded on your website.
eCommerce Plugins: SureCart & North Commerce
SureCart + Dynamic Pricing… 3.18v has introduced a dynamic pricing feature, which allows you to control how prices behave on your store. You can automatically apply fees or discounts based on checkout conditions like user role, cart total, products, customer type, and more.
North Commerce + New Features… 1.0.14v introduced the Collections feature with product previews, permalinks, and collection templates. Also added TinyMCE editor for collection descriptions and 404 page for invalid product slug URL paths.
Quick Bits 👍
- See official AI Guidelines when contributing to WordPress project.
- Experiment: Nick Diego migrate personal WP site to MDX files.
- WordPress Showcase: New website of the Prime Minister of India.
- Into WordPress global expansion, Jason Nickerson & James Grierson.
- 200th milestone episode of WP Tavern podcast by Nathan Wrigley.
- Hostinger Kodee gets Gold Stevie Award for Chatbots / AI Assistants.
- Lets Learn
- Make EDD Licensing work on restrictive hosts, by Cristian Raiber.
- Create timeline in Elementor without plugin / code, by Pascal Claro.
- Learn WordPress relationships that connect posts, users, & terms.
- Gutenberg for Everyone free course on YouTube, by Marko Krstić.
- Check 7 CSS features (YouTube) coming in 2026, that kill JavaScript!
- WordPress on Youtube
- How Students earn academic credit by contributing to WordPress!
- Creating WordPress products & Fluent Suite, with Shahjahan Jewel.
- From LearnDash to Flux Plugins, John Overall with Edwin Daniels.
- Using WP Rig Theme Framework for better themes, with Rob Ruiz.
- People of WordPress
- Rethinking WordCamp Contributor Day for impact, by Varun Dubey.
- Pablo Postigo from Automattic has launched new personal website.
Hosting Buzz: 20i Hosting, JetHost, & Hosting .com
20i Hosting + Twentie… 20i has launched an unlimited managed hosting assistant called Twentie. It promises to troubleshoot issues, analyse data, track website performance, diagnose errors, write/debug code, and generate engaging content – all within the My20i dashboard.
20i Hosting + Singapore… the new data centre is now online in Singapore for 20i Hosting users. This infrastructure upgrade for the Asia-Pacific region is ideal for traffic coming from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, and Australia.
Hosting Acquisition… JetHost has acquired Omnis Network, US based web hosting provider managing tens of thousands of domains. Moving forward, Omnis .com services will be migrated to the JetHost platform, step-by-step.
Hosting .com + Monarx… Monarx’s AI-first server security has been deployed across Hosting .com’s entire global server fleet, promising real-time protection that aims to fit the global scale and growth of Hosting .com’s customers.
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