Many interesting launches this week, like Newsroom by WP Engine, CentralWP, Elevated Extensions, and Roots & Fruit. Besides a bunch of new plugins, big updates for Builderius, FluentCart, and MailerPress. Also, a look at WordPress core updates, fresh investments, and business numbers.
Melapress builds professional-grade WordPress security & management plugins: WP Activity Log, Melapress Login Security, Melapress Role Editor, & WP 2FA.
Kinsta managed WordPress hosting with unparalleled speed, leveraging Google Cloud and the latest C3D servers, it ensures lightning-fast performance.
ProfilePress is a modern WordPress membership plugin. Build paid membership sites, sell digital products, control content access with Stripe, PayPal & more.
WP Shell is an online course about self-hosting WordPress on a VPS or dedicated server. Learn how to configure Nginx, PHP, MariaDB, Redis, and more.
↑ Community Sponsors supporting this weekly
What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- Newsroom by WP Engine… with the focus of providing a digital publishing platform to modern media organizations, WP Engine Newsroom has been launched. It aims to replace fragmented publishing systems with a unified foundation for modern media growth with robust uptime, optimizations, performance, and engagement insights.
- New CentralWP… Jordan Unegbu has launched (LinkedIn) all new CentralWP platform which aims to be a Managed WordPress hosting dashboard with CDN, staging, and security. It centralizes all customer WordPress websites into a central place, replacing fragmented cPanel workflows with a WordPress-first control plane.
- Elevated Extensions Launched… Soflyy, the team behind Breakdance and Oxygen products, has launched a new product line called Elevated Extensions. It features three extensions: Elevated Discount Rules, Elevated Instagram Feed, and Elevated Product Search.
- Roots & Fruit + Solopreneurs… Matt Cromwell has launched (LinkedIn) a new Roots & Fruit endeavor for solo developer founders who want accountability in their online growth journey. Like ‘The Solo Founder Lab ‘ aims to help you decide and execute better through 1-on-1 sessions and group coaching.
New Plugins: Inspector, Text Resizer, Gravity, Winden
Dynamic Inspector for Elementor… the team at Dynamic OOO has released a free Dynamic Inspector for Elementor. It allows you to navigate full page structure, including containers, sections, widgets, and Theme Builder templates. Also, helps in performance profiling by listing the top 10 slowest elements on your site.
Text Resizer block… Troy Chaplin won the first Blockathon (Links X) at Plugin Jam with the creation of ReadEase: Text Resizer (GitHub) block plugin that provides text resizing controls for site visitors, enabling better readability and accessibility.
Plugins for Gravity Users… Philip Levine brought to attention a few free plugins available in the repository, made for Gravity Forms users. Like Contact Sync & Link for Gravity Forms & FluentCRM, Custom JSON Export for Gravity Forms, and Wallet Pass Generator for Gravity Forms.
Winden now in Repo… Winden plugin was made free for Gutenberg a few weeks back, and is now available in the WordPress repository. This brings the full power of Tailwind CSS v4 to your WordPress websites.
New Updates: Builderius, FluentCart, & MailerPress
Builderius + Collections Rebuilt… the team at Builderius has rebuilt Collections feature, promising to be both easier and powerful. Now it can be used to build anything repeatable, including data tables, mega menus, dynamic sliders, tabs, galleries, form fields, and more.
FluentCart + New Blocks… with 1.3.10v update, FluentCart now officially supports FSE-compatible block themes. Also added new Gutenberg blocks like Mini Cart Block, Product Carousel Block, Product Title Block, Product Image Block, and more.
MailerPress + Embeddable… 1.3v introduced native integration for Fluent Forms, allowing you to make form fields to MailerPress lists and tags. Also, the new Embeddable Forms feature allows you to place your subscription forms on external websites – whether it is a static HTML site or a different CMS.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- Automattic + Wayback Machine… Automattic has teamed up with the Internet Archive with the aim to preserve the web. Check the fre, and open-source WordPress plugin, Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer for WordPress websites. It allows you to monitor outbound links, create archived snapshots, redirect readers when pages go offline, and preserve your post history.
- AI Leaders Micro-Credential… Mary Hubbard shared about the first WordPress-focused micro-credential, for helping students build practical AI skills. Check the AI Leaders project, a workforce-oriented credential rooted in WordPress and open source contributions.
- WooCommerce 10.5 Release… with over 351 commits and 83 contributors, WooCommerce 10.5 was released on February 3, 2026. It features scalable analytics for high-volume stores, better multi-package shipping display, performance improvements, flexible shipping tax calculations, and more.
- Gutenberg Update… 22.5v has added custom CSS support for individual blocks, aspect ratio control for wide and full alignment in the image block, and list view improvements.
- Campus Connect Scholarship… Anand Upadhyay shared about the open Call for Scholarship Sponsors for supporting student participation through WordPress Campus Connect program. Options include: WPCC Scholarship Partner ($3,000) and WPCC Scholarship Supporter ($1,000).
- WordCamp Asia Buzz… Mary Hubbard, Executive Director of WordPress, and Matt Mullenweg, founder and CEO of Automattic, are invited speakers at WordCamp Asia 2026 event. Also, the recommended official hotels listing is now available.
WordPress + AI: WP AI Client, Claude, & OpenClaw
Merging WP AI Client… Felix Arntz shared about the proposal for merging the WP AI Client into WordPress Core for WordPress 7.0 release. “Providing this foundation, in collaboration with the Abilities API that is already part of Core, will make WordPress ready for AI, both as a consumer and as a tool”.
WordPress .com + Claude Connector… WordPress .com has partnered with Anthropic to become the first WordPress host with an official connector in Claude’s Connectors Directory. This promises to make it easy to securely connect Claude to your WordPress .com site and ask questions using your site’s real data.
OpenClaw + WordPress… Chris Huber shared about (Links X) using OpenClaw and Agent Skills from Automattic for AI powers on your WordPress website. Check the GitHub repo to deploy a WordPress website that your AI agent controls.
Core WordPress: 6.9.1 Maintenance Release
WordPress 6.9.1 Maintenance Release is now available. It fixes 49 bugs throughout Core and the Block Editor, for issues affecting multiple areas of WordPress, including the block editor, mail, and classic themes. The next major version of WordPress will be 7.0 is scheduled for release on April 09, 2026.
- More Core & AI
- Marcel shared (LinkedIn) WP admin’s refreshed look, trac ticket.
- The call for testing is open for exploring new AI Experiments.
- Join 140+ people who have pledged to contribute to Core AI.
- James LePage recapped progress of AI in the WordPress world.
- From Abilities to AI Agents powers with WordPress MCP Adapter.
- Events & Community
- Did traffic bump covert into tickets purchase for WC Asia 2026?
- The new concept of National Championships at WordCamps.
- New Hosting Team Reps for 2026 are: Zunaid, Amy, & Chris.
Updates: FluentSupport, WPCodeBox, WPForms, & SDC
Fluent Support + New Interface… 2.0v has introduced a new redesigned interface, built entirely from the ground up. Also comes with smarter ticket management, better workflow automation, and full RTL language support.
WPCodeBox + AI… 1.3.1v update of WPCodeBox has introduced optional capability for the AI model to execute code to retrieve the current site context and support for up-to-date Gemini models.
WPForms + Quiz Addon… the team at WPForms has introduced The Quiz Addon for creating quizzes quickly on your WordPress website. You can create different types of quizzes like graded quizzes, personality quizzes, and weighted quizzes.
Simple Download Counter + Micro API… 2.3v of Simple Download Counter (SDC) plugin by Jeff Starr features Micro API – a very basic API that returns the number of times a specified file has been downloaded.
Quick Bits 👍
- Me sharing on marketing, AI, & future of WP on ‘The WP Minute’.
- Check new course, Cloudflare Made Easy, by Jonathan Jernigan.
- Developer’s cheat sheet to theme .json anatomy, by Mike Davey.
- WP Umbrella introduced bulk security management dashboard.
- Groundworx Core has restructured into a bundle of four plugins
- Gautham shared (LinkedIn) ForthFocus & WP .com partnership.
- WordPress on YouTube
- Offer multiple contact options without clutter, by Kyle Van Deusen.
- Rino de Boer did live stream on practicing the new Elementor V4.
- People of WordPress
- Nick Diego has left Automattic & going back to entrepreneurship.
- Dilek Dönmez now as VP Commercial (LI), one .com (group .one).
- Ambiya Siddiqui shared lessons from 1st WordCamp Nepal 2026.
- Why I choose Gutenberg over Elementor, by Johanne Courtright.
Business of WordPress: Investments & Numbers
Automattic Invests… Automattic has partnered with the University of Illinois Chicago and invested in the UIC Tech Solutions Open Source Fund. “This initiative represents a step toward establishing WordPress as an industry-based credential aligned with measurable workforce outcomes”.
Investment in Atarim… Vito Peleg, co-founder of Atarim, shared (LinkedIn) about Eugene Levin, President of Semrush, as the newest investor in Atarim .io business. “He’s joining us as we redefine creative collaboration in the age of AI”.
WP Umbrella Numbers… Aurelio Volle shared (LinkedIn) business numbers at WP Umbrella for January 2026. MRR: +$3,220, new websites connected: +3,228, new premium users: +115 (+52 reactivations), churn: 3%, and new sites protected with Site Protect (powered by Patchstack): +155.
WPManageNinja is offering upto 60% discount on all its premium WordPress plugins. Top rated products like FluentCart, FluentCRM, FluentForms, & more.
Platform InMotion with high performance servers for serious WordPress websites, comes with hassle free deployment tools and expert support.
Leave single-server hosting in 2015. Choose 20i’s autoscaling Managed WordPress Hosting, built for traffic surges, complex sites & demanding PHP workloads, all without missing a beat.
↑ Community Sponsors supporting this weekly
