WordPress playground powers of running WordPress in the browser at new my .WordPress .net launched. Tracking many brand new plugins this week, like Smart Social Schedule, RunCache, Wanna Checkout, Gravity Perks Sliders, Cloud Maestro, ABC Integrity, and more. Also, new WordPress 6.9.4 and upcoming 7.0 updates.
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What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- Smart Social Schedule… check out a brand new Smart Social Schedule plugin, that promises to completely automate your social media marketing, an alternative to Buffer and Hootsuite (see demo video). You can publish to 10 social platforms, integrate with multiple LLMs, has built-in AI content generation, AI image creation, carousel building, video script writing, and an idea bank for content planning.
- New RunCache… the team at RunCloud is preparing to launch RunCache plugin, which combines full-page, object, and edge caching in one seamless caching solution. With one dashboard and one configuration, it works on existing servers and supports auto-purging when content changes are made on your site.
- Wanna Checkout for SureCart… Jose Tamu, the creator of Next Bricks, has launched WannaCheckout for SureCart users. It brings beautiful modal checkouts to boost conversions on your online store. Currently, it supports SureCart, and integrations for FluentCart and WooCommerce is coming very soon.
- Gravity Forms + Sliders… the team at Gravity Wiz has introduced Gravity Perks Sliders, which add interactive and draggable sliders to Gravity Forms. You can use the slider feature for budget range pickers, survey rating scales, donation selectors with custom increments, pricing selections, score ranges, and age filters.
For Woo: CampaignBay, Extra Fees, Fluid Checkout, & Ollie
CampaignBay Discounts… the team at WPAnchorBay has released CampaignBay, a free WordPress discount plugin built for WooCommerce that puts your promotions on autopilot. You can offer BOGO (Buy One Get One) and tiered bulk discounts for a custom promotional strategy to drive maximum sales with clarity.
WooCommerce Extra Fees… thedotstore has released Extra Fees addon for WooCommerce store owners. This allows you to add extra fees for specific use cases like payment method-based fees, gift wrapping, rush processing, handling charges, small cart fee, location-based surcharges, and product-specific fees.
Fluid Checkout + Layout Options… by default, Fluid Checkout uses a multi-step and two columns layout that shows the order summary on a sidebar. Now, Fluid Checkout PRO users can choose between two columns or the one column layout.
Ollie + WooCommerce… Ollie Theme has introduced WooCommerce support with a suite of designs, templates, and tools to build a WooCommerce store website right inside the familiar block editor interface.
New Plugins: Cloud Maestro, ABC Integrity, & Monitor
New Cloud Maestro… Rob Marlbrough from the ‘5 Star Plugins’, shared newly released free Cloud Maestro plugin, which brings centralized Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF) controls directly into WordPress. It uses WordPress as a quick way to create a simple web UI for bulk creating custom WAF rules in Cloudflare, for multiple domains at one time, and fully customizable via filters.
ABC Integrity… Andrew shared the newly launched ABC Integrity plugin for file integrity monitoring in WordPress. It focuses on generating a baseline, detecting new, modified, and deleted files, reviewing changes in wp-admin, and sending daily email reports. It promises to help notice unexpected file changes faster.
Monitor WordPress Site… Stefano has released Monitor plugin that adds monitoring features to a WordPress website, which is useful to spot problems or collect data when debugging. It monitors records and tracks of all emails sent using the WP Mail function or SMTP. It also records every time the WP scheduler is activated, the scheduled jobs, and if a job is late.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- My WordPress .net Launched… using the WordPress Playground powers, check the all new my.WordPress.net where WordPress runs entirely in your web browser. There is no sign-up, no hosting plan, and no domain decision – a private place to run experiments, your personal CRM, RSS Reader, and AI workspace.
- More on WordPress .net Launch… Matt Mullenweg calls this WordPress everywhere – “What this means is you need to fundamentally shift how you think about WordPress”. Also, check more coverage about this launch – by Sarah Perez on TechCrunch and by Emma Roth on The Verge.
- New Default Theme + Volunteers… Henrique Iamarino will lead the design to work on the upcoming Twenty Twenty-Seven default theme. The call for volunteers is open for everyone to participate until March 27, 2026. Note, the default theme ships with the last release of the year, December 2026, 7.2v.
- Gutenberg Update… 22.7v added a new ‘Connectors’ admin page under Settings > Connectors, which allows users to see and manage their connectors. Also, style variation transforms now display a preview in the editor, making it easier to see changes.
- WooCommerce Update… WooCommerce 10.6v was released on March 10, 2026. It brings visual refinements on Cart and Checkout Blocks. Also, product picker for handpicked products in product collections, brand picker in products by brand, and taxonomy picker in products by tag or category.
- WordCamp Asia… the full schedule for WordPress Asia 2026 event is now live, listing contributor day activities and all sessions for the two conference days. Also, check YouthCamp coming at WordCamp Asia 2026 for participants aged 15 years and below – where they will be guided to create and learn.
- Acquisition Train… WP Engine has acquired WPackagist, a free Composer repository service that makes plugins and themes from wordpress .org installable via Composer. It was added, “WPackagist will continue to operate as a free service”. The official WordPress Twitter(X) account wrote this about this acquisition, “The parasite continues to eat the host. The cancer is trying to spread”.
WordPress Core Updates & More
WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 is now available for download and testing. It contains more than 101 updates and fixes since the Beta 3 release. The big feature in this release is the new Command Palette shortcut in the Omnibar.
- Update Now: WordPress 6.9.4 is available fixing 10 security issues.
- March 2026 edition of What’s new for Developers, by Birgit Pauli.
- Real time collaboration in the Block Editor, by Gopal Krishnan.
- AI Experiments 0.5.0v aligns with WP 7.0’s built-in AI capabilities.
- Pseudo-element support for blocks in theme .json, by Maggie.
- How WordPress Playground cut PHP.wasm binary sizes by 122MB.
New: FluentCart, Duplicator, MemberPress, & SEOPress
FluentCart + Gutenberg Email Editor… 1.3.15v has introduced a new Gutenberg-based Email Editor allowing you to edit email templates using the same Gutenberg block system familiar to WordPress users. Also added preview support for default email templates, scheduled reminder emails for payments and subscriptions, and a new EU VAT block to the checkout flow.
Duplicator + One-Click Staging… users of Duplicator Pro can now use the One-Click Staging feature to create an isolated copy of website from any backup, right inside WordPress with no need to manually transfer files to a new server. Also, the staging admin bar has a different color to avoid confusion with the live website.
MemberPress + AI Course Generator… you can chat away and use AI powers to generate course content with the new AI Course Generator feature. It includes: AI Course Creator, AI Lesson Assistant, and AI Quiz Builder to build course content that plugs directly into your existing access rules, and membership tiers.
SEOPress + Freeze Post Date… 9.6v update introduces a new feature that allows you to freeze the modification date of any post, page, or custom post type when saving. This simply means you can update your content without WordPress automatically changing the modification date, as this date is used in the XML sitemap and in meta tags.
Quick Bits 👍
- The WP Photo Directory now hosts 33,067+ photos, impressive!
- Grab website accessibility testing checklist, editable Google Sheet.
- New referral invoice branding change at Automattic for Agencies.
- Elementor launched Partner Program for agencies & freelancers.
- rtCamp is celebrating 17yrs milestone with ‘a year of reinvention’.
- Proud to share that 50% of the WebDevStudios team are women.
- Let’s Learn
- Create ACF Blocks with Novamira & Claude Code, by David McCan.
- How to add a custom AI Provider to WordPress (7.0v) websites.
- Showcase plugins in the browser, a guide to Blueprint Exporter.
- 10 tips for building custom WP Blocks with Telex AI, by Giovanna.
- WordPress on YouTube
- What people get wrong about WooCommerce, by Rodolfo Melogli.
- Create PHP only Blocks with AI Skills on WP 7.0, by Brian Coords.
- Speed up your designs with WordPress patterns, by Wes Theron.
- People of WordPress
- David McCan on growing a Facebook Group to 14,000 members.
- The tool always wins. The question is who’s holding it, by Elvis.
- Manzoor Ahmad from Automattic, on new baby & work pressure.
- Ross Wintle is resuming Turbo Admin development & life update.
Updates: Melapress File Monitor & Recipe Card Blocks
Melapress File Monitor + Wildcards… 2.3.0v of Melapress File Monitor (previously called Website File Changes Monitor) has introduced support for wildcards in folder exclusions. This allows you to use *, **, and ? wildcards when defining the directories you want to exclude.
Recipe Card Blocks + New Base Style… 7.0.0v has introduced a new base style providing a clean, flexible, modern starting point that looks great out of the box. Also, comes with performance improvements with smarter CSS/JS Loading.
More New Updates: Eventin & EasyCommerce
Eventin + Better Onboarding… 4.1.7v update brings revamped onboarding and improved event creation UI, promising better user experience. Also added local payment support and Oxygen Builder template support.
EasyCommerce + Refunds Management… 1.20v has introduced a refunds management feature, allowing you to process refunds directly from the dashboard. Also added demo product generator and full width layout template.
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