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The recent forking of the popular Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin into a new version called SCF (Secure Custom Fields) has sent shockwaves through the WordPress community. This development is just one of many consequences stemming from the ongoing legal conflict between WordPress.org and WP Engine, two significant players in the WordPress ecosystem.

For WordPress users, these events raise questions about the future of the platform, plugin management and the impact on everyday site administration. WordPress’s forcible takeover of Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) leaves many users uncertain about what lies ahead.

The History of ACF and the Creation of SCF

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) was originally developed by Elliot Condon, an Australian freelance WordPress developer. Released in 2011, ACF quickly became a must-have plugin for developers looking to add custom fields and structures to their WordPress sites. Over the years, ACF grew into one of the most widely used plugins in the WordPress repository.

In 2021, ACF was sold to Delicious Brains, ensuring its continued development and support. However, in 2022, WP Engine acquired ACF along with several other plugins from Delicious Brains, and with this, the ownership and control of the plugin shifted to one of the biggest managed WordPress hosting providers.

Now, in October 2024, WordPress.org has forked ACF into SCF, citing security concerns with the plugin as well as WP Engine’s practices.

Legal Battle Between WordPress.org and WP Engine

The forking of ACF into SCF is one part of a larger legal dispute between WordPress.org and WP Engine. In a blog post published in September 2024, Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, outlined his concerns regarding WP Engine’s business practices. He argued that WP Engine was introducing proprietary layers and tools that conflicted with the open-source nature of WordPress. The lawsuit that followed centres on accusations of GPL (General Public License) violations and trademark infringement.

In response, WP Engine has defended its approach, claiming that their managed hosting services, including the use of ACF, are fully compliant with the GPL. WP Engine has also asserted that their proprietary offerings, such as performance enhancements and custom tools, are designed to benefit their users, not to undermine the WordPress community.

For now, this legal battle continues, and both sides remain entrenched in their positions, leaving many WordPress users to wonder what the ultimate impact will be.

Matt Mullenweg’s Controversial Statements About WP Engine

In the midst of this conflict, Matt Mullenweg has made several controversial public statements about WP Engine that have intensified the debate. In his September 2024 blog post, Mullenweg accused WP Engine of undermining the open-source ethos of WordPress by creating a “walled garden” of proprietary tools and services … even going so far as to describe them as “a cancer to WordPress”. He expressed concerns that WP Engine‘s practices were steering WordPress away from its core values of openness, transparency, and community-driven development.

Mullenweg went on to compare WP Engine‘s actions to those of large tech companies that create proprietary ecosystems, locking users into their services and limiting the freedoms that open-source software is supposed to provide. He implied that WP Engine’s customisations of ACF and other plugins threatened the future of WordPress by creating a reliance on proprietary solutions that could fragment the platform.

These statements have been seen as both a rallying cry for supporters of open-source software and a divisive move within the WordPress community. Some have applauded Mullenweg’s efforts to protect WordPress’s core values, while others believe his statements are overly aggressive and could alienate key players in the WordPress ecosystem, including developers and businesses that use WP Engine’s services.

One of the most controversial moves came when WordPress.org introduced a new requirement for users logging into the site to affirm that they are “not affiliated with WP Engine in any way, financially or otherwise.” This action has drawn criticism from those who see it as exclusionary and potentially damaging to the sense of community that WordPress has historically cultivated.

WP Engine, for its part, has pushed back against Mullenweg’s claims, arguing that their services enhance the WordPress experience without compromising its open-source roots. They have positioned themselves as providing valuable, enterprise-level solutions that enable businesses to scale their WordPress sites while remaining within the GPL framework.

Internal Strife at Automattic

The conflict has had significant internal repercussions at Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com and WooCommerce), a key driver of WordPress.org’s direction. More than 150 Automattic employees, including executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy, have left the company over the dispute. These employees took up an offer from Matt Mullenweg to resign with a severance package of $30,000 or six months’ pay if they did not support his fight against WP Engine. This has caused concern about leadership stability within Automattic and whether the organisation can maintain cohesion during such a turbulent time.

How Automattic and WP Engine Monetise WordPress

The ongoing conflict between WordPress.org and WP Engine is also rooted in how each organisation monetises the WordPress platform, which remains fundamentally open-source and free to use. Both Automattic and WP Engine have built successful businesses on top of WordPress, but they approach monetisation in very different ways.

Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, monetises the platform primarily through managed hosting services. WordPress.com offers users various tiers of paid hosting plans, with features ranging from basic blog hosting to advanced eCommerce options, as well as domain registration, premium themes, and integrations. Automattic also develops and sells premium plugins and services, such as WooCommerce, Jetpack, and VaultPress, allowing users to extend the functionality of their websites. While Automattic contributes heavily to the development of WordPress.org, WordPress.com itself is a commercial product, offering a simplified version of WordPress with added conveniences for non-technical users.

WP Engine also monetises WordPress by offering managed hosting services, but its focus is primarily on developers, agencies, and businesses that need high-performance, secure, and scalable WordPress environments. WP Engine provides services like automatic backups, updates, enhanced security, and optimised performance. It has acquired key WordPress plugins, including ACF, and has integrated proprietary tools that cater to professionals and enterprises. However, WordPress.org claims that WP Engine’s practices—especially the integration of proprietary features—violate the open-source principles at the heart of WordPress.

Both companies have successfully built businesses on top of WordPress, but their approaches to monetisation reflect differing philosophies. Automattic focuses on building products that add value while supporting the WordPress ecosystem, whereas WP Engine’s approach is more enterprise-focused, offering high-end services and custom solutions that appeal to a different market segment. The tension between these monetisation strategies is at the heart of the current conflict, as both companies seek to protect their interests within the broader WordPress community.

Matt Mullenweg and Automattic

Automattic is a private company founded by Matt Mullenweg, who is also the co-founder of WordPress. Mullenweg remains the CEO and the largest shareholder of Automattic. While Automattic is privately held, it has raised multiple rounds of funding from venture capital firms, including True Ventures, Tiger Global Management, and Insight Partners, among others.

Although Mullenweg holds a significant ownership stake, Automattic‘s equity is shared with investors, employees, and other stakeholders who have contributed to the company’s growth. Automattic operates WordPress.com and contributes significantly to the development of WordPress.org, though the two are separate entities.

The Impact on WordPress Users

For WordPress users, the creation of SCF and the ongoing legal battle present several potential concerns:

  1. Plugin Fragmentation: With ACF now split into two versions (ACF still available for free from https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/ and SCF under WordPress.org), users must decide which version to use. This fragmentation could create confusion and incompatibility issues for developers and site owners.
  2. Trust in the Ecosystem: WordPress has long prided itself on its open-source nature, with transparency and inclusivity at its core. However, recent events have led some users to question the direction of the platform. The introduction of a new login requirement on WordPress.org — where users must affirm that they are not affiliated with WP Engine in any way — has raised eyebrows. Such a measure has been viewed by some as a divisive step that undermines trust and community spirit.
  3. Legal Uncertainty: The ongoing legal wrangling could have broader implications for other plugins or services within the WordPress ecosystem. If more forks or disputes arise, developers and users may find themselves in a fragmented environment with competing versions of critical tools. This could impact website stability, security and performance over time.
  4. The Future of ACF Extensions: With there now being two different versions of the same plugin, there will inevitably be a divergence between code of these plugins over time. Looking through the WordPress.org plugin repository shows a number of plugins designed to extend the functionality of ACF, and the developers of these plugins will need to decide whether to either try and support both versions or be forced to take a side.

The Road Ahead

For now, it’s difficult to predict how this conflict will be resolved. Both WordPress.org and WP Engine play critical roles in the WordPress ecosystem, and each has its own vision for the future of the platform. Users may need to weigh the benefits of each approach—whether to support WordPress’s SCF fork or to continue using WP Engine’s version of ACF, which may offer unique advantages for some users within its ecosystem.

Ultimately, WordPress users and developers should stay informed as this situation evolves. Keeping a close eye on the legal proceedings, plugin updates and community developments will help ensure that their websites remain stable and secure.

References:

Tim Lomas, founder of Caterham Computing, has been a professional programmer since 1987. He has worked across UNIX, Linux and Windows systems. Since 2002, Tim has been helping clients with PC repairs and upgrades, web hosting, website development and WordPress plugin creation. His journey in computing began in 1981, when he taught himself Z80a machine language programming on a ZX81.

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