In latest move against WP Engine, WordPress takes control of ACF plugin
The dispute between WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and hosting provider WP Engine continues, with Mullenweg announcing that WordPress is “forking” a plugin developed by WP Engine.
Specifically, Advanced Custom Fields — a plugin making it easier for WordPress users to customize their edit screens — is being taken out of WP Engine’s hands and updated as a new plugin called Secure Custom Fields.
The Advanced Custom Fields team responded on X, describing this as a situation where a plugin “under active development” has been “unilaterally and forcibly taken away from its creator without consent,” which it said has never happened “in the 21 year history of WordPress.”
“This essential community promise has been violated, and we ask everyone to consider the ethics of such an action, and the new precedent that has been set,” the ACF team wrote.
Both Mullenweg’s blog post and a reply from WordPress claim that similar situations have, in fact, happened before, though Mullenweg added, “This is a rare and unusual situation brought on by WP Engine’s legal attacks, we do not anticipate this happening for other plugins.”
