A deep dive into building a production-ready WordPress block that creates smooth word-switching animations by combining the Interactivity API, HTML API, and Format API. The article demonstrates how to extend core blocks with custom behavior while maintaining clean code and great editing experiences for content creators.

<p>Whenever you upload an image to your WordPress site through the media library, it automatically creates and stores multiple additional versions of that image. If your site doesn&#8217;t utilize these extra image sizes, they will consume valuable storage space and increase the size of your server backups. In this guide, I&#8217;ll walk you through the [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.wpexplorer.com/stop-wordpress-from-creating-extra-cropped-image-sizes/">Stop WordPress from Creating Extra Cropped Image Sizes</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.wpexplorer.com">WPExplorer</a>.</p>

<p>We’re happy to share that Seahawk Media, a large WordPress agency serving businesses and hosting providers worldwide, has started using Patchstack to secure client websites. Seahawk Media specialises in white-label WordPress services for businesses and hosts, including development, maintenance, and ongoing support. Their maintenance plans are used to manage and protect a large number of [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://patchstack.com/articles/seahawk-media-partners-with-patchstack-to-strengthen-wordpress-security/">Seahawk Media Partners with Patchstack to Strengthen WordPress Security</a> appeared first on <a href="https://patchstack.com">Patchstack</a>.</p>

WordPress 6.9 introduces assertEqualHTML(), a new PHPUnit assertion method for plugin developers that compares HTML semantically rather than literally. This solves fragile tests caused by attribute ordering, whitespace, and formatting differences that don't affect browser rendering.

In this Jukebox Podcast episode, WooCommerce developer advocate Brian Coords discusses the platform's evolution, including its recent rebrand and integration with WordPress block-based editing. The conversation covers WooCommerce's competitive landscape against SaaS alternatives, AI investments for store management, and how the ecosystem supports global developers and agencies.

This article explains how access control protects WordPress sites by combining authentication and authorization to prevent unauthorized data access. It covers three main access control models and emphasizes why consistent permission checks across all endpoints, APIs, and admin panels are critical for WordPress security.

Six popular WordPress plugins received security updates in January 2026, addressing broken access control, XSS, and authentication vulnerabilities affecting millions of installations. All vulnerabilities have been virtually patched by Sucuri Firewall, and website owners are advised to update affected plugins including All in One SEO, Essential Addons for Elementor, The Events Calendar, MetForm, and Fluent Forms.

WordPress performance issues often stem from multiple layered problems rather than a single culprit. This article breaks down the four root causes of slow WordPress sites, starting with hosting, and explains why site speed matters for SEO rankings and conversion rates, with Google's Core Web Vitals as a key ranking factor.

The WordPress Plugins Team is actively recruiting volunteers to review the surging number of plugin submissions, which have quadrupled since 2024 and now exceed 500 per week. Interested contributors need technical WordPress knowledge, strong communication skills, and consistent time commitment, with a two-month training period provided.

WordPress maintains its dominant position in the CMS market with 42.6% global market share as of March 2026, powering between 37.5 million and 605 million websites depending on how sites are counted. The platform continues to lead with 59.9% CMS market share, vastly outpacing competitors like Shopify (5.1%) and Wix (4.2%), while the ecosystem includes over 30,000 themes, 61,000+ free plugins, and WooCommerce's 33.43% eCommerce market share.

xCloud managed WordPress hosting provider integrated Patchstack to protect 320+ customer sites, blocking over 53,000 threats in 90 days. The solution provides centralized, proactive vulnerability protection without performance impact or complex per-site configuration, scaling seamlessly across their managed hosting environment.

WordPress.org conducted a comprehensive audit of repositories under the WordPress and bbPress GitHub organizations, resulting in 20 repositories being archived for no longer meeting active maintenance criteria. Archived repos include legacy feature plugins, short-term experimental projects, and outdated communication repositories, while remaining publicly accessible for reference.

281 vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed with 56 patches now available and 225 remaining unpatched. Critical issues affect popular plugins like W3 Total Cache and Widget Options, with Solid Security Pro offering firewall protection for unpatched vulnerabilities. WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 is available for testing ahead of the April 9 release.

Wordfence Intelligence reported 174 new vulnerabilities affecting 139 WordPress plugins and 28 themes during February 9-15, 2026. With contributions from 64 security researchers, WordPress site owners should review the report to identify and address any vulnerabilities on their installations.

WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 is now available for testing with over 70 bug fixes and improvements across the Editor and Core since Beta 1. The release introduces a new Connectors UI dashboard for intuitive AI provider management, allowing users to centrally manage external AI connections in wp-admin. The final release is scheduled for April 9, 2026.

WordPress VIP has published its major platform release roadmap covering WordPress Core versions 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2 scheduled for April, August, and December 2026 respectively, alongside concurrent Jetpack releases from 15.5 through 16.6. PHP 8.6 is also planned for November 2025, with all dates subject to testing and review before finalization.

The WordPress Themes Team will hold its second monthly meeting on August 26, 2025 at 15:00 UTC in the #themes Slack channel. The meeting will cover weekly updates with an open floor session for community questions and theme-related discussions.

WordPress in 2026 establishes Full Site Editing as the production-ready standard with enhanced block management and design controls in WordPress 6.8. The platform delivers significant performance gains including native AVIF support, Speculation Rules API integration, and Interactivity API v2, alongside practical AI-driven development tools that have matured beyond novelty status.

The WordPress Plugins Team reviewed a record 12,713 plugins in 2025, marking a 40.6% increase from 2024, with weekly submissions doubling to around 330. The team renamed itself to better reflect its expanded responsibilities beyond reviews, incorporating AI-assisted analysis and improved tools like the Plugin Check Plugin to maintain review efficiency despite the surge in submissions.

WordPress 6.9 launched on December 2, 2025, featuring over 400 core updates including improved block collaboration, hideable blocks, and drag-and-drop functionality. The project plans to return to three major releases annually starting 2026, with the first expected in March or April, focusing on postponed features like template activation and the tabs block. The WordPress AI team also released the AI Experiments plugin v0.1.0 to test emerging AI features before core integration.