Best of WordPress — January 2026

  1. 1
    Article
    Avatar of wpmayorWP Mayor·11w

    My 7-Year-Old Wanted to Build a Website. Should I Still Teach Him WordPress?

    WordPress continues to dominate 43% of the web in 2026 not because of superior technology, but due to its massive plugin ecosystem of 60,000+ extensions and decades of community knowledge. After evaluating alternatives like static site generators (Astro, Hugo), modern PHP CMSs (Statamic, Craft), headless options (Strapi, Contentful), and hosted builders (Squarespace, Webflow), none offer a true replacement for most use cases. Static generators lack user-friendly dashboards for non-technical clients. Modern CMSs have elegant architecture but tiny ecosystems and limited developer availability. Headless solutions are overengineered for typical websites. Shopify succeeded in e-commerce by being opinionated and fully hosted. The 2024-2025 governance drama between Automattic and WP Engine exposed centralization risks, but no viable alternative has emerged. AI tools may eventually level the playing field by making custom development faster, potentially reducing the plugin ecosystem advantage. For now, WordPress remains the practical default for content-managed sites requiring non-technical editing, despite its aging codebase and divided community over Gutenberg.

  2. 2
    Article
    Avatar of wordpresscoreMake WordPress Core·12w

    Announcing the WordPress 7.0 Release Squad

    WordPress 7.0 release squad has been officially formed following a call for volunteers. The release continues the streamlined approach of smaller, focused squad roles with emphasis on collaboration with Make Team representatives. The structure aims to reduce overhead while ensuring all team contributions are represented throughout the development cycle.

  3. 3
    Article
    Avatar of wordpresscoreMake WordPress Core·14w

    WordPress 7.0 Call for Volunteers

    WordPress 7.0 is scheduled for release on April 9, 2026, with alpha development already underway. The core team is seeking volunteers for key leadership roles including Release Coordination, Tech Leads, Triage Lead, and Test Lead. The release will use a streamlined Release Squad structure that emphasizes collaboration with Make Team Representatives. Contributors of all experience levels are encouraged to volunteer by January 16th, and attending WordCamp Asia is not required to participate.

  4. 4
    Article
    Avatar of wordpressdevWordPress Developer·13w

    What’s new for developers? (January 2026)

    WordPress Gutenberg 22.3 introduces several developer-focused features including responsive Grid blocks with set columns, a dedicated Font Library admin screen, and PHP-only block registration support. New packages include an image cropper component and updated abilities system for WordPress 7.0. The Breadcrumbs block is progressing toward release, while Playground gains UI improvements, a DevTools extension, and faster environment setup. Additional updates cover Data Views validation, routing enhancements for SPA-like navigation, and various block library improvements.

  5. 5
    Article
    Avatar of wordpresscoreMake WordPress Core·12w

    What’s new in AI Experiments 0.2.0 (20 JAN 2026)?

    AI Experiments 0.2.0 for WordPress introduces AI-powered excerpt generation that creates concise summaries from post content, and an Abilities Explorer admin screen that displays all registered AI capabilities. The release includes refinements to editorial interactions emphasizing transparency and user control, plus developer improvements to the Abilities system framework. Version 0.3.0 is planned with alt text generation, TypeScript refactoring of the Abilities Explorer using DataViews and DataForms, and modernized Settings experience.

  6. 6
    Article
    Avatar of wordpresscoreMake WordPress Core·14w

    Dropping support for PHP 7.2 and 7.3

    WordPress 7.0, scheduled for April 2026, will drop support for PHP 7.2 and 7.3, raising the minimum supported version to 7.4.0 while keeping the recommended version at 8.3. This decision follows usage of PHP 7.2 and 7.3 falling below 4% of monitored installations, well under the historical 5% threshold. Sites running older PHP versions will remain on WordPress 6.9 and continue receiving security backports as a courtesy. The change aims to improve long-term maintainability across the WordPress ecosystem, including plugins, themes, and developer tooling.

See all WordPress archives