WP Engine is an American hosting company that provides hosting services for websites built on the open-source content management system

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

. It was founded by Jason Cohen in 2010 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

History

WP Engine's main function is allowing businesses and organizations to build, host, and manage websites powered by WordPress. WP Engine was founded by Jason Cohen and Ben Metcalfe in 2010. Prior to founding WP Engine, Cohen was the founder of the software company SmartBear Software. In May 2013, WP Engine hired former Bazaarvoice COO Heather Brunner as its COO. Brunner was eventually appointed the company's CEO in October 2013, with Cohen assuming the position of CTO. WP Engine hired Lee McClendon, formerly of

SolarWinds SolarWinds Corporation is an American company that develops software for businesses to help manage their networks, systems, and information technology infrastructure. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with sales and product development offi ...

, as its first Senior Vice President of Global Engineering in 2017. WP Engine expanded into

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

in 2016, establishing offices in

Limerick, Ireland Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 102,287 at the 2022 census, Limerick is the third- ...

. In 2019, the company expanded its offices into The Domain, a mixed-use development in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. In addition, WP Engine also expanded its offices into the

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

city centre in 2023. In 2018, WP Engine sold majority of its stakes to Silver Lake for investing $250 million. At the time they had 75,000 customers. In 2021, the company reorganized its business into three service lines: enterprise-size business, small to medium-size business and international business. In 2022, WP Engine announced that it was ending support for the website managing tool .htaccess. WP Engine also announced the launch of Atlas, its headless WordPress solution, in the same year. The Atlas platform includes Atlas Blueprints, which provides developers with free website templates designed by professionals, and Atlas Sandbox, which allows users to create prototype headless WordPress projects. In March 2024, WP Engine Introduced AI-Powered Search for WordPress Sites. WP Engine launched its platform on

Microsoft Azure Microsoft Azure, or just Azure ( /ˈæʒər, ˈeɪʒər/ ''AZH-ər, AY-zhər'', UK also /ˈæzjʊər, ˈeɪzjʊər/ ''AZ-ure, AY-zure''), is the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft. It has management, access and development of ...

in 2022. WP Engine formed a partnership with digital agency Granite Digital to expand its presence in Ireland in 2023. Annually, WP Engine holds WP Engine DE, a developer conference centered around sharing technical knowledge with the WordPress community. In November 2017, it became the first WordPress solution to be certified in

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

' Competency Program. In a 2023 study conducted by StatusGator, WP Engine was named one of the most reliable WordPress hosting providers based on downtime data. WP Engine has been ranked as one of the top 10 most popular hosting companies by several publications.

WordPress dispute and lawsuit

During the week preceding September 22, 2024,

Matt Mullenweg Matthew Charles Mullenweg (born January 11, 1984) is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is known as a co-founder of the free and open-source web publishing software WordPress, and the founder of Automattic. Early life and education Mu ...

—founder of WordPress.com—began speaking negatively about rival WP Engine. Mullenweg gave a speech at WordCamp US 2024 that argued that WP Engine had made meager contributions to WordPress compared to

Automattic Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company most notable for WordPress.com and its contributions to the WordPress system. The company was founded in 2005. Automattic's brands and products include WordPress.com, Akismet, Gra ...

, criticized WP Engine's significant ties to

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

, and called for a boycott, sparking internet controversy. In response, WP Engine issued a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...

against what it characterized as

defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

, attributing his attacks to WP Engine's refusal to pay Automattic "a significant percentage of its gross revenues – tens of millions of dollars in fact – on an ongoing basis" for what it claimed were necessary trademark licensing fees (later clarified as 8% of all revenue, payable in gross or in salaries for its own employees working under WordPress.org's direction, combined with a clause that would've prohibited forking) for the "WordPress" name. Automattic responded by sending its own cease and desist the next day, citing the trademark issue. On October 2, 2024, WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg for extortion and abuse of power, which the defendants denied. As a result of the dispute, WordPress.org blocked WP Engine and affiliates from accessing its servers—which include security updates, the plugin and theme repository, and more—on September 25, 2024. This was a day after its trademark policy was updated to advise against usage of "WP" "in a way that confuses people", listing WP Engine as an example. Following backlash, access to WordPress.org was temporarily restored until October 1 to allow WP Engine to build its own

mirror site Mirror sites or mirrors are replicas of other websites. The concept of mirroring applies to network services accessible through any protocol, such as HTTP or FTP. Such sites have different URLs than the original site, but host identical or near-i ...

s two days later, which the company did. On the 12th, WordPress.org replaced the listing of WP Engine's Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin on the WordPress.org plugin directory with a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

called "Secure Custom Fields" citing a guideline that empowers the foundation to "make changes to a plugin, without developer consent, in the interest of public safety". On October 7, 2024, to align the company's stance, Mullenweg announced that 159 employees—8.4% of Automattic—had quit in exchange for a severance package of $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, with the condition that the resigned would not be able to return. The next week, another offer of nine months' salary was made in an attempt to placate those who could not quit for financial reasons, though with only four hours to respond and the added term of being excluded from the WordPress.org community. On December 10, 2024, a

preliminary injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable reme ...

was issued by judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the District Court for the Northern District of California stating that Automattic and Matt Mullenweg must cease blocking, disabling, and interfering with WP Engine and its associates’ access to WordPress.org. In February 2025, a class action lawsuit was filed by a WP Engine customer, accusing Automattic and Mullenweg of "deliberately abusing their power and control over the WordPress ecosystem to purposefully, deliberately, and repeatedly disrupt contracts", stating that the company's interference with WP Engine's operations caused disruptions in the maintenance and security of customer's own websites.

Acquisitions

* Studio Press (Theme Developer), June 2018 * Flywheel (Hosting Company), June 2019 * Block Lab (Plugin), 2020 * Frost (WordPress Theme), 2021 * Delicious Brains (Plugin Developer), June 2021 * NitroPack (IT Company), July 2024

References

External links

* {{Official website Blog hosting services Web hosting Internet properties established in 2010 2010 establishments in Texas Software companies established in 2010 American companies established in 2010 Companies based in Austin, Texas Software companies based in Texas WordPress