Other plugins changing hands include GiveWP<\/a>, Kadence Blocks<\/a> and Kanban for WordPress<\/a>. Then there was the controversial<\/a> move in which WP User Avatar was purchased and rebranded into a completely different plugin. We could go on, but you get the idea \u2013 there has been a lot of movement.<\/p>\n What does this flurry of activity say about the state of WordPress and its future? The following are a few thoughts on what it all means. At least, according to this user\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n WordPress has been around since 2003 and has grown to dominate<\/a> the market. During its rise to the top, many developers jumped into the surrounding ecosystem by releasing plugins.<\/p>\n In some cases, these plugins were a hobby or intended as a way to give back to the open-source project. Others looked at plugin development strictly as a business opportunity. Regardless of intent, the door was wide open for anyone with an idea.<\/p>\n Along the way, the growth of WordPress brought with it an explosion of use cases. What started out as simple blogging software became a full-fledged content management system (CMS). WordPress is now as likely to power a large enterprise site as it is a mom-and-pop business.<\/p>\n This has completely changed the game for a lot of plugin authors. User expectations are high. Stability and new features are paramount to success. Not to mention having to keep up with the massive changes to WordPress core.<\/p>\n Frankly, it\u2019s becoming a lot harder for solo entrepreneurs or small development shops to manage a popular plugin. Supporting a large userbase while also focusing on the future could become overwhelming.<\/p>\n Thus, it\u2019s not surprising to see that some of these products are being sold off to larger firms. We saw something similar happen with internet providers back in the early 2000s. The more mature the market, the harder it became for a small company to carry out its mission. Pretty soon, they were just about all bought up by corporate interests.<\/p>\n While that may not fully reflect the case here, it seems to at least be trending in that direction.<\/p>\n It stands to reason that the more popular plugins a developer acquire, the more users they have access to. This provides companies with plenty of opportunities to upsell premium products and collect user data.<\/p>\n A company such as Automattic, owned by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, already had an edge in this area. They were humming along thanks to their do-it-all Jetpack plugin, among other offerings. But their 2015 acquisition of WooCommerce<\/a> only added to their cachet.<\/p>\n The amount of product movement we see now makes it looks like more companies may join the party. It will take some time. But there might come a day when a typical business website runs plugins from perhaps only a few big development houses.<\/p>\n This may cause a bit of concern for some observers. Seeing the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon push their weight around leads to thoughts of something similar happening with WordPress. A few big players simply set the rules for everyone else to follow.<\/p>\n However, there\u2019s reason to believe things won\u2019t become quite that dystopian. WordPress is, after all, an open-source<\/a> application. Anyone with the talent and desire to build a plugin can still do so. It just may become more difficult to gain traction.<\/p>\n Consolidation is always going to be a part of business. With regards to WordPress, both themes and plugins will continue to change ownership for a variety of reasons. It\u2019s something we should be used to by now.<\/p>\n But as some of the more widely-used plugins are bought and sold, we\u2019re seeing more than just software changing hands. The entire ecosystem has the potential to change along with these moves.<\/p>\nThe WordPress Ecosystem Is Maturing<\/h2>\n
For Better or Worse, Large Developers Will Hold More Sway<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nThe Good and Bad of Consolidation<\/h2>\n