Major WordPress releases, feature announcements, and upgrade guidance.
WordPress ships major releases several times a year, and each one brings changes that can affect your site. New editor features, PHP compatibility shifts, security patches, block theme improvements. Some updates are routine. Others need careful planning.
We cover each release with a focus on what UK site owners actually need to know: which features matter, what might break, and whether you should update straight away or wait for the first patch.
WordPress 7.0 launched on 20 May 2026 without real-time collaboration, which Matt Mullenweg pulled on 8 May. Here's what shipped, what got cut, and our hands-on findings from running RC5 on two of our own sites for the 24 hours before launch.
WordPress 7.0 didn't ship on 9 April. The core team extended the cycle to redesign the database layer for real-time collaboration, then pulled real-time collaboration entirely on 8 May. The release shipped on 20 May with block-level Notes in its place. This is the record of the database rework that happened anyway.
The WordPress Foundation has announced that WordPress 7.0 will require a physical USB-C hardware key plugged into your computer to access wp-admin. Four pricing tiers start at £29.99. The Agency Bundle weighs 1.4kg. We have questions.
The plugin once called AI Experiments hit a stable 1.0 and jumped from 7 features to 18. We reinstalled it at 1.0.1 on WordPress 7.0, added the three provider plugins for Claude, Gemini and OpenAI, and tested everything: the editorial tools, alt text, comment moderation, and the two new governance features that matter most if you run client sites.
WordPress 7.0 ships on 20 May 2026 with the AI Client, block-level Notes, DataViews and PHP 7.4 as the new minimum. Every blog covers the features. Nobody is asking whether your hosting can actually handle them. Here's the WordPress 7.0 hosting readiness checklist your provider hopes you won't read.
WordPress released versions 6.9.2, 6.9.3, and 6.9.4 in a single day after discovering that initial security fixes were incomplete. Four vulnerabilities, including a critical PclZip path traversal flaw, are already being exploited. If you manage your own WordPress updates, this is your wake-up call.
I installed WordPress 7 Beta 2 on a staging server and went looking for the AI. What I found was both less exciting and more important than I expected. Here's what the Connectors page actually does, with code examples.
WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 dropped 19 February with the Abilities API, MCP Adapter for AI agents, and a visual admin refresh. Real-time collaboration was originally planned for 7.0 but was pulled on 8 May. Here's what UK site owners need to know about the final release on 20 May 2026.
WooCommerce 10.4.2 fixes four bugs that caused product editor crashes, broken shipping calculations, and checkout failures on WordPress 6.9 with PHP 8.4. Stores saw checkout rates recover from 73% to 94%.
SolidWP disclosed 170 WordPress vulnerabilities on 10 December 2025. Four were critical RCE and file upload flaws affecting 2.3 million sites. Ninety-one had no patch. Here's what to update, what to deactivate, and how to build long-term resilience.
A California federal judge ordered Automattic to restore WP Engine's WordPress.org access within 72 hours. The ruling ended a three-month standoff that blocked updates for 200,000+ sites and raised questions about who controls the WordPress ecosystem.
WordPress 6.9 changed cache key generation, breaking every major caching plugin and causing CPU spikes, stale content, and TTFB increases. The bug was patched in 6.9.1. Sites on 6.9.1 or newer no longer see the issue. Workaround steps preserved for the historical record.
Four WordPress plugins with critical CVSS 9.0+ vulnerabilities were under active exploitation in December 2025. All required zero authentication to exploit. Here's what to check and how to protect your site.
WordPress 6.9 shipped seven performance changes that cut CSS payloads by 45%, improved TTFB by 19%, and dropped LCP by 17% across our test sites. Here's what each change does and why it matters.
We tested WordPress 6.9 across 12 real websites for 48 hours. TTFB dropped 20-26%, Core Web Vitals pass rates jumped from 61% to 84%, and WooCommerce stores processed 89 orders with zero issues.
WordPress 6.9 broke WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and Elementor within hours of launch. Here's exactly what went wrong, how to fix each plugin, and the update strategy that prevents this happening next time.
WordPress 6.9 Beta 1 brought a Command Palette shortcut, instant back-button navigation, block-level comments, the Accordion block, and the AI Abilities API. This is the October 2025 beta preview, preserved for context. WordPress 6.9 launched 2 December 2025, see the live "what's new" coverage for the shipped feature set.
WordPress 7.0 ships on 20 May 2026 with the AI Client, DataViews admin redesign, block-level Notes and visual revisions. Real-time collaboration was pulled on 8 May. Full feature guide with the confirmed schedule, hosting requirements, and preparation checklist.
The safe WordPress 6.9 upgrade process from backup to verification. Pre-upgrade checklist, three update methods, post-upgrade testing, troubleshooting common issues, and speed optimisation tips.
WordPress 6.9 launched with block-level commenting, a universal command palette, the new Abilities API, and measurable performance gains. Here's the full feature breakdown and a safe upgrade checklist.
