During the last week of March, nearly 30 WordPress core contributors, project managers, and team members gathered to discuss the WordPress release schedule. According to meeting notes posted by Mary Hubbard (Executive Director of WordPress), the conversation was driven by organizations reducing their hours contributing to the WordPress project. 1
She also cited two other worrying trends in recent months. The first is that both Tickets for Gutenberg And Core Trac Tickets have remained almost flat over the past six months, and the second is that the volume of new features developed in the Gutenberg repository has plunged since January.
These models led the project management to decide that WordPress 6.8 will be the only major release of 2025. Let’s talk about the implications of this for your site(s) and how you can stay informed in this new once-a-year world:
What this means for your WordPress site(s)
- No more minor releases: Minor releases (like 6.8.1, 6.8.2, etc.) will continue throughout the year and include bug fixes and security patches as necessary.
- A more flexible approach to improvements: The barrier to including improvements in minor releases will be more relaxed, although the “no new files in minor releases” rule will remain in place.
- Gutenberg plugin updates: THE Gutenberg plugin Ideally, it will maintain its current release schedule, although it can potentially slow down to once a month. So if you use the plugin rather than just basic WordPress, you’ll still see regular new features there.
How to Stay Up to Date (and Have a Say in the Future of WordPress)
For those of you who typically wait to update your site(s) to a .1 version, this new schedule might actually make your life easier. With fewer major releases, there is less planning for updates – although the flip side is that when updates do arrive, they will potentially include bigger changes.
Below are some things you should pay attention to and possibly get involved with as we collectively begin this new chapter of WordPress.
Follow the development of the canonical plugin
One of the main areas covered during the meeting was canonical plugins. These are community-run, officially recognized plugins that offer functionality that could potentially integrate into WordPress core.
Canonical plugins will be more important than ever for three main reasons:
- They allow features to be delivered and evolve independently of major versions of WordPress.
- They create feedback loops to test features before they are integrated into the kernel.
- They give users access to powerful features without waiting for a major release.
Since you are reading this, I assume you want to stay up to date with the latest WordPress features. Going forward, what this means in practice is that you need to keep an eye on the canonical plugins, because that’s where a lot of the action is going to happen.
Unfortunately, as of this writing, there is no filter or list that only shows you canonical plugins, but the Performance Lab Plugin above is a good place to start. That’s because it acts as a bundler, meaning it hosts many canonical plugins in one convenient package.
My suggestion is to create a staging site that is a copy of your real site. Then install it here to see how the different plugins it contains interact with your setup.
⚠️ Even if nothing breaks and you like some features, you still need to be careful when using the plugin on your live site. The WordPress team working on it has a warning that specifically advises against this since the features are experimental. In other words, if you install it on a live site, you accept the risk that comes with it. They also comments welcome.
Participate in tests
The meeting notes noted the need to “encourage broader testing of beta/RC releases, and even nightly releases.” By testing pre-release versions, you can both stay up to date with upcoming changes and help improve the quality of WordPress. The easiest way to do this is to install the WordPress Beta Tester plugin:
⚠️ This may seem obvious to say, but it’s still worth saying: don’t use it on any of your live websites.
If you have a dedicated dummy site or are creating a staging site like I suggested above, use it. Otherwise, just run a TasteWP instance with plugin installed (it’s free).
Once logged in, use the left menu to click Tools → Beta testing. Then select Bleeding edge And Beta/RC only among the options. Click on Save changes:
You will see a message at the top of the screen with a link inviting you to upgrade. Tap it:
Finally, click on the blue button containing the current beta version to install it:
If all goes well, you can start playing with the latest beta and get an idea of what to expect and prepare yourself.
With fewer major releases to rally around, community engagement through channels such as Create WordPress blogs, SlackWordPressand WordPress-focused news sites (like the one you’re reading right now) will be even more important for staying up to date.
The Slack channel in particular is a great way to not only stay informed, but also join the conversation and add your thoughts:
When you sign up, you’ll automatically be added to the #core channel, which will often be one of the first places to get information about what’s planned. The conversations that take place there are then summarized and published on the Create a main WordPress page. This also makes it a great source for more streamlined updates if you don’t have time to spend time on Slack.
But if you have the time and are truly passionate about contributing to upcoming WordPress releases and features, then Slack is a great place to make your voice heard.
Looking to the future: beyond 2025
Although the current plan explicitly only addresses 2025, this change raises questions about the long-term direction of WordPress. Is this a temporary adjustment or is WordPress permanently moving to an annual release cycle?
According to the meeting notes, one of the goals during this period is to “explore faster release models once tooling gaps have been addressed.” This suggests that the WordPress management team views the slowdown as an opportunity to rebuild processes that could eventually allow a return to more frequent releases – but potentially with less manual work required.
Regardless, it is very likely that 2025 will end up as an important point in the timeline of WordPress history. This will likely influence WordPress’ approach to releases in the years to come. And with WordPress powering 42.8% of all sites on the Internet, the impact will ripple across the entire web.
What do you think of this change? Will a slower, more focused release cycle benefit WordPress in the long run? Are you planning to beta test canonical versions or plugins? Let me know in the comments below.
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