I noticed some changes in the w3techs monthly report related to WordPress. I compared February and April’s reports. Here are some changes:

• WordPress market share increased 1/10th of a percent to 43.3%. This was down or stagnate for a long time, so first recent increase.
• Version 6.x adoption is up almost 2%.
• Elementor’s share of WordPress is up 0.8% since February.
• WooCommerce is up 1/10th of a percent.
• WPBakery is down slightly.
• This month they added Bricks and Breakdance to the tracking.

Security vulnerabilities were reported for two WordPress page builders – Oxygen and Breakdance. In an unusual move the developers pushed back. This article has the details.

The WordPress org home page was just redesigned. This is a huge improvement. Hat tip to Miriam Schwab who mentioned it on X.

ACF 6.2.8 was released. It adds support for the new Block Binding API that shipped with WordPress 6.5. However, the current core API is limited, so the current implementation will mainly be of interest to developers. This release also now locks pro features so that a license key is required. Previously you could install the pro version and use all features, but would not get any updates. This change is in relation to arrangements made with plugin developers who bundled ACF Pro in their plugins.

The new local development environment will be called Studio. You can site up for early access when it becomes available.

WordPress Beginner has now started offering site build services. One thing interesting about this is that they have posted their pricing, which is something many don’t share up front.

The Crocoblock team has been expanding JetFormBuilder from its launch in 2020 into a full forms solution with lots of features and a number of addons. They have an overview article of its development history and discussion of its features.

Elementor introduced a new “Lite” plan that only has Elementor free. It is $36 the first year and then goes to $144 a year. They also raised pricing on the other plans.

WordPress 6.5 added support for AVIF, but it looks like using that image format may not currently be good for SEO.