WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 3

8 May 2026, 6:18 pm

The third Release Candidate (“RC3”) for WordPress 7.0 is ready for download and testing!

This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC3 on a test server and site.

Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. As always, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 7.0 is the best it can be.

You can test WordPress 7.0 RC3 in four ways:

Plugin	Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)
Direct Download	Download the RC3 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
Command Line	Use this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-RC3
WordPress Playground	Use the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser.  No setup is required – just click and go!

The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is May 20, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!

Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

What’s in WordPress 7.0 RC3?

Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? Take a look at the WordPress 7.0 Developer Notes. For technical information related to the 143+ issues addressed since RC2, you can browse the following links:

• Closed 7.0 WordPress Core Trac tickets since March 26, 2026
• 7.0 Gutenberg commits since March 26, 2026

Note: Real Time Collaboration will not be included in the 7.0 release and will be re-evaluated during the 7.1 release cycle. Because of this, this RC3 version is no longer considered a “new Beta 1”.

How you can contribute

WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can get involved with the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing

Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 RC3 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be.

This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0. 

For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.

If you encounter a potential bug or issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. 

Curious about testing releases in general?  Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.

Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 7.0 beta releases. If you haven’t yet, make sure to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 7.0.

If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

Test on your hosting platforms

Web hosts provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting systems helps inform the development process while ensuring that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue.

Thank you to the Hosts who helped test variations of new RTC architecture: Kinsta, Bluehost, GoDaddy, WordPress.com, XServer, and Ionos, and to the hosts who participate in distributed testing regularly.

Want to test WordPress on your hosting system? Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here.

Help translate WordPress

Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ?  You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC3) marks the hard string freeze point of the 7.0 release cycle.

An RC3 haiku

By the tides of sea,
where wind moves gently through trees,
sprouts up RC3.

Props to @desrosj, @peterwilsoncc for proofreading and review.

Get Involved With WordCamp US 2026 in Phoenix

4 May 2026, 6:10 pm

WordCamp US 2026 will take place August 16–19 in Phoenix, Arizona, and applications are now open for sponsors, speakers, and volunteers. WordCamp US is the flagship gathering for the WordPress community in North America, where contributors, builders, and users come together to share ideas and help shape what comes next for the open web. Full details are available on the WordCamp US 2026 site.

Sponsor

Sponsorships keep WordCamp US accessible. They fund the production and programming that make a flagship WordCamp possible while keeping ticket prices low for attendees, and, in return, sponsors gain direct visibility within one of the most engaged technology ecosystems. Packages support both in-person and digital participation, with opportunities to connect with agencies, developers, and enterprise teams that build on WordPress every day.

Speak

The organizing team is looking for strong ideas with practical takeaways from across the community, whether that means a personal story, a lesson learned in production, or a perspective on where publishing, AI, and the open web are heading. Sessions can take the form of traditional talks, workshops, or more interactive formats, and new or underrepresented voices are especially encouraged to apply. Prior speaking experience is not required.

Speaker applications due by May 29, 2026.

Volunteer

Volunteers are essential to the experience of the event. They welcome attendees and support sessions throughout the week, helping create the inclusive environment that defines a flagship WordCamp. Volunteering is also one of the best ways to meet people from across the global community and see firsthand how an event of this scale comes together. No prior experience is needed, and volunteers receive a free ticket.

Volunteer applications due by June 15, 2026.

Attend

It’s the people. It’s the friendships and the stories.

Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Cofounder

WordCamp US continues a long tradition of in-person gatherings where contributors meet face-to-face to openly discuss the project’s direction. Whether you participate as a sponsor, take the stage, join the volunteer team, or help organize the event, your involvement shapes what the event becomes.

To stay informed as ticket sales open and the schedule takes shape, subscribe to WordCamp US 2026 updates.

WordPress Student Clubs Build Momentum

29 Apr 2026, 1:14 pm

WordPress Student Clubs are beginning to take shape as a new way to carry the momentum of WordPress Campus Connect beyond one-time workshops. What starts as an introduction to WordPress and open source is now continuing on campus through student-led groups that create space for learning, peer support, and early community participation. That shift matters because it gives students a more consistent path into the WordPress ecosystem while helping local communities build stronger connections with the next generation of contributors.

When WordPress Campus Connect workshops first began reaching universities, the goal was straightforward: help students discover WordPress, understand the value of open source, and see that contribution can be part of their learning journey. In many cases, that first introduction created immediate interest. Students who had never worked with WordPress before started asking questions, exploring what the software could do, and showing curiosity about the wider community.

That early response also revealed a gap. A workshop could spark interest, but it could not always sustain it on its own. Encouraging students to attend local WordPress meetups helped extend that first connection and, in some cases, brought new energy to existing local communities. Even so, it became clear that campuses needed something more consistent and closer to students’ everyday environment.

WordPress Student Clubs emerged from that need. Instead of limiting engagement to a single event, these clubs create an ongoing, student-led presence on campus where students can keep learning, share knowledge with peers, and grow more confident over time. They also offer a practical bridge between first exposure and deeper participation, helping students move from curiosity to contribution through regular activity and community support.

Learning What Sustains Participation

As WordPress Student Clubs started forming across campuses, the early enthusiasm was encouraging, but sustaining that momentum proved to be one of the first real challenges. Student Club Organizers shared that interest was often strongest at the beginning, especially after a workshop or an introductory session, but turning that interest into regular participation required patience and experimentation. Like many community efforts, the clubs needed time to find a rhythm that worked for the students involved.

One of the most common challenges was consistency. Many students were interested in learning WordPress, but regular engagement depended on more than initial curiosity. Organizers found that participation grew more steadily when activities felt approachable and useful, especially when students could learn by doing rather than only listening. Small learning sessions, collaborative exercises, and hands-on activities often made it easier for students to return and take part again.

Organizers also noticed that some students were initially hesitant to engage actively. Asking questions, speaking up in a group, or volunteering to help lead a session did not always happen naturally. Building a club meant creating an environment where students felt comfortable enough to participate, try something new, and gradually take ownership of their own learning.

Academic schedules added another layer of complexity. Because the clubs are student-led, planning around classes, assignments, and exams required flexibility. Keeping activities regular without overwhelming organizers or participants meant working within the rhythms of campus life. Those early difficulties became part of the learning process and helped shape how the clubs began to operate more effectively.

Building Through Small, Consistent Activities

As organizers worked through those challenges, certain approaches began to show results. Instead of focusing on large events, many clubs found momentum through simple, repeatable activities that students could join without feeling intimidated. Regular learning sessions, small hands-on workshops, and peer-to-peer discussions helped create an environment that felt both welcoming and practical.

Student ownership also played an important role. As students began sharing what they had learned, helping their peers, and taking part in running sessions, engagement started to grow more organically. These moments helped shift the clubs from being simply learning spaces to becoming communities in their own right. Students were not only using WordPress in a classroom context. They were also beginning to understand it as part of a collaborative open source project shaped by people who learn together, build together, and support one another.

Guidance from the local WordPress community helped reinforce that progress. Although the clubs are student-led, organizers benefited from having experienced community members available as mentors. Mentors helped them think through session structure, activity planning, and the practical challenge of staying motivated while balancing academic responsibilities. That kind of support gave organizers more confidence to experiment and keep building.

Mentorship also connected campus activity to the broader WordPress ecosystem. Students were not learning in isolation. Through local community guidance, they were able to see how meetups, contributions, and collaboration all fit into a larger network of people who have been participating in WordPress for years. That connection gave the work happening on campus greater meaning and helped students see a clearer path forward.

Early Impact Across Campuses

Although WordPress Student Clubs are still in an early stage, signs of impact are already visible. Organizers have shared that more students are showing interest in learning WordPress and in exploring what open source participation can look like in practice. In several cases, students who first joined as learners are now contributing to discussions, helping peers during sessions, and organizing club activities themselves.

That shift from passive participation to active involvement is one of the clearest signs of growth. It suggests that the clubs are beginning to create more than awareness. They are creating opportunities for students to build confidence, practice leadership, and develop a stronger sense of connection to the WordPress community. Even at this stage, that kind of change points to the long-term value of sustaining engagement on campus.

One encouraging example came during the International Women’s Day celebration in Ajmer, India, where students participated alongside members of the local WordPress community. Organizers noted that the event included 100 female attendees, with around 50% of participants coming from student clubs. For many of those students, it was a first opportunity to take part in a broader community event, meet other contributors, and see how open source communities collaborate in practice.

Experiences like that show how student-led initiatives can extend beyond campus and begin contributing to the wider community. They also create space for new voices to participate. As students move from club sessions into local events, they gain experience not only as learners but also as community members who can help shape what comes next.

The clubs are also creating leadership opportunities on campus. Organizers have stepped into new roles by coordinating activities, encouraging participation, and maintaining momentum over time. Those experiences help students build skills that matter both within the WordPress community and beyond it, including communication, organization, and problem-solving.

“Being a Student Club Organizer helped me improve my leadership and communication skills.”
— Sanjeevni Kumari, WordPress Student Club Organizer, Mahila Engineering College, Ajmer

Looking Ahead

WordPress Student Clubs are still developing, but the journey so far points to a promising direction. What began as an effort to sustain interest after WordPress Campus Connect is gradually becoming a more durable model for ongoing learning and collaboration on campus. The clubs are helping students stay connected to WordPress beyond a first introduction, while also creating stronger links between educational spaces and local communities.

That longer-term potential is one reason this work matters. With regular campus activity and continued mentorship, Student Clubs can help create a stronger foundation for future contributors. They can also help students build confidence before attending local meetups, contributing to community efforts, or participating in events beyond their campuses.

“With regular on-campus activities through WordPress Student Clubs, the real impact may become visible over the next couple of years, as a stronger WordPress ecosystem begins to take shape within campuses.”
— Anand Upadhyay, Student Club Mentor

As more students get involved and take ownership of these spaces, WordPress Student Clubs can continue to open pathways to learning, leadership, and community participation. For campuses, they offer a way to keep the momentum going after Campus Connect. For the broader project, they represent another step toward welcoming more students into the WordPress open source ecosystem. To follow this work and explore how it connects with the wider community, readers can look to WordPress Campus Connect, WordPress Meetups, and other education and community initiatives across WordPress.org.

Note: Much of the credit belongs to @webtechpooja (Pooja Derashri) for help in writing this piece.

Celebrating Community at WordCamp Asia 2026

11 Apr 2026, 6:21 pm

WordCamp Asia 2026 brought the global WordPress community to Mumbai, India, from April 9–11, gathering contributors, organizers, sponsors, speakers, and attendees at the Jio World Convention Centre for three days of learning, collaboration, and community. With 2,627 attendees, the event reflected the scale of the WordPress community and the strong turnout throughout the event.

The event unfolded across Contributor Day and two conference days, with a program that moved from technical sessions and workshops to hallway conversations, shared meals, and joyful moments of connection across the venue. From first-time attendees to longtime contributors, WordCamp Asia 2026 reflected the breadth of the WordPress ecosystem and the many ways people shaped and sustained it.

Throughout the event, WordCamp Asia 2026 balanced formal programming with the conversations happening around it. Sessions and workshops set the pace, while morning networking, tea breaks, lunch, the family photo, the sponsor’s raffle, and the after party in Jasmine Hall helped make the event feel welcoming, social, and connected.

How WordCamp Asia 2026 Took Shape

Bringing together contribution, practical learning, and forward-looking conversation in one shared program. Across Contributor Day and the conference sessions that followed, attendees moved between hands-on work, technical talks, workshops, and broader discussions about AI, education, enterprise, community growth, and the open web.

The result was a WordCamp that felt expansive without losing its sense of connection. Different rooms with topics as themes, helping different audiences, and different forms of participation all fed into the same larger picture: a community actively building what comes next for WordPress as a feeling that something bigger was happening: not just a schedule being delivered, but a community showing up for one another and for the future of WordPress.

Contributor Day: Building WordPress Together

Contributor Day opened WordCamp Asia 2026 with one of the clearest expressions of what makes the project special: people coming together to move WordPress forward by working on it. More than 1,500 participants joined 38 table leads across more than 20 contribution tables, creating a day that was expansive in scale and grounded in real work. For some, it was a return to familiar teams and longtime collaborators. For others, it was the beginning of their contributor journey.

The day moved between structured learning and hands-on participation. Alongside contributor sessions, attendees joined workshops, visited the Open Source Library, took part in YouthCamp, and attended The Making of a WordPress Release: Conversations with Past Release Squad Members, a featured panel that added depth and perspective to the work of building and sustaining WordPress.

What made Contributor Day stand out was not only the number of people in the room, but the range of ways they could take part. Workshops created space for skill-building. YouthCamp brought younger participants into the experience and widened the event’s reach in a meaningful way. The day felt welcoming, energetic, and full of possibility.

By the end, the impact was already visible across teams. Polyglots contributors suggested more than 7,000 strings and reviewed 3,200 of them. Photo contributors uploaded 76 images. The Test team worked on more than 20 tickets, and 55 contributors joined Training. Those numbers told only part of the story, but they pointed to what Contributor Day continued to do so well: turn a large gathering into shared work that strengthened the project in real time.

Conference Sessions Take Shape

Across the conference days, WordCamp Asia 2026 covered a wide range of topics, from technical development and hands-on workshops to business strategy and the open web. Sessions took place across the Foundation, Growth, and Enterprise tracks, with workshops running alongside the main program.

One of the opening sessions was James LePage’s WordPress and AI, which introduced a theme that appeared throughout the conference: how WordPress is responding to changes in AI, publishing, and developer workflows. That topic continued in later sessions focused on AI-driven development, autonomous testing, plugin maintenance, and automation.

Later that morning, a fireside chat with Mary Hubbard and Shilpa Shah shifted the focus toward trust, security, and the longer-term questions shaping open source publishing. Coming early in the program, the conversation gave the conference an important center of gravity, pairing technical change with questions of stewardship, resilience, and what people needed from WordPress as the web continued to evolve. Rather than pulling away from the event’s technical momentum, it deepened it, bringing a human perspective to the pace of change and reminding the audience that progress in open source is not only about what gets built, but about how communities guide, challenge, and sustain that work over time.

From there, the conference widened into a program that balanced developer-focused talks with sessions on the Interactivity API, the HTML API, AI-driven development workflows, education initiatives, observability, automation, and startup strategy. On the final day, those threads continued through talks on WP translation, community building, WordPress Playground, data engineering, enterprise WordPress, and journalism on the open web.

Together, the two conference days made clear that WordCamp Asia 2026 was designed not for one kind of attendee, but for many. Developers, founders, marketers, contributors, organizers, and people finding their place in WordPress for the first time all found something that spoke directly to their work and interests. The breadth of the program was striking, but so was the feeling that these conversations mattered now.

Building What Comes Next

WordCamp Asia 2026 closed with reflections from Mary Hubbard, following an opening announcement from Chenda Ngak that WordCamp India will join the calendar in 2027 as the fourth flagship WordPress event.

Mary’s remarks tied together several threads that had already surfaced throughout the event: India’s long-standing role in the WordPress project, the growth of programs like Campus Connect and WordPress Credits, the energy of YouthCamp, and the significance of WordPress 7.0. One of the clearest ideas in the session was that WordPress is entering a new phase shaped by real-time collaboration, AI infrastructure, and global contributor growth. That framing gave the closing session a strong sense of direction without losing sight of the community work that made it possible.

The session then shifted into a panel discussion about the current state of WordPress and where the project is headed next. Peter Wilson and Sergey Biryukov joined Hubbard on stage, while audience questions brought the conversation back to many of the themes that had shaped the event across all three days. Even from afar, Ma.tt Mullenweg remained part of the discussion, following along remotely and sending written responses during the live Q&A.

Those questions touched on contributor growth, AI, plugins, local communities, product direction, and the long-term health of the open web. What stood out was how often the answers returned to the same core idea: WordPress continues to grow through open discussion, shared responsibility, and the people who keep showing up to build it together.

A Lasting Momentum

Over three days in Mumbai, WordCamp Asia 2026 brought together contribution, learning, and community. From Contributor Day through the closing keynote, the event balanced hands-on work with bigger conversations about publishing, technology, education, and the open web.

The event also created space for many kinds of participation. Some attendees contributed to Core, Training, Polyglots, Photos, and other teams. Others came for the conference program, workshops, or the chance to reconnect with collaborators and meet new people. Across session rooms, tea breaks, shared meals, sponsor hall conversations, and the after party, the community side of the event remained just as important as the formal program.

Thank you to the organizers, volunteers, speakers, sponsors, attendees, and everyone who joined online. WordCamp Asia 2026 was a reminder that WordPress continues to grow through the people who show up to contribute and build together.

There is still more to look forward to this year. The community will gather again at WordCamp Europe 2026 in Kraków, Poland from June 4–6, followed by WordCamp US 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona from August 16–19.

How to Watch WordCamp Asia 2026 Live

7 Apr 2026, 1:57 pm

WordCamp Asia 2026 will be available to watch live across three days of streaming, making it easy for the global WordPress community to follow along from anywhere. This year’s live streamed programming begins with a special Contributor Day broadcast, followed by two full conference days of presentations from across the WordPress community.

This post gathers each official stream in one place so you can quickly find the right broadcast for each day. Bookmark this page and return throughout the event to watch live.

Day One: The Making of a WordPress Release

Go behind the scenes of a WordPress release in this special Contributor Day live stream from WordCamp Asia 2026. Past release squad members come together to share stories, reflect on their experience, and talk about what it takes to bring a WordPress release to life. The Panel will go live at 4:30 am UTC.

Day Two: Conference Livestreams

Watch the second day of WordCamp Asia 2026 live for a full day of presentations and sessions. beginning at 4:00 am UTC, including a Fireside chat with Mary Hubbard, which will begin at 5:00 am UTC over on the Growth Stream.

Day Three: Conference Livestreams

Watch the third day and final day of WordCamp Asia 2026 live, beginning at 4:00 am UTC for another full day of presentations from across the community. Don’t forget to watch Ma.tt Mullenweg give the final keynote, which will begin on the Growth stream at 10:00 am UTC.

You can also explore the full schedule to see what is coming up across the event and plan your viewing. However you join, we hope you will follow along and be part of WordCamp Asia 2026.

From AI to Open Source at WordCamp Asia 2026

2 Apr 2026, 4:10 pm

April 9-11, 2026 | Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, India

WordCamp Asia 2026 brings the WordPress community to Mumbai, India, from April 9 to 11, with a schedule shaped around artificial intelligence, enterprise WordPress, developer workflows, product strategy, and open source collaboration. For attendees planning their time, the program offers a useful view of the ideas, tools, and practical challenges shaping WordPress today.

Keynotes to Set the Stage

The keynote sessions at WordCamp Asia 2026 help frame some of the biggest conversations at this year’s event.

Together, they offer an early view of the themes and discussions unfolding across WordPress in 2026.

AI, Automation, and the Future of WordPress

Artificial intelligence is one of the clearest threads running through the program. Sessions from Fellyph Cintra, Fumiki Takahashi, and Nirav Mehta examine how AI is already influencing WordPress through Core discussions, testing workflows, plugin development, and day-to-day implementation. That same theme continues in sessions on marketing and content strategy, including Adeline Dahal’s work on structuring WordPress content to make it more machine-readable. 

This cross-section of presentations shows how automation is moving from concept to practice. From autonomous testing with WordPress Playground to AI-supported development workflows, these sessions highlight applicable tools and skills that teams can start using right away, not just concepts. For attendees interested in where WordPress is heading, this is one of the strongest themes across the event.

Enterprise WordPress and Scalability

Enterprise sessions take that discussion further by focusing on scale, architecture, and operational complexity. Rahul Bansal, James Giroux, Anirban Mukherji, and Abid Murshed are among the speakers exploring how WordPress supports larger organizations, more complex commerce systems, and demanding digital environments. Their sessions look at growth, implementation, and the kinds of decisions that matter when WordPress is supporting business-critical work.

Other talks in this track focus on the realities of enterprise operations, including migration risk, observability, and long-term performance. Together, they show how WordPress continues to adapt to larger systems and more complex digital ecosystems without losing the flexibility that makes it widely used in the first place.

Developer Experience and Modern Practices

The developer track stays grounded in both Core tools and everyday engineering practice. Ryan Welcher will cover the Interactivity API, Jonathan Desrosiers will look at automation in open source, and Takayuki Miyoshi will introduce a schema-sharing approach to form management. These sessions point to a broader shift toward building WordPress systems that are more dynamic, maintainable, and easier to scale over time.

These more technical presentations also include sessions on the WordPress HTML API, Content Security Policy, open source data pipelines, and evolving plugin standards. Rather than focusing on a single type of builder, this part of the schedule addresses developers working across infrastructure, security, front-end experiences, and long-term platform health.

Community, Education, and Open Source

The schedule also makes space for the people and ideas that support WordPress beyond engineering alone. A panel featuring Anand Upadhyay and Maciej Pilarski, moderated by Destiny Kanno, looks at education initiatives and student pathways into open source. Kazuko Kaneuchi will reflect on the story of Wapuu and the culture of contribution around WordPress. At the same time, Kotaro Kitamura and Chiharu Nagatomi will share how WordPress and its community shaped their professional journeys.

That wider perspective continues in sessions on product thinking, marketing, career growth, and business strategy. Speakers, including Nabin Jaiswal, Himani Kankaria, Julian Song, Karishma Sundaram, Sandeep Kelvadi, Aviral Mittal, Anh Tran, and Anna Hurko, explore how WordPress works and connects with decision-making, discoverability, professional development, and organizational growth. Taken together, these sessions reflect one of WordPress’s long-standing strengths: its ability to connect software, learning, and community in the same space.

Hands-on Workshops

Hands-on workshops round out the schedule, offering practical sessions for attendees who want to move from ideas to implementation. They include:

• From On-Demand to Cloud: Automate WordPress Installations Like a Pro
• AI + MCP to build, manage, and automate WordPress end-to-end
• Building AI Agents with self-editing memory
• Building Better WordPress Experiences with AI-Driven Development Workflows

Explore the full schedule to plan your sessions, and get your event pass to join WordCamp Asia 2026 in Mumbai.

Mumbai is calling. See you at WordCamp Asia 2026! 

Note: Much of the credit belongs to @webtechpooja (Pooja Derashri) for help in writing this piece.

WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 2

26 Mar 2026, 6:37 pm

The second Release Candidate (“RC2”) for WordPress 7.0 is ready for download and testing!

This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site.

Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 7.0 is the best it can be.

You can test WordPress 7.0 RC2 in four ways:

Plugin	Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)
Direct Download	Download the RC2 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
Command Line	Use this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-RC2
WordPress Playground	Use the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser.  No setup required – just click and go!

The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is April 9, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!

Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

What’s in WordPress 7.0 RC2?

What’s new in WordPress 7.0? Check out the Beta 1 announcement and 7.0 Developer Notes for details and highlights. For technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following links:

• GitHub commits since March 24, 2026
• Closed Trac tickets since March 24, 2026

How you can contribute

WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing

Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. 

Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 RC1 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.

What else to test:

• Real Time Collaboration
• Pattern Editing and content-only Interactivity

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report.  You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. 

Curious about testing releases in general?  Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Test on your hosting platforms

Web hosts provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting systems helps inform the development process while ensuring that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue.

Want to test WordPress on your hosting system? Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here.

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.

Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 7.0 beta releases. If you haven’t yet, make sure to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 7.0.

If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

Help translate WordPress

Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ?  You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC2) also marks the hard string freeze point of the 7.0 release cycle.

An RC2 haiku

At first just a dream,

RC2 flows like a stream

with seven-oh gleam.

Props to @amykamala @annezazu for proofreading and review.

WP Packages is Working the Way Open Source Should

25 Mar 2026, 3:27 pm

When WP Engine acquired WPackagist on March 12, the WordPress developer community faced a familiar question: what happens when critical open source infrastructure ends up under corporate control? The community already had an answer in progress. Four days later, WP Packages (formerly WP Composer) launched as a fully independent, community-funded alternative, with some neat additional features.

Built by Ben Words from Roots, the team behind Bedrock, Sage, and Trellis, WP Packages is a new open source Composer repository for WordPress plugins and themes. Composer is PHP’s dependency manager, and it is how many professional WordPress developers install and update plugins and themes in their projects. Every free plugin and theme in the WordPress.org directory is available through WP Packages. Migrating from WPackagist can be done via a single script or a few terminal commands.

What Happened and Why It Matters

WPackagist was created in 2013 by Outlandish, a UK-based digital cooperative, and it served the WordPress Composer ecosystem for over a decade. In its later years the project suffered from deferred maintenance, slow update cycles, and little to no community input. When WP Engine announced the acquisition, developers raised immediate concerns about a private-equity-backed corporation controlling infrastructure this foundational to the WordPress developer workflow. WP Engine immediately updated the Composer info field to display a “WPackagist is now maintained by WP Engine” notice in every developer’s terminal. A small thing, but telling. That’s how corporate ownership changes the relationship between a tool and its users.

Ben had already started building a WPackagist replacement last August, long before the acquisition made headlines. When WP Engine’s deal landed, he accelerated the launch, going live on March 16 with a fully open source repository on GitHub.

Open source repo ≠ transparent system. WP Packages makes everything public, including infrastructure and build process. – Ben Word on X

It’s also just a better tool. WP Packages supports Composer v2’s metadata-url protocol, which lets Composer fetch metadata only for the packages a project actually needs. WPackagist still relies on the older provider-includes approach, forcing Composer to download large index files before resolving dependencies. Cold dependency resolves on WP Packages are roughly 17x faster: 0.7 seconds for 10 plugins compared to 12.3 seconds on WPackagist.

WP Packages also uses CDN caching with public cache headers and serves immutable, content-addressed per-package files. Package naming is cleaner (wp-plugin/ and wp-theme/ instead of wpackagist-plugin/ and wpackagist-theme/), metadata includes plugin and theme authors, descriptions, and homepage URLs that WPackagist has been missing for years, and updates sync every five minutes rather than WPackagist’s roughly 90-minute cycle.

How to Switch

Switching from WPackagist to WP Packages requires just a few terminal commands.

1. Remove your existing WPackagist packages:

composer remove wpackagist-theme/twentytwentyfive

2. Remove the WPackagist repository and add WP Packages:

composer config --unset repositories.wpackagist && composer config repositories.wp-composer composer https://repo.wp-packages.org

3. Require packages with the new naming:

composer require wp-theme/twentytwentyfive

Alternatively, use the migration script to automatically update your composer.json:

curl -sO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/roots/wp-packages/main/scripts/migrate-from-wpackagist.sh && bash migrate-from-wpackagist.sh

Roots also provides a WP Packages Changelog Action for GitHub workflows that tracks dependency updates using the new naming format. Projects using Bedrock already ship with WP Packages configured out of the box.

Open Source Wins

The entire WP Packages project is public. The application code, documentation, and even the full Ansible deployment configuration are available on GitHub. Anyone can fork the repository and run their own WordPress Composer registry. Ben has also committed publicly that WP Packages will never use the Composer info field to push messages, ads, or upsells into developer terminals. That kind of restraint is easier to promise when a project answers to its community rather than to a corporate parent.

WP Packages is funded through GitHub Sponsors. Current sponsors include Carrot, Kinsta, WordPress.com, and Itineris. The WordPress ecosystem has always been at its strongest when the community builds the tools it needs in the open. Ben saw a gap forming months before anyone else was paying attention, built something better than what existed, and released it for everyone. No acquisition required. No boardroom decisions about availability or pricing. Just developers solving a problem for other developers and sharing the result. Open source wins.

WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 1

24 Mar 2026, 7:32 pm

The first Release Candidate (“RC1”) for WordPress 7.0 is ready for download and testing!

This version of the WordPress software is still under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended to evaluate RC1 on a test server and site.

WordPress 7.0 RC1 can be tested using any of the following methods:

Plugin	Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)
Direct Download	Download the RC1 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
Command Line	Use this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-RC1
WordPress Playground	Use the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser.  No setup required – just click and go!

The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is April 9, 2026. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!

Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

What’s in WordPress 7.0 RC1?

What’s new in WordPress 7.0? Check out the Beta 1 announcement and WordPress 7.0 Developer Notes for details and highlights.

RC1 contains more than 134 updates and fixes since the Beta 5 release. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 5 using these links:

• GitHub commits since March 12, 2026
• Closed Trac tickets since March 12, 2026

New Features since Beta 1

The release squad in conjunction with project leadership identified additional features that were not ready for beta 1 but are included in RC1 as supporting requirements for flagship features of the release.

• AI Connectors Screen – A new admin screen for connecting AI providers to your site and an API for registering additional ones.
• The Command Palette is now available via a ⌘K or Ctrl+K shortcut in the admin bar.

Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These tickets and pull requests are just some of the latest updates:

• #GB-76700: Client Side Media as plugin only
• #GB-76722: Add support for non-AI providers on Connector’s Screen
• #GB-76736: New activation hook to enable RTC by default
• #64904: WP_ALLOW_COLLABORATION constant for RTC
• #GB-76704: Increased polling intervals for RTC
• #GB-76643: Real Time Collaboration is opt-in by default
• #GB-76460: Toggle to turn RTC session notifications on/off
• #62046: Update PHP AI Client package to 1.3.1
• #GB-76550: Revisions: Show changed block attributes in sidebar
• #62067: Single config option to disable all LLM related features
• #63697: OPCache added to Site Health > Info > Server

The final release is on track for April 9, 2026. As always, a successful release depends on your confirmation during testing. So please download and test!

How you can contribute

WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Help test this release

Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 RC1 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0.

What to test:

• Real Time Collaboration
• Pattern Editing and content-only Interactivity

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.

Test on your hosting platforms

Hosting systems provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting infrastructure ensures that WordPress and hosting systems are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue. Thank you to all web hosts who test WordPress!

Want to set up testing on your hosting system? Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here.

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.

Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 7.0 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 7.0. If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Help translate WordPress

Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ?  You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC1) marks the hard string freeze point of the 7.0 release cycle. However, strings will not be available for translation until RC2 later this week.

An RC1 haiku

RC1 arrives

with momentum, sped up time

and jazz on the mind.

Props to @4thhubbard, @desrosj, @jeffpaul, @chaion07, @audrasjb, @jorbin for collaboration and review.

WordPress 7.0 Beta 5

12 Mar 2026, 3:49 pm

WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 is ready for download and testing!

This version of the WordPress software is still under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended to test Beta 5 on a test server and site.WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 can be tested using any of the following methods:

Plugin	Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)
Direct Download	Download the Beta 5 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
Command Line	Use this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=7.0-beta5
WordPress Playground	Use the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser.  No setup is required – just click and go!

The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is still April 9, 2026.  The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!

Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. What’s new in WordPress 7.0? Check out the Beta 1, Beta 2, Beta 3 and Beta 4 announcements for details and highlights.

How to test this release

Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0.

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Beta 5 updates and highlights

WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 contains more than 101 updates and fixes since the Beta 3 release.

Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes, and more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 3 using these links:

• GitHub commits since March 5, 2026
• Closed Trac tickets since March 5, 2026

Issues addressed since Beta 4:

• GitHub commits since March 10, 2026
• Closed Trac tickets since March 10, 2026

WordPress 7.0 Beta 5 contains a new feature!

Instantly access all the tools you need with a single click using the new Command Palette shortcut in the Omnibar! In 7.0 Beta 5, logged-in editors will see a field with a ⌘K or Ctrl+K symbol in the upper admin bar that unfurls the command palette when clicked. The new command palette entry point streamlines navigation and customization, giving you full control from anywhere on your site – whether you’re editing, designing or just browsing plugins.

A Beta 5 haiku

A smooth melody

Beta 5 plays on its strings.

Seven brings good things.

Props to @amykamala, @annezazu and @4thhubbard for proofreading and review.