As I sit on a crowded plane in the middle of the night hovering somewhere over the ocean, taking my leave from the beautiful country of India and all the amazing folks who joined me at WordCamp Asia 2026 – my mind can’t help but buzz with echoes of all the chatter online and the call to address Cloudflare’s new CMS EmDash.
Unsurprisingly our beloved Director of WordPress, Mary Hubbard, was asked about it at least seven times this past weekend in her keynote and Q&A sessions. Though the repeat question comes with a combative undertone, folks asking are simply curious about the future of WordPress, and WP leads do have every reason to discuss it.
It has been my absolute honor to serve as a Release Coordinator for WordPress and as a team rep for the Core and Hosting teams. As one of those project leads I am responding by putting my voice out there exactly as WordPress has enabled me to do – and taking advantage of the democratized publishing that WordPress has worked so hard to uphold over decades.
Cloudflare set the stage for a combative relationship with WordPress with its launch of EmDash by marketing its new and shiny CMS product as the “spiritual successor to WordPress”. After its launch my social media feeds lit up with “WordPress is dead” posts and articles, carrying the torch of the us vs them tone that Cloudflare’s product opened with.
The thing is, Cloudflare is not the enemy of WordPress. The internet is a big place and there is plenty of room for one CMS to rise without another falling.
WordPress is very much alive. In fact, with the pending launch of WordPress 7.0, the software is on the forefront of technical innovation and exponential growth in capabilities. With collaborative editing and AI integration WordPress is stepping into a new era of teamwork focused, streamlined workflows that enhance and inspire existing protocols while opening the door for infinite possibilities. What can be done with these core features has not even been discovered yet, and I guarantee the amazing WP community is already running with it and inventing new and powerful opportunities for WordPress users and publishing at large.
I can guarantee that because WordPress is compelling on a deeper level and that drives people to engage with it. It’s not just a software. It stands for something larger than that. WordPress is a FREE software, a not for profit entity, and a human-driven platform.
WordPress values have not been forsaken throughout its over two decade long lifespan. As an Open Source software WP continues to uphold its support of and investment in a free and open web, equal access to technology and expression, and support the human necessity for every individual to have a voice and a corner of the world in which to use that voice.
These values continue to drive the product and development process for WordPres Core. WordPress stands by its mission of democratizing publishing and enabling a free and open web in its development decisions and in its very existence. The right to creative expression and freedom of speech is upheld on a constant basis through the offering of a publishing software that anyone and everyone is included in. WordPress stands with inclusion and diversity not only in writing but in practice as it continues to welcome new contributors into the project, and provide a space for literally anyone to create and own a platform and have a voice for free.
Cloudflare products are something that I value as a web developer and internet user. I encourage every website owner to put their sites behind Cloudflare’s firewall and DNS proxies. The value it adds is undeniable, there is no competition here, and it’s incredible that they offer this for free on their base tier, while their paid tiers offer even more.
WordPress however only has the one free product. It doesn’t gatekeep features for profit, it doesn’t upsell and extort user needs, and it doesn’t plan on ever doing so.
Does the CMS you’re considering have values and stand for something deeper or is it merely yet another product for profit?
Are companies proud to piggyback off WordPress’ popularity by platforming their products as it’s enemy and attacker, and do they realize by doing so they have illustrated in no uncertain terms that its product can’t stand alone, it can only rise by poaching off another?
Do you as a user want to partner with something that believes in and long term upholds your inherent human rights to freedom of expression and value as an individual, like WordPress does, or something that seeks to take advantage of its users needs for its own gain?
Upon launching- Wix, Squarespace, and other CMSs also fired the internet up with a fabricated existential crisis for WordPress, yet that crisis has proven to be wholly false. These platforms and WordPress have simply coexisted as cousins on the vast and open web side by side. How is EmDash any different that it would be the final “nail in the coffin” of a software that continues to dominate the web by fulfilling the very real needs of its users?
WordPress isn’t falling in a battle, it’s not even fighting one.
It’s thriving in the sun, fueled by the very values and community that have made it so valuable and inherently special to the world in the first place.
Unless every WordPress user decides to drop their existing sites and everything they have worked towards to invest funds and time into migrating their assets from a tried, true and beloved platform to a new CMS that not only has not stood the test of time yet and values profit over people, but one that can’t even stand on its own and must poach off a greater software to position itself as valuable; WordPress isn’t going anywhere.
WordPress only stands to learn and grow from this, and continues to uphold the values and beliefs that have always compelled it and its users. As WordPress evolves it is strengthened by the foundation of its core beliefs; beliefs that empower and enable people to pursue their vision and dreams, rather than extort their need to have a voice.
Let’s not forget what we’re doing this for. It’s the values and community that give WordPress deeper meaning and cause it to transcend beyond a body of code.
We all have the opportunity to demonstrate to the world what values we align with when we choose our products.
Do you stand for a free and open web maintained by people for people that centers humans? Or are you handing your voice and your power over to a private for profit entity because it’s the next big trend?
Use this moment to show the world what is important to you.
I am standing with WordPress. A software that has changed the world not in addition to but because of its values.
Will you?