WordPress battles WP Engine, removes ACF from its plugin directory

The web wars between WordPress creator and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and the WordPress-unaffiliated web hosting provider WP Engine escalated to new heights this weekend, as Matt and WordPress.org commandeered WP Engine’s plugin Advanced Custom Fields (also known as ACF) and renamed it “Secure Custom Fields.”

The takeover removed the ability of users of ACF’s free version from updating their plugin via the normal WordPress.org interface.

This was an unprecedented move, and is in direct conflict with WordPress.org’s open source origins/nature. It’s being perceived as an entirely retaliatory response on the part of Mullenweg & WordPress to strike back at WP Engine after the web host sent Automattic a cease-and-desist letter last week.

The tl;dr version of this whole thing: it’s a mess.

It should be noted that ACF Pro users were unaffected by the conflict.

Does Tilted Chair build with ACF?

No.

Tilted Chair does and always has preferred to build in WordPress using Carbon Fields. We absolutely love Carbon Fields: we’ve used it to build and launch satire blogs like CFB News Now, and we’ve used it to deploy presidential campaigns, like Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign website.

Why?

We prefer Carbon Fields for a number of reasons:

• Carbon Fields isn’t a plugin. It can be installed via WordPress’s plugin interface (but even then, it’s still not a plugin in the traditional sense), but Tilted Chair prefers to install via npm, Yarn, or Composer.
• As such, Carbon Fields doesn’t require nor ever receive plugin updates.
• It’s totally free. (Not freemium, FREE. All advanced features are available to everyone, totally free.)
• We know and have an open line of communications with the Carbon Fields creators over at HTMLBurger.
• Its syntax is remarkably logical and elegant.

Can we help convert your site from ACF to Carbon Fields?

Yes! We can

If you and your business have been impacted by the WordPress/WP Engine spat, and you want to realize some stability within the WordPress platform via Carbon Fields, contact us right away.