WordPress's Automattic openly tracks websites bailing from rival WP Engine

The feud between Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and rival web hosting firm WP Engine has led Automattic to create a website that lists WordPress customers who have moved their site hosting away from WP Engine and those who haven't.

"The purpose of this site is to track how many sites have left WP Engine," the site's GitHub repo explains.

Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress, head of commercial WordPress hosting firm Automattic, and a board member of the WordPress Foundation overseeing the open source WordPress software project, in September began disparaging WP Engine for, as the chief exec saw it, refusing to pay tens of millions of dollars annually to use the "WordPress" trademark.

The CEO contends that WP Engine should pay because it fails to adequately contribute back to the WordPress project. And to pressure the company into doing so, Mullenweg supported steps such as blocking WP Engine-hosted websites from connecting to WordPress.org for software updates and forking a WP Engine-maintained plugin.

Hostilities between the two camps led last month to the departure of 159 Automattic staff members and a federal lawsuit from WP Engine alleging attempted extortion, libel, interference with contractual relations, computer fraud and abuse, and unfair competition, among other claims. A hearing on WP Engine's request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for later this month.

According to the WP Engine Tracker website, more than 16,700 sites have left already WPE since September 21 as of the time this article was filed, up from 15,080 on November 6. The site does not say whether anyone has moved in the opposite direction, from Automattic or other hosts to WP Engine or to another content management ecosystem entirely.

Critics of the tracking site on Reddit describe it as "doxxing" WP Engine customers because it makes a list of WP Engine sites available as a .csv file.

And a pull request submitted by developer Toby Nieboer suggests changing the website's stated purpose to read: "The purpose of this site is to demonstrate how utterly asinine Matt Mullenweg can be." That pull request was closed.

GitHub Issues posts have pointed out the irony of Automattic making a trademark claim against WP Engine while simultaneously using the trademarked "WP Engine" on its tracking website. It's also been argued that the tracking site violates WordPress' own trademark policy by using "WordPress" in a domain name.

A spokesperson for Automattic defended the website, telling The Register, "The beauty of open source software is that everyone is able to access data on a granular level, because it's all publicly available information.

"That public data has shown that ever since WP Engine filed its lawsuit - making it clear that they do not have an official association with WordPress and attracting greater attention to the company's poor service, modifications to the WordPress core software, increasing and convoluted pricing structure, and repeated downtimes - their customers have left their platform for other hosting providers.

"WP Engine can and always has been able to access the WordPress software and plugins available on WordPress.org, as can anyone."

While data about WP Engine websites can be gathered from public sources, it's not clear whether the .csv file of WP Engine websites was obtained from a public source. There's some speculation that the data may have come from non-public WordPress.org access logs rather than DNS queries or a website crawler.

The Register asked Automattic whether that's the case. We've not heard back.

WP Engine declined to comment but The Register understands the firm is aware of the tracking website. ®