Developers Remove Plugins From WordPress.org Repository After ACF Controversy

Following the recent ban and ACF to Secure Custom Fields fork/takeover incident, some plugin authors have announced their decision to remove their plugins from the WordPress.org repository.

Gravity PDF Plugin

The Gravity PDF plugin with over 50k active installations and a 4.9 rating is leaving the plugin repository. Its founder Jake Jackson stated that “WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has weaponized WordPress.org and appropriated the popular Advanced Custom Fields plugin from its creators. This action sets a dangerous precedent, and violates the integrity and security of the platform. To minimize the risks to ourselves and our users, the canonical (primary) version of the free and open-source Gravity PDF plugin is now being distributed directly from GravityPDF.com.”

The team reassured users that all existing PDF settings, custom templates, and fonts will be preserved when transitioning to the new release. Future reviews will be hosted on G2.com. The canonical plugin will use “gravity-pdf” for the slug and text domain, replacing the “gravity-forms-pdf-extended” used on WordPress.org. Updates for the premium version and its extensions will continue directly from GravityPDF.com.

BE Media from Production & Display Posts Plugins

Bill Erickson, author of BE Media from Production and Display Posts, also expressed concerns, stating, “I am no longer comfortable hosting my code on WordPress.org given recent actions by Matt Mullenweg.”

BE Media from Production plugin has been closed and Future updates to this plugin will only come from the official GitHub repo.

He also tweeted: “If you use my plugin BE Media from Production, it’s now hosted only on GitHub.”

Paid Memberships Pro Plugin

The Paid Memberships Pro team released version 3.3 and their CEO Jason Coleman explained, “This is the first update of the core Paid Memberships Pro plugin that will be served off our own license server instead of the wordpress.org repository. We have been serving our premium plugins and several of our free plugins from our own license server for many years. We will now be serving downloads and updates of our core plugin ourselves.”

He continued, “We plan to follow suit for all of our plugins that are hosted at wordpress.org, excepting a few that are co-maintained with other folks there. The core plugin is still free and users will always be able to update it for free.”

Version 3.2.2 will be available in the repository for a day or so and then closed. Jason said on X that “We’ve had this planned for over a year. Recent events motivated us to expedite things.”

Given the current situation, it doesn’t seem like things will settle down anytime soon. It remains to be seen if other developers too will follow suit.