Every site I build starts the same way. A field plugin, a form plugin, an SEO plugin, and then four or five one-trick utilities for the things WordPress does not do by itself. Four admin menus, four sets of conventions, four things to keep updated.

So I wrote one plugin that does those four. It is free on wordpress.org and it is called Ultivo Toolkit.

What is in the free version:

• Custom fields. Visual builder, location rules, 33 field types including repeater. Stores data in exactly the same meta pattern as ACF, so existing field data keeps working and there is a migration tool for field groups and acf-json.
• Forms. Drag and drop builder, entries in the admin, notifications, file uploads outside the media library, optional spam protection.
• SEO. Title and description templates, Open Graph, sitemap. It prints nothing at all while Yoast, Rank Math or AIOSEO is active, so you can install it next to what you already run.
• Seventeen switches for the usual chores: duplicate posts, SVG and AVIF uploads, a custom login URL, manual content ordering, limit login attempts, redirects with a 404 log, SMTP, admin menu organiser. All off by default.

It needs WordPress 6.0 and PHP 7.4, so it should install on just about anything you still maintain.

Three things I would want to know if someone posted this at me:

Is it heavy? Each of the four parts can be switched off, and when it is off it registers nothing: no menus, no screens, no hooks, no queries. Measured on a stock install, the whole thing adds eight queries to a front end page.

What if I uninstall it? Your content stays. Field values go into ordinary post meta, the same shape ACF uses: client holds the value, _client remembers which field it came from. Delete the plugin and those rows are still on your posts, and get_post_meta() still returns them. Nothing is kept in a table of its own, and nothing is cleaned up on uninstall. You lose the builder, not the content. That is also why you can leave ACF switched on while you try this: it never switches off a plugin from someone else, it just points out where the two overlap and lets you decide.

Where is the catch? There is a paid version. Pro adds Blueprints (export your post types, taxonomies, field groups and forms to a file and import them on another site), Flexible Content and the Clone field, and it starts at $49 a year for one site. Everything I listed above is in the free version and stays there, including repeater, options pages and the ACF migration. Nothing is sent to us, ever. Two features do reach an outside service: spam protection if you switch it on, and the map preview in the admin.

It went into the directory five weeks ago and has had six releases since, so it is new and barely used, but it is not parked. That is exactly why I am posting. If you build sites for a living I would rather hear what is missing than get a download: what would stop you switching?

https://wordpress.org/plugins/ultivo/

https://preview.redd.it/k3fqazen1avh1.png?width=1536&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8c3fc2e55c681c45dcbb2721bf8f085943a7bcf

#WPML

Hi everyone,

I'd be interested in your opinion concerning the evolution of WPML v5.

****** This post was not to open a debate about translation plugins, so thanks in advance to do not start a debate to compare WPML with other solutions. ******

WPML Marketing Strategy:
I'm really upset that with the BIG update, they have put Automatic Translation with PTC by default, even on website that had never been translated with ATE, or even the Classic Translation Editor. I manage many websites, and I'll have to reconfigure WPML settoings on all of them and explain my client that this had to be done because of WPML, which they don't even know what it's about !

UX:
I understand that this is a first version, but hey, how come WPML made all those settings in TABS instead toggles or accordions ? Is feels like back in 2000.

Support:
Robots seems to be your support. I guess that if the robot fails to help, it will go to a human, but after how many chats ? I don't know yet !
That said, from what I tried, there robots seem not that bad, but I haven't had very difficult case for now. Did you ?

"Community":
Before, when you needed support, you could go in the "support section", type what your problem was, and before everything, it was showing you a forum with real cases with real people. It was not made to be a community, but there was something human.
All is gone ! No more forums !

https://preview.redd.it/k3fqazen1avh1.png?width=1536&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8c3fc2e55c681c45dcbb2721bf8f085943a7bcf

So, I was asking myself if I was the only one feeling that way with WPML, which I've been using for more that 13 years.

And as the only thing I found was a Reddit group for WPML with 2 users and not active for 2 years, I thought I'd have more feedback here ! ;-)

So, what's your experience / opinion ?

Hey guys, first time posting here. I'm redoing my site and for some reason now the cart has this horrible page populating issue where giant black boxes appear while the page is loading. Sometimes they go away in about .5 seconds or so, but a lot of times, you have to refresh the page to make them disappear. The overlay boxes are different every time. I'm attaching a few photos for reference. They always seem to frame a subsection, image or text. I'm wondering if anyone's had the same issue or knows a fix for this.

For what it's worth, my site is built with Wordpress , and hosted on Hostinger. Payment processing, licensing and products are handled by Woo. I've added a lot of customizations and Woo overrides to the cart because the stock Woo cart is heinous to look at. Any help is appreciated, thanks :)

Shopify and WooCommerce aren't competing for the same part of the web any more. Shopify has taken the top of it and WooCommerce has everything below, so both of them can fairly call themselves the biggest platform.

I think that explains why the figures that people publish never agree with each other. Elementor, Hostinger and WPBeginner quote numbers 4x apart, because each of them measured a different slice of the internet and none of them said which.

WooCommerce has also started falling. It lost three years of growth in the last 12 months while Shopify hit an all-time high - on the current trajectory, Shopify will overtake outright around the end of 2027.

I've written everything up, including the data, at: https://barn2.com/blog/shopify-vs-woocommerce-market-share/

I recently ask it to:

• delete 665 unused photos in media lib. And It checks and knows what's unused.
• generate webp photos manually, no plugins needed. It's one-time job
• install + setup site A->Z in one prompt. I used to do it manually: install, ssl, dns etc.

Everytime, I was like 🙄 why on earth I did those things by hand, for many years.

Mich würde eure Meinung interessieren, denn WordPress ist natürlich immer noch sehr verbreitet.

Aber wir haben so viele Alternativen auf dem Markt, die zum Teil auch die gleichen Sachen können - also webflow oder framer o.ä.

Jetzt kommen natürlich ganz viele Leute mit eigenen CMS oder code einfach mit claude …

Also, wie betrachtet ihr jetzt aus eurer Erfahrung den Markt? Stagniert es bei WordPress - oder LLMs und webflow und co. spielen gar nicht richtig mit?

Hi!

I am "non-developer" but I managed to do landing page in wix, that brings me customers. Now I would liek to upgrade my website add some things suc as: newsletter, subscription model ect.

I am not sure, should I contiune in WIX (pay for wix developer) or should I go to wordpress.

What I love know is analytics. I can do SEO optimization, change text and style... all for 200 per year.

I am scared that wordpress page will get outdated and will become on of "gost webs" that nobody finds.

What do you all recommend. I am at the starting point of my fitness career - would liek to start online yoga classess.

Thank you.

Hi friends. These metrics started fluctuating after the latest WP update. I’m wondering what is causing such massive spikes and drops. I’ve also included a list of plugins to make the answer clearer. Thanks for any insights.

Hi friends. These metrics started fluctuating after the latest WP update. I’m wondering what is causing such massive spikes and drops. I’ve also included a list of plugins to make the answer clearer. Thanks for any insights.

I made a tutorial showing how to connect WordPress to Codex or Claude using the WordPress REST API, with no external plugin required. It covers the basic setup for working with a live or local site.

Video: https://youtu.be/KlD9AjR6evg

Happy to hear what you’d automate with this setup.

I got this from Wordfence: Wordfence Argus Discovers Critical Vulnerability in Ghostscript

I see I have 10.05.1 even with latest docker image. Does anyone know when this fix will get put into the docker image (or where to find out)?

Hi, I am a lurker who reads stories on wordpress. At the top of EVERY page I visit is this banner. I am not going to design a site; I have no interest in designing. But it gets in the way of my reading. Is there any way to remove it? Please let me know if this is the wrong place to ask this info; I am just so confused.

Hi, I have a need to add some code to my functions.php in my Wordpress installation(s).

I'm not a developer, but I am handy with a text editor and can edit config files carefully which I can upload via ftp.

The alternate is to use a plugin like wpcode to insert custom code (although I don't want to pay for a premium version; I'd be only using wpcode lite).

I'm inclined to edit the functions.php myself (and keep a log of edits/changes, etc).

But when Wordpress core updates, does functions.php also get overwritten sometimes? How often is this specific file updated? I wouldn't want to keep editing the file with my edits every time WP has an update.

If functions.php gets overridden sometimes, is that a good reason for preferring to use a plugin like WPcode Lite instead? Thanks.

(PS, if you must know, I want to disable email notifications every time a #$#$#$ plugin is updated; that's why I want to add code to functions.php)

Hi everyone,

One of the most frustrating WordPress problems I deal with is this:

The site — or wp-admin — feels slow, but there’s no obvious reason why.

People clear caches, disable random plugins, optimize the database and hope something improves.

I wanted something that approached the problem differently.

So I rebuilt an old plugin of mine, Cache Cleaner – Scheduled, into:

Cache Cleaner X-Ray – Performance & Database Diagnostics

The idea is not simply to clean more things.

It is to help answer:

What is actually creating pressure inside this WordPress installation?

X-Ray checks areas such as:

• cache configuration and the active caching system
• autoloaded options
• database size and growth
• Action Scheduler / background jobs
• failed and overdue actions
• WP-Cron
• revisions and expired data
• likely plugin ownership where it can be identified safely

It then tries to explain the findings in normal language instead of just throwing database tables and technical values at you.

For example, rather than saying:

autoload = 2.8 MB

the goal is closer to:

“WordPress is loading around 2.8 MB of options on every request. These three options account for most of it.”

Safety was also a big priority.

If the plugin cannot confidently determine that something is disposable, it doesn't automatically delete it.

Unknown plugin data stays review-only.

The original cache features are still there too: cache-system detection, Smart Purge, scheduled maintenance and cache warming.

It is completely free

• No Pro version
• No locked features
• No telemetry
• No required external service
• Diagnostics stay local

WordPress.org:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/cache-cleaner/

I’d especially like feedback from people running older WordPress/WooCommerce sites, sites with slow wp-admin, large databases, or lots of background jobs.

If you test it, I’m most interested in this:

Did X-Ray actually reveal something useful about why the site was under pressure?

And if it reports something that looks wrong or confusing, I want to hear that too.

Thanks

A wine club member emailed us last Thursday to ask if we knew Google shows "This site may be hacked" under our name. I didn't. I'm the office manager and bookkeeper here, and I ended up with the website because nobody else would take it.

I searched site: with our domain and Google says about 2,300 results, almost all Japanese. Google translate says it's mostly handbags and watches. When I click one I just get our normal 404 page, which I don't understand. There are also two admin users I've never seen, one is just random letters.

Background. A local agency built the site in 2018 with Elementor. The owners canceled their $150 a month maintenance plan in 2023 because it never seemed like anything was happening, which in hindsight, yeah. We have 31 plugins and 9 are out of date, and the dashboard has been nagging me since this summer about WordPress updates I kept putting off because I was scared of breaking the shop. Hosting is $12 a month shared and they keep 14 days of backups. Nobody knows when this started.

So do I restore the 14 day backup, or is that pointless if the hack is older than that? Is cleaning it in place realistic for someone non-technical with a lot of googling, or is this pay-a-professional territory?

Wine club signups and online orders go through WooCommerce. Do I need to be worried about card data?

If you've been through this, how long did Google take to drop the hacked warning once it was clean? One of the owners asked me if the shop should even be on the same site as the regular pages (hours, events, tasting room stuff). Is that a real thing or is that overreacting to one hack?

It's harvest, our busiest month, and I'm doing this at night after payroll. Please tell me this is fixable.

Hi, I'm a beginner using LocalWP on macOS to set up a WordPress site.

Whenever I activate WooCommerce, my site starts showing 502 Bad Gateway. WordPress Admin also becomes inaccessible.

The site works with plugins disabled, but activating WooCommerce appears to trigger the 502 error.

What should I check next? Could this be a PHP fatal error, a Local configuration issue, or something else?

Thanks!

UPDATE:
I switched PHP from 8.2.30 to 8.3.30 in LocalWP, and now WordPress Admin is working with WooCommerce active. I'm not sure if switching PHP fixed it, but works for now.

Edit: the site I'm troubleshooting is https://aspirecounseling.com/

I'm troubleshooting an intermittent issue with Elementor Pro popups on a live WordPress website and would appreciate some outside perspectives.

Website stack:

• WordPress
• Elementor + Elementor Pro
• Blocksy theme + Blocksy Companion
• SiteGround hosting with Speed Optimizer
• PixelYourSite Pro (GA4/Meta tracking)
• Tidio live chat

The problem:

On Friday, October 9, we performed routine WordPress plugin/theme updates, including Blocksy.

Before the updates, our website was consistently receiving form submissions through an Elementor Pro popup triggered by "Get Started" buttons throughout the site.

Immediately afterward, GA4 showed a dramatic decline in both form_start and form_submission_successful events, despite website traffic remaining relatively normal.

The concerning part is that the issue is intermittent.

The popup works perfectly in some browsers and sessions, but in others, clicking the button does absolutely nothing. The page itself renders normally, and there are no obvious visual problems.

What we've discovered:

1. Reproduced the issue in Microsoft Edge. Clicking an Elementor popup button did nothing.
2. Checked DevTools and found that typeof elementorProFrontend returned "undefined".
3. Further testing confirmed that Elementor Pro's popup functionality was unavailable during the failed load.
4. Refreshed the exact same page, and the popup started working normally.
5. Network inspection showed Elementor JavaScript files returning HTTP 200 responses, although this doesn't necessarily confirm successful execution or initialization.
6. Console warnings were primarily related to third-party tracking prevention (Google/Tidio), without an obvious Elementor-specific error.
7. Independent testing from another user successfully opened and submitted the form.
8. We have since received another legitimate form submission, so the system is functional at least some of the time.

Caching/optimization configuration:

SiteGround Speed Optimizer originally had:

• JavaScript minification: Enabled
• JavaScript combination: Disabled
• JavaScript deferral: Disabled
• Remove query strings from static resources: Enabled
• Dynamic caching: Enabled
• Memcached: Enabled
• NGINX Direct Delivery: Enabled

We've since disabled "Remove Query Strings from Static Resources" to preserve version parameters on JS/CSS asset URLs.

We've also cleared Elementor-generated files/data, SiteGround Dynamic Cache, and Memcached.

JavaScript minification remains enabled.

Elementor's CSS Print Method is set to External File, and Element Cache is set to 1 Day.

Why I'm suspicious of caching or script initialization:

The biggest clue is that the popup can fail on the initial page load but work immediately after refreshing.

When it fails, elementorProFrontend is undefined. When it works, the Elementor Pro frontend object is available.

This makes me wonder whether we're dealing with stale/mismatched JavaScript assets, an initialization race condition, a SiteGround optimization conflict, or a compatibility issue introduced by the recent Blocksy update.

My questions:

1. Has anyone encountered Elementor Pro's elementorProFrontend being intermittently undefined after updates?
2. Could SiteGround's JavaScript minification cause this behavior even with JS combination and deferral disabled?
3. Is there a reliable way to determine whether Elementor Pro scripts are failing to execute versus simply initializing too late?
4. Could the Blocksy update have introduced a script-loading conflict?
5. What would you investigate next to identify the actual root cause without repeatedly changing settings on a production website?

This is a lead-generation website, so reliable popup functionality is extremely important. I'm trying to identify the underlying cause rather than randomly disabling plugins or optimization features.

Any suggestions from developers who've encountered something similar would be greatly appreciated.

Looking for answers in the ”all else being equal” logical process to be able to answer what actions to take.

Im troubleshooting a restore from a complete backup from an old hosting environment (including files, database, plugins etc) in a new hosting environment. No specific settings or for example special htaccess rules are transferred or part of the backup.

1. I begin with only webhosting space

2. Install wordpress (default theme, no plugins)

3. Install one plugin from official wordpress drectory (used for backup/restore)

4. Manually provide the backuped files

5. Restore

The trouble is rooted in the use of http/https path for the database structure. Im getting a warning/prompt that the database is using https paths while the untouched new environment uses http.

Im thinking that https should not be the default install path, and that the ”https upgrade” is handled by the ssl certificate of choice. Is this correct?

Hi. I'm looking for a plugin for my astronomical society website where we can display details of all the books we have in our library. We're not looking to sell books or have a full blown library system that handles loans, recalls, fines etc. All we need is to display the title, author, year published and subject and allow users to search by subject and keyword. All the plugins I've found so far (RS WP Book Showcase, Library Management System, Books Gallery, Book Review Library, etc.) are way overblown for what we need.

Any suggestions please?

A few days ago, I was looking through my old backups and found a WordPress SQL export and thought it’d be great to have the content in my Obsidian vault for memory lane. Wrote up the experience here: https://medium.com/@noteapps/turning-a-2007-wordpress-backup-into-an-obsidian-archive-7850632ff63c