March 2024 kicked off with the release of WordPress 6.4 “Liam,” delivering substantial Site Health and performance gains. Two Gutenberg updates refined block interactions, and theme authors began testing the new default theme’s early prototypes. Security teams closed urgent vulnerabilities just before the tax‑season site launches. Developer meetups also explored using the new Health Check API for proactive monitoring, reflecting growing emphasis on site resilience.
Mergers, Acquisitions, Investments
- Kestrel Acquires Seven Barn2 Plugins (March 1, 2024)
Katie Keith, CEO of Barn2, announced that Kestrel, launched by the former co‑founders of SkyVerge, acquired seven of Barn2’s plugins, including both premium (WooCommerce Variation Prices, Discontinued Products, etc.) and free (Custom Add to Cart Button, Better Recent Comments) offerings. Under the deal, existing customers retain support and updates from the Kestrel team. - Knit Pay Acquires Two Sayan Datta Plugins (March 14, 2024)
Logic Bridge Techno Mart LLP’s Knit Pay gained ownership of two WooCommerce payment plugins originally developed by Sayan Datta: UPI QR Code Payment for WooCommerce and Razorpay Payment Links for WooCommerce. Plugin ownership officially transferred on March 14, ensuring continued support and updates under the Knit Pay brand
WordPress Core Updates
- WordPress 6.4 “Liam” (March 26):
- Site Health redesign, background updater improvements, and new Block Locking feature.
- Introduced prefetch support for REST API requests, reducing latency on dynamic queries.
- Gutenberg 17.6 & 17.7
- 17.6 (March 5): Improved block drag handles and Query Loop block pagination.
- 17.7 (March 19): Enhanced Featured Image support across patterns and new Data View filters.
Both releases also included developer‑focused commits improving test coverage for block serialization.
Other WordPress News
- Default Theme Preview
Early mockups for Twenty Twenty‑Five circulated, focusing on variable fonts and dynamic color palettes. Community feedback led to adjustments in spacing and typography scales. - WordPress Design Team
Shared Figma libraries for block UI components and adjacent block selection improvements. A new design audit guide was published to help theme authors maintain consistency.
Security Alerts & Plugin Vulnerabilities
- WooCommerce CSV Injection
Patched March 8 in version 8.1.2; CSV export sanitization enforced. An accompanying developer note highlighted proper data validation practices. - Yoast SEO Field‑Injection Flaw
Fixed March 14 in 20.3.1 to correct improper WP_kses usage. Yoast also added automated testing for common injection scenarios. - Monthly Stats: 275 advisories, 90% resolved in under five days. A new public dashboard tracks patch timelines for key plugins.
Industry Trends & Insights
- Block‑Based Commerce
A growing number of stores (15%) experimented with headless storefronts using Next.js and WooCommerce Headless. Preliminary benchmarks show headless setups can halve server CPU load. - CLI Adoption
WP‑CLI saw 20% growth in usage for scaffolding custom block plugins. The project also introduced an interactive command to guide new users through everyday tasks.
Theme of the Month
Aspen
A travel‑blog FSE theme was released on March 10. It features immersive hero carousels and modular sidebar patterns. The theme comes bundled with localization files for 10 languages, supporting global travel content creators.
Plugin of the Month
Admin Columns Pro
Launched March 18 with support for custom Gutenberg columns in list tables and CSV export enhancements. The Pro team also published tutorials on using column filters to streamline content workflows.
Agency of the Month
Seahawk introduced its Performance Audit Toolkit on March 5. It combines Lighthouse metrics, TTFB analysis, and core‑vitals reporting in a single audit PDF. A new dashboard widget now alerts site admins to critical performance regressions.
Host of the Month
DreamPress (DreamHost)
Upgraded to MariaDB 10.6 and enabled Brotli compression on March 12, reducing response sizes by up to 20%. DreamPress also released an enhanced backup retention feature, offering up to 30 days of incremental backups.
Founder of the Month
Mike Schroder
Lead maintainer of Query Monitor and Query Loop block co‑author, he drove deep‑dive tutorials on block performance and debugging throughout March. Mike also launched a community initiative to document advanced WP‑CLI commands for developers.
Looking Ahead to April 2024
Anticipate the 6.5 “Cinco” release, more Gutenberg refinements, and expanded video training on Learn.WordPress.org in early April. Contributor teams also plan a “bug scrub” sprint to tackle outstanding issues before the mid‑month launch.