WPBeginner Highlight 11: WordPress 6.8 Launch, Core Launch Modifications, and Main Plugin Highlights

Welcome to the April 2025 version of WPBeginner Highlight! The WordPress group has been buzzing this month with thrilling updates, new instruments, and essential modifications throughout the ecosystem.

These embody every thing from the launch of WordPress 6.8 to main plugin releases like RewardsWP, product milestones, and upcoming occasions. General, there’s no scarcity of reports for website house owners, builders, and WordPress lovers alike.

On this roundup, we’ll spotlight the largest bulletins and newest developments within the WordPress world.

aThemes, Maker of Common WordPress Themes, Joins the WPBeginner Household of Merchandise

WPBeginner has introduced the acquisition of aThemes, a widely known supplier of gorgeous and easy-to-use WordPress themes.

aThemes is widely known for well-liked themes like Sydney and Botiga, that are favored by small companies, freelancers, and inventive businesses.

As aThemes is now a part of the Superior Motive household, customers can count on sooner innovation, enhanced buyer help, and deeper integrations with different instruments and plugins designed to make WordPress simpler for everybody.

Syed Balkhi, CEO of WPBeginner, defined one of many causes for the acquisition:

“In our annual WPBeginner reader survey, one of many consumer strategies that we all the time get is to construct a FREE WordPress theme that makes it simple to create gorgeous web sites.”

Current clients will proceed to obtain help and updates with out disruption. WPBeginner plans to construct on aThemes’ sturdy repute and increase their choices with further options and design enhancements over time.

WordPress 6.8 Launched with Velocity Boosts, Design Instruments, and Safety Upgrades

WordPress 6.8 is now formally out there. It’s filled with loads of thrilling enhancements for customers and builders alike. This launch focuses on efficiency positive factors, improved design instruments, and stronger safety protocols.

See the Full Story 🔗: What’s New in WordPress 6.8? (Options and Screenshots)

One of many standout options is the introduction of Speculative Loading. This new enhancement intelligently masses the following web page {that a} consumer will seemingly entry.

This ends in a sooner searching expertise and considerably diminished web page load instances.

The discharge additionally brings main updates to the Web site Editor, together with new design instruments like part patterns, customized spacing presets, and enhanced typography controls.

These updates make it simpler for customers to create visually constant and polished web sites without having customized code.

Safety enhancements embody transitioning to bcrypt for password hashing, which presents stronger safety in opposition to brute-force assaults and aligns WordPress safety practices with trendy requirements.

Builders can even respect the extra APIs, block editor refinements, and expanded choices for constructing customized blocks and plugins.

Charitable Professional Launches with Donor Dashboard, Recurring Giving, and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Charitable, a number one WordPress donation plugin, has launched Charitable Professional, which is a serious improve filled with highly effective new fundraising options.

Charitable Professional introduces a streamlined Donor Dashboard. It permits supporters to handle their giving historical past, obtain receipts, and replace fee data instantly from the nonprofit web site.

This enchancment creates a greater expertise for donors and encourages them to make repeat contributions.

Organizations may also view detailed donor profiles, with choices to simply obtain donor lists as CSV information, contact particular person donors by electronic mail, and create simpler fundraising campaigns.

The brand new recurring donation characteristic permits nonprofits to simply arrange month-to-month or annual donation choices. Supporters may also select to provide routinely, serving to organizations construct sustainable income streams.

Peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities have additionally been added. This permits particular person supporters to create private fundraising campaigns, which can assist organizations attain a wider viewers by means of their group.

Plus, Charitable Professional continues to supply zero transaction charges, giving nonprofits an reasonably priced and versatile resolution to spice up their on-line fundraising efforts.

WordPress Core Shifts to Annual Main Releases, Beginning with 6.8

The WordPress undertaking has introduced a serious shift in its core launch schedule. Starting with model 6.8, WordPress will now transfer to a single main launch annually.

This new mannequin is designed to create a extra predictable timeline, permitting contributors, builders, and website house owners to higher put together for updates.

Associated🔗: How You Can Get Concerned With The WordPress Mission

It is going to additionally permit extra time for bigger options and improvements to be absolutely developed and examined earlier than deployment.

Commenting on the change, Mary Hubbard, Government Director of WordPress.org, defined:

“This resolution displays present realities — notably the vitality and sources being diverted as a result of ongoing authorized issues. If these lawsuits are dropped or resolved, we’ll revisit this cadence and strongly contemplate returning to a three-releases-per-year schedule. That continues to be the perfect for a fast-moving, community-driven undertaking like WordPress.”

In response to undertaking management, the transfer will enhance stability whereas encouraging extra participation within the launch course of. Upkeep and safety updates will proceed all year long as wanted.

WPConsent Now Blocks Third-Celebration iframe Content material Like YouTube, Google Maps, and reCAPTCHA Earlier than Person Consent

WPConsent, the privateness compliance plugin for WordPress, has launched a serious replace with a new Content material Blocking characteristic.

This characteristic permits website house owners to dam embeds, similar to YouTube movies, Google Maps, and reCAPTCHA varieties, till customers explicitly present consent.

The brand new characteristic is a necessary software for enhancing compliance with the GDPR and different privateness laws.

This replace additionally features a redesigned preferences panel that offers customers extra intuitive management over the info sorts they comply with share.

General, the up to date interface goals to enhance transparency and encourage knowledgeable consent amongst web site guests. This can assist web site house owners meet international privateness requirements with minimal effort.

AffiliateWP Launches RewardsWP: A Refer-a-Pal Plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce

AffiliateWP, a number one WordPress plugin for creating and managing affiliate packages, has launched RewardsWP. It’s a new refer-a-friend plugin designed particularly for WordPress website house owners.

RewardsWP was created in response to consumer requests for a easy, customer-first referral resolution that works instantly inside WordPress.

It runs as a standalone plugin, that means you don’t want AffiliateWP to make use of it. Nonetheless, the 2 plugins work easily collectively if each are put in.

With RewardsWP, clients are routinely enrolled in referral packages after buy. A customizable Rewards Widget seems throughout the location, permitting clients to share referral hyperlinks by way of social media or electronic mail and redeem earned rewards with out leaving the location.

The plugin helps a variety of reward sorts, together with low cost coupons, free merchandise, free transport, and percentage-based reductions.

It additionally consists of options like automated enrollment for brand new and current clients, visitor buy help, fraud prevention safeguards, and automatic electronic mail notifications.

Plus, RewardsWP works out of the field with WooCommerce and Simple Digital Downloads. This makes it simple for retailer house owners to launch buyer referral packages with out counting on third-party platforms.

WordPress.com Launches AI Web site Builder for Instantaneous Web site Creation

WordPress.com has launched a new AI Web site Builder that’s designed to assist customers create absolutely customized web sites in minutes utilizing synthetic intelligence.

The AI Web site Builder asks customers a number of easy questions on their targets, most well-liked kinds, and content material wants.

Primarily based on this data, it routinely generates a customized web site format, together with beneficial pages, starter textual content, pictures, and navigation menus.

This new software goals to simplify the web site creation course of, particularly for newbies and small companies that need to get on-line shortly with out having to design from scratch. After technology, customers can nonetheless customise the outcomes utilizing WordPress.com’s customary modifying instruments.

WordPress.com says the AI Builder will proceed to evolve with extra superior options over time, serving to website house owners launch, adapt, and scale their web sites extra shortly and effectively.

The characteristic is on the market now for WordPress.com customers and can roll out further customization choices in future updates.

Associated🔗: Greatest AI Web site Builders for WordPress (Knowledgeable Picks)

In Different Information 🗞️

• Uncanny Automator launched a brand new replace that provides help for Fb Lead Adverts, new Bluesky triggers, and extra automation choices for platforms like LearnDash and LifterLMS.
• WordCamp volunteers can now earn profile badges on WordPress.org that acknowledge their essential contributions to WordPress occasions and community-building efforts.
• WPCode’s Search & Substitute Every part launched an replace that brings media backup options, smarter picture detection, and drag-and-drop help for changing content material throughout WordPress websites.

• Thrive Themes launched a brand new built-in Font Library. This provides customers GDPR-compliant typography administration with out counting on third-party font suppliers.
• WordCamp Europe 2025 tickets at the moment are out there, with this 12 months’s occasion going down in Basel, Switzerland. It is going to characteristic workshops, networking classes, and keynotes from high WordPress leaders.
• AdTribes added a brand new Product Feed Validator software to assist WooCommerce retailer house owners catch itemizing errors early and guarantee smoother market submissions.
• MonsterInsights launched TikTok Adverts monitoring with a one-click pixel setup, making it simpler for WordPress website house owners to trace advert conversions instantly of their dashboards.

• WordPress VIP achieved FedRAMP Reasonable Authorization. This expands its capability to work with U.S. authorities businesses and enormous enterprises that want rigorous cloud safety compliance.
• PushEngage rolled out a native Shopify integration, which permits shops to ship real-time order notifications with out difficult customized setups.
• Simple Digital Downloads launched a brand new replace with built-in checkout handle area customization. It offers digital product sellers extra flexibility to regulate their checkout varieties with out additional coding.

New Plugins 🔌

• RewardsWP 🔥– A strong refer-a-friend plugin for WooCommerce and Simple Digital Downloads. It helps you to create customizable referral packages that reward each the referrer and the referee.
• Acknowledgify – A light-weight plugin that lets builders and businesses acknowledge their work on an internet site with a digital people.txt file, meta tag, and front-end attribution.
• Meet the Staff Lite – A easy, responsive plugin that allows you to show staff members with pictures, bios, and social hyperlinks utilizing Gutenberg blocks or shortcodes.

That’s a wrap for this month’s WPBeginner Highlight! 🎉 We hope you loved catching up on the newest information and updates from the WordPress ecosystem.

Received a product launch, characteristic replace, or cool undertaking you suppose we must always cowl? Ship us a message, and we’d characteristic it in our subsequent version.

We’ll see you once more subsequent month with one other spherical of WordPress information. Thanks for studying and being a part of the WPBeginner household!

In the event you favored this text, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You may also discover us on Twitter and Fb.

The publish WPBeginner Highlight 11: WordPress 6.8 Launch, Core Launch Modifications, and Main Plugin Highlights first appeared on WPBeginner.