Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 30-04-2025
WordPress 6.8.1 is now available!
This minor release includes fixes for 15 bugs throughout Core and the Block Editor addressing issues affecting multiple areas of WordPress including the block editor, multisite, and REST API. For a full list of bug fixes, please refer to the release candidate announcement.
WordPress 6.8.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. More maintenance releases will be made available throughout 2025.
If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.
WordPress 6.8.1 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 22-04-2025
As I said, we’re dropping all the human blocks. Community guidelines, directory guidelines, and such will need to be followed going forward, but whatever blocks were in place before are now cleared. It may take a few days, but any pre-existing blocks are considered bugs to be fixed.
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 15-04-2025
Each WordPress release celebrates an artist who has left an indelible mark on music. WordPress 6.8, code-named “Cecil,” honors the legendary pianist and jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor.
Classically trained yet relentlessly unconventional, Taylor reimagined the piano as a percussive instrument—layering tone clusters, polyphony, and rhythm into a sound both chaotic and precise. His music defied expectation, finding form in disorder and harmony in dissonance.
That same spirit drives WordPress 6.8. Embrace its bold new features with the same curiosity and experimentation that defined Cecil’s sound.
Welcome to WordPress 6.8!
WordPress 6.8 polishes and refines the tools that you use every day, making your site faster, more secure, and easier to manage. The Style Book now has a structured layout and works with Classic themes, giving you more control over global styles. Speculative loading speeds up navigation by preloading links before users navigate to them, bcrypt hashing strengthens password security automatically, and database optimizations improve performance.
The Style Book gets a cleaner look—and a few new tricks.
The Style Book has a new, structured layout and clearer labels, to make it even easier to edit colors, typography—almost all your site styles—in one place.
Plus, now you can see it in Classic themes that have editor-styles or a theme.json file. Find the Style Book under Appearance > Design and use it to preview your theme’s evolution, as you edit CSS or make changes in the Customizer.
Editor improvements
Easier ways to see your options in Data Views, and you can exclude sticky posts from the Query Loop. Plus, you’ll find lots of little improvements in the editor that smooth your way through everything you build.
Near-instant page loads, thanks to Speculative Loading
In WordPress 6.8, pages load faster than ever. When you or your user hovers over or clicks a link, WordPress may preload the next page, for a smoother, near-instant experience. The system balances speed and efficiency, and you can control how it works, with a plugin or your own code. This feature only works in modern browsers—older ones will simply ignore it without any impact.
Stronger password security with bcrypt
Now passwords are harder to crack with bcrypt hashing, which takes a lot more computing power to break. This strengthens overall security, as do other encryption improvements across WordPress. You don’t need to do anything—everything updates automatically.
Accessibility improvements
100+ accessibility fixes and enhancements touch a broad spectrum of the WordPress experience. This release includes fixes to every bundled theme, improvements to the navigation menu management, the customizer, and simplified labeling. The Block Editor has over 70 improvements to blocks, DataViews, and to its overall user experience.
Performance updates
WordPress 6.8 packs a wide range of performance fixes and enhancements to speed up everything from editing to browsing. Beyond speculative loading, WordPress 6.8 pays special attention to the block editor, block type registration, and query caching. Plus, imagine never waiting longer than 50 milliseconds—for any interaction. In WordPress 6.8, the Interactivity API takes a first step toward that goal.
And much more
For a comprehensive overview of all the new features and enhancements in WordPress 6.8, please visit the feature-showcase website.
Learn WordPress is a free resource for new and experienced WordPress users. Learn is stocked with how-to videos on using various features in WordPress, interactive workshops for exploring topics in-depth, and lesson plans for diving deep into specific areas of WordPress.
Read the WordPress 6.8 Release Notes for information on installation, enhancements, fixed issues, release contributors, learning resources, and the list of file changes.
Explore the WordPress 6.8 Field Guide. Learn about the changes in this release with detailed developer notes to help you build with WordPress.
The 6.8 release squad
Every release comes to you from a dedicated team of enthusiastic contributors who help keep things on track and moving smoothly. The team that has led 6.8 is a cross-functional group of contributors who are always ready to champion ideas, remove blockers, and resolve issues.
WordPress 6.8 reflects the tireless efforts and passion of more than 900 contributors in more than 60 countries all over the world. This release also welcomed over 250 first-time contributors!
Their collaboration delivered more than 320 enhancements and fixes, ensuring a stable release for all—a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress open source community.
More than 60 locales have fully translated WordPress 6.8 into their language making this one of the most translated releases ever on day one. Community translators are working hard to ensure more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps make WordPress available in 200 languages.
Last but not least, thanks to the volunteers who contribute to the support forums by answering questions from WordPress users worldwide.
Get involved
Participation in WordPress goes far beyond coding. And learning more and getting involved is easy. Discover the teams that come together to Make WordPress and use this interactive tool to help you decide which is right for you.
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 14-04-2025
WordCamp Europe 2025 will be held in gorgeous Basel, Switzerland, from June 5 to 7. It will bring together open source enthusiasts, developers, and WordPress professionals from across the region—and the world!
This year’s event offers fresh perspectives, engaging conversations, and countless opportunities to connect with the WordPress community, agencies, and innovators over three action-packed days of learning, networking, and collaboration.
The main conference, which will be held on June 6th and 7th, will feature a lineup of notable keynote sessions, including diverse sessions on business strategy and building innovative modern features, open-source advocacy, accessibility, and more. For those looking to sharpen their skills, presentations will dive deep into topics like SEO for WordPress, performance optimization, speed-builds, and leveraging AI.
Q&A Fireside Chat
You can join Mary Hubbard, the WordPress Executive Director, and Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the WordPress project on June 7th to discuss WordPress and its community, followed by an in-person Q&A session here in Basel.
Explore Basel
Basel, the third-largest city in Switzerland, is filled with historical buildings, a cathedral, museums, and hidden gems! You can get around Basel and experience it yourself using your BaselCard, which allows you to hop on and off all public transportation without a worry. A walk down Basel’s river Rhine could be the perfect evening during your visit to WordCamp Europe!
You can also help us spread the word about WordCamp Europe this year! Post about your attendance using our ready-made texts or we also encourage you to use your own voice – you know your community best.
And as always, be part of the conversation! Whether you’re attending in-person in Basel or following along online, share your experiences using the tags #WCEU and #WordPress on all social media networks!
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 08-04-2025
The third release candidate (“RC3”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing!
This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC3 on a test server and site.
Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be.
You can test WordPress 6.8 RC3 in four ways:
Plugin
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
Direct Download
Download the RC3 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
Command Line
Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-RC3
WordPress Playground
Use the 6.8 RC3 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.
Get a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC2, you can browse the following links:
WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community that collaborates and contributes to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.
Get involved in testing
Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.
If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.
For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users. For more details on developer-related changes in 6.8, please review the WordPress 6.8 Field Guide.
Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC3, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.8.
If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 01-04-2025
The second Release Candidate (“RC2”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing!
This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site.
Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be.
You can test WordPress 6.8 RC2 in four ways:
Plugin
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update –version=6.8-RC2
WordPress Playground
Use the 6.8 RC2 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.
Get a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following links:
WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.
Get involved in testing
Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.
If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.
For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.
Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC2, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.8.
If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 25-03-2025
The first Release Candidate (“RC1”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing!
This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC1 on a test server and site.
Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be.
You can test WordPress 6.8 RC1 in four ways:
Plugin
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
Direct Download
Download the RC1 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
Command Line
Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-RC1
WordPress Playground
Use the 6.8 RC1 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.
Get a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since Beta 3, you can browse the following links:
WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.
Get involved in testing
Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.
If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.
For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.
Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.8.
If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 18-03-2025
WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 is now ready for testing!
This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it is recommended you evaluate Beta 3 on a test server and site.
You can test WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 in four ways:
Plugin
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
Catch up on what’s new in WordPress 6.8: Read the Beta 1 and Beta 2 announcements for details and highlights.
How to test this release
Your help testing the WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8.
If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.
WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 contains more than 3 Editor updates and fixes since the Beta 2 release, including 16 tickets for WordPress core.
Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 3 using these links:
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 11-03-2025
WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 is now ready for testing!
This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, you should evaluate Beta 2 on a test server and site.
You can test WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 in four ways:
Plugin
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)
Your help testing the WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8.
If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.
WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 contains more than 14 Editor updates and fixes since the Beta 1 release, including 21 tickets for WordPress core.
Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 1 using these links:
Posted by download | Posted in Software | Posted on 04-03-2025
WordPress 6.8 Beta 1 is ready for download and testing!
This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, set up a test environment or a local site to explore the new features.
How to Test WordPress 6.8 Beta 1
You can test this beta release in any of the following ways:
WordPress Beta Tester Plugin
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.
The scheduled final release date for WordPress 6.8 is April 15, 2025. Your help testing Beta and RC versions over the next six weeks is vital to ensuring the final release is everything it should be: stable, powerful, and intuitive.
How important is your testing?
Testing for issues is a critical part of developing any software, and it’s a meaningful way for anyone to contribute—whether or not you have experience. Details on what to test in WordPress 6.8 are here.
If you encounter an issue, please share it in the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums. If you are comfortable submitting a reproducible bug report, you can do so via WordPress Trac. You can also check your issue against this list of known bugs.
WordPress 6.8 will include many new features that were previously only available in the Gutenberg plugin. Learn more about Gutenberg updates since WordPress 6.7 in the What’s New in Gutenberg posts for versions19.4, 19.5, 19.6, 19.7, 19.8, 19.9, 20.0, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, and 20.4.
What’s New in WordPress 6.8 Beta 1
This is a polish release, with user enhancements throughout incorporated into the latest Gutenberg updates. WordPress 6.8 brings a luster and gloss that only a polish release can.
WordPress 6.8 Beta 1 contains over 370 enhancements and 520 bug fixes for the editor, including design improvements, polishing the query loop, and more than 230 tickets for WordPress 6.8 Core. Here’s a glimpse of what’s coming:
Editor improvements
Easier ways to see your options in Data Views, and you can opt to ignore sticky posts in the Query Loop. Plus you’ll find lots of little improvements in the editor!
The Style Book comes to Classic themes
The Style Book now features a structured layout so you can preview site colors, typography, and block styles more easily. You can use the Style Book in classic themes with editor-styles or a theme.json file and includes clearer labels, and you can find them under Appearance > Design.
Support for Speculation browser API
WordPress 6.8 introduces native support for speculative loading, leveraging the Speculation Rules API to improve site performance with near-instant page loads. This feature prefetches or prerenders URLs based on user interactions, such as hovering over links, reducing load times for subsequent pages.
By default, WordPress 6.8 applies a conservative prefetching strategy, balancing performance gains with resource efficiency. Developers can customize speculative loading behavior using new filters, since the API does not include UI-based controls. The existing Speculative Loading feature plugin will adapt to the core implementation, allowing deeper customization. Please test this feature in supported browsers (currently Chrome 108+ and Edge 108+, with more browsers evaluating) and provide feedback on #62503 to help refine its implementation.
Major security boost
WordPress 6.8 will use bcrypt for password hashing, which significantly hardens WordPress. Other hashing is getting hardened, too, throughout the security apparatus. You won’t have to change anything in your daily workflow.
The features included in this first beta may change before the final release of WordPress 6.8, based on what testers like you find.
Caveat on testing 6.8 Beta 1 in versions older than 5.1
Due to an update made to the upgrade routine during this release, (see r59803), any upgrade from versions older than 5.1 will fail. Folks are working to resolve this specific issue, so please hold off on reporting on this while testing the Beta 1 release.
Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta & Release Candidate
The WordPress community sponsors a monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities. This reward doubles during the period between Beta 1 on March 4, 2025 and the final Release Candidate (RC) scheduled for April 15, 2025. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies. You can find those on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.
Just for you: a Beta 1 haiku
March winds shift the tide. Hands unite in open source; WordPress moves ahead.
Tickets are limited—secure yours today!
Plan Your WordCamp Europe Experience See the 