WP Super Cache, one of the oldest and most widely used static caching plugins for WordPress, is changing hands. After 15 years, the plugin’s author, Donncha Ó Caoimh, is handing over maintenance and development to Jetpack’s performance team.
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If you have been building WordPress sites since the early days, you are almost guaranteed to have used WP Super Cache on at least one project (or hundreds). It is based on an earlier plugin called WP Cache 2 that Ó Caoimh forked in 2007 when its author had lost interest and was no longer developing it.
Jetpack’s performance team manages the Jetpack Boost plugin, used by more than 100,000 sites, and the CDN. In today’s announcement, Jetpack assured current users that they will still be able to “enjoy its core features without a new plugin or a connection to Jetpack.”
“We’re excited to start working on WP Super Cache,” Jetpack Performance Lead Mark George said. “Our goal is to create an experience where anyone can make their site extremely fast without being an expert. We want to help make sure that WP Super Cache remains a reliable and easy option for that.”
This change in hands is not an acquisition. Ó Caoimh, who was the very first Automattic employee, confirmed the company did not buy the plugin from him.
“I’ve worked in Automattic since the company was founded, so they’ve supported the development of the plugin all along,” he said. “Really, the plugin is moving sideways in the company, from one developer to a team.
“I just don’t have time to work on it properly. I’m working on other projects, mainly Crowdsignal now, and it was hard to find…
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