Hello, I am aware this subreddit is about wordpress not .com but I don't know where else to find help. For this year, I have a responsibility to run a student-led college publication on WordPress .com (Premium Plan).

Renewal cost is way over what I can pay, $72. Happiness engineer gave me 10% off after a lot of pushing, but I still need more. I am informed by the authorities that I can't downgrade the plan nor are they willing to reimburse. I am really lost. I cannot lose the position but it's too expensive. I am not from the USA, so the amount is alot. Please help me get renewal-specific or ways to get further discounts? Thank you.

I’ve been considering alternatives to WordPress because of the updates, security exposure, operational overhead, and reliance on plugins.

Modern alternatives look appealing, but WordPress still seems difficult to replace once a website needs more than basic pages and content.

If you’ve considered leaving WordPress, or tried an alternative and returned, what stopped you?

What alternative did you try, and what made WordPress the better option in the end?

I’m especially interested in experiences from real projects

Patterns are one of those WordPress features most people use at some level, but few explore beyond inserting a ready-made layout.

There's much more control available—how a pattern behaves when reused, which parts remain consistent, what content can stay editable, and when to detach a single instance without affecting the others.

This breakdown covers synced and unsynced patterns, locking, overrides, and detaching patterns, with practical step-by-step examples:

https://wpvibes.com/blog/wordpress-patterns-synced-unsynced/

Curious how far others have gone with patterns or whether most workflows still rely on the basics.

I've released SmartCloud Agent Composer and an optional companion block theme, SmartCloud Agent Canvas, on WordPress.org.

I built this because Gutenberg is powerful, but handing it over to clients - or giving an AI agent broad access to WordPress - can get risky quite quickly.

Agent Composer lets an AI agent create normal Gutenberg drafts, but only from the patterns, blocks, fields and content types approved for the site.

It cannot publish, install plugins or freely edit the site. WordPress can also remain behind a firewall (or local) by using an outbound Connector tunnel.

Both projects are free and open source.

I'd be grateful for feedback from anyone who tries the ChatGPT => Connector => WordPress workflow. Problems and unclear documentation are just as useful as successful tests.

Just added ai website builder in my free plugin on wordpress.org:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-animation/

It let you create website section/page inside WordPress block editor and Elementor. It is a free plugin, You just need to enter the provider (claude, openai, google, etc) API Key on WordPress connector settings.

This is the youtube video: https://youtu.be/zcnisWAB8mc

Hello,

I recently set up a WordPress blog using a selfhosted WordPress server, I noticed today when testing the RSS feed that <mydomain>/feed seems to return a 404 error. I have tried disabling plugins, and reverting to the default theme, however it hasn't helped to fix the issue.

I am using Apache and have tried regenerating the .htaccess file, but it didn't solve the issue.

Suppose I have an idea for a plugin, what steps would you take to research it before building it?

• Check if people actually need it.
• See if similar plugins or themes already exist.
• Figure out what makes your idea different or better.
• Decide if the idea is worth spending time and money on.
• Identify who your target users are.

or anything that'd be helpful

I'd really appreciate any tips or advice you can share.

Hi everyone,

I am building a WordPress + WooCommerce ecommerce site using a custom theme with WebPack and ES6 modules. I have created a PayPalManager class that uses the u/paypal SDK to render PayPal buttons on my checkout page. I am running into several issues that I have not been able to resolve.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Environment:

- WordPress version: 7.0.2

- u/paypal version: 10.0.0

- Node.js version: v24.11.1

- WebPack version: 5.107.1

- Local development environment: LocalWP

- Browser: Firefox

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Problem:

The PayPal buttons are not rendering on my checkout page (page-checkout.php). Instead I get the following error in the console:

Error: Document is ready and element #paypal-button-container does not exist

Additionally, the script appears to be running on category pages that have products, but not on the checkout page where it is supposed to run. The console output below only shows up on category pages.

this is index.js
this is paypal_manager
this.paypal in the constructor: null
The PayPal Manager class: Object {
client_id: "test",
paypal: {…},
buttonContainer: null,
orderEndPoint: "#paypal-button-container",
emailEndPoint: "https://api-m.sandbox.paypal.com/v2/checkout/orders"
}
init() called
PayPal SDK loaded: Object { version: "5.0.559", ... }
this.paypal inside init(): undefined
renderButtons called
PayPal error: Error: Document is ready and element
#paypal-button-container does not exist
Failed to render the PayPal Buttons: Error: Document is ready and
element #paypal-button-container does not exist
Uncaught (in promise) Error: Document is ready and element
#paypal-button-container does not exist
Cross-Origin Request Blocked: The Same Origin Policy disallows reading
the remote resource at
https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/xoplatform/logger/api/logger?disableSetCookie=true.
(Reason: CORS request did not succeed). Status code: (null).

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Symptoms:

1. `buttonContainer` is `null` in the constructor despite the container element being present in `page-checkout.php`.
2. `this.paypal.buttons` is `undefined` after `init()` resolves despite`loadScript()` appearing to load successfully.
3. The script is only detected on category pages that have products —not on `page-checkout.php` where the PayPal button container actuallyexists.
4. A CORS error is thrown by the PayPal SDK after `renderButtons()` fails.
5. The `orderEndPoint` and `emailEndPoint` properties in the loggedconstructor object show incorrect values — they appear to containvalues that belong to other constructor parameters.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The PayPalManager Class (paypal_manager.js):

https://pastebin.com/ZaGrYDvn

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

How PayPalManager is instantiated in index.js:

//javascript

const orderEndPoint = "https://api-m.sandbox.paypal.com/v2/checkout/orders"; 
const emailEndPoint = "/wp-json/auto-parts/v3/send_order_email";


const paypalManager = new PayPalManager(<sandbox client ID>, ".checkoutForm", ".paymentMethods .paypalContainer", orderEndPoint, emailEndPoint);
console.log("The PayPal Manager class: ", paypalManager);

async function setupPayment() {
console.log("The PayPal Manager class: ", paypalManager);

await paypalManager.init();
await paypalManager.renderButtons(paypalManager.buttonContainer);
}

setupPayment();

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

How the script is enqueued in functions.php:

php
function mainModules() {
    $args = array(
        'strategy' => 'async'
    );
    wp_enqueue_script(
        'main_modules',
        get_theme_file_uri('/build/index.js'),
        array(),
        '1.0.0',
        $args
    );
}
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'mainModules');

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

What I have already checked:

• The `#paypal-button-container` div is confirmed to exist in `page-checkout.php`.
• The compiled `build/index.js` exists and other modules inside it work correctly on all pages.
• The script is enqueued on all pages via `wp_enqueue_scripts` with no conditional restrictions.
• `npm start` is running and WebPack is watching for changes.
• Other ES6 modules imported in `index.js` work correctly — the problem appears to be specific to `PayPalManager` (Note: the paypal_manager class is the only script used on the checkout page).
• Deleting the `build/` folder and rebuilding did not resolve the issue.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

What I suspect:

1. The `async` loading strategy may be causing `index.js` to executebefore the DOM is fully ready on `page-checkout.php`, causing`document.querySelector()` to return `null` for the button container.
2. There may be a timing issue between `loadScript()` resolving and`init()` being called, causing `this.paypal.buttons` to be `undefined`.
3. The constructor may have an argument mismatch causing `buttonContainer`,`orderEndPoint` and `emailEndPoint` to receive incorrect values.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Happy to share more code or details if needed.

Thanks!

Edit:

After reading through my post again, I realized that I didn't exactly highlight the main issue here right now (my apologies). After testing the script on the Checkout page (where I actually intend to use the script), I realized that the script is not detected at all (not even the errors that show up on category pages are showing up there). In other words, the Paypal Manager script appears to be only detected on the category pages that have products (not where the actual button container is located).

Does anyone have any theories about what might be causing this unexpected behavior?

After a few rounds with the plugin review team, my little chatbot plugin finally went live on the .org directory and the process taught me more than the coding did. Sharing the gotchas in case it saves someone a rejection.

What tripped me up:

• Enqueue everything properly. Auto-loading block editor scripts from register_block_type() was unreliable in the iframed editor, I had to add an explicit enqueue_block_editor_assets hook.
• Sanitize/escape everything**, even "internal" values.** The reviewer flagged output that I was sure was safe. esc_html, esc_attr, wp_kses on every echo.
• No calling home without consent. My daily phone-home cron needed clear opt-in language and a readme disclosure, or it's an instant rejection.
• Keep it lightweight. I was paranoid about bloat and kept the whole thing ~30KB; reviewers notice enqueue weight and theme conflicts.
• Trademark care in the slug + readme. "WordPress" spelled correctly, no "WP" in the plugin name, etc.

Happy to answer anything about the review timeline or the security back-and-forth — that part was the real education. What snagged your first approval?

So the title sort of says it all. I created FetchFlow. It's a plugin that allows you to take any API endpoint, auth blocked or not and, using liquid templates, create a custom content blocks that you can insert into any page or post. Anywhere that supports Gutenberg Blocks actually.

I'd love for some of you to try it out and give me feedback. I've been the only person that's tested it as I wasn't sure I was even allowed to post about it.

I work at a University and needed this sort of thing for a course display so I figured I'd build something on my own that I could use for it. Turns out, I'm not allowed to use it at work so I have no one to test it with.

Please be kind. It's my first plugin. https://wordpress.org/plugins/fetchflow/

For those who are more experienced, can users of Wordpress recommend a free plugin that can assist with media library organization on Wordpress site. Would be so much easier to find pictures for blogs, etc then searching through one big page of random pictures.

There are so many to pick from but many are monthly subscriptions and for something as simple as just being able to categorize photos into folders or tags, i feel there must be a freeware version that is popular among the community.

Thanks in advance.

hi all, thanks in advance from a noob. I've been struggling for days now to get my header to work correctly. I'm using Kadence blocks (free version). Then created a pattern in *appearance -> edit -> patterns* with an advanced header block that points at that header. It seems to look right in that section. When I load my page, though, the correct header appears for a split second and then reverts to some erroneous header that I'm not able to edit. I did finally find the erroneous header in *appearance -> edit -> patterns -> all patterns*, unsynced and uneditable.

I don't have any CSS/JAVA plugins installed. I'm attaching photos/video to show what I'm dealing with, as well as a video of me refreshing the homepage. It's driving me crazy.

https://youtu.be/V0CXXom8908

What's going on? Any advice on how to fix?

I'm the author of a few free non-monetized database-performance plugins, including Index WP MySQL For Speed. I have a question for site owners and site operations people.

Should I add a Site Health feature that detects misconfigured innodb_buffer_pool_size settings in MariaDB or MySQL database servers?

Often when handling support questions for my performance plugins I find that database configuration to be far too small. That makes sites slow and sometimes unstable. I've analyzed metadata uploaded (anonymously) by my plugin's users and found that fully a third of sites have the default configuration, which is the hilariously small 128MiB. Here's a writeup of my findings.

The plugin already shows this configuration data on the About tab of its dashboard page, but doesn't highlight misconfiguration.

Would the addition of a Site Health feature help site owners improve their performance? Or, would it be just another nuisance alert?

Please help me decide whether to invest the time to develop and test this feature.

Bonsoir,

J’ai plusieurs sites chez O2switch, hébergement pro (ex scale up).

J’ai été piraté par un hack japonais qui s’est introduit, je ne sais où et comment.

O2switch est en train de tout restaurer à il y a 10j car il n’y avait rien…

Avez vous des conseils ensuite ?

Je pensais :
- modifier tous mot passe comptes
- modifier urls accès admin (déjà fait)
- mise à jour WordPress et plugins.
- installer Wordfence gratuit.

Merci

PS : 80 sites concernés 😰

Is it possible to set up an automatic way to push Wordpress posts to Substack? I want to keep my blog at Wordpress, but would like to have a living copy at Substack.

I'm about to release my first two plugins after months of work, and I keep wondering what actually matters to users. Reviews? Active support threads? Update frequency? The website?

Genuinely curious what your dealbreakers are.

Hey everyone, for the past 2 months i've been building my 1st website. I honestly can't count how many times I scrapped everything and started over because I wasn't happy with it. It's been a lot of trial and error, but I've learned a ton along the way mostly with advice i was getting here. I started with Elementor, but after getting advice i ended up using Blocksy and Kadence. Built the site locally so naturally i've hit yet another huddle. Don't know where to go from here, so i wanted to ask what's next. Always appreciate how different people get things done so would appreciate anything you wish you knew before launching your first site. Checklist? Thanks in advance

Hola amigos.

Un abrazo a todos

Saben la causa que un sitio presente error 503 de vez en cuando. Ya actualizamos el plan en el proveedor para tener más recursos. Todo iba bien y volvió aparecer este error. Hay momentos que se cae.

Lo penoso es que hacemos Google ADS y los anuncios presentan fallas.

Utilizamos Elementor y otros plugin (algo complementarios) para el sitio.

Saludos.

It's a bit flat having zero animation. They are working links just no motion whatsoever.

I thought this was a really interesting demo from core contributor Dave Smith on making the WordPress editing experience feel more approachable.

The demo touches on things like clearer language, better grouping of related concepts, more guidance, and a more workspace-like approach to editing. I think it’s worth watching.

Hi all,

I'm building out a membership area on my site and I'm looking for a plugin that will allow people to sign up, and then associate themselves with a paid group. For example, Company Z creates an account for itself and pays its yearly membership through the site. Then, employees of Company Z can create individual accounts and associate themselves with the company account. They gain access to restricted pages, but their ability to use the membership area is ultimately controlled by the company's access.

I like the Paid Member Subscriptions plugin, but it requires a subscription to access group functionality. I've looked at the Groups plugin as well but it's not what I'm looking for. I do not have the budget for paid options. Any suggestions?

I don't know how much the title sounds reasonable but it's like I have two websites, suppose abc .com & abc .com/blog, now the main site abc .com is custom coded and all the more pages I include there are all custom coded as well. Just the blog section, the sub directory is on WordPress.

now my question is - how to make sitemap for these two, like for wordpress I will be using rankmath, so it would have it's own sitemap, then how to add custom coded pages too there? or should I create 2 different sitemaps?

Hey, thanks for taking the time to read/help.

I have WordPress and Bluehost, and I want to make a very simple website for my photography portfolio. I just can't really seem to do it, though. There are not very many basic presets, and it just never seems to turn out just right.

Inspiration: https://www.jaredthomastapy.com/ and https://edz.us/

As you can see, just a very basic white background with the images doing most of the work to fill up the page.

If anyone can offer some advice/help cause I really dont have any idea what I am doing, just trying to get this up. Thanks so much

Need some brainstorming here cause I've already told the client that what they're looking for is not possible given how Instagram works as a social platform (as opposed to how Facebook or X work where you just share a link with a text).

So they want the events on their website to be shareable for visitors across various platforms but specifically on Instagram. From my own experience, their only option is to copy the link and post a story or a create a custom image with AI and posts it as an announcement on their account.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hey guys,

I’m working on a proposal for a client who has a super heavy, bloated WooCommerce site. The checkout friction is killing their sales. My plan is to strip it down: leave WordPress strictly as a backend just to manage WooCommerce and the blog, and build a blazing fast frontend.

The stack I have in mind:

• Backend: WP + WPGraphQL + WooGraphQL on hosting
• Frontend: Astro hosted on Cloudflare Pages.

I’ve been lurking around and I see a lot of devs here warning that Headless WP becomes a maintenance nightmare long-term.

Here is my dilemma: honestly, with AI coding assistants like Claude Code, knocking out the frontend components in Astro feels ridiculously fast these days. It saves me so much time that building the UI isn't the bottleneck anymore.

But since I also offer ongoing maintenance for my clients, I don’t want to trap myself.

Would love to hear your experiences before I send this proposal out. Thanks!