If you are deciding whether to stay on your current CMS, rebuild on it, or migrate, this issue is for you.
We start with the CMS question of build vs buy, and why owned vs licensed is a better way to look at it. Buying brings recurring renewals and upgrade cycles. Building ties you to the team that wrote the code. With an open-source CMS like WordPress, you own the code, and any qualified team can work on it.
The license fee is only part of the cost. Our DXP vs CMS breakdown covers the other costs: forced upgrades, consultant dependency, and modules you pay for but never deploy. We call these “hindsight costs” because you generally see them only after you are deeply invested. Our updated guides compare WordPress with Sitecore, Kentico, Drupal, HubSpot, and Sanity. They now include 2026 license pricing, AI integration models, and multi-year total cost of ownership (TCO) benchmarks.
If you are deciding to move to WordPress, the next step is to avoid the common causes of migration failure, such as treating content migration as a simple data export.
If you already use WordPress and are planning a redesign, read our WordPress website redesign guide first. Most design work is perceived as a visual uplift for the brand. However, with our UI/UX practice at rtCamp, we pay equal attention to the backend design to build intuitive editorial experiences that can be leveraged by humans and AI alike. This is also foundational to Publishio – our solution to convert any content to on-brand pages without any deviation.
On the core AI track in WordPress, some of our colleagues have been working on the Abilities API. David Levine is currently writing a four-part series on the Abilities API. Thinking in Abilities API & Building with Abilities API are already out. Stay tuned as we publish two more parts soon.
WordPress news snippets
- WordPress.org now automatically scans plugin releases during a six-hour cooldown, blocking high-risk updates before distribution.
- Mary Hubbard is now president of the Open Website Alliance, representing the WordPress Foundation alongside the organizations behind Drupal, Joomla!, and TYPO3.
- WordPress development now requires Node.js 24.18.0 and npm 11.16.0 for trunk, Gutenberg, and WordPress 7.1 branches.
- A proposal suggests replacing Dashicons in the admin bar and menu with SVG icons. Screen readers handle icon fonts inconsistently.
- WordPress Playground adds WebMCP support and a Terminal in the new Dev Tools Dock, so AI agents and developers can work directly in the browser.
Frappe & ERPNext updates
- Frappe’s blog shared how ERPNext ran Trial Balance on 700 million GL entries. Syncing ledger data to DuckDB brought the runtime down to two minutes.
- Raven v3.0.0 is out with a rebuilt frontend for Frappe’s open-source team chat app. It adds scheduled messages, reminders, read receipts, and link previews.
- Frappe’s September product updates bring quotation versioning to ERPNext and workflow automations to CRM. Calendar also gets a redesign with a new agenda view.
From around the web
- TypeSafe introduced Jev, a structured decision model designed for software automation, claiming significantly faster and more efficient inference.
- Cognition introduced SWE-2, a coding model focused on performance, lower costs, and fewer steps during software engineering tasks.
- OpenAI introduced Agents API, enabling developers to build agents with tools, MCP support, context management, and parallel subagents.
- Flet 1.0 is now production-ready, offering Python-based cross-platform app development with extensive automated testing and AI tooling.
- GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Opus 5.5, DeepSeek V4.1-Flash, and Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash all shipped in September. Every one undercuts the model it replaces on price.
Upcoming events
The first batch of WordCamp Asia 2027 tickets is now available, with the event scheduled for April 9–11 in Penang, Malaysia.
Blogs from rtCampers
- Testing WP-CLI Commands with PHPUnit and Behat by @Deepak Kumar
- A Mac native GST signer that asks before every signature by @Utsav Patel
Watercooler
Popular on our #watercooler Slack channel.
- The Meat Scan
- 4th Cross Labs – Open source hacker collective
- Solving a Rubik’s Cube with graph theory
Also, we’ve got something new for you.
Campfire — a space for original ideas and notes from our work and experiences. Subscribe here to get the first dispatch in your inbox next week.
Explore more
WordPress news snippets
Frappe & ERPNext updates
From around the web
Upcoming events
Blogs from rtCampers
Watercooler
Explore more
On this page
Credits
Aviral Mittal
Author
Aviral Mittal
Author
Aviral Mittal is the Chief Marketing Officer at rtCamp, where he established and leads the marketing function, building and growing a team of 20+ specialists across content, SEO, design, and growth…
Abhijit Prabhudan
Author
Abhijit Prabhudan
Author
Works on content systems, publishing workflows, and knowledge management. Diverse experience spans editorial, marketing, ecommerce, and IT support. He operates across open source platforms, hand…
Contributions and Updates: Babita 
Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Name*
Email*
Comment*
Submit
Δ