WordPress Weekly News 022: VersionPress launches VersionPress.com, Holler Box and much more!

It’s that time of the week again and we are back with another round of WordPress Weekly News. It has never been a dull week with WordPress and just like in the past, a lot has been happening in the world of WordPress during the past week that you should not be missing out on.

In this week’s WordPress Weekly News, we will talk about VersionPress.com, a new notification plugin for WordPress websites, and WP Forms acquiring WP Mail SMTP.

Let’s begin!

VersionPress Introduces VersionPress.com – Aims to Fund The Open Source Project

I am pretty sure most of you know about VersionPress. VersionPress is a plugin that allows users to restore a site’s database to a previous point in history. It is basically an undo button for WordPress websites or full-version control.

VersionPress has launched VersionPress.com, a managed WordPress hosting service. The service comes with powerful staging, undo functionality and top-of-the-line infrastructure.

“The platform is geared towards WordPress developers and agencies but will help anyone who wants a fast, reliable WordPress site,” Bernard said.

VersionPress’ model is similar to that of WordPress.com or the self-hosted WordPress. “A hosted service will provide resources to fund the development of the open source project and its long-term stability,” he said. “So it became a no-brainer at some point.”

The hosting industry is booming and is also crowded. With some experienced players already in the market, VersionPress’ strategy going forward will be something to look forward to.

Say Hello to Holler Box – A Nifty Notification Plugin

In the midst of all the development going on with WordPress, a new sales and conversion tool for WordPress websites has been introduced, Holler Box. The plugin is lightweight and offers popup messages, fake live chat, or announcing a sale or event.

Scott Bolinger, co-founder of AppPresser and the man behind Holler Box, has designed the plugin to be non-intrusive. It won’t obscure content by displaying the dialogue box in the middle of the page. It appears on the bottom right side of the page by default.

Bolinger has focused his energy into making this plugin to be simple after observing that the current plugins are too complex.

“I’m a developer, and even adding a simple banner or popup to my site is not easy,” Bolinger said. I have to write the code, test locally, push to staging, test there, then push to production and do a final test. When I want to remove the message, I have to reverse the process. I’m busy, and that takes time.”

WPForms Acquires WP Mail SMTP Plugin

A deal has been struck between Syed Balkhi and Callum MacDonald over the acquisition of WP Mail SMTP by WPForms. Founded by MacDonald, WP Mail SMTP has over 600,000 active installs and Balkhi will allow it to run as an independent plugin in the WordPress repository. The plugin will be top recommendation on WPForms as well as WPBeginner.

The biggest problem with email plugins is the deliverability. Users have constantly reported the issue of emails either dropping in spam or not being delivered at all.

“The number is only growing as Gmail, Yahoo, and others implement aggressive filters to reduce spam,” Balkhi said. “These spam filters look to see whether an email is originating from the location it claims to be originating from. This causes the emails sent from your WordPress site to either go in the spam folder or sometimes not be delivered at all! Having a proper SMTP solution significantly increases email deliverability”

Both the parties have agreed to not disclose the financial details of the deal but it is a five figure deal because the plugin wasn’t generating any revenue.

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Diving into Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting – Review

That’s all the major talking points I have for you from the world of WordPress. Feel free to comment if you think I have missed out on some. You can also email at [email protected].