On December 6th, 2018, WordPress 5.0 was released. It marked a turning point for the platform and represented a new vision for the most popular CMS in the world.
One year and over 22 core releases later, its adoption is starting to show. According to the official WordPress statistics, 68.6% of all WordPress sites are running at least version 5.0 or higher. While the number could be higher, I do think the tide is starting to shift.
Personally, I love the direction they’re taking the platform and I think it provides a unique opportunity for ShopWP to really shine.
For this reason, ShopWP 3.0 will require WordPress 5.0 or greater.
All previous versions of ShopWP will continue to work fine. So if you don’t want to upgrade, you won’t have to. However there will be massive performance benefits if you do.
At the moment, ShopWP loads many of the same assets that WordPress 5.0 includes out of the box, like React. It’s still a rough estimate but I’m currently noticing a 40%+ reduction in total assets that the plugin will have to load in 3.0. This is a huge deal! 🤯 This means faster loads times, which means more conversions for end-users of the plugin.
Additionally, there will be other “5.0 only” features besides a boost in speed. I will also be releasing custom Product blocks for ShopWP Pro users. I’ve been working on them recently and they’re amazing! I can’t believe we used shortcodes for so long. I’m really excited to show a preview in a future 3.0 progress update.
Overall, I couldn’t be more excited for the future of WordPress and as a plugin developer, I want to help manifest this vision. So join me and let’s embrace the future together! 🚀