Don't Upgrade to WordPress 5.0 Yet

I've been working with WordPress since 2006. As a blogging platform, I wouldn't recommend any other. I've worked with it exclusively since I started blogging and recommend it to all my clients. In fact, I've written more than 10,000 blog posts on WordPress since I took up the form.

WordPress is now more than just a blogging platform. It's also a great content management solution, and I like recommending it for that purpose, as well. In fact, Taylored Content builds WordPress websites for our clients, and we've done plenty of that over the years.

While we're sold on WordPress as a blogging platform and a content management system, we're not ready to upgrade to WordPress 5.0 yet, and we'd encourage you not to, as well.

Why You Shouldn't Upgrade to WordPress 5.0

You may have noticed that WordPress recently rolled out its latest generation solution. Everyone's talking about it, and many people have started using it. I've got clients who have already upgraded their WordPress to 5.0 and I wish they hadn't.

The big deal about WordPress 5.0 is the change that everyone's been talking about for over a year now. The editor uses a block-based process that purports to make publishing easier. I can see why they'd say that.

After using WordPress 5.0, I will tell you that it has some issues. I've got no problem with the block-based editor, per se. It took me a little getting used to, and as far as blogging is concerned, it could very well be a big improvement to the platform. However, I have never seen a first-generation upgrade of WordPress that has worked perfectly. Never. In almost 13 years of using the platform, every single upgrade has had its problems. That's why I adopted the policy many years ago to never upgrade WordPress until it hits at least version .2 on any generation.

The reason I recommend waiting is because it takes time before plugin developers can catch up with the latest developments. If you use a lot of plugins on your WordPress website, you should hold off upgrading until you know for sure that your most important plugins have been updated to be compatible with the current generation of WordPress. Given the drastic changes that WordPress 5.0 brings from previous versions, that's not likely to happen very quickly for many plugin developers.

Six days ago--just days after the 5.0 release--the WordPress team released its first security update. Among the issues found in the initial released, which prompted the security update, was this:

Team Yoast discovered that the user activation screen could be indexed by search engines in some uncommon configurations, leading to exposure of email addresses, and in some rare cases, default generated passwords.

While there are some very smart developers with eyes on WordPress code to help with any anomalies and potential security issues, I've found that it usually takes a few tries before WordPress gets it right with every generation it launches. That's why I caution users to not upgrade their websites until all of the bugs have been found and the WordPress team stops publishing security releases. That typically doesn't happen until they hit version .2 or .3. After that, it's usually safe to upgrade as long as your most important plugins have also been updated for compatibility.

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