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The biggest update to the world’s most popular CMS in years has landed, and it changes more than just the editor.
WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” released on May 20th, and this one is a big deal.
7.0 isn’t just another incremental update, but a genuine landmark release. If your website is still running on older infrastructure, today is the day to start thinking about what happens next.
WordPress 7.0 marks the official launch of Phase 3 of the Gutenberg project, a roadmap the core team has been building toward since 2018. Named in honour of jazz legend Louis Armstrong, the first great jazz soloist, who transformed the art form and made it his own.
This release is arguably the most significant shift in how WordPress operates since the block editor first landed.
In this post, we’ll cover the standout changes, though as always, this is a highlight reel rather than an exhaustive deep dive.
The WordPress 7.0 Field Guide gives you a sense of just how much went into this release: over 420 enhancements and fixes, contributions from more than 900 contributors across the globe, and 279 first-time contributors. That is a remarkable achievement for an open source community project.
A new standardised AI Connectors screen lets you connect OpenAI, Google Gemini, or Anthropic Claude once, and every compatible plugin on your site uses those credentials automatically.
Alongside the AI Client, the new Abilities API and its JavaScript counterpart, the Client-Side Abilities package, introduce a command palette and built-in UI that bring AI-powered actions right into your workflow.
This is not AI being forced upon you. It has been deliberately designed to be opt-in and extensible. But the infrastructure is now there, and it is a meaningful step forward.
The WordPress dashboard area has received its most substantial visual refresh in years. A modernised admin interface powered by DataViews brings a cleaner, faster experience to managing content, media, and plugins across the dashboard, with a new colour scheme, clean typography, smooth transitions between screens.
A few highlights worth noting:
These are quality-of-life improvements that anyone who spends time in the WordPress backend will appreciate.
The block editor continues to grow with 7.0, bringing several new core blocks that reduce reliance on third-party plugins for common design needs:
Beyond new blocks, there is meaningful progress on design flexibility too. Responsive controls have been significantly improved. You can now hide or reveal blocks based on device viewport, adjust styles per breakpoint, and customise what those breakpoints are.
Overlay navigation menus are now fully block-based and customisable. Patterns now behave as single, detachable units, making it easier to swap elements without disrupting the wider layout. And per-block custom CSS is now available directly from the post or page editor.
For developers, 7.0 brings an expanded toolbox. The headline addition is support for PHP-only blocks (blocks that can be created and registered entirely in PHP, without requiring React or JavaScript). This is a significant improvement for backend developers who want to build blocks without touching the JS ecosystem.
The Site Editor is also more extensible than ever, with new routing and route validation support, and a new wordpress/boot package that lets plugins build custom Site Editor pages. REST API improvements, a widget types data layer, and HEIC-to-JPEG conversion updates round out a strong developer release.
You may have seen coverage suggesting that real-time co-editing was coming in 7.0. It was planned, but was removed from the release scope in early May due to unresolved concerns around server load, and memory efficiency. The core team has been clear that it remains a priority, and it is expected to land in a future release. Worth being aware of if you were looking forward to that particular feature.
Put simply, WordPress is no longer just a publishing tool. It’s evolving into a full team workflow platform. But accessing all of these improvements comes with a catch. Your server environment needs to be up to the job.
WordPress 7.0 has raised the bar on the minimum infrastructure required to run it, and this is where many existing websites will need attention before they can safely upgrade.
Sites running PHP 7.2 or 7.3 will not be offered the WordPress 7.0 update. While those versions will continue to receive security patches on the WordPress 6.9 branch for now, they will not gain access to any new features or future releases.
However, WordPress recommends PHP 8.3 or higher for optimum performance and security.
The new real-time collaboration feature will require a new database architecture upon release, and with it, a raised requirement for the database engine powering your site. Sites that don’t meet this minimum will not be eligible for the feature and the update that contains it.
These aren’t just version numbers. PHP and your database are the foundation your entire website runs on. Falling behind on these requirements doesn’t just block WordPress updates, it blocks plugin updates, exposes your site to security vulnerabilities, and gradually degrades performance. Staying current is no longer optional; it’s essential maintenance.
Here’s something important to understand: you can’t simply flip a switch and upgrade PHP or your database version. Your website, its theme, its plugins, its custom code, was built and tested
against the environment it currently runs on. Upgrading that environment without checking compatibility first is one of the most common causes of broken websites.
A compatibility audit is the responsible, professional way to approach this. Here’s what it involves:
We examine your current PHP version, database version, server configuration, and WordPress version to establish a complete picture of where your site stands today.
Every active plugin and your theme is assessed for compatibility with PHP 8.3+ and the new database requirements. Outdated or abandoned plugins are flagged as potential risks.
Before anything changes on your live site, we replicate your environment in a staging area and test the upgrades there. This means any issues are caught before they affect real visitors.
Once the audit confirms compatibility, we upgrade your PHP and database versions, getting your site ready to receive WordPress 7.0 and all future updates.
We check your site thoroughly after the upgrade, testing functionality, forms, and key user journeys, to confirm everything is working correctly before we sign it off.
It’s worth noting that not every site passes the audit first time. Some sites have older plugins that are no longer maintained, bespoke code that was written for an older PHP version, or configurations that need more significant attention before an upgrade is safe. In those cases, rather than pushing ahead and risking your live site, we’ll reach out to discuss the options available and agree on the best path forward together.
The audit isn’t just about WordPress 7.0, either. It’s about putting your website on a foundation that allows us to keep it ready for every major release that comes after this one. Without it, your site risks falling further behind with each passing update cycle.
WordPress 7.0 is available now. The longer your site remains on an unsupported PHP version or an outdated database, the wider the gap becomes between where your website is and where it needs to
be. Security vulnerabilities accumulate. Plugin updates stop working. And eventually, bringing an older site back into line becomes a significantly larger piece of work than a straightforward upgrade would have been.
The good news is that for most websites, the audit and upgrade process is straightforward, and with the right plan in place, it can be handled proactively, year after year, without you ever having to worry about it.
Our proactive website care plan, covering your compatibility audit, PHP and database upgrade, so you’re always ahead of the next release.
✓ Compatibility audit included
✓ PHP & database upgrade
✓ Staging environment testing
✓ Proactive ahead of every release
✓ No hidden costs
If your site requires work beyond the scope of ACT:Stack, we’ll always discuss this with you before any additional charges are incurred.
If you’d like to find out more about ACT:Stack or sign-up, contact us here.
WordPress Core version 7.1 was released on August 19th. Here's a quick summary of some of the main changes and updates.
When your business reaches a certain scale, your website stops being a simple marketing tool and becomes a critical piece of infrastructure.
WordPress Core version 6.9, the last major update of 2025, was released on December 2nd. Here's a quick summary of some of the main changes and updates.
