WordPress v5.4 and WooCommerce v4 released

New version of WordPress and the WooCommerce ecommerce plugin have been released recently. Here are the key changes each update brings.

WordPress 5.4

WordPress 5.4 is a significant update with the headline improvements being some new Gutenberg blocks and improved performance. While we’re not a massive fan of the new editor and prefer to build sites with the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, these new developments are a step forward.

There are some accessibility, privacy and developer improvements too, as well as nearly 200 bugs being fixed.

WooCommerce 4

The big change in WooCommerce 4 is the new style dashboard. This is faster to use and looks much nicer. It’s been available as an optional plugin for a while during development, and we had a few issues with it conflicting with other plugins. Now it’s part of core it should be tested out with all the main plugins and make looking after your WooCommerce site easier.

Should I Update?

We’re holding fire until next week to update all our sites, to give plugin developers chance to make sure their work is compatible with these new versions. Updating straight away can lead to issues or even a site going offline so leaving a window before updating can be a good idea.

The exception to this is if there’s a critical security patch – in which case update immediately!