Liquid Web inadvertently started a series of controversies after folding a group of popular WordPress plugin products into a new software suite. The repositioning and rebranding caught users by surprise, leading to confusion and significant online backlash against Liquid Web across social media.
The administrator of the Dynamic WordPress WordPress Facebook group started a discussion about the Liquid Web plugin and the sales dispute that showed confusion at the time, writing:
“There seems to be some chaos in the Kadence FB team as LiquidWeb moves to consolidate their tools under one umbrella. Interestingly, they have dropped the Lifetime Bundle (LTD) and now have 3 packages:
- $99 Essentials (theme and blocks),
- $219 Pro (includes ShopKit)
- and the $399 Elite.
In the end, people are not happy. It seems that their licenses are not valid. That’s something they should be able to fix. However, it will be interesting to see what level of reach people get. Will LTD owners still have access to addons like ShopKit and Kadence Conversions?
One person in that Dynamic WordPress WordPress group discussion blamed private equity investment in web hosting for this issue, a sentiment echoed on X, where @jeffr0 suggested that maybe Matt Mullenweg had a point about private equity firms and investment in WordPress hosting.
@jeffr0 tweeted:
“So I think @photomatt had a point. Private Equity in the WordPress ecosystem is hitting.”
Another person disagreed with the blame on private equity investors, replying:
“I’m not sure I agree. First of all, WPE wasn’t doing anything wrong. …I’m not sure what’s going on with these plugins is a result of LW being managed by PE.”
Expressing confusion at the moment, @srikat tweeted:
“I can’t find all my purchases downloaded Kadence. I just sent them an email ticket for support..”
Nexcess/Liquid Web Branding and Rebranding
Part of the confusion stems from the perennial series of Liquid Web and Nexcess branding flip-flops.
- Liquid Web acquired Nexcess in 2019.
- The two brands later moved under the combined ownership of Liquid Web.
- As late as 2025, users who typed in nexcess.net were often redirected to liquidweb.com.
- In April 2026, Nexcess was relaunched as a “Specialty Cloud” brand combining Liquid Web’s managed hosting expertise with Servers.com’s bare metal infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Liquid Web is now a managed hosting brand within the Nexcess ecosystem.
StellarWP Disappears: Plugins Coming Next with Liquid Web
Previously, plugins lived under the StellarWP brand, with many maintaining their own independent websites. The new branding confuses some users because both Nexcess and Liquid Web describe the same WordPress products as part of their ecosystem.
The announcement to restart Nexcess from 8th April 2026 states:
“We expand your toolkit by bringing leading software solutions, such as Kadence, GiveWP, Events Calendar, and LearnDash, directly into the Nexcess ecosystem.”
The Liquid Web page dated May 12, 2026 describes similar products as part of the Liquid Web by Nexcess software portfolio:
“Liquid Web by Nexcess focuses its diverse WordPress software portfolio on four core products…”
The overlapping language between the two products helps explain why the release seemed confusing on the outside. The products are described as entering both Nexcess and “Liquid Web by Nexcess,” and StellarWP seems to have disappeared without notice.
The Liquid Web software announcement says that the WordPress software portfolio is now focused on four core products: Kadence, LearnDash, Events Calendar, and Give. The company says that SolidWP, Iconic, Restrict Content Pro, and MemberDash are no longer sold as standalone products, with their features wrapped into Kadence or LearnDash.
What it means for plugin subscribers
For existing customers, Liquid Web says the change is optional. The company says customers can keep their current features, plans, pricing, tools, and license keys unless they choose to upgrade to one of the new software plans.
But the public release appears to have caused confusion among the plugin’s users, including lifetime deal customers who weren’t sure what had happened to the products they had purchased. Posts on social media described product pages disappearing, redirects not working as expected, and users trying to determine if their plugins had been discontinued, renamed, or moved.
In a discussion post on the Dynamic WordPress WordPress Facebook group, Jack Kitterhing, Strategic Product Leader at Nexcess, confirmed that lifetime subscription plugin customers will keep what they already have and that all customers are being upgraded. He also acknowledged check-in problems and missing invoices, describing the move as a “big move and change of plans” that comes with challenges.
Kitterhing posted an explanation of what’s going on:
“To make sure that Lifetime customers keep everything they already have. We don’t remove or destroy anything. If you had it, you still have it today. Every customer is grandfathered in.
We’ve also relaunched Kadence Essentials so for those of you who just want a theme and block it’s now cheaper than before ($99 vs $129) to get the core components of Kadence.
There are currently issues with logins for some customers and missing invoices that the team is working on as I write and we expect it to be fully fixed in a few hours.
This has been a big migration and change of plans and like anything this big comes with challenges. Thank you for your patience as we do all this today.”
The taker
- Liquid Web says that existing customers keep their current features, prices, plans, tools, and license keys.
- Long-time customers were told to keep what they already had.
- The backlash appears to be driven by confusion at the time of release, not just the integration of the product itself.
- The age of Liquid Web and the Nexcess brand changes have made plugin migration difficult to understand.
- Clear communication early on can reduce confusion on product pages, redirects, licenses, and access to lifetime agreements.
It seems that there has been enough communication from Liquid Web and Nexcess, that the flip-flops of the two companies have been combined. This situation seems to be on its way to a resolution.
Featured image by Shutterstock/hoangpts
