Why a WordPress infrastructure project now relies on TYPO3

At the end of February 2026, Karim Marucchi and Joost de Valk published a remarkable article. The two are among the best-known voices in the WordPress world. Their topic: The end of FAIR for WordPress. And the beginning of FAIR for TYPO3.

For those who don't know the background: FAIR is a project under the Linux Foundation. The aim was to build a federated, community-managed package management system for WordPress. In other words, a neutral infrastructure that does not depend on a single person or company.

The technical implementation worked. What didn't work was the financing. The major hosters and players in the WordPress environment did not want to invest. No money, no willingness, no risk. And without this support, such an infrastructure project is not viable.

What goes wrong with WordPress

I am not a WordPress expert. I haven't followed the drama surrounding governance structures and concentration of power in the WordPress world in detail. But what Marucchi and de Valk describe is simple at its core: at WordPress, a single person has a lot of influence over central infrastructure and decisions. And if this person makes decisions that harm the community, there are hardly any effective control mechanisms.

Marucchi and de Valk themselves write that they consider Matt Mullenweg's methods to be harmful. At the same time, they concede that his core argument is valid: many companies earn very well from WordPress, but contribute little to the infrastructure.

The result: a system that is economically huge, but structurally fragile.

Why FAIR now relies on TYPO3

The exciting part of the article comes at the end. FAIR is aligned with TYPO3 at the CloudFest Hackathon. The TYPO3 community and technical leadership see the value of federated package management and want to develop the project further.

Why does this work for TYPO3 that failed for WordPress?

In my view, the difference lies in the structure. TYPO3 has the Association, the GmbH, a Board of Directors, the Business Control Committee. No single person has sole decision-making power. The responsibility is distributed. And that's exactly what makes the difference when it comes to infrastructure that should belong to everyone.

Federated package management requires trust. Trust is created through transparent structures and shared responsibility. TYPO3 provides both.

Digital sovereignty is no longer an abstract topic

There is a second aspect that makes the whole thing topical. Marucchi and de Valk mention that digital sovereignty is a hot topic in Europe. Being able to operate your own package management servers, independent of individual providers or countries, is no longer a theoretical scenario.

Especially at a time when geopolitical dependencies are being re-evaluated, it is a real advantage if a European open source project can control its own infrastructure.

My own path: From WordPress to TYPO3

I'm not writing this as someone who only knows WordPress from hearsay. My own website ran on WordPress from 2006 until the end of 2023. Back then, I experimented with many CMSs, and WordPress was the easiest for me. I was already familiar with TYPO3 at the time, but the spark hadn't yet been ignited.

That came shortly afterwards. But that's how it is: Once a website is up and running and working, migration is always a hassle. WordPress worked for me for years.

At some point, however, it became clear: if I concentrate 100 percent on TYPO3 and communicate this to the outside world, then my website also has to run on TYPO3. Anything else would not be credible. In the meantime, I had a hybrid system. The blog with hundreds of articles continued to run on WordPress, the main website was already on TYPO3. In the meantime, the WordPress blog has been shut down and new articles only appear on my TYPO3 site.

I'm telling you this because it shows: I'm not a TYPO3 dogmatist. I have experienced both sides. And that's why I find it remarkable when a technically solid infrastructure project leaves WordPress and sees a future in TYPO3.

What this means for the TYPO3 community

In the TYPO3 world, we often talk about what we're missing. Less market share than WordPress. Fewer extensions. Less public attention.

But we sometimes overlook what we have. A stable organizational structure. A community that makes decisions together. And apparently an infrastructure that is attractive enough for external projects to come to us.

The FAIR project shows: What seems self-evident in the TYPO3 world is not elsewhere. Distributed responsibility, transparent decision-making processes, an organization that does not depend on a single person. These are not things that can be taken for granted. They are strengths.

And perhaps we should talk about them more often.