Did Strattic acquire WP2Static just to kill it off?

[Erudition]

I'm a fan of Elementor, and use the tool in my web dev services with a Pro subscription. Their new Strattic platform, however, is simply too expensive - I'm sticking with Shifter for now. Regardless, it seems Wp2static is still the only mature option for local, self-hosted wordpress-to-static development.

Thus, when Elementor Inc. acquired WP2Static, they acquired Strattic's "competitor", in a sense. This would remind me of Embrace-Extend-Extinguish -- if it weren't that both Elementor and Wp2Static are free/libre/open software (though Strattic is SaaSS).

Unfortunately, ever since the acquisition, the development of wp2static has stalled. Now, AFAICT, the only maintained option is proprietary cloud services like Strattic and Shifter. This seems suspicious.

So imagine the surprise when we found out two weeks ago that Leon, who started this project, was fired from Strattic - seemingly less than a year after the acquisition. They hired him, becoming the new owner of the project, then fired him. Based on the discussions thus far, no one seems to have noticed this yet, so I'm starting this discussion.

I doubt @leonstafford is willing to publicly state the nature of his termination, but the good-faith assumption is that it was unplanned, and for reasons not related to "we don't actually want WP2Static maintained, we just wanted to take it over and point people to Strattic". The roadmap page optimistically says:

At this time, we do not have a fixed roadmap for development. However, Strattic by Elementor remains committed to advancing our platform with new features and enhancements based on user feedback and evolving industry needs.

Sounds good, if "our platform" really means WP2Static, but I note they didn't choose to say it that way. Also, that Strattic link contains utm_source=wp2static, so they are surely track everyone signing up for Strattic after coming through Wp2static.

We've been led to believe that others in the new owner company are now working to maintain the project. After all, the Wp2Static website reads:

Originally, WP2Static was mostly developed by Leon Stafford. As the saying goes, though: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." Since 2021, the WP2Static project has found a new home with the expert team at Strattic, who have embraced the challenge of keeping this invaluable tool available [?] for all open-source users. Strattic’s dedication to WP2Static ensures its ongoing development and a bright future ahead.

Although "keeping this tool available" could just mean "we won't take it down from Github, we'll let it sit there forever", the "ongoing development" bit gives us some hope, albeit in passive and plausibly deniable terms.

That said, every single page on the new site has ads pointing to Strattic.

Leon started charging for wp2static downloads for a while to support himself, I'm sure the acquisition was a financial relief for him. But then they fired him, and they still own the tool he built - so now he can't even do that.

[nisbet-hubbard]

Thank you very much for calling this out. Elementor certainly has a track record of being unfriendly to open source.

What’s even more staggering is their bigger strategy here appears to be to kill both Strattic and wp2static. It’d seem they really perceive WP-to-static-site generators to be a long-term threat to their dynamic site hosting business.