After six years, we have decided to retire the GroundWP theme. It stays available on WordPress.org and it keeps working on the sites that use it, but we will not be developing it any further.
Here is the full story, what it means for you, and what we suggest using instead.
Why We Built GroundWP
We built GroundWP for one reason. We wanted a theme where Ultimate Blocks worked perfectly, every time.
Back then, block themes were new and the block editor was still finding its feet. Themes handled block content in very different ways. Spacing broke. Widths were off. Colors did not carry over. We thought our users needed a theme we controlled, so we could guarantee our blocks looked right.
So we shipped GroundWP as a free theme on WordPress.org, and we used it on our own sites too.
Why We Are Retiring It
The problem we built it for went away.
Over the years, we watched how people actually used our plugins. They installed Ultimate Blocks on all kinds of themes, and it just worked. The support tickets we expected never really came. WordPress itself got much better at handling blocks consistently, and theme authors caught up fast.
That left GroundWP as a theme without a job. We had already slowed down its development, and today we are making it official.
We would rather be honest about this than keep a half-maintained theme on the shelf and let people assume it is actively supported.
What This Means If You Use GroundWP
Nothing breaks today. Here is the practical picture:
The theme stays on WordPress.org. You can still find it, install it, and use it.
Your site keeps working. We are still running GroundWP on some of our own sites and it is working perfectly.
There will be no new updates. No new features, no compatibility updates, no fixes.
Plan a move eventually. This is the honest part. Any theme that stops getting updates will slowly drift away from where WordPress is going. You do not need to rush, but we would not recommend building a brand new site on GroundWP today.
What We Recommend Instead: Ollie
If you are looking for a replacement, we recommend the Ollie block theme.
This is not a random pick. Ollie is what we use on many of our own sites, so we live with it every day.
A few reasons it works well as a GroundWP replacement:
It is a proper block theme. You build and edit your whole site inside the WordPress editor, including the header, footer, and templates. No page builder needed.
It is free on WordPress.org. Search for “Ollie” under Appearance, Themes, Add New. There is a paid Pro version with more patterns and tools, but the free theme stands on its own.
It comes with a big pattern library. Over 50 pattern designs and several full page layouts, so you are not starting from a blank screen.
It is actively developed. Ollie is built by Mike McAlister and Patrick Posner, two people who have been in the WordPress space for a long time.
Our plugins work great on it. We have tested Ultimate Blocks, Tableberg, Sliderberg, and Galleryberg on Ollie across our own sites. No conflicts, no styling surprises.
That last point matters most to us. The reason we built GroundWP was block compatibility, and Ollie gives us that without us having to maintain a theme.
What Happens To GroundWP.com
The site is not going anywhere. It is becoming what it was already turning into: a blog about the WordPress block editor.
Most of our published tutorials are already about Gutenberg, so this is less of a change and more of an honest label. Going forward you can expect clear, practical how-to guides for building and editing sites with the block editor.
We will not be posting every day. We would rather publish one or two genuinely useful posts a month than fill the site with noise.
Thank You
To everyone who installed GroundWP, left feedback, or built a site with it: thank you. It did its job, and the fact that it is no longer needed is a good sign for WordPress, not a sad one.
If you have questions about moving off GroundWP, or about using our block plugins with Ollie or any other theme, get in touch. We are happy to help.