WordPress has continuously evolved from a simple blogging platform into a powerful Content Management System (CMS).

After the major improvements introduced in the WordPress 3.x series, the WordPress 4.x series continued this evolution by focusing heavily on writing, media management, customization, responsive design, developer tools, and the overall user experience.

The WordPress 4.x series started with WordPress 4.0 “Benny” in September 2014 and continued through WordPress 4.9 “Tipton” in November 2017. During this period, WordPress introduced many features that helped shape the platform developers and content creators still recognize today.

In this article, we will explore the major WordPress 4.x versions, their release dates, important features, and how this series helped WordPress move toward its modern CMS experience.

What You Will Learn

In this WordPress 4.x version history, you will learn:

What WordPress 4.x was
WordPress 4.0 features
WordPress 4.1 features
WordPress 4.2 features
WordPress 4.3 features
WordPress 4.4 features
WordPress 4.5 features
WordPress 4.6 features
WordPress 4.7 features
WordPress 4.8 features
WordPress 4.9 features
Major changes introduced during WordPress 4.x
Why WordPress 4.x was important
How WordPress 4.x influenced modern WordPress

What Is WordPress 4.x?

WordPress 4.x refers to the major WordPress releases from 4.0 to 4.9, released between 2014 and 2017.

The series focused on making WordPress:

Easier to use
Better for content creation
More responsive
More customizable
More developer-friendly
Better at handling media
More connected through APIs and embeds

The official WordPress history lists the 4.x releases as:

Version	Codename	Release Date
WordPress 4.0	Benny	September 4, 2014
WordPress 4.1	Dinah	December 18, 2014
WordPress 4.2	Powell	April 23, 2015
WordPress 4.3	Billie	August 18, 2015
WordPress 4.4	Clifford	December 8, 2015
WordPress 4.5	Coleman	April 12, 2016
WordPress 4.6	Pepper	August 16, 2016
WordPress 4.7	Vaughan	December 6, 2016
WordPress 4.8	Evans	June 8, 2017
WordPress 4.9	Tipton	November 15, 2017

Note: WordPress major releases are traditionally named after influential jazz musicians.

WordPress 4.0 – “Benny”

Release Date: September 4, 2014
Codename: Benny
Named After: Benny Goodman

WordPress 4.0 was released in September 2014 and focused on making content creation, media management, embedding, and plugin discovery easier.

It was not a complete redesign, but it brought several important improvements to the WordPress dashboard and editor.

Major Features of WordPress 4.0

1. Improved Media Library

WordPress introduced a new grid-based Media Library.

Instead of viewing media only in a traditional list, users could browse uploaded images and other media in a visual grid.

This made managing large numbers of media files easier.

2. Better Embed Previews

Embedding external content became more visual.

For example, when users pasted supported URLs such as YouTube or Twitter content into the editor, WordPress could display a preview directly inside the editor.

3. Improved Writing Experience

The editor became more focused on writing.

The editing area could expand as content grew while keeping important formatting tools accessible.

4. Better Plugin Discovery

The plugin installation interface received improvements to:

Search
Plugin information
Plugin ratings and metrics
Visual browsing

WordPress 4.0 made it easier for users to discover plugins from the dashboard.

WordPress 4.1 – “Dinah”

Release Date: December 18, 2014
Codename: Dinah
Named After: Dinah Washington

WordPress 4.1 focused heavily on writing and language support.

Major Features

1. Distraction-Free Writing

The distraction-free writing experience was improved.

The goal was to give writers a cleaner workspace so they could concentrate on their content.

2. Twenty Fifteen Theme

WordPress 4.1 introduced the Twenty Fifteen default theme.

It was designed with a strong focus on blogging and readability across different screen sizes.

3. Language Installation

Users could install or change language settings directly from the WordPress administration area.

This made WordPress more accessible to users around the world.

4. Developer Improvements

The release also introduced improvements for developers, including more advanced metadata query functionality.

WordPress 4.2 – “Powell”

Release Date: April 23, 2015
Codename: Powell
Named After: Bud Powell

WordPress 4.2 focused on internationalization, content sharing, and easier updates.

Major Features

1. Emoji Support

One of the most recognizable features of WordPress 4.2 was improved emoji support.

Users could easily use modern emoji characters in their WordPress content.

2. UTF-8MB4 Database Support

WordPress moved toward utf8mb4 database encoding.

This allowed WordPress to support a much wider range of characters, including many emoji and international characters.

3. Easier Plugin Updates

Plugin updates became more convenient with dynamic updates that could happen without requiring users to navigate through multiple pages.

4. Additional oEmbed Providers

WordPress expanded support for embedding content from external services, including:

Tumblr
Kickstarter

5. Customizer Improvements

Theme switching became easier through the Customizer.

WordPress 4.3 – “Billie”

Release Date: August 18, 2015
Codename: Billie
Named After: Billie Holiday

WordPress 4.3 focused on formatting, customization, menus, and security.

Major Features

1. Site Icons

WordPress introduced built-in support for Site Icons.

This made it easier to configure a site’s favicon and other site-identification icons.

2. Formatting Shortcuts

The editor received formatting shortcuts that made writing and formatting content faster.

For example, certain Markdown-style shortcuts could automatically transform into formatted content.

3. Menus in the Customizer

Users could create and manage menus while previewing their website through the Customizer.

This made menu customization more visual.

4. Improved Password Handling

WordPress improved the password creation and security experience.

5. List View Improvements

The administration interface received improvements for managing lists of content and settings.

WordPress 4.4 – “Clifford”

Release Date: December 8, 2015
Codename: Clifford
Named After: Clifford Brown

WordPress 4.4 was an important release for responsive websites, embeds, and developer APIs.

Major Features

1. Responsive Images

WordPress 4.4 introduced better responsive image support.

This helped WordPress automatically provide appropriate image sizes depending on the user’s device and screen.

Responsive images were particularly important as mobile browsing continued to grow.

2. Embeddable WordPress Posts

WordPress posts could be embedded into other WordPress websites with rich previews.

This helped make WordPress content more connected.

3. Twenty Sixteen Theme

WordPress 4.4 introduced the Twenty Sixteen default theme.

It was designed to provide a modern, responsive blogging experience.

4. Expanded oEmbed Support

Additional services received oEmbed support, including:

Cloudup
Reddit
ReverbNation
Speaker Deck
VideoPress

5. Developer Improvements

WordPress 4.4 introduced several developer-focused improvements, including:

REST API infrastructure
Term Metadata
Query improvements
New object-related APIs

WordPress 4.5 – “Coleman”

Release Date: April 12, 2016
Codename: Coleman
Named After: Coleman Hawkins

WordPress 4.5 focused on improving both the writing and website customization experience.

Major Features

1. Inline Linking

Adding links to content became easier with an improved inline linking interface.

Instead of opening a separate interface every time, writers could search for existing content and insert links more efficiently.

2. Formatting Shortcuts

Additional formatting shortcuts improved the writing workflow.

3. Responsive Customizer Preview

The Customizer received responsive previews.

Users could preview their websites at different screen sizes, such as:

Desktop
Tablet
Mobile

This was an important improvement as responsive design became increasingly important.

4. Custom Logo Support

WordPress 4.5 introduced support for Custom Logos.

Themes could allow users to upload and manage their site logos directly.

5. Image Optimization Improvements

The release also introduced improvements to image resizing and script loading.

WordPress 4.6 – “Pepper”

Release Date: August 16, 2016
Codename: Pepper
Named After: Pepper Adams

WordPress 4.6 focused on performance, updates, fonts, and the overall administration experience.

Major Features

1. Streamlined Updates

WordPress improved the update experience for:

Plugins
Themes
WordPress components

Users could perform more updates without leaving the current page.

2. Native System Fonts

WordPress started using native system fonts in the administration interface.

This helped reduce the need to download external font files and could improve dashboard performance.

3. Browser-Based Draft Saving

WordPress introduced local draft saving in the browser.

This provided additional protection against losing written content if an unexpected problem occurred.

4. Multisite Performance Improvements

WordPress Multisite received performance improvements, including better caching and query handling.

WordPress 4.7 – “Vaughan”

Release Date: December 6, 2016
Codename: Vaughan
Named After: Sarah Vaughan

WordPress 4.7 was one of the most important releases in the 4.x series.

It introduced improvements to themes, customization, APIs, and developer workflows.

Major Features

1. Twenty Seventeen Theme

WordPress 4.7 introduced the Twenty Seventeen default theme.

It focused more on business and professional websites rather than traditional blogs.

2. Video Headers

Themes could support video headers, allowing websites to display video content in prominent areas of the design.

3. Custom CSS

The Customizer received a built-in area for adding custom CSS with live preview.

This made small design modifications easier without directly editing theme files.

4. REST API

WordPress 4.7 introduced REST API endpoints into WordPress core.

This was a major development milestone because it made WordPress content more accessible to external applications and services.

For developers, this opened the door to building integrations and applications that communicate with WordPress programmatically.

5. Page Templates for Different Post Types

Page-template functionality became more flexible and could be used with different post types.

6. Custom Bulk Actions

Developers gained more flexibility when working with bulk actions.

WordPress 4.8 – “Evans”

Release Date: June 8, 2017
Codename: Evans
Named After: Bill Evans

WordPress 4.8 focused on widgets, accessibility, links, and developer improvements.

Major Features

1. New Media Widgets

WordPress introduced dedicated widgets for:

Image
Video
Audio
Rich Text

This allowed users to add common types of content to widget areas without custom HTML.

2. Improved Link Editing

Link editing received improvements that made it easier to select and manage linked text without accidentally changing surrounding content.

3. WordPress Events

WordPress started displaying nearby WordPress events in the dashboard.

This helped users discover:

WordCamps
Meetups
Community events

4. Accessibility Improvements

Several improvements were introduced to make WordPress easier to use for a wider range of users.

5. Developer Improvements

WordPress 4.8 continued improving APIs and the ability to extend editor-related functionality.

WordPress 4.9 – “Tipton”

Release Date: November 15, 2017
Codename: Tipton
Named After: Billy Tipton

WordPress 4.9 was the final major release in the 4.x series.

It focused heavily on customization, collaboration, code editing, and preparing the WordPress ecosystem for the Gutenberg project.

Major Features

1. Customizer Changesets

One of the important improvements was the ability to save Customizer changes as drafts before publishing them.

This made website customization more similar to editing a post:

Edit → Save Draft → Review → Publish

2. Scheduling Customizer Changes

Users could prepare customization changes and schedule them for publication.

3. Design Collaboration

WordPress 4.9 introduced features that helped prevent multiple designers from accidentally overwriting each other’s Customizer work.

4. Code Syntax Checking

The WordPress Custom HTML and code-editing experiences received syntax checking and error warnings.

This helped users identify coding problems before saving changes.

5. Improved Theme Customization

The Customizer received several improvements for:

Themes
Widgets
Menus
CSS
Live previews

6. Gutenberg Preparation

WordPress 4.9 also represented an important point in the development of the future Gutenberg project.

Gutenberg would later become the foundation of the Block Editor introduced in WordPress 5.0.

WordPress 4.x Version Timeline

Here is a quick summary of the entire WordPress 4.x series:

Version	Codename	Release Date	Major Highlight
4.0	Benny	Sep 4, 2014	Media grid & improved embeds
4.1	Dinah	Dec 18, 2014	Distraction-free writing
4.2	Powell	Apr 23, 2015	Emoji & UTF-8MB4
4.3	Billie	Aug 18, 2015	Menus & Site Icons
4.4	Clifford	Dec 8, 2015	Responsive images & embeds
4.5	Coleman	Apr 12, 2016	Inline links & responsive Customizer
4.6	Pepper	Aug 16, 2016	Streamlined updates & performance
4.7	Vaughan	Dec 6, 2016	REST API & Custom CSS
4.8	Evans	Jun 8, 2017	Media widgets
4.9	Tipton	Nov 15, 2017	Customizer improvements & code checking

Release dates and major version highlights are based on WordPress’s official version history.

Why Was WordPress 4.x Important?

The WordPress 4.x series was important because it gradually moved WordPress toward the modern experience developers and content creators expect.

Several major areas improved during this period.

1. Better Content Creation

The editor received many improvements that made writing and formatting easier.

2. Better Media Management

The Media Library became more visual and responsive, while WordPress improved image handling and introduced media widgets.

3. Responsive Web Design

Responsive images and responsive Customizer previews became increasingly important as mobile usage grew.

4. Better Customization

The Customizer evolved significantly during the 4.x series.

Users gained better control over:

Menus
Logos
CSS
Themes
Widgets
Live previews

5. Better Developer Tools

Developers received important improvements such as:

REST API infrastructure
New APIs
Metadata improvements
Better query functionality
Developer-focused customization options

6. Preparation for Gutenberg

By the end of WordPress 4.x, the platform was moving toward a new editing experience.

WordPress 4.9 helped prepare the ecosystem for the Gutenberg project, which became a major part of WordPress 5.0.

WordPress 4.x vs WordPress 3.x

The difference between the two series shows how quickly WordPress was evolving.

WordPress 3.x	WordPress 4.x
Custom Post Types	Improved developer APIs
Custom Menus	Better Customizer
Multisite	REST API foundation
Theme Customizer	Responsive previews
Admin improvements	Modernized admin workflows
Media improvements	Responsive images
Automatic updates	Streamlined updates
Better themes	Custom Logos & video headers

WordPress 3.x established many important CMS capabilities, while WordPress 4.x focused more heavily on usability, customization, responsiveness, and developer extensibility.

Major Features Introduced During WordPress 4.x

The WordPress 4.x series introduced or significantly improved many features that influenced modern WordPress.

Some of the most important were:

Media Library grid
Improved embeds
Distraction-free writing
Twenty Fifteen
Emoji support
UTF-8MB4
Site Icons
Menu Customizer
Responsive images
Twenty Sixteen
Inline linking
Custom Logos
Responsive Customizer preview
Native system fonts
Twenty Seventeen
Custom CSS
REST API
Media widgets
Customizer changesets
Scheduled Customizer changes
Code syntax checking

What Happened After WordPress 4.9?

WordPress 4.9 was the final major release in the 4.x series.

The next major version was WordPress 5.0, released in December 2018.

WordPress 5.0 introduced one of the biggest changes in WordPress history: the Gutenberg block editor.

This changed the way users created and structured content in WordPress.

The transition from WordPress 4.x to WordPress 5.x therefore represents an important point in WordPress history:

WordPress 4.x → Better Customization → Better APIs → Gutenberg Preparation → WordPress 5.0

The official WordPress history confirms that WordPress 5.0 introduced the new block-based editor and the Twenty Nineteen theme.

Why Developers Should Learn WordPress Version History

Understanding WordPress history is useful for developers because many modern WordPress features are the result of improvements introduced in earlier versions.

For example:

REST API knowledge helps with modern integrations.
Customizer knowledge helps when working with legacy themes.
Custom Post Types remain important in WordPress development.
Hooks and filters continue to power WordPress customization.
Media APIs are frequently used in plugin development.
Theme APIs remain important for theme customization.
Older WordPress versions help developers understand backward compatibility.

If you work with WordPress professionally, understanding how the platform evolved can also make it easier to maintain older websites and plugins.

WordPress 4.x: Key Takeaways

The WordPress 4.x series was an important stage in the evolution of WordPress.

It improved almost every part of the WordPress experience, including writing, media, themes, customization, responsive design, APIs, widgets, and developer tools.

The biggest milestones included:

4.0 → Better Media & Embeds

4.1 → Better Writing

4.2 → Emoji & International Characters

4.3 → Menus & Site Icons

4.4 → Responsive Images & Embeds

4.5 → Better Editing & Customizer

4.6 → Performance & Updates

4.7 → REST API & Custom CSS

4.8 → Media Widgets

4.9 → Customizer & Code Improvements

Together, these releases helped prepare WordPress for the major changes that came with WordPress 5.0.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was WordPress 4.0?

WordPress 4.0 was released on September 4, 2014, with the codename Benny. It introduced improvements to the Media Library, embeds, editor, and plugin discovery.

How many major versions were in WordPress 4.x?

There were 10 major releases, from WordPress 4.0 through WordPress 4.9.

What was the last WordPress 4.x version?

WordPress 4.9 “Tipton” was the final major release in the 4.x series, released on November 15, 2017.

Which WordPress version introduced the REST API?

The REST API infrastructure was introduced during WordPress 4.4, while WordPress 4.7 introduced REST API endpoints in WordPress core for external applications and integrations.

Which WordPress version introduced responsive images?

Responsive image support was introduced in WordPress 4.4 “Clifford.”

Which WordPress version introduced Custom Logos?

WordPress 4.5 “Coleman” introduced support for Custom Logos.

Which WordPress version introduced the media widgets?

WordPress 4.8 “Evans” introduced dedicated image, video, audio, and rich-text widgets.

What came after WordPress 4.9?

WordPress 5.0 came after the 4.x series and introduced the new block-based Gutenberg editor.

Conclusion

The WordPress 4.x series played a major role in transforming WordPress into a more powerful, flexible, responsive, and developer-friendly CMS.

From the improved Media Library in WordPress 4.0 to the REST API developments in 4.7 and the Customizer improvements in 4.9, each release added important capabilities.

The 4.x series also prepared WordPress for its next major transformation: the introduction of the Gutenberg Block Editor in WordPress 5.0.

Understanding these versions gives developers a better picture of how WordPress evolved from a blogging platform into the powerful CMS and development platform we use today.

WordPress Version Series

Continue exploring the complete WordPress version history:

WordPress 1.x Versions – The beginning of WordPress
WordPress 2.x Versions – The foundation of a modern CMS
WordPress 3.x Versions – The transformation into a powerful CMS
WordPress 4.x Versions – Better customization, APIs, media, and user experience
WordPress 5.x Versions – The Gutenberg and Block Editor era
WordPress 6.x Versions – Full Site Editing and modern WordPress
WordPress 7.x Versions – The latest evolution of WordPress

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