13 comments

  • Jonathan CutrellJonathan Cutrell, over 8 years ago

    Politely, I disagree with this. Disclaimer, I prefer to develop Rails-powered stuff.

    We have a very productive team building solid WordPress sites every day, using only safe, well-tested plugins from vetted sources. We train our customers to understand plugins are dangerous.

    WordPress, like any other tool, isn't simply a hammer or a toothbrush. It's a drawer full of tools.

    Are there times when it's totally inappropriate? Sure. Are there times when it gets the job done quite impressively? Absolutely. Is it possible to have a happy client on WordPress? First hand, I can say a resounding yes.

    Beyond this, WordPress is also headed towards a better structured, API-first future.

    6 points
  • Antoine Lord, over 8 years ago

    “If you try to use an incredibly handy tool for the wrong function, you quickly turn that otherwise valuable tool into worthless junk. Just try brushing your teeth with a hammer or building a birdhouse with your toothbrush”

    This quote perfectly resume my day...

    5 points
  • Russell Heimlich, over 8 years ago

    I really enjoy working with WordPress on a daily basis though I'm in-house and don't churn through new sites every few weeks.

    You can do some pretty amazing things with WordPress like this custom database-driven application http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/

    It queries a database with 70,000 survey responses, does some calculations, applies some business logic, and then spits out tables and charts. All built on top of WordPress.

    2 points
    • Johnny BridgesJohnny Bridges, over 8 years ago

      Nice! I agree, you can definitely do complex and cool stuff with WP.

      We built this a while ago http://www.bmwbusinesspartnership.co.uk and although it does some complex stuff on the WP backend, in hindsight it would have been much faster/easier to develop the same functionality with more suitable tools.

      We were fighting with WP on numerous occasions, making the development process somewhat tiresome after a while.

      0 points
  • Johnny BridgesJohnny Bridges, over 8 years ago

    Hello, author here!

    We're pretty surprised by the number of PHP devs that agree with our article. But they're mainly backend developers...

    I'd be really interested to know how the DN community feel about WP development experience?

    2 points
    • Thibault MaekelberghThibault Maekelbergh, over 8 years ago

      I couldn't say I have all too much experience with it, but with the knowledge of the current web-state it just seems and feels really dated.

      I never enjoyed working with it and might think of using another CMS like Statamic or Craft for upcoming projects.

      2 points
      • Johnny BridgesJohnny Bridges, over 8 years ago

        I agree, our main grievance is that developing on top of WP just isn't a pleasant experience.

        1 point
      • Zach TaylorZach Taylor, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        Having just built my first simple site with Craft after working with WordPress sites for the past two years, I have to say it was very freeing having no assumptions made about my content.

        1 point
  • Greg BowenGreg Bowen, over 8 years ago

    Posts like this crop up every year. Extending WordPress is not difficult. There is a learning curve, but it is very well documented and boats the largest support community by a large margin. More importantly, for most applications you probably don't need to extend it.

    There are many battle tested plugins that have grown organically around real needs.

    WordPress is large, and as such does not move quickly, but it adapts. As far as security and large data driven websites and applications, a company I work for develops sites in the 6 figure range for many happy clients and they have few (if no) problems with security.

    What WP has been building, is a back-end that non-technical people are comfortable with. Thousands of hours have gone into gathering feedback and refining interface elements that the business and blogging community wants.

    0 points
  • Mattan IngramMattan Ingram, over 8 years ago

    Wordpress has its uses, but for me the reason I don't use Wordpress is more abstract: It just feels wrong.

    It's the same as using Photoshop to design UIs, it just feels like the wrong tool. Sure you CAN use it and most people do, but that doesn't make it right, just popular.

    I tend to trust my intuition about tools and platforms and so far it hasn't led me astray.

    0 points
  • Kevin Brennan, over 8 years ago

    I feel many of your concerns with WordPress can be remedied with proper training of your clients. Teaching a client how to use their website and getting them to understand the limitations and requirements on their end is an important part of the process.

    It's not the right tool for every website or client but to write it off completely is limiting yourself and your clients options.

    0 points