The joke around town is that real developers don't use WordPress. I thought that 'joke' was gospel, and always looked down upon WordPress developers, as if they were second-class citizens in the software world, until a recent client engagement. Has a client ever pitched an idea to you that was so good that you felt your skin tingling because of how excited you were that you were about creating that product from scratch? Now image them busting your bubble by telling you that you have to do the entire project on WordPress, because they understand how to use the CMS (WordPress) and want to manage the site on their own...
That happened to me recently. And since as a Freelance Developer who is just starting out, you don't have the luxury to say no to any project, or otherwise you will starve to death, I dove deep into WordPress to understand the intricacies of this simplified drag and drop piece of crap that makes web development seem like child-play. But surprisingly, I not only ended up loving WordPress, I actually saw that its a tool I should have in my tool bag just in case someone gives me a similar job.
Pros and Cons of WordPress
Pros
Short Learning Curve
Like I said, throughout my short web development career, I always avoided WordPress like I would to a leper in 1st Century Israel. So when I took the project, I took a WordPress crash course from Free Code Camp that was 1 hour 45 min and 20 seconds long. And with that, I started working on the website. I almost flawlessly build the front-end with minimal outside research other than just using that Elementor plugin to drag and drop divs onto the page. Although I was surprised at how easy it was to create the front-end on the site, I felt angry that people could do it so easily without any real web development skills at all. But after taking a grueling 2-hour course, I was almost an expert at front-end development on WordPress. Dude, how cool is that?
Plugins, Plugins and More Plugins
Imagine taking a week to create an API to process payments from clients to use on your app. Now, imagine taking three months to create an API that uses geolocation to tag business locations, and enable your users to locate the businesses closest to them. Now imagine taking 2 minutes to search for a plugin that does exactly that. The plugin is free, and with a bit of web-dev knowledge, you can customize it how you want. I mean, I built an entire social media peer-to-peer lending website in 5 days. 5 freaking days to create a social media website. 5 days, as a solo dev, are you freaking kidding me. Everything on WordPress is a plugin. Developers might have taken weeks or even months to create plugins that WordPress users can easily add to their websites. They have free versions and then Pro Versions with added benefits. However, with a little knowledge of PHP and taking a WordPress for Developers course, you can customize these plugin to get pro features in minutes. In short, all the heavy lifting is already done for you. All you need to do is just take an hour learning about the plugin, and you add it to your site and you are good to go.
Short Codes
Another feature that I ended up really loving about WordPress is the ability to create short codes. First, I have to be honest. I have no prior experience with PHP, none whatsoever. I did not even take the course to learn how to create short codes. I just harnessed the unimaginable power of ChatGPT, and within minutes, well let's say hours, I was up and running with creating short codes with my buddy GPT-4. The level of customization you can add to plugins using the short codes is unimaginable. Although its hard to customize each plugin to your specific needs, it is very easy to change its functionality or derive more functionality from it. (Yes, I know I repeated the word functionality because I have the vocabulary of a 2 year old and have no idea what a freaking synonym is). Also, you can use short codes to create customized back-end capability in a matter of minutes. How cool is that? One of the realizations I got from working with short-codes is that I have to learn PHP ASAP, which is what am going to start doing as soon as I have shelved this project.
Custom HTML/CSS/JS/PHP
I know the whole point of using WordPress is to avoid using custom code, but sometimes, you just need additional capabilities that are not available on a theme or a plugin right out of the box. WordPress plugins, which can drum up the expenses pretty quickly if you keep choosing the Pro Versions, suck at times. WordPress plugins are a toxic ex, who is good in the sack, but terrible with emotions. They have their great moments, and at times are so freaking completely terrible that they make you want throw your laptop out of the window. The ability to include customized functionality to your website is another plus that makes it easier to use the CMS more easily.
Cons
Plugins, Plugins, and More Plugins
I know, the added benefit of using WordPress plugins is also one of the major downsides of WordPress. The toxic ex... Plugins are great when they save time, and terrible when they waste time. I spent an entire day looking for the perfect plugin, and by the end of the day, I decided to use the first plugin I had rejected, just because every other one sucked ten times as much. Although plugins can save you a ton of time to get some functionality up and running, the free versions will take as much to customize them as you would have spent to create the added functionality from scratch. And the costs for the pro versions, can drum up pretty quickly. I guess that's the price you pay for taking short cuts, instead of spending a year learning web development, (since most bootcamps are just an overrated a waste of time).
Theme and Plugin Compatibility
Almost forgot about themes. Themes are mere templates that can make your website look fantastic in minutes. But some themes are not compatible with some plugins that you might need. Some plugins are also not compatible with other plugins, and there is an entire muddy mess of entanglement that will trigger your unresolved trauma and make you angry at your parents for how they raised you, when you are creating a WordPress web app.
But other than that, WordPress rocks. So Devs, before belittling WordPress as a CMS for non developers... you need to use it first and see that this piece of crap is actually powerful. You might even find a new market for your skills, and can develop WordPress plugins and bring in the 'Bookoo Bucks' - a lotta monnneeeey. Some plugins can go for as much as $500 per year per user, bruh... That's a Saas you just created in minutes. If you found my article politically incorrect, as I have been told I often am, you can take your pathetic childish immature feelings, put them in a bag of dung, and go and f... Let me stop at that. But if you found this useful, merci. Till next time folks, "adeus pessoal."