Or maybe it's time to evolve away from WordPress.
Discussion
What is your alternative suggestion for the average content creator/business owner who isn't a web developer that is as flexible and accessible as WordPress?
I'd love to see something better. But I'm not aware of it for less technical folks.
Typedream
Expensive compared to WordPress, closed source.
With WordPress you have 10s or 100s of thousands of options for plugins, you can edit whatever code you want if you desire, you can host it wherever you want, flexibility in what payment gateways you want to use, and it's very well documented and supported.
You can build for free and only have to pay if you want a custom domain name. You can add custom html, and embed iframe snippets, connect spreadsheets/databases.
Not sure what your trying to build but itβs super intuitive.
They just added support for fiat payments but you could also use stripe and create payment links and embed into your site or just use bitcoin / lightning for payments!!!
Iβve tried Wordpress and it sucks, typedream is super easy to get the hang of. Wish there was a typedream for nostr/lightning development!
WordPress is not hard π€·ββοΈ
I have full scale websites with Lightning login, bitcoin and lightning payment options along with whatever payment providers I want, blogs, full customization power, and I own it. I own my own domains, and hosting runs me $4-10/month depending on the site. I can just move it where I want. I have full file access, can edit any of the code, can make as many subdomains or email addresses as I wish. I can run multiple WordPress sites on one hosted server, as well as a mirad of other things besides WordPress.
Is typedream open-source? Do you have access to your files? Can you do what you want? What if you violate their TOS by posting something they don't like and they just shut you down?
There are lots of easy click and play website builders like that out there, but they are the equivalent of a custodial wallet. Great for starting, but I certainly wouldn't build a business based on it.
People get confused because WordPress offers a hosting service you can buy, but WordPress is also an open-source PHP based content management project you can install on your own server. And at the moment, nothing gives you more options and flexibility short of writing the code yourself.
I currently have ( can't quite say maintain π) at least half a dozen WordPress based personal sites, some with multiple sub-sites, as well as few based on other platforms. I know PHP is aging tech, but I haven't seen anything yet that can do more.
Oh, and not to mention being able to manage all my woocommerce sales, inventory, and update items on my phone.
And why? WP is open source, anyone can do anything with it. There are 100s of thousands of people that know how to code for it, plugins for everything, etc. I have never once understood the anti WP take some have.
This! I know there are newer ways to do things than PHP, but for the average person who wants more flexibility and control I don't know of anything better.
If you want easy and don't care about open-source just get a shopify store or an Etsy.
I may be a bit jaded from logging into WP sites of others. They are a complete disaster.
Most instances of WP aren't maintained well and have security issues. Auto updating handles some of this.
I also find WP clunky and slow.
Are there better alternatives for general public usage? I'm not sure. I'm not saying don't use WP, I just realize the faults and areas where improvements can be made.
There are some interesting projects that may be a replacement such as sanity.io.
I just haven't found anything yet that can do what WordPress does.
For example (and definitely not even the best exapll, I'm mediocre at best with web stuff) RenegadeButcher.com
Show me another place where I can have full on e-commerce, lightning login, payment via fiat AND bitcoin/lightning plus Cashapp and a miriad of other methods 56000 extensions available and 31000 themes while also being open-source and all extensions being able to be fully edited at the code level from within the backend?