Ask HN: Is wordpress still the go to fool-proof CMS?

If you were building out a marketing site (designed to be used by marketing people) would you still turn to Wordpress?

I've seen a fair few projects spun up on Squarespace/Webflow/Craft, but none of them seem to have the same quick on boarding and up and running feeling of Wordpress. What did you choose for your marketing site and why?

14 points | by oliverjudge 997 days ago

9 comments

  • colesantiago 997 days ago
    > Is wordpress still the go to fool-proof CMS?

    Yes. Wordpress is more customisable and extendable than the rest.

    Squarespace, Webflow and Craft are either proprietary, have huge hype by newcomers (especially Webflow) or have missing features that make you want to go back to Wordpress.

    I am sure that you can make a basic marketing site in either of these but you also mentioned 'CMS' and Wordpress is the easiest and the most extendable.

  • codegeek 997 days ago
    "designed to be used by marketing people"

    Yes. A resounding Yes. You can try to do it in other cool things but if you want to build a serious marketing site which can be managed by non technical people, WordPress is the way to go. I am a technical founder who runs a SAAS and I have been playing around with things like Hugo, Netlify, headless CMS etc but WordPress kees beating them due to the speed, maintainability and time to market factor.

    Don't go crazy on Plugins especially shitty 3rd party and you will be fine. Don't listen to people who dislike PHP and all that.

  • legrande 997 days ago
    Long time Wordpress user here. Over time I realized that WP can get very insecure the more plugins and bells and whistles you add to it. Plugins just increase the attack surface of it, so I only used tried and tested and community vetted plugins, and also use no more than 5 plugins to be safe. With Squarespace etc you don't have to worry about security which is why I'm thinking of using it eventually when I can afford it.
    [-]
    • Gustomaximus 996 days ago
      > also use no more than 5 plugins to be safe

      Within reasonable bounds, I dont think the numbers matter as much as the business behind them. Using large scale and reputable plugins is the main thing.

      Also Id suggest hooking in with some alert system that tells you when there is a known vulnerability. So many sites site un-updated for years with open flaws. Auto update probably helps this for low maintaince types, personally I dont auto-update most plugins to avoid the occasional release issues but use centralised management software so Im updating close to real time.

  • andrei_says_ 996 days ago
    I use craftcms for new sites. It’s free for a single admin and is a CMS and not an ancient blog engine hacked to act as one.

    Templating is straightforward.

    No 1-click install themes but also no inscrutable unchanged-able spaghetti code.

    It’s just a clean predictable and reliable dev process out of the box.

  • TechBro8615 995 days ago
    Anyone used Strapi? Or wordpress + advanced custom fields + wp-graphql? I like the look of Sanity.io but it's not open source / self-hostable.
  • fiftyacorn 995 days ago
    My only gripe about modern wordpress is the number of screen builders for themes. It was easier in the past where you selected the theme, tweaked it a little.
  • gtirloni 997 days ago
    Definitely. As much as I dislike supporting PHP, the interface is great for users and keeps getting better.
  • codingdave 997 days ago
    Absolutely. Vanilla Wordpress, mostly, not the mess you can build by adding a heap of plugins.
  • pelagicAustral 997 days ago
    Ghost never had the makings of a varsity CMS
    [-]
    • sircastor 996 days ago
      IIRC, Ghost was explicitly only ever supposed to be a blogging platform.