this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2024
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[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Wordpress does a lot of things. You need to specify which things you want to do in order to narrow down a replacement. For example:

  • static site? - Hugo, Jekyll, etc - just generates regular HTML
  • personal cloud? - NextCloud/OwnCloud
  • ecommerce? - consider nopCommerce or OpenCard

The more you can narrow your requirements, the easier it will be to find a secure solution.

[–] Anon518@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

static site? - Hugo, Jekyll, etc - just generates regular HTML

These are either vastly more limited, or they require you to be able to code.

ecommerce? - consider nopCommerce or OpenCard

I've never heard of these, but I have seen people say that if you want to do ecommerce you should only use Shopify, because even small differences can result in people not purchasing your products.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes, Jekyll and Hugo are vastly more limited, that's the point. There's no dynamic content, you just write in Markdown (the same thing Lemmy uses), pick a theme, and you're good to go. No need to code anything, just a couple config files and Markdown.

Shopify is fine if you want something hosted. But since we were talking about WordPress, I assumed self-hosting was a desired quality. All of the platforms I mentioned are self-hosted, open source, and at least one from each category is compatible with PHP-only hosting providers, just like WordPress.

If we're optimizing for easy, Squarespace should be on the table for static websites as well. I assumed we were talking about direct replacements for WordPress, not hosted alternatives.

[–] Anon518@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

you just write in Markdown (the same thing Lemmy uses), pick a theme, and you’re good to go

That is far too basic for most websites. It's absurd to suggest that's a valid alternative for something like Wordpress + Elementor.

Squarespace should be on the table for static websites as well.

How so? It's not static that I'm aware of, unless you're exporting it to a file after using the UI to create it?

I assumed we were talking about direct replacements for WordPress, not hosted alternatives.

Well, as you said, Wordpress does a lot of things. Shopify, Wordpress, Squarespace, etc., are certainly interchangeable/competitors to a large degree. Wordpress has hosted options and is a default/main option for many hosting companies.

You can build a full website with every major function and design option with Wordpress. You can't with Jekyll and Hugo unless you can code.

That is far too basic for most websites

Well yes, but that's my point. WordPress does everything, and I'm offering tools that do one thing well.

If all you need is a static site, use a static site generator, not WordPress. If all you need is ecommerce, use an ecommerce tool, not WordPress. And so on.

unless you're exporting it to a file after using the UI to create it?

I'm saying that if all you need is a static site, but you want something simple and hosted, Squarespace would be a decent alternative. Whether it's actually static is beside the point, it's probably more secure than a self-hosted WordPress site since you can't just throw on a dozen plugins serverside, only use one or two, and then get hacked.

A swiss army knife can do everything, but it doesn't do everything well, and it's easy to use it insecurely, which opens you up to these sorts of attacks. I'm not going to suggest a drop-in replacement for WordPress (they do exist) because the problem is fundamental to the "one tool for everything" approach.