I spent years learning webdev and I got good at it, but it still takes me a month to code an average website with nextjs, strapi (nodejs), typescript, postgres etc… I feel like if I had used WordPress instead, I coudlve cut that time in half and still achieved the same performant website I always wanted?
I am now 28 years old, I hated wordpress ever since I was 14.. but that's a decade ago, I have visited some wordpress sites that are using the latest version and I feel like it is fast enough to achieve the high google lighthouse scores I am aiming for with for example my own website https://loyaalwebdesign.nl. Will I be able to implement the same 2 step contact form and the pricing tiers while having server side rendering/static site generation, with wordpress?
Depending on how you build it and how you host it, WordPress can have very good scoring. But you have to take caching seriously, just like any server rendering platform.
That said – there are a ton of themes that have that SaaS selling style for them. Some are built well, some are not. You can build it totally on your own and probably have a more efficient site, but you’ll need to understand how the WP templating works as well.
Personally, if you don’t need a CMS, have a small site and prefer to attack the site directly in code, you would be better off using frameworks that you are comfortable and want to learn with. If you have a team that will be editing content, have a lot of pages, or just don’t care – then WP is a good option as well.
You could code everything with WordPress if you know how to code. There is no limits, you could use php, js, different api, whatever you want to solve your task. You could implement theme functions or code your own plugin, or just hardcode your form with js on a page.
You didn’t waste years. I’m a full stack software engineer using Next, Nest, PostgreSQL, React/Vue, some Python, Nuxt, etc.
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I also work in WordPress every day.
I guarantee you that you know more than regular WordPress designers because of it.
Each tool has their pros and cons, and you use the best tool for the job.
For a marketing website though, I default to WordPress unless there is a need to elevate it. Which there typically isn’t.
In which case, most of my full stack work is for actual web apps. Which is my favorite part of the gig anyways.
WP will save you from backend burden.
I saw your site and booking site you’ve made – they are nice looking, but not the best performers. (73 and 36 at lighthouse test).
It would be trivial to make them in WP in less than a week.
You can achieve anything with WordPress, using custom solutions and building a theme yourself
WordPress is more than enough for most websites. I build wp sites and all of them score 95+ on Lighthouse. And I can do one 5-page website per week easily.
It’s not a waste, you have the experience which can help you learn WordPress quicker and also you will use some code too
What you have learned is absolutely useful, but for most sites just using wp is enough by far (most could even do with a static html site without any kind of cms at all). However – once things get a little bit more complex its VERY useful to be able to code – and even though most stuff is done with php in wp, js and such is very very useful. Look more into how to make custom blocks for gutenberg, how to make custom plugins and themes, and – for clients with very special needs headless wp can be extremely useful (even though its a waste for most sites). And of course – learn to use the template system and built-in functions well!
Being able to do this kinda stuff will really set you apart from all those plugin jockeys that just install a theme and a bunch of plugins and cant do anything custom if they dont find a plugin that does it for them
Well, I think the best part about it is that you can leverage the existing stack you already use (NextJS/Typescript) and leverage WordPress as the backend. You can still have super performant sites, working in NextJS as you are already comfortable with, then you can reduce the overhead of managing Strapi/Postgres and use WordPress instead with GraphQL.
Otherwise, just get comfortable with the templating system within WordPress. But if you already have a strong familiarity with your UI tooling in React, I would just get use WordPress as a headless CMS.