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As a developer working with Rails (and previously Django), I'd love to try Phoenix/Elixir now. I'd probably find lots of great reasons why it's the best choice.

As a developer working with Rails (and previously Django), I'd love to try Phoenix/Elixir now. I'd probably find lots of great reasons why it's the best choice. And I won't be wrong. As an entrepreneur however, I would opt for Wordpress unless there's a clear, strong reason not to. I know it's a bit heretic here on HN, and I dislike PHP and working with Wordpress isn't fun at all. But they take the concept of "Batteries included" to the next level. It's like "Nuclear power included". You want a simple and powerful admin backend? got it. Caching? check. Image optimization? Yup. Logins? of course. Payment/Shopping Cart/Even subscriptions - just get woocommerce. 5 minutes later you're charging credit cards or paypal. Not to mention how easy it is to create content pages, landing pages, blog posts... You know, the stuff that actually convinces people to even consider your shiny new app.

sparkzilla 9y ago
I often meet people who want to use <insert tech here> for their generic MVP or website, and seem quite eager to spend thousands on programmers replicating what you can easily find on WordPress. But even though I tell them they should buy a WordPress template closest to the result they want, and hire a programmer if they need to customize it (saving thousands of dollars and a while load of grief), quite a few simply don't believe it's possible and still spend the money.
- gingerlime 9y ago
  couldn't agree more. This was from the perspective of a developer-entrepreneur. If I was talking to non-technical entrepreneur the arguments in favour of Wordpress are probably stronger. So much easier to find developers and agencies who are familiar with it. Without spending a fortune. It's easier to pass from one agency to another even. Not to mention easier to sell your business later on... To quote Patrick McKenzie[0]: "Practically speaking, this means that the market wants your website to be on WordPress and your technology stack to be something very, very mainstream, like Rails or PHP. That ensures that, when they want to hire someone to work with it, that person will exist in quantity and be inexpensive. The market highly dislikes software which is written in something more esoteric (the new Javascript hotness, Golang, Erlang, etc) because that adds substantial risk and cost to operating the business." [0] https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/selling_software_business https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/selling_s...
mercer 9y ago
What you're describing is a pretty specific use case for an 'app' though. I don't disagree that Wordpress is often the best solution, but it's not exactly the thing I'd choose if my 'app' isn't primarily content/shop/some basic formy stuff.

sparkzilla 9y ago

I often meet people who want to use <insert tech here> for their generic MVP or website, and seem quite eager to spend thousands on programmers replicating what you can easily find on WordPress. But even though I tell them they should buy a WordPress template closest to the result they want, and hire a programmer if they need to customize it (saving thousands of dollars and a while load of grief), quite a few simply don't believe it's possible and still spend the money.

gingerlime 9y ago
couldn't agree more. This was from the perspective of a developer-entrepreneur. If I was talking to non-technical entrepreneur the arguments in favour of Wordpress are probably stronger. So much easier to find developers and agencies who are familiar with it. Without spending a fortune. It's easier to pass from one agency to another even. Not to mention easier to sell your business later on... To quote Patrick McKenzie[0]: "Practically speaking, this means that the market wants your website to be on WordPress and your technology stack to be something very, very mainstream, like Rails or PHP. That ensures that, when they want to hire someone to work with it, that person will exist in quantity and be inexpensive. The market highly dislikes software which is written in something more esoteric (the new Javascript hotness, Golang, Erlang, etc) because that adds substantial risk and cost to operating the business." [0] https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/selling_software_business https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/selling_s...

mercer 9y ago

What you're describing is a pretty specific use case for an 'app' though. I don't disagree that Wordpress is often the best solution, but it's not exactly the thing I'd choose if my 'app' isn't primarily content/shop/some basic formy stuff.