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Ask HN: Your experience of using an alternative to WordPress?

WordPress elicits strong opinions among developers. Whatever your thoughts about WordPress, it remains the leading website builder among the myriad site builders available. Uniquely (I think) it is the only self-hosting option which is relatively simple for non-technical users to install via one-click installers (available via hundreds of hosting companies). What are the alternative website builders (self-hostable) that match or exceed WordPress in terms of core features? In particular, alternatives with modern codebases, with customisation, and a GUI WYSIWYG (not markdown)? Some modern examples alternatives I'm aware of: - October CMS (PHP, Open Source) https://octobercms.com/ - Craft CMS (PHP, Paid) https://craftcms.com/ - Kirby CMS (PHP, Paid) https://getkirby.com/ - Ghost (JavaScript, Open Source) https://ghost.org/ - Wagtail CMS (Python, Open Source) https://wagtail.io/ Have you used any of the above (or any other) as an alternative to WordPress? What was your experience like? And has anyone gone back to WordPress after trying an alternative? Thanks

approxim8ion 6y ago
Used Ghost, it was fine. I only used the very basic CMS functions on a site that was managed, themed and set up by someone else already so I can only talk about the editor and the content features, both of which were fine. Good even.
tencalls 6y ago
How locked in are you to Wordpress plugins? How feature-rich is your site? Is something like Webflow too simple?
fiftyacorn 6y ago
I've tried a few attempts with Jekyll and Gatsby but it was more effort than I was willing to put in. Mind you all I'm going off wordpress since themes have moved to site builder themes
- approxim8ion 6y ago
  Jekyll, Gatsby etc are not really comparable unless you pair them with a CMS of some kind
arkitaip 6y ago
I can't really think of any except Drupal, but considering that most people migrated from Drupal to Wordpress, I don't really consider it on the same level as WordPress.
donnanorton 6y ago
I am not familiar with Craft CMS or Ghost, but I am familiar with Statamic; and it is an awesome CMS compared to WordPress. While it is not a well-known name, Statamic comes out-of-the-box with many features that you would need a plugin for if you were using WordPress. Some of these features include multilingual functionality, advanced customer fields, form modules, search functionality, a backup utility, advanced caching system, etc. It also does not require a database, which is an interesting benefit of using this CMS.
- 1123581321 6y ago
  You’d like Craft if you like Statamic. There’s a lot of overlap between their developer and user communities.
1123581321 6y ago
We use a few of those. They are closer than Wordpress to the requirements of a custom template and/or a flexible content model. They’re also architected in a way that makes modern dev workflow easier (e.g., they don’t store full URLs in the database) and making architectural decisions to support static hosting and CDNs is more reliable and flexible. As we do custom development, generally, Wordpress increases the budget or reduces the quality and longevity of the final product. We would only use it if required by a client. For time-limited DIY or clients with no budget, though, Wordpress with a $50 theme is often the way to go. There will always be a large group that can’t move to systems that require more design and development knowledge.

approxim8ion 6y ago

Used Ghost, it was fine. I only used the very basic CMS functions on a site that was managed, themed and set up by someone else already so I can only talk about the editor and the content features, both of which were fine. Good even.

tencalls 6y ago

How locked in are you to Wordpress plugins? How feature-rich is your site? Is something like Webflow too simple?

fiftyacorn 6y ago

I've tried a few attempts with Jekyll and Gatsby but it was more effort than I was willing to put in. Mind you all I'm going off wordpress since themes have moved to site builder themes

approxim8ion 6y ago
Jekyll, Gatsby etc are not really comparable unless you pair them with a CMS of some kind

arkitaip 6y ago

I can't really think of any except Drupal, but considering that most people migrated from Drupal to Wordpress, I don't really consider it on the same level as WordPress.

donnanorton 6y ago

I am not familiar with Craft CMS or Ghost, but I am familiar with Statamic; and it is an awesome CMS compared to WordPress. While it is not a well-known name, Statamic comes out-of-the-box with many features that you would need a plugin for if you were using WordPress. Some of these features include multilingual functionality, advanced customer fields, form modules, search functionality, a backup utility, advanced caching system, etc. It also does not require a database, which is an interesting benefit of using this CMS.

1123581321 6y ago
You’d like Craft if you like Statamic. There’s a lot of overlap between their developer and user communities.

1123581321 6y ago

We use a few of those. They are closer than Wordpress to the requirements of a custom template and/or a flexible content model. They’re also architected in a way that makes modern dev workflow easier (e.g., they don’t store full URLs in the database) and making architectural decisions to support static hosting and CDNs is more reliable and flexible. As we do custom development, generally, Wordpress increases the budget or reduces the quality and longevity of the final product. We would only use it if required by a client. For time-limited DIY or clients with no budget, though, Wordpress with a $50 theme is often the way to go. There will always be a large group that can’t move to systems that require more design and development knowledge.