Ask HN: Is WordPress the best way to create new websites for beginner

Just curious if there is any better alternative for those who just knows basics of coding and are learning as they build.

7 points | by anitroves 2 hours ago

10 comments

  • preg_match 1 hour ago
    No. Wordpress requires overly complex administration and deployment. There’s just a lot that goes on with Wordpress, and you’d need a VPS to deploy it just by the nature of Wordpress.

    If you’re building a static site - meaning, a site which does not have any forms which require backend functions - you should use a static site generator. If you’re not building a static site, I recommend starting with a static site. It’s just a lot less to keep in your head as a beginner.

    My recommendation is Astro. I like it because it makes it easy and straightforward to create a static site. And, you will also learn JavaScript along the way, without building out a node backend or even anything on the front end.

    But, if you really want to learn, I recommend noting. Yes, nothing. Just HTML files in a folder, a css stylesheet, maybe some JS files, and a web server. For deployment, you don’t need a web server config or a VPS. Just use cloud flare pages, link it up with GitHub, and boom, you have a static site.

    Don’t be intimidated. If you do just HTML, you can learn a lot and you get the nitty gritty. You understand how the site actually functions from start to end.

    • aborsy 7 minutes ago
      You probably need a template for the page format and style, which you customize and expand writing your HTML. Otherwise starting from scratch, the page will be ugly without a lot of coding.

      What’s the best way to get the template?

    • anitroves 2 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • nicbou 13 minutes ago
    It depends.

    Personally, I would prefer a static site generator, simply because it requires zero maintenance to safely keep a static site online.

    It might also be a good introduction to git and various deployment methods.

    I run a website for a living, and moving to a static site generator is the best decision I've made.

    • anitroves 1 minute ago
      I have many functions to do and thus can't continue with static website only
  • type0 10 minutes ago
    Publii static site generator is great for beginners and easier than WP for simple sites

    https://getpublii.com/

  • daemonologist 1 hour ago
    I would definitely not recommend WordPress.

    If you just want a website for cheap: Bearblog, carrd.co, etc.

    if you want all the bells and whistles on a platter: Squarespace, Wix, etc.

    if you want to supply all the HTML/CSS yourself: Github Pages or Cloudflare Pages.

    (Later, if you want to host the above (except the "bells and whistles" tier) yourself: Hetzner, Digital Ocean, etc.)

  • TheWiggles 44 minutes ago
    I would recommend looking at static sites for learning the basics of building websites. There are a ton of static site generators in different programming languages. You'll be able to to build as you go and learn how the various parts of a website work together.

    I recommend looking at jamstack.org as they have a long list of options.

    Personally, I enjoy Hugo, a Go based static site generator. Though if you're unsure then try a couple out and see which you like best.

  • hstaab 1 hour ago
    Cloudflare launched some alternative (also compatible iirc) to WP built on Astro this year. I haven’t tried it but might be worth a look.
  • frollogaston 37 minutes ago
    Wordpress is good. People complain about it because it's popular. Or Github pages is also fine if you just want to write and host HTML.
  • dd-sharma 2 hours ago
    I love using WP for my blog and I've a self-hosted version. In your question "new websites for beginner" indicates that the user is a beginner and wants to build websites. If websites have simple and static content that don't involve any serious stuff (e.g. e-commerce) then WP is probably ok. But for serious work i won't use it.
    • basch 1 hour ago
      I’d almost say the opposite.

      For a simple website it’s overkill.

      For a serious website there’s not much else that has the extensibility. Woocommerce is nearly unrivaled. There isn’t another ecosystem like it. I would think this community would lean towards the open source leaning products to the shopifys.

    • anitroves 2 hours ago
      What would be your choice for serious work then
  • chistev 1 hour ago
    I've never tried learning WordPress, I know they say it makes building stuff easy, but I just enjoy writing code, man. It's fun.
  • ceejayoz 2 hours ago
    No. WordPress is a giant nest of security holes.
    • anitroves 2 hours ago
      So what's the alternative
      • not_your_vase 2 hours ago
        What's your goal? If you want just a random site, then WP will do the job. If you want to learn web development, then I'd start it with a local http server (apache/nginx/whatever's your poison) and start writing html/css/js by hand, and see how it builds up line by line.
        • anitroves 2 hours ago
          That is some good advice but i wanna know proper platform or way like wp
          • wasting_time 2 hours ago
            Look for a "static site generator". Bearblog and Hugo are popular ones. Then you can host your site anywhere and don't have to worry about security problems.
            • al_borland 1 hour ago
              Bearblog is a service, not a static site generator one can use like Hugo.

              From the Bearblog GitHub:

              > Bear Blog has been built as a platform and not as an individual blog generator. It is more like Substack than Hugo. Due to this it isn't possible to individually self-host a Bear Blog.

              Jekyll would an alternative for Hugo.

              • wasting_time 1 hour ago
                Whoops. My mistake for only reading HN headlines and extrapolating. OP, please disregard this recommendation.
            • kimyuhan 1 hour ago
              are their security systems better than wp
              • kaikai 1 hour ago
                A static site is much less vulnerable to security issues.
      • ceejayoz 2 hours ago
        Depends on the languages you know and the type of sites you're building.