WordPress Ewwww!

Why I Still Use WordPress (And Why It’s Punk)

Say the word “WordPress” in a room full of engineers and you can almost hear the collective groan. Security horror stories, slow sites, nightmarish PHP from 2007 – I’ve seen all of it.

I’ve written code every year since the mid-90s. I’ve helped build content management systems, e-commerce platforms and large distributed systems. I’ve used the shiny new languages and the respectable “proper engineer” stacks.

And yet, every time I want to build a new content site, I end up back on WordPress.

Is it beautiful inside? Not really. Parts of it feel like opening a cupboard you haven’t tidied since university. It needs a bit of tuning to be fast and a bit of care to be secure. But that’s not why I use it.

The Boring Truth: It Does the Job

For a content-driven site, the job is simple:

Get words and images in front of the right people, quickly, without turning every idea into a sprint.

WordPress nails that.

  • I can go from empty hosting account to “good enough for most businesses” in an afternoon.
  • Non-technical people can publish, edit and schedule without me standing over their shoulder explaining Git.
  • Plugins cover the unglamorous essentials: SEO, forms, payments, analytics, newsletters.

Could I build something sleeker with a static site generator or the latest framework? Of course. But then every copy tweak goes through an engineer. Usually me. I don’t need another system where I become the roadmap.

WordPress lets me stop obsessing over the tools and get back to the work: publishing.

WordPress Is Basically a Photocopier

Early punk scenes didn’t spread through glossy magazines and major labels. They spread through zines: scrappy, photocopied booklets stapled together on someone’s kitchen table. Cheap tools, total control, no permission required. Punk Leadership

WordPress is the web equivalent of that photocopier.

  • Buy a domain, rent some cheap hosting, install WordPress.
  • Write, hit publish, repeat.
  • No one at headquarters can change the rules on you halfway through.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s gloriously DIY. You own the mess. You own the wins.

Owning Your Corner of the Internet

Most of the modern internet runs on centralised platforms: LinkedIn, X, Medium, Substack, whatever replaces them next year. They decide who sees your work and when. Algorithms become your actual audience.

With WordPress on your own domain:

  • You own the URL people remember.
  • You own the content and can move it anywhere.
  • You control how people get it – RSS, email, social, something you haven’t invented yet.

In a world drifting towards centralisation and rented audiences, a small, slightly scruffy WordPress site is a quiet act of resistance.

So, Why WordPress?

As a senior engineering leader, I don’t use WordPress because it’s fashionable or technically pure. I use it because:

  • It’s the fastest way I know to get ideas into the world.
  • It lets me focus on the impact of what I’m saying, not the cleverness of how it’s served.
  • It keeps my little corner of the web in my hands, not on someone else’s roadmap.

It’s imperfect, a bit rough around the edges, and widely misunderstood.

Which, if we’re honest, makes it pretty punk.