Itās been 20+ years since I started developing with WordPress, and a lot has changed in the tech world. Frameworks have come and gone, trends have shifted, and countless tools have promised to āreplace WordPress.ā And yetāafter all this timeāI still find myself coming back to it. Not out of nostalgia or habit, but because WordPress continues to be one of the most effective, flexible, and developer-friendly platforms Iāve ever worked with.
Iām not a designer. I donāt fuss over colors, font pairings, or spacing systems. Iāve always lived closer to the serverābuilding scalable systems, fixing broken APIs, optimizing database queries, and writing plugins that get the job done. And in all those years, WordPress has never let me down.
A Platform That Respects Structure
One of the earliest things that drew me to WordPress was its underlying structure. At its core, itās simpleābut not simplistic. Thereās a logic to the way things are built: posts, custom post types, taxonomies, metadata. If you understand relational data, youāll understand WordPress.
I appreciated that immediately. I could define data models without spinning up entire Laravel projects or building from scratch. And if something didnāt exist, WordPress let me hook into itāadd_action
, add_filter
, register_post_type
. There was always a way in.
Over the years, Iāve built for clients:
- Custom event schedulers with recurring logic
- Inventory systems using custom post types and metadata
- and of course WishList Member ā a super awesome membership plugin for WordPress
- and moreā¦
That flexibility, all while using a battle-tested platform, made WordPress an obvious choice for someone who values efficiency and maintainability.
The Power of Hooks
Hooks are one of the most underrated features in WordPress. Theyāre elegant. With just a few lines, I can modify the way a core function behaves, inject data, sanitize input, or manipulate outputāwithout touching the core.
In a world that often defaults to complex inheritance trees and bloated frameworks, WordPress gives you hooks. It gives you just enough control to get things done without overengineering it.
Iāve used hooks to:
- Modify REST API output without rewriting endpoints
- Integrate third-party CRMs directly into the admin flow
- Adjust how WooCommerce handles tax calculations in real time
- Trigger background processes on content publish
Thereās beauty in that simplicity. WordPress lets me stay focused on logic, not boilerplate.
Performance and Optimization: WordPress Isnāt the Problem
One of the recurring myths I hear is that āWordPress is slow.ā But after 25 years, I can confidently say: itās not the platform, itās the implementation.
Yes, out-of-the-box WordPress is designed to be general-purpose. But with the right backend strategies, Iāve helped clients scale their WordPress sites to millions of users per month.
Some of the tactics Iāve used:
- Query optimization with custom SQL or
WP_Query
tuning - Object caching using Redis and Memcached
- CDN integration for media delivery
- Lazy loading and script deferral
- Background jobs using Action Scheduler or custom cron runners
WordPress provides the tools. You just need to know how to use them.
And if I ever do hit a wall, the fact that itās open-source means I can always trace performance issues right into the core or plugin source.
Developer Experience That Just Works
As someone who prefers terminal windows over drag-and-drop builders, Iāve always appreciated how WordPress doesnāt get in the way of development.
I can spin up a new environment in minutes. I can migrate databases easily. I can write plugins using the same structure Iāve used for years.
And now with modern additions like:
- WP-CLI for managing installs and scripts from the command line
- Composer support for dependency management
- Dockerized environments for consistent dev setups
- PHPUnit integration for testable plugins
ā¦the WordPress developer experience has matured without becoming bloated or overcomplicated.
Itās still PHP. Itās still readable. Itās still hackable.
WordPress at Scale
People often assume that WordPress is only for blogs or small businesses. Iāve worked with large-scale enterprise applications that rely entirely on WordPress for backend management.
From custom analytics dashboards to REST APIs serving mobile apps, Iāve pushed WordPress far beyond its blogging rootsāand it handles that just fine.
Multisite, for example, lets me manage dozens or hundreds of related sites from one codebase. User roles and capabilities give me granular access control. Cron events and scheduled actions power automation flows. Itās more than capableāif you treat it like a real platform.
Long-Term Stability
One thing Iāve come to value over the years is platform stability. WordPress evolvesābut it rarely breaks. Iāve seen countless frameworks break backward compatibility just to chase trends. WordPress doesnāt do that. It balances progress with care.
Thatās why I can return to a client site I built eight years ago, and it still works. Maybe a few updates are needed, but the core structure is sound.
This kind of long-term reliability makes WordPress perfect for maintainable, client-friendly builds. You donāt have to rewrite everything every two years. You can build once, build right, and focus on valueānot versioning.
The Plugin System: A Backend Developerās Playground
Plugins are where I spend most of my time. They let me extend WordPress in any direction I want. Over the years, Iāve written:
- Custom SSO (single sign-on) integrations
- API bridges to ERPs and payment gateways
- Backend logic for content approval workflows
- Custom reporting tools using WP Admin UI extensions
- Cron-based importers that parse massive datasets nightly
The plugin system is structured but flexible. I donāt have to jump through hoops to extend functionality. I just write my logic, register the plugin, and go.
And I donāt have to rely on bloated third-party solutions if I donāt want to. I can build exactly whatās neededāno more, no less.
Working with Content, Without Managing It
As a backend developer, I donāt want to manage content. I want to empower people who do.
Thatās why Iāve always appreciated how WordPress separates logic from content. Editors and marketers can do their thing in the admin areaāwhether thatās creating posts, building pages with the block editor, or managing mediaāwithout needing to involve me.
And when they need something customālike a new content type, a specific taxonomy, or custom validationāI can build it in code, deploy it through version control, and let the content team take over.
Iām not locked into a rigid CMS structure or forced to build everything through config files. I can write code to reflect real-world needs.
The Community: Quiet but Deeply Skilled
Iām not a big forum guy. I donāt hang out in Discords. But when I need an answer, the WordPress developer community always delivers. Whether itās digging through the Codex, finding a plugin on GitHub, or reading a detailed blog postāthereās almost always someone whoās solved the same problem before.
And if thereās not, I can build the solution and share it.
WordPress may not be flashy or trendy, but itās backed by some of the most battle-tested developers in the industry. People who understand not just code, but software that lives in the wild, used by real clients with real business needs.
Why Iām Still All-In
After 25 years, I could have pivoted to other stacks permanently. Iāve worked with Laravel, Node.js, Python, heck even old-school CGI scripts. They all have their strengths. But I keep coming back to WordPress because itās:
- Practical
- Scalable
- Developer-friendly
- Well-documented
- Deeply extensible
- Future-ready (especially with the REST API and full-site editing)
For backend developers, WordPress is a solid, reliable, and powerful platform that still respects the fundamentals of good engineering: clear separation of concerns, composability, and performance-conscious architecture.
I donāt need it to be ācool.ā I need it to workāand it does.
Final Thoughts
Twenty plus years is a long time to stick with anything in tech. But WordPress has earned that loyalty.
Not because itās perfect. But because it continues to provide a stable, flexible foundation that lets me solve real problems for real peopleāwithout reinventing the wheel every time.
As long as clients need custom logic, data integrations, secure user flows, or performance-focused buildsāIāll keep choosing WordPress.
Not because itās trendy.
Because it works.