Ask HN: Why not Wordpress? The case for Web frameworks like Django. | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why not Wordpress? The case for Web frameworks like Django.

1 pointstepmr8 comments

<p>A friend works for a large magazine with highly trafficked website. They're looking to re-develop their site and have someone on staff who handles their micro-sites, which are mostly very small static or Wordpress projects. I'm a Django developer, and mentioned I thought Django would be the most natural fit amongst web frameworks for their transition away from their aging perl-based publishing system.</p>

<p>However, he mentioned they are leaning towards Wordpress simply because of familiarity with the "brand". The site is fairly complex, but could probably be done with Wordpress. I won't be working on this project, but I think it would be a shame for this to happen. Because I'm totally biased and hate making things in WP.</p>

<p>So, to better prepare my case, I thought I'd ask HN to see if anyone had any opinions as to the advantages of using web-frameworks like Django over Wordpress for a web publishing project.</p>

I think it would be a shame for this to happen. Because I'm totally biased and hate making things in WP

You shouldn't let your bias affect their decision to choose something that's right for them. If they don't have any Python/Django developers on staff, it could be tricky to maintain a site developed on that platform. Since they have a few sites on WordPress already and have a staff member who is familiar with WordPress, that may be the best route for them. They'll have an easy time customizing the site with plugins with WordPress. I'm not sure if that would also be the case with Django.

I totally agree. I guess "Because", should have been "But". That said, I don't think the staff position is for a web developer, but for someone who can handle microsites and frontend work.

Also, from my understanding it's unlikely they'll bring development in-house, at least not in the next few years.

Whether they bring development in-house or hire out contractors, it will be cheaper and easier to find WordPress or PHP devs than Python/Django ones. For even light modifications, they won't even have to touch code in WordPress...there is likely already a plugin for it. This exact debate took place at my company (before I got here), and WordPress lost. That is the reason I work here...it takes 3 fulltime developers to support the platform they chose (an obscure CMS and a frontend built with Zend). Of course it is more powerful than WordPress, but more expensive and temperamental at the same time.

Right, but programming something in Django is much different then using some obscure php CMS. Django development is incredibly fast, and is more likely to attract good developers. We are also in a very large metropolitan area, with a substantial Python and Ruby communities. I was almost going to suggest the try Expression Engine or something. I just can't see relying on a variety of Wordpress plugins to make the site being a good idea. Especially if they're considering doing any custom work.

I mean Drupal and PressFlow would probably be an even better decision going the PHP route.

Got PHP developers? Why not an MVC framework in PHP. Using Wordpress for anything but a blog is a disaster.

maybe in 2007. You're a couple of years behind.

I guess I'm looking for concrete reasons as to why "Using Wordpress for anything but a blog is a disaster."

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