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Comment by smoovb | Hacker News Reader

Wordpress does not seem long for this world. How much of the Wordpress ecosystem is pure wasted resources, trying to be accommodating for all possibilities? As people see how easy Claude or Codex makes it to get off flat price Wordpress hosting and on to usage based platforms like Vercel, Wordpress usage will fade out. Feels like bloatware has no place in they coming world of AI customized software builds.

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Most of the organizations/departments running wordpress aren't interested in customized software builds and all of the infrastructure that requires. They want something they can pay a simple monthly fee for, and host it with a company that deals with security, backup, etc.

So many people in this thread completely misunderstand what WP is being used for and by who. Most users simply have no idea that Automattic exists and probably wouldn’t care if they knew what’s going on.

WP users want a mature, easy to use framework, with lots of plugins, and a tutorial that can show you how to get anything done. Wordpress is the piece of software that kind of defines that genre. The fact that every host offers a Wordpress package seals the deal.

Indeed I use Wordpress and have never heard of automattic outside of HN. I just wanted a simple self hosted blog platform with WYSIWYG editor. There are not many that are free; there are plenty that are not WYSIWYG, then there is the stuff on HN like Hugo that is reserved for experienced Linux devs and no one else.

exactly. i really feel the bloat of wordpress but it’s so much easier than setting up a CMS infrastructure.

Add to that predictable flat pricing. If most Wordpress sites became famous overnight I guarantee 90% of users would rather the site go down than figure out what to do with 15 minutes of fame and a 50k hosting bill

OTOH I'd gladly pay $50k in hosting if I'd just made $250k in sales overnight.

If they had 5x margins and a scalable business plan they wouldnt be on wordpress

You don't get to choose when you go viral.

Going viral is not necessarily a profitable event for most businesses. Especially overnight virality.

I maintain a few WP sites for small businesses. Precisely none of them would benefit from the kind of traffic spike that would incur a $50k cloud scaling bill.

If you’re running an online store, maybe, but by now almost all of those businesses are on Shopify where that isn’t an issue. 99% of all the businesses with WP installs I’ve touched would only be harmed by autoscaling instead of just choking on the traffic. Think local service businesses and restaurants.

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