I have my first client - Should I use wordpress?

Do they need some sort of custom integration? Why not SquareSpace? Honestly hate wordpress, the admin UI is so clunky. squarespace templates are more mobile friendly

Reasons for WordPress:

• Your client already knows WordPress

• You client needs the WordPress ecosystem (special plugins etc.)

If these two are not the case, you are basically free with what you choose. The trend definitely goes to headless cms + static site generator which also has several advantages, so you wouldn't have all the bloat of WordPress for example...

Just make sure to match your client's requirements and knowledge as well as possible future requirements.

Use Wordpress. That way the client can update the pages and you set yourself up for future billing. You tell the client and show them how to add pages or posts. And if they can’t after you deliver you can bill more if you want.

With your background. You can easily output to a static site from Wordpress. GitHub has a few different ways of doing that.

Good luck and well done. Wordpress is definitely a good way to go if you want to make your customer happy long term on this project.

Hi, @DavidAdler

after checking both the reference sites, I recommended using WordPress CMS.

• User-friendly Admin panel.

• Easy to use plugin setup and configuration.

• Widely used on the planet and the most popular.

I think that's enough advantages to choose WordPress CMS.

If you're more comfortable with Jekyll or other static site generators, maybe it would be best to stick with that – have you tried any CMS systems like https://cloudcannon.com/ or https://forestry.io/ ? They're pretty awesome.

I'm using CloudCannon for Jekyll Themes – my curated directory of Jekyll themes, which might be worth checking out too if you're looking for a beautiful portfolio template 😀

You can build a static site and still have a visual CMS with everything easily-editable for it with forestry.io. It's great!

Hey David,

Just a suggestion, but cobbling together a site with WP without a hard requirement to use it, might not be the most effective solution.

Have you looked at Webflow? https://webflow.com?rfsn=1656285.30229

That's my affiliate link of course, but it REALLY is a great tool that I actually use.

I have over 20 sites on WF and it's been incredible. You can have simple static sites or use the CMS too.

Things to consider:

• Client Billing (You set your price and your clients can be on AUTO-PAY for your hosting or custom services)

• Client Access for just the CMS and publishing content

• Support (Webflow has a rockstar and fast support team! And a crazy active user forum too)

• Duplication (Easily clone elements and even entire sites across your dashboard)

• Maintenance (The WF team are constantly rolling out new features!)

• Migration (WF allows you to export sites as a Zip file, if you want to host elsewhere for example)

• Easy SSL, CDN, Forms, Backups, Custom Code, Animations... and more

There are no plugins for clients to discover and slow the site, or completely break everything or to get hacked.

No shady plugin or theme developers with low quality buggy work that might become abandoned or sold.

I hope that helps. :)

Derek

I built a site for a client last year with Wordpress. It was hard to build, change and maintain. My client wasn't technical and it was hard for them to understand. When they did make changes they'd get lost or break stuff. It was better than coding the HTML and JS by hand because the admin dashboard is there. Imho I'd go with Statamic (https://statamic.com/), Squarespace or another website builder

Wordpress. Wordpress. Wordpress.

Congratulations on the commission.

I highly suggest Wordpress as this is a platform that your customer can easily learn, is the de facto CRM for most web builds, can easily be enhanced using plugins, will not flag any questions if he asks friends, colleagues or other developers, and has the largest community of devs and designers working on or around it.

You need to be prioritising your client's needs over your own and consider the reality of his capability to learn.

Honestly WP gives more flexibility for content editing so you must understand very well who will be in charge of future updates.

Another great advantage is WP's plugin eco-system: that's impressive. Accepting to pay something, you should be able to find a plugin for anything. And if you must selle something (physical or digital) WooCommerce is simply amazing and complete.

That said, pay attention or your sites will soon become a plugin nightmare!

I had run in the past few WP blogs but honestly i'm moving with Hugo since i'm a developer. Recently i created https://www.devamountain.com/ which is hosted on Netlify where if needed, you should be able to integrate their CMS. Honestly, i feel my self at home with this platform instead of using WP. Just read my article to get some glances: https://www.devamountain.com/post/create-and-host-a-static-site-for-free/

You could stick with the technology you know, and, depending on how much updating your client needs you could use https://www.contentful.com/ or https://www.netlifycms.org/ - I haven't used either of these but they have come to my attention recently and might do what you need.

Both references look hand-made, I quickly checked them on builtwith.com and none are on top of WP. So if your client requires a tailor made design, maybe is better to do it from scratch. But as Kaidawei wrote using a CMS has a plus to update easily pages.

But if you decide to use WP, I can recommend you Bridge Theme from Qode, it has 200+ demos, you can try to show your client different options and start from there. My advice is to limit the amount of changes and corrections.

Best of luck with your new client!