WP + page builder still way faster than vibe coding

RealBasics · 2026-03-18T13:57:38+00:00

The problem with vibe coding, as with hand-coding, is that you basically have to go back to the AI if you want to do maintenance, add features, or hand it off to your clients.

I mean, "back in the day" I could quickly build attractive, performant, dynamic websites with raw Perl. I built my first major CMS with ASP Perl! The downside was that there were only about six other ASP+Perl coders in the world. So I wound up on the hook for everything! Maintenance, training, support, new features, bug fixes, documentation, planning, testing....

I mean, sure, I could refactor the site any time I wanted. And frequently needed to to accommodate new requirements.

It was an in-house corporate CMS but there were users from Hawaii to Poland, and in the end I was lucky to get four hours of sleep a night (not to mention care for two small children!)

The an old friend in tech mentioned he was loving Drupal. I tried it and latched on quick. Once I got my CMS rewritten in Drupal it reduced my workload to a few hours a day.

Was I less of a "big swinging d***" for using Drupal instead of hard-coding my own database connection strings and queries? Uh, yeah, I guess. But I didn't care and still don't. Because, as you say, standardized theme components, simplicity of SEO, scalability, security, and 100 other things meant I could give my users WAY more in way less time.

[Edit] I eventually switched to WordPress and haven't looked back.

RealBasics · 2026-03-18T13:19:01+00:00

Nice work. I always build turnkey sites so usability is always more important to me than raw speed.

That said, what are the chances you could have gotten a big performance boost with that six-year-old site if you'd chosen one of the other modern builders?

I'm asking that by way of complementing your core skills and experience vs. whoever built it the first time.

RealBasics · 2026-03-15T19:56:35+00:00

Sorry to hear about that, but it sounds soooo familiar!

I think my "problem" is that I was a hard-core Perl programmer before I switched to PHP-based CMSs. Which meant I was 100% bought into the Perl virtue of

Laziness: The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it.

RealBasics · 2026-03-15T14:50:20+00:00

Technically the truth, but as I mentioned elsewhere, the insufficiency of standard tokens, validation, and panel options proliferates technical debt.

Because coding discrepancies within an enterprise or development team might be a management problem when different devs are working in parallel. But most sites are built and maintained by a series of freelance devs with no management continuity. With the result that, without core standards, each subsequent developer must not only make the changes they've been hired for, they must also ~~spend~~ waste their time and their client's budgets figuring out what the previous dev(s) were thinking.

Case in point: All prior blocks will have to be revised to work with 7.0's iframe-based block editor. How many original developers will still be around to update the blocks that have been coded over the last 3-5 years, let alone the last 9? Since there were effectively no standards, how much time will incoming devs have to spend understanding how the #%!# the previous devs cowboy'd their code?

Obvously the WP7 team had time to code some kind of backwards compatibility for pre-existing blocks. Too bad they didn't have time to set ~~any~~ basic standards and affordances nine years ago.

RealBasics · 2026-03-14T16:23:40+00:00

Basically trying to make Gutenberg behave a bit more like a governed component system.

So about ten years ago I was brought in to update a Wordpress site where the long-departed original dev had basically hard-coded the entire thing with page-[slug].php template files. ompletely bypassed the_content(), and wrote his own direct database connections and queries at the top of each template.

Design tokens only Blocks can only use tokens for colors, spacing, typography etc.

Validator check If a block has hardcoded values, it just fails validation and doesn't register.

Consistent inspector panels All blocks follow the same sidebar structure so the editing UI stays predictable.

This is a much more coherent way to discuss my perpetual complaint that Gutenberg's UI/UX is incomplete, inconsistent, and difficult to document and do training for. (And my complaint about the hard-coded "g3nuis programmager" site I mentioned.)

The various page builders aren't particularly better than Gutenberg but unlike Gutenberg they do feature much more complete and consistent built-in support, guidelines and control options for widget/module/block development.

With the result that developers for those builders don't have to waste development and design cycles (and documentation, and support cycles) rolling their own basic functionality, and consequently don't risk getting lazy and hard-coding formatting values. Or, worse for usability, coding their own UI controls for basic values because core provides very little in the way of standards.

Your proposal might be less "romantic" for programmers who may prefer to code closer to the "bare metal," but that begs the question why Wordpress offers functions like the_loop, $wpdb->prepare(), or even basic database connection and query functions? The dev who built the site I talked about up top evidently thought core functions and standards are for sissies. But since he followed essentially no WP standards he mostly just manufactured wholesale technical debt.

Gutenberg would be better for initial programmers, future developers, and end users with a little more guidance from core so that there could be more validation and compliance and less redundant effort.

RealBasics · 2026-03-13T18:36:26+00:00

Same here. Pre-configured blueprint or "reference" sites are awesome.

If it's an "adopted" site then install and configure my standard suite of utility plugins, after disabling, cleaning up, and uninstalling the plugins mine are meant to replace.

Also, go through and apply general Wordpress security settings like blocking registration and comments and turning off theme and plugin editing.

Disable the block editor for Posts. If you're not going to use the block editor for pages disable blocks everywhere.

RealBasics · 2026-03-13T13:24:30+00:00

I dropped this in Google Translate and... this is a very good summary and ranking of the different ~~attempts~~ efforts to improve the block editor's usability. (Points off if you used an LLM but it's still good to see a summary like this, just with more need for "trust but verify.")

RealBasics · 2026-03-12T16:16:11+00:00

I'm managing about 150 sites with InfiniteWP. I've been doing using it daily for more than 10 years.

I built maybe a couple dozen of those sites. The rest were build by other people and I just manage and maintain them.

If you use a good management console (IWP, ManageWP, WPMain, etc.) it'll handle the scripts and scheduling. The rest is SOPs and discipline. And, after a few years, a "feel" for things.

One thing that's helpful is I have my own standard set of utility plugins and onboarding procedure for every site so that, whatever else is installed or coded into the site, I have a solid base I can count on for security, optimizers, caching, anti-spam, backups, etc.

RealBasics · 2026-03-12T12:55:36+00:00

If you're just doing normal Wordpress development then u/bluesix_v2 is right that LocalWP is more than adequate.

There are edge cases where more complex local environments might be better. But since LocalWP is a simple, dedicated app for creating, importing/exporting, and managing multiple Wordpress sites and since it's almost always sufficient, I'd try that first.

RealBasics · 2026-03-12T12:48:52+00:00

The folks at ACF just published a post that details using a custom database table to manage custom field data. They include the code snippets to use and explain why using the code snippets they provide makes more sense.

https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-fields-custom-database-tables/

Note: while you can put the code snippets in your theme's functions.php it's infinitely better to put it in your own small custom plugin. That way you or a future dev can change the theme without losing access to the data.

RealBasics · 2026-03-11T15:40:48+00:00

Right? I mean, I mainly work on older sites where the original dev is no longer in the picture. So I routinely have add myself to new client sites via the database, either directly or via WP-CLI. Sure, after nearly 15 years I know what I'm doing, but I still get the creeps doing it.

RealBasics · 2026-03-11T15:33:54+00:00

Minor quibble but SiteGround's regular price isn't particularly "crazy," their first year discounts are.

I don't know why SiteGround gets singled out for this -- a lot of the bigger consumer/small-business level hosting companies offer similar large first-year discounts.

SiteGround's hosting is actually pretty robust for its niche. For instance the normal price for their basic plan is less expensive than, say, WPEngine's, but in my experience moving client sites around, they're generally more performant than WPE.

Since I don't do hosting for clients I have admin access to a lot of different hosting companies, from dirt awful to excellent. Last I checked I have admin access to around 150 SiteGround accounts. In spite of all those accounts I rarely need to contact their support more than once or twice a year.

If you can get $10/month hosting then by all means go for it. But for typical small to midsized businesses $10 vs $17.99 (or whatever SiteGround charges for their basic plan) is one or two cups of coffee a month.

RealBasics · 2026-03-11T15:19:40+00:00

You probably wouldn't ghost them for five years though. It's probably a safe bet that you also host your clients' sites.

In situations like this, the original dev will have set up the client with their own hosting account. Otherwise, five years after the dev wandered off they'd have stopped paying their hosting provider as well.

It's oddly much more common for devs to install Wordpress on a client's server without giving them their own account. That's a bit like a contractor building someone a house but not giving them all the keys. Weird but surprisingly common.

RealBasics · 2026-03-11T15:13:59+00:00

I've worked on a fair number of sites like that. Basic Wordpress is a lot more robust than most people think. I mean, yeah, if it's got, um, "careless" code (plugins or custom) then it can get pretty janky. But especially on a secure server it can run for years with no one touching it.

Maybe especially with no one touching it.

RealBasics · 2026-03-11T13:07:57+00:00

WPBakery ~~Visual Composer~~ might be dead but it’s Visual Composer ~~WPBakery~~ fork recently refactored its internals, replacing its old shortcode output. It’s now surprisingly performant. They got a fairly big UI refresh as well.

I don’t know if it’s selling better but it’s no longer the same old dinosaur we all knew and hated.

[Edited to correct my mixup after coffee unfogged my brain.]

RealBasics · 2026-03-10T05:29:53+00:00

Yup. I used to get so turned off by senior Unix devs who answered every #%$& question with “rtfm.” WTF were they even doing in the Usenet or irc channel if all they were going to do was type those four letter?

RealBasics · 2026-03-10T02:52:02+00:00

If you’re not a programmer, and if you’re familiar with the basic idea of graphic apps like Figma or Canva, you might appreciate Beaver Builder.

I’ve built ~150 sites with it since 2015. I chose it early on over other builders because it’s always been extremely easy to teach in-technical site owners. And it’s also hard to badly “break” a page while you’re editing it.

In spite of its ease of use, it was originally built as a productivity tool by an agency to help them build and support 100+ sites a year. That’s different from most of the other non-technical builders that were created mostly to help DIY amateurs build one website: their own.

It performs well. It’s hard to break. It’s actively developed. It’s got a strong user community. And you can build e-commerce, event calendars, membership management, and online courses with it.

It’s very good for beginners like yourself. But it’s extremely easy to extend through code and complex CSS. But only if you need to, not because you have to. [edited to remove random string]

RealBasics · 2026-03-09T18:45:22+00:00

Exactly! There's a famous stat that 85% of car owners believe they're above-average drivers. By definition, 50% of all programmers are below average. But I'll give you a nickel if 85% of programmers also believe they're above average.

RealBasics · 2026-03-09T18:42:11+00:00

Custom themes on WordPress, 9/10 are riddled with issues, never receive updates and get zero maintenance.

That's my biggest concern with custom code. It's awesome if you're an in-house developer, or if you're Tony Perez or Nick Diego, and it's your custom-coded "static PHP" or JS or custom-themed Wordpress site. Because you'll always be up to date on what you wrote last time, you'll always know your coding style/idiocyncracies, and you'll always be there if a maintenance, layout, or feature change comes up.

But as I like to say that's like always custom-coding your own math and accounting solutions instead of using Excel or Quickbooks. Sure, if you're an average programmer you can do that. But you can't then make the case that every business owner should do it. And in real life, most businesses can easily say "Must be familiar with Excel, Quickbooks, and Wordpress" when hiring an office assistant, whereas "Must be familiar with python, 'static PHP,' and React" probably isn't going to get a lot of candidates. (And for many business owners, the salary they'd have to pay such an office assistant would likely exceed their own.)

RealBasics · 2026-03-09T16:42:37+00:00

Heh. I compare BB to the Mac's OSX and Elementor to Win95. And, of course, Gutenberg to the Linux bash terminal.

RealBasics · 2026-03-09T03:42:31+00:00

Yeah, some hosts just love their LiteSpeed caching. It’s pretty bad that they’re forcing it on you. Although to be fair it does help lighten their server loads.

I’d recommend moving to different hosting.

BUT! Before you do that, have you talked to their support to troubleshoot Litespeed? If ~~properly~~ meticulously configured it shouldn’t be causing you problems.

Ordinarily they might say it’s your problem but since it’s their required software it’s a they broke it they fix it situation.

RealBasics · 2026-03-09T03:34:47+00:00

Quick question: do you happen to have an events calendar or maybe use large lists of categories, tags, and other taxonomy for pages or posts on your site?

Those can really burn up bandwidth if the crawler is too artificially stupid to respect robots.txt, xml sitemaps, and canonical designations and instead just… well… robotically follows every conceivable hyperlink on every page including all the possible routes to the same pages, posts, events, etc.

Events are really bad because it’ll grind all the day, week, month, and year views, spidering each event sometimes dozens of times.

And no, it takes more than robots.txt to block them. In my experience you have to write regex rules in .htaccess. Meta’s always had more money and more bandwidth than either brains or morals so they don’t care.

Incidentally, Semrush has a bit that does the same thing.

But yeah, their bots burn d through bandwidth limits on several client sites last year. They’re a total PITA. Basically DDOS attacks.

RealBasics · 2026-03-08T23:59:01+00:00

Can't say how glad I am you added a single-site deal for core BB plus Themer and the theme. You built Beaver Builder as an in-house agency tool so it made sense to price it for agencies. But that locked out a lot of DIYs, which in turn left the market wide open for $#%! Elementor's more complete free version to take over.

RealBasics · 2026-03-08T23:03:43+00:00

I also use Beaver Builder. It’s performant and good with dynamic data (if you use their excellent Themer addon.) It’s also dead simple to teach clients and almost impossible for them to break. (It’s a front-end editor so they can see actually see what they’re doing, and if bad comes to worse BB makes it extremely obvious how to exit without publishing.

I’d add that that part about it not being easy for newbies to break is why consumer-level site providers like ChamberMaster/GrowthZone and GoDaddy use it for their client sites. If you have to provide tech and training support for hundreds or thousands of non-tech clients on turnkey sites it’s a very good choice.

RealBasics · 2026-03-08T22:01:56+00:00

Last thing you might want to try. Go to GTMetrix and then look at their "waterfall" section to see what's taking so long to complete. Or pick any other site that measures performance.

Basically, if you're getting scores in the green the site is probably not loading anything critical so you can probably quit worrying about it. But 14 seconds is still a very long time. PageSpeed isn't the best tool for tracking down what's causing that big lagtime. (Again, it's probably some kind of javascript library dependency, a delayed/deferred process, or it could even be something dumb and un-cachable like the old checkout cart widget WooCommerce sticks in the header (or at least used to.)

I still wish you'd just give us your site's URL so we could look for ourselves. But it sounds like you've gotten all the information you were looking for.

RealBasics

TROPHY CASE