Goodbye WordPress
June 16, 2020
Gatsby.js
React.js is very popular among front-end developers. It allows us to create interactive web pages and applications both on the web and mobile. One of the main reasons React is powerful is through the use of its virtual DOM which enhances its performance. Re-rendering of the DOM is essentially taken care of by React.
Gatsby.js is a static website generator built off of React. What the generator does is render static React components creating a blazing fast experience for users. Images and data are also optimized by GraphQL. There are initialized performance patterns, route-based code splitting, and more.
After implementing it on this blog as well as my photography site; I will definitely utilize it more often in the future as I love the development speed and fast UX. Please read further as I compare my experience using WordPress and Gatsby.
WordPress
I am sure you may have heard of good old wordpress. It is a popular content management system built from PHP and has been around for many years. The main benefit of using WordPress is that literally anyone can build a website from it which is great if you do not have in-depth programming knowledge. During the beginning years of the web it took some decent coding skills to build a site. With WordPress you can install the software on a web host and get a blog going in under an hour. It really is that simple.
This website was initially installed with WordPress but after using it for a few years I decided for the posts I was creating I wanted a quicker and more optimized website.
Comparison
A few years back I was still getting the basics down for front-end software development. I was mainly building small html5 games and websites. Working with Gatsby.js would have been a little too complex at the time and WordPress was easy to get up and running. I am now enjoying the development speed involved with React.js applications and will continue to move forward building in that environment. Below are some pros and cons of both Gatsby and WordPress.
WordPress Pros
- Fully built CMS system (great for people not familiar with code)
- Easily add images
- Drag and drop components (Navbar, footer, etc.)
- Blog is built and ready to go
- You can manage site from any computer
WordPress Cons
- Vulnerability. It is well known that WordPress sites are about 30% of the internet which makes it a target for hackers.
- $$$. It can be expensive with a web host to use.
- Will need constant updates that can potentially break plug-ins the developer is using
- Coding knowledge. If things break some programming knowledge will be helpful to solve issues and also fully customize a site this is necessary.
Gatsby Pros
- Based on a popular JavaScript framework with tons of support
- Can utilize Ntelify CMS to build a blog instead of from scratch as is the case with this website
- Easily build out React components (coding knowledge)
- Relatively easy to learn and fun to use once you understand how it works under the hood
- Incredibly fast UX experience on production and development. Sites will have no problem loading even with a lot of content being displayed
- Use other available CMS system for Gatsby.js from Contentful
Gatsby Cons
- Definitely need to have some in-depth knowledge of the front-end development ecosystem at least knowing html, css, javascript (React.js).
- Content management system is rather basic and not as in-depth as wordpress but it’s ultimately more customizable as you directly edit code
- A little complex if you’re not sure how to push apps online. With some knowledge of git this is mitigated however.
Personal blog by Alex Virdee, 