Maybe WordPress Should Stop Being the Default for Modern Content Systems

WordPress is still incredible software. I also think we recommend it by reflex in a lot of situations where it is no longer the cleanest fit. That is not the same as saying WordPress is bad. It clearly is not. It powers a huge part of the web, it solved publishing for millions of people, and it still wins plenty of perfectly valid projects. But once your content has to outlive a single theme, a single frontend, or even a single site, I think "just use WordPress" often survives longer than the architecture case for it. That tension is a big part of why I built HTMLess, an open source headless CMS. This post is intentionally opinionated because I think this is a debate worth having: WordPress is excellent at powering WordPress sites. I just do not think that automatically makes it the best foundation for API-first, multi-frontend, multi-site content architecture. WordPress is still a good choice for theme-centric sites and teams already invested in its ecosystem. I think "just use WordPr