WordPress Races to the Bottom

As WordPress moving toward full-site editing with Gutenberg, the software has become an expensive alternative to Squarespace or Wix. Developing a WordPress theme from scratch seems like a waste of time. The quick way to create a site using WordPress is to use an existing theme and make a bit of cosmetic changes.

I had seen web agencies charging $30,000 to $40,000 to develop a WordPress site. They simply bought a $59 theme and created a child theme to develop the site. They also added tons of plugins to meet their client’s requirements. As a result, the code is messy, the loading is slow, and the look is similar to thousands of sites from the same theme.

It’s a shame that WordPress has gone down this path to compete with Squarespace and Wix. WordPress is no about clean HTML markups and minimal CSS. The markups WordPress rendered behind the scene were just horrendous.