alt.hn

6/28/2026 at 6:03:26 PM

Ask HN: Is WordPress the best way to create new websites for beginner

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 7:33:25 PM

No. Wordpress requires overly complex administration and deployment. There’s just a lot that goes on with Wordpress, and you’d need a VPS to deploy it just by the nature of Wordpress.

If you’re building a static site - meaning, a site which does not have any forms which require backend functions - you should use a static site generator. If you’re not building a static site, I recommend starting with a static site. It’s just a lot less to keep in your head as a beginner.

My recommendation is Astro. I like it because it makes it easy and straightforward to create a static site. And, you will also learn JavaScript along the way, without building out a node backend or even anything on the front end.

But, if you really want to learn, I recommend noting. Yes, nothing. Just HTML files in a folder, a css stylesheet, maybe some JS files, and a web server. For deployment, you don’t need a web server config or a VPS. Just use cloud flare pages, link it up with GitHub, and boom, you have a static site.

Don’t be intimidated. If you do just HTML, you can learn a lot and you get the nitty gritty. You understand how the site actually functions from start to end.

by preg_match

6/28/2026 at 8:39:25 PM

You probably need a template for the page format and style, which you customize and expand writing your HTML. Otherwise starting from scratch, the page will be ugly without a lot of coding.

What’s the best way to get the template?

by aborsy

6/28/2026 at 8:44:38 PM

[dead]

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 8:55:19 PM

Depends on your goal.

If you’re not interested in hand-maintaining the code of the website(s), and you just want a nice GUI for publishing pages/posts/etc., then I’d say use some hosted platform like Squarespace.

For actually learning how to build websites, start with something more low-level and barebones like a static site generator (Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby, etc.), or even plain GitHub Pages without a static site generator for the most “manual” experience.

In neither of those cases would I consider WordPress.

by cjk

6/28/2026 at 8:58:18 PM

What if i say my start was from wordpress so what shoyld I use then lets say I know basics of html and other built some php functions but now I wanna code without using AI

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 7:26:31 PM

I would definitely not recommend WordPress.

If you just want a website for cheap: Bearblog, carrd.co, etc.

if you want all the bells and whistles on a platter: Squarespace, Wix, etc.

if you want to supply all the HTML/CSS yourself: Github Pages or Cloudflare Pages.

(Later, if you want to host the above (except the "bells and whistles" tier) yourself: Hetzner, Digital Ocean, etc.)

by daemonologist

6/28/2026 at 8:33:30 PM

It depends.

Personally, I would prefer a static site generator, simply because it requires zero maintenance to safely keep a static site online.

It might also be a good introduction to git and various deployment methods.

I run a website for a living, and moving to a static site generator is the best decision I've made.

by nicbou

6/28/2026 at 8:45:32 PM

I have many functions to do and thus can't continue with static website only

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 8:02:48 PM

I would recommend looking at static sites for learning the basics of building websites. There are a ton of static site generators in different programming languages. You'll be able to to build as you go and learn how the various parts of a website work together.

I recommend looking at jamstack.org as they have a long list of options.

Personally, I enjoy Hugo, a Go based static site generator. Though if you're unsure then try a couple out and see which you like best.

by TheWiggles

6/28/2026 at 8:47:15 PM

Now that will do for me

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 8:36:04 PM

Publii static site generator is great for beginners and easier than WP for simple sites

https://getpublii.com/

by type0

6/28/2026 at 7:40:02 PM

Cloudflare launched some alternative (also compatible iirc) to WP built on Astro this year. I haven’t tried it but might be worth a look.

by hstaab

6/28/2026 at 6:06:33 PM

No. WordPress is a giant nest of security holes.

by ceejayoz

6/28/2026 at 6:08:14 PM

So what's the alternative

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 6:34:04 PM

What's your goal? If you want just a random site, then WP will do the job. If you want to learn web development, then I'd start it with a local http server (apache/nginx/whatever's your poison) and start writing html/css/js by hand, and see how it builds up line by line.

by not_your_vase

6/28/2026 at 6:40:02 PM

That is some good advice but i wanna know proper platform or way like wp

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 6:44:18 PM

Look for a "static site generator". Bearblog and Hugo are popular ones. Then you can host your site anywhere and don't have to worry about security problems.

by wasting_time

6/28/2026 at 7:18:07 PM

Bearblog is a service, not a static site generator one can use like Hugo.

From the Bearblog GitHub:

> Bear Blog has been built as a platform and not as an individual blog generator. It is more like Substack than Hugo. Due to this it isn't possible to individually self-host a Bear Blog.

Jekyll would an alternative for Hugo.

by al_borland

6/28/2026 at 7:21:05 PM

Whoops. My mistake for only reading HN headlines and extrapolating. OP, please disregard this recommendation.

by wasting_time

6/28/2026 at 6:55:37 PM

are their security systems better than wp

by kimyuhan

6/28/2026 at 7:06:08 PM

A static site is much less vulnerable to security issues.

by kaikai

6/28/2026 at 8:49:36 PM

Can't we handle wordpress security on our own or use some plugin

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 6:26:29 PM

Depends on the languages you know and the type of sites you're building.

by ceejayoz

6/28/2026 at 8:09:11 PM

Wordpress is good. People complain about it because it's popular. Or Github pages is also fine if you just want to write and host HTML.

by frollogaston

6/28/2026 at 6:18:46 PM

I love using WP for my blog and I've a self-hosted version. In your question "new websites for beginner" indicates that the user is a beginner and wants to build websites. If websites have simple and static content that don't involve any serious stuff (e.g. e-commerce) then WP is probably ok. But for serious work i won't use it.

by dd-sharma

6/28/2026 at 7:25:37 PM

I’d almost say the opposite.

For a simple website it’s overkill.

For a serious website there’s not much else that has the extensibility. Woocommerce is nearly unrivaled. There isn’t another ecosystem like it. I would think this community would lean towards the open source leaning products to the shopifys.

by basch

6/28/2026 at 6:20:14 PM

What would be your choice for serious work then

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 7:24:52 PM

I've never tried learning WordPress, I know they say it makes building stuff easy, but I just enjoy writing code, man. It's fun.

by chistev

6/28/2026 at 8:55:41 PM

Do you use AI while deveoping if no you are legend

by anitroves

6/28/2026 at 9:17:45 PM

[dead]

by know-how