I'm in the process of building a cold email automation SaaS with my technical co-founder. While the backend will be fully custom at app.penguinmails.com, I'm looking for the best option for the frontend, which includes the homepage, pricing, features, blog, etc. We have a freelance front-end developer skilled in React JS, but I'm considering WordPress to save time and costs during our bootstrapping phase. I'm somewhat familiar with WordPress and can use Elementor for page creation. However, I'm not a designer and don't have advanced skills, which makes me doubt my ability to create a polished frontend. I want to rapidly publish landing pages and manage our blog without relying on a developer for every change. My co-founder thinks WordPress could work if it helps us move quickly, but I worry about potential design limitations and scalability issues in the long run. I'm looking for insights from anyone who's used WordPress for their SaaS frontends. Is it a viable option, especially for non-designers? Will it hinder us in the future?
5 Answers
If you're considering alternatives, have you thought about using Drupal? It's quite robust for building scalable applications!
Creating a decent site on WordPress can be time-consuming and may require a skilled developer. You might find Squarespace much easier for marketing needs. Their templates and editing features are user-friendly.
But isn't it just as feasible to create anything on WordPress that you could on Squarespace?
We launched our first version using WordPress. It wasn't perfect, but it worked well enough. We focused on improving the product and user onboarding. A year later, we switched to Next.js plus a custom CMS, and while we had some challenges, it was manageable.
That's interesting! Did you face any SEO or redirection problems when moving from WordPress to Next.js? It sounds like we can't depend on WordPress long-term, huh?
In short, it's a hard pass for using WordPress. If you're looking for something quality, I'd advise against it entirely.
What's your reasoning? What makes you so opposed to using WordPress?
I'd suggest going with WordPress for now. Don't worry about needing to scale right away. You can always rebuild it later if your platform takes off. Build what you can manage now, and if growth happens, you can start fresh then.
I agree with you. I'm also considering starting with WordPress, but I'm curious about possible challenges in switching to custom coding later. Can it reliably be used indefinitely?
Don't forget about Joomla! It might also be worth looking into.